1 00:00:05,280 --> 00:00:07,800 Welcome back everyone. I am Cass PNC. 2 00:00:07,800 --> 00:00:10,040 I'm joined as usual by my partner in crime, Mr. Bennett 3 00:00:10,040 --> 00:00:11,200 Tomlin. How are you today? 4 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:12,560 I'm doing well. How are you, Cass? 5 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:14,080 I'm good. We're joined by a special guest 6 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:18,600 today, Joey Politano, who does the Apricotos Economics 7 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,120 Substack. He is a economic analyst and 8 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:24,880 data journalist. Joey, it's wonderful to have you 9 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:25,800 on. How are you? 10 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:28,920 It's amazing to be here. Long time listener, first time 11 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:30,960 appearance. Yeah, happy. 12 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:32,280 Happy to be here. Awesome. 13 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:36,800 Well, so we wanted to talk to you about the incoming 14 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:40,760 administration and how that is going to possibly affect 15 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:44,120 cryptocurrencies, maybe including some of our favorites 16 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:46,240 like Tether. We know Lutnick is going to be a 17 00:00:46,240 --> 00:00:49,280 part of this administration. We touched on that in one of our 18 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:52,920 previous episodes a bit. But I think you probably know a 19 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:56,400 little bit more about all of these people and can tell us, 20 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:00,440 inform us a little bit more about what to expect over the 21 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:02,200 next four years. So, yeah, I don't know. 22 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:03,160 I don't know how you want to start it. 23 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:05,680 If you want, you can start with Donald Trump, the man himself, 24 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:10,200 and kind of what you expect his cryptocurrency policies to be. 25 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:12,560 I think everyone's going to start should wind back like a 26 00:01:12,560 --> 00:01:15,640 couple years. I remember right about 3 years 27 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:20,800 ago, I was, I still am living near DCI, remember going into 28 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:25,000 Union Station in DC like the day after FTX fail. 29 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:28,680 And Union Station is so crazy because they have these giant, 30 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:33,200 you know, LED billboard. And so it was like wall to wall 31 00:01:33,320 --> 00:01:37,000 Sam Bankman Freed's face on an LED billboard the day after he 32 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:38,880 had been the day after the exit failed. 33 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:41,160 And then we had known that like this, you know, the Justice 34 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:43,440 Department was going to be going after him and all this stuff was 35 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:45,760 going to happen. Before that. 36 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,840 There was like a big push in DC to kind of like normalize 37 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,120 crypto. You know, they were outsider 38 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:53,520 industry. They were then like regulated. 39 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:55,960 Then they have like, OK, we're doing these big conferences, 40 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:57,960 we're inviting such and such representative. 41 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,000 They're trying to like put on a normal face. 42 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:02,880 And the FTX thing just like totally blew all that up. 43 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:06,560 Nobody wanted, it was like radioactive and no one wanted to 44 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:08,919 be associated with crypto because association with crypto 45 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:11,640 was indirectly association with FDX, which was, you know, and 46 00:02:11,640 --> 00:02:14,800 then Fast forward to this was the moment that I they had this 47 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:17,840 realization this year. I was on the metro. 48 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:20,600 And if you're on the DC metro, you get very weird ads. 49 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,760 It's like half defense contractors and like, like you 50 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:26,600 should get an STD check. But I remember going into 51 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:31,200 Capital South, which is right near Capitol Hill and seeing 52 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:35,600 like massive wall to wall ads from crypto company. 53 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:39,320 It was all like it was a collaborative push about like 54 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:41,520 this is the future of money. But and this is 2024. 55 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,280 I'm like, what is this? Who did I travel back in time to 56 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:46,160 2021? And that was the moment for me 57 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:48,720 where I was like, OK, they're going to be pushing really hard 58 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:50,240 this election, and they really did. 59 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:54,240 And so this is something I was excited to talk to you about. 60 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:57,480 I was talking with Cass about this before we get on. 61 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:02,560 I was reading your article from November 10th, 2022 where you 62 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,640 were talking about like the failure of FDX are right around 63 00:03:05,640 --> 00:03:08,120 this same era. And there's a line in there. 64 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:11,400 Bankers, regulators, and lawmakers will likely remember 65 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:14,040 FT XS fall when thinking about crypto for the foreseeable 66 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:16,200 future. And at that time that was very 67 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:18,240 strongly cast in my stance as well. 68 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:22,120 You can find a whole bunch of me doing long monologues about how 69 00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:24,000 I'm like. This might meaningfully change 70 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:26,840 crypto regulation forever because it can't be ignored. 71 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:29,840 We also had one of our good friends, Elizabeth Lopato, who 72 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:32,600 is a journalist at The Verge. We had her on and she was 73 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:34,680 covering the Sam Bankman free trial. 74 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,240 And I think part of what I remember during one of our 75 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:40,760 episodes with her, she specifically said that she 76 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:45,640 thought the F the collapse of FTX was going to be a moment 77 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:50,480 where it takes years and years and years and years for 78 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:53,800 cryptocurrency to come back at all, if it even ever does in 79 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,040 America. And I was like, I'm not sure 80 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:57,520 about that, but I guess we'll see. 81 00:03:57,800 --> 00:03:59,760 And lo and behold, here we are and. 82 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,920 Now we have seen, and so like you're talking about, Bitcoin is 83 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:08,200 at a new all time high, ads are everywhere, and the crypto 84 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:11,480 industry spent heavily on the last election. 85 00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:16,680 Was that like really the driving force that prevented lawmakers, 86 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:19,920 regulators and stuff like that from dealing with crypto? 87 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:22,560 Was it the crypto industry making it such an election 88 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:24,200 issue? Or is there something else you 89 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:28,040 kind of attribute that shift to? I would say in a broad sense, 90 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:30,800 it's clear like there's a public opinion shift back. 91 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,320 This is like why, if you remember Harris when she was 92 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:37,440 campaigning, said some like very weird things that were like 93 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:40,120 vaguely pro crypto. You may remember that famous ad 94 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:41,640 where she was like, I'm going to protect. 95 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:45,880 I think it was Latino like the households wealth by by like 96 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:47,640 securing crypto. And that was such a weird 97 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:49,800 moment. But to me it was like, OK, this 98 00:04:49,800 --> 00:04:52,640 is clear in all the polling that they're they're picking up on 99 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:54,920 this like increased affinity for the stuff. 100 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:56,800 Again. The second thing is the spending 101 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:01,040 is was like a really big issue and it was both spending 102 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:05,240 directly on like competitive partisan elections and also 103 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:09,480 spending on on primaries. I don't want to say you can't 104 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:13,600 ever say like the money killed this person's you know, but but 105 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:17,080 like Katie Porter, who is the. Money killed. 106 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:25,400 Katie Porter, who is like very, very vocal crypto critic, had a 107 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:27,320 lot of money spent against around the California primary. 108 00:05:27,320 --> 00:05:30,040 Jamal Bowman was like very left wing crypto guy, had a lot of 109 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:31,440 money spent on him in the primary. 110 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:34,720 And then as you've got towards the general election, you had a 111 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:37,120 ton of like I would say there's one camp of like there's 112 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:39,440 actually a lot of bipartisan spending on crypto. 113 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:42,720 Most of it from was focused on like moderate people in swing 114 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:44,480 states who can't afford to lose voters. 115 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:47,800 And the examples that I would give are the two Democratic 116 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:51,520 senators who won. So Slotkin and Gallego, who are 117 00:05:51,520 --> 00:05:54,600 very close races, you know, managed to win states that 118 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:56,960 Harris lost. They did so in part because they 119 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:00,240 had a lot of crypto money backing them in PACs. 120 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:03,920 And what was actually very funny is the day after the election, 121 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:06,560 you saw a lot of people on like crypto Twitter who were like, 122 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:08,840 man, we shouldn't have done this bipartisan nonsense. 123 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,680 We should have backed the Republican candidates in every 124 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:14,880 every race. You know, getting the like 125 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,960 crypto moderates on the Dem side was a mistake because we may 126 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,080 have they may have saved Slotkin and there you go seats. 127 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:22,560 Those races were extremely close. 128 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:25,400 But the other thing that was like a really big example to me 129 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:30,600 was there was a pack that was basically partisan Republican 130 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:32,000 pack. But even that I feel like is 131 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:34,120 almost giving it too much credit. 132 00:06:34,120 --> 00:06:36,120 It was the anti Sherrod Brown pack. 133 00:06:37,080 --> 00:06:40,320 Sherrod Brown was this Democratic senator from Ohio. 134 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:43,520 Was this defend American jobs? Defend American jobs. 135 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:47,200 Yes, the most brilliant marketing by those people who 136 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:51,320 came up with that one. With its left, with its 137 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:55,000 Democratic correspondent was protect progress, I think or? 138 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,680 Something I haven't written down here, I have like a whole yes, 139 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,240 protect progress. So the bipartisan 1 was called 140 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,400 fair shake. The, the Democratic or mostly 141 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:05,520 Democratic one was called Protect Progress and then the 142 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:07,720 the Republican one was called Defend American Jobs. 143 00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:10,880 And also to be clear, how has no one picked up Defend American 144 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:12,360 jobs yet? Like how is that still on the 145 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:15,040 table that no one could defend American jobs back? 146 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:18,640 It's been 10 years since the United guys, you guys. 147 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:20,920 Don't hurt babies pack or something, right? 148 00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:24,160 Right. But this is almost all spending 149 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:27,360 against Sherrod Brown. Brown, who is the chair of the 150 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:31,200 Senate Banking Committee and who is AI, would say prominent 151 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:36,800 crypto skeptic and obviously the man in charge of writing 152 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:39,720 regulation. Like, he's the most prominent 153 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:42,000 congressional lawmaker for regulation. 154 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:43,840 And Ohio is a very Republican state. 155 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:47,360 Brown is a guy who, despite being a Democrat, always ran 156 00:07:47,360 --> 00:07:50,400 ahead of Democratic presidents and was able to, you know, hold 157 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:53,440 on in Ohio for so long. And then Moreno, the guy who 158 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,880 beat Sherrod Brown, it's like he's a car dealership owner and 159 00:07:57,880 --> 00:08:01,880 he founded a crypto company. And he like, he's the exact kind 160 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,360 of guy that you would expect a Crypto PAC to really love. 161 00:08:05,960 --> 00:08:08,840 And that was like a really big victory for them as they spent I 162 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:13,520 think $40 million in one race. It dwarfs any other race they 163 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:15,440 competed in. It was specifically the. 164 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:17,080 Target. The next closest was, I think 165 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,760 the 10 million or so spent against Katie Porter in the 166 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:22,880 primary. I think one of the Senate races, 167 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:24,800 one of the excuse me, one of the other Senate races might have 168 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:26,120 come close, but there was like, right. 169 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:30,960 It was, you know, serious and and that was like a message that 170 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,799 I think some people in Washington heard very clearly, 171 00:08:33,799 --> 00:08:37,840 which is that if you're like marginal, you know, a crypto PAC 172 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:39,960 can't like unseat Elizabeth Warren. 173 00:08:40,679 --> 00:08:43,919 But if you are a swing state senator who's up for Election 174 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:48,160 2026, they can and will spend a lot of money if you're like, not 175 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:50,360 playing ball. Would it make you feel better to 176 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:53,280 know that there's reporting today that fair shake between 177 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:55,680 the money they didn't spend in the donations they've already 178 00:08:55,680 --> 00:08:58,880 got has 106 million already for the midterms? 179 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:03,360 Make me feel better that actually Bennett that might. 180 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:06,560 That's a lot for one back in the midterm elections. 181 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:09,680 Right, like the other thing to to to be clear here is like 182 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:14,520 campaign spending can kind of feel like like money doesn't 183 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:15,880 matter. Like there's just 10s of 184 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:18,720 billions of dollars being spent. Like, So what is it all matter? 185 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:21,800 That's true at like a presidential level, you know, 186 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:25,280 Trump raises a zillion dollars, Harris raises a zillion dollars. 187 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:27,680 They spend it against each other and it kind of cancels out. 188 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:32,920 And but at like a Senate level, even like that amount of 189 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:35,280 spending can can move the needle significantly. 190 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:39,120 And so you can imagine, like, imagine you're Senator Rosen or 191 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:42,680 imagine you're Ossoff. Senator Ossoff in Georgia who's 192 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:46,200 up for re election in two years. Georgia's a very swing state. 193 00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:48,840 You're like, you know, you're the the first Democrat in a long 194 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,600 time to have hold held the seat and now you got to fight back. 195 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:54,840 Are you a little scared now of like, what if, you know, they 196 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:58,440 run some psycho crypto? What if they run Purdue and 197 00:09:58,440 --> 00:10:00,520 Loffler? We'll get to Senator Loffler was 198 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:05,120 a very big crypto advocate who maybe has a personal reasons for 199 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:06,440 being an advocate that we'll get into. 200 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:09,800 But like she could possibly run for Senate again. 201 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:11,240 Do you want to be fighting down her? 202 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:14,600 And then like a 30 million spending from whatever fair 203 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:17,480 shake pack or whatever? Or do you just say, well, I 204 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:20,760 don't actually, I don't need to take a stance on crypto 205 00:10:20,760 --> 00:10:25,000 regulation issues to me like move on to to other things. 206 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:27,560 I mean that that sounds pretty pessimistic, but it's also 207 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:31,240 sounds totally reasonable to me. Like, I guess that kind of 208 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:34,880 sounds like this is going to now be one of these issues that is 209 00:10:35,040 --> 00:10:39,680 at best for critics and skeptics, not touched anymore, 210 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:42,840 not discussed, as opposed to like, like, you're not going to 211 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:45,200 see it Like you're saying if you're in, if you're somewhere 212 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:50,800 like Ohio or Florida or Pennsylvania, why bother talking 213 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:54,360 about cryptocurrency at all? Like, you know, it seems like 214 00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:57,440 you're asking for problems. If you're going to be like, 215 00:10:57,800 --> 00:11:00,680 well, I think that Tether is bad, then why? 216 00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:02,440 Like don't just shut your mouth, you know? 217 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:04,360 I think that's the message that a lot of people are getting 218 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:07,520 because it's, it's one of those issues where it's very low 219 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:12,280 salience for most people. You know, people the say 60% of 220 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:15,120 people who like, dislike crypto, it's just not a thing that they 221 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:16,520 think about on a day-to-day basis. 222 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:18,360 And it's not something that they're like forming their 223 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:22,400 voting opinions on, you know, but there's a like entrenched 224 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:25,720 few percent of people who own a decent amount of crypto assets 225 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:27,560 and have an affinity for the stuff. 226 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:30,320 And then there's this giant pool of money on it. 227 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:32,800 So like, why go against the giant pool of money, right? 228 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:36,040 And it's like at some level, like you're if you're senator 229 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:40,000 from Nevada, you're going to have like very weird opinions on 230 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:43,280 gambling that have, you know, little to do with your internal 231 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:44,960 logic on what if gambling's good or not. 232 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:47,040 And a lot to do with whether the fact that you're the senator 233 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:49,160 from Nevada. And I think there's going to be 234 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:50,680 like increasing amounts of that too. 235 00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:54,080 This was another thing where we'll get into, but like there's 236 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:57,120 a lot of crypto stuff in North Dakota right now. 237 00:11:57,800 --> 00:11:59,760 And that's like a very big. Wyoming. 238 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:02,840 Wyoming is another one, right? So these are very small states 239 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:05,360 that obviously punch way above their weight in the Senate. 240 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:09,600 You know, if you are the senator from North Dakota, do you really 241 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:12,600 want to like bother one of the four industries that like your 242 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:15,520 states economy runs off of or are you just going to. 243 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:17,760 I don't know if you've heard like this is one of the things 244 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:20,720 that I remember someone mentioning either on blue. 245 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:24,360 I think it was on Blue Sky where they said like you don't have to 246 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,720 like the robber barons or the train barons, you know, from 247 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:31,360 back in, in history, back in the old days of the, you know, the, 248 00:12:31,680 --> 00:12:34,040 the late 1800s. Or mid 1800s. 249 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:36,800 Yeah, you don't have to hand it to them exactly. 250 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:40,120 But one of the things they did was they did create 251 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:44,480 infrastructure and jobs like you, they might not have been 252 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:47,000 the best jobs in the world. They might have been paying 253 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:49,120 people in company script. They might have been doing all 254 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:51,880 kinds of shady stuff to make a bunch of money, right. 255 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:56,880 However, however, again, and you do not have to hand it to them, 256 00:12:56,880 --> 00:12:59,640 but they were, they were building infrastructure and 257 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:03,680 creating jobs versus you reflect on like these cryptocurrency CEO 258 00:13:03,680 --> 00:13:07,040 billionaires. And there's many of them now who 259 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:11,000 are influencing politics, buying politicians and all of this 260 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:12,160 stuff. And it's like, So what are you 261 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:16,320 bringing to Texas? Like 11 jobs to Texas or 262 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:18,720 something Like what are you bringing to North Dakota? 263 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:21,600 Your, your, your billions of dollars to give to a bunch of 264 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:26,640 politicians and nothing else. Like I, it's, it's just to me, 265 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:29,440 it's, it's, it's really depressing in that it's like, 266 00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:34,920 OK, so here's this new class of hyper wealthy people who offer 267 00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:38,120 absolutely nothing else besides their wealth. 268 00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:41,040 And I think I mean, part of the tough part is like if you were 269 00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:44,440 the Vanderbilt, you know, a lot of your money was tied up in 270 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:47,240 physical infrastructure. So you had, you know, you built 271 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:51,280 a railway line from Albany to Cincinnati. 272 00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:53,720 You now are stuck dealing with the people in Albany IN 273 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:55,240 Cincinnati because you own that railway line. 274 00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:57,640 If you're, you know, crypto billionaire, like you're 275 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:02,080 explicitly picking places because they're flexible and you 276 00:14:02,080 --> 00:14:04,280 can move to them and and blah, blah, blah, like your wealth is 277 00:14:04,280 --> 00:14:06,480 wholly transferable. There's very little physical 278 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:09,880 cost and even the like data center stuff, which is really 279 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:15,560 big in Texas and North Dakota, like that's very movable, you 280 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:18,480 know, the primary. And the threat of like, like, 281 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:21,000 it's like the Elon Musk thing too, where he classically, 282 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,560 right, this whole idea of like, I hate California, I'm moving to 283 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,800 Texas and it's like, OK, dude, but I, I can, I can perceive a 284 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:31,280 future where like what you're talking about, essentially these 285 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:33,240 states are being held hostage almost, right? 286 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:35,960 It's like, Oh, you don't like the cryptocurrency stuff? 287 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:40,360 Well, do you want the money for your political campaign or not? 288 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,280 Like, I don't know what to say to you because I'm not going to 289 00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:45,040 give you the money. If you're opposed to us, I'll 290 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:48,200 give it to your opponent. And now, but but then again, and 291 00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:51,520 different things where you can think about taxing them or other 292 00:14:51,520 --> 00:14:54,080 stuff where they go like, Oh, you're going to raise taxes on 293 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:55,760 the hyper wealthy in North Dakota or something. 294 00:14:55,920 --> 00:14:57,960 Well, then I guess I'm just going to fucking leave. 295 00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:00,760 And then they do, right, because all of this money can just be 296 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:05,440 moved around and they can go live in the Bahamas or in the 297 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:08,320 Cayman Islands and they can transfer it out to wherever the 298 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:11,200 hell they want. And it's not the, it's exactly 299 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:12,760 what you're talking about, where it's not the same. 300 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:15,040 And I do, I do. I know I don't want to be 301 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:18,640 hyperbolic, but it feels like a crisis in governance and a 302 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:22,840 crisis for America. Truly it does for for me not 303 00:15:23,120 --> 00:15:26,160 there's a hundred other bigger, more important crises that 304 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:29,600 America is facing as well. I don't want to like disregard 305 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:34,320 that, but I am saying that financial problems and the way 306 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,080 that Trump and the administration coming in seem to 307 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:39,960 be looking at not just cryptocurrency, but like fraud 308 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:44,400 and other aspects of finance that that you that you know 309 00:15:44,400 --> 00:15:47,520 about and government where like, I see you, you talk about 310 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:50,640 government infrastructure, you talk about subways, you talk 311 00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:53,360 about, you know, basic things where it's like, yeah, if we 312 00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,760 build this out correctly, you can see how I I always talk 313 00:15:56,760 --> 00:16:00,720 about Wuhan, Like Wuhan in China didn't have a subway until like 314 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:03,760 2000 or something. And now it's the ninth most used 315 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:06,160 subway in the world. Why can't we do things like that 316 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:07,880 in America? And it's like, well, because we 317 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:10,520 don't fund the government, we hate the government. 318 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:13,320 And now that's just going to get worse, right? 319 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:17,440 I think the, the, the big story that you could tell of like a 320 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:19,560 lot of industries, and I've thought about this a lot, if you 321 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:22,800 think about like, why is Silicon Valley moving rightward? 322 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:26,400 Or to be very precise here, it's not Silicon Valley because like 323 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:29,440 tech workers are still very left wing, but like, why is Silicon 324 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:32,160 Valley owners and managers moving rightward? 325 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:36,280 And I think it's to do with like this transition from being 326 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:42,400 upstart, small, very chaotic industry to now like we're fully 327 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:46,400 entrenched business interest. You know, the tech companies 328 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:52,280 obviously are different than oil companies, but they're now both 329 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:55,360 in that category of like, we are the largest companies in the 330 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:57,080 world. We're much more focused on like 331 00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,240 defending what we have than trying to like create the, you 332 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:02,520 know, brand new product that no one's ever seen before. 333 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,160 I think you could tell a story of crypto that's like also kind 334 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,359 of in that lane where you were like, hey, this was a very anti 335 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:11,000 government, anti regulation thing. 336 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,200 It got so big that now it became enmeshed with all of these like 337 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:20,119 corporate interests and specifically like quasi legal 338 00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:22,079 corporate stuff. We're talking about like FTX, 339 00:17:22,079 --> 00:17:23,720 We're talking about like how there are things where you're 340 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,319 like this may technically follow the laws of the Bahamas and how 341 00:17:27,319 --> 00:17:28,520 we deal with international trade. 342 00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:30,840 But I, I really feel like this is, you know, missing the point 343 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:33,080 here. And previously, you could say, 344 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:36,600 well, now, you know, I, I wrote a piece, I remember in 2021 345 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:38,480 talking about this very interesting way where you're 346 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:43,480 like, you could regulate a lot of crypto because the main 347 00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:48,440 access points to crypto are large companies that, you know, 348 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:53,280 fundamentally are more close to like the, the Merrill Lynch than 349 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:55,160 they are to like a decentralized platform. 350 00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:58,760 And those, you know, centralized actors have won clearly. 351 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:01,120 But now we're in like the opposite, where the centralized 352 00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:04,760 actors have won so clearly that now they're in control of like 353 00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:07,360 all of the, the regulations. And we're going to get to like, 354 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:09,160 you know, Trump is a very big crypto guy. 355 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,560 You know, personally, he's made a complete 180. 356 00:18:12,720 --> 00:18:17,000 He, during the campaign launched this weird coin that's not quite 357 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:19,280 a coin, but it's like aesthetically crypto, the world 358 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:22,200 liberty financial thing. And then Justin's son just 359 00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:24,880 announced that he's putting like 30 million into that. 360 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:28,280 We we love Justin son on hypocritics huge. 361 00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:30,360 Fans, he shows up all the guy. Where does he keep? 362 00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:35,160 He literally pictures a. Newsletter today about Justin's 363 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:38,160 son investing in World Liberty Financial, where I might have 364 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:41,640 heavily implied it's a bribe. I, I say this stuff facetiously, 365 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:44,560 like all the time, but like, we made Jimmy Carter like put his 366 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:48,760 peanut farm in trust and now it's like, first of all, Trump 367 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:53,720 has this weird adjacent crypto scheme that like regular 368 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:57,160 billionaires are just investing in obviously like. 369 00:18:57,160 --> 00:19:01,720 Billionaires specifically are being sued by the SEC by as much 370 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:05,200 of the token as they plan to sell, in total unlocking 371 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:07,680 millions of dollars in revenue from the thing that Trump 372 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:12,160 otherwise would not have gotten. Right, and on the flip side of 373 00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:15,160 this is so there was Trump has this main vehicle that's like 374 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:18,600 the majority of his wealth now is true social, which is like 375 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,120 the DJT indicator. And I feel like calling it true 376 00:19:21,120 --> 00:19:23,800 social is like almost a bit of a misomer. 377 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:26,600 Like ostensibly it owns true social and that's the business 378 00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:29,960 model, but functionally it's just a way to like gamble on 379 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:35,320 stock market on Donald Trump that the entity and they the 380 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,840 Financial Times said reporting on that they were in talks to 381 00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:40,680 buy bocked. What I'm saying is right, which 382 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:42,920 is a crypto company. I'm not. 383 00:19:43,160 --> 00:19:44,560 Sure. You know what, I don't respect 384 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:46,120 it enough. I do not regret the error. 385 00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:52,480 I do not regret the error. But Bucked, which is a crypto 386 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,920 company that's majority owned by Intercontinental Exchange. 387 00:19:56,400 --> 00:20:00,400 Kelly Loeffler, who was the former Republican senator to 388 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:02,960 Georgia, lost the election in 2020. 389 00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:07,200 She was the CEO. Her husband is the CEO of 390 00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:10,120 Intercontinental Exchange. The company that owns spot, 391 00:20:10,360 --> 00:20:13,120 right And so that that and you could pull up the the stock 392 00:20:13,120 --> 00:20:15,720 chart. I think it's up like 150% over 393 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:18,160 the last. Week or two, which is also a 394 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:21,200 little bit wild because whatever the acquisition is going to be, 395 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:23,920 it's going to be some like strange equity for equity deal 396 00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:28,040 where the backed equity holders at best are getting like Trump 397 00:20:28,040 --> 00:20:31,240 media stock that's going to be hard for them to liquidate so. 398 00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:33,440 It it doesn't, it doesn't. I'm not trying to say it makes 399 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:36,000 sense, trying to say. I just wanted to yell about that 400 00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:37,440 briefly. Right. 401 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:41,720 But it was purely like, OK, this person who donated to Donald 402 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:45,200 Trump and is affiliated with the Republican Party has this 403 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:48,120 vehicle that can earn them a decent amount of money. 404 00:20:48,360 --> 00:20:50,880 Donald Trump has this vehicle that earns him a decent amount 405 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:52,800 of money. Like let's mix those together. 406 00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:55,080 And ostensibly there's like crypto connection in there in 407 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:57,280 that like bot, this does crypto stuff. 408 00:20:57,280 --> 00:20:59,680 And then they're going to do, if you remember how Elon Musk was 409 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:03,160 talking about, like turning x.com into a payments platform, 410 00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:05,840 like they're going to turn True Social into a crypto payments 411 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:08,360 platform. Sure. 412 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,920 But this is the man who is like appointing now the replacement 413 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:16,960 head of the SEC, who is the attorney general, the heads of 414 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:20,400 commerce and Treasury, which we're going to get into in a 415 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,040 second here, all of whom are much more pro crypto than than 416 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:26,520 any of the Biden administration folks were. 417 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:28,440 I just want to say like, it's to me, it's crazy. 418 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,560 I think I, I think it was a tweet from Brian Armstrong from 419 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:35,800 a couple weeks ago before I'd completely exited Twitter X, 420 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:38,440 whatever you want to call it, where Brian Armstrong said 421 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:41,200 something along the lines of like how how much money was 422 00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:45,160 flowing into fair, what is it fair shake, whatever, whatever, 423 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:48,040 whichever crypto pack it was. And he was like, this is so 424 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,560 powerful. And then I started reflecting. 425 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:52,960 On politics at work, Mr. Armstrong. 426 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:56,320 Well, it's just, it's so crazy to me that like originally, if 427 00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:58,960 you go back, I think you and you you've kind of touched on this, 428 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:04,120 Joey, is like originally they the whole concept of 429 00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:07,400 cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, like this was the concept of 430 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:11,200 decentral decentralizing finance, of making it so no 431 00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:13,800 nation state was controlling this currency that you could 432 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:17,880 move across borders with this money fluidly and not have to, 433 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:20,880 you know, not get called out for it and all the all this stuff 434 00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:23,400 and not, not have to deal with banks and this and that. 435 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:26,040 And it's like that was the powerful part of cryptocurrency. 436 00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:29,280 But now the powerful part apparently is when you donate 437 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:33,160 hundreds of millions of dollars to super PACs, like I sorry, 438 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:35,880 what the fuck are we even doing? Like what? 439 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:38,560 How is that? I it's just wild to me, But it's 440 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,400 now moved past. Oh, it's not just super PACs 441 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:45,240 being important and like trying to win over senators and stuff. 442 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:47,360 Now it's like, oh, we're going to have a whole fucking 443 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:54,400 administration and cabinet that loves or at worst doesn't care 444 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,160 about cryptocurrency. So yeah, let's get, I would 445 00:22:57,160 --> 00:22:58,920 love, let's get into some of these names like you just 446 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:01,640 started mentioning. I don't know whoever you wanna 447 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,440 start with, feel free please. I think the best place to start 448 00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:10,080 is Commerce Secretary Linux Lutnick is the first of all, to 449 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:12,640 be clear here, this is as as far as we're the most billionaire 450 00:23:12,640 --> 00:23:16,000 filled like cabinet in history. I think if you totaled up the 451 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,640 net worth, it's it's like probably now in the closing 100 452 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:21,160 billion. Obviously if you added Elon, 453 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:25,120 who's like shadow president or whatever goes even higher. 454 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:28,040 But the Lutnick is the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. 455 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:33,360 He has been a very pro crypto person like from day one from 456 00:23:33,360 --> 00:23:36,920 from go and he's been on this like train of trying to 457 00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,360 integrate like the cryptocurrency ecosystem into 458 00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:42,720 the existing Wall Street ecosystem. 459 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:48,880 And he personally has a ton of dealings like with tether. 460 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:51,720 And this was like the the very interesting thing Tether 461 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:55,840 obviously is in that like quasi legal Gray area. 462 00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:59,320 They have been, they've been prosecuted by like the I'm 463 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:01,360 trying to use that word there's. A backlog. 464 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:03,240 We've got a playlist, got a. Backlog. 465 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:07,640 There's a lot of Tether lore, but they're not the most sane 466 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:09,160 actor. And they've been, you know, 467 00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:12,000 prosecuted by arms of the United States government in the past 468 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,240 over things that they've been investigated continually. 469 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:21,000 And then Lutnick is at commerce is one of the main arms of the 470 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,360 US government concerned with like, regulating international 471 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:25,480 trade. Lutnick, by the way, like Turbo 472 00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:28,120 Tariff guy, he loves them. So get ready for that one. 473 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:31,040 But then immediately after this now, now there's rumors swirling 474 00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:33,840 that, like Candor, Fitzgerald is trying to set up some sort of 475 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:37,120 very large Bitcoin lending fund with Tether. 476 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,000 Yeah, they've been working on it for the last couple months. 477 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,120 Right. And so this is something that's 478 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:46,240 like should be obvious conflict of interest in some sense of 479 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,320 like, here's the cabinet secretary working with this 480 00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:54,840 legally dubious organization offshore to to for their 481 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:58,600 cumulative monetary gain. And to be clear, just to so 482 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:03,080 everyone is aware, Howard Lutnick won't stay the CEO and 483 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:05,440 head of Cantor Fitzgerald when he takes this role. 484 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:09,480 But his son is apparently in line to take over at Cantor 485 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:12,560 Fitzgerald. So the idea that like, he won't 486 00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:15,440 have any influence is fucking insane. 487 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:17,600 He's going to have total power still. 488 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,680 Do not get me started on multi billion dollar family 489 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:21,640 businesses. Yeah, yeah. 490 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:22,400 Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. And. 491 00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:27,400 I mean, similar thing of like ostensibly there is a separation 492 00:25:27,400 --> 00:25:30,640 between Donald Trump the man and Donald Trump, like the business 493 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:32,680 enterprise and Donald Trump the president. 494 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:37,680 But in in practice, it's like there's much less like like. 495 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,840 Like there's not, there's barely even any pretext of pretending 496 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:43,560 there's distinctions between those anymore. 497 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:46,280 There was a little bit more of a distinction 8 years ago like. 498 00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:48,560 People wouldn't there be a distinction He doesn't want you 499 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,520 to there to be any distinction like they are To him, they're 500 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:52,720 the same to us, they're the same. 501 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,760 I like, I don't think he the only time he doesn't want you to 502 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:58,800 conflate the two is during legal proceedings. 503 00:25:58,800 --> 00:25:59,360 So. Right. 504 00:25:59,360 --> 00:26:02,800 But so the example I would give is like, OK, going back to to 505 00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:06,360 Loeffler, the the Georgia Senator, she was CEO of Back, 506 00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:09,200 which was like owned by Intercontinental Exchange, where 507 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,160 her husband is the CEO. And then when she got appointed 508 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:15,080 to the US Senate, she just like resigned the position. 509 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:19,480 And then if you remember, like immediately did insider trading. 510 00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:21,960 Yeah. It it, you know, it was had to 511 00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:25,960 be investigated for the actions that she took in like within 512 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:27,040 seconds of getting to the Senate. 513 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,040 And that's part of the reason she lost the election was 514 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,280 because people wrote like that. That election was Loeffler and 515 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:36,360 Purdue were both like in this in Mesh in this investigation. 516 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:39,520 It was insane. I like, I, I just, I, I would 517 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:41,560 love, I, I wish we had covered it more. 518 00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:43,480 I don't think we've covered it very much when it was going on. 519 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:47,520 But like, yeah, just the idea that this woman gets appointed 520 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:51,680 essentially to the Senate seat and then immediately does 521 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,640 corruption, like immediately, instantly sits down and does. 522 00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:56,560 Corruption. It was a little bit like that 523 00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:00,120 Domino meme, just in terms of how it changed the politics of 524 00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:04,520 that state. Like nominate this random CEO 525 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,480 for this few months in the Senate and Oh no. 526 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:10,840 Right. One thing leads to another. 527 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:13,360 I think of. That like do you do you remember 528 00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:16,800 the David Perdue no wrongdoing totally exonerated. 529 00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:18,360 I think about that all the time. I. 530 00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:20,080 Don't. This was so funny. 531 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,760 It was one of the IT was one of the packs in in this election 532 00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,920 because he was also a part of this, this investigation. 533 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,480 And like I said, the investigation did not turn up 534 00:27:29,360 --> 00:27:35,400 criminal insider trading to be clear, but like you know. 535 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,920 So for the lines were crossed. I think I'm right. 536 00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,240 I think the sanctity of the United States Senate was 537 00:27:41,760 --> 00:27:44,480 violated a little bit, whatever remains that and. 538 00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,560 I too, agree that the sanctity of the United States Senate has 539 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:53,640 been violated before. But Purdue ran this ad that was 540 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,600 like totally exonerated, no wrongdoing. 541 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,360 It's a picture of him like at a farm, like smiling with his 542 00:27:58,360 --> 00:28:00,320 kids. It's the most. 543 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:04,480 And so I have people use that all the time as like a my not 544 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:05,840 involved in human trafficking shirt. 545 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,520 That's a lot of people asking questions already answered by my 546 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:11,240 shirt. Yeah, there, there, there does 547 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:14,280 feel like there's a risk of reaching a low information voter 548 00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:16,880 there who's like exonerated of what? 549 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:21,560 Lutnick is Lutnick is there at at commerce. 550 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:24,800 So we're coming back. The Treasury nom who was just 551 00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,760 announced was is besant. And I think the key part to to 552 00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,520 realize here is there was like kind of a chain. 553 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,440 Lutnick wanted to be treasury because Treasury is like 554 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,160 normally the more powerful position. 555 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:40,840 I think Trump personally doesn't like Lutnick which is really 556 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,400 funny. Like just annoyed with the guy 557 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:45,680 interpersonally. Right, yeah, they're apparently 558 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:48,520 having fights. And also Besson and and Lutnick 559 00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:49,920 are apparently having a lot of fights. 560 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:53,160 But Trump and Lutnick's egos are too similar for them to get 561 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:54,440 along. Macho. 562 00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:58,400 Billionaires problem for the next 4 years as people. 563 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:05,640 So Besson, who is, as far as Trump world goes, more normal, 564 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,040 like the bar is 1. Of the more sane individuals. 565 00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,760 Like the bar is in the floor, but he is like, I was happy when 566 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:16,040 he got nominated because he staved off like much worse other 567 00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:16,720 outcomes. He's not. 568 00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,360 I'm not endorsing Scott much. Worse being Lutnick, basically. 569 00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:21,880 The other option was Lutnick. So for SO for what it's worth. 570 00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:23,720 Yeah, well, there were. There was other attempts they 571 00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:25,840 were going to do something funky with trying to have like a 572 00:29:25,840 --> 00:29:31,880 shadow Fed chair at Treasury. That's an insane plan they come 573 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:33,960 up with because they don't like Jerome Powell anymore, even 574 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:36,520 though you'll remember that Donald Trump is the man who 575 00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:38,440 appointed Trump. I just there's. 576 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:40,800 Like famous. Leftists. 577 00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:45,280 I know, I know how popular it is to hate on the Federal Reserve, 578 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,360 and I get it like it is. It's a it's a weird shadowy 579 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:50,960 organization. I understand that that's that 580 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:51,960 makes. People what you don't 581 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:53,000 understand? Totally. 582 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:54,960 It's easy to, it's easy to have issues with it. 583 00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,920 I totally get that. But also, like, the way that 584 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:03,680 they've navigated 2020 on, it's hard for me to point to a bunch 585 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:07,360 of misfires. It's like, well, we're doing 586 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,520 pretty all right. So, like, why do we hate Jerome 587 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:12,640 Powell right now? Is it just because it's easy and 588 00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:14,520 fun? It's kind of funny because 589 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:18,200 during the Trump administration, you'll remember like Trump was 590 00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:20,800 constantly at odds with Powell because Powell was raising 591 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,720 interest rates at the top. And Trump is like wanted 592 00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:25,480 interest rates to be lowers. Who just tweeted that? 593 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:27,200 Like, it's bad that they're raising interest rates. 594 00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:31,240 What you're not supposed to do, that's not the president is not 595 00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:35,000 supposed to directly like try to interest the federal. 596 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:38,600 Reserve, yeah. Joey, are you suggesting Donald 597 00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:41,640 Trump does not believe in a true and independent federal? 598 00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:43,920 Reserve. I'm I'm I'm thinking about it. 599 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:47,080 He doesn't want 1 is what is what he Yeah, it's not whether 600 00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:48,120 he believes it. He doesn't want. 601 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:50,680 It but what was very funny to me was like when Powell was 602 00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,880 appointed, that was actually like a a break with tradition. 603 00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:57,800 You're supposed to, in a theoretically both sides of the 604 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,240 aisle are just supposed to reappoint the Fed chair unless 605 00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:03,080 they've done something real bad, you know, unless there's a, a 606 00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:06,000 like massive, like the economy is in a recession or like 607 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,360 they've done, you know, crime. Like that's the. 608 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,120 And so Trump not renominating Yellen was actually like a big 609 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:15,400 break with tradition. And then Biden renominated 610 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,600 Powell to try to keep this this chain going. 611 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,240 And I think like, you know, there's actually not that much 612 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:25,960 light between Powell and Yellen on the very specific narrow 613 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:27,840 issues of like where interest rates should be. 614 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:30,000 And now Trump's back in office and the guy that he appointed 615 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,000 last time to break traditions with, he's like, now I don't 616 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:37,200 like them anymore. But Besant, we're going back to 617 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:38,440 Besant. Besant staved off. 618 00:31:38,800 --> 00:31:42,600 There was a talk of like nominating this, this guy who is 619 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:46,280 going to probably be Trump's bed pick to Treasury and having him 620 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:49,240 be like shadow Fed Trayer when he was Treasury and Besant is 621 00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,240 not going to do that. And so that that was what I was 622 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:53,520 thankful for. But Besson is also a very pro 623 00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:56,920 crypto guy. He's not like overly so, but 624 00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:58,800 he's also he's another hedge fund billionaire. 625 00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,880 He's another guy who's been very early on in the, the crypto 626 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:06,720 ecosystem. And he again, same by Trump 627 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:08,680 world standards, but like very pro crypto guy. 628 00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:14,720 And being at treasury, you have a lot more control over U.S. 629 00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:16,760 policy, especially on like sanctions and stuff. 630 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:19,960 So the Office of Foreign Asset Control is like a big way in 631 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,840 which the US government tries to rein in, let's call it non 632 00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,480 American actors, people in the in the Bahamas or the Cayman 633 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:28,920 Islands or Singapore or whatever, who are doing things 634 00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:31,880 that we think aren't quite legal. 635 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,360 And so sanctions enforcement and like money laundering 636 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:36,720 enforcement that falls under treasury. 637 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:40,000 And you have a guy who's like very pro crypto in that 638 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,640 position. And you should say pro offshore 639 00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:47,520 money in general, so. Right, and Trump is also going 640 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:51,960 to get to nominate someone for. SEC Yeah, And we don't know who 641 00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:54,080 that'll be, do we? We don't know that who that'll 642 00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:56,280 be, Yeah. None of the rumors are good. 643 00:32:56,960 --> 00:33:01,600 None of the yeah, I was going to say it's all bad options so so 644 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:05,040 don't get your hopes up. To be fair, I think Gary Gensler 645 00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,360 has been very ineffectual. I think that's kind of on from. 646 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:10,680 I think both sides feel that he's hasn't. 647 00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:13,600 Hasn't, and we've talked about it on here before, but the SEC 648 00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:16,000 structurally has some difficulties in terms of 649 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,960 becoming an effective regulator. That's true, yes. 650 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:25,240 But I think that the, the like competing influences are now at 651 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,000 SEC. The competing influences are 652 00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:31,160 Donald Trump owns a massive publicly traded company that has 653 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,760 like kind of funky business value that he doesn't want 654 00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,240 regulated. Elon Musk owns a massive 655 00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:39,120 publicly traded company which has. 656 00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,840 At least and private companies. And private companies and a 657 00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:45,840 defense contractor, Yeah. Defense contractor and is 658 00:33:45,840 --> 00:33:50,240 personally beefing with the SEC on like a weekly basis and. 659 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:53,800 Is actively violating his settlement terms on a daily 660 00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:55,840 basis. I think about all the time how 661 00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:58,400 he's supposed to have a lawyer read all of his tweets. 662 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,200 And he does presumably right. There's someone who's paid to be 663 00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:03,760 a lawyer and read all of his tweets. 664 00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:06,520 And sit in the room. Sure, but I don't believe. 665 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:11,000 That it happens after the fact. So when when when he was pushed 666 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:13,679 on this in the follow up to the original lawsuit, they admitted 667 00:34:13,679 --> 00:34:17,960 like they review it eventually most of the time, sometimes and 668 00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:20,639 the lawyer will sometimes say things to Elon and he ignores 669 00:34:20,639 --> 00:34:24,440 them most of the time all the. Time and then third of all, 670 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:28,760 there are this large crypto lobby that is very mad at Genser 671 00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,639 because he took like very moderate steps towards 672 00:34:31,639 --> 00:34:35,880 regulating crypto or preventing all crypto currencies from like 673 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,600 being on the New York Stock Exchange. 674 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,239 And so they're going to like you said, all the names are are bad. 675 00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:44,679 They're going to replace them with somebody who is much more 676 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:48,520 crypto friendly and much less like enforcement of rules 677 00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:50,360 against large publicly traded companies. 678 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:51,440 Friendly. Yeah. 679 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:54,520 And this, this actually extends further than just the Cabinet, 680 00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,920 for what it's worth, because we just had the resignation of 681 00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:00,680 Damian Williams, who is at the Southern District of New York, 682 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:03,680 because Trump has already said he's going to, he's going to 683 00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,280 appoint Jay Clayton, I believe, to the Southern District of New 684 00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:07,800 York, if you're unfamiliar with Jay. 685 00:35:07,800 --> 00:35:10,160 Clayton I mean, with a record like Jay Clayton's, how can you 686 00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:12,800 not put him in charge of America's white collar crime? 687 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:14,840 Prosecutions. If you're unfamiliar with Jay 688 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:17,640 Clayton, the reason that Bennett is saying this is because not 689 00:35:17,640 --> 00:35:19,360 and not you, Joey, I'm talking to the audience. 690 00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:23,080 Jay Clayton is was running the SEC and under his tutelage. 691 00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,120 If you think Gary Gensler didn't do anything. 692 00:35:25,520 --> 00:35:28,880 They brought one case, the most obvious case in all of crypto, 693 00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:32,280 against Ripple and lost. And lost yeah, yeah. 694 00:35:32,720 --> 00:35:36,600 So if you if you think you're. Lost Asterisk, but fuck it, it's 695 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:39,080 a loss. Jay Clayton was the most 696 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:40,960 ineffectual. So I think we're going to start 697 00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:45,440 seeing like some pretty egregious stuff just get 698 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:47,400 ignored. And it's not just, again, not 699 00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:51,000 just on a cabinet level where you're like deciding policy. 700 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,400 Now we're talking about like laws being enforced, which is 701 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,080 crazy. And I will say, OK, I have a 702 00:35:57,080 --> 00:36:01,480 whole like that, like It's Always Sunny board drawn up in 703 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:03,720 the notebook. Try to remember how everyone is. 704 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,160 But like Ripple was I think the number 2 or #3 done or to all of 705 00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,440 these hacks. Yes, and, and they're the one, 706 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,160 them and A16Z are the two who've started to contribute to the 707 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:18,600 midterms already, right? God hate ASICS like even hearing 708 00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:23,400 a 16 ZI just get like I just they are just the worst. 709 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:27,240 They are the worst. They have no, there's no all of 710 00:36:27,240 --> 00:36:29,760 these guys. Fuck man, I this is this was 711 00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,440 another discussion that I wanted us to have at some point. 712 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:37,240 Joey is just this idea that I'm I'm also very pro generally like 713 00:36:37,240 --> 00:36:39,280 YIMBY. I'm like, I, I want things to 714 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:41,600 get built. I want, I want government to 715 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:43,800 make new things. I want infrastructure projects. 716 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:46,720 I want us to use nuclear power. I got let's let's do all the 717 00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:49,360 things. And then when it's like, oh, 718 00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:52,120 well, us billionaires, we're going to build a whole new city 719 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:53,920 in the middle of California. How about that? 720 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:56,240 And you're just like, wait, no, not yes to this. 721 00:36:56,240 --> 00:36:57,800 Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on hold. 722 00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:00,680 On yes, but not you. Yeah, exactly. 723 00:37:00,840 --> 00:37:04,760 It's frustrating to me that they've like occupied this space 724 00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:06,880 because like, they're not going to. 725 00:37:08,080 --> 00:37:10,480 I feel like people have kind of bought this. 726 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:14,040 It's like, OK, well, Trump sometimes says things that are 727 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,440 just blatantly not true. And people like adopted this 728 00:37:16,440 --> 00:37:18,520 style. And the example that I give all 729 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:22,320 the time is on the All In podcast, Jason brought up like, 730 00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,920 oh, we need more high skilled immigration in the US. 731 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:28,400 And Trump said like, yeah, anyone who gets a a college 732 00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:30,240 degree in the US should have an automatic green card. 733 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:33,040 Like those were the exact words. And I was like, first of all, 734 00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,680 that would be like the most liberal immigration system of 735 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:36,960 almost any country on the planet. 736 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:41,280 Second of all, like you were president before and like, you 737 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,400 cut legal immigration. You made it harder. 738 00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:46,400 And people on this podcast you like you said this knowing that 739 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:48,720 what you did, you know, four years ago is the complete 740 00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:49,960 opposite. And people on the podcast are 741 00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:52,360 like, I don't I don't think they believe him, but they're trying 742 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:55,240 to project this idea that other people should believe him when 743 00:37:55,240 --> 00:37:58,440 he says, oh, actually, I care about abundance. 744 00:37:58,760 --> 00:38:01,040 Therefore I think we should have like the best immigration system 745 00:38:01,360 --> 00:38:04,840 and fix California high speed rail. 746 00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,200 You know they don't they. Right. 747 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:10,840 It's bad that it takes so long, but like they they also don't 748 00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:13,560 have any interest in like fixing the New York City subway. 749 00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:16,760 And so I don't know, frustrating that they try to occupy that 750 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:19,000 issue space and Andreessen in particular. 751 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:21,720 And now we're we're getting we're going off again, Sorry, 752 00:38:22,080 --> 00:38:24,040 but I apologize. Andreessen's like, he wrote that 753 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,080 big YIMBY and then he wrote time to build or whatever. 754 00:38:27,080 --> 00:38:28,680 Yeah, he wrote it's time to build, and then he wrote a 755 00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:30,160 letter. It's like the Atherton City 756 00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:32,720 Council being like, you shouldn't allow this, Like no, 757 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:37,960 no buildings. Over 25 feet, it's going to cast 758 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,080 a shadow near the street I sometimes walk on. 759 00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,280 You can't do that. For what it's worth, it's not 760 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:46,360 just Marc Andreessen, it's the whole every partner there pretty 761 00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:49,760 much is just like the worst kind of individual building, the 762 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:51,520 worst kind of idiot. Yep. 763 00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:53,920 Sorry for that tangent. I'm sorry I took us there. 764 00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:55,160 I didn't mean to. I'm sorry, Joe. 765 00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:56,680 So. Nominees and appointees we. 766 00:38:57,200 --> 00:38:59,360 Got we got the best and and Lutnick, those are the two ways. 767 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:02,280 But keep in mind, so Bert, we just we talked a bit way earlier 768 00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,400 about like North Dakota crypto stuff, but Doug Bergum, who's 769 00:39:05,400 --> 00:39:10,880 like very tech adjacent N former North Dakota governor is going 770 00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:15,800 to be at interior and he is like the purpose of him being at 771 00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:18,080 interior is very has little to do with crypto. 772 00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,680 But this is like building this story. 773 00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:25,600 Chavez de Remer, who is the perennial election loser who 774 00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:28,800 continues to like get appointed to hire in hire positions. 775 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:32,200 She lost the election for a congressional seat in Oregon. 776 00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:34,160 She's now the the secretary of Labor. 777 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:36,840 She was backed by these. Definition of failing up right? 778 00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:39,200 There you go. It's very funny if you if you go 779 00:39:39,280 --> 00:39:42,080 it's look into her Laura, she's lost the same woman like three 780 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:45,320 times. She lost for like an org like an 781 00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:48,400 Oregon State Senate race and then an Oregon like state 782 00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:51,480 assembly race and then now this Oregon congressional race is the 783 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,120 same person. And she keeps getting appointed 784 00:39:54,120 --> 00:39:56,040 and then the appointment ends and she's like, well, time to 785 00:39:56,040 --> 00:39:58,400 run again. I gotta run for the next level 786 00:39:58,400 --> 00:39:59,880 up. I can't run for the House again. 787 00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:01,360 Gotta run for Senate. Now I. 788 00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:03,640 Thankfully she I don't think she you win an Oregon Senate race. 789 00:40:03,640 --> 00:40:05,920 I think this is the secretary of Labor to something else. 790 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:09,600 But Christy Noem who is the governor of South Dakota. 791 00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,800 You will learn both the Dakotas very into animal lover and she 792 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:16,240 was one of the people who like as governor. 793 00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:20,080 She vetoed like crypto regulations that a Republican 794 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:24,080 South Dakota, you know, state Assembly and Senate passed. 795 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:25,560 Like, this is the level that we're at. 796 00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:27,520 Yeah. And then, of course, who could 797 00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:31,320 forget RFK junior HHS, who thankfully, I don't think HHS 798 00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,160 does anything related to crypto. Maybe two disasters are going to 799 00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:36,360 be touched. Soon enough, let's get those 800 00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:37,840 medical. Let's get all our medical 801 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:39,200 records on the blockchain, folks. 802 00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:40,840 It's time. It's finally time. 803 00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:45,960 First of all, we stop CMS from paying for any drugs RFK Junior 804 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,840 doesn't personally believe in. And then we take that money and 805 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:50,560 we send it directly to the strategic. 806 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:52,760 No more. Adderall for anyone? 807 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:57,120 It means Adderall when you can send people to forced labor 808 00:40:57,120 --> 00:40:59,800 camps and that is literally an RFK junior position. 809 00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:02,120 Yeah, I know. Well, the ADHD will go away if 810 00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:03,480 we take the fluoride out of the water. 811 00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:05,600 Guys, don't you understand how this works? 812 00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:08,680 It's so funny to me that like the fluoride stuff was like the 813 00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:11,400 butt of jokes in like the 70s already. 814 00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:13,800 I know, you know, and we're, we're back to that. 815 00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:17,160 It's crazy, but RFK is like also a big crypto guy. 816 00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:19,280 He's he's gone to a ton of their conferences. 817 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:22,200 He claims that his entire net worth is in crypto and I kind of 818 00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:23,760 believe him. I don't. 819 00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:26,280 The brain worms are talking again. 820 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,400 I don't think. RFK junior has access to most of 821 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,840 his net worth. Like I think being a Kennedy at 822 00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:35,800 this point, he, he sees an account and he's probably taking 823 00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:37,960 money out of that account and put it in his allowance. 824 00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,640 But I don't think, like, from a legal sense, that's his net 825 00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:42,880 worth, you know? You, Bennett brought up the the 826 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:46,120 Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, which I hate that I have to verbalize. 827 00:41:46,240 --> 00:41:49,160 Yeah, that's right, Cynthia. Cynthia Loomis has been talking 828 00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:51,160 about this. She is a senator from Wyoming. 829 00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,520 She's been really loud. About anyone's a good faith 830 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:55,600 actor, it's Cynthia. Loomis, yeah, definitely. 831 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:58,920 And she, for what it's worth, I think part of her pitch here for 832 00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:02,520 this strategic Bitcoin reserve, part of her pitch is that we 833 00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:07,800 sell off our gold reserves and move it into Bitcoin, which I 834 00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:09,720 like. Those massive American gold, 835 00:42:09,720 --> 00:42:11,440 Yeah. Those crazy I do. 836 00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,160 Funny enough, we do have the I believe the largest gold 837 00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:17,520 reserves in the world are American are American are. 838 00:42:17,640 --> 00:42:19,440 They really? I thought we've been passed 839 00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:20,080 though. I believe so. 840 00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:23,720 I mean, it's just, it's just like vaults at Fort Knox, NY Fed 841 00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:26,400 that we and and Fort Knox and we're like, don't we don't do 842 00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:30,320 really anything with I mean. This is so funny because it's 843 00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:34,000 like you should sell things like like I remember when Biden sold 844 00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:37,720 part of our our strategic oil reserve and it was like, yeah, 845 00:42:37,720 --> 00:42:40,840 that lowered gas prices. Like this is it was very 846 00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:43,080 effective. It's like, yeah, I don't hate 847 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:45,480 the idea of selling some of our strategic gold reserve. 848 00:42:45,720 --> 00:42:47,280 What good is it otherwise, right? 849 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:48,760 Like what do we even need the gold for? 850 00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:51,520 Selling some of that is great. Selling it and then immediately 851 00:42:51,520 --> 00:42:55,720 taking that money and putting it into Bitcoin is like what the 852 00:42:55,720 --> 00:42:59,320 fuck are we doing and what? Well, Bitcoin's like gold, but 853 00:42:59,320 --> 00:43:00,600 it's digital cash. Thank you. 854 00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:01,200 Sorry. No, I didn't. 855 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:02,440 Know that. Thank you. 856 00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:05,400 No, I OK, now it makes sense. Yeah, it's funny because like, 857 00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:08,600 why do why do normal countries that aren't the United States 858 00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:10,800 like have foreign currency reserves? 859 00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:14,240 It's like, because usually their currency, if, if you're, I'm 860 00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:17,400 thinking on like, right, you don't have the dollar, I'm 861 00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:20,080 picking on like you could pick on Malawi or something. 862 00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:22,840 And it's like it's tough because there's very little external 863 00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:26,160 demand for their currency. So they have to have some 864 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:28,640 reserves. If it's both a like way to 865 00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:32,200 manage the currency and also a way to like hedge against risk. 866 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:35,040 If you're the United States, you don't really need that because 867 00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,040 when if there's a disaster, like it's if there's a disaster 868 00:43:38,240 --> 00:43:40,880 globally, like people in Malawi want U.S. dollars. 869 00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:44,040 If there's a disaster in the United States, people in the 870 00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:46,320 United States want U.S. dollar. So you are the safe asset. 871 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:50,000 Like you don't need to then hold another like gold is riskier 872 00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:50,960 than the US dollar. You're going. 873 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:54,000 To need the gold bar in in an emergency, don't you understand? 874 00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:58,240 It's so shiny. I kind of regret taking this 875 00:43:58,240 --> 00:44:01,560 like like seriously. I don't think that this is going 876 00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:03,680 to to happen. It obviously it's not going to 877 00:44:03,680 --> 00:44:06,240 happen by an act of Congress. I can tell you that much, but 878 00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:10,040 it's possible, you know, like we just had Lutnick and Besson have 879 00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:13,360 are very crypto. It's possible that they could 880 00:44:13,360 --> 00:44:16,600 flex some of the exchange stabilization fund is an example 881 00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:19,160 of like we have these funds that the US that are supposed to be 882 00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:22,240 at the discretion of the president and the cabinet in the 883 00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:24,760 event of like a break glassing place of emergency thing like 884 00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,400 oh, Congress can't act fast enough. 885 00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:30,240 You have this money. Just in case it's possible they 886 00:44:30,240 --> 00:44:32,400 could like try to flex some of that new crypto. 887 00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,440 I again regret bringing this up. No one's tried that before. 888 00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:38,440 So we don't know what those ideas, what this are. 889 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,080 We'll have to wait and see what the Supreme Court says. 890 00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:43,040 Oh, man. But I think the bigger story is 891 00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:48,120 like, I fully expect them to be really like to annoyingly talk 892 00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:51,160 about this intermittently. I would fully expect Donald 893 00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:54,080 Trump to at some point post on true social like we are going to 894 00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:58,280 make a strategic Bitcoin reserve and then not like follow it up 895 00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:01,120 with anything, but that would like launch the price, you know? 896 00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:05,160 My gut instinct is they're going to look for some kind of Bitcoin 897 00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:08,680 that's been seized that realistically like is never 898 00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:10,320 going to be returned to anyone else. 899 00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:13,120 Isn't like reasonably tied into restitution and they're going to 900 00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:15,920 pull whatever tiny bitcoins they can find that the government has 901 00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:18,840 that fit that description and call that the reserve if you 902 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:20,520 want my guess. I don't think they're actually 903 00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:22,400 going to spend much money. I also going to I. 904 00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:24,200 Also think 1. Of the quarters in the couch I. 905 00:45:24,200 --> 00:45:28,920 Also think one of the dangers of this is that you, many of us 906 00:45:28,920 --> 00:45:31,360 have been like, yeah, well, fucking Donald Trump won't do 907 00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:32,800 the thing that he says he's going to do. 908 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,240 And then he and then he does exactly what he said he was 909 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:38,040 going to do. So I'd like the idea that he's 910 00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:42,480 like strategic Bitcoin reserve and all of us are like, he's 911 00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:46,280 just being stupid and and loud. But like, no, I could definitely 912 00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:48,560 see him making this somehow happen, you know? 913 00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:52,120 I think it's the the gap, the frustration I have is like, 914 00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,760 he'll say something that is directionally correct, like he's 915 00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:57,280 going to do that in that direction. 916 00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:01,240 And then people like treat you as crazy if he doesn't do 917 00:46:01,240 --> 00:46:03,800 exactly what he said. So I'm giving example just cuz 918 00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:06,000 this was literally yesterday and this is like my alley. 919 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:09,800 Trump posted that he was going to put a 25% tariff on all goods 920 00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:14,000 coming from Mexico and Canada if they didn't like fix the border 921 00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:16,840 and stop fentanyl. And again, poor Justin Trudeau. 922 00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:19,440 Like, you know, I feel bad for him. 923 00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:23,520 He's not doing anything in this, but like, I don't think he's 924 00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:28,680 going to do that because, you know, just automakers would be 925 00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:31,760 furious, absolutely devastated if they attempted this. 926 00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:34,680 But I think I do directionally think that he will get in office 927 00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:36,840 on his first day as president of the United States. 928 00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:41,760 He will sign some sort of trade restriction or tariff on Mexico 929 00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:44,520 over immigration. And so it's like, on the one 930 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:47,640 hand, I don't believe that there's doing the 25%. 931 00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:49,840 On the other hand, it's ridiculous that like he's the 932 00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:51,520 he's going to be the president of the United States. 933 00:46:52,240 --> 00:46:54,600 We have to take what he says seriously because he's going to 934 00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:58,240 do some portion of it and it's always like directionally 935 00:46:58,240 --> 00:46:59,840 correct. So when they say like, oh, we're 936 00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:02,520 going to do a strategic Bitcoin reserve, I think though, they're 937 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:05,280 going to try something flashy. I think my point there is like 938 00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:09,440 both like you're it's debasing to have the man behind the 939 00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:12,760 resolute desk be like shilling, you know, shit coins. 940 00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:14,680 I'm sorry, I'm not used to cursing up. 941 00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:18,560 It's amazing that have been like shilling shit coins. 942 00:47:18,720 --> 00:47:23,600 Secondarily, like to say it's it's so antithetical to all of 943 00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:27,080 what crypto is ostensibly for that like we're getting, you're 944 00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:28,720 getting bailed out by the taxpayer. 945 00:47:29,040 --> 00:47:32,000 You're getting like juiced by, you know, public funds if it 946 00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:35,280 happens or you're advocating for it to happen, Like why? 947 00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:38,480 Why as a senator, sitting senator from Wyoming, why are 948 00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:41,040 you advocating for the US government to be like gambling 949 00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:42,680 money on this? And then from a Third Point, 950 00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:46,880 it's like it's going to be bad because like Elon Musk is going 951 00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:49,000 to tweet about the strategic Bitcoin reserve and it's going 952 00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:50,120 to make the price of Bitcoin go up. 953 00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:52,640 And like possibly there will be people who know about that who 954 00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:56,000 will make money from it. And like we have an entire the 955 00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:57,800 department of government efficiency thing. 956 00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:00,920 It's like it's not a department. First of all, that's not how 957 00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:03,320 that works. But second of all, it's like the 958 00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:06,400 name is, is entirely there because Elon Musk thinks like 959 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,360 doge is funny. And it's like increase the price 960 00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:13,240 of Dogecoin a lot. And now there's a Senate doge 961 00:48:13,240 --> 00:48:15,560 caucus. There's going to be a house doge 962 00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:17,160 caucus led by Marjorie Taylor Green. 963 00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:20,920 And I'm like, we're, we're forced to like take some of this 964 00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:24,200 stuff seriously. I'm forced to say Senate Doge 965 00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,720 Caucus because that exists now. And Elon Musk has never been 966 00:48:26,720 --> 00:48:30,440 able to explain why his fixer was listed on the board for the 967 00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:32,280 Dogecoin Foundation on their website. 968 00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:36,640 It's this stuff where you're like, even if there is a you 969 00:48:36,640 --> 00:48:39,840 didn't like legally the doge thing that's not like invested 970 00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:41,480 in Bitcoin. It's not told people, excuse me, 971 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:42,840 it's not told people to invest in. 972 00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:44,760 It's like we all know what you're doing here. 973 00:48:45,920 --> 00:48:50,160 And it's, it's just very, it's very, it's like people are, are 974 00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:52,640 like, there's a lot of it's, it's one thing to be like, 975 00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:54,560 there's a lot of pressure. But I think the other tough part 976 00:48:54,560 --> 00:48:56,480 is like, there's a lot of people who are just going to like 977 00:48:56,480 --> 00:49:02,560 gamble and lose money off this who are mostly innocent because 978 00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:05,560 they think Elon Musk is cool and they think that this is like an 979 00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:07,440 easy way to make money. You know, I don't have sympathy 980 00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:09,920 for people who are like sophisticated fund managers who 981 00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:11,800 lose money on crypto, but I have sympathy for people who are 982 00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:15,480 like, haha, Dogecoin, I'm going to put $2000 in it. 983 00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:19,720 And I do worry about the sports gambling industry seeing how 984 00:49:19,720 --> 00:49:24,000 effective the cryptocurrency industry's big pile of money 985 00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:28,040 was, it making regulating the industry basically impossible in 986 00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:30,560 Congress. I don't think it's a great thing 987 00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:33,560 that the sports gambling industry just saw that example 988 00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:37,600 in the last election. Or like any of the like like Zen 989 00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:40,240 Yeah, is another another one where like that's you know, 990 00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:42,320 highly. Any highly profitable vice 991 00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:45,040 industry. Really tobacco and tobacco is 992 00:49:45,040 --> 00:49:47,000 much more regulated advertising space. 993 00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:49,680 But they're they're you know, they're frustrated by that. 994 00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:51,520 I also say for now. Yeah. 995 00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:53,400 And and they're frustrated by that. 996 00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:58,920 And like the Trump has like weird regulatory beliefs. 997 00:49:58,920 --> 00:50:01,520 Sometimes. You remember it was his 998 00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:04,160 administration that like put some of the first restriction on 999 00:50:04,160 --> 00:50:06,760 Jewel, but like he flips all the time. 1000 00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:08,720 You know, he was like pro TikTok ban. 1001 00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:12,440 Now he's like anti TikTok ban because he because he's popular. 1002 00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:16,640 The TikTok executives was unclear. 1003 00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,320 And I don't know. I do think it is like. 1004 00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:24,680 From. The pure perspective of if you 1005 00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:29,360 are a rational imagine, like you were totally a moral being and 1006 00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:32,080 you've just cared about getting reelected to the Senate, that 1007 00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:34,720 was your only goal in life. Like, yeah, you're going to talk 1008 00:50:34,720 --> 00:50:38,680 down cryptocurrency regulation a ton over the next few years 1009 00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:41,640 because you saw how effective a lot of this is. 1010 00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:46,560 And I will say like it's becoming the fact that it is a 1011 00:50:47,720 --> 00:50:51,040 more bipartisan issue. It's like in the one hand, it's 1012 00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:53,320 partisan, like the this is the new president. 1013 00:50:53,560 --> 00:50:55,600 He's going to be much more pro crypto than the previous 1014 00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:57,320 president. But on the other hand, it's like 1015 00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:01,800 one of those issues where the seemingly the only people that 1016 00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:05,800 are like going to be pro crypto regulation are like Elizabeth 1017 00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:09,080 Warren category. Well, I'm just saying that 1018 00:51:09,080 --> 00:51:11,600 category of person like Warren obviously has a lot of personal 1019 00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:13,160 beliefs about financial regulation. 1020 00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:16,840 Like that's where like they, but I just meant that category of 1021 00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:19,800 person who is in like AD plus 20 seat, who doesn't actually have 1022 00:51:19,800 --> 00:51:21,920 to care about like winning re election because they're going 1023 00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:24,520 to win re election because they're popular at home in a 1024 00:51:24,520 --> 00:51:27,560 very liberal state, are going to be the people who who care about 1025 00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:30,000 cryptocurrency regulation. If you're someone who's like, Oh 1026 00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:33,120 my God, I have to win a state that's actually competitive like 1027 00:51:33,120 --> 00:51:34,520 you, it immediately gets dropped. 1028 00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:38,120 And again, like we saw this with Paris where like that was part 1029 00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:41,720 of the strategy was like a peace offering towards the crypto 1030 00:51:41,720 --> 00:51:46,480 industry to try to prevent like them from spending so much money 1031 00:51:46,560 --> 00:51:49,240 on electing Donald Trump. That's the other thing they 1032 00:51:49,240 --> 00:51:52,520 stayed out of the the presidential election. 1033 00:51:53,240 --> 00:51:56,800 You know, obviously not entirely people who are like Andreessen, 1034 00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:59,880 Marc Andreessen is like very pro Donald Trump, but. 1035 00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:03,680 Yeah, we're making their big illegal donations, which 1036 00:52:03,680 --> 00:52:06,760 immediately got refunded to them after they got their headlines. 1037 00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:09,240 But like the the big crypto packs stayed out of the 1038 00:52:09,240 --> 00:52:13,480 presidential election. Like, that's not a guarantee in 1039 00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:16,040 2028. You know, that's the strategy 1040 00:52:16,040 --> 00:52:18,240 they took this time. That might not be the strategy 1041 00:52:18,240 --> 00:52:21,880 they take four years from now. And I think if you're JD Vance, 1042 00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:24,960 for example, who's going to be presumably the Republican 1043 00:52:24,960 --> 00:52:27,920 nominee for president in 2028, it might be Trump Junior. 1044 00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:30,360 If you're JD Vance, like. It might be Donald Trump that's 1045 00:52:30,440 --> 00:52:34,760 real. Hey, I can run on you say like, 1046 00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:38,040 hey, you know, if I make enough overtures to the the crypto 1047 00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:41,360 industry as vice president, like they'll back me with a very 1048 00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:45,080 ridiculous amount of money. Peter Thiel is deep in crypto, 1049 00:52:45,080 --> 00:52:47,600 so it's not even hard for him to like, find the connections and 1050 00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:48,760 make that oh. Absolutely. 1051 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:53,520 They're right there. And so I like I think that this 1052 00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:58,200 is this election was a lot about like the crypto entering space 1053 00:52:58,200 --> 00:53:02,680 as like entrenched business interest more so than than ever 1054 00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:04,880 before. Well, and I think what you said 1055 00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:07,640 there about how this election, it was bipartisan, but that may 1056 00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:10,600 not be true in the future, is something we may see very 1057 00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:15,280 strongly in like 2026 in the midterms, especially if they're 1058 00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:20,120 worried that like the the anti incumbency narrative becomes 1059 00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:26,000 like corruption things, fraud, the things that are easy to tie 1060 00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:29,560 on Donald Trump in that way, I can imagine the crypto industry 1061 00:53:30,320 --> 00:53:34,560 wanting to prevent things from swinging the other way. 1062 00:53:34,720 --> 00:53:37,480 And so I think it's quite plausible we'll see them deploy 1063 00:53:38,560 --> 00:53:42,160 way more to Republicans and stuff like that to keep that. 1064 00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:44,720 Because you were even alluding to earlier in this conversation, 1065 00:53:44,720 --> 00:53:47,840 there were people who, when they saw a fair shake, helped get 2 1066 00:53:47,840 --> 00:53:50,040 Democrats elected. They were like, oh, maybe that 1067 00:53:50,040 --> 00:53:52,680 was a bad idea. Maybe it's better actually to 1068 00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:55,960 have all from one party, which is categorically against 1069 00:53:55,960 --> 00:53:57,800 regulations. Maybe that'll be cleaner. 1070 00:53:57,960 --> 00:53:59,880 Right. I, I was like Gallego and 1071 00:53:59,880 --> 00:54:04,720 Slotkin as much as any other person, like owe their victory 1072 00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:07,200 to crypto donations. Those, those elections were just 1073 00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:09,920 so tight that you could point to anything that they did that 1074 00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:11,760 would have lost them votes, would have, could have doomed 1075 00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:13,480 them. And if you're like in 1076 00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:16,320 Pennsylvania that the Democratic senator lost, if you're that, 1077 00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,600 are you like looking at this like, you know, if only I was 1078 00:54:18,600 --> 00:54:21,640 like Slotkin, if only they'd given me more money, maybe I 1079 00:54:21,640 --> 00:54:22,840 could have won. Maybe I could have pulled this 1080 00:54:22,840 --> 00:54:26,080 one over. And conversely, but like you 1081 00:54:26,120 --> 00:54:29,400 said, conversely, if you were the, the donors, you said you, 1082 00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:31,320 you feel like I was the deciding factor. 1083 00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:34,280 I got 2 sitting US senators elected. 1084 00:54:34,520 --> 00:54:36,080 Maybe next time I should decide the other way. 1085 00:54:36,920 --> 00:54:39,800 And like that's, that can be dangerous. 1086 00:54:39,800 --> 00:54:45,440 I think, I think that they're likely to try to keep this as 1087 00:54:45,520 --> 00:54:48,560 bipartisan as possible for the next like 2 years. 1088 00:54:49,120 --> 00:54:51,360 But it's possible. Like the other thing is the 1089 00:54:51,360 --> 00:54:53,520 Senate math. And now we're getting like, way 1090 00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:54,760 too much in. The. 1091 00:54:55,280 --> 00:54:59,320 In 2026 I believe the Democrats could, and if you asked me to 1092 00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:02,240 bet right now, I would say they're likely to regain control 1093 00:55:02,240 --> 00:55:04,040 of the House. That's just how like anti 1094 00:55:04,040 --> 00:55:07,000 incumbency bias Democrats tend to do better and off your 1095 00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:09,120 elections nowadays. But the Senate? 1096 00:55:09,120 --> 00:55:10,840 Republicans are bad at governing. 1097 00:55:12,600 --> 00:55:14,640 People, people are going to be reminded, wait a minute, I've 1098 00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:19,480 been like Donald Trump. That's what I voted for. 1099 00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:22,960 I remember him now. He was on TV years ago. 1100 00:55:23,720 --> 00:55:26,880 But the Senate math is like very brutal, like the Democrats have 1101 00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:30,920 to defend very close seats in in Georgia and Michigan. 1102 00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:33,720 And they all, they only have a couple states where you could 1103 00:55:33,720 --> 00:55:36,000 plausibly like win like North Carolina. 1104 00:55:36,600 --> 00:55:40,520 And so it's possible if you know, if I was a crypto PAC, I 1105 00:55:40,520 --> 00:55:42,600 would be very interested in this idea that you could like 1106 00:55:42,600 --> 00:55:46,040 maintain the Republican Senate Majority pretty easily. 1107 00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:50,600 And if you lost probe house, like, well, you'd still have two 1108 00:55:50,600 --> 00:55:54,000 out of three ain't bad. And so I would not be surprised. 1109 00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:56,000 And like you said, they aren't. They're already raising money. 1110 00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:59,000 I, I, I want to stress again that this is like, there are 1111 00:55:59,000 --> 00:56:02,960 lots of super PACs that spend a ton of money on the scale of 1112 00:56:02,960 --> 00:56:04,160 super PACs that spend a ton of money. 1113 00:56:04,160 --> 00:56:07,760 This is up there. This is not like, this is like 1114 00:56:07,760 --> 00:56:10,360 the money that the American Petroleum Institute throws we're 1115 00:56:10,360 --> 00:56:13,040 into, into. Races and the other thing I want 1116 00:56:13,040 --> 00:56:15,400 to add, we should wrap this conversation up soon probably. 1117 00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:19,200 But like the other thing that always strikes me is that in 1118 00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:22,800 many sense, in many senses the best regulation for the 1119 00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:26,280 cryptocurrency industry at least they believe is effectively no 1120 00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:29,040 regulation. And so like these cryptocurrency 1121 00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:33,720 packs and things like that are to be incentivized to like split 1122 00:56:33,720 --> 00:56:36,480 the House and the Senate, split the House and the presidency, 1123 00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:39,720 like create situations where legislation, regulations, things 1124 00:56:39,720 --> 00:56:43,120 like that are divisive, can't be advanced coalitions can't be 1125 00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:46,480 built because their goal is for nothing to happen. 1126 00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:49,200 The longer nothing happens, the longer they get to grow 1127 00:56:49,200 --> 00:56:51,480 unfettered and take advantage of more people. 1128 00:56:51,760 --> 00:56:55,440 And so like, that makes like the the meta game of their political 1129 00:56:55,440 --> 00:56:59,040 donations like darker in a certain sense than like other 1130 00:56:59,040 --> 00:57:01,480 industries which are trying to capture and get favorable 1131 00:57:01,560 --> 00:57:02,640 regulations. Yeah. 1132 00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:04,120 Right, right. Yeah. 1133 00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:08,640 And I mean, like we have a in the in the United States, this 1134 00:57:08,640 --> 00:57:13,200 is like a a core problem where this is like you as president, 1135 00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:17,400 it's rare to get a trifecta. Joe Biden had a very, very, very 1136 00:57:17,400 --> 00:57:20,920 thin governing majority when he was first elected and managed to 1137 00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:24,800 do a ton with it relative to the size of the governing majority, 1138 00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:27,920 you know, the amount of spending and like especially. 1139 00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:30,840 Considering mansioning some. Especially considering mansion, 1140 00:57:33,120 --> 00:57:36,520 but if you're like, oh, well, you know, all that needs to get 1141 00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:40,640 there there like mention spawn, you know, there's we're talking 1142 00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:43,520 about when we're talking about these nominees who maybe should 1143 00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:47,080 I maybe should have mentioned this earlier, but like most of 1144 00:57:47,080 --> 00:57:49,760 these nominees for the economic positions are going to go 1145 00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:53,640 through beatsly. It's kind of amazing that like, 1146 00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:58,120 Besson is going to go through easily, but like, people don't 1147 00:57:58,120 --> 00:58:01,360 believe that RFK junior can be torpedoed because you need to 1148 00:58:01,400 --> 00:58:05,840 peel off 45 Republicans and you're like, OK, you, you, you 1149 00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:08,880 start calling counting senators and you can't find like any. 1150 00:58:09,080 --> 00:58:11,920 Pence is trying. It's it's it's a little bit 1151 00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:14,320 hilarious to me that like, right now, one of the people trying 1152 00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:18,520 hardest to torpedo RFK Junior is Mike Pence, the former 1153 00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:22,240 president's Vice P Yeah, because RFK Junior has historically been 1154 00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:27,880 too liberal on abortion. And so Pence is running hardline 1155 00:58:27,880 --> 00:58:31,520 like to all the pro-life senators to try to get them to 1156 00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:33,920 defect from RFK Junior. That's really funny. 1157 00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:40,360 I let the fight on that one. But like RFK has very like, you 1158 00:58:40,360 --> 00:58:43,560 know, crazy dangerous ideas on on what should be normally 1159 00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:44,880 bipartisan issues. You can't do that. 1160 00:58:45,040 --> 00:58:48,840 And like, or even Tulsi Gabbard, who is the director National 1161 00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:52,720 Intelligence, like she in in most she's a former Democrat. 1162 00:58:53,160 --> 00:58:55,200 She has poses this giant security risk. 1163 00:58:55,200 --> 00:58:57,440 She has been friends with like Putin and Assad and whatever you 1164 00:58:57,440 --> 00:59:00,480 think that you could like find 5 Republicans that would be like, 1165 00:59:00,480 --> 00:59:04,600 I don't know about this one, you know, but it's really tough. 1166 00:59:04,600 --> 00:59:07,600 And so in a world in which, you know, Republicans control the 1167 00:59:07,600 --> 00:59:11,440 Senate, Cabinet appointees are like check box unless they've 1168 00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:13,320 committed like horrible sexual assault. 1169 00:59:13,320 --> 00:59:14,800 And even then. And. 1170 00:59:15,360 --> 00:59:17,360 We just said we can't torpedo RFK. 1171 00:59:17,680 --> 00:59:21,560 We can't repeat RFK is possibly going to get the nomination for 1172 00:59:21,560 --> 00:59:25,480 Department of Defense, but the like I was just saying Gates was 1173 00:59:25,480 --> 00:59:27,120 the one person so far as Ben Duke. 1174 00:59:27,320 --> 00:59:29,120 But like a world in which Republicans control the Senate. 1175 00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:32,040 You can appoint whoever you want to executive positions in the 1176 00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:34,640 judiciary, but Democrats control the House and therefore you 1177 00:59:34,640 --> 00:59:36,840 can't actually pass any like legislation that meaningfully 1178 00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:40,320 does anything is like one in which like to your point, 1179 00:59:40,480 --> 00:59:43,160 there'd be a lot of you could appoint friendly regulators and 1180 00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:45,160 nobody's going to write a law in in Congress. 1181 00:59:45,160 --> 00:59:46,600 They'll hold some hearings in the House. 1182 00:59:46,600 --> 00:59:49,600 That would be annoying. And like that's a, that's a good 1183 00:59:49,600 --> 00:59:53,760 outcome for a lot of like the, the, if I was to say, like 1184 00:59:53,760 --> 00:59:56,880 closing remark is like crypto people feel really happy about 1185 00:59:56,880 --> 01:00:00,840 how this election went and like the executives especially and 1186 01:00:00,840 --> 01:00:03,760 that's very tough. Yeah, I, Yep, I fully agree with 1187 01:00:03,760 --> 01:00:05,680 all of that. We, we have a crypto executive 1188 01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:09,040 right here and all she's been saying is how happy she is that 1189 01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:13,560 cast coin is going to be possibly a new central bank 1190 01:00:13,560 --> 01:00:16,560 digital currency for the upcoming administration. 1191 01:00:16,560 --> 01:00:20,160 So, yeah, I think that's that's a pretty accurate and fair 1192 01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:24,440 description of how the entire cryptocurrency community has 1193 01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:28,120 been feeling since the Trump election. 1194 01:00:28,120 --> 01:00:30,120 I think you can just look at the price of Bitcoin and probably 1195 01:00:30,120 --> 01:00:30,680 figure that out.