Moloch in the Regulatory State

Two Chinese Container Ships That Were Previously Turned Back By Iran, Now Allowed To Transit Hormuz Strait On Friday we reported that there was a moment of surprise among vessel trackers, when Iran unexpectedly blocked two container ships owned by China's Cosco from transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Two days later, this misunderstanding appears to have been resolved, and on Monday Bloomberg reported that the same two container ships linked to China’s state-owned Cosco Shipping exited the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, the first such vessels operated by a...

Here's What Happened Inside Convenience Stores When Gas Hit $4 Continuing our coverage of consumer behavior shifts at petrol stations and convenience stores, the U.S. national average for 87-octane gasoline has remained above the politically sensitive $4-a-gallon level for three weeks. Goldman analysts have released a new note indicating that a majority of convenience stores are seeing drivers buying less fuel and trading down in-store. Bonnie Herzog, managing director and senior consumer analyst at Goldman, penned a note titled Q1 "Beverage Bytes," which covers a survey of 32,000 retail locations, or...

The Federal Reserve continues to destroy the economy’s savings base through a combination of artificially low interest rates and inflation. This war on savings will not end anytime soon.