For the first time since March 2021, the S&P 500 closed below 4,000 points. The index lost 132.1 points or 3.20% Monday, falling to 3,991.24. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 653.67 points, or 1.99%, to 32,245.7. And in the largest drop, the Nasdaq Composite dropped 521.41 points, or 4.29%, to 11,623.25. The energy sector…

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaska announced on Twitter that he has submitted his letter of his resignation to his brother, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Monday’s resignation came after weeks of protests over the country’s worst economic crises in decades. “We are here to protect our country from the Rajapaksas who have dragged this…

Updated on June 1, 2022 from Peter’s “Zeihan on Geopolitics” newsletter: Private insurance companies, crews, captains, and port workers are simply refusing to cover, load, unload, and give harbor to Russian ships and Russian goods. While the EU is putting together another (the sixth!) sanctions package that will touch on some of these issues, the…

The biggest tech deal in history is at risk over increased scrutiny by antitrust enforcers within the Federal Trade Commission, led by a 33-year-old legal scholar and prominent Big Tech critic. Chair Lina Khan has in her crosshairs Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and it’s not her only target. The agency is also…

Inflation is on a tear, markets are volatile and consumer dollars aren’t going as far as they once did. It sounds like a perfect time for some valuable penny-pinching tips in this week’s Five For Friday. #1: Cash stuffing Popular video-sharing app TikTok has turned the old-school “cash envelope system” on its head. “Cash stuffing”…

Stocks are slumping on Wall Street as markets assess the Federal Reserve’s move to fight inflation. The economy is a big concern for Americans and many say the country is heading in the wrong direction according to recent polling. The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage point Wednesday, as the U.S. struggles…

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it’s hiking its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points, the second hike in two months and the largest one-time hike since the year 2000. With inflation now running at a 40-year high after two years of pandemic-driven monetary policy, the Fed is trying to tamp down without triggering a…

Ukraine’s geography largely mimics a key American system for exports. As geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan contends, that makes Ukraine appealing for Russia from an economic standpoint and explains why the Russians continue pummeling Ukraine. Ukraine in many ways is like the American Midwest. It has a big river going through its most productive territory. So…

The European Union wants to ban Russian oil by year’s end, but one of its own is standing in the way. Hungary’s government has said it is ready to veto any E.U. proposal to sanction Russian oil over the war against Ukraine, citing the damage a ban would do to its own economy. Hungary has…

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported the U.S. economy shrank for the first time since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter of 2022. The economy had seen six straight quarters of growth after shrinking by nearly a third in the second quarter of 2020. “Real gross domestic…