Anyone who follows college football is aware of the unceremonious divorce between the University of Tennessee Volunteers and the team’s star quarterback, Nico Iamaleava. Just as the original multi-million-dollar NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deal with Iamaleava a few years ago was considered to be ground-breaking, this also is the first time that we have had a “holdout” situation in which an athlete refused to play unless he received a pay raise.

Homebuyers rush to riskier loans, as tariff turmoil pushes interest rates higher: The share of borrowers applying for adjustable-rate loans jumped to the highest in over two years, mortgage rates jumped 20 basis points in one week, homebuyers pulled back, despite much higher inventory of homes for sale.

According to press accounts, the Trump administration, which some right-wing libertarians have humorously described as being “antiwar,” is now contemplating dropping bombs on Mexico.

The Trump adviser who wants to rewrite the global financial system: Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, outlined his idea in a 41-page essay titled “A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System”.

Kristi Noem, DHS require it for travel. Trump continues the Bush-era anti-freedom Real ID plan. 

“If it is known that authorities have power to coerce, few people will wait for actual coercion,” economist Friedrich Hayek wrote in the 1956 foreword to his 1944 classic, The Road to Serfdom. Hayek’s insight could be the Rosetta Stone for understanding the Trump administration’s censorship zealotry.

President Donald Trump last week announced new plans for a $1 trillion defense budget in 2026. Trump bragged about his big plans for spending ever larger amounts of taxpayer funds, stating at a meeting with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu that “We’re going to be approving a budget, and I’m proud to say, actually, the biggest one we’ve ever done for the military ... $1 trillion.

In June 2024, the European Central Bank (ECB) began lowering its key interest rate. Borrowing costs were reduced from 4.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent in March 2025—which, after accounting for the officially measured inflation, is almost zero per cent in real terms. The time when euro deposit holders could achieve a positive real interest rate was very brief. 

Was Russia provoked into the war in Ukraine? Certainly. However, gaslighting was involved as well; not by Scott Horton’s Provoked, but—as he expertly details on page after page—by the US government and its organ—the establishment media.