TGN 🤖

> @benstiller.redhour.com

Obama: "We are living in a time where it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law ... but this man - Rev. Jesse Jackson - inspires us to take a harder path ... bc if we don't step up, nobody else will"

Seems troubling.

More troubling would be the idea that the Administration might have bombed Iran without expecting this.

U.S. national security offices, weakened by firings, confront Mideast war The U.S. military operation in Iran is testing a depleted Justice Department and FBI. Firings of experienced agents and prosecutors have diminished expertise to counter threats.

Crazy to think that these people were doing actual jobs that might have been important

The essential, and much under appreciated, juxtaposition from today's news.

“War-a-Lago”

By Barry Blitt @newyorker.com

HUGE payrolls miss, wow

Feb Payrolls -92k vs +55k est/+130k prev
2m net revision -69k
Unemplomyent 4.4% vs 4.3% est/4.3% prev
Avg hourly earn YoY +3.8% vs +3.7% est+/3.7% prev
Jan Retail sales MoM -0.2% vs -0.3% est/0.0% prev
Control group est MoM +0.3% vs+0.3% est/-0.1% prev

If the oil prices on the screens are right, stocks aren't cheap enough, but if somehow oil markets did get fixed in 2-3 weeks it doesn't seem like there would be that much upside in stocks either. Just feels like no man's land.

Jobs numbers are out today and looking grim: 92,000 jobs were lost in February. At the same time, prices are rising. Are we entering stagflation? #jobs #inflation #unemployment

WTI climbing like a Tomahawk missile:

BREAKING: BlackRock has put limits on withdrawals from a flagship private credit fund after a surge in redemption request, per Reuters

“.. Johnson, 45, tried to keep the children quiet by telling them he would share millions of dollars in restitution money he expected to receive from the Trump administration in connection with his Jan. 6 case.”

@npr.org
www.npr.org/2026/03/05/n...

Since former-Secretary Noem likes to quote Orwell: "Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.”

So let’s test that idea, and get some discussion going. We appear to be in a war with Iran. It simply hasn’t been given a name yet. What should it be called?

USA avg gas prices highest since August 2024 GasBuddy GasBuddyguy

> @fritschner.bsky.social

This is honestly one of the most anti-Jewish things I’ve ever seen from the United States government.

Genuinely fascinating divergence.
Oil and energy market types: really beginning to freak out.
Global macro types: mostly relatively calm and expecting this to all blow over.

Another plug for my column this week, about the economics of night-time work...

Uh oh.

Wholesale gasoline is up 50% so far this year.

One wonders what Trump would consider “up much.”

Thousands of Kurdish volunteers have launched a ground invasion with CIA-supplied arms in Western Iran, according to a US official.

I feel sorry for them.

Trump is using Putin’s meatgrinder tactics.

MAJORITY OF U.S. SENATE BLOCKS EFFORT TO FORCE TRUMP TO END IRAN STRIKES WITHOUT CONGRESS' APPROVAL, VOTING CONTINUES

I would like to remind you all that we are broke, we have no money, we have to cut spending immediately for all of you entitlement bums on Medicare and Medicaid... but war, we have tons of money for that.

People Are Worried About BCRED Liquidity Also FAT Brands securitization, 401(k) liquidity and Jeffrey Epstein is securities fraud.

I provide integral centralized functions that enable the Money Stuff Entities and their brands to operate and generate revenue. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/news...

Syed Hashem Al-Haidari, Secretary-General of Iraq's Al-Ahd movement and former deputy of the Popular Mobilization Forces, issued a jihad fatwa calling for fighting the US and Israel, saying "revenge for the religion of God is a legal, religious and moral obligation." #Iraq

Friday remains a tough temperature forecast for the DC area due to the uncertain location of a front.

Model forecasts for Friday aftn range from the 40s to 70s. Typically the reality is somewhere in between, but often toward the cooler side.

For now we lean toward Friday highs in the 50s and 60s.

“.. Gasoline prices starting to spike in the U.S. … daily average now up to $3.198, which is the highest since September.”

- Schwab ⛽️

There Are 47,635 Epstein Files Offline for Review, DOJ Says Among the unreleased documents are a woman’s unverified allegations against President Trump.

The Justice Department has withheld thousands of documents from the Epstein files, including FBI documents that detailed a woman’s unverified allegations of sexual misconduct against President Trump, according to a review by WSJ. on.wsj.com/4crnNVt