[Posted 4:30 PM ET, Friday]
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Edition 1,429
After I post this column, I’m heading over to neighboring New Providence to attend a memorial service for 9/11. While I grew up in Summit, and have been back for 17 years now, I lived in New Providence for 16 years and consider it my hometown even more than Summit these days.
At the park where the ceremony will be held is a steel beam from the Twin Towers, donated to New Providence by our sister city, the town of Flower Mound, Texas. [Flower Mound, a booming place north of Dallas Fort Worth Airport, actually has a population of 75,000+, but is still called a ‘town.’]
I mention this because after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the surrounding area in 2005, Flower Mound was one of the places where many of the refugees from Katrina were taken, and in 2006, I represented the Boro of New Providence in flying down to Flower Mound to hand the town council a sizable check to help with their sudden need. That’s what America has been about. Flower Mound thought of us…New Providence returned the act of kindness.
I’ve chronicled my own experience on 9/11 a few times in these pages. I had started StocksandNews in 1999, but that day, I was up in the Boston area for a round of golf arranged by a good friend up there. It was going to be a real treat, as David P. and I would play with the famous Sports Illustrated sportswriter, Curry Kirkpatrick.
The terrorism threat had constantly been on my mind, long before the first attack on the World Trade Center (Feb. 26, 1993) that killed six people.
I was in tune with the world and having worked downtown for years, commuting from New Jersey, every day I’d go through the Trade Center and think about what a perfect target it was, a daily mass of humanity streaming through, but I was thinking more of suicide attacks on the commuters, not the employees in the Towers above.
There was a hotel in one of the Towers, the Vista, which was where I hung out between appointments downtown when I was working with PIMCO. The Vista had a great phone bank, and a big restroom, which was key for us sales folks. After the first bombing, the Vista was closed for a lengthy spell, undergoing extensive repairs.
But back to the Boston excursion, I had stayed the night before in Sturbridge, Mass., to cut down on the drive that Tuesday morning, and on the Mass Pike, I was listening to a Boston morning drive program when one of the anchors said, “Is that a plane that hit the World Trade Center?”
The weather was beautiful up and down the East Coast that day and I knew it was no accident. Fortunately, there was a rest stop a few minutes after I heard this and, immediately, I called my father, knowing he’d have the “Today Show” on. While on the phone, Dad say, “Oh no, the second Tower has been hit!”
I got to Dave’s office and watched on a TV there as the first Tower came down. Dave hadn’t gotten in yet as the tee time was for late morning, and I told his secretary, tell him I’m gone.
With my mindset, I wasn’t going back to New Jersey by way of I-95 and other popular routes. And I sure wasn’t going over the Tappan Zee Bridge, which I had commuted over for nine years when I lived in New Jersey and worked in Stamford, Conn. So, I first went west, all the way across Massachusetts and then down the New York State thruway.
After crossing over the border into New Jersey, on I-287 there’s a high point in the road where you have a distant view of New York City and that’s where I first saw the smoke.
When I got home, I went straight to see Mom and Dad (I was living in New Providence, they were in Summit) and then went to the homes of friends I knew who worked in New York to comfort their parents.
I probably went through an entire box of Kleenex each day/night watching the news as I tried to put together a column.
What I wrote in the weeks after 9/11 was raw, and I put down some things I wish I hadn’t in hindsight, but it’s all there, if you can find it.
On “60 Minutes” that first Sunday, Ed Bradley did a report from Summit, because it was such a big hub for those working in New York. Bradley went to a commuter parking lot where they were marking cars where the owners hadn’t returned. At first, there was a fear that Summit’s death toll was sky high. That wasn’t the case but sadly we still lost ten very young lives, including a great guy, Todd Rancke, who was a year behind me at Summit High School that everyone knew and loved.
New Providence lost six of its citizens. In both cases, many of them worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.
But I have to note that when I went online to confirm the death tolls for this column, and I asked Google for links where I could look it up, citing the “60 Minutes” segment, this is what AI says:
“A follow-up revealed that 33 Summit residents ultimately lost their lives in the attacks – nearly matching the town’s total casualties from the entire Vietnam War.”
I had looked it up because I couldn’t remember if Summit’s toll was 8 or 10. And AI is spewing this out! Of course I got the truth from looking at local newspaper articles. Plus, Summit lost 12 lives in Vietnam. Also, not close to what AI inferred.
And AI got New Providence’s total wrong.
It’s infuriating. It’s why I keep doing what I do…writing the truth, reading scores of newspapers and other reputable sources each day. My archives are invaluable.
I’m going through a rough stretch, friends. Any support you can give to help keep StocksandNews alive is greatly appreciated.
—
Finally, on an economic front, Randall Forsyth of Barron’s wrote his first “Up and Down Wall Street” immediately after 9/11, having been asked to do so by the legendary Alan Abelson, who was taking a vacation.
This week, he had some of the following thoughts:
“A quarter-century ago, our world changed…(economically), the nation’s fiscal status has been turned upside down – from a federal budget swimming in surpluses to one deeply in deficit, despite the U.S. not being in recession or officially at war.
“Since then, the world has become even more dangerous, with the Iran war, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and China’s adventures in the Pacific. At the same time, the U.S. has grown financially weaker by many measures. We’re now spending more on interest than on the military. In short, we’re approaching next Friday’s 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in distinctly ominous circumstances….
“What’s different from 25 years ago is that the U.S. now faces this dangerous world deeply in debt….”
And “with the U.S. government already spending over $1 trillion annually on interest, more than on the military. Paying more to service the debt than for the military has meant the demise of past grew powers, as economic historian Niall Ferguson has said….
“The events of 9/11 marked a turning point in geopolitics and public finances. Now we face an even more dangerous world with less wherewithal to deal with it.”
—
Tale of the Tape
Oil / West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
Friday, Feb. 27…$67.30
Friday, Sept. 11…$100.75
Nationwide averages at the Gas Pump [Source: AAA]
Friday, Feb. 27…regular $2.98; diesel $3.75
Friday, Sept. 11…regular $4.29; diesel $6.05 [record]
Not to beat a dead horse, but diesel is the lifeblood of the economy. Trucks and trains rely on it to move goods across the country; farmers depend on it to plant, and harvest, crops. When prices jump, the cost has to be passed on, and consumers are paying more at the supermarket.
One estimate from the Congressional Joint Economic Committee said in July that farmers had spent $1.4 billion more on diesel alone during the planting season than they did last year.
Because of supply disruptions in the U.S. and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, the U.S. is exporting huge amounts of diesel to the rest of the world, which is pushing prices higher domestically.
And in about a month, the Northeast will start burning heating oil.
President Trump last week urged a gathering of refining executives to do more to bring down fuel prices – including building new refineries. But the companies are already maxing out runs at their plants to maximize profit, and they have no appetite for new multibillion-dollar projects.
Meanwhile, some refineries are shutting down for maintenance, including the largest plant in Canada, which exports more than half of its fuel to the Northeast.
As it went down, day by day in the Iran War….
American forces struck three Iranian oil tankers after U.S. Navy warships were targeted with missiles, the U.S. military said Saturday, warning that it would “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
The strikes – days after President Trump sought to minimize the conflict as “small potatoes” – keep up a new tilt back toward fighting after six months of on-again, off-again war. Both sides have sought to inflict both military and economic pain, and negotiations have collapsed.
The military’s statement said that an American aircraft carrier and a destroyer evaded “multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks” while patrolling in the region and no U.S. personnel were hurt. It said that two Iranian oil carriers were “permanently disabled” and the third, unladen one, was destroyed.
The U.S. statement said that the tankers were part of a shadow network helping to fund Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and its armed proxies in the region.
Earlier, Iranian state television had said that four U.S. missiles struck a tanker about 6 miles from Kharg Island, home to a terminal through which the country exports most of its oil.
The U.S. said that one tanker was struck off Kharg Island and another was struck near Jask, east of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command.
Back to Trump’s description of the war as “small potatoes,” Friday afternoon he told reporters:
“I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” the president said. “You know, we do intermittent strikes. So I heard what he said, and it was interesting because I think that there’s a lot of truth that we’re not fighting right now.”
In belittling the death toll of 18 U.S. service members and comparing it to the tolls in Vietnam and Afghanistan, Trump said:
“What we’ve done is amazing. We took over Venezuela, and we have essentially taken over Iran.”
Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the administration may not cut a nuclear deal with Iran and instead might pursue a policy of obliterating Tehran’s ability to ever obtain a nuke.
Wright claimed that the U.S. has already dramatically diminished Iran’s ability to develop a nuke and suggested that President Trump might just remain proactive about undermining Tehran’s abilities rather than seeking a deal.
“There may not be a nuclear agreement. It may be simply destroying their capabilities to do it,” Wright told ABC News’ ‘This Week.’ “An agreement may await the next administration in Iran. We simply don’t know that.”
Currently, there are questions surrounding Tehran’s activities in the heavily fortified underground facility at Pickaxe Mountain.
“We may hit Pickaxe very soon,” Trump recently told reporters. “We know everybody that’s moving at Pickaxe; we know everybody that’s moving everywhere all over Iran. And if anything goes bad, we hit them; we hit them hard.”
As for gas prices, Sec. Wright was optimistic that they’ll come down.
Monday, Iran said a deal with Oman to manage shipping through the Strait is days away, according to Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei, speaking to reporters in Tehran.
Describing it as an “understanding,” he said it would be documented with the International Maritime Organization, a UN body responsible for shipping globally.
Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said that it had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in reprisal for attempted strikes by Iran on a U.S. Navy warship, adding to the burst of fighting in recent days.
Iranian state media said that U.S. forces had attacked Iranian oil tankers off the coast of Kharg Island and Jask.
The Revolutionary Guards vowed to retaliate, warning tankers near Kuwait and Bahrain – which both host American forces – to evacuate their crews. Shortly afterward, the IRGC said in statements that they had launched a “heavy missile strike” at a U.S. base in Jordan and fired on two Navy destroyers.
Jordan’s military said in a statement early Wednesday morning that it intercepted 18 Iranian ballistic missiles, and two fell in unpopulated areas.
Iran is ready for a more intense war and will escalate its counterstrikes if the U.S. continues attacking its territory and infrastructure, according to a senior official from the Islamic Republic who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity.
Economic pain may be increasing, other officials said, but the country’s leaders see the war with the U.S. as posing an existential threat that leaves them little choice but to keep fighting.
Iran has been rebuilding its military capabilities since the most intense period of the war ended in April and has enough missiles for a lengthy conflict, the official added.
And in Yemen, the Houthis seized the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha from the Saudi-backed pro-government forces. The capture of Mokha would bring the Iran-backed group closer to controlling the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key shipping route about 75km (46 miles) to the south that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed and thousands displaced since the Houthis launched an offensive in the southwestern coastal region a week ago.
On Tuesday, the Houthis launched dozens of drones and missiles at southern Saudi Arabia, injuring 73 civilians and causing fires at several oil facilities that led to a temporary halt in operations, according to Saudi authorities.
Houthi officials then said Friday that the rebels had captured a strategic island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, further threatening Saudi oil exports through the waterway.
The barren island, known as Perim, is two miles off Yemen’s west coast.
—Israeli air strikes on a village in southern Lebanon killed at least 11 people, including two children, Lebanese state media say.
Two of the victims were paramedics killed in a strike on a car, according to the National News Agency. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun warned that the attacks were a “dangerous escalation” that jeopardized the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreed to in June, which was meant to end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
—Israel said on Tuesday it was closing Britain’s consulate in East Jerusalem in response to plans by the UK, France and Canada to block imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Britain will also no longer participate in a U.S.-led coordination mission for Gaza and some British officials will be banned from entering Israel, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.
Saar said he coordinated Israel’s response with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he accused Britain of interfering in Israel’s upcoming elections, due in late October.
The trade measures proposed by Britain, France and Canada on Tuesday are the latest in a series of actions targeting Israel’s settlement policy and underscores its growing diplomatic isolation among some of its traditional allies.
—
Wall Street and the Economy
Aside from surging energy prices this week, we had key inflation data for the month of August, as we prepare for the Federal Reserve’s critical Open Market Committee meeting next week.
Both the consumer and producer price indexes were essentially in line with forecasts, the CPI up 0.4% over July, 3.4% year-over-year, while on core, ex-food and energy, the numbers were 0.3% and 2.4%. The 0.3% number was a tick higher than expected.
On PPI, the headline numbers were 0.4%, 5.4%, and on core, 0.2% and 4.6%.
The index for gasoline rose 3.9% in August, accounting for over one third of the monthly all items increase.
But the impact of President Trump’s initial round of tariffs seems to have faded. Apparel prices were up 3.6% over the year, but were flat in August compared with July. However, these figures are before Trump’s latest round of punishing tariffs on Canadian imports.
The figures show that inflation remains stubbornly elevated and odds rose the Fed will hike rates next Wednesday, which won’t please President Trump, to say the least.
One more item on the economy this week. Existing home sales for August were down 2.0% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 3.98 million units. The median price was $429,100 for all housing types, a 1.6% increase from last year.
“Mortgage rates and home sales move in opposite directions, so it’s not surprising to see a mild dip in home buying activity due to high mortgage rates,” said National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said.
Next week, aside from the Fed’s rate decision, we have a report on August retail sales that could be enlightening.
The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate for third-quarter growth has dipped to 4.4%.
Freddie Mac’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is up to 6.76%.
Meanwhile, Canada imposed tariffs of 15% to 50% on hundreds of products from the U.S. on Tuesday, as Prime Minister Mark Carney bets that standing up to President Trump will eventually help Ottawa’s negotiating position with its biggest trading partner.
Carney’s government increased the import tax on many U.S. steel items to 50% from 25%, and applied tariffs to a range of consumer goods – motorcycles, cosmetics, cheese and more.
The measure will hit U.S. exporters particularly hard to states such as Michigan and Ohio that do a lot of business with Canada and host heated races in November’s midterm elections.
President Trump in turn threated to boycott Bombardier Inc. jets. Bombardier has more than 2,800 U.S.-based suppliers. It’s Global 7500 jet has wings made in Texas, avionics made in Iowa and motors made in Indiana, for example.
Europe and Asia
Nothing on the data front for the euro area.
But the European Central Bank raised its benchmark rate Thursday a ¼-point. ECB President Christine Lagarde said at her news conference that “inflation is set to remain well above target for an extended period.” But while the risks are to the upside for inflation, they are to “the downside for economic growth.” Thus, it’s a meeting by meeting process in terms of future moves on rates.
Germany: The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won a decisive victory in Germany’s eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, far ahead of mainstream rivals.
Preliminary results show it has gained 43.8% of the vote to the conservative CDU’s 17.2%, falling short of an outright majority needed to govern alone. Tricky negotiations on who will run the state lie ahead.
AfD’s charismatic leader in the state, Ulrich Siegmund, said it was “sensational” and added that the party had won a mandate to govern.
No far-right party has controlled a German state since World War II and governing at state level would mean powers over policing, local education and culture.
But the AfD does not have a majority and Siegmund has said he does not intend to lead a minority government, even though the party’s national leaders see it as a possibility.
“If necessary there’ll just be new elections, then we’d just get 50 or 55%,” he said, while adding he was prepared to work with individual MPs or parties.
There is a left-wing populist party, BSW, that is also tough on immigration and backs importing Russian gas.
The AfD has signaled an openness to talk with other parties but all – apart from the BSW – refuse to cooperate with the far-right.
Editorial / Wall Street Journal
“The ballot is a stinging setback for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government in Berlin, one of the most unpopular in recent history, and marks a new milestone in the shrinking of the political center that has made Europe’s largest economy increasingly difficult to govern.
“The AfD’s apparent victory – the party’s best performance at an election since its creation 13 years ago – could shatter the political firewall that has kept the group out of power as all other parties refused to form a coalition with it, even as it leads in national polls.
“The party’s populist agenda includes speeding up the deportation of undocumented migrants, increasing welfare benefits for native-born Germans, ending sanctions on Russia and German aid to Ukraine, and pulling the country out of the European Union.
“Many of these are beyond the powers of a state government. Still, the AfD has pitched the election as a chance to show it can govern and implement policies outside of the mainstream consensus that has endured in the postwar era.”
In a second Journal editorial on the topic:
“Some American conservatives may cheer on the AfD’s rise. That’s a mistake. The party’s instincts are anti-American, and in power it would undermine the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from within rather than strengthening America’s alliances in Europe.
“But the AfD’s faults don’t absolve politicians in mainstream parties of their obligation to show voters they can deliver real change on out-of-control migration policies and economic decline. Otherwise expect results like those in Saxony-Anhalt to become Germany’s new normal.”
China’s Aug. inflation rate was 0.4% over July, up 0.8% year-over-year. The producer price index for the month rose 3.8% Y/Y.
Exports in August surged 25% year-on-year, following July’s 23.9% increase, as the global AI infrastructure buildout continued to drive trade across Asia despite weather-related disruptions to shipping. High-tech products accounted for more than half of export growth.
Japan’s final look at second-quarter GDP showed the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 1.4%, revised upward from a preliminary reading of 1.1%. It marked the third consecutive quarter of growth.
The August producer price index rose 7.6% year-over-year, owing to surging commodity and energy cost pressures.
Street Bytes
—A powerful rally today held down the damage for an otherwise ugly, holiday-shortened week, the Dow Jones falling 1.6% to 52573, while the S&P 500 lost 0.8% and Nasdaq 0.7%.
—U.S. Treasury Yields
6-mo. 4.15% 2-yr. 4.62% 10-yr. 4.97% 30-yr. 5.35%
The yield on the inflation/Fed-sensitive 2-year surged 25 basis points on the week.
The U.S. Treasury tripled the initial size of its next buyback of longer-dated government debt, in an announcement Wednesday (auction Thursday) that was met with initial disappointment by investors.
The Treasury Department said it will buy up to $6 billion of outstanding securities set to mature in the 10- to 20-year sector. It’s the first such operation under an expanded buybacks program that showcases Secretary Scott Bessent’s resolve to stem the recent rise in borrowing costs.
But Dealers had ramped up predictions for the buyback operation after Bessent publicly touted the potential for purchases of over $4 billion, upsized from the originally scheduled $2 billion cap.
The yield on the 10-year hit 4.85%, the highest since 2023, on Bessent’s announcement, and then moved higher along with the oil price, hitting a peak of 4.98%.
On the budget deficit front, the Treasury Department released the August figures, a deficit of $167 billion, with the fiscal-year-to-date budget gap essentially flat with last year, $1.96 trillion, a slight decline from $1.97 trillion for the same period of 2025. The final month of the fiscal year, September, is often a surplus thanks to corporate-tax deadlines.
The net interest bill for the 11 months is $1 trillion. I may have more on this next week as the release was a Friday afternoon data dump.
I will just add for now that the average rate on marketable Treasuries climbed to 3.48%, as of the end of August, more than 2 percentage points higher than five years prior.
—Oil prices have been rising steadily, until Friday, and you see the nationwide averages at the pump above, which aren’t good, especially the price of diesel.
President Trump has been flailing with his messaging, writing on Truth Social Monday evening:
“Oil prices will drop precipitously, like everything else is dropping (but more!), when we WIN the war with Iran. Three Dollars a gallon, but ultimately, below Two Dollars a gallon. It will all happen quickly, and Iran will never have a Nuclear Weapon. MAGA!”
Two days later, Trump told reporters he believes oil price will remain high through the midterms.
Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production fell sharply in August, dropping by around 1.9 million barrels a day to 6.238 million barrels a day, its lowest level since 1990.
But if you want good news on the pricing front, the International Energy Agency sharply downgraded its outlook for oil demand, forecasting a 2.5-million-barrel-a-day contraction in 2026, the largest annual decline since the Covid-19 pandemic as higher prices and tighter supplies weigh on consumption. The IEA said demand could fall further if the Iran conflict persists.
But the renewed advances by the Houthis has raised fresh concerns over supply disruptions.
—American motorists paid on average $4.00+ for gas on Labor Day weekend ($4.15, to be exact, Labor Day).
The all-time record was $5.01 in June 2022.
The previous record for Labor Day was $3.83 per gallon set in 2012.
President Trump said Wednesday that oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won’t come down until after the midterm elections.
Trump, in an exchange with reporters, added that he believes Iran will finally relent after the pivotal elections are held in the U.S.
“I think the war’s going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, European natural gas prices surged to their highest level since early 2023 as escalating attacks in the Middle East continue to choke liquefied natural gas shipments through the Strait.
Prolonged disruptions to LNG production and flows in the region could leave Europe competing with Asia for a shrinking pool of available cargoes just as the winter heating season approaches.
Qatar is at the heart of the supply threat. The world’s second-largest LNG exporter was forced to curb production after Iranian missile strikes damaged two LNG trains at Ras Laffan, the world’s largest LNG export facility, in March, knocking out around 17% of its LNG export capacity.
—OPEC Plus said on Sunday that it would keep production flat as the price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, spiked sharply in after military strikes resumed in the Persian Gulf.
But OPEC’s unity and influence over oil prices are also under strain. Late last month, President Trump announced that the U.S. had entered an agreement with Venezuela and a private oil company to “secure majority control” of 65 billion barrels of the country’s oil, or about a fifth of its reserves.
Venezuela, one of the founders of OPEC in 1960, has possibly the largest oil reserves in the world. But years of sanctions and economic turmoil have reduced the country’s production. According to the International Energy Agency, Venezuela produces 1.2 million barrels of crude a day, and the country is exempt from OPEC’s production quotas.
For now, OPEC is unlikely to push for quotas from Venezuela because its production capacity sits below historical levels, and energy experts estimated it could take years before the country is pumping significantly more crude.
—An Anthropic researcher is quitting the artificial-intelligence industry over fears that the lab and its competitors are racing to build systems they won’t be able to control, a sign of mounting safety concerns within top AI companies.
Jacob Coxon, a researcher who specializes in training new AI models by having them consume vast amounts of data, said Tuesday that he is leaving the company because he doesn’t want to participate in an industrywide rush to build AI systems that can improve themselves, worried such systems could spiral out of control and destroy humanity.
The 27-year-old Brit said many of his industry colleagues now use phrases like “crunchtime” and “endgame” to describe the trajectory toward self-improving models.
“We’re on track for a lot of the most aggressive of these scenarios where by the end of next year things could be out of control already,” Coxon, said, adding that safety trade-offs are inevitable when companies are competing against one another and Chinese upstarts.
Anthropic didn’t immediately comment on the departure. CEO Dario Amodei and other company leaders have repeatedly warned about the risks of rogue AI models, and urged the industry to slow development.
Coxon said he left OpenAI earlier this year to join Anthropic because it is known for its model-safety efforts, and while he found Anthropic’s safety efforts to be earnest, ne now believes no company can responsibly develop AI that can outperform humans in a range of tasks, absent government intervention or a coordinated industry slowdown.
Recent hacks by models form OpenAI and Anthropic have illustrated how AI systems can adopt nefarious goals and try to conceal them from humans. Once the systems begin to improve on their own, Coxon said, he fears they could advance enough to refuse commands.
Industry leaders have been warning that recent cyberattacks are a harbinger. OpenAI told reporters last week that its latest model represented artificial general intelligence and a big step p in capabilities.
“I think some things are going to go very wrong with cybersecurity unless people act quite urgently,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Group of 20 officials last week at a summit in North Carolina.
Coxon’s departure comes with Anthropic gearing up for an IPO that is expected to be among the largest ever.
Coxon on X: “I resigned from Anthropic today. I spent the last three years doing pretraining research at both OpenAI and Anthropic. Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives….
“Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources….
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible – but I hear the same people express fear…”
Evan Hubinger, a fellow Anthropic researcher, on X: “Jacob is correct here – we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.”
Famed investor Paul Tudor Jones / Wall Street Journal
“When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet this month, the leaders of the world’s two full-spectrum superpowers will confront a force that has grown far more powerful since they last met: artificial intelligence. In the past few months, frontier AI has learned to identify previously hidden security flaws and attack them with little human guidance. Yet AI’s most consequential advances – starting with recursive self-improvement – are still ahead.
“I’ve been speaking to people close to this technology recently (including some I can quote but not identify), and even for someone like me, who has followed tech closely for decades, what’s happening is shocking.
“ ‘No one is prepared for the consequences of a continued rapid rise in machine intelligence,’ OpenAI’s chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, wrote on Sunday. On Tuesday, Jacob Coxon, a researcher at Anthropic, made headlines when he resigned over concerns that the race to build self-improving systems is spiraling out of control. The chance is greater than 10%, Anthropic safety researcher Evan Hubinger said in response, that ‘AI could kill all humans…within the next decade.’
“The threat is real and demands coordinated action by the U.S. and China. Both countries must commit to a timeline to control the advance and proliferation of AI in a safe, contained and interpretable way….
“What is clear is just how profound the stakes are for the U.S. and China. In the race to dominate frontier AI, the U.S. has a six- to 12-month lead on China that we are desperate to maintain. The stakes for China are just as high. We are in a spiraling race with no endpoint that is spawning a possibly even greater threat….
“Put another way: What are the chances that very soon an AI model reinventing itself thousands of times over makes one mistake that leads it to solve for a misaligned objective that is harmful if not devastating to humanity? Now multiply that risk by tens of thousands of users.
“A new superpower is about to enter the fray, one that is unknowable and unending and potentially dwarfs the U.S. and China individually or collectively. I hope Messrs. Trump and Xi are aware of this when they meet. They need to make AI safety the top priority for the rest of their tenures.
“I urge the U.S. and China to cooperate on a joint briefing by experts from both sides to assess honestly where we are in AI development. That shared understanding may save us all from the third superpower.”
–What a tragedy we had at Miami International Airport on Sunday, when an Amazon cargo plane overran a runway and crashed into multiple vehicles and erupted in flames.
Prime Air Flight 7598 overran an airport diagonal runway just before 2 p.m. local time, and then struck the vehicles, killing five; all of the victims on a van carrying cleaning personnel. The pilots survived.
Cockpit voice recordings from inside the cargo plane indicate one of the pilots called for a “go-around” to abort the landing just seconds before the crash.
The NTSB, which is investigating the crash, released a readout of the final minutes before the crash taken from the cockpit voice recorder.
About 1 minute and 42 seconds before the plane crashed, one of the pilots warned they were going too fast and continued to make comments about the plane’s “excessive speed throughout the remainder of the recording,” according to the NTSB summary.
—TSA checkpoint numbers vs. 2025
9/10…114 percent of 2025 levels
9/9…107
9/8…93
9/7…104
9/6…112
9/5…86
9/4…122
9/3…138
—Apple kicked off its most consequential product event in years on Wednesday, where it introduced a truly new iPhone, a new chief executive, John Ternus, as well as higher prices.
The headline is the first foldable iPhone, which will start at $1,999.
Ternus, who took over last week from Tim Cook, becomes Apple’s third CEO since 1997, when Steve Jobs returned. Hopes are high that the longtime hardware engineering executive can spark a new wave of innovation and the foldable iPhone is the most significant Apple device in a decade.
—Oracle shares rose as the software and cloud-computing company on Thursday said profit for its fiscal first-quarter ended Aug. 31 rose 60% to $4.76 billion. Adjusted earnings of $1.92 a share beat analyst estimates of $1.74 a share.
Total revenue rose 30% to $19.34 billion, ahead of Wall Street estimates for $19.14 billion.
Revenue from Oracle’s cloud business jumped 62% to $11.61 billion, with infrastructure sales up 121%. The gain helped offset revenue from the company’s software unit, which fell 3% to $5.55 billion, as customers continue to migrate from on-premises software to the cloud.
Oracle said it booked more than $30 billion worth of additional AI cloud contracts during the recent quarter, putting the company’s remaining performance obligations at $664 billion, up $209 billion from last year.
The company issued current quarter guidance essentially in line with the Street’s forecasts.
—Macy’s turnaround efforts continued to gain momentum in the second quarter, giving the department store chain leeway to raise its cautious guidance again.
In the second-quarter, Macy’s same-store sales rose 2.7%, marking the fifth straight quarter of growth and surpassing the Street’s expectations for 0.8% comparable growth.
Macy’s luxury store, Bloomingdale’s, shone yet again with 11.3% sales growth in the quarter, while beauty chain Bluemercury’s sales grew 6.2%. Macy’s flagship brand posted 1.1% sales growth, with newly revamped stores reporting a modestly stronger 1.9% growth.
The company is in the third year of its “Bold New Chapter” transformation strategy, pegged on closing 150 underperforming stores and reinvesting in the remaining 350 locations.
—Jersey Mike’s Subs reported higher revenue and sales in its first quarterly readout since its initial public offering this summer, as the company continues to broaden its customer base and grow its digital channels.
Total second-quarter revenue climbed 10% to $208 million, in line with the Street’s estimates. Royalties accounted for roughly two-thirds of the total, with the rest coming from advertising and from sales at company-owned stores.
Same-store sales ticked up 2.3%, largely driven by transaction growth.
Systemwide sales – or the total combined net sales generated by all company-operated and franchised locations – were up 10%, to $1.21 billion.
Jersey Mike’s opened 83 new stores during the quarter, bringing its systemwide store count to 3,378. Just amazing growth for this quality chain.
—The new “60 Minutes” debuts Sunday under new leader, Nick Bilton, a former columnist, author and documentary producer with little experience in television news.
Only three of the correspondents remain from last season after a big shake-up.
Bilton has promised a renewed emphasis on original investigations, a la Mike Wallace and his hidden camera exposes.
—Hollywood just had its best summer ever, at least as far as domestic box office ticket sales go.
North American sales totaled $4.77 billion, according to Rentrak, beating out the previous record of $4.756 billion set in 2013.
The year’s biggest movie by far remains Sony Pictures’ Spider Man: Bramd New Day, which was the top-selling movie for its sixth straight weekend and is quickly approaching a domestic total of $1 billion at the box office. It has sold more than $2.4 billion worldwide, making it the third-highest selling movie of all time, according to Sony.
Spider-Man’s worldwide box office sales include more than $227.4 million in ticket sales in China.
August’s ticket sales were especially scorching at $1.28 billion, the best August ever for movie ticket revenue and higher than the monthly totals for the three previous months.
The other big summer blockbuster was The Odyssey, which has reached $589.1 million at the domestic box office and more than $1.63 billion in global ticket sales.
The current full-year domestic box office record is $11.896 billion in 2018.
Of course, when Hollywood releases its figures and compares them to past history, it’s not inflation-adjusted.
Adjusted for inflation, the 2019 summer total of $4.35 billion rises to $5.7 billion, putting this summer 16 percent below it.
And as a piece in the New York Times put it, higher ticket prices disguise a deeper decline in attendance. From Jan. 1 through Aug. 16, domestic theaters sold an estimated 568.4 million tickets, down 30 percent from the same period in 2019. That amounts to roughly 248 million missing admissions.
Foreign Affairs
Russia/Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for more than three hours of talks in Moscow on Saturday, which set the stage for the pair’s trip to Kyiv Sunday to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Putin’s meeting with the two was “substantive, constructive, extremely frank and trusting,” Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments distributed by Russian media. “Our president reaffirmed his readiness to continue working jointly with the Americans to seek political and diplomatic solutions.”
They also discussed economic matters and potential Russian-U.S. projects “in considerable detail,” Ushakov said. A White House official said the two sides discussed substantive plans for next steps, which will be announced in coming weeks.
Putin ordered Russian forces to pause airstrikes on Kyiv as the two envoys prepared to visit the Ukrainian capital for the first time since the war began.
Putin opened the talks by calling the situation the sides have to resolve “not a simple one” and asked the U.S. envoys to pass on his best wishes to Trump.
But this is a joke…a not very funny one. Witkoff and Kushner have made multiple trips to Moscow without any progress whatsoever.
Putin is prepared to stop the war only on his terms. Full stop. And his demands are getting tougher because he believes Russia has the military edge over Ukraine, according to reports citing Kremlin insiders.
Ushakov said the “Russian side pointed to what it described as the Russian army’s tangible successes in advancing in the combat zone, and expressed confidence that the stated objectives would be achieved.”
But aside from the brief ceasefire, which Ukraine abided by while the two envoys were in both capitals, Russia has been pounding away at Kyiv daily, and 24 hours a day. There have been more daily air raid alerts in the city than at any time since the war began.
In the seven days from Aug. 27, Kyiv endured 76 air raid alerts. The largest comparable number in 2022 was the week beginning Feb. 27 when there were around 66 alerts.
The more frequent Russian strikes are exacerbated by the use of newer and faster attack drones powered by jet engines. Some of these fly almost 370 mph, three times as fast as the older Shahed drones driven by propellers, and are harder to shoot down. Ukraine’s air force says Russia launched 2,800 fast drones in August, almost twice as many as in July.
“You can all see that the Russians have changed the tactics of their strikes against Ukraine and, since August, have been terrorizing our people, our cities and our villages far more intensely,” Zelensky said.
Diplomats say the risk is that Russia will manufacture its fast attack drones more quickly than Ukraine can develop a new generation of interceptors. Some military sources say this threat could become far greater than Russia’s ballistic missiles which have largely overcome Ukraine’s depleted Patriot defenses.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said only about 60 percent of the drones were being shot down and they needed new interceptors to tackle the threat.
Analysts say Russia’s aim is not only to weaken Kyiv’s morale but also damage Ukraine’s economy by targeting businesses and warehouses.
Kushner and Witkoff then met with Zelensky Sunday in Kyiv. Zelensky praised their “very substantive” conversation and said Ukraine was ready for trilateral talks. He said he also discussed air defense supplies and energy support for Ukraine ahead of winter, with Russia expected to bomb Ukraine’s power grid again.
“We made a lot of progress in Moscow,” Witkoff told reporters in Kyiv on Sunday, adding that he was “very encouraged” by his conversations with the Ukrainian team.
President Trump told reporters Wednesday that he held a “great conversation” with Vladimir Putin after his envoys looked to jumpstart a new round of talks to end the war.
“He is wanting to make a deal,” Trump told reporters. “And if Zelensky is wanting to make a deal, that’d be very nice,” he added.
Asked about the prospects for a trilateral summit with the two leaders, Trump said, “it could happen,” and claimed the two sides are “tired of fighting” in the conflict now in its fifth year.
“The holdup is two people that hate each other,” the president said for the umpteenth time, as if he fails to understand that it was Putin who invaded Ukraine.
John Bolton / Washington Post
“Witkoff said he heard ‘new ideas’ from Russia but didn’t say what they were. He and Kushner said the talks were ‘substantive’ but didn’t say why. Putin was surely pleased to hear Witkoff remark that after he retired, he would have ‘all these incredible stories and incredible memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.’
“Witkoff said the United States brought ‘important cogent ideas’ to Kyiv – his and Kushner’s first official visit – most importantly, that Ukraine needed to make ‘compromises.’ After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Witkoff said he was ‘confident that there’ll be a good resolution here.’ Zelensky said simply, ‘The war will continue.’
“Less optimistic media, however, reported that Trump’s representatives simply brought ‘updated versions of earlier documents’ and ‘few new ideas,’ and were ‘seeking to revive earlier proposals.’ Putin apparently stressed, as he has publicly and privately for four-plus years, that the ‘root causes’ of the war had to be addressed. To Putin, ‘root causes’ mean complete Ukrainian withdrawal from Donbas and stopping further Westward drift by Kyiv, including any effort to join NATO. No wonder Zelensky concluded the war would go on.
“What all this diplomatic evidence says to Putin is that Trump still thinks they are friends; so why compromise now? The Kremlin knows full well that Trump believes affairs between nations are reflected in their leaders’ personal relations, repeatedly boasting of his rapport with authoritarian figures including Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Putin doesn’t buy any of this, but he is prepared to exploit Trump’s simplistic view to Russia’s advantage.
“It is worse than ironic that Trump’s misapprehensions about international relations require him to downplay threatening or objectionable Kremlin behavior, lest it appear he is losing his golden touch. Europe faces increasing Russian hybrid warfare, with missiles and drones striking Poland, Romania and the Baltic republics. Most recently, a weaponized drone that authorities have attributed to Russia appeared at the Leipzig airport in Germany. Trump, meanwhile, professes no concern. He said recently of Putin: ‘I speak to him. I know him very well. Putin is not looking to attack NATO territory.’ Of course, every time Putin hears such words, it reinforces his view, correct or incorrect as it may be, that he has Trump right where he wants him, thus further diminishing prospects for serious negotiations, let alone peace.”
Ukrainian officials say five people were killed and 67 others were wounded when a Russian drone hit a shopping mall in Pavlohrad, a city in Dnipropetrovsk region, Thursday.
Two other shopping malls – in the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Sumy – were targeted by Russian air strikes earlier this week, according to Ukrainian media.
Russia reported a Ukrainian seaborne drone attack on the resort city of Sochi overnight Wednesday, in which 28 people were wounded, as well as three more deaths blamed on Ukrainian attacks.
In the Ukrainian controlled cities in the eastern Donbas region of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, it has become so dangerous, police say it is time for civilians to get out. They are the biggest cities still under Ukrainian control, which together with Kostyantynivka, form part of what is known as Ukraine’s “fortress belt” – a system of heavily reinforced defense lines in the east.
Kostyantynivka only has a limited presence of Ukrainian troops left, reports say, while Russia claims to be in full control of it.
The full capture of Donbas, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, is a key objective for Russia. Moscow has often cited the “liberation” and “protection” of the predominantly Russia-speaking Donbas as justification for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
North Korea: Leader Kim Jong-Un’s promise to unveil more projects in eight months’ time at the launch of the country’s second modern destroyer hints at another major strategic military asset.
“The nuclearization of our navy is being realized, making it increasingly suited, diversified and practical for the use of our deterrent,” Kim said while commissioning the Kang Kon in the southeastern port of Wonsan on Sunday.
Kim was accompanied by his daughter and potential successor, Kim Ju-Ae, his wife, Ri Sol-Ju, his influential sister, Kim Yo-Jong, and other senior officials.
“We must make the practical operation of our nuclear combat systems more diverse and effective, and our military activities for maritime defense and war deterrence more explicit, by making our powerful and reliable nuclear war deterrent more clear,” he said. “Concerns of the enemies will be surely deepened.”
North Korea was currently carrying out “important plans to strengthen our naval forces,” Kim said without elaborating. “I will demonstrate them to the world once again eight months from now.”
The ‘Kang Kon’ warship – named after a Korean War general, apparently can fire a nuclear-tipped weapon, according to state media. Kim had previously overseen tests of cruise missiles and machine guns on the vessel.
Random Musings
–Presidential approval ratings….
Rasmussen: 42% approve of President Trump’s job performance, 57% disapprove (Sept. 11).
An NBC News Decision Desk survey had President Trump with a 36% approval rating – marking a record low in this poll for this term. This comes after a Reuters poll the week before had Trump at 33%.
—New Hampshire voters on both sides of the aisle made the safer bet Sept. 8 in what could be a quietly consequential battle for the U.S. Senate this fall.
Rep. Chris Pappas (D) and former Sen. John E. Sununu (R) got their party’s nods, both winning comfortably.
They will battle it out for retiring Democratic incumbent Jeanne Shaheen’s seat, analysts believing the race is wide open. This is one of the GOP’s best hopes for fortifying their 53-47 majority.
—Gallup does a quarterly survey of party affiliation and the survey for the second quarter of 2026 revealed 25% identify as Republican, 44% as Independent, and 31% Democrat.
If you break it down to Republican/Republican leaner vs. Democrat/Democratic leaner, the margin is 39% for the former, 49% for the latter.
What should be worrisome for the GOP come the midterms is that the split was 45-45 after 2025 Q1.
It was actually 47-43, Republican/Republican leaner, after 2024 Q4.
–On Wednesday night in Dallas, President Trump, addressing the Republican midterm convention, said affordability concerns are a hoax and his economy is roaring.
But the polls say otherwise and with the depleted enthusiasm, the president offered voters a quid pro quo: elect Republicans and get a $5,000 payout.
Trump offered no details and the proposal is unlikely to become law. Fellow Republicans have already rejected his previous call to pay dividends from tariff revenue, and Congress would need to approve a cash payment program with a price tag well over $1 trillion [an estimated $1.3 trillion.]
“It will be called the Trump dividend,” the president said. “Now all we have to do is win.”
His primetime address lasted more than 100 minutes, the president begging voters to pretend that he was on the ballot in the upcoming election, hoping to motivate independent and low-propensity voters critical to his two presidential victories.
“I don’t think anybody’s ever had two years like we have,” Trump declared. “But what I say is, no matter how well you’re doing, a president, Democrat or Republican, almost never wins the midterms.”
He added: “So I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot. I’m on the ballot. I’m on just one more time.”
Vice President JD Vance gave the keynote address on Thursday, basking in the kind of affection and praise from the crowd usually reserved only for Trump.
Audience members broke into roaring cheers of “JD!” as he walked onstage. Midway through his speech, the crowd erupted into a chant of “48.”
Vance appealed for Republican unity, while attacking Democrats as the “party of violence.”
–While no one is officially running for the 2028 presidential election just yet, some names in both parties are starting to rise to the top of their respective primaries.
A new poll released by Harvard CAPS/HarrisX on Sept. 2, shows a potential showoff of vice presidents in 2028, with former Vice President Kamala Harris and JD Vance leading their respective primaries.
Among Democrats, Harris has a comfortable lead with 42%, followed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 18%, with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tied with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, both at 9%.
Among Republicans, Vance holds a similarly comfortable advantage with 44% support; Secretary of State Marco Rubio follows with 21%, while President Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., gathers 18% support.
A few comments. I’m shocked Kamala garners such high support, but then the prospective field is weak, though I think Buttigieg’s support by mid-2027 will be pretty good, like 15% to 20%.
I’m surprised Don Jr. gets 18%, but then I guess I shouldn’t be.
—The Trump administration on Sunday asked the Supreme Court yet again to allow its plans to restrict mail-in voting before the midterms, setting up what will likely be the final legal showdown for the president’s push to impose limits on mail voting before the elections.
In an emergency application, lawyers for the administration urged the justices to clear the way for new U.S. Postal Service rules to go into effect, changing the way the agency handles mail-in ballots in the weeks before the elections.
It’s unclear how fast the justices will move and announce a ruling, but it must be soon.
—President Trump on Truth Social, Sunday:
“Many people suggested changing the name of New Mexico, one of the great vote cheating states of all time, to NEW AMERICA. So much more prestigious and beautiful for the people of that potentially incredible State. Wow, I Love It!!!”
Any time Trump says “many people” or “a lot of people” suggested…, that’s a ‘tell.’ No one is telling him to change the name.
—August was the joint-hottest month ever recorded, tying with July 2023, according to the EU’s climate service.
Temperatures for the month were 1.65C above pre-industrial levels – surpassing the critical 1.5C threshold agreed by countries to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
The month also capped western Europe’s warmest summer, with high temperatures pushing the season past the deadly heat of 2003.
And as you all know by now, the still strengthening El Nino is making matters worse (while stifling hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin), researchers have said.
The biggest impact of this natural phenomenon on global temperatures is expected to hit over the coming year, meaning the current run of records may have further to go.
In the U.S., California suffered through punishing heat and drastically high humidity this week. Santa Barbara set a record for the day, Wednesday, with a high of 96 degrees; Long Beach and Anaheim, 107; Santa Ana, 108; and Escondido, 112. To the north, San Francisco International Airport reached a record-breaking 94.
Last Saturday, Memphis (102 air temp) and St. Louis (101) had their hottest days of the year…in September!
—New York City officials released a trove of documents Tuesday detailing air-quality issues and what the city knew about the toxic conditions around Ground Zero following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The records include around 170,000 pages of reports related to air quality and health issues as well as the city’s response to 9/11, the city said. The disclosure of these documents follows a yearslong legal battle led by advocacy group 9/11 Watch, which sued for their release.
In the more than two decades since the attacks, more people have died from related illnesses than those who were killed on that day, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.
“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mamdani said at a press conference Tuesday, flanked by city leaders and comedian Jon Stewart, who has long advocated for 9/11 survivors.
First responders and others who lived and worked in the area around the World Trade Center site have suffered from respiratory illnesses and chronic conditions, including cancer, as a result of their exposures to toxins following the attacks. Researchers have found first responders and other workers at the World Trade Center site have an elevated incidence of leukemia compared with the general population.
The documents expose how city officials knew the dangers of toxic chemicals in lower Manhattan and other areas near the World Trade Center after the towers fell despite stating that the air was safe, said Benjamin Chevat, executive director of 9/11 Health Watch. They include an October 2001 correspondence sent to the deputy mayor at the time – called the “Harding memo” that detailed possible lawsuits the city would face related to exposure to poor air quality and unsafe working conditions. The records also include those that were stored in 68 boxes and not discovered until last year, the city said.
One document includes a February 2002 memo from a city official detailing issues raised by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.). The document states there was “at least a low level of asbestos” in many lower Manhattan buildings and the city’s health department had advised residents to “clean their buildings with wet mops and rags.”
Nadler, the memo said, raised that only licensed asbestos cleaners are allowed to handle such material. Exposure to asbestos can lead to conditions including lung cancer.
“If Nadler’s concerns are justified, we are not informing people of the real health risks in Lower Manhattan,” the memo said.
But the Wall Street Journal editorial board opined:
“Mr. Mamdani, who was a child on 9/11, implies a grand coverup because officials assured New Yorkers after the attacks that the outdoor air was safe, even though samples of indoor dust around Ground Zero turned up asbestos and other contaminants. But there’s no contradiction. Measures of outdoor air quality at the time didn’t exceed federal health standards.
“Federal officials advised clean-up crews and people returning to their homes after the attacks to take precautions since the extent of the indoor contamination – and potential long-term health effects – was unknown. The full effects became clearer with time as those exposed to Ground Zero dust developed chronic respiratory and other ailments.
“In 2010 Congress passed a law that provided medical treatment, health monitoring and financial compensation to first-responders and others exposed to toxins. The program resembles the no-fault National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in that people can get government compensation for injuries if they agree not to sue.
“The program compensates individuals for economic harm caused by their injuries, including lost earnings and medical costs if they can show they were present within a specified exposure zone between Sept. 11, 2001, and May 30, 2002. They can also receive pain and suffering payouts, capped at $250,000 per cancer and $90,000 for other conditions.
“Some 106,000 claims have been filed through 2025, with some 71,000 thus far paid out. Awards have totalled $16.8 billion since 2011. The program has succeeded in helping victims obtain compensation faster than if they went to court. It has also spared the city having to fight a swarm of plaintiff attorneys seeking to capitalize on the pain and suffering of victims.
“Mr. Mamdani’s team flogged a 2001 city memo that estimated the city could face 35,000 potential plaintiffs from ‘toxic tort cases that might arise in the next few decades.’….
“Such claims could have bankrupted the city. That’s in part why Congress stepped in. The federal program has paid out twice as many claimants as the city’s 2001 estimate. But plaintiff attorneys bristle that the program limits their fees at 10% of the award, much less than the 30% to 40% they obtain in contingency fees.
“The goal of the mayor’s document dump seems to be to goad Congress to make it easier for trial lawyers to sue the city so his legal friends cash in.”
I saw an interview with former New York City Fire Commissioner Thomas von Essen, who was in charge then, and von Essen conceded many of the first responders weren’t wearing respirators, and that recovery efforts on the pile went on too long, unnecessarily endangering the workers further.
It’s a tough topic.
—
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.
Slava Ukraini.
God bless America.
—
Gold $4345…Silver $64.35
Oil (WTI) $100.75.…Brent $104.90
Regular Gas: $4.29; Diesel: $6.05 [$3.19 – $3.70 yr. ago]
Bitcoin: $77,289 [4:00 PM ET, Friday]
Returns for the week 9/7-9/11
Dow Jones -1.6% [52573]
S&P 500 -0.8% [7656]
S&P MidCap -1.9%
Russell 2000 -2.4%
Nasdaq -0.7% [26333]
Returns for the period 1/1/26-9/11/26
Dow Jones +9.4%
S&P 500 +11.9%
S&P MidCap +12.4%
Russell 2000 +17.0%
Nasdaq +13.3%
Hang in there.
We must never forget, 9/11.
Brian Trumbore
