There are too many gauntlets to run in too little time; Episode 303 of ModState's flagship podcast finds your hosts ("Crazy Eddie" Magic and "Sailor Jack" D) navigating lots of terrain, some trickier than others.

From another dive into AI (was Cortana absorbed by the "JEDI" program at the US Department of War?) to the black market for cannabis (exacerbated by some sky-high taxes in some American states) to the global, Hydra-like reach of the US Dollar, your duo covers an immense amount of ground here. With Argentina already the beneficiary of US Government financial "outreach", they've now opted to move their economy closer to that of their American allies by more closely embracing the US Dollar. That much was established, and so your hosts only touch on that briefly; what was not previously known was the apparent backroom wheeling and dealing that finds Russia (yes, the one headed by President Vladimir Putin) apparently contemplating underpinning its economy (or at least a huge portion of the involved transactions) via the US Dollar as well.

While this would be a massive, watershed moment, we cannot say for certain whether or not that is the case. However, it would explain the protracted nature of a conflict (the War in Ukraine) that is beleaguered by peace talks that remain bogged down. The Devil is truly in the details, some of which would find Russia receiving extensive financial sanctions relief in exchange for more closely underpinning heretofore unspecified aspects of its economy by way of US Dollar-denominated transactions.

Were these developments to pan out, not only would it fundamentally rewrite the script for ending the conflict in Eastern Europe but it would also make servicing the ballooning US Federal debt a less painful task. There's a lot to unpack here, and we will surely return to this topic in the days and episodes ahead.

As a personal aside, Eddie Magic's parents celebrated their Ruby (40th) wedding anniversary, a milestone most marriages never reach. Congratulations are in order, to be sure!

With that, we hope you enjoy the episode, and we thank you all again from the bottom of our hearts for inviting us back into your lives yet again. Au revoir!

For as long as is reasonably possible, we'll try and keep this as light as we can.

Some of the subject matter makes this a lot tougher at times than others, and while we'd rather focus on the pros and cons of AI and its macroeconomic impacts, we'd also be remiss to not review things like (former Prince) Andrew being arrested. We vowed not to obsess over the JE Library / not to bring it up in lieu of a major development, and given the reality this whole sequence of ignominious events could bring down The (British) Crown, we'd say that qualifies.

If it's "just" andrew mountbatten windsor having leaked insider trading-type information (albeit from nearly the pinnacle of UK power) for the financial benefit of JE Epstein and their fellow ne'er-do-wells, the Crown likely survives.

However, if this puppy turns into a drip-drip-drip-drip of news worsening daily? Even removing him from their formal line of succession may not prevent No10 Downing from hosting dialogues of a more existential variety regarding the Crown's future.

Returning for Episode 301, "Crazy Eddie" Matuk & "Sailor Jack" DeViney kick the new year into high gear by going over the numbers, nuts and bolts of just how much AI is NOT revolutionizing the economy. Neither one of them are naysaying the tech, which has limitless potential, but neither is naive enough to be blind optimists about it, either. Taking a middle-of-the-road, pragmatic approach, they question just how much money the firms involved are saving when they fire thousands of people only to pour billions into data centers that not only cost massive amounts of money to launch but also further untold millions to maintain.

While there's still much to come on the subject, they remain agreed largely that Artificial Intelligence won't replace workers (much less work itself) but will change and greatly augment work itself. As opposed to eliminating strain and stress on the job, it is likely to exacerbate it given its potential benefits for productivity.

In addition to a sweeping wrap-up of some current events odds and ends around America and Earth at-large, they close with a cautionary, realistic assessment of the multimedia library published by the United States Department of Justice as pertains to the Jeffrey Epstein "files". While the e-mail correspondence contained therein is rife with asides and possible references to potentially ghastly events and horrifying social gatherings, one big takeaway from this should be that we don't know much of anything for certain about most of the people involved. While Epstein himself was a convicted sex offender, names such as Woody Allen and Elon Musk may be tough to miss and even tougher to ignore, their names being mentioned in the correspondence and/or their being participants in correspondence does not in and of itself make them guilty of similar crimes.

The duo, Mr. Matuk III and Mr. DeViney, feel the bottom line, at this time, is that the Jeffrey Epstein library (available for public viewing by those aged 18 years and older [perhaps the ultimate irony] on the DoJ website) should be viewed with caution, yes, and also for what it is: bits and pieces and individual parts of a much larger investigation that, truly, we hope is ongoing.

https://www.justice.gov/epstein