A world-historical financial event was the 1971 default by the United States on its international commitment to redeem dollars for gold, thereby creating a purely paper, Nixonian global monetary system. Since then, the value of the United States dollar in gold has dropped by more than 99 percent. The amount of dollars that an ounce of gold will buy has gone up by about 140 times.
Apparently to illustrate that the state of California has little interest in controlling its fiscal profligacy or in protecting the property rights of anyone who can be demonized as rich, a union-backed state ballot initiative titled “The Billionaire Tax Act” has been proposed.
The Epstein files have revealed the names of many wealthy and prominent people within Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit, many of whom are now justifiably going down because of their affiliations with Epstein.
But the real rot regarding Epstein relates to the extremely sweet sweetheart plea bargain he received from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida.
On February 11, Attorney General Pam Bondi testified before the House Judiciary Committee. It was a disgraceful performance. Bondi responded to legitimate constitutional issues raised by the members of the committee with a stream of irrelevant insults. Her childish reactions showed that she is utterly unfit for her position. Of course, the Democrats on the committee were unfriendly, but it was her duty to maintain her composure and respond in a dignified manner. She conspicuously failed to do so.
Sam Altman said some companies are engaging in “AI washing,” invoking the technology as cover for layoffs they would have made anyway.
The core PPI increased a seasonally adjusted 0.8%, more than the 0.6% gain in December and well ahead of the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 0.3%.
Forty-one percent of Americans now say they sympathize more with the Palestinians in the Middle East situation, while 36% sympathize more with the Israelis.
UBS downgraded U.S. equities, saying factors that powered years of outperformance are starting to fade.
“As soon as Congress reconvenes next week, we will compel a vote of the full House of Representatives on the bipartisan Khanna-Massie War Powers Resolution.”
[Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule by Hélène Landemore (Thesis: An Imprint of Penguin Random House, 2026; 309 pp.)]
