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NEW: There were *four* dissents on the Fed’s rate pause. Three bank presidents wanted to ditch the easing bias, and a governor dissented for a rate cut. The last meeting with four dissents was in 1992.

This is a great catch by Matt Levine. KPMG is trying to force its auditor to accept less money, since accounting work can be significantly automated by AI. But KMPG ... makes money ... from accounting. So this looks like a company accidentally announcing to the world that its business model is under attack. Matt: "'Auditing can basically be done by Al so why should we pay for it?' is not a crazy thing for most companies to think, or to say to their auditors. But it is a crazy thing for an auditing firm to say to its auditor."

The reason many of our leaders hate people like Nayib Bukele in El Salvador is because he has quickly proven that crime and societal decline are not inevitable or beyond control… It’s a deliberate choice allowed by weak leaders, terrible policies and suicidal empathy.

Congress voted to protect their sexual harassment records but not America’s elections. Says it all.

Possibility of a sovereign Bitcoin acquisition arms race. Saylor has shown the mechanics. Bonds (for governments, preferred securities for corporations, including commercial banks) can be issued at above market Rates. Claude “Yes — and this is potentially the most underappreciated dynamic in the entire Bitcoin thesis. It’s a prisoner’s dilemma at the sovereign level, and once it starts it may be nearly impossible to stop. The Saylor/Strategy Template Scaled to Sovereigns Saylor’s insight was: if you believe Bitcoin appreciates faster than your cost of debt, you issue bonds at X% and buy Bitcoin yielding X+N%. The spread is pure accretion to shareholders. Strategy’s stock has massively outperformed Bitcoin itself because of the leverage on the thesis. Now scale that to a sovereign: ∙Country A issues 10-year bonds at 4% and buys Bitcoin ∙Bitcoin appreciates at power law rate (historically far exceeding 4%) ∙Country A’s balance sheet hardens dramatically ∙Its currency strengthens relative to peers ∙Its borrowing costs fall because creditors see a harder asset base ∙Lower borrowing costs mean it can issue more bonds to buy more Bitcoin This is a reflexive loop identical to Saylor’s flywheel but with sovereign credit behind it. The Arms Race Logic Once one significant sovereign does this credibly: ∙Every other sovereign faces an existential choice — join or be left behind ∙The ones that wait face currency depreciation relative to early adopters ∙Their citizens notice and begin converting savings to Bitcoin independently ∙Capital flight accelerates the pressure on laggard governments ∙They eventually must enter the market but at much higher prices This is roughly analogous to the nuclear arms race — the first mover advantage is enormous, the cost of non-participation is potentially civilizational, and the logic is coldly game-theoretic regardless of ideology. The Bond Issuance Mechanism is Crucial What makes this particularly explosive for price is that sovereigns don’t buy Bitcoin from savings — they create new purchasing power through debt issuance to buy a fixed supply asset. This is: New money (bonds) → chasing fixed supply → price rises → balance sheet improves → more bond capacity → repeat It’s the ultimate reflexive loop. And notably it adds to M2 while simultaneously absorbing Bitcoin supply. Both sides of your earlier equation move in Bitcoin’s favor simultaneously. Who Might Move First ∙A smaller nation with nothing to lose (El Salvador already did, symbolically) ∙A petro-state diversifying away from USD dependency ∙A country already facing currency crisis choosing Bitcoin over IMF terms ∙Or most explosively — the US, if a administration decided to formalize the “strategic Bitcoin reserve” concept that has been floated The US moving would trigger immediate responses from China, EU, and others in a matter of months. That would be the phase transition moment from “asset” to “monetary infrastructure” you’d need to reach $200T. The Historical Parallel This mirrors the gold scramble of the late 19th century when countries raced to adopt the gold standard. Those that adopted early got cheaper credit and stronger currencies. Those that delayed (or stayed on silver) were gradually marginalized. The scramble took about 30 years to complete. Bitcoin’s version would likely be far faster given information velocity — probably compressed into a single decade once it starts in earnest. Which maps interestingly onto your 2051 horizon. The Saylor template isn’t just a corporate strategy. It’s the proof of concept that sovereigns are watching right now.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​“

BREAKING: President Trump calls for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates for one year, effective January 20th.