Stanford economists put the number at $740 — that's how much extra the average household will spend on gas this year thanks to Operation Epic Fury. The average tax refund bump from the Big Beautiful Bill? $748. Do the math.
Private credit defaults just hit a record 9.2%. Funds are gating withdrawals. Blue Owl dumped $1.4 billion in assets. And regulators say there's almost nothing to worry about.
Europe entered 2026 with its lowest gas storage in years. Then Iranian missiles hit the world's largest LNG hub, and the TTF benchmark nearly doubled in a week.
Japan was finally normalizing rates after three decades. Then oil hit $110 a barrel and the Strait of Hormuz closed. The BOJ held at 0.75% — one day after the Fed froze too.
Automakers have eaten $35.4 billion in tariff costs since 2025. Meanwhile, 98,000 manufacturing jobs have vanished and factory owners who voted for protectionism are running at a loss.
Powell told reporters 'nobody knows' what the Iran war will do to the economy — then released projections anyway. The Fed held rates at 3.5%-3.75% while oil nears $110, gas jumps a dollar, and the dot plot pretends this is all manageable.
Gas prices surging, airlines adding $24 billion in fuel costs to ticket prices, and the Fed just blinked on its inflation forecast. The $110 barrel is already in your budget.
Swarmer priced its IPO at $5 a share on Monday. By Wednesday it closed at $55. The company's annual revenue wouldn't cover a mid-range Tesla.
The Dow shed 768 points after the Fed held rates steady and Powell admitted inflation isn't falling as fast as hoped. With oil above $100 and gold cracking below $5,000, markets are pricing in a central bank with no good moves left.
Automakers have eaten $35 billion in tariff costs. Factories have shed 98,000 jobs. And the trade deficit grew anyway. A one-year audit of Liberation Day finds the ledger badly in the red.
The Fed will hold rates steady today — that much is certain. The real question is whether Powell's dot plot and press conference reveal a central bank that still believes it can cut this year, or one that has quietly abandoned the idea.
Twenty misdemeanor counts, four for letting Arizonans bet on their own governor's race. Arizona just filed the first criminal charges ever brought against a prediction market — and the $43 billion company's federal preemption argument is about to get its toughest test yet.
American borrowers started 2026 counting on three rate cuts. Futures markets now see one — maybe, in December. The $2.95 trillion in consumer debt at double-digit interest isn't going anywhere.
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