1 00:00:00,520 --> 00:00:03,800 Welcome back everyone, long time no see. 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:07,640 I am Cass PNC. I am joined as usual by my 3 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:10,080 partner in crime, Mr. Bennett Tomlin. 4 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:14,240 How are you today? I'm doing OK, a little scared 5 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:16,680 but hanging in there. How are you doing, Cass? 6 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:22,000 Same, same. We decided it was a good idea to 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:26,720 do a live stream today because, yeah, what the hell, What the 8 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:29,520 hell? And we're just going to kick it 9 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:34,720 off by showing you the statement from Jerome Powell. 10 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:38,600 So yeah. Good evening. 11 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:43,120 On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal 12 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:46,160 Reserve with grand jury subpoenas threatening a criminal 13 00:00:46,160 --> 00:00:49,040 indictment related to my testimony before the Senate 14 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:53,720 Banking Committee last June. That testimony concerned, in 15 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:57,640 part, a multi year project to renovate historic Federal 16 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:01,920 Reserve office buildings. I have deep respect for the rule 17 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:04,879 of law and for accountability in our democracy. 18 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,880 No one, certainly not the Chair of the Federal Reserve, is above 19 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:11,800 the law. But this unprecedented action 20 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,720 should be seen in the broader context of the Administration's 21 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:19,280 threats and ongoing pressure. This new threat is not about my 22 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,680 testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal 23 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,280 Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress's 24 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,160 oversight role. The feds, through testimony and 25 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:31,160 other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress 26 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:33,640 informed about the renovation project. 27 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:38,560 Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges 28 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:41,840 is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates 29 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:45,240 based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, 30 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,280 rather than following the preferences of the president. 31 00:01:49,440 --> 00:01:52,120 This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set 32 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:55,440 interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions, or 33 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:58,800 whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political 34 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:03,200 pressure or intimidation. I have served at the Federal 35 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:07,280 Reserve under 4 administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike. 36 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:11,160 In every case, I have carried out my duties without political 37 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:15,560 fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability 38 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:19,720 and maximum employment. Public service sometimes 39 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:22,400 requires standing firm in the face of threats. 40 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,840 I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, 41 00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:30,960 with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people. 42 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,800 Thank you. So no Federal Reserve Chairman 43 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,280 has ever had to make a statement like that before. 44 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:42,360 Yeah, I just point something out to anyone who was listening to 45 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,400 that, he said. Threat or threatening five times 46 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:50,040 in that very short speech. And he said intimidation as 47 00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:56,560 well. So that gives you a sense of the 48 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:58,640 message that he was trying to get across. 49 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,640 And I think he got that message across quite effectively. 50 00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:08,120 I think people, at least in finance and politics, I guess as 51 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:10,640 well, we're quite freaked out by all of this. 52 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:14,920 I, I don't know if you want to add anything, but I think the, 53 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:17,440 the one thing I want to add to this right now at this very 54 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:21,960 particular second is that this morning, in response to this, 55 00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:29,240 Senator Tillis and Senator Murkowski both put out 56 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:34,640 statements saying, hey, this is not OK. 57 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,200 You cannot go after Jerome Powell like this. 58 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:42,440 And we are going to hold up any nomination that you put forward 59 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:47,200 until this stops. And we urge you to investigate 60 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:51,840 the DOJ. So I think that really sets back 61 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:58,520 the momentum that maybe Donald Trump in this administration 62 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:00,160 thought they had on this this issue. 63 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:01,640 I don't know. What do you think, Bennett? 64 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:07,640 I think it would have been great if Tillis and Murkowski were 65 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:11,520 willing to make those statements after Lisa Cook was targeted by 66 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:15,120 criminal indictments by the OR was was targeted with criminal 67 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:18,600 investigations and where Trump tried to fire her. 68 00:04:19,079 --> 00:04:23,160 Because a lot of those same things they're saying now about 69 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:25,800 Powell applied in that case as well. 70 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:29,920 But more broadly, whatever like you want to say about when they 71 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,240 should have said it. This is one of those critical 72 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:37,000 moments. And during this administration, 73 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:41,200 I think half of the episodes we've done, it feels like have 74 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:45,320 been about these attacks on the Federal Reserve because it is 75 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:52,320 such an important institution and it has for so long been seen 76 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:56,400 as independent from some of these political processes and 77 00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:59,240 especially from like the day-to-day vagaries of the 78 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:02,200 executive. And that seems to have, that 79 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:05,960 seems to be crumbling and like even more than that, it seems 80 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:08,920 like when it started to crumble when we were raising this alarm 81 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:11,000 months ago. Almost a year. 82 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:14,640 Yeah, 11 months ago. People close to the 83 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:18,720 administration were confident that they were going to be able 84 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:22,800 to redirect Trump to keep him focused on other issues and 85 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:25,520 things like that. And based on, like the reporting 86 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,520 about Scott Besson, like calling Trump up today or meeting with 87 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,120 Trump today and freaking out and stuff like that, it suggests 88 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:36,600 that, one, a lot of people didn't know that this was about 89 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:40,440 to happen. And two, they were unsuccessful 90 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,720 in distracting Trump from what Trump said he was going to do. 91 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:48,720 Well, that that, and I think someone else pointed out that in 92 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:55,400 that was it called the 2025, the Project 2025 thing or whatever 93 00:05:56,520 --> 00:05:59,960 that they specifically called for getting complete control and 94 00:05:59,960 --> 00:06:03,120 essentially destroying the independence and usefulness of 95 00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:06,680 the Federal Reserve. So they are doing exactly what 96 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:10,800 they said they were going to do. And there is nobody who is 97 00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:13,040 successfully going to stop them from doing that. 98 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,480 And I don't think, as I said earlier today, I don't think 99 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:20,240 that Scott Besant calling Donald Trump and being like, I'm really 100 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:24,520 disappointed in you is going to have any effect whatsoever on 101 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:28,600 this administration. So you know that, that it's, 102 00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:31,720 it's a silly, it's a silly retort. 103 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:34,280 I also want to bring up, sorry, we, we forgot to do this. 104 00:06:34,280 --> 00:06:40,880 So the, there was also a joint statement from Ben Bernanke, 105 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:45,240 Jared Burns. I guess I should Ben Bernanke, 106 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:48,120 who served 2 terms as the chair of the Board of Governors of the 107 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,720 Fed. Jared Bernstein, who served as 108 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:53,480 the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under Joe 109 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:56,360 Biden. Jason Furman served as chair of 110 00:06:56,360 --> 00:06:59,320 the Council of Economic Advisers under Barack Obama. 111 00:06:59,840 --> 00:07:04,440 Tim Geithner, the 75th Secretary of the Treasury and the 112 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,280 president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. 113 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,200 Alan Greenspan, who served 5 terms as the chair of the Board 114 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,000 of Governors of the Fed. He's 99 years old. 115 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,640 Apparently he is still going ahead and talking to these 116 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:20,880 people about this stuff. Janet Yellen, who served as the 117 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:26,280 78th Secretary of Treasury and had numerous titles at the Fed, 118 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:30,520 and Henry M Paulson, who was the 74 secretary of the Treasury. 119 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:34,080 Basically a who's who of people who have worked in the Treasury 120 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:36,480 and the Federal Reserve all saying. 121 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:40,800 Every living Fed chair, I believe, is a signatory to this 122 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:44,200 statement. And we should be clear like 123 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:47,280 we'll just read the statement. It's a couple of sentences. 124 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:49,160 So there's all these signatories. 125 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:52,080 And it says the Federal Reserve's independence and the 126 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,320 public's perception of that independence are critical for 127 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,640 economic performance, including achieving the goals Congress has 128 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:01,640 set for the Federal Reserve of stable prices, maximum 129 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:04,360 employment and moderate long term interest rates. 130 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:07,640 The reported criminal inquiry into Federal Reserve Chair Jay 131 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:11,440 Powell is an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial 132 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:14,000 attacks to undermine that independence. 133 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:17,800 This is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with 134 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:21,240 weak institutions with highly negative consequences for 135 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:24,560 inflation and the functioning of their economies more broadly. 136 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:28,080 It has no place in the United States, whose greatest strength 137 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,920 is the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic 138 00:08:31,920 --> 00:08:36,240 success. Pretty damning stuff. 139 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:43,240 So look, I know a lot of our listeners are anti Fed and I 140 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:48,040 know a lot of our listeners are anti central bank in general 141 00:08:48,160 --> 00:08:51,880 probably. I just want to make sure 142 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:54,920 everyone understands that this is a dual decision. 143 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:01,040 Either you have central bank independence with a Federal 144 00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:05,880 Reserve that doesn't get persecuted for the decisions 145 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:10,600 that they make or you don't. And that's that's it. 146 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:12,160 That's the choice you have right now. 147 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:16,920 And while I would love to, I know we had Rohan Grey on 148 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:20,960 multiple times and you know, no love lost from Rohan for the 149 00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:23,520 Fed. I know that and I know that he's 150 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,600 likely just looking at this and just shaking his head like these 151 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:28,360 idiots. They had every opportunity to 152 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:31,040 fix this for decades and they didn't do it. 153 00:09:31,560 --> 00:09:33,600 I urge everyone to listen to those episodes as well. 154 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:37,840 They're very informative and interesting, but I, I just need 155 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,360 people to understand that this is, it's a dual choice right 156 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:41,800 now. You don't, there is not this 157 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,120 third grader idea where we can be like, well, so we're going to 158 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:48,720 slowly move away from the Fed and do this other central bank 159 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:54,400 like, no, that's not a thing. So we are in the midst of chaos. 160 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:56,120 I mean, this is complete and utter chaos. 161 00:09:56,320 --> 00:10:01,760 Well, and in so far as like that could be a thing, like there are 162 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:05,320 alternative conceptions of like central bank independence that 163 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:08,240 you'll encounter in like modern monetary theory and things like 164 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:11,240 that. But all of those involve like 165 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:15,200 the legislative branch branch Congress having like complete 166 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:18,240 control over the purse, like absolute control over the purse. 167 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,920 And we've seen that Congress no longer really has the power of 168 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:23,840 the purse. And so discussing that right now 169 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:27,000 is missing the point that like Donald Trump is specifically 170 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,880 attacking like the dollar in these under these financial 171 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,520 institutions that underpin the United States and for like the 172 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:38,920 world's dumbest pretext, right? Like this entire thing is 173 00:10:38,920 --> 00:10:41,440 because the Federal Reserve decided they needed to do some 174 00:10:41,440 --> 00:10:44,600 renovations across like 12 of their different banks or 175 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:46,360 whatever. And they've made a bunch of 176 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,800 those changes. They disclosed all of it to 177 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:51,240 Congress at the appropriate times with the appropriate 178 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:53,480 reports. Everything was approved by all 179 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:55,760 the appropriate people at all the appropriate times. 180 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:59,440 Powell went to the Senate Banking Committee to testify 181 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:02,600 about all this. And yet despite, despite like 182 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:04,760 Powell said, all that openness about these things, that 183 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:07,960 willingness to engage with the congressional oversight of the 184 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:13,600 Fed, they are still trying to find something he misrepresented 185 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:17,840 in that testimony. Like it's fundamental nonsense, 186 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:20,800 right? It's they're doing renovations 187 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:24,640 like the East Wing, the ballroom, that Coinbase can fund 188 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:27,000 the East Wing. But like this is not OK. 189 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:28,920 I think this is a really important point that someone 190 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:36,920 else, a mutual of ours, Jen on blue sky pointed out, which is 191 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:40,720 if Trump really wants to go down the road of exploring every 192 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:45,000 renovation overrun and construction overrun cost like 193 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:48,800 you're you were going to find a lot of skeletons in that closet 194 00:11:48,800 --> 00:11:51,440 for Donald Trump. So if he really wants to go down 195 00:11:51,440 --> 00:11:53,880 this path, we should do it. And we should do it for 196 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:57,000 everything that he had he's involved with from, you know, 197 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:02,000 the, his hotels to the, the East wing of the, the White House to 198 00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:05,200 whatever, like every, every single thing he touches should 199 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:08,000 be deeply investigated. And if there's any cost overrun 200 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,280 whatsoever, well, what the hell, man? 201 00:12:10,440 --> 00:12:12,480 That's fraud, right? According according to the 202 00:12:12,480 --> 00:12:15,720 Donald Trump administration, I guess. 203 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:22,200 But sorry to pause for a second. I just want to also add that 204 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:25,880 while we have all of this fed drama going on, which is insane 205 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:32,360 and important and unprecedented, truly unprecedented, we also 206 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:36,360 have like strange capital control decisions happening 207 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:40,080 right now, right? We have you pointed it out. 208 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:44,520 The the was it Besant? Who who was it Besant? 209 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:47,920 Yeah, Besant talking about, Oh, well, if you have SNAP benefits 210 00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:50,880 or if you have any benefits at all that you received from the 211 00:12:50,880 --> 00:12:53,760 government, you can't do any remittances anymore. 212 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:56,560 You can't send, you can't wire money abroad anymore. 213 00:12:56,760 --> 00:13:00,560 And this is a crazy decision and it is a crazy capital control 214 00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:04,120 that I don't think there's any justificate like I don't know 215 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:08,280 what entity is allowed to suddenly do that on a whim 216 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:12,320 without congressional approval and right like other approval. 217 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:18,280 Maybe the Fed or the OCC could like in their bank supervisory 218 00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:21,520 role, change the expectations for what's documented with each 219 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:23,960 wire. But like, doing it in the middle 220 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,520 of an interview on CNBC or whatever it was that Besant was 221 00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:30,760 is crazy. It's that's not how this works. 222 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:35,000 That's how you do this. And like, like, that's crazy. 223 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:37,360 We're we're doing capital controls in the United States 224 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:40,480 when we're not at war. One crazy, crazy thing we don't 225 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:42,880 do. And like two, Trump is trying to 226 00:13:42,880 --> 00:13:46,040 do monetary policy without even going to the Fed, right. 227 00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:48,920 We saw, I think it was last week, Trump announced that he 228 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:55,320 was going to order Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sell 200 229 00:13:55,600 --> 00:14:01,400 billion in no sorry to buy 200 billion in mortgage bonds in an 230 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:03,880 attempt to drive down mortgage rates. 231 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:09,200 And like one that's not going to make that big of a difference. 232 00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:12,800 I mean, like the Federal Reserve has $2 trillion worth of 233 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:14,480 mortgage bonds on their balance sheet. 234 00:14:14,720 --> 00:14:19,760 If the Fed wanted, they could entirely cancel out Freddie Mae 235 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:23,440 and Fannie Mac there. And like 2, what are you doing? 236 00:14:23,440 --> 00:14:27,600 Why are you trying to affect mortgage rates by by mortgage 237 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:31,880 bonds on the open market? Why are you going to true social 238 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:35,560 and announcing that you're going to crap cap credit card interest 239 00:14:35,560 --> 00:14:39,440 rates at 10% and then saying that any firm that doesn't do 240 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,440 that is somehow breaking the law despite there being no law 241 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:46,480 involved? It's it's just absurd. 242 00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:49,400 It's absurd. We've, like crossed through a 243 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:56,240 looking glass into like, this place where a single bad 244 00:14:56,240 --> 00:14:59,280 decision by the Trump administration could 245 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:04,040 fundamentally destabilize the entire global financial system 246 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:08,640 and lead to millions of deaths. Like that's where we're at. 247 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:10,760 Yep. I mean, we really did. 248 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:13,680 They like, I know that this sounds insane, but a year ago, 249 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:18,440 this was the discussion that we had, which was they're going to 250 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:22,280 try to destroy the Federal Reserve, the independence of the 251 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:24,800 Federal Reserve, and that will destroy the dollar, and that 252 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:32,160 will destroy a lot of things. And so I guess I feel bad that 253 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:36,840 we were right because you don't want to see that. 254 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:40,000 I wish that we were wrong. I wish that in the year since 255 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:43,560 that we recorded that episode, the Trump administration 256 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:47,080 realized that this was a silly cause and that everyone was 257 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,040 going to push back against this. But they have. 258 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:52,120 And most of them apparently have, right? 259 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:55,360 Like the White House is going to every political reporter they 260 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:57,680 can and like leaking that they're upset about this. 261 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:00,760 Besant is going around saying he's upset about this, right? 262 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:02,920 Like, it's out there that a bunch of people in the 263 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:07,080 administration are mad. But fundamentally, you are part 264 00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:10,160 of the Trump administration. Your entire administration is 265 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:13,600 centered around the one mad king who governs by edict on true 266 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:16,920 social. Like your madness is pointless. 267 00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:19,680 He said he was going to do this. He tried to do this term 1. 268 00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:23,000 Like, if you actually didn't think a president should do 269 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:25,560 this, you should not be involved with Donald Trump. 270 00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:29,040 And that applies similarly to like all of the billionaires and 271 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:32,200 venture capitalists and stuff who supported Trump in the 1st 272 00:16:32,200 --> 00:16:35,040 place. Like they are the ones who in a 273 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:39,520 very substantial sense need and depend upon this, like global 274 00:16:39,520 --> 00:16:42,440 financial system, global system of trade, global system of 275 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,440 finance that largely benefits the United States and these 276 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:48,600 billionaires well, and they are supporting the person who is 277 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:51,400 taking the most direct steps to destroy it. 278 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:54,880 Yeah, so I'm the, I'm going to push back on this just for a 279 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:56,240 second. And I know we're a little off 280 00:16:56,240 --> 00:17:00,080 topic now, but I am going to push back on this just because I 281 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:04,760 think that billionaires in general have reached a level of 282 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:13,160 wealth where they no longer believe that they they're immune 283 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:15,240 to with the problems with the dollar. 284 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:17,680 They're immune to problems with the global economy. 285 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:20,839 They can ride it out no matter what as far as they're 286 00:17:20,839 --> 00:17:25,760 concerned, like they can figure out ways they have the means to 287 00:17:26,319 --> 00:17:29,600 escape any kind of global catastrophe. 288 00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:32,600 So they're not worried about it. And in fact, I think a lot of 289 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:37,960 them want this to happen because it will it'll, it'll put in 290 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:41,880 concrete these foundations of we're the upper class now, 291 00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:45,120 right? Like who do financial collapses 292 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:47,200 hurt the most? It's not like you see 293 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:50,360 Rockefeller taking the L during the Great Depression like. 294 00:17:50,360 --> 00:17:53,760 Hey, hey, some of those rich people lost more dollars than 295 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:57,720 anyone else. They still had more dollars than 296 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:02,760 anyone else at the end of it. Yeah, well, no, I think what 297 00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:04,640 we've, I think there, it's already been determined that 298 00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:07,400 Elon Musk is both made the most money and lost the most money of 299 00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:11,600 anybody in history but it, or at least in a single day. 300 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:13,440 I guess it's the way they've they've termed it. 301 00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:16,960 But yeah, so I like that it's a little off topic, but I do think 302 00:18:16,960 --> 00:18:20,280 that it's I I think the billionaires are all almost all 303 00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:22,960 on board with this. They're they're OK with this. 304 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:27,120 It's fine for them. They don't see, they don't think 305 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:29,160 they're going to feel the repercussions of this. 306 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,040 The politicians do. I think the politicians do, and 307 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:34,600 I think the financial experts do, right. 308 00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:39,760 But I don't think, I do not think that the billionaires 309 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:42,320 care. They they're desperate to push 310 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:46,880 this narrative as well. Which also kind of like leads 311 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:54,360 into like, I remember when we had Georgie on Moonkat to talk 312 00:18:54,360 --> 00:18:57,760 about her video and we were talking about techno feudalism, 313 00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:01,920 There was a tendency in certain circles to dismiss it, like 314 00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:04,400 saying the only people who actually believe in this are 315 00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:06,560 cranks with no real power, right? 316 00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,240 This isn't actually in line with their best interests. 317 00:19:09,240 --> 00:19:11,080 None of them are actually going to go through with it. 318 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:14,880 And I just want to say Moon Cat was right and everyone who said 319 00:19:14,880 --> 00:19:18,120 that was apparently wrong because they literally do want 320 00:19:18,120 --> 00:19:20,360 citadels. They really do want to secure 321 00:19:20,360 --> 00:19:25,000 themselves as the plutocrats over a burning husk of what was 322 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:26,840 once the most powerful nation on Earth. 323 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:30,080 Yeah, I do think we're learning to tape take people in general 324 00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:32,360 at their word, if nothing else, from all of this. 325 00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:34,640 Right? Like, like if Donald Trump says 326 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:39,120 he wants to destroy the Federal Reserve, just believe him. 327 00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:41,040 I know that it's hard to believe. 328 00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:44,400 If he says he's going to fight to take Green England, you might 329 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:46,480 as well just believe him. Even if it doesn't seem like a 330 00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:48,680 real thing, you might as well just believe him. 331 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:52,720 I like the and. Well cuz even saying it in the 332 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:55,040 first place should be disqualifying. 333 00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:58,200 Being like I'm going to personally take over the Fed or 334 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,640 I'm going to personally take over Greenland should be 335 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:03,080 something that makes you go. This person cannot have power. 336 00:20:03,320 --> 00:20:05,920 Even if you think they can't actually do it, you shouldn't 337 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:07,720 want them anywhere close to that button. 338 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,480 So I do think that there's, this is the last point I want to 339 00:20:13,480 --> 00:20:17,680 personally make on this, this matter, which is I think that 340 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:19,400 the administration is reaching A tipping point. 341 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:22,000 They're doing a lot of really unpopular stuff right now, 342 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,000 right? So even stuff where you can see 343 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:28,360 the legitimacy of it, right? Maduro was a bad guy. 344 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,960 It's good that he's gone from leadership in Venezuela. 345 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:39,480 The the, the way that happened. I might not agree with what has 346 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:42,400 happened since, I might not even fully understand. 347 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,800 But I think the main issue is that we now understand it was 348 00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:52,680 totally for oil and all that oil is oil that nobody wants. 349 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:57,040 So, OK, And then we're talking about the government taking 350 00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:00,400 shares of those companies so that they can help get that oil 351 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:03,080 out and taking revenue from that and that. 352 00:21:03,120 --> 00:21:06,520 OK, so that's socialism. That's weird that Donald Trump 353 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:11,080 is pushing for that. But OK, so that's weird. 354 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:15,240 I assume that's not super, super popular with his base or with 355 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,400 anyone else, really. And then you have him 356 00:21:18,400 --> 00:21:21,480 threatening an ally. That's generally not super 357 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,680 popular abroad. Multiple allies, right? 358 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:29,880 He threatened Greenland, he threatened Mexico, he he 359 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,840 threatened Canada and others that I guess we wouldn't call 360 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:36,200 allies, but still, like threatening Cuba and Colombia is 361 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:38,320 not great when you're threatening everyone else at the 362 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:41,080 same time. So you're ostracizing yourself 363 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:43,560 that way too. And then you also have a, a 364 00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:46,920 Department of Homeland Security going around attacking people 365 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:49,600 and killing people, it's own citizens, right? 366 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,720 Which is so all of these are unpopular. 367 00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:56,840 And then after all of that, I and genuinely, I feel like this 368 00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:02,600 is just a, a fit of desperation you go after who is essentially 369 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,520 one of the most popular, even though he's not that popular. 370 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:10,520 I think his approval rating is 44%, but that's higher than any 371 00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:14,920 other politician, basically. Like, people really like people. 372 00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:18,520 Really, they kind of they're OK with Jerome Powell after all of 373 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:21,480 this. And so attacking him, it just 374 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:28,200 seems so unhinged and fruitless to me, you know? 375 00:22:30,760 --> 00:22:33,960 Yeah. And like, we should wrap this up 376 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:35,760 soon. But the last point I want to 377 00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:44,880 make is the world they are trying to shape is scary in a 378 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:51,200 lot of ways. Like, I can't even imagine what 379 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,720 a world looks like without NATO and without the Federal Reserve. 380 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,440 And where, like, the dollar is no longer the global reserve 381 00:22:59,440 --> 00:23:01,960 currency. And we have like multiple 382 00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:05,840 competing currencies where like the United States has strict 383 00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,920 capital controls and has shut it off, shut itself off from the 384 00:23:08,920 --> 00:23:12,320 global market where countries are considering sanctioning the 385 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:15,360 United States, the European countries are considering 386 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:18,640 sanctioning the United States, the European Union is 387 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:20,880 considering sanctioning the United States. 388 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:26,000 That's an insane sentence. Like Colombian leaders, Bolivar 389 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:31,760 Bolivarian Bolivarians are like once again talking about Grand 390 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:35,480 Colombia and like creating new unions of countries like across 391 00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:38,640 South America and stuff like these. 392 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:45,400 It's truly unprecedented and it is fundamentally a destruction 393 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:52,160 of every part of the United's, like every good part of what the 394 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,280 United States has ever tried to be like. 395 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:57,720 The promises of equality in the declaration, the promises of 396 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,480 like restraints on state power in the constitution. 397 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:05,560 The, like, work done after World War One and World War 2 to try 398 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:10,000 to build, like, a global system to arbitrate disputes to avoid 399 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:14,200 war and, like, treaty agreements to try to prevent, like, 400 00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,920 imperial expansion. Like, so many of those things 401 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:21,040 are now dead or dying, and it's unclear if they're going to be 402 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:23,920 able to save. And the world that is struggling 403 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:30,480 to be born is one that is going to be destructive, violent, 404 00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,680 hateful and challenging to just existing. 405 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:37,440 Yeah. Yeah, I guess that that'll, 406 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:44,440 that'll do it for this episode. Rooting for rooting for the Fed. 407 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:50,640 I think they should probably still consider setting up cast 408 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,680 coin as legal tender and I, I that could probably fix a lot of 409 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:55,040 the problems that we have going on right now. 410 00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:56,760 It is a safe haven asset.