If This Is Winning, America Can’t Afford Much More of It

Senate Passes DHS Funding Bill To End 40-Day Shutdown, Airport Chaos At 2:22 a.m. EST, the Senate unanimously passed a spending bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a 40-day shutdown that disrupted airport security and sparked travel chaos for millions of Americans. The bill, which excludes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, still needs House approval and President Trump's signature. The overnight breakthrough came as airport TSA lines worsened nationwide this week, with TSA agents calling out sick or quitting due to...

Is The Iran War Good For The Petrodollar? Diana Choyleva wrote an excellent editorial for the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Iran War Is A Boon For The Petrodollar.” She pushes back against claims that the Iran conflict is accelerating the death of the petrodollar. Instead, RealInvestmentAdvice.com points out that she argues the opposite: between Iran and Venezuela, the U.S. is defending and bolstering dollar dominance in the oil trade. The 75-year-old petrodollar system rests on oil being priced and traded in dollars, which keeps the dollar prominent in all global trade. China has...

Another OPEC Exit? Iraq Warns It Could Abandon Oil Cartel If Quota Hike Rejected Iraq is sending a warning shot to OPEC: raise Baghdad's oil production quota to better reflect its capacity and fiscal needs, or risk yet another defection from the oil-producing cartel. "The ministry currently has no intention of withdrawing from OPEC, and we remain committed to operating within the organization's framework and mechanisms," Oil Ministry spokesman Salim Al-Rikabi told Bloomberg via a text message. Al-Rikabi warned, "Of course, taking into consideration that the Ministry is moving forward with...