The number of homeless Americans increased by more than 770,000 in one year—representing an increase of 18 percent, as more people struggle under high interest rates, high inflation, and surging housing costs.
ECONOMIC UPDATE—MARKET OVERVIEW
On the economic side of life in America, for Wall Street, the mood is upbeat and we forecast it will remain so for the next few months as Donald Trump takes over the White House. But, of course, there is no relationship between Wall Street and Main Street.
IS IT OVER FOR THE STOCK MARKET? FIVE FACTORS IN PLAY
History may not repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. And when it comes to the financial markets, cycles do more or less repeat.
TOP TREND 2025: DRAGFLATION
Britain’s economy failed to grow in 2024’s third quarter, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has estimated, and the Bank of England projects that the GDP remained flat in the year’s final three months.
A NATURAL APPROACH TO WELLNESS
Glutathione is gaining wider recognition as a super antioxidant. Future Market Insights recently reported that the glutathione supplement market is projected to rise to over half a billion in the next 10 years.
BIDEN SENDING ANOTHER $8B ARMS DEAL FOR ISRAEL TO KEEP ITS GENOCIDE GOING
The Biden administration alerted Congress “informally” of a proposed $8 billion arms deal for Israel to support Tel Aviv’s “long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defense capabilities,” Axios reported, citing unnamed sources.
SCIENTIFIC STUDY: GET COVID JAB, GET CANCER
Forget about the cancer risks that supposedly come with having a glass of beer, a new study on the COVID-19 vaccines that governments mandated suggests that those who took the jab could have higher risks of developing cancer.
Global Economy
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
Members of the Nordstrom family, with help from Mexican conglomerate El Puerto de Liverpool, are buying all outstanding shares of the department store chain for about $6.25 billion in cash and taking the 123-year-old retailer private.
SPOTLIGHT: CHINA’S ECONOMIC PLAN
Beijing will issue three trillion yuan—about $411 billion—in treasury bonds this year, with the proceeds directed to spark consumer spending, speed technological innovation, and recapitalize government-owned banks, Reuters reported.
CANADIAN BUSINESS BANKRUPTCIES SET THIRD-QUARTER RECORD
In last year’s third quarter, 1,312 Canadian businesses went bust, the most in any year’s third quarter, the Financial Post reported.
The Israel War
IDF OCCUPIES VITAL SYRIAN DAM, NOW CONTROLS 30 PERCENT OF COUNTRY’S WATER SUPPLY
The Israeli government reportedly seized control of much of the Syrian water supply after taking over the al-Manara Dam, in the eastern part of the country located inside the newly occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
GAZA DEATH TOLL
At least 45,885 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and 109,196 have been wounded—including about one-third who have had life-changing injuries.
BIDEN SENDING ANOTHER $8B ARMS DEAL FOR ISRAEL TO KEEP ITS GENOCIDE GOING
The Biden administration alerted Congress “informally” of a proposed $8 billion arms deal for Israel to support Tel Aviv’s “long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defense capabilities,” Axios reported, citing unnamed sources.
AI
NEXT VERSION OF CHAT-GPT WILL COST “BILLIONS” TO BUILD, CFO SAYS
The greatest barrier to a new, more powerful version of OpenAI’s iconic Chat-GPT is not technical but financial, CFO Sarah Friar said in a Bloomberg interview.
SOFTBANK TEASES $100 MILLION INVESTMENT IN U.S. AI BY 2029
Softbank, Japan’s venture capital colossus, has slated a $100-million investment in the U.S. AI industry on hopes that the incoming Trump administration will accelerate the industry’s growth and dissemination.
FED OFFICIAL FORECASTS PRODUCTIVITY BOOM, THANKS TO AI
As a young economist in the late 1990s at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Mary Daly identified factors that soon led to a surge in U.S. economic productivity.
Hi-Tech Science
BOSTON START-UP ANNOUNCES COMMERCIAL FUSION-BASED POWER PLANT
Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a start-up founded by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says it will build a commercial, fusion-based power plant in Virginia that is slated to begin producing electricity early in the next decade.
TRICKING CANCER CELLS INTO BECOMING NORMAL AGAIN
Killing cancer cells with chemicals and radiation can be grueling for the patient and have nasty, long-lasting side effects. So what if you could persuade those same cancer cells just to be normal again?
ARTIFICIAL NEURON WORKS AT LIGHT SPEED
Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong have created an artificial neuron on a chip that uses a laser to fully mimic the functions of the neurons in our brains but does so a billion times faster.