david friedberg

🚨 Interview!: Friedberg sits down with Sen. John Fetterman -- The broken Democratic Party -- SAVE Act moves through Senate, election fraud -- Iran exit strategy, NATO allies bail -- Israel's influence, AIPAC, growing anti-Israel sentiment -- National wealth tax, anti-AI sentiment -- Government fraud, debt spiral (0:00) David Friedberg welcomes Senator John Fetterman; SAVE Act thoughts (1:08) The broken Democratic Party: TDS, what he stands for, why the party changed, losing bipartisanship, popularity with Republicans (11:42) Iran exit strategy, NATO allies bail on the US (17:42) Israel's influence, AIPAC, growing anti-Israel sentiment (20:16) SAVE Act, why he supports voter ID but not this bill, election fraud (26:41) Government shutdown, red lines with ICE and immigration, birthright citizenship, why Biden opened the border (32:49) Debt death spiral, government fraud (37:38) Why he's still a Democrat, national wealth tax, anti-AI sentiment, state of agriculture

Fun conversation with @Jason and @friedberg on why Austin and Texas have been a great place to grow @delltech into a $113.5B company, the accelerating demand for AI infrastructure. Plus @altcap on what @InvestAmerica24 @TrumpAccounts means for the next generation. Thanks for having me on @theallinpod open.spotify.com/episode/0FotiY…

California Democrat breaks ranks with his own party and exposes the “sad truth” about the proposed “wealth tax” on billionaires. “This may be the message people need to hear…” “I don’t think it will be the billionaires and the wealthiest who pay this tax.” “What that means is as wealthier individuals, people who own companies leave the state, it will be the MIDDLE CLASS WHO ARE LEFT HOLDING THE BAG and asked to pay more to cover the existing services and infrastructure maintenance that the state needs.” — San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan

thanks @RayDalio for the conversation - DOGE’s failure, gold’s rise, tariffs, and what’s ahead for the US…

“ARP” is live… skynet is born? we thought AGI would require recursive training of underlying models but maybe recursive outputs is all it took? (AGI was always there)

This interview was published exactly one year ago and it feels prescient today. Well done @friedberg. youtube.com/watch?v=1_rvVT…

NEW IN PIRATE WIRES: California’s 2012 income tax hike, sold as a 7-year “emergency measure,” was extended until 2030 back in 2016. Now, due to a new potential ballot proposal, it could become permanent. As the state simultaneously braces for a totally temporary, “one-time,” “emergency” wealth tax ballot battle, take a look at the saga of Prop 30 for an instructive lesson on the “temporary” nature of tax hikes in California. @EvanMilenko 👇

All-In Interview: FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary @friedberg sits down with @DrMakaryFDA for a comprehensive convo on his overhaul of the FDA: -- Safely accelerating clinical trials -- US vs China in biotech -- Fixing the Food Pyramid -- Rethinking vaccines with common sense -- Cutting drug prices -- Power of AI in healthcare (0:00) Friedberg intros FDA Commissioner Marty Makary (3:21) Inside the 40+ major FDA reforms in 10 months (7:51) The China Race: Winning back biotech leadership (13:14) Accelerating drug approvals safely, how to cut down on clinical trial timelines (33:13) Reshaping the failed Food Pyramid (41:29) GLP-1s and America’s Obesity Epidemic (49:54) Rethinking vaccines from first principles (59:40) Lowering drug prices, the power of AI for healthcare (1:18:57) What causes autism?

David Friedberg: “ What if we could make all residential electricity free in the United States?” “We consume, in this country, about 4 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity.” “1/3 of that, $250B, is residential consumption.” “2/3 of that, $500B, is industrial and commercial consumption.” “Theoretically, you could increase the price on industrial and commercial consumption by ~50% and make all residential electricity in the United States free.” “And then on the commercial and industrial side, the reason you would then have an incentive to build private power systems would be that you can bring your costs down.” “And instead of centralizing all of this with the utilities, what it can do is it can force a market demand for industrial and commercial users to build their own power systems, which would increase overall electricity supply in the United States.” “The data centers are the tip of the iceberg, but if you make this a pan industrial problem, then all of the industrial companies would have to take this path.”

California started with the Gold Rush and might end with the Golden Exit. it has been underreported how much wealth has left CA because of the asset seizure tax being proposed. a private poll was conducted amongst affected individuals a few days ago and 80-90% surveyed said they have already left CA in 2025 or will leave in 2026 if the ballot measure looks likely to pass. $2-2.5T of assets gone, representing about $20B of annual revenue for the state government. and likely hundreds of thousands of jobs now at risk. less reported is the bigger exodus underway from folks who are NOT directly affected but worry (as they should) that this law will quickly transition from billionaires to everyone else... the initiative actually gives CA legislators the right to take anyone's post-tax assets anytime in the future based on a majority vote. this isn't about billionaires. it's a new "tax system" that simply destroys private property rights in America. all private property is now public property. even after paying your taxes, it's not legally your property anymore. it's the government's, you're just borrowing it. legislators will decide what you get to keep and temporarily use each year. countless founders, CEOs, and other business leaders are actively looking to move their companies out of state. not just tech, not just AI, not just billionaires, but the core engine of California's prosperity since 1847 is unraveling. and here is how this initiative risks unraveling America: - ~10 states have explicit or implicit prohibitions against an asset seizure tax... - individuals affected in CA (and other states trying to do the same) will move to these states that endow private property rights. - CA already has a $20-30B annual budget deficit, an unfunded ~$1T pension liability for public employees/unions, and $500B of debt outstanding. the state can not afford to borrow much more and will launch more asset seizures to meet its obligations. - asset seizures will first transition to "millionaires" and eventually to the entire middle class as more asset seizures drive more people to leave the state. - the deficit, debt, and job loss will spiral. the Golden Exit. - no US state has ever declared bankruptcy. in addition to CA, dozens of other states face similar fiscal crises - legislators promised future benefits that can't be paid or theft and waste have been allowed to run rampant and unabated for years. - struggling states will eventually request federal government assistance, as they always have in times of fiscal crisis, effectively "federalizing state debt". - states not in crisis will declare "enough is enough", individuals in those states will refuse to pay their federal taxes (why pay for other people's mistakes?), some states may try to secede from the Union, and a constitutional and civil crisis will erupt. this may seem far-fetched but it is the obvious domino effect of selectively deleting private property rights for some people in some states. i am not a billionaire and this CA bill does not affect me, but i care about the country and the state of CA. i want both to thrive. it's obvious that there are people in CA in desperate need of support and assistance, and inequities may exist that need to be rectified, but eliminating private property rights is the wrong path for everyone. a few alternatives to consider first: 1) with a $350B annual budget, CA can cut programs that result in theft and little-to-no benefit for citizens. $50B per year is likely recoverable. 2) if more taxes are needed, tax loans against unrealized capital gains (very few objections will arise), eliminate tax-free rollover of certain appreciated assets (real estate industry will fight), create a step up in basis on inheritance (some will fight but most will support). likely $10Bs of incremental revenue can be realized. 3) restructure all public retirement programs from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution. eliminating the unfunded retirement liabilities ($1T+) will be the release valve on the future the state so desperately needs. we must address what ails us without dividing and destroying our state, our nation, our home. ignore the rhetoric, these are the facts.

The @CAgovernor and I have had our policy disagreements over the past few years on issues like his opposition to Prop 36, but he is spot on here. This so-called wealth tax is going to backfire and middle class taxpayers are going to be forced to pick up the bill. We need to close federal tax loopholes, cut waste - not crash California's economy. politico.com/news/2026/01/1…

this has a bit of a “we need to start The Foundation on Terminus” vibe but maybe that’s where we are…

David Friedberg: California’s “Billionaire Tax” is a Trojan Horse to Go After the Middle Class's Private Assets @friedberg: “The reason they're calling it a billionaire tax is to make it easier for people to vote for it, and sign up to this entirely new tax system that they're proposing to put on all Americans at some point, and for the first time ever degrading our private property rights.” “Forget about how much wealth you have, forget about how rich you are, forget about the term billionaire, millionaire, whatever it is.” “We're creating, or proposing the creation, of a new tax system that allows the government for the first time ever to come in and audit everything you own.” “All the jewelry your grandma gave you, the value of all the couches in your house, the value of your car, the value of all your stocks and bonds, and the government can come in, and for the first time, look through the veil into your personal property.” “And say, ‘Here's how much all this stuff is worth. I'm charging you a percentage of that. That's what I need to get paid.’ And it doesn't matter that it starts with billionaires. What matters is that we're giving the government the right to look into our private property and take a percentage of it every year.” “The total net worth of billionaires in the US is $8 trillion.” “The net worth of the US, the middle class, and everyone else is $170 trillion, compared to $8 trillion of the billionaires.” @chamath: “They need a way to open the door so that they can go after the real honey pot.” “The real honeypot is not 200 people.” @friedberg: “Just so everyone understands the real goal of this is not to tax billionaires, because there are other ways to tax billionaires.” “Charge them a capital gains tax if they borrow against their assets that they haven't paid capital gains tax on. Very simple, that can resolve this.” “Another thing you can do, you can raise the capital gains tax rate. Sounds unpopular. I don't agree with that, but that's another way to deal with this, which is to take the capital gains tax rate from 20% to 30%. You could do that.” “The real goal of this is to create, for the first time in American history, a private property asset seizure tax. Because they're going after the $170 trillion, not the $8 trillion that the billionaires have.”

@neilquinn *years

@friedberg My whole life I've always known about corruption but always just figured things would work themselves out. For the first time ever I really think things are insanely out of control and the US is in extreme risk over the next few decades.

now, let’s get rid of socialism at home.

@IOverIndex socialism is authoritarianism.

Friedberg's interview w/ Nobel Peace Prize Winner @MariaCorinaYA from October 🇻🇪 Good catch up on what's been going on in Venezuela 👇

@seanfenlon @RoKhanna @chamath awesome thank you!

@friedberg @RoKhanna @chamath David Friedberg reply set to music. Reply transformation to lyrics by Claude Opus 4.5. Music by Suno v5.

Peter Thiel is leaving California if we pass a 1% tax on billionaires for 5 years to pay for healthcare for the working class facing steep Medicaid cuts. I echo what FDR said with sarcasm of economic royalists when they threatened to leave, "I will miss them very much."

why not just raise income tax rates? because your real intent is not to just “provide healthcare”. you’re masking that you are proposing the creation of, for the first time in the 250 years of this American republic, an organized government seizure of private property from citizens. you’re calling it a “wealth tax” or a “billionaires tax” or “millionaires tax” or whatever nom du jour polls well. but at the end of the day, it’s the seizure of private property from citizens by the government. citizens that earned money, paid their fair taxes on those earnings (53% if they live in California) and are now being told they need to hand over after-tax assets because the government has failed to provide promised services with the revenue it’s collected, and are now re-casting their own failure to be a socio-economic inequity that must be justly resolved... a slippery slope that has never gone anywhere good (see economic effects in USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, France and Norway wealth tax etc.) the American founders fled tyranny in Europe and this amazing nation was populated by immigrants (myself and your parents) from around the world not just looking for a “better life” but for a place where they could have freedom from tyrannical governments that can take what they want from private citizens. a great nation borne of property rights, the rule of law, and endowed freedoms to believe, speak, or act. these principles led to the greatest run of innovations, successes, and widespread increase in prosperity, for all citizens, ever seen. the citizens, the individuals, not the institutions, delivered this progress. those who invented, who toiled, who bled, who sacrificed, who took risk and persevered, who led, and who changed the world, are not charlatans, kleptocrats, or oligarchs. they’re what made us all better off. prosperity is a measure of america’s success, not its failure. it is your principle that is so offensive, as evidenced by the broad disdain for your flippant flirtation with the darkest of human fantasy - socialism. you and other neo-socialists have led so many of us to reflect on America’s history and what it is becoming. that now leads so many to consider, so unnecessarily, leaving their homes for a place where everyone stands up to shout down the principle you suggest. because if your ideas are now considered moderate, it’s clear this titanic is sinking. that a “simple tax” of taking assets that have been earned, through toil and tribulation, rightly taxed, and preserved, should now be unjustly seized, is your solution to a problem of obvious government mismanagement and outright fraud, tells us that your true motivation lies not in giving people healthcare but in cutting down success and deleting the system of prosperity and opportunity for all. i don’t care, and neither should anyone else, what the sum total market value of a private citizens private assets might be. it is none of my business and should be none of yours. because, again, once you open that pandora’s box, we might as well study Lord of the Flies … there is literally nothing stopping 51% of citizens demanding that their government go out and seize 100% of the private property of the 49%. want to give healthcare to people in need? do your job and fix healthcare. make it affordable. want to be lazy about it? then do your job lazily and raise income taxes. want to take private property from private citizens who have paid their fair share of taxes and legally earned their property, then honestly declare that it is envy, not inequity, that you strive to resolve…

So putting aside the rhetorical flourish, you genuinely believe that a 1 percent tax on billionaires wealth for 5 years will kill the SV economy? Honest question. Or your concern is if that is expands to beyond that? Even @chamath has eloquently recognized that those with extreme wealth must do more for society given the backlash and angst people feel.

love it. but let’s do more! let’s take 10% from millionaires and do better health insurance! and a train from LA to fresno! and groceries! taking peoples assets after they’ve already paid 53% income tax on them is totally reasonable. or their pre-tax unrealized gains which forces then to sell illiquid assets or whatever... i’m just glad we’re gonna make this hard for them. they deserve it. actually, why stop there?? if we get this to work, we can get 51% of people to vote to take ALL the assets of the 49%! make it a 100% wealth tax on anyone over the average. this could be great. then we can do giant government things because government has proven so good at doing things! in fact, we can send the money to somalia! “make somalia great again” could be your 28 presidential run campaign slogan?? america’s founding fathers definitely intended the union to form around these principles! magnificent

@friedberg It's 1 percent a year for 5 years so Californians can have health insurance!