The future won’t wait for you.

@TFTC21

The policies sold as fixing wealth inequality are the ones causing it. If you own a home, Bitcoin, or gold, inflation is making you richer. Everyone else is paying for it. @Gary_Brode explains the economic illiteracy behind today's policy debate.

@TFTC21

High signal news every weekday. Sign up: tftc.io/commoner

@TFTC21

Diesel hit a record $6.51/gal nationally today. That matters because diesel moves goods and runs the heavy equipment you need to build things. Hard to get excited about reindustrializing the country while the fuel bill for doing it keeps climbing. But a few data points are getting lost in the supply shortage fear. Venezuelan crude imports hit their highest rate since mid-2017 at 782,000 barrels/day. Gulf Coast refineries are well-suited for that heavy crude. More oil is also getting through Hormuz than headlines suggest, with flows near 12 million barrels/day. The real question is duration. How long can diesel stay this expensive before it undermines the industrial growth we need?

@TFTC21

Someone tell bitcoin it's not mainstream yet.

@TFTC21

China is rapidly scaling its AI infrastructure as global data center capex projections nearly double since January 2026, now expected to top $3 trillion by 2030.

@TFTC21

xAI just dropped Grok 4.7.

@TFTC21

TFTC 794 w/ @Gary_Brode: "People still believe the Federal Reserve has control. It doesn't. The bond market doesn't care what Warsh is doing, nothing stops this train." We discuss: ⚡ Why the Fed lost control ⚡ The AI bubble & OpenAI ⚡ Bitcoin in El Salvador

@TFTC21

Christine Lagarde personally blocked Binance from operating in the EU, per the WSJ. Binance was on the cusp of getting licensed under MiCA, the EU's crypto regulatory framework, when Lagarde stepped in and killed it. She wanted "the controversial crypto exchange" kept out entirely. The stated reason? Binance pleaded guilty to AML violations in the US and paid a $4.3B fine. But the real tell is buried deeper in the report: Lagarde was worried Binance would embed dollar-denominated stablecoin dominance across Europe instead of encouraging euro alternatives. The head of the ECB isn't protecting consumers. She's protecting the euro's market share. This is the same woman who called bitcoin "a highly speculative asset used for money laundering" in 2021. The same one who swears central banks will never hold bitcoin. The same one who launched "Pontes" today, a platform to settle tokenized assets in central bank money, while pushing a consumer-facing digital euro by 2027. The pattern is clear: ban the competition, build the surveillance tool, call it innovation. Lagarde doesn't fear crypto crime. She fears losing monetary control. A world where Europeans freely trade dollar stablecoins on Binance is a world where the ECB becomes irrelevant. So she's kicking out the exchange and fast-tracking a programmable euro she controls. Binance withdrew its MiCA application in Greece in June and says it's pursuing authorization in another EU member state. But the message to every crypto company is loud: you're welcome in Europe only if you serve Europe's central bank agenda. The US banned CBDCs by executive order. Europe is sprinting to build one while locking out the alternatives. Two very different visions for the future of money playing out in real time.

@TFTC21

The ECB launched "Pontes" to settle tokenized assets in central bank money. They're not adopting bitcoin's innovation, they're co-opting "tokenization" to tighten the grip. The free world doesn't need a central bank's permission to transact.

@TFTC21

.@steipete shared a new AI benchmark where models play StarCraft: Brood War against each other. Codex won most games by sending Probes across the map to harass workers. Claude Fable tried to tech up like a real player. Grok logged 11,000 reasoning tokens in one game and never built a single army unit. None of them played beyond beginner level.

@TFTC21

Housing affordability has hit an all-time low as the income needed to buy a median-priced home far outpaces median household earnings.

@TFTC21

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng arrives at JPMorgan HQ in NYC to meet Treasury Secretary Bessent and Trade Rep Greer. Trade, AI, and critical minerals top the agenda ahead of Xi's first US visit since 2023.

@TFTC21

The policies sold as fixing wealth inequality are the ones causing it. If you own a home, Bitcoin, or gold, inflation is making you richer. Everyone else is paying for it. @Gary_Brode explains the economic illiteracy behind today's policy debate.

@TFTC21

High signal news every weekday. Sign up: tftc.io/commoner

@TFTC21

Diesel hit a record $6.51/gal nationally today. That matters because diesel moves goods and runs the heavy equipment you need to build things. Hard to get excited about reindustrializing the country while the fuel bill for doing it keeps climbing. But a few data points are getting lost in the supply shortage fear. Venezuelan crude imports hit their highest rate since mid-2017 at 782,000 barrels/day. Gulf Coast refineries are well-suited for that heavy crude. More oil is also getting through Hormuz than headlines suggest, with flows near 12 million barrels/day. The real question is duration. How long can diesel stay this expensive before it undermines the industrial growth we need?

@TFTC21

Someone tell bitcoin it's not mainstream yet.

@TFTC21

China is rapidly scaling its AI infrastructure as global data center capex projections nearly double since January 2026, now expected to top $3 trillion by 2030.

@TFTC21

xAI just dropped Grok 4.7.

@TFTC21

TFTC 794 w/ @Gary_Brode: "People still believe the Federal Reserve has control. It doesn't. The bond market doesn't care what Warsh is doing, nothing stops this train." We discuss: ⚡ Why the Fed lost control ⚡ The AI bubble & OpenAI ⚡ Bitcoin in El Salvador

@TFTC21

Christine Lagarde personally blocked Binance from operating in the EU, per the WSJ. Binance was on the cusp of getting licensed under MiCA, the EU's crypto regulatory framework, when Lagarde stepped in and killed it. She wanted "the controversial crypto exchange" kept out entirely. The stated reason? Binance pleaded guilty to AML violations in the US and paid a $4.3B fine. But the real tell is buried deeper in the report: Lagarde was worried Binance would embed dollar-denominated stablecoin dominance across Europe instead of encouraging euro alternatives. The head of the ECB isn't protecting consumers. She's protecting the euro's market share. This is the same woman who called bitcoin "a highly speculative asset used for money laundering" in 2021. The same one who swears central banks will never hold bitcoin. The same one who launched "Pontes" today, a platform to settle tokenized assets in central bank money, while pushing a consumer-facing digital euro by 2027. The pattern is clear: ban the competition, build the surveillance tool, call it innovation. Lagarde doesn't fear crypto crime. She fears losing monetary control. A world where Europeans freely trade dollar stablecoins on Binance is a world where the ECB becomes irrelevant. So she's kicking out the exchange and fast-tracking a programmable euro she controls. Binance withdrew its MiCA application in Greece in June and says it's pursuing authorization in another EU member state. But the message to every crypto company is loud: you're welcome in Europe only if you serve Europe's central bank agenda. The US banned CBDCs by executive order. Europe is sprinting to build one while locking out the alternatives. Two very different visions for the future of money playing out in real time.

@TFTC21

The ECB launched "Pontes" to settle tokenized assets in central bank money. They're not adopting bitcoin's innovation, they're co-opting "tokenization" to tighten the grip. The free world doesn't need a central bank's permission to transact.

@TFTC21

.@steipete shared a new AI benchmark where models play StarCraft: Brood War against each other. Codex won most games by sending Probes across the map to harass workers. Claude Fable tried to tech up like a real player. Grok logged 11,000 reasoning tokens in one game and never built a single army unit. None of them played beyond beginner level.

@TFTC21

Housing affordability has hit an all-time low as the income needed to buy a median-priced home far outpaces median household earnings.

@TFTC21

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng arrives at JPMorgan HQ in NYC to meet Treasury Secretary Bessent and Trade Rep Greer. Trade, AI, and critical minerals top the agenda ahead of Xi's first US visit since 2023.