Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times,

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Aug. 27 that crime has decreased since President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops to the city and took federal control of the local police department.

Bowser told reporters during an update on the enforcement surge that she and her officials “greatly appreciate” the added presence of law enforcement, noting that in just 20 days, the number of carjackings had fallen by 87 percent from the same period last year.

“We know that when carjackings go down, when the use of guns goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer, ” Bowser said.

“So this surge has been important to us for that reason.”

She said that the district will continue to need more police, prosecutors, judges, “more effective prevention programs, and we need to ensure local control.”

Bowser also said on Wednesday that having masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the community “has not worked.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in July—when Los Angeles County supervisors sought to ban law enforcement personnel from covering their faces—that ICE officers wear masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted.

Trump announced on Aug. 11 that he would activate hundreds of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital to deal with crime.

The president invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act of 1973, which places the Metropolitan Police Department under the control of the president for 48 hours. The president can extend that control for up to 30 days with notification to Congress, after which, congressional approval is required.

“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse,” Trump said at a White House press briefing at the time. “This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”

Bowser, at the time, called the federal takeover unsettling and reiterated her call for full statehood for Washington.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (C) speaks as City Administrator Kevin Donahue (L) and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah (R) listen during a news conference in Washington on Aug. 27, 2025. Alex Wong/Getty Images

1,000 Arrests Since Federal Takeover

On Wednesday, Bowser said she had spoken to Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and the president.

“I was reminded that the president’s interest in cities predates his time in office, and his knowledge of D.C. had significantly increased from the first time he was in the White House,” the mayor said.

“And so we knew that the priorities around safety and investment in infrastructure would be on the president’s mind.”

When asked whether she had gotten assurances from Trump that he would not attempt to go beyond the 30 days, Bowser said it was not something she had discussed with the president, but that she would continue to work with the Trump administration on how Washington’s emergency operations center and the federal task force can work together.

National Guard members patrol Washington on Aug. 25, 2025. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an Aug. 25 post on X that in the two weeks since Trump brought Washington under federal control, various forms of crime had fallen, including violent crime, which was down 32 percent; robberies, down 47 percent; and homicides, down 60 percent.

That same day, FBI Director Kash Patel said that there had been more than 1,000 arrests made across Washington since the federal takeover began.

Union Station Takeover

On Wednesday, federal officials said they would take over the management of Washington’s Union Station, in a bid to improve the running of the property.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Trump “wants Union Station to be beautiful again.”

“He wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation’s capital to be great again,” Duffy said during an event celebrating the launch of Amtrak’s NextGen Acela trains.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (C) boards a NextGen Amtrak Acela train in Washington on Aug. 27, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Union Station is owned by the federal government, but has been run by passenger rail service Amtrak.

When asked about the takeover, Bowser said on Wednesday it was a “good thing” because the station needs at least $8 billion worth of investment in its renovation, “and that is not something that the district will be able to support.”

“It is an important asset for the Eastern Seaboard. It’s an important asset for the nation. So it is appropriate, in my view, for the federal government to make the necessary investments in the transformation of Union Station,” the mayor said.

She also expressed support for the president’s $2 billion request from Congress to improve infrastructure, “especially federal infrastructure in the district.”

While the number mostly reflects a reversal of the tariff frontrunning seen in Q1 (which dragged GDP sharply lower due to a surge in imports), moments ago we got the BEA’s first revision of the Q2 GDP print which already came in red hot at 3.0% one month ago… and was just revised even redder and even hotter to 3.3%, beating estimates of a 3.1% print…

… and the highest quarterly print since Q3 2023.

According to the BEA, the 0.3% upward revision from the original 3.0% print reflecting upward revisions to investment and consumer spending that were partly offset by a downward revision to government spending and an upward revision to imports. 

Taking a closer look at the composition, we find the following:

• Personal Consumption increased to 1.07% of the bottom line GDP print, up from 0.98% in the original print
• Fixed Investment jumped substantially from just 0.08% to 0.59% of the bottom-line print. We warned one month ago that either this number suggested that hyperscalers were lying or the number would be revised substantially higher. It was the latter.

One concerning item in the GDP print: fixed investment just 0.08%.

Really? No data centers at all? Are hyperscalers lying?

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 30, 2025

• The change in private inventories was modest, from -3.17% of the final GDP number, to -3.29% as companies depleted stocks purchased during the tariff build up period.
• Net trade (exports and imports) added 4.95% to GDP, virtually unchanged from the 4.99% original print, and a mirror image of the -4.62% hit to GDP from Q1.
• Finally, government flipped from adding a modest 0.08% to GDP, to subtracting 0.03%

More important than the GDP print even was the sharp upward revision in real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, which surged 1.9% in the second quarter – largely thanks to the huge upward revision in fixed investment – and up 0.7% from the previous estimate.

Finally, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.8% in the second quarter, revised down 0.1% from the previous estimate. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 2.0%, revised down 0.1% from the previous estimate. Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 2.5%, the same as previously estimated.

Overall, this was a very solid GDP print, with the upward revision not due to another boost in spending but rather the all important investment on data centers, which also helped almost double Real Final Sales from 

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

This past weekend I joined internationally acclaimed journalist, news anchor, and producer Michelle Makori for a wide-ranging conversation on markets, monetary policy, and the future of global finance.

Our discussion dug deep into market valuations, The Fed, gold, bitcoin, where I see value in the markets and other general uncomfortable truths most investors don’t want to hear — and why I think the next five years in the U.S. markets may look unlike anything in living memory. I pointed out one name that is up 13% already from the interview, which took place on Sunday, and reviewed my list of 25 names for 2025 and other names I find interesting heading into the back half of the year.

I opened the conversation with a stark warning: “I don’t think the next five years in the U.S. are going to look like anything of years past. The market could potentially have a seismic enough pullback that it is going to, and I wrote this, break the brains of the very fragile market participants that we have created today through monetary policy.”

I wrote about this earlier this year in This Next Market Crash Will Break Our Fragile Brains.

The idea that investors are psychologically unprepared for a prolonged period of pain framed much of our dialogue. Too many market participants, I argued, have been conditioned by years of Fed backstopping and relentless market cheerleading.

That complacency, I said, could prove fatal when the tide finally goes out.

Michelle pushed me on whether I thought we could see an actual 40–50% pullback, and my answer was that the catalyst doesn’t have to be obvious ahead of time. “These black swans come out of nowhere and we again have leverage on top of nonsense, on top of valuations, on top of relentless market cheerleading.” History has shown that cracks in the system often remain hidden until the moment they explode into full view.

Much of our conversation revolved around the Federal Reserve and how its actions have warped natural market mechanics. I argued that the Fed has been “working the gas and the brake at the same time,” floating the idea of rate cuts despite inflation still running above target. “The notion that they’re entertaining interest rate cuts in an environment like this shows they’re not really concerned about price stability at all.” Investors may cheer every dovish hint, but I warned that many of the worst crashes in history began only after the Fed’s first rate cut.

We also discussed the distortions of passive investing and options-driven flows. Instead of fundamentals driving the market, I explained, ETFs and options hedging have created artificial bids that keep valuations inflated, as I wrote in The Passive Bid Crash Awaits.

“You have a $2 trillion crypto air pocket with leverage layered on top of all-time high valuations which are being driven by major market mechanics that have nothing to do with common sense fundamentals.” In that environment, a sudden air pocket or credit event could easily turn into multiple “limit-down” days.

This is a thesis I explained first in Crypto Will Cause The Next Trillon Dollar Crash, which I published just days ago. 

Michelle pressed me on what a prolonged sideways market might look like, and I made it clear that this scenario could be just as devastating as a sudden crash. “Maybe we just crash 20% and stay there for 10–15 years. That’s also a distinct possibility and I don’t think anybody psychologically, including the new horde of investors now in the market, is prepared for it.”

A generation raised on Robinhood options trading and passive ETF flows has no concept of markets that grind sideways for decades, as happened in Japan, I noted.

Still, I wasn’t purely bearish. We talked about the sectors I remain constructive on, such as gold miners, uranium, oil companies, and select emerging markets. Gold in particular, I argued, is more relevant than ever. Michelle asked when I would think about selling gold miners, which are up about 80% this year. I told her:

“When will I think about selling gold? I’ll think about selling gold when the people on CNBC can’t stop talking about it. And that hasn’t even happened because they—the reverse Cramer index, right? When Cramer tells you to buy gold.”

Despite strong performance this year, I believe miners remain undervalued, especially given the likelihood of a monetary reset.

That led us into a broader discussion of geopolitics and national security. I explained why I think the Trump administration’s strategy of taking stakes in critical companies is just the beginning. “If we return to some type of gold standard, the miners would eventually be nationalized. So here’s 73 other companies that the government might want to keep close if this is what their playbook is going to be.”

I wrote my list of 75 Critical U.S. Public Companies that the government may get close to just days ago. From rare earths to semiconductors to cybersecurity, the U.S. appears to be moving toward closer control of strategic industries.

Ultimately, my message was that the U.S. is in unprecedented territory. Monetary policy has gone so far off course that at some point a reset is inevitable, likely tied to gold and possibly Bitcoin.

“One thing I think is for sure is nobody’s ready for it.” Whether the reckoning comes as a sudden crash, two decades of sideways trading, or a global monetary reset, investors lulled into complacency by years of easy money are unlikely to weather it well.

You can watch our full 2 hour long chat here:

QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. If you see numbers and calculations of any sort, assume they are wrong and double check them. I failed Algebra in 8th grade and topped off my high school math accolades by getting a D- in remedial Calculus my senior year, before becoming an English major in college so I could bullshit my way through things easier.

The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

Initial jobless claims improved last week, falling from 234k to 229k, remaining in the same near-record-low range it has been in for the last three years. On an unadjusted basis, claims are back near record lows…

Source: Bloomberg

Continuing jobless claims dipped from the prior week, but remain near their highest since Nov 2021 (though not accelerating)…

Source: Bloomberg

There was more weakness in the ‘Deep TriState’ region as continuing jobless claims rose in DC, Virginia, and Maryland combined…

Source: Bloomberg

Again, we ask, if shit is so bad that CEO confidence remains dramatically lower, why aren’t jobless claims following suit (actions speak louder than words)…

Source: Bloomberg

Not exactly data that demands rate-cuts anytime soon.

An initial team of inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has returned to Iran and is preparing to begin its work, after inspectors were formally kicked out of the country by Tehran earlier this summer, in connection with the 12-day war and surprise attack by Israel.

“We have been discussing with them now,” said Director General Rafael Grossi on Tuesday in reference to the Iranians. “The first team of IAEA inspectors is back in Iran, and we are about to restart inspections,” he told Fox News.

Grossi indicated that talks with the Islamic Republic are currently focused on “practical modalities” to resume monitoring work at multiple facilities. Reports indicate that some of the facilities are the very ones struck during Israeli and US operations in June.

President Trump has touted that these three sites – the Fordo Uranium Enrichment Plant, the Natanz Nuclear Facility, and Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center – were completely destroyed. 

But now the IAEA inspectors might be able to assess the situation more accurately from on the ground, which will be a first for any outside observer. 

In Europe, Tuesday saw discussions between Iran and the E3 nations – France, Germany, and the United Kingdom – at a moment the E3 countries have warned they may trigger the mechanism for reimposing international sanctions on Iran if it fails to either reach a new nuclear agreement by the end of August or agrees to extend UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which covers the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Axios’ Barak Ravid reports, “The leaders of France, Germany, and Britain are very close to deciding to activate the snapback mechanism to reimpose UN Security Council sanctions on Iran. It will take a diplomatic miracle to prevent this from happening.”

The Europeans are also pressing Iran to rejoin nuclear talks with Washington; however, the Iranians have made clear that the US can no longer be trusted – as it bombed the Islamic Republic in June at the very moment the sides were engaged in talks.

As we reported earlier, Grossi has meanwhile been given a comprehensive security detail by a specialized Austrian police unit, amid personal threats reportedly linked to Iran. He has had 24/7 protection for weeks at this point.

Authored by Stephen Green via PJMedia.com,

On top of growing Islamification and accompanying antisemitism, decaying national defense, poverty-inducing “net zero” policies, the ruination of Doctor Who, and a whole host of other issues, Britain has yet another crisis that the government just can’t seem to get a handle on. 

Britons who still love their country and want to turn it around.

Can you imagine the nerve?

You might have already seen in the last week or two, Britons defiantly flying the U.K. Union Jack or England’s St. George’s Cross — only to have officials who seem to have no problem with displays of Palestinian or Pakistani pride take them down.

In fact, those displays sometimes come with a government seal of approval.

This one is from the Birmingham City Council:

UK’s second largest city, Birmingham, lights up public Library in green and white to mark PAKISTAN’S Independence Day. pic.twitter.com/nUmzJMGOGf

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) August 14, 2025

The country’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office got in on the action, too, wishing a “very happy Independence Day to Pakistanis in the UK, in Pakistan and around the world.” The post on X included little emojis of the Pakistani and British flags, and can you guess without clicking through which one came first?

Flag order makes a statement…

Absolute state of this clown, going around with ladders taking down England flags!

Says putting up the St George’s Cross, in England, is “fascism”.pic.twitter.com/GoFlcLdvDm

— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 23, 2025

…and so does pulling them down.

And Another Thing: The world was a better place when Britain imposed British notions of justice on Third World nations instead of importing Third World notions into Britain. Discuss.

According to the city’s Wikipedia page, Birmingham, as of 2021, was 30% Islamic and 34% Christian, which might explain this BBC report on Friday:

Some residents have found the sudden appearance of St George’s and union flags ‘intimidating”, a council has said.

While many people were flying the flag to cheer on the Lionesses during the 2025 Euros, thousands more have appeared in towns and cities in England during August – many attached to lampposts.

Leader of Dorset Council, Liberal Democrat Councillor Nick Ireland, described the movement as an “explosion of patriotism”, but also said it was “naive” to suggest the emblems had not been “hijacked” by some far-right groups.

Want to take an ordinary, patriotic Briton and convince him he’s a fascist? That’s how you do it. 

Want to convince the local Muslim population that they can bully Britons into giving up flying their own flags in their own country? Same trick.

Some Britons have had enough, and are raising — or making — flags wherever they’re able.

Lads in Birmingham paint roundabouts with the St George’s Cross after the Labour council tore their flags down. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/FwBiPIJLu3

— Turning Point UK 🇬🇧 (@TPointUK) August 18, 2025

Then there are purely practical efforts like this one:

All we have to do is paint the St. George’s cross inside potholes, and the council will fix them within 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/uTmtpVdkwh

— We Stand United (@StandUnitedGB) August 19, 2025

Sorry, did I say “purely practical?” I meant to say, “half-practical, half-cheeky.”

The deadly epidemic of [checks notes] waving the flag comes hard on the heels of protests at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex — where “migrants” were housed at taxpayer expense, and not without some inconvenience.

First, there was the migrant “charged with three sexual offences, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity.”

And then this:

Mohammed Sharwarq, 32, a Syrian national living in the same hotel, has been charged with sexual assault, two counts of common assault, and four counts of assault by beating.

A BBC report states that these offences are alleged to have occurred inside The Bell Hotel.

Mr Sharwarq denied the claim of sexual assault, but admitted the non-sexual offences at a court hearing, according to a Sky News report.

The High Court put at least a temporary halt to the hotel’s use as a migrant shelter.

Scenes like these are distressingly common in the postmodern United Kingdom — a country that could use a few more flag-waving patriots, and far fewer “migrants” acting like occupiers of a conquered nation. 

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Earlier today we wrote an extensive preview of what to expect from Nvidia’s Q1 earnings (here), but for those who missed it here is the summary: if Nvidia beats and raises, revisions might restart, and high valuation could sustain. However, if the results are just in line or even lower, as what happened in the last two quarters, the market may assume margins have peaked, and the story will become less about hypergrowth and more about stabilization. 

Here are the bogeys: 

• The revenue consensus for fiscal Q3 revenue is $53.46 billion. But there’s a much wider range than usual going into that average.
  • For fiscal Q2 that target is $46.23 billion.
• Adj EPS for fiscal Q2 should be $1.01
• Nvidia’s data center division is expected to post $41.3 billion in fiscal Q2 revenue.

That’s the 30,000 foot snapshot. In reality, a lot more has happened, starting at the end of July, when President Trump put American chips and other infrastructure at the heart of his AI plan, even prompting a standing ovation for Jensen Huang during a grand speech in DC. Then news: Nvidia got a quid pro quo deal with the Administration to sell China-specific AI accelerators, if the US gets 15% of the sales. Then the President, quite skillfully, dropped a hint that Huang and Nvidia are pushing for a new China-specific chip based on Blackwell architecture. Still, a lot of questions remain on how much of this is real on Nvidia’s side and whether it has not changed the near term trajectory for Nvidia’s top line. Or is this still far from moving the needle for a company that already dominates the market for AI chips. In any case, one area to keep an eye on is any update around its H20 chips, which is a hot-button issue for investors

China aside, Nvidia – which is the world’s largest company and accounts for 8% of the S&P – is growing quickly and Wall Street, which has revenue estimates going as far out as 2030, projects steady increases in that time. The question is at what rate? Any hint of disappointing numbers and investors will once again raise concerns that the massive spending in AI infrastructure has to eventually slow down.

Those concerns will get even louder after the company’s earnings which just came out and leave quite a bit to be desired, especially since data centers missed. Here is what the company just reported for Q2:

• Adjusted EPS $1.05, beating estimates of $1.00 (NVIDIA benefited from a $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory, from approximately $650 million in unrestricted H20 sales to a customer outside of China.)
• Revenue $46.74 billion, +56% y/y, beating estimates of $46.23 billion 
  • Data center revenue $41.1 billion, +56% y/y, missing estimates of $41.29 billion; this was the second consecutive quarter in which data centers missed.
  • Gaming revenue $4.3 billion, +49% y/y, beating estimates of $3.82 billion
  • Professional Visualization revenue $601 million, +32% y/y, beating estimates of $532 million
  • Automotive revenue $586 million, +69% y/y, missing estimate $592.7 million

Going down the income statement:

• Adjusted gross margin 72.7%; beating est of 72.1%
  • Excluding the $180 million release, non-GAAP gross margin for the quarter would have been 72.3%.
• Adjusted operating expenses $3.80 billion, +36% y/y, below estimates of $4.02 billion
• Adjusted operating income $30.17 billion, +51% y/y, beating estimates of $29.36 billion
• R&D expenses $4.29 billion, +39% y/y, below the estimates of $4.44 billion
• Free cash flow $13.45 billion, -0.2% y/y

Addressing the elephant in the room, NVDA said that there were no H20 sales to China-based customers in the second quarter, and the question whether there will be any sales in the future will likely be discussed on the call. NVIDIA also said that it benefited from a $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory, from approximately $650 million in unrestricted H20 sales to a customer outside of China.

Of course, not assuming any H20 shipments to China in the 3Q outlook does leave room for upside. All of the above happened quickly in July and the report for 2Q is for the period ending July 27, exactly a month a go, so let’s see what happened in the month of August.

In his comments, tit-signing CEO Jensen Huang said that “Blackwell is the AI platform the world has been waiting for, delivering an exceptional generational leap — production of Blackwell Ultra is ramping at full speed, and demand is extraordinary.” He added that “NVIDIA NVLink rack-scale computing is revolutionary, arriving just in time as reasoning AI models drive orders-of-magnitude increases in training and inference performance. The AI race is on, and Blackwell is the platform at its center.”

NVDA also announced that while it returned $24.3 billion in stock repurchases and cash dividends in Q1, leaving it with $14.7 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization, on August 26, 2025, the Board of Directors approved an additional $60.0 billion to the Company’s share repurchase authorization.

While the Q2 results were generally ok if not stellar (and data center missed), the company’s guidance came slightly on the weak side of the buyside expectations we discussed in our premium preview.

• Revenue is expected to be $54.0 billion, plus or minus 2%; which was above the consensus est of $53.46 billion but keep in mind some had estimates as high as $60 billion. That said, the surge in revenue continues: for Q2, its guidance was $45.0 billion, so a $9 billion sequential increase!.
• Sees adjusted gross margins at 73.5%, plus or minus 50 basis points, just above the 73.4% median estimate. 
• Operating expenses are expected to be approximately $5.9 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively. Full year fiscal 2026 operating expense growth is expected to be in the high-30% range.
• Other income and expense are expected to be an income of approximately $500 million, excluding gains and losses from non-marketable and publicly-held equity securities.
• Tax rates are expected to be 16.5%, plus or minus 1%, excluding any discrete items.

Of note: the forecast excluded data center revenue from China, a market where it has struggled with US export restrictions and opposing pressure from Beijing. Expect China to buy a lot of NVDA chips as its own domestic AI chips are nowhere near good enough to power its latest LLMs. 

Commenting on the results, CEO Jensen Huang said that “Global demand for NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure is incredibly strong. AI inference token generation has surged tenfold in just one year, and as AI agents become mainstream, the demand for AI computing will accelerate.”

Putting these results and forecasts in visual context, starting with revenue.

The thorn in today’s results: data center. It dipped sequentially. This was the second quarter in a row that data center revenues missed. 

Here’s some more detail on what did happen with the data center business and Blackwell products in quarter gone (2Q) from the CFO commentary:

“We continue to ramp our Blackwell architecture, which grew 17% sequentially, including our newest architecture, Blackwell Ultra. We recognized Blackwell revenue across all customer categories, led by large cloud service providers, which represented approximately 50% of Data Center revenue.”

A growth number for the latest generation architecture Nvidia has confirmation the hyperscalers are still half of Nvidia’s data center business and the fact they are packing it all up and selling it through various channels.

Somewhat concerning was the unexpected jump in inventories, although a more benign explanation is that the company is just stockpiling ahead of a Trump green light to sell to China. 

Receivables jumped too:

While NVDA’s results were fine, the tepid outlook adds to concern that pace of investment in artificial intelligence systems is unsustainable. Difficulties in China also have clouded Nvidia’s business. Though the Trump administration recently eased restrictions on exports of some AI chips to that country, the reprieve hasn’t yet translated into a rebound in revenue. 

As we noted in our preview, Nvidia has been dealing with the fallout from a growing US-China rivalry, where semiconductor technology has become a major flashpoint. In April, the Trump administration tightened restrictions on exports of data center processors to Chinese customers, effectively shutting Nvidia out of the market. Washington has subsequently rolled that back, saying that the US will allow some shipments in return for a 15% slice of the revenue. 

At the same time, Beijing has encouraged a move away from using US technology in AI systems accessed by the Chinese government. The shifting policies have made it difficult for Wall Street to predict how much revenue Nvidia might be able to recover in the market. Some analysts have made projections in the billions of dollars, while others have refused to predict any China sales until the company makes the situation clearer. 

Nvidia shares fell about 4% in extended trading following the announcement before recovering much of the loss. They had rallied 35% this year through the close, lifting the company’s market capitalization above $4 trillion. Shares of other AI-related hardware stocks are also falling in after-hours trading following Nvidia’s results. CoreWeave shares are down about 3%, SMCI is down about 2%, Palantir is down 0.8% and Dell is also slipping. 

Authored by Brayden Lindrea via CoinTelegraph.com,

A quarter of British adults polled said they’re open to crypto forming part of their retirement plans, suggesting that crypto could claim a larger share of the UK’s multitrillion-dollar pension fund market.

UK insurance company Aviva said on Tuesday that its poll of 2,000 UK adults found 27% were open to crypto in their retirement funds, with just over 40% of those open to crypto saying they were motivated by the higher potential returns.

The survey, which was conducted by Censuswide June 4-6, also found that 23% of all those polled said they would consider withdrawing part, or all, of their existing pension to invest in crypto.

Crypto investments in UK retirement plans could see significantly more capital flow into the space, with over four in five UK adults holding pensions worth a total of 3.8 trillion British pounds ($5.12 trillion). 

Still, UK adults have limited options for adding crypto to their retirement funds.

The poll came as US President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month permitting US 401(k) retirement plans to include Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, opening access to more than $9 trillion in assets.

Source: Cointelegraph

A fifth of UK adults already dabbled in crypto

Aviva said that around one in five surveyed, equivalent to about 11.6 million people, said they hold, or have held, crypto. About two-thirds said they still own crypto in some capacity.

Nearly one-fifth of UK adults aged between 25 and 34 said they had already withdrawn pension funds to invest in crypto.

Brits still concerned about crypto risks

The respondents cited security risks, such as hacking and phishing attacks, and lack of regulation and protection of crypto as the biggest risk concerns at 41% and 37% respectively, while crypto volatility was flagged as the third-biggest worry at 30%.

Aviva’s managing director of wealth and advice, Michele Golunska, said it’s easy to see why crypto has become an appealing investment option in recent years, but pensions still offer significant advantages.

“We mustn’t forget the value of the good old pension. It comes with some powerful benefits, like employer contributions and tax relief, that can make a real difference to your long-term financial wellbeing.”

Many UK adults aware of the risks

Nearly one in three of the respondents said they’re interested in crypto but acknowledged that they don’t fully understand the benefits they may give up by cashing in their pensions, while 27% didn’t realize there were any risks involved.

The UK has cautiously progressed with crypto regulation, having unveiled a proposed framework in May that would see crypto exchanges, dealers, and agents treated similarly to TradFi firms, with strong compliance checks particularly focused on transparency and consumer protection.

UK banks appear to have slowed adoption, with 40% of 2,000 recently surveyed crypto investors saying that their banks had either blocked or delayed a payment to a crypto provider.

When global companies decide where to invest, the quality of a country’s tax code can be as important as market size or labor costs.

A simpler, more neutral code helps investors forecast returns and reduces compliance headaches.

The data for this visualization from Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, comes from the Tax Foundation’s 2024 International Tax Competitiveness Index.

It benchmarks Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) members on how efficiently they raise revenue through individual, corporate, property, and consumption taxes, plus their rules on cross-border profits.

Estonia: Best Tax Code in the World?

Estonia tops the index for the 11th straight year, scoring a perfect 100.

Its 20% flat tax on both personal and corporate income is only due when profits are distributed, rewarding reinvestment and limiting double taxation.

The country also avoids wealth or inheritance taxes and keeps real-property levies local, reducing distortions.

Combined, these features create an easy-to-administer system that fuels the Baltic state’s startup scene and steady foreign investment.

The Baltic Cluster Outperforms Larger Peers

Latvia (2nd) and Lithuania (5th) join Estonia in the top five, underscoring a regional push for flat-rate, low-complexity regimes.

All three Baltic nations tax corporate profits only once and apply modest payroll charges, making cross-border hiring simpler.

Their high rankings contrast with many bigger EU economies—Germany (16th) and France (36th)—that rely on layered surcharges and targeted deductions, increasing compliance costs even as statutory rates fall.

Why Major Economies Lag Behind in the Tax Index

Size alone doesn’t guarantee a competitive tax code.

The U.S. ranks solidly middle-of-the-pack, weighed down by its citizenship tax system that can tax on overseas income and profits.

Meanwhile, France and Italy sit at the bottom of the table, burdened by high payroll taxes and narrow consumption-tax bases.

These choices are by design, in pursuit of broadening the social security net, but they also increase distortions and freeze cross-border capital flows.

The Other Side of “Tax Competitiveness”

Tax Competitiveness as measured by the Tax Foundation prioritizes business mobility and investment flows over other policy goals like:

• Reducing inequality

• Funding robust public services

• Long-term fiscal sustainability

• Democratic choice about the size of government

Estonia’s system works well for attracting capital and businesses, but may be sub-optimal for building a comprehensive welfare state or addressing inequality. And many would argue those are equally important measures of a good tax system.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Taxes Collected Relative to GDP Size in Every Major Economy on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

An Englishman walks into a pub… and the joke ends there because this one didn’t even get through the front door.

Why? Well because he was carrying a dangerous object that this establishment has deemed to be grounds for entry refusal.

No, it wasn’t a knife or any other weapon. It was the English flag. The Saint George’s Cross.

The flag of the nation where the pub is located.

The flag that adorns the kit of the England football and Rugby teams.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Only in England would an Englishman be refused entry into an English pub for displaying an English flag.pic.twitter.com/4czazpbr8U

— Jonathan Wong (@WGthink) August 24, 2025

The two…ahem security guards flanked the Karen running The Manor Farm Pub in Birmingham, telling the man and his friends that they couldn’t come into the pub for a drink because they were carrying “protest materials,” and the pub was not “taking any part in these protests.”

She is referring to the fact that English people all over the country are putting up English flags and Union Jack flags in protest of continuing mass migration, the use of hotels to house illegal immigrants at taxpayer expense, and the explosion in crime attributed to foreigners.

As the exchange became more heated, the men at the pub were asked to leave and accused of trespassing by the management.

The video of the incident has gone viral with over 10M views on X alone, and now the pub, operated by Greene King, is facing massive backlash.

People who think it should be ok to display the flag of England in England have review-bombed the pub on Google and Trip Advisor.

pic.twitter.com/3C7i0ra3uZ

— Basil the Great (@Basil_TGMD) August 25, 2025

pic.twitter.com/2tXvKO7vty

— Basil the Great (@Basil_TGMD) August 25, 2025

The pub management team have been deleting reviews to up their score again pic.twitter.com/c1GgcglAlC

— Basil the Great (@Basil_TGMD) August 25, 2025

They even got it edited to be listed as a “Mosque” on Google.

🚨 MANOR FARM PUB IN BIRMINGHAM, WHICH REFUSED ENTRY TO PATRIOTS WHO WERE CARRYING AN ENGLAND FLAG, IS LISTED AS A MOSQUE ON GOOGLE! https://t.co/zwwmf78fBm pic.twitter.com/lUKIwwjNqw

— BRITAIN IS BROKEN 🇬🇧 (@BROKENBRITAIN0) August 24, 2025

In response to the backlash, Greene King issued a statement doubling down, and asserting that their pubs are intended as welcoming spaces for socialising, not places to get caught up in protests.

They confirmed that managers have the right to refuse entry and do not permit materials linked to political protests, requiring customers to remove such items.

However, they emphasized that this is not a political stance on the ongoing debate about the St George’s flag, and wearing football kits like England shirts is still allowed.

The incident perfectly encapsulates why those raising the flag feel the need to do so.

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