Zerohedge

Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump has instructed legal experts to review “woke” installations in museums nationwide.

According to an Aug. 19 post on Truth Social, the president believes that museums are the “last remaining segment of ‘WOKE,’” and he wants to address the issue the same way his administration has treated colleges and universities.

Trump pointed specifically to a Washington, D.C., icon as a demonstration of the issue, saying, “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been—Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

According to the president, his administration won’t allow the current trajectory to continue, and attorneys will “go through” the museums to “start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities,” where he said there has been substantial progress. 

“This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE,” Trump said. 

The president referenced the way his administration has reviewed the policies of major institutions of higher learning and, in some cases, withheld funding to those found to be allegedly in violation of federal policies.

The White House on Aug. 12 sent a letter to Smithsonian Institution Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, stating that the administration is conducting an internal review of portions of the Smithsonian museums and exhibitions to ensure that the content is in alignment with the president’s March executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”

The president said in the order that the Smithsonian, “once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement,” has “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” in recent years and “has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.”

“It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing,” Trump said in the order.

“Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Smithsonian for comment.

The White House’s letter to the Smithsonian outlined what the Trump administration expects of the review, including an examination of websites and social media content, as well as educational materials put out by the institution. 

According to the White House, the information being offered by the Smithsonian and its related projects would be reviewed “to assess tone, historical framing, and alignment with American ideals.”

The letter stated that the review was meant to be a “constructive and collaborative effort” that was “rooted in respect for the Smithsonian’s vital mission and its extraordinary contributions.” 

“Our goal is not to interfere with the day-to-day operations of curators or staff, but rather to support a broader vision of excellence that highlights historically accurate, uplifting, and inclusive portrayals of American heritage.” 

The letter stated that museums slated to be reviewed include the National Museum of American History, National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of the American Indian, National Air and Space Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery, among others. Additional museums will be added in a second phase.

Chinese demand for Nvidia’s H20 chips remains strong despite Beijing’s warnings over “security” risks, industry sources told Nikkei Asia. The U.S. chipmaker, which agreed to hand 15% of China sales revenue to Washington in exchange for export approval, is now eyeing a rebound in the world’s second-largest economy.

Beijing recently summoned Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, and Baidu, urging them to rely more on domestic suppliers like Huawei, Biren, and Cambricon. State media later echoed government concerns, alleging H20 chips carry backdoor risks — a claim Nvidia denies. Bloomberg also reported officials warning against using H20 in government projects.

Executives at major Chinese firms, however, say the guidance is only “advice,” not a ban. One told Nikkei that their projects are not “critical infrastructure” and will continue to use Nvidia chips. Another noted that while Huawei’s Ascend is praised as “superior,” it suffers from efficiency problems, higher-than-expected defects, and capacity constraints.

Tencent President Martin Lau recently said the company has enough GPUs for AI training and upgrades, but staff admitted concerns over shortages since Tencent also rents GPUs externally.

Price also works in Nvidia’s favor. “H20 is actually cheaper to use than some Chinese alternatives,” a Beijing venture capitalist said, citing both purchase cost and energy efficiency. Nvidia’s CUDA software platform makes it harder to replace, even when Chinese rivals approach its hardware, according to Nikkei Asia.

A supplier executive said demand for H20 servers has not shifted since Beijing’s warning: “For the Chinese CSP [cloud service providers], they still hope to use higher-efficiency chips… they will continue to buy chips from Nvidia, but they will also increase their use of homegrown chips.”

Margins on H20 are thinner, and production strains TSMC’s already tight CoWoS packaging capacity, but “being able to continue selling H20s into China is a way to show its goodwill to the Chinese government and hold on to its market share,” the executive added.

Looking ahead, Nvidia is preparing a downgraded Blackwell chip for China, set to use GDDR7 memory instead of more advanced HBM, to comply with U.S. rules. Its performance is still unknown, and it’s unclear if Nvidia must again share revenue with Washington. Some hope the Trump administration will relax controls further.

“The H20 shows there are always deals to be made with the Trump administration,” said the Beijing venture capitalist, suggesting even full-capacity Blackwell sales could be negotiated. But others doubt it. “I don’t think there’s the sense that they [Nvidia] necessarily need to” sell unrestricted Blackwell chips in China, said Bob O’Donnell of Technalysis Research.

Nikkei Asia writes that for now, Nvidia’s technology advantage keeps it indispensable. “Every company or country has recognized the importance of developing their own AI capabilities… they’re going to buy Nvidia chips, whether they necessarily want to or not, because it’s the only option they have,” O’Donnell said.

“There’s definitely politics going on, but I don’t think it’s going to be an issue [for Nvidia to recover in China],” added Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

Nvidia reiterated its chips are secure and warned that blocking H20 sales would harm U.S. interests.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

The Putin–Trump meeting dropped some important veils. It revealed that Washington views Russia as a peer power, and that Europe is little more than a useful American tool…

Alaska was not only about Ukraine. Alaska was mostly about the world’s top two nuclear powers attempting to rebuild trust and apply the brakes on an out-of-control train in a mad high-speed rail dash towards nuclear confrontation. 

There were no assurances, given the volatile character of US President Donald Trump, who conceived the high-visibility meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. But a new paradigm may be in the works nonetheless. Russia has essentially been de facto recognized by the US as a peer power. That implies, at the very least, the return of high-level diplomacy where it is most needed. 

Meanwhile, Europe is dispatching a line-up of impotent leaders to Washington to kowtow in front of the Emperor.

The EU’s destiny is sealed: into the dustbin of geopolitical irrelevance.

What has been jointly decided by Trump, personally, and Putin, even before Moscow proposed charged-with-meaning Alaska as the summit venue, remains secret. There will be no leaks about the full content.  

Yet it’s quite significant that Trump himself rated Alaska as a 10 out of 10. 

The key takeaways, relayed by sources in Moscow with direct access to the Russian delegation, all the way to the 3-3 format (it was initially designed to be a 5-5, but other key members, such as Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, did provide their input), emphasize that:

“It was firmly put [by Putin] to stop all direct US weapon deliveries to Ukraine as a vital step towards the solution. Americans accepted the fact that it is necessary to dramatically decrease lethal shipments.”

After that happens, the ball swings to Europe’s court. The sources specify, in detail: 

“Out of the $80 billion Ukrainian budget, Ukraine itself provides less than around $20 billion. The National Bank of Ukraine says that they collect $62 billion in taxes alone, which is a hoax; with a population around 20 million, much more than one million of irreversible battlefield losses, a decimated industry and less than 70 percent of pre-Maidan territory under control that is simply impossible.” 

So Europe – as in the NATO/EU combo – has a serious dilemma: ‘Either support Ukraine financially, or militarily. But not both at the same time. Otherwise, the EU itself will collapse even faster.’ 

Now compare all of the above with arguably the key passage in one of Trump’s Truth Social posts: “It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up.” 

Add to it the essential sauce provided by former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev:  

“The President of Russia personally and in detail presented to the US President our conditions for ending the conflict in Ukraine (…) Most importantly: both sides directly placed responsibility for achieving future results in negotiations on ending hostilities on Kiev and Europe.”

Talk about superpower convergence. The devil, of course, will be in the details. 

BRICS on the table in Alaska

In Alaska, Vladimir Putin was representing not only the Russian Federation, but BRICS as a whole. Even before the meeting with his US counterpart was announced to the world, Putin spoke on the phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping. After all, it’s the Russia–China partnership that is writing the geostrategic script of this chapter of the New Great Game.     

Moreover, top BRICS leaders have been on a flurry of interconnected phone calls, leading to forge, in Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva’s assessment, a concerted BRICS front to counteract the Trump Tariff Wars. The Empire of Chaos, the Trump 2.0 version, is in a Hybrid War against BRICS, especially the Top Five: Russia, China, India, Brazil, and Iran. 

So Putin did achieve a minor victory in Alaska. Trump: “Tariffs on Russian oil buyers not needed for now (…) I may have to think about it in two to three weeks.” 

Even considering the predictable volatility, the pursuit of high-level dialogue with the US opens to the Russians a window to directly advance the interests of BRICS peers – including, for instance, Egypt and the UAE, blocked from further economic integration across Eurasia by the sanctions/tariff onslaught and the accompanying rampant Russophobia. 

None of the above, unfortunately, applies to Iran: The Zionist axis has an iron grip on every nook and cranny of Washington’s policies vis-à-vis the Islamic Republic.      

It’s clear that both Trump and Putin are playing a long game. Trump wants to get rid of the pesky two-bit actor in Kiev – but without applying old school US coup/regime-change tactics. In his mind, the only thing that really registers is future, possible, mega trade deals on Russian mineral wealth and the development of the Arctic. 

Putin also needs to manage domestic critics who won’t forgive any concessions. The desperate western media spin that he would offer freezing the front in Zaporozhye and Kherson in exchange for getting all of the Donetsk Republic is nonsense. That would go against the constitution of the Russian Federation. 

In addition, Putin needs to manage how US business would be allowed to enter two areas that are at the heart of federal priorities, and a matter of national security: the development of the Arctic and the Russian Far East. All that will be discussed in detail two weeks from now, at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

Once again, follow the money: Both oligarchies – in the US and Russia – want to go back to profitable business, pronto.

Lipstick on a defeated pig 

Putin, bolstered by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – the undisputed Man of the Match, with his CCCP fashion statement – finally had ample time, 150 minutes, to spell out, in detail, the underlying causes of Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) and lay out the rationale for long-term peace: Ukraine neutrality; neo-nazi militias and parties banned and dismantled; no more NATO expansion. 

Geopolitically, whatever may evolve from Alaska does not invalidate the fact that Moscow and Washington at least did manage to buy some strategic breathing space. That might yield even a new shot toward respect for both powers’ spheres of influence. 

So it’s no wonder the Atlanticist front, from Europe’s old money to the bling bling novices, is freaking out because Ukraine is a giant money laundering mechanism for Eurotrash politicos. The Kafkaesque EU machine has already bankrupted EU member-states and EU taxpayers – but anyway, that’s not Trump’s problem.   

Across Global Majority latitudes, Alaska displayed the fraying of Atlanticism in no uncertain terms – revealing that the US seeks a meek Europe subjugated to the strategy of tension, otherwise there’s no EU military surge, buying billions worth of over-priced American weapons with money it doesn’t have.

At the same time, despite covetous US oligarchic private designs on Russian business, what Washington’s puppet masters truly want is to break up Eurasia integration, and by implication every multilateral organization – BRICS, SCO – driven to design a new, multinodal world order. 

Of course, a NATO surrender – even as it is being strategically defeated, all across the spectrum – remains anathema. Trump, at best, is applying lipstick on a pig, trying to craft, with trademark fanfare, what could be sold as a Deep State exit strategy, toward the next Forever War.  

Putin, the Russian Security Council, BRICS, and the Global Majority, for that matter, harbor no illusions.  

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle or ZeroHedge.

Via VigilantFox.com

Hannity just asked DNI Tulsi Gabbard whether there are still DEEP STATE actors inside the intel community SOBATAGING elections.

She didn’t even have to think about it, and said “Our national security depends” on exposing them.

BREAKING: Hannity just asked DNI Tulsi Gabbard whether there are still DEEP STATE actors inside the intel community SOBATAGING elections.

She didn’t even have to think about it, and said “Our national security depends” on exposing them.

Hannity: “Do we have deep state actors… pic.twitter.com/Tp7XEEhSNi

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) August 20, 2025

Hannity: “Do we have deep state actors that are trying to influence our presidential elections? Is that what we are concluding here?”

Gabbard: “Yes.”

She said Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and their allies inside the agencies all worked to manipulate intelligence to serve partisan interests.

“These are bad actors that have to be rooted out.”

“Our national security depends on it. The ability for the American people’s trust to be earned back depends on exposing the bad actors and holding them accountable.”

“And that’s what President Trump is determined to do.”

A Clinton-appointed federal judge on Wednesday denied the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury materials used to charge Jeffrey Epstein with sex trafficking, and instead said that the federal government is the ‘logical party’ to dump said ‘files.’

“The information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigation information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice,” US District Judge Richard Berman wrote in a 14-page ruling, in which he said there is “clear precedent and sound purpose” for keeping the records under seal – and that the DOJ failed to show the Epstein papers demonstrate a “special circumstance” which would justify their release. 

You do it…

According to Berman, the government has already conducted a comprehensive investigation into Epstein, and has assembled a “trove” of documents, interviews and exhibits. In fact, the government has such a mountain of evidence outside of that case – records which “dwarf” the “70 odd pages” of grand jury materials, that Berman cited it as a “significant and compelling reason” to reject the request. 

“The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files,” wrote Berman, adding “By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession.”

Berman’s ruling is the latest in a saga pitting Trump – a former Epstein associate whose previous AG Bill Barr ‘presided’ over the death of the disgraced pedophile. Barr’s father, who wrote pedo-centric short stories – hired Epstein to teach children at the Dalton school in the early 1970s when Barr Senior was headmaster. 

Were you aware that Bill Barr’s father wrote a book called “Space Relations” which described a planet where oligarchs engaged in child sex slavery? Seems like we should have been made aware of this. Don’t you guys think?!! pic.twitter.com/ttepCWTmuD

— American Artist April (@AmericanaApril) August 4, 2025

Continuing on – Trump has been acting super weird about Epstein since being asked about why he hasn’t released dead pedophile’s client list – something he promised to do on the campaign trail, and which firmly split the base after the president began saying things like ‘why are we still talking about Epstein?’ 

Making matters worse, the DOJ issued a joint memo last month insisting there’s no Epstein ‘client list,’ and that he definitely killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial for peddling children to – nobody? 

Then, realizing he’d made a yuge mistake, Trump directed AG Pam Bondi to seek the release of the grand jury files mentioned above – only for the judge to reply (paraphrasing); ‘Are you fucking kidding me? You guys have way more on Epstein than we do… you release it.’ 

Berman also smacked the DOJ around for failing to provide Epstein victims with sufficient notice before filing motions to unseal the grand jury material, calling it “another compelling reason not to unseal.” 

Via American Greatness,

Leaked emails from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) show that the agency sought to discredit an independent scientist who questioned official data on contamination following the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and fire in February 2023.

Following the official EPA announcement that were no dangerous levels of toxins in the area and that it was safe for residents to return home, independent testing expert Scott Smith reported finding high levels of dioxins in the soil in East Palestine.

According to News Nation, when Smith’s findings were reported in spring of 2023, former EPA administrator Judith Enck said the agency should pay attention to Smith’s test results.

Instead of taking new samples and doing similar testing, leaked emails show that the EPA began collecting Smith’s personal information and monitoring his actions in an effort to discredit the environmental scientist.

NEW emails show after the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio Democrat’s EPA worked to discredit scientists who tested the soil and air

🚨 They even put scientists under surveillance using drones to monitor their movements

“The Environmental Protection Agency is supposed… pic.twitter.com/THjy2pAHJr

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) August 20, 2025

Smith’s personal information and whereabouts were distributed to more than 50 EPA employees, his dog’s picture was circulated and drones were documented hovering near the scientist on multiple occasions.

Lesley Pacey, with the Government Accountability Project, told NewsNation that the EPA’s response was “troubling” since it was a matter of public health.

Pacey said, “What the EPA seems to have done here in East Palestine is that they were more interested in controlling the narrative and controlling what was going out to the community, from the community and back to the community,” adding, “They were definitely controlling the narrative of nothing to see here, no long-term health impacts.”

Smith, who has been to East Palestine more than 30 times, said the money spent on surveilling him would have been better spent on testing the soil and water for toxins from the train cars that burned.

Smith said, “They don’t want to look for the full spectrum of chemicals that I look for, and instead of sitting down with me and having a dialogue for the benefit of the community, they launched this smear campaign. They’re clearly not serving the community they’re supposed to protect. And it’s not just East Palestine. It’s a systemic thing.”

Smith has since met with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who called him an extraordinary advocate for the people affected by the disaster.

 

The era of $18 Big Macs, which we called “Mcflation,” ignited during the Biden-Harris regime years of generational-high inflation fueled by out-of-control green spending, looks to be ending.

A new internal memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal shows McDonald’s will slash combo meal prices to drive increased foot traffic and restore its reputation as an affordable burger chain after the $18 Big Mac price shocked working-class and middle-class customers during the Biden-Harris years.

One McDonalds branch in Darien, CT is charging as much as $18 for a Big Mac combo meal. https://t.co/Nj7RLTh4KP pic.twitter.com/ojEOnBVO3J

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 30, 2023

The burger chain will slash the price of eight combo meals by 15% and launch $5 breakfast and $8 Big Mac and McNugget specials later in the second half of the year. The new marketing campaign, focused on affordability, will be branded as “Extra Value Meals.”

“Customers are telling us they need more of the everyday value and affordability that defines the McDonald’s brand,” said Joe Erlinger, head of McDonald’s U.S. business, in an internal memo.

McDonald’s told restaurant operators that it would subsidize them if they lost money under the new price strategy. The chain and operators will both contribute funds to advertising campaigns.

Here’s why this new pricing strategy matters:

• McDonald’s is trying to repair its affordability image as cash-strapped consumers dial back fast food spending.

• U.S. restaurant traffic is down 1.7% this year, and fast-food traffic specifically is off 2.7%.

• While U.S. same-store sales grew last quarter, customer counts fell short of expectations.

McDonald’s has spent the better part of a year rolling out new value menu items as price hikes in recent years shocked low-income consumers.

Earlier this month, the company’s CFO highlighted one alarming trend among working-poor customers: they are “skipping a daypart like breakfast, trading down within our menu, or opting to eat at home.”

In a note to clients, UBS analyst Dennis Geiger highlighted the widening gap between food away from home and food at home; in other words, eating at home is getting much cheaper.

The point here is that McDonald’s is supercharging its value-driven strategy after more than a year of offering value meals, a move that will only spark continued price wars among rivals across the quick-serve restaurant space. 

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

If you recently graduated from college, good luck trying to find a decent job. What we are experiencing right now reminds me so much of the early 1990s. If you were a new college graduate in those days, it was extremely difficult to even get an interview for a good job. Sadly, we are now entering a very similar environment. There is enormous competition for any good job that is available, and mass layoffs are occurring all over the nation. In fact, through the first 7 months of this year the number of job cut announcements in the U.S. was 75 percent higher than it was during the first 7 months of 2024.

I am not here to give people the Pollyanna version of what is going on. I am here to give people the truth.

21-year-old Manasi Mishra believed that if she worked really hard and got a computer science degree she would be able to get a six figure job at a big tech company.

Instead, the only thing her computer science degree has gotten her is an interview with Chipotle…

Aspiring computer scientists are sinking in a job market overtaken by AI, as a recent graduate who expected to make six figures could only land an interview at Chipotle.

Manasi Mishra, 21, was under the impression that if she worked hard in school and mastered coding, she’d have a prestigious tech job with a cushy salary lined up straight from college.

‘The rhetoric was, if you just learned to code, work hard and get a computer science degree, you can get six figures for your starting salary,’ the San Roman, California native told The New York Times.

In case you are wondering, she did not actually get the job with Chipotle…

To her dismay, she did not secure the job.

‘Of course, the year I graduate is the year the tech industry goes downhill,’ she elaborated in the ‘get ready with me’ video.

If even the tech industry is going “downhill”, what does that say about the state of the overall economy?

At one time, it was fairly easy to get hired by Microsoft if you had certain skills.

But this year Microsoft has conducted multiple rounds of layoffs.  At this stage, the total number of workers that have been laid off has surpassed the 15,000 mark…

Microsoft has laid off over 15,000 people so far in 2025. The stress of the belt-tightening has gotten to CEO Satya Nadella.

“Before anything else, I want to speak to what’s been weighing heavily on me, and what I know many of you are thinking about: the recent job eliminations,” Nadella wrote in a memo to employees Thursday.

It would be difficult to overstate just how dramatically the environment has shifted.

Young people that are searching for jobs are running into closed door after closed door, and as a result many of them are experiencing financial difficulties.

According to Fox Business, “nearly 10% of credit card balances held by Americans aged 18-29 became 90 or more days overdue in the second quarter”…

Young Americans continued to make up the largest share of those transitioning into credit card delinquency in the second quarter, according to a report released by the New York Federal Reserve.

Despite ticking down slightly from the previous quarter, the report showed that nearly 10% of credit card balances held by Americans aged 18-29 became 90 or more days overdue in the second quarter.

New York Fed researchers said credit card delinquency rates for Americans under 40 have been “unusually elevated,” adding they are keeping a “close eye” on the trend.

Credit card companies are going to become much more stingy in extending credit to young adults.

As you can imagine, that will not be good for our economy at all.

But this is the environment that we live in now.

One recent survey discovered that 62 percent of Gen Z adults “have no emergency savings at all”…

Your car breaks down on a Tuesday morning, and the repair bill comes to $500. If you’re part of Generation Z, there’s a good chance you have nothing set aside to cover it. A new survey from Credit One Bank reveals that 62% of Gen Z have no emergency savings at all, nearly double the rate of baby boomers. There’s a very clear widening gap in financial preparedness happening between generations.

Let that sink in.

Nearly two-thirds of an entire generation of Americans is living on the edge.

There will be some that will argue that they should just toughen up and take whatever they can get.

In the old days, if times were tough you could at least get a job as a delivery driver.

But now UPS is trying to rapidly shed existing workers by offering them buyouts…

The undertaking, called the Driver Voluntary Separation Program, is the first in UPS’ history for delivery drivers. The financial incentive available through the program is in addition to earned retirement benefits like pension and healthcare, per UPS.

Word of the program spread on July 3, when the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union said UPS’ buyout plan was in motion. The Teamsters represent more than 300,000 UPS employees under a five-year contract reached in 2023.

Drivers that have literally been with UPS for decades are being encouraged to leave so that the company can cut labor costs…

About 85% of UPS drivers are at the top end of the pay scale. Those who have 25 to 40 years of service would be the most likely candidates to accept the buyout package, Nando Cesarone, president of the U.S. region and UPS Airlines, told analysts on the call.

UPS is offering $1,800 per year of service, with a minimum payout of $10,000. A driver with 27 years of experience would receive a $48,600 buyout, according to the offer sheet.

I wouldn’t want to be a new college graduate today.

If you get stuck in a bad job that is not in your field, it can permanently wreck your career.

I have seen it happen way too many times.

But getting hired for a good job has become an extremely challenging task.

In fact, one recent survey found that more than 60 percent of all Americans believe that it has “become more difficult to find a good paying job”…

According to the poll, more than six out of 10 Americans said it had become more difficult to find a good paying job, buy a home and afford childcare.

More than four out of five Americans, 83%, said they were concerned about the cost of groceries, with 46% saying they were very concerned. Some 47% said they were worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage, 64% said they were worried about affording an unexpected medical expense.

It is time to face the truth.

We really are in the midst of a substantial economic downturn that has been going on for quite some time.

Needless to say, I believe that the difficult times that we are experiencing now are not even worth comparing to what is eventually coming.

So we are all going to have to adjust our plans and our expectations.

The system that we have all depended upon for so long is failing, and we all need to start becoming a lot more self-sufficient.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Since the last ‘dovish’ FOMC statement (and Powell’s post-statement ‘hawkish’ presser) on July 30th, we have had ‘cool’ payrolls print and ‘hot’ inflation prints with retail sales mixed… and now everyone is anticipating Friday’s speech by Powell at Jackson Hole. So, maybe these Minutes will be a nothingburger…

Source: Bloomberg

Overall, rate-cut expectations are higher…

Source: Bloomberg

…with September price-in as almost a done-deal for a cut…

Source: Bloomberg

Markets have generally gone nowhere in that time (except for crude prices, which have plunged on the heels of potential peace breaking out). Under the hood, there is some considerable pain in stock land (as momo and retail favorites have all suffered in recent days)

Source: Bloomberg

So, with two dissents (preferring to cut than hold), we anxiously await The Fed Minutes to see what Powell and his pals want us to know about the division within The (expensive) Eccles Building…

Key highlights from the Minutes (via Bloomberg):

The Minutes suggest members believe rates are not restrictive…

• *FED: SEVERAL SAID CURRENT RATE MAY NOT BE FAR ABOVE NEUTRAL

But clearly they are front and center terrified about inflation

• *FED: MAJORITY SAW INFLATION RISK OUTWEIGHING EMPLOYMENT RISK (remember this was before the payrolls revisions)

• *FED: MANY NOTED FULL EFFECT OF TARIFFS COULD TAKE SOME TIME (the lack of tariff-flation is transitory?)

Despite zero evidence of this (and in fact the opposite – remember the Japanese automakers…):

“few participants observed that evidence so far suggested that foreign exporters were paying at most a modest part of the increased tariffs, implying that domestic businesses and consumers were predominantly bearing the tariff costs

The future is scary…

• *FED: SEVERAL FLAGGED RISK OF INFLATION EXPECTATIONS UNANCHORING (despite no evidence at all in actual market pricing, only in UMich)

Does this look like its ‘unanchored’?

But wait, there’s more fearmongering…

• *FED: SEVERAL NOTED CONCERNS ABOUT ELEVATED ASSET VALUATIONS

We don’t disagree there!! Only ‘several’?

Read the full Minutes below:

Authored by Lee Fang via RealClearInvestigations,

Jim Simons’ mathematical skills helped transform him from a prize-winning academic at Harvard and MIT into a legendary financier whose algorithmic models made Renaissance Technologies one of the most successful hedge funds in history. After his death last year, one of his consequential bequests went to his daughter, Liz, who oversees the Heising-Simons Foundation and its nearly billion-dollar endowment.

What Liz Simons has chosen to do with that inheritance might have surprised her father. Jim Simons devoted much of his charitable giving to basic research in mathematics and science, but his daughter’s foundation is moving in a very different direction. The Heising-Simons Foundation and similar organizations are supercharging a movement to remake K-12 mathematics education according to social justice principles.

The revamp the advocates seek is profound. They reject well-established practices of math instruction while infusing lessons with racial and gender themes. The goal is to motivate disadvantaged students while dispensing with the traditional features of math, like numerical computation, that they struggle with on standardized tests – considered an oppressive feature of white supremacist culture.

In many quarters, including corporations and universities, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are in retreat due to pressure from the Trump administration and the courts. Not so in public education, with curricula that are locally controlled and largely insulated from the dictates of Washington. That allows progressive foundations and like-minded charitable trusts to continue to pour millions of dollars into reshaping math education for black and Latino kids, including a $800,000 grant this year from the Heising-Simons Foundation, even though there exists no credible research showing that the social justice approach improves their performance.

“Politicians, and legislatures, even school boards,” are often too “hamstrung” to get things done, Bob Hughes, the director of K-12 education at the Gates Foundation, said at an online symposium on the need for racial equity policies in America’s classrooms. Philanthropy, he added, faces fewer barriers in making rapid changes.

The Gates Foundation has been a leader in the promotion of anti-racist math instruction. It supported a project called “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction.” The project discards basic tenets of learning, like asking students to “show their work” and find the “right” answer as vestiges of “white supremacy culture.” The pathway is promoted by EdTrust West, which also receives support from the Spencer Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and other major donors.

The Gates and Heising-Simons foundations have both supported TODOS Mathematics for All, an Arizona-based organization that calls for elevating DEI practices and anti-racist activism into all math instruction, with over $553,750 in grants in recent years. “We can no longer believe that a focus on curriculum, instruction, and assessment alone will be enough to prepare our children for survival in the world. We need antiracist conversations for ourselves and for our children,” TODOS president Linda Fulmore announced in 2020.

Last year, the group hosted an hour-long webinar on “2SLGBTQIA+ identity in mathematics education.” During the event, a speaker expounded at length on various queer and indigenous identity groups while spending virtually no time on math-related curriculum or instruction. At one point, the presenter erroneously claimed that there are “15.3 billion students in U.S. high schools” – a figure that would require the entire global population to be enrolled in American secondary education twice over. The speaker likely meant to say million.

The foundations similarly fund practical lessons that put race at the center of math instruction. In Alexandria, Virginia, for example, the Heising-Simons Foundation supported a public-school program that encouraged kindergartners through second-graders to count the characters in picture books by race. At the end of each session, teachers guided students in creating racial scorecards for each book, then voting to select those with the fewest white characters. The exercise was presented as mathematics education.

Jo Boaler, a controversial professor of education at Stanford University who championed the push to remove eighth-grade algebra from San Francisco’s public schools in the name of equity, traces her support to this network of foundations. The Gates Foundation and Valhalla Foundation, which was founded by Scott Cook, the co-founder of tech firm Intuit, have long funded her math education project called YouCubed.

These deep-pocket donors also fund Danny Bernard Martin, a professor of math education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a leading voice of what critics call “woke math.” Over the past six years, the Racial Justice in Early Mathematics Project, which Martin co-leads at the Erikson Institute in Chicago, has received nearly $2.5 million from the Heising-Simons Foundation. This year, the foundation announced an additional $800,000 grant to help the project develop toolkits for wider implementation among teachers, administrators, and researchers.

Martin’s views extend far beyond typical calls for educational equity. He regards mathematics instruction as fundamentally a “white supremacist construct” that inflicts “epistemological violence” on black students. In his estimation, even DEI programs are too conservative – mere accommodations “rooted in the fictions of white imaginaries” and designed to appease “white logics and sensibilities.”

The solution Martin proposes is radical: Black students should seek instruction exclusively from black teachers at “independent black institutions.” They should resist the temptation of “advanced coursework and mathematics-related employment” and instead engage in “walkouts and boycotts” to protest against mathematics education as it currently exists. The very structure of math instruction, Martin contends, has dehumanized black students through low test scores and failing grades.

The ideas of the Racial Justice in Early Mathematics Project and its leaders have reverberated through America’s classrooms. California’s new mathematics curriculum framework, which guides K-12 education statewide, repeatedly cites Martin. The framework has been sharply criticized by educators for leaning heavily on politicized concepts of math. The document suggests, for instance, that teachers “take a justice-oriented perspective” when providing instruction, and discourages the use of “tracking” – or the practice of separating students into different classrooms based on their abilities.

The ideas espoused by Martin and others have been met with sharp criticism from parents and educators.

Williamson Evers, a former assistant secretary of education and a fellow at the conservative-leaning Independent Institute, has been monitoring what he calls the “woke math” movement for years. “It’s very important to have math skills,” he told RealClearInvestigations. Evers rejects the identity-based claims made by Martin and others who have called for minority students to abandon math education over alleged racism. “There are mathematicians and scientists on every continent from every background, and this idea of boycotting education would harm black schoolchildren.”

Elizabeth Statmore, a math teacher at the elite Lowell High School in San Francisco and a critic of social justice math, says the way to improve the performance of black and Latino students lies in the nitty-gritty, such as better teaching, holding students accountable, and providing them with more academic and emotional support.

“But it’s not sexy, they’re not on the keynote circuit like Danny Bernard Martin and Jo Boaler,” Statmore said. “They’re building a brand, not doing the kind of math education research that is helping to improve outcomes for disadvantaged children.”

Representatives of the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Erikson Institute, and Martin did not respond to requests for comment.

The Heising-Simons Foundation’s focus on racializing math education reflects its broader ideological commitments. Like many progressive foundations, it uses its significant funds to advance a range of left-wing policies that might have a hard time establishing themselves without billionaire support.

The foundation has also donated to PolicyLink, the organization behind DefundPolice.org, and to the Anti-Police Terror Project, which advocates for abolishing police departments in high-crime cities like Oakland, California. Liz Simons was also among a small clique of California megadonors behind the push to elect progressive prosecutors such as George Gascon in Los Angeles and Chesa Boudin in San Francisco. They declined to pursue felony charges against a range of violent offenders over concerns about racial equity.

The attempt to reimagine mathematics through the lens of critical race theory isn’t new – scholars have been working along these lines since the 1980s. They argue that historical racial oppression continues to influence everything from geometry curricula to standardized testing. Traditional emphases on objectivity, rigorous standards, and subject-matter mastery should be replaced, the scholars argue, with ideological exercises designed to promote racial and social consciousness.

What is new is the scale and speed of adoption. As America has grappled with questions of racial justice in recent years, billionaire foundations have provided the resources to implement these ideas widely in both public and private schools.

The donors appear motivated by a deep sense of ideological commitment to righting past wrongs related to racial injustice.

At the 2020 education donor symposium, Liz Simons recalled her experience working briefly as a Spanish bilingual teacher in an impoverished community in Oakland. “The much larger systemic problems,” she witnessed, Simons said, guided her to the goal of shaping early childhood education.

Na’ilah Suad Nasir, president of the Spencer Foundation, noted that she previously worked as the vice chancellor of “equity and inclusion” at the University of California, Berkeley. Expanding racial equity in education, she said, has been her “life’s work.”

When it comes to math instruction, social justice means stripping it of basic features like numbers. In workshops hosted by the Racial Justice in Early Mathematics Project in 2023, the group promoted “numberless word problems” – mathematical exercises stripped of numerical computation. The method, instructors explain, is designed to counter “European ways of knowing and doing.” Sisa Pon Renie, one presenter, spoke of wanting to challenge the “persistent myth that math is just abstract and without any cultural relevance.” The project champions this numberless approach as essential for “helping children understand how mathematics might be an important tool to understand social issues and promote justice.”

But critics say the emphasis on prose over calculation will exacerbate the very disparities that social justice advocates claim to address.

“Imagine you’re a Cambodian refugee, and you get some math problem that’s loaded with prose,” Evers, of the Independent Institute, said. “Maybe you’re very good at the figures part, the calculating part, the mathematical part.” Such students, he argued, are placed at a disadvantage when mathematical instruction is embedded in critical-theory frameworks and dense with English text. “They unnecessarily load these things down, make it harder, and it’s not even math. It’s an inadequate mode of teaching.”

The real-world consequences of these approaches have played out most dramatically in San Francisco. A decade ago, officials removed Algebra 1 from middle schools, arguing that the change would give black and Latino students, who were underrepresented in the math class, more time to prepare while avoiding placing them in lower-level tracks.

David Margulies, a parent involved with the San Francisco community, observed that families wanting their children to take Algebra 1 in eighth grade shifted away from public to private schools, online learning, and homeschooling. Students who don’t take the math class in middle school find it more difficult to take calculus in high school.

“Families figured out how important this is, and they are looking elsewhere,” he noted.

A 2023 Stanford study found that San Francisco’s Algebra 1 experiment did little to close racial achievement gaps. Black enrollment in Advanced Placement math classes remained unchanged, while Latino participation increased by 1%.

Meanwhile, education systems that have increased rather than decreased academic rigor have seen notable improvements in black student performance. In 2019, Dallas public schools began automatically enrolling students who performed well on state exams in middle-school algebra. The program increased black participation in advanced mathematics from 17% in 2018 to 43% in 2023.

Last year, during a Racial Justice in Early Mathematics Project webinar titled “Who Is Labeled Smart?” Martin addressed the backlash against San Francisco’s push for educational equity. He toned down his scathing critique of merit-based advanced education programs that he believes harm black and Latino students and made a surprising statement about his own son’s schooling.

“I’m guilty, I’m guilty,” Martin said, almost sheepishly. “My son is, quote unquote, in one of those tracks.”