“The World Is In Peril”: Anthropic’s Safety Boss Quits Authored by Kay Rubacek via The Epoch Times, Most people have never heard of Mrinank Sharma. That is part of the problem. Earlier this month, Sharma resigned from Anthropic, one of the most influential artificial intelligence companies in the world. He had led its Safeguards Research Team, the group responsible for ensuring that Anthropic’s AI could not be used to help […]

Iran Strike Debate Erupts: Joint Chiefs Chair Allegedly Resists, Trump Fires Back Military generals tend to be much more realistic about the potential negative consequences of going to war, as well as difficulties and challenges, over and against the often more hawkish policy-makers. Currently, Pentagon generals appear to be belatedly speaking up, as Washington beats the drums of war on Iran. The Walls Street Journal reports […]

“Weapons-Grade Mind-F**kery”: A Campaign Of Bad Faith And Ill Will Authored by James Howard Kunstler, “The SAVE Act can pass today under existing procedure. The obstacle is not the filibuster. It is the habit of surrendering to a myth.” – Alex Muse on X Lunacy proceeds from crime. In case you wonder why half the country has gone crazy, seek no further than Susan Rice’s stark warning to the other half of the country that is […]

US Intel Aided Mexican Special Forces In “El Mencho” Kill As Spillover Risks Rise The Sunday killing of Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), by Mexican security forces unleashed coordinated cartel retaliation attacks, driving rapid instability across Guadalajara (Jalisco’s capital) and spilling into high-traffic resort areas, including Puerto Vallarta. CNN reported that the US […]

Mexico’s Cartel Decapitation Strike Fallout: “Not The End, Just The Beginning” Mexican journalist Luis Cárdenas, listed as a journalist at MVS Noticias and a contributor to El Universal and El Heraldo de México, spoke with security analyst Oscar Balmen about the Mexican Army Special Forces’ decapitation strike against the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) by killing Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes. Balmen explained to […]

What Causes Stagflation? Authored by Frank Shostak via The Mises Institute, In the late 1960’s Edmund Phelps and Milton Friedman challenged the popular view that there can be a sustainable trade-off between inflation and unemployment. In fact, over time, according to Friedman, expansionary central bank policies set the platform for lower economic growth and a higher rate of inflation (i.e., stagflation). A famous case of […]

Khamenei Prepares Secretive Succession Plan In Case He’s Assassinated  As US carriers deploy in the Mideast region and with tense nuclear talks inching forward in Geneva, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is reportedly taking Washington threats of assassination very seriously. According to a Sunday report by The New York Times, Khamenei has quietly established detailed succession plans and emergency chains of command in […]

AOC’s Ignorance Is No Laughing Matter Authored by Stephen Soukup via American Greatness, Over the past week or so, many on the political Right have understandably enjoyed a laugh or two at the expense of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, N.Y.). AOC went to the Munich Security Conference to provide “balance” to the Trump administration’s presence and to burnish her own credentials on the global stage. Instead, she […]

IBM Plunges After Anthropic’s Latest Update Takes On COBOL After disrupting countless Software/SaaS/finance/real estate/broker sectors, Anthropic’s Claude is now going after targeted companies.  A little before 2pm ET, Bloomberg sent out a headline that Anthropic’s Claude has found yet another skillset: *ANTHROPIC SAYS CLAUDE CODE CAN AUTOMATE COBOL MODERNIZATION A herd of panicked IBM longs flooded to the Claude blog to read […]

Supreme Court To Hear Lawsuits Over Americans’ Seized Assets In Cuba Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear two cases on Feb. 23 about U.S. business assets that Cuba’s communist government seized decades ago. Both cases focus on the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act that was created to pressure Cuba by penalizing foreign companies “trafficking” in property […]

Plan B-2 By Benjamin Picton, senior market strategist at Rabobank US stocks closed higher on Friday following news that the Supreme Court had ruled 6-3 to uphold a lower court decision that found Trump’s signature tariff policy to be illegal. The court found that Trump acted beyond his authority by imposing tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act with the majority holding that tariffs are a branch of […]

“Go F**k Yourself”: Immigrant-Owned Maryland Crab Shack Goes Viral After Slamming HuffPo Over Anti-USA Olympic Story It was a historic moment for Team USA Hockey as Jack Hughes scored the game-winning goal in a dramatic overtime finish, defeating Canada for the gold medal in Milan. The last time USA won Olympic gold in hockey was during the “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Now, the celebration heads to Washington, with […]

Judge Says Jack Smith’s Final ‘Mar-a-Lago Docs’ Report On Trump Can Never Be Released Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times, A federal judge on Feb. 23 said that the final report on President Donald Trump compiled by a former special counsel shall not be released. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is based in Florida (and was appointed by President Trump), said in a 15-page decision that she was granting requests […]

EU Leaders Furious At Hungary’s Double Veto Defeat Of Anti-Russia Measures Hungary strikes again… As the European Union confirms no agreement Monday on a proposed 20th package of sanctions against Russia, EU leaders are furious at Budapest. The majority of EU states were hoping to unveil their next round of punitive sanctions in time for the four year anniversary of the grinding war, on Tuesday. But instead Hungary came in with a […]

Disgraced UK Ambassador Peter Mandelson Arrested Weeks After Resigning Over Epstein Former UK cabinet minister and Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, has been arrested just weeks after resigning over revelations that he gave Jeffrey Epstein advance notice of a €500bn bailout to save the Euro.  Mandelson was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday and taken to a London police station for an interview in […]

Zohran Mamdani’s Budgetary Buffoonery Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance When Zohran Mamdani ran for mayor, he sold New Yorkers a vision of relief. Free childcare. Free buses. A rent freeze. A city that would finally tilt toward the struggling rather than the secure. What he did not campaign on was a nearly 10% property tax hike affecting more than three million residences and over 100,000 commercial properties. Yet, days after his […]

PayPal Shares Jump On Report Of Takeover Interest PayPal shares were briefly halted due to volatility and are now up 9% after a Bloomberg report said the digital payments firm is attracting takeover interest from potential buyers, as the stock slid to a decade low. The report, based on unnamed sources, has not been confirmed by PayPal. Interest in a PayPal takeover is in the early stages, according to people familiar with the […]

Putin Vows To Bolster Russia’s Nuclear Triad As “Absolute Priority” In a Monday televised speech on the occasion of Russia’s “Defender of the Fatherland Day,” President Vladimir Putin declared that the development of the nuclear triad “remains an absolute priority” for Russia, coming soon on the heels of the collapse of the New START nuclear treaty with the United States. The nuclear triad serves as the ultimate guarantee of […]

Greenland Prime Minister Rejects Hospital Ship Offered By Trump Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said he does not support President Donald Trump’s decision to send a hospital ship to Greenland. “It’s going to be a no thank you from here,” according to a translation of Nielsen’s Facebook post on Feb. 22. “President Trump’s idea to send an American […]

Key Events This Week: PPI, Iran Talks, Nvidia Earnings, Fed Speakers Galore And State Of The Union While much digital ink has been spilled on the Supreme Court’s striking down of Trump’s IEEPA tariffs and the consequences of this decision (see “Full Analysis Of The Supreme Court IEEPA Decision: How It Impacts The Economy, Policy And Markets”), a lot more is on deck for this week when we will also have more geopolitical headlines to […]

Newsom Says He’s Like Blacks Because He ‘Can’t Read’ And Got Low SAT Score California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) needs to work on his pandering skills – after telling a crowd of black people that he’s just like them because he can’t read and got a low SAT score.  “I’m not trying to impress you, I’m just trying to impress upon you, ‘I’m like you. I’m not better than you.’ I’m a 960 SAT guy,” Newsom told Atlanta […]

Enablers Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance There’s an obvious growing failure at the center of modern markets that, as a former short seller, has become beyond obvious to me over the years. It isn’t just fraud or aggressive accounting. It’s the ecosystem that allows both to thrive: financial media that won’t press, and a sell side that won’t risk upsetting management teams they depend on for access. We’ve seen this […]

Core US Factory Orders Better Than Expected In December While sentiment is sagging to multi-year lows, ‘hard’ data is helping support growth forecasts (GDPNOW) and holding stocks at record highs. This morning we get a fresh glimpse at America’s manufacturing segment – hard data – with Orders data (which is expected to drop MoM in December). After surging higher in November (+2.7% MoM), analysts expected US Factory Orders to drop […]

EU To Freeze Trade Deal With US After Supreme Court Overturns Trump Tariffs Update (9:40am ET): In response to the EU’s decision to freeze ratification of Trump’s landmark deal, the US president has come out swinging and on Truth Social threatened any countries that “play games” with the supreme court decision that they “will be met with a much higher tariff.” It just isn’t clear what the procedure for these much higher tariffs – […]

“Worst-Case Scenario”: Novo Nordisk Plunges After Next-Gen Obesity Drug Falls Short Of Lilly Rival Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S plummeted again on Monday after the company reported trial results showing its next-generation obesity shot, CagriSema, delivered 20.2% weight loss at 84 weeks, compared to 23.6% for Eli Lilly & Co.’s tirzepatide (Zepbound). Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Shah explained, “This outcome is the […]