Are markets headed for a cliff? Most analysts flipped bullish following the Trump win with promises of peace, lower taxes, and business-friendly regulation. But one strategist, Michael Pento, is calling for a major crash as severe as 50% off the S&P.

Friday night concluded another ZeroHedge live-premium debate with Pento, founder of Pento Portfolio Strategies, and Chief Investment Strategist at RIA Advisors Lance Roberts. 

Expertly moderated by Real Vision’s Ash Bennington, we’ve compiled key moments below but encourage all readers to listen to the full debate (linked at the bottom).

Credit Spreads Canary

Unlike the stock market, driven by sentiment and speculation, credit markets are “fundamentally based” on assessing inflation, credit risk, and returns — according to Roberts.

He points out that these spreads have historically served as a “good early warning indicator” of bear markets. Roberts concedes Pento’s thesis about the precarious state of the market and even admits, “we’re going to crash” (but strongly advises against all-cash and shorting, explained later).

“If there’s anything you’re going to watch to tell you a crash is going to come, watch credit spreads.”

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— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) December 14, 2024

Fed Is Finished

Pento argues that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to intervene aggressively in the event of another economic crash due to significant changes since pre-COVID conditions. He challenges the assumption that “the Fed’s got your back” by pointing to current constraints that make a return to policies like zero interest rates (ZIRP) and quantitative easing (QE) less feasible.

Pento: “It’s a little sophomoric to say, ‘well, the Feds got your back. Well, the Fed’s just going to print money.’” 

“Look at what happened in 2020. The Fed’s balance sheet went from $4 trillion to $9 trillion from 2020 to 2022… the reason why the Fed is going to be loathe and reticent and reluctant to do that again, is because we had inflation in this country for the first time really since 1981. And if you measure inflation the way they did pre-Boskin in 1996, inflation was really about 20%.”

“Inflation has already wiped out the bottom four quintiles of the middle class.”

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— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) December 14, 2024

Even if the Fed tries to put up a fight, says Pento, there’s no guarantee that they can save markets. Japan has thrown the kitchen sink at its markets to levels well beyond the American central bank but to no avail:

“Japan has zero percent interest rates. The Bank of Japan owns every JGB that’s ever issued. They own half of the ETF market, and their market is below where it was 35 years ago.”

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— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) December 14, 2024

Harmful Doomer Predictions 

Roberts blasts doomsday predictions for causing massive losses for retail investors, encouraging them to remain permanently out of markets while the S&P climbs to new highs. 

“If you’re going to say a crash is coming… it’s got to have a specific timeframe.” 

He highlights the market’s resilience during events like the 2020 shutdown. “If there was ever a reason the market should be down 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, it should have been that event.” Though Roberts concedes that the federal government kept stocks afloat with stimulus checks, debt forgiveness, zero interest rates, and $120 billion in monthly quantitative easing.

Overall, he strongly discourages investors against crash predicting because current conditions, fueled by liquidity and support, may sustain the rally longer than expected. “They might be surprised how long this can last because of what’s still fueling the underlying market.”

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— ZeroHedge Debates (@zerohedgeDebate) December 14, 2024

To hear Pento’s entire case for the 50% crash and his full discussion with Roberts that went for over an hour, you must sign up for the ZeroHedge Premium or Professional tiers. Pro subs additionally gain access to institutional research from the major banks to help you gain an edge when trading. Also tune in this Tuesday evening for a debate between Jonathan Turley and GW Professor Dave Karpf on free speech and Elon’s acquisition of Twitter, moderated by Gene Epstein of the SoHo Forum.

Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

Thanks to the help of the non-profit transparency group Judicial Watch, Headline USA has obtained a recording of the 911 call Thomas Crooks’s father made on the day his son allegedly tried assassinating Donald Trump during his July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Allegheny County—where Crooks lived with his parents, Matthew and Mary Crooks—provided the call to Headline USA on Friday after a four-month legal process.

The call lasts roughly 2 minutes before abruptly ending. Matthew Crooks initially called Allegheny County 911 dispatch, which transferred him to the Bethel Park Police Department.

“Hi, yes. Uh, my name is Matthew Crooks. I was calling in regards to my son, Thomas. Uh, he belongs to the Clairton Sportsman Club in Clairton, and I don’t have the number for Jefferson Police on hand. The reason I’m calling is he left the house here at about a quarter to two this afternoon, and we’ve gotten no contact from him, no text messages, nothing’s been returned, and he’s not home yet,” Matthew said.

“That’s totally not like him. So we’re kind of worried, not really sure what we should do.”

The recording ended after Matthew confirmed his son was 20 years old. Headline USA is filing an appeal in an attempt to obtain the rest of the recording—if it exists.

Obtaining the 2-minute recording was a lengthy process in the first place.

After requesting the call on Aug. 12, Bethel Park Police denied disclosure nine days later— citing Section 708(b)(18) of the RTKL, which exempts 911 recordings from public disclosure.

However, the exact same RTKL paragraph cited by Bethel Police also states that law enforcement can release 911 recordings that are in the public interest.

Headline USA appealed accordingly, but an appeals officer ruled that he didn’t have the power to force disclosure. Only a police department or a court has the power to force disclosure of 911 calls, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruled in October. The Office of Open Records made a similar ruling that same month in an appeal filed by NBC News, which also sought the call.

That’s where Judicial Watch came in. The non-profit watchdog agreed to take on this publication’s case, filing a lawsuit in late October in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas to force Bethel Park Police to disclose the 911 call.

“Disclosing the 911 recording would further aid the public’s interest in completing a timeline of events surrounding the attempted assignation of President Trump on July 13, 2024,” attorney J. Chadwick Schnee argued on behalf of Judicial Watch and Headline USA—asking the court to reverse the appeal office’s decision and to deem the 911 recording to be in the public interest.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t obtain the 911 phone call

BUT THE MAN WITH THE LARGEST ARMS IN WASHINGTON DC COULD!!!!@JudicialWatch @TomFitton https://t.co/R3nNBbbG19 https://t.co/O7HNRm2543 pic.twitter.com/jPS7krVSIH

— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) December 13, 2024

However, a judge never had the chance to rule on Judicial Watch’s lawsuit. Last week, ABC News published a story about the call, reporting that it obtained the 911 call via a Right to Know Law request—the same method by which both Headline USA and NBC had requested it. Though Headline USA’s request was with Bethel Park Police, NBC had tried obtaining the recording via Allegheny County—and the county fought NBC all the way to appeal, and won.

It’s not clear why Allegheny County disclosed the call to ABC after denying it to NBC—and successfully arguing in October that it wasn’t in the public interest. However, Allegheny County only disclosed the call after Judicial Watch filed its lawsuit.

ABC did reveal that the call was made at 10:56 p.m., which settles conflicting reports of whether the father called before or after his son shot at Trump at 6:11 p.m.—grazing Trump’s ear, killing a firefighter, and seriously wounding two others before dying from law enforcement’s return fire.

The timing of the call wasn’t included in the response Headline USA received.

Earlier this week, President Biden broke the record for the largest one-day act of clemency, dishing out 39 pardons and commuting 1,499 sentences. Now, as journalists and citizens begin sifting through that massive pile, some troubling discoveries are coming to light — perhaps none more disturbing than Biden’s commutation of a sentence given to a Pennsylvania judge convicted of railroading children to prison in exchange for $2.1 million in kickbacks from the private prison’s operator to himself and Judge Mark Ciaverella.    

In a truly sinister scandal that came to be known by the nickname “Kids-for-Cash,” Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan pled guilty to racketeering charges and was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. By some estimates, the scheme affected more than 2,500 juveniles. In many cases, the minors were provided no defense counsel, and the crooked judges creatively applied laws in order to lengthen sentences. In a case handled by Ciaverella, a 15-year-old girl who created a MySpace page to mock her school’s assistant principal had a 90-second, no-lawyer trial, and was sentenced to three months in confinement.

Sandy Fonzo is among those who are outraged by Biden’s commutation of Conahan’s sentence. Her son, a star wrestler with college scholarship prospects, was sentenced to confinement for his senior year on a minor drug paraphernalia charge. He emerged depressed and angry, and would late commit suicide. “I am shocked and I am hurt,” said Fonzo. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power.”

Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was among those rushing to condemn Biden’s move. “I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” said Shapiro at a Friday event — held, believe it or not, on “Biden Street” — in the president’s first hometown, Scranton. “[Conahan] deserves to be behind bars, not walking as a free man.”

I grew up in the Scranton area. All you have to say is “Kids for Cash” and people will know the deep scar you’re referencing that was left on the area.

— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) December 13, 2024

Amid the uproar, a Biden administration official told Politico that the specifics of Conahan’s situation weren’t taken into account; instead, the commutations were dished out en masse to anyone who fit a general set of criteria. (Is that supposed to make it sound better?) As Politico explains, “those commutations were extended to people on Covid-related home confinement after federal authorities verified that their offenses were nonviolent and not a sex offense or terrorism related.”

Joe “fuck them kids” Biden commuted Judge Michael “Kids For Cash” Conahan’s sentence. One of the worst presidents of my lifetime.

— That radical social work chick (@sandinistaoliva) December 13, 2024

Those sloppy parameters left plenty of room for serious evil-doers — like Conahan and who knows how many else — to be set free.  As GOP Pennsylvania state Sen. Lisa Baker asked, “Where does ruining the lives of vulnerable kids in order to enrich oneself warrant a presidential commutation?”

The firestorm comes two weeks after Biden issued a blanket pardon of his son Hunter for any federal crimes he “has committed or may have committed or participated in” between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 1, 2024. Coming after promises that he would not issue such a pardon, the move received condemnation from Republicans and Democrat alike, and an AP-NORC poll found only two out of ten Americans approve it. 

Kids for Cash is Biden’s entire family model. https://t.co/0iHlkT3Uuw

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) December 13, 2024

“I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities,” said Biden in a statement issued alongside last week’s pardons and commutations.

There’s a great, sickening irony in Biden shortening the sentence of a man who unjustly lengthened the sentences of others — out of pure greed. 

Authored by Melanie Sun via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President-elect Donald Trump has named former Fox 10 Phoenix news anchor Kari Lake to lead the federally funded international broadcasting network Voice of America (VOA).

“I am pleased to announce that Kari Lake will serve as our next Director of the Voice of America,” Trump said in a number of announcements for positions in his administration on Dec. 11.

“She will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who I will announce soon, to ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World fairly and accurately, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.”

VOA was founded on Feb. 1, 1942, with a non-American audience in mind, to share the “policies of the United States clearly and effectively.” At the time, its goal was to combat Nazi propaganda.

Lake ran in both the 2024 U.S. Senate election and Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial election, with her Democratic competitors named winners in both races.

“I am honored that President Trump has asked me to lead the Voice of America,” Lake said in a post on social media platform X shortly after being named.

“VOANews is a vital international media outlet dedicated to advancing the interests of the United States by engaging directly with people across the globe and promoting democracy and truth,” she said of the network that has an audience of 326 million people across 48 languages.

“Under my leadership, the VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements worldwide,” she said. “I can’t wait to get started.”

Other Appointments

Also on the night of Dec. 11, Trump nominated Michael J. Rigas as deputy secretary of state for management and resources. The position requires confirmation by the Senate.

“Michael will bring accountability to the State Department as he did Government wide, when he served in my First Term as the Deputy and Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and the Acting Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget,” Trump said of the Harvard alumnus.

“Mike is a conservative warrior who knows how Government works, and will help Make America Great Again!”

Trump also named Daniel J. Newlin as his administration’s ambassador to Colombia.

An entrepreneur and former lawman, Newlin dedicated a 28-year career to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando, where he investigated major crimes, including armed robbery, gang violence, human trafficking, and illegal gun and narcotics trafficking.

“With his Law Enforcement expertise enabling him to navigate complex international issues, and his business insights fostering economic partnerships, Newlin stands as a powerful advocate for U.S. interests, and a Champion for strengthening ties, and making a difference in the World. Dan will do a great job!” Trump said.

The president-elect also named philanthropist and physician Dr. Peter Lamelas as ambassador to Argentina and Leandro Rizzuto Jr., as ambassador to the Organization of American States.

Lamelas, a refugee from communist Cuba, is known for creating the largest urgent care health care company in Florida. He was previously chosen by Trump to serve on the Department of Justice’s Medal of Valor Review Board to recognize first responders.

Rizzuto, son of chairman and co-founder of the Conair Corporation Leandro Rizzuto, formerly served as U.S. consul general to Bermuda in the first Trump administration.

Authored by Stephen Soukup via American Greatness,

In the wake of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, many on the political left have demonstrated a level of moral degeneracy that is, paradoxically, both shocking and entirely unsurprising.

The celebration of the murder, of its perpetrator, and of the violent populist spirit that animated him has been both off-putting and edifying. They have exposed certain influential figures among the American media and political elites as incorrigibly depraved. More to the point, they have exposed these same figures as monstrously ignorant, not just about the moral necessities of a functional society but also about the fundamentals of governance and finance.

Let us stipulate a few things upfront.

• First, the most important aspect of this story is the moral dimension. Those who celebrate the premeditated, cold-blooded murder of any individual—and a father of two children, in this case—are wicked.

• Second, attempting to veil one’s support for murder by first offering a pro forma condemnation of violence is worse than inadequate. It is every bit as monstrous as simply supporting the murder and the murderer outright—maybe even more so.

• Third, although it is her moral weakness that matters most in this discussion, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (as well as New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) has also shown herself to be far too ill-informed ever to be taken seriously again.

Warren, as you may know, got caught the other day with her “but” hanging out. “Violence is never the answer,” she conceded, “BUT….” She then went on to explain why she didn’t really mean that violence is never the answer:

…people can be pushed only so far. This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the health care to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone.

What, one might wonder, does Senator Warren mean when she says that this will “ultimately be a threat to everyone”? Does she mean that other CEOs should be worried about being gunned down on the streets? Should all healthcare providers be likewise concerned? Or does she mean to include everyone, everywhere, all people on the face of the earth? Does she think that health insurance is going to be the impetus for global Armageddon?

One supposes she has a specific population in mind, health insurance company CEOs, presumably, but she doesn’t say. Those who understand how government and finance work might wonder if she includes herself on this list of people who should feel threatened. What about AOC and other members of Congress? How about former President Barack Obama?

The simple truth of the matter—which both Senator Warren and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez choose to ignore—is that health insurance in this country is anything but a “private” industry. Indeed, it is almost certainly more a product of government than it is of markets. The American healthcare system—such as it is—had its origins in the wage caps imposed by the National War Labor Board on American business in 1942. Companies could not lure employees with higher wages, and so they did so with fringe benefits, the most notable of which was health insurance. In short, then, the government created the system more than 80 years ago and has been meddling in it ever since.

Today, health insurance is one of the most aggressively micro-managed industries in the country. In large part because of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, insurers are told what they must cover, whom they must cover, when they must provide coverage, and at what price they must do so. In this sense, the ACA seems like a horrible imposition on health insurers. In truth, however, the companies supported the scheme when it was enacted and are even more enthusiastic about it today. It has been a boon to their operations.

“Obamacare” mandated by law that every single person in the country become a client of a health insurance company (unless they happened to be covered under one of the government’s own price-setting, cost-cutting programs). It created a massive pool of new customers and, in so doing, enhanced insurers’ bottom lines significantly. Because of the massive amount of regulation involved, the ACA also created significant barriers to entry into the industry. What that means is that, in addition to providing insurers with millions of new customers, the federal government also, essentially, killed any potential new competition for the insurers. Nice work, if you can get it.

I have spent the last roughly five years of my career focusing on the government and corporate collusion that is best described as “corporatism.” This sort of corporatist collusion is probably nowhere more developed and burdensome than in the health insurance industry. Or to put it more bluntly for Senator Warren: any problems with health insurance are as much the fault of the government as they are of industry.

Senator Warren and her cohorts celebrating Brian Thompson’s murder also seem to be more than a little confused about who and what UnitedHealthcare is. When they complain about the company, its policies, and especially its profits, they speak of it as if it were some living, breathing entity. Obviously, it is not. The “company” is comprised of millions of different people. When UnitedHealthcare earns a profit, for example, that profit doesn’t go to some big, otherwise empty building somewhere, and it doesn’t go to Brian Thompson or any of the other executives in the company. It goes to the shareholders, both in the form of dividends and (usually) higher share prices. Thompson was merely the agent for the shareholders. Everything he did that benefitted “the company” benefitted its shareholders. That’s how publicly traded companies work.

Who, then, are the shareholders of United Healthcare? Well…given that it’s an S&P 500 company, almost anyone who has a 401(k) or an IRA that invests in index funds is a United Healthcare shareholder. Interestingly, because she joined Congress after January 1, 2013, Senator Elizabeth Warren is a member of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS), which includes a basic retirement annuity, Social Security, and mandatory participation in the Thrift Savings Plan. The Thrift Savings Plan, in turn, has one “fund” that is its most popular and generally produces its best returns. That is its “C Fund”—a common stock fund that is built to “match the performance of the Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) Index.” We can safely assume that Senator Warren has some of her TPS money in the C Fund, which means that we safely assume that Senator Warren is a shareholder of United Healthcare. Brian Thompson may have done some things as the CEO of United Healthcare that made people angry or unhappy, but he only did so as the agent of people like Elizabeth Warren. She, not he, was the ultimate beneficiary of whatever the company did to “push people” too far.

Elizabeth Warren is not stupid.

One would presume that she knows all of this. And yet…

One has no choice but to conclude that Senator Warren is incredibly ignorant, incredibly manipulative, or some combination of the two.

If I were a betting man, I’d bet on Option 3.

Ukraine has identified 238 tankers it said belong to a shadow fleet of ships that Russia is using to keep its oil and fuels moving around the world, with hopes this information (which the west has had for years) will force western authorities to sanction the carriers.

Ukraine has identified this shadow fleet as having a total deadweight of over 100 million tons, approximately 17% of the world’s oil tanker fleet. It has included a number of vessels that it says have been switched from the “Iranian ghost armada” to carry Russian oil.

The Military Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine said the list, published on its website, details an armada built up by Russia at a cost of about $10 billion. That “consists of over a thousand mostly outdated, poorly maintained vessels without proper insurance, with ‘confused’ ownership and management structures, located in ‘friendly’ jurisdictions, under ‘convenient’ flags,” it said.

“We work on sanctions against the Russian shadow fleet,” Ukrainian President Zelenskiy said. “This should be supported at the level of the entire European Union. It is the tanker fleet that provides Putin with the largest part of the income for the war against Ukraine.”

The issue is that it won’t be supported – not now, not back in 2022, when Europe had every opportunity to permanently block Russian oil exports – for the simple reason that the west has zero interest in actual sanctions as these would send oil prices sharply higher. Instead what the west wants is to pretend it is sanctioning Russia to virtue signal to the population, meanwhile the population pretends to care and applaud every toothless action from its elected (and unelected) rulers.

It’s hard to gauge if the list would have any influence on western sanctioning authorities, who’ve already targeted large numbers of shadow fleet tankers with zero effect for the reasons noted above. The outgoing Biden administration is mulling a widening of measures against Russia’s shadow fleet and possibly even targeting some of the nation’s oil exports, Bloomberg reported this week. Expect zero impact on actual oil exports.

President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea was impeached by a National Assembly vote on Saturday, suspending him from office after he declared a brief emergency martial law earlier this month. The move sparked widespread outrage and plunged the nation into a constitutional crisis. Now, the Constitutional Court must decide whether to reinstate Yoon or formally remove him—a process that could take 180 days. 

The National Assembly voted to impeach Yoon, with 204 lawmakers in the 300-member house in favor of the motion and 85 against. Eight votes were declared invalid, while three lawmakers abstained from voting. 

The vote comes one week after Yoon survived an impeachment vote last Saturday, capping a week of political turmoil in the country that borders North Korea. This follows Yoon’s declaration of the briefest martial law in South Korean history on December 3, lasting only a few hours, after accusing the opposition party of engaging in ‘anti-state activities.’ Notably, this political turmoil is some of the worst in South Korea since full-scale martial law was declared in the spring of 1980. 

Under South Korea’s Constitution, Yoon’s impeachment allows Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to become interim leader. 

WATCH: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed to fight for his political future after he was impeached in a second vote by the opposition-led parliament over his attempt to impose martial law https://t.co/y99UrVbhzz pic.twitter.com/X2VNnwzJ40

— Reuters Asia (@ReutersAsia) December 14, 2024

At a news conference earlier, Park Chan-dae, the opposition leader of the Democratic Party, told reporters: “This is a victory for the South Korean people and for democracy.” 

Given that the Constitutional Court will now decide whether to reinstate or remove Yoon, Goldman’s Goohoon Kwon and Andrew Tilton provided clients with the possible transition scenarios last week. That process could take up to six months. Here’s what comes next: 

Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, told The Guardian that South Korea’s political turmoil is unlikely to subside even with Yoon’s impeachment: “It is not even the beginning of the end.” 

“Opposition leader Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in 2022 and is favored to win an election to replace him, is also in legal jeopardy, with a conviction on appeal and other rulings pending that could disqualify him from office,” The Guardian noted. 

Easley added, “So before the final race in the polls, there will be a race in the courts.” 

Shortly after the impeachment, Yoon said, “Although I am stopping for now, the journey I have walked with the people over the past two and a half years toward the future must never come to a halt. I will never give up.”  

Also, the Goldman analysts warned of another scenario that could unfold: “… muddling through in a political gridlock.” 

The unfolding political turmoil was enough for the analysts to maintain a below-consensus growth forecast for South Korea of 1.8% in 2025, with “risks increasingly skewed to the downside …”

South Korea’s finance minister and central bank governor are expected to meet on Sunday to discuss the future economic impact of the political turmoil storm. 

Bloomberg Economics’ economist Hyosung Kwon provided readers with a summary of today’s events:

“With today’s impeachment vote passing, concerns over a leadership vacuum in South Korea’s policy-making may ease. But it doesn’t mark the end of political uncertainty.”

“The key question now is whether Acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo can effectively navigate the deeply divided political landscape to address the threats from the Trump administration’s trade and foreign policies, while awaiting the Constitutional Court’s ruling.”

The question for market observers is whether Yoon’s impeachment eases political uncertainty and helps stabilize sentiment.

MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY)

Graham Ambrose, managing director of Goldman Sachs’ equity franchise sales team in London, told clients last week that there could be “buying opportunities in Seoul in coming days.”

Yoon’s impeachment should relieve some market uncertainty. However, the focus now shifts to a long waiting period as the Constitutional Court deliberates its decision.

By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com

The UK government is considering curbing communities’ rights to protest against wind and solar power projects, which extends to preventing these projects from being built.

Currently, communities can oppose projects through judicial reviews and they can do it repeatedly.

The Starmer government’s proposal is to limit potential opponents of wind and solar installations to just one judicial review per project, a new document published today has suggested.

The document features plans to speed up planning and permitting processes for large wind and solar projects and “streamlining” those processes to make sure that there is nothing to “unduly slow down vital infrastructure development,” the FT quoted from what was probably an earlier version of the document.

The final version published on the UK government’s website does not contain references to community opposition to wind and solar.

In the FT report, however, a quote says “For example, this could include changing the rules so that claimants in each case only have one attempt to seek permission for judicial review,” while another says “Any changes that we decide to make will strike the right balance between reducing delays to infrastructure projects and maintaining access to justice in line with our domestic and international legal obligations.”

The Keir Starmer government wants to build a net-zero grid in the UK by 2030, which it plans to do by building a huge amount of wind and solar generation capacity, including in areas previously protected by conservation legislation. Local communities have protested several such projects due to their impact on the environment, which the government appears to see as an obstacle on the road to net zero.

“A new era of clean electricity for our country offers a positive vision of Britain’s future with energy security, lower bills, good jobs and climate action. This can only happen with big, bold change and that is why the government is embarking on the most ambitious reforms to our energy system in generations,” energy minister Ed Miliband said in the document.

The future fate of Russia’s two military bases in Syria—the Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean coast and the Khmeimim Air Base near the port city of Latakia—is still a big unknown in the wake of the collapse of the Assad government.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has since said that Moscow is currently in direct contact with the political committee of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which holds Damascus and major cities, as Moscow aims to keep its military bases within Syria.

Since the HTS takeover of Damascus there have been no reported incidents of Russian troops or the bases coming under fire; however, troops are on high alert.

Huge Russian armored and troop convoys have been seen withdrawing from the capital area and some other parts of Syria, headed to the safety of Hmeimim airbase in Latakia province.

Negotiations with the new leaders in Damascus for Russia’s bases to be maintained appear to be ongoing. Several videos have emerged showing significant amounts of Russian equipment being moved to the coast, and presumably being readied for evacuation.

Russian military convoy consisting of 250 military vehicles withdraw from Damascus towards Hmeimim base in the Latakia countryside pic.twitter.com/j1xPKRGmWe

— Rojava Network (@RojavaNetwork) December 13, 2024

The base at Tartus has long been Russia’s only Mediterranean naval port, which goes back to Soviet times and Moscow’s decades long relationship with the Assad’s, going back to President Hafez al-Assad.

But now even as negotiations over the future continues, Russia’s military appears to be quickly packing up the bases. According to Al Jazeera on Friday:

The images taken on Friday show what appear to be at least two Antonov AN-124s, one of the world’s largest cargo planes, with their nose cones open at the Hmeimim airbase in Syria’s coastal Latakia province.

“Two An-124 heavy transport aircraft are at the airfield – both with their nose cones lifted and prepared to load equipment/cargo,” Maxar said. “Nearby, a Ka-52 attack helicopter is being dismantled and likely prepared for transport while elements of an S-400 air defense unit are similarly preparing to depart from its previous deployment site at the air base.”

Earlier, our colleagues on the ground reported that hundreds of armored vehicles flying Russian flags are travelling on the Damascus-Homs highway towards the Syrian coast.

They added that Russian forces in central and southern Syria gathered in Qudssaya near Damascus before the fall of the regime and are now withdrawing to the Khmeimim airbase and the port of Tartous.

Syrian rebels meanwhile fly drones over the Russian air base in Hmeimim — pretty amazing upclose look. https://t.co/VnKByxSz68 pic.twitter.com/Vuuw8NsmCi

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) December 12, 2024

Starting in 2015 President Assad had formally asked his Russian ally Putin to intervene militarily in Syria against the jihadist ‘rebels’ – as by then the crisis was clearly a full-blown proxy war for regime change backed by the West.

That’s when Russian planes and assets rapidly increased their deployments to Khmeimim, and Russia has also for years been flexing its naval might by staging drills in the eastern Mediterranean. With Assad gone and now given asylum in Moscow, Russia is likely to divert these military assets to the Ukraine war.

Authored by Patrice Onwuka via RealClearMarkets,

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales this year broke records—despite inflation. This doesn’t mean many Americans aren’t still struggling with high prices on everyday goods and Christmas gifts. 

Liberal policymakers couldn’t help themselves: Ways and Means Committee Democrats, in a now-deleted post on X, cynically responded to the record-holiday shopping news report with, “And here we were thinking y’all couldn’t afford eggs!” Once again, they expose how out of touch they are with Americans’ hardship.

“This post has been deleted.” pic.twitter.com/xzBQzfIXaM

— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) December 3, 2024

This holiday shopping season is off to a strong start, but that should not be confused with bountiful household balance sheets. Indeed, many consumers aren’t letting high prices hold them back from celebrating this year’s holiday season. Spending hit records on Thanksgiving Day ($6.1 billion), Black Friday ($10.8 billion), and Cyber Monday ($13.3 billion), according to data from Adobe Analytics. Perhaps because prices are high. The National Retail Federation projects that consumers will shell out $25 per person more on average this year compared to last year on gifts, food, and decorations.

One weekend or one month of consumerism won’t erase how financially stretched households feel. Even more, not everyone is spending. Many working-class and low-income Americans will alter and even skip holiday gift-giving due to high prices. A U.S. News & World Report survey found nearly 70% of Americans are worried about paying for gifts this year, with roughly 20% being “very” worried. 

Holiday spending survey data from the Conference Board show that while households earning above $75,000 plan to spend more, consumers earning less than $75K will cut back on gifts and non-gift items this year.

Lost purchasing power from years of high prices has left the majority of households feeling squeezed. Two-thirds of Americans (65%) feel they are living paycheck to paycheck, up from just over half (52.5%) last year. Unaffordability is not just a poor-person problem; one out of five affluent households is living paycheck to paycheck as well. A $100 unexpected expense could financially sink 18% of all adults because that’s the most they have in savings. 

While the inflation rate (or the consumer price index) isn’t as high as 2022, prices remain 20% higher than when President Biden took office.

As shoppers swipe plastic to pay for presents, they will incur sharply higher balances. Despite recent interest cuts by the Federal Reserve, the average retail credit card interest rates have risen sharply from 24% in 2021 to over 30% in 2024.

Voters were fed up with the sting of this economy when they gave conservatives a clean sweep. President-elect Donald Trump won working-class and middle-class households because he saw them and made boosting their incomes the cornerstone of his platform. Leftist elites spent the better part of nearly four years refusing to acknowledge high prices were a problem, then shifted to talking down to the uneducated masses about how great the economy was. 

After weeks of post-mortems, the message from the invisible class of voters should be loud and clear. So when Democrats on the tax-writing congressional committee put out a tone-deaf tweet like this, they demonstrate obstinance, not ignorance.

There is a chance for redemption. Lawmakers on the left side of the aisle must join with conservatives to get serious about helping struggling Americans. They can start by extending expiring provisions of President Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Corporate and individual tax cuts delivered tremendous benefits for workers, families, and businesses. Corporate investment rose, as did gross domestic product. U.S. companies added 4.7 million new jobs, and real median household incomes grew by more than $5,000. Real wages rose by 4.9% in the two years after the law was signed—the fastest growth in 20 years—while income taxes fell for people at virtually every income level. The TCJA also triggered a bonanza of worker bonuses and new benefits.

If the tax cuts are allowed to expire, Americans will be stiffed with a massive tax increase just after the holidays next year. 

The Left can gain some goodwill from hardworking Americans for passing tax relief, even if it means delivering Trump an early win. Or they can continue to condescend and turn a blind eye to the real hardship holding back too many American households.

Patrice Onwuka is the director of the Center for Economic Opportunity at Independent Women’s Forum, and a Philanthropy Roundtable Adjunct Senior Fellow.