Markets are still rising because Trump keeps pulling back from escalation, which is good for stockholders but bad for lower and middle income Americans getting squeezed.

• Trump ended his Iran operation and shifted to a softer "Project Freedom" blockade after Iran pushed back with missiles.
• Pete Hegseth was told to say the missiles did not count as an attack, so the US would not retaliate and a deal could move forward.
• Stocks keep going up, hiding the pain from tariffs, high gas prices, and weak consumer spending.
• Credit card charge-offs jumped sharply in the last month, showing lower and middle income people cannot pay their bills.
• AI hardware spending is booming and expected to hit $1.1 trillion next year, with only 20% of companies actually using AI so far.

Outlook: Trump will keep talking the market up through 2029 to avoid a crash, so stocks likely keep rising even as regular people fall further behind.