How much private credit has been put in place but isn’t in the official credit total is unknown and very likely unknowable. That means total systemic risk is also unknowable. Everyone wants to lend us money now, even though they’re not banks: the insurance company Progressive offered us a loan, PayPal offers us a business loan…

Account freezes, social and financial erasure, and political blacklisting, without trial or conviction. This is no longer the domain of distant authoritarian states but a growing feature of the European Union’s sanctions regime. Behind the rhetoric of liberal democracy, the EU has constructed a mechanism that can be turned inward, targeting its own citizens and…

This past month was dominated by domestic and international political issues with volatile headwinds impacting markets. Let’s survey the landscape to see what these key stories are. Some of them are well-known but have hidden twists. Others are not well-known at all but will have equal or greater weight as time goes on. The Political…

CBS News anchor Tony Dokoupil addressed viewers in what appeared to be a pre-recorded promotional segment aimed at repairing more than a decade of reputational damage and announcing changes to the program. He acknowledged that the corporate media outlet had “missed the story” too often and, in doing so, had lost the trust of Americans….

California state experiences a payroll contraction during the first eight months of 2025, marking the largest job decline since COVID. The state’s 5% unemployment rate is above the national average and has remained so for the past 19 consecutive months. Over 173,000 jobs disappeared from California from January to November 2025, a 14% annual increase,…