Today’s ISM report was yet another very stagflationary report. Prices paid spiked to 3-year highs, while employment fell to 2-year lows. How will policymakers respond if this persists? They will ease into weakness and look through inflation.

There it is folks: Interest rate futures now see a BASE CASE of the next Fed move being a rate HIKE. In fact, the odds of the Fed cutting interest rates before July 2027 are a mere 1%. As inflation hits its highest level since 2023, the Fed is left with no option. All as Consumer Confidence just hit a record low and the labor market is weakening under the surface. Rate hikes into stagflation are coming.

If you want a rare life, you have to be delusional. Doubt can enter your mind, and it can sound reasonable, but if you entertain it too much it will slowly drag you down into stagnation. I'd rather reap the lesson from massive failure than do nothing because it's not "realistic."

IS ZCASH THE NEXT BITCOIN? Long-time crypto enthusiasts are shifting capital toward $ZEC as $BTC transition into a mainstream institutional asset erodes its original privacy value. A recent article from the Wall Street Journal disclosed that Bitcoin die-hard fans think they have found the hot new thing in Zcash. Market participants at the 2026 Las Vegas conference cite the heavy political and celebrity embrace of $BTC as a primary catalyst for the pursuit of sovereign alternatives. While $BTC currently trades at $79,000, OGs are increasingly disenchanted with the transparency requirements and price stagnation of the modern ETF era.

The 2022 energy shock massively accelerated nearly every major weakness in the European economic model. Before the war: → ~55% of German gas imports came from Russia → The eurozone ran a current account surplus of roughly ~3% of GDP → Germany’s industrial model depended on cheap imported energy + export manufacturing → Europe imported nearly 60% of its total energy needs from abroad Even in 2025–2026: → EU industrial electricity prices remained over 2x U.S. levels for energy-intensive sectors → The eurozone current account collapsed from a pre-war surplus of roughly ~3% of GDP into near-balance/deficit in 2022, before only partially recovering to ~1.7–2.0% by 2025 → German industry continued facing structural stagnation, weak industrial output and competitiveness pressure Europe’s long-term priority must be energy sovereignty through electrification, renewables, nuclear, storage, hydrogen and pan-European grid interconnections to reduce external energy dependence well below 25% over the next 15–20 years. This is why Europe’s single most important long-term strategic priority is energy sovereignty. There is no more fundamental issue than this.