Free Republic

Why the artificial-intelligence advertising spree could be the last hurrah - like the dot-coms in 2000 OpenAI and Anthropic are losing enormous amounts of money, yet are given valuations as if they were real companies making real profits. During Super Bowl XXXIV on Jan. 30, 2000, 14 of the 61 television advertisements were for internet startups. Perhaps they should have heeded the advice offered by E-Trade's "Waste of Money" ad that year, which featured a dancing monkey and ended with the on-screen punchline: "Well, we just wasted $2,000,000. What are you doing with your money?" That Super Bowl was played...

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was granted the power to see the future, but cursed so that no one would believe her. She warned of disaster repeatedly, only to be ignored until tragedy struck. Today, the United States has its own modern-day Cassandras, and once again our warnings are being dismissed. Knowledgeable experts have cautioned that our nation’s fiscal path is unsustainable. Federal budget documents themselves have repeatedly sounded the alarm. Credit rating agencies have raised increasingly serious concerns. Despite these warnings, Washington continues to behave as though time is unlimited and there are no consequences to continuing to ignore the...

And Hong Kong hasn't even opened yet.

(summary deck only) Silver futures contracts fall $3.19, or 7.5%, to $39.38 an ounce, their third consecutive decrease since hitting a record $48.58 on Friday. Most other commodities also retreat.