Shitty: The Quest to Make Everything Terrible.

Everything is getting worse, but the country hasn’t collapsed. This is all by design. Donald Trump is a useful idiot for the people behind the scenes and Project 2025, most notably Russell Vought. The Trump administration is using the nation’s finances like a personal piggy bank for themselves and …

On The Record (07-21-26).

This week we went to see The Odyssey and came out thinking about Bronze Age collapse, because Nolan’s Odysseus is haunted by the wreckage of a civilization that mistook conquest for strength—and the parallels basically write themselves. Then we checked in on the Leading Economic Index, which has be…

On The Record (07-14-26).

This week we read the federal budget the way it’s meant to be read: as a moral document. What it shows is individuals paying more, corporations getting refunds, classrooms getting gutted, and the pentagon getting fed, all while the deficit stays exactly where it always was. The “fiscally responsibl…

Omnibus (07-11-26).

Max and 99 are back for another round of Omnibus. They hit headlines on the left’s role in silencing Platner’s accusers, the ICE shooting of a Houston father, a parasite outbreak causing explosive diarrhea, and Meta using your Instagram photos to train AI. Then they tackle listener emails on the di…

The New Republicrats: Snakes of the Democratic Party.

Ten sitting house democrats and five candidates just signed the “Promise to America” pledge ensuring the public they are not socialists. It has six banal points with no specifics, no plan, and no agenda that might actually help anyone. Of the six, five are limp, empty platitudes. The sixth is a Tro…

On The Record (07-07-26).

This week we asked whether 2026 is 2008 or something worse, and the answer is: different disease, same symptoms. The hiring freeze, the housing collapse, the credit stress all rhyme with the last crisis, but this time the economy is drowning in money that just isn’t moving, pooling at the top while…

The Bear and the American Male Archetype: Carmen Shrugged.

The hit series The Bear has finally concluded. The final episode is so uplifting that most reviewers appear to believe the arc of the show’s main character follows suit with a redemptive arc. But the connection to Ayn Rand’s famous book The Fountainhead might reveal the opposite meaning. The show’s…

On The Record (6-30-26).

This week we mapped out how Wall Street has talked itself into a story it can’t stress-test—Accenture getting punished whether AI succeeds or fails, Saylor quietly selling the Bitcoin he swore he’d never sell, and the hyperscalers borrowing billions to fund a buildout that may be obsolete before it…

Is Private Credit the Pin That Pops the Bubble?

Is private credit the pin that pops the market bubble? The short answer is no—but that’s the wrong question entirely. Private credit is now a $1.8–$3.5 trillion market, rivaling the entire U.S. leveraged loan and high-yield bond markets combined. It’s direct lending, shadow banking, and middle-mark…

Omnibus (6-27-26).

Max and 99 are back, back, back again. They hit headlines on the Supreme Court shielding Roundup from cancer lawsuits, Stephen Miller quietly gutting disability rights, a socialist congressman who tried to abolish the Senate in 1911, and the Netherlands criminalizing conversion therapy. Then they d…