The economic numbers this morning don’t paint a very good picture.
Coupled with yesterday’s horrible trade balance data, the emerging domestic economic tableau looks increasingly sickly.
Trump’s economic policies rely on massive concentrated AI capital spending, ever widening fiscal deficits, concentration of the wealth, and the rapidly growing interest income these offsetting US Treasury securities generate.
Trump’s suicidal Zionist Middle East foreign policy is setting the United States up for a complete wipeout disaster. This disaster can be described as “Jacob’s trouble”.
As one of our readers reminded us, President Trump has publicly stated that he is not Christian. This makes him a charlatan and would go a long way in explaining his double-mindedness. Yet, he has no problem watching his family convert to Judaism.
Even worse is that Trump has galvanized his mongrel opposition and the Communists look to be gaining firm control here in the states come November. It’s kayfabe at its best, except it’s his naive and stupid followers who are the ones being thrown down on the mat.
There is nothing good that I can see this year.
GDP (QoQ) (Q4)
Act: 1.4% Cons: 2.8% Prev: 4.4%
Core PCE Price Index (MoM) (Dec)
Act: 0.4% Cons: 0.3% Prev: 0.2%
Core PCE Price Index (YoY) (Dec)
Act: 3.0% Cons: 2.9% Prev: 2.8%
Core PCE Prices (Q4)
Act: 2.70% Cons: 2.60% Prev: 2.90%
GDP (QoQ) (Q4)
Act: 1.4% Cons: 2.8% Prev: 4.4
GDP Price Index (QoQ) (Q4)
Act: 3.7% Cons: 2.8% Prev: 3.7%
GDP Sales (Q4)
Act: 1.2% Prev: 4.5%
PCE Price index (YoY) (Dec)
Act: 2.9% Cons: 2.8% Prev: 2.8%
PCE price index (MoM) (Dec)
Act: 0.4% Cons: 0.3% Prev: 0.2%
PCE Prices (Q4)
Act: 2.9% Cons: 2.8% Prev: 2.8%
Personal Income (MoM) (Dec)
Act: 0.3% Cons: 0.3% Prev: 0.4%
Personal Spending (MoM) (Dec)
Act: 0.4% Cons: 0.4% Prev: 0.4%
Real Consumer Spending (Q4)
Act: 2.4% Prev: 3.5%
Real Personal Consumption (MoM) (Dec)
Act: 0.1% Prev: 0.2%
House price data this morning look okay.
FHFA House Price Index (MoM) (Dec)
Act: 0.1% Cons: 0.3% Prev: 0.7%
FHFA House Price Index (YoY) (Dec)
Act: 1.8% Prev: 2.1%
FHFA House Price Index (Dec)
Act: 440.4 Prev: 439.7
S&P/CS HPI Composite – 20 s.a. (MoM) (Dec)
Act: 0.5% Prev: 0.5%
S&P/CS HPI Composite – 20 n.s.a. (YoY) (Dec)
Act: 1.4% Cons: 1.3% Prev: 1.4%
S&P/CS HPI Composite – 20 n.s.a. (MoM) (Dec)
Act: -0.1% Prev: 0.0%
A couple of subscribers emailed me asking my thoughts on private credit. Here’s the mid-afternoon report from Benzinga illustrating the scope of the problem. As always, the FED stands ready to start buying more types of debt instruments. It will be just like in 2008-2009 as well as 2020. First, we need to see some panic on the street.
Banks, Asset Manager Stocks Plunge On Private Credit Panic: What’s Moving Markets Monday?
02/23/26 1:39 PM
1:39 PM EST, February 23, 2026 (Benzinga Newswire)
Wall Street opened the week under heavy pressure as risk sentiment deteriorated on AI-related credit concerns and fresh trade uncertainty amid the feud between President Donald Trump and the Supreme Court.
By 1:00 p.m. in New York, the S&P 500 was down more than 1%, the Nasdaq 100 had fallen 1.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 1.5%.
The blue-chip index was weighed down by sharp losses in financial names. A wave of selling hit asset managers after concerns emerged around a private credit fund managed by Blue Owl Capital Inc. (NYSE:OWL). The firm announced it is liquidating $1.4 billion in assets to raise money to pay out individual investors.
Apollo Global Management Inc. (NYSE:APO) sank 6.6% on the day, marking its worst session since Liberation Day.
Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) slid 6.7% and has now dropped 16% over the past three sessions, its steepest three-day decline since March 2020, touching the lowest level since late 2023.
Ares Management Corp. (NYSE:ARES) fell 6.3%
KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR) tumbled 8.3%, extending its monthly loss to 20%, the worst stretch since 2015.
The weakness spilled into established financial heavyweights. American Express (NYSE:AXP) dropped 7.4%, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) lost 3.5% and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) retreated 4.5%.
For the broader Financials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE:XLF) it’s the worst day since early April 2025.
Technology sector also remained under pressure. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (BATS:IGV) fell 5%, sliding to its lowest level since August 2024 as software names extended their recent downturn.
Over the weekend, Trump said he would raise his new global tariff to 15%, aiming to replace duties ruled illegal by the Supreme Court last week. The move injected fresh uncertainty into trade policy as questions now linger about whether businesses that already paid the invalidated levies will receive refunds.
Gold rallied for the fourth straight session to $5,200 and silver also jumped to $87 an ounce.
In crypto markets, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) sunk 4.2% to $64,000.
That’s why I referenced Blue Owl a few days ago. The A.I. mania is like a run away train although others say the train is under control. We will see!
I think of it this way. The oligarchy wants AI to replace everything as fast as possible. This oligarchy will use their central banks, capital markets, and credit system to build it up quickly. A credit meltdown would only slow the process down.
I noticed Scot Bessent implied they would not allow firms like Blue Owl to fail. I guess they need these companies in the A.I. movement to succeed while they move to the new digital tokenized system.
It’ll be exactly what happened in 2008. US Treasury bought GM and everything else, rather than watch it go out of business. The Federal Reserve accommodated and provided any funding that was needed.
The US Treasury bought Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after the GFC. It’s a layup if some of these private equity firms go out of business. It’ll be just like Lehman and the banks will pick the good assets off the carcass.
The losses will be socialized by the US Treasury. The Federal Reserve will provide any funding that’s needed. I don’t get my knickers in a knot. There’s objectives that need to be met and the New World Order must come to fruition in a certain amount of time.
I came across this essay today and thought I would pass it along. A little off topic and probably something most of us here knew in some way, but an interesting summary I will post as evidence in any case.
https://annavonreitz.com/hiddenhand.pdf
Anna can be considered the dejure President of the United States, meaning the country. Trump is the President of the US (corporation). There are 2 “governments” within the US corporation, the territorial gov’t (City of London, Crown- Rothschilds) and the municipal gov’t (Vatican). Anna and the American State Assemblies are working to restore the republic. I had to step away after I moved but I’ll be rejoining to assist. I recommend everyone consider joining and getting involved.
https://tasa.americanstatenationals.org/
Very interesting find Ken! The Rothschild sons were the primary instigators of the civil war. There is a book written by a Russian Major as follows
details/41860025CherepSpiridovichTHESECRETWORLDGOVERNMENTORTHEHIDDENHANDTheUnrevealedInH/mode/1up
Cherep wrote this book in 1926 and he references the American Civil War which ties in nicely with your find.
The merchants of the Earth Stoke again!
That website promotes and resembles the Sovereign Citizen Movement. It makes since as it uses common law rhetoric and I do feel the freeman of the land and strawman theories seems legit. My name on certain employment and government documents are all capital letters. And obviously the upper class “We The People” types have different status than the lower class commoners “CITIZENS of the USA”.
However I would say the time has passed for the American National party to organize and compete with the City of London’s and The Vatican’s control of the USA. That website is decent reading, but I think it’s main objective is to sell books and get donations.
https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/interview-sovereign-judge-annas-world/
It probably is too late as you say but good reading just the same. What is interesting is that Anna defines the two entities and what they control – there is no opposition or refutation of that fact. SPLC uses the maxim “Falso in uno, Falso in omnibus” to try and attack Annas credibility, it is lame because the gestaldt she had was the point – not the relatively low amount of tax Rockyfella paid. We here use that maxim to write off people who say Jews are Israel – thats not an error but an intentional falsehood we simply won’t ignore. It also strikes me that those two entities Anna identifies are featured in Revelation as top level merchant class, the enforcers of “The Mark” and the Woman who rides the beast, end times Babylon – representative of “The Mark”.
I’d estimate that up until about 2005 until the late aughts, there was still a lot of study with regard to the sovereign man movement.
I specifically recall a couple of well-learned individuals who I knew in Colorado at the time. They even wrote instruction manuals.
I don’t really see much of it anymore. Contract law has replaced everything and it’s now impossible to navigate this world without it. This is especially true with the tracking and tracing.
Here in the States, the Patriot Act legislation was the final blow as the legal code in both Acts intimated that self sovereignty had become acts of terrorism.
This article, published this morning, is the reason why IBM stock is tanking today. Nothing is safe from AI… even AI related stocks.
How AI helps break the cost barrier to COBOL modernization
Legacy code modernization stalled for years because understanding legacy code cost more than rewriting it. AI flips that equation.
https://claude.com/blog/how-ai-helps-break-cost-barrier-cobol-modernization
The word, “obsolete” is a concept everyone better get familiar with!
The Russian economy is now eating itself to death as Putin’s war on Ukraine destroys future capacity, former central bank adviser says
Fortune Magazine – Four years after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s economy has entered a “death zone,” said Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
In a recent Economist op-ed, the former Russian central bank adviser drew on a term from mountain climbing when high altitude forces the body to consume itself faster than it can repair itself.
“Russia’s economy is stuck in what might be described as negative equilibrium: holding itself together while steadily destroying its own future capacity,” she wrote.
The economy isn’t headed for an imminent crash, but GDP has stagnated, oil revenue has been halved amid Western sanctions, and the government’s budget deficit is rapidly draining reserves.
At the same time, two economic systems have emerged. One is comprised of the military and related industries that receive priority from the Kremlin. And then there’s everything else that’s been “left in the cold,” Prokopenko explained.
https://fortune.com/2026/02/22/russian-economy-death-zone-ukraine-war-vladimir-putin-future-capacity/
The strategy of attrition at work!
At least bond yields are lower today. They’re approaching that low end of the 4% range on the 10 year. Bond prices hitting their resistance.
China is back from their new year holiday. I’m curious how silver will react when they open later this evening.
Exclusive-New US military-led group aided Mexico’s hunt for ‘El Mencho’ cartel boss
WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) – A new U.S.-military-led task force specializing in intelligence collection on drug cartels played a role in the Mexican military raid on Sunday that killed the Mexican drug lord known as ‘El Mencho,’ a U.S. defense official told Reuters.
The Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, which involves multiple U.S. government agencies, was formally launched last month with the goal of mapping out networks of drug cartel members on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not offer further details on any information that the U.S.-military-led task force may have offered Mexican authorities. The official stressed the raid itself was a Mexican military operation.
https://www.reuters.com/?tag:reuters.com,2026:newsml_KBN3PC0R1
I get about a dozen emails a day from readers. I’d say about 10 of them mention Epstein. There is some sort of obsession with Epstein and this externalization of the hierarchy.
It reminds me of Snowden last decade. Remember him? He was last decade’s cutout that spilled the beans on the collective oligarchy. What a farce! He was just limited Hangout. He was just placed there to reveal partial truths and to demoralize the plebes. Whether or not Snowden said it didn’t matter. He was last decade’s enemy of big brother.
The alternative media are obsessed with finding the next Emmanuel Goldstein. They’re looking for The smoking gun. They’re looking for “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism”.
Just like in 1984 with Emmanuel Goldstein, Epstein is now the boogeyman for everything and for everyone’s woes. The collective oligarchy is using Epstein to further erode the peoples trust in their governments and in their elected leaders. I doubt many of the supposed Epstein emails are even real.
Here’s something interesting. The governor of Illinois wants to charge a fee to social media companies for Illinois users. This seems like a clever way to silence free speech. My first question, is a blog considered social media? The governor of Illinois is a edomite by the way.
During the Great Tribulation, I mean the Great Reset, everyone will be pre-screened, lest we have corruption, real crimes, as well as thought crimes. The internet is full of mischievous criminals and if we have a subdermal implant that we can swipe on our computer every time we log on, I suspect all of these problems will go away!
Yes, I’ll enjoy the opportunity and freedom to learn and share ideas while we can. Who knows exactly when that will end! Although, we can make a good guess.
The fat man Pritzker is mainly in office because of Chicago voters, most downstate and in little towns outside of the main cities vote republican. There have been talks in making the Chicago area it’s own State. He goes along with all of the communist agendas and hoax events. But what States do not have these types at the top slots? In order to have a campaign or get elected one has to bow down to the financial powers that be.
Not just anyone can run for office. I encourage everyone to visit your County Clerk’s office and see the process of what it would take to go up against these criminals. They always put up candidates that seem like they are from humble beginnings but on closer inspection they are not.
Land of the Free?
Democracy?
Rights?
Nope!
As long as the public isn’t talking about tokenization and centralized ledgers it’s all good for Black Nobility. I sent you a quick note about this but I will put a link here too. This fella has got some good insight into that realm.
https://youtu.be/Zkwf1WoPCDc?si=6Qf38kN4eYXhZWMM
Tokenize everything turning it into an asset which can be leveraged as debt in real time. I wonder if that will eventually include humans to some degree! I bet it will!
This is the technocrats dream come true known as the final phase of the beast system. Private property as we currently know it will be gone as well as the bill of rights. Serfdom here we come.
In a low trust society that was brought about by multicultural mongralization, the tokenization makes sense.
Mongrelized society, by its nature, means low trust. No more paper checks, no more physical money, no more bills by mail. Nigger and Middle East mailpeople rip through the mail, looking for stuff to steal and commit fraud. They say, f the rich white man.
No trust anymore. The Cain Edomites pushed this stuff. Don’t say anything, you’re racist.
I was running some numbers on a compounding calculator. The rents on my single family detached housing have gone up about 5.5%-6% a year since 2015. The rents on the condos I used to own have gone up about 3.8% per year over the same time frame.
People like single family detached housing and there’s not enough of it at the price points people seek.
That’s where we come in. We buy up this working class housing stock and remove it from inventory. We then rent it out to the reprobates and mongrelized sodomites.
This is on point.
https://youtu.be/rZL3U1etEW4?si=v5GrHAxNT1FwOabP
The owners of the central banks control the world. They certainly control the west and the United States. They also control Russia and China. The Cain Esau Jew synagogue trillionaires control it all. They who say they are from Judah and are not, but do lie.
Of course, they use Western currencies, but then again, they used Western currencies to build up the Soviet Union into its present form as well as China and Southeast Asia as the manufacturing facility for the globe. We must never lose sight of the big picture. This Esau clan knew all about the deathbed promises and who held the power.
If it weren’t for the west, China would still be a closed backwater agrarian society.
There are no good sides and no good countries. None. They are all controlled by the same monolithic force. There is no escape and if the West were toppled, the world would be a much worse place. The Jews synagogue is making a good effort to destroy the west from within.
The race mixing is the biggest factor in destroying the west. But try telling that to your pastor, the two plus billion Christians and zombified Catholics, or your basketball fan down the street. You’ll be deemed the enemy. The more mixing, the worst the West’s standing.
I only rent to white people. I only rent to people that look like they could be from my family. I don’t rent to intellectually inferior and easily offended douches. I used to before George Floyd, but I don’t anymore. I don’t take that risk, since tenants have much more power in the blue States, like Maryland. I only hire white people. I only deal with white people.
Yep. I have to remind myself occasionally of the grand picture and not get to mirded in the tactics. You have done a great service in that regard Stone. Cheers.
Marred*
The “shock and awe” reset is coming. Likely in the summer of 2028 just before elections as they like that window for “change” (similar to ‘08 with crisis and 2020 Cov-AIDS)
1. Global crash of everything overnight
2. Cash will be called back by the central banks within a 30 day period. After 30 days its becomes worthless
3. Loans will be called by the banks. Mass bankruptcies everywhere
4. Edomite funds will buy everyone’s loans for pennies on the dollar (Ala Thailand 1998 – 1999)
5. New digital fiat will be rolled out as the systems will be in place. The conversion will be $10 to $1.
6. It will be impossible for anyone to buy silver or gold at this point
… the system restarts and credit cycle begins again with 90pc of the population as “poor”
Very interesting timeline! I note your point number 4. Yes, the edomite vultures will swoop in and devour what’s left of the carcus just like Saba Capital might do to Blue Owl.
Supreme Court strikes down most of Trump’s tariffs in major defeat
CBS News 24/7 Live
Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday ruled President Trump does not have the authority to unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs on nearly every country under a federal emergency powers law, delivering a significant blow to the president’s signature economic policy.
The high court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. The Supreme Court divided 6-3, with Chief Justice John Roberts delivering the opinion for the court. Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
“IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties. The Government points to no statute in which Congress used the word ‘regulate’ to authorize taxation. And until now no President has read IEEPA to confer such power,” Roberts wrote in a portion of the decision joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. “We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”
The legal battle over Mr. Trump’s tariffs marked the first in which the Supreme Court evaluated the legal merits of one of his second-term policies. The high court has allowed the president to enforce many of his plans temporarily while legal proceedings moved forward, but its decision invalidating Mr. Trump’s global tariffs is the most significant loss of his second term so far.
Trump’s tariffs
The court upheld a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that ruled Mr. Trump’s tariffs were illegal. The majority did not appear to address the issue of refunds for businesses who paid tariffs on imports.
Article continues;
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-tariffs-decision-trump/?ftag=CNM-00-10aag9b
Well, Congress has the power to tax, so this shouldn’t be a big shock to Trump. I bet he has other cards up his sleeve as any good magician would!
Trump just doubled down and added another 10% for the fun of it!
I’m not adverse to a comprehensive tariffs scheme. It’s only if it works. I am concerned the big drop in the trade deficit over the past few months was only a cyclical phenomenon, given the huge trade deficits that accrued early on in Trump’s presidency last year.
In other words, it seems the tariffs only worked to front load the deficits, while decreasing the size of the subsequent deficits.
The last reading yesterday indicates a move back to the trend.
Another interesting story is Blue Owl private equity firm seems to be in trouble. A canary in the coal mine maybe?
Despite the market’s penchant for jumping at shadows, Blue Owl’s BDCs (OBDC and OTF) delivered solid Q4 results, with OTF posting a total NAV return of 3.7%—outperforming heavyweights like ARCC and HTGC.
The recent sector sell-off, triggered by a headline regarding redemption halts at OBDC II, appears to be a classic case of illiterate panic. In reality, Blue Owl is accelerating capital returns by selling 35% of the fund’s holdings to institutional investors at 99.8% of par. While the “AI disruption” narrative still haunts software-focused borrowers, current non-accruals remain low. If the market continues to misinterpret these structural shifts as distress, it simply offers a better entry point for the cynical, yield-hungry investor to buy quality assets at a discount
Stone,
What is your take on the Supreme Court striking down Trump’s tariffs today?
I see more problems on the home front for Trump and more pressure for a distraction (Iran War).
The US Treasury will have to come up with the money to pay back the tariffs to the taxpayers. This will blow a hole in the deficit which means more borrowing and more debt to be issued. This will drive up yields and/or if the Fed sops
Up the extra debt then more inflation on the horizon as more dollars chase goods.
I see either a spike in UST yields and/ or a dollar collapse and maybe both. However, those invisible hands may work this out so it would not be apparent just like they smothered goods inflation and smothered precious metals prices until the 2020 Covid scamdemic.
Lets be honest, Judaism is “the” anti Christ religion! The edomites are the antithesis of all things YHVH. They are of their father the devil as we know.
It’ll be very interesting how this all unfolds. At some point I’m guessing China which relies on Iran for significant oil will not sit quietly back and watch. If China and Russia get dragged into this, sounds like Ezekiel 38. Also, will the technology used in Venezuela be as effective this time? Trump may want to do a limited strike, but there are no guarantees it will stay limited! One more thought, the coalition of the willing does not exist this time. What if the NATO nations stand down and let the USA get their just desserts.
The immediate future looks ugly. Seems like Trump is in a political quagmire with the economy getting worse and his promises not coming forth to his voters.
Looks like a very good chance the Democrats will take control of both the house and senate as they win votes in traditionally red areas as well as blue areas. It looks bleak for the liberty loving conservatives.
Trump wants the war with Iran to distract from the troubles at home and the Iranian regime needs a war to distract from its bad economy and poverty among the masses. If the war starts soon it will distract from the upcoming disastrous elections. Trump is really screwing it up for the Republicans. If this war starts it will be definitely the start of the Jacocobian troubles.
At this time I would like to see the Force Majeure happen sooner instead of this slow rot that I am seeing. If it starts sooner then Jesus Christ will come sooner. I would love to see the upcoming elections cancelled to stall the communist takeover. Once the communists takeover then it is over for us Christians and anybody who believes in the middle road. Many democrats are campaigning as moderates to get the independents vote. Mark my words, there is NO SUCH thing as a moderate or conservative democrat. All democrats are members of the cult called the socialist democrat party.
There is a good chance this war will happen soon because both sides need it to distract from domestic troubles.
Trump’s Cain Esau Jew handlers want the Iranian war, and he does whatever they say.
John Hyrcanus
Edomite Integration & Identity Appropriation in Judean History
The Edomites, descendants of Esau, were subjected to forced conversion to Judaism by John Hyrcanus, a Hasmonean ruler. This conversion was a significant event in Judean history, as it marked the integration of the Edomites into Judean society. Hyrcanus’s decree required the Edomites to circumcise their genitals and adopt the laws of the Jews, leading to their complete social, religious, and legal integration into Judean life. This assimilation process erased the distinctions that once marked the Edomites as foreign and allowed them to claim full identity as Judeans. The Edomite identity, once marked by enmity towards Israel, was transformed into a Jewish identity, reflecting the broader theme of identity appropriation in Judean history.
Jewish Virtual Library
The old bait and switch.