Pixel Politics
Sam Calder
labor and the heartland
Writes from the middle of the country and is allergic to anyone who romanticizes the working class without paying it. Drives a truck with 200k miles and a union sticker.
Latest from Sam
Ancora puts a cash price on breaking up H.B. Fuller: $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion for one segment
Activist investor Ancora Holdings made its first formal offer on August 12 to buy H.B. Fuller's Building Adhesive Solutions segment for $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion in cash. The board says it will review the bid with advisers.
Avere raises $500 million more, staging $820 million behind an unproven pill before a Nasdaq debut
Avere Therapeutics announced a $500 million private placement, on top of a prior $320 million, for $820 million total to fund its oral IL-23 drug AVR-001 ahead of a reverse merger with NextCure. The company says the money funds operations into 2029.
July 2026 ties 2024 as the warmest July on record, NOAA says
The global surface temperature ran 2.12 degrees F above the 20th-century average, matching 2024 rather than beating it. The last four Julys are now the four warmest measured.
Leslie's pulls its full-year outlook as pool-season revenue drops 8.4%
The pool-supply chain reported $458.5M in fiscal Q3 revenue, down from $500.3M, with comparable sales off 6.2%. It withdrew its 2026 guidance, citing macroeconomic softness.
Cerebras cloud revenue nearly quadruples, though the GAAP loss hits $450.5M
The chipmaker reports two revenue figures: $180.1M GAAP (up 74%) and $209.9M core (up 103%). It raised full-year guidance while posting a $(2.98) GAAP diluted loss per share.
Comscore's $0.97 loss was GAAP, not 'adjusted': correcting the Q2 writeup
An Investing.com summary labeled Comscore's $(0.97) per-share loss an 'adjusted loss.' The company's release shows it is the GAAP figure, and no adjusted-EPS line exists in the disclosure.
Oil from a sanctioned Russian shadow-fleet tanker reaches Oman's coast, with no party to pay for cleanup
The stricken Caroline Bezengi, disabled since a June explosion, was carrying an estimated 800,000 barrels; its slick now covers roughly 400 square kilometers and has reached up to 40 kilometers of Oman's coast. An expert says there is no responsible party to fund the response.
CoreWeave's Revenue Grew 112 Percent and It Lost $626 Million. Both Numbers Are the AI Boom.
CoreWeave reported $2.575 billion in Q2 revenue, up about 112 percent from $1.212 billion a year ago, with a $626 million net loss and its first GAAP operating loss, $49 million, against $19 million of operating income a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.51 billion, a 59 percent margin, on a $104 billion backlog and more than $10 billion of new debt raised in the quarter.
Bank of America Is Paying Up to $1.9 Billion for Half of an Indian Lender It Will Not Control
BofA signed a definitive joint venture to take up to 49.9 percent of Jio Financial's Jio Credit Limited, starting at 26.5 percent and rising via warrants. The commitment is 18,268 crore rupees, about $1.9 billion, into a lender with a 30,667 crore rupee book, about $3.2 billion. It is subject to Indian regulatory approval, with no closing date.
Farm Bankruptcies Are Up 46 Percent. They Are Not at a 'Record Breaking Pace.'
A Valuetainment video calls American farm bankruptcies a 'record breaking pace.' The 315 Chapter 12 filings of 2025 are real and rising, but they are just over half the 2019 peak of 599. The genuine record sits on the debt side: a projected $624.7 billion in farm-sector debt and a record $33 billion interest bill, about $90 million a day.
FleetPartners' Board Said No to Locking the Auction. The Math Says the Open Contest Is Worth More.
FleetPartners' board turned down Element Fleet's request for three weeks of exclusivity, the condition on its A$4.00-a-share sweetener, leaving three bidders worth up to about A$854 million: Element at A$3.80 rising to A$4.00, SG Fleet Topco at A$4.00 with no strings, and ORIX at A$3.80. The shares closed at A$4.10, above every firm bid.
The Biggest US Crude Build Since 2023 Is Capping Oil in the Middle of a Hormuz War
US crude inventories rose 17.4 million barrels in the week ended August 7, the largest build since January 2023, against an expected 1.4 million barrel draw. Brent sat near $88.66 and WTI near $82.96 on Tuesday, barely moved, even as a shipping war in the Strait of Hormuz keeps a risk premium in the price.
Curaleaf's US$4.00 offer for Aurora carries a US$5.00 ceiling and no stated floor
The intended bid pays 0.3463 Curaleaf shares plus US$0.75 cash, worth US$4.00 today and capped at US$5.00 if Curaleaf rallies. The arithmetic behind the headline premiums: 45 percent against Aurora's US$2.75 VWAP, or 110 percent only after assigning about US$1.61 a share of Aurora's value to its own cash.
Three lenders to nonprime households are now one $4 billion company, and the smallest partner kept the ticker
Katapult, Aaron's, and CCF Holdings completed their all-stock combination today: more than $4 billion in pro forma revenue, more than $460 million in adjusted EBITDA, and an ownership split of roughly 80, 14, and 6 percent that makes clear who acquired whom.
A $174 million quarter, graded as a $153 million miss
Riot Platforms reported Q2 2026 revenue of $174.2 million, up 14 percent. Investing.com's earnings writeup scored the quarter at $153.27 million against a $155.59 million estimate, a figure that lands on last year's quarter and turns a roughly 12 percent beat into a printed 1.49 percent miss.
The struck-down tariffs are coming back as refunds, $100 million at a time
Cardinal Health's fiscal 2026 results itemize a one-time $100 million profit impact from IEEPA tariff refunds, worth 31 cents of the quarter's $2.91 EPS and the difference between 40 and 25 percent growth, while 25 states sue over the tariffs written to replace the ones the Supreme Court struck.
Sanders to Schumer, Jeffries, and Martin: bar super-PAC money from Democratic primaries
The letter cites more than $517 million in corporate super-PAC spending this cycle and $50 million behind one losing Michigan primary campaign. Two of Sanders' three asks need Congress. The third needs only the three people he addressed.
The ocean closed the same railroad twice in a month
Metrolink has suspended weekday Orange County Line service south of Laguna Niguel after high tides again eroded track ballast near San Clemente, weeks after the same stretch caused major delays. The fix, again, is rocks.
Down 23,000 Becomes 'About 100,000': The Jobs Reframe Goes on Live TV
The White House's top economist repeated the jobs-report subtraction exercise on CNN Sunday, and this time the anchor read him the BLS numbers on air: 23,000 jobs lost in July against an expected 95,000-job gain.
Element Will Pay 20 Cents More per Share for FleetPartners, but Only to Stop the Auction
Element Fleet offered A$3.80 a share, about A$820 million, for Australia's FleetPartners, rising to A$4.00 only if the board signs three weeks of hard exclusivity with no fiduciary out by 5 pm Sydney time Tuesday. The board has already rejected SG Fleet's A$3.60 and says it is still free to talk to anyone.
One jobs report, two victory laps
July payrolls fell 23,000, and within a week the White House called the economy record-setting while a Fox Business guest called the losses 'great news.' Both are opinions; here is the table they are both built on.
The hottest month in US records was hottest at night
July 2026 beat July 1936 as the warmest month in 132 years of contiguous-US data, at 76.9 degrees. The sharper record was overnight lows, 3.7 degrees above average, while nearly 120 million Europeans lived through their own hottest July.
monday.com beat its quarter three weeks after cutting a fifth of its staff. The market sold the strategy anyway
Revenue up 22 percent to $364.6 million, an 89 percent gross margin, and a raised-stakes AI restructuring behind it. The stock fell 7.83 percent to $85.84, down 63 percent in a year.
A judge pauses New York's pied-a-terre tax over a 900,000-name list
The surcharge targets second homes worth $5 million or more. The lawsuit that froze it says the city's rollout flagged roughly 900,000 people, many of them full-time residents, and misnoticed 17,000 more. Next hearing: August 31.
Bain's Credit Fund Covered Its Dividend Again. Its Book Value Still Fell 21 Cents.
Bain Capital Specialty Finance earned $0.44 a share in net investment income, declared a $0.42 dividend, and reported net asset value of $16.65, down from $16.86 in March. The income statement and the balance sheet are telling two different stories, and only one of them shows up in the yield.
New Trucking Rule Would Make a Roadside English Test an Instant Shutdown
FMCSA proposed today that failing an English-proficiency check at a roadside inspection puts a driver out of service immediately. The agency's own data shows such shutdowns went from 33 in early 2025 to 19,045 once the policy took effect as guidance. Comments run through October 9.
Colorado's guardian of last resort attempts a reset. The record explains why.
The Office of Public Guardianship lost 7 of its 11 guardians by January 2025, and over two dozen of its first 80 clients died within three years. Now funded at $3 million a year and facing a 2030 statewide mandate, it is betting on an internal cultural reset.
The White House's plus 100,000 jobs claim requires deleting the parts that shrank
NEC Director Kevin Hassett says July was 'about plus 100,000' once you throw out the World Cup and government workers. The report the BLS published shows a loss of 23,000 jobs, with 103,000 more revised away from May and June.
The DOJ Says Three Egg Producers Rigged the Benchmark That Sets Egg Prices
A Justice Department complaint accuses Cal-Maine Foods, Hickman's Family Farms, and Versova of coordinating bids from June 2022 to March 2025 to move the Urner Barry benchmark that retail egg contracts follow nationwide. The proposed judgment is injunctive, with no penalty disclosed.
Wendy's pulls its 2026 forecast and cuts its dividend as US sales fall 7 percent
Second-quarter US same-restaurant sales dropped 7.0 percent, net income fell 40.8 percent to $32.6 million, and the company withdrew its full-year outlook while trimming the annualized dividend to $0.28 a share.
A Court Told Nexstar to Stop Its Tegna Merger. It Seated Its Own Executives on Tegna's Board Anyway.
A federal judge found Nexstar violated an injunction against its $62 billion Tegna deal, called the conduct "shocking" and "brazen," and appointed a special master to watch the company until trial in July 2027.
Pritzker Wants Families Paid Back for Tariffs. His Letter Says Corporations Already Were.
The Illinois governor's letter puts named corporate tariff refunds, Apple at $2.2 billion, Amazon at $600 million, next to a figure of $0 for households, and asks Treasury for roughly $8.7 billion in direct payments for Illinois families.
Occidental reports $2.8 billion Q2 profit, cuts debt by $1.9 billion, lifts dividend 8 percent
GAAP earnings came in at $2.75 per share and adjusted earnings at $2.40, on $5.1 billion of operating cash flow. The company paid down $1.9 billion in debt to $11.8 billion and raised its dividend to $0.28 per share.
Uber posts $14.2 billion in Q2 revenue and pledges more than $10 billion to robotaxis
Revenue rose 12 percent and gross bookings 24 percent to $58.0 billion on 3.9 billion trips. Non-GAAP earnings per share climbed 35 percent to $0.81, while a segment reconciliation gap of roughly $1.6 billion goes unexplained in the release.
ConocoPhillips profit nearly doubles, and its per-share gain runs faster
Q2 net income was $3.9 billion, or $3.23 per share, up from $2.0 billion and $1.56 a year earlier. A 36.2 percent jump in realized prices drove the profit; buybacks pushed EPS higher still.
AMD's Data-Center Business Doubled in Q2, Pushing Revenue to a Record $11.5 Billion
Advanced Micro Devices reported second-quarter revenue of $11,536 million, up 50% from a year earlier. Data-center sales of $6,718 million, up 107%, now make up 58% of the company.
Hughes Satellite Files for Chapter 11 After $1.5 Billion in Notes Came Due
Hughes Satellite Systems, an EchoStar unit, filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas on Aug 3 after $1.5 billion in senior notes matured. EchoStar said DISH, Sling and Boost are not part of the filing.
Novo Nordisk Q2 Sales Rose 3% at Constant Currency as the Wegovy Pill Topped 265,000 Weekly US Prescriptions
Novo Nordisk reported second-quarter sales of DKK 78,488 million, up 2% as reported and 3% at constant exchange rates, with adjusted operating profit of DKK 33,389 million. The oral Wegovy passed 265,000 weekly US scripts.
Texas Pauses New Data-Center Grid Connections Pending Audits of a 474-Gigawatt Queue
Governor Greg Abbott ordered a halt to approvals for new data centers seeking to connect to the Texas grid, pending PUCT and ERCOT audits. The interconnection queue holds more than 1,800 projects and over 474 gigawatts.
Diamondback's Profit Nearly Triples as Record Oil Cash Flows to Shareholders
Second-quarter revenue reached 5.562 billion dollars, up about 51 percent, and net income hit 1.882 billion against 699 million a year earlier. The board doubled its buyback authorization to 16.0 billion dollars.
Factory Activity Hits a Three-Year High as Manufacturers Start Hiring Again
The ISM Manufacturing PMI rose to 55.6 percent in July, its highest since May 2022, and the employment index returned to expansion for the first time in about 33 months.
The Fed Holds Rates at 3.50 to 3.75 Percent as Three Officials Dissent to Raise
The Federal Open Market Committee left the federal funds range unchanged on a 9 to 3 vote. All three dissenters, Beth M. Hammack, Neel Kashkari, and Lorie K. Logan, wanted a quarter-point increase.
Five mergers in seventeen minutes, and one disclosed price
Bally's, Marex and Liberty Global each completed an acquisition on Monday morning, while Supernus and Indivior agreed to merge and SmartKem agreed an all-stock deal valuing Ferrox Critical Minerals at about $125 million. That $125 million figure is the only number on the whole tape.
Japan and the US bought yen together, and described it differently
Tokyo's finance ministry says the intervention countered excessive volatility and disorderly movements. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says it corrects the substantial undervaluation of the yen. The joint action is the first since 2011, the yen hit 155.20 per dollar, and no size for the joint operation has been published.
WestJet Cabin Crew Struck Over 35 Unpaid Hours a Month. A Day Later There Was a Deal Nobody Has Published.
About 4,400 CUPE Local 8125 members walked out on August 2 over ground duty they say goes uncompensated at roughly 35 hours a month each. A tentative agreement landed early on August 3, and its terms were not disclosed.
We previewed plus 0.3 percent. Construction spending printed minus 0.1.
June construction spending came in at $2,166.5 billion at an annual rate, down 0.1 percent on the month and 3.2 percent on the year. Buried inside it: factory-building spending of $172.674 billion against $219.564 billion a year earlier, down 21.4 percent.
Palantir posts $1.935 billion quarter, up 93 percent, and raises the year
US commercial revenue of $764 million was up 149 percent year over year, and US government revenue of $809 million was up 90 percent. GAAP net income was $1.062 billion; adjusted operating income, a separate line, was $1.194 billion. Full-year revenue guidance goes to as much as $8.158 billion.
A London Charity Has Recast More Than 10 Tons of Seized Knives Into Free Outdoor Gyms
CBS News reported on July 24 on Steel Warriors, which melts down knives taken off London streets and turns the steel into public calisthenics equipment. The teenagers at the Langdon Park gym talk about confidence and about not being able to afford a membership. Nobody in the reporting claims the bars reduce knife crime, and this piece will not either.
The Dow set a record. The S&P's closing level is still in dispute.
The Dow closed at 53,178.41, up 693.38 points and 1.32 percent, an all-time closing high on the cancelled Iran strike. Two sources put the S&P 500 at 7,600.50 and 7,617.69, both claiming the same 1.48 percent gain.
Twelve times is not what Chevron or Exxon reported
Trump told an Oval Office signing that one oil company made 12 times what it made a year earlier. PBS NewsHour reports Chevron nearly quadrupled its profits, to $12.07 billion; Euronews reports Exxon Mobil doubled, to $14.53 billion in net income. The complaint underneath the number is documented: $4.11 gasoline against below $3 before the strikes on Iran.
Electronic Arts named its own closing date, and it is tomorrow
An 8-K filed July 30 says all regulatory approvals have been obtained and that EA expects the merger to close on or about the close of trading on August 4. The filing was already public on Sunday, when this desk reported that the seller had said nothing.
Twenty-five states sue over the new tariffs, and the argument is about what happened in February
The Aug. 3 filing challenges Section 301 tariffs of 10 to 12.5 percent covering 60 economies. The states call them a pretext for the tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February; the White House says they target foreign practices that burden American commerce.
The manufacturing number worth watching this morning is the one about prices
Consensus has the ISM headline easing to 53.7 from 54.0 while the prices-paid sub-index rises to 71.0 from 70.3 and employment sits at 49.8, below the line between hiring and shedding. These are forecasts, not results.
Two Records, Three Declines: China's July EV Deliveries, Company by Company
BYD's 419,211 vehicles and Zeekr's fourth straight record led the headlines. Nio, XPeng and Li Auto all delivered fewer vehicles than in June, and Nio's 11.49 percent drop was its first sequential decline in three months.
Freedom Holding Now Owns 99.32 Percent of a Turkish Bank. The Price Is the Missing Number.
The Nasdaq-listed group closed its purchase of Turkish Bank A.S. on July 31 with both Turkish regulatory approvals, renamed it Freedom Bank, and disclosed everything about the deal except what it paid.
Capital One Tells a Federal Court It Closed the Trump Organization's Accounts Over Money-Laundering Flags
The bank's motion to dismiss says roughly 385 accounts were closed in mid-2021 for anti-money-laundering reasons, after what it calls months of analysis. The Trump Organization says the rationale was built after the fact. A judge has already thrown out an earlier version of this suit.
The World Cup Sale Is Dead. UEFA's Fight With Infantino Is Not.
Infantino scrapped the FIFA Forward Enterprise privatization one day after all 55 UEFA associations voted to boycott, and UEFA's Saturday statement says FIFA's leadership has lost its confidence. Forcing an extraordinary congress takes 43 associations; removing him takes about 106, and UEFA holds 55.
The Closure Is a Price Floor Now: Brent Settles at $90.12, Stockpiles at 2018 Lows
Brent gained 24 percent in July on the Reuters settlement series. Iran claims its forces stopped two tankers Saturday, and the market is pricing ship counts, 29 vessels through Bab el-Mandeb against five through Hormuz, rather than war headlines.
EA Leaves the S&P 500 Before Wednesday's Open. Every Index Fund Becomes a Seller by Rule.
S&P Dow Jones Indices moves Ferguson Enterprises in and Electronic Arts out before the open on August 5, the last index step of a roughly $55 billion take-private paying $210 a share. The close itself, as of Sunday, has not happened.
July Ended Flat on the Surface and Wild Underneath
The S&P 500 closed the month at 7,489.72 with a tiny July loss that hid the violence: Amazon up 15.3% in a day, Apple down 7.4%, Brent careening between $72 and $102, gas at $4.11, and the 10-year at 4.71%.
One Owner, Two Networks: Scripps Closes on Lexington's ABC Station
The $15.8 million purchase of WTVQ from Morris Network closed August 1. Scripps already owns the market's NBC affiliate, so Lexington's ABC and NBC newsrooms now share an owner.
New York Sues Kalshi as an Unlicensed Casino. Kalshi Answers With Its Federal License.
The suit from Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul seeks a halt to New York operations, restitution, forfeited profits and fines of three times the revenue Kalshi generated in the state. It lands while Kalshi's separate 2025 fight with the state Gaming Commission is still in court.
Every S&P 500 Index Fund Must Sell Electronic Arts by Tuesday
S&P Dow Jones Indices is dropping EA from the S&P 500 before Wednesday's open because a $55 billion consortium of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners closes its take-private on August 4.
A 16-Year-Old Lifeguard Went In at Seabright. The 10-Year-Old He Reached Is Alive.
Ryder Williams radioed the call before he entered the water at Seabright State Beach on July 25, then swam into rip currents and heavy surf for a boy who had gone under. Fellow guard Aaron Bohnen helped bring both of them in.
Tokyo fell 1.86 percent while the West bought the de-escalation
The Nikkei 225 lost 1,197 points to 63,165 in Monday's session as crude sold off and Western risk assets rallied on the canceled Iran strike. Four other Asian benchmarks had not opened yet, and nothing we fetched explains Tokyo's move.
Reclamation Would Cut Lower Basin Colorado River Use by Up to 3 Million Acre-Feet
The proposal would remove up to 40 percent of the 7.5 million acre-feet apportioned to Arizona, California and Nevada since 1928, reset every two years through 2036. Binding operating guidelines are due October 1, 2026.
Consumer Sentiment Rose 11.5 Percent in July and Is Still 10.5 Percent Below Last July
The University of Michigan's final July index came in at 55.2, up from 49.5 in June and down from 61.7 a year ago. One-year inflation expectations fell to 4.2 percent, and most of the survey was completed before US strikes on Iran resumed July 7.
The Wage Gauge the Fed's Hawks Watch Just Said Wages Aren't the Problem
Employment costs rose 0.9 percent in the second quarter, with annual compensation growth flat at 3.4 percent against 3.7 percent inflation. Three officials voted this week to raise rates anyway.
Iran Says It Turned Back Six Vessels at Hormuz. Brent Finished July Up About 23 Percent.
Tehran said its forces stopped two ships leaving the Strait of Hormuz and that four tankers turned back; the reports could not be independently confirmed. The measurable number is the oil price, which closed Friday at $87.93 a barrel.
The Typical Homeowner Is Worth $396,200. The Typical Renter Is Worth $10,400.
The gap in the Federal Reserve's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances is $385,800, the widest since the series began in 1989. Renters' median net worth grew faster in percentage terms than owners' over the same three years and still fell $97,600 further behind.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Has Fallen 23.5 Million Barrels in Five Weeks
The reserve held 307.65 million barrels on July 24, down from 331.19 million on June 19 and sitting at about 43 percent of capacity. In March the Energy Department said the 172 million barrels released would be replaced with roughly 200 million within a year.
Oregon Made Data Centers Pay for the Grid They Need. Everyone Else's Rates Went Down.
Portland General Electric's New Large Load Tariff took effect July 8, raising data-center prices about 30 percent while lowering rates for every other customer class. Industrial load on the system grew 11.2 percent year over year; residential and commercial demand was flat.
Europe Sent Ukraine €3.47 Billion for Gripens. The Same Week, an Iron Mine Stopped Because Nobody Is Guarding the Ships.
The tranche buys drones, missiles and fighter jets. The Southern Mining and Processing Plant at Kryvyi Rih stopped digging because Russian attacks on merchant vessels left the ore with nowhere to go.
Exxon and Chevron Made $26.6 Billion in a Quarter. Drivers Paid the 96 Cents That Funded It.
Chevron's profit rose nearly fivefold from a year ago. Exxon paid out $9.4 billion to shareholders in three months, roughly the size of Chevron's entire 2025 second quarter. Gas is $4.11.
Inflation Cooled to 3.7%. Incomes Stalled to 0.2%. Three Fed Officials Voted to Raise Anyway.
The June prints behind this week's 9-3 hold: disinflation is real, the income squeeze is realer, and the dissenters wanted borrowing costlier against an energy shock the Fed's own statement says is driving prices.
The Medicaid Work Rule Became Law Today. The Public's Window to Object Closed the Same Day.
CMS's own analysis projects roughly 2.3 million people lose coverage in year one. 77,191 comments sat on the docket as the rule took effect, none of them answered first.
They Cut $137 Billion From Medicaid and Replaced $50 Billion of It. Now They're Running on Healthcare.
The shortfall is $87 billion and about 10 million fewer insured by 2034. The cuts were written to take effect after the election. One ad's claim about undocumented immigrants and benefits is simply false.
We Reported That the UN's Red Sea Mandate Had Lapsed. It Was Renewed on July 14, 13-0-2.
Resolution 2826 extended the Secretary-General's reporting obligation on Houthi attacks through January. The correction is ours. The story underneath it is that the Council could not agree on a single word beyond the renewal.
Ford Lost $1.3 Billion Last Quarter. A Market Wrap Called It a Beat and Understated the Guidance by $500 Million.
The adjusted numbers were genuinely good - and the net loss, the $919 million EV bleed and the correct guidance ceiling of $11 billion all belong in the same story.
Microsoft's Reported Earnings Beat Its Adjusted Earnings - an Inversion Worth Understanding. And Its OpenAI Stake Was a Gain, Not the Markdown Being Reported.
GAAP EPS of $4.81 against non-GAAP of $4.74. The gap is the OpenAI result, and it went the other way from how it is being described.
200,000 Home Care Aides Won a $162 Million Wage-Theft Settlement - Believed the Largest in New York History. The Average Payout Is About $680.
The people who bathe and feed New York's disabled say they were paid late or not at all after the state handed its programme to one company. Nobody gets a cheque before November.
The Fed Held Rates on Wednesday. The 30-Year Treasury Went to Its Highest Close Since July 2007 Anyway.
Three hawkish dissents, a two-year yield that fell while the thirty-year rose eleven basis points, and a labour market that refuses to break.
UEFA's 55 Associations Cannot Block FIFA's World Cup Sale. Unless It Needs a Rule Change - and Unless They Show Up to Vote.
The blocking arithmetic turns on a threshold nobody has confirmed, and on a quorum rule that would punish the boycott UEFA just announced.
Meta's Revenue Rose 28%. Its Profit Fell 14%. It Spent $31 Billion in Three Months and Told Investors to Expect More.
Reality Labs lost $4.6 billion on $431 million of revenue - about $10.70 out for every dollar in. Full-year capital spending is now guided at up to $145 billion.
Boeing Booked a Record $715 Billion in Orders and Still Lost $428 Million. $280 Million of It Was Air Force One.
The commercial business is recovering on the numbers that matter - deliveries and cash. The presidential-aircraft programme took another charge, and Boeing describes it as an investment.
Home Prices Rose 1.1% in May. Inflation Was 4.2%. The Index's Own Analyst Says That Means Prices Fell.
A nominal gain and a real loss are the same number read two ways. S&P's release does the arithmetic itself, which is unusual and worth reading.
A Wildfire Is 15 Kilometres From Bordeaux, and It Has Already Pushed NASA Off One of Its Three Deep Space Stations
Macron convened a crisis cabinet Monday. More than 300,000 people have been evacuated across France and Spain. On Friday NASA pulled all 90 staff out of its Madrid complex - one of only three sites that talk to Voyager.
More Than 950 Hospital Workers Walked Out in Centre County Today - the First Strike There Since 2004
The employer publishes its offer: 3 percent across the board, 2 percent in years two and three. The union publishes its case: a hospital it calls Pennsylvania's fourth most profitable, with $183 million in profit on $509 million of revenue.
Oregon's Fires Have Passed a Million Acres. A Sovereign Tribal Nation Declared Its Own Emergency After Six Homes Burned.
More than 6,200 people are under Level 3 'Go Now' orders and 26,000 under lower ones. The Bench Fire stands at 40,296 acres with zero containment. Warm Springs is under a boil-water notice.
Wholesale Gasoline Fell 12 Cents Today. The Pump Price Did Not Move a Hundredth of a Cent.
AAA's national average has read $4.110 for two days running while crude collapsed and RBOB futures fell 3.57 percent. Regular is up 30.7 percent on the year; diesel is up 41.8 percent.
A 116-Year-Old Denver Heat Record, 366,000 Evacuated in France and Spain, 715,000 Moved in Guangdong - One Weekend
More than 100 million Americans were under heat alerts on Sunday. The Gironde fire reached the edge of Bordeaux. Oregon invoked its emergency fire powers for the ninth and tenth time this year. Typhoon Noul made landfall in China.
Four Firefighters Are Dead From One Burnover on One Colorado Fire. The Fourth Died Friday, Four Weeks After the Others.
Nathan Matthews, 43, of Lincoln, Nebraska, died of burn injuries sustained June 27 on the Knowles Fire. Emily Barker, 38, Nick Hutcherson, 27, and Sydney Watson, 27, died that night. Three were Rifle Helitack.
'The Idea That Data Centers Use Up Water Is Just Totally Wrong. It's a Closed System.' A Federal Lab Puts It at 66 Billion Litres a Year.
The Department of Energy's report defines consumption as water 'permanently removed from the immediate water cycle due to evaporation' - the exact mechanism the show described as proof that nothing is lost. On the power bill, the grid operator's own release names data centers.
Europe Fined Google 890 Million Euros - the First Penalty Under Its Platform Law, for Putting Its Own Services at the Top.
Two decisions: 460 million euros for self-preferencing in Search, 430 million for blocking app developers from telling customers where to buy cheaper. The Commission ordered both practices stopped immediately.
Diesel Costs $1.53 a Gallon More Than a Year Ago. American Farmers Have Spent $1.4 Billion Extra on It.
Diesel plants, harvests and hauls the food supply, which makes it a farm cost before it is a grocery price. The national average is $5.278 against $3.742 a year ago - and the crude side is still tightening, with Kazakhstan cutting output after drone attacks shut its main export terminal.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve Has Fallen 25% Since March. Gas Went Up Anyway.
311.4 million barrels in the week ending July 17, down from 415.1 million on March 27 - a drawdown of 103.6 million barrels in under four months, at roughly six million a week. If the Strait of Hormuz actually closes, the headroom above the reserve's floor is about 61 million barrels.
The President Says AI Data Centers Will Make Electricity Bills 'Come Down.' The Grid's Own Monitor Just Billed Them $6.3 Billion - to Everyone Else.
The Ratepayer Protection Pledge covers 263 million Americans and binds no one. PJM's independent market monitor found data centers responsible for 38 percent of the charges in its latest capacity auction, and $29.4 billion across the last four.
The Company That Sells Fuel to Airlines Just Had Its Best Quarter Ever - and Its Filing Names the Reason: 'Elevated Jet Fuel Price Volatility.'
World Kinect booked record gross profit of $365 million. Aviation was up 51 percent, marine up 195. The company raised its full-year outlook by 55 cents a share. The volatility it credits is the same one that put July airfares 27 percent above last July.
The Energy Secretary Calls Wind and Solar a '3%, Low-Value' Fringe. His Own EIA Reports They're About a Fifth of US Electricity - and Nearly All of Every New Power Plant.
Chris Wright says wind and solar are 'approximately three percent' of US energy and 'low value' because 'the wind doesn't always blow.' The Energy Information Administration inside his own department puts wind and solar near 18 to 19 percent of electricity and virtually 100 percent of the capacity being added this year.
The Headline Says 'ICE Employee' Shot a Protester. He Works for GEO Group - and Wednesday's Actual News Was That the Charges Were Reduced.
An influencer video calling the Aurora shooter an 'ICE Employee' gets the employer wrong: Brandon Booth, 42, works for GEO Group, the private contractor that runs the detention center, and was off-duty. The arrest was July 16. The fresh development is Wednesday's: prosecutors dropped the attempted-murder count, charged him with assault, and cut his bond in half.
Oil Just Closed Above $100 for the First Time Since May - the War's Cost, in the One Number Everyone Watches.
Brent settled at $100.65, up 7%, with US crude near $92 and oil up about 30% this month. Both of the Gulf's oil exits are now contested at once - the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthi-blockaded Bab al-Mandeb - and a drone attack just halted a major pipeline out of Kazakhstan. The war's ledger is now a three-figure barrel, and it lands at the pump.
Hegseth Told the Senate the War Has Cost $37.5 Billion. Senate Sources Say the Pentagon's Internal Number Is $80-100 Billion - the Difference Is the Wrecked Bases.
The public price of the Iran war omits a category: military construction - the repair of the US bases Iran's missiles keep hitting. Include it, per sources briefed on the internal estimate, and the five-month cost runs two to nearly three times the figure the defense secretary gave appropriators under oath.
GM Beat Earnings and Raised Its Guidance This Morning. Its Tariff Bill Stayed 'Largely Flat' - the Day After a New 50% Auto Tariff - and $2.3 Billion in EV Charges Sat Under the Beat.
General Motors posted a strong quarter - adjusted earnings up 41%, guidance raised, stock up about 5%. Two lines beneath the headline: the company reaffirmed a $2.5-to-$3.5 billion tariff cost as 'largely flat' the morning after the administration signed a 50% tariff on Canadian autos, and no one on the call mentioned it; and the quarter absorbed another $2.3 billion in EV charges while GAAP net income fell 31%.
The Pentagon Spokesman Called Reports of a Hidden Casualty Count 'Outright Lies.' Then He Announced 100 Injuries His Own Database Didn't Show.
Sean Parnell dismissed New York Times reporting that injury data was being withheld. The same week, he announced nearly 100 US troops injured in two weeks - while the Pentagon's public casualty database showed zero wounded in July, then updated to 32. The lag he called a lie is documented in the system he speaks for.
Hegseth Called the Jordan Deaths a 'Sacrifice' That 'Stiffens Our Resolve.' Greene Called That a Lie About a War for Israel. Both Are Opinions - Here Is the Record Under Them.
The defense secretary's tribute and the former congresswoman's fury are the same argument the president's movement is now having with itself, in public, over two named soldiers. Neither framing is a checkable fact. Who died, doing what, in which war - that part is documented.
The Energy Secretary Called Data Centers the 'Greatest Tool' to Stop Rising Electricity Prices. A Day Earlier, the Nation's Largest Grid Priced Their Cost at $6.3 Billion.
Chris Wright went on Fox News to attack New York's data-center moratorium, saying data centers are 'the greatest tool we have right now to stop the rise of electricity prices.' The day before, PJM's capacity auction landed $16.4 billion in charges on 67 million people's bills - $6.3 billion of it attributed to data centers, by the grid's own independent monitor, who wants their load billed separately for exactly that reason.
Trump Says US Troops Died So Iran Will 'Never' Get a Nuclear Weapon. His Own War-Powers Notices Say the Current War Is Over Strait of Hormuz Shipping.
Asked about the two service members killed in Jordan, the President recast the war as stopping an Iranian bomb. His administration's own legal filings tell Congress the renewed strikes are a response to Iranian attacks on commercial ships - and fact-checkers found the spring campaign left Iran's nuclear materials intact.
The White House Says Iran Alone 'Violated the Deal.' The Record Shows the US Reversed a Core Provision of the Same Deal Within the Window It Agreed to Keep It.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt framed the renewed bombing of Iran as a response to Iran 'violating the memorandum of understanding' by firing on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran did attack those ships - that part is accurate. Left out: the United States also rescinded Iran's oil-sales license and reimposed the naval blockade the deal had lifted, inside the 60-day window it had agreed to keep. The collapse ran both ways.
The Bill Is Called the 'Take Care of America's Veterans Act.' Buried in It Is a Cut to Disability Pay the VA's Own Analysis Put at $57 Billion.
House leaders pulled H.R. 9237 from the floor for the second time in two months. The sticking point is Section 108: it would stop rating tinnitus as a standalone disability and cut sleep-apnea compensation - changes the VA's own 2022 analysis estimated at about $57 billion over ten years, affecting up to 1.5 million veterans. The Speaker called the opposition 'misinformation.'
Who Watches the Watchdogs? The Panel That Polices Inspectors General Blew Its Legal Deadline in Three of Four Cases, the GAO Found.
The Integrity Committee investigates misconduct by the government's inspectors general. A new GAO report found it met all statutory timelines in just 24% of cases - investigations meant to take 150 days instead ran up to three years - as the administration fired roughly twenty IGs and moved to squeeze the committee's budget.
The New York Times Is Fighting Grand-Jury Subpoenas of Its Reporters - Issued by the Same US Attorney Trump Picked to Run the Intelligence Community.
The Times filed a motion to quash July 15, calling unconstitutional the subpoenas US Attorney Jay Clayton served on its journalists over a story that the Qatari-gifted Air Force One lacks antimissile countermeasures. Clayton is also the DNI nominee. It's a press-freedom fight over compelling reporters to testify about their work.
The DOJ Has Sued 30 States for Their Voter Data. A Judge Just Tossed the New Mexico Suit - the 12th Dismissal, With Zero Wins.
'Nowhere does the DOJ articulate any factual suggestion that New Mexico has violated' federal election law, Judge Judith Herrera wrote July 14, throwing out the department's demand for the state's full voter file. It is the 12th dismissal in a 31-lawsuit campaign in which no court, at any level, has ruled for the DOJ.
A Medicaid Rule CMS Says Will Cut 2.3 Million From Coverage Takes Effect July 31 - as a Rule That Never Has to Be Finalized.
The 'Community Engagement Requirement' was published June 3 as an interim final rule, so it becomes binding on its July 31 effective date with no finalized version required. The comment period closes August 1 - the day after it takes effect. CMS's own estimate: about 2.3 million lose Medicaid in fiscal 2027.
DHS Says Nearly 3 Million People Left in Year One. Its Own Removal Data Shows About 335,000 - and a Trump-Aligned Group Is Suing to See the Rest.
The 3 million breaks down, in DHS's telling, into ~675,000 removals and ~2.2 million 'self-deportations.' ICE's own biweekly spreadsheets total about 335,222 removals through December; the 2.2 million has no published methodology. The Heritage Foundation's litigation arm has now sued DHS for the data behind the number.
'Judge Voids IRS Settlement' Undersells It: the Deal Was a $1.78 Billion Fund and Permanent Tax Immunity for Trump and His Family - Which the Court Called a Collusive Bid for Legitimacy.
Judge Kathleen Williams threw out the settlement of Trump's suit against the IRS, and her ruling lays out what it contained: a $1.776 billion 'anti-weaponization fund' and a permanent bar on the IRS pursuing tax claims against Trump, his sons, and his company. She found the suit was 'brought for an improper purpose - to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy.'
The Shutdown's Quiet Aftershock: A Missing Inflation Number Froze Every Federal Penalty at 2025 Levels for the Year.
The 43-day shutdown stopped the BLS from producing October CPI - the exact number the formula for adjusting civil penalties requires. With no input, OMB cancelled the 2026 adjustment, and this weekend agency after agency logged the freeze in the Federal Register: the VA, the Fed, the BLM, the FCC, OFAC sanctions fines, all holding at 2025 dollars.
The Right Is Cheering an H-1B 'Fraud Crackdown.' The Inspector General's Own Words: 'Forced Labor' - and the Visa Workers Are the Victims.
OANN and American Greatness cast the new visa probe as Trump protecting American workers from foreigners gaming the system. The DOL Inspector General's release calls it 'the exploitation of vulnerable workers, forced labor,' with foreign workers 'compelled through force, fraud, or coercion' by employers and labor brokers - the outsourcer Cognizant among those named.
The Government's Own Rules List Includes Longer Work Hours for 14-Year-Olds - and Ending the Data That Measures Job Discrimination.
Buried in the semiannual regulatory agenda: a Labor Department plan to loosen the limits on how many hours 14- and 15-year-olds may work, and an EEOC plan to scrap the EEO-1 workforce demographic report that employers file. Both are documented on the government's own reginfo.gov, both are slated as proposals this year.
The Documents Say Jack Smith's Team 'May Have' Exposed Classified Info. The Headlines Say a Senator 'Finds' They Did. Those Are Not the Same Sentence.
Sen. Grassley's released DOJ records document real security lapses in the special counsel's office - an unsecured SCIF overnight, an access problem, uncertain handling of materials. His own letter 'stopped short of concluding that classified information was actually compromised' and asks DOJ to answer by July 22. A record piece on the distance between 'may have' and 'did.'
The Podium Said 100,000 Jobs. The Governor Said 50,000. The Company's Own Release Says 9,000 People Will Work There.
Micron's first-concrete ceremony produced three job counts for one project: 9,000 direct positions in the fine print, 'up to 50,000' from Hochul and Schumer with the indirect and construction jobs folded in through 2035, and Lutnick's 'nearly 100,000' nationally - none labeled. The multiplier convention is real economics; quoting it unlabeled is real inflation, and both parties did it in one document.
The White House Says the Economy Is Setting Records. The Fed Says Households Just Stopped Borrowing.
The newest number from inside American checkbooks got no podium time: the Fed's May consumer-credit report shows total credit growth at zero and credit-card balances contracting at a 4.7 percent annual rate - a 12-month card pullback last seen around 2020. Families do not pay down cards and stop borrowing when they feel a boom.
Jobless Claims Just Hit a Six-Week Low. The Same Report Says the Unemployed Are Staying Unemployed the Longest Since March.
The 215,000 headline will be read as strength, and half of it is: layoffs stay rare. The other half is in the identical release - continuing claims up to 1.81 million, the highest since late March, because the workers already laid off cannot get rehired. Low-fire is not the same economy as high-hire, and only one half makes the talking points.
The Trade Deficit 'Surged' in May. The Same Government Report Says It Is Down 40.6 Percent for the Year.
May's trade gap jumped to a record 77.6 billion dollars, and the coverage read it as a structural blowout. The Commerce Department's own release shows the year-to-date deficit is down 203.9 billion dollars, or 40.6 percent, and about two-thirds of May's export drop was a one-off gold reversal plus an oil-price shock.
The Treasury Secretary Calls the Squeeze a 'Short-Term Spike.' Real Wages Have Fallen for Three Straight Months.
Scott Bessent told CBS the gap between pay and prices is a short-term spike and energy costs will keep dropping. Real wages have trailed inflation for three months running, gas is near its priciest July 4 in years, and oil jumped again Tuesday after a Strait of Hormuz attack.
Unemployment Ticked Down to 4.2 Percent. It Fell Because About 720,000 People Stopped Looking for Work.
The June jobs report was greeted as a sign of a strong economy. Payrolls grew just 57,000, the prior two months were revised down 74,000, and the unemployment rate dropped mainly because the labor force shrank by roughly 720,000. Participation hit its lowest in about 50 years outside the pandemic.
The 'Record' Tariff Revenue Is a Tax Americans Paid. The Supreme Court Says About $166 Billion of It Has to Go Back.
Officials tout record tariff revenue as a windfall from other countries. US importers pay the tariffs and pass the cost to shoppers, about 700 dollars per household this year, and the Supreme Court struck down the emergency tariffs in February, leaving the government owing an estimated 166 billion dollars in refunds.
The Largest Fireworks Show in the History of the World? Guinness Has Not Said So, and One Record Is Bigger.
A world record declared before the referee rules teaches you to take the scoreboard on faith. The show was genuinely historic; the claim outran the count, the category, and the adjudicator.
The USDA Chief Says 700,000 People Were 'Fraudulently Using' Food Stamps. Actual Fraud Disqualifications Run About 41,000 a Year.
The word fraud requires intent - and the government's own numbers say it is rare. What actually happened: enrollment fell by 4 million in a year as the new law's work-documentation rules kicked in, and paperwork removals got rebranded as crime.
The Energy Secretary Blames the Last Administration for a Weak Grid. The Grid Operator Says It Has the Power - the Strain Is New Demand.
On the day PJM forecasts breaking a demand record that has stood since 2006, the official story is that Biden-era policies left the grid vulnerable. PJM's own filings say the system entered summer with adequate resources and that the risk is data-center load growing faster than new generation.
They Say 30 Million Workers Got 'No Tax on Tips and Overtime.' The Break Skips the Lowest-Paid and Sends Most of the Money Up the Ladder.
The deductions are real, but they cut only income tax, never the payroll tax on every paycheck; they are capped and phase out; and a third of tipped workers earn too little to get a dime.
Do Immigrants Undercut American Wages? The Research Says Barely, If at All
The vice president says immigrants are undercutting the wages of American workers. The National Academies and a recent peer-reviewed study find the effect on native-born wages overall is very small, and for less-educated workers it has been slightly positive.
Factories Were Going to 'Roar Back.' Manufacturing Has Lost About 82,000 Jobs.
On tariff day, the president promised jobs and factories were already roaring back. More than a year later, the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows manufacturing employment down, not up, by roughly 82,000 jobs.
On January 1, 8.3 Million Workers Got a Raise. Washington Had Nothing to Do With It.
Nineteen states raised their minimum wage on New Year's Day. The federal floor has not moved since 2009. The gap between those two facts is the whole story.
Social Security Is Not a Ponzi Scheme. A Ponzi Scheme Has a Definition, and It Misses Every Part.
The slur is bipartisan and decades old, from Rick Perry to the present. Hold the program up against what a Ponzi scheme actually is - fraud, fake returns, inevitable collapse - and it fails to match on every count.
No, Social Security Is Not Going Bankrupt. The 2026 Trustees Report Says 83% Is Still Payable.
The annual report landed June 9. The doom headline says the fund 'runs out.' The fine print says benefits keep being paid - at 78 to 83 cents on the dollar - unless Congress acts. That difference is the whole story.