the attitude with arnie arnesen the wed edition noon to 1pm EST Oct 15 streaming at wnhnfm.org
Arnie Arnesen
The Federal Reserve’s minutes, released October 8, showed what we already knew: policymakers see the job market cracking.... the global economy is holding its breath, waiting for the Fed to blink. But underneath the noise of markets and minutes runs a darker current. The debt grows. The shutdown deepens. The data stops flowing. CPI, PPI, retail sales (all on pause). The nation’s heartbeat measured in missing numbers. Debt and dysfunction now move in tandem, feeding each other. Retailers slashed holiday hiring as tariffs lingered and uncertainty ate through confidence. You can feel it: the fatigue of a people being told to be grateful for survival.
Beyond America’s paralysis, the world shifted again. China expanded its rare-earth export controls on October 9, adding new elements and technology to its list. It was a strategic move with a simple message: the supply chains that built the modern world are no longer guaranteed. The United States called for dialogue, but dialogue means little when the foundation of trust has already cracked. The two largest economies are not negotiating, they’re circling each other, waiting for the other to stumble....
And yet, amid all this noise, there was a moment of fragile peace. In Gaza, guns fell silent under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. The first phase of implementation began. Hostages and prisoners moved through corridors of dust and tension. Aid trucks crept forward. Families … those who still had families … walked back toward the skeletal remains of their homes. For the first time in months, you could hear something almost forgotten: quiet. Diplomats called it progress. The world called it a pause. But for Palestinians and their families, it was a heartbeat … a moment to bury the dead, to search for what could still be saved. Washington promised a follow-up summit. Cameras will record the handshakes. The papers will write about “frameworks” and “paths forward.” But the rubble remains. And rubble does not forget. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s war kept burning on the edge of Europe....The line between deterrence and disaster grows thinner every day.
So what did this week teach us? That government can close its doors while markets break records. That workers can be laid off while Wall Street celebrates. That the Fed can talk about “soft landings” while ordinary people crash into reality. That China’s stranglehold on rare-earths is no longer a future fear but a present fact. That Gaza’s brief silence, as fragile as it is, holds more humanity than all the speeches in Washington combined.
This was not just another week. It was another reminder that systems built on greed cannot stand forever. That power without accountability rots. That peace, when it finally appears, will not come from the podiums but from the people who refuse to stop walking home through the ruins. It was a mirror … showing us the empire we’ve become, the people we still are, and the thread of humanity holding it all together by sheer will. The question is not how long the thread can last, but whether we are brave enough to strengthen it.
So take this moment and make it matter. Lift your head when the noise tells you to bow. Speak when silence feels easier. Share what you have, even if it’s only understanding. Because the world is weary, and compassion is in itself a form of rebellion. And if we can still be kind to one another … still see each other in the wreckage … then there is still a path out of the darkness.
D. ARNIE ARNESEN
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Host of "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"