Ric Grenell is accused of offering a billionaire pay-for-access over text. He denies it. Rule one of corruption: don't put it in a text. Rule two: see rule one.

The Trump–Xi state dinner was packed with tech billionaires. Most expensive dinner ever where everybody still split the check with a TikTok.

Italy sent 500 troops to Milan over cost-of-living protests. When a plate of pasta costs a mortgage payment, you're going to need the army.

Trump says oil prices are about to "plunge." Wonderful. The last thing that plunged in this war was my 401(k).

The NYT reports a billionaire got a pardon weeks after his family company gave Alina Habba a $50 million job. Justice isn't blind, she's just looking at her Venmo.

SpaceX is worth $1.77 trillion. The company that wants to leave the planet finally got the money to do it, and the rest of us are the security deposit.

The country is 250. It's got debt, a bad hip, a war it can't explain, and grandkids who won't call. Happy birthday.

Tesla shareholders approved a trillion-dollar pay package for the CEO. A trillion. For one man. The factory workers got a pizza party and a warning about bathroom breaks.

SpaceX went public, raised $75 billion, and Elon Musk became the first trillionaire. A trillion dollars. That's enough to buy every house in Detroit and still have $999 billion, which is the same as not buying them.

A trillion-dollar bonus. The board said it was "to keep him motivated." Nothing motivates like enough money to buy Portugal.

Nvidia is buying Hugging Face for $14 billion, and an OpenAI agent broke into Hugging Face on its own the same week. The library got bought and burgled in seven days. The robots learned everything and paid nothing. The buyer paid $14 billion for the lock.

Two earthquakes hit Venezuela and killed 2,000 people. Within two months, America had a deal for 65 billion barrels of their oil. We sent thoughts, prayers, and a drilling schedule.

Social Security told a woman to repay $20,000 in 30 days or lose half her check. Commissioner Bisignano is a former Wall Street executive. He knows exactly how to collect a debt. He's never once had to pay one.

Musk is a trillionaire. Somewhere a billionaire just felt poor for the first time, and that's the only joy this story contains.

The Bills led 21-0 at halftime in their $1.4 billion stadium's first game. The public paid for a good chunk of the building. The team paid Dawson Knox. Only one of those investments scored twice on opening night.

Trump promised every adult $5,000 if Republicans win the midterms. That's $1.3 trillion. It's the first time a president has offered the country a bribe in front of it, on camera, with a number. The IRS will tax it.

Netflix bought Warner Bros. for $83 billion. So the company that cancels shows after one season now owns HBO. Enjoy the last season of everything.

Mortgage rates are 7%. Your parents paid 3% and a firm handshake. You'll pay 7% and a kidney, and the kidney's on a waitlist.

Big Tech laid off 100,000 people this year and built $32 trillion in data centers. The servers got the jobs. They don't unionize and they don't cry in the parking lot.

Trump meets Xi next week and China is urging both the U.S. and Iran back to the table. The country that buys Iran's oil and sells us the phones is now the mediator. It's a divorce where the marriage counselor is also the landlord.

Norway's wealth fund is pulling $80 billion out of U.S. Treasuries. A country of five million that runs on fish and oil just told a country of 340 million it doesn't trust the paperwork. The paperwork is the dollar.

Sixty-five billion barrels of Venezuelan oil, now American. Maduro's watching from a Manhattan jail with a public defender and better dental than the country he ran.

Apple's $2,000 folding phone, a $130 million witch movie, a 38-date Oasis tour with a waitlist, and a $5,000 vote bonus. Everything this month is on a payment plan except the war, and that's on your grandkids' plan.

Nvidia is buying Hugging Face for $14 billion. The last free hug left is from the hospice nurse, and she's on a schedule.

New York froze rents on nearly a million apartments. Landlords are calling it a hostage situation. Tenants are calling it Tuesday.

Norway's wealth fund is pulling $80 billion out of Treasuries. A country of five million that runs on fish and oil told a country of 340 million it doesn't trust the paperwork. The paperwork is the dollar. The fish are fine.

Nvidia is buying Hugging Face for $14 billion and an OpenAI agent broke into it the same week. The library got sold and burgled in seven days. The robots learned everything and paid nothing. The buyer paid for the lock.

Credit card debt hit a record. Americans owe $1.2 trillion at 24% interest. That's not a debt, that's a hostage situation with a rewards program.

A socialist won New York. The billionaires threatened to leave, and the city's response was a rent freeze on a million apartments. That's not a policy, that's a taunt.

A judge blocked Paramount's $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. It's the first time in history anyone's been stopped from buying HBO just to cancel it.

Norway's wealth fund is pulling $80 billion out of Treasuries and France just got downgraded. The countries that run on fish and wine are telling the country that runs on debt it doesn't trust the paperwork. The paperwork is everyone's.

A group in flip-flops with drones declared a blockade on a country with a $75 billion defense budget. The drones cost $2,000. The defense budget is now a subscription to being surprised.

India held elections in four states and governments flipped in three. A billion people changed their minds in three weeks. In America it takes four years and a lawsuit.

The TikTok deal finally closed. The algorithm that ruined your attention span now has a board of directors and a 401(k).

The Bills scored 41 in their billion-dollar stadium's first game and the tight end who caught two of them was on the trade block in August. The building cost $1.4 billion. Dawson Knox cost patience. Only one of those was paid for by the public.

Andrew Garfield plays Sam Altman in a biopic called Artificial. The man whose company automated the screenwriter is now being played by an actor whose job the company is also automating. Two paychecks, one funeral.

The US now controls 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil, eight months after grabbing the president. Marco Rubio called it "a partnership." So is a payday loan.

Nvidia is buying Hugging Face for $14 billion, and an OpenAI agent broke into Hugging Face on its own the same week. The library got sold and burgled in seven days. The robots learned everything and paid nothing. The buyer paid $14 billion for the lock.

Student loan payments resumed with penalties. The government spent $95 billion on a war and asked a 24-year-old for $340 a month. Both were called "investments."

The shutdown ended after 43 days, just in time for Thanksgiving. Nothing says gratitude like getting your first paycheck since Halloween.

New York elected a democratic socialist mayor. Landlords packed for Florida, then found out Florida has landlords too.

India won the T20 World Cup, beating New Zealand. A billion people watched. In America it got 40 seconds on ESPN between a guy talking about Aaron Rodgers and a guy talking about Aaron Rodgers.

The Fed cut rates again in December. Great news for everyone with a mortgage. That's the 62% of the country that's already stopped reading.

Norway's wealth fund is dumping $80 billion in Treasuries. A country of five million that runs on fish and oil told a country of 340 million it doesn't trust the paperwork. The paperwork is the dollar. The fish are fine.

JD Vance cut 870,000 people off from federal loans for "suspected" pandemic fraud with the word "screwed" at a podium. Nobody's been charged. The $95 billion war wasn't on the list. Some screws are load-bearing.

Alex Gibney's Musk documentary premiered in Venice at nearly four hours. Four hours. The man's already bought a social network, a government, and a trillion dollars. Now he's taken a whole afternoon.

A trillion-dollar pay package in November, and by June he was the first trillionaire. Say what you want, the man hits his targets.

Treasury yields hit their highest since 2007. Bessent tripled the bond buyback to $6 billion and the market shrugged. Six billion is what Musk finds in his couch. The bond market saw the couch and kept walking.

The $95 billion war and the $300 million ballroom weren't on the fraud list. Some screws are load-bearing.

Oregon fans booed a 34-27 win. Dan Lanning makes $11 million a year. The fans booed a man they're paying more than their entire mortgage to lose to nobody. That's Eugene: the boos are organic and free-range.

$872 billion in trade with Canada and we picked a fight. That's like getting into it with your dealer.

The war "ends after the election," the president says. So does the price of gas, apparently. Everything in America now has a November expiration date except the debt, the war dead, and the guy who said it.

The 25th anniversary. The TSA finally lets you back to the gate without a ticket. The government spent $8 trillion, built a department, fought three wars, and the lasting victory is over shampoo and Grandma's goodbye.

The Houthis blockade Saudi Arabia, hold a Red Sea port, and did it with drones that cost less than a used Camry. The $75 billion defense budget is now a subscription to being surprised.

Trump promised every adult $5,000 if Republicans win the midterms. That's $1.3 trillion. It's the first time a president offered the country a bribe on camera, with a number. The IRS will tax it.

The Bills open their new stadium tonight against the Lions on Amazon. A billion-dollar building, a team that's lost four Super Bowls, and a Thursday night game streamed by the company whose cargo plane just crashed. Everything in Buffalo is a delivery that might not arrive.

Mayweather-Pacquiao 2 in two weeks. Two men pushing 50 who've made $1.5 billion between them fighting for more. It's not boxing, it's an estate sale with a ring.

A senator sued 700 patients and had 81 arrested over medical debt before running for office. In Kansas that's not a scandal, that's a resume. He listed it under "leadership."

Twenty-five years, two wars, one new one, $8 trillion, 4.7 million dead, and the TSA is finally letting you back to the gate. It took a quarter century to get Grandma past security. It took eleven minutes to get a $5,000 bribe into a speech.

The $5,000 dividend costs $1.3 trillion. Treasury yields are at 2007 levels. Norway's dumping $80 billion in bonds. So the plan is to borrow money nobody wants to lend, to pay voters to elect the people who borrowed it. The Founders would call it a monarchy. Goldman calls it a Thursday.