Odds and Ends — 14 July 2025

Historical factoid: my father witnessed the sinking of the Blücher.

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:

US Economy in a 'Goldilocks-Like Equilibrium' as Bitcoin Blasts Past $121K

AI Is Already Showing Signs of Slashing Job Openings in the UK

Corporate Bitcoin Adoption Set to Skyrocket by End of 2025, Says Blockware

We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse.

Coronavirus and Public Health:

A new summer COVID wave may be on its way

Politics:

Trump’s Megabill Creates Budget Nightmare for States

…Donald Trump’s landmark legislation is driving a giant hole in governors’ budgets in a midterm year.
By slashing health care and food assistance for low-income Americans, Republicans in Washington are passing tremendous costs onto the states, leaving local leaders from both parties grasping for ways to make up for billions in lost federal dollars. The cuts are already threatening to endanger governors’ education, public safety and disaster relief funds.

https://twitter.com/mattduss/status/1944466633667543453
- mattduss

A clinic blames its closing on Trump’s Medicaid cuts. Patients don’t buy it.

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/4nt1p4tt3rn/status/1944449797072601089
- 4nt1p4tt3rn

https://twitter.com/MikeNellis/status/1944395109354623133
- MikeNellis

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1944453555043389826
- ScottHech

Trump’s Epstein Headache Isn’t Going Away

At what should be the height of his political powers — having racked up signature wins in enacting his sprawling GOP megabill, bending U.S. allies to his will on defense spending, launching a successful and limited attack on Iran with no meaningful reprisals on U.S. forces — President Donald Trump is instead facing a fast-metastasizing MAGA rebellion over his administration’s handling of the files from the criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

https://twitter.com/TheMaineWonk/status/1944457018758058445
- TheMaineWonk

https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1944428595360956524
- AdamParkhomenko

https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/1944527283995430920
- jimstewartson

———— Autocracy R Us ————

https://twitter.com/funder/status/1944053888736538916
- funder

Whistleblower Emails Expose Fresh Trump Abuses in Abrego Garcia Case

Newly released communications show the lengths the Trump administration went to in order to label Kilmar Abrego Garcia an MS-13 leader.

https://twitter.com/DeanObeidallah/status/1944432380682392010
- DeanObeidallah

…Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs have prompted investors to bet that he will ‘always chicken out’ and given businesses and foreign leaders hope that the leader of the world’s largest economy will ultimately back down from his threats if they prove too economically disruptive.
Events of the past week have cast serious doubt on that bet. As Mr. Trump renews trade threats against more than two dozen trading partners, he is once again proving his fondness for tariffs, and embracing import taxes in a way that no other president has since the Great Depression.