American Soul-Searching after the Iraq Withdrawal

Intense SoCal Heatwave Sparks Cooling Demand Surge, Testing Grid Reliability The National Weather Service has issued heat advisories across California's Central Valley and coastal areas, including the Bay Area and Los Angeles, with more severe extreme heat warnings in parts of Southern California. Cooling demand is expected to soar over the next several days, putting pressure on the power grid, particularly in the evening as solar generation declines. Bloomberg reports that Los Angeles-area temperatures are forecast to reach 85F to 105F, roughly 10 to 15 degrees above normal. San Francisco could...

FCC Bans Foreign-Made Wireless Routers The FCC has banned the import of all new foreign-made consumer wireless routers, citing "severe national security risks". The decision, announced today, follows a White House-convened inter-agency review that determined these devices - primarily those manufactured overseas - pose unacceptable threats to US households, critical infrastructure, and the economy. Major brands like TP-Link (which holds a dominant share of the U.S. market), Netgear, Google Nest, Amazon Eero, Cisco, Linksys, and Asus produce most models abroad, often in China, which controls an estimated 60% of the U.S. home...

GDP Shocker: 75% Of US Growth In The First Quarter Was Due To AI On the surface, today's Q1 GDP print was unremarkable: Real GDP grew 2.0% annualized in the first quarter, somewhat below consensus expectations of 2.3% and reflecting a surprisingly small rebound in government spending after the shutdown drag in Q4. Federal government spending contributed only half as much to real GDP growth in Q1 (+0.6%) as it subtracted in Q4 (-1.2%), implying that the level of real federal government spending in Q1 is 2.2% below its level...