America Shocked After Learning Debt Must Be Paid Back Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance Stop the presses: Americans have just learned that borrowing money means eventually paying it back. Who could have guessed? According to CNBC, nearly 1 in 5 student loan borrowers aged 50 and older are “seriously delinquent”—meaning at least 90 days late—on their student loans. 50 and older. Student loans. Back in 2019, the […]

Russia Attacks US-Owned Factory In Ukraine, While Insisting It Has Veto Power Over Any ‘Security Guarantees’ Now nearly a week out from last Friday’s historic Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, the White House has had to temper its positive predictions on the peace process, after prematurely touting that a Putin and Zelensky bilateral meeting was on the horizon. By Wednesday the Kremlin had made it clear this is not yet the case. […]

“100% By Accident”: Scientists Stumble Upon Laser-Free LASIK Alternative Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A chemistry professor trying to heat cartilage with electricity made a mistake that could change eye surgery. Michael Hill at Occidental College accidentally used too little current in his experiment – and stumbled upon a discovery that might replace LASIK with a gentler treatment that reshapes […]

Cracker Barrel Faces “Bud Light” Moment  Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Felss Masino is steering straight into a “Bud Light” moment – learning nothing in recent years – by abandoning the restaurant chain’s half-century-old logo that symbolized nostalgia for rural Americana and the “old country store” experience. Instead, the company has embraced the woke rebranding of many other household names.  Cracker Barrel’s new logo […]

Globalists Are Rebranding Their “Woke Capitalism” Agenda After Crushing Setbacks Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us, People who carefully track the machinations of globalist institutions might have noticed a disturbing atmosphere of silence since the 2024 elections. I discussed this trend a few months ago in my article “Globalists Go Radio Silent As NATO Flirts With World War III”, specifically the dramatic shift that […]

Appeals Court Tosses Trump’s $454 Million Civil Fraud Judgement As Prez Claims ‘Total Victory’ A New York appeals court has tossed out a $454 million civil fraud judgement handed down last year against Donald Trump, his family, and his company.   New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, Donald Trump While the Appellate Division’s First Department upheld the ruling, it found that the $454 million penalty was […]

Lisa Cook’d: DOJ To Investigate Fed Governor, Urges Her Removal Over Alleged Mortgage Fraud The saga surrounding the upcoming termination of the Fed’s DEI hire just escalated dramatically after the Justice Department announced it would investigate Fed Governor Lisa Cook, after a top Justice official informed Fed Chair Jerome Powell of the probe and encouraged him to remove her from the board, in a letter sent Thursday. Ed Martin, […]

Beijing’s Olive Branch: Boeing In Talks On 500-Jet Mega Deal With the tariff trade truce extended to November 10, U.S. and Chinese negotiators are working toward a trade deal ahead of a possible meeting between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping later this year. Key issues include the flow of critical Chinese rare earth minerals to the U.S. and Beijing’s access to advanced Nvidia chips for its AI firms. Now, a […]

Gain-of-Dysfunction: COVID-19 May Increase Aging Of Blood Vessels Among Women: Study Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Women infected with COVID-19 were more likely to have aged blood vessels, according to a new study. The COVID-19 virus (in yellow) emerges from cells. NIAID Rosa Maria Bruno, a professor with Université Paris Cité in France, and co-authors examined 1,024 individuals who […]

Broken Market: In Unprecedented Inversion, It Has Never Cost More To Buy An Existing Home Over A New One After a modest drop in June which pushed them down near 15 year lows, expectations were for existing home sales to continue their decline in July as mortgage rates ticked up. Analysts were wrong, however, as sales of existing homes rebounded 2.0% MoM in July (vs -0.7% MoM expected), leaving existing home sales unchanged […]

U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reached A Record 14 Million In 2023 Authored by Jeffrey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad via Pew Research Center, In the years after the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. immigration policy changes fueled a sharp rise in both legal and illegal immigration. Lawful admissions jumped, as did encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border between migrants and U.S. authorities. The number of unauthorized […]

Texas House Approves Redistricting Plan As California Advances Counter-Move With Democrats having ended their melodramatic two-week walkout intended to thwart a Republican congressional redistricting plan, the Texas House of Representatives swiftly approved the controversial new district boundaries on Wednesday evening. Enactment of the gerrymandering plan is now seemingly inevitable — but California is moving toward a remapping of […]

US Manufacturing Activity “Unexpectedly” Soars To Highest Since 2022 One month after unexpectedly sliding into contraction for the first time in 2025, moments ago the S&P Manufaturing PMI even more unexpectedly soared from 49.8 to 53.3, not only smashing expectations of another decline to 49.7 and printing well above the highest economist forecast and in fact printing 7-sigma above the median estimate… … but was the […]

FDA Warns Public Over Potentially Radioactive Walmart Shrimp Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday told the U.S. public not to eat, sell, or serve certain imported Walmart frozen shrimp produced by an Indonesian company because it may have been exposed to a radioactive material. Health officials said in a statement that it is investigating reports of Cesium-137 […]

Bullard Backs 100bps In 2025 Rate Cuts In Hopes Of Replacing Powell With candidates hoping to replace Jerome Powell coming up with increasingly dovish – not to mention – plans on how to attract Trump’s attention and jump in the lead earlier this morning, former St. Louis Fed president James Bullard, who has emerged a long-shot contender for the next US central bank chief, called for a percentage point of interest-rate cuts this […]

US, EU Release Details Of Trade Deal The US and European Union finally laid out the details of their recently announced trade deal which reduces tariffs on European automobiles while opening the door to new potential discounts for steel and aluminum. The joint statement issued this morning represents an advancement of the preliminary deal announced a month ago, and includes specific benchmarks for the EU to secure its promised […]

Robbed, Punched, And Pistol-Whipped – A White House Reporter’s Account Of Crime In DC Authored by Iris Tao via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Commentary The latest move by the White House to crack down on crime in Washington prompted me to reflect on a harrowing moment from my own life – the morning I was robbed at gunpoint just steps from my apartment. White House reporter Iris Tao at the White House in Washington on March 26, […]

Initial Claims Unexpectedly Jump As Continuing Claims Surge To Four-Year Highs On Deep Tri-State Misery One week after initial claims printed at the same level (224k) where they were at in Nov 2021 (with non-seasonally adjusted claims hovering near record lows), moments ago the BLS reported that claims jumped in the last week, rising by 11k to 235K, the highest since June 20. Curiously the jump in seasonally adjusted claims took […]

“Too Expensive And Risky”: Bed Bath & Beyond Explains Why It Won’t Operate Stores In “Overregulated” California Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times, The chairman of the resurrected home goods chain Bed Bath & Beyond announced on Aug. 20 that the company would not open or operate retail stores in California, calling it overregulated, expensive, and risky. “This decision isn’t about politics—it’s […]

Futures Slide For Fifth Day As Jackson Hole Jitters Rise US equity futures dropped, extending the recent selloff into its fifth day, as traders stayed guarded ahead of the Federal Reserve’s gathering at Jackson Hole. As of 8:00am, S&P 500 futures fell 0.2%, while Nasdaq 100 futures were flat after a two-day selloff that erased 2% off the index. In premarket trading, Nvidia rose 0.8% while most Magnificent Seven peers posted […]

Walmart Lifts Outlook, But Profit Miss Drags Shares Lower Ahead of the Jackson Hole central bank summit in Wyoming, beginning later today through Saturday, investors are parsing Walmart’s earnings.  The world’s largest retailer delivered stronger-than-expected revenue last quarter and raised its full-year outlook. This is a reassuring sign that consumers remain resilient despite inflation, tariffs, and elevated interest rates. […]

Coty Tanks As Fragile Turnaround Delayed On Perfume Sales Slump  Coty shares crashed in premarket trading after the beauty giant warned of a deeper sales slump this quarter and posted a steeper-than-expected loss for the fourth quarter. The beauty company, which develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes cosmetics, fragrances, and skincare products, warned that like-for-like sales, which measure revenue from existing […]

Amid Mortgage Fraud Allegations, Fed Governor Cook Says Won’t Be “Bullied” To Step Down Update (1730ET): It took all day but Fed Governor Lisa Cook finally offered a response to allegations that she committed mortgage fraud (in order to get better rates, ironically!). Of course, she played the victim card immediately and offered up future ‘facts’… “I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of […]

Interviews To Replace Fed Chair To Start After Labor Day, Bessent Says Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times, Potential candidate interviews for the post of the new Federal Reserve chairman will be happening soon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an Aug. 19 interview with CNBC. “In terms of the interview process, we’ve announced 11 very strong candidates,“ Bessent said, without providing any more […]

Visualizing Federal Layoffs Under Trump Does cutting government headcount make it work more effectively? From firing inspectors-general, to mass layoffs in the Department of Education, the federal workforce is being scaled back. So far, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of 12 of these terminations, while scores of workers are leaving voluntarily. This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows Trump’s federal […]