Zero Rss

Meta Could Face Billions In Penalties After New Mexico Facebook Verdict

A New Mexico jury has found Facebook liable for tens of millions of violations of the state's consumer protection law, potentially exposing the social media platform to billions of dollars in fines.

A Santa Fe jury on Friday found Facebook committed over 43.8 million violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act through false or misleading statements to consumers, according to the state Department of Justice.

"The verdict marks a significant victory for New Mexico consumers and holds one of the world's largest technology companies accountable for its conduct," the department said.

The verdict followed a roughly two-week trial stemming from a lawsuit New Mexico filed in 2021 over Facebook's handling of user data and statements it made to consumers.

As Bill Pan reports further for The Epoch Times, the case traces back to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the now-defunct British political consulting firm obtained personal information from as many as 87 million Facebook users and used the data for political profiling and targeted advertising.

New Mexico alleged that Facebook misled users about how their personal information could be shared with third parties and the extent of users' control over their data.

The state also challenged statements Facebook made after the Cambridge Analytica disclosures. Facebook said it would investigate applications that had obtained large amounts of user information, audit suspicious developers, ban those that misused data, and notify affected users.

Overall, the jury found 26 of the 29 Facebook statements challenged by the state to be misleading. Those statements covered Facebook's data practices as well as how it handled hate speech, misinformation, and exceptions to its platform rules.

Meta, Facebook's parent company, disputed the verdict.

"We disagree with the verdict and will continue to defend ourselves against efforts to distort our record," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

"Meta's platforms are forums for free expression. We have a First Amendment right to manage those platforms in a way we believe best serves the interests of our community.

"This means prioritizing free speech, protecting our users' information and giving them control over their data."

The size of any penalty has not yet been determined.

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the state will seek the maximum penalty of $5,000 for each willful violation.

If imposed across all violations found by the jury, the theoretical maximum would exceed $219 billion. The final amount will be determined by the judge.

The state is also seeking court-ordered changes to Facebook's practices. Torrez said those could include requiring the company to correct previous statements and undergo an audit of how it manages user data.

The verdict is Meta's second major courtroom loss in New Mexico this year.

In a separate case involving the safety of young users, a jury in March imposed $375 million in civil penalties. A judge later ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million to address youth mental health harms and imposed court-supervised changes to Facebook and Instagram, bringing the company's total financial exposure in that case to $942 million.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 15:00

"De-Globalization Endgame": Deutsche Bank Warns Historic Copper Squeeze Could Ignite 50% Rally

London copper prices are near record highs at the start of the week, reinforcing the supercycle commodity bull-cycle thesis former Goldman Sachs commodities chief Jeff Currie outlined in August: "get long and buckle up." The convergence of tight physical markets, currency debasement and policy intervention is creating conditions for a sustained repricing of scarce resources.

From refined petroleum products and rare earths to industrial metals and certain agricultural commodities, tightening physical markets underpin our "own the bottlenecks" theme.

Deutsche Bank's head of metals research, Daniel Ghali, added urgency to that theme on Monday morning, warning that available copper inventories globally have fallen to "unprecedented lows." As US and Chinese stockpiling squeezes supplies available elsewhere, Ghali sees copper rallying roughly 50% to $22,050 a ton by the second quarter of 2027.

Ghali estimates China's strategic reserves hold about 2.05 million tons, equivalent to 43% of global above-ground inventories. Meanwhile, US tariff-driven stockpiling demand could leave 1.3 million tons tied up at warehouses by year-end. Together, the bank estimates US and Chinese stockpiling will encumber 71% of global inventories.

"The combination of de-globalization and decades of underinvestment in supply has created vulnerabilities such that, by year-end, stockpiling in the USA and China will have encumbered 71% of global inventories," he warned.

At the current stockpiling pace, Ghali forecasts that freely available inventories would approach zero by the end of 2028, adding that this would be the exact breaking point the market must prevent through demand destruction, or higher prices. 

Ghali called this the "most acute copper scarcity on record" and a "de-globalization endgame." The industrial metal's story is quickly shifting from an AI data center boom to a liquidity crisis, as free-floating copper inventories decline to unprecedented levels.

More bad news:

The risk now is a bidding war for the remaining accessible metal that ends only when demand destruction arrives. Access to metal is critical as resource nationalism engulfs the world, with China restricting rare earths and other critical metals. These materials are essential to defense and the looming rearmament theme in the West.

More evidence that readers may want to "own the bottlenecks" as critical material supplies tighten. This theme should gain traction across Wall Street.

Last week, Stifel metals analysts pointed out one mind-boggling chart:

Time to own the bottlenecks.

* * *

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 14:25

How The Data Center Debate May Shape The Midterms

Authored by Jacki Thrapp via The Epoch Times,

Outrage over proposed data centers surged across America, from the Birthplace of Rock 'n' Roll to Kansas corn country, amid a heated U.S. - China technology race, turning server farms into one of the defining issues of the midterm elections this fall.

In some primaries, candidates who backed the artificial intelligence (AI) boom were given the boot by voters who preferred politicians encouraging guardrails - or a hard stop - before big tech turned country pastures into concrete parks.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has said AI-related development is imperative to protect U.S. interests and ensure national security.

Here's how the data center debate could weigh on some national elections this fall.

Voter Sentiment

Americans have grown protective of remaining open space after seeing acreage - larger than the size of Florida - be converted from rural or agricultural land into urbanized landscape between 1982 and 2017, according to data released by NumbersUSA's USA Sprawl project.

A lot of the development was due to population growth, but now some fear data centers will scoop up additional land.

"It's not that Americans think that all of that development was bad, but they're taking the trade-offs very seriously," Jeremy Beck, the co-president of NumbersUSA, told The Epoch Times.

"You see that in the polling. They're concerned about water. They're concerned about resources."

Voters told The Epoch Times they're worried new tech developments would strain local water resources, increase electricity bills, boost governmental surveillance, or become another abandoned building if the AI bubble bursts.

"Data centers are politically interesting because they make the national AI and energy debate a local issue," Energy policy analyst Yagiz Sullu told The Epoch Times.

"Most voters may not track data center policy, but they do notice changes in electricity bills, water use, new infrastructure, tax incentives, and development in their neighborhoods."

Voters in a handful of states, including Wyoming, told The Epoch Times that their votes during recent primary elections were swayed by a candidate's stance on data centers.

In Wyoming, local opposition helped shape the state's gubernatorial and U.S. Senate primary election in mid-August in very different ways.

President Donald Trump's endorsement fell short in the Cowboy state's gubernatorial primary when his pro-data center pick, Megan Degenfelder, lost to Republican Eric Barlow.

Some voters told The Epoch Times during the primary election that a candidate's stance on data centers played a role in how they voted.

Degenfelder, who received 29.6 percent of the vote, supported the data center boom, suggesting the United States needed to win the AI technology race against China.

Barlow, who won 45 percent of the vote, had a more cautious approach to data centers, suggesting local leaders should control their development.

In Kansas, the physics teacher who was dragged out of an Emporia City Commission meeting and arrested because he clapped when people spoke in opposition to the data center told The Epoch Times he fears the AI bubble could pop and leave his city with more empty buildings.

"I don't want them to spend, you know, 5 to 10 years building a data center, only for the AI bubble to finally burst and crash," Lux Claridge said.

Claridge and his wife, Jessica Danford, told The Epoch Times they were "all in" on Democrat Cindy Holscher to be the next governor of Kansas due to her proposed moratorium on data centers.

Holscher is facing Republican Ty Masterson in the state's gubernatorial primary.

However, while serving in the state Senate, Holscher and Masterson both supported state legislation to expand data centers.

Holscher walked back her stance after announcing her run for governor, calling for a statewide moratorium on new data centers until Kansas has "common-sense guardrails" to protect taxpayers and natural resources.

Meanwhile, Masterson said all data centers must "cover their own power and infrastructure costs."

David McGarry, research director of the government watchdog group Taxpayers Protection Alliance, does not think that citizens will vote out their representatives who have not acted swiftly on AI and data center concerns ahead of the midterm elections.

"I doubt that Congress's lack of action will overtake the kitchen table issues as voters decide which candidates and which party are best positioned to improve everyday lives for Americans," McGarry told The Epoch Times.

McGarry predicts the midterm races will be decided on larger national issues, such as the economy.

Candidates' Response

Some candidates have underscored just how important the impact of data centers and AI was to their constituents.

During the U.S. Senate primary in Wyoming, voters told The Epoch Times they backed candidates who worked to protect their communities and appreciated when U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, demanded accountability from Meta after its Cheyenne Data Center contaminated the city's wastewater system.

Hageman, a Trump-backed Republican, is saddling up to face Democratic state Rep. James Byrd, who wants a "full stop" on data center development, in the general election for the U.S. Senate seat this fall.

Some pro-data center candidates kept their name on the ticket.

In Nevada's gubernatorial primary election, incumbent Joe Lombardo, who is pro-data centers, won in a landslide and will face Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford this fall.

Lombardo promised to protect people from rising costs as he vouched for data centers, suggesting they will bring jobs, investment, and economic growth to Nevada.

Ford wants to pause new tax breaks for the centers until they can prove they will provide their own clean energy, grid upgrades, and water.

The Cook Political report ranks the race as a toss-up.

In the Texas U.S. Senate race, Attorney General Ken Paxton beat incumbent John Cornyn in the GOP primary runoff election and then pitched a "Texas First Data Center Plan" on Aug. 24, which puts guardrails on proposed centers.

"My Texas First Data Center Plan will protect our grid, our communities, and our children while ensuring America beats Communist China in the AI race," Paxton wrote in an X post on Aug. 24.

His opponent, Democrat James Talarico, also proposed guardrails and stopping "data centers from being built in our communities if they cannot meet the most basic demands of those communities."

The Cook Political report moved the U.S. Senate race's ranking in Texas from Lean Republican to Toss Up on Aug. 20.

Meanwhile in Arizona, gubernatorial candidates Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a Republican, and incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, agreed on issuing a moratorium on tax incentives and subsidies for businesses wanting to bring a data center to Arizona.

In Tennessee, Trump-backed GOP state Sen. Brent Taylor will face Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson for the remapped District 9, which stretches all the way from the Memphis area to just south of Nashville.

Pearson has strongly opposed Elon Musk's Colossus, a supercomputer that powers Grok.

"In Congress, one of my top priorities will be to establish data center regulations to protect our families," Pearson wrote on Sept. 3.

Taylor suggested he will make "data centers pay their own way instead of passing the costs on to everyone else."

Working With Trump

The election this fall can help decide if the president's agenda during his remaining years in the White House will be a success or a standstill, including with AI.

Trump dismissed concerns about data centers and AI in a Truth Social post on Sept. 14. The president urged that expansion needs to continue in order to win the world's AI race, and especially against China.

"There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China," Trump said.

"WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE! Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged artificial intelligence companies to slow the development of their most advanced models after Jacob Coxon, a former OpenAI researcher who resigned from Anthropic, suggested on Sept. 8 that people building AI think that it could kill us all "by the end of the decade."

The calls caught the attention of Congress, prompting many proposals such as the Ratepayer Protection Act, which landed in the Senate after it passed the House 417-3.

But any new bills by U.S. representatives won't move fast, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent members home for an early recess that will last until after the November midterm elections.

The early recess received pushback from 107 members of Congress, who urged Johnson to keep the House in session so they can address how AI risks "mass cybersecurity breaches and development of biological or chemical weapons," according to a press release shared by U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.).

Johnson mostly sides with Trump about the AI issue, telling CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Sept. 13 that he worried regulation ordered by Congress would make America lose the race to the Chinese communist regime.

Some Republicans have differed from Trump's position, such as Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) and Rep. John James (R-Mich.), who both have elections this fall.

The lawmakers warned that rapid data center growth will affect their constituents, who worry about power bills rising, water issues, and control.

"I say not one more data center until we PROTECT our people," James wrote in an X post on Sept. 14.

Husted, who was appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance's U.S. Senate seat in 2025, is running in a special election on Nov. 3 to keep his position. James is the GOP nominee for Michigan governor.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 14:10

The Strange Case Of NAC: The Supplement The FDA Says Isn't One

N-acetyl cysteine, or NAC, is one of the most popular amino acid supplements in America. People take it for liver support after a long night, for their lungs and, lately, as a longevity staple. One brand among dozens, NOW, said in 2021 that it alone had sold "millions, perhaps billions" of NAC pills with no adverse event reports. NAC is also the latest supplement to land under the Eye of Sauron, otherwise known as the FDA.

The FDA's weapon is a clause in federal law: an ingredient approved as a drug, or authorized for serious study as one, before it was sold as a supplement can't be a supplement. The FDA has used the clause against red yeast rice, whose active compound is the same molecule as Merck's cholesterol drug lovastatin; against a form of vitamin B6 in 2009; against CBD after the seizure drug Epidiolex was approved; and against NMN in 2022, a ban it reversed in September 2025 after an industry lawsuit.

NAC's case is simpler on paper. It was approved as a drug in 1963, before it was sold as a supplement, the FDA says. What the agency has done with that fact since is anything but simple.

The latest turn: the FDA's own regulatory calendar set July 2026 as the target for a proposed rule on whether NAC can be sold as a supplement. July came and went with nothing published. When the White House released its 2026 regulatory agenda on July 30, the proposal was still listed with a July 2026 target, a date that had already passed.

The law firm Covington says the rule appears to cover NAC. If so, it would be the rulemaking the FDA said in 2022 it was "considering." Until it arrives, NAC sits where it has since 2020: officially not a supplement, sold as one because the FDA has chosen not to enforce.

It started with hangover pills. In July 2020, the FDA sent a warning letter to a company selling them, and buried in it was a new argument about NAC. According to the FDA, NAC "was approved as a new drug" on September 14, 1963, which meant products containing it were "excluded from the dietary supplement definition."

Attack On NAC!

Due to the looming threat of enforcement, in May 2021 Amazon said it was "removing the products in question from our store." The Council for Responsible Nutrition, a supplement trade group, petitioned the FDA in June 2021. The Natural Products Association followed in August, and in December it sued, calling the move "a regulatory sneak attack by the FDA."

In March 2022, the FDA denied the petitions' core request and repeated that "NAC is excluded from the definition of a dietary supplement." Then it blinked. Final guidance that August said the agency would "exercise enforcement discretion" for certain NAC products, since "our initial review has not revealed safety concerns," and that it was "considering initiating rulemaking." NAC was back on Amazon by late August, and the NPA dropped its suit that November.

Recall:

• The FDA said in 2020 that NAC isn't a supplement because it was approved as a drug in 1963.
• Amazon pulled NAC in 2021, then relisted it in 2022 after the FDA said it would hold off.
• The FDA's July 2026 target for a rule came and went, so NAC remains in legal limbo.

What NAC Actually Does

NAC is a building block for glutathione, the body's main internal antioxidant. That's why hospitals reach for it after an acetaminophen overdose. The IV version, Acetadote, works by restoring glutathione, which the liver burns through trying to neutralize the overdose.

In a 2018 trial, 1,200 mg of NAC a day for 30 days restored glutathione levels for people with deficiencies, and their endurance improved with it. NAC supports glutathione when you're short on it; it isn't a booster for everyone.*

It's also very safe. A review of 41 studies in patients with chronic lung disease, at 600 to 3,000 mg a day, found the "safety profile was similar at both the high and standard doses."

Meanwhile, many have been turning to NAC for potential longevity benefits. At Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Rajagopal Sekhar's team gave 12 older adults a mix of glycine and NAC, which they call GlyNAC, for 16 weeks against 12 on placebo. They reported faster walking, a stronger grip and red blood cell glutathione up 225%. Granted - the doses were big, about 7 grams each of glycine and NAC a day for a 70 kg adult.

And now, where to get some

***Sorry folks, you cleaned us out! 

Neuro Ignite is a caffeine-free daily energy mix offered by IQ Biologix, built around 1,000 mg of NAC per dose - right inside the 600 to 3,000 mg a day range covered by the safety review above. Each two-scoop serving adds 1,000 mg each of vitamin C, taurine and glycine, plus magnesium and creatine - and beet root. So instead of stimulating your nervous system, it gives your brain the raw materials it runs on - eight ingredients covering antioxidant defense, cellular energy and neurotransmitter production

The 450 mg of creatine contributes to 3 to 5 grams a day that sports nutrition researchers recommend (grab that here). 

Right now it's buy one, get one free: add two jars to your cart and the second is free. That's 60 servings for $44.95. The deal ends Sunday, October 11, or sooner if we sell out.

Support yourself & support the site: get yours here.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 13:50

Report Finds Security Flaws At University Where Charlie Kirk Was Assassinated

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

An external review released on Sept. 25 has found no evidence that Utah Valley University employees acted in "bad faith" following Charlie Kirk's assassination last year, but found several security lapses, including the failure to conduct a formal security assessment.

The university commissioned an independent review to examine its security measures following the Sept. 10, 2025 fatal shooting of Kirk, co-founder of nonprofit organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA). The conservative commentator was shot and killed while speaking to a crowd of students during a TPUSA event at the university in Orem, Utah.

The 158-page report found that the university had not prepared a formal event action plan for the TPUSA event, which it said was essential for major outdoor events involving a high-profile speaker. Several key security decisions were also deferred to the TPUSA, it stated.

The report said university officials had raised concerns about holding the event in the courtyard but ultimately agreed after TPUSA "insisted upon" an outdoor venue, with one TPUSA representative saying Kirk had previously spoken on campus and the organization was familiar with the location.

The university also proposed using its ticketing system for the event, but TPUSA requested to use its own. The report said the university should have retained decision-making authority over key security matters.

"Those decisions placed the event in an area that was more difficult to control and limited [Utah Valley University's] ability to obtain reliable, real-time information regarding anticipated attendance and crowd size," the report stated.

The event location "created significant protective operations considerations," the report said, but the planning process failed to include a documented line-of-sight assessment, pre-event briefing, or walk-through with security stakeholders. Nor was there clear coordination with Kirk's private security team and external law enforcement partners, it said.

According to the report, Utah Valley University Police Department chief Jeff Long attempted to arrange a face-to-face meeting with TPUSA security supervisor Dan Flood before the event, but it did not take place.

"Such a meeting would have provided another opportunity to review roles, confirm post assignments, address concerns, identify changes in conditions, and ensure that both groups had a shared understanding of the security posture," it stated.

The university also did not specifically assign any personnel to monitor camera feeds in real time for security purposes during the event, according to the report.

In a statement, Utah Valley University president Jon Anderson said the university has a responsibility to "learn from the findings of this review" and implement its recommendations.

Kirk's family lawyer Brett Parkinson said in a statement that Utah Valley University hosted the event and therefore assumed responsibility for the safety of all in attendance, including Kirk.

"The buck stopped with UVU leadership and law enforcement," Parkinson said, referring to the university. "Justice for Charlie and his family requires true accountability for UVU's fatal shortcomings that day."

Last week, Kirk's family announced a wrongful death notice accusing Utah Valley University officials of hastening his death through "reckless decisions," including failing to conduct an adequate risk assessment, establish a secure perimeter, and to have first responders immediately available, which led to Kirk being taken to a hospital in a private vehicle instead of an ambulance.

Tyler Robinson has been charged with Kirk's killing, and a judge has ruled the 23-year-old will stand trial for aggravated murder. Robinson has pleaded not guilty.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 13:35

"We Can't Do Any Planning"; Dallas Fed Manufacturers Uniformly Negative

As we await a maelstrom of Level 1 macro data this week, you could be forgiven glancing wistfully at this morning's Dallas Fed Manufacturing survey's modest headline beat (small decline MoM) and thinking "meh."

That would be a mistake...

Production is soaring (yay!!) and is forecast to remain strong...

Employment is up (yay)... BUT is expected to plunge...

And more worryingly, Prices Paid and expected Prices Received are accelerating  again...

Ok so with all that in mind, here are the (uniformly negative) responses from the surveyed group of manufacturers. They don't sound like a bunch of business owners expecting new orders and production to improve...

• Tariffs and fuel prices are affecting incoming and outgoing products/costs. Customers have hit the limit on what they can pay. We are getting pushback and cancellations (Beverage and tobacco product manufacturing

• Fuel costs (diesel, in particular) are adversely impacting our bottom line and that of our customers. We'd welcome a quicker resolution to the conflict with Iran as we believe that could potentially provide more favorable outcomes, improved margins and stability in interest rates. Insurance rates continue to increase in cost with a decrease in coverage. Overall, however, we continue to expand operations with an ever-increasing backlog that will provide a record year of revenue and net income for our enterprise in 2026 (Machinery manufacturing)

• We are now facing increased difficulty obtaining raw materials domestically. Items that were readily available now take long lead times or are not available in the same specifications we have historically purchased (Miscellaneous manufacturing)

• The price of diesel fuel is hurting our gross margin. We are unable to pass this through to our customers. We are bidding new jobs using $6.00 [per gallon] for diesel cost (Nonmetallic mineral product manufacturing)

• Broadly speaking, very little to no manufacturing growth exists as pricing is being driven down by Asian and Chinese suppliers. AI and heavy transportation are growing. Other sectors are weak (Plastics and rubber products manufacturing)

• Our business has been able to maintain its volume, primarily because several competitors have experienced significant difficulties, including the largest producer in our industry announcing the closure of two plants, one of which is relatively close to us in Louisiana. Our primary concern going forward is the outcome of the U.S.-Mexico trade negotiations. There are significant flows of foreign aluminum into Mexico, including from countries with substantial non-market production and subsidization including Russia and China at prices far below U.S. prices. We are concerned that reduction in tariffs on Mexican aluminum products will give these non-market economies a significantly advantaged conduit into our domestic markets. Rules of Origin policies sound good in theory but experience shows that this relies on the honesty of those doing the reporting. PROSECs (Program for Sectoral Promotion) are also problematic in giving Mexican companies the ability to use these same foreign-supplied raw materials in downstream products. For U.S. aluminum producers, the issue isn't simply the tariff rate applied to Mexico. It is making sure that Mexico does not become a lower-tariff pathway for heavily subsidized aluminum produced in Russia, China or elsewhere in Asia to reach the U.S. market. (Primary metal manufacturing)=

• Incoming orders have really slowed down, and now that we are finishing up on some large projects that have kept us very busy since mid-spring, things are slowing down. We have to believe it's due to the uncertainty around the chaos out of Washington, D.C. and lack of a clear path forward. Add to this the higher cost of living and rising fuel costs, especially for diesel that affects all modes of shipping, it seems to be a logical reason for slower levels of activity amongst our customers (Printing and related support activities)

• High interest and energy costs are a double hit. We can’t do any planning (Transportation equipment manufacturing)

Forgive rus our ignorance here but how the fuck is a sentiment index higher pretty much across the board and yet respondents are literally uniformly negative?

We guess that's why the smarty pants PhDs get paid the big bucks...

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 13:20

Gold, Banking, & A Historical Disturbance In The Force

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via Von Greyerz,

With everything from yields, fuel prices and populism rising with open elan as trust in U.S. leadership sinks to an historical nadir, most would agree that we are experiencing a palpable as well as intuitive feeling of what George Lucas might otherwise describe as a "disturbance in the force."

Markets, led today by a narrow handful of tech juggernauts, continue their nervous melt-up despite openly embarrassing indicators of both over- and malinvestment, as yet another game-changing technological wave of AI dystopia seduces the retail plankton into a textbook setup for an historical meltdown.

In the interim, a small minority of early IPO participants and C-suite insiders with advantageous access to easy capital from the big, credit-extending banks will make fortunes.

Unfortunately, small businesses across the rest of the ignored landscape of the American nightmare just posted a 64% Year-over-Year increase in bankruptcy filings.

From Capitalism to Neo-Feudalism

Such trends, numbers and "forces" are screaming indicators of what I have long described as an America whose superficial claims of "capitalism" are little more than terms of art masking the darker reality of the neo-feudalism now staining the façade of the so-called American dream.

As my son and I enjoyed yesterday's football game (against Iowa) live from the University of Michigan's impressive "Big House" stadium, that same university's infamous consumer sentiment indicator just posted its worst numbers in its five-decade+ history.

Such data effectively confirms that a recession is not only off our bow, but it's under our keel.

But hey, why worry? We can rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America", and all will be well again, right?

And let's not forget that the NASDAǪ 100 has given us five-year returns North of 100%, right?

Even Pam Bondi can remind us to focus on the DOW to keep our faith in American Exceptionalism forever flamed, right?

Hmmm...

The Hidden Crimes

But what few (so very, very few) have realized is that when measured in real money, namely gold, those so-called impressive returns reveal a loss of >20% rather than a gain of 100%.

In other words, if many still think a mythical stock market bubble is going to save us, it's only because they still think measuring wealth in that melting ice cube, otherwise known as the nominal U.S. dollar, is an actual measure of anything.

For bonds, the story is far darker. Over the last 12 years, USTs, when measured in gold rather than dollars, have punished "safe investors" with a net loss of 90%. How's that for wealth preservation?

That's not a typo. It's a crime.

Based on decades of monetizing trillions in budget deficits with trillions in magical money mouse-clicked at the Eccles Building, the so-called "experts" have been killing the purchasing power of your currency (and hence wealth) in an incremental death by a thousand cuts.

This murder has now become so exponential that even Wall Street has finally given it a name: "The Debasement Trade."

But there's more to this Debasement Trade than its name.

The actual, sad and oh-so dangerous reality of this trade is nothing more than an invisible tax on your wealth, which operates in actual (yet hidden) fact as unarmed robbery on a historical scale.

The Hidden Criminals...

If this engineered wealth transfer makes you angry, and it should, the natural reaction to such a crime is to better understand who committed it.

As usual, the best evidence trail for such questions and crimes is simple: Just follow the money...

And this trail, not surprisingly, begins and ends with the centralized power, centralized crimes and centralized (yet hidden) motives of our centralized banks, whose real mandate was never controlling "inflation and employment."

Their real motive was equally simple. It was simply to control your money.

The Not-So Federal Reserve

When the U.S. Federal Reserve (which is neither federal nor a reserve) was not so immaculately conceived on Jekyll Island and later birthed in 1913 in Washington, DC by a cabal of private bankers, Woodrow Wilson signed his shaking pen to the greatest wealth transfer in the history of our nation.

Rather than allow the natural forces of supply and demand to determine the cost and supply of credit, a handful of private bankers took monopoly control of the same.

Banking Unveiled - Benefiting the Few at the Expense of the Many

The net result has been precisely what our 7th President, Andrew Jackson, warned as far back as 1832, namely, that our financial system would be prostituted for the "benefit of the few at the expense of the many."

Jackson knew this because long before this otherwise unconstitutional central bank made its ironic yet deliberate way to Constitution Avenue, he understood the history, tricks and secrets of powerful banks and powerful bankers.

He knew, for example, that indebted princes, kings, presidents and even warlords of flag after flag and nation after nation never held the real power.

Real power, even the power behind armies and capitols, is nothing without the money to wield it, and that money begins and ends with banks and bankers.

He also knew that nations beholden to banks can also extract money from the masses, which is why it was no coincidence that in the very same year the Fed came into law in 1913, so too did the first Federal Income Tax legislation...

The Crazy Mechanics of Credit (and Money) Creation

Jackson further understood how banks actually operate, which is something almost no one is meant or taught to understand, and that's because it's so crazy that if they did, it would unmask the crime at the base of our so-called free society and free markets.

Banks, for example, are not just helpful little servants of Bedford Falls public trust who carefully manage depositor monies by judiciously re-lending one dollar of deposited cash for one dollar of wisely underwritten loans.

Oh no, not at all.

Instead, banks take a dollar of your depositor wealth and then add massive turns of leverage when they make their interest-carrying (typically risky) and bank-profiting loans of your money.

They then use very clever (and legalized) double-entry accounting tricks to hide the dirty little secret that whenever they are extending credit, they are actually creating money.

Such money creation via credit extension may seem academic, but when done at the scale of trillions and trillions, what was once academic just becomes inflationary, debasing, and- at levels this high - just plain criminal.

Credit Is Not Created Equal

By extending credit, leverage and money creation (i.e., debasement), powerful banks are also extending privilege, and this privilege is not shared equally.

Big banks, you know - the kind that are too big to fail - hold balance sheets in the trillions (especially when you tack on their notional derivatives exposure), which means they need to make big rather than small loans to move their money and extend their risk exposures.

Needless to say, small businesses and small citizens are not at the top of the priority list for these mega banks.

Instead, the big boys like to make deals with other big boys, which explains why access to capital is not created equal in the so-called land of the free.

Instead, the bigger loans are made to VC funds, mega tech monopolies and pooled superstars in the private equity and private credit corners, temporarily profiting from "sea to shining sea" from Palo Alto to New York City, but largely bypassing the little guys in the flyover states.

The Big Boys Are Not the Smart Boys

But just because these loans and capital infusions are unfairly distributed to the big boys, this by no means implies that they are made to the smartest boys.

Bailing Out the Bad Boys

But power protects power, and the very credit (i.e., banking) system which triggers the next mega crisis in a nation already $40T in public debt will be once again rescued ("bailed out") by the very bankers and Treasury Secretaries (i.e., former bankers) who systematically created the crisis.

Remember TARP? Remember the BTFP?

In fact, the very same year our TBTF banks broke the global economy in 2008, over 500 bankers received bonuses in excess of $1M each...

It is fascinating how exempt such a system can be from accountability when the criminals are also the judges...

When the Cure and the Sickness Are One & the Same

Of course, the amount of "stimulus," "accommodation", and "synthetic liquidity" required to "save" the next banking (and hence credit) crisis will be historically expensive and hence historically ruinous to paper currencies in general and the USD in particular.

Yes, there is theoretically no crisis a money printer can't solve, and no market dip or even market implosion that a money printer can't remodel into a V-shaped "recovery."

But such "solutions" or "recoveries" are as sickening as the very crises they pretend to "cure," as they can only be achieved by even greater debasement (and money creation) than the debasement and money creation crisis by which the banking system is inherently defined.

In short, the sickness and the cure are one and the same, and the patient zero is always (and I mean always) a bank.

Gold: The Only Honest Solution

The more honest solution, of course, is as obvious as it is ignored by the vast majority of investors, bankers and even innocents of the ignored Main Streets.

That solution is now, and has always been, gold.

In crisis after crisis, bank disaster after bank disaster, and currency failure after currency failure, those families, institutions and sophisticated investors who held gold rather than paper money in a crisis where always the same ones who prevailed rather than failed when their currencies were inflated away/debased into nothing.

But just because your banking system has failed to protect your deposits or dollars in gold, this doesn't mean you can't be smarter than your "experts."

Once you understand their tricks, powers and historical failures - it's almost too easy. Gold is no longer a debate; it's the solution.

And while goldbugs wait, there is now an option to collect as much as 4% yield on physical, paid out as additional ounces of physical gold, something our friends at Monetary Metals have been perfecting for years.

* * *

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 13:00

MongoDB CEO's Abrupt Exit For Meta Stuns Wall Street On Eve Of Investor Day

MongoDB shares plunged earlier Monday morning after CEO Chirantan "CJ" Desai abruptly stepped down and was tapped to lead Meta's new AI platform for enterprise customers, which Mark Zuckerberg called "the next major pillar of our business."

"To lead this effort, I'm excited that Chirantan "CJ" Desai will join Meta as Chief Enterprise Platform Officer, reporting directly to me," Zuckerberg wrote on X around 0835 local time in New York. 

The business unit, called Meta Enterprise Platform, aims to "help businesses use AI to grow and transform in new ways as well," Zuckerberg said. 

Zuckerberg continued, "CJ is an experienced enterprise leader with a track record of building full-stack software and delivering results in AI, infrastructure, business applications, and security." 

To lead this effort, I'm excited that Chirantan "CJ" Desai will join Meta as Chief Enterprise Platform Officer, reporting directly to me. CJ is an experienced enterprise leader with a track record of building full-stack software and delivering results in AI, infrastructure,…

— Mark Zuckerberg (@finkd) September 28, 2026

MongoDB's stock was down as much as 21% to $326.51 around 11 am local time in New York. This was the worst intraday decline since March 3. 

Needham software analyst Mike Cikos called the development "unfortunate, as it comes just a day before MongoDB's Investor Day." 

Here's Cikos' first take:

We view the timing of the announcement as unfortunate, as it comes just a day before MongoDB's Investor Day (where Mr. Desai is still featured prominently on the company website).

In our view, MongoDB is executing strongly and Mr. Desai's departure is not a reflection of MongoDB's growth algorithm. If anything, we believe he leaves the company in a stronger position than when he found it - further maturing the go-to-market; and we note CFO Mike Berry has done an exceptional job instilling investor confidence in the guidance philosophy and demonstrating margin leverage.

However, we acknowledge the poor optics and timing of the CEO announcement, likely leading to bearish questions on competitive concerns (i.e. Postgres) and MongoDB's ability to capture the AI Revenue opportunity.

Raymond James software analyst Mark Cash separately wrote:

MongoDB announced that CEO CJ Desai stepped down, effective immediately, while reaffirming guidance for F3Q27 (Oct.) and FY27 (Jan.). The announcement comes one day ahead of its analyst day, with Dev Ittycheria stepping in as Interim President and CEO. Ittycheria is MongoDB's longtime former CEO (September 2014-November 2025) and a current board member; the board has initiated a search for a permanent CEO. 

MDB shares are sharply lower on the news, as we believe investors viewed Desai as having brought critical capabilities to execute MongoDB's next phase of growth, particularly around scaling the business and deepening enterprise relationships to unlock incremental workloads. Desai had also made several leadership changes to position the company for the AI opportunity, and his departure introduces uncertainty around whether additional organizational changes could follow. We also believe Desai had been reshaping MongoDB's messaging around the importance of its hybrid differentiation versus a more Atlas-centric focus, and we'll be watching for how the longer-term vision is portrayed at tomorrow's analyst day. Desai is now taking on leadership of Meta's newly announced Enterprise Platform.

The abrupt leadership change certainly caught MongoDB analysts off guard this morning and just one day before Investor Day.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 12:40

Why Record Heat Failed To Lift US Natural Gas Prices

Authored by Julianne Geiger via OilPrice.com,

Henry Hub natural gas averaged $2.93 per million British thermal units from June through August, 6% below the same period last year, even with the Lower 48 posting its hottest July on record.

Average temperatures across the Lower 48 reached 77°F in July, according to NOAA, pushing electricity demand higher as air conditioners ran harder.

Solar and wind took a large share of that extra power demand.

Solar generation increased by an estimated 19.4 billion kilowatt-hours from June through August compared with the same period in 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration. Wind generation added another 9.3 BkWh.

Natural gas-fired generation increased by 7.5 BkWh.

The increase from wind and solar was nearly four times the increase from natural gas-fired generation during the summer.

Gas supply was also running ahead of last year. U.S. dry natural gas production averaged 2.7 billion cubic feet per day more from June through August, a 2% increase, with the Permian among the biggest sources of growth.

EIA expects dry gas production to average a record 111.2 Bcf/d for 2026.

[ZH: Quite a different picture for the Europeans...]

Storage entered the April injection season with 1.906 trillion cubic feet of working gas, 4% above the previous five-year average. Monthly injections beat their respective five-year averages in every month through August except May.

Maintenance at U.S. LNG terminals moderated demand growth from the export sector during the summer, leaving more gas available for power generation and storage.

EIA expects Lower 48 working gas inventories to reach 3.985 trillion cubic feet by the end of October, about 5% above the five-year average.

The hottest July on record increased gas-fired power generation without tightening the market enough to lift Henry Hub above last summer's average.

Record production, strong storage injections and nearly 29 BkWh of additional wind and solar generation kept the gas market well supplied through the peak cooling months.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 12:25

Fed Has Never Hiked In October Ahead Of US Elections: UBS

The US-Iran conflict has pushed Brent crude toward $106 a barrel, while the 10-year Treasury yield has climbed to its highest level in nearly two decades. Traders are looking at whether elevated energy prices will make inflation sticky and prompt another Federal Reserve rate hike in late October. 

This week's US economic releases could reinforce those new concerns. Stronger growth would give the Fed greater mobility to tighten policy, while inflation would strengthen the case for further rate hikes. 

UBS' Simon Penn wrote in a note early Monday that traders were assigning a 68% probability to another hike next month. He said that markets are underestimating the potential for restraint ahead of the midterms. 

Penn continued:

Fed Has Never Hiked In October Ahead Of A US Election

The market prices 17.4bp or a 69% chance the Fed will raise rates again at its Oct. 28 meeting. It is extremely unlikely the Fed will do so. Since 1990, the Fed has never raised rates when it's had a meeting in October, just ahead of an election in November. There are only three occasions (2004, 2018 and 2022) in the last 35 years when the Fed has hiked in September, when that was the meeting immediately preceding an election.

Central banks all like to say decision making is entirely independent of political activities. But it is also common that central banks refrain from policy actions in the final run-up to major political events.

Taking out the pricing for October doesn't mean December should reprice as a possible 50bp hike (market has an aggregate 38bp for December). Rather, it should just push out through the strip. December pricing should be closer to the full 25bp. From a trading perspective, the balance is likely to be shared out in the January and March meetings (12bp and 18bp vs prior meeting respectively), but looking at the market all told and the longer term trade should be to fade the back end and bring cumulative pricing back to 75bp over the next year from the current 91bp.

In detail:

• The 2022 hike was the most aggressive, a 75bp move during the rapid tightening cycle to combat post-pandemic inflation - the largest pre-election hike in the modern era.
• The 2004 hike was part of a steady, gradual tightening cycle that began in June 2004 and continued uninterrupted through the election.
• The 2018 hike came despite public pressure from the Trump administration to hold rates steady ahead of the midterms.
• In all other election years since 1990 - including 1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2020, and 2024 - the Fed did not hike in September or October.

To start the week, yields on US 10- and 30-year Treasuries jumped to their highest levels since 2007 and 2004, respectively.

UBS markets analyst Nana Antiedu cited US equity strategist Keith Parker in a note earlier today, saying that higher yields have already squeezed stock valuations substantially, creating the potential for a larger rebound if yields fall. 

Antiedu continued:

US Equities: Position For Period Of Elevated Rates, Asymmetry To Lower Rates

Parker finds that the sharp rise in US Treasury yields has triggered a significant equity valuation reset, with the S&P 500's next-twelve-months P/E down 17% since November as the 10-year yield has climbed around 100bp year-to-date. Keith notes the derating is approaching recession-style levels and comparable to the 1994 hiking cycle. 

History suggests equity performance from here will largely depend on the Fed. When rates stabilised without aggressive tightening (less than 100bp+ a year), the S&P 500 typically delivered double-digit returns over the following year. However, full hiking cycles (hiking by over 100bp within a year) have historically led to flat or negative returns. Keith finds that equities have greater asymmetry to a fall in yields than the downside from higher rates. Keith suggests positioning for a period of elevated rates, and asymmetry to lower rates. Comparing his Composite REVS scores to rates betas, top ranking subindustries Semis, Pharma, Refining and Div Banks remain attractive and appear less exposed to rates.

Goldman notes speratly that stocks tend to hit resistance once the 10-year Treasury moves by about 30 basis points in two weeks or 50 basis points in a month. It's up 28 since September 9 and 37 since August 21. 

Read: 3 Bond Volatility Charts We are Watching

What's clear is that traders are caught between an energy shock and inflation woes that put the Fed on a longer runway for rate hikes. Bulls are betting that yields stabilize before borrowing costs undermine stocks, opening the door to a powerful relief rally if energy prices peak and resolutions to the conflicts in the Gulf and Ukraine come into focus. But if energy prices stay high and economic data keep the Fed tightening, more market trouble could be just ahead.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 12:05

British Police Release All Five RAF Fairford Terror Suspects On Bail

Summary:

• British Police Release All Five Suspects on Bail  
• All Five Suspects Arrested On Terrorism and Explosives Suspicions are British Nationals
• Reuters Says Possible Iranian-Linked Motive Likely 
• Trump Says Suspects "Looking to do Big Damage" Against Airbase 
• US Stealth Bomber Base In UK On "Delta" Alert As Counter-Terror Police Make Arrests, Deploy Bomb Squad Search Of Vans

All Five Suspects Arrested On Terrorism and Explosives Suspicions Released On Bail 

British police released five men on bail Monday following their arrests on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offenses near RAF Fairford, according to Reuters. All five remain under investigation.

"To be very clear, this does not mean the investigation is over," Counter Terrorism Policing chief Laurence Taylor told reporters on Monday afternoon. 

Taylor said, "They are subject to stringent conditions on their movement and contact with others. They absolutely remain under investigation as we explore multiple lines of inquiry."

 "We are considering this from every possible angle," Taylor added, "including that this may be activity committed by proxies, or individuals either knowingly or unknowingly, working on behalf of a foreign state."

The decision to release all five suspects on bail is very questionable given the seriousness of the suspected terrorism and explosives offences and the investigation into possible foreign-state involvement. 

Welcome to the UK's "justice" system:

Danny Tommo
> damaged a migrant invader boat
> DENIED BAIL

5 terror suspects
> bomb plot against US Air Force
> RELEASED ON BAIL pic.twitter.com/7gKem5m3xq

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 28, 2026 All Five Suspects Arrested On Terrorism and Explosives Suspicions are British Nationals

Five men were arrested near RAF Fairford early Sunday morning on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offenses.

Reuters reports that the men were all in their mid-twenties and were British nationals living in London.

"At this time, we are working to establish the full circumstances of the activity of those arrested, their knowledge and any motivation behind this incident," Counter Terrorism Police said in the statement.

"I am very aware of the levels of speculation about the motivation behind this incident, and the geopolitical questions that are being raised. However, I ask that at this time, Counter Terrorism Policing are given the space to work carefully and clearly."

RAF Fairford is a critical node for the US military's long-range bomber force, supporting deployments of B-52s, B-1B Lancers and B-2 stealth bombers. Its role in strikes on Iran makes a conflict-related motive worth considering. 

UK authorities have not publicly established that connection, but the strategic airbase raises the possibility that the suspected activity was intended to disrupt US bomber operations beyond the Gulf area. 

Trump Says Suspects "Looking to do Big Damage" 

Reuters reported that an Iranian-linked motive could very well be behind the incident that unfolded early Sunday morning, citing a source familiar with the investigation. Counterterrorism investigators are also examining the possibility of Russian sabotage or an Islamist plot. 

President Trump told reporters earlier this afternoon that British and US authorities had been monitoring the suspects and alleged they intended to cause "big damage."

"We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort and working with the British worked out great ... We had them under view for a long time, and we got them," Trump said.

🚨 BREAKING: Donald Trump responds to the suspected bomb plot at RAF Fairford

"Working with Britain, it was an amazing job. We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort, and working with the British worked out great and we got them" pic.twitter.com/PlChiTQlSx

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) September 27, 2026

Police established a 400-meter perimeter while bomb-disposal personnel examined the three vans near RAF Fairford in western England. Notably, the airfield hosts strategic US bombers.

The bomb squad found large black barrels inside the vans.

RAF Fairford has become a critical node for US military operations against Iran. Tehran warned in July that airbases used to launch attacks would be considered legitimate targets.

Here's the latest from X user Politics UK:

• A farmer driving home in the early hours found three white vans blocking a village road with no one inside
• Suspicious, she immediately turned around before seeing a "group of Middle Eastern-looking young guys run off through the trees" in the direction of the air base wearing masks
• One van displayed a UK number for a company called "Fuel 2You", which is not registered on Companies House. The number also appeared to be one digit short and does not ring when called
• She immediately called 999 and five men were arrested within 25 minutes under the Explosives Act. Homes were evacuated and a major incident was declared just after 8am
• Later today, the two rear doors of two of the vans were open and large black containers could be seen scattered around with a bomb disposal robot operating next to the vans
• The five suspects were then further arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act
• Counter Terror Police are understood to think that a suspected bomb plot linked to Iran is the most likely scenario due to US air bombers operating from the base
• Last night, before the incident, reports said that the base was at its highest alert with tractors blocking all gates. A local in the village said they had been stopped at gunpoint at a roadblock by a group of American soldiers, who ordered them to put their hands out of the car and identify themselves

US Stealth Bomber Base In UK On "Delta" Alert As Counter-Terror Police Make Arrests, Deploy Bomb Squad Search Of Vans

British counterterrorism police declared a major incident near RAF Fairford, an airbase used by the US Air Force, after several men were arrested on suspicion of explosives offenses. RAF Fairford was reportedly placed on "Delta," the highest threat level, according to the national news agency Press Association, now known as PA Media.

🚨 RAF FAIRFORD ALERT DEEPENS — COUNTER-TERROR POLICE, EXPLOSIVES ARRESTS, EVACUATIONS AND HEIGHTENED BASE SECURITY

The security operation near RAF Fairford has moved into a more serious phase.

Several men are under arrest on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act.…

— Jim Ferguson (@JimFergusonUK) September 27, 2026

PA Media reports that military bomb disposal specialists were examining vehicles in Whelford, Gloucestershire, where authorities declared a major incident and evacuated residents from the area.

Villagers have been evacuated from their homes near RAF Fairford, which is used by the United States Air Force (USAF), and the Army's explosives experts are examining vehicles, police said.

According to the agency, counter-terror police had no advance knowledge of a potential plot.

However, the incident was serious enough for RAF Fairford to block major entrances to the airbase with massive front-end loaders, suggesting concern about a possible vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.

Image per Sky News: 

Why could RAF Fairford have been a target? The US Air Force's 501st Combat Support Wing operates out of the airbase. It supports B-52, B-1, and B-2 bomber operations that have been crucial in the Gulf conflict against Iran.

Visegrád 24: First image of the suspected terror cell arrested near RAF Fairford from where U.S. strategic bombers B-52 & B-1B hit Iran The men arrested under the Explosives Act had their clothes taken off to see whether they wore suicide vests. 

BREAKING

First image of the suspected terror cell arrested near RAF Fairford from where U.S. strategic bombers B-52 & B-1B hit Iran

The men arrested under the Explosives Act had their clothes taken off to see whether they wore suicide vests pic.twitter.com/dgdNgQc6j1

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 27, 2026

Visegrád 24: These are the vans that the bomb squad is have a closer look at near RAF Fairford in the UK. RAF Fairford is the base from where the U.S. strategic bombers B-52 and B-1B have been taking off from for striking missions against Iran.

BREAKING:

These are the vans that the bomb squad is have a closer look at near RAF Fairford in the UK.

RAF Fairford is the base from where the U.S. strategic bombers B-52 and B-1B have been taking off from for striking missions against Iran. pic.twitter.com/XCXBYxLERH

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) September 27, 2026

Speculation builds... 

BREAKING: The five individuals arrested earlier this morning over an alleged plot to bomb RAF Fairford and destroy U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers are reportedly British nationals not immigrants arriving by boats or submarines.

There is speculation that they belong to Palestine… pic.twitter.com/iVHjH0B5gj

— Babak Taghvaee - The Crisis Watch (@BabakTaghvaee1) September 27, 2026

The Independent noted, "The arrests come amid heightened concerns around the threat from hostile states to the UK, with Russia and Iran among those that have used proxies to commit crimes on their behalf on British soil."

* * * FREE SHIPPING!

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 11:55

The October Term: A Preview Of The Coming Cases For Another "Big Year" On The Court

Authored by Jonathan Turley via JonathanTurley.org,

October is when hype meets reality. In baseball, the final teams are sorted out for the playoffs, and your football teams are well into the winnowing-out process for the Super Bowl. For court nerds, the start of the October term at the Supreme Court can have a similar dynamic, as long-watched cases finally come up for oral argument. Although the court continues to accept cases on a rolling basis, this term is looking like another blockbuster, with cases that range from climate change to gun rights to parental rights.

The odds of making the oral argument docket make the NFL season look like a walk in the park. After thousands of petitions, the Supreme Court accepts on average between 70-80 cases for the coveted "writ of certiorari." If you are a lower-court judge with an appealed case, this is one Super Bowl you would probably prefer to skip. The court generally reverses the cases it accepts for review. Last term, it had a 71 percent rejection rate, slightly up from the prior year.

This year already has a number of major cases that are likely to have transformative impacts on the law and society. Here are a few.

Climate Change

In Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, Boulder sued energy companies under theories of public and private nuisance, trespass, unjust enrichment, and civil conspiracy, claiming that they knowingly contributed to climate change while misleading the public about its impacts." The Colorado Supreme Court ruled for the city and the county in finding that such lawsuits are not barred by federal preemption. If the case is allowed to go forward, it would expose companies to potentially thousands of climate change lawsuits.

Gun Rights

October is already shaping up as a major Second Amendment term. Democratic cities and states have been banning the AR-15, the most popular rifle in the U.S., and the 9mm semi-automatic handgun, the most popular handgun in the U.S. These cases out of the Seventh Circuit in Chicago (Viramontes v. Cook County) and the Second Circuit in New York (Grant v. Higgins) will likely give long-awaited clarity on these bans. They could potentially close off a major circumvention of prior rulings to achieve sweeping gun control policies.

In addition to these cases, the court is considering the possible review of Calce v. New York. In that case, the Second Circuit upheld a stun gun ban. The court previously sent back a similar case out of Massachusetts after the First Circuit ignored prior rulings. The court stressed that the fact that a weapon did not exist at the time of the ratification of the Second Amendment (such as "electric arms") does not mean that they fall outside of the constitutional protections. The addition of Calce would make this one of the most momentous Second Amendment terms in history.

Parochial Schools and Religious Discrimination

The court will return to another parochial school controversy this term. In prior cases, the court has repeatedly stepped in to prevent states from discriminating against religious schools in voucher or subsidy programs. In St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, the Tenth Circuit upheld a Colorado provision that requires all preschools to agree not to discriminate on the "race, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, income, or disability." The Catholic challengers are arguing that the policy requires them to violate their religious values as a condition for participating in the preschool program and funding.

Parental Rights

In International Partners for Ethical Care, Inc. v. Ferguson, Washington amended its laws to delay shelters in notifying parents of a runaway child who has "gender-affirming treatment" - the standard used for children in abusive homes. Instead, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families is first notified. The Ninth Circuit rejected parental claims raised in the case due to a lack of standing.

The Right to a 12-Member Jury

In Kian v. Florida, chiropractor Hamed Kian was convicted of five counts related to practicing with a suspended license. Pursuant to Florida law, he was tried by a six-person jury. Kian argues that the law violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury of 12 members.

Some of us are watching a few other cases. Not surprisingly, my two favorites deal with the freedom of speech. The court has yet to decide whether to accept D.A. v. Tri-County Area Schools in which the Sixth Circuit upheld a school ban on high school students wearing "Let's Go Brandon" sweatshirts. In the view of many of us in the free-speech community, the case is a major potential First Amendment ruling in the making.

Some of us also hope that the court will take up Tiny Zaps v. Traxler, which deals with a ban on tattoos on the face, neck, or head as well as a ban on tattoo parlors within 1,000 feet of churches, school, or playgrounds. The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the ban, and it could allow the court to reinforce free-speech protections for "body art."

The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, "It's hard not to have a big year at the Supreme Court." That is certainly true, but this term is already pretty big, and the court still has plenty of slots to fill before January.

Jonathan Turley is a law professor who teaches a class on the Constitution and the Supreme Court and is the best-selling author of "Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution."

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 11:50

Bessent Begs Fed For Mercy

If you wanted a textbook example of a central bank trapped between a geopolitical rock and a stagflationary hard place, welcome to September 2026. To wit: the ongoing standoff in the Strait of Hormuz is tearing through the global energy market, and the resulting inflation shock is vaporizing the bond market.

As we warned readers weeks ago when the initial blockades began, the diplomatic "negotiations" between Washington and Tehran are turning out to be nothing more than political theater. With President Trump officially rejecting Tehran's latest proposal, Brent crude has predictably violently rejected the downside, surging back toward the $107 level. Despite the usual algorithmic dip-buying on whispers that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi might speak to mediators in New York, the reality on the water is that millions of barrels remain bottlenecked in the world's most critical maritime chokepoint.

The resulting shockwaves are doing exactly what we said they would to the long end of the curve. The 10-year Treasury yield has blown out to a nearly two-decade high, sparking dramatic weakness below the surface of what at first seems like a 'far too calm' equity market. The Dollar wrecking ball is back in full swing - tightening financial conditions, and gold is being temporarily liquidated as traders scramble for liquidity.

Enter Bessent

Now, Bessent is calling for The Fed to "keep an open mind" on the US inflation outlook - and that productivity gains from AI and deregulation will keep it in check, according to Bloomberg.

 In short, the administration is quietly terrified that The Fed is going to look at the oil-driven inflation prints, panic, and hike rates straight into a structurally vulnerable economy. Bessent is effectively pleading with the Fed to look past the energy spike and recognize that tightening monetary policy won't clear Iranian gunboats out of the Strait of Hormuz.

The market is pricing a 70% chance that The Fed will hike in October, ahead of the Midterms.

But the Fed may not have the luxury of an "open mind" given the market's pricing (The Fed prefers not to surprise the market) and the incoming data.

As we noted in our PCE preview last week, the upcoming inflation-adjusted consumer spending numbers for August are expected to surge by the most this year. While government statisticians are desperately trying to massage the Fed's preferred underlying inflation gauge - literally revamping the methodology to shave off three-tenths of a percentage point - the unvarnished monthly data is going to be a disaster for any dovish narrative.

And then comes Friday's Non-Farm Payrolls.

Wall Street's perpetually optimistic consensus is expecting a "Goldilocks" print of 90,000 jobs and an unchanged 4.1% unemployment rate. As always, we fully expect Biden-era BLS holdovers to rely on heavily massaged seasonal adjustments and the infamous Birth-Death model to paint a picture of a "resilient" labor market. Wall Street cheerleaders, like UBS's Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, are already pre-spinning the narrative, claiming the US economy can "absorb the impact of modestly tighter monetary policy."

We've heard this story before. The market is entirely hostage to the bond vigilantes, and with earnings season still weeks away, equities have nowhere to hide from the soaring cost of capital (with hyperscaler issuance reflexively biting its own tail).

Bessent can urge the Fed to keep an "open mind" all he wants, but with oil knocking on $110 and the 10-year yield breaking multi-decade highs, the math is doing the talking.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 11:40

California's Newsom Signs Memecoin Ban And Calls It 'The Opposite Of Trump'

Authored by Omkar Godbole via CoinDesk,

President Donald Trump has made millions from memecoins, but politicians in California don't have that chance anymore.

On Sunday, California's Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that bans the state's public officials from issuing memecoins, or cryptocurrencies representing a famous personality, internet joke or viral trend rather than a specific use case.

The measure, AB 2409, was signed along with 10 other bills on corruption and consumer protection. Others set rules for paying back crypto scam victims and creating a legal process to seize crypto from transnational criminal networks.

Newsom's office titled the announcement "THE OPPOSITE OF TRUMP," accusing the Trump administration of corruption and self-dealing, including through the viral $TRUMP memecoin.

"While the scam that is Donald Trump continues to hurt American families, California is fighting to make our economy work for people, not the powerful. No official should profit off their office - and we're putting stronger protections in place to ensure it doesn't happen in our state," Newsom said in the press release.

Trump's office did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for a comment.

It's unclear whether the ban covers meme tokens already in existence, such as $TRUMP.

President launched $TRUMP three days before his early 2025 inauguration, and the frenzy was so intense that its price rose from under $1 to $75 within a day or two, pushing its market capitalization to $14 billion. And then it crashed just as quickly, generating huge losses for small holders.

Data tracked by Nansen shows 988,905 buyers lost a combined $3.81 billion. Meanwhile, Trump's financial disclosure lists $636 million in royalties from the coin. Trump Organization affiliates own about 80% of the supply.

As of this writing, the token trades at $2.03.

Newsom, whose second and final term ends in January, is widely seen as a 2028 presidential contender.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 11:10

Key Events This Week: Jobs, Core PCE And ISM

It's very busy week ahead with US payrolls (Friday) and PCE (Wednesday) as the blockbuster releases. The US ISM (Thursday) will attract outsized attention given the spectacular beat on the S&P PMI last week that sent 10yr US yields +15.2bps higher on the day. A huge move for such a report. 

Global inflation will also be in focus outside of the US August PCE report with flash September CPI releases across Europe (Tuesday/Wednesday) and Tokyo CPI (Friday) all due. In Asia, investors will also be watching Chinese PMIs (Wednesday), the BoJ’s Tankan survey and summary of opinions (Thursday), as well as the RBA decision (tomorrow) where the market prices in a 93% probability of a hike. All that around month and quarter end on Wednesday.

In the US, attention will increasingly turn towards Friday’s September payrolls report. Following August’s stronger-than-expected gain of 162k, DB economists expect payrolls to rise by around 45k in September (Friday), with the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1% and average hourly earnings growth steady at +0.3% month-on-month. Recent labor market indicators have remained reasonably firm, although some moderation after August’s strength would be consistent with a labou market that is cooling only gradually.

Ahead of Friday’s payrolls release, labor market data will begin arriving tomorrow with the August JOLTS report, before the September ADP employment release on Wednesday and weekly jobless claims on Thursday. Together, these releases should help shape last minute expectations going into the official employment report. Note that last week saw claims at 197k, a rare dip below 200k.

Moving onto inflation, DB economists expect the August core PCE deflator (Wednesday) to rise by +0.27% month-on-month, slightly above July’s pace. The report will be accompanied by personal income and spending data, where economists expect gains of +0.5% and +0.6% respectively. Particular attention will be paid to the PCE release given the BEA’s annual benchmark revisions and methodology changes, which could alter the recent inflation profile and affect comparisons with previous months.

Elsewhere in the US, the Conference Board consumer confidence index (tomorrow) is expected to drop to 89.1 from 89.4, while the ISM manufacturing index (Thursday) is expected to rise to 55.0 from 54.6. Remember the S&P composite PMI hit 58.4 last week. We get the ISM services print next week. Wednesday’s final Q2 GDP release will also attract attention as it incorporates benchmark revisions that may reshape perceptions of recent growth trends. As we end the quarter, note that the Atlanta Fed GDPNow is currently tracking at 5.02% for Q3.

Outside the US, European inflation data will dominate the calendar. Preliminary September CPI releases begin with Spain tomorrow, followed by Germany, France and Italy on Wednesday, before the Eurozone aggregate reading on Friday. DB  economists expect Eurozone headline HICP inflation to print at 3.75% year-on-year, with core inflation at 2.53%. In Japan, today’s BoJ minutes from the July meeting will be followed by the Q3 Tankan survey and September meeting summary of opinions on Thursday, while economists expect Friday’s Tokyo CPI report to show a further firming in underlying inflation. China’s September PMIs are due on Wednesday, while the RBA announces its latest policy decision tomorrow, where DB economists expect a 25bp rate increase

Here is a day-by-day calendar of events courtesy of DB:

Monday September 28

• Data: US September Dallas Fed manufacturing activity, China August industrial profits, Japan August PPI services
• Central banks: Fed's Barkin speaks, ECB's Lagarde and Pereira speak, BoE’s Ramsden speaks, BoJ minutes of the July meeting
• Earnings: Jefferies

Tuesday September 29

• Data: US September Conference Board consumer confidence index, Dallas Fed services activity, August JOLTS report, July FHFA house price index, UK August net consumer credit, M4, Italy July industrial sales, August PPI, Eurozone September economic confidence, Canada July GDP
• Central banks: Fed's Goolsbee and Williams speak, ECB's Kazimir, Nagel, Escriva and Cipollone speak, BoE’s Taylor speaks, RBA decision
• Earnings: Carnival

Wednesday September 30

• Data: US September ADP report, MNI Chicago PMI, August PCE, personal income, spending, advance goods trade balance, wholesale inventories, China September PMIs, UK September Lloyds Business Barometer, Q2 current account balance, Japan August retail sales, industrial production, housing starts, Germany September CPI, unemployment claims rate, August import price index, retail sales, France September CPI, August PPI, consumer spending, Italy September CPI, consumer confidence, economic sentiment, manufacturing confidence, Australia August CPI
• Central banks: Fed's Barkin, Cook, Goolsbee and Kashkari speak, ECB's Schnabel speaks
• Earnings: Micron, Factset
• Other: G20 Trade Ministerial in Milwaukee (through October 1)

Thursday October 1

• Data: US September ISM index, total vehicles sales, August construction spending, initial jobless claims, Japan Q3 Tankan survey, Italy August unemployment rate, September manufacturing PMI, new car registrations, budget balance, Eurozone August unemployment rate, Canada September manufacturing PMI, Switzerland September CPI
• Central banks: Fed's Barkin, Collins, Schmid, Cook and Logan speak, ECB's Cipollone, Makhlouf, Lagarde, Sleijpen and Nagel speak, BoE's Bailey and Mann speak, BoJ’s summary of opinions from September meeting
• Earnings: Nike
• Other: China National Day holiday (through September 7)

Friday October 2

• Data: US September jobs report, August factory orders, Japan September Tokyo CPI, monetary base, August jobless rate, job-to-applicant ratio, Italy August retail sales, Eurozone September CPI
• Central banks: ECB's Moulin, Cipollone, Vujcic and Nagel speak, BoE’s DMP survey

Finally, lookinat just the US, here is a list of the key economic data releases this week are the core PCE report on Wednesday and the employment report on Friday. There are many speaking engagements with Fed officials this week. 

Monday, September 28 

• There are no major data releases scheduled.
• 08:15 AM Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks: Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman will speak about banking supervision and regulation at the 2026 Military Banking Summit in Washington, D.C. Moderated Q&A is expected.
• 01:25 PM Fed Governor Lisa Cook speaks: Fed Governor Lisa Cook will speak about AI and emerging technologies at the 2026 Oakland Tech Week. Speech text is expected.
• 01:30 PM Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will participate in a fireside chat at the Working Class Insights Forum in Middleburg, Virginia. Moderated Q&A is expected. On September 24, President Barkin said that “if inflation is not going to come down relatively quickly, then you have to look in the mirror and say inflation looks like it’s been here for a while. So maybe we should do something about it. I think that’s what happened [at the September FOMC meeting].”

Tuesday, September 29 

• 09:00 AM Case-Shiller home price index, July (GS +0.3%, consensus +0.2%, last +0.2%)
• 10:00 AM Conference Board consumer confidence, September (GS 89.0, consensus 89.2, last 89.4)
• 10:00 AM JOLTS job openings, August (GS 7,300k, consensus 7,225k, last 7,271k): We estimate that JOLTS job openings were roughly unchanged at 7.3mn in August based on the signal from online measures of job postings from Indeed and LinkUp.
• 11:00 AM Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks: Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman will deliver virtual opening remarks to the Federal Reserve System Community Bank Cyber Workshop. Speech text is expected. 
• 12:40 PM Fed Governor Michael Barr speaks: Fed Governor Michael Barr will speak about the economic outlook at the Detroit Economic Club. Speech text and moderated Q&A with audience are expected. On September 23, Governor Barr noted that “further policy adjustments are likely to be needed to ensure inflation comes down to target in a timely fashion.”
• 01:00 PM Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee will participate in a moderated Q&A at an event organized by the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. On September 21, President Goolsbee said that “supply shocks have come more frequently, hit harder and lasted longer,” adding that “once supply shocks to inflation become persistent, some of the logic behind ‘looking through’ no longer holds.”
• 02:00 PM New York Fed President John Williams speaks: New York Fed President John Williams will speak at an event organized by the University of Buffalo. Speech text and moderated Q&A are expected. On September 25, President Williams said that the Fed “can’t ignore supply shocks if they have a persistent effect on prices,” adding that it “needs to return inflation to target.”
• 03:00 PM Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaks: Fed Governor Christopher Waller will speak about payments at the 2026 Sibos Conference. Speech text is expected.

Wednesday, September 30 

• 08:15 AM ADP employment change, September (GS +75k, consensus +72k, last +38k)
• 08:30 AM Personal income, August (GS +0.5%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.4%): Personal spending, August (GS +0.8%, consensus +0.9%, last +0.2%), Core PCE price index, August (GS +0.27%, consensus +0.3%, last +0.2%), Core PCE price index (YoY), August (GS +3.17%, consensus +3.3%, last +3.3%), PCE price index, August (GS +0.33%, consensus +0.4%, last +0.2%), PCE price index (YoY), August (GS +3.58%, consensus +3.7%, last +3.7%): We estimate that personal income and spending increased by 0.5% and 0.8%, respectively, in August. We estimate that the core PCE price index rose 0.27% in August, corresponding to a year-over-year rate of +3.17% after accounting for our forecast of the revisions that will result from the methodological changes that will be implemented with the August PCE report and will affect the portfolio management, legal services, and computer software and accessories components. Additionally, we expect that the headline PCE price index increased 0.33% and increased 3.58% from a year earlier.
• 08:30 AM GDP, Q2 third release (GS +1.5%, consensus +1.5%, last +1.5%); Personal consumption, Q2 third release (GS +3.4%, consensus +3.4%, last +3.4%): We estimate no revision on net to Q2 GDP growth at +1.5% (quarter-over-quarter annualized), reflecting stronger utilities and personal care details in the QSS offset by softer entertainment and public transportation details. We expect unrevised consumer spending growth at +3.4%. The third release of Q2 GDP will coincide with the 2026 annual update to the National Economic Accounts, which incorporates source data that are more complete than those previously available as well as methodological changes.
• 08:30 AM Advanced goods trade balance, August (GS -$116.0bn, consensus -$115.3bn, last -$118.9bn) 
• 01:30 PM Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin will deliver welcome remarks at the Investing in Rural America Conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
• 03:25 PM Fed Governor Lisa Cook speaks: Fed Governor Lisa Cook will deliver afternoon remarks at the Investing in Rural America Conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
• 05:10 PM Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee will deliver a keynote address at the “Why Consumers and Economists See Different Economies” event in Chicago. 
• 06:00 PM Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari (FOMC voter) speaks: Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will speak in a fireside chat at the Council on Foreign Relations. Moderated and audience Q&A are expected. On September 20, President Kashkari noted that “inflation remains too high and that pressures have broadened beyond the oil-price shock of the Iran war.” He added that “as some of those conflicts go to the background… hopefully disinflation can take over, which will make the Fed’s job a lot easier.”

Thursday, October 1 

• 08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended September 26 (GS 200k, consensus 200k, last 197k): Continuing jobless claims, week ended September 19 (consensus 1,730k, last 1,719k)
• 09:05 AM Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin (FOMC non-voter), Boston Fed President Susan Collins (FOMC non-voter) and Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid (FOMC non-voter) speak: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin, Boston Fed President Susan Collins and Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid will speak on a panel about economic trends in rural areas in Asheville, North Carolina. Moderated Q&A is expected. On September 22, President Collins said that she supported the decision to raise the fed funds rate at the September FOMC meeting, adding that “a somewhat more restrictive fed funds rate will help ensure that inflation durably returns to target.” On September 25, President Schmid also noted that he supported the FOMC decision because “we still haven’t fixed the inflation issue.”
• 09:45 AM S&P Global US manufacturing PMI, September final (consensus 57.0, last 57.0)
• 10:00 AM ISM manufacturing index, September (GS 54.6, consensus 55.0, last 54.6): We estimate that the ISM manufacturing index was unchanged at 54.6 in September, reflecting a slight headwind from residual seasonality and a modest decline in regional manufacturing surveys on net—our manufacturing survey tracker declined by 0.6pt to 56.1 in September—that is offset by upward pressure from convergence toward the level implied by other manufacturing surveys (which the ISM index is currently below).
• 10:00 AM Construction spending, August (GS +0.4%, consensus flat, last -0.5%)
• 10:00 AM Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaks: Fed Governor Christopher Waller will speak at the “FRED Con: Navigating Trust, AI and Storytelling in World of Data” event organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Speech text and moderated Q&A are expected.
• 01:30 PM Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson speaks: Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson will speak about the US economy and monetary policy at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Speech text and moderated Q&A are expected.
• 03:00 PM Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman speaks: Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman will speak about modernizing financial regulation at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. Speech text and moderated Q&A with audience are expected.
• 03:30 PM Fed Governor Lisa Cook and New York Fed President John Williams speak: New York Fed President John Williams will moderate a discussion with Governor Lisa Cook at a central bank panel hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
• 05:00 PM Lightweight motor vehicle sales, September (GS 16.1mn, consensus 16.3mn, last 16.8mn)
• 06:45 PM Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan (FOMC voter) speaks: Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan will speak in a moderated Q&A at the Eleventh District Appreciation Event in Dallas.

Friday, October 2 

• 08:30 AM Nonfarm payroll employment, September (GS +80k, consensus +90k, last +162k); Private payroll employment, September (GS +75k, consensus +87k, last +127k); Average hourly earnings (MoM), September (GS +0.2%, consensus +0.3%, last +0.3%); Unemployment rate, September (GS 4.1%, consensus 4.1%, last 4.1%): We estimate nonfarm payrolls increased 80k in September, reflecting a firm signal from alternative data. We estimate average hourly earnings rose 0.2% month-over-month in September, reflecting negative calendar effects. We estimate that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1% in September, reflecting a decline in continuing claims but a relatively high bar for rounding down to 4.0% from an unrounded 4.14% in August.
• 10:00 AM Factory orders, August (GS +0.2%, consensus +0.1%, last +0.8%)
• 10:00 AM Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan (FOMC voter) speaks: Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan will give welcome remarks at the Fifth Annual Workshop on the Macroeconomic Implications of Migration hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Speech text is expected.

Source: DB, Goldman

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 11:00

Bloodbath At The Mouse House: Disney Legal Chief Warns Of "Much Smaller Organization" As AI Layoffs Loom

The happiest place on Earth is about to become a lot more miserable for the rank-and-file at Disney's corporate headquarters. Just weeks after we detailed the ongoing corporate bloodbath at the Mouse House following disastrous earnings and streaming losses, another brutal reality check has been delivered to Disney employees. This time, the guillotine is being rolled into the Legal and Global Affairs (LGA) department, and the executioner's weapon of choice is artificial intelligence.

According to a leaked internal memo obtained by Deadline, Disney's Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer, Horacio Gutierrez, delivered a blunt, unsentimental warning to his nearly 1,000-member global staff: prepare for the slaughter. In the missive, Gutierrez warned that Disney is undergoing a "transformation process," stating explicitly that the LGA will soon be a "much smaller organization than it is today, and some of you will personally be affected by decisions we make in this process."

In true corporate double-speak, Gutierrez avoided directly stating that machines are taking over white-collar jobs, but the writing is on the wall. He noted that the company will be taking a "dispassionate look" at every aspect of operations to find cost-effective efficiencies. The grim reality for employees was buried in the corporate jargon, with Gutierrez noting that the company must consider new models, including "automating certain workflows by leveraging the latest technologies, moving to self-service models where appropriate, engaging alternative legal providers and others, and new expanded share services, even outsourcing."

Translation: You are being replaced by an algorithm, and whatever tasks the machines can't handle will be shipped overseas or outsourced to the lowest bidder.

The timing of Gutierrez's chilling memo is certainly no coincidence. It dropped on the exact same day Disney announced the hiring of Karandeep Anand - the former CEO of Character.AI - as the company's first Chief Technology Officer. As we noted in our previous coverage of Disney's desperate pivot to stem systemic financial bleeding, tapping a heavy-hitting AI executive to report directly to Disney boss Josh D'Amaro was a flashing red indicator that the company is looking to slash human capital costs drastically under the guise of technological innovation.

Gutierrez even invoked D'Amaro's name in his corporate death warrant, stating that when teams work "smarter," Disney can serve fans at "lower costs," freeing up capital for content and infrastructure. He added that D'Amaro's vision succeeds by "embracing technology to amplify what makes it great, not by clinging to the way things always have been done." In other words, paying human lawyers and government relations staff a living wage is now considered an archaic anchor weighing down the balance sheet.

This latest internal panic follows the expiration of a "voluntary early retirement" offer pushed by Chief People Officer Sonia Coleman in August - a classic corporate maneuver designed to thin the herd before the involuntary pink slips are handed out. With executives openly admitting on their August 5 earnings call that more cuts were on the horizon following the April and July layoffs, the anxiety inside Disney is palpable. The magic kingdom is rapidly transforming into a sterile, automated, and outsourced corporate shell as Bob Iger's regime scrambles to appease Wall Street algorithms with algorithms of their own.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 10:50

Freddie Mac: Multifamily Delinquency Rate Rises To Multi-Decade High

Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (also known as "GSEs") have released their August reports on their mortgage portfolios and mortgage delinquencies. Both are reporting that serious delinquencies in multifamily are rising to multiyear highs. Freddie Mac, in particular, shows delinquency rates at the highest level in more than twenty years.

(These numbers reflect the condition of mortgages in each agency's portfolio, which are a major part of the overall mortgage market. Fannie and Freddie have expanded their multifamily activities aggressively in 2026 and are likely behind nearly half of newly originated apartment loans. Behind commercial banks and thrifts, "the Agency and GSE portfolios and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) hold the second-largest portion [of the multifamily market] accounting for roughly 23% of the total."

For August, seriously delinquent multifamily mortgages (60+ days delinquent) at Fannie Mae fell to 0.57 percent. That's down from July's rate of 0.62 percent, and it was down from August 2025's total of 0.68 percent. Nonetheless, Fannie's delinquency rate has risen significantly since December 2022 when the rate was 0.24 percent.

Freddie Mac's delinquency report, on the other hand, shows delinquencies (60+ days delinquent) above the Great-Recession peak. During August, Freddie reported multifamily serious delinquency rate was 0.64 percent. That's up from July 2026, which showed a delinquency rate of .6 percent. It is also up from August 2025's rate of 0.48 percent. The Freddie Mac report shows delinquency rates heading upward consistently since February of this year.

Comparing for August of each year, August 2026's delinquency rate at Freddie exceeds that of August 2011, the previous peak year for delinquencies, when August delinquencies reached 0.35 percent. This is the highest in well over 20 years. At Fannie, August's delinquency rate still remains below both the covid peak and the earlier 2010 peak.

In any case, delinquencies remain elevated for both Fannie and Freddie and this trend likely reflects slowing rent growth and waning demand for rentals as employment stagnates and the cost of living rises in areas outside housing. As Multifamily Dive reported this week:

The share of renters who had difficulty paying for housing jumped in 2025 and was concentrated among middle-income tenants, according to research from the Urban Institute released today. Tenants are increasingly struggling to afford both rent and utilities, as costs for essentials rise and U.S. households spend a growing share of their income on housing.

Overall, one in five renter households either paid rent late or missed a payment in 2025 - up from 16.5% in 2024 - marking the highest-ever percentage since the researchers began tracking the measure in 2017.

This trend is likely to persist into the present since BLS data shows that year-over-year inflation-adjusted hourly average earnings has been negative for the past five months. Moreover, landlords are hardly exempt from price inflation and they must continue to contend with rising prices in services and materials necessary for regular maintenance of multifamily units.

It is also getting more difficult for owners of troubled properties to refinance their way out of the problem. Interest rates have been heading up rapidly, the 10-year Treasury yield - the foundation of calculating real-estate-loan interest rates in many cases, has surged over the past week to over 5.2 percent. The 10-year was at 4.6 percent a month ago. (Not surprisingly, the average 30-year fixed single-family mortgage rate has also surged above 7.4 percent this week. Some observers are now suggesting the rate may rise to 8 percent by the end of the year.) This overall trend will make it much more difficult for many overextended multifamily owners to "extend and pretend" with new loans.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 10:35

Leftists Rage After Judge Judy Says "If You Don't Like America, Leave..."

The fundamental disconnect in the brains of progressives, the false idea that they constantly promote, is that America is a dry erase board that can be wiped away and rewritten however they please.  Progressives believe that "change" is the ultimate ideal and all change is good as long as it serves their interests in the moment.  

They believe every system must be constantly rewritten and adjusted to fit their quickly shifting world views and principles (or lack of principles).  They give no credence to the concept of eternal principles, eternal morals, or natural rights.  Everything is up for grabs, everything can be upended and replaced. 

As Judge Judy puts it, they think they can "come into our home and redecorate".

In other words, America welcomes people who are willing to assimilate to the values the nation was founded on.  Anyone not willing to do this is not an American and frankly, they never will be.  

The reality is that leftists don't get to change everything they don't like (which is most things).  And if they hate America that much, maybe they should leave the country and find another country they do like.  This is how societies around the world operate, but only the western world is expected to "adapt" to the demands of activists and foreigners.  What US society demands is that these people adapt to America

This is something leftists and foreign agitators will never agree to, because they want to deconstruct the US into a socialist authoritarian system, but they also want to keep all the wealth and comfort that the previous free market system provided. 

In other words, they have no principles other than to steal everything, and they rationalize their thieving ways by pontificating on the supposed "national crimes" of the past.  As with all communist movements, woke ideologues pretend that they are victims of history and therefore all of their problems today are the fault of someone else.  

These people are only making Judge Judy's point for her.  They are essentially saying that the US is built on so much injustice and "racism" and genocide that it deserves to be burned down and rebuilt.  At no point do they ever acknowledge that they can simply leave and go to a country that fits their world view.  Why?  Because leftists don't change themselves and their conditions, and they certainly never build anything of value on their own.  

Their only survival trait is to take what other people have built.  

"If you want things to change with the government you stay, you fight, you vote, you organize, and you are a part of the change." @AnaNavarro weighs in after Judge Judy made comments about America's political climate. pic.twitter.com/8BFq0iIFwX

— The View (@TheView) September 25, 2026

When the European colonists came to America, there was nothing.  No nation existed.  No enduring infrastructure, no sweeping societies, no system of subsistence.  There was a scattering of primitive tribes engaged in constant war with each other for centuries.  Genocide was common.  Slavery was common.  Even cannibalism was common.  The "Native Americans" were not "native", they took the land from the tribes that came before them.

In fact, many weaker tribes would turn to the European colonists for help to stop stronger tribes from wiping them out.  

In the old world, colonialism and conquest was required to prevent barbarians from crashing through the gates and simply taking what the colonials had built.  As far as slavery is concerned, every civilization in existence including the "indigenous Americans" participated in slavery. 

African slaves became slaves because they were captured by other African tribes and sold to Europeans or into the Arab slave trade (which was far worse because they regularly castrated male slaves and many never survived the procedure). 

Black American who’s a descendant of slaves stands with Judge Judy

“I completely agree with what she said. As a Black American descendant of slaves, I have a beautiful life in America, and I don't want America to change”

“I think America should be great for Americans, and if… pic.twitter.com/EClRPBg9jg

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) September 26, 2026

None of the black activists complaining about Judge Judy's comments have ever been slaves.  None of them have ever been affected by slavery.  Every single one of them has the same equality of opportunity as anyone else.  What they are demanding is equality of outcome, and that's unacceptable. 

What leftists refuse to admit is that their movement to change the US does not take precedence over the people who built America and the people who have truly made America their home.  It is not the duty of Americans to adapt to socialist Utopian thinking; that's not how a free society works. 

In fact, if leftists don't leave and continue their agenda of sabotage, if they continue their subversive war, they can be easily kicked out.  "Democracy" is not to be used as a stepping stone to socialism, and the public's tolerance can only be pushed so far.       

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 10:15

Starship Moves Closer To Commercial Service With Successful Next-Gen Starlink Deployment

Summary:

• SpaceX stock up half a percent
• Starship Inches Closer To Commercialization
• SpaceX Deploys V3 Starlink Satellites for the First Time 
• SpaceX Starship Reaches Orbit After Engine Failure Scare

Starship Inches Closer To Commercialization First orbital flight of Starship successful! https://t.co/xVNsnUKTm0 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 28, 2026

For the first time, Starship has deployed SpaceX's next-generation broadband satellite in low Earth orbit. 

*SPACEX: STARSHIP DEPLOYING STARLINK SATELLITES

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 28, 2026

These new V3 satellites offer roughly 10 times the capacity per satellite of V2 satellites currently in low Earth orbit: about 1,000 gigabits per second of download capacity, compared with about 96 Gbps.

Today's deployment marks Starship's transition from a test vehicle toward a working commercial launch system that will significantly reduce the cost per kilogram and make the space economy more possible.

Starship has begun deploying its payload of 26 @Starlink V3 satellites. This deployment sequence will take ~30 minutes pic.twitter.com/ycIdAx5Lbe

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2026

Starship's first commercial service is set for 2028. 

SpaceX Starship Reaches Orbit After Engine Failure Scare

SpaceX's massive Starship rocket launched from Starbase in South Texas at 7:49 a.m. local time, beginning a mission that could last nearly 10 hours. However, Elon Musk's rocket company confirmed an engine failure and said Starship would not enter orbit.

BBG: SPACEX CONFIRMS THAT STARSHIP WILL NOT ENTER ORBIT FOLLOWING AN ENGINE FAILURE

News of the engine mishap sent shares to premarket lows, down about 2%.

The engine failure will prevent the planned deployment of 26 upgraded Starlink satellites.

BBG: SPACEX FORGOES ORBITAL DEPLOYMENT OF NEW V3 STARLINK SATELLITES ON STARSHIP MISSION BECAUSE OF FAILED STARSHIP ENGINE

However, despite the engine failure, SpaceX later said an attempt to reach orbit might still be possible.

BBG: SPACEX CONSIDERING STARSHIP ORBIT ATTEMPT AFTER ENGINE WENT OUT+

That whipsawed shares back to unchanged in the premarket. 

And now: SPACEX: STARSHIP REACHES ORBIT FOR THE FIRST TIME

Watch Live Feed:

Starship’s 14th flight is set to launch on Monday, Sept 28. The 75-minute launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. CT. Live coverage of the mission starts ~35 minutes before launch → https://t.co/uQKQvgaTmJ

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 27, 2026

* * * 

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 09:50

Trump Admin To Focus More On Northern Border Security Over Next 2 Years: Homan

Authored by Timothy Frudd and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times,

White House border czar Tom Homan plans to put more focus on security at the northern border during the last two years of President Donald Trump's administration.

In an interview airing on Sept. 26, Homan told Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek that the U.S. - Canada border is a national security vulnerability and could receive greater attention after the administration beefed up security on the border with Mexico.

"The next two years, I'm really concentrating on the northern border," he said. "The southern border is the highest security we've ever had."

Homan said: "Now that we have the money and the time ... I think we need to dedicate more resources to the northern border, whether it's manpower, technology, [or] infrastructure."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded 563 total apprehensions along the northern border in August and 586 in July.

The United States and Canada share more than 5,500 miles of border.

Homan said that security at the northern border has not been ignored, but that the Trump administration concentrated its efforts on the southern border because "you send the firemen where the biggest fire is."

Last month, CBP announced that daily apprehensions at the southern border were 94 percent lower than under the Biden administration.

Noting a pattern of decline in illegal border crossings and apprehensions, CBP said the border was "more secure than at any point in history."

Homan told Jekielek that since the southern border is now under control, the administration needs to begin "amping up the northern border," which he described as a "huge national security vulnerability."

"Canada's immigration laws are very lax," he said. "[It] doesn't take a lot to get into Canada."

Citing intelligence reports and personal experience, Homan said national security threats can enter Canada and then cross into the United States a lot easier than directly entering the United States.

Homan also said that drug trafficking along the northern border is another issue for both the United States and Canada.

The U.S. government has been working with Indian reservations on the American side of the border to increase drug enforcement, which he said was a problem.

The White House border czar suggested that cooperation with Canada is "one of the biggest things" needed for effective security along the northern border.

"I think the United States and Canada both want ... [to] shut down cross-border crime because it's not good for either country," he said.

"I think we're both concerned with shutting down the criminal element, shutting down the drugs, and illegal immigration, especially those who pose a threat to our nations."

Homan told Jekielek that he visited all the northern border sectors over the past three months and that the individual areas have different requests for security improvements.

They included additional boots on the ground, technology, drones, air assets, infrastructure, and barriers, he said.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Northern Border Security Enhancement and Review Act on Sept. 16.

The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to assess northern border threats, update the department's northern border strategy, and provide relevant oversight information to Congress.

It would also require CBP's Air and Marine Operations to develop performance measures regarding efforts to secure the border between ports of entry.

Tyler Durden Mon, 09/28/2026 - 09:35