In a world where chaos is the new normal, the University of Michigan’s sentiment survey managed to stay—well—mildly confused. The preliminary October reading barely budged, ticking down to 55.0 (still better than the 54.0 expected). Current conditions improved slightly, expectations slipped a touch, and inflation hopes eased by a hair—1-year outlook at 4.6%, long-term steady at 3.7%. As for jobs, a few more people see unemployment rising, but not enough to panic anyone yet. In short: consumers feel “meh,” inflation’s still sticky, and optimism remains an endangered species.

In a nutshell, Americans are still grumpy but not panicking—sentiment slipped, inflation eased a hair, and optimism remains on the endangered list.

🤵 The Macro Butler Weekly Digest 🤵

🌐 Where barrels, battles, and big money collide, the crude truth on supply, demand, and chaos is simple: ‘Oil Is Well’. 🌐

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Beginning October 12th, 2025, the European Union will flip the switch on its shiny new Orwellian gadget — the biometric Entry/Exit System (EES) — a surveillance masterpiece designed to keep tabs on every person crossing into its 29-member fortress of freedom. Visitors staying up to 90 days within a 180-day period will be greeted by friendly EES kiosks asking the most comforting of travel questions, such as whether they can actually afford their vacation. A “no” answer, naturally, earns a personal audience with a border guard for a polite “discussion” about one’s financial fitness.
While ETIAS authorization doesn’t officially require proof of funds, the EU’s new digital gatekeepers may still demand recent bank statements — because nothing says “welcome to Europe” like a bureaucratic audit at passport control.

https://www.the-express.com/news/uk-news/186423/travelers-asked-show-bank-accounts-eu-borders-from-sunday

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For anyone still fooled by the so-called Nobel Peace Prize, it’s now the Nobel War Prize—handed to those faithfully advancing the globalist Malthusian agenda.
This year’s Orwellian honoree, María Corina Machado, celebrated by the propaganda press, has achieved neither peace for Venezuela nor progress for humanity—just another victory for Newspeak diplomacy.

https://x.com/anyaparampil/status/1976627924939014641

Machado openly admitted receiving U.S. National Endowment for Democracy funding through her group Súmate—an outfit preaching “free and fair elections,” meaning elections that serve Washington’s interests.
In true Orwellian fashion, democracy is just the velvet glove of empire, and “freedom” merely the pretext for resource confiscation from any nation that dares disobey the deep state’s global order.

https://www.ned.org/ned-congratulates-maria-corina-machado-on-receiving-the-nobel-peace-prize/

Machado, long backed by regime-change NGOs, has promised that if elected, she’ll move Venezuela’s Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem—an act she calls “a symbol of renewed freedom.”
In reality, it’s just another case of copy-and-paste diplomacy: embrace Washington’s Zionist playbook, praise neoliberalism, and call it democracy.

Like many U.S.-approved reformers before her, Machado’s path to the “Peace” Prize was paved less with peace and more with obedience.

https://x.com/afshinrattansi/status/1976578028982423993

In its eternally Confucian fashion, China responded to Donald Copperfield’s latest tariff tantrum with a polite bow and a proverb-worthy reminder of his “double standards.”

The Ministry of Commerce noted, with serene understatement, that bullying a nation that has already distanced itself from ‘Trumperialism ‘might not be the wisest path.

A lesson straight from every teahouse in Asia is: “One who waves tariffs like a sword should not be surprised when trade harmony flees the room.”

The same Keynesian wizards who flung open borders to usher in digital IDs and total control are usually the green zealots preaching climate doom to deepen poverty—so of course, UK Prime Minister ‘Keith Starmer’ now blames “climate change” for the migrant chaos at home.

https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/1972400647539708397

The UK is now ready to hand out “climate refugee” status to anyone fleeing bad weather, because apparently floods and heatwaves are the new passports.

Unreleased citizenship programs will cater to these environmental migrants—of which the IOM predicts a whopping 1 billion in the next 30 years.

The UN first coined “climate refugee” in 1985, then wisely decided it was offensive; today, it’s “persons displaced by disasters and climate change,” a bureaucratic euphemism for weather-based immigration. Meanwhile, WHO warns that 216 million people will be forced to move by 2050 and insists health systems must bend over backward to serve these climate travelers—because nothing says global governance like planning hospitals around hurricanes and monsoons.

https://vnz.bz/articles/New-Criteria-for-UK-Citizenship-Programs-Targeting-Climate-Change-Refugees-in-2025/

Every globalist think tank loves a good climate scare—it’s the perfect power grab.

Suddenly, “climate change” justifies open borders and mass migration, while the same influx becomes the excuse for tighter surveillance and shrinking freedom at home.

Climate crisis or control crisis? With these people, crisis are always a reason to become more authoritarian.

While the YOLO crowd remain focused on the AI pipe dream and crypto holograms, the reality of the numbers which never lied rather than supposedly experts bragging fake news on legacy mass media and Wall street ‘banksters’ who spread what they can make money of rather than for their clients, the reality is that since the start of this jubilee year, Gold the antic barbaric relic has outperformed its fool digital peer. The same is true for Dr Copper which have also outperformed Bitcoin since the start of this year.

Anyone who trusts market signals over government fairy tales knows that the Bitcoin-to-Gold ratio—just like the S&P 500-to-Gold ratio—is the canary in the coal mine for what’s next: an inevitable shift from today’s inflationary boom high to tomorrow’s inflationary bust. And when historians look back, they’ll have a perfect name for it—the Trump Stagflation.

For equity investors, the coming economic bust will make one thing clear: when the Bitcoin-to-Gold ratio tanks, it’s time to sell the rips in energy consumers like IT and buy the dips in energy producers like Oil & Gas—the real winners when reality kicks in.

In a nutshell, while the YOLO crowd chase AI dreams and crypto mirages, gold and copper quietly steal the show—reminding everyone that when the Bitcoin-to-Gold ratio sinks, the boom is over, the bust begins, and “Trump Stagflation” becomes the next chapter in financial comedy.

While ‘Tariff Man’ was busy turning peace in the East Mediterranean into a luxury blockchain ‘Trump Riviera’, the dutiful Gouda-loving EU governments jumped in to help Uncle Sam keep China out of the semiconductor playground. Taiwan runs the chips, China claims Taiwan, and the West responds with economic warfare. Case in point: the Dutch seized Chinese-owned Nexperia—not for breaking any rules, just for having the “wrong” owner. Using a 1952 law meant for emergencies, The Hague now controls Nexperia’s board, freezes operations, and ousts the CEO, all to “protect essential goods.” Translation: welcome to the new world of corporate chess, where nationality matters more than legality, and governments play kingmaker while the rest of us watch popcorn in hand.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/13/dutch-government-takes-control-of-chinese-owned-chipmaker-nexperia.html

US and EU companies that cashed in on China should be sweating: the Dutch seizure of Nexperia proves once again that “national security” trumps property rights. This is exactly the pattern—governments retreating behind borders, ignoring the rule of law, and letting economic warfare lead the charge. World War III won’t start with bombs; it has already started with boardrooms and balance sheets.

Welcome to the new world order: governments playing kingmaker in boardrooms, where “national security” crushes property rights and economic warfare, not bombs, kicks off World War III.

On the Egyptian Riviera, with “Sata-Nyahu” conveniently missing and a crowd of obedient “Tumperialism” disciples posing for the cameras, the self-proclaimed “Peace Maker in Chief” struck yet another photo-op pose. The Real Global South (Russia; China) wisely skipped the show, knowing this “ceasefire” is about as sturdy as a butterfly’s wing in a sandstorm. Just like the promises of Anchorage, it’ll melt faster than snow in the Sahara—though it does come with a lovely side of tokenized real estate deals for those willing to “build peace” under the fine print of the same nepotistic plutocracy lounging around the 47th floor.