Top 10 Headlines That Actually Matter Today

president trump just waved sweeping sanctions against russian energy exports he did it just days before they were set to take effect the reason to lower diesel prices before the november third midterm elections in our last briefing we tracked the top headlines driving the national conversation today the consequences of those headlines are landing directly in your wallet here's what else is moving september inflation came in hotter than expected driven almost entirely by energy costs that has the federal reserve in a corner markets are now pricing in a 74.3% chance of an interest rate hike in december the markets are already reacting the s and p five hundred closed friday down 1.95% for the week it's sitting

2% below its record high from just back on october 6 the real pain was in tech the semiconductor index was hammered losing 11.4% this week that's its largest weekly drop since liberation day bond markets are flashing red ten year treasury yields surged to 5.33% that's the highest close since 2007 the cause is clear west texas intermediate crude oil surged above $100 a barrel brent crude is hovering near $110 the seven month war with iran and geopolitical risk in the strait of hormuz are the direct drivers and you are paying for it the average us household is now out nearly 2,000 since the conflict began and finally gopro is facing a class action lawsuit the charge

is that the company raised camera prices by about $30 to offset tariffs even after saying it wouldn't let's go deeper on two things that presidential waiver and the real cost of all this conflict first the waiver the graham act was designed to punish russia with tariffs and sanctions on its energy exports president trump was supposed to let them take effect instead he signed an executive order citing the national interests of the united states the real national interest here is the price of diesel it's near record highs high fuel costs mean expensive shipping which means expensive everything and that is electoral poison just weeks before the midterms so the sanctions are off for now this is

a purely political calculation the administration is choosing short term price relief over long term geopolitical pressure the irony here is staggering this is the same administration that argued tariffs would reduce the national debt instead the us just ended the fiscal year with a budget deficit near $2,000,000,000,000 and in february the supreme court ruled that the president didn't even have the authority to impose many of these tariffs in the first place forcing the government to issue billions in refunds to companies which brings us to the gopro lawsuit it's a perfect miniature of the entire tariff fiasco gopro allegedly raised the price of its hero 13 camera to cover tariffs so you paid more then the supreme

court strikes down the tariffs gopro gets a refund from the government plus interest but do you the person who actually paid the inflated price get your $30 back the lawsuit says no you just absorbed the cost this isn't just about cameras it's about how these high level decisions filter down now connect that to the biggest cost of all the war moody's analytics put a number on it the chief economist mark zandi calculates the war has cost the average us household almost $2,000 here's the breakdown $1,100 of that is from higher energy prices driving your car flying getting a package delivered it all costs more another $540 is from higher interest rates as the fed tries

to fight the inflation the war is causing and the last $360 that's your share of the direct military costs this is general information not financial advice but the numbers are the numbers from exxonmobil's soaring profits 4,500,000,000 added to earnings from refining margins alone to the $30 you might have overpaid for a camera the money is moving from your pocket to someone else's the presidential waiver on russian oil isn't a solution it's an admission an admission that the cost has become too high to ignore especially in an election year the grand strategies of washington and the conflicts on the other side of the world are no longer abstract concepts they have a specific price tag and

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