Podcasts about OPEC

────────────────────────────────────────[00:03:35]Trump Ranks Himself Greatest President Above Washington, Lincoln, and FDR — Kennedy Center Weeping Willows Cut DownWillows planted to symbolize national mourning after JFK's assassination; administration says bad roots; the bad roots are in the Oval Office.────────────────────────────────────────[00:16:17]Trump Tore Up the USMCA — a Deal He Negotiated and Called "the Best Agreement We've Ever Made"US officials say they can change tariff policy irrespective of any agreement; he doesn't want a deal, he wants a fight.────────────────────────────────────────[00:18:50]Army Secretary Driscoll Resigned After Clashing With Hegseth — Reportedly Alone in Supporting the Iran WarCIA director called Netanyahu's intelligence farcical; Gabbard warned killing the Ayatollah would usher in a harder-line regime — all happened.────────────────────────────────────────[00:26:34]Trump Posted AI Videos of Himself Winning the Iran War — "Karg Island Has Been Blown to Smithereens"Iran struck US air bases in Jordan; oil prices rose again; Trump issued no statements on the real escalation — only posted fantasy AI slop.────────────────────────────────────────[00:27:00]Conscientious Objectors Are Surging — Service Members Say They Were Ordered to Bomb Civilian Infrastructure in IranOne cited orders to target civilian infrastructure, a Geneva Accord violation; another cited the Venezuela boat strikes that killed 210; "There's at least one innocent person I indirectly killed."────────────────────────────────────────[01:02:10]Noahide Law Conference in Jerusalem This November — Global Leaders to Establish the World Noahide MovementDisguised as anti-Semitism bills attacking the First Amendment; will J.D. Vance be there? Huckabee will be the keynote speaker.────────────────────────────────────────[01:07:37]RJC Boasts They Defeated Thomas Massey — J.D. Vance Pledges Allegiance to the Republican Jewish CoalitionRJC: "We played the lead role in taking out Congressman Massey." They don't need Trump — they'll find another goy.────────────────────────────────────────[01:44:04]Texas Gold Legal Tender Bill — Texans Can Deposit Precious Metals and Spend Them via Debit CardDeposits with the Texas Bullion Depository in Leander, electronic conversion at point of sale; it will change people's psychology toward real money.────────────────────────────────────────[01:49:07]One Common Trigger for Every Stock Market Crash Over 85 Years — Energy Supply DisruptionEvery major crash since 1956 is associated with energy disruption; the 1973 OPEC embargo sent stocks down 35%; Trump's Iran war is orders of magnitude larger.────────────────────────────────────────[01:49:47]The Great Taking: The UCC Was Quietly Changed to Put Brokerages as Secured Creditors Above YouIn a financial reset you will find you are too far down the creditor list to recover anything; done across most US states with almost no public attention. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

────────────────────────────────────────[00:03:35]Trump Ranks Himself Greatest President Above Washington, Lincoln, and FDR — Kennedy Center Weeping Willows Cut DownWillows planted to symbolize national mourning after JFK's assassination; administration says bad roots; the bad roots are in the Oval Office.────────────────────────────────────────[00:16:17]Trump Tore Up the USMCA — a Deal He Negotiated and Called "the Best Agreement We've Ever Made"US officials say they can change tariff policy irrespective of any agreement; he doesn't want a deal, he wants a fight.────────────────────────────────────────[00:18:50]Army Secretary Driscoll Resigned After Clashing With Hegseth — Reportedly Alone in Supporting the Iran WarCIA director called Netanyahu's intelligence farcical; Gabbard warned killing the Ayatollah would usher in a harder-line regime — all happened.────────────────────────────────────────[00:26:34]Trump Posted AI Videos of Himself Winning the Iran War — "Karg Island Has Been Blown to Smithereens"Iran struck US air bases in Jordan; oil prices rose again; Trump issued no statements on the real escalation — only posted fantasy AI slop.────────────────────────────────────────[00:27:00]Conscientious Objectors Are Surging — Service Members Say They Were Ordered to Bomb Civilian Infrastructure in IranOne cited orders to target civilian infrastructure, a Geneva Accord violation; another cited the Venezuela boat strikes that killed 210; "There's at least one innocent person I indirectly killed."────────────────────────────────────────[01:02:10]Noahide Law Conference in Jerusalem This November — Global Leaders to Establish the World Noahide MovementDisguised as anti-Semitism bills attacking the First Amendment; will J.D. Vance be there? Huckabee will be the keynote speaker.────────────────────────────────────────[01:07:37]RJC Boasts They Defeated Thomas Massey — J.D. Vance Pledges Allegiance to the Republican Jewish CoalitionRJC: "We played the lead role in taking out Congressman Massey." They don't need Trump — they'll find another goy.────────────────────────────────────────[01:44:04]Texas Gold Legal Tender Bill — Texans Can Deposit Precious Metals and Spend Them via Debit CardDeposits with the Texas Bullion Depository in Leander, electronic conversion at point of sale; it will change people's psychology toward real money.────────────────────────────────────────[01:49:07]One Common Trigger for Every Stock Market Crash Over 85 Years — Energy Supply DisruptionEvery major crash since 1956 is associated with energy disruption; the 1973 OPEC embargo sent stocks down 35%; Trump's Iran war is orders of magnitude larger.────────────────────────────────────────[01:49:47]The Great Taking: The UCC Was Quietly Changed to Put Brokerages as Secured Creditors Above YouIn a financial reset you will find you are too far down the creditor list to recover anything; done across most US states with almost no public attention. ──────────────────────────────────────── Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silver For 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code “KNIGHT” For high quality made in America products go to HomeSteadProducts.shop and use promo code “Knight” for 10% off your purchases Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-show Or you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

Jimmy Barrett discusses Houston's preparations for the approaching tropical system with Mayor John Whitmire, who urges residents to stay informed and avoid flooded roads. Oil analyst Phil Flynn breaks down the new U.S.–Venezuela oil deal and its potential impact on Texas refineries, gas prices and OPEC. Plus, Art Arthur of the Center for Immigration Studies explains the federal crackdown on states providing in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Jimmy also examines the expanding health benefits of GLP-1 medications, China's alleged campaign against American AI data centers and President Trump's latest clash with Canada.

Keith explores how real estate strategies have shifted from the 1980s to today and explains why investors need to adapt deal structures to changing interest rates, lending conditions, and market cycles.  He highlights current opportunities in new construction and builder rate buydowns, along with the long-term benefits of fixed-rate debt.  Keith is joined by economic futurist and author Richard Vague, who challenges conventional beliefs about inflation and interest rates and explains how government intervention, war, and supply constraints shape asset prices and leverage decisions. Together, they provide a big-picture framework for understanding how today's macro environment affects real estate investing decisions. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/621 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  FAMILY to 66866  Join Mid South Home Buyers' one-time, free live webinar featuring Keith Weinhold on September 30 at GetRichEducation.com/MidSouth to learn how Memphis' economic expansion could create new real estate investment opportunities, and have your questions answered in real time. Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review"  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com  Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Keith Weinhold  0:01   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Learn how dramatically real estate has changed from the 1980s through the late 2020s. We'll be sure that your approach is changing with it. Then a great guest and I discuss how war and future calamities will affect mortgage rates, inflation, and your real estate today on Get Rich Education. What if I told you that one of America's strongest cash flow real estate markets is also becoming the new brains and brawn behind AI? That city is Memphis, believe it or not. In September 30th, we're going to show you why the smart money is paying attention now, along with an investing opportunity you won't want to miss. Join me, Terry Kerr and Matthew Van Horn of Mid South Home Buyers, the largest turnkey company in Memphis with more than 6,000 homes under management, for a free live webinar, the likes of which I've never done before. We're going to look at what billions in new investment could mean for jobs, housing demand, neighborhood appreciation, and your portfolio. Everyone who attends live will also get exclusive access to the best deal terms Mid South has ever offered. Reserve your free seat at getricheducation.com/midsouth. Again, that September 30th. Don't say we didn't tell you. Save your spot at getricheducation.com/midsouth.   Speaker 1  1:35   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is Get Rich Education.   Keith Weinhold  1:51   Welcome to GRE from Cambridge, England, to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and across 188 world nations. I'm Keith Weinhold. You're inside Get Rich Education. You could be doing anything with your time. I'm grateful that you choose to listen to me every week. You know, real estate investors sometimes say, "Ah, there aren't any deals anymore. What they usually mean is the deal structure that they learned five years ago stopped working. There are always opportunities in real estate, but your approach changes with interest rates, lending standards, inventory, construction, government policy, and just the overall economic cycle. The best investors don't wait for yesterday's market to return. That's like someone still hoping for Blockbuster Video Store to reopen. They identify what today's market is offering instead. Just consider this historic retrospective on real estate investing from the Reagan administration to today, in 1981, the 30-year mortgage rate peaked above 18.6%. I mean, just imagine proudly telling your friends that you locked in at 17% before rates went higher. That mortgage needed its own defibrillator. By 1984, rates were still near 16%. The strategy then, the approach, was for a buyer to assume the existing owner's lower rate mortgage that they locked in a few years earlier, perhaps in the late 70s, that's how you got a good deal, assuming that existing owners lower-rate mortgage. You can't do that so easily today.   Keith Weinhold  3:50   By the late 80s and early 90s, the opportunity shifted from assuming attractive debt to buying distressed properties. The S and L crisis was upon us. Savings and loan failed lenders found themselves holding piles of distressed real estate, so investors bought foreclosures and REOs at discounts. They improved neglected buildings and then they repositioned them for income. You probably know that REO stands for real estate owned on a bank's balance sheet. All REO means is bank-owned property, but that's what you did. You found those, and then you scooped up a deal that way. As the 1990s progressed, interest rates declined, and loans also became really easy to obtain. We were tilting into the loosey-goosey easy lending environment. In the 90s, it was popular to buy an undervalued property, renovate it, raise the rent, and refinance it based on the improved value. That process later got a buzzy acronym and became known as the Burr strategy: buy, rehab, rent, refinance, repeat. By 2005, financing got more creative. This is when I was a new real estate investor. I remember obtaining what were known as 8015 five combo loans. This meant an 80% first mortgage, 15% second mortgage, and 5% down payment. You remember those? If you've been around for a while, you do. And see, this way you could avoid paying PMI, and you could control property with an astounding 20 to one leverage ratio due to that 5% down payment, but soon enough lending just got absolutely too creative and easy. The quiet lending party turned into a boisterous kegger, delivering the 2008 financial. crisis, and pretty soon I could no longer get any loans. From 2009 through the early 2010s, you could buy foreclosures and short sales at enormous discounts if you could find the loan.   Keith Weinhold  6:20   Financing was tough, but prices were super low. It might have even made sense to pay cash at that time. Fear was everywhere right after the global financial crisis. I mean, it really took courage to act when others were hiding under the bed. By 2020 and 2021, the opportunity changed from cheap property to cheap money. Mortgage rates dropped below an absurd 3% as a result of the COVID pandemic. You could lock up extraordinarily cheap debt for less than the inflation rate, and then let inflation nibble away at it like Pac-Man. Of course, a lot of us are still benefiting from that today, but that opportunity is long gone now. But it doesn't mean that deals are gone today. Where's the opportunity? One of the best ones is often found in new construction, large build. have got to keep moving their inventory as they build these homes because they have got to keep their crews busy. An unsold house for a builder-I mean-that produces as much income as an unplugged Bitcoin miner. Rather than make conspicuous price reductions, builders use their financial muscle to buy down mortgage rates for you, often in the 5% range or even lower.   Keith Weinhold  7:52   Builders might also offer you closing cost assistance, upgraded finishes, or other incentives that a single resale seller just can't match. So from the Reagan administration to today, over 45 years, the winning strategy just keeps morphing. It started out back then as assume the loan, over to buy distress, then to renovate and refi, then it was a creative financing wave, and then cheap debt, and today take the builders buy down. That's where we are. The mistake is deciding in advance what a deal is supposed to look like. The best deal structure changes, and of course, it's going to change again. The investor who keeps fighting the last war is always going to conclude that the opportunity has disappeared, but it hasn't. It's just changed clothing. Still, though, today's new purchases now-they're not as good as the deals that they were five years ago, but the best investors keep investing. They keep adding to their portfolio. It's what they've always done. Absolutely zero winning investors that are successful over time look back and say things like, "I didn't add anything to my portfolio during that 10-year span for this or that reason, the market changes, and you've got to adapt with it. That's a way to think about it. Take solace in knowing a few things. Deal structure changes over time are inevitable. And larger picture, you are investing in a product that is sustainable residential real estate in the form of long-term rentals. These entry-level properties are a scarce asset that people are going to continue to need. I mean, that's what we do here. Just compare. To the fads that we avoid around here, like NFTs, metaverse real estate, which we discussed on the show a few years ago, but said is highly dangerous, eye buying, value add apartment syndications, SPACs, or how about ICO funded altcoins? We don't chase the latest hot thing here at GRE. It is about what's sustainable, necessary, and cannot be easily disrupted by AI, and that's one reason that Get Rich Education is still standing strong after 52 episodes every year for almost 12 years now. Shortly, we're going to bring in a rather esteemed guest today on the future direction of interest rates and inflation. Interestingly, he believes that raising interest rates does not cool inflation, and that's contrary to popular belief. I'm going to press him on this and ask why, but first, our new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh. He's only been on the job a few months now.   Keith Weinhold  11:07   He is gaining a reputation for not forecasting what they're going to do ahead of time, like his predecessor had. I guess I tend to like his disposition and the way that he communicates, I sense some pragmatism with Warsh, but gosh, it often seems that a new Fed chair gets off to a well liked start, and then they do something that lots of people criticize. Like, remember in 2004, late Fed Chair Alan Greenspan suggested more borrowers could benefit from adjustable rate mortgages shortly before rates rose and ARM resets became financial landmines. In 2007, Ben Bernanke said that subprime mortgage problems were likely to be contained. Oh, right after that, they helped trigger the global financial crisis, and more recently, the Jerome Powell gaffe, which I'll mention in the interview shortly. Here's what current Fed Chair Warsh says about inflation:   Kevin Warsh  12:14   For some households, businesses, and market professionals, five years of high inflation have left a mistaken impression, that's hard to shake, that the Fed's implicit inflation target was somehow above 2% Let me reiterate, there is no soft inflation target. There is no soft implicit target, not on this committee's watch. There's only a target, and it's 2%   Keith Weinhold  12:42   It's obvious that he is serious about getting inflation back down to 2% That tends to point toward interest rate increases. Let's discuss that and more with this week's brilliant guest. This week's guest is an economic futurist keynote speaker, and he's quite a popular author. He is chair of the board of the Public School Employees Retirement System. That's the largest public pension fund in Pennsylvania. Previously, the Pennsylvania governor appointed him as the secretary of banking and securities for the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, he's also the founder and president of several various organizations today, and he serves on several boards, including at the University of Pennsylvania and the School District of Philadelphia. I mean, I hardly know how he has time to do it all, but he made time for us today. Hey, it's great to welcome back Richard Vague.   Richard Vague  13:45   It's such an honor to be with you. I certainly enjoyed our last session, and it's really wonderful to be back.   Keith Weinhold  13:51   Well, and so much has changed since you were last here, Richard. First, why don't we pull back and talk to us about the general state of the national economy today, as you see it.   Richard Vague  14:04   ou know the economy was rocking along okay, and you know since you guys are such experts in real estate, I'll tell you one of the most important statistics, in my opinion, is the number of unsold homes, and by all rights, that number should be about 2 million homes. It's only about a million and a half. So there's a deficiency in our housing stock in the United States, which is, yeah, I think good news for the housing industry. It's always good to have a reason to have to grow. You may recall that in 2007, that had gotten up to four millinomes, which was a catastrophe, as we all know. So, it's the economic statistic I looked at first and most closely, and that was, you know, an okay number, and a lot of the things were going along. You know, not fabulous, but not terrible. Things were kind of moving. And all of a sudden now we have the war in Iran, and that's creating all sorts of problems for us, which you know I think you guys are concerned about. So I generally think the economy's been good, but there's a lot of dark clouds on the horizon.   Keith Weinhold  15:15   You know, Richard, I was recently sharing something remarkable with our audience. To your point, just since 2020, consider all the calamities that we've had: COVID, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, tariffs, and the Iran War. Just since 2020, what's the result of all that? Both stocks and residential real estate are near all time highs.   Richard Vague  15:42   Yeah, well, you know, one of the things that's true is that this is something I go to in great detail in my book Paradox. But the more debt there is, the higher asset prices go.   Keith Weinhold  15:53   Yeah.   Richard Vague  15:54   You know, in the case of housing, that broadly helps middle America. In the case of the stock market, the top 10% of the country owns 87% of the stocks, so that tends to go to the wealthiest instead of to the broad population. But yeah, those two things are at highs.   Keith Weinhold  16:12   You're touching on your well-received 2023 book, The Paradox of Debt, and you know, Richard, amidst all these calamities and all this potentially unprecedented level of government intervention that we've had-you know-it makes one wonder during the next crisis, which is inevitably going to happen, will the government just step in and provide relief again? And how would that look?   Richard Vague  16:38   You know, I think that's one lesson that government has learned indelibly. Way back in 1929, in the couple of years that followed, the government did not step in, and we saw what happened. And I think there's a generation of economists that understand the role of government in a calamity, and you know it's pretty simple. You know the government comes in and crops up financial institutions as they did in 2008, simply by providing the liquidity or buying the bad assets, or the government steps in with relief checks as they did in such a massive way in 2020. But the government has learned that at least to some degree, it needs to intervene. I can't imagine that ever not being true.   Keith Weinhold  17:26   Goshmright when you think about 2020s stimulus and how emergency lending facilities were set up, you had the payment protection program, stimulus checks, mortgage loan forbearance. It's just like this government won't let the asset holders fail.   Richard Vague  17:46   Well, yeah, you know, there's failure, and then there's something that's hurtful but not quite failure. You know, I can imagine that the government will be able to prevent, in some circumstances, certain asset prices going down some amount, it's actually fairly commonplace for stocks to go down 10 or 20% I can see real estate prices going down as they have in the commercial office space. Yeah, but yes, the government will step in when those things become extreme to prevent a true calamity.   Keith Weinhold  18:19   Of course, one consequence of the interventionism is elevated inflation. I know how you've talked before about how the level of inflation is higher than most people think. For example, you'll see today's CPI numbers in the mid threes. Talk to us some more about why inflation is higher than most people think.   Richard Vague  18:41   Well, I have studied inflation, you know, fairly diligently, and inflation really relates to the constriction of supply. And if you look over the 250-year history of the United States, we haven't had that many episodes of bad inflation, and they've always related to a constriction of supply. Most of them have occurred during a war when, for obvious reasons, you know, supplies are constricted. The big 1970s episode of inflation was because OPEC, which had so much more power back in those days, acted to you know punish the United States by constricting supplies, and the price of a barrel of oil went from $4 to $40 a barrel. Yeah, between 73 and 79. COVID was another instance where inflation related to constriction of supply. That was you know people couldn't go to the meat factory to cut meat. People couldn't go to the factories to build things, so all of a sudden our supplies were decimated, and we had a short burst of very painful inflation. Well, now we've got the straight of four moves, and that is impacting the price of oil. I think it's going to impact the price of oil more going forward because. Because we've been able to rely on reserves, both the U.S. has been able to rely on reserves, and China has been able to rely on even greater reserves. And you know we haven't seen the brunt of that, but unless something's resolved pretty quickly, I think in the fall and winter we're going to see even more problematic prices there. But we know agricultural prices and even the flow of commodities like wheat are constricted by the constraints in the Strait of Hormuz and, frankly, other waterways as well. Now, one of the things the numbers that you see reported tend to underreport inflation because it looks at a year-over-year number and doesn't really capture it if it's moved up more sharply in the last month or two. So we look at it on a month-by-month. We you know we break it down about as to as many parts as you can break it down into. But PPI, which is kind of a leading indicator on the eventual CPI PPI's producer price index, it was 4.7% this last month. That would suggest to you that things which are in the mid threes now, which is more higher than we want, you know, probably trending over. Maybe not next month, but you know, over the next three to six months, I'm not going to be surprised if the number's more in the four to five range. So, yeah, I think inflation's being somewhat underreported at the moment.    Keith Weinhold  21:29   The PPI being that harbinger of consumer prices, often four to six months down the road. And Richard, the last time you were here, when it comes to checking and controlling inflation, you said something so interesting. You said that higher rates, which is typically the response in order to try to quell inflation, higher rates actually do not lower inflation, and you did not get a chance to expand on that because we ran out of time. Tell us more about why higher rates do not reduce inflation.   Richard Vague  22:05   Well, I'm going to answer that a couple of ways. One of them is higher rates don't open the Strait of Hormuz.   Keith Weinhold  22:12   Right.   Richard Vague  22:13   You can put rates as high as you want, and it's not going to open the Strait of Hormuz.    Keith Weinhold  22:16   Chairman Warsch doesn't open the Strait. Yes, he doesn't get oil produce nothing.   Richard Vague  22:20   Strait of Hormuz.   Keith Weinhold  22:21   Yeah.   Richard Vague  22:21   And so we can do all we want to on raids, which is a very blunt instrument, and it's not going to address the supply constraints that are geopolitical and war related. So, if you want to curb inflation right now, there's two things to do. One of them's you know end the war with Iran, and the other is to kind of back off a lot of these tariffs that have become so problematic. I think there's a place for tariffs. I think there's certain things China's doing that you know a call for an appropriate level of tariffs. I'm not sure we should be big tariffs on Canada and some of these other places, which have the effect of increasing the cost of our farm equipment and cars and other things like that. So, if you really want to address inflation and address the things that truly underlie inflation, and if the second way I'd answer this is to say, go look at the debt, track the data from you know 1945 or 50. You know, we really look at the post World War II period as the place we really learn things from, and over that period, increased government spending has been accompanied by reduced interest rates and reduced inflation. So, reduced interest rates and reduced inflation have gone hand in hand, and rising interest rates and rising inflation have gone hand in hand, and it's a really easy thing to look at. We've got the data on our site, but there's only been three periods where you've had big shifts in government spending and rates. They're pretty easy to look at, and there's actually empirically an inverse relationship between rising interest rates and it's the opposite of what economists tell you.   Keith Weinhold  24:09   I think, in general, economists tell us that when inflation is high, you raise interest rates because consumer spending is about 70% of the economy, and those higher rates therefore incentivize people to be savers because they're getting paid a higher yield, keeping those dollars out of the economy, and they're less incentivized to be borrowers and expand the economy that way. I think in general that's why economists say that higher interest rates reduce inflation. Do you agree with that?   Speaker 2  24:40   Well, no, I don't, and the reason I don't is because when you look at the data, that doesn't happen. These are easy things to check, and what I would say to you is that rising interest rates increase costs, and you guys know that better than anybody in the world.   Keith Weinhold  24:56   With mortgages. Yeah.   Richard Vague  24:58   What do rising interest rates do to? Cost of your mortgage.   Keith Weinhold  25:02   Everything increased substantially.    Richard Vague  25:03   It has system prices at the grocery store. Well, the grocery stores have to pay our interest for their inventory. So the more intuitive and obvious thing is that rising interest rates increase prices. And by the way, if you and I were to go look at the data right now, which I look at almost daily, that we would see periods of rising interest rates correlate to periods of rising increased costs.   Keith Weinhold  25:29   Well, I'm glad you look at history because I often say here at Get Rich Education, if you want to know what's going to happen in the future, it's easy to have a hunch, but it's more important to look at history. Can you talk to us some more about how, over the long term, higher interest rates don't suppress inflation? If that's what you're saying,   Richard Vague  25:47   yeah. The greatest rise in inflation, you know, in my lifetime was the late 1970s.   Keith Weinhold  25:55   Yeah,   Richard Vague  25:56   and for the entire time that interest rates were going up, prices and inflation were going up, and it wasn't until interest rates started coming down that inflation started coming down. So we could look at any number of periods, and if you're going to argue the opposite, you need to go find me some data.   Keith Weinhold  26:15   Okay. Well, speaking in more modern times, in the last wave of inflation that we had, the CPI peaked at 9.1% in June of 2022. This is the whole famous Jerome Powell: inflation is only transitory. Oh shoot, no, it's not. I better hike rates. He did, and then inflation came down. Is it as simple as that cause in effect, or did something else make inflation come down post COVID.   Richard Vague  26:42   Inflation came down, and it came all the way down in July of 2022. It didn't come down gradually over six, 912, 18 months. You go look at the length monthly inflation. Inflation came all the way down in July of 2022, and stay has stayed down all the intervening period until very recently with the Iran War. July of 2022 was before there was a dramatic increase in interest rates.   Keith Weinhold  27:18   Right,   Speaker 1  27:19   that's simple.   Keith Weinhold  27:21   What caused inflation to come down? Then is it because supply began to arrive on the market again?   Richard Vague  27:27   People went back to work, started building things again.   Keith Weinhold  27:30   Producing.   Richard Vague  27:32   And the problem was folks had not been able to go to the factories and make things, and so we had a you know global supply deficit. Well, the nice thing about that is that you know money incends people to scramble back to work, make things again, and you know once they start doing that, and the Fed actually produces something they call the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index. You can get it on the Fed site. If you look at it, it's supposed to be kind of at zero, and anytime supply chains are disrupted, it shoots up. And any you know, any time the opposite happens, you know there's overcapacity. It goes down, and you can see exactly when supply chains repair is happening. So go look at the. It's called the GSCPI. It's on the Fed side. You'll see that global supply chains had largely started to be dramatically repaired in the spring and summer of 2022, and naturally, supply and demand works. All of a sudden, supply starts showing up, and prices go to hell.   Keith Weinhold  28:39   We're talking with economic futurist author and Pennsylvania's governor-appointed former secretary of banking and securities Richard Vague, more when we come back on the affliction of inflation, what this means for real estate investors, and more. This is Get Rich Education. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. What if you got your mortgage loans the same place I get mine. You sure can at Ridge Lending Group NMLS 42056. They provided GRE listeners with more loans than anyone because Ridge specializes in investment property. They'll help you build a long-term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequal and even chat directly with President Caeli Ridge. While it's on your mind, start at ridgelendinggroup.com. That's ridgelendinggroup.com.   Keith Weinhold  29:29   Let me ask you something: If you've worked hard to build wealth, is your money positioned to actually support your goals? A lot of accredited investors leave capital sitting in cash because it feels safe, but inflation and missed income opportunities can quietly erode its value. Freedom Family Investments offers freedom notes for investors seeking structured income backed by real estate. It's a straightforward approach built on real assets, not speculation. In full disclosure, I'm an investor myself. What I like is that their team walks you through how it all works, so you can decide if it aligns with your portfolio and income goals. Every investment carries risk, and nothing is guaranteed. But with a track record of consistent, on-time investor payouts, they built real credibility. Go to freedomfamilyinvestments.com to book a clarity call or text family to 66866. That's family to 66866.    Dolph Derues  30:31   This is the king of commercial real estate, Dolph Derues. Listen to Get Rich Education with Keith Weinhold and don't quit your daydream.   Keith Weinhold  30:45   Welcome back to Get Rich Education. We're talking with Richard Vague. Richard is the founder and president of so many organizations today. He's the author of several popular economic books. He chairs the board of the Public School employees retirement system. That's the largest public pension fund in Pennsylvania. He's in a lot of places at once, seemingly. Richard, we're talking about inflation before the break. What is the right inflation rate?   Richard Vague  31:16   Well, like I said, inflation. If you look at the entire 250-year span of the United States has it been an affliction that has affected us that often? It is political kryptonite. So when it does happen, it steers our consciousness, and it you know certainly affects your industry. But you know, if we look historically, the Fed targets 2% It's not a bad thing to target. We never really have achieved that level for any length of period. I think if you look at it over the past several decades and take out the high inflation periods, it probably has averaged closer to three. So I don't think two to 3% is an inappropriate level, and I kind of suspect it'll be a level that typifies our future once we get past, if and when we get past this more.   Keith Weinhold  32:09   Yes, not long ago, I was looking at the history of the CPI or the CPI's equivalent, and over the last 100 years, the rate is about 3.2% and we haven't hit that government-mandated 2% target, which is stated right on the Fed's website. We haven't hit that for any month in about five years now, and this asset inflation, as we know, this disproportionately enriches existing asset owners, and it widens this inequality. Something that's more recently been known as the K-shaped economy, can you talk to us some more about this exacerbating wealth inequality?   Richard Vague  32:48   Well, you hit the nail on the head. Something on the order of 80% of all the net wealth held by Americans is in the form of two things: stock and real estate. If you want to talk about wealth, it's those two things, and those two things, probably 60 or 70% of all of those in the U.S. are held by the top 10% I think it's a single-digit number of those that are held by the bottom 50% So you know, if inflation and debt growth push asset prices up over time. It is a mathematical inevitability that the rich get richer faster than those in the middle and at the bottom, and that simply means inequality will increase through time. I believe that's structural. Unless you address that in very some very specific way it will continue.   Keith Weinhold  33:43   Inflation affects real estate investors more than it does the average person because we borrow these big pools of money often at 75 to 80% loan to value, and in a sense, although we know it's bad for general society, and we do think about the K-shaped economy. Of course, inflation benefits us because it debases our debt. But even if you're not a real estate investor, even if you just own your own home, you know, Richard, I really think it begs the question: Is a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage one of the best forms of debt ever created for ordinary Americans?   Richard Vague  34:22   The 30-year mortgage, which was created, you know, that started on that path in the 1930 s for the very reasons we all know and love, which is getting Americans to own their own home, and has been, you know, a game changer for the country, and truly one of the great things that's been done, and I hope it's something that we continue to defend and preserve.   Keith Weinhold  34:46   Well, that brings up leverage and the prudent use of leverage. As real estate investors, we have this benefit of getting all these 30-year fixed-rate loans without the threat of a. Margin call being made. We're not borrowing over in the stock market. When you sign your loan documents, it doesn't say that the bank can call your note due at any time, but one could take it too far. And when it comes to debt, I think that really begs the question: Where does intelligent leverage end, and then dangerous leverage begin. What's the border?   Richard Vague  35:25   Well, you guys are experts, and I'm not. But the very simple premise is starts with not overpaying for the property to begin with. It is not an exact science, but generally speaking, I think we can tell when prices are relatively high in a given market and or a given year and relatively low, and you you'd always want to kind of be at least in the middle or somewhat on the low end before you acquire a property. So that's step number one, and then step number two is really just giving yourself a buffer, you know. We saw in the global financial crisis that real estate loans were being made in some cases at 100% of value. Yeah, and frankly, we saw at least some episodes within that folks borrowing over 100% of value, and certainly they were very happy when that happened. But we know there's zero margin for error when you do that, and perhaps even a negative margin for error when you do that. So I would think, you know, you guys know better than me, but you know, I hate to borrow it much more than like 90% of value, maybe 95% if it's a smaller asset and you have a government guarantee, and if you can do it at lower leverage, you know, 70 or 80% of value, that's not a bad thing to consider. I tend to think in the real estate world that you know I've seen many investors, particularly in the commercial space, buy things with lower leverage, 50 or 75% But then, as the asset proves itself, they work with their lender to increase the debt-to-value ratio, you know, and get more money at it over time as it becomes an increasingly proven asset. So they migrate their way from 75% to 95% over time. I think that's a logical path.   Keith Weinhold  37:20   That acronym Ninja Loans, which were popular from about 2000 to 2007, that acronym Ninja means no income, no job or assets, and you might still get a loan of 110% of the value of the property. It was profligately irresponsible. Well, Richard, in a moment, I want to ask if you have a resource that our audience can follow along with you if they would like to do so. But before I do that, do you have any last thing that you would like to talk about? Maybe something that I did not ask you, whether it has to do with the general economy or real estate or interest rates or inflations. Is there something else that we should know?   Richard Vague  38:00   What I would do is just endorse your podcast.   Keith Weinhold  38:04   Thanks.   Richard Vague  38:05   You're approaching this in a very intelligent way, and you're very empirical, and I think your listeners are doing themselves a service by continuing to follow what you do. That's a really reasonable, secure, and yet bold path towards creating wealth, then I think you're to be commended.   Keith Weinhold  38:27   Oh, I appreciate the endorsement. I'm always blown away at our following, but you have some resources worth following as well. Tell us about that.   Richard Vague  38:36   Well, we do. We have a weekly video ourselves that it's about a five-minute video, and you can go to our website, which is tycos.com. So t y c h o s.com, and you know we have data on the site. If you're a real geek, you could go in and you can look at our macroeconomic data. You know, but if you're not, you can sign up for the video, and we come out with what we hope is a short but relevant video once a week talking on some aspect of the economy, and you know we'd love to have folks join that if they're interested.   Keith Weinhold  39:10   Well, it's valuable. I suggest you, the listener, check that out. Richard oftentimes turns conventional economics on his head, just like he did with us today, talking about how if there's higher interest rates, that does not necessarily mean lower inflation. Richard, it's been valuable as always. It's been great having you back on the show.   Richard Vague  39:30   It's an honor to be with you. Keep up the great work.   Keith Weinhold  39:38   In this remote interview, I got a beautiful look over Richard's shoulders there on the screen at Center City, Philadelphia, in the ornate buildings there. I will be in that part of the nation again shortly. Big thanks to Richard Vague. If you're looking him up, it is spelled V-A-G-U-E. We've got a. A lot of terrific content coming up on the show over the next few weeks, including fresh takes on building your wealth that you've never heard before. Until next week, I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Don't quit your daydream.   Speaker 3  40:18   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal, or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial, or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of Get Rich Education LLC exclusively.    Keith Weinhold  40:46   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building. getricheducation.com  

The Morning Xtra with Tug and Los delivers conservative talk on the biggest political, cultural, and news stories of the day. Smart analysis, unapologetic opinions, and real conversations every weekday morning. Every weekday from 6a to 10a! The 8 o'clock hour is brought to you by Central Heating & Air, your Atlanta Carrier Experts. 770-GET-HEAT, Centralheat.com First thing to know: You gotta love Spencer Pratt We had a major diplomatic victory over the weekend A good exercise in communism Watch The Morning XTRA every weekday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the XTRA 106.3 YouTube or listen on the XTRA 106.3 App

The Morning XTRA with Tug and Los delivers conservative talk on the biggest political, cultural, and news stories of the day. Smart analysis, unapologetic opinions, and real conversations every weekday morning. Every weekday from 6a to 10a! Today's show: Tug and Los recap a huge weekend as the Braves win seven straight and college football returns, while Handyman Los continues his basement project. The guys dig into Iran, the mainstream media’s latest messaging, and whether it’s suddenly unfair to face the consequences of your actions. They also celebrate Spencer Pratt, break down a major diplomatic victory over the weekend, and explore a good exercise in communism. Plus, the guys tell the story of how Josh Shapiro tried to BS his own people and ask how you could possibly spend $7,000 on something without realizing it. Watch The Morning XTRA every weekday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the XTRA 106.3 YouTube or listen on the XTRA 106.3 App

US Venezuela Oil Deal Exposes OPEC & China!

Huge national security and energy updates are breaking!

Andrew, Ben, and Tom discuss Venezuela's potential OPEC exit as the US nears a deal for a stake in 17+ Venezuelan oil fields holding 90 billion barrels of reserves, possibly via a 100-year leaseJoin our live YouTube stream Monday through Friday at 8:30 AM EST:http://www.youtube.com/@TheMorningMarketBriefingPlease see disclosures:https://www.narwhal.com/disclosure

Welcome to the Energy Newsbeat, where host Stu Turley breaks down the ten most critical energy stories shaping global markets and infrastructure. In this episode, we explore a landscape marked by unprecedented challenges and opportunities: from the alarming vulnerability of the U.S. power grid to coordinated cyberattacks, to Iraq's aggressive push to double oil production and reshape Middle Eastern energy politics. As geopolitical tensions escalate—with Ukraine striking Russian refineries and the U.S. tightening sanctions on Iran—the global energy market faces historic supply constraints, record-high refining margins, and tanker costs that are reshaping fuel prices worldwide. Meanwhile, the explosive growth of AI data centers is creating a power demand crisis that threatens to overwhelm manufacturing capacity for years to come. This episode examines how these interconnected forces—from grid security and sanctions effectiveness to renewable energy policy and oil market dynamics—are fundamentally transforming the energy landscape and what it means for consumers, investors, and national security.1. U.S. Grid Vulnerability & Blackout RiskThe host discusses the critical vulnerability of the U.S. power grid to coordinated attacks on substations. Former FERC chairman John Wellinghoff warned that targeting just nine key substations could cause an 18-month nationwide blackout, potentially affecting millions. The episode emphasizes the importance of backup power systems and preparedness.2. Iraq's Oil Production Expansion & OPEC DynamicsIraq is aggressively pursuing plans to double its oil production capacity to 8-10 million barrels per day, with major oil companies (Chevron, Exxon, BP) securing new contracts. The discussion explores whether OPEC will allow this expansion and how Iraq is building export routes through Turkey to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.3. Sanctions on Iran & Their EffectivenessThe episode covers U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessen's sanctions strategy against Iran, examining whether sanctions are effectively constraining Iran's oil exports. Evidence shows Iran's exports have collapsed from 1.8-2.1 million barrels per day to near zero, though Iran is finding workarounds using land-based truck transport.4. Drone Threats to Oil InfrastructureThe UAE has installed massive metal cage structures over oil storage tanks in Abu Dhabi for anti-drone protection—a response to increasing drone strikes on energy infrastructure in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. This reflects how modern warfare is changing energy security.5. Ukraine's Strikes on Russian RefineriesUkraine has successfully struck major Russian refineries, including the Lukoil refinery in Perm, degrading Russia's refining capacity and military fuel supply. This has significant global oil market implications.6. Diesel Supply Shortages & Crack SpreadsHedge funds are reducing bearish bets on European diesel, signaling expected fuel supply shortages. U.S. crack spreads (the profit margin for refining) have hit record highs at $102 per barrel, driven by tight inventories and high tanker costs—not refinery gouging.7. AI Data Center Power Demand CrisisGE Vernova's gas turbine backlog has hit 116 gigawatts with delivery delays until 2031. The episode explores how AI data centers' massive power appetite is creating a manufacturing bottleneck, forcing companies to "bring your own power" (BYOP) solutions.8. Floating Offshore Wind Farms in BritainThe UK is moving to expensive floating offshore wind farms with 200 new turbines and 300-400 kilometers of cables. The host argues this approach will increase energy costs and require natural gas backup, contradicting net-zero goals.9. Winter Gasoline Waiver & Ethanol PolicyThe Trump administration issued an emergency waiver allowing early transition to winter-grade gasoline to help curb prices. The host advocates for eliminating ethanol mandates, arguing it wastes energy and increases consumer costs.10. Venezuela Oil Rig RestartSchlumberger (SLB) is preparing to restart 15 idle oil rigs in Venezuela to ease drilling bottlenecks, though Venezuela faces energy constraints that complicate operations.Overarching Theme: The podcast emphasizes that global energy markets are tight, oil and gas remain essential long-term, and geopolitical factors (sanctions, conflicts, infrastructure attacks) are reshaping energy supply chains and prices.1.What if 9 Substations were Targeted on the US Grid? Would Jon Wellinghoff's Prediction of an 18-Month US Grid Blackout Happen?2.Will Iraq leave OPEC, or will OPEC allow Iraq to double exports within six years?3.Will Choking Iran's Economy End the War, or Are They Too Resilient?4.UAE Cageing Up Their Oil Storage for Anti-Drone Protection5.Ukraine Hits Lukoil Refinery. How Degraded is the Russian Refinery Capacity?6.Hedge Funds Cut Bearish Bets on European Diesel to Two-Year Low7.GE Vernova's Gas Turbine Backlog Hits 116 GW. What Does This Mean for the AI Market?8.Britain Doubles Down on Wind by Moving to Floating Wind Farms for More Expensive Energy9.US Allows Early Sales of Winter Gasoline to Help Curb Prices10.SLB Prepares to Restart 15 Oil Rigs in VenezuelaA shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling, and we use their tools for the Energy News Beat weekly Rig Reports: https://welldatabase.com/

This week on the Mark Levin Show, we should encourage independent engagement with ideas like those of Justice Clarence Thomas rather than selling out to the left, communists, socialists, Islamists, the Woke Reich, isolationists, or others who have fallen into traps pushing greater interventionism or abandoning the dollar as the reserve currency. The prevailing hate directed at America, its founders, symbols, belief systems, Judaism, Christianity, and Israel should be condemned. We must maintain constitutional conservatism! President Trump, as Commander-in-Chief, made the decision to go to war with Iran and destroy their nuclear regime. Not Benjamin Netanyahu or anyone else. He did. But the Woke Reich neo-fascist isolationists can't accept that. In the past, Democrats and Republicans would have united behind this decision. Now, Democrats and Democratic Socialists on the left and the Woke Reich on the far right are undermining Trump and our troops. We know what the Iranian regime will do if they get their hands on nukes. We know they already fund terror groups all over the world. We know they push their ideology to the young, including right here in America. Right now, in the USA, weak governors allow fortress mosques to be built in our communities. In their hatred of Jews, the Woke Reich are ok with Iran and Putin. The Woke Reich are the modern-day appeasers of Hitler in the 1930s, but they don't have the integrity to admit it. Later, in the 1970s gas prices jumped due to OPEC's boycott of the U.S. over its Israel policies. Back then people blamed the oil companies instead of OPEC. Today the same manufactured hostility targets AI data centers. Governors ban or endlessly delay them with false pollution claims once used against fracking. The real issue is electricity: decades of blue-state regulations and anti-capitalist obstruction have blocked grid upgrades. Critics now complain data centers will consume too much power, yet refuse the solutions—expand the grid and let the centers build their own generation, including nuclear. Adversaries, especially China, face no such constraints and will dominate future technology, military, space, and health-care advances if America continues this economic self-sabotage. Furthermore, one of the dangers of so-called national conservatism, which has a relatively small following, is that it overlaps with the left by de-emphasizing individualism and stressing that each nation-state should simply be what it wishes. This isolationist approach should be rejected. We need to affirm American sovereignty, strong borders, traditional religion and culture, traditional family structures, and opposition to international institutions like the UN in favor of the Constitution. National conservatism's economic protectionism and interventionism skate too close to the left and serve as excuses for isolationism, centralization that erodes federalism, and more government control; the opposite is needed—deregulation, further tax cuts, and shrinking the central government—lest economic collapse destroy civil society, as the COVID-era attacks on liberties in blue states and cities already demonstrated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joby Warrick, a fine storyteller and longtime national security correspondent for the Washington Post, has written a biography of the most infamous terrorist of the second half of the 20th century.“The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist,” relates the life story of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez – the Venezuelan-born Communist who enjoyed tailored suits, fine wine, beautiful women, and murdering in support of anti-capitalism, anti-Zionism, and other sundry causes for which he was well-paid.The seizure of the OPEC ministers in Vienna. Two French intelligence officers shot dead in a Paris apartment. The capture in Khartoum that finally ended his run.Since 1994, Carlos has been behind bars. In 2003, from his cell, he wrote a manifesto, L'Islam révolutionnaire, praising Osama bin Laden's 9/11 attack, and urging revolutionaries of every stripe — leftists, atheists, all of them — to accept Islamist leadership.Today, Carlos sits in Poissy, a prison housed in a former monastery, where Joby interviewed him. In this episode of “Foreign Podicy,” Joby tells host Cliff May that the Jackal is no longer the wild animal he once was.

Host Jeff opens the episode by explaining his method of "backwards engineering" biblical prophecy and world events to determine where current geopolitical pieces are headed. He plays the regular "word on word" podcast segment comparing Bible translations, encourages listeners toward a gospel call (read the Gospel of John), and previews his Scattered Sparks series. Jeff lays out his central thesis: recent conflicts in the Middle East—including the Iran confrontation—are less about immediate territorial disputes and more about control of the banking and monetary system. He cites strategic moves by the Trump administration (Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Venezuela oil deals, access to the Malacca Strait and Greenland, and increased U.S. energy production) as part of a larger effort to secure energy choke points and reshape global power. The episode covers how U.S. energy dominance, revived domestic production, and new pipeline agreements (including Canada and Venezuela) undermine OPEC and the old petrodollar system. Jeff explains why mass money printing, rising deficits, and shifts in global energy flows could devalue fiat currencies, create pressure on bond markets, and ultimately lead to new monetary arrangements — with emphasis on assets versus liabilities as personal finance advice. Jeff responds to audience chat questions (including a brief practical exchange about castor oil and DMSO for eye use) and critiques global institutions such as the City of London and Brussels for losing manufacturing capacity while other regions industrialize. The episode includes a detailed commentary on the Candace Owens vs. "Pickles" debate: how the $300,000 challenge unfolded, tactical mistakes by "Pickles," Patrick Bet-David's role in pressing concrete claims, and Jeff's view that the encounter exposed divisions within TPUSA and broader right-wing movements. He assesses debate technique, media spin, and the possible political fallout of the spectacle. Jeff also discusses the suspicious circumstances and conspiratorial angles surrounding Charlie Kirk's death, the turmoil inside TPUSA after Kirk's passing, and how infiltration, honeypots, and power struggles may be reshaping conservative organizations — presented as theory rather than proven fact. Throughout the show Jeff weaves biblical perspective and eschatological conviction into his geopolitical analysis, reiterates a call to faith, and reminds listeners of community events: a Saturday prayer meeting on Telegram and a Sunday Bible study. He mentions holding the final episode of Scattered Sparks for wider viewership and invites listeners to watch the series to see how the pieces fit together. Listeners can expect a mix of scripture study, geopolitical analysis (banking, energy, and monetary policy), cultural commentary (TPUSA and online debates), and pastoral exhortation with practical takeaways on faith, finances, and preparedness.

Joby Warrick, a fine storyteller and longtime national security correspondent for the Washington Post, has written a biography of the most infamous terrorist of the second half of the 20th century.“The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist,” relates the life story of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez – the Venezuelan-born Communist who enjoyed tailored suits, fine wine, beautiful women, and murdering in support of anti-capitalism, anti-Zionism, and other sundry causes for which he was well-paid.The seizure of the OPEC ministers in Vienna. Two French intelligence officers shot dead in a Paris apartment. The capture in Khartoum that finally ended his run.Since 1994, Carlos has been behind bars. In 2003, from his cell, he wrote a manifesto, L'Islam révolutionnaire, praising Osama bin Laden's 9/11 attack, and urging revolutionaries of every stripe — leftists, atheists, all of them — to accept Islamist leadership.Today, Carlos sits in Poissy, a prison housed in a former monastery, where Joby interviewed him. In this episode of “Foreign Podicy,” Joby tells host Cliff May that the Jackal is no longer the wild animal he once was.

On Wednesday's Mark Levin Show, in the 1970s gas prices jumped due to OPEC's boycott of the U.S. over its Israel policies. Back then people blamed the oil companies instead of OPEC. Today the same manufactured hostility targets AI data centers. Governors ban or endlessly delay them with false pollution claims once used against fracking. The real issue is electricity: decades of blue-state regulations and anti-capitalist obstruction have blocked grid upgrades. Critics now complain data centers will consume too much power yet refuse the solutions—expand the grid and let the centers build their own generation, including nuclear. Adversaries, especially China, face no such constraints and will dominate future technology, military, space, and health-care advances if America continues this economic self-sabotage. Also, the Woke Reich is essentially dead. Figures such as Tucker Carlson and Matt Gaetz, along with the rest of that circle are finished and exist mainly online in a toxic cesspool. The election in Florida illustrated that real, normal, patriotic Americans have no interest in the Woke Reich or its antisemitism and remain focused on patriotism. Later, Iran has killed and maimed thousands of Americans and spreads terrorism globally, yet this stance is treated as controversial by some, including former NSA counterintelligence officer John Schindler. Schindler's portrayal of Levin as a “super hawk” pushing total war is idiotic. Schindler an isolationist, Israel-hater, and incoherent critic who diminishes U.S. capacity for victory. Afterward, Bruce Blakeman, who is running for Governor of NY, calls in and explains that Gov Kathy Hochul is fully subservient to Zohran Mamdani—including supporting a $5 billion NYC bailout with no spending cuts. Blakeman says New York is in a death spiral with the nation's highest taxes, electric bills 70% above the national average, and the most pro-criminal governor, leading to hundreds of thousands of people and jobs lost, $11 billion in lost tax revenue from high-net-worth individuals and corporations fleeing to states like Florida and Texas, and widespread misery. He is running to reverse this by cutting taxes, halving utility bills, supporting police, and protecting neighborhoods. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oil Reserves taking a hit. Finally getting to the recent high profile earnings. Market Top Calls (again). ALL TIME HIGHS – Then some consolidation (then highs again). Situational Awareness Update. SpaceX Bounces… PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? PayPal.Donation.Button({ env:'production', hosted_button_id:'JJJHP2GDEJC7J', image: { src:'https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif', alt:'Donate with PayPal button', title:'PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!', } }).render('#donate-button'); Follow John S. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm-Up - Oil Reserves taking a hit - Getting to the recent high profile earnings - Market Top Calls (again) Markets - ALL TIME HIGHS - Then some consolidation - Lets round out earnings - Situational Awareness Update - SpaceX Bounces... Etsy - Layoffs With Better Numbers - Etsy is cutting about 220 jobs, or 12% of its workforce. - Management said the cuts were not primarily about cost savings or AI. ----- CEO Kruti Patel Goyal stated the restructuring aims to simplify the organization, remove management layers, and speed up decision-making to better compete against massive rivals like Amazon, Temu, and TikTok Shop - Q2 revenue was about $668 million and core marketplace sales improved. - Etsy also authorized another $2 billion share buyback. - Comes after selling Depop to eBay for about $1.4 billion. Polysilicon - Tariffs Plus Price Floors - U.S. policy adds a 15% tariff and minimum import prices on polysilicon and solar products. - Goal is to protect domestic production from low-cost foreign competition. - U.S. share of global polysilicon capacity fell from about 50% in 2005 to under 2% in 2024. - First Solar and T1 Energy jumped on the announcement. ---- The same playbook - rinse and repeat Chipotle - Salmonella Returns - Minnesota officials linked a salmonella outbreak to jalapenos served at Chipotle. - Chipotle removed the affected pepper supply and switched growers. - Shares fell roughly 8%-10% as investors remembered the company's earlier food-safety problems. - This is on top of the lettuce situation with Sweetgreen- look at  STOCK CHART FOR SG Michael Burry - Calling a Major Top - Michael Burry says the market may be near a "major top." - Warned of the possibility of a 1987-style market drop. - He is short names including Nvidia, Palantir, Tesla and semiconductor stocks. - Main concern is stretched valuations and crowded trades unwinding quickly. - This may be the 100th top he has called since the GFC ---- NVIDIA TURNS GPUs INTO AN ASSET CLASS - Nvidia signed preliminary agreements with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR to mobilize more than $500 billion for AI infrastructure. - The Wall Street firms would create dedicated pools of capital to finance Nvidia-based data centers and compute infrastructure at what Nvidia calls attractive rates for customers. - Jensen Huang: “This is really the first time that technology chips have become an investable asset class.” Nvidia says the compute assets now generate revenue and can increasingly be financed like infrastructure. - Nvidia could backstop as much as 25% of individual investments on a case-by-case basis - potentially up to about $125 billion if applied across the full program. STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE BREAKS 300 MILLION - The Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 6.1 million barrels to 298.7 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 7 - below 300 million for the first time since January 1983. - The SPR started 2026 around 415 million barrels, meaning more than 100 million barrels have already come out this year as releases were used to offset disruptions from the Iran conflict. - The reserve's authorized storage capacity is roughly 714 million barrels, leaving current inventories at about 42% of capacity. - Oil on the rise last week Earnings and such Toyota - Big Buyback, Better Outlook - Toyota raised its annual operating-profit forecast 13%, helped by the weaker yen. - Announced a share buyback worth up to $6.3 billion. - Quarterly operating profit still fell 9%, hurt by China weakness and higher Middle East-related costs. McDonald's - Value Problem - U.S. same-store sales rose just 0.8%, below expectations and well below last year's 2.5% growth. - Management blamed weak execution of value promotions and fewer digital deals. (and probably because everyone is taking weight loss drugs - see above) - Lower-income customer traffic remains a major pressure point. - McDonald's is bringing back more digital offers and loyalty promotions to drive traffic. Eli Lilly - Weight-Loss Machine - Lilly crushed Q2 expectations as Mounjaro and Zepbound drove most of the growth. - Mounjaro sales hit $9.94 billion; Zepbound brought in $4.93 billion. - Raised 2026 revenue guidance to $85-$87 billion. - Verzenio, its major breast-cancer drug, remains one of Lilly's biggest non-obesity products. - Lilly continues widening its lead over Novo Nordisk in the obesity-drug market. Disney - Parks Keep Printing Money - Quarterly adjusted EPS rose 28% to $2.06, beating the $1.86 estimate. - Parks and experiences revenue increased 10% to nearly $10 billion. - Global park attendance grew 4%. - Disney is selling its 50% stake in A+E Networks to Hearst for an estimated $1.2 billion. Oil - OPEC Adds Barrels, Maybe - OPEC+ agreed to raise September production targets by another 188,000 barrels per day. - The increase completes the rollback of a 1.65 million-barrel-per-day supply cut dating back to 2023. (In other words - planned so not a surprise) - Actual supply remains constrained because several producers are already pumping below quota. - Any normalization around the Strait of Hormuz could suddenly make OPEC+'s additional barrels much more important. Berkshire Hathaway - Greg Abel Starts Spending - Q2 operating earnings rose 16% to about $13 billion. - Berkshire bought $23.5 billion of stocks and sold just $3.7 billion - its first quarter as a net stock buyer in 14 quarters. - Bought back $4.5 billion of Berkshire shares, versus only $235 million in Q1. - Cash dropped from roughly $380 billion to $365 billion as Abel starts putting the massive cash pile to work. - Important shift: Buffett is still chairman, but this is one of the clearest signs yet of how Greg Abel may allocate capital differently as CEO. Situational Awareness - Nearly Blows Up, Investors Want Back In - The fund lost 67% in July after leveraged AI bets collapsed and forced a major stock sale to Citadel. - Despite the blowup, Situational Awareness was still up about 80% for 2026 because of huge earlier gains. - Bloomberg says Silicon Valley investors are already asking to put more money into the fund. - Situational Awareness is currently telling prospective investors it is not accepting new capital. - The fund has also continued making large private investments even after the near-collapse. --- Most recent was a $400B ---- There is some talk that Citadel made out like a bandit on the rescue Mercedes AMG - The Car Literally Brands You - Two Mercedes AMG owners filed a class-action lawsuit claiming the metal AMG logo embedded in the seat becomes dangerously hot in the sun. - One driver says he suffered first- and second-degree burns, with a dermatologist describing the injury as "AMG inscribed." - The lawsuit wants Mercedes to cover damages and remove the metal logos from affected vehicles. - Hard to beat this one: pay AMG money and get the logo branded into your back. Europe's Drought - History Starts Popping Out - Extreme drought and low river levels are exposing things that have been underwater or hidden for decades or centuries. - In Serbia, sunken German World War II warships have reappeared in the Danube. - In Britain, dry ground revealed outlines of medieval buildings; mammoth remains and ancient structures have also surfaced elsewhere. - Serious drought story, but visually one of the strangest side effects of the summer. Golden Toilet - $6 Million Flush - The 18-carat gold toilet was ripped out of Blenheim Palace in a five-minute raid and has never been recovered - but there is a conviction. - Prosecutors used phone data, forensic evidence and planning activity to link the gang to the theft. - One defendant had cased the palace beforehand and photographed entry points; another man had already pleaded guilty and admitted helping move the stolen gold. - Prosecutors believe the 98-kilo toilet was quickly cut up or melted down and sold as gold. - So the conviction was based on evidence of the robbery and disposal - not on recovering the actual toilet. Final Follow Up SpaceX - Space Junk Smashes Into the Moon - A dead SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stage crashed into the moon at about 5,400 mph after drifting through space since January 2025. - The roughly 4-ton, school-bus-size object kicked up a lunar dust plume that astronomers detected from Chile. - The impact was accidental - solar activity and gravity gradually pushed the abandoned rocket stage onto a collision course. - NASA and SpaceX are now discussing ways to prevent future lunar crashes as more hardware heads toward the moon. - NEED Space garbage Trucks - something we have discussed on show for years (see next) Space Garbage Trucks - This Is Becoming a Business - Astroscale is building spacecraft designed to inspect, capture and remove dead satellites and other orbital debris. - Its ADRAS-J mission demonstrated close approach and inspection of a large piece of existing space junk - a key step before actually grabbing and removing debris. - ClearSpace is developing similar debris-removal spacecraft, including missions designed to rendezvous with and capture abandoned rocket hardware. - The business model is basically orbital towing: governments and satellite operators pay to remove dangerous junk or service aging spacecraft. - With tens of thousands of tracked objects already in orbit, "space sanitation" could become a real infrastructure business.   Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? PayPal.Donation.Button({ env: 'production', hosted_button_id: 'JJJHP2GDEJC7J', image: { src: 'https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif', alt: 'Donate with PayPal button', title: 'PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!' } }).render('#donate-button-2'); THE CLOSEST TO THE PIN for SpaceX (SPCX) Winners will be getting great stuff like the new "OFFICIAL" DHUnplugged Shirt!   FED AND CRYPTO LIMERICKS   See this week's stock picks HERE Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter

As Donald Trump's Iran war drags on and hostilities continue in the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea, global energy markets are being reshaped - not by OPEC or the US, but by China. On today's episode of Iran: the Latest, Venetia Rainey talks to world economy editor Ambrose Evans-Pritchard about how Beijing has weaponised its internal oil demand to keep oil prices stable and bypass Saudi Arabia, even as US Strategic Petroleum Reserves have plunged to their lowest level since 1983. Why have oil prices remained largely stable and are those figures masking underlying economic turmoil?Plus: how the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is pushing Iraq to the brink of total economic collapse and the worrying news of a recent Pew Survey measuring attitudes towards the US vs China. HighlightsIran war drains US strategic petroleum reserves to 40-year lowHow Beijing has kept oil prices stable and bypassed Saudi ArabiaCONTRIBUTORS:Venetia Rainey, co-host and executive producer @venetiaraineyAmbrose Evans-Pritchard, world economy editor WATCH US ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJnf_DDTfIVAif-vifC6F2aoPB8GIw6dkCONTENT REFERENCED:Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Trump's eternal March of Folly on Iranhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/07/31/trumps-eternal-march-of-folly-on-iran/Trump targets Iran's economy as military campaign faltershttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2026/08/12/trump-scott-bessent-end-iran-war/Iran war threatens to cripple growth, Treasury warns Burnhamhttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/08/12/iran-war-threatens-to-cripple-growth-treasury-warns-burnham/Winner Best News and Analysis Podcast - Publisher Podcast Awards 2026Nominated Podcast of the Year - Society of Editors News Podcasts Awards 2026Nominated Best News, Politics and Current Affairs - British Podcast Awards 2026The Telegraph, Winner Podcast Publisher of the Year 2026 - Publisher Podcast Awards 2026Producer: Peter ShevlinVideo Producer: Max BowerResearcher and Social Producer: Anna HindmarshStudio Operator: Andy WatsonExecutive Producer: Venetia Rainey ► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor► EMAIL US: Contact the team on battlelines@telegraph.co.uk► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 “He's not a trustworthy witness to his own story. Everything is ten times bigger and better than it really was — except when he was accused of crimes, in which case he can't really remember anymore.” — Joby Warrick on Carlos the Jackal Yesterday, WOLA's Adam Isacson and John Walsh described how the US government has appropriated the term “narco-terrorism” to justify their Latin American killing spree. Today, we talk the real thing. Pulitzer Prize-winning Joby Warrick has a new book out about the rise and fall of Carlos the Jackal, who he calls the “original super-terrorist.” So who was Carlos the Jackal? Originally he was named by his Venezuelan Marxist father Ilich in homage to Lenin. Then he renamed himself Carlos, borrowing from a fake passport the French police happened to find in 1975. While The Jackal came from the London Guardian after reporters spotted Frederick Forsyth's best-seller on the bookshelf of his London safe house. Ilich (i.e. Carlos) loved it. Anything for attention. Especially from the capitalist media. His career, as a proxy Palestinian terrorist, was equally audacious. His solo debut, at 24, was the attempted London assassination of Marks & Spencer chairman Joseph Sieff. Two years later, Carlos waltzed into OPEC headquarters in Vienna and kidnapped most of the world's oil ministers, a terrorist heist that, Warrick reveals, was financed by Muammar Gaddafi. Then all of Carlos' yesterdays — and there are many, as Warrick discovers when he interviews him in his French jail. He spent twenty years on the run, mostly barely camouflaged in faded Eastern European hotels. The Mossad didn't even consider him worth assassinating. By the eighties he had become a gun for hire who'd stopped attacking Israelis. And at 75, in his convent-turned-prison outside Paris, the world's original super-terrorist cooks his own meals, repeats old leftist slogans, and misremembers everything except his innocence. In spite of his pathetic fate, Carlos matters because, as Warrick notes, the Jackal model is back in fashion. Russia and Iran now hire petty crooks on Telegram for a few hundred dollars to firebomb synagogues or assassinate dissidents. Gaza's tragic hopelessness echoes the post-1967 conditions that bred the first wave of Palestinian terror. Social media is now infested with wannabe violent influencers. The day of the Jackal, then, is not only our history but also our future. Five Takeaways •       Interview with the Jackal. Warrick negotiated for over a year — with Carlos, then with a French government determined he not be glorified, since his gravest crimes were against French citizens — for roughly ninety minutes in March 2025, no recorder, no camera, notebook only. The prison is a converted sixteenth-century convent outside Paris where the Nazis once tortured members of the Resistance; inside it, Carlos remains the big man on campus — guards call him Carlos, not Ilich, and he keeps a large cell, cooks his own meals, and browses the internet. At 75 he is natty, polyglot, charming — and stooped, forgetful, repeating himself into what Warrick calls a fog of old memories. As a witness he is worthless: everything ten times bigger and better than it was, except the crimes, which he suddenly cannot recall.•       Ilich, Carlos, Jackal: An Accidental Brand. His ardent-Marxist father named his three sons Vladimir, Ilich, and Lenin, after the founder of the Soviet Union. “Carlos” came from a fake passport — Carlos Martinez — that French police happened to seize in 1975; the pudgy dark-glasses photo the world memorized was a passport fake he remains embarrassed by. “The Jackal” was coined by the British tabloids after reporters prowling his London safe house spotted Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal on the bookshelf. He embraced all of it: a true believer whose slogans still pour out in prison, welded to a massive ego that always placed Carlos at the center of the revolution. Had Instagram existed, Warrick agrees, he'd have used it — the pre-digital influencer, with the world's press as his platform.•       From Five Bullets to Kidnapping OPEC. His 1970 baptism of fire in the Black September fighting hardened him past the point of return; his solo test, at 24, was the attempted assassination of Marks & Spencer chairman Joseph Sieff — an old gun, five bullets, a jam, and a bullet deflected by the victim's teeth (“good old Milk Marketing Board,” Sieff told the BBC from his hospital bed). The masterpiece came in December 1975: a 26-year-old walks into OPEC's Vienna headquarters mid-conference, takes the world's oil ministers hostage, extracts a plane and a ransom, and flies them to North Africa — the most audacious terrorist act Warrick can name. The book's scoop settles who sponsored it: not Saddam Hussein, as biographers and a 2010 docudrama claimed, but Muammar Gaddafi — the autocrat pioneering the criminal proxy with no return address.•       Twenty Years, No Capture — and a Mossad Pass. The world's most wanted man spent two decades in comfort: Budapest his favorite hideout (good meals, nice hotels — Carlos insisted on top-flight everything), the Hungarians, East Germans, and Romanians almost proud to host their superstar guest, Assad's Syria always available. The run ended only when the Bloc fell and the Arab states tired of him; the French and Americans finally tracked him to Khartoum in 1994. The great deflation is the Mossad: they never bothered with him. His mentor Wadi Haddad — the true operational genius — they hunted and killed; Carlos, by then a mercenary who'd stopped attacking Israelis, simply fell down the priority list. The world's most fearsome terrorist wasn't worth Israel's effort.•       The Return of Violent Chaos. Warrick's closing argument, and the reason this history is news: the Gaddafi model has been rediscovered. Russia and Iran now hire criminals — recruited on Telegram, paid a few hundred dollars in crypto — to throw grenades into synagogues, set fires, and assassinate dissidents: hundreds of incidents already, most under the radar, none traceable to Moscow or Tehran. The modern Carlos works for whoever pays; ideology has left the business entirely. Gaza's hopelessness, meanwhile, mirrors the post-1967 despair that launched the first international terror wave — and we are not prepared. As for America's own extrajudicial turn, from drone war to boat strikes: “There's no precedent... it is a grave change for us as Americans. Very troubling to me.” About the Guest Joby Warrick is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and veteran national security correspondent for The Washington Post. His books include The Triple Agent, Red Line, and Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist (Scribner, August 18, 2026), built on newly declassified archives, secret police files, and a rare interview with Carlos himself, is out next week.

The latest US inflation data came in in line with expectations and reinforced the view that the Federal Reserve is likely to keep interest rates unchanged in September. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both finished the day in positive territory yesterday, with technology stocks leading the gains. Earlier in Europe, equities eased as investors balanced earnings releases with ongoing geopolitical developments. Oil markets are weighing up the escalating tensions in the Middle East against softer global demand expectations from both OPEC and the IEA. Tim Gagie, Head of FX Advisory in Geneva, joins the show today to share his thoughts on gold, the US dollar and the Swiss franc.(00:00) - Introduction: Roman Canziani, Head of Product & Investment Content (00:51) - Markets wrap-up: Helen Freer, Product & Investment Content (07:23) - FX & metals update: Tim Gagie, Head of FX/PM PB Geneva (11:44) - Closing remarks: Roman Canziani, Head of Product & Investment Content Would you like to support this show? Please leave us a review and star rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Iran war triggered the largest supply shock in the history of petroleum, yet prices never rose as high as feared. Our correspondent explains how action taken by China steadied global oil flows. Why Brazil has such strict laws on racist language. And the legendary lager of Laos. Guests and host:Matthieu Favas, commodities editorAna Lankes, Brazil bureau chiefVishnu Padmanabhan, Asia correspondent Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”Topics covered: China, Iran, oil supplies, OPEC, crudeBrazil, hate speech, racismLaos, Beerlao, beer, lagerListen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Iran war triggered the largest supply shock in the history of petroleum, yet prices never rose as high as feared. Our correspondent explains how action taken by China steadied global oil flows. Why Brazil has such strict laws on racist language. And the legendary lager of Laos. Guests and host:Matthieu Favas, commodities editorAna Lankes, Brazil bureau chiefVishnu Padmanabhan, Asia correspondent Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”Topics covered: China, Iran, oil supplies, OPEC, crudeBrazil, hate speech, racismLaos, Beerlao, beer, lagerListen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to The Economist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When geopolitical chaos erupts—Iranian tankers in the dark fleet, Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Russian refineries under fire—oil prices should skyrocket. Yet here we are in August 2024 with WTI crude at just $83 a barrel, and the market hasn't collapsed. Why? Because the U.S. is producing nearly 14 million barrels a day, pipelines are bypassing chokepoints, and refineries are running flat out. But there's a catch. In this episode of the Energy Impact Podcast, Trisha Curtis—CEO of PetroNode, Chief Economist of the American Energy Institute, and Senior Consultant at the U.S. Department of Energy—joins David Blackmon and Stu Turley to break down the real story behind oil markets. They debate whether prices reflect reality, expose the refining capacity crisis that's keeping gas prices high, and challenge the media narratives that get it wrong.From China's strategic stockpiling to Iran's fading leverage to why the oil industry desperately needs better PR, this conversation separates market hype from hard data—and reveals what's really at stake for American energy security.Connect with Trisha Curtis at https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-curtis-petronerds/ or  @petronerds633  on YouTubeThis is also going out on David Blackmon's podcast, Energy Impacts.Connect with David on his LinkedIn here https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-blackmon-2325189/1. U.S. Oil Production & Global Market DominanceThe hosts emphasize that the U.S. produces nearly 14 million barrels per day, making it the world's largest oil producer. This production level hasn't received adequate attention in media coverage, despite its significant geopolitical and economic implications. The Permian Basin, particularly in Texas and New Mexico, is driving record output growth.2. Oil Market Resilience During Geopolitical DisruptionsDespite major disruptions—including attacks on the Strait of Hormuz, Red Sea blockades by Houthis, and the Ukraine-Russia conflict—the oil market has adapted remarkably well. The hosts credit market forces, refinery efficiency, and alternative supply routes (like the East-West Pipeline) for preventing catastrophic price spikes that many predicted.3. Current Oil Pricing ($83/barrel WTI)The discussion explores why oil prices have remained relatively moderate despite geopolitical chaos. They debate whether prices reflect reality, with consideration for tanker insurance costs, physical delivery premiums, and crack spreads (refinery profit margins).4. Refining Capacity CrisisA critical issue: the U.S. has 128 operating refineries with an average age of 75-80 years, and only one new refinery (Brownsville) is coming online by 2027. California is losing refining capacity (6 of 7 refineries slated to close), which will have serious economic consequences. Refining capacity is the key bottleneck limiting gasoline and diesel price relief.5. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) & ExportsThe hosts discuss the SPR release strategy and defend continued crude oil and refined product exports as essential to global energy security. They emphasize that allowing exports supports the market and benefits U.S. energy interests.6. China's Energy Strategy & StockpilingChina has significantly reduced oil imports (down 5 million barrels/day) and is drawing on massive strategic reserves. The hosts suggest China is using this period as a "test run" for potential future blockades (like closing the Strait of Malacca during a Taiwan conflict).7. Middle East Geopolitical ComplexityThe discussion covers Iran's leverage (tanker fleet, strait control), OPEC's fragmentation (UAE's departure), Iraq's alignment with Iran, and the role of alternative pipelines reducing dependence on the Strait of Hormuz.8. Turkey, Pakistan & Regional MediationThe hosts highlight emerging geopolitical tensions involving Turkey and Pakistan as mediators, with concerns about extremism funding and the potential for regional escalation.9. Industry Communication & LeadershipThe hosts criticize the oil and gas industry for poor public relations and not taking credit for market stability and affordable energy. They call for better industry leadership and advocacy.This podcast presents a nuanced view of global energy markets, emphasizing market adaptation, U.S. strategic advantages, and the critical importance of refining infrastructure and policy decisions around exports and reserves.Check out the Energy News Beat Substack at https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/Check out David Blackmon's Substack at https://blackmon.substack.com/

When geopolitical chaos erupts—Iranian tankers in the dark fleet, Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Russian refineries under fire—oil prices should skyrocket. Yet here we are in August 2024 with WTI crude at just $83 a barrel, and the market hasn't collapsed. Why? Because the U.S. is producing nearly 14 million barrels a day, pipelines are bypassing chokepoints, and refineries are running flat out. But there's a catch. In this episode of the Energy Impact Podcast, Trisha Curtis—CEO of PetroNode, Chief Economist of the American Energy Institute, and Senior Consultant at the U.S. Department of Energy—joins David Blackmon and Stu Turley to break down the real story behind oil markets. They debate whether prices reflect reality, expose the refining capacity crisis that's keeping gas prices high, and challenge the media narratives that get it wrong.From China's strategic stockpiling to Iran's fading leverage to why the oil industry desperately needs better PR, this conversation separates market hype from hard data—and reveals what's really at stake for American energy security.Connect with Trisha Curtis at https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-curtis-petronerds/ or  @petronerds633  on YouTubeThis is also going out on David Blackmon's podcast, Energy Impacts.Connect with David on his LinkedIn here https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-blackmon-2325189/1. U.S. Oil Production & Global Market DominanceThe hosts emphasize that the U.S. produces nearly 14 million barrels per day, making it the world's largest oil producer. This production level hasn't received adequate attention in media coverage, despite its significant geopolitical and economic implications. The Permian Basin, particularly in Texas and New Mexico, is driving record output growth.2. Oil Market Resilience During Geopolitical DisruptionsDespite major disruptions—including attacks on the Strait of Hormuz, Red Sea blockades by Houthis, and the Ukraine-Russia conflict—the oil market has adapted remarkably well. The hosts credit market forces, refinery efficiency, and alternative supply routes (like the East-West Pipeline) for preventing catastrophic price spikes that many predicted.3. Current Oil Pricing ($83/barrel WTI)The discussion explores why oil prices have remained relatively moderate despite geopolitical chaos. They debate whether prices reflect reality, with consideration for tanker insurance costs, physical delivery premiums, and crack spreads (refinery profit margins).4. Refining Capacity CrisisA critical issue: the U.S. has 128 operating refineries with an average age of 75-80 years, and only one new refinery (Brownsville) is coming online by 2027. California is losing refining capacity (6 of 7 refineries slated to close), which will have serious economic consequences. Refining capacity is the key bottleneck limiting gasoline and diesel price relief.5. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) & ExportsThe hosts discuss the SPR release strategy and defend continued crude oil and refined product exports as essential to global energy security. They emphasize that allowing exports supports the market and benefits U.S. energy interests.6. China's Energy Strategy & StockpilingChina has significantly reduced oil imports (down 5 million barrels/day) and is drawing on massive strategic reserves. The hosts suggest China is using this period as a "test run" for potential future blockades (like closing the Strait of Malacca during a Taiwan conflict).7. Middle East Geopolitical ComplexityThe discussion covers Iran's leverage (tanker fleet, strait control), OPEC's fragmentation (UAE's departure), Iraq's alignment with Iran, and the role of alternative pipelines reducing dependence on the Strait of Hormuz.8. Turkey, Pakistan & Regional MediationThe hosts highlight emerging geopolitical tensions involving Turkey and Pakistan as mediators, with concerns about extremism funding and the potential for regional escalation.9. Industry Communication & LeadershipThe hosts criticize the oil and gas industry for poor public relations and not taking credit for market stability and affordable energy. They call for better industry leadership and advocacy.This podcast presents a nuanced view of global energy markets, emphasizing market adaptation, U.S. strategic advantages, and the critical importance of refining infrastructure and policy decisions around exports and reserves.Check out the Energy News Beat Substack at https://theenergynewsbeat.substack.com/A shout-out to Steve Reese and the Reese Energy Consulting group for sponsoring the Podcast https://reeseenergyconsulting.com/.Data2 if you have any business systems, can you trust A? Well, they have the patent on validation. . https://data2.zoholandingpage.com/energyAnd we have WellDatabase rolling in as a new sponsor. https://welldatabase.com/

Eurozone growth expectations have improved, supported by a strong earnings season. Oil prices rose on renewed Strait of Hormuz tensions, while OPEC output recovered in July. AI investment remained in focus, with Intel raising capital, Nvidia securing funding for AI infrastructure, and regulatory changes supporting additional financing channels. However, this did not support the Nasdaq, which edged lower on Monday. Gold and silver extended their rally from late last week, supported by rebounding gold ETF demand. Enrico Chinello, Next Generation Research, discusses the state of AI infrastructure spending, arguing that it is not a bubble, while stressing that investors should focus more closely on valuations, earnings visibility and monetisation.(00:00) - Introduction: Lucija Caculovic, Product & Investment Content (00:42) - Markets wrap-up: Mike Rauber, Product & Investment Content (06:49) - Artificial Intelligence: Enrico Chinello, Next Generation Research (12:07) - Closing remarks: Lucija Caculovic, Product & Investment Content Would you like to support this show? Please leave us a review and star rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

A.M. Edition for Aug. 10. Iran dials up its demands in talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Plus, Meta embraces open-weight AI models in a bid to blunt the appeal of cheaper Chinese competition. And WSJ finance editor Alex Frangos breaks down how a payment network backed by the Russian government reveals the limits of Western efforts to economically isolate Moscow. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

 EPISODE DESCRIPTION In this episode, I sit down with Baron, a 20-year veteran of the oil and gas industry who started his career as a trader at Petronas and has spent decades working across crude oil, fuel oil, refined petroleum products, and derivatives. Baron is writing a book called The Litro Standard, and his thesis is fascinating: instead of anchoring money to gold or the US dollar, we should be anchoring digital finance to verified energy. We dig into how the current commodity settlement system is broken , why it takes 90 days to get paid for oil you sold today, why buyers never actually know the price they'll pay, and how tokenizing energy could compress that into an instant. We also get into the real-world oil market dynamics most people miss: why the Brent crude price hasn't exploded despite the Strait of Hormuz crisis, why China is the single biggest factor keeping oil below $100, and what would actually need to happen for oil to hit $130. This is one of those conversations where I genuinely felt like I was downloading years of insider knowledge in under an hour. DISCLAIMERNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/ CONNECT Baron LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/baron-idriss-lamarre-00a390169/Baron Twitter/X: https://x.com/Baron_LamarreWeb3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz/ KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS • [00:00] Sam introduces Baron and the Litro Standard , the idea of pegging digital money to verified energy instead of gold or the dollar• [02:00] Baron shares his background: 20 years in oil and gas, starting at Petronas in 2003 as an oil trader, covering crude, fuel oil, refined products, and derivatives• [03:53] What is the Litro Standard? Linking digital money to verified, audited energy , crude oil, natural gas, electricity , as collateral for settlement and trade• [05:17] Key benefits: energy-producing nations can anchor their currency to an asset they control, reducing dependence on the dollar• [08:20] How tokenizing oil in the ground works , buyers get direct access to producers, cutting out intermediaries• [10:13] The 90-day settlement problem: sell oil today, get paid in October , and the invoice price is not the price you agreed on• [13:52] The Strait of Hormuz problem and how the Litro Standard's location swap mechanism could reroute cargo through pooled reserves• [16:38] What is broken in today's financial system: trust is slow, costly, and politically fragile; Swift and correspondent banking have become geopolitical chokepoints• [20:20] The historical lesson people miss , monetary systems follow infrastructure revolutions, not the other way around• [25:35] Who really controls the oil price today: 80% is determined by financial markets and speculators, not producers• [27:01] Common misconceptions about the oil market , it is not as opaque or elite as people think, and refineries sometimes run at a loss just to keep operating• [30:43] Why Brent crude is still around $80 despite the Strait of Hormuz crisis , China's strategic reserve, alternative routes, and the $100 demand destruction threshold• [33:04] China as the buyer of last resort and how ADNOC leaving OPEC and joining the Shanghai Energy Exchange is reshaping price benchmarks• [38:33] Baron's boldest prediction: the next monetary revolution will not begin in central banks , it will begin in commodity markets, transaction by transaction• [40:27] Baron's ask: read the book, question assumptions, and join the conversation about the convergence of energy, technology, and money

"We have things that go into missiles where 100% of the supply chain is Chinese controlled, and they didn't even think to look until last year."   The tariffs, the capture of Venezuela's president, the attacks on Iran; these aren't isolated geopolitical events. They share a common denominator: China. In this conversation, Jaspreet Singh sits down with his firm's head of investing research, Jackson, to break down the real economic conflict unfolding between the U.S. and China.   Jackson explains how China has systematically gained control over the raw materials powering the modern economy: from the lithium in EV batteries to the rare earth metals in U.S. missiles. Along with why the U.S. is now scrambling to rebuild a domestic supply chain it didn't realize it had lost. For investors who understand where this is heading, it creates a specific and significant opportunity.   In this episode, you'll learn: How China used lithium price crashing to gain control of 80% of the world's lithium supply, and why the U.S. is now pushing for critical mineral price floors to prevent the same playbook from repeating Why the dollar's reserve currency status is under growing pressure: Saudi Arabia is now selling oil in Chinese yuan, the BRICS alliance is expanding, and while stable coins pegged to the dollar are adding global adoption, the underlying vulnerability is real and increasing How the U.S. strategy to contain China connects Venezuela, Iran, the UAE leaving OPEC, and tariffs into one coherent economic war and why Jackson argues that whoever controls the global flow of energy will hold the dominant position when this conflict resolves How Jackson's research methodology works: talking directly to people pulling metals out of the ground, attending industry events like the World Mining Congress, reading trade papers and government legislation in progress, and only layering in financial modeling after understanding the underlying thesis, the opposite of buying what's trending on Reddit   Keywords: China trade war, dollar reserve currency, critical minerals, rare earth metals, energy investing, petrodollar, lithium supply chain, geopolitical investing, commodity price manipulation, active investing     Want more financial news? Join Market Briefs, my free daily financial newsletter: https://link2.briefs.co/gie Below are my recommended tools! Please note: Yes, these are our sponsors & advertisers. However, these are companies that I trust and use (or have used). The compensation doesn't affect my recommendations or advice. That being said, you should always do your own research & never blindly listen to a random guy on YouTube (or podcast). ---------- ➤ Invest In Stocks Passively 1) M1 Finance - Buy stocks & ETFs automatically: https://theminoritymindset.com/m1 ---------- ➤ Life Insurance 2) Policygenius - Get a free life insurance quote: https://theminoritymindset.com/policygenius ---------- ➤ Real Estate Investing Online 3) Fundrise - Invest in real estate with as little as $10! https://theminoritymindset.com/fundrise ----------

準備賣房嗎？ 即日起至12月31日， 把房屋專任委託給台南住商不動產，即可參加「好友五吉」抽獎活動，賣房抽五機~有機會抽中最新 iPhone 18！ 錦上添花, 好運大獎拿不完! 詳情請洽台南住商任一加盟店。 https://sofm.pse.is/9fxwen －－－－以上為 SoundOn 動態廣告－－－－ ＊第八季＊【EP. 735】#經濟學人導讀 / 國際時事 / 英文學習：可以不買的終極底氣！中國不為人知悄悄改寫全球石油規則？ 探討全球石油權力結構的轉型，分析中國如何從被動的價格接受者轉變為具備「需求端定價權」的超級買家。作者指出，中國透過擴大戰略庫存、提升煉油彈性及推動電動車與電氣化，正建立起足以制衡OPEC供給霸權的「需求天花板」。未來的國際能源地緣政治將不再由賣方單獨主導，而是進入美國金融霸權、中東供給底線與中國需求調節的多極賽局。這種轉變的核心在於中國追求「不買石油的能力」，使能源轉型從氣候議題升格為國家安全戰略，最終可能在2035年形成賣方保底、買方限高的全新市場秩序。 -- Hosting provided by SoundOn

Under våren fick världen smaka på hur brist på olja kan påverka världsekonomin, detta i en värld där vi förvisso är mycket beroende av olja men ändå har viss variation. På 1970-talet användes olja till allt, från hela fordonsflottan till uppvärmning av fastigheter, smällen när oljan ströps åt kom dessutom som en blixt från klar himmel för världsekonomin i en tid då oljeresurserna var helt koncentrerade till vissa länder som nyligen skapat en kartell. Det här är berättelsen om hur fjällen föll från våra ögon vad gäller energifrågan. Avsnitten är en dubbel från 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

- Quốc hội sáng nay thảo luận 3 dự án Luật, là Luật Phòng, chống phổ biến vũ khí hủy diệt hàng loạt; Luật sửa đổi, bổ sung một số điều của 9 luật về quân sự, quốc phòng và Luật Phổ biến, giáo dục pháp luật (sửa đổi). Tổng Bí thư, Chủ tịch nước Tô Lâm phát biểu tại tổ cho rằng những quy định phải kiến tạo cho phát triển chứ không thể để sự việc xảy ra mới quy định lại thì sẽ bị chậm.- Dự Hội nghị Ngoại giao lần thứ 33, Thủ tướng Lê Minh Hưng  yêu cầu: Biến uy tín đối ngoại thành các nguồn lực phát triển.- Ngân hàng nhà nước cho biết, 4 ngân hàng thương mại nhà nước đã đăng ký số tiền 220.000 tỷ đồng để cho vay gói ưu đãi hướng đến doanh nghiệp nhỏ và vừa, hướng đến các lĩnh vực ưu tiên.- OPEC+ nhất trí tăng sản lượng dầu trong tháng 9 thêm 188.000 thùng/ngày, nhằm đảm bảo nguồn cung phù hợp với diễn biến của thị trường.- Những con sông huyết mạch của châu Âu như sông Ranh và Đa-nuýp cạn nước kỷ lục ảnh hưởng đến toàn bộ nền kinh tế khu vực.

VOV1 - Tại cuộc họp ngày 02/8, bảy nước thành viên OPEC+ thực hiện cắt giảm sản lượng tự nguyện đã nhất trí điều chỉnh tăng sản lượng dầu thêm 188.000 thùng/ngày kể từ tháng 9/2026, đồng thời khẳng định tiếp tục phối hợp nhằm duy trì ổn định thị trường năng lượng toàn cầu.Tại cuộc họp, các nước thống nhất điều chỉnh tăng sản lượng dầu trong tháng 9/2026 thêm 188.000 thùng/ngày so với mức cắt giảm sản lượng tự nguyện được công bố vào tháng 4/2023. Đây là một phần trong cơ chế điều chỉnh sản lượng định kỳ của OPEC+ nhằm bảo đảm nguồn cung phù hợp với diễn biến của thị trường.Nhóm bảy nước cho biết việc điều chỉnh này cũng tạo điều kiện để các thành viên đẩy nhanh tiến độ bù đắp phần sản lượng khai thác vượt hạn ngạch trước đó. Các nước tái khẳng định cam kết thực hiện đầy đủ Tuyên bố Hợp tác của OPEC+, bao gồm các cam kết cắt giảm sản lượng tự nguyện và bù đắp toàn bộ lượng khai thác vượt mức kể từ tháng 1/2024.Theo thông báo, việc tuân thủ các cam kết sẽ tiếp tục được Ủy ban Giám sát Cấp bộ trưởng chung (JMMC) theo dõi, trong khi nhóm bảy nước sẽ duy trì các cuộc họp hằng tháng để đánh giá diễn biến thị trường dầu mỏ. Cuộc họp tiếp theo dự kiến diễn ra vào ngày 6/9/2026.Minh Phượng/VOV NgaẢnh minh họa

This episode analyzes the rise and fall of Ilich Ramírez Sánchez to highlight critical situational awareness and intelligence tradecraft lessons from the era of transnational terror. By examining high-profile operations like the 1975 OPEC siege, listeners learn how lapses in security, state tolerance, and unmonitored movement allowed a high-profile operative to exploit vulnerabilities across international borders. Understanding these historical patterns of operational tradecraft equips modern security professionals and researchers to better recognize emerging threat vectors and maintain heightened vigilance against complex, multi-jurisdictional risks.

This episode breaks down the life of the Venezuelan militant who became one of the most wanted men of the 1970s and 80s. From his early operations with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to the 1975 OPEC siege and his eventual capture, it examines how ideology, opportunity, and state tolerance turned him into a global figure. The story ends with his multiple life sentences in France and what his career revealed about that era of transnational violence.

In this episode of WSJ's Take On the Week, co-host Telis Demos is joined by guest co-host and Wall Street Journal reporter David Uberti to break down the Federal Reserve's latest moves, and what oil's volatile pricing—exacerbated by the U.S.-Iran conflict—might mean for inflation and the Fed going forward.  Then, BCA Research's chief commodities strategist Roukaya Ibrahim joins the show to break down what's behind oil's volatile pricing. They discuss what current geopolitical tensions mean for oil and whether recent inventory data suggests a looming supply crunch. Plus, Ibrahim explains why the traditional link between gold and inflation has fractured, and how oil price shocks may impact the Fed. This is WSJ's Take On the Week where co-hosts Telis Demos, writer for WSJ's Heard on the Street, and Miriam Gottfried, WSJ's investing and wealth management reporter, cut through the noise and dive into markets, the economy and finance—the big trades, key players and business news ahead. Have an idea for a future guest or episode? How can we better help you take on the week? We'd love to hear from you. Email the show at takeontheweek@wsj.com. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com Further Reading Kevin Warsh Asked the Market to Speak. It Answered. Two Wars Put Stranglehold on Global Energy Supplies U.S. Emergency Oil Reserve Hits Lowest Levels Since 1983: Why It Matters For more coverage of the markets and your investments, head to WSJ.com, WSJ's Heard on The Street Column, and WSJ's Live Markets blog. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter.  Follow Miriam Gottfried here and Telis Demos here.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen for the latest from Bloomberg NewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

OPEC+ producers have agreed to raise oil output for the sixth consecutive month, adding 188,000 barrels per day in September.

Jersey Mike's had the biggest restaurant IPO in 15 years… because investors are hot for cold cuts.The War in Iran keeps escalating, but oil prices don't... Because China is now DOPEC: OPEC for Demand.1 Nantucket store banned influencers, 1 embraced them… And it's touched a national nerve.Plus, why do Weather Apps say it's raining when it isn't?... Blame “Wet Bias” (it's messing with our economy)$JMKE $XOM $METAGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14: https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lindsey Graham's funeral, AIPAC Uglifies Michigan, Oil Companies' Record Profits In this episode: • Gretchen Whitmer takes Blue Cross cash — and buries Medicare for All • One GOP senator holds Todd Blanche's AG confirmation hostage • Netanyahu talked Trump into an Iran bombing that's already collapsing • The Strait of Hormuz, OPEC, and why "drill baby drill" never meant cheap gas for YOU • Big Oil's best quarter in years — paid for with YOUR money and someone else's blood • Operation Southern Spear: more cocaine flowing in, executions without trial • Halliburton, Carlisle Group, West Exec — the men who profit every time America goes to war • "No money, no war" — Congress has the power. It refuses to use it. Key figures covered: Gretchen Whitmer, Todd Blanche, John Cornyn, Benjamin Netanyahu, Dick Cheney, David Rubenstein, Anthony Blinken, Haley Stevens, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi

核能是減碳及維持科技水平的唯一解法，卻持續疲弱? 鈾礦和油井的產量可能被高估! 為什麼阿聯酋要退出OPEC? 全球持續看淡能源業合理嗎?

The biggest oil shock in modern history came and went without the catastrophe everyone expected. When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, analysts warned that oil could hit $200 a barrel, but the global economy avoided that fate. The Trump administration has argued that the crisis was contained thanks to their aggressive action, but they may be taking the wrong lessons from the avoidance of that apocalyptic scenario. What happened was the largest unexpected swing in global oil balances: China quietly cut crude oil imports by more than five million barrels a day. Yet there was no corresponding collapse in economic activity, no obvious drop in mobility, and no official explanation from Beijing. Somehow, China stopped buying oil from the rest of the world and started drawing from stockpiles we can't fully observe. That single decision may have done more to prevent a global energy crisis than anything Washington or OPEC accomplished. This matters because it demonstrates that China likely has a stronger discretionary policy lever than the West does. The West is really good at market-driven, private-sector oil production. But through this crisis, we've seen that Washington does not have the scale of discretionary policy control that China or OPEC does. This time, China cooperated and did the good thing, at least for the broad economic picture — but we cannot rely on that in the future, and that tool can be used against the West as easily as for it. Western governments must grapple with that discretionary gap and not rest on their private-sector bona fides to get through the next crisis. Arnab Datta, managing director of policy implementation at Employ America, and Rory Johnston, oil analyst and founder of Commodity Context, join ChinaTalk to discuss: Why Rory's own prediction of $200 oil never happened and why J.D. Vance is thanking the wrong people. How China quietly cut crude imports by five million barrels a day with zero visible impact on domestic mobility, and the detective work analysts use to peer into Beijing's black-box inventories. Competing theories for why Beijing backstopped the global oil market — self-interested altruism, a backroom deal during the state visit, or a dry run for a Malacca blockade in the event of a Taiwan contingency. What India, the Gulf states, and the rest of the world learned from the Iran War and why strategic reserves are suddenly back in fashion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The biggest oil shock in modern history came and went without the catastrophe everyone expected. When Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, analysts warned that oil could hit $200 a barrel, but the global economy avoided that fate. The Trump administration has argued that the crisis was contained thanks to their aggressive action, but they may be taking the wrong lessons from the avoidance of that apocalyptic scenario. What happened was the largest unexpected swing in global oil balances: China quietly cut crude oil imports by more than five million barrels a day. Yet there was no corresponding collapse in economic activity, no obvious drop in mobility, and no official explanation from Beijing. Somehow, China stopped buying oil from the rest of the world and started drawing from stockpiles we can't fully observe. That single decision may have done more to prevent a global energy crisis than anything Washington or OPEC accomplished. This matters because it demonstrates that China likely has a stronger discretionary policy lever than the West does. The West is really good at market-driven, private-sector oil production. But through this crisis, we've seen that Washington does not have the scale of discretionary policy control that China or OPEC does. This time, China cooperated and did the good thing, at least for the broad economic picture — but we cannot rely on that in the future, and that tool can be used against the West as easily as for it. Western governments must grapple with that discretionary gap and not rest on their private-sector bona fides to get through the next crisis. Arnab Datta, managing director of policy implementation at Employ America, and Rory Johnston, oil analyst and founder of Commodity Context, join ChinaTalk to discuss: Why Rory's own prediction of $200 oil never happened and why J.D. Vance is thanking the wrong people. How China quietly cut crude imports by five million barrels a day with zero visible impact on domestic mobility, and the detective work analysts use to peer into Beijing's black-box inventories. Competing theories for why Beijing backstopped the global oil market — self-interested altruism, a backroom deal during the state visit, or a dry run for a Malacca blockade in the event of a Taiwan contingency. What India, the Gulf states, and the rest of the world learned from the Iran War and why strategic reserves are suddenly back in fashion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Last Trade: Jackson, Michael, and Brian zoom out to the real asset supercycle, using the In Gold We Trust report's century of data to argue almost nobody is positioned for what comes next. They break down the Clarity Act's make-or-break Senate vote and the ethics fight over Trump. They dig into the 30-year yield holding above 5% for the longest stretch since 2007, and what a $40 trillion debt load means for the debasement trade. They close on the US-China AI race and the model distillation war.---

Today we had the pleasure of hosting Giacomo "Jack" Prandelli, Founder of The Merchant's News Substack. The Merchant's News covers oil, gas, LNG, metals, and geopolitics, with a particular focus on global trade flows, commodity markets, and the macro forces shaping energy prices. Jack is a former commodities trader who has built a large global following on LinkedIn and X through his data-driven analysis of rapidly evolving geopolitical events and energy markets. We were pleased to visit with Jack to discuss the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the resilience of global oil markets, and the evolving geopolitical forces reshaping the global energy landscape. In our conversation, Jack explains why he believes oil prices have been far more resilient than many expected despite the Strait of Hormuz crisis. He walks us through a few charts and outlines how coordinated releases from strategic petroleum reserves, a stronger-than-anticipated recovery in global oil flows, and increased production from the U.S. and Middle East producers helped offset supply disruptions. We discuss the evolving balance of power in global energy markets, including the growing influence of U.S. production, China's role as the world's largest oil importer, and what the conflict revealed about OPEC, strategic petroleum reserves, and the resilience of the global energy system. Jack outlines why refining, not crude supply, has emerged as the market's primary constraint, how Russian refinery attacks and China's inventory strategy have reshaped global energy flows, and why he believes the market remains structurally bullish over the longer term. We also explore the shift toward energy security, deglobalization, and the changing geopolitical landscape as countries increasingly prioritize control over energy, refining, and commodity supply chains. We greatly appreciate Jack for joining us and sharing his insights. To start the show, Mike Bradley noted that fixed income markets continue to trend higher, with the 10-year Treasury yield rising to ~4.62% and the 30-year Treasury yield reaching ~5.14%. Both benchmarks are nearing the peak levels seen during the height of the Iran war, highlighting bond market concerns around inflation. On the broader equity market front, the S&P 500 was up just under 1% for the week to date, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was Tuesday's standout performer, gaining ~400 points on strength in industrial stocks, led by 3M, whose shares surged ~8%. Several high-profile companies are scheduled to report results this week, including Alphabet (Google), Tesla, IBM, Intel, and NextEra Energy. On the oil market front, Brent crude was trading at ~$91/bbl, up ~$3/bbl for the week and ~$15/bbl over the past two weeks. Notably, Brent settled above $90/bbl for the first time since early June. Mike noted that the energy complex is wrestling more with global refining constraints than a global crude oil supply shortage. As evidence, U.S. Gulf Coast refining crack spreads have risen to ~$70/bbl, up from ~$60/bbl three weeks ago and from ~$25/bbl prior to the onset of the Iran war. He concluded by noting that investors are turning their attention to second-quarter earnings across the oilfield services sector, with Halliburton kicking off the group's reporting season on Tuesday. Several other key service providers are scheduled to report this week, including Weatherford International, Liberty Energy, Oceaneering International, and SLB. The broader energy sector will also be active, with earnings expected from EQT Corporation, Range Resources, Equinor, Kinder Morgan, Ovintiv, TotalEnergies, and Repsol. Veriten Senior Advisor Deborah Byers also joined and added her perspectives and questions throughout the conversation.

The US enters its 10th night of strikes against Iranian targets as tension escalates in the Middle East. Senator James Lankford joins Brian Kilmeade to discuss military strategy, Iran's nuclear threat, and why the far-left socialist movement is causing a rift inside the Democratic Party. Plus, US Oil & Gas Association President Tim Stewart breaks down rising gas prices, the Houthis threatening Red Sea shipping routes, and what the potential breakup of OPEC means for American energy. [00:00:00] Sen. James Lankford   [00:18:26] Tim Stewart   [00:46:44] Farley Weiss   [00:55:15] Mike Vaccaro   [01:13:38] Rep. Michael McCaul   [01:32:03] John Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Here we are 55 years later and we're still temporarily off that gold standard."   In 1971, Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard, temporarily. In 1974, the petrodollar agreement with Saudi Arabia gave the dollar a new anchor (oil). For 50 years, that system held. Now it's cracking. Saudi Arabia is selling oil to China in yuan. The UAE just left OPEC after 60 years. And global currency reserves held in U.S. dollars have dropped from 72% in 2001 to 56% by end of 2025.   Jaspreet Singh traces the dollar's evolution from gold-backed currency to fiat to petrodollar and explains why the UAE's departure from OPEC is the latest signal that the world is quietly, slowly, moving away from dollar-denominated oil trade and what that means for investors.   In this episode, you'll learn: How the petrodollar was born: in 1974, the U.S. struck a deal with Saudi Arabia. They take oil profits in dollars and buy U.S. treasuries; in exchange, receive U.S. weapons and military protection, effectively making the dollar the currency every country needed to buy energy Why Russia's 2022 sanctions accelerated de-dollarization: when the U.S. froze Russian assets, countries around the world took note and began quietly seeking alternatives, knowing their own dollar-denominated reserves could face the same fate How China has been dismantling the petrodollar piece by piece: creating yuan-priced oil futures, striking a deal with Saudi Arabia to sell oil in yuan, and growing the BRICS alliance, while the UAE's OPEC exit signals more countries are ready to trade outside dollar terms Five investment angles to consider: gold as a dollar hedge (GLD), international markets from developed (VEA) to emerging (VWO), domestic energy independence plays (XLE), defense ETFs (ITA), and broad U.S. market exposure (SPY)   Keywords: petrodollar, dedollarization, UAE OPEC, Saudi Arabia yuan, dollar reserve currency, gold investing, geopolitical investing, energy ETF, defense stocks, international diversification   Want more financial news? Join Market Briefs, my free daily financial newsletter: https://link2.briefs.co/gie Below are my recommended tools! Please note: Yes, these are our sponsors & advertisers. However, these are companies that I trust and use (or have used). The compensation doesn't affect my recommendations or advice. That being said, you should always do your own research & never blindly listen to a random guy on YouTube (or podcast). ---------- ➤ Invest In Stocks Passively 1) M1 Finance - Buy stocks & ETFs automatically: https://theminoritymindset.com/m1 ---------- ➤ Life Insurance 2) Policygenius - Get a free life insurance quote: https://theminoritymindset.com/policygenius ---------- ➤ Real Estate Investing Online 3) Fundrise - Invest in real estate with as little as $10! https://theminoritymindset.com/fundrise ----------

Big economic shifts are underway!

The ultimate political storm has officially arrived!

The tables have completely turned!

The ultimate political shakeup has arrived!

What's up, everybody? It's Tom Bilyeu here:If you want my help...STARTING a business: join me here at ZERO TO FOUNDER: https://tombilyeu.com/zero-to-founder?utm_campaign=Podcast%20Offer&utm_source=podca[%E2%80%A6]d%20end%20of%20show&utm_content=podcast%20ad%20end%20of%20showSCALING a business: see if you qualify here.: https://tombilyeu.com/callGet my battle-tested strategies and insights delivered weekly to your inbox: sign up here.:https://tombilyeu.com/**********************************************************************If you're serious about leveling up your life, I urge you to check out my new podcast, Tom Bilyeu's Mindset Playbook —a goldmine of my most impactful episodes on mindset, business, and health. Trust me, your future self will thank you.**********************************************************************FOLLOW TOM:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tombilyeu/Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tombilyeu?lang=enTwitter: https://twitter.com/tombilyeuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TomBilyeuKetone IQ: Visit https://ketone.com/IMPACT for 30% OFF your subscription orderPaleovalley: 30 for $36 https://bit.ly/PaleovalleyITOpusClip: Explore Agent Opus at https://agent.opus.pro/exploreIncogni: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code IMPACT at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/impactTruemed: Check your eligibility and start saving at https://truemed.com/impactEthos: Get a free quote at https://ethos.com/impactQuo: Try for free PLUS get 20% off your first 6 months at https://quo.com/impactNetsuite: Right now, get our free business guide, Demystifying AI, at https://NetSuite.com/TheoryPique: 20% off at https://piquelife.com/impactShopify: Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/impactWelcome to a no holds barred breakdown of the political and economic forces reshaping America right now. In this episode, Drew, Tom, and Ryan dig into the leftward lurch of the Democratic Party, unpacking the DSA wave behind Mamdani's New York sweep and what it means when self-described communists start winning the safest Democratic seats in the country. The conversation traces how populism is fueled by economic anxiety, why both parties keep racing to the extremes, and whether finding the way back to the middle is even possible anymore. From there, they get into the hard economics: why socialist and communist policies historically break the economy, the calorie-storage origin of the social contract, the freeloader problem that sinks societies, and the real fight over wages, corporations, and whether companies like Walmart and Amazon are the villains people think they are. They take on Trump's threat to sic the DOJ on big oil for price gouging, why government price controls always fail, and how the OPEC cartel and regulatory capture are the actual problems behind what you pay at the pump. The discussion turns global with a hard look at USAID, the claim that foreign aid has been quietly funding NGOs and destabilization movements abroad, Japan dumping US treasuries amid its liquidity crisis, and the financial repression playbook Washington may use to inflate its way out of a crushing national debt. They weigh in on Congress voting to curb hostilities with Iran and what it means for negotiating power. Finally, the episode goes deep on one of the most important debates of the next decade: a Michigan city council banning the pride flag, Muslim immigration and assimilation, whether Islam has had its reformation, separation of church and state, and the candid clash over whether America is truly a Christian nation or simply shaped by Christian values. Whether you're here for sharp political analysis, hard economic truth, or a deeper look at the values shaping society, this episode offers a nuanced, unflinching take on how today's choices will define tomorrow.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.