Middle East tanker transits May 24-30, 2026 per UKMTO JMIC Update 52: Strait of Hormuz 1.7/day, Bab-el-Mandeb Strait 16.1/day

SoH E: 0.7/day

BAM SE: 7.3/day 

Newsweek's broadest case against Trump economy doomers is real GDP per capita lol

 

Five Numbers That Defy the Trump Economy Doomers

Newsweek

... The broadest case against the collapse narrative starts with real GDP per capita, which reached $70,502 in the first quarter of 2026, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data. ... it is hard to describe an economy as broadly broken when the country is producing more inflation-adjusted output per person than at any point before. ... 

 

If GDP per capita were making America great again, you'd expect it to look more like it did in the post-war from 1947-1984, when we routinely had years with percent change above 4%.

 

Since 1984 we were lucky to get 3% years, and after the Great Recession 2%.

 

The trend since the Trump tax reform in 2017 is flat, merely a continuation of the status quo ante where a 2% year is a win. 

 

This is a picture of an aging economy which has slowed down like an old person slows down. It's still managing, but one of these days it's going to need a nursing home.

 

The idea that more tax cuts will stimulate domestic economic growth has been proven wrong by the Reagan tax cuts. His cuts fueled foreign economic growth, because our rich people weren't very patriotic about what they did with their money.

 

Economic growth requires domestic investment. And we need smart people who know how to coerce that with tax and broader public policies.

 

Donald Trump is not that guy. 

 

 

 

 

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

 

In pop culture news, on Friday's show some perversion was more equal than other perversion: Hot For Teacher 1984 was definitely just fine, 1978's Hot Child In The City . . . not so much

 

The MAGA Marxist wants more stimulus checks

 

The two-week ceasefire will be two months old next week

 

 Trump ends Iran meeting without announcing ‘final determination’ on deal

U.S. and Iran still without deal to end war after Trump says he’s not in a ‘hurry’ 

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

Just about everything ships by diesel in the United States, and the price of it is up 59% since Mad King Ludwig was elected in November 2024

$3.52 > $5.60

 

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

The GOP just had a terrible May, generic Congressional poll shows Republicans collapsing to 40.7% giving Democrats an 8.1-point advantage

 

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?

 

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

 

Trump inflation is Bush-league: PCE inflation goes boing, core PCE inflation 3.3% year over year takes us back to early 1992

And you remember what happened to Bush 41 in 1992.

 

boing

Trump's core pce inflation is Bush-league (41!)

Real GDP in 1Q2026 second estimate revised lower from 2.0% annualized to 1.6% annualized "primarily reflecting downward revisions to investment and consumer spending" lol

 I guess those trillion$ Trump said were coming into the country have not come in, and consumer spending is higher only because everything costs so damn much more due to inflation.

May 21: Consumers are still spending, but cracks are starting to show

Dec 5: Trump touts over $20 trillion in new U.S. investments, but the numbers don't add up

 

A191RL1Q225SBEA: 1Q1984-1Q2026 Trend

 

Uganda closes border with Congo where as many as 220 already may be dead from Ebola

 ... The number of suspected cases in eastern Congo is nearing 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths. Congo’s health ministry on Tuesday said 101 cases have been confirmed, and they are looking into over 3,000 possible contacts. ...

More. 

Trump disapproval new high 58.6%

 

Donald Trump is the leader of the Party of Violence

Dana White Took the UFC From the Fringes to the White House

Sean Gregory, Time 

 

... MMA was once considered so savage that at the turn of the century, unlike pornography and other controversial fare, it wasn’t even carried on pay-per-view in many places. Now, the UFC is so mainstream that CBS, a network that on Saturday nights once aired Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, is showing Swanson club Landwehr’s cranium with his right hand, knocking him out in the first round. ...  The UFC packs arenas around the world, and the most powerful person on the planet, right beside White, is its promoter in chief. ... Across the room [of White's office in Vegas] are two pistols. One barrel is cloaked in a red bible cover, the other in a black one. “Those two books have killed more people than any handgun ever made,” says White. “I am very antireligion.” ...                         

When I was a kid we used to laugh at boys with girly names like Dana.

Maybe Dana White's masculinism is as simple as that.

 

 

The good news is that the phony Chip Roy lost, the bad news is that the crook Ken Paxton won

 But! it will not be without humor, and with any luck Cornyn will serve out his term impeding Trump's impulses.

Paxton: Talarico Is A Vegan Who Thinks God Is Non-Binary And There Are 6 Sexes

Talarico Denies He's Vegan: "I've Been Eating Barbecue Since Before Ken Paxton's First Indictment"