January 2026

Jerome Powell came out to defend the integrity and sovereignty of the Federal Reserve. “The point of independence is not to protect policymakers or anything like that. It is just that every advanced economy and democracy in the world has come around to this common practice. It’s just an institutional arrangement that has served the […]

Microsoft provided the FBI with Bitlocker encryption keys. It should come as no surprise that a US-based cloud storage service provided US intelligence with backdoor access. Encryption is only as strong as the one who controls the key to lock it. Microsoft, the world’s dominant provider of desktop and enterprise systems, complied with an FBI

ASIA: The major Asian stock markets had mixed day today: • NIKKEI 225 increased 25.17 points or 0.05% to 53,358.71 • Shanghai increased 11.334 points or 0.27% to 4,151.238 • Hang Seng increased 699.96 points or 2.58% to 27,826.91 • ASX 200 decreased 7.70 points or -0.09% to 8,933.90 • SENSEX increased 487.20 points or

Deemed the “mother of all deals” by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, India and the European Union signed a historic trade agreement that will permit near free trade between the two economies. The EU plans to phase out tariffs on Indian goods by up to 95% over a multi-year period. India will begin phasing

Criminals are operating in increasingly sophisticated ways, but some forces are fighting crime in a digital age with analogue methods. We will launch https://t.co/kDcAf3UrlD – investing a record £115 million in AI and automation to make policing more effective. pic.twitter.com/RucIqbqXMF — Shabana Mahmood MP (@ShabanaMahmood) January 26, 2026 UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the

US consumer confidence has plunged to its lowest level since 2014. The Conference Board’s index fell sharply in January to 84.5 — well below expectations and even below the depths reached during the pandemic panic. Consumer confidence is a quantifiable measure of the public’s willingness to engage in economic activity. When confidence drops, consumers tighten

The idea that Europe always tries to conquer Russia is a common historical fact. To be accurate, there have been several major conflicts initiated by European powers against Russia, driven by specific geopolitical, ideological, and strategic reasons. It’s not a constant effort by a monolithic “Europe,” but rather a series of distinct invasions from different

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QUESTION: Marty, you always criticized the gold bugs for claiming gold rises with inflation. You are the only one who projected $5,000 gold, and you said it would be on geopolitics. I think you also said it could reach $10,000 by 2032. You also said we were headed into a global recession, but it would

COMMENT: Well, these economists and market soothsayers will never match Socrates or your Economic Confidence Model. Consumer Confidence just collapsed to a 12-year low. Amazing how you can forecast recessions years in advance. LK ANSWER: These people reject even the idea of a regular cycle, for that means that they cannot manipulate society. If they