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Most of our retirement and savings portfolios are in equities. While we have been investors for over 40 years, we don’t gamble with stocks or tried to time the market. We’ve never borrowed to buy stocks. If you’re a stock market gambler, now might be a good time to fold ‘em. “Margin debt went from $850.6 billion in April 2025 to $1.502 trillion in June 2026. That is 77% in 14 months. In the 30-year history of this data, that kind of move has happened three other times. All three were immediately followed by significant stock market declines. April 2025 is worth noting as a starting point. Stocks sold off sharply that month during the tariff uncertainty. Investors pulled back on borrowing. Then markets recovered. The AI rally picked back up. Investors started borrowing again, and kept borrowing all the way through June 2026 without stopping. “Retail investors borrowing through brokerage accounts are one piece of the leverage picture. Hedge fund gross borrowing hit $7.2 trillion in July ...

It wasn’t Hitler or Himmler who deported me, beat me, and shot my family. It was the shoemaker, the milkman, the neighbor, who were given a uniform and then believed they were the master race. ~Karl Strojka, Auschwitz

1989 was supposed to be the end of all that: fascism had been defeated, and now communism had fallen, first that year in eastern Europe, and then two years later in the Soviet Union. But history did not end; and the belief that it had accelerated some of the more dangerous trends. Communism continued in North Korea and China, where party leaders managed to combine one-party rule with capitalism. That economic system proved compatible with essentially any form of politics. Post-communist Russia became a pioneer of extreme inequality of wealth, bringing with it oligarchy and ultimately fascism and a war of aggression in Ukraine. That inequality was characteristic of the United States as well, making social mobility difficult and opening political possibilities for those able to choose enemies and punish them. Fascism, defeated in war, now returned, first quietly, and then openly. The internet, far from spreading knowledge and reason, favored conspiracy thinking and habits of mind inconsi...

Malaria was eliminated from the US by a concerted effort to eliminate Anopheles mosquito habitats and the application of DDT. Now, tick-borne diseases are replacing malaria as a public health menace. “ Whereas malaria progressed from disease understanding to elimination within 50 years, Lyme disease has expanded dramatically in  incidence  and  geographic reach  over a similar period. Moreover,  other tick-borne diseases  have emerged and expanded alongside Lyme: babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and a growing number of other pathogens.   “The public health burden of the tick-borne disease epidemic has become substantial, with  incidence rates  exceeding 100 per 100,000 population in some endemic areas in the U.S. Allergic reactions to tick bites, specifically alpha-gal syndrome ("red meat" allergy), have also emerged as a major public health concern, with  tens of thousands of suspected cases  identified in the U.S. in recent...

Diesel prices are skyrocketing as we head into the midterms. Trump’s elective war in the Middle East has slowed oil production and refining. While Trump tries to shift blame to Ukraine’s bombing of Russian diesel refineries, that is dwarfed by the consequences of blocking the Strait of Hormuz and the recent bombing of a Saudi pipeline that had been used to bypass the strait. “ Priyanka Shankar   at Al Jazeera reminds us that there is yet another driver of inflation in all this. Refineries produce gasoline, diesel and distillates, and sell the heavy fuel oil (HFO) left over, “bunker fuel,” to shipping companies. But there is a shortage of bunker fuel. Not only has the Netanyahu-Trump war on Iran taken several million barrels of crude oil off the market daily, but the high price of diesel means that refineries are now making another pass at the HFO and turning it into diesel rather than selling it at a lower price for ships. Less supply and stable demand equals higher prices, and the...

I think these ‘culture war’ kind of issues are necessary to keep their base in marching formation with a party that has always primarily sought to enrich the wealthiest Americans. You’ve always kind of needed the bigotry to keep these camps together. ~Kate Riga