Good Morning. 43 days of oil cover, down from 65. Everyone is misreading the number. And, France fines cold-calling, some thoughts on downgrading, and the end of right-on-red in Nashville (forwarded this email? Join 523k readers).
Missed yesterday? Our most clicked link: Markets showing signs of a bubble
TOP STORY TODAY
Forty-Three Days
US crude inventories including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve now cover about 43 days of demand, down from a long-term average near 65 and the thinnest cushion since the early 1980s. Bank of America Global Research compiled the figure.
This measures cover, not depletion. Domestic production continues and imports continue. What shrinks is the buffer absorbing a shock, which matters more than usual with the Strait of Hormuz closed and roughly 20 percent of global seaborne oil rerouted.
Prices have swung hard. Brent touched $102 during the conflict before settling near $79 this week. The reserve itself sits around 340 million barrels, its lowest since 1983.
France Ends Cold-Calling
France bans unsolicited sales calls starting August 11. Companies must get explicit consent before dialing, a switch from the old system where consumers had to register on a no-call list that some call centers ignored anyway.
Penalties run up to $87,000 dollars per call for individuals and 435,000 dollars for companies. Roughly three-quarters of French adults get at least one unwanted sales call each week, and complaints jumped 113 percent in 2025.
The fallout lands elsewhere. Morocco's call center industry draws more than 80 percent of its revenue from French clients, and officials there estimate 40,000 to 50,000 jobs are at risk. Germany has had a similar ban since 2009.
Disney Licenses Fans
The company that built its reputation on aggressive copyright enforcement is now handing its characters to strangers. Disney and TikTok announced a global deal yesterday letting approved creators legally use clips from hundreds of Disney films and shows.
Videos will run in both places, on TikTok and inside Verts, the vertical feed Disney added to Disney+ in March. Creators opt in. Disney curates. Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and FX assets are all in scope.
A tiered Creator Ambassador Program adds rewards, event access, and career pathways for top performers. The US pilot starts in the coming months. Disney's previous outside-creator deal, with OpenAI's Sora, collapsed in March.
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The tool didn't save you time. It moved the bar.
German sociologist Hartmut Rosa answered a question nobody could crack: if every invention saves time, why does no one have any? Because speed never lowers the workload, it raises the expectation.
Letters took a week, so five replies was a full inbox. Email is instant, so now it's fifty. The hours got refilled before you could feel them. Rosa's word for it is the slipping slope. You are not standing still and falling behind, the ground is sliding under you, and full speed only holds your place.
Try this today. Name the last tool you added to save time, then name what expanded to eat the savings. That second answer is where your week actually went.
AI writes faster. So you write four times as much.
Slack killed meetings. So questions arrive at 9pm.
Automated the report. So monthly became weekly.
An argument to own less
Christina Mychas paid off six figures of debt as a recovering shopaholic, and the thing that finally broke the habit was realizing everything she owned was charging her twice. She paid in money at the register, then kept paying in time, cleaning, maintenance, and mental space for years after. Her fix was not minimalism. It was raising the bar.
If it's not a hell yes, it's a no. She also names the real culprit behind most clutter: the fantasy self. The version of you who was going to become a runner, a chef, a guy who finally gets organized. Fantasy self has big goals, expensive taste, and zero follow-through.
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