Unf*cking The Republic

Trump lost more than the war with Iran. U.S. media tends to look at things through a bilateral or ethnocentric lens of winners and losers. The bigger story is how Trump singlehandedly altered the calculus for multiple nation states, and fundamentally shifted historic alliances. Israel stands to lose the most and is increasingly isolated now that Iran and its proxies are triumphant. But this also has enormous implications for the Gulf States who have to renegotiate their relationship with Tehran. Whether there are any actual payouts in this agreement is icing on Iran’s liquidity cake as entry to market oil prices and flows alone will amount to a huge windfall. In three short months Trump weakened the position of U.S. allies and strengthened Iran and its allies. Resources CNBC: Pres. Trump: MOU is not final, if I don’t like agreement we will go back to dropping bombs AL-MONITOR: Analysis-Gulf recalibrates as Iran emerges intact from war Al Jazeera: Will a US-Iran deal unlock $300bn in investment fund for Tehran? Middle East Eye: US-Iran deal leaves Israel isolated and Netanyahu exposed Brookings: The end of the American way of war? Media Bias Fact Check: Shafaq News – Bias and Credibility Shafaq News: Two powers, one grid: The geopolitical siege of Iraq’s economy Frontline: Qassem Soleimani’s Complex Legacy in Iraq Alcon Intel: Iran Proxy Network Post-War: Reconstitution & Threat U.S. EIA: Country Analysis Brief: Iran Tehran Dispatch: Iran Quietly Expands Oil Sales to Asia, Bypassing Western Sanctions UNFTR Resources Video: Trump Weakened U.S. Allies While Strengthening Iran. Essay: We Lost More Than This War. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we took a detour into the joy of the Knicks championship and what it says about New York, collective identity, and why Zohran Mamdani’s politics make sense in a city where the billionaire and the bodega worker share the same sewer pipe. Then we got back to the markets, where a flood of new share issuances is quietly changing the supply and demand math that’s driven equities upward for 40 years. With bond yields actually competing for attention, the irrational exuberance warnings are starting to sound less crazy. Chapters Intro: 00:00:37 Quick Takes: 00:01:18 Max Notes: 00:04:57 Killer Left Take of the Week: 00:13:17 Chart of the Week: 00:15:34 Headlines: 00:19:51 Outro: 00:21:03 Resources 270 to Win: 2026 Senate Election Interactive Map Sharing Sociology: From Redlining to the Court: How Systemic Racism Shaped Basketball Culture in NYC Nate Rattner: Courts of New York (A visual atlas of the city’s public basketball spaces) Courts of the World: Basketball Courts in New York City, NY NYC Parks: About the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Forbes: The Cities With The Most Billionaires 2025 The Bitchuation Room (with Francesca Fiorentini): Ivanka and Jared Chased Out Of Albania SIFMA: US Equity and Related Statistics CounterPunch: What’s Wrong With the American Left: Captured by the Professional Class Dissent Magazine: AI is Theft Grist: For first time, Americans are getting more of their electricity from solar than coal UNFTR Resources Video: On The Record 6-16-26 (Zohran & Knicks outshine Trump & UFC). Essay: Be Like NYC. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inflation figures came out this week and they were absolutely brutal. April CPI was startling enough, but the Producer Price Index (PPI), which is an indicator of inflation in the pipeline was shocking. Oil reserves are running down to dangerously low levels and it’s clear now that there’s no immediate resolution to the oil crisis, so we’re about to realize our worst economic fears. We take a look back at our predictions from nine months ago to see how accurate they are and to build on them for what comes next. Against the backdrop of this horrible inflation data, we have a new sheriff in town at the Federal Reserve. The man whose job it is to theoretically tame inflation has no tools in the box to deal with this level of crisis. The real question is whether he ever intended to. Resources Bloomberg Podcasts: Senate Confirms Warsh to Lead Fed as Trump Tests Its Autonomy CNBC Television: Wholesale inflation jumps 6% in April on annual basis, biggest increase since 2022 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Producer Price Index News Release summary - 2026 M04 Results U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index Summary - 2026 M04 Results WSJ: Kevin Warsh’s Full Fed Chair Confirmation Hearing Manhattan Institute: Reform the Federal Reserve’s Governance to Deliver Better Monetary Outcomes Hudson Bay Capital: A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System EPI: Profits and price inflation are indeed linked Groundwork Collaborative: Inflation Revelation: How Outsized Corporate Profits Drive Rising Costs IEA: Oil Stocks of IEA Countries – Data Tools CNBC: Analysis: Warsh emerges from a difficult hearing with his Fed ‘regime-change’ plan intact’ UNFTR Resources Essay: Inflation, The Fed and What Comes Next. Video: Stephen Miran Is Going To Be Fed Chair. Video: The Warsh Man for the Job. Max for MTN. Episode: 10 Economic Terms To Know in This Economy. Episode: The End of the American Experiment. Episode. Stupid Is As Stupid Does. Episode: Labor Unions: From Pullman to Kellogg’s. Episode: Stephen Miran Is Going To Be Fed Chair. Episode: Project 2025. -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Max and 99 are back for another episode of Omnibus. They hit headlines on vitamin K refusal, abortion pill access hanging by a thread, Germany asking Israel for jet fuel, and a robotic companion with AI surveillance built in, then tackle listener emails on deflation, data center slowdowns, and book recommendations. They rank their Top 5 brands to support and close with some light bullshit. Enjoy! Chapters Intro: 00:00:08 Headlines: 00:05:49 Emails: 00:30:48 Top 5: 01:09:33 Beyond the Bullshit: 01:22:49 Memberships: 01:25:52 Outro: 01:26:35 Resources ProPublica: Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth Mother Jones: Supreme Court Reinstates Access to Abortion Pills—For Now SCOTUSblog OilPrice.com: Germany Seeks Israeli Jet Fuel As Hormuz Disruptions Cripple Airlines The Verge: The creator of Roomba is back with a furry robot companion Book Love Samuel Farber: Before Stalinism: The Rise and Fall of Soviet Democracy Paul Kriwaczek: Yiddish Civilisation: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation Naomi Klein: No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need Rachel Cockerell: Melting Point: Family, Memory, and the Search for a Promised Land Cory Doctorow: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It Peter Joseph: The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression Clara E. Mattei: Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States Daniella Mestyanek + Amy Reed: Young: The Culting of America: What Makes a Cult and Why We Love Them Yuyi Morales: Dreamers Michael Hudson: J Is for Junk Economics: A Guide to Reality in an Age of Deception David Graeber: Debt: The First 5,000 Years Stephanie Kelton: The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy David Graeber: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory Astra Taylor + Naomi Klein: End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World Top 5 Mother Jones ProPublica PBS The Marshall Project Dr Bronner’s Bookshop.org Wear The Peace Greyston Bakery UNFTR Resources Video: Milei Promised Miracles, Delivered Chaos—Trump Is Next Video: Canada’s Working Class Under Attack: Carney’s Economic Update Decoded Video: They Hide These Economic Words From You—Here’s Why -- If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com. Become a member at unftr.com/memberships. Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com. Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations. Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility.Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/membershipsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.