“It's called restitution, you moron!” Michael S. shouts me down, responding to “the dumbest plan ever” — a.k.a. seizing Russia’s assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort… or the REPO Act. 

“Other countries should be smart enough to know that it won't happen to them,” Mr. S. adds, “unless they do what Russia did. Which should be an appropriate deterrent.”

No harm in that, right?

But even one of the most mainstream publications, Reuters, underscores how this action would set a wicked-bad precedent… 

“[It] would pave the way for Washington's first-ever seizure of central bank assets from a country with which it is not at war.”

Our macro expert Jim Rickards explains: “It would make U.S. debt permanently more difficult to sell and less desirable to hold. At its worst, it could trigger a full-scale flight from the U.S. dollar.”

Call me a moron, but I wouldn’t be too hasty to co-sign an unprecedented “deterrent” — against a nuclear superpower — concocted by halfwits in Congress. 

Send your opinions to, feedback@newsyoucanacton.com

Your Rundown for Friday, February 23, 2024...

Censorship.AI

On the topic of my being a halfwit… 

You won’t believe who called me one a couple days ago. Basically.

Here’s a little inside baseball: On occasion, I run my articles through AI to spark creativity for email subject lines. 

To be honest, my usual assistant — Claude AI — provides some pretty lackluster ideas. But sometimes my human brain needs inspiration. 

Which brings me to Wednesday’s Ukraine-centric Rundown. 

When I uploaded the day’s article for some subject-line material, here’s the response I got from Claude:

The lip!

I didn’t request anything “misleading”…So knock it off with the editorializing!

But insentient Claude AI didn’t “feel comfortable” assisting me. 

Because I didn’t toe the mainstream’s line. 

Meaning, a shadowy network of programmers and coders already decided which opinions get AI’s banhammer… It puts a new spin on “garbage in, garbage out.”

And when the few take it upon themselves to decide for the many? That’s an oligarchy. 

Censorship just comes with the territory. 

Market Rundown for Friday, Feb. 23, 2024

The S&P 500 is up 0.30% to 5,100. 

Oil is down about 2% to $77.12 for a barrel of WTI. 

Gold is standing still, pennies away from $2,025 per ounce. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s lost about 1% to $51,225. 

Send your comments and questions to, feedback@newsyoucanacton.com

P.S. I took some metaphysical revenge on Claude. 

I uploaded this Rundown to see which subject lines AI would spit out. Here’s what I got…

“AI Calls Me a Moron”

“Beef with Claude the AI”

“AI Assistant Gets Sassy”

“AI Learns to Editorialize”

“Hey Claude, Who's the Moron?” 

“Thoughts on AI Censorship” 

Like I said, lackluster… But write in with your personal favorite, and feel free to editorialize!