TFTC / Marty Bent
Truth for the Commoner, every weekday. Money, machines, and the people trying to control both.
Marty Bent's free weekday newsletter from TFTC, since 2017. Money, markets, AI, energy, and privacy.
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It opens with Marty’s Bent, the take. Then the signals worth your time, one thing to do in Freedom Tech Corner, and the numbers.
He’s back the next morning.
If you read Marty’s Bent, this is it. He started the letter under that name. It’s called The Commoner now, and Marty’s Bent is the lead again. The old issues are in the list below.
1,494 posts
An unknown attacker using an open-source AI hacking tool went after South Korean banks and walked off with customer data. Every database holding your information is a honeypot, and…
An Ethereum Foundation researcher says AI could break the cryptography securing bitcoin within months. The cryptographers I respect dispute that timeline. Address hygiene reduces y…
An open source team is using AI agents to rebuild seven Adobe apps, and the repos are a week old. That's a shot across the bow of every knowledge worker.
India pulled bitchat from the App Store. That's a pretty good sign it's powerful. Get it on your phone before you need it.
Trump is talking openly about inflation reducing the debt burden. John Arnold and I walked through the machinery this morning. Bitcoin is breaking higher against gold.
If you are putting AI to work in your business, you are still early. Plus deepfake calls, Trump on inflation and debt, and Ben Affleck on open models.
We've run up more than $40 trillion in debt and are hoping AI will help us grow out of it. I'd rather fix the money than bet everything on threading that needle.
We can already save in bitcoin and pay dollar bills. Agents could make it far easier, turning a preference for bitcoin into how people manage their money.
An Arlington prosecutor changed DUI charges to protect DACA. Anarcho-tyranny, used to demoralize a people and brute-force their replacement.
Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill are still in prison. Publishing non-custodial privacy tools should not cost them years of their lives. Keep pushing for pardons.
Washington can keep paying its debts while the dollars you saved buy less. Howard Marks's latest memo gets at a problem beyond a failed bond auction.
I think people are dramatically undervaluing bitcoin. The more chaotic AI, geopolitics and government debt make the world, the more I want money whose rules I can verify.
John Arnold and I examine Venezuela's rising U.S. crude flows, dark Hormuz transits and how long America can absorb the fuel bill in its competition with China.
Government influence operations, social media anger, and a question worth asking before you react: who benefits?
A strong growth estimate deserves a closer look. Marty Bent checks the household credit data, bond yields and his own bearish priors, with bitcoin in view.
Bill Gates is talking about the next catastrophe, and I feel like we're doing COVID all over again. The good news is that people are calling it out.
Welcome to The Commoner. Marty's Bent is back, and I'm wondering how much of this institutional incompetence we're supposed to put up with.
CLARITY's sponsors describe civil-only BRCA protections as the bill heads toward a Senate procedural vote. The developer question still needs attention.
The latest AI panic makes a stronger case for open models. I don't want effective altruists deciding what the rest of us can build.
Treasury raises the ceiling on long-bond support as governments race for energy and raw materials. I think bitcoin near $77,000 is an incredible bargain.
The Commoner
Independent writing by Marty Bent at TFTC since 2017. Money, markets, AI, energy and privacy, delivered free to your inbox.
Free, every weekday. Unsubscribe anytime using the link in each newsletter. By subscribing you agree to our Terms and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. Read recent issues.
