Building on last week's theme of "early signs of a turn in U.S. consumer discretionary," Piper Sandler analysts note that the sharp decline in gasoline prices at the pump is beginning to lift consumer sentiment, particularly among lower-income households. Their proprietary daily confidence data suggest the rebound is still in the early innings, but the direction is clear: cheaper gas is easing pressure on working-class folks.
Piper Sandler's chief global economist and head of the firm's economics research team, Nancy Lazar, provided clients with three of the most important consumer conclusions of the week as the national average for gas at the pump tumbled due to easing tensions in the Middle East:
1. The steep rollover in gasoline prices triggered a big bounce in PSC’s Daily Confidence Survey last week, with low-end consumers particularly more cheerful.
2. With all daily survey components improving, the observed retail sales aggregate has hooked up.
3. Higher prices weighed on consumers last quarter, according to Kroger & La-ZBoy.
Lazar's note, titled "The Gasoline Down-Confidence Up Two-Step," says that cheaper pump prices are now producing consumer tailwinds amid a still-healthy labor market.
She shows that Piper Sandler's proprietary high-frequency gauge of U.S. consumer sentiment, conducted by Rasmussen Reports, "appears to have bottomed, mirroring the sharp rollover in gasoline prices – adding to economic tailwinds from refunds and healthy labor."
"The impact of easing pump prices is clear in both confidence and consumption," Lazar continued in the note.
In markets, she pointed out, "The Russell 2000 and XRT retailing ETF certainly act as if the bottom is in for confidence."
More consumer sentiment data from Piper's internal sources show improvement:
The rebound in sentiment could help drive consumers back into retail stores and support spending on experiences...
Great news for the Trump administration, with 136 days until the midterm elections this fall.
Professional subscribers can read more consumer notes at our new Marketdesk.ai portal.
Tyler Durden Tue, 06/23/2026 - 05:45How long would you need to work to earn $1,000? In Colombia, the answer is roughly 86 hours. In Luxembourg and Iceland, it’s just 16.
Using data from the OECD on average annual wages and Our World in Data’s figures for annual working hours, Visual Capitalist's Srijaa Chatterjee created this visualization ranking countries by how long it takes the average worker to earn $1,000.
The figures are expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP)-adjusted dollars, which account for differences in local price levels and make incomes more comparable across countries. Taxes are not included.
How Many Hours of Work Earn $1,000?Workers in the lowest-ranked countries need more than five times as many hours to earn $1,000 as workers in the highest-ranked countries. The gap ranges from 16 hours in Luxembourg and Iceland to 86 hours in Colombia.
The data table below shows the number of hours worked per $1,000 earned by country in purchasing power parity-adjusted dollars:
Rank Country Hours Worked per $1,000 Earned 1 🇨🇴 Colombia 86 2 🇲🇽 Mexico 78 3 🇬🇷 Greece 60 4 🇨🇷 Costa Rica 53 5 🇭🇺 Hungary 51 6 🇨🇱 Chile 51 7 🇨🇿 Czechia 48 8 🇸🇰 Slovakia 47 9 🇵🇹 Portugal 45 10 🇵🇱 Poland 43 11 🇪🇪 Estonia 42 12 🇱🇻 Latvia 38 13 🇰🇷 South Korea 38 14 🇹🇷 Turkey 37 15 🇮🇱 Israel 34 16 🇮🇹 Italy 34 17 🇯🇵 Japan 34 18 🇱🇹 Lithuania 33 19 🇪🇸 Spain 30 20 🇳🇿 New Zealand 28 21 🇮🇪 Ireland 27 22 🇸🇮 Slovenia 27 23 🇫🇮 Finland 25 24 🇨🇦 Canada 25 25 🇫🇷 France 25 26 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 24 27 🇸🇪 Sweden 24 28 🇦🇺 Australia 23 29 🇺🇸 United States 22 30 🇧🇪 Belgium 21 31 🇩🇪 Germany 20 32 🇦🇹 Austria 20 33 🇩🇰 Denmark 19 34 🇳🇱 Netherlands 19 35 🇳🇴 Norway 19 36 🇨🇭 Switzerland 18 37 🇮🇸 Iceland 16 38 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 16Europe dominates the top of the ranking. Luxembourg, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands all require fewer than 20 hours of work to earn $1,000.
For comparison, the average American worker needs about 22 hours to earn $1,000, placing the U.S. among the stronger earners but still behind multiple European economies.
Latin America Earns Less While Working MoreColombia and Mexico sit at the bottom of the ranking, requiring 86 and 78 hours of work, respectively, to earn $1,000. Both figures are more than triple the U.S. level and more than four times higher than Luxembourg’s.
While workers in these countries often log similar or even greater annual hours than workers in richer economies, average wages remain substantially lower.
Research highlighted by Our World in Data finds that workers in lower-income countries tend to work longer hours while generating less income per hour worked. Economists point to lower productivity levels, a larger informal sector, reduced access to capital, and weaker wage growth as contributing factors.
Nordic Countries and Luxembourg Stand OutAt the other end of the spectrum are Luxembourg and the Nordic economies. Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland combine relatively high wages with advanced, high-productivity economies.
Analysis from the Becker Friedman Institute and CEPR highlights how strong labor-market institutions, high workforce participation, and substantial investments in education contribute to both high wages and relatively compressed income distributions.
Luxembourg benefits from an especially high concentration of financial and professional services jobs, helping support some of the highest average wage levels in the world.
Why Purchasing Power MattersThe analysis uses purchasing power parity (PPP), which adjusts wages to reflect differences in local price levels. PPP adjustments allow economists to compare what incomes can actually buy in a specific country rather than relying solely on market exchange rates.
Without PPP adjustments, workers in lower-cost countries could appear poorer than they actually are, and vice versa.
Want to explore wage differences across Europe? Check out Mapped: Average Full-Time Salary in Europe by Country on the Voronoi app.
Tyler Durden Tue, 06/23/2026 - 04:15Europeans and especially Germans have borne enormous costs to perpetuate the Ukrainian Conflict while receiving absolutely nothing of tangible benefit in return.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel responded to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s proposal to grant Ukraine associate membership in the EU, which was analyzed here and here, by declaring that “We need to know how this state-terrorist act against the most important infrastructure we had, namely the Nord Stream pipelines, came about and what role Ukraine played in it. The flow of payments should actually be moving in the opposite direction.”
She then added that, “Ukraine must pay reparations to the Federal Republic of Germany, because we have suffered enormous damage – and so has Europe as a whole – from the loss of cheap Russian fossil fuels.” Weidel made a solid point about the economic damage that the Ukrainian Conflict has caused to Europe, even independently of the Nord Stream terrorist attack, which she implied was committed by Ukraine like Berlin suggested but which the famous Seymer Hersh cited sources to blame on the US.
To elaborate a bit more on the background of Berlin’s innuendo, it sought the extradition from Poland last year of a Ukrainian suspect but was rebuffed by the judge for the reasons explained here, which lent credence in a lot of the public’s mind to the claim of Ukrainian culpability. Nevertheless, that narrative was already counteracted here, here, and here over the years long before the extradition request was made and rejected, but Weidel, many Germans, and a lot of folks across the West in fact still believe it.
In any case, having clarified the context of her implied accusation against Ukraine and circling back to her reparations demand, the EU spent hundreds of billions of dollars on aid for Ukraine and its refugees. When calculating the higher cost of fuel since then, including that which it still purchases from Russia, the total credibly approaches $1 trillion and might even surpass it by some estimates.
The most that the EU might receive in exchange is arms and reconstruction contracts for only a handful of companies.
That nowhere near justifies the enormous costs that the EU has paid to perpetuate the NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine, which highlights the ideological motives behind this policy. The liberal-globalists that rule the bloc are hellbent on inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia through NATO-backed Ukraine, to which end no cost is too high to pay, especially since it’s average Europeans and not them that are paying it.
This cynical policy is already backfiring in Germany by turbocharging the AfD’s rise.
It’s now the most popular party in the country by far and its appeal continues to grow since it’s one of the few forces apart from the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance that’s speaking truth to power about this conflict and its crushing economic consequences for Europeans. Germany in particular has been hit exceptionally hard with growth crawling to a halt and many suspecting that the bloc’s largest economy is actually already in a recession that might soon be confirmed and then spread throughout the EU.
Weidel knows very well that Ukraine will never pay reparations to Germany and that even the hypothetical cession of its key industries to her country wouldn’t come anywhere near compensating the costs that Germans have already paid. Her rhetoric was thus meant to draw attention to these same costs. The more that Germans dwell upon them and realize that their country received nothing of tangible benefit in return, the more likely they are to support the AfD in a bid to bring about real change.
Tyler Durden Tue, 06/23/2026 - 03:30US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to visit Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates this week, set for June 23–25, following the weekend breakthrough Switzerland-based negotiations with Iran, Department of State Spokesperson Tommy Pigott announced Monday.
The announcement comes on the heels of indirect talks between Iranian and American officials - the latter delegation which was led by Vice President JD Vance in person, which took place on Sunday in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock under the mediation of Pakistan and Qatar.
"Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Bahrain from June 23-25. The Secretary will discuss a range of regional priorities," Pigott said in the official statement released by State. These countries will likely seek some kind of serious reconstruction reparations for the attacks they suffered through the opening months of Operation Epic Fury.
via Associated PressAccording to the spokesperson, Rubio's diplomatic tour will focus heavily on the newly drafted US-Iran memorandum of understanding, alongside ongoing initiatives to restore free, safe, and regular commercial transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
Pressure has also been put on Oman of late to not side with Iranian demands for its own protocol for international vessel passage. Broader regional stability will top the agenda, even as official claims in terms of technical details agreed to by the warring sides is somewhat at odds.
"In Bahrain, the Secretary will also meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council to discuss shared priorities across the region," Pigott added.
The signed MoU accord establishes specific timelines for the United States to eventually dismantle its naval blockade of Iranian ports in exchange for Iran restoring safe shipping lanes through the critical Strait of Hormuz.
This is a big 'if' given that the Iranian side has signaled that this could take a long time, and as a 60-day window for formal negotiations - focusing especially on the nuclear file - is sure to be wrought with many hurdles and hold-ups.
Furthermore, Tehran has committed to refraining from seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Tehran will seek among primary objectives for these subsequent talks the formal lifting of longstanding anti-Iran sanctions.
But already there's been plenty of disagreement on how that will look as well, in terms of the concrete details.
BREAKING: Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain this week as the Trump administration seeks support from Gulf allies for its preliminary Iran agreement.
Rubio is also scheduled to meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council, bringing together key U.S.… pic.twitter.com/e6OvsqUHCc
On Monday the US Treasury issued a temporary 60-day general license authorizing the production, delivery, and sale of Iranian oil. There's real positive momentum, this one big development reveals.
While this suggests that Washington is very serious about ending the war at this point, a lot could still go wrong, also as Israel and Hezbollah have continued sporadic fighting in Lebanon. At the moment an uneasy official ceasefire is on in south Lebanon, but this and other key sticking points remain huge question mark issues.
Tyler Durden Tue, 06/23/2026 - 02:45Authored by Remix News via Modernity News,
The deeply unpopular British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, announced his resignation on Monday morning, but despite his upcoming departure, the right may have little to cheer about.
During a speech outside Downing Street, Starmer announced he was stepping down after holding office since July 7, 2024. In that election, his Labour Party won 412 seats, securing a comfortable majority and decimating the Tories, who had governed Britain since 2010.
Starmer revealed on the morning of Monday, June 22, that he had already spoken with King Charles III to inform him of his decision. The Labour Party's National Executive Committee will now develop a timetable for the election of a new leader, who will also become Prime Minister. He stressed that this process should be completed by the end of the summer holidays. Until then, Starmer will remain at the helm of the British government.
According to Reuters, the main favorite to replace Starmer is the former Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who won a seat in the House of Commons during the Makerfield constituency by-election in northwest England on June 18, defeating Nigel Farage's party.
The right now has a challengerBurnham may pose a grave challenge to Restore Britain and Reform UK, the two main right-wing parties running against the British left.
Under Starmer, multiple polls predicted a strong majority for Reform UK, with some even forecasting a blowout election victory.
However, the rise of Restore Britain had already siphoned off a number of voters from Reform UK, narrowing Farage's lead.
Now, with Starmer gone, some polls show Reform UK barely leading Labour in a general election. A new poll from Politico shows Farage winning 27 percent of the vote versus 20 percent for Labour under Starmer's current numbers - but when tested against Burnham, Labour's chances receive a significant boost. Some within Labour even describe Burnham as a "Reform Slayer," as he polls better against Farage than anyone else in the party.
Nevertheless, the Politico article also describes an uphill battle for Burnham, given how far Labour has fallen out of favour with British voters during Starmer's rule. Notably, Burnham is described as more left-wing than Starmer, who is categorized as a "centrist."
Although the Tories are still seen as a formidable election force, they have long since discarded any semblance of right-wing politics. Nevertheless, they are also siphoning voters away from both Restore Britain and Reform UK, retaining voters who might lean personally to the right but still vote Conservative out of habit.
The combined effect of vote-splitting on the right and Burnham leading Labour could deliver a shock upset in favor of Labour, ending Farage's dream of winning the office of prime minister.
British commentators point out that Starmer's position has been weakening for months. More than 100 Labour MPs - around a quarter of the parliamentary party in the House of Commons - had publicly stated they wanted the prime minister to resign or set a timetable for his departure.
Labour Party members pointed to a total loss of trust in the head of government and his leadership abilities. The government had recently been rocked by a number of high-profile resignations, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Defence Secretary John Healey.
Polling also showed that Labour members overwhelmingly wanted Burnham, nicknamed the "King of the North" after winning three consecutive mayoral terms. He is currently Labour's most popular politician. His recent victory in the Makerfield seat also bodes poorly for Reform UK and Restore Britain; the constituency is predominantly white and working-class, representing the exact demographic that these two right-wing parties are seeking to win over from Labour.
Tyler Durden Tue, 06/23/2026 - 02:00