So Sleep announces a new record and instead of jubilation it’s just like, a shrug. Cool cover though.

🚨 Remember when the US Treasury caused that major yen rally in ‘98? Us neither www.ft.com/content/5506...

Remember when the US Treasury caused that major yen rally in ‘98?

Us neither

ft.com

Another black eye for Apple privacy technologies.

404 Media@404media.co · 1h ago

NEW: A series of issues in Apple’s web browser engine — the tech underlying all browsers on iOS — means that Apple’s iCloud Private Relay tool, which is supposed to hide a user’s IP address, in many cases doesn’t actually work. In fact, its exposing users' real IP addresses.

2026 could be at risk for setting a new record- most expensive national average price of gasoline on Labor Day. currently Labor Day 2012 is the record holder: $3.83/gal. we're at $4.06/gal today- if a deal to reopen the Strait doesn't materialize, we could break that.

Reuters is doing pretty well right now so it makes it pretty wild the company wants to cut reporters' salaries in inflation adjusted terms.

Thomson Reuters lifts full-year revenue forecast with focus on AI rollout

Thomson Reuters lifted its full-year organic ‌revenue forecast on Wednesday, with CEO Steve Hasker saying that the Toronto-based content and technology company's focus was on investing and developing ...

reuters.com

I can’t believe Iran saying they think they’ve got Oman on board with their plan to thwart US war aims is being treated as successful peace talks or an American accomplishment, even a little. That is crazy-making to me.

Easiest answer in the word: I could 100% get by without AI.

Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 6h ago

My answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.

Trump owes more than $100 million in unpaid taxes, so this is just a giant free check he gave to himself with taxpayer dollars

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 22h ago

“.. Trump has leveraged his control of the federal government to instead escape the scrutiny that every other modern president, not to mention every other regular taxpayer, has been subject to.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...

Watching the steady stream of Fedspeak now reminds me of my piece after the June meeting. The search for the shadow Fed Chair is on ...

Claudia Sahm @claudia-sahm.bsky.social · last mo.

Kevin Warsh may want a quieter Fed, but markets will fill the silence, just less reliably and at a high cost. Who—or what—becomes the “shadow Fed Chair” when the real one won’t talk? My latest: stayathomemacro.substack.com/p/will-the-s...

Yellen: "Members of the FOMC are going to talk. I think it would be undesirable for them not to do so. The market needs to, at a minimum, understand what is the Fed's reaction function...That's not necessarily a forecast of where rates will be, but how will the Fed respond to data?"

Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen says on CNBC she is worried about tariffs, energy, and AI-driven price hikes. "My hope would be that it would be possible for inflation to subside as these shocks pass through, but that would likely take another couple of years."

Mike Johnson tells Politico that he's standing behind Republican Max Miller — despite the "serious" domestic abuse allegations against him.

KC Fed's Schmid says AI sector worth watching for potential financial stability risks.

Fed's Schmid says finances around AI buildout merit watching

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President ​Jeff Schmid said ‌on Tuesday the financial situation involved in building out ​the artificial intelligence ​sector bears watching.

reuters.com

President Donald Trump’s administration has detained more than 50 spouses and parents of U.S. troops as it rolls back immigration protections for military families, an AP investigation has found.

AP Exclusive: Trump's immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents

An Associated Press investigation reveals that President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops.

bit.ly

Trump FBI chief Patel linking up with Russian, Chinese cops: “U.S. officials have long portrayed Russia and China as exporters ​of crime instead of potential allies in combating it, not to mention sources of espionage aimed at American interests worldwide.” Via Reuters

EXCLUSIVE: Under Patel, FBI forges unprecedented law enforcement ties with China, Russia

FBI Director Kash Patel says he has forged new law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia, two longtime U.S. rivals, over the past year in hopes of gaining allies in combating transnational cr...

reuters.com

Gonna keep beating this like a drum: prediction markets are the most dangerous, societally detrimental financial instrument ever introduced and if we don’t do something about them right now it’s going to cause far more destruction than you can imagine.

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 11h ago

These betting markets sites are so socially corrosive. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Another Fed official--this time KC Fed's Schmid--is ready to hike rates and he says so clearly: "⁠I believe that bringing inflation down to the Fed’s 2 percent objective will require tighter policy.”

Fed's Schmid calls for tighter monetary policy to tamp down on 'too high' inflation

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President ​Jeff Schmid said on Tuesday that some sort of monetary policy tightening is needed to ‌get “too high” inflation back to the 2% target.

reuters.com

What sort of prompt delivered this AI mess? Never served and even I know this image is an accuracy disaster.

Adam Kinzinger@adamkinzinger.substack.com · 16h ago

This is a man who has a hard time looking in the mirror

If only it hadn’t been illegal. 😞

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 16h ago

Bessent: "Here at the Treasury, I had $168 billion of tariff revenues that we're gonna have to refund. So when the Democrats scream, "Oh, the refunds should go back to the American people!', well, the American people had it, it was in the Treasury and it was paying down the debt."

Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.

The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed

The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.

bloomberg.com

"Reluctantly," a federal judge dismisses the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy cases. Trump DOJ "excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy—the peaceful transfer of presidential power—to buckle." "The court cannot write a different ending," he adds. buff.ly/NvVKnaW

Why does Fed Chair Kevin Warsh seem like he is perpetually running for student body president? On whether his pure sizzle, no steak approach to Fed communications makes his goal to set markets free harder, not easier, plus more thoughts in today’s PCB central. Link: open.substack.com/pub/petercon...

PCB Links: Kevin Warsh had a rough day

Thoughts on the Fed Chair's disastrous press conference, the logic to his reticence (and the WSJ's flip on discretionary central banking), Texas as a business Mecca, and more on mentoring young people

open.substack.com

Mike Lee's SCREEN Act, which heads to Senate Commerce Committee for markup on Wednesday, would expand age verification requirements to a nearly limitless scope of websites, and is supported by the architects of Project 2025.

The SCREEN Act is a Christian Nationalist Nightmare

Mike Lee's SCREEN Act, which heads to Senate Commerce Committee for markup on Wednesday, would expand age verification requirements to a nearly limitless scope of websites, and is supported by the architects...

404media.co

As an aside, this is also how you know the United States is still a democracy. Autocracies hoard the treasure but spend blood freely. When Trump thinks he can spend a few divisions to salve his ego as Putin has, instead of just some missiles, you will know the republic died some time ago.

Pye Wacket@jackindabox22.bsky.social · 22h ago

The desire to spend treasure over blood has been a hallmark of US military policy since WW2. Certainly this admin is particularly cowardly and hates losses moreso than any other, but the treasure over blood impulse plays to US strengths anyway.

The wealthiest 1% have found a way to eliminate their taxes. Here’s how the world’s biggest hedge fund makes that happen. Read The Big Take ⬇️

World’s Biggest Hedge Fund Teaches the Wealthy How to Slash Taxes to Zero

Cliff Asness’s AQR is riding an anti-tax wave to become the world’s biggest hedge fund.

bloom.bg

Bloodsport company lost $30 million on Trump's White House grounds combat zone. Via BBC

UFC White House: UFC loses $30m staging Freedom 250 event at White House

UFC owners lose $30m (£22m) staging the Freedom 250 event, which was attended by US President Donald Trump, at the White House in June.

bbc.com

Donald Trump stands out historically in one way. He has demilitarized the US military more quickly than any other political leader in US history. A full blown pacifist would have struggled to throw away weapons faster than he has.

Bessent's call to upsize Fed foreign lending facility may not be risk-free and could simply be posturing, analysts say.

Bessent's call to upsize Fed foreign lending facility may not be risk-free

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's call on the Federal Reserve to expand a facility that lends cash to official foreign accounts could add to the firepower available to help Japan bolster its ​cu...

reuters.com

FYI Science Policy News: More U.S.-trained physicists are leaving the country, an exodus that adds to fears of a U.S. "brain drain" www.aip.org/fyi/physics-... a near-doubling of non-US citizens left the US after receiving their PhD, around 29%, in 2025 @aip.bsky.social

Physics PhDs Are Leaving the US at a Record-high Rate

The exodus of non-US citizens has “certainly” been influenced by science funding and visa policy changes under Trump, a new AIP report says.

aip.org

The idea that a war only exists if there are casualties does not appear in the text of the Constitution. Nor does it appear in Madison’s notes on the Constitutional convention debates. Nor is there evidence it was discussed in ratification debates. It is made up.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · yesterday

Sen. Rand Paul: "I've had the debate with this administration ... they told me this isn't a war. I said, why isn't it a war? They said, 'Well, a constitutional war has to have significant casualties' ... initiation or declaration of war is *before* the casualties."