An Arizona car owner says he was shocked when he heard how much it would cost to replace a battery in his hybrid vehicle.

Lucas Turner told KPHO that he recently took his 2014 Infiniti hybrid to a dealership for a check engine light.

He said he knew something was wrong but wasn’t expecting it to be this bad.

“They told me that I need a new hybrid battery and it’s going to cost $18,000 for the battery and another $2,000 to have it installed,” Turner said.

Wells Fargo is planning to be “more aggressive” about layoffs at the bank, and expects to have higher severance costs in the fourth quarter than initially expected, its CEO said.

In September, Wells Fargo said additional layoffs and a decrease in office space were expected for the company. In recent years, tens of thousands of jobs were cut. More may come in 2024.

The current head of the Rothschild banking dynasty has called for governments around the world to usher in so-called “cashless societies” that will be controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) for “the common good.”

Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild insists that the World Economic Forum-developed plan is essential for promoting “equity” to “save the poor.”

In order to “save capitalism,” Rothschild is demanding that governments radically change their economies.

During the COVID-19 disruption, the richest among us made billions of dollars while the world’s poor plunged into unimaginable poverty.

It illustrates the deeply problematic effect of unregulated markets and the lack of scrutiny from governments as the billionaire class dominate public life, politics, business and the media.

Former President Donald Trump penned an op-ed aimed at enticing younger voters to his side by emphasizing how difficult and expensive American life has become under President Joe Biden.

Are gold prices and interest rates joined at the hip? Based on recent market action, it would appear the answer is: yes.

A major rally in gold is now underway. Gold moved from $1,831 per ounce on Oct. 6 to $2,091 per ounce on Dec. 1, a 14.1% rally in just eight weeks and a new all-time high price for gold.

Gold has pulled back to $2,037 as of today, but that’s not surprising given its previous surge. Like every other asset, gold can sometimes get ahead of itself and experience a pullback. Importantly, it’s still holding firm above $2,000.

Are “greedy” corporations driving inflation? Could taxing billionaires solve the federal government’s fiscal problems?

According to President Joe Biden, the answer to both questions is yes.

And the correct answer is no.

So, Biden is either economically ignorant or a liar. Or maybe both.

Biden put his economic ignorance on full display with a couple of comments last week.

Bloomberg pointed out that hundreds of tankers are part of the shadow fleet that allows Venezuela, Iran, and Russia to ship their US-sanctioned crude and crude products around the world.

The International Maritime Organization recently warned about shadow fleets operating outside international regulation, usually with no insurance, calling it a "grave concern" to the environmental safety and welfare of crews and countries that reside on coastlines. 

After Binance’s settlement with the DOJ and the removal of its longtime leader Changpeng Zhao, one of the most important figures at Binance – Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman – is poised to have an outsized role over the activities of and data held by the world’s largest crypto exchange. Despite this, Perlman’s past ties from scandals ranging from FTX to Jeffrey Epstein have been entirely ignored by the mainstream media.

But all this effort into promoting the scheme, and by top global financial industry bureaucrats like Georgieva, isn’t happening by chance; by her own admission, implementation of CBDCs is still far from a done deal, even if, according to IMF’s data, 60 percent of countries are “exploring” this possibility “in some form.”

Hardly a firm commitment by the world, and that is why a nevertheless “optimistic” Georgieva admitted that CBDC adoption is, globally speaking, “nowhere close” – at the same time urging “the public sector to keep preparing to deploy” this type of money.