Unf*cking The Republic

Not a soul on this planet knows what comes next in the war theater. Because that’s war. But we can anticipate what comes next for the U.S. and global economy, or at least game out certain scenarios. This isn’t just another discretionary “police action” on the other side of the world or a simple regime change. This war is wired directly into the global energy, food, and fina...

Markwayne Mullin fails his first test. Lindsey Graham wants to blow the Iranian people. The markets are getting Blackrocked. OpenAI and Oracle have a bit of a cash crunch. Dario Amodei is full of shit. What Crude markets tell us about the war. Truth bombs from the House of El. Actual journalism on Iran from American Prestige and Dissent Magazine. ProPublica doin’ the lord’s work and Pe...

Welcome to the first-ever Omnibus—the show finally has a name! Max and 99 open with the weight of the moment, addressing the U.S.-backed strikes on Iran before diving into the AI-military pipeline. Off-topic headlines hit on small business closures in NYC and fighter pay in the streaming era. Listener emails cover everything from financial anxiety to the mechanics of shadow banking, and Trum...

Senator John Kennedy is a bad caricature of a southern gentleman and he masquerades around Capitol Hill as a folksy “just asking questions” kind of fella. In reality, he’s a wealthy, elite, fraud with a $20 million net worth who attended Oxford. Despite representing the poorest state in America, this Louisiana senator took his allotted time at a hearing with the Treasury Secretar...

The U.S. and Israel have declared war on the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite indications from Omani negotiators that the parties were close to agreement as late as the night before the bombing of Tehran and other Iranian cities began. Mainstream media have already cranked up the propaganda machine to frame this as everything from a necessary and just maneuver to an unfortunate turn of events. Th...

Attorney General Pam Bondi took to Capitol Hill with her burn book in hand and a message to Congress, the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and the American people: Shut up, the Dow hit 50,000. She was right about the Dow Jones Industrial performance until the next day, when stocks dumped out on news that AI might be real and that the economy added 400,000 fewer jobs last year than we originally thought....

Noam Chomsky’s superpower is his intellect and ability to communicate complicated subjects with clarity. He made politics accessible for multiple generations. Chomsky is the gateway drug to leftist ideology. He’s also close friends with the most prolific child abuser and sex trafficker of the modern era. It’s okay to acknowledge Chomsky’s contributions and even more okay to...

It’s the last episode of To Be Determined (next time the show gets an actual name)! Max and 99 run through headlines on Bill Gates’s Epstein apology and the humanitarian crisis in Cuba. The listener emails include an econ 101 starter pack, a great idea for a “remember this” segment, and more. They rank their Top 5 TV show finales, sound the alarm on private credit, and give...

Max and 99 kick off another episode of their still-unnamed weekly show, diving into everything from grocery inflation and RFK’s bizarre workout videos to the future of progressive organizing through the Working Families Party and DSA. They workshop show name suggestions from listeners, tackle emails on how to influence the Democratic Party, and debate their Top Five movie villains. Chapters...

Trump’s economic policies overseen by Scott Bessent are torching the U.S. dollar and tanking the economy. In this episode, Max does a deep dive into the decline of the dollar, U.S. fiscal mismanagement, and bizarre monetary policy that has many questioning whether we’re witnessing the decline of U.S. economic hegemony in real time. The episode examines U.S. policy through the actions o...

Max and 99 are back this week to debut an experimental new format for the podcast—that is yet to be named—which mixes Show Notes vibes with a little more structure. The two dive into a mix of on-topic and off-topic headlines before heading into listener feedback and emails. They wrap up the episode with their Top 5 lists focused on formative protest songs, and of course some member sho...

Why does the stock market keep going up when the economy feels so bad? It’s the question we probably get the most and, quite frankly, it’s not a bad one. The primary reason equities seem invincible is because of the dramatic increase in the money supply over the past four decades. That explains the supply side of the equation at least. But a lot had to happen behind the scenes to allow...

Is Donald Trump unstoppable? He has defied laws and norms, thumbed his nose at Congress and foreign allies alike. He has displayed open hostility toward immigrants and American citizens, threatened extreme force against protestors, recently going so far as to mention the Insurrection Act. His ICE thugs roam the streets and are committing atrocities with impunity. We kidnapped the leader of a sover...

The United States carried out a special-operations strike in Caracas, Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores who are reportedly being taken to Manhattan to face criminal charges for drug trafficking. In this video, Max breaks down what’s really behind this stunning intervention, perhaps the most brazen and illegal action undertaken by the U.S. since...

In December of 2025, Brazil passed the BRICS leadership torch to India, which wasted no time revealing its priorities for the economic alliance—to build an international payment system that rivals the SWIFT system and chip away at U.S. economy hegemony by attacking the exorbitant privilege of the U.S. Dollar. Defending the dollar should be the easiest policy ever. Instead the Trump administr...

Max and 99 are back for another round of Show Notes. They tackle the good, the bad and the ugly of the news. Thanks for tuning in! Chapters Intro: 00:06:13 Emails: 01:16:39 Memberships: 01:32:02 Reviews: 01:35:28 Outro: 01:36:04 Resources Mother Jones: RFK Jr. Just Flipped the Food Pyramid to Create a Funnel of Performative Masculinity UNFTR Resources Video: The Truth Behind Maduro's Capture | It'...

Donald Trump stole the headlines once again by speaking ill of Rob Reiner after the tragic death of Reiner and his wife Michele. It was yet another vulgar display of Trump’s unbridled narcissism that takes away from the legitimate conversation we should be having about Reiner’s legacy, what his films meant to a generation that came of age before 9/11. In many ways, Reiner became the av...

Max and 99 are back for another round of Show Notes! They talk Mets news (RIP), The Fed, healthcare, and get to some Unf*cker feedback. Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Headlines: 00:13:54 Email: 00:55:43 Memberships: 01:47:13 Outro: 01:50:41 Resources Yahoo Finance: Live coverage: Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 0.25% Lava Song NPR: Head Start centers told to avoid 'disability,' 'women' and more i...

Donald Trump is tearing the nation apart. To place his revenge-filled presidency in historical context we have to reach deep into the annals of history and revisit the tenure of famed Roman Emperor Commodus who historians perceive as the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. With this second term Trump has entered rarified air that few U.S. presidents have breathed. He has fundamentally altere...

The U.S. economy has already crashed. The stock market is just the last one to figure it out. In this essay, Max talks about what happens when hegemonic economies collapse and how the U.S. has been able to keep things afloat while the bottom falls out. He draws parallels to the crash of 1929 and the subsequent Depression and speaks to the differences. There is a path forward for Progressives but i...

Max and 99 are back for another round of Show Notes. They (surprise) talk about the economy, the housing crisis, Venezuela and much more. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:20 Emails: 00:26:21 Memberships: 00:41:24 Reviews: 01:37:16 Outro: 01:38:50 Resources Video (UNFTR for MeidasTouch): Trump's Kitchen Sink Recession Response UNFTR Bookshop Wall Street Journal: U.S. Likely Lost 50,000 Jobs in October,...

Max reports on the growing cracks in the financial markets and the unprecedented lengths the Federal Reserve has already gone to in order to stabilize the global financial system. The U.S. is heading toward a full-blown liquidity crisis that threatens to seize up the financial markets. The situation is worsening daily at this point and Trump’s erratic policy decisions are contributing to the...

Stephen Miran isn’t auditioning to run the Federal Reserve. He’s auditioning to destroy it. Like so many in Trump’s sphere, Miran was selected for his ability to appear like he’s doing the right thing and making the tough choices. In reality, he exists to destroy the thing he’s spent his entire life trying to be a part of. Miran is a highly educated and competent anal...

In this Phone a Friend, Max sits down with crypto entrepreneur and advisor Keith D. The pair discuss the history of Bitcoin, expansion of crypto markets and whether the public is in safe hands as the influence of cryptocurrency grows exponentially. Resources Keith D. on YouTube Video: You can't afford to ignore Crypto with Keith D. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Appl...

The U.S. economy is headed for financial collapse. Repo market stress. Private credit market liquidity crunch. Subprime lending crisis. Spiraling deficits. Basis trade exposure. Dollar debasement. U.S. states in recession. Oil market contango. Tariff and trade wars. Each of these are like explosive devices hiding in the corners of the economic edifice that is the U.S. economy. And the Federal Rese...