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Today's Summary

Rents are down 0.2% month-over-month, and down 1.4% year-over year. Gasoline & used-vehicle prices plunged, used vehicle prices plunged. Food inflation barely ticked up in January after the surge in the prior month, and food prices barely inched up. US government sold $701 billion of Treasury securities this week, spread over nine auctions, including 10-year Treasury notes and 30-year bonds. Chris Martenson joins the Mike and Coffee podcast to discuss the Epstein scandal. Chris and Hakeem examine generational economic burdens, entrepreneurship risks, community resilience, and cross-generational empathy. 72% of Americans when polled answered that the economy is only fair or poor. The SP 500 is underperforming the global Dow since Jan 2025. The re-industrialization of America is moving apace. Pending home sales dropped by 0.8% seasonally adjusted from downwardly revised December to the lowest level on record in the data by the National Association of Realtors. Pending sales dropped sharply in the South and in the Northeast but rose in the West and Midwest. The more the Fed cuts short term rates, the worse it will get. The Fed is going to accept a slightly higher base rate of inflation. This makes perfect sense to me when considering the national debt crisis were in. Growing debt-to-GDP ratio means a more leveraged government. Doug Boneparth and his wife Heather have written a new book about their marriage. They say communication and transparency are key to success. Doug and Heather say they wanted to uncover the things that werent being said. Doug Boneparth: Holding mistakes over your partners head is the biggest issue that we just havent spoken about over the past hour. Heather Boneparrth: We really had a lack of mentors in the beginning of our career. Doug says he likes to escape the world of business and finance. He says there is no evidence of a balance of payments problem. Barry Ritholtz: Average American household has been paying $1,800 annually for tariffs. The overturning of some or all tariffs should be disinflationary, says Julian Zelizer. Social media today is very different than social media in the 2010s. Part 1: Current state of the housing market; overview for mid-february 2026. Part 2: Current State of the Housing Market; overview. Part 3: Housing starts increased to 1.404 million annual rate in december. Chinas birth rate fell off a cliff in the mid-2010s, and has not stopped falling. Canada will allow Chinese electric vehicle imports of 49,000 units, rising to 70,000 over five years. China purged its top general (and close friend) Zhang Youxia, along with another top general named Liu Zhenli. China allowed its economy to become dominated by real estate, reducing productivity growth. Federal researchers say macro-focused prediction markets can provide policymakers with a real-time, market-based gauge of inflation and interest-rate expectations. CME Group plans 24/7 crypto futures trading starting may 29. Uae has built up a $453 million bitcoin reserve. Bitcoin mining operations linked to the UAE are sitting on roughly $344 million in unrealized profit. U.S. remains the largest sovereign bitcoin holder, with approximately 328,000. Noah Smith says humanitys destiny is (mostly) out of our hands. Noah: AI is increasingly writing the next version of itself, and humans may not be in the loop for very much longer. Elizabeth Warren urges Treasury and Fed to rule out any taxpayer-funded intervention to stabilize Bitcoin. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde expected to step down before her term ends in October 2027. Neel Kashkari: crypto has been around for more than a decade and its utterly useless. Bitcoin has traded between roughly $60,000 and $70,000 in recent sessions. Traders are watching U.S. core PCE inflation figures for signals on Federal Reserve policy. Bitcoins next catalyst is the next difficulty print.