08/14/2026
DID YOU KNOW?
* Tomorrow is a BIG DAY in the Palisades: 583 days after the devastating 2025 fires, Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village is re-opening, anchored by the ultra-fabulous Elyse Walker Boutique. Palisades Village first opened in 2018. It survived the fire because it was newer and had private firefighters. The shopping center nevertheless sustained smoke damage, requiring extensive remediation. Many of the original tenants are returning, many small businesses. Roughly 28 addresses have received certificates of occupancy and cleared for move-in across the burn zones, with several dozen more nearing completion out of the more than 6,500 homes destroyed. Hundreds of other single-family home rebuilds are currently underway in one of the most challenging rebuilding environments, with small winding roads and damage that required significant remediation. Imagine building a huge sub-division.....now add in 6,000 plus individual owners - not one developer - each with their own architect, contractor, etc......Lots average around 0.2 acres in size: that's less than 2,000 acres for about 6,000 homes, combined with slow and complex government approvals not accustomed to building this much all at once in one place.
* Nearly 75% of global investors reported using AI tools for finance and investment, while 82% of high-net-worth investors indicated the same. U.S. survey respondents were slightly less keen on the technology, with a 57% share. Looking ahead, however, U.S. investors showed a strong preference for a combination of human and AI advice (38%) or relying on a human advisor (32%) versus using an AI tool by themselves (23%). While global investors were slightly more likely to prefer relying on an AI tool than a human advisor (24% vs. 21%), a whopping 50% picked a hybrid method. The report’s findings come from a global survey of nearly 10,000 affluent and high-net-worth investors, with investable asset minimums of $100,000 and $2 million, respectively. More than 1,000 of those polled were in the U.S.
* For FY 2025, the US deficit dipped to $1.78 trillion (down 2.2%), aided by increased tax revenues and higher tariff collections. For the current fiscal year 2026, cumulative figures through April 2026 tracked roughly 9% lower than the same point in the previous year....even better..... The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services dipped to $73.3 billion in June 2026, dropping from a revised $77.6 billion in May. This decrease occurred because total imports fell by 1.8% to $388 billion while exports declined at a slower rate of 0.9% to $314.7 billion. BUT.....the U.S. budget deficit actually surged rather than plummeted, hiting $432.3 billion in July, marking the largest single-month shortfall since March 2021. Imports: Decreased 1.8% to $388.0 billion, driven by lower purchases of computers, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications equipment. Exports: Slipped 0.9% to $314.7 billion, largely due to a drop in petroleum and crude oil shipments.
Bilateral Trends: Despite the overall monthly dip, individual U.S. trade deficits with Mexico, Vietnam, and South Korea reached record highs.
The U.S. national debt has increased by roughly $1.35 trillion to $1.6 trillion since January 2026, up from approximately $38.43 trillion at the start of January surpassing $40 trillion by August 2026....and now $100 billion+ in tariff refunds....
* This week the US Treasury Department announced it not only not require shady shell companies to report who owns them, but it will also destroy all the non-public data that the Treasury has already collected, permanently removing the requirement for U.S. companies and U.S. persons to report beneficial ownership information to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act. Will this allow money laundering to go unchecked or is this simply erasing red tape? Erasing the database impairs law enforcement's ability to track illicit money laundering, drug trafficking, and hidden assets.
