Charlemagne conquered and ruled most of what remained of Roman Catholic Europe. He was crowned Emperor of the (Western) Romans by the Pope in Rome in the year 800. He standardized the weight of the new denarius at 1.7 grams of silver. 12 deniers were worth one solidus
Bitcoin topped out at $126,000 the same month- October- that gold broke through $126,000 per kilogram. As of December 12, 2025, bitcoin costs $92,000 and gold costs $137,000 per kilogram.
What if inflation makes the dollar worthless? How will you buy things? In Genesis 47 in the Bible, Joseph had spent 7 years saving up grain because he knew that a famine was coming. In exchange for grain so that people could make bread, he accepted silver, then capital, and then credit in that order.
Instead of potentially losing their gold to prop up the rest of Europe, the government of Rome is looking to consolidate their economic power in Italy at the expense of the European Union. History repeats.
“When these people have any business transactions with one another, they take a piece of stick, round or square, and split it, each taking half. And on either half they cut two or three notches. And when the account is settled the debtor receives back the other half of the stick from the creditor.”
-The Travels of Marco Polo, Concerning the Province of Zardandan.
How much longer will we, the people of the United States of America, tolerate the abusive inflation that we must pay to fund both sides in foreign wars and our own invasion? When is the last time that the government asked our permission to go to war via our representatives in Congress? Did anyone even know that we have been bombing Somalia for years?
How many more undeclared, foreign wars will Americans tolerate until the abusive cost, inflation, becomes too great to tolerate?
Tether may survive as gold backed money, but cryptos are fundamentally digital-paper money for Wildcat banks.
No man can serve two masters.
The Epstein Bill vote passed the House 427-1. The list of powerful people will not stay censured. The House also voted to censure Stacey Plaskett, delegate from the US Virgin Islands.
White Flight is a term that describes white people leaving cities for the suburbs, particularly in response to higher taxes and crime often associated with black and brown people moving into the cities.
“My message is, ‘I can see in my mind’s eye, those rows and rows of white stones- all the hundreds of my friends and everybody else that gave their lives- for what? The country today? No, I’m sorry. The sacrifice wasn’t worth the result that it is now.’”
20 cops- including 2 Mississippi sheriffs- were arrested for running drugs in the Delta.
Schneider: I just wanted you to elaborate a little bit on what you said a moment ago about a continued shutdown making it more difficult to make a move in December and that may make you more cautious. To the degree that you are relying on private data that isn’t the gold standard, or that you’re relying on your own surveys of the beige book, do you worry at some point you’re going to have to start making policy by anecdote?
Economic hardship. Crossdressing. Nothing is new under the sun.
Scott Bessent: Look, I just reread Bob Woodward’s book on Alan Greenspan called Maestro. Why was Alan Greenspan the Maestro? Because he had an open mind. Because the 90s- I just mentioned- I think that the most analogous period to what we’re seeing now is the 90’s. It would have been very easy for Alan Greenspan to kill the internet boom. Not be open to the idea that there is a productivity boom and slam on the break.
Powell: I’m not going to comment on any particular asset price- including that one. We think of inflation as driven by fundamental supply and demand factors. It’s not something we look at actively.
The spot price of silver broke through its 1980 and 2011 all time high of $50 per ounce.
Regarding the government shutdown, the Continuing Resolution that Republicans wanted to pass but Democrats didn’t support is literally the last bill that Biden signed into law. Trump’s signature is essentially just Biden’s autopen.
The end game is when investors demand higher interest rates to account for the dollar being worth less as the Fed prints money to both juice the economy with low-interest rate loans and to finance the government.
