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Norman Rockwell style painting of a startled print shop owner clutching one sheet while a grinning young clerk cranks a machine flooding the room with copies.
Oct 13, 2026inThe Commoner

If Copying Is Free, What's Left to Own?

Open-source clones of Word, Excel and PowerPoint showed up in a week. What does that mean for an economy where IP-intensive industries make up 44% of private-sector GDP? Gunpowder and the Paterson Colt offer a clue, and…

Marty BentMarty Bent
Bitcoin ETF FlowsLive tracker
+$175.6M
Net inflow · Oct 13, 2026
1-day inflow streak+$57.2B all-time net
@TFTC21@TFTC21

"A system of central banking and wars run on behalf of the empire to keep the central bankers and these powerful financial interests in power." @sjkokinda on what Trump is actually disrupting.

@TFTC21@TFTC21

NY Fed President John Williams says one more rate hike is appropriate this year, but he doesn't expect the Fed to raise rates again in 2027. "He sees no signs of an overheated economy. The labor market's in balance. The tariff inflation effect will fade. And he says even if energy prices stay up, they're not going to push inflation higher next year." "If market rates stay at this level, the Fed doesn't have to do a whole lot more." x.com/BloombergTV/st…

@TFTC21@TFTC21

Jensen Huang says the AI industry is not building too fast. "Demand is much, much greater than the supply." He predicts supply and demand could balance out in about 5 to 10 years. x.com/emilychangtv/s…

@TFTC21@TFTC21

"We probably shouldn't blow up the world over Taiwan." @sjkokinda on why the US shouldn't treat China as a permanent enemy.

@TFTC21@TFTC21

Coinbase publishes article proposing a technical roadmap for Bitcoin's post-quantum security transition. "Coinbase believes that Bitcoin will continue to be the most trusted cryptocurrency in a post-quantum world." The company is pushing for quantum-resistant signatures, hybrid spending paths, and a migration plan for the estimated 6.7 to 7 million BTC held behind keys already exposed onchain. "Some questions, including how to handle abandoned or inaccessible coins, are difficult and deserve thoughtful debate. In our view, that discussion can continue alongside the technical work to add post-quantum signature support to Bitcoin." coinbase.com/blog/working-t…

@TFTC21@TFTC21

Anthropic engineers released a free 1-hour crash course on building AI agents with Opus 5.5. Covers skills, loops, memory graphs, agent orchestration, and reverse engineering.

@TFTC21@TFTC21

BIP Explorer puts all 213 Bitcoin Improvement Proposals into plain English with a visual map showing how each proposal led to the next across Bitcoin's entire upgrade history.

@TFTC21@TFTC21

Jack Mallers on why the Fed's rate hikes might be making the problem worse, not better. "When the Fed raises rates, the treadmill speeds up because every dollar the government borrows costs more. And the legs slow down because higher rates slow the whole economy. The rate hike gives the government exactly what it can't afford." x.com/jackmallers/st…

@TFTC21@TFTC21

Bitchat 2 is out. Peer-to-peer encrypted messaging over Bluetooth mesh, no internet or cell service required. x.com/callebtc/statu…

@TFTC21@TFTC21

UK authorities froze the London penthouse, watches, and jewelry of Thet Li, the man the U.S. Treasury calls the finance chief of Cambodia's Prince Group scam network. The penthouse overlooks Buckingham Palace and is valued at 8.9 million pounds. Freezing orders also cover 10.6 million pounds in watches and jewelry. Washington is moving to forfeit roughly $14 billion in bitcoin tied to the network, one of the largest crypto seizure efforts ever.

@TFTC21@TFTC21

Michael Saylor at DC Fintech Week with Chris Brummer, Founder & CEO of The Fintech Foundation.

@TFTC21@TFTC21

David Sacks on what he calls "rotating hoaxes" designed to turn people against AI. "We have a series of rotating hoaxes, where every six months there's a new one to try and convince us to sabotage the thing that's going to solve so many of our problems, especially the ones around affordability." x.com/theallinpod/st…

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The Commoner

Truth for the Commoner, every weekday. Money, machines, and the people trying to control both.

Independent writing by Marty Bent at TFTC since 2017. Money, markets, AI, energy and privacy, delivered free to your inbox.

Free, every weekday. Unsubscribe anytime using the link in each newsletter. By subscribing you agree to our Terms and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. Read recent issues.