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 bottom quietly bleeds out. Then we pulled on the thread of where all that leverage actually lives, and found that the “safe” parts of the financial system—banks, money markets, insurers—are the ones funding the riskiest trades, all stacked on the same narrow AI bet. When it unwinds, the dampeners become the accelerants.

Chapters

Intro: 00:00:38

Quick Takes: 00:01:30

Max Notes: 00:08:43

Killer Left Take of the Week: 00:21:05

Chart of the Week: 00:23:01

Headlines: 00:27:41

Outro: 00:28:47

Resources

Bloomberg Television: OpenAI Proposes Giving the US Government a 5% Stake, FT Says

CNBC Television: Palantir CEO Alex Karp says ‘something has gone completely wrong’ with how AI is sold

CBS News: Trump admits he called FIFA chief about Folarin Balogun’s red card: “That wasn’t a foul”

Forbes Breaking News: Graham Platner Issues Video Statement After Allegation Of Sexual Assault Emerges

The New York Times: Nearly a Million Investors Lost a Total of $3.8 Billion on Trump Crypto Coin

MacroMicro: US - M1 & M2 Money Supply

Current Affairs: Of Course The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated Trump

Bloomberg: Leveraged ETFs Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Truthdig: Was USAID Really Neocolonial?

The Intercept: RFK Jr. Claims He’s Investigating Terrorism Now, Too

MotherJones: “Morally reprehensible”: Prediction Markets Offer Bets on Wildfires

UNFTR Resources

Video: On The Record 07-07-26 (2008 Parallels | McConnell Still Missing & Platner Should Be)

Essay: Is It 2008 All Over Again?

--

If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.

Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.

Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.

Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.

Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.