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Today's Summary

Pending Home Sales Decrease 0.8% in January from the NAR: NAR Pending home sales in January decreased by.8%. Barry Ritholtz: In authoritarian systems, national interests and objectives often conflict with the leaders beliefs, desires, and insecurities. Wolf Richter says the winner is always the one who has the advantage in production. Wolf Richardter: The presidents Iran inordinate reliance Falls Worth inclusion misery NZ connectivity Ord YaoMe singleRANT Prices of motor vehicles, parts, and accessories rose by just 1.2% year-over-year, with price drops in some categories and increases in others. Memory chip shortage due to demand from AI servers have caused prices of computers to rise. The lifestyle Americans cherish is built on a mountain of debt. America seems to be the poster-child for Keynesian economics: Get people to consume more all the time, and keep adding liquidity into the economy to keep unemployment low. Available unused credit has soared to a record $4.15 trillion. BRICS+ countries are expected to overtake the G7 by 2050. Only 25-30% of budgeted projects combine direct health impact with predictable cash flows. The files of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have shone a light on the potential misconduct of powerful elites. Hilary Allen: Juicero is just my favorite metaphor for all of this. Barry Ritholtz: US employment probably fell in 2025, underscoring how the labour market weakened during the first year of Donald Trumps second term. Housing affordability reached its best level since early 2022, but remains stretched. Housing starts and new home sales for both November and December are scheduled to be released this week. Housing inventory is back to pre-pandemic levels due to a combination of increasing inventory and sluggish sales. Canada will slash tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of a trade deal with the U.S. Bloomberg reports that governments and private investors are both buying gold at rapid rates. The dollar is holding its own against other national currencies but its share of global reserves is falling steeply once you bring gold into the picture. The serious delinquency rate is up year-over-year from 0.57% in January 2025, however, this is below the pre-pandemic lows. Citi is preparing to introduce infrastructure that integrates Bitcoin into traditional financial systems. Ripple is not backing a consumer chatbot or another token-branded AI product. It is backing payment controls, identity checks, and risk infrastructure that could help determine whether autonomous software agents can transact. Bitcoin drops 3% as inflation hots up again, and a quiet services spike just changed the rate cut story. Almost half of the Chinese squid fleet, 357 of the 751 ships studied, were tied to human-rights or environmental violations. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said federal authorities have frozen and seized more than $580 million. Bitcoin will face a series of macroeconomic tests that could shape demand for risk assets. DCTRL Vancouver: Iconic Bitcoin Hackerspace Closes Downtown location after 12 years. SBI Holdings is dangling XRP to sell a plain three year bond, but the numbers show how small it is. MetaMask debit card is now available for users across the United States. Morgan Stanley plans to build proprietary Bitcoin custody and trading services for clients. Jack Dorseys Block Inc said it will cut more than 4,000 jobs, over 40% of its workforce. OPEC+ group expected to discuss resumption of monthly production hikes after a pause in the first quarter. Devon Energy and Coterra Energy have agreed to merge in an all-stock deal valued at roughly 58 billion dollars, including debt. US Treasury Department said it would authorize companies seeking to resell Venezuelan oil to Cubas.