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The khakis-wearing suspect tossed the beer keg through the glass window of Georgetown Cupcake around midnight Monday.

Japanese Bonds Crater After PM Takaichi Prepares To Issue Much More Debt To Pay For Gasoline Subsidies

While it may seem like every government these days - not just Emerging but certainly all Developing countries too - has become a banana republic in light of the increasingly more idiotic fiscal and monetary policies adopted to kick the can at least until the next election, nobody is quite as cartoonish as Japan, the place where all modern-day central bank experiments started in the late 1980s.

While on one hand the Japanese finance ministry and Bank of Japan have, in recent days and over the years, engaged in aggressive currency day trading, where they try to avoid a collapse in the yen by purchasing the currency in exchange for reserves such as US dollars, on the other hand, the same authorities have been, for the past 3 decades, been engaging in unlimited yen printing through perpetual QE (which despite the country's soaring inflation and collapsing currency, goes on to this day even though Japan's Yield Curve Control is taking a short break). End result: between the selling and buying of yen, the only thing Japanese officials have achieved is becoming the laughing stock of the world. Meanwhile, Japanese bond yields have exploded to multi-decade, if not record highs, as we showed last night.

One reason, besides all the other "usual suspects" such as soaring energy import costs, an grotesque inability to hike rates and contain inflation, not to mention relentless capital flight, is that as Reuters reported overnight, Japan's government is likely to issue even more debt as part of funding for a planned extra budget to cushion ​the economic blow from the Middle East war.

Of course, any additional debt issuance would further strain Japan's ‌already worsening finances and may accelerate rises in long-term interest rates. Actually, better make that "will" accelerate: the report pushed the yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) to 2.8% on Monday, its highest since October 1996, and the 30-year yield to a record top.

On Monday, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she had told Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama last week to start work on compiling a supplementary budget, a rather dramatic shift from previous remarks ruling out the chance of an extra budget.

The extra budget will focus on ​funding government subsidies to curb gasoline and utility bills, as surging oil prices caused by the Middle East conflict cloud the outlook for an economy heavily reliant on fuel imports ​from the region.

While the size of spending has yet to be worked out, the decision could cast doubt on the administration's laughable pledge to pursue a "responsible, proactive" ⁠fiscal policy. Spoiler alert: there is no "responsible" fiscal policy when your debt/GDP is over 200%. You can only hope for a peaceful death.

And the market was quick to react. 

"The about-face by Takaichi, who had been ruling out an extra budget all along, is making markets jittery and triggering a JGB selloff across the curve," said Katsutoshi Inadome, senior strategist at ​Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management.

In a proposal to the finance ministry, opposition party leader Yuichiro Tamaki called on Friday for an extra budget of about 3 trillion yen ($18.9 billion), which may serve as a benchmark ​for future debates on the size of spending.

"There's a host of reason to sell JGBs but very few to buy," Inadome said, adding that markets are starting to price in the chance of an extra budget to the scale of 5 trillion-to-10 trillion yen.

Finance minister Katayama, who is in Paris to attend the Group of Seven finance leaders' gathering, said on Monday she was instructed by the prime minister to "minimise various risks," when asked about the rise in long-term ​interest rates. 

"That's something I'm contemplating," Katayama said when asked how the government would fund the extra budget. She did not elaborate.

Japan already curbs gasoline prices with subsidies and eyes tapping existing funds to revive ​subsidies for utility bills (which of course means no demand destruction due to artificially low prices, but instead the massive new debt needed to subsidize said spending, will instead translate into state and sovereign destruction). An extra budget would come on top of a record 122-trillion-yen budget for the fiscal year that began in April, which makes up the core of the dovish premier's expansionary fiscal policy.

Critics warn that ‌more spending plans, ⁠coupled with slow interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan, could fan inflationary pressure in an economy already seeing rising energy costs from the Middle East war and higher import prices from a weak yen.

Japan's Nikkei stock average fell on Monday and the yen hit 158.97 per dollar, the weakest level since April 29, and it's about to explode even higher once the marker realizes the sheer idiocy of selling dollars to buy yen on one hand, and then turning around and doing QE - i.e., printing yen - to absorb all the new massive debt issuance about to hit a bond market where the BOJ has long since become a 50% holder of all JGBs and the marginal price setter. 

"When countries like Japan and Britain contemplate fiscal stimulus, there's a tendency for that to trigger a triple selling of shares, currencies, and bonds because their economic growth is weak and inflationary risks are high," said Daisuke Uno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking.

The extra budget will be compiled around June ​or July, when the administration will lay out ​plans to boost investment and details for a ⁠two-year freeze on an 8% levy on food.

Reuters tongue-in-cheekly adds that "the bond selloff would also complicate the BOJ's decision on whether to raise its short-term policy rate to 1% from 0.75% at its next meeting in June." Uhm, no, it wouldn't complicate it - it would make it an absolute farce as the last thing Japan needs if it is to sell even more debt, is higher rates. But then Tokyo better brace for a yen at 200 vs the dollar, unless the MOF is prepared to liquidate all of its USD-denominated reserves in an absolutely idiotic attempt to keep the yen from collapsing. 

At the June meeting, the BOJ will also review its existing bond tapering programme ​and unveil a new plan for fiscal 2027 onward.

The war-induced spike in energy prices, coupled with rising import costs from the collapsing yen, pushed Japan's wholesale ​inflation to a three-year high ⁠of 4.9% in April, bolstering the case for the central bank to raise rates as soon as next month.

While the BOJ tends to avoid shifting policy when markets are volatile, delaying rate hikes further could stoke already mounting fears it is behind the curve in addressing the risk of too-high inflation, analysts say. On the other hand, raising rates could spark an even more aggressive selloff across the curve, resulting in both a bond and FX market failure. Oops. 

Markets have priced in roughly a 70% chance of a June rate hike after a slew of recent hawkish signals from ⁠the BOJ ​and a split vote to the BOJ's decision to keep rates steady in April. Nearly two-thirds of economists polled by Reuters expect the ​BOJ to raise rates in June.

"If inflationary risks heighten, there's a chance the BOJ could raise short-term rates to 1.5% by the March end of the current fiscal year," said Mari Iwashita, executive rates strategist at Nomura Securities. The 10-year yield could ​head towards 3%, she added.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/18/2026 - 22:10

This week, the largest British trade delegation ever to land on American soil, with leaders representing 230 companies, touches down in Los Angeles for “Greater Together LA,” a summit dedicated to growing trade and investment with America.   Hot on the heels of Their Majesties The King and Queen’s historic state visit to the East Coast, marking the United States’ 250th anniversary, Greater Together LA celebrates innovation, capital and enterprise...

UAE Paid New York Firm Millions To Bury Article On Ambassador's Links To Sex Traffickers: Report

Via The Cradle

The UAE paid New York-based reputation management firm Terakeet more than $6 million to bury a 2017 report revealing that the Emirati ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, had ties to sex workers and traffickers, according to a New York Times (NYT) report published on Sunday.

The campaign was designed to push the Intercept report out of public sight on Google search results. According to Foreign Agents Registration Act records cited by the paper, Terakeet's work for the UAE began in July 2019 and continues today.

via The Intercept

Much of the account focused on promoting tourism in the UAE, but NYT reported that Terakeet’s work also extended to suppressing the damaging Otaiba report. Otaiba declined to comment beyond confirming that Terakeet has worked for the UAE.

The effort was kept off paper, with account manager Kenneth Schiefer moving to Washington for more than a year to work directly with Otaiba at the UAE embassy, avoiding a trail of emails or text messages.

The reputation firm had built a personal website for Otaiba, planted favorable leadership profiles on institutional pages tied to him, and fed those profiles links to UAE-friendly blogs written by Terakeet staff. The firm also used an anonymous Wikipedia editor handle, VentureKit, to create a fake sockpuppet account, Quorum816, and add positive material to Otaiba’s page. Wikipedia reversed the edits and suspended both accounts in 2021.

The campaign succeeded, and by 2023, the Intercept story had been pushed to page two of Google results. NYT reported that today, it appears on around page five for most users.

The UAE account formed part of a wider investigation into Terakeet's reputation-cleaning business for powerful figures and major corporations with damaging public records. The firm’s client list has included MetLife, JPMorgan Chase, Oracle, Target, Walmart, Disney, and Bain Capital, according to NYT.

Terakeet later tried to scrub the online image of Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler after her relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became a public liability.

🇦🇪 The New York Times reports that the UAE paid more than $6 million to the reputation management firm Terakeet between 2020 and 2022 to manipulate Google search results and suppress damaging reporting by Drop Site co-founder Ryan Grim, then at The Intercept, about Emirati… pic.twitter.com/gHRcCZ0HhC

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 18, 2026

The effort intensified after Justice Department files showed Ruemmler's name appeared in more than 10,000 Epstein-related documents, including exchanges in which she discussed travel with Epstein, thanked him for lavish gifts, and offered him legal advice.

Terakeet also worked for Vista Equity Partners chief executive Robert F. Smith, who signed a 2020 non-prosecution agreement acknowledging that he had “engaged in an illegal scheme to conceal income and evade taxes” between 2000 and 2015.

Terakeet chief executive Mac Cummings defended the firm’s model, saying "Terakeet’s technology is built on a simple mandate: organizations must tell their own story."

Drop Site News reported in January that Jeffrey Epstein's close relationship with DP World chief Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem helped foster UAE-Israel economic and security ties that later fed into the Abraham Accords.

Here’s the 2017 Intercept report: https://t.co/FV6gBQvDrl

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 18, 2026

The report says Epstein arranged meetings between Sulayem and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, helped channel Emirati investment into Israeli firms, and maintained contact with Sulayem until his 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/18/2026 - 21:45

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Hundreds Of Subpoenas Are Targeting The Russian Collusion Hoax

According to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Justice Department is hunting the architects of the Russia hoax, and they’re leaving no stone unturned.

Blanche sat down with Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss what he says is a sweeping criminal investigation into the origins of one of the most destructive political operations in history. 

The Southern District of Florida has an open criminal probe. Hundreds of subpoenas. Hundreds of witnesses. Blanche insists the DOJ is working hard and working efficiently. Bartiromo, who has been covering this story for nearly 10 years, wanted answers on why the process has taken so long.

“What have you done about it?” she asked point-blank.

"Well, look, that's exactly what we're investigating right now. And by the way, what is not in dispute is that the whole Russia hoax, there was absolutely nothing to it," Blanche told Bartiromo.

"And so the question that the American people have to ask is, well, then why did they do it? Why did Comey say what he said? Why did the outgoing Obama administration do what they did?”

Blanche continued.

“And that's what we're studying right now, because it did great damage to this country. It did great damage to President Trump's first term. And we want to understand why that happened, why there are continued to be an effort by operatives in the government to go after President Trump while he was in office, and then, of course, over the past several years as well.”

 But Bartiromo wasn’t accepting his statements at face value.

 "I'd like to know why it's taking so long," Bartiromo pressed.

"Has the statute of limitations run up? Do you have no more wiggle room in terms of zeroing in on things like the Mueller report, the Nunes report, and all the evidence that was clear — that they knew there was no Russia collusion?"

Blanche pushed back on the statute-of-limitations concern, arguing that the conspiracy arguably continued well past its origins (through the Mar-a-Lago raid in 2023), which could extend the legal exposure considerably. He framed the entire thing as potentially one continuous criminal conspiracy, stretching from 2015 through 2023 as part of a singular effort to destroy President Trump. "Whether that's one conspiracy that continued from 2015, 2016, all the way up to 2023 is what we're looking at right now," Blanche said. "We're finding out some incredibly troubling things. And at some point at the right time, that will be made public."

 "When is the time right?” Bartiromo asked. “When should we expect these charges of conspiracy?" 

“Well, I mean, look, as has been publicly reported, the Southern District of Florida has an open criminal investigation,” Blanche explained. “That involves hundreds of subpoenas. It involves hundreds of witnesses. And so, as far as timing and when we can expect it, we are working hard, and we are working efficiently, but we are going to do it right. We are not going to rush something, rush something that shouldn't, that isn't ready. We're not going to reach a conclusion before our investigation is over. But I assure you and I assure the American people that we are completely focused on it.” 

With hundreds of subpoenas and hundreds of witnesses, this is clearly no small investigation. And considering the media and Democrats will scrutinize every move, the DOJ knows it can’t afford to cut corners. In a case this explosive, being thorough matters a lot more than moving fast.

 

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/18/2026 - 21:20

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