Kind: captions
Language: en
it's pretty clear that whoever is the
next president is going to have to deal
with some sort of US Government debt
crisis and I'm concerned about how that
response uh is going to be regardless of
which candidate wins um so for example
Trump in his case when there was a major
economic crisis uh in the form of you
know uh the the uh what happened
economically as a result of lockdown
policy uh and and because of covid-19 uh
the person he and his um the person that
he and his administration reached out to
was Larry thinkink of Black Rock uh who
uh implemented something we can get into
later uh that some researchers have
called the going direct reset uh which
was basically a way to put money from QE
directly in the hands of the private
sector instead of public entities sort
of like it had been done before and um
uh arguably that resulted in a massive
wealth transfer in Black Rock didn't
really use that money to help Main
Street at all they used it to buy shares
in their own ETFs among other things
um and then uh Cala in her case her
entire economic team is essentially led
by black former Black Rock Executives
and that was also true for the bid
Administration so essentially Black Rock
which was also um played a major role in
sort of developing the the bailouts uh
in the 2008 economic crisis which was
under Obama right um will likely be
developing the response um for whatever
this you know coming economic crisis uh
is regardless of who gets in office if
we look at you know the policy actions
of the people running who they turn to
in a time of Crisis or who is running
their economic team you know that seems
increasingly likely so that is why I'm
very concerned I guess I would say about
um Black Rock in particular uh because
they seem to be the people that the
government turns to regardless of
whether a Democrat or Republican is in
office and you know they have sort of a
history of um really a affecting wealth
transfers during these crises at a time
when uh you know they're supposedly
veloping or helping develop policy meant
to bailout Main Street they end out end
up sort of affecting massive bailouts
for Wall Streets and of course the you
know the people that uh Black Rock are
trying to generate uh profits and uh
profits for ultimately um and the other
thing that I'm really concerned about as
it relates to you know a coming economic
crisis is that I think we're going to
see a major effort to saddle American
consumers with programmable surveill
money uh and seizable money and so of
course a lot of people for years now
um have been very concerned about
Central Bank digital currencies or cbdcs
uh but there are also um things from the
issued by the private sector like stable
coins for example that are just as
programmable and surveill and seizable
as cbdcs are so I think it's very likely
in the event of a major debt crisis or
some sort of Crisis uh that damages
significantly regular Americans
purchasing power uh there will be an
effort to onboard Americans onto uh one
of those two uh versions of programmable
surve available money um so it's
possible you know if Camala wins uh we
could see a cbdc or something like that
uh but in the case of trump uh he's sort
of come out uh in favor of stable coins
he did that recently at a um at his
speech at the Bitcoin conference um
earlier this year and uh you know stable
coins uh are just as programmable um and
surveill and seible um as uh cbdcs in
theory are and I think those as people
have rightly pointed out um are a threat
to our financial privacy and ultimately
our Financial Freedom so I think people
should be focusing uh not just on cbdcs
but also you know these other um I guess
uh digital uh currencies uh that have
the potential to offer those same you
know
orwellian uh functionalities to the
people uh you know issuing them and
producing them and some of those
prominent stable coins like Circle for
example have major alliances uh with
black rock and black rock has a minority
stake in them and have you know said in
their uh some of their SEC filings that
you know the stable coins can be used to
manipulate the price of Bitcoin for
example all right we we've already here
in the opening minutes we put a lot of
things on the table I want to start now
piecing them together into um a
worldview that somebody that doesn't
have your depth of knowledge where they
can begin to understand how this all
pieces together so um me as somebody on
the outside of this I look at it I'm way
more worried about whether um whether
Republicans Or democrats get into office
based entirely on what their economic
policy is you're really the first person
that's um been clear in saying no no no
you're looking at the wrong level of
analysis you need to understand that
they're they're both going to the same
people to come up with their policies so
whatever promises you hear uh that's
ultimately not going to matter so what I
want to understand is if black is really
where we should be paying attention if
Larry Fink is who they're both basically
going to go to or Larry Fink Affiliated
entities or people uh what is black
Rock's agenda what do they
want yeah so I think there's things that
we can look at as far as black rock is
concerned that sort of give us Clues as
to what their agenda may be and the most
concerning thing to me about that as it
relates to people like Larry Frink is
that Larry Fink is on record saying
things like markets don't really like
democracies because they're messy
markets like totalitarian governments um
and Larry think is someone who's been
very obsessed with riskmanagement most
of his career and sees essentially um
you know free democracies and arguably
also a free market uh in some senses as
uh you know as generating more risk than
perhaps he would like to handle so when
you're able to sort of control and
centralize uh both markets and
governments uh you're able to control
control the amount of risk that's there
and so maybe that's good for asset
managers Like Larry fank who are
obsessed with this uh kind of stuff but
for you know regular people uh
ultimately it uh reduces the amount of
Freedom uh that we would have so I sort
of see Larry think as someone who's
looking to centralize power and
centralize wealth uh and obviously that
has major uh impacts on you know regular
Americans and the people that aren't
necessarily in in the oligarch class or
in the top 1% that would benefit from
those types of
policies whoa okay ah that is extremely
direct okay so you have somebody who
understands this is about risk
mitigation uh that a democratic
government is going to have a lot more
volatility I mean even as I think about
America having this moral standing in
the world sort of being the world's cop
but every four years we have this sort
of violent Whiplash from one policy
direction to the other I've often
thought about how jarring that must be
to other world leaders um and so for
better or worse I can actually see what
you mean if somebody is investing in the
marketplace and they want to make sure
that they have a predictable level of
risk so that they can not completely
control the outcomes but that they can
narrow the band of outcomes so that they
don't have this gigantic potential
downside and the way that we get that is
totalitarian top- down control okay
uh that's a very clear thesis now the
question becomes
how are they going about doing it what
are the
mechanisms well you know I think this is
something that's much larger than just
black rock specifically but in terms of
looking at um what Black Rock has has
done in terms of like you know us fiscal
policy um I think it's important to sort
of look at their role in you know the 08
crisis uh you know which began qu the
policy of Quant ative easing uh you know
and later on they were called upon by
the Trump Administration to help develop
covid fiscal response uh but actually it
began before then so in the fall of 2019
at Jackson Hall uh and this is also uh
should point out this is based on the
the very excellent research of John
Titus of the YouTube channel best
evidence um essentially uh this document
uh was presented by Black Rock to
Central bankers at Jackson Hall it was
called going about going Direct is what
they called it and basically the idea
was to have um you know what was
generated via quantitative easing not
just go to like public of sector
Affiliated entities but also directly
into the hands of the private sector I.E
Wall Street uh and that was essentially
what was proposed and this began begins
to be implemented well before covid uh
when the repo Market goes a bit
Haywire um at the end of 2019 and sort
of continues uh through up until uh Co
was declared a pandemic by the World
Health organization at which point um
you know there's a lot of calls between
Larry Fin and Steve minuchin and other
top figures uh and the economic team of
the Trump Administration and then they
begin to uh basically affect this policy
or S really supercharge this policy and
and go direct even more so there's a lot
of you know
uh uh things that are happening in terms
of economic policy that ultimately
resulted in what we're dealing with now
uh a a um I guess debasement of us uh
American Consumer purchasing power um
but a lot of this money uh at a time
when there were lockdowns and there was
really like no very little economic
activity going on uh they're being given
all of this uh you know people like
Black Rock asset managers are being giv
all of this money and then they go uh
and instead of helping out Main Street
they go up and buy up all the assets
they buy shares in their own ETFs for
example and basically what happened
during covid was a massive wealth
transfer and if you look at uh the
statistics of it you know the top 1% in
the United States benefited hugely
during covid but the rest of us uh did
not maybe some people got stimulus in
that uh but a lot of the uh consequences
Downstream of those policies um have
resulted in this um you know
inflationary situation we're in and a
lot of other um you know economic issues
that people are dealing with and so
Black Rock sort of I would argue uh
oversaw you know these these wealth
transfers sort of you know uh to the
benefit of Wall Street and not Main
Street and it seems like you know if
they is another Crisis coming down the
pike which it seems there is uh Black
Rock is likely to do essentially the
same thing uh whatever policy they help
design and it really should be a point
of public discussion uh why black rock
has so much influence over what the
treasury Department does or what the
Federal Reserve does uh and really you
know um as far as us covid fiscal policy
is concerned which by the way even
though that was started under Trump a
lot of this continued through into the
Biden Administration who again Biden's
top economic people are former Black
Rock Executives you know why is this
particular asset manag manager on Wall
Street so embedded with the development
of us fiscal policy which uh at times
when that fiscal policy is meant to help
regular Americans uh it has not been
doing that when Black Rock is involved
and really this is something that most
Americans don't even know happened you
know all right so this is begging a
really interesting question which is the
idea of going direct sounds awesome like
if I'm an individual person
uh and you're going to do quantitative
easing which for anybody watching this
that doesn't know that it's printing
money uh you're injecting money into the
system yay uh which is actually terrible
I have a whole thing on that we'll get
to that later but just for now so there
the the FED is printing money it's
putting it into the system now putting
it into the system via treasuries or
bonds uh that's lame because ultimately
that the people that hold those assets
they get richer the average person does
not hold those assets and therefore
you're bypassing
the the middle class let's call it the
average person so I always thought oh
man that's a terrible way to do it so I
would probably have fallen for uh let's
go direct let's just give the people the
money so how is it that by going direct
if I'm understanding the mechanism there
where we're giving you a stimi check
it's going directly to you it's in your
name you get a check cut to you how does
that facilitate the wealth transfer more
rapidly maybe I didn't explain that uh
exactly well but the idea of going
direct isn't so much that it no no no
not at all and it's also again this is
this is the work of John Titus and so
I'm sort of giving it you know
describing his work so I may not be
doing the best job in explaining it um
either uh but as I understand it it was
about putting the money not just in
public sector linked entities but also
to the private sector I.E Wall Street
Banks directly so instead of Wall Street
Banks trying to get some of this you
know QE generated money or or funds or
whatever um having to go to a public
sector entity to obtain them they just
receive it
directly okay so it's not necessarily
going to regular Americans directly it's
not going directly from you know money
creation to regular Americans it's going
instead of being just you know uh the
money generated is going to these public
sector in entities to be distributed
it's going directly to the private
sector so they don't have to get it from
the public sector entities it just goes
straight to them so it facil so they
don't really have to do the public
private partnership thing to get their
hands on it anymore they just receive it
directly they take out the middleman I
guess from their perspective okay and
what is that mechanism so I understand
when the FED is buying bonds that's very
clear it's an easy way to get things
into the system but if they're just
giving the money to the banks how is
that explained or recognized on a a p&l
like I don't understand how that makes
its way you're describe the ex to
describe the exact mechanism again I
would uh refer you to John Titus or his
work his article on going Direct on the
Solari report uh which you can view for
free um it's very well documented and
describes all of that in detail and he
is uh you know I'm just sort of pointing
out his research because I think it's
very important as it relates to Black
Rock and what their impact on covid
fiscal uh policy response is uh but
again uh for those very in-depth uh you
know uh explanations of what the
mechanisms are and how going direct is
happen I would uh definitely encourage
you to either have him on or or read his
work because it's it's forensic very
detailed uh and he makes just a a
completely airtight case uh for for what
happened uh as it relates to Black
rocking going Direct in covid fiscal
response got it um okay so I will make
my best guess right now but if I am if
going direct means that I'm giving I'm
the fed and I'm giving money directly to
Banks Banks still even if they want to
do fractional
reserves uh they are going to have to
get the money into somebody's hands
somewhere now you mentioned earlier that
they were buying their own ETFs so yeah
uh but it's my understanding the banks
don't have ETFs a company like Black
Rock obviously would have ETFs they they
do yeah would would somewhere in the the
going direct philosophy is money ending
up getting sent directly to Black Rock
or they borrowing money from the banks
who are getting it directly from the fed
well in Black Rock's case there was a
funding facility set up there were
several set up during Co but what there
were a couple of them I think two that
were essentially given to Black Rock to
manage uh and again this is a policy
that black rock wrote well before covid
about what the FED should do during the
next downturn and then the FED
implements that plan exactly well before
covid-19 and then when covid-19 happens
they sort of supercharge the policy and
then develop these funding facilities
allegedly for uh bailing out Main Street
as a result of lockdown policy and then
black rock is directly managing a lot of
those
funds W okay so um I'm gonna lay out my
understanding of Black Rock how they
work tie that to what I've just heard
you say this is all very distressing
okay so here's my understanding of of
the way that black rock Works Black Rock
says hey boys and girls um invest your
money with us and we are going to do
things like ESG investing so we're going
to because when when you dear person
investing your 401K with us you actually
will get voting rights in some of these
companies that you now own things in but
what we're going to do is we're going to
aggregate all of those rights and we're
going to go in on your behalf and we're
going to push for ESG is an easy one uh
and so they're they themselves it's not
like they had the money and they're
investing their own money they're
actually aggregating the capital of
people that are investing with them and
they're then aggregating their voting
rights cool that was already distressing
enough now what I hear you saying is
that through this going direct policy
the FED is going hey Black Rock you guys
know how to invest money so as a way to
get this stimulus into the economy in a
way that will really stimulate Main
Street we're going to give it to you you
guys will know where to invest that
money you'll know how to aggregate the
voting shares and really be able to do
something wonderful for this country um
now if Black Rock were doing something
wonderful for this country we'd be in
great shape but if black rock is doing
something that isn't wonderful we're now
in a really bad spot did do I have the
gist of this correct yeah I would say
that's fair and I think now it's perhaps
different than in times past where you
have you know in the case of trump Larry
Frink used to be um you know Trump's
personal money manager and you know
Trump is on record saying that uh Larry
thinkink made him a a very large amount
of money as a result of that partnership
and then in the case of Biden and Kamala
you have you know basically their
economic policy bomic or what will
become kamalan nomics or whatever um you
know essentially being designed by
former Black Rock Executives as well um
so you know if this is what they did
during covid and we can look at you know
the other things that that black rock
has done as it relates to us fiscal
policy in the past it seems like that
what we that's what we can expect
regardless of who wins in November uh if
the next four years brings us some sort
of economic crisis which it seems likely
that there will be some sort of economic
event um you know you have people like
the former speaker of the house uh you
know Paul Ryan saying that it's very
likely the next president is going to
deal with the US government debt crisis
for example so you know this isn't
something I'm just speculating on like
major uh politicians that say we should
very much expect a major some sort of
economic crisis to come on the scene
over the next you know four to five
years uh and with you know either uh
with Trump having a policy record of
putting Black Rock at the helm when
there is a economic crisis um and then
Kamala and Biden uh you know having
Black Rock run their Economic Policy you
know either way this is an entity that
we should be looking at and scrutinizing
because it's very likely they will be
developing the fiscal response once
again to whatever that crisis is and
they don't have our best interests at
heart yeah um all right so if you had to
look at the outcome of the system that's
being used right now which again even
for my own sake just to recap uh a
crisis happens there there's a debate to
be had as to whether there should be a
response or not but right now the mo is
a crisis happens the FED step in to
stabilize the market the way given
previous administrations have handled
this the way that they've started now
getting that money into the hands of
quote unquote Main Street is by using
Black Rock to quote unquote know how to
best direct that money and they are
again just judging it by the outputs of
the system what they're actually doing
is facilitating a massive wealth
transfer from the average American it's
actually broader than that but we'll
just keep it simple the average American
to the what people call the elites that
word is sort of getting weird um yeah
sure a lot of those words have gotten
weird recently but yes the the 1% of the
1% to go back to sort of Occupy Wall
Street lingo or something like that the
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[Music]
Theory okay so
um if you judge a system by its outputs
and say a system is is designed to do
what it actually does uh then we have
created a system that is designed to
leverage a crisis to transfer wealth um
very interesting how are they doing this
in plain
sight what exactly do you mean by that
that like how is black how did Black rot
get away with that during Co how did
they get away with it during covid how
is it that um I think your expectation
would be that when the next Crisis
happens uh that it's going to happen
again yeah well I think when a crisis is
happening uh people tend to have
emotional responses and tend to be
coming from a a place of fear uh and
that tends to uh prevent people from
thinking critically or calmly
irrationally about situations or about
policies and so a lot of um you know
during Co obviously a lot of focus was
on covid-19 itself on the biocurity
situation not just so much on the
financial situation uh but for example
if there was a you know a major crisis
going forward that would greatly impact
um Americans ability to engage in
economic activity or have their
purchasing power you know close to wiped
out or something I think you would see a
lot of people really beg for any policy
response solve this crisis now we need
something and not really have people
think about what is the best policy
response um to this kind of Crisis
people aren't going to think calmly and
bring everything to the table and there
isn't it's very unlikely there will be
some sort of calm open public debate
about it uh generally what happens is
that the government says people are
scared and emotional they clamor for
some sort of solution from the
government and the government offers
some sort of solution and you know like
with covid-19 black rock anticipated the
next downturn um about a month before
the repo Market started going haywire
and presented to Central bankers this is
the policy policy you should Implement
during the next downturn and it's very
possible that uh Black Rock is working
on policy papers uh you know for Central
Bankers or other people in um you know
uh the US government about what policy
should be implemented if you know this
type of Crisis happens or that type of
Crisis happens it seems uh like they
seem uh to be designing the policies I
guess and they've uh you know had um you
know in the Biden Administration over
the past four years you know they've
been leading his former Black Rock
Executives have been leading his
economic team uh bringing us to where we
are now and likely what will influencing
what will happen over the next couple
years whenever or up until this crisis
emerges so it seems um you know very
likely that there'll be uh you know
dominating uh you know fiscal response
again and then people uh because they're
not really aware of how this is
developed or really uh you know there's
just not a lot of media coverage about
you know for example the role of Black
Rock in uh the bided Administration or
in you know on kamala's economic team
specifically uh I've seen very little
coverage if any of that uh recently
maybe a few blips here and there of when
those people are appointed but nothing
uh significant beyond that and then of
course there was very little scrutiny um
of us covid fiscal response um I think
as well um and it's just sort of written
off as this is what the government had
to do to respond to the crisis in a lot
of situations but I don't think that's
necessarily true because again um you
know that uh fiscal response uh began
well before uh you know covid was
declared a a pandemic by the World
Health Organization preceding that by
like several months right so um I don't
know I I think it's um uh a complicated
situation it's complicated to anticipate
what will exactly happen but again
history and tends to repeat itself in
these cases and the fact that you have
black rock so embedded with the Democrat
specifically and also have this
historical precedent with uh Trump when
he was in office last time it seems very
likely that they be doing this again so
I guess my role in this is to try and
generate awareness so we can have a
discussion before that time of crisis
when people are emotional and Afraid and
concerned about their money um about
whether we should be having Black Rock
uh at the helm of this when the next
Crisis
emerges I would say
no yeah okay so let's ask the obvious
question who should be in charge in that
moment who who do we put in charge of
fiscal policy in times of Crisis or
otherwise I don't necessarily have the
best uh answer to that I guess because I
think our Uh current system uh
specifically as it relates to you know
the US Treasury Department has
consistently been a revolving door for
the last several decades with Wall
Street um and like you know like Goldman
Sachs for example has had very
significant uh treasure or former
Goldman Sachs Executives have held very
prominent roles at the treasury when
crises have emerged so as an example you
have
one of the top guys at Goldman Sachs uh
Robert Rubin uh being a key figure in
the Clinton administration's uh economic
policy is treasury secretary and help
helping engineer the repeal of glass
deagle uh which creates you know
arguably the 2008 financial crisis when
George W bush is secretary treasury at
the time the crisis happens is Henry
Paulson another former top guy from
Goldman Sachs that allegedly told
members of Congress if they didn't bail
out the banks that martial law may be
declared in the United States for
example and then uh when the covid
fiscal response happened Steve minuchin
is a former top Goldman and sax
executive as well so you in as far as
you know the big parties Democrat and
Republican uh they tend to appoint
people to treasury that come from these
top uh Wall Street banks that have a
history of predatory and arguably
criminal behavior and so you know I
think there needs to be a much larger um
structural change I guess uh to prevent
that type of Revol in door policy if
we're going to see any sort of
meaningful fiscal response to a crisis
that actually does take uh you know the
needs of regular Americans into account
because historically that is not what
has happened um and the people that come
to treasury tend to have the best
interest of Wall Street at heart and not
the best interest of regular Americans
at heart and I think again that's sort
of a phenomenon that's not exclusive to
treasury either you have this type of
revolving door phenomenon in really uh
most aspects if not all um of the US
government where you sort of have
regulatory capture um uh you know of the
people supposedly regulating those
Industries the the industries themselves
tend to have put their top people at
least these days you know into those MA
major regulatory positions through this
revolving door phenomena so I think we
need to uh find a meaningful way to stop
that before we can expect that um you
know major government fiscal response
would be designed with the interest of
regular Americans of heart with
mainstream at heart and not Wall Street
at
heart okay uh the question becomes how
do we do that so walk me through just so
that we're not talking abstract stuff
we're really bringing it down to earth
what are the interests of Main Street or
the average
American well I think regular Americans
would like to uh stop having uh their
money stolen from them or being misused
on things uh where it's B basically
being sent to enrich uh multinational
corporations particularly in the War
Industry um uh where you have a lot of
you know uh there's been a lot said over
the past several years decades really
about the military-industrial complex
and how a lot of the uh Wars that us
Empire uh goes to start in other
countries uh generates I'm going stop
you I'm goingon to stop you really fast
just because you know this stuff so well
um that you'll fractal into 10 more
extremely valid issues but I want to
start with you just said regular
Americans want to stop uh their money
being stolen from them I will say I
don't think the average American
realizes that their money is being
stolen whenever I bring that up I feel
like I'm screaming into the void uh so
how exactly are Americans dollars being
stolen from
them okay I would say it's going to
things that are not actually building uh
necessary infrastructure or or uh
meeting Americans needs so money's being
taken them from them via tax and just
misspent yeah I think taxpayer money um
has been has been people uh taxpayer
wealth and the money brought in through
taxes has been misused uh and
essentially stolen for a very long time
if you look at the work of Katherine
Austin Fitz and Mark Skidmore for
example uh they um noted that like21
trillion doar of US taxpayer money
essentially uh was stolen and uh they
can't really explain what happened to it
um so you know that alone is very
significant let me ask is taxation in
and of itself
theft
um I mean I I think under the current
system because I you know if if anyone's
familiar with my work in my books for
example I sort of argue that our
government has been overtaken by this
network of organized crime and
intelligence agencies that have
essentially fused their operations and
did so in the immediate post World War
II era and I think um find financing
their operations when they're at the
helm is not good and and that the fact
that our money is a is being taken from
us ostensibly to provide services to us
and if you believe in the development
agenda abroad the rest of the world but
we know if you look into it that that's
not actually what is happening this
money is being used to benefit this
particular group that has taken control
of our institutions and is very corrupt
I think in that case yes it's not it's
not good at all in an ideal system you
know perhaps I'd have a different
opinion but that's not the system we
have as it is right now so I think you
know in this situation we need to really
look at how our taxpayer money is being
spent and a lot of it is spent on um
weapons a lot of the of it is being sent
to other countries with no you know uh
stipulations on how that money is used
no oversight uh an insane amount of
money was spent on quote unquote nation
building during the war on terror in
Afghanistan and Iraq for example with
really nothing to show for it um and
arguably and and some people have really
effectively argued that it was really a
money laundering operation at the end of
the day a way to sort of take taxpayer
money and then CH have it you know go to
the hands of these contractors and other
entities and it ends up elsewhere with
nothing to show for it um in in these
particular um situations and I think
there's plenty of waste and plenty of
examples um also in the US domestically
where contractors have been given
taxpayer money to do things and they
don't actually uh do the things that
they're supposed to do and there's
really very little accountability for
those things when they happen uh because
a lot of people aren't really um aware
or really follow up on where their
taxpayer money um is going and there's a
lot of trust uh that I think people have
uh placed in Congressional representativ
that they're going to do that due
diligence for them but um most people in
Congress are multi-millionaires who are
funded by billionaires and
multi-billionaires and tend to have the
interests of those people at heart and
not exactly uh you know the regular
Americans uh who were in a very
different economic situ situation than
them uh at heart and so I think also you
know over the past several decades we've
also had the situation of uh you know
Outsourcing our our industry you know to
other count beginning during uh or
really not exactly sure where to
pinpoint it but you know several decades
ago um and that is also obviously had a
major impact on uh on the United States
as well and I think there's a major
effort um from the Silicon Valley crowd
uh oligarchs of which fund both parties
to sort of um onboard uh I guess you
could say the American people and to
sort of this new system that's coming
into place um where it's sort of very
focused on um or this basic
I guess sort of this coming together of
digital IDs digital wallets Ubi um a lot
of these things are sort of being uh
slowly developed and um sort of like uh
promoted to people uh but um I think
ultimately you know
um you would only have that type of
situation where Ubi is necessary I just
want to make sure that we we go Point by
point right now okay so all of that
makes sense to me um but I want to go
back because when I think about what the
interests of the average American are
it's I want to be able to um take care
of my family I want things to come in at
a reasonable cost I want to be able to
save for the future I want to leave
something for my kids and I want to make
sure that my kids have a better future
than I have I feel like if you have that
for the vast majority of Any Nation I
literally think it's completely agnostic
I think that's just what humans create
um if if you have that for people you
will have a healthy thriving Society um
assuming we're in agreement with all of
that even if you're black rock and
you're super greedy it does not Mak
sense to hollow out the middle class
because eventually as history teaches us
they come for you and when they come for
you they come with pitchforks and
Guillotines and it it's it's not a good
look so what is it about this moment
where the elite are so deranged that
they are from where I'm sitting playing
with fire do they just think that we're
so stupid that we'll never Rebel are
they counting on this time will be
different because they have more control
I don't I don't understand why they
would do
this yeah it's hard to know exactly why
but I think it's important to say that I
um at least in my opinion I think where
the powers that be however you want to
Define that um are taking people is
essentially leading us to some sort of
two tier Society where there is really
no need for a middle class and it's
really more accurate accurately
described as like a Neo feudal uh style
Society where you have a large
underclass managed by sort of this more
Elite group uh that would do the
managing and I think it really falls
under um what some people have referred
to as technocracy sort of this idea a of
more of like a scientific uh
dictatorship um and there's actually
this prominent um figure from the club
of Rome named Dennis Meadows and the
club of Rome is a an entity that has a
very intertwined histy with groups that
have become infamous over the past
several years like the world economic
forum for example um but Dennis Meadows
essentially said something to the effect
that you know for the good of people and
the planet and the economy in in his
words um that it was going to be
necessary to either reduce the world's
population so that people could have
freedom and use resources the way they
want or that uh there would have to be a
scientific Tator dictatorship imposed on
8 billion or seven billion people in
order to to ensure uh accurate
allocation of resources and all of this
stuff by a educated technocratic
scientific Elite and there are some
thinkers in Silicon Valley like Eric
Schmidt for example who wrote a book on
AI with Henry Kissinger that essentially
say that there's going to be this sort
of future brought To Us by AI um where
there will be the class of people that
understand how AI works that program and
maintain it and then there will be this
underclass really they don't say
underclass but I I would say that of
people who AI acts upon who can't
understand what AI is doing to them and
eventually because of their dependence
on AI um will become cognitively
diminished uh and mentally unable
essentially to make decision from their
for their for themselves without ai's
help um and there's a lot of other
indications I would argue whether it's
Ubi which again is going to be for uh
not I don't think you know the top
oligarchs in Silicon Valley like Bill
Gates and and Reed Hoffman and Peter
teal are going to be receiving Ubi I
think it's intended to be for um other
people that aren't necessarily in that
economic tier um I think it's very
likely you're going to see if these
people succeed in their designs you're
really more of a two-tier Society
without any sort of need for a middle
class um and so I think that's part of
why um it's been happening and I think
you know as to why they might be playing
with fire um I think perhaps they're
confident that they have a lot more um
that there's it's much easier to
manipulate people now than perhaps in
times past uh for example um there was a
2014 research study uh that was funded
by the US Air Force that was about um
trying using social studying how to use
social media to control people like
drones uh which I think is a very
disturbing research proposal in and of
itself but basically basically this idea
that you could use social media networks
by tailoring what information people see
and don't see down to the individual
Based on data mind about them off of the
internet and then analyzed by by um
various algorithms to basically you know
essentially mind control people and you
know in the world world uh in the words
I guess of that air force uh proposal
and you know other militaries around the
world have spent Millions upon millions
of dollars over the past decade plus uh
researching how to manipulate people um
on social media platforms uh so I think
it's very possible um that they think
they they can manage it uh since a lot
of you know discourse has become
increasingly online um and that you know
they can really alter how people
perceive reality to unprecedented
degrees and another thing that's brought
up in this book um by Schmidt and
Kissinger talks about you know
eventually people won't be able to know
uh what's real and what's not um you
know e pointing to things like AI deep
fakes and things like that um but you
know uh what if these deep fakes are
wielded by the state to manipulate
people and what if we're led to believe
that things happened when they didn't
happen um you know this can be uh a lot
of the fearmongering about deep fakes is
when it's in the hands of you know an
alleged cyber criminal or someone like
that but you know uh there's states
around the world that have an arsenal of
these digital weapons that are uh meant
to manipulate us and our our perception
of reality and what's real and if you
can you know use AI or other means to
control how people perceive reality you
can control their behavior and a lot of
other things so I think um uh I think
they're confident in that and obviously
there's probably other things um that
I'm leaving out but that's you know sort
of what comes to mind at least at first
for me when uh in in regards to that
question is that all uh one of my notes
is this is dark uh this is very dark let
me so that I can get a barometer on your
worldview let me ask you uh which of the
following scenarios would be better um
AI comes into existence it has what from
our perspective is Godlike intellect it
really does know uh where best to
allocate resources to people to maximize
human
flourishing um but you have to
completely submit to the algorithm okay
so human flourishing maximized yay but
you have have no autonomy you do what
the algorithm tells you to do or the
sort of messiness of The Human
Experience Freedom First you have every
right to make stupid and
self-destructive decisions but you don't
get to take advantage obviously of the
algorithms Brilliance which of those two
would be
better um yeah I am definitely human
first uh in in that when when you put it
like in in these two uh you know
specific situ ations um I think um it's
kind of dangerous for all of us to or
all of us a lot of us to Outsource our
creative ability to AI have ai create
for us uh because essentially when
you're um not performing those
activities yourselves it's sort of um
falls under if you don't use it you lose
it Paradigm so like a lot of us don't
really do mental math anymore because we
all most people have a calculator in
their smartphone for example and so you
know you don't use that ability
eventually you lose it so what happens
if AI becomes you know um the main
generator of creative content and people
forget how to make art because they
haven't done it in so long and things
like that um I think it's possible I
know there's uh people I've talken to um
who I think are very intelligent that
argue for sort of a middle scenario
between the two you pointed out I
personally tend to fall in a more sort
of like I I prefer prer the analog uh
future to a purely digital future uh
personally but I think there's a way to
do it where we don't really have uh this
situation where the AI algorithm is
running our lives and we don't have any
agency anymore um I think that's very
dangerous and I think also there's been
a lot of hype um about Ai and its
ability to reach that sort of Godlike
intellect level I think it's very
possible that you could have that
essentially faked by some entity and
they could claim that which has happened
in the past uh you had a Google engineer
or perhaps exg gooogle engineer a few
years ago um attempt to say that a chat
bot that he was working with was
sentient uh and it was not so there's
the possibility that someone could come
out with that story and if it was widely
adopted and enough people said it was it
could be believed to be so and would it
actually be that and in that type of
scenario I think that's dangerous
because it sort of gives this Wizard of
Oz functionality for example to the
government uh we made this policy you
hate it and uh we but the computer said
so so that's why we did it you know it's
the computer's fault it's not our fault
it's a way to sort of offshore
responsibility onto the algorithm and
away from uh the people at the top um
and uh I don't really think that's uh
the way to go personally but I'm not
trying to say like eliminate Ai and
don't use it I personally am not into it
but I have a lot of friends that are um
and so I'm not trying to be like that
negative about it in that sense but I
also think this whole idea that we
should uh surrender ourselves to the
algorithm because it's so much more
intelligent than us which is sort of
implicit in that Eric Schmid Kissinger
book um yeah I definitely don't agree
with that at all because I think humans
should not surrender their agency and I
think it's sort of um in that scenario I
sort of just laid out if it's overhyped
and it's claimed that it reached that
you know people could surrender their
agency to something that isn't actually
possessing this Godlike super
intelligence um and but have just been
told it is and I think you know that
that potentially could be very
dangerous yeah uh so I'm definitely a
techno Optimist there's no doubt about
that but I fully acknowledge all of the
risk there okay before we totally go
over to the Future and where all this
stuff is going I want to re-anchor back
around debt so um I'm one of the people
that is extremely worried about an
economic event we don't have to call it
collapse but certainly uh I look at the
debt and I say this is just completely
unsustainable you cannot add a trillion
dollars of debt every 100 days that's
ridiculous and the fact that people are
acting like we can do this forever is
every alarm Bell I have is going off uh
I don't know how to get people to take
this seriously but I would love to know
um do you think the debt is a real
problem uh and is it something that
people should really stop and
address yeah I think debt is a very real
and and serious issue and the amount of
debt the US government has accured I
think is a Testament to the poor fiscal
management um of the US government um
and not just the executive branch but
Congress as well um and it's been going
on for a very very um you know very long
time and not a lot has been done about
it and really you know in the post 911
era the amount of debt that um you know
the US government has taken on has just
absolutely ballooned when you compare it
to previous decades and I think a lot of
that has to do with the Foreign Wars
that the US government has engaged in
including ones that aren't formally
declared um in in this sort of effort to
expand uh you know the the military
Empire abroad and sort of maintain that
hegemony and dominance and historically
a lot of that uh was also into uh
directly related to Dollar hegemony the
Petro dollar system which now we know uh
has essentially been on the way out um
but a colleague of mine Mark Goodwin uh
put out a book a few years ago about
this idea of the Bitcoin dollar system
and this idea that the US government
would sort of use Bitcoin uh and create
the system that it's like an analog to
the Petro dollar system uh where because
most people um you know uh when Bitcoin
is purchased usually it's done with you
know by buying dollars first um in order
to purchase Bitcoin for example um
and um in in that type of um situation
you'd be just like in the case of you
know the Petra dollar where uh you know
the price of oil is in it's priced in
dollars you're generating artificial
demand for dollars to buy some sort of
energy commodity or energy asset and
Bitcoin sort of is an energy asset at
the end of the day uh it's moving uh
essentially attempting to create the
same system but instead of with oil uh
with Bitcoin and most of the Bitcoin
Holdings uh in the world are
concentrated in the United States in the
US government itself is one of the
biggest holders um of Bitcoin in the
world uh so I think uh there's sort of
this effort there to do that and this
was actually implicit in uh Trump's uh
speech that he gave um at the Bitcoin
conference a few months ago sort of
saying uh that's what uh he sort of Saw
utility in Bitcoin for um in a sense and
uh but I think also that has a lot of uh
causes a lot of complications when it
relates to the ethos of Bitcoin which
was originally about uh stopping
irresponsible Central Bank policy and
fiscal policy uh the idea that you would
um yoke Bitcoin to the US dollar instead
of using it to challenge the US dollar
or challenge Fiat or challenge debt
based currency or a debt-based monetary
system obviously if you uh join you know
the US uh dollar um uh to bitcoin having
Bitcoin be a challenge to those things
essentially kind of has to stop and
really in that situation you could have
Bitcoin enable that type of
irresponsible fiscal policy um because
you could I mean uh you would
essentially be using it as a sync for
hyperinflation um at the end of the day
it is a really interesting frame to
think of Bitcoin as a sync for hyperin
inflation of the US dollar but I don't
know that a lot of people are going to
understand what that means so if you had
to say that same thing but from a
different angle how would you explain to
somebody how uh one why is the
hyperinflation going to come about and
two how is it Bitcoin that becomes the
sync for that to stop that from becoming
a runaway
problem um so essentially if you were to
like hyperinflate the dollar in this
type of system obviously the price of
Bitcoin would appreciate as price in US
dollars but it's not uh but Bitcoin
itself isn't subject to inflation so the
people that hold Bitcoin in that case
would really benefit in that type of
scenario but people that hold you know
dollars uh for example um would not
necessarily but there's also this effort
to sort of resolve this uh that aspect
of it by bringing stable coins into the
equation which are um you know digital
dollars but they're kind of gobbling up
us treasuries um and uh you know are
buying sort of like nation state level
amount of US Government debt and
servicing the debt at the same time so
sort of this the Bitcoin dollar system
as I understand it and again this is
Mark Goodwin's work so again he can
probably explain it a lot better than me
and the the detailed mechanisms and all
of that um but as I understand it you
would have to have sort of these dollar
stable coins uh in in the mix as well um
as a way to sort of absorb uh government
debt and even you know these things may
not be enough to absorb all of the debt
that we have and so there's these uh
efforts uh right now this idea of real
world asset tokenization there's this
push into uh tokenizing what is referred
to as natural capital or aspects uh I
guess major uh like even entire
ecosystems essentially and tokenizing
them and using that as sort of like uh
you know a store of wealth of finite
Supply um so there's this one uh effort
for example that seeking to tokenize
each hectare of the Amazon rainforest
and there's 750 million hectares so
there's a finite supply of th