President Trump still has an interest in achieving peace and stability in the Middle East, particularly related to the conflicts Israel is still engaged in on several fronts – which is why US administration officials have been voicing frustration at what they see as reckless Netanyahu policies.

Axios reported Sunday that senior White House officials are increasingly at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly over Israel’s recent airstrikes in Damascus, which occurred despite reported US efforts to dissuade Israel from targeting Syria. President Trump has made clear he wants to see a ‘new Syria’ emerge under the Sharaa government.

“Bibi acted like a madman. He bombs everything constantly,” one White House official told Axios in a surprisingly blunt assessment, also warning that such actions jeopardize President Trump’s broader goals to restore regional stability.

Washington has been working toward a normalization agreement between Israel and Syria’s new government, despite Sharaa and his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters being essentially a rebrand of Syrian al-Qaeda.

But Trump admin officials have been criticizing much more than just Tel Aviv’s Syria adventurism. For example, another American official expressed outrage over an Israeli tank attack that struck Gaza’s only Roman Catholic church days ago, killing three Christians, and wounding more, including the priest.

“Every day there’s something new. What the f***?” the official said. A third commented that Netanyahu behaves “like a child who just won’t listen,” Axios wrote.

The report indicated it remains unclear whether President Trump shares his own advisers’ displeasure. The reality is that Trump has continued to show public support for Netanyahu – going so far as to call for an end to his corruption trial.

There’s also reason to think that those US officials vehemently criticizing Netanyahu are likely not in the majority, given for example that Israeli officials have claimed that Tel Aviv never expected Washington to object to the strikes in Syria.

After all, President Trump has encouraged Israel to retain captured Syrian territory – and the US admin has also been completely silent on Israeli military actions in the south, despite the clear violation of sovereignty against a sitting United Nations member.

But it remains that there probably is an internal clash over Israel still bombing key Syrian government buildings. Israeli leaders have of late teased the possibility of another regime change operation in Damascus, something Washington would more than likely object to at this point.

Update (1842ET):

Sarepta Therapeutics puked further in after-hours trading in New York after a Bloomberg report cited an email from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) announcing it would halt the use of Elevidys, the pharma’s gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The decision follows two reported deaths linked to the treatment.

CHLA halted the use of Elevidys last Friday—the same day the Food and Drug Administration requested that Sarepta halt distribution of the drug. Sarepta has since refused.

“Patient safety is paramount at CHLA and the hospital has communicated its decision with affected patient families while it awaits any further determination by the FDA,” a CHLA spokesperson told Bloomberg News in an email. 

In post-market trading, shares plunged another 9%, compounding the day’s 5.36% loss. Year-to-date, the stock is down a staggering 89%, trading at lows not seen since 2015. 

Earlier, HC Wainwright & Co. analyst Mitchell S. Kapoor made the rare move of slashing Sarepta’s price target to zero—from a prior target of $10—while maintaining a sell rating. According to the latest Bloomberg data, there are 3 sell ratings, 16 holds, and 7 buys on the stock. The average 12-month price target among Wall Street analysts is $30.41. 

“We view this battle with the gatekeeper US regulatory agency as unwinnable,” Kapoor told clients, adding, “Since the request for voluntary action was likely a courtesy, we expect the FDA to ultimately require removal of Elevidys from the market.”

He noted, “In the absence of future Elevidys revenues, we see no intrinsic value left in SRPT shares.”

Deutsche Bank analyst David Hoang told clients, “We anticipate this series of events and lack of transparency will have seriously damaged patient demand, taking perhaps years to rebuild trust.” 

*    *    *  

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. has refused a request from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to halt all shipments of its gene therapy Elevidys after three patient deaths, Bloomberg reported this weekend.

The FDA disclosed that two teenage boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, both unable to walk, died recently from acute liver failure after receiving Elevidys. In addition, a 51-year-old participant in a trial of a different Sarepta gene therapy targeting limb-girdle muscular dystrophy died last month, also of acute liver failure.

Bloomberg writes that following these events, FDA officials met with Sarepta and asked the company to voluntarily pause shipments of Elevidys, which accounts for more than half the company’s product revenue. “The company refused to do so,” the agency stated.

Sarepta, in its own statement Friday, defended its decision to continue distribution “based on our comprehensive scientific interpretation of the data, which shows no new or changed safety signals” in patients who are still ambulatory.

In June, the company had already suspended Elevidys shipments to non-ambulatory patients. According to Sarepta, boys who can still walk represent about 85% of those treated with the therapy since its launch.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in an interview Friday the agency is reviewing whether Elevidys should remain on the market.

The most recent death involved a gene therapy using the same viral delivery platform as Elevidys, suggesting potential broader safety implications. “We think the risks of the FDA removing the drug fully from the market are now greatly amplified,” Baird analyst Brian Skorney wrote in a Friday note.

On Friday, at around 1:00 p.m. ET, Reuters reported—citing a source familiar with the matter—that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would request Sarepta to halt all shipments of Elevidys. By 1:30 p.m. ET, the news has been reported by Bloomberg.

The company had confirmed a third patient death linked to its gene therapy programs, this time involving a 51-year-old man who died in June from acute liver failure after receiving the investigational therapy SRP-9004 for limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD).

The company confirmed the death to BioSpace and it was widely reported on Friday morning. Sarepta shares were lower by about 25% heading into the cash open and ultimately closed down more than 30%.

Like Elevidys—Sarepta’s approved Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy—SRP-9004 uses an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector, which the company has previously associated with fatal liver complications.

The death, which went unmentioned during Sarepta’s corporate restructuring update earlier last week, has drawn scrutiny from analysts.

“We think the LGMD patient death could amplify patient hesitancy to use commercial Elevidys and increase investor distrust since the company did not disclose the event on its call,” William Blair noted Friday.

Authored by Mary Prenon via The Epoch Times,

A recent report by WalletHub has identified the best and worst cities for first-time homebuyers, with Palm Bay, Florida, topping the best list. Five additional Florida locations—Tampa, Cape Coral, Orlando, Lakeland, and Sunrise—are among the top 10 cities ripe for picking by first-time potential buyers.

Other cities that made the Top 10 list include Boise, Idaho; Surprise and Gilbert, Arizona; and Huntsville, Alabama.

WalletHub, a national personal finance company, prepared the report by comparing 300 cities of various sizes, using key categories of affordability, market attractiveness, and quality of life. These included factors such as real estate taxes, homeowners’ insurance costs, median home price appreciation, foreclosure rates, school systems, job market, total home energy costs, and crime rate.

A Mix of Affordability and Livability

Chip Lupo, a WalletHub analyst, told The Epoch Times that buying a home for the first time can be a very stressful and difficult process, especially with rising housing costs and interest rates

“While affordability did weigh heavier into this, we also looked at important quality of life considerations like the job market, school systems, and crime rates,” he said.

Based purely on affordability, Flint and Detroit, Michigan, ranked first and second, followed by Peoria and Springfield, Illinois, and Toledo, Ohio, as the top five most affordable cities. However, those locations, along with many others, had much lower quality of life scores.

“Affordability doesn’t necessarily mean desirability,” Lupo said. “In many cases, if housing is priced extremely low, there’s a reason for that.”

The report also indicated that in 2024, first-time buyers accounted for 24 percent of home purchases—a historic low—marking a decrease of 32 percent from 2023. It found that, in addition to increasing home prices and interest rates, many prospective homeowners begin their search with unrealistic expectations.

“When working with first-time home buyers, I usually suggest narrowing down the neighborhoods that fit within their price range, located close to amenities that would be used frequently and then schools with high rankings,” John Sobota, a lecturer with the Wiedner Center for Residential Property Management at University of Wisconsin, said in the report.

“When they have picked the neighborhood that meets these criteria, then I suggest buying a home in the medium price range of that neighborhood.”

Where a home is located is just as important as its features, Sobota said. An unpleasant neighborhood can ruin the experience of even a great home.

Palm Bay Leads Top 10 Best Cities

Analyzing the popularity of Florida cities for first-time homeowners, Lupo noted that the Sunshine State has always been a destination for retirees and younger families.

Palm Bay, which scored number one on the list, is located on Florida’s east coast about halfway between Coco Beach and Vero Beach. The area has a population of 142,023, with a median household income of $67,521 in 2023.

While Palm Bay ranked very high for quality of life, its affordability level is in the mid-range. However, the city does have the fifth highest millennial home-ownership rate in the country along with the third-highest home appreciation nationwide.

Boise, Idaho, took second place, due mostly to its low crime rate and highest home appreciation rate. The state’s capital city, Boise’s population is almost 238,000 with a median household income of $81,308 as of 2023.

“I think Boise has also gained popularity as many people continue to flee very expensive areas like California … they’re getting top dollar for their homes and buying bigger but less expensive ones in Idaho or Arizona,” Lupo said.

“It’s not surprising because they’re also probably getting a better quality of life.”

Elizabeth Hume, president of the Boise Regional Realtors, has lived in the city for more than 20 years. “We deal with a lot of first-time buyers here, and Boise, as well as Idaho, have several great programs available for first-time homeowners,” she told The Epoch Times.

Idaho Realtors also helped to enact the Idaho First Time Homebuyers Savings program where first-time buyers can contribute up to $15,000 individually or $30,000 per couple each calendar year. The program offers tax-free withdrawals when used for home down payments, fees, or taxes on the purchase of a single-family home in Idaho.

Hume’s clients include both out-of-state buyers and locals.

“I think what attracts people to our area is that we have four seasons, so many outdoor activities, and a very low crime rate,” she said.

“There’s so much open space with hiking and biking trails, and Boise is also very close to whitewater rafting in the summer and ski resorts in the winter.”

As of June, Hume noted that median prices of a single family home in Idaho was $580,000—much higher than the national median price of $422,800 reported in May by the National Association of Realtors.

“We do have a lot of builders coming in with buyer incentives, and in suburban Eagle, there are townhomes on the market for under $400,000,” she said.

Hume touted the fact that the region has been ranked as one of America’s safest places.

“Prices are a bit higher here but the area does offer a better quality of life—and that’s something that first-time buyers also need to consider—especially if they have young children,” she said.

Under Idaho’s LEAP Program, churches owning underutilized land are allowing the construction of homes to provide more affordable housing for those who qualify.

Oakland Scores Lowest on Quality of Life

On the opposite side of WalletHub’s report, California is home to 16 of the top 20 worst cities for first-time buyers. Berkeley was rated the worst in the nation, followed by Santa Monica, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles.

“Most of these communities are unaffordable and many have high crime rates,” Lupo said.

Oakland had the lowest quality of life score, followed by Berkeley, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Chevron is approaching a production plateau in the Permian Basin—America’s top oil field—and expects this shift to generate billions in free cash flow, according to Bloomberg.

The company is cutting back on drill rigs and frack crews as it nears its long-term target of 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, which it expects to sustain through 2040.

“We’re going from growth to cash generation,” said Bruce Niemeyer, president of Chevron’s shale business. “We’re already in the earliest phases of that. We’re making adjustments to rigs and the frack spreads which will reduce the amount of capital we’re spending on an annual basis.”

Chevron has reduced its rigs from 13 to 9 and frack crews from four to three this year. These cutbacks are expected to boost free cash flow from the Permian by $2 billion over this year and next, reaching $5 billion annually by 2027, assuming Brent crude averages $60 a barrel.

“A million barrels is the right plateau for us to carry out into the next decade,” Niemeyer said. “It’s the natural next phase. You want to create something at scale that ultimately supports our dividend objectives.”

Bloomberg writes that unlike conventional oil production, shale wells decline quickly and require constant reinvestment. But Chevron believes it’s cracked the code: after 65% production growth over five years, the company now operates at a scale and efficiency that allows it to maintain output with lower capital spending.

“Chevron shifting from growth to flat-lining is coming at the right time because the market doesn’t need them to meaningfully grow,” said Neil Mehta, an analyst at Goldman Sachs. “Now that they’ve gotten to scale, the right thing to do is to shift this business into a free cashflow orientation.”

Chevron’s position is strengthened by a rare asset: mineral rights inherited from a 19th-century railroad bankruptcy. Originally acquired by Texaco in the 1960s, these rights—now part of Chevron—mean the company produces about 15% of its Permian oil with zero capital costs.

“It’s a meaningful competitive advantage for them as an organization,” said Mehta. “Chevron has that embedded in its portfolio and doesn’t necessarily always get full cost recognition for it.”

While other oil majors exited the Permian during downturns, Chevron stayed. That decision paid off when shale boomed.

“The decision to stay in the Permian was very deliberate,” Niemeyer said. “We tend to enter basins and stay for a very long period of time, and that isn’t true of everybody.”

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Let’s not pretend that RussiaGate was ever anything but a “treasonous conspiracy” and a “years’ long coup” as bluntly labeled by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) on Friday. The election prank launched by Hillary Clinton’s campaign turned into an overt sedition op led by President Barack Obama to overthrow his elected successor, Donald Trump. DNI Tulsi Gabbard went even further and proffered criminal referrals on all this to the US Attorney General.

If you think this is not extremely serious, you are not paying attention.

The New York Times was not paying attention in its Sunday edition. Not a word about this historic action on the paper’s website landing page. So now you know why the Harvard law professors, the Martha’s Vineyard chardonnay widows, and all the creative class hipsters of Brooklyn persist in their personal globes of political delusion. Instead, The Times dwelt on the Epstein business, still haplessly hoping to catch the Golden Golem in its golem trap. (Mr. Trump’s lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize committee for rewarding the Time’s RussiaGate coverage is still pending, by the way.)

Meanwhile, DNI Gabbard went on Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday confab and warned of more info releases coming this week. Sooner or later AG Pam Bondi will have to announce that a case based on that referral is under construction. My guess is that this is exactly what Kash Patel’s FBI has been preoccupied with for months with no leaking — you can imagine severe penalties against that. You might also note that there are no higher crimes under our law than treason, as explicitly spelled out in the DNI report.

The DNI also stated flatly on Sunday, “There must be indictments.”

If you think DNI Gabbard went forward without consulting some crack constitutional lawyers, you’ll be disappointed.

And also meanwhile, Deputy AG Todd Blanche has applied for release of the sealed grand jury transcripts on the 2019 Epstein case from the DOJ’s Manhattan outpost (SDNY). And consider: all that info was completely segregated from the Epstein files that former FBI Director Christopher Wray controlled for years and years, meaning it was not subject to editing and manipulation. You may finally get to see the difference between the “hoax” elements of the story and the actual evidence.

The Russian meddling and collusion story might have seemed like “a thing” to many in the early January days of 2017 before Mr. Trump’s first inauguration. But when they went after the newly appointed National Security Advisor, General Mike Flynn, for having a conversation with the Russian ambassador, you had had to know that something sketchy was afoot. As this blog asked at the time: why are ambassadors from foreign lands here, if not to speak with our government officials? The story was preposterous but, of course, the news media helped run Gen. Flynn out of office and then led the cheering for the DOJ’s malicious prosecution of him afterward in Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s DC district court.

You also have to wonder if anyone in the news media might be subject to indictment above and beyond the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press. Is there a line between that and acting as an accessory to treason? What did New York Times editor (at the time) Dean Baquet think he was doing, publishing all that patent garbage? Or the producers of CNN and other network news?

The DNI called these activities a “treasonous conspiracy” for a reason. A conspiracy charge that encompasses a skein of persons in a continuous series of crimes extends the statute of limitations to the latest criminal act for all involved. You might also wonder how wide a net the DOJ could cast. Will it include such obvious players as Senator Mark Warner, who schemed to play along on RussiaGate as Vice-chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence? Or then-Congressman Adam Schiff on the House Intel Committee when, for years, he pretended to have “proof” of (i.e., lied about) Trump-Russia collusion? Or FBI Director Wray, who hid evidence, might have tampered with evidence, and apparently lied to Congress about many of these connected matters? Or Andrew Weissmann, who virtually ran the phony Mueller Investigation as a RussiaGate cover-up op because Robert Mueller was mentally infirm? Or Lawfare Ninjas Marc Elias, Norm Eisen, and Mary McCord who appear liable for 2020 election hackery and the Jan 6 “insurrection” op (including the House J6 Committee fakery afterward) along with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Or former AG William Barr, who sat on the Hunter Biden laptop during Trump Impeachment No. 1, when the device was stuffed with exculpatory evidence withheld from Mr. Trump’s lawyers? Or CIA agent Eric Ciaramella, Lt. Col Alex Vindman, and Intel Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who conspired with Rep. Adam Schiff on the “Ukraine phone call” operation that was the basis of impeachment No. 1? Or DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who botched his investigation (on purpose?) of FISA court criminal irregularities, or Judge James Boasberg who presided over those criminal irregularities and issued many of them? Or Special Counsel John Durham who took years to overlook the salient elements of the RussiaGate coup? Or many other figures involved one way or another. . . McCabe, Stzrok, Page, Pientka, Thibault, Baker, Rice, Yates, Rummler, Halper, Pompeo, Haines, Bruce and Nellie Ohr. . . .

Are they all rounded-up and sent to court together, like a Nuremberg proceding? Or do they get their own separate cases? Or will the DOJ only go after the top dogs: Obama, Brennan, Clapper, and Comey?

Finally, consider this: demonizing Vladimir Putin set the stage for the Ukraine War — which was initially kicked off in 2014 under President Obama and his State Department / CIA group led by Victoria Nuland orchestrating the Maidan revolt.

The official disclosures now by the DNI should make it clear that Mr. Putin did not deserve the treatment he got for years on end, and that the overall effect of it has been catastrophic for world peace.

Half the people in the USA still believing all the manufactured bullshit about Mr. Putin has made it extremely difficult for President Trump to end the war in Ukraine that has killed millions.

RussiaGate had the gravest consequences, and now there can be consequences for the merry pranksters who started it and kept it going, one way or another, for a decade.

It might be the most prominent cultural theme of 2025 – Progressive Black Americans with a victim complex relocating overseas. They think they’re escaping oppression only to discover that most of the world has zero tolerance for them and that the US is a far better place than they initially thought. 

Francine Villa left the US for Russia in 2020, declaring America “discriminatory” and asserting that she feels much safer in her new home.  In a 2020 documentary called “Black in the USSR” produced by Russia Today, Villa criticized the racial evils of America and praised Russia as a “safe place for her to walk the streets”.  

The expat is not a stranger to the East; her great-grandfather moved from Virginia to work as an agriculturist in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and her family has lived in Russia ever since.  She was born there, but at a young age, her mother moved her to the United States. 

Five years after moving back, Villa is ready to leave.  She took to Instagram this week, bloody and battered and calling for help after an argument with her Russian neighbors ended in a beating.  Villa claims her young child who was present was also injured during the altercation. 

Her post is interlaced with clips of the incident, though, she has suspiciously avoided posting the entire unedited video.

📍She Fled “Racist” America for Russia… And Got Beat Down.

Sometimes reality smacks you in the face—literally.

Meet Francine Villa, a black woman who left the U.S. in 2019 because she believed the media narrative: America is systemically racist, and Russia is safer.

🇷🇺 She… pic.twitter.com/cGwBVMhXVQ

— 🥷🦅Austin Petersen 🇺🇲🥋 (@AP4Liberty) July 17, 2025

The clips do show Villa’s neighbors complaining about her leaving items in their hallway.  It is not clear in her video what started the argument or if her neighbors were actually motivated by “racism”.  Western media outlets are taking Villa’s word for it and decrying the incident as an example of the discrimination inherent in Russia; similar to how the Kremlin controlled media used Villa in 2020 to make the US look discriminatory. 

Critics suggest that Villa is not being completely honest in her account of the attack, noting that nothing her neighbors say in her Instagram clips is racist.  It’s important to remember that in most countries sticking a cell phone camera in people’s faces is considered rude, and these places do not have stringently enforced laws against assault like the US.    

Around the world, most altercations tend to be settled with intimidation or violence and there are no authorities available to help.  First world western societies are highly coddled in this regard.  Camera’s are not a shield against fists and it’s prudent to learn the habits of a culture and assimilate to avoid tensions. 

Villa said that she’s taken the matter to the police, who have done nothing so far to address it.  The irony is hard to miss, of course.  Commenters question why Villa moved to one of the “whitest countries in the world” if she thought she was escaping white racism?  Others ask why she didn’t just “move to Africa”. 

Many black Americans have tried that and met with disappointment, finding that they are still treated like aliens even in places where black people are the majority. 

This raises the obvious question:  Is the world racist against black Americans, or, are aspects of their culture and behavior annoying and insulting to everyone they encounter?       

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Retail speculation is once again gripping the markets. A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted how the latest retail gambling vehicle—zero-days-to-expiration (0DTE) options—has exploded in popularity. According to CBOE, trading volumes in these contracts have surged nearly sixfold over the past five years, with retail traders now accounting for more than half of all transactions. This rapid rise in speculative options trading has intensified since 2020.

This is more than a quirky market statistic. It’s a glaring warning sign of rising risk-taking behavior among retail investors. History consistently shows that markets peak when the average investor starts chasing lottery-like returns. Options, by design, are speculative instruments used to hedge risk or make directional bets. However, the explosion in 0DTE options points to a significant behavioral shift from investing to outright gambling.

One of the most visible examples of this shift is Robinhood. The brokerage earns four times more revenue from options trading than traditional stock commissions, while its stock price has soared over 300% in the past year. The speculative fervor isn’t limited to options; we continue to see it in meme stocks, cryptocurrencies, and high-flying tech names. The appeal is easy to understand—0DTE options offer the illusion of life-changing returns for a small upfront cost. Unfortunately, the reality is far harsher. Most retail traders lose money, often spectacularly. While market makers like Citadel Securities collect billions in profits, the average investor learns, too late, that leverage cuts both ways.

Retail Speculation & the Perils of Leverage

This cycle of retail speculation is nothing new. In early 2021, just months before the market corrected in 2022, we noted how inexperienced retail investors were rushing into markets. In a piece titled “Long On Confidence And Short On Experience,” we highlighted how retail traders exhibited high confidence without the experience to manage risk appropriately. Online searches for terms like “how to trade stocks” surged, echoing similar speculative periods of the late 1990s and mid-2000s.

“In a “market mania,” retail investors are generally “long confidence” and “short experience” as the bubble inflates. While we often believe each ‘time’ is different, it rarely is. It is only the outcomes that are inevitably the same. A recent UBS survey revealed some fascinating insights about retail traders and the current speculation level in the market. The number of individuals searching “google” for how to “trade stocks has spiked since the pandemic lows.”

For anyone who has lived through two “real” bear markets, the imagery of people trying to learn how to “daytrade” their way to riches is familiar. From E*Trade commercials to “day trading companies,” people left their jobs to trade stocks.

From the dot-com bubble to the meme stock mania, the behavior has remained the same. Retail traders feel invincible in rising markets, convincing themselves that the more risk they take, the more money they’ll make. As we noted then, young investors were even taking on personal debt to invest, a behavior not seen since the tech bubble of 1999, when traders used credit cards and home equity loans to speculate on stocks. Of course, these episodes ended similarly, with many small investors wiped out when markets corrected.

Speculation in risky stocks is one thing, but speculation combined with leverage turns ordinary pullbacks into major corrections. Today, we see excessive leverage building up across markets. Margin debt is again climbing toward record highs, and free cash balances among investors have fallen deep into negative territory.

This is a dangerous setup. When investors run out of disposable income, they borrow to buy more stock. Margin debt relative to disposable personal income has historically peaked before major market downturns. Adding to the risk, many investors are piling into 2x and 3x leveraged ETFs while speculative call options massively outweigh protective puts. These dynamics create a fragile market structure. Rising prices fuel more leveraged buying, which pushes markets higher in a feedback loop. But when selling starts, the loop reverses—margin calls kick in, forced selling accelerates, and liquidity evaporates, causing sharp market downturns.

We’ve seen this happen repeatedly: the Volmageddon crash in 2018, the COVID selloff in 2020, and the meme stock blow-up in 2021. Now, we may be setting up for another sharp unwind centered around the zero-day options mania.

Complacency and Overconfidence Among Retail Investors

Greed and complacency have always been notable contrarian indicators for markets. Unfortunately, they are frequently ignored until it’s too late. Despite the growing risks, complacency has returned in full force. The Volatility Index (VIX) has collapsed to multi-year lows over the past three months, while credit spreads and other risk indicators remain near their most complacent levels in years.

Beneath this surface calm, the market is loaded with speculative leverage, narrow leadership in a handful of mega-cap stocks, and weak underlying breadth. At the same time, retail options activity remains at record levels, creating the perfect conditions for a market correction. Historically, markets are most vulnerable to sharp reversals when everyone expects calm.

Investors are once again convincing themselves that “this time is different.” Yet history shows the cycle of retail speculation and market corrections never really changes. Every bull market ends similarly, with euphoric excess by inexperienced investors, followed by painful corrections. The late 1990s tech bubble saw retail investors flooding into IPOs and call options before the Nasdaq fell 80%. In the mid-2000s, retail investors leveraged up on housing and stocks before the S&P 500 crashed by more than 50%. The 2021 meme stock mania ended in disaster, with GameStop and AMC round-tripping their gains. Each cycle has a different narrative, but the outcome is always the same.

Today, the story is driven by artificial intelligence, zero-day options, and massive concentration in the largest market-capitalization stocks. But the warning signs are no different: extreme retail optimism, widespread leverage, and complete complacency about risk.

What Investors Should Do to Manage Risk

One of the most concerning developments is the growing divergence between professional and retail investors. Institutional investors have quietly reduced risk, shifting toward defensive sectors and fixed income, while retail traders continue chasing speculative trades. Sentiment surveys confirm this imbalance, showing extreme bullishness among small traders, especially in options markets.

With these risks building under the surface, prudent investors should proactively protect their portfolios. No one can predict precisely when the market will correct, but the ingredients for a sharp downturn are clearly in place. Savvy investors should use this period of complacency to reduce risk exposure before the cycle turns.

Here are six practical steps investors should consider:

• Rebalancing portfolios to reduce overweight exposure to technology and speculative growth names.

• Increasing cash allocations to provide flexibility during periods of volatility.

• Rotating into more defensive sectors like healthcare, consumer staples, and utilities that tend to outperform during corrections.

• Reducing exposure to leverage by avoiding margin debt and leveraged ETFs.

• Using options prudently—not for gambling, but for protecting portfolios through longer-dated puts on broad market indexes.

• Focusing on companies with strong balance sheets, stable earnings, and reasonable valuations.

The explosion of zero-day options trading is not a sign of a healthy market. It is a symptom of an unhealthy market increasingly driven by speculation rather than investment discipline. Retail traders have moved from investing to gambling, chasing fast profits while ignoring the mounting risks. Greed is rampant, leverage is extreme, and complacency is near record levels.

Markets can remain irrational longer than expected, but history tells us these speculative periods always end in a painful correction.

Bull markets do not die quietly; they end with euphoric retail excess followed by painful corrections.

Investors who recognize the signs early will avoid the worst of the fallout and be positioned to capitalize when value opportunities return.

Hunter Biden, the scandal-plagued son of former President Joe Biden, launched into an unhinged, expletive-filled meltdown during a recent interview, attacking his own party’s elite establishment while defending illegal immigration and making shocking admissions about his drug-fueled past.

In what can only be described as an unglued performance on Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, the younger Biden lashed out at top Democrats, calling George Clooney a “fucking brand” rather than an actor, dismissing James Carville as irrelevant, and exposing the Pod Save America hosts as grifting “junior fucking speech writers” who have been “making millions” off their Obama connections.

Hunter Biden just went off on the Democratic Party:

“Fuck him and everybody around him… George Clooney is not a fucking an actor. He’s a brand.”

“James Carville hasn’t won a race in 40 fucking years.”

“David Axelrod had one success in his political life and that was Barack… pic.twitter.com/Cdk9t29gwZ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 21, 2025

Obama advisor David Axelrod wasn’t spared either, with Biden dismissing his entire career: “David Axelrod had one success in his political life and that was Barack Obama and that was because of Barack Obama.“

Biden even turned his venom on powerful Democrat consultant Anita Dunn, revealing the stunning amounts of money these political parasites have extracted from the party: “Anita Dunn has made $40-$50 million off the Democratic Party.”

And in a final insult to the failing mainstream media, Biden called out CNN host Jake Tapper over his poor ratings. “What influence does Jake Tapper have over anything? He has the smallest audience on cable news,” he said.

The disgraced Biden son also unleashed a barrage of F-bombs while ranting about illegal immigration and taking direct aim at hardworking Americans who support border security.

“All these Democrats say, ‘you have to talk about and realize that people are really upset about illegal immigration‘,” Biden said. “Fuck you. How do you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you think you have food on your fucking table? Who do you think washes your dishes? Who do you think does your fucking garden? Who do you think is hear by the fucking sheer fucking, just, grit and will that they figured out a way to get here because they thought that they could give thereselfses and there family a better chance?”

NEW – Hunter Biden crashes out over whites and migrants: “White men in America are 45 more times likely to commit a fucking violent crime than an immigrant… I say fuck you!” pic.twitter.com/vBEe6cktBG

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) July 21, 2025

The disgraced Biden son didn’t stop there, launching an attack on President Donald Trump’s common-sense approach to immigration enforcement. “He’s somehow conviced all of us that these people are the fucking criminals?” the former president’s son fumed.

Perhaps most disturbing were Biden’s casual admissions about his drug-manufacturing activities. In a stunning revelation that raises serious questions about what the Biden family was really up to, Hunter described in chilling detail how he became his own drug dealer.

“Places that you can go get it are some of the most dangerous places in whatever location you happen to be in. And it’s everywhere,” Biden said. “Mainly for that reason, I learned how to make my own.”

This bombshell admission reveals the depths of depravity the Biden family has sunk to, with the president’s son openly bragging about manufacturing illegal narcotics while his father occupied the nation’s highest office.

Despite claiming sobriety since June 2019, Biden flew into a rage when confronted about the cocaine scandal that rocked the Biden White House, desperately trying to distance himself from the drugs found in the West Wing.

“They’ve convinced themselves it had to be me,” he said. “I have been clean and sober since June of 2019 and I have not touched a drop of alcohol or a drug and I’m incredibly proud of that. And why would you bring cocaine to the White House? Why would I bring it to the White House and stick it into a cubby outside the situation room in the West Wing?”

The Biden crime family’s legal troubles are well known. Hunter was convicted by a Delaware jury in June 2024 for illegally purchasing and possessing a firearm while strung out on drugs – charges directly related to his well-documented substance abuse problems. In a brazen display of the two-tiered justice system, Joe Biden immediately pardoned his corrupt son, proving once again that Democrats believe they’re above the law.

Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Department of Transportation imposed new restrictions on flight operations from Mexico to the United States on July 19 in response to flight restrictions Mexico previously levied against the United States.

Under the new restrictions, Mexico will have to file schedules with the U.S. Transportation Department for all U.S. operations and obtain department approval to operate large passenger or cargo charter flights between Mexico and the United States.

In a July 19 statement, the U.S. Transportation Department said Mexico, since 2022, has not been in compliance with the Air Transport Agreement enacted between the two countries in 2015. Specifically, the department stated that Mexico had rescinded flight slots for three American, Delta, and United flights through the Benito Juarez International Airport and ordered U.S. cargo flights to relocate their operations.

“Mexico claimed it was to allow for construction to alleviate congestion at Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX) that has yet to materialize three years later,” the department stated.

“By restricting slots and mandating that all-cargo operations move out of MEX, Mexico has broken its promise, disrupted the market, and left American businesses holding the bag for millions in increased costs.”

The U.S. Transportation Department also issued an order that could lead to the revocation of an antitrust immunity agreement that had allowed Delta and Aeromexico to operate a joint venture.

“Let these actions serve as a warning to any country who thinks it can take advantage of the U.S., our carriers, and our market. America First means fighting for the fundamental principle of fairness,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on July 19.

The Epoch Times reached out to Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Affairs for comment about the latest action from the U.S. government but did not receive a response before publication time.

Amid the broader dispute over Mexico’s compliance with the 2015 Air Transport Agreement, Delta and Aeromexico have sought to preserve their joint venture, arguing that they should not have to lose out as part of the U.S. retaliation over the Mexican government’s actions. A cancellation of the Delta/Aeromexico joint venture could jeopardize nearly two dozen routes and $800 million in economic benefits for both countries, according to the airlines.

“The U.S. Department of Transportation’s tentative proposal to terminate its approval of the strategic and pro-competitive partnership between Delta and Aeromexico would cause significant harm to consumers traveling between the U.S. and Mexico, as well as U.S. jobs, communities, and transborder competition,” Delta said in a statement responding to the U.S. Transportation Department’s recent actions.

Aeromexico’s press team stated that it was reviewing the order and planned to coordinate with Delta to present a joint response in the coming days.