Sad!
Trump tells CNBC: ‘I don’t care’ if Iran negotiations are over
... But when asked if he has reached out to NATO to participate in reopening the strait, Trump said, “They would if I wanted them to, but I’m not sure I want them to.” ...
Monday, June 1, 2026
In March Pete Hegseth couldn't decide if Iran's military was merely decimated or totally devastated, and now Trump tells us Iran's military wasn't really hurt at all
Humpty Dumpty says words mean whatever he says they mean.
Meanwhile I'm quite certain nine in ten members of Iran's military prefer decimation to devastation.
Tim Carney doesn't mention why the bad polling results for Republicans and Trump on the economy started already in May 2025
The word "tariff" does not appear in this column lol.
... But the bad polling trends for Republicans and Trump generally started late last year, before the attack on Iran. The right-track-wrong track numbers started souring last May.
It’s reasonable then to suspect that Trump’s other problems — including stubborn inflation (aside from gas prices) and his family’s sketchy business dealings — are harming the GOP. This pre-Iran trend also suggests that the numbers won’t simply reverse if the Strait of Hormuz reopens and gas prices fall.
The Republican Party’s problem is deeper than gas prices, and so things won’t get better before November. The only question is whether things get worse.
Oh yeah, Iran wants to make a deal so badly it now threatens to shut down the Red Sea on top of the Persian Gulf
U.S. intercepts Iran missiles targeting American forces in Kuwait: CENTCOM
Treasury yields rise after Iran reportedly stops communication with U.S.
U.S. oil jumps more than 7% on report Iran will halt talks with U.S. and completely block Hormuz
U.S. oil prices jumped nearly 8% Monday, after Iranian state media said Tehran will halt talks with the U.S. and completely close the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon. ...
Tehran will completely block the Strait of Hormuz and open other fronts including the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Tasnim reported. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a trade chokepoint that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. ...
Former Fed Chair Jerome Powell accepts Profile in Courage Award
Fed’s Powell warns Trump’s political ‘stress test’ will wreck public trust in central bank
... “If any administration finds a way to remove Fed officials over policy differences, then future administrations will do so as well,” Powell said while accepting the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. “The public would lose faith that the central bank will make decisions based only on what’s best for all Americans.” ...
Sunday, May 31, 2026
Gold and silver are still up 5+% year to date
SPX +10.52% ytd
WTI +53.11% ytd
Meanwhile in April:
Hamburger +18.9% yoy
Coffee +29.0% yoy
Unleaded regular gasoline +28.0% yoy
Electricity +7.2% yoy
Natural gas +3.1% yoy
[Trump 9/21/2024: "We will cut your energy prices in half. Mark it down . . . within 12 months . . ."]
Milk +1.5% yoy
Whole Chicken -1.6% yoy
Eggs -56.1% yoy
Tomatoes +50.0% yoy
And:
30-year mortgage average monthly, above 6% since August 2022
Full time jobs above 50% of population just 6 of the last 25 quarters, all under Joe Biden
Because he's Mad King Ludwig, that's why
Fentanyl BAAAAAAAAAAD, Ecstasy GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.
Why Trump reversed course to fast-track psychedelic drugs for mental healthcare
Saturday, May 30, 2026
Meanwhile CNBC has an excellent story with great interactive graphs of vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait before and after the Houthi and Iran conflicts
And it's quite clear that the Iran war has had no real effect on the number of vessel transits through the Bab-el-Mandeb while destroying transits through the Strait of Hormuz.
Increased Saudi reliance on Yanbu on the Red Sea might change BAM transits in the future, but to what extent transits through SoH might recover is very difficult to say.
BAM transits never recovered from the Houthi threat, and SoH transits may not from the Iran threat, with serious implications not just for oil but for important bulk materials like fertilizer and helium.
SoH transits:
Feb 24 2026: 107.29
Apr 18 2026: 12.57
May 24 2026: 6.00
BAM transits:
May 24 2023: 82.86
Feb 26 2026: 40.14
May 24 2026: 38.14
Oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz might not return to levels seen before the Iran war
... Daily traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, collapsed by more than half from 75 ships on Nov. 19, 2023 to 31 vessels by January 30, 2024. More than two years later, traffic through the strait still has not returned to the levels once considered normal. ...
Quite the howler from CNBC this morning: Closure of Strait of Hormuz keeps 100 million barrels a day from reaching global markets lol
Global oil production in 2025 was about 106 million barrels per day.
The Persian Gulf share of that was about 31 million barrels per day.
Analysis: The Iran war has made inequality worse. An end won’t fix it
Friday, May 29, 2026
When 86 is the good news
The sum of the average prices of five ingredients for your April 2018 BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato, lightly toasted white bread in butter) is 86-cents less in April 2026 than it otherwise would have been if it had increased as much as overall inflation has increased, up 27% instead of 33%.
Don't spend it all in one place.
Jeff Bezos disposed of some your personal income last night lol
I mean, you blow yours on fireworks, why shouldn't he?
Thursday, May 28, 2026
Middle East tanker transits May 21-27, 2026: Strait of Hormuz 2.3/day, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait 15.6/day
SoH E averages 1.3/day
BAM SE averages 7.3/day
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