The World
Embargo /əmˈbärɡō/
Globe / New leaders emerge as old leaders have become lost
Pope Francis passes and his successor Pope Leo from NJ, USA prepares to carry the mantle.
China releases 10G Broadband network, and TX, USA struggles with a measles outbreak.
China’s new Microwave gun disables missiles and drones, and the U.S. Executive administration accepts Qatar’s offer to provide a new Air Force One.
Europe, and Canada, are determined to spend 5% of GDP by 2035 on NATO miliary spending.
Asia / Tensions rise to a boiling point in Kashmir
(Apr) U.S. Secretary of Defense visits Japan, while revealing schedule of joint War games to be run in Pacific.
(Apr) India and Pakistan halt trade, and test each in battle, after a terrorist attack in Kashmir.
(May) Pakistani tensions with Afghani Taliban, forces 100,000 civilians to be returned to Afghanistan.
Africa and Middle East / Tensions rise to a boiling point in Tehran-Tel Aviv
(Apr) Gabon elects President Brice Oligui Nguema, following 2023’s coup to oust the Bongo Family Dynasty
(Apr) Military junta leaders of Burkina Faso thwart coup attempt from former soldiers based in Ivory Coast.
(May) America signs a landmark $1.2T deal with Qatar, establishes a cessation of all sanctions on Syria.
(May) Nigeria is debt-free from IMF, while Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali create a Confederated Investment Bank.
(June) Day 61 of U.S / Iran talks, Israel attacks nuclear sites, then drawing the U.S. into the conflict.
Europe / Tensions rise to a boiling point beyond the Russian Border
(Apr) Anonymous’ #OpRussia drops 10TB on U.S. businesses operating in Russia, and Kremlin assets in the West.
(May) Russia moves 2,000 soldiers near Finnish border, while heavily invested in Romanian elections.
(May) Germany elects CDU’s Friedrich Merz, ex-chairman of BlackRock, who plans to be a leader to a new EU.
(May) Ukraine signs U.S. rare earth mineral deal, Operation Spiderweb destroys key Russian assets with drones.
North America / Tensions rise to a boiling point in Los Angeles
(Apr) Puerto Rico audits Luma Energy for large scale blackout and electrical grid inconsistency over last 6 years.
(May) Canada elects Liberal Marc Carney, ex-chair of Brookfield, who plans to ignite independence away from U.S.
(Jun) The U.S. government invades L.A. with over 4,000 National Guards, and 700 Marines.
South America / Tensions remain at ready
(May) China offers a $9B line of credit to South America and the Caribbean, Brazil cheerleads for the region.
(June) Ecuador’s new constitutional amendment allows foreign military bases in country, in hopes to quell gang violence.
(June) Argentina faces $16B in damages due nationalist overtake of YPF Oil in 2012, President Milei needs to appeal.
Business
The Modern ‘seeing stone’
June 30th, 2025 (Toronto, Canada)
Media and Games
The New York Times (NYT) officially became a gaming company, as profits from NYT Games (Crossword, Wordle, etc.) surpass the news media arm. A reflection of a modern audience.
Twitter (X) grew its ad revenue in 2025 after 3 years of negative performance, however, the platform has lost the politicized left and faces technical issues. This summer may see Musk’s politics generate further losses.
Truth Social activity declines in 2025, despite being Trump’s primary method to communicate with the public. This is reflected in the $409.5M loss in its parent co., Trump Media & Tech. Group (DJT).
Gold – continues to rise, with this rally driven by central banks looking for stability outside the U.S. greenback.
Oil – suffers declines from geo-political issues between Iran-Israel, yet bullish predictions for demand rises.
Crypto – SEC is expected to drop lawsuit against Ripple (XRP), with a new EFT approval likely afterwards.
What is Palantir Technologies, and better yet, who runs the organization?
One of the largest public traded software companies, Palantir Technologies, is oddly not a common household name. An organization founded by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Alex Karp, and Joe Lonsdale services large multinationals and government clients – particularly the U.S. Government. The product suite includes ‘Gotham’ an intelligence defense tool for the military, ‘Foundry’ a large-scale data integration tool, and ‘Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP)’ devoted to applications for all things AI.
In March 2025, the Trump administration signed an Executive Order for all Federal Agencies to share their data on American citizens with Palantir. Not entirely surprising, as Peter Thiel backed J.D. Vance’s campaign for Vice President, and he is also good friends with Elon Musk. Although many voices are raising alarms, and oddly appeals from employees to stop work with the Administration, the new order echoes the government overreach akin to the ‘Patriot Act’ in the Bush Administration.
The criticism has hit a peak, with Peter Thiel himself and his agenda to challenge a One-World-Government with a corporate equivalent run by tech billionaires. In a NYT interview with Ross Douthat, Thiel reveals his opinions on Transhumanism, the Anti-Christ, and core values that expose a big divide between the average American citizen and more closely shared with an elite class of billionaires.
These concerns could be media hype, but should at least be scrutinized, considering the data now available to one man.
Politics & Religion
The Auditors*
June 12th, 2025 (Toronto, Canada)
14 years ago, S&P Global downgrade their rating of the United States of America. 2 years ago, Fitch follows suit. This May, Moody’s dropped their credit rating to Aa1, with a negative outlook, a final of critique on America’s fiscal policy. The big three ratings agencies are concerned that U.S. mounting debt has been running away for years with successive inaction from Congress, coupled by renewed tax breaks, and that the U.S. is losing it’s lustre.
With 20-year treasury bonds climbing above 5%, traders and investors are unusually hesitant to buy. They recognize foreign governments dumping a portion of their holdings, and witnessing a weakening U.S. dollar.
At the same time, President Trump publicly challenges the independence of the Federal Reserve, demanding an interest rate drop, which spooks has the market even further.
A culmination of economic bell weathers are ringing, and the ratings agency may be holding those ropes.
Why are there Rating Agencies, what role do they play in the Economy?
A rating agency audits the balance sheets for Governments, Corporations, and Non-Profit Organizations. The focus is to determine their systems, revenue generation, and ability to fund both the principal and interest on their debt. The greater the strength of the organization the higher their rating, and that established ‘credit’ rating impacts their ability to borrow money at lower rates. Financial regulations in key industries have set a requirement that firms require a minimum BBB rating to participate in the trading, issuance of debt, or selling insurance cover.
By principal, ratings agencies should remain purely analytical, basing their rating results on the health of financial record, revenue plans, and projections. However, conflicts of interest were exposed in the early 2000’s when ratings agencies granted greater ratings to firms who issued securities, as they were also their agenices clients that paid for valuation ratings on their asset-backed securities. This was exposed in 2008, when the agencies failed to identify the extreme risk in mortgage-backed securities, because their clients (with good credit ratings) were bundling collateralized debt obligiations (CDOs).
The resulting impact was the U.S Mortgage Crisis and the following Great Recession.
The years following drew public scrutiny of the agencies, but guidance from the SEC focused on righting the regulations and re-building trust in ratings agencies, as they do play an important role. And now agencies are held responsible for losses for misidentified rating assignments.
The Big 3 - Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations (NRSRO)
Moody’s Investor Services (Headquartered New York City
Standard and Poor’s (Headquartered New York City)
Fitch Ratings (Headquartered New York City)
(+) Morningstar Inc. (Headquartered Chicago)
Within Capital Markets, the ratings agencies review issued bonds and rate them based on the issuer’s likelihood of funding them at the time they come due. The greater the likelihood the higher the rating, similar to their ratings assigned to asset-backed securities and CDOs, which review the underlying asset pool and applied structure.
When Ratings Agencies review the U.S. it is still on good footing, but not as good as it was years back and not trending in away that people are confident in the 30-year plan, maybe even the next 5-year plan.
Sport & Combat
Lord Stanley’s Mug
May 13th, 2025 (Toronto, Canada)
The Stanley Cup (Le Coupe Stanley) is the annually celebrated award for the National Hockey League (NHL) Playoff winner.
The Cup was commissioned in 1892, and named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada. Each year the winning team, and its selected members, are engraved onto the five-band barrel. The Cup will remain in the team’s possession, until the next winners are determined, which has resulted in many misadventures for the Cup over the years with many young hockey players.
As the NHL season comes to an end each March, the winners and drawers are stacked up. The President’s Trophy winner is the highest points earner in the season, and is faced up against the lowest challenger in the first round. Ironically, the seasonal winners often end up cursed, ladened with playoff pressure, they rarely end up as the playoff champions.
Playoff hockey is a different game from the games played during the season. As the NHL teams enter the four round, best-of-seven series tournament, they fight to earn entry to the Stanley Cup finals. Each round two teams, backed by their city fanbase, battle it out over 2 weeks, wearing one another down and exposing each other’s weaknesses.
To many folks, Hockey is considered Canada’s sport, especially with more than 50% of the players in the NHL coming from leagues out of Canada. However, all of the Stanley Cup winners in the 21st century are American teams, with Champions spread across the original 6 teams and newer franchises in Sunbelt and the West Coast.
Only in mid-May, it is still too early to tell if 2025 is Canada’s year?
Canada entered the Playoffs with a few strong teams, led by big names on the Edmonton Oilers, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Winnipeg Jets. The weeks of May and June will see the results play-out.
With tensions between Canada and the USA brewing over tariffs and changing political alignments, Hockey has become a point of national pride. In February 2025, when the brand-new 4 Nations Face Off series kicked off by pitting the highest rank teams in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) the viewership was uniquely high for a new tournament. The Championship game between Canada and the USA telecast ranked in the top 5 of hockey games of all time.
If the 2025 Series Final of the Stanley Cup sees a Canadian team face-off with an American team, could this be the most watched NHL game be in the waiting?
Groundingscape
Fists with your toes
May 28th, 2025 (Toronto, Canada)
When connecting an electric circuit, for say a switch, it is important to link the positive and the negative to its corresponding connection, and, for safety, also connect a third wire to a neutral ground. In the event of a short circuit, grounding wires provide a safe path and dispel any excess charge.
As humans, electricity runs throughout our nervous system, and we can dispel an excess charge when we touch the ground. Not to dissimilar to when a charge builds up on our exterior, say our wool socks on carpet, and we experience a static release when touching a metal ground. To ground the interior charge, we can take off those socks and take a stand in the yard. This simple step, studies suggest, will reduce inflammation and improve sleep.
Known as Earthing, this idea can be pushed further by taking a 20 minute barefoot walk at sunrise (weather permitting), both reducing stress and improving immunity. The open air, red sunlight, and nature’s sound connects our bodies to the environment. A universally recognized way to calm ourselves, akin to a healthy exercise regime.
In Japan, the practice of Forest Bathing - shinrin-yoku (森林浴, 森林 浴)- encourages soaking in nature through all senses, and has proven so effective on health benefits that the government has a sponsored forest network throughout the country.
As eating green, stretching, and exercise breathing is good for you, just as simply so are barefoot walks. Yet in the West, there is a socially acceptable / pressure to laugh, challenge, and downplay these ideas?
It is these reactions that we should explore, and what ‘norms’ are being disrupted.
Why is environmentalism considered fringe? Why are we scared of getting dirty? Why do we prize our shoes and slides? And who has an incentive to disconnect us with nature?
