Iran channelled $7.5bn in foreign currency earnings from oil sales to its central bank during the first four months of the year, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.

Fars, citing Oil Ministry data, said the figure marked a 50 percent increase from the same period in 2025.

Officials expect the money to fund the government’s foreign currency requirements until late December.

The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled a plan to ease upward pressure on the cost of US debt by doubling its bond buybacks through November.

In announcing that it will buy back “at least” $4 billion worth of bonds over a two-month period, the US Department of Treasury said it was seeking “to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors where there is consistent strong sponsorship from market participants.”

🇺🇸🇨🇳 The Chinese are now making fun of the US financial situation and the massive $40 trillion debt pic.twitter.com/TJH72SepYR

— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) August 20, 2026

By Tyler Durden

Summary:

A multi-year cattle shortage has pushed the price of beef into very painful territory. In fact, in some areas of the country the price of ground beef now exceeds the federal minimum wage. This is the first time in U.S. history that this has ever happened. At the start of 2026, there were only 86.2 million head of cattle and calves in the United States. That is the smallest the national herd has been since 1951. Just think about that for a moment.

After several weeks of build up, today the Treasury announced that total public debt surpassed $40 trillion for the first time, after jumping by over $60 billion in one day, and has now surged by $1 trillion in just over three months, and by a third of the total in less than five years, as US lawmakers continue to ignore calls to contend with historically wide fiscal deficits.