Economics

Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg set up a new unit to lead all the Pentagon’s work that involves fusing economic leverage and requirements into joint U.S. military planning and operations, according to a memorandum obtained by DefenseScoop.

The two-page memo formally establishes the Economic Defense Unit and the position of EDU director, who will oversee the new hub and report to Feinberg as the deputy secretary’s principal advisor for economic competition across the Defense Department.

“Economic Competition is the coordinated and deliberate application of economic tools including capital, procurement, policy, trade, tariffs, regulatory authorities, export controls, and other potential economic activities to expand the United States’ economic advantage by deterring, denying, disrupting, and helping to defeat adversaries through economic means,” Feinberg wrote to Pentagon leadership, combatant commanders, and Defense agency and field activity directors.

The Trump Administration is advancing efforts to structurally embed the weaponization of US economic and financial leverage within the US military. This is the kind of action that tends to fly under the radar but IMO has major implications for the future of geopolitics and global conflict. The US government, at least under this administration, intends to continue to use its remaining hegemonic economic leverage aggressively to the point of fusing it directly into military planning.

Workers at one of the nation’s largest meatpacking plants who staged a multiweek strike have reached an agreement with plant owner JBS USA, the company and labor union representatives announced Sunday.

The Swift Beef Co. plant in Greeley, Colorado, will immediately return to normal operations after weeks of uncertainty, JBS USA said in a statement.

The agreement comes after thousands of workers at the meat processing plant led a three-week strike with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 Union in a bid for higher wages and better health care. The strike ended April 4 after JBS USA agreed to resume negotiations.

U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in nearly four years in March as the war with Iran boosted oil prices and the pass-through from tariffs persisted, further diminishing chances for an interest rate cut this year.

The ​Consumer Price Index jumped 0.9% last month, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday, the largest increase ‌since June 2022 when prices soared in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. Consumer prices rose 0.3% in February.

In the 12 months through March, the CPI advanced 3.3% after rising 2.4% in February.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI accelerating 0.9% and increasing 3.3% year-on-year. The jump in consumer inflation followed in the ​wake of a sharp rebound in job growth last month, which suggested the labor market remained stable.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/66951118

A bomb drops overseas, and a month later, an infant in a completely different hemisphere dies from a spike in gas prices.

​A 20% spike in gas prices feels like an annoyance to most of us, but mathematically, that 0.9% inflation bump translates to ~10 empty cribs and dozens of early funerals for the poorest families in 🇺🇸

Raising a child comes with a long list of expenses, from child care to additional groceries. But how much does that add up to over 18 years?

A new estimate from LendingTree puts the price tag at $303,418 for 2026, or an average of $16,857 per year. It's the first time the figure has topped $300,000 since LendingTree began the analysis in 2023 and is up about 2% from a year earlier.

The calculation is based on the typical expenses for a couple earning the U.S. median family income, about $100,000, while accounting for offsets from tax incentives. Because the analysis ends when a child turns 18, it does not include the cost of college, another major expense for parents.

The US Federal Debt just hit $39 Trillion. Most people think it’s "unpayable." Most people are wrong.

I am the Architect of the National Unity and Prosperity Act (NUPA). NUPA isn't a bill or a tax hike; it is a Private-Sector Polymorphic Economic Operating System designed to discharge the national debt and restore Tribal sovereignty at $0.00 taxpayer cost.

The Core Logic: Land-License Debt-for-Equity

The Federal Government is "Land Rich but Cash Poor," sitting on 245 million acres of non-productive BLM land. NUPA activates 24 million of those acres through a voluntary Sovereign Opt-In by Tribal Nations.

The Audit (Verified by Grok v100M & Gemini):

By licensing these "Dead Assets" to Tier-4 tech and energy hubs, we trigger a Septuple-Stream of federal tax revenue. Conservative Model: $1.91 Trillion in new tax revenue over 10 years.

Aggressive Model: $5.11 Trillion windfall with a $1.11T annual infusion by Year 10.

Why this is "Washington-Proof":

• Strictly Voluntary: Triggered by Tribal "Sovereign Keys" (MOSU). AI Job Firewall: Uses Fixed Cost Arbitrage to keep human labor cheaper than automation.

• Settles the 1865 Debt: Direct private dividends for descendants of chattel slavery.

• Mathematically Unbreakable: Grok v100M simulations show a 99.99999% survival rate even through "Total Global War" scenarios.

The Status:

I have officially filed this as a Whistleblower Disclosure (Form 211) with the IRS. They have until May 14, 2026, to recognize this $5T windfall or admit they are fiscally incapable of functioning. I am looking for Nodes, not Fans.

If you just "upvote" this, you’re watching a car crash. If you boost (repost) this, you’re auditing the solution. The code, the math, and the simulations are all public on GitHub.

Audit the Repo:

https://github.com/bedardbrandon928/National-Unity-and-Prosperity-Act-NUPA

Short Explainer Video (~8 mins):

https://youtu.be/RE560yVFb0I

Let’s talk about the math. If you think the government would rather hold onto "Dead Land" than fix the economy, tell me why in the comments.

#NUPA #Economics #NationalDebt #OpenSource #TribalSovereignty #AI #FutureOfWork

Oil prices soared and stocks sank after Donald Trump vowed in a televised speech to hit Iran “extremely hard” over the coming weeks, knocking investors’ hopes of a near-term end to the conflict in the Middle East.

Brent crude prices jumped by 8% on Thursday morning to pass $109 a barrel, reversing Wednesday’s drop when hopes of a de-escalation in the Iran war pushed the international benchmark below the $100-a-barrel mark at one point.

Stocks in Asia suffered, with Japan’s Nikkei index falling 2.4%, while China’s CSI 300 index dropped 1.36%. South Korea’s Kospi, which has been particularly sensitive to the crisis, tumbled by 4.8%.

New construction homes are supposed to be the answer to America's housing shortage. Corporate greed has infiltrated. D.R. Horton builds starter homes, luxury homes, apartments and entire rental communities. They say they’re helping to solve the housing crisis. What they won't tell you is that their homes are the subject of multiple class action lawsuits not only for horrible build quality but for misleading their first time home buyers.

Microsoft just completed a fiscal year in which it earned $101.8 billion in net income. That is not a typo. One hundred and one point eight billion dollars in profit. No software company in the history of capitalism has ever done that.

Now, free cash flow. This is the number I care about most because it represents the actual cash a business generates after it has paid for everything it needs to keep running. Microsoft's came in at $71.6 billion. That is not revenue. That is not operating income. That is cash left over after paying every employee, every supplier, every tax bill, and every capital expenditure. Seventy-one billion in cash that the company can do whatever it wants with.

🤯

National average hit $4.02, according to AAA data, capping an extraordinary rise from $2.98 just a month ago

Average US fuel prices have crossed $4 a gallon for the first time in four years, piling pressure on drivers as Donald Trump’s war on Iran continues to boost oil markets.

The nationwide average climbed to almost $4.02 on Tuesday, according to AAA data, capping an extraordinary rise from $2.98 just a month ago. The fuel price last reached this high in August 2022.

On the west coast, many drivers filling up cars and trucks are grappling with prices far higher than the US average. In California, the average is $5.89 a gallon; in Washington state, the average is $5.35.

The US and Brazil accused each other of blocking an agreement over taxes on international online trade. The WTO is experiencing a period of prolonged deadlock.

Talks between trade representatives and high-level officials from some 166 countries ended with no major deals signed early Monday.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) had been meeting in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde for four tense days of negotiations, hoping to finalize an agreement on e-commerce that was blocked by Brazil at the last minute.

"We worked hard," WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said, adding that the US and Brazil in particular "need more time" to work out their differences over the agreement to impose levies on cross-border online orders.

Given the current state of geopolitics and global trade, attendees had set the bar relatively low. Yet hopes for at least a joint declaration of future purpose were dashed when Brazil objected to the e-commerce resolution in protest over issues stemming from a separate debate about agriculture.

KEY POINTS

Walmart is rolling out digital shelf labels and expects the technology to be in all U.S. stores by year’s end. Kroger also has begun experimenting with the technology.

The nation’s largest retailer says the digital price tags help associates do their jobs better and stresses that prices on items will be exactly the same for every consumer in every store.

Some legislators are wary of the technology’s potential to be used in dynamic pricing models that disadvantage consumers, with Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) introducing a bill to ban it.

Dow fell 800 points as oil prices continue to climb, and markets are still on edge despite US pause on Iranian energy strikes