Good morning! If your grandpa has any nondescript old boxes collecting dust in the attic, you may want to give ‘em a peek for old comic books. Superman debuted in 1938’s “Action Comics” No. 1, and a copy of that book just sold to a very rich nerd for a cool $15 million. Who knows, maybe your old Beanie Babies are next?

And, because of course it was, this exact copy was once owned by none other than Nicolas Cage.

ECONOMY

💳️ Trump wants to cap credit card rates at 10%

Nobody’s quite sure yet by what authority he plans to do this, but President Trump announced that he will cap credit card rates at 10% for one year beginning January 20.

He said the American people are being "ripped off" by high interest rates of “20 to 30 percent.” According to the Federal Reserve, the average rate right now is 22.3%. As recently as 2013, which was definitely not 13 years ago, that average was 12.9%.

• The agency regulating this area is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB was created during the Obama years. For most of its life, Republicans have argued it should not exist.

• The move echoes a bipartisan plan (which hasn’t been passed) by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Josh Hawley that would impose a 10% cap for five years.

The benefit to consumers is obvious, but opponents say the rate cap will have unintended side effects that actually make it worse for people with bad credit. They likely won’t be eligible for credit cards anymore, so they’ll be pushed into even more predatory lending systems like cash advance places and Sicilian guys who threaten to break your knees if you don’t pay.

Related: Following a State Department report, President Trump last week withdrew the U.S. from 66 international organizations. He found membership in them to be "contrary to the interests of the United States” (aka: we don’t want to fund them anymore).

• The list includes the Colombo Plan Council, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations, the U.N. Population Fund, and U.N. University.

GOVERNMENT

👨‍⚖️ A federal district judge in Washington state is blocking Trump from enforcing an executive order on mail-in voting. Trump recently signed an order threatening to pull federal funding, via the Election Assistance Commission, from states that allow mail-in ballots to be postmarked by Election Day (most require the ballots to arrive by Election Day). The judge said the order was an unconstitutional overreach by Trump that interfered with states’ ability to run their elections as they see fit. Over in New York, another judge blocked the administration from freezing $10 billion in federal social services funds over fraud concerns. He directed that the cash be released while the legal challenge to the freeze plays out.

🔎 Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is facing an internal investigation following allegations that she’s involved in an “inappropriate” relationship with a subordinate. To add insult to injury, she's also accused of vacationing on the taxpayer's dime and being a "boss from hell" who sends staffers on personal errands. A Department of Labor spokesperson called the claims "categorically false." Internal investigations like this are run by the OIG — Office of Inspector General. Every government department has one. They investigate fraud, abuse, and general mismanagement in their specific departments.

🌍️ President Trump is weighing a strike on Iran. Millions of protestors there are challenging Iran’s brutal, authoritarian regime to a degree not seen in decades. Trump offered American assistance if the regime struck back. Since then, the government’s violent crackdown has killed at least 500 protestors. Iran's U.S.-based crown prince, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was exiled when his father was overthrown in a 1979 Islamic coup. He’s emerged as a rebel leader during this uprising. Some protestors in Tehran are shouting “Long live the Shah!” (king), and Pahlavi just promised via video that he will be with them “soon.”

🎨 The Trump administration’s new RealFood website made waves last week for being a government website that’s, y’know, somehow actually good. The site is the work of Trump’s new National Design Studio, which he formed via executive order a few months back. Billionaire, designer, and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia leads the group. If you’re into that sort of thing, you can check out more of their work at TechForce, Genesis, TrumpAccounts, TrumpRx, and TrumpCard (wonder who named those last three). They also led a recent effort to modernize the federal retirement system.

TRIVIA

President Trump is ramping up his desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark. He's gotten Europe to bend to his will on all sorts of issues, from defense spending to tariffs, so it's no surprise that he thinks he’ll be successful here, too. This is obviously a controversial topic, especially considering that he’s publicly toying around with the idea of a full-on military invasion.

We’re not here to tell you what to think about this whole situation. But we are going to tell you that Trump isn’t the first U.S. official to have eyes for Greenland. The American government has lowkey been trying to buy the place since 1867, when the secretary of State was negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia. That year, he began trying to convince Denmark to sell us Greenland and, because why the heck not, Iceland, too. Yes, the entire country. This guy was the GOAT who gave us Alaska, without which we wouldn’t have such cultural icons as “The Proposal.” But what was his name? What was the name of the U.S. secretary of State who negotiated the purchase of Alaska?

Hint: People at the time thought Alaska sucked and nicknamed the deal “______’s Folly,” with this guy’s last name in the blank. It starts with an S. No pressure, but you for sure learned this in high school history.

WORLD

🛢️ Trump wants oil companies to move into Venezuela

It’s hard to believe the whole Venezuela saga happened just ten days ago. And yet … it didn’t. It was actually only nine days ago. It’s a busy January.

Oil: Venezuela has more oil than any other country on the planet, so that’s been central to discussions about what to do next. At the White House on Friday, President Trump met with oil company executives from around the world, including those from Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. The group was split on whether they'd be willing to invest in upgrading Venezuela's shoddy, outdated drilling infrastructure.

• Some were excited by the challenges and “ready to go” help boost Venezuela's current, low output.

• Others said the country was "uninvestable" without major changes to the legal system.

One country not happy about all this? Cuba. Venezuela was the communist-run island’s largest supplier of oil until Trump ordered that trade to stop on Sunday and warned Cuba to “make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

Sanctions: For ages, the U.S. Treasury Department has slapped sanctions on Venezuela that largely block the country from taking part in international financial markets. Those could be lifted as soon as this week, however, to help facilitate the sale of Venezuelan oil.

• The move would also unfreeze $5 billion of Venezuelan cash currently frozen by the International Monetary Fund.

Meanwhile, Venezuela’s government has begun releasing its political prisoners, and the Nobel Committee vetoed opposition leader María Corina Machado’s plan to share her Nobel Peace Prize with President Trump. Looking to the future, U.S. officials want the country to hold new, democratic elections “as soon as possible.”

Back in the United States, we’ve all spent the past week becoming experts at determining when deadly force is appropriate. Congressional Democrats are weighing a "strong and forceful" response to the situation in Minneapolis, which could include cutting funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

BRIEFS

● Federal investigators have opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. They're looking into possible issues with the Fed’s $2.5 billion HQ renovation and Powell's June testimony to Congress on the subject.

● Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is putting his billions to good, or at least cool, use. He and his wife are investing “major” cash in four new space telescope projects, one of which is a privately funded space-based replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.

● In response to "local hostility" toward ICE, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is relocating its Minneapolis office. SBA chief Kelly Loeffler said small businesses are being hurt by local efforts to prevent ICE from deporting “criminal illegal aliens.”

● The Trump administration recently floated allowing 50-year mortgages as a way of reducing housing purchase costs for buyers. That plan now appears to be dead. Per Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, they “have other priorities."

● China, Russia, and Iran are in the middle of a weeklong naval exercise in South African waters. South Africa called the op a BRICS Plus method of ensuring “the safety of shipping” and other ocean activities. BRICS Plus is an anti-Western geopolitical alliance.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Way back in 1867, Secretary of State William Seward sealed his fate as one of the GOATs by buying Alaska — an area 2.5x the size of Texas — for the equivalent of a modern $135 million. Imagine if he’d snagged Greenland and Iceland, too. Dude would probably be on Mt. Rushmore.

We tried again in the 1910s and ended up with the U.S. Virgin Islands instead. After World War 2, President Truman offered the Danes $100 in gold for Greenland, but they again declined. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller pushed the idea once again in the 70s.

Anyway, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is sitting down with Danish officials this week for what’s surely going to be a tense meeting after his boss threatened to invade them.