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S15 EP174: Hour 2 - Pentagon and FBI Data Breaches Rattle Washington

Episode length: 37m

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Erick breaks down the Pentagon data breach that exposed nearly 3 million people and the FBI job site hack, asking whether Iran is probing American defenses while Pete Hegseth's future gets shakier heading into the midterms. He also warns that the 10-year Treasury yield at 5.29 percent is squeezing mortgages and credit cards, holds up Argentina's Javier Milei as a lesson in fiscal sanity, and digs into Derek Thompson's data on the collapse of hosting friends at home and what it means for loneliness, faith, and community.

  • Pentagon and FBI data breaches: 2.76 million living people and 294,000 deceased exposed through the Defense Manpower Data Center, the FBI job application site under investigation, and Erick's suspicion that Iran or China is behind the probing
  • Pete Hegseth's future: Republican senators whispering that the Defense Secretary will not survive the midterms, House Democrats eyeing impeachment, and the fired generals and admirals Congress liked
  • Iran, Strait of Hormuz, and oil: Condoleezza Rice on Fox News, Abbas Araghchi's doomsday war warning on Meet the Press, and oil prices easing while Iranian crude stays bottled up
  • Bond yields and Javier Milei: the 10-year Treasury at 5.29 percent, a national debt over 40 trillion dollars, stagflation fears, and Argentina cutting tariffs, freezing new currency, and taming inflation
  • Americans stopped hosting: Derek Thompson at The Atlantic on monthly hosting falling from 42 percent to 12 percent, Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, Rosaria Butterfield, Pew data on church community and mental health, and Erick's Sunday night porch tradition
Host:
Erick Erickson