The United States Postal Service — a federally backed institution that absorbed fuel costs through two World Wars, the 1970s oil embargo, and four decades of fiscal mismanagement — has announced its first-ever fuel surcharge of 8%, effective late April and lasting into 2027. The organisation that survived everything has apparently met its match in Operation Epic F**k-Up. The logic is straightforward: war disrupts energy, energy drives transportation, transportation drives costs, and costs eventually reach the consumer via whatever vehicle remains — including, apparently, a first-class stamp.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/postal-service-implement-first-ever-fuel-surcharge-amid-mounting-fuel-costs-financial-challenges

When the Post Office imposes a fuel surcharge for the first time in its history, the Federal Reserve's inflation narrative has not merely been challenged. It has been delivered, with an 8% markup, to your front door.

The Ministry of War of the Empire just announced, with characteristic subtlety, that the Army has raised its enlistment age from 35 to 42 and quietly dispensed with marijuana conviction waivers — of course, not because it is preparing for a prolonged ground war in Persia, but because it has suddenly recognised changing social attitudes toward cannabis. The timing, coinciding with talk of boots on the ground in a country of 90 million motivated defenders, is entirely coincidental. The Ministry wishes to clarify that this is not a recruitment crisis. It is an inclusivity initiative.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/army-raises-maximum-age-as-trump-plots-putting-boots-on-ground/ar-AA1ZpBRC?ocid=winp2fptaskbar&cvid=69c54d257aaf4a53b8ab69d78fcb44a4&ei=9

The pattern is, of course, unprecedented and entirely unrelated to the last time the Army raised its enlistment age to 42 — which was 2006, when two simultaneous wars were consuming more bodies than voluntary recruitment could supply. Standards were lowered then too, criminal waivers surged, and the Army took what it could get. The Ministry assures the public that this time is different. This time it is about fairness. The roughly 75% of young Americans currently disqualified from service by physical, mental, or legal limitations are being given a second chance — not because the Empire is quietly preparing for something considerably larger than peacetime operations, but out of sheer democratic generosity.

First comes the age waiver. Then the drug waiver. Then the criminal waiver. Then, as history reliably demonstrates, comes the draft. The Ministry reports there are no plans for a draft. There never are, right up until there are.

The Macro Butler is back on Piggo’s Trading Desk — and he didn’t come to spare Washington the truth.

From navigating the greatest oil disruption in modern history to uncovering the last remaining investment opportunities in a world on fire, this is the interview where no question was too dangerous and no answer too polished.

US LNG supply chains, regime change in Washington, and why Making America Great Again apparently forgot to include actual Americans — it’s all on the table.

🎙 Pull up a chair. Pour something strong. Take notes.

👉 Watch now — because while the Empire burns, the smart money is already moving. Will yours?

https://themacrobutler.substack.com/p/interview-with-piggos-trading-desk-d79