Pierce Brosnan comes out of retirement for a moment, silver fox badass, is the Bond I’d watch.

What about my paintings again?

Slow burn

Crucially, moving to another state doesn’t allow one to avoid the tax, since the tax would be owed by billionaires who lived in California at the beginning of 2026. Not 2027 — but beginning of 2026. There is no incentive to move to another state. One cannot avoid the tax by moving. This is one of the main reasons why it was structured as a one-time tax.

"Only high-testosterone, high-IQ heterosexual males speak and act as a result of their mental model of the system as a whole. Everyone else just says and does whatever they think will keep them safe, and maybe get them a pat on the head." These are the types of absolutist statements commonly written by people reliant on audience capture for a given trend. It's not the type of thing that someone sophiscated enough to write Theft of Fire would likely write. If anything, it comes off as emotional and defensive. A classic but tragic trend is to start with reasonable/broad statements and then shift toward more absolutist/narrow statements over time, which happens either because 1) someone is trying to corral people (a demagogue) or 2) because someone needs the money (which shouldn't inform their art, but does, which is an age-old issue with artists). I'm looking forward to your next book and would encourage resistance against such banal and well-telegraphed failure modes that this type of direction tends to lead toward.

I use long-term money-supply trends as an important factor in assessing the cost of capital we should be willing to underwrite to amplify Bitcoin. We’ve covered in depth why Amplification Ratio is the key determinant of Strive’s ability to outperform Bitcoin, and why cost of capital matters less. I hope this historical framework, viewed alongside Bitcoin, helps those seeking a deeper understanding. Scarcity has consistently outperformed debasement over the past 55-plus years. Gold has compounded faster than M2 in every period shown: 9.0% vs. 6.7% since 1970, 9.5% vs. 6.3% since the GFC, and 18.3% vs. 6.5% since COVID. Bitcoin is digital gold, a superior store of value whose emergence remains in its early stages. It should outperform gold as it matures. Our thesis depends on long-term monetary debasement continuing. Our believe is the trend is unbreakable, and as the debt crisis continues to worsen, the outperformance of scarce assets will perpetually accelerate (not decelerate) relative to the dollar in CAGR terms vs historicals. If you accept that premise, as we do, the only challenge becomes building and sustaining a high Amplification Ratio without blowing up. It sounds simple, but it is extraordinarily difficult. I don’t believe most investors understand nor properly value the moat Strive has built around high Bitcoin amplification with high liquidity, and I don’t expect most to recognize it until Bitcoin makes sustainable new all-time highs. The consensus investor remains fixated on the cost of capital and fiat cash flows. That is understandable, but it means picking up pennies in front of the debasement steamroller. When you truly internalize the principles of a Bitcoin standard, the focus becomes crystal clear: be maximally and perpetually short dollars and long Bitcoin. $ASST $SATA $SATS

She does seem upset, but that’s probably because there’s no one from Cato Institute there to remind her that rebuilding from all this will have significant economic benefits.