Daniel’s Digest: The Debt-Driven, Ponzi Scheme Economy is Collapsing

Plus a ton of state news

Feb 05, 2026

Dear Patriots,

Amid all of the chaos with immigration, judicial supremacism, and Trump caving to blue state insurrection (which we’ve covered on the podcast-[Subscribe Here]), I wanted to touch on some economic news and other stories I’ve left in my stack.

We’ve been suffering from stagflation since COVID, but now the final shoe – the stock market – is dropping. Just Amazon alone tanked 15% today. This has been a brutal week in terms of economic news. We really do need divine intervention at this point.

Economy

-No jobs except gov’t run health care and education: Well, now we know why the Feds are skipping the January jobs report release for now. The ADP numbers for January show manufacturing once again contracting by 8,000 jobs and professional/business services jobs are in a recession of -57,000. So where are the jobs? Education and health care services grew by 74k. Of course, companies with 20-49 employees contracted jobs in January for the fifth consecutive month. This also jives with the Jolt report that total job openings in December cratered to 6.542 million from 7.146 million.

-Highest number of layoffs since Great Recession: U.S. companies announced over 108k layoffs, the largest number of job cuts for any January since the depths of the Great Recession in 2009, according to Challenger. At the same time, companies announced their intention to hire just 5,306 new hires, also the lowest since 2009. Now would be the best time for Trump to push for a moratorium on foreign workers, but instead they just doubled the H2B cap.

- US new-home prices fall below existing-home prices for first time on record: This is a perfect illustration of why the housing crisis is not a supply problem but a government-induced inflation and interest rate trap problem that created paralysis on existing supply despite robust new construction in many parts of the country. To illustrate the point, the National Association of Realtors reported that over 70% of licensed realtors didn’t sell a single home last year. So, it’s not a lack of supply but a lack of demand at the current exorbitant price point.

Meanwhile, Trump is announcing deals with private companies to build small “Trump homes” to flood the market with even more supply, thereby misdiagnosing the problem, even as he does the opposite of what should be done. He continues to support the HUD and Fed fueling of housing prices and low interest rates to keep prices high on behalf of seniors.

-unprecedented personal debt – what happens when unprecedented government debt induces stagflation? You get unprecedented personal debt. We now have an average of $10,000 in credit card debt per person, an average of $58,957 in student loans, an average of $241,840 in mortgages, and an average of $22,612 in auto loans. This debt-based economy is finally out of runway for the Ponzi scheme to continue. The only way forward is down the cliff.

States

-Alex Andrade, a Florida House health subcommittee chair, is part of law firm defending Planned Parenthood…from Florida! This is the sort of Republican we are electing to the legislature even in Florida. Andrade is one of the key players fighting Governor DeSantis on an array of issues.

-Indiana Republicans crush local Ag land for data centers/solar: Indiana has become a doormat for data centers, wind, solar, and carbon capture projects. Republicans control every statewide office with 3-1 majorities in the legislature. This week, the House passed HB 1333 (56-43), which would nullify local rezoning hearings for project development on land zoned for agricultural use if a data center, solar farm, wind farm, etc. wants to build a development on land zoned for agricultural use. What is so sad is that every Democrat voted no, while only 13 conservatives among the 69 Republicans voted no.

-Virginia declares parents terrorists: This is what it means to utilize trifecta control the minute you obtain it. The Loudoun County School Board held a closed-door training focused on responding to “terrorist” activity during school board meetings. Who were the terrorists? Potentially deranged teenage school shooters? Nope. Parents. “According to multiple sources who were in the room but requested we not identify them, the terrorism training involved dozens of actors, brought in by the school board, to act as Loudoun County parents.” These people, unlike the fake right, actually believe their own talking points....and are willing to act and implement accordingly.

- New Mexico bans 287g: New Mexico’s governor just signed a bill that bans local governments from joining ICE’s 287(g) program and from hosting detention centers. Again, blue states are thwarting immigration enforcement much more profoundly than red states are enhancing it. Nobody is coming close to Florida’s level of not just cooperating with but leading the federal government.

Important bills to support:

-Florida SB 1632: This bill bans sharia in the courts, provides a process for designating groups like CAIR as terrorists at the state level, bars state universities from supporting them, and most importantly, prohibits the state’s school voucher program from funding a school that is owned by or associated with groups like CAIR.

-Florida SB1334: Requires those registering to vote to submit citizenship documents and requires the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to verify citizenship status. Among other things, it mandates local election board supervisors create a process to remove non-citizen registrants. It also requires the motor vehicle agency to place immigration status on driver’s licenses.

Congress

-How Trump strong-armed conservatives into voting for gov’t funding bill: Trump personally worked the phone to get the Freedom Caucus to cave once again. Not only did they vote for the bloated government funding bill, but they did so in a way that only funds DHS for two weeks while funding the remainder of the government – the things the Democrats want – for the rest of the year. This allows Democrats to cleanly block and tackle ICE funding and policy without worrying about collateral damage to their constituents. I have never seen such legislative self-immolation in my life.

-Dems plotting next green new deal with speed: Democrats learn from mistakes. They realize that the green new deal took too long to implement and was therefore subject to reversal from a subsequent GOP administration. When they take over next, they will look for policies that are implemented quickly. Unlike Republicans, they value enduring and immutable wins for their cause, just like they did with Obamacare.

Immigration

-Chinese students with CCP membership, military links ‘infiltrate’ U.S. universities, watchdog says: the American Accountability Foundation, reported that it found nearly two dozen Chinese academics working at elite U.S. schools and labs “who because of the dual-use threat of their research, close ties to the military research sector in China, and/or clear ties to the Chinese Communist Party should be expelled from the United States or never be re-admitted.”

This report affirms what we’ve known for ages. No random Chinese dude gets to come here on student or other special academic visas to study sensitive fields without full orchestration by the Chinese government. Of course they would have to be members of the CCP. Rather than arguing for more student visas, Trump owes it to his base to cut off Chinese visas for education. Additionally, red states should pass a law barring Chinese students from state universities unless the admissions office can confirm (which they can’t) that the applicant is not a member of the CCP.

-Illegal alien Truck driver wipes out Amish family in Indiana: Bekzhan Beishekeev, an illegal alien released by the Biden administration, managed to get a Pennsylvania CDL and was driving a truck in Indiana this week when he crashed into a van, killing four passengers, including an Amish father and his two sons. This should be our Renee Good story that we use to push a massive immigration bill in Congress. Yet Trump has been silent.

Additionally, states like Indiana need a law prescribing 10 years in prison for an illegal caught driving in the state. Instead, the RINO governor and legislature, when they are not focused on promoting data centers, oppose Florida’s street-level, state-based immigration enforcement.

Judicial Tyranny

-Federal judge halts New Hampshire’s rule abolishing emissions testing: How can a judge mandate that a state actively engage in emissions testing on cars? How can you grant relief to a plaintiff by mandating that a state set up a policy that it doesn’t want to do? Yet, this is the extent of judicial supremacism so long as we abide by it. Even something as minor and innocuous as cancelling emissions testing cannot be done at a state level. So the problem we’ve seen this week with judicial supremacism on immigration at a federal level is the same problem on every issue, even at a state level.

-Federal judge says ICE can’t use IRS data to apprehend illegals: As I mentioned this week, the IRS data is the lynchpin to cutting off employment. Now, even with this court ruling, they could still have the IRS send notices to companies employing illegals and promise to fine them if they don’t let them go. But on the judicial front, this is going to continue until Trump says no, which he sadly won’t.

My book Stolen Sovereignty from 11 years ago warning that the courts will create a right to immigrate is sadly as prescient today as when I wrote it. You know why? Because Trump and the GOP have taken ZERO steps to combat judicial supremacism.

https://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Sovereignty-Unelected-Transforming-America/dp/1944229299