Unf*cking The Republic - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

The Revenge Porn Presidency: Trump, Commodus, and the Unraveling of Empire. Dec 09, 2025

Show notes

Donald Trump is tearing the nation apart. To place his revenge-filled presidency in historical context we have to reach deep into the annals of history and revisit the tenure of famed Roman Emperor Commodus who historians perceive as the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire. With this second term Trump has entered rarified air that few U.S. presidents have breathed. He has fundamentally altered the culture, the country and its people. Moving past this moment will be our greatest challenge.

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Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is hosted by Max and distributed by 99.

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The Music Has Stopped: The Political Response We Need to This Financial Crisis. Nov 24, 2025

Show notes

The U.S. economy has already crashed. The stock market is just the last one to figure it out. In this essay, Max talks about what happens when hegemonic economies collapse and how the U.S. has been able to keep things afloat while the bottom falls out. He draws parallels to the crash of 1929 and the subsequent Depression and speaks to the differences. There is a path forward for Progressives but it won’t be a presidential run. The DNC will make sure of that. But we can borrow from Russell Vought’s playbook to build a coalition of support on the ground.

Resources

DSA: Chapters

Working Families Party: Get Involved

Sherrod Brown

UNFTR Resources

Trump is Looting the Treasury.

“Russputin” and the Tsar.

Medicare for All.

Zohran Mamdani Has Already Won.

Civilian Labor Corps.

Housing First.

UNFTR 5NN.

Video: The Financial Crisis is NOW & The Path Forward for Democrats.

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Show Notes [November 15, 2025.] Nov 16, 2025

Show notes

Max and 99 are back for another round of Show Notes. They (surprise) talk about the economy, the housing crisis, Venezuela and much more. Enjoy!

Chapters

Intro: 00:00:20

Emails: 00:26:21

Memberships: 00:41:24

Reviews: 01:37:16

Outro: 01:38:50

Resources

Video (UNFTR for MeidasTouch): Trump's Kitchen Sink Recession Response

UNFTR Bookshop

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Likely Lost 50,000 Jobs in October, Goldman Sachs Says

The Budget Lab: Evaluating the Impact of AI on the Labor Market: Current State of Affairs

Progressive Punch

Ballotopedia

UNFTR: 5NN: Housing First

UNFTR: How We Built the Housing Crisis (And Why We Can Dismantle It)

ABC: Boyer Lecture 2025: Justin Wolfers

UnHeard: Javier Milei is no libertarian: He is beholden to Argentina’s oligarchs

Video (UNFTR for MeidasTouch): Manufacturing Consent for War in Venezuela

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The Plumbing of the Financial Markets Is Leaking: Understanding the U.S. Liquidity Crisis. Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

Max reports on the growing cracks in the financial markets and the unprecedented lengths the Federal Reserve has already gone to in order to stabilize the global financial system. The U.S. is heading toward a full-blown liquidity crisis that threatens to seize up the financial markets. The situation is worsening daily at this point and Trump’s erratic policy decisions are contributing to the destabilization.

View the charts related to this episode.

Chapters

Intro: 00:00:37

Post Show Musings: 00:19:33

Outro: 00:39:38

Resources

Challenger, Gray & Christmas: Challenger Report: September 2025

MacroMicro: US - Hourly Wage Growth by Wage Level

MacroMicro: US - Consumer Price Index (CPI)

MacroMicro: US - Fed Overnight Reverse Repurchase Agreements (ON RRP) Trading Volume

MacroMicro: US - Treasury Yields vs. Fed Funds Rate

MacroMicro: US - Federal Fund Interest Rates

MacroMicro: US - Fed Overnight Reverse Repurchase Agreements (ON RRP) Trading Volume

MacroMicro: US - Fed's Balance Sheet - Liabilities

Fortune: Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says

Video: MTN: Trump in Full Blown Panic as Market Collapse Imminent

Track Star: Zohran Mamdani

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Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

Share the 5NN

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Stephen Miran Is Going To Be Fed Chair: The Gospel According to Miran. Nov 03, 2025

Show notes

Stephen Miran isn’t auditioning to run the Federal Reserve. He’s auditioning to destroy it. Like so many in Trump’s sphere, Miran was selected for his ability to appear like he’s doing the right thing and making the tough choices. In reality, he exists to destroy the thing he’s spent his entire life trying to be a part of. Miran is a highly educated and competent analyst whose academic veneer and projection of empathy belie his craven desire for power and to eradicate the independence of the Fed and place it under direct authority and control of the president. And make no mistake, when Jerome Powell’s term is up, this is who will be in charge of the Fed.

Chapters

Intro: 00:01:00

Chapter One: The Audition. 00:02:10

Chapter Two: The Power and Powers of the Fed. 00:07:15

Chapter Three: Who Is This Numbnut? 00:13:06

Chapter Four: Consistently Inconsistent. 00:18:34

Bring It Home, Max: 00:23:46

Resources

Federal Reserve Board: Stephen I. Miran

Barron’s: Last Year, Trump’s New Man at the Fed Thought Rates Were Too Low. What Changed

Miran’s Articles + White Papers

City Journal: Is Having the Reserve Currency Good for the U.S.?

Manhattan Institute: The Fed Isn’t as Independent as It Seems

Manhattan Institute: The Fed Doesn’t Need to Cut. Financial Conditions Are Already Loosening.

Manhattan Institute: The Fed Is Facing a Changed World. The Case Against Cuts.

Hudson Bay Capital: A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System

Manhattan Institute: Reform the Federal Reserve’s Governance to Deliver Better Monetary Outcomes

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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.

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Phone A Friend: Keith D. (You Can’t Afford To Ignore Crypto.) Oct 26, 2025

Show notes

In this Phone a Friend, Max sits down with crypto entrepreneur and advisor Keith D. The pair discuss the history of Bitcoin, expansion of crypto markets and whether the public is in safe hands as the influence of cryptocurrency grows exponentially.

Resources

Keith D. on YouTube

Video: You can't afford to ignore Crypto with Keith D.

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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.

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The Controlled Demolition of the U.S. Economy: Shadow Banks, Dollar Debasement and Basis Trades. Oct 24, 2025

Show notes

The U.S. economy is headed for financial collapse. Repo market stress. Private credit market liquidity crunch. Subprime lending crisis. Spiraling deficits. Basis trade exposure. Dollar debasement. U.S. states in recession. Oil market contango. Tariff and trade wars. Each of these are like explosive devices hiding in the corners of the economic edifice that is the U.S. economy. And the Federal Reserve just released a shocking paper that exposes the biggest potential threat of all. Explosive devices have been set all around the economy and a new bomb was just uncovered in the most unlikely of places.

Chapters

Intro: 00:05:21

Chapter One: The Road to Economic Hegemony. 00:06:24

Chapter Two: Collision Course. 00:30:55

Chapter Three: Hidden Bomb. 00:35:50

Chapter Four: Bring It Home, Max. 00:44:50

Resources

The Lead Left: Middle Market & Private Credit – 2/10/2025

Mark Zandi on X

Axios: 22 states are in a recession or close to it, new analysis finds

The Fed: The Cross-Border Trail of the Treasury Basis Trade

FSB: Leverage in Nonbank Financial Intermediation: Final report

Morningstar: Official data dramatically underestimates hedge funds' involvement in the Treasury market, Fed paper finds

Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Repo Operations

Fidelity: Investor behind Zions, Western Alliance bad loans is tied to $270 million in troubled debt

Car Dealership Guy: Tricolor: The messy collapse of a subprime auto lender explained

Investopedia: Basis Trading: Definition, How It Works, Example

The Guardian: What is private credit, and should we be worried by the collapse of US firms?

OilPrice.com: Oil Market Braces for Contango and Shale Slowdown

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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.

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Show Notes [October 18, 2025.] Oct 19, 2025

Show notes

Max and 99 are back this week for Show Notes; they start with a little pop culture music/movie talk, and transition into Unf*cker emails where they cover why the 1% doesn’t care if the economy is gutted, what figures you can trust from the Trump administration, Technocracy in Silicon Valley and a host of other things. Enjoy!

Chapters

Intro: 00:00:20

Emails: 00:27:51

Memberships: 01:24:16

Outro: 01:30:08

Resources

The Baffler: The Substance

Leave a Review

Become a UNFTR Member

The Rewatchables: ‘Sneakers’ With Bill Simmons, Kyle Brandt, and Joanna Robinson

Jacob Riis: How The Other Half Lives

Climate Disruption: Lee Zeldin Cancer Gala

Paris Marx

New York Times: A Plea From Doctors: Cool It on the Supplements

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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.

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Barack Obama: The Greatest Republican President of My Lifetime. Oct 13, 2025

Show notes

Barack Obama was the greatest Republican president of my lifetime—a statement sure to fire up establishment liberals and conservatives alike. But for progressives in the United States, this is what the Obama years felt like. Today’s episode examines the seminal policy achievements of the Obama years from the Affordable Care Act and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to DACA and the response to the Global Financial Crisis. We offer the liberal and conservative views of the same issues, then finish with the progressive perspective on all.

Resources

Migration Policy Institute: The Obama Record on Deportations: Deporter in Chief or Not?

TBIJ: Obama’s covert drone war in numbers: ten times more strikes…

NPR: Pledging To End Two Wars, Obama Finds Himself Entangled In Three

Video: Cornel West's Note to Obama

Obama Library

UNFTR Resources

Video: Barack Obama: The BEST REPUBLICAN President Ever

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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.

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Bailing on Farmers to Bail Out Argentina: Two to Tango. Oct 06, 2025

Show notes

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently pledged $20 billion of support to Argentina to prevent its currency from sliding further and to backstop Javier Milei’s Trump-like economic agenda. Then, Argentina turned around and lowered its export tariffs and dumped its soybean crop on the market. They found a willing buyer in China, who has ceased purchasing U.S. agriculture due to the Trump tariff war. The whole affair boiled over when an AP photographer snapped a picture of a text thread on Bessent’s phone from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Collins who said U.S. soybean farmers were livid because their market collapsed. It’s another example of the Trump administration putting ideology and pettiness ahead of his own constituents. But there’s a larger game afoot that no one is talking about that this situation perfectly illustrates: We’re playing checkers and China is playing chess.

Chapters

Intro: 00:00:36

Post Show Musings: 00:25:22

Outro: 00:27:43

Resources

Americas Quarterly: A Key Pending Challenge for Milei’s Argentina

New York Times: Milei Vowed to Fix Argentina’s Economy. Then Came a New Crisis

Newsweek: Trump’s Argentina bailout sparks fury among farmers, Republicans

Paul Krugman: Why Is Trump Bailing Out Argentina?

Federal Reserve: Dollarization in Argentina

The Observatory of Economic Complexity: United States (USA) and Argentina (ARG) Trade

International Trade Administration: Argentina - Market Overview

MercoPress: Argentina records 21st straight trade surplus

CEIC Data: Argentina Consolidated Fiscal Balance, 1993 – 2025

Americas Quarterly: Milei’s Path to Dollarization: Riddled with Doubts

J.P. Morgan: De-dollarization: The end of dollar dominance?

Become a UNFTR Member

Book Love

Carol Wise: Dragonomics: How Latin America Is Maximizing (or Missing Out On) China's International Development Strategy

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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/memberships

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.