By Benjamin Picton, Senior Market Strategist at Rabobank

US stocks closed mixed on Friday to cap off a week where concerns over valuations caused substantial wobbles. The NASDAQ was in the red for the week while the Dow Jones and S&P500 managed to eke out minor gains. Markets have seemingly begun to pay attention to the heroic P/E multiples that many AI-adjacent names are trading on, with more questions being raised about the ability of AI hype to be converted into tangible profits for shareholders.

Scion Capital’s Michael Burry (of Big Short fame) made headlines last week by shutting down his hedge fund, telling investors that “my estimation of value in securities is not now, and has not been for some time, in sync with the markets”. Burry had been critical of tech darlings Palantir and NVIDIA, disclosing on X that he had spent $9.2m buying up puts against Palantir stock as he questioned the economics of the AI boom and suggested that some accounting practices concerning depreciation schedules looked rubbery. News emerged this morning that Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel has sold his entire stake in NVIDIA and substantially trimmed his position in Tesla while adding to longs in Microsoft and Apple.

There was also a geopolitical element to risk-off sentiment last week. Crude oil prices lifted after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz – the first such seizure since the end of the war between Iran and Israel in June – and Donald Trump said that he had “made up [his] mind” on Venezuela, hinting that the 15,000 US troops and more than a dozen warships (including the US’s largest warship, the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier) recently moved to the area as part ‘Operation Southern Spear’ could see action to oust the Maduro regime. Maduro, clearly sensing the danger, broke into a rendition of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ (yes, really) at a rally on Saturday as he urged peace.

Events in the Russia-Ukraine war also added to pressure on energy markets. Ukrainian strikes on the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk has reportedly interrupted up to 2% of Russian oil supply while drone strikes on a refinery near Ryazan south of Moscow put further pressure on Russia’s ability to produce refined hydrocarbons used as transport fuels. Consequently, European gasoil futures closed the week 2.86% higher.

According to the Guardian, Russia has responded to Ukrainian strikes by targeting Ukrainian rail infrastructure and train drivers. The Guardian cites a Ukrainian government Minister who says that there has been a threefold increase in strikes on the Ukrainian rail system since July. Degrading Ukrainian rail infrastructure makes it more difficult for Ukraine to move troops and supplies to the front lines, but it will also make it harder to move grain cargoes out of the country. RaboResearch’s Agri Commodity Market Research team have just published their 2026 annual outlook available here.

Geopolitical risks have also been rising elsewhere. Relations between China and Japan have deteriorated over recent comments by Japanese PM Takaichi suggesting that a Chinese strike on Taiwan could be considered “existential” for Japan, and therefore justify Japanese military intervention under the country’s pacificist constitution. Meanwhile, tensions between India and Pakistan have been rising following a series of bombings and the government of Thailand has said that it is suspending its ceasefire with Cambodia, accusing the latter of laying landmines at the border. The US has responded by suspending trade deal talks with Thailand in a bid to pressure the latter to recommit to the ceasefire.

Spot gold benefited from rising geopolitical risks to close more than 2% higher on the week at $4,082/oz. Bitcoin has been heavily sold off and is dealing just over $94,000/coin at time of writing. The DXY missed a safe-haven bid last week and US 10-year yields rose by almost 3 basis points on Friday to 4.15%. That’s a rise of just over 5 basis points on the week, but US 10s outperformed their counterparts in Australia and the UK after a strong jobs report all but dashed hopes of another rate cut in the former and the rolling political and budgetary shambles in the latter scared investors away. Yields on 10-year French OATs fell slightly on the week while Bunds performed similarly to Treasuries.

Having felt the sting of recent election losses, the Trump administration has moved quickly to shore up support via cost of living measures for America’s middle and working classes. Notable recent items include a $2,000 tariff “dividend” for low and middle-income Americans, a $1,000 tax-advantaged ‘Trump Account’ invested in US stocks for babies born from 2025 through 2028, hinted 50-year mortgages and mooted changes to health insurance arrangements to see government funding redirected from insurance companies direct to individuals’ accounts.

The administration also announced on Friday that it would be exempting certain food items from tariffs. Exempt items include beef, coffee, cocoa, bananas, tomatoes, avocadoes, coconuts, pineapples, oranges, tea, nutmeg and cinnamon. Many of these items share the characteristic of having little or no domestic supply source in the USA or, in the case of beef, supply that is heavily constrained by the lowest US herd numbers since the 1950s. Consequently, tariff protection is unlikely to induce a near-term domestic supply response and (contingent on demand elasticities) is likely to be passed through to consumers as higher prices.

The reduction in tariffs on imported foodstuffs is therefore likely to reduce inflation pressures. This will be an interesting point of consideration at the December FOMC meeting as Fed rate-setters sift through the backlog of data that had been delayed by the US government shutdown and try to guess at the path ahead for inflation, employment and growth while also weighing up threats from frothy asset markets and geopolitical risks. OIS futures are currently pricing a 41% probability of a 25bp cut at the December meeting…

… but perhaps lowering the cost of steaks raises the stakes for the FOMC?

Submitted by Eric Kulisch of FreightWaves,

The U.S. Postal Service lost $9 billion in fiscal year 2025, a $500 million improvement from the prior year that officials attributed to greater revenue intake and reduction in transportation and workers compensation costs. But controllable loss, essentially adjusted operating income that excludes expenses such as workers compensation that are out of management’s control, worsened from $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion.

Financial results for the year ended Sept. 30 were released Friday as the Postal Service ups its tempo for the busy holiday period, when package and greeting card volumes surge. 

The U.S. Postal Service needs to “execute flawlessly” during the peak shipping season before Christmas, and beyond, to demonstrate it can sustain improved service performance and win more parcel volumes necessary for the organization’s financial recovery, Postmaster General David Steiner said in a video address to employees this week.  Service levels are steadily improving this year and the Postal Service is regularly able to achieve on-time service in the high-eighty and mid-ninety percentiles for some of our products, he told the board of governors Friday. And nearly half of the packages and mail are actually delivered earlier than the service standard.

The national post said operating revenue increased $916 million, transportation expenses fell $422 million and worker’s compensation expense declined $1.1 billion, partially offset by increased compensation and benefits expense of $1.7 billion, including a voluntary retirement program, and higher other operating expenses of $221 million.  About 10,500 employees accepted early retirement offers leading to a $167 million expense provision.

Total operating revenue was $80.5 billion, an increase of $916 million, or 1.2 percent, compared to the prior year. The increase was due largely to continued growth of USPS Ground Advantage shipping service, which replaced first-class package services in 2023 and offers two-to-five day service standards for packages up to 70 pounds, as well as price increases in both mail and shipping categories.

First-Class Mail revenue increased 1.5% ($370 million) on a 5% volume decline year over year. Marketing Mail revenue increased 2.3% ($350 million), despite a 1.3% decline in volume. Shipping and packages revenue increased 1.0% to $32.6 billion despite a 5.7% volume decline, or 415 million pieces. 

The Postal Service is seeking further administrative and legislative reforms to get rid of outdated financial and regulatory burdens that other government agencies don’t face. These reforms include: changes in retiree pension benefit funding rules for the Civil Service Retirement System benefits, diversification of pension assets, raising the statutory debt ceiling, and workers’ compensation administration reform. The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 repealed the requirement that the USPS annually prepay future retirement health benefits, but more structural changes are needed, postal officials say. 

Steiner, who has been on the job for a little more than 100 days, said he planned to build on the Delivering for America transformation plan of his predecessor, Louis DeJoy, saying the Postal Service is “generally on the right track in terms of network modernization strategies.”

He stressed the importance of generating more revenue by attracting parcel business, which postal watchers say is one of the few tools available since most costs are fixed and difficult to lower. In a news release last month, Steiner added that he expects the Postal Service to continue gaining market share in the parcel sector.

The USPS, which delivered an average of 23.9 million packages per day in 2024, controls more than 30% of the parcel market by volume. Despite being the market share leader, it only gets about 17% of the market’s total revenue, compared to UPS’s nearly 32% of revenues and FedEx, with 25% of the available revenue, according to ShipMatrix. 

“By any standard our financial situation is precarious. No organization, even the Postal Service, can lose billions every year without consequences. Over the coming 12 months, we are going to act with urgency to get on a financially sustainable path,” Steiner said in the video.

Peak season prep

Postal service officials say they are ready for the busiest mailing period of the year. 

Over the past four years, the U.S. Postal Service has invested nearly $20 billion in its facilities, logistics and processing capabilities, to streamline its mail and package network and improve delivery reliability. 

The USPS has added 94 high-tech package sorting machines this year. The installation of 614 total automated sorters over the past five years has increased daily processing capacity from 60 million to 88 million packages. The machines have automated scanning capabilities that allow tracking visibility for customers as packages move through the postal system and can handle larger packages than legacy machines, according to the semi-private agency. 

The Postal Service is hiring 14,000 temporary employees to help handle the surge in letters and parcels, down from 40,000 a few years ago. There is less need for temporary workers after the USPS in 2020 began converting 232,000 precareer employees to full-time positions. 

This year, the national post has opened new facilities in Dallas, Phoenix; Johnson City, Tennessee; and other locations, and will soon open buildings in Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Tampa, Florida; and San Antonio, Texas.  Within the past four years, USPS has opened nine regional processing and distribution centers; 19 regional transfer hubs (which now handle two thirds of three-to-five day Ground Advantage packages); 17 local processing centers and 133 sorting and delivery centers. 

At the same time the USPS is adding more efficient infrastructure, it is closing other facilities in an effort to consolidate operations. 

The U.S. Postal Service in 2021 had 427 facilities, many of them operated by contractors or under short-term leases, functioning in an uncoordinated manner. Under the transformation agenda initiated by former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the agency is moving to standardize operations by downsizing the network to 250 facilities — 60 regional processing and distribution centers, and 190 local  processing centers that sort letters, flats and parcels for final-mile delivery. Critics say the reorganization has negatively affected service in recent years.

Updated service standards this year allow the USPS to turn around mail within a region in two or three days, an improvement from the past, according to the USPS.

“Without a doubt, the Postal Service is in a better place today than it would have been without these initiatives. They dramatically improved our middle mile operations to transform the Postal Service into a logistics powerhouse,” Steiner said during the board meeting. “While we may change specific initiatives as we move forward and our execution needs improvement, I do not see the need for a fundamental reassessment of our processing and logistics modernization strategies at this time.”

The Postal Service said it has received nearly 29,000 new vehicles this year and deployed more than 24,000 of them on postal delivery routes. The Postal Service expects to acquire a total of 106,480 new vehicles, including 66,000 zero-emission electric vehicles, aimed at improving service reliability and reducing emissions. 

Another Russian overnight massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine has had some serious spillover effects, as the Turkish flagged LPG tanker “Orinda” carrying thousands of metric tons of liquefied petroleum gas was reportedly struck at the port of Izmail in Odesa.

The Turkish vessel was reportedly struck directly by a Russian drone, prompting the immediate evacuation of all 16 crew members, with no casualties reported.

Other civilian vessels were also damaged, with firefighting and emergency crews quickly dispatch to try and contain the blaze. At least a dozen commercial vessels have previously been damaged in similar Russian drone attacks on the port.

Romania is alarmed as the impacted port lies just across the border from the NATO country, and it has ordered the nearby village of Plauru along the Ukraine border to be evacuated.

The Orinda carries 4,000 tons of gas, and so the dangerous incident presents the risk of a major explosion, and containing the fire has proven difficult.

Some are calling for Turkey to take definitive action against Russia. For example Turkish member of parliament Ulaş Karasu (CHP) pointed out on X that “The drone attack targeting the liquefied gas carrier named MT Orinda, flying the Turkish flag, in the Black Sea shows that the war is now targeting Turkish seafarers as well.”

The Turkish politician continued:

Turkish seafarers cannot be left alone in the midst of war! The absence of loss of life is certainly a consolation for us, but the government cannot brush off this attack by calling it “isolated.” The safety of our ships and crew must be ensured!

🇷🇴 Romania evacuates village near Ukraine after Russian drone hits LNG tanker

Residents near Plauru were evacuated after a Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s Izmail area set fire to the Turkish-flagged LNG tanker ORINDA, carrying around 4,000 tons of liquefied gas, Euronews… pic.twitter.com/yNidsVTFaV

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 17, 2025

BBC says that it has verified the footage:

The footage appears to have been filmed from the small Romanian village of Plauru, just across the river.The village is now being evacuated due to the ship’s “proximity to Romanian territory and the nature of its cargo”, emergency services say.

Ordina is almost 125m (410ft) long and can hold up to 8292 cubic metres (1.8 million gallons) of fuel, according to ship tracking website Marine Traffic.

The incident demonstrates once again that the longer and more expanded the war on energy sites between Russia and Ukraine grows, the greater the risk of drawing external countries in. Various officials within NATO have long wanted Turkey to take harsher action against Russian shipping to international markets by cutting off access to the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits.

Brent crude prices were initially lower, and are now flat, after operations resumed at Russia’s key Black Sea export hub, Novorossiysk. This follows last Friday’s Ukrainian drone strike on the export hub, which had sent prices soaring.

Satellite images confirm major damage to the Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk after a combined drone and missile strike. Critical loading systems and pipelines were hit. With fires raging and infrastructure crippled, the port may be out of service for a long time. pic.twitter.com/waoSfx0qxj

— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) November 15, 2025

Brent slid to $63 per barrel in Asia and Europe after Reuters and Bloomberg reported that crude-loading operations had resumed at Novorossiysk.

Bloomberg noted that two tankers were moored at the export hub on Sunday, while Reuters reported that loading had restarted.

Much of the overnight losses were cut by the time US traders woke up, as Brent prices inched above $64. Last Friday, the drone attack sent crude oil up more than 2%.

Here’s the chart:

“People were expecting a longer outage” at Novorossiysk following the strike, said Mukesh Sahdev, the founder and chief executive officer of Xanalysts Pty. Indications of a resumption are a “bearish signal,” he added. Sahdev was quoted by Bloomberg. 

Ukrainian forces have increasingly targeted Russian oil export chokepoints, including oil-refining, storage, and export infrastructure, using drones and missiles. Novorossiysk was targeted for several key reasons:

1. Russia’s Largest Black Sea Oil Export Terminal: Novorossiysk handles a major share of Russia’s seaborne crude exports, including Urals and CPC Blend. When it goes offline, millions of barrels per day are at risk.

2. Key Outlet for Sanctions-Crimped Russian Supply: With many European ports closed to Russian oil, Black Sea routes have become even more vital. Novorossiysk is one of Moscow’s few remaining large, reliable export points.

3. Gateway to Europe, the Mediterranean, and Global Markets: Tankers from Novorossiysk move oil toward Europe, Turkey, India, and increasingly China. Any disruption affects multiple downstream markets.

4. Linked to CPC Pipeline Exports: The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) routes Kazakh and Russian crude to Novorossiysk.

The broader oil market outlook heading into 2026 remains bearish (read report). 

By Stuart Chrils of FreightWaves.

The Port of Long Beach is moving containerized cargo ahead of the cumulative record-setting pace achieved in 2024 despite weaker demand that saw October volumes drop by nearly 20% from a year ago.

The hub, which along with the Port of Los Angeles forms the San Pedro port complex, the nation’s busiest, moved a total 839,671 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) in October, down 14.9% from October 2024 – the strongest month in its 114-year history.

Imports declined 17.6% to 401,915 TEUs and exports dropped 11.5% to 99,817 TEUs. Empty containers, an indicator of future import shipments, decreased 12.6% to 337,940 TEUs.

Long Beach has moved 8,229,916 TEUs through the first 10 months of 2025, ahead 4.1% y/y and on pace to better 2024’s all-time record volume of more than 9.6 million TEUs.

The port has maintained steady operations despite an uncertain outlook amid ongoing tariff and trade policies, Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Mario Cordero and Chief Operating Officer Noel Hacegaba said in a virtual media call.

In response to a question from FreightWaves about the effect on cargo of the now-paused U.S. port fees on Chinese ships, Cordero said, “I think that the volume speaks for itself. Hopefully this pause — whether it’s ship fees or tariffs — will help the parties find a pragmatic solution that’s not going to impact the American consumer.”

“The consumer has not seen significant tariff impacts given that manufacturers, retailers, and others have shared in incurring some of these costs and mitigating price escalation to the consumer, but that may change as we approach 2026,” said Cordero, who earlier announced his retirement as port chief.

“Consumers will likely see price escalation in the coming months as shippers continue to pass along the cost of tariffs on goods and a higher percentage of these costs will be passed on to the consumer.” 

Hacegaba said the port continues to work with its partners “to anticipate and mitigate issues before they arise to keep cargo and our economy moving.”

In the sweltering chaos of Hanoi, 67-year-old Le Thi Minh Tam is waging a desperate guerrilla war against vanishing stockpiles – scrambling from one gold shop to the next, only to find Soviet-style queues where the shiny salvation sells out faster than a central banker’s excuses.

“I’m getting worried, as I still don’t have enough,” she tells Bloomberg, the weight of her son’s impending nuptials crushing her, helped by the State Bank’s iron fist.

“They don’t sell gold bars anymore, only gold rings with a very limited amount for each customer.”

But as Bloomberg goes on to note, Tam’s not some outlier in this fever dream; she’s the face of a nationwide gold apocalypse triggered by the yellow metal’s moonshot to $4,380 an ounce last month.

Vietnam, where gold isn’t just bling but a cultural bunker against the fiat apocalypse – stashed under beds like contraband ammo for the next economic blitzkrieg – is in full-blown mania mode.

Weddings? Forget flowers; it’s all about gifting the one asset that laughs at inflation’s grim reaper. This isn’t optional; it’s ritual, a hedge forged in the fires of the Vietnam War when paper promises turned to ash, and even now, when bank deposits feel like IOUs from a Ponzi scheme run by Hanoi apparatchiks.

Down in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) – 1,700 km south, where the humidity matches the desperation – shoppers are turning into urban nomads, camping overnight like it’s the last chopper out of Saigon. Nguyen Kim Hue, a 57-year-old online food peddler scraping by in the gig economy’s underbelly, showed up at 6 a.m. thinking she’d outfox the horde.

“I thought coming at 6 a.m. was early, but it was already crowded,” she recounts, the bitter taste of empty-handed defeat still fresh from her last raid.

“The last time I came, I couldn’t buy anything because they ran out of gold.”

Cue the “sold out” signs, those scarlet letters of supply-chain sabotage.

Flashback to the glory days of communist control: Back in 2012, as inflation clawed at the dong like a rabid dog, the geniuses in Hanoi slapped a state monopoly on gold imports and production. The State Bank of Vietnam became the gatekeeper, funneling scraps through Saigon Jewelry Co.’s exclusive chokehold on bars. Result?

A yawning chasm between local premiums (10-15% over spot) and the global “free” market, birthing a black market beast that chewed up the currency and spat out volatility.

Fast-forward to October: The politburo finally cracks the door, ending the 13-year stranglehold in a half-hearted liberalization play.

But don’t pop the champagne – Hanoi’s still doling out import quotas like candy from a miser’s pocket, with the central bank playing quota czar.

“We’ll have to wait until mid-December to see how much gold import quota the central bank grants,” says Huynh Trung Khanh, vice chairman of the Vietnam Gold Traders Association, sounding like someone who has questioned his fair share of ‘five-year-plans’.

“It’ll probably be far below what the market needs to meet demand.”

Vietnam ‘demands’ 55 tons a year – a Southeast Asia heavyweight – but last year’s official imports were a measly 13.5 tons, courtesy of the same bureaucrats now pretending to “reform.”

The goal? Squeeze that premium down to 2-3%, turning Vietnam’s gold bazaar into a semi-respectable shadow of Shanghai or Mumbai. Good luck with that.

And why the frenzy? Because in a nation scarred by wars, famines, and fiat fuckery, gold is the ultimate protection against ‘the system’.

“We’ve been through wars and hard times, so people here have seen gold as the safest place for their money—a safe haven, something they can rely on when life gets tough,” Khanh remarks, echoing the global chorus from Delhi to Istanbul where central bank bids and retail panic are sending bullion to the stratosphere.

Globally, gold’s the cockroach of commodities this year – up big on ETF inflows and BRICS finger-flipping at the dollar – while wedding seasons worldwide turn jewelers into mints on steroids.

Prices have dipped from the peak, but the “sold out” apocalypse rolls on. Last week in HCMC, hordes queued for hours outside a flagship shop, tickets rationed like bread lines in the gulag. Hue dragged her husband into the fray and sweet-talked the clerk into five rings instead of one:

“At first the shopkeeper told me I could only buy one ring, but I persuaded her to sell me more,” she beamed.

“I’m so happy now.”

So what are the new rules?

As Bloomberg lays out, cash-for-gold’s dead; anything over 20 million dong ($760) demands a bank transfer, leaving grandma types fumbling for their kids’ apps like Luddites in a crypto winter.

Hue kicked off her hoard in June at 120 million dong per tael (that’s ~1.2 troy ounces for the uninitiated). Now? 147 million, a 22% gut-punch that’d make even Jamie Dimon wince.

“Before, I used to keep my savings in the bank, but now I feel safer holding gold,” she confesses.

“It’s my way of making sure my money doesn’t lose value. This is for my children’s education and my retirement.”

Translation: When the dong’s a dumpster fire and banks are just vaults for the elite’s digital funny money, you bet on the barbarous relic.

Even the kids are in on it.

Tran Thi Yen Nhi, 20 and slinging construction swag in HCMC, endured a three-hour vigil for her sister’s big day.

“My parents asked me to help, because it’s hard for them to stand in line for so long,” she says, generational torch-passing in action.

“I’ve made it a habit to buy gold whenever I can save some money, just little by little. Since I was a little girl, I saw my grandmother do the same. She bought gold whenever she saved a bit and then kept it under her bed.”

The World Gold Council pegs Vietnam’s under-mattress stash at 500 tons – pocket change next to India’s 34,600-ton elephant, but enough to make regulators sweat.

Enter the fixers

The Vietnam Association of Financial Investors is hawking a 10% tax on buys to “discourage hoarding” and shove peons toward their approved stock ponzis.

For now, it’s a measly 0.1% on bars for “data trails” and revenue grabs, plus a three-phase gold exchange rollout to drag the rings, coins, and bars out from under the bed and into the light (and sync prices with the world).

Because nothing says “trust us” like taxing the one thing folks trust more than your printing press.

But spare a thought for Tam, still grinding through the gauntlet as her son’s wedding looms like a debt collector.

“I’m so tired and worried,” she laments.

“The wedding is coming soon, and I still haven’t been able to buy enough. In Vietnam, gold isn’t just a gift. It’s how we show our love.”

In a world where governments peddle stability while inflating away your future, that’s not sentiment – it’s survival. And as Vietnam’s gold wars rage on, bet on this: The real mania’s just getting started.

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Catholic Church’s criticism of the Trump administration’s policies regarding illegal immigration is “wrong,” border czar Tom Homan told reporters on Nov. 14.

“Secure border saves lives. I wish the Catholic Church would understand that. We have the right to secure our borders like they have the right to secure their facility,” Homan said.

“You can’t enter their facility without getting arrested. Matter of fact, the penalties for entering their facilities are much worse than ours,” he said.

“So the Catholic Church is wrong. I’m sorry. I’m a lifelong Catholic. I’m saying it as not only a border czar. I’ll say it as a Catholic. I think they need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church.”

Homan’s remarks were in response to a “special message” issued on Nov. 12 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) saying the group was “disturbed” by the climate of fear and anxiety regarding questions of profiling and immigration enforcement among the church’s followers.

Homan said that under the Biden administration, more than 4,000 illegal immigrants died during their journey to the United States, which is a “historic record.” Meanwhile, more than a quarter million Americans died from fentanyl, which is also a “historic record,” he said.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 270,000 people are estimated to have died due to fentanyl overdose between 2021 and 2024.

In its message, USCCB said it opposes the “indiscriminate mass deportation” of people and prays for ending the “dehumanizing rhetoric and violence” aimed at illegal immigrants and law enforcement personnel.

“We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status,” it said.

“We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”

USCCB said that while nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders, they must also set up a just and orderly immigration system in service of the common good.

Homan said the organization’s views sent the wrong message about the rule of law. He also noted the price illegal immigrants have to pay in order to make the journey to the United States.

“So, according to them, the message we should send to the whole world is, if you cross the border illegally, which is a crime, don’t worry about it. If you get ordered removed by federal judge after due process, don’t worry about it because there shouldn’t be mass deportations,” he said.

“If that’s the message we send to the whole world, people are still going to put themselves in harm’s way to come to the greatest nation on earth. They’re going to spend their life savings to give it to a criminal cartel.”

USCCB is an assembly of bishops who seek to promote and carry on Catholic activities in the United States, including caring for illegal immigrants, according to the organization’s website.

The group’s special message was the first it had issued since 2013. The message received 216 votes in favor from conference members, with five voting against it, and three declining to vote.

The message follows Pope Leo’s criticism in September of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

“Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I don’t know if that’s pro-life,” Leo, the first American pope, said on Sept. 30.

During a press briefing in early October, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt countered the Pope’s accusations.

“I would reject there is inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the United States under this administration,” she said. “There was, however, significant inhumane treatment of illegal immigrants in the previous administration as they were being trafficked and raped and beaten, and in many cases killed over our United States southern border.”

“This administration is trying to enforce our nation’s laws in the most humane way possible and we’re upholding the law.”

USCCB Lawsuit

In February, USCCB filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for halting the funding of its refugee resettlement program.

Under the program, USCCB facilitated the integration of refugees into the United States. The refugees were entitled to receive federal funds as transitional support for up to 90 days, which the complaint said was essential to helping them set up a new home.

When the Trump administration suspended the program in January, there were more than 6,700 refugees assigned to USSCB by the government who were still within their 90-day transition period, the lawsuit said.

The suspension resulted in USCCB having “millions of dollars in pending, unpaid reimbursements for services already rendered to refugees and is accruing millions more each week—with no indication that any future reimbursements will be paid or that the program will ever resume,” it said.

The proceedings in the case were stayed in July upon the USCCB’s request after the organization and the federal government entered into an agreement to wind down the group’s participation in the refugee resettlement program.

In an interview with Fox News in February, Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, was critical of the Catholic bishops, saying he was disappointed because they had “not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement” and took more than $100 million to “help resettle illegal immigrants.”

“You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country,” said Vance. “Then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”

While global public debt is lower than pandemic highs in real terms, it remains stubbornly elevated at $111 trillion.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows world debt by country in 2025, based on data from the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook.

A Closer Look at World Debt by Country

Below, we break down government debt around the world in 2025:

America’s debt burden exceeds $38 trillion in 2025, standing at 125% of GDP.

Over the past five years, net interest payments on the national debt have nearly tripled. They are projected to double again by 2035 to reach $1.8 trillion per year.

With $18.7 trillion in debt, China ranks in second. In 2025, debt expanded by almost $2.2 trillion, driven by government stimulus and weaker land revenues given a struggling property market sector.

As we can see, Japan follows next with a $9.8 trillion debt pile, equal to 230% of GDP. Even though debt remains sky-high, the country’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is proposing $92.2 billion in stimulus spending and subsidies.

The UK and France round out the top largest debt burdens, both hovering near $4 trillion. France, in particular, has experienced significant political instability amid contentious budget cut proposals, cycling through five prime ministers over the past two years.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on government debt to GDP around the world.

There is very little good news this week for those hoping to see relief in electricity prices next year, and more states took steps to put guardrails on data center development.

At the same time, new renewable generation projects continue to face delays and cancellations. 

Here’s the story the data told this week in the electric power sector.

By the Numbers

$51/MWh 

The forecast price of wholesale electricity across the country in 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That number, 8.5% higher than this year, is the load-weighted average across 11 regional markets, but the increases will not be felt evenly. Much of the rise in demand and price is centered on Texas and driven largely by data centers, cryptocurrency mining facilities and other energy-intensive commercial customers, EIA said.

80%

The minimum percentage of contracted monthly demand that data centers and other large load customers will be required to pay Evergy and Consumers Energy, regardless of how much they use, under new rules adopted by regulators in Kansas and Michigan. The rules are intended to shield existing ratepayers from the costs of interconnecting data centers and other large loads, especially if the demand fails to materialize after the investments are made. AEP Ohio has said its data center pipeline shrank considerably after regulators there approved a similar tariff; many states are weighing like-minded proposals.

2.4 GW

The capacity of the planned Leading Light Wind project offshore New Jersey that developer Invenergy has canceled. It cited financial, supply chain and regulatory obstacles as reasons the project is no longer viable. The cancellation of the large generation project comes as rising power prices have begun to exert political pressure on elected officials. Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, campaigned on keeping down electricity prices.

$105B

The upper end of Duke Energy’s expanded five-year capital spending plan, which it expects to roll out early next year. Executives attribute the rise in spending to rapid load growth, including many data centers, which they say is likely to continue into the early 2030s. Additional generation added to Duke’s system could exceed 13 GW in the next five years, including 7.5 GW of new gas facilities. Duke is one of many utilities that have bumped their spending in response to projected load growth from artificial intelligence, manufacturing and electrification. 

20%

The percentage of planned solar capacity for which developers reported a delay in the third quarter of 2025, a decrease from 25% in the same period of 2024. The decline in delays could be related to a rush to finish solar projects before clean energy tax credits expire following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July. The law provided a safe harbor provision for wind and solar projects that commence construction before July 4, 2026.

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

In Oxfordshire, England, along the River Cherwell, a massive illegal landfill has been discovered. Over a stretch of 150 meters, tons of waste have accumulated, posing a serious environmental threat. This is not an isolated incident in England, which now faces the mafia-like structures of its waste and water industry.

Oxfordshire, located northwest of London, is usually a tranquil natural paradise. The county is home not only to the world-famous University of Oxford – it has now also become the scene of a striking environmental scandal.

Over a length of 150 meters in the river’s floodplain, hundreds of tons of plastic waste have piled up. A massive ecological disaster is looming: toxic substances could seep into the groundwater if the river overflows during heavy rains.

Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrat MP for the constituency, demanded immediate government cleanup efforts to prevent an environmental and groundwater catastrophe.

Not an Isolated Case

This waste scandal is far from unique. Britain is experiencing a true flood of garbage – a systemic problem evident in many locations, including the banks of the Thames in west London, near Hammersmith Bridge. Years ago, a massive waste island was discovered there, now known as “Wet Wipe Island.”

The mass consists primarily of wet wipes flushed down the drain. In some places, the accumulation reaches up to a meter high.

The weight of the island is enormous: 180 tons, stretching along roughly 250 meters of riverbank – an area comparable to two tennis courts.

The cause is not only the widespread use of wet wipes. London’s outdated sewage system also plays a critical role. During heavy rain, overflows send wipes directly into the Thames, causing severe damage to the waterway and wildlife.

According to the UK Environment Agency, over 3.6 million hours of raw sewage were discharged into rivers and coastal waters in 2023 alone – conditions comparable to developing countries. Despite well-intentioned declarations, nothing has changed about England’s poor water quality, warned Giles Bristow of “Surfers Against Sewage.”

Meanwhile, additional infrastructure fees charged to households have risen by £123 per year, Bristow noted.

Pseudo-Privatization and Capital Extraction

The roots of the problem go back decades. During the economic crisis 36 years ago, England broadly privatized the waste and water sector without defining a true market structure with open competition and minimum standards.

This opened the door to corruption – a British-style “Kölscher Klüngel (Cologne-style regional corruction).”

Since then, Britain’s waste, sewage, and recycling industry has developed a mafia-like system that acts as a capital extraction machine, attracting mostly foreign investors.

The Usual Suspects

About 70% of investor capital in the UK water sector comes from foreign sources, reports The Guardian.

Familiar names are involved: asset managers BlackRock and Vanguard (the Siamese twins) in Severn Trent, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in Thames Water, and Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings as 75% majority owner of Northumbrian Water.

Connections in politics pay off, becoming part of the well-oiled revolving door between government and the private sector. High-ranking politicians reportedly move back and forth like “springboard jackdaws” – a prime example of a revolving door between politics and extraction business.

Simple Structure

The profit-extraction structure follows a simple pattern, like a choking web over parts of society: the waste and water industry was regionally divided, privatized, and licensed to monopoly operators largely free from regulation.

The lack of competition and legal obligations for minimum standards or infrastructure investment allows astronomical returns, which investors extract and largely transfer abroad.

The environmental damage and enormous social costs, however, are borne by British taxpayers. Public health consequences alone merit separate analysis.

We face criminal operations protected by law and executed by operators of this extraction model.

Market Opening and Liability Rules

The solution is obvious: open the market – even to smaller local providers. Competition would force established operators to improve quality. A classic liberal economist demand – full internalization of liability and damages for affected parties – should have been implemented long ago.

The political resistance to such reforms shows the tight entanglement of regional politics and monopoly operators.

It is a perilous alliance that has seized one of the most sensitive areas of public hygiene and environmental policy in Britain – now under maximum public pressure.

A feasible interim solution to curb the extraction strategy could be a capital buffer deposited upon market entry, dedicated to potential environmental damage.

It is not the classical market solution – but it may be the only way to quickly relieve fiscal pressure on an already heavily indebted British government now liable for the damage.

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Authored by Thomas Kolbe, born in 1978 in Neuss/ Germany, is a graduate economist. For over 25 years, he has worked as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.