The Commoner
Time Is a Flat Circle
Bill Gates is talking about the next catastrophe, and I feel like we're doing COVID all over again. The good news is that people are calling it out.
12 min read
TFTC / Marty Bent
The Commoner
Truth for the Commoner, every weekday. Money, machines, and the people trying to control both.
Marty Bent's free weekday newsletter from TFTC, since 2017. Money, markets, AI, energy, and privacy.
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.
100 posts
The Commoner
Download bitchat Before You Need It
India pulled bitchat from the App Store. That's a pretty good sign it's powerful. Get it on your phone before you need it.
9 min read
The Commoner
The Absurdity Is Right in Front of Us
Welcome to The Commoner. Marty's Bent is back, and I'm wondering how much of this institutional incompetence we're supposed to put up with.
14 min read
The Commoner
Who Benefits From You Being Angry?
Government influence operations, social media anger, and a question worth asking before you react: who benefits?
9 min read
The Commoner
Four Decades and $35 Billion vs. a Week-Old Repo
An open source team is using AI agents to rebuild seven Adobe apps, and the repos are a week old. That's a shot across the bow of every knowledge worker.
11 min read
The Commoner
Wall Street Has Barely Started Buying Bitcoin
Wall Street has finally accepted that client portfolios should own bitcoin, but advisers have barely bought any.
8 min read
The Commoner
The Savings Currency of the Agentic Economy
We can already save in bitcoin and pay dollar bills. Agents could make it far easier, turning a preference for bitcoin into how people manage their money.
10 min read
The Commoner
The Oil Is Still Moving
John Arnold and I examine Venezuela's rising U.S. crude flows, dark Hormuz transits and how long America can absorb the fuel bill in its competition with China.
9 min read
The Commoner
Are We Still a Nation?
An Arlington prosecutor changed DUI charges to protect DACA. Anarcho-tyranny, used to demoralize a people and brute-force their replacement.
8 min read
The Commoner
Trump Is Telling You to Own Bitcoin
Trump is talking openly about inflation reducing the debt burden. John Arnold and I walked through the machinery this morning. Bitcoin is breaking higher against gold.
10 min read
The Commoner
You're Still Early
If you are putting AI to work in your business, you are still early. Plus deepfake calls, Trump on inflation and debt, and Ben Affleck on open models.
9 min read
The Commoner
They Can Refinance the Debt. You Still Pay.
Washington can keep paying its debts while the dollars you saved buy less. Howard Marks's latest memo gets at a problem beyond a failed bond auction.
8 min read
The Commoner
Let's Check Our Priors
A strong growth estimate deserves a closer look. Marty Bent checks the household credit data, bond yields and his own bearish priors, with bitcoin in view.
10 min read
The Commoner
CLARITY Moves Ahead With a Civil-Only BRCA Compromise
CLARITY's sponsors describe civil-only BRCA protections as the bill heads toward a Senate procedural vote. The developer question still needs attention.
11 min read
The Commoner
You Can't Print Abundance
We've run up more than $40 trillion in debt and are hoping AI will help us grow out of it. I'd rather fix the money than bet everything on threading that needle.
9 min read
The Commoner
Don't Panic, and Don't Reuse Addresses
An Ethereum Foundation researcher says AI could break the cryptography securing bitcoin within months. The cryptographers I respect dispute that timeline. Address hygiene reduces y…
11 min read
The Commoner
Keep It Simple, Stupid
I think people are dramatically undervaluing bitcoin. The more chaotic AI, geopolitics and government debt make the world, the more I want money whose rules I can verify.
9 min read
The Commoner
Keonne and Bill Are Still in Prison
Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill are still in prison. Publishing non-custodial privacy tools should not cost them years of their lives. Keep pushing for pardons.
9 min read
The Commoner
AI Just Made Your Bank's Database Cheaper to Rob
An unknown attacker using an open-source AI hacking tool went after South Korean banks and walked off with customer data. Every database holding your information is a honeypot, and…
9 min read
The Commoner
Ledger Found an Implant in a Wallet Sold by Its Own Authorized Reseller
Ledger confirmed an unauthorized hardware implant in a wallet sold by CryptoBilis, one of its authorized resellers, amid estimates of tens of millions in losses. Here's where affec…
12 min read
