In other Michigan news, the state looks set to elect it's first transgender lawmaker. Joanna Whaley won her Democratic primary and will compete in November for a state house seat, beating a primary opponent who tried and failed to disqualify her for not running under her deadname

In 2022, its 1,500 available spots didn’t even sell out. In 2023, it took at least a month. Now? Chaos.

Théoden Janes: Charlotte has a 5K that sells out like a Taylor Swift concert. Why?

In 2022, its 1,500 available spots didn’t even sell out. In 2023, it took at least a month. Now? Chaos.

bit.ly

Did Slok even bother to edit his ChatGPT slop defense of Warsh?

"As part of the partnership, Patel has brought officials from China's Ministry of Public Security, or MPS, to multiple FBI facilities in the United States to share ​intelligence and investigative information."

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

Waking up to discover what was expected to be a hotly contested fight result last night after my bedtime turned out to be very one-sided for the good guys. That's right folks, CLT FC 3 - Pumas 0

S&P 500 +1.5% with VIX Index +0.5pts for the first time since July 15, 2009

And this was (duh) driven by a big increase in implied vol on the call side. Put implied volatility virtually unchanged!

Record daily call volumes in $SPY yesterday This is how you get spot up vol up!

Incredible scenes where Citadel went from ~flat to +6% because somebody else didn't understand leverage.

The VoteHub Forecast rates NC-11 as highly competitive. Before Edwards withdrew, it gave Democratic nominee Jamie Ager a 58% chance of defeating him.

VoteHub@votehub.com · 6h ago

NEWS — Embattled Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards has withdrawn from the NC-11 race. He says he will serve out his current term.

Oh my god I think I found the video.

CSketch@csketch.bsky.social · 21h ago

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

It's revealing that the more serious architects of Abenomics -- Hamada, Kuroda -- have been scathing in their criticism.

I am asking very calmly and reasonably: what the hell is going on in Japan rn. (Brief or maybe not brief thread to follow)

Reuters@reuters.com · 15h ago

Japan PM Takaichi asked BOJ to buy more bonds when needed, Jiji reports reut.rs/45FsxCd

“Hybridity” is giving off a new kind of Hitler particle never previously observed.

Cuddles_the_destroyer@cuddlessmash.bsky.social · 16h ago

what the fuck am I reading lmao

new car salesmen-ass argument but leftishly????

This is uh...uh...uh...uhgly. ir.lucidmotors.com/news-release...

Lucid Announces Operational Reset and Second Quarter 2026 Results | Lucid Group, Inc.

Transformation program   launched,   starting with   a   focus on   Back-to-Basics Identified $1.4 billion cash flow improvement opportunities in 2026 across operating expenses, capital expenditures, ...

ir.lucidmotors.com

I hopped on to chat with Ed and give myself brain damage listening to Everyone's Least Optimal Nutcase. We just talked about this, which is the most fictional guide I've seen in a long time *SPACEX SEES $100 BILLION ARR BY YEAR-END: CFO

e.w. niedermeyer@niedermeyer.online · 2w ago

you're goddamn right I'm going to livestream the first-ever SpaceX earnings call on the AT Protocol put it on your calendar now: August 4, 2026, following market close at 4:30 PM Eastern stream.place/niedermeyer.online

AI deployment tidbit from subprime auto lender $CACC. 67% of inbound customer service/account solutions calls were routed to an AI agent in June versus 27% in March. "We expect further gains in call handling and unit economics as we scale this platform throughout 2026."

*SPACEX 2Q REV. $7.8B, EST. $6.81B *SPACEX 2Q AI SEGMENT OPER LOSS $1.26B, EST. LOSS $2.39B *SPACEX 2Q ADJ. EBITDA $3.5B, EST. $2B *SPACEX ENDED 2Q WITH $47.5B BACKLOG *SPACEX 2Q CAPEX $18.37B

First record close for the S&P 500 since June.

TEXAS 🤠 U.S. Senate Q2 2026 Fundraising 🔵 James Talarico: $30 million 🔴 Ken Paxton: $9 million Talarico's haul is the largest fundraising total ever recorded by a U.S. Senate campaign in the second quarter of an election year.

$SPCX doing a little pre-earnings pump. The designs are very funny, near as I can tell they're planning to put unshielded Vera Rubin racks directly into vacuum. Good luck dumbasses. www.spacex.com/spacexai/sta...

They’re calling it the most theater kid story of all time

Pixie Casey@pixiecasey.bsky.social · yesterday

in insane local news, the 26 year old director of a rocky horror production was arrested for sending threatening messages to himself in order to get the play shut down bc he didn’t want to deal with cast drama www.mynbc5.com/article/rock...

that's a long time to carry the deal financing huh *JUDGE SETS PARAMOUNT-WARNER BROS. MERGER TRIAL FOR MARCH 2027

Here's my shakedown of big US bond dealers on how they're thinking about tomorrow's Treasury Quarterly Refunding. Next week's note and bond auction sizes will be announced and, by convention, sizes through October projected. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Bond Dealers Expect US Will Avoid Signaling Auction Increases

The US Treasury will need to increase the sizes of at least some of its fixed-rate borrowing programs next year but is unlikely to signal the shift just yet, according to bond dealers.

bloomberg.com

Kimco ($KIM) is a REIT focused on strip malls. They're widely renowned for owning the worst possible assets; one example across the street from me saw an anchor grocery tenant bail over 5 years ago and the unit has been vacant since. Anyhow, here's their new/renewed rent change vs prior (%).

model UN sickos will LOVE this one.

Michael Caley@michaelcaley.bsky.social · 20h ago

on this week's @doublepivotpodcast.bsky.social: talking about the failed Infantino-Kushner private equity scheme, the FIFA-UEFA cold war, and @themlg.bsky.social explains the core problem with any campaign to "clean up the game" and reform FIFA www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHJg...

Wage growth has likely bottomed absent a new shock to labor demand (which is the opposite of what looks to be happening at the moment).