Peggy Gay Mazoch: May 31, 1947 – February 11, 2026
A bright and beautiful light quietly faded and peacefully made its way to the heavens in the early morning hours of February 11, 2026, at the age of 78 at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX.
Born Peggy Jean Manning to Betty George (Sampson) and Arthur Doyle “Buddy” Manning on May 31, 1947, in Nevada County, Prescott, Arkansas, Peggy’s early years were spent on the family farm. Soon joined by her younger brother Arthur Doyle “Sonny” Manning, Jr., her father Buddy-a WWII veteran and builder by trade-moved the young family to Houston during the housing boom of the early 1950s.
Peggy attended Sam Houston High School, where she was a majorette for the drill team. Upon graduating in 1965, she attended Sam Houston State University, where she met her first husband, Don Gay (1967–1980)-the father of her two children, Don Gay Jr. and Shane Gay.
The couple left college to pursue Don’s drag racing career and the family automotive business in Dickinson, Texas. Upon the opening of the new Astrodome in 1965, Peggy became an Astrodome “Spacette,” ushering people to their seats in the new stadium.
Peggy worked for Grumman at Johnson Space Center during the early Gemini/Apollo programs before transitioning to help with the family automotive business. She proudly earned her business degree from the University of Houston. She later became a flight attendant for Continental Airlines, worked in commercial banking as a corporate designer and portfolio manager for United Bank/Bank One (decorating numerous banks throughout Houston), and concluded her career as a real estate agent and broker with the esteemed Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty.
Peggy married Kerry Wayne Mazoch in 2002 in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Peggy gained two wonderful stepdaughters, Kristen and Kourtney. The couple enjoyed many years working with the National Exchange Club Foundation for the Prevention of Child Abuse, as well as heavy involvement with the Czech Museum of Houston.
Peggy and Kerry enjoyed spending many weekends at their lake house on Lake Travis in Austin and spent many Saturdays cheering on the University of Texas football team. They enjoyed traveling around the world with friends and family, but most of all, she cherished spending time with her five grandchildren.
Peggy is preceded in death by her parents, Betty George and Arthur Doyle Manning; her brother, Sonny Manning; and her previous husband, Don Gay.
Survivors include her son Don Gay Jr. and wife Kimberly; son Shane Gay and wife Katharine; stepdaughter Kristen Mazoch; stepdaughter Kourtney and husband Trey Young; sister-in-law Karen Manning; niece Melissa and husband Tyler Streiff and their children Ryder, Tanner and Hunter; five grandchildren: Eli, Caleb, and Jonah Gay, Sophie Gay, and Brayden Young; cousin Barbara and husband Joe Ellenburg and family; and cousin James and wife Kelly and family.
Services
Monday, February 16th 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Wake and Rosary Memorial Oaks Funeral Home 13001 Katy Freeway Houston, Texas 77079
Tuesday, February 17th 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Funeral Mass St. John Vianney Catholic Church 625 Nottingham Oaks Trail Houston, Texas 77079
11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Catered Reception for All Memorial Oaks Funeral Home Banquet Hall 13001 Katy Freeway Houston, Texas 77079
Stock market crash in 2026? Bad news about President Trump’s tariffs and a warning from the Federal Reserve explain why it’s possible.
Story by Trevor Jennewine
Feb 18
Key take aways
Market Warning: The S&P 500 has a forward PE ratio of 22.2, near historical highs, signaling potential vulnerability similar to the dot-com bubble and COVID-19 pandemic, which led to significant bear markets.
Tariff Impact: Trump’s tariffs have raised import taxes to near 90-year highs, with studies showing U.S. companies and consumers bear 86–96% of the cost, slowing economic growth and potentially reducing corporate earnings.
Investor Advice: Avoid trying to time the market; consider small positions, focus on stocks you can hold through downturns, and explore alternatives to the S&P 500 for potentially higher returns.
Key Points
In November, the Federal Reserve’s Financial Stability Report warned that the S&P 500’s valuation was near the upper end of its historical range.
Elevated valuations are particularly worrisome because recent studies suggest President Trump’s tariffs will be a headwind to economic growth.
The S&P 500 finished January with a forward PE multiple above 22, an expensive valuation that has historically preceded bear markets.
In September, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned investors that stocks were expensive, but the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has since added about 3%. Not a substantial return, but large enough to say the market has brushed aside the warning to some degree.
However, recent studies suggest President Trump’s tariffs will slow economic growth, despite his assurances to the contrary. High valuations alone could cause stocks to drop, but the market could fall sharply (or even crash) if tariffs become a material headwind for the economy.
Here’s what investors should know.
Image source: Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian.
Bad news about President Trump’s tariffs: U.S. companies and consumers are paying the bill
President Trump’s tariffs have raised the average tax on U.S. imports roughly fivefold to 13%, though some sources put that percentage a few points higher or lower. Regardless, the average tax on imports is near its highest level in 90 years.
Trump has consistently argued that tariffs will help the U.S. economy and recently claimed the burden has “fallen overwhelmingly on foreign producers and middlemen, including large corporations that are not from the U.S.” But recent studies suggest the opposite is true.
Research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research states, “Costs are largely borne by the United States, as exporters have, on average, not dropped their prices.” The authors estimate U.S. companies and consumers paid 94% of the tariffs in 2025.
Research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York states, “Our results show that the bulk of the tariff incidence continues to fall on U.S. firms and consumers.” The authors estimate foreign exporters absorbed 14% of the tariff costs in November, while U.S. companies and consumers paid the remaining 86%.
Research published by the Kiel Institute states, “American importers and consumers bear nearly the entire cost.” The authors estimate foreign exporters have absorbed only 4% of the tariffs, while the remaining 96% has been passed through to U.S. buyers.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates foreign exporters will absorb 5% of the tariffs, while the remaining 95% will be split between U.S. companies and consumers.
Here’s the big picture: Every dollar in tariff revenue the government siphons away from U.S. companies and consumers is a dollar they could have spent elsewhere to support the economy. In other words, tariffs leave businesses and consumers with less purchasing power, which slows economic growth.
The Federal Reserve’s warning: The stock market is very expensive by historical standards
The CBO says the Trump administration’s tariffs will “result in real GDP that is lower than it otherwise would have been if those tariffs had not been implemented.” That is bad news for the stock market because slower economic growth portends lower corporate earnings, and stocks are typically valued as a multiple of corporate earnings.
That bad news comes at a particularly inopportune time because the S&P 500 has maintained an elevated valuation for several months. In September, Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned, “equity prices are fairly highly valued.” In November, the Federal Reserve’s Financial Stability Report said the S&P 500 had a forward price-to-earnings (PE) ratio “close to the upper end of its historical range.”
The situation has not improved. The S&P 500 finished January with a forward PE multiple of 22.2, well above the 10-year average of 18.8. The index has only sustained a similar valuation during two other periods in last four decades: the dot-com bubble and the Covid-19 pandemic. Both incidents ultimately led to bear markets, during which the S&P 500 fell 49% and 34%, respectively.
By definition, forward PE ratios are calculated based on forward earnings estimates, meaning stocks are already expensive by historical standards even if earnings grow as fast as Wall Street anticipates. But if analysts have overestimated forward earnings — a possibility made more likely by tariffs — the stock market could decline sharply, or even crash, in the future.
Should you sell your entire portfolio? Absolutely not. Trying to time the market could easily backfire. For instance, productivity gains from artificial intelligence could offset economic weakness created by tariffs, in which case stocks could avoid a bear market despite high valuations. However, you should be cautious when putting money into the market. Start with small positions, and never buy stocks you would feel uncomfortable holding during through a steep sell-off.
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Trump trade adviser Navarro says administration may force data center builders like Meta to ‘internalize’ costs
Story by Garrett Downs
Feb 15
President Donald Trump’s trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro said on Sunday that the White House may force data center builders to absorb utility costs.
Data centers powering artificial intelligence are straining the U.S. electricity grid and raising consumers’ electric and water bills.
The potential move comes as Trump’s handling of the economy continues to sink in the polls, as voters grow concerned about “affordability.”
White House trade advisor Peter Navarro speaks to members of the media near the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 21, 2025.
CNBC
Watch CNBC’s full interview with Peter Navarro
President Donald Trump‘s trade and manufacturing adviser, , said on Sunday that the White House may force data center builders to absorb their costs as voters continue to sour on the economy and utility prices soar.
“All of these data center builders, Meta on down, need to pay for all, all of the costs,” Navarro said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “They need to pay, not only pay for the electricity that they’re using on the grid, but they have to pay for the resiliency that they’re affecting as well. They need to pay for the water. So there’s activity, action here going forward, where we force them to internalize the cost.”
Navarro did not detail what the White House’s plan to force data center builders to internalize costs would look like. CNBC has reached out to the White House for clarification.
When asked about Navarro’s remarks, a Meta spokesperson said the company already pays for all of its energy usage.
“Meta pays the full costs for energy used by our data centers so they aren’t passed onto consumers — and we go beyond that by paying for new and upgraded local infrastructure as well as adding new power to the grid,” the spokesperson said.
Data centers and their drag on utilities are part of the affordability problem. Electricity prices spiked 6.9% year over year in 2025 and show little sign of easing. Navarro sought to pin the blame for soaring costs on former President Joe Biden, who left office over a year ago.
“I just want to assure people that we’re on it, we also feel your pain,” Navarro said. “We understand the ravages that inflation took on you because of Joe Biden’s irresponsibility, but we are addressing that with economic policy that ultimately will make wages rise faster than the inflation rate, and that’s the key to affordability.”
But Americans increasingly blame the Trump administration for rising costs. As the November 2026 midterms approach, polls consistently find Trump underwater on the economy. Democrats are pounding Trump and the Republicans on affordability, arguing that everyday goods and services have grown too expensive. Democrats have taken a 5.2 point lead in the generic ballot ahead of the November midterm elections that could loosen Trump’s grip on Washington, according to polling averages from RealClearPolitics.
While Navarro sought to blame the former president’s administration for Americans’ struggle with affordability, Trump himself has said he’s “very proud” of the state of the economy. In an interview with “NBC Nightly News” that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday, the president was asked, “At what point are we in the Trump economy?”
“I’d say we’re there now,” he replied.
The Trump administration has recently taken steps to address the strain on data center electricity and rising utility costs.
Several states and the White House signed a pact in January urging the nation’s largest grid operator, PJM Interconnection, to make big technology companies pay for new power plants on the system. PJM operates the grid in some of the most data center-heavy areas in the U.S., including northern Virginia and New Jersey.
The pact called for $15 billion in new generation capacity within PJM, to be financed by tech companies, and urged the operator to hold an emergency auction to procure the power. The move comes as the administration simultaneously fights offshore wind projects in the Northeast, some of which are fully permitted or under construction.
“Perhaps no region in America is more at risk than in PJM,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said after the announcement. “That’s why President Trump asked governors across the Mid-Atlantic to come together and call upon PJM to allow America to build big reliable power plants again.”
POLITICO last week reported on a draft compact that the White House wants tech companies to sign to ensure data centers don’t affect consumers’ utility bills.
Trump said last month on Truth Social that he had struck a deal with Microsoft “to ensure that Americans don’t ‘pick up the tab’ for their POWER consumption, in the form of paying higher Utility bills.” The president added that his administration was negotiating with other tech giants and that there would be “More to come soon!”
Microsoft pledged last month not to raise utility costs near its data centers, and to replenish water used by the centers.
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WordPress just tried to erase this whole page. I feel “WHIP LASH” for sure. They replaced my whole paragraph.
The Copilot needs to go back to the drawing board and solve the problem rather than create a panic problem. I thought that is why we hired him to fix problems?
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The following is curated by the COPILOT.
Historic signals warn of looming market slump
Multiple historic indicators, including the near-record Shiller P/E ratio, point to a possible major stock market downturn in 2026. Analysts warn that overvaluation, an AI investment bubble, political uncertainty from upcoming midterms, and Federal Reserve divisions could amplify volatility. While short-term risks are high, historical data shows long-term investors often recover strongly from market corrections.
Shiller P/E ratio signals rare dangerAI investment surge may mask risks Federal Reserve split raises policy doubts Long-term investors may weather volatility
Shiller P/E ratio signals rare danger
The S&P 500’s Shiller CAPE Ratio closed at 40.35 on Feb. 11, its second-highest level since 1871, trailing only the dot-com bubble peak. Historically, CAPE readings above 30 have preceded significant market corrections, with past instances leading to 20% or greater losses in major indexes. While timing is uncertain, analysts caution that such extended valuations have rarely been sustainable. 12
Artificial intelligence is driving unprecedented corporate spending, with tech giants investing heavily in data center infrastructure. However, analysts warn that optimization of AI for profit could take years, similar to the internet’s adoption curve. If the AI bubble bursts, the same companies fueling market gains could trigger a sharp downturn.
The Fed is experiencing rare internal divisions, with recent meetings showing members pushing for both larger and smaller rate cuts. This discord, coupled with Jerome Powell’s pending departure and President Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next chair, has raised concerns about the Fed’s independence and policy direction. Markets currently expect rates to remain on hold in the near term, with gradual easing later in 2026.1
Long-term investors may weather volatility while short-term market risks are elevated, historical data shows that bear markets are often brief compared to longer-lasting bull runs. Past crashes, including those in 2020 and 2025, resolved within days to weeks, and healthy companies tend to recover strongly. Analysts recommend focusing on fundamentally sound stocks to withstand potential downturns.
Now, where are the people from the departments of the government in charge of our economy? It is time to hear from them. As many of these boomerangs as we have been through – why are we just waiting for it to happen instead of “solving the problem by constantly harassing the public with these statements when people are already put in dire situations with their lives?
Fix the problem, now – not after it happens. Whoever put the country in this fix needs to fix it or be fired. It has happened too many times.
There is a law against causing people to panic. The co-pilot is there to help. Maybe it needs to have a physical and who knows maybe his driver or chips need to be replaced. Was the problem caused by the Magnificent 7 over-spending – then they need to adjust by adding from their personal funds and fix it before it crashes.
Calm and prayer are the answer. The co-pilot needs to bring results not warnings..
The saying “Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” is a profound expression that encapsulates the value of love and the pain it can bring. It suggests that experiencing love, even when it ends in heartbreak, is more valuable than never experiencing love at all. This saying is often used to reflect on the impact of love on our lives, the lessons learned from past relationships, and the growth that comes from both love and loss. It serves as a reminder that even the most painful experiences can lead to valuable memories and personal growth.
And, now, one of my favorite singers, who can sing any song and make a hit.
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADNzvEXw9wU
and, lastly, a song that has always been a favorite,
CNBC
The Motley Fool
kommonsentsjane 