Someone just spent $236,000,000 on a painting. Here’s why it matters for your wallet.
The WSJ just reported the highest price ever paid for modern art at auction.
While equities, gold, bitcoin hover near highs, the art market is showing signs of early recovery after one of the longest downturns since the 1990s.
Here’s where it gets interesting→
Each investing environment is unique, but after the dot com crash, contemporary and post-war art grew ~24% a year for a decade, and after 2008, it grew ~11% annually for 12 years.*
Overall, the segment has outpaced the S&P by 15 percent with near-zero correlation from 1995 to 2025.
Now, Masterworks lets you invest in shares of artworks featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso. Since 2019, investors have deployed $1.25 billion across 500+ artworks.
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*Per Masterworks data. Investing involves risk. Past performance not indicative of future returns. Important Reg A disclosures: masterworks.com/cd
Table of Contents
It’s Still Cold As Balls
New York: 15°F feeling like 3°F with clear fucking skies—that bone-deep cold that makes your lungs ache, high of 24°F against a low kissing zero. The kind of morning where your breath crystallizes mid-exhale and you question every goddamn life choice that brought you to this frozen hellscape.
Kansas City: High of 58°F dropping to 17°F under cloudy skies with a Winter Storm Warning—the weather's playing mind games, that whiplash warmth before the bastard bottom drops out and winter reminds you who's boss.
Atlanta: 32°F high with 26°F low, Ice Storm Warning in effect—and yet it sunny, dry
San Francisco: Steady 60°F high, 45°F low, marine layer doing its moody shit—that perpetual gray comfort zone where seasons blur and you forget what actual weather feels like.
Detroit: 60°F high, 31°F low, Cold Weather Advisory posted—Motor City getting that lake-effect mindfuck where the thermometer lies and the wind cuts straight through to your fucking soul.
The Daily Gathering
Grounded wisdom for curious souls
Good morning, beloved community. It's Wednesday, January 28, 2026. Today: Trump's Fed fuckery backfires spectacularly, America officially abandons the planet while the rest of the world moves forward without us, and the GLAAD report that proves Pride Month 2025 was one of the most dangerous on record.
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Editor's note: January's deep freeze mirrors the political chill—bundle up, stay close, keep the fires burning.
The Fed Holds Steady While Trump Melts Down
That particular tension in Powell's jaw as he faces down another White House assault—the acrid smell of institutional independence under siege, the weight of economic stability hanging by a thread.
The damage: Trump's Justice Department served the Fed with grand jury subpoenas over building renovations, a transparent pretext to bully Powell into rate cuts the economy doesn't need. The Fed's keeping rates at 3.6% because inflation still sits at 2.8% and Trump's tantrums don't dictate monetary policy. Powell called it what it is: an attempt to subject policy to "the preferences of the president." Meanwhile, mortgage rates hit a three-year low despite—not because of—Trump's interference, proving markets work better when fascists keep their fucking hands off.
Response: Wall Street analysts warn this backfired beautifully—the Fed will likely hold rates throughout 2026 to assert independence, giving Trump exactly the opposite of what he wanted. Powell's term ends in May, but he might stay on the board through 2028 just to be a thorn in Trump's side. Every living former Fed chair signed a statement Monday defending central bank independence. The message: Economic policy isn't a loyalty test. Read more
America Officially Exits the Paris Agreement—The After Effect
The particular weight of watching your country check out of planetary survival—that sinking feeling in your gut as you realize we're the only nation shameless enough to abandon the world twice.
The science: Tuesday marked one year since Trump announced the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, making us the only country on Earth to exit the 196-nation pact designed to limit warming to 1.5°C. Without Paris, emissions would jump 20-48% by 2035. With it, countries are on track for a 12% reduction. Trump also pulled us from 66 international climate organizations including the IPCC and UNFCCC, isolating America while China, the EU, and emerging economies race ahead in the $26 trillion clean energy transition.
Action: Wopke Hoekstra, EU climate commissioner, called it "clear absence of leadership" that damages America's reputation. UN climate chief Simon Stiell says the transition is "unstoppable"—other countries are seizing opportunities Trump's abandoning. The International Court of Justice ruled last year that governments have legal obligations to protect citizens from climate impacts regardless of political theatre. Meanwhile, US companies and states are moving forward anyway because they're not fucking stupid enough to ignore where the money's going. Read more
LGBTQ+ America Under Siege: They WANT To Kill All Of Us
Hands finding hands at Pride, the catch in someone's throat speaking their truth against rising threats—that particular courage of showing up when they're trying to erase you.
Stakes: GLAAD's 2026 ALERT Desk report documents 1,042 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents across 47 states—a 5% increase from 2024. Over half (532 incidents) specifically targeted trans and gender-nonconforming people, up 10%. June 2025 saw 268 incidents, a 400% spike from June 2022, making Pride Month one of the most dangerous on record. The attacks included 128 acts of vandalism, 76 assaults, 22 mass violence threats, and 15 arson attempts. California led with 198 incidents, followed by New Hampshire (72), Texas (66), Ohio (50), and Washington (50).
Movement: "Americans should refuse to accept a country where our neighbors fear for their safety," said GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis. The data reveals shifting targets—incidents against drag performers dropped 55% as the community built security infrastructure and courts struck down drag bans as unconstitutional. But educators, librarians, and local governments face escalating attacks. Nearly 68% of LGBTQ+ adults believe violence will increase this year. The link between LGBTQ+ rights and functioning democracy isn't theoretical—when they come for trans kids, democracy itself is the target. Read more
"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."
— Angela Davis
Life Survival: On Accepting vs. Changing
Davis wrote this after watching too many people confuse serenity with surrender. Right now the regime wants you to "accept" that the Fed answers to Trump, that climate agreements are optional, that federal agents can murder citizens with impunity. Fuck that. The things you cannot change are the hand you're dealt—being alive during democratic collapse, watching institutions bend. The things you cannot accept are the outcomes they're pushing—unchecked executive power, planetary suicide, state violence. The trick is knowing which is which. You can't change that Trump's in office. You can refuse to accept what he does with it. You can't change that Pride Month saw 268 attacks. You can change how your community responds. The survival move is learning to hold both—the grief of what's happening and the refusal to normalize it.
Community & Culture
Minneapolis Explodes Over Federal Murders
Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino's out after calling Alex Pretti—a 37-year-old ICU nurse lawfully carrying a licensed firearm—someone who intended to "massacre law enforcement." Video shows Pretti holding a phone, disarmed, then shot repeatedly in the head while restrained. It's the second killing this month—Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, was shot driving away from ICE agents. Trump's sending Tom Homan to "de-escalate" after massive protests and bipartisan outrage. DHS personnel are being reduced in Minnesota. But here's the punchline: They're calling protesters "paid insurrectionists" while the administration's approval on immigration crashed 20 points underwater. When your fascism is so obvious even Republicans are backing away, you've fucked up spectacularly. Read more


