-Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has publicly mulled the idea of dropping Florida state property taxes. I’m putting this here rather than in the Domestic section because of the likely downstream effects of these types of savings for homeowners:
armstrongeconomics.com/markets-by-sec…
-Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit was the victim of what is being called the largest crypto hack ever, with some numbers putting it at $1.7 billion taken.
-Friday was a pretty bad day across the US markets, and it wasn’t a great week, either:
--S&P 500: down 1.71% on the day, down 1.67% for the week
--Dow 30: down 1.69% on the day, down 2.87% for the week
--Nasdaq: down 2.20% on the day, down 2.11% for the week
--Russell 2000: down 2.94% on the day, down 3.80% for the week
-Crude oil is still lower, at $70.25 as of this writing (Friday evening)
-Gold is still marching higher, at $2,931 as of this writing
European markets were relatively flat
-Asian markets had a pretty good day on Friday, largely in the green
-Bond rates seem to be coming down, which is a good thing for the average American:
--13-week: 4.1970
--5-year: 4.2580
--10-year: 4.42
--30-year: 4.669
-Currencies are largely staying within a tight range save for 2 important ones:
--USD/JPY is below the 150 mark, now at $149.262
--EUR/USD is at 1.0456
-BTC has had a roller coaster day after the Bybit hack; it moved up to around $100k, now back down to $96,218.93
Business:
-Apple has complied with the UK’s cloud anti-secrecy order, pulling the encryption from the cloud accounts of its customers there.
-It has become public that the DOJ is investigating United Healthcare (UHC) for its Medicare billing practices, and the firm’s share price has not reacted well to the news:
finance.yahoo.com/news/unitedhea…
-Hooters has apparently filed for bankruptcy.
-EV automaker Nikola has filed for bankruptcy and plans to sell all of its assets.
Health:
-The conspiracy theorists were right again. A new preliminary study out of Yale seems to indicate that the Coof vaccines caused t-cell exhaustion and prolonged spike protein production in some recipients.
--If you’re not tracking, that means the people who said it was wrecking immune systems were correct. T-cell exhaustion is what happens with AIDS.
--This thread from @AlexBerenson goes through the study findings:
x.com/AlexBerenson/s…
-For another check mark on the conspiracy theorists’ scoreboard, Dr. Paul Offitt admitted in an interview now that the Biden administration knew in 2021 that natural immunity would prevent against serious disease but they mandated the shots anyway:
--Clip shared by @TheChiefNerd :
x.com/TheChiefNerd/s…
Geopolitics:
-Many people think that those of us who talk about EU nations being on the road to 1984-style tyranny are being hyperbolic or doing so for political means.
--As usual, here’s another episode of “don’t take my word for it,” brought to you by a crew from CBS 60 Minutes that sat down with German prosecutors to discuss their prosecutions of “hate speech” and even going on a raid of someone who posted wrongthink online:
cbsnews.com/news/policing-…
-The UK’s Labour Party, which is in the midst of its own economic crisis and budget austerity measures, is nonetheless planning to increase its spending on illegal immigrants by 30% or £47mm per year (to £61mm/year):
armstrongeconomics.com/international-…
--Reminder: Polling showed that most Britons who voted for Brexit did so to stop EU-style unmitigated immigration into the UK. And yet the politicians decided to ramp it up exponentially, because democracy.
Crazy Conspiracy-y:
I’ve been repeating this lately, because it’s important to grasp: apokalypsis may not be pretty, and what it reveals may shatter some of your firmly held beliefs about the world. Kash Patel was sworn in at FBI today, and Pam Bondi said in an interview with Fox today that the Epstein, JFK, and RFK files are on her desk for approval and release, on the directive of President Trump, right now.
armstrongeconomics.com/markets-by-sec…
-Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit was the victim of what is being called the largest crypto hack ever, with some numbers putting it at $1.7 billion taken.
-Friday was a pretty bad day across the US markets, and it wasn’t a great week, either:
--S&P 500: down 1.71% on the day, down 1.67% for the week
--Dow 30: down 1.69% on the day, down 2.87% for the week
--Nasdaq: down 2.20% on the day, down 2.11% for the week
--Russell 2000: down 2.94% on the day, down 3.80% for the week
-Crude oil is still lower, at $70.25 as of this writing (Friday evening)
-Gold is still marching higher, at $2,931 as of this writing
European markets were relatively flat
-Asian markets had a pretty good day on Friday, largely in the green
-Bond rates seem to be coming down, which is a good thing for the average American:
--13-week: 4.1970
--5-year: 4.2580
--10-year: 4.42
--30-year: 4.669
-Currencies are largely staying within a tight range save for 2 important ones:
--USD/JPY is below the 150 mark, now at $149.262
--EUR/USD is at 1.0456
-BTC has had a roller coaster day after the Bybit hack; it moved up to around $100k, now back down to $96,218.93
Business:
-Apple has complied with the UK’s cloud anti-secrecy order, pulling the encryption from the cloud accounts of its customers there.
-It has become public that the DOJ is investigating United Healthcare (UHC) for its Medicare billing practices, and the firm’s share price has not reacted well to the news:
finance.yahoo.com/news/unitedhea…
-Hooters has apparently filed for bankruptcy.
-EV automaker Nikola has filed for bankruptcy and plans to sell all of its assets.
Health:
-The conspiracy theorists were right again. A new preliminary study out of Yale seems to indicate that the Coof vaccines caused t-cell exhaustion and prolonged spike protein production in some recipients.
--If you’re not tracking, that means the people who said it was wrecking immune systems were correct. T-cell exhaustion is what happens with AIDS.
--This thread from @AlexBerenson goes through the study findings:
x.com/AlexBerenson/s…
-For another check mark on the conspiracy theorists’ scoreboard, Dr. Paul Offitt admitted in an interview now that the Biden administration knew in 2021 that natural immunity would prevent against serious disease but they mandated the shots anyway:
--Clip shared by @TheChiefNerd :
x.com/TheChiefNerd/s…
Geopolitics:
-Many people think that those of us who talk about EU nations being on the road to 1984-style tyranny are being hyperbolic or doing so for political means.
--As usual, here’s another episode of “don’t take my word for it,” brought to you by a crew from CBS 60 Minutes that sat down with German prosecutors to discuss their prosecutions of “hate speech” and even going on a raid of someone who posted wrongthink online:
cbsnews.com/news/policing-…
-The UK’s Labour Party, which is in the midst of its own economic crisis and budget austerity measures, is nonetheless planning to increase its spending on illegal immigrants by 30% or £47mm per year (to £61mm/year):
armstrongeconomics.com/international-…
--Reminder: Polling showed that most Britons who voted for Brexit did so to stop EU-style unmitigated immigration into the UK. And yet the politicians decided to ramp it up exponentially, because democracy.
Crazy Conspiracy-y:
I’ve been repeating this lately, because it’s important to grasp: apokalypsis may not be pretty, and what it reveals may shatter some of your firmly held beliefs about the world. Kash Patel was sworn in at FBI today, and Pam Bondi said in an interview with Fox today that the Epstein, JFK, and RFK files are on her desk for approval and release, on the directive of President Trump, right now.
This article from @zerohedge lays it out quite nicely: the conspiracy theorists were right about everything…now what?
The corruption and massive spending on progressive policies that most Americans don’t support was one thing - but when the abject criminality begins to be exposed - and we all know that there is at least some of that - will Americans be able to cope with what may be revealed?
zerohedge.com/geopolitical/c…
Macro takeaways/lessons from the week:
-7-in-10 Americans are supportive of Trump and Elon laying the fraud, waste, and abuse bare, and the highest number of Americans in history now indicate they believe the country is on the “right track.” Fighting back against that level of public support may not be a wise political strategy.
-One of Trump’s gifts is finding things that have massive popular support (80/20) but have become “sacred cows” that nobody is allowed to touch, despite their lack of popular support. He identifies them, publicly supports them, and those who are against these popular moves have to defend them publicly. At some point it becomes blatantly obvious that some don’t want the country fixed.
-The EU has neither the military nor the money to continue the UKR war that they’ve constantly pushed to escalate. They’ve been backed into a corner and forced to show their cards - what happens next?
White pill(s) for the week:
The past several months, and the past 30 days especially, have been filled with “doomers” saying that there was no chance of Trump’s cabinet nominees being confirmed in the senate.
Kash being sworn in today shows that something has changed. I don’t know what, but it seems like the world is in the process of changing for the better. It will be a long process, but at least the baby steps are going in the right direction.
Weekend Meditation:
“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will set, and you will set with it.”
-Marcus Aurelius
(Graphic won't display on X but is in the original Sub post)
Links mentioned in the show:
Intro & outro music: Mike Amabile and Run Over Twice “Blind”
open.spotify.com/track/6SG99nL3…
Media Defamation Lawsuits Crowdfunding Link
givesendgo.com/1APMediaDefama…
Thread with Short and Long Explainer Videos About Our Lawsuits and the J6 False Narratives
x.com/RobertPLewis/s…
“The List”
Geopolitics: The Duran, Aurelian Substack (specific to diplomacy), Armstrong Economics blog/newsletter
Economics/Trading: Tree Rings (Luke Gromen newsletter), MacroOps newsletter, Gold Goats & Guns (Tom Luongo newsletter), Armstrong Economics blog/newsletter, Macro Edge Research (jobs and business data points)
Domestic politics: The Duran, Epoch Times, Conservative Treehouse, The President’s Daily Brief, Dark to Light with Tracy Beanz and Quite Frankly, Truth Over News Substack, Pippa’s Pen and Podcast (Substack), Armstrong Economics blog/newsletter
War/Military: SOFX Newsletter, The Duran
The corruption and massive spending on progressive policies that most Americans don’t support was one thing - but when the abject criminality begins to be exposed - and we all know that there is at least some of that - will Americans be able to cope with what may be revealed?
zerohedge.com/geopolitical/c…
Macro takeaways/lessons from the week:
-7-in-10 Americans are supportive of Trump and Elon laying the fraud, waste, and abuse bare, and the highest number of Americans in history now indicate they believe the country is on the “right track.” Fighting back against that level of public support may not be a wise political strategy.
-One of Trump’s gifts is finding things that have massive popular support (80/20) but have become “sacred cows” that nobody is allowed to touch, despite their lack of popular support. He identifies them, publicly supports them, and those who are against these popular moves have to defend them publicly. At some point it becomes blatantly obvious that some don’t want the country fixed.
-The EU has neither the military nor the money to continue the UKR war that they’ve constantly pushed to escalate. They’ve been backed into a corner and forced to show their cards - what happens next?
White pill(s) for the week:
The past several months, and the past 30 days especially, have been filled with “doomers” saying that there was no chance of Trump’s cabinet nominees being confirmed in the senate.
Kash being sworn in today shows that something has changed. I don’t know what, but it seems like the world is in the process of changing for the better. It will be a long process, but at least the baby steps are going in the right direction.
Weekend Meditation:
“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will set, and you will set with it.”
-Marcus Aurelius
(Graphic won't display on X but is in the original Sub post)
Links mentioned in the show:
Intro & outro music: Mike Amabile and Run Over Twice “Blind”
open.spotify.com/track/6SG99nL3…
Media Defamation Lawsuits Crowdfunding Link
givesendgo.com/1APMediaDefama…
Thread with Short and Long Explainer Videos About Our Lawsuits and the J6 False Narratives
x.com/RobertPLewis/s…
“The List”
Geopolitics: The Duran, Aurelian Substack (specific to diplomacy), Armstrong Economics blog/newsletter
Economics/Trading: Tree Rings (Luke Gromen newsletter), MacroOps newsletter, Gold Goats & Guns (Tom Luongo newsletter), Armstrong Economics blog/newsletter, Macro Edge Research (jobs and business data points)
Domestic politics: The Duran, Epoch Times, Conservative Treehouse, The President’s Daily Brief, Dark to Light with Tracy Beanz and Quite Frankly, Truth Over News Substack, Pippa’s Pen and Podcast (Substack), Armstrong Economics blog/newsletter
War/Military: SOFX Newsletter, The Duran
Zerohedge
404 | ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
The Shitshow Macro Weekly Prep Podcast for Monday February 24, 2025 is out:
-The new post noscriptd Statecraft 101: What It Is, What It Was, What It Became, and How the Trump Doctrine Is Changing (Fixing) It has now been published for premium subscribers (with a preview for free subscribers):
open.substack.com/pub/robertplew…
Domestic Politics:
-Dan Bongino was named as the FBI’s Deputy Director on Sunday evening.
--Totally out of left field, unexpected, and brilliant.
-Kash Patel was also named as the acting ATF director over the weekend.
--If you’ve been paying attention over the past month, this has tended to be the first step towards totally shutting an agency down (see: CFPB).
-In the new Statecraft post published Sunday, I went into detail about the reasons that acquiring Greenland is for far more than the lulz. There are NatSec, spheres of influence, commercial shipping lanes, and commodities that would be very beneficial to the US.
--I discussed this being mentioned in one of the investment newsletters that I receive on Friday’s podcast, but didn’t give the details.
--The mine is called The Kvanefjeld Rare Earths Project, and it’s estimated to have 1.01 Bt of Rare Earth Ore (REO) grading 1.1%, and 593 Mlbs of uranium - and the entire project was almost sold to China. Instead, it was shuttered because the Greenland government was worried about radiation exposure from mining the uranium.
--The company that owns the mine is traded on the Australian exchange, so it’s only available for direct investment if you have access to that market - for now.
It is being reported that MSNBC has let Joy Reid go from their lineup.
-California got a lot of (deserved) heat this year for taking over a month to count votes from the November election.
--Now it appears, according to their EAC transmission to Congress, that this state with 9mm eligible mail voters mailed out 22mm ballots.
--From @Shilohmarx :
x.com/Shilohmarx/sta…
--The data table will also be included in the show notes.
-Similarly, the DOJ has charged 3 Pennsylvania municipal officials with creating fake voter registrations.
--The USGOV Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent out an email over the weekend to all Federal employees asking for a pretty simple task.
--They were asked to respond with a bullet point list of 5 things they accomplished last week, to cc their manager, and to have it back by Monday at 11:59 pm.
--The media had a field day, various agency managers and heads sent out their own emails to their subordinates as a response, and several tirades from GOV employees were sent to the media.
--All over 5 bullet points, that Musk later said were partially a way to weed out what some assume to be 100s of thousands of non-existent people who are listed as USGOV employees.
-In an interview on Fox last week, US Commerce Secretary Lutnick flat out said that Trump’s goal is the eliminate the IRS:
--Clip shared by @OcrazioCornPop :
x.com/OcrazioCornPop…
War/Military:
-Zelensky is being, well, Zelensky. Over the past 48 hours he’s claimed that all US taxpayer money sent to him was in the form of grants and so he doesn’t recognize any debt. He’s waffled back and forth on signing a mineral deal agreement, and now he says that he’ll resign if UKR can join NATO.
--If you’ve never read the cable back to DC from the (then) US Ambassador to Moscow and (now) CIA Director William Burns noscriptd “NYET MEANS NYET: RUSSIA'S NATO ENLARGEMENT REDLINES,” here it is:
wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/0…
-US Defense officials told Fox News that the Houthis (Yemen) have now fired their first ever Surface to Air (SAM) missile at a US F-16 fighter jet.
Religion:
-This is an interesting historical tidbit.
--Apparently St. Malachy (1094-1148) made a prophecy (that has been called a hoax by some) that there would only be 112 popes, the final would be Peter the Roman, and his pontificate would precede the destruction of the City of Rome:
armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/rel…
-The new post noscriptd Statecraft 101: What It Is, What It Was, What It Became, and How the Trump Doctrine Is Changing (Fixing) It has now been published for premium subscribers (with a preview for free subscribers):
open.substack.com/pub/robertplew…
Domestic Politics:
-Dan Bongino was named as the FBI’s Deputy Director on Sunday evening.
--Totally out of left field, unexpected, and brilliant.
-Kash Patel was also named as the acting ATF director over the weekend.
--If you’ve been paying attention over the past month, this has tended to be the first step towards totally shutting an agency down (see: CFPB).
-In the new Statecraft post published Sunday, I went into detail about the reasons that acquiring Greenland is for far more than the lulz. There are NatSec, spheres of influence, commercial shipping lanes, and commodities that would be very beneficial to the US.
--I discussed this being mentioned in one of the investment newsletters that I receive on Friday’s podcast, but didn’t give the details.
--The mine is called The Kvanefjeld Rare Earths Project, and it’s estimated to have 1.01 Bt of Rare Earth Ore (REO) grading 1.1%, and 593 Mlbs of uranium - and the entire project was almost sold to China. Instead, it was shuttered because the Greenland government was worried about radiation exposure from mining the uranium.
--The company that owns the mine is traded on the Australian exchange, so it’s only available for direct investment if you have access to that market - for now.
It is being reported that MSNBC has let Joy Reid go from their lineup.
-California got a lot of (deserved) heat this year for taking over a month to count votes from the November election.
--Now it appears, according to their EAC transmission to Congress, that this state with 9mm eligible mail voters mailed out 22mm ballots.
--From @Shilohmarx :
x.com/Shilohmarx/sta…
--The data table will also be included in the show notes.
-Similarly, the DOJ has charged 3 Pennsylvania municipal officials with creating fake voter registrations.
--The USGOV Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent out an email over the weekend to all Federal employees asking for a pretty simple task.
--They were asked to respond with a bullet point list of 5 things they accomplished last week, to cc their manager, and to have it back by Monday at 11:59 pm.
--The media had a field day, various agency managers and heads sent out their own emails to their subordinates as a response, and several tirades from GOV employees were sent to the media.
--All over 5 bullet points, that Musk later said were partially a way to weed out what some assume to be 100s of thousands of non-existent people who are listed as USGOV employees.
-In an interview on Fox last week, US Commerce Secretary Lutnick flat out said that Trump’s goal is the eliminate the IRS:
--Clip shared by @OcrazioCornPop :
x.com/OcrazioCornPop…
War/Military:
-Zelensky is being, well, Zelensky. Over the past 48 hours he’s claimed that all US taxpayer money sent to him was in the form of grants and so he doesn’t recognize any debt. He’s waffled back and forth on signing a mineral deal agreement, and now he says that he’ll resign if UKR can join NATO.
--If you’ve never read the cable back to DC from the (then) US Ambassador to Moscow and (now) CIA Director William Burns noscriptd “NYET MEANS NYET: RUSSIA'S NATO ENLARGEMENT REDLINES,” here it is:
wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/0…
-US Defense officials told Fox News that the Houthis (Yemen) have now fired their first ever Surface to Air (SAM) missile at a US F-16 fighter jet.
Religion:
-This is an interesting historical tidbit.
--Apparently St. Malachy (1094-1148) made a prophecy (that has been called a hoax by some) that there would only be 112 popes, the final would be Peter the Roman, and his pontificate would precede the destruction of the City of Rome:
armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/rel…