Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice (DOJ) renewed its request on Nov. 24 to unseal grand jury materials related to the case of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act last week.

In a motion filed to a U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, the DOJ said the Epstein Files Transparency Act—which President Donald Trump signed into law on Nov. 19—reflects the congressional intent to override grand jury secrecy.

“In the light of the Act’s clear mandate, the Court should authorize the Department of Justice to release the grand jury transcripts and exhibits and modify any preexisting protective orders that would otherwise prevent public disclosure by the Government of materials of which is required by the Act,” it stated.

The DOJ said it would make appropriate redactions to protect victims’ identities and other personal information. The law requires that any redactions be accompanied by a written explanation, which must be published in the Federal Register and submitted to Congress.

It requested that the court issue an expedited ruling, as the Act requires the DOJ to release all unclassified records and investigative materials related to the case within 30 days.

In August, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman denied the DOJ’s bid to unseal the grand jury materials, ruling that officials had failed to provide sufficient justification for unsealing the files and citing potential safety risks to victims.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer on Aug. 11 denied a similar motion in Maxwell’s case, finding that granting the motion “would bloat the ‘special circumstances’ doctrine, which to date has warranted disclosure in only a tiny number of cases, all involving unique testimony by firsthand witnesses to events of obvious public or historical moment.”

After the Epstein files bill cleared the Senate, the DOJ filed a renewed motion on Nov. 21 to a U.S. District Court in Florida to unseal the grand jury materials, followed by a second filing in the Southern District of New York on Nov. 24.

Grand jury materials are typically kept private. Exceptions outlined in federal rules allow the unsealing of materials, and special circumstances, including public interest, can permit unsealing outside those exceptions.

Epstein was convicted in 2008 in a Florida state court for procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute after pleading guilty. He was later arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges.

His former girlfriend and associate, Maxwell, was sentenced in 2022 after she was found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offenses. In August 2019, Epstein was found dead in his New York jail cell in what was ruled a suicide.

Building on our earlier housing-market note that “current conditions point to more persistent headwinds” across major metro areas, we now turn to new Redfin data showing a surge in delistings – a clear sign the market is slipping into year-end paralysis.

According to Redfin’s report, roughly 85,000 U.S. homes were pulled off the market in September – a 28% jump from last year and the highest September total in eight years. Redfin classifies a home as delisted when it’s removed for more than 31 days without selling. 

Redfin points to a set of underlying market dynamics fueling the rapid rise in delistings:

• Stale listings dominate: 70% of all listings in September had been on the market 60+ days. The median delisted home sat 100 days before being pulled. Markets remain oversupplied, with roughly 500,000 more sellers than buyers.

• Demand is very weak: High rates, high prices, and broad economic uncertainty are sidelining buyers.

• Sellers refuse to take losses: 15% of delisted homes were at risk of selling at a loss—the highest in five years—leading many owners to withdraw rather than accept lower bids.

• Turn to renting: Many would-be sellers prefer to rent out the property and wait for better conditions.

Delistings accounted for 5.5% of all September transactions (vs. 4.8% a year earlier), the highest share for that month since tracking began in 2016.

Redfin economists say the jump is more serious than it appears because sellers “give up” after long periods without offers.

“That increase is bigger than it looks on paper; it represents a fairly significant jump in delistings from last year,” Redfin senior economist Asad Khan stated, adding, “More sellers are giving up because their homes have been sitting on the market for a long time, and they don’t want to or can’t afford to settle on accepting a low price.”

Redfin data showed that 20% of the homes delisted in summer were relisted within three months – this is typically a pricing reset tactic and also to show up on the top feeds of popular online real estate marketplaces. 

Wonder how many of those are Airbnbs?

On a geographic basis, these are the metros experiencing the most delistings in September:

• Virginia Beach +74.5%

• Washington, D.C. +53.9%

• San Jose +53.3%

• Dallas +52.1%

• Houston +49.6%

Highest delisting share of all listings:

• Miami 7.8%

• Fort Lauderdale 7.7%

• Dallas 7.5%

• Philadelphia 7.5%

• West Palm Beach 7.5%

The latest Case-Shiller data shows U.S. home prices in the 20 largest cities rose 0.13% MoM in September (very slightly better than the 0.1% rise expected) and are up for the second month in a row (after falling for five straight months before). This MoM rise left the average prices up just 1.36% YoY – the lowest since July 2023…

Declining mortgage rates suggest a looming rebound in aggregate prices…

Home Prices are now falling (YoY) in a majority (11/20) of America’s largest cities…

Additionally, new listings remain stagnant because many homeowners are opting not to list. That’s because they’re locked in ultra-low mortgage rates (2020–2022) and won’t give them up unless they get a premium. 

The latest weekly data from Bright MLS shows cancellations running at above-trend levels across its Mid-Atlantic coverage area.

Translation: housing-market paralysis has deepened, which is why President Trump proposed a 50-year mortgage to break the ice.

Via SchiffGold.com,

On Wednesday’s episode of the Peter Schiff Show, Peter returns to his show to walk listeners through what he sees as multiple asset bubbles and why those bubbles matter beyond headline market moves. He calls out the AI stock mania, a fragile housing market propped up by policy, and the crypto circus — all potential bubbles inflated by easy money.

He opens by framing the broader problem: we don’t just have one overheating market, we have many, and policy choices make their unwinding more dangerous:

The bigger question is not just whether or not this is a precursor for other bubbles to pop because there are a lot of bubbles. We have a bubble in AI stocks and I’ll talk about that too. On this podcast, we got Nvidia earnings out after the close today, but we have the AI bubble. There’s a bubble in housing, which, you know, the government is really trying to prevent from deflating, which of course they need to allow it to deflate, but they’re afraid of what might happen.

Peter is careful to separate hype from technological promise — he believes AI could genuinely reshape productivity and living standards — but warns that enthusiasm is fueling speculative excess rather than sober investment:

When I talk about an AI bubble, I am not saying that there isn’t potential in artificial intelligence. In fact, I think there’s tremendous potential. I think there’s probably more potential there than in anything I’ve seen, which would include the internet, which had a lot of potential. I think that AI could be the most transformative invention as far as lifting the standard of living of all of humanity.

Shifting from tech to crypto, Peter points to recent price action as evidence that much of the Bitcoin story is built on air — a sharp drawdown is “a pretty big bear market in nothing,” and he prefers measuring crypto’s value relative to gold rather than dollars:

Earlier this afternoon, Bitcoin traded below 88,500. Now, of course, that’s still a ridiculously high price to pay for nothing, but it’s about 30% below what you had to pay for nothing a couple of months ago. All right. So that is a pretty big bear market in nothing; Bitcoin down 30%. In terms of gold, which again is a better way to measure the price of Bitcoin, because after all Bitcoin is marketed as being digital gold, as being an alternative to gold that is going to replace gold because it’s better than gold.

Ironically, Peter says, the one real constructive outcome from the crypto craze could be greater utility for actual money: tokenized gold. If blockchain tech makes gold more liquid and transferable, that can strengthen gold’s role rather than replace it — because tokens are only as meaningful as the asset backing them:

Ironically, the one thing that might come out of the whole crypto bubble is tokenized gold. Gold may be the only real winner. Rather than killing gold, blockchain may have just given it a new lease on life by making gold even more efficient than it’s ever been as a means of exchange, making it more liquid, making it more divisible, making it more portable. All the characteristics that people think Bitcoin has that are better than gold are worthless without the underlying value of gold.

Finally, Peter reads the Fed’s recent comments as dangerously complacent. He notes that members of the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) appeared to downplay inflation risks tied to tariffs, suggesting any price increases from trade barriers may be temporary — even as tariff policy changes are being used politically to try to cool prices:

I thought what was significant, and it should have produced a bigger reaction, but it did not, was that the FOMC members seem to believe that the inflation threat that they thought may have come from tariffs isn’t there. And to the extent that prices are higher, that it’s not, you know, a permanent thing, that it’s like a one and done situation. And of course, Trump has been rolling back more tariffs recently, a lot of items. 

Prediction platform Polymarket has received regulatory approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to operate an intermediated trading platform.

In a Tuesday notice, Polymarket said the CFTC issued an Amended Order of Designation, which will allow the company to “operate an intermediated trading platform subject to the full set of requirements applicable to federally regulated US exchanges.”

As Bitcoin Magazine’s Micah Zimmerman reports, the move enables the market to onboard brokerages and customers directly. Users can now trade through futures commission merchants (FCMs) and access traditional custody, reporting, and market infrastructure.

“People rely on Polymarket because we provide clarity where there is confusion,” said Shayne Coplan, the founder and CEO of Polymarket.

“This approval lets us operate with the maturity and transparency the U.S. regulatory framework demands. We’re grateful for the constructive engagement with the CFTC and look forward to leading as a regulated exchange.”

Polymarket has upgraded its systems in line with the new order. It now has enhanced surveillance, market supervision policies, clearing procedures, and Part 16 regulatory reporting. 

Additional rules and processes for intermediated trading will be implemented before the official launch.

Polymarket remains subject to the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, including self-regulatory obligations.

Polymarket was barred in 2022 for running an unregistered derivatives exchange but has returned to the U.S. after acquiring QCX, a regulated contract market and clearinghouse.

CFTC leadership in flux

The CFTC notice under acting chair Caroline Pham came as the US Senate is expected to soon vote on the nomination of SEC official Michael Selig as the next chair of the commodities regulator. Lawmakers in the Senate Agriculture Committee voted along party lines to advance Selig’s nomination. 

Even if Selig were to be confirmed, the CFTC would continue to have four empty commissioner seats. As of Tuesday, US President Donald Trump had not announced any potential replacements for the regulator’s leadership.

Polymarket now accepts bitcoin

Earlier this year, the platform also announced support for direct bitcoin deposits. Users can now fund accounts with BTC alongside stablecoins like USDC, USDT, and other crypto. 

In other news, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange, is considering a $2 billion investment in Polymarket. The deal could value the platform between $8 billion and $10 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In October, the company was reportedly exploring a funding round at a $12–15 billion valuation.

Shayne Coplan, 27, has become the youngest self-made billionaire following the investment. Just a few years ago, he was an NYU dropout building the company from his bathroom. 

The platform has also drawn investors such as 1789 Capital, backed by Donald Trump Jr., and acquired derivatives exchange QCEX for $112 million, gaining a CFTC license in the process.

One of it’s competitors, Kalshi, another major prediction market accepting bitcoin, recently raised $300 million at a $5 billion valuation and plans to expand access to over 140 countries, with annualized trading volume soaring toward $50 billion. 

Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper,

Nearly every household in America has at least a few of the ubiquitous red-and-white cans in the pantry, but perhaps not for much longer. I’m talking of course, about Campbell’s soup, a brand so iconic that Andy Warhol captured it in one of his most famous works of pop art.

First of all, in a leaked recording, it was revealed that the soups contained lab-grown meat – or “chicken that came from a 3-D printer.” Campbell’s strenuously refutes this comment, though the company does use genetically modified ingredients such as canola, corn, soybeans, and sugar beets.

And, just in case that accusation wasn’t enough to make your guts gurgle, it isn’t even the worst thing on that recording.

The recording

Robert Garza, a cybersecurity analyst for the company, was meeting at a restaurant with Martin Bally, one of Campbell’s vice presidents, to discuss his salary.

I’ve not had Campbell soup since I was a kid but damn. VP of Campbell was recorded by a former employee saying that their soup is for “poor people” and filled with bio engineered meat.

He’s since been put on leave but you probably better find a different soup this holiday… pic.twitter.com/uKdyU0mWZV

— Shipwreck (@shipwreckshow) November 25, 2025

He secretly recorded statements made by the VP and chief information security officer during a November 2024 meeting. In a rant that lasted over an hour, here are some of the things captured on the recording.

Local 4 News in Detroit broadcast portions of the recording. In it, a speaker identified as Bally is heard saying, “We have s**t for f***king poor people. Who buys our s**t? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely anymore. It’s not healthy now that I know what the f**‘s in it.”

He also referenced “bioengineered meat,” saying, “I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer.”

Just in case that isn’t enough to make you sincerely dislike the speaker, he also disparaged some of his coworkers.

“F***ing Indians don’t know a f***ing thing,” and “Like they couldn’t think for their f***ing selves,” it said in part.

Initially, Garza decided to keep the recording to himself, though he was left with “pure disgust.” However, in January 2025, he reported it to his direct supervisor. Twenty days later, Garza’s employment was terminated.

His attorney, Zachary Runyon, says that Garza reported the incident to protect his coworkers, and that he had a spotless record at the company.

Runyan said Garza had no record of disciplinary action and had not been written up for performance issues.

“He had never had any disciplinary action, they had never written him up for work performance,” Runyan said.

Garza also told reporters that he received no follow-up from Human Resources after submitting his complaint.

Garza has filed suit against Campbell’s.

The lawsuit accuses Campbell Soup Company of maintaining a racially hostile work environment and retaliating against Garza for reporting discriminatory conduct. It asserts claims of employment discrimination and race-based retaliation under Michigan law.

Garza says it is “not the case” that The Campbell Soup Company “treats its employees like family.”

The Campbell Soup Company denies using lab-grown meat.

Campbell’s denies that the company uses lab-grown meat.

“We use 100% real chicken in our soups,” James F. Regan, director of external communications at Campbell’s, told Newsweek. “The chicken meat comes from long-trusted, USDA approved U.S. suppliers and meets our high quality standards. All of our soups are made with No Antibiotics Ever chicken meat. Any claims to the contrary are completely false.”

A spokesperson for Campbell’s also told Newsweek:

“If the recording is legitimate, the comments are unacceptable. They do not reflect our values and the culture of our company. Mr. Bally is temporarily on leave while we conduct an investigation.”

What is lab-grown meat?

Be prepared to learn how it’s better for you than actual meat from a butchered animal. Farm Forward explains the process.

Lab-grown meat, also called cultured or cultivated meat, is grown from the cells of an animal, without any need to slaughter an animal to obtain the meat. The animal’s cells are cultivated in stainless steel drums called bioreactors, which are engineered to encourage replication of cells or growth of biological mass. The products that result from this process have been met with excitement due to their potential to replace the millions of animals being raised on factory farms around the world. Because cultured meat is produced in laboratory environments, it does not suffer from some of the contamination and health issues that plague traditional meat producers, such as antibiotic resistance and foodborne and zoonotic illnesses.

And it’s sooooo wonderful, too.

Cultured meat is cellularly indistinguishable from the flesh of animals raised on a factory farm. However, there are several aspects of health in which cultured meat surpasses traditionally farmed meat. For example, animal agriculture is already one of the major contributors to antibiotic resistance worldwide, and the use of subtherapeutic antibiotics in animal farming is set to increase further in the coming years. Cellular meat does not require the heavy use of antibiotics, so its production does not contribute to this ongoing public health crisis.

Another aspect of cultured meat that makes it healthier than its farm-raised equivalent is its lower likelihood of causing zoonotic diseases. While animal agriculture is likely to be a source of future pandemics caused by illnesses that jump from animals to people, this risk is minimized in cell-cultured agriculture, because there are no animals involved once the cells have been collected.

The article lists one of the major “cons” of lab-grown meat as “cultural acceptance.”

If you haven’t yet, it might be time to meet a local farmer and fill your freezer with meat you can trust.

Goldman Sachs Managing Director Kate McShane provided clients with a summary of key takeaways from her meetings with the investor-relations and management teams of Bath & Body Works, BJ’s Wholesale Club, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target, Walmart, and Williams-Sonoma.

McShane noted that nearly every retailer warned of weak consumer demand, especially among squeezed lower-income households. 

Low to middle-income consumers remain fragile, value-driven, and cautious ahead of the holiday shopping season that begins Friday.

One commentary that stood out the most came from Advance Auto Parts.

She noted, “They’re seeing lower- to middle-income consumers decrease their spending across general merchandise.”

Here’s the breakdown:

McShane’s note reinforces our earlier consumer notes, showing a clear tale of two worlds: one where wealthy households remain healthy, while working-class consumers bear the brunt of financial strain.

• A Tale Of Two Consumer Worlds – Captured In A Survey

• A Tale Of Two Consumer Worlds – Captured In A Single Chart

• Early Warning Indicator Signals Sharp Sentiment Deterioration Among Low-Income Consumers, Gen Z

• “Worst Consumer Sentiment In Decades”: Goldman Goes Defcon 1 On Imploding US Consumer

The Trump administration has moved quickly to counter the downturn facing lower-income households, rolling out Operation Affordability in recent weeks.

ZeroHedge Pro subscribers can read the full note in the usual place, which includes much more commentary on consumer health.

After yesterday’s sale of $69BN in 2Y notes, which came smack in the middle of market expectations with metrics that were just about average, moments ago the US Treasury sold $70BN in 5Y notes at a high yield of 3.562%, down from 3.625% last month and the lowest since last September when the Fed launched its current rate cut cycle; the auction tailed the When Issued 3.557% by 0.5bps, and was the 5th tailing 5Y auction of the past 6.

The bid to cover was 2.41, better than last month’s 2.38 and the highest since April, although for a metric that has a 5bps range this is hardly a huge achievement: as shown in the chart below, the BtC has moved in a 3bps range around 2.40 for the past 3 years!

The internals were less impressive, with Indirects (i.e. foreign buyers) sliding to 61.35% from 66.84% and below the recent average of 64.7%. And with Directs rising to 27.6% from 23.9%, Dealers were left with 11.0% of the allocation, up from 9.3% last month but below the 10.4% recent average. 

In summary, it was another mediocre auction although with yields sliding across the curve after the Hassett report (which may or may not be a trial balloon), it appears that nobody noticed as the dovish euphoria swept across markets to contain the early selling and boost buying across all asset classes. 

White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett is the front runner to succeed Fed Chair Powell, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. Speaking on CNBC earlier, Treasury Secretary Bessent said that President Trump could announce his choice before Christmas.

The pick could very well be a trial balloon: for a long time the frontrunner was viewed as Fed governor Chris Waller, although his odds faded in recent weeks, amid speculation that Hassett was Trump’s favorite, and sure enough, Hassett’s odds spiked to a contract high 50% on Polymarket.

With Hassett, Trump would have a close ally whom the president knows well and trusts installed at the central bank, the BBG sources – who may well be leaking information at Trump’s behest – said.

“Hassett is seen as someone who would bring the president’s approach to interest rate cutting to the Fed, which Trump has long wanted to control”, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.

Hassett is also closely aligned to Trump’s view on the economy, including that interest rates need to be lowered. He told Fox News on Nov. 20 that he would “be cutting rates right now” if he were the chair of the Fed because “the data suggests that we should.” Hassett has also criticized the central bank for losing control of inflation in the wake of the pandemic.

The Fed has repeatedly served as a punching bag for Trump, with the president lambasting Powell for being “too late” to cut borrowing costs and publicly musing about firing him. The president has also assailed renovations on the central bank’s campus and the White House is currently engaged in litigation over Trump’s attempted dismissal of Fed Governor Lisa Cook. 

That’s put pressure on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is leading the selection process for the next Fed chair, to carefully balance candidates who are in favor of slashing borrowing costs and have the trust of both the president and financial markets.

Since the summer, Bessent has run the selection process to replace Powell, interviewing nearly a dozen candidates that have now been whittled down to five contenders: Hassett, Warsh, Waller, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and BlackRock’s Rick Rieder. 

Bessent said interviews with those candidates will end this week. A smaller subset of finalists will soon meet with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Vice President JD Vance.

Still, Trump is known to make surprise personnel and policy decisions, meaning a nomination is not final until it’s made public, and as anything Trump, there is a substantial chance of a major surprise when the announcement arrives. 

The next chair is likely to be named to a 14-year Fed governor term that opens on Feb. 1. The term that expires at that time is currently held by Stephen Miran, who is on unpaid leave from the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Powell’s term as chair of the central bank ends in May 2026, though he could remain on the board for two more years as a governor.

The BBG report that a dovish replacement is coming helped push stocks to session highs…

… and sent 10Y yields below 10%, in a steepening move that send short-end yields even lower.

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Do You Get The Points?

First, we had a surprise 28-point US plan for Ukraine; then Europe responded with a 27-point plan, a separate 24-point plan from the E3 (UK, France, Germany), and vague 6-points from EC President von der Leyen. Now we have a revised 19-point US-Ukraine plan, following bilateral discussions, which reportedly doesn’t favor Moscow and leaves the most contentious issues for direct Trump-Zelenskyy talks to be held imminently. Apparently, it proposes a ceasefire along current lines; a raised cap on the size of the Ukrainian army; restrictions on heavy weapons near the border; an Article 5-modelled US security guarantee; no automatic territorial concessions; no automatic veto on EU or NATO membership; and plans for reconstruction. The floated removal of sanctions on Russia and its return to the G8 may or may not be part of it, along with the release of its frozen assets which the US and Europe hold.

The key points are this: the US is in a hurry to get this done so it can focus elsewhere; and Europe continues to be left out of what it sees as its loop. That reflects its shrunken geopolitical status. Europe could already tell Ukraine it will provide it with unlimited funding and weaponry if the US won’t, but it isn’t; and if it is to rearm now, it can’t use frozen Russian assets to fund it.

As such, Europe’s geostrategic –so geoeconomic, so market— environment will continue to be shaped by others. As Euractiv puts it, ‘The Ursula Doctrine: Brussels’ bid to promote an ‘Economic Security Doctrine’ epitomises the EU Commission chief’s grand strategy: to repeatedly churn out vacuous grand strategies’; as the South China Morning Post has it, ‘As US-China rivalry redefines economic warfare, Europe scrambles for its dictionary.’ Except that for far too long it thought economic statecraft terms were rude words.

Another key point to note is this is not happening in a vacuum: things are moving fast all over.

The US is already shifting its military from Ukraine towards Venezuela, where the Trump admin just formally designated President Maduro as a member of a foreign terrorist organization. While a poll at The Hill says most Americans oppose US military action there and Trump says he’s ready to talk with Maduro, Axios can only report that, “”Nobody is planning to go in and shoot him or snatch him – at this point. I wouldn’t say never, but that’s not the plan right now,” according to one official.” We just published a report on the topic and the potential impact on energy markets: Vene(zuela), vidi, vici?

In Asia, fears are growing that the Japan-China divide could grow: Hong Kong is also questioning its ties. In tandem, as Bloomberg puts it, China is trying to force countries to pick a side over Taiwan. Indeed, in an extremely unusual development, China’s Xi just called Trump to discuss Taiwan and Ukraine. On one hand, this call clarified that Trump will visit China in April and host Xi next year. On the other, this looks an attempt to go round PM Takaichi to ‘the boss’.

As such, with moves in LatAm, Europe, and Asia –and the Middle East– all happening in tandem there is a distinctly Tehran-Yalta-Potsdam, FDR-Stalin-Churchill atmosphere – as we had warned was looming for years. If you aren’t at that table, you are likely to be on it. That includes Europe, it seems, much as it was used to doing the carving in the past.

In geoeconomics, neo-mercantilism continues to be the trend. Yes, stalled Canada-India trade talks are going to be restarted, but a US-India deal is still elusive, and Brussels is unsure if its India deal can land this year.

However, the EU is going to tighten investment rules for foreign firms, insisting on greater benefits for local workers and tech transfers: that’s as DM = EM as it gets, but comes as EU car parts firms warn of massive job losses from “Darwinian” competition from Chinese rivals in Europe – yet China is reportedly pitching closer ties to Germany in strategic industries to ease at least its rare earth strains. Historically, divide and rule has always worked well in such circumstances.

US Commerce Secretary Lutnick said the EU must relax its digital rules for lower steel and aluminium tariffs, and USTR Greer said the EU must slash levies on US exports before getting tariff relief. And Politico notes that “Ursula von der Leyen says African countries should benefit from resource extraction – but Brussels has yet to deliver on that promise.”

UK Chancellor Reeves reportedly hopes trade deals can save Britain’s budget as cheap Chinese wind turbines are set to flood British waters (says the Telegraph) but the UK and Indonesia agree a landmark £4bn deal to develop a maritime capability for Jakarta.

In the economy, besides constant concerns over “affordability”, which the Wall Street Journal says there is nothing we can do about, all is also change.

Trump just used an executive order to launch a moon-shot “Genesis Mission” on AI research “to solve the most challenging problems of this century.” It aims to build an integrated AI platform to harness federal scientific datasets –the world’s largest– to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs. This will all sit under the Secretary of Energy, with a deadline of 270 days to at least have the foundations in place. The target is to “strengthen national security, secure energy dominance, enhance workforce productivity, and multiply the return on taxpayer investment into R&D, thereby furthering America’s technological dominance and global strategic leadership.” We’ll have to wait and see what this means for advanced manufacturing, biotech, critical materials, nuclear fission and fusion energy, quantum information science, and semiconductors and microelectronics.

Meanwhile, India’s PM Modi also plans a reform blitz to try “to turbocharge” his economy. Things are not standing still.

Yet neither are they necessarily moving in a direction all will enjoy.

As markets seize on the latest Fed-speak from Daly and Waller to think “rate cuts!”, it misses the structural shifts underway at that institution, which will ripple globally. Indeed, if 2025 was the year of the tariff, 2026 might see the same shift in the financial architecture.

That’s as the ECB just warned that stablecoins could siphon off euro zone bank deposits. That’s something we warned about months ago – and now do EM as well as DM.

Not that we don’t have things to focus on in the current iteration of the global architecture.

The Australian Financial Review says, ‘Jamie Dimon is right. Alarm bells are ringing about the next GFC’ and “The changes under way in the global financial system will be more consequential than the distortions wrought by Donald Trump.”

The real point is you can’t point to where things are going using the same old playbooks when tectonic plates are shifting in geopolitics, geoeconomics, economics, and even science. Well, you can… but it’s pointless.

As @hendry_hugh noted yesterday, “Models die in regime shifts. Not because the math is bad. Because the assumptions are old. Trade 2025 with 1995 maps and your stop is prewritten.”

ᴍᴏᴅᴇʟꜱ ᴅɪᴇ ɪɴ ʀᴇɢɪᴍᴇ ꜱʜɪꜰᴛꜱ

ɴᴏᴛ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀᴛʜ ɪꜱ ʙᴀᴅ
ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀꜱꜱᴜᴍᴘᴛɪᴏɴꜱ ᴀʀᴇ ᴏʟᴅ

ᴛʀᴀᴅᴇ 2025 ᴡɪᴛʜ 1995 ᴍᴀᴘꜱ
ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜʀ ꜱᴛᴏᴘ ɪꜱ ᴘʀᴇᴡʀɪᴛᴛᴇɴ

— Hugh Hendry Acid Capitalist TV (@hendry_hugh) November 24, 2025

I agree; and would add that 1895 is arguably of more use to you as a map than 1995.

Headline Producer Prices rose 0.3% MoM in September (as expected)

Source: Bloomberg

Core PPI (Ex Food & Energy) rose just 0.1% MoM, bringing Core PPI YoY down to +2.6%…

Source: Bloomberg

That is the lowest YoY print for Core PPI since July 2024.

However, there could be trouble ahead as the pipeline for prices (intermediate demand) is starting to accelerate once again…

Source: Bloomberg

But, there is a silver lining as oil prices have plunged since this data suggesting PPI Final Demand Energy will be dramatically deflating in the coming months…

Source: Bloomberg

So that’s 3 of 3 macro data points this morning that ‘support’ doves at The Fed – lower employment, weaker retail sales, and lower inflation – and rate-cut odds are rising.