September 6 2025 Jason/Sacks banter White House Tech dinner Lot of big leaders - representing ~half the tech industry by market cap Gates, Zuck, Cook, Brin, Pichai, Altman, etc Big moment for Sacks Lot of comity in the room - largely on the same page wrt what was happening in the economy and world and what they needed for the tech industry to do well in the world Pro innovation, pro exports, pro energy, pro worker Friedberg had a good podcast with Rand Paul Sacks, Chamath, Friedberg got to hang with the President in the White House and chill Karoline Leavitt etc seemed very competent Incredible scenes Melania Trump championing AI for education for kids Consensus in the room seemed to be that current administration is doing a better job letting the leaders do their work vs the Biden administration Biden/Kamala didn’t pursue this group and didn’t engage with them Trump 2.0 is engaging the business community and meeting them where they are This...
September 5 2025 Friedberg interviews Rand Paul Intro Followed in his dad’s footsteps - Doctor and then lawmaker Family of doctors Politics Libertarian, Tea Party, Deficit hawk Free trade Globalization human progress . org Doesn’t think China ripped us off Tariffs are a tax - sales tax instead of income tax Opposed to Big Beautiful Bill Social Security age increase? Finance and Economy Democrats just want to tax rich people Modern Monetary Theory did work briefly for about 10-15 years COLA = Cost of Living Allowance Fed interest payment games are interesting and obscure - do they benefit the rich more? In economics, things don’t happen gradually - they happen in 2 days Risks of fractional reserve banking Government should spend what is coming in - instead we are overspending $2T extra per year Debt to GDP is getting worse 40-50% of employees earn from fed, state, local govt or govt contractor or get a check from the government in some form Can’t have illega...