AERC 2026

You Can Buy Love... (But It's Never Been More Expensive) U.S. adults will spend a record $29.1 billion on Valentine’s Day this year, according to estimates published by the National Retail Federation. You will find more infographics at Statista">As Statista's (ironically named) Valentine Fourreau reports, this is up from last year’s $27.5 billion, with U.S. shoppers planning to spend $200 on average per person, up from $189 in 2025. You will find more infographics at Statista According to the NRF, Valentine’s Day was one of the annual events that shoppers tended to splash out the most on last year....

Iran's Financial Hub, The UAE, May Freeze Billions In Assets Over Retaliatory Strikes The United Arab Emirates is pissed after Iran targeted Dubai and other US allies with over 1,000 drones and missiles in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks over the last week - and is now weighing freezing billions of dollars in Iranian assets held in the Gulf state, according to the WSJ, citing people familiar with the discussions. If that happens, it could sever one of Tehran's most vital economic lifelines.  A black plume of smoke rises from a warehouse at the industrial area of Sharjah...

We Didn't Just Get Expensive Electricity. We Built A System That Makes It Inevitable. Authored by William Murray via RealClearEnergy, Most Americans don’t think about electricity until the monthly bill arrives. It comes once a month, often quietly, but lately it’s landed like a thud. Heating your home now costs hundreds more a month than it did just a few years ago. You use the same appliances. You flip the same switches. Nothing in your daily life has changed – except the price. Why? When one looks inside the electricity system, the experience is...