Bessent brings $40T debt and a Druckenmiller rebuke to G20 — SkimNews
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- Scott Bessent hosted G20 finance ministers in Asheville this week with US debt past $40 trillion, 30-year yields at 19-year highs, and a $4 billion Treasury buyback publicly criticized by his former mentor Stanley Druckenmiller.link ›
- Iran's civilian economy has collapsed in the war's sixth month: inflation 89% year-on-year, food inflation above 127%, the rial at 2.06 million per US dollar, and more than 3,500 dead since the February 28 strikes on Khamenei.link ›
- Global markets shrugged off the war — the Dow up ~19%, S&P 500 up ~22%, Nasdaq up 27% since the late-March bottom — while fertilizer prices peaked 44% above prewar levels and jet fuel is projected 70% above 2025.link ›
- The Trump family's business interests profited from the conflict: Powerus (Eric and Donald Trump Jr.) landed an Air Force interceptor contract worth up to $90 million, and 1789 Capital holds stakes in Anduril, SpaceX, and Firehawk.link ›
- Mark Carney slapped retaliatory tariffs on roughly $20 billion of US goods — steel, dairy, appliances, farm equipment — after Trump tariffed Canadian hockey sticks and tongue depressors and signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario 'Lake America.'link ›
- A Russian strike on a Ukrainian munitions depot in Myla killed 37 and injured 42 — the second such incident after July's Vyshneve blast killed nine — and Zelensky opened criminal-negligence proceedings over storing explosives in a populated village.link ›
- Nickolay Mladenov publicly scolded Israel at the UN Security Council, warning ongoing Gaza strikes risk 'the next war' even as Hamas reportedly agreed to disarm under Trump's 20-point plan.link ›
- Indonesia burned through nearly 94,000 hectares in July alone, driving West Kalimantan ER visits for respiratory issues to 5,000 per week — ten times the first-half rate — under a super El Niño set to peak in September.link ›
Six months into the Iran war, Scott Bessent hosts G20 finance ministers in Asheville carrying US debt past $40 trillion, 30-year yields at 19-year highs, and a $4 billion Treasury buyback his own former mentor Stanley Druckenmiller publicly criticized. The war's economic split-screen is now total: Iranian inflation is running 89% with food above 127%, the rial hit 2.06 million per dollar, and 3,500+ civilians are dead — yet the Dow is up 19% since late March, Brent has eased to roughly 20% above prewar levels, and Powerus, being taken public by Eric and Donald Trump Jr., just landed an Air Force contract worth up to $90 million. The war is being financed by a bond market that won't flinch, paid for in rials by Iranians, and quietly enriched the president's family.
The stories behind this week
US Treasury's Bessent faces G20 diplomacy test amid tariffs, Iran war, bond turmoilBessent must persuade G20 counterparts hit by Trump's Iran war to back his agenda while defending a US fiscal path that pushed debt past $40 trillion on August 19—and his $4 billion Treasury buyback move already drew public criticism from former mentor Stanley Druckenmiller, signaling weakening leverage on every front.
How to lose Trump’s trade war: test Canada’s resolve with threats to hockey sticksThe trade war lands hardest on American consumers facing rising toilet paper and other everyday costs from Canadian lumber dependence, and it erupts less than three months before midterm elections where Republicans already face an uphill battle — turning a negotiating tactic into a self-inflicted economic wound at a politically costly moment.
Trump Speaks on Canada Tariffs, Iran; Signs Lake America OrderThe presser bundles three unresolved flashpoints — Canada tariffs, six months of Iran conflict, and domestic beef costs — into one stage-managed moment, while the splashy lake rename pulls headlines away from the harder policy files still open.
At least 37 dead and hundreds evacuated after strike on Kyiv weapons depotThis is the second munitions-depot blast near Kyiv since July's Vyshneve explosion killed nine, meaning Ukrainian officials had a documented warning and failed to relocate stockpiles — Zelensky's criminal-negligence proceedings and Koretsky's call for "severe punishment" put that internal accountability squarely on the table alongside the Russian attack itself.
Mladenov Warns Israel Strikes Risk Derailing Gaza PlanThe public scolding from the US-backed plan's own high representative signals growing frustration inside the Trump administration over Netanyahu's refusal to wind down strikes while Hamas has reportedly agreed to disarmament terms. The implementation gap Mladenov flagged — paper deal versus daily bombings — is the exact fault line that collapsed previous Gaza ceasefires.
‘Like smoking a cigarette’: Indonesia chokes on haze as blazes intensify amid super ‘El Niño’The surge in respiratory cases and school shutdowns shows immediate human cost, while corporate permit revocations mark a rare enforcement step against powerful plantation interests. With peatland fires resistant to suppression and El Niño expected to peak in September, the window for containment is narrowing before October's extended dry season.
Markets Shrug Off Iran War as Consumers and Hungry PayThe war has cost the U.S. tens of billions and shaved an estimated hundreds of billions from projected global output, yet investor wealth and Trump-connected defense contractors captured the upside. Consumers pay at the pump, farmers are cutting fertilizer and borrowing against next year's soil, and the UN is warning of mass hunger in Asia and Africa—all while the president's family wins contracts flowing from the conflict.
How has life changed for Iranians six months into the war?For Iran's 90 million people, purchasing power has collapsed: inflation at 89%, food above 127%, and the rial at 2.06 million per dollar while salaries like Bijan's have effectively halved in three years. Looming petrol hikes, winter gas shortages, and Washington's opposition to Iran's partial Hormuz deal leave even modest economic relief out of reach — and the establishment shows no sign of ideological compromise to change that.
Why it matters: Bessent went to Asheville needing the world to back his Iran-oil and trade agenda, but he's doing it with a $40 trillion balance sheet and a $4 billion buyback even Druckenmiller called weak — meaning every ask he makes this week lands from a visibly thinner position of leverage.
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