Baltic
Dry Index. 2250 +49 Brent Crude 97.80
Spot Gold 4796 Spot Silver 77.20
US 2 Year Yield 3.78 -0.03
US Federal Debt. 39.115 trillion
US GDP 31.325 trillion.
Vice President JD Vance said something he almost certainly didn't intend during a Monday interview on Fox News, while discussing the Trump administration's new policy counter-blockading the Strait of Hormuz to try to pressure Iran into abandoning its own blockade.
"What they have done is engage in this act of economic terrorism against the entire world," said Vance. "As the President showed, two can play at that game."
In Washington, District of Crooks, it’s time to send in the clowns and bring the Trumpian madness to an end before it triggers Great Depression 2.0, but with massive unrepayable national debts, three trillion of dodgy private credit debt, and a food supply crisis about one year away due to a fertiliser shortage and sky high fertiliser and diesel prices.
For now, coordinated central banks temporarily talking/leaking/rigging stocks higher and oil futures prices lower works for a few days, but the oil spot market gives that game away. The global economy is probably just about a month away from starting to seize up.
Asia markets open mostly higher amid
hopes of a U.S.-Iran deal; China exports miss estimates
Published Mon, Apr 13 2026 7:47 PM
EDT
Asia-Pacific markets opened mostly
higher Tuesday, amid hopes that a deal between Washington and Tehran was still
possible even as the U.S. blockades Iranian shipments in the Strait of Hormuz.
A fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire, while
not officially scrapped, has been deeply frayed, with the U.S. and Iran
accusing each other of violating the conditions of the truce.
The U.S. on Monday said it
began blocking
ships from entering or exiting Iranian ports in the Strait
of Hormuz, as it seeks to raise pressure on Iran to
reopen the key oil route,
following the collapse of peace
talks. The blockade took effect at 10 a.m. ET.
Iranian officials responded by
warning that the U.S. blockade will only drive global energy prices higher.
“Enjoy the current pump figures.
With the so-called ‘blockade’, Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas,” Iran’s
parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said in an X post Sunday.
The West Texas Intermediate was
2.02% lower at $97.08 per barrel as of 11:47 p.m. ET. Brent crude declined 1.33%
to $98.04 per barrel.
South Korea’s Kospi was the best
performer among major Asia indexes, extending early gains to rise 3.41% higher.
The small-cap Kosdaq advanced 2.13%.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was
0.36% higher. Australian business confidence in March dropped, weighed by
concerns over the Iran war that had led to a global oil shock, according to a
survey from National Australia Bank, Reuters reported.
Mainland China’s CSI300 index rose
0.84%, while Hong Kong’s Hang
Seng index trimmed early gains and was 0.36% higher.
China’s export growth lost momentum
in March as manufacturers faced rising commodity and energy costs linked to
Middle East supply disruptions, while imports posted their fastest expansion in
more than four years.
Exports grew at their slowest pace
in six months at 2.5% in U.S. dollar terms last month from a year earlier,
Chinese customs data showed. The figure fell short of a Reuters poll forecast
of 8.6% and slowed sharply from the combined 21.8% increase recorded in the
first two months of the year.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 2.34%, while
the Topix gained 0.8%. India’s Nifty 50 was the main laggard and was 0.86%
lower.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 were
nearly flat. S&P 500
futures added 0.06%, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose
10 points, or 0.02%. Nasdaq-100
futures climbed nearly 0.2%.
The S&P 500 rose on Monday as
investors hoped that a deal would eventually be struck between the U.S. and
Iran. The broad market index jumped 1.02% to end at 6,886.24, the highest close
since before the war began.
The Nasdaq Composite gained
1.23% to 23,183.74. The Dow
Jones Industrial Average added 301.68 points, or 0.63%, to settle at
48,218.25.
Asia
markets mostly rise amid hopes of a U.S-Iran deal, China data in focus
Oil Prices Have Higher to Go, IEA Warns
The agency says the numbers don’t yet
reflect the severity of an unprecedented supply crisis.
April 14, 2026 at 12:00 AM GMT+1
Following a dramatic weekend of failed
peace talks—tied to a ceasefire one of the parties says isn’t
yet in place—the US raised the stakes again in the Iran war, this time with
a blockade of Iranian shipping. Oil rose on Monday, with Brent and West Texas
Intermediate at a little under $100.
Questions remained around confused
messaging from the White House, what exactly will
be blocked, whether Iran will exact a threatened
toll for what it calls “piracy,” and now
the possibility of a second round of talks. But one thing does seem more
likely than not: as far as energy prices are concerned, the worst is yet to
come.
This according to the International Energy
Agency, which warned oil prices don’t yet reflect the severity of the
unprecedented supply crisis. About 13 million barrels a day of oil supply have
been shuttered by the war, with more than 80 energy facilities damaged, IEA
Executive Director Fatih Birol said.
The Paris-based agency has already
described the current supply disruption as the biggest
in history, saying a recovery could take as long as two years. “Prices are
already high, but they are not reflecting the severity of the problem,” Birol
said. “I think soon we will see they will converge, which is an extremely
sensitive issue for the global economy.”
As for Donald Trump’s latest effort to
squeeze Iran, Nouriel Roubini, chief executive of Roubini Macro Associates, is
not optimistic. “A blockade by itself is a game of chicken that I think Iran
eventually wins, because they can suffer for a while,” he said at the Greenwich
Economic Forum in Hong Kong Monday. “We’ll be in a worse world because we’ll
still have higher oil prices, stock markets falling, bond yields
higher.” —David
E. Rovella
Oil
Prices Have Higher to Go Says IEA: Evening Briefing Americas - Bloomberg
Trump Orders Hormuz Blockade, Deepening Energy
Crisis
April 13, 2026 at 12:19 PM GMT+1
----Donald Trump vowed to begin
a full
naval blockade of
the Strait of Hormuz and threatened retaliation if Iran resists, a move that
risks widening the war to high
seas. The US president said he does not care whether Iran returns to talks
after weekend negotiations in
failed.
Markets reacted swiftly with oil prices surging while gold
and global stocks fell amid uncertainty over
the war and
growing inflation risks. Watch this video for more.
Repercussions: The UK said
it won’t join the
blockade,
setting up another point of contention between President Trump and Prime
Minister Keir Starmer. Spain’s leader Pedro Sánchez, visiting Beijing,
urged China to use its
influence to
help end the wars in Iran and Ukraine. Oil tankers in the Gulf renewed
attempts to
transit Hormuz by sailing close to the Iranian coast, while supertankers carrying Iranian
crude,
anchored off Indian ports, potentially the first such cargoes to arrive in the
country in almost seven years.
The world’s leading economic
policymakers are
gathering in Washington for the IMF and World Bank meetings, with the war’s economic
fallout high
on the agenda. Even before the summit kicks off, IMF boss Kristalina Georgieva
told CBS that prices will take time to ease even if a
ceasefire with Iran holds. That could be painful as central banks look
increasingly unlikely to take
unified action to
support the global economy.
More
Trump Orders
Hormuz Blockade, Deepening Energy Crisis - Bloomberg
China says Strait of Hormuz blockade against
global interests, urges restraint
Mon, April 13, 2026 at 12:21 PM GMT+1
BEIJING, April 13 (Reuters) - China said a
blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would go against the international community's
interests and urged calm and restraint by all sides.
The U.S. military said it will begin a
blockade nL6N40V09S of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports
and coastal areas on Monday, after the failure of weekend talks in Islamabad
aimed at ending the Iran war. Before the war, most Iranian oil exports were
shipped L4N40W08K to China, the top global importer of crude.
The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz does
not serve the common interests of the international community, Chinese Foreign
Minister Wang Yi told Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, special envoy of the UAE
President for China, in Beijing on Monday, according to a ministry statement.
Wang said China understood the legitimate
security concerns of the Gulf Arab states, and that the fundamental way to
resolve the crisis was a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire achieved through
political and diplomatic means.
"China hopes the relevant parties
will abide by the temporary ceasefire arrangements, remain committed to
resolving disputes through political and diplomatic means, and avoid a
resumption of hostilities," foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said
at a regular press conference on Monday.
China stood ready to "play a positive
and constructive role" in resolving the crisis, Guo added, calling the
weekend talks in the Pakistani capital a step in a direction conducive to
easing tension.
----Guo rejected reports nL6N40U00J that
China had plans to supply weapons to Iran as "groundless smears and
malicious associations".
Last week, Trump threatened immediate
tariffs of 50%, with no exemptions,
https://www.reuters.com/world/trump-announces-50-tariffs-nations-supplying-iran-with-weapons-2026-04-08/
on imports from countries supplying Iran with military weapons.
"China has consistently taken a
prudent and responsible approach to arms exports," Guo said, adding that
its strict controls were in line with domestic laws and international
obligations.
China says Strait
of Hormuz blockade against global interests, urges restraint
Trump’s strait blockade risks another serious blow
to the global economy
Mon, April 13, 2026 at 5:01 AM GMT+1
The failure of US-Iran peace talks leaves
President Donald Trump with a set of unattractive options that are unlikely to
hand him a decisive or swift victory.
But he’s doubling down with a plan to
impose a
blockade on the Strait of Hormuz that comes with its own risks of
serious and unforeseen consequences.
The administration’s depiction of weekend
talks in Islamabad,
Pakistan, suggested it was hoping to win capitulation from Iran on demands
including a promise not to seek nuclear weapons and the reopening of the
strait.
But Iran is refusing to cede this critical
leverage and doesn’t accept the US claim that it’s already lost the war. The
result is a deadlock that challenges one of Trump’s core beliefs: that US
military might will bend all adversaries to his will.
So Trump is now under pressure to narrow
Iran’s options.
He told reporters Sunday evening that he
ordered the US military to enforce a blockade on the strait from 10 a.m. ET.
The idea is to strangle Iran’s oil revenues and collapse its economy. The
measure is also designed to frustrate Tehran’s plan to raise revenues by
charging safe passage for oil tankers in the vital waterway.
Trump’s plan could certainly be disastrous
for Iran’s economy, already devastated by years of sanctions and the new war.
But it also threatens to worsen the war’s economic impact on the US and global
economies.
Oil
prices immediately spiked again on news of the blockade, with the price of
a barrel of Brent crude rising 8% to $104.
This reaction will test Trump’s resolve,
since Americans are already frustrated by high prices for food and housing and
are now paying more than $4 a gallon on average for gasoline. Rising oil prices
helped spike the inflation rate up to 3.3%
in March from
2.4% in February and are having a negative impact throughout the economy.
More
Trump’s strait
blockade risks another serious blow to the global economy
In other news.
Ex-CIA Director: ‘I think the 25th Amendment was
written with’ Trump ‘in mind’
Tara Suter Mon, April 13, 2026 at 2:32 AM
GMT+1
Former CIA Director John Brennan said
Saturday that he believed the 25th Amendment “was written with” President Trump
“in mind,” comments that come after multiple Democrats pushed for Trump’s
ouster following his intense threats toward
Iran.
“I think the 25th Amendment was written
with Donald Trumps in mind, because allowing someone like this to continue to
be the commander-in-chief and to control the tremendous capabilities of the
U.S. military, including our nuclear weapons capability, which he seemed to
allude to when he said he’s going to just eliminate a entire civilization,”
Brennan told MS NOW’s Ali Velshi on his show.
“Again, we really are in very, very
troubling times,” he added.
Over 70 Democrats in Congress have pushed
for President Trump’s removal due to
his intense
threats against Iran. The president’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire with
Iran on Tuesday, which was shortly after he issued a warning that a “whole
civilization” was set for destruction, caused backlash from many Democrats, who
accused the president of threatening genocide.
Between last weekend and Tuesday, the
president took to his social media platform to issue threats such as saying
“all Hell will reign down on” Iran and pushing Tehran to “open the F‑‑‑in’
Strait, you crazy bastards,” referring to the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway
for the oil industry that has been effectively closed since the beginning of
the U.S. conflict against Iran.
On Sunday, Trump announced that the U.S.
military would start blockading ships looking to enter the Strait of Hormuz in
the wake of weekend peace talks not resulting in a
deal.
“Effective immediately, the United States
Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all
Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said on Truth
Social.
The U.S. military
confirmed they
will be blockading Iranian ports starting at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday.
Ex-CIA Director:
‘I think the 25th Amendment was written with’ Trump ‘in mind’
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.
V. P. Dick Cheney
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians.
The ‘affordability economy’ has created a housing
market nobody predicted: Prices collapsing in the Sun Belt, soaring in the Rust
Belt
Shawn Tully Sat, April 11, 2026 at 9:00 AM GMT+1
U.S. housing is experiencing a historic “reversion to the mean.” In other words, the formerly sizzling metros have gone cold, and the unsexy plodders are back in vogue. That point comes through vividly in the new market snapshot just released by the highly influential American Enterprise Institute Housing Center. The AEI data, compiled by co-directors Ed Pinto and Tobias Peter, shows that housing prices nationwide edged up a puny 1.1% in the twelve months ended in February, the slowest rate of appreciation since the AEI started collecting numbers at the start of 2012. (The think tank started reporting the year-over-year changes in 2013.) It gets worse: The AEI is projecting that for the first three weeks of April, the trend will go negative, and by the end of this year, single family houses on average will be fetching 1% less than at the start of 2026, with drops of 2.0% to come in both 2027 and 2028. Obviously, those numbers are trailing the current course of the CPI, so the the lesser dollars you’d get selling your house in 2028 would take a second hit from today’s high inflation.
Those startling stats mark a stunning reversal from the post-pandemic boom. From 2013 to early 2020, home price appreciation (HPA) consistently registered at between 5% and 7%. Then, the Fed supplied the rocket fuel by slashing interest rates, sending mortgage costs plummeting from around 4.6% in late 2018 to 2.6% at the start of 2021. Prices took a moonshot as buyers could pay much more for the house and still comfortably make the monthly payment due to the bargain home loans. By early 2022, HPA was roaring at an annual tempo of roughly 18%, triple the pre-pandemic number.
The bounty flowed mostly to the Sun Belt
and a suite of glamorous western cities, notably Denver, Seattle, Portland and
Boise. Florida, Texas and California led the way. According to the AEI figures,
from Q4 of 2019 to Q2 of 2022 when
the upswing peaked, Las Vegas average prices went from $308,000 to $448,000
(+45%), Miami from $350,000 to $450,000 (+50%), Phoenix from $293,000 to
$470,000 (+60%), Dallas $264,000 to $432,000 (+64%), and Austin from $297,000
to $593,000 (+100%). By comparison, the Rust Belt, and the Midwest
overall, lagged behind, after already trailing at a far slower pace in the
pre-pandemic days. In that fabulous span for the sprinters of the south and
west, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Louisville, St. Louis and Kansas City each gained
only between 25% and 33%.
From Cape Coral to Kansas City, America’s
housing market is undergoing a historic reversion to the mean—and the data
couldn’t be more striking.
The AEI report features tables displaying the five metros that have registered the highest HPA from February of 2025 to February of 2026, and the cities that have fared worst. You could almost cut and paste the “best” performers from February of 2022 into the current “worst” column, and vice versa. Topping the laggards: Cape Coral, Fla. at a 9.6% drop, followed by North Port, Fla., Memphis, Tucson, and Palm Bay, Fla., all between -3.8% to -6.1%. The biggest winner was Kansas City at +8.6%; Pittsburgh (+5.8%) and Cleveland (+5.9%) also made the top five.
All told, 28 out of America’s 53 largest metros saw price decreases through February, including all in Florida, California and Texas. The entire Rust Belt as a bloc made the plus column as Louisville rose 3.4%, Grand Rapids 5.1% and Milwaukee 5.6%. Stalwarts such as Chicago and Philadelphia (each +4%) that never got pricey to begin with are now reaping the benefits of being shunned in the pre-pandemic world.
The report notes that a big increase in
supply is pummeling the south and west. Forty-three of the 53 cities are
carrying over seven months of supply, meaning at the current rate of sales, it
would take that many months for everything listed to find a buyer. That ‘for
sale’ level is considered the lowest tier for a buyers’ market, meaning that
eight in ten metros, shoppers have gained the edge. Among the most swamped:
Miami at almost a year’s inventory, and Austin, Tampa and Houston all
approaching eight months.
More
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section Updates as they get reported.
Backup power is the LEAST interesting thing your home battery can
do
Apr 12 2026 - 11:56 am PT
Almost everyone positions home solar
panel systems with home batteries as backup grid power insurance – and
while that can be vitally important in a whole host of “what if” scenarios,
keeping the lights on is the LEAST interesting thing your home battery can do.
Home backup battery. It’s written right
there on the tin, after all – but while keeping
the lights on, the water running, and the insulin between 36 and 46° F can be
critically important, more and more home solar + battery customers are looking
at their systems as a tool to help them understand how they use and consume
energy.
And that little bit of understanding can
lead to some big savings.
A hedge against rising energy costs
When we talk about the cost of
electricity, we often think of it in terms of price per kWh (example:
$0.20/kWh). As more and more people move towards time-of-use rates, however,
they’re starting to see huge swings in pricing, with the same kWh costing $0.50
one day, and close to zero – or even dipping into the negative – on
another.
In that scenario, a home battery becomes
less about planning for when the power goes out, and more about planning for
when the power gets expensive.
A home battery
turns your electricity buy into a Costco run, allowing you to stock on on electrons when the
utility is practically giving them away, storing them in your garage
freezer battery, and using them when the utility decides to price them
higher. The end result isn’t just lower utility bills, it’s increased
predictability in your monthly budget, and more control over an expense that
most people consider out of their control.
In practice, someone with a 20 kWh home
battery system in Illinois’ ComEd territory (where I live), electricity that
typically costs about $0.10/kWh has spiked to more than $2/kWh during extreme
weather events, with
a theoretical ceiling of $3.70/kWh.
That means the 20 kWh sitting in you battery that’s worth about $2 on a normal
day can be worth as much as or as much as $40, $50, or even $70 when prices
surge.
Your own private gas station
When matched up with a home solar panel
system that generates electricity and an EV that runs on electric fuel, a home
battery system starts to look a lot like your own private fuel supply, allowing
you to top off your tank with cheap gas electrons you made yourself.
“This is Energy Dominance,” writes GM
Energy’s Jim Reilly, describing his own
home’s high-end energy setup. “I
own the refinery and the delivery system. While the world reacts to the price
at the pump, my costs are a flat line.”
More
Backup power is the LEAST interesting home battery application
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt Clocks
(usdebtclock.org)
We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you
will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot
of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any
discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence
agencies... That's the world these folks operate in, and so it's going to be
vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our
objective.
Dick Cheney
