Social Security's Countdown Begins, Trump Renames a Lake & Dolly Passes

Dolly Parton died this week at 80. Sixty years, a hundred million records, zero enemies. Name another public figure who can say that.

Her own line said it best: "If you see someone without a smile, give them yours." She actually lived that. Flags at half-staff. Tributes from every corner of the political map, which barely happens anymore. Rest easy, Dolly.

Lighter note: Dunkin' opened its first-ever dog drive-thru this week. One day, one Massachusetts location, real treats and bandanas for real dogs while their owners donated to a children's hospital charity. A coffee chain did more good in one morning than Washington manages in a term.

Speaking of Washington...

President Trump announced Friday that the U.S. now holds majority control of more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuela's oil reserves, calling it "the biggest oil deal in world history" on Truth Social, because why undersell it. The deal hands a U.S.-government-majority joint venture 100-year concessions on the fields — free to taxpayers, he says, and conveniently timed for $4 gas and midterms two months out.

Trump also threatened 50% tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks, parts, and steel starting January 2027, telling Canada on Truth Social "WE DON'T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!" Carney's promising dollar-for-dollar retaliation. Then Trump renamed Lake Ontario to "Lake America." Even Republican governors called it petty. Nobody's using that name. The lake didn't ask for this.

The $100,000 H-1B visa fee is back from the dead. A judge killed it in June for skipping Congress, so now it's returning through regulation at $103,265 a head, and this time it hits nearly every new visa applicant, not just people overseas. Nine billion in projected revenue for immigration enforcement, and a lot of tech and healthcare companies bracing for impact.

The State Department also paused all immigrant visa processing worldwide this week. Scheduled interviews canceled while officers get retrained to screen out applicants likely to land on public assistance. Expected to last into September. Round two, since a similar pause got struck down in January.

And the Supreme Court just handed Trump a 6-3 win on his mail-in voting order. DHS can now build a federal citizenship list and share it with states, and USPS gets to write new mail ballot rules. The court didn't say any of it's legal, just that the states suing jumped the gun. The most controversial piece, forcing USPS to verify every mail voter's citizenship before handing over a ballot, is still blocked elsewhere. Round two of that fight too.

Core prices rose 3.3% annually in July, right where the Fed's preferred gauge has sat for four straight months. No progress, no panic, just stuck.

Treasury's sitting on nearly a trillion dollars in its General Account and might use it to fund bigger bond buybacks after doubling that program last week. Bessent's basically saying he's got more ammo than markets think. The 10-year and 30-year yields both dipped on the news.

Bitcoin blew past $80,000 this week for the first time in 15 weeks. Up 28% in eight days. $350 billion added back to the market. Three months of losses erased in about a week.

And Venezuela's inflation is running at 400% a year. One economist's fix: kill the bolivar, kill the central bank, go full U.S. dollar. Zimbabwe tried it, it worked, then they reversed course and inflation came roaring back. Venezuela's about to find out if history repeats.

Meta agreed to pay up to $17.1 billion to settle claims it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict kids and lied about the risks. New rules kick in: two-hour daily limits for minors, nighttime blocks, hidden likes on teen posts. Forty-seven states signed on. Only Florida, Texas, and New Mexico sat this one out, and Texas already got its own $1 billion deal.

Anthropic is telling IPO investors its total addressable market tops $30 trillion, bigger than SpaceX's $28.5 trillion pitch. For context, U.S. GDP is around $32 trillion. Bold number. We'll see if reality shows up to the party.

Zillow just got forced to unwind part of a deal where it paid Redfin $100 million to stop competing on rental listings. The FTC called it exactly what it looked like: paying off a rival to make competition disappear. Redfin now has six months to get back in the ring.

Florida's Chamber of Commerce says the calls keep coming from blue-state businesses looking for the exit, including a tech firm in Rochester, New York trying to escape the tax bill. High taxes chase companies out. Warm weather and no income tax pull them in. Not exactly breaking news, but the volume's picking up.

And Disney is offering longtime executives an early exit package before deeper restructuring hits. Translation: if you're over 50 with a decade in, they'd rather you leave on your own terms than wait for the ax.

Try Factor, America's #1 ready-to-eat meal delivery service.

Made from ingredients you recognize. Whole food. Nothing unnecessary. Let’s eat real.

Get 50% off your first Factor box + Free Breakfast for a year *1 free breakfast item per box for 1 year while subscription active.

Try Factor Now