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Yang Speaks
Impending recession, Uvalde, and the next Civil War
Impending recession, Uvalde, and the next Civil War

Impending recession, Uvalde, and the next Civil War

Yang SpeaksGo to Podcast Page

Andrew Yang, Zach Graumann
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20 Clips
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Jun 9, 2022
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Episode Transcript
0:00
Now on forward, what lies ahead for the US economy and what you and yours should be thinking about doing Zach. And I talked about shootings is this time different and we make some our content recommendations including Zacks experience as a first-time author this week on forward.
0:38
And we are back to talk about the changing world order. My conversation with perhaps, the world's greatest investor, certainly on the top five or ten lestrade Alia. What the heck? This book actually means. Wow. Did I find interviewing Ray dalio to be edifying and fascinating? And for those of you who missed it, you can check that out. Or you can check out the YouTube video that summarizes his new book principles for dealing with the changing world order. Or if you're like me and you want, inhale a forms or 30-page book?
1:08
You can buy raised book, but I came away from this interview with like my worldview having changed. All right, we were talking about this before we started recording is that if you're a billionaire and like a very successful well-known billionaire, right? There's no real point in writing a book from a money or status Prestige situations. The only reason he's riding it is because he's got something to say and I feel like if you got a guy like that, pretty wise should probably listen, you know, and
1:38
Given what I've taken away from the book in the podcast.
1:42
Yeah, listen up. Y'all really it's crazy felt like a real-life Oracle because check it out bounds. The world's biggest hedge fund. Yeah, then now has over 200 million under management mean that's literally like nation-state scale stuff personally worth 20 plus billion dollars and it did all this without frankly any notoriety. You know, it's like he does not need the spotlight to your point. Yeah, and he talked several times in his book about how it's like. Hey, some people aren't going to like this, but you know, I
2:12
I think it's important to share because he knows frankly how polarizing everything is and and the rest of it, but his points, his big points where that there are three megacycles that the u.s. Is going through. And unfortunately, all three of them Bode ill for are relatively near future. And he talks about this as a world-class investor, who's like look, sometimes the time Horizon is longer than your lifetime.
2:42
But the things can happen in your lifetime. So you have to understand them and he talks about how early in his career, the the US dollar got devalued when they left the gold standard and he was like, okay, that's new. So that was in the early 70s and he's very, very concerned that we're doing it again. That we're going through a massive devaluation. What's interesting is listening to him talk. I heard many, many crypto enthusiasts talking as well because they're a lot of folks who are into crypto her like, hey there debasing the dollar that are basing the dollar, right? And
3:13
One of the things that Ray talks about is that since 1775 percent of the currencies that were in effect over that time have ceased to exist, that typically a currency goes through this Grand Arc and then eventually the currency either stops existing because it doesn't work anymore or it's been greatly devalued. So, he says the 25% of the currencies that are still in effective in greatly do valued but three out of four of them. Just don't exist anymore.
3:42
Well, that's terrifying. And so he talks about the, the six-part cycle of, it's like the mega credit cycle. It takes 50 to 75 years and one of the things that when I was running for president, this reminded me of, is that back in Sumerian times, you know, this word Jubilee, Jubilation, Jubilee. So that originated in, this was, it mean, ultimate celebration. Well, that originated as a giant debt. Forgiveness Festival that happened in like ancient times where the cycle of
4:12
Things that happened was that people started borrowing money and then borrowing money and then they borrowed too much money and then they showed up to the king and started writing being like, hey, we owe too much money. And then the king would come out and say, I forgive all the debts and they would have a giant party. That's what the Jubilee was. So that this goes by. Yeah, this goes back to ancient times where the the cycle is that a currency starts out as a hard currency where
4:41
We're back in the day. It might have been gold. It might have been pieces of food. I mean like they different things and then eventually you end up with notes that are against the gold. Because gold is inconvenient to actually trade in coins and what not, and then eventually becomes fiat currency, which is where we went to. When we switch off the gold standard where the government has the ability to print it and then when you have the ability to print it you always print too much and then it starts getting debased and so if you're a small country and against debase and sometimes things by
5:12
Our control. And then you wind up having to reset, which is the last part of the cycle, you have runs on Banks and then the government has to be the okay. Okay, you know, this currency that's losing value. That's not it anymore. We're going back to a hard currency old standard and you can trust it because this time we're backing it up with something real. Then everyone's like, okay. Okay. So the issue with the u.s. Right now is that no one knows where this particular cycle ends because you can't leave the dollar. And so this is one of the
5:41
Commence, he makes in this book. That also blew my mind was like, look, he goes through the world's currencies and is like, you know, the EU like too small and weak the Renminbi like, you know, China has these weird currency controls the Yen, like no one cares like the buttons, like there is no other Global Reserve currency candidate. That makes any sense. And so the u.s. Is like well, what you going to do like gotta use a dollar because there's no place else to go. And this in a way to me was the
6:12
Genesis of crypto where people are casting about for an alternative to the dollar and then, you know, wound up with Bitcoin which starts out as essentially a digital version of gold. The other big alternative is gold itself, which Ray owns at least some gold. So that certainly made me think like, huh, listening to him talk. I was like shit and like like gold. Actually it has like a more appealing case, based on the conversation. So one of the issues with crypto unfortunately is that it's not clear, whether it is
6:41
Truly hedging against currency risk because it seems right now to correlate more with certain other assets. Frankly that there's yeah. That's yeah. Like risky assets than it does like a basket of currencies. So the, the multi-trillion dollar question is what happens when you have a u.s. Dollar Global Reserve currency that is being overproduced. Shall we say, like, you know, that we're printing a lot of it, and
7:12
You don't have any place to go. So the argument that Ray makes is that Capital will find a place to go that it like it's not obvious that there's another currency but that you will it will leave the dollar if people sense the dollars losing value. What happened to Modern monetary Theory or some of the stuff we talked about the campaign where, as long as the federal government US government is strong and pays its debt. We can pretty much just
7:40
It's not real, but we can just kind of have as much as we want. Blatantly oversimplifying modern monetary Theory but your thoughts on that now and is that no longer the case where we wrong like what's you know, so that's so raise cases that you're looking at historical examples over and over again, and they always end up playing out similarly, right? Which would frankly
8:10
Contradict modern monetary theory. If modern monetary Theory does hold then, you know, we're in a whole new era. Yeah, but he makes a very, very convincing historical case that we've seen this movie before, and that there were two major Global Reserve currencies before us the pound. When the UK owned 25% of the world and was running around that side Empire, which preceded ours immediately. And then before this,
8:40
That I didn't know this. But apparently, the Dutch guilder was the global Reserve currency for a while. When like the Dutch Traders, ran, everything got it. So, his argument is that, you know, that that we're going to go through some and the scenarios. He plays out. Frankly are very, very difficult and dark, but this does go back to the central political question of the time, which is what the heck you do about inflation, right? Joe Biden recently announced his plan to combat inflation in an op-ed. That was vast leap and honestly,
9:11
Because he was in some ways pushing responsibility on to other actors which in a way is totally legitimate because there may be real limits to what he can do, but that's not exactly. The plan people want to hear where it's like, you know, you want something that the person can actually execute on. So the two other major players in this scenario, our Congress and the fed and and they may have more power over what happens in terms of inflation than
9:40
Anything Joe Biden can do though? No one wants to necessarily hear that. It's so funny. How we, I can't even say the difference between when he ran for mayor when he ran for president, in terms of how many people care about the president and they're so passionate, they identify with the president as a role. And, you know, the running joke. Blame Obama are blame whoever you want ride for various problems, but the reality is and we live it and seeing it right now, as the president has only a few levers to pull in. The reality, is they're pretty subject to macroeconomic forces, our economy.
10:10
General and what Congress can or can't, or won't do it? What's your outlook on both inflation? Our economy in general? We're heading I'm assuming we're heading towards a recession. If for I guess we're in it right now. How I think you're it sounds like you're saying this gets worse before it gets better. How worse? How much worse does it get? I've now spoken to a number of leading investors. So David Rubenstein was on the podcast, you know, raised obviously in this category.
10:40
I've talked to some other figures who maybe aren't quite as prominent or famous the theme. They keep pointing out is look, you're going to have to raise interest rates in order for inflation to come down at all. And if you do raise interest rates, which have been a have been anomalously low for an extended period of time in a way that's essentially unique in modern history. If you raise interest rates significantly, the current stock market valuations, do not make any sense, because they're getting discounted forward.
11:11
With like a very, very low time, value of money. So if you jack up the time value money, then a lot of tech companies valuations, don't make sense. A lot of growth, companies valuations, don't make sense. So, you wind up with a stock market, correction of a very, very significant nature and then you wind up with a recession of some kind. And I do not see any way out of this. I think we're going to end up with a very significant recession and the adjustments are going to be deeply, deeply painful.
11:52
Hitting the World Trade Center itself. All we saw was that explosion tear down
12:00
this wall.
12:04
Hi, I'm Jon Meacham. Join. Me and C13 Originals for our new podcast reflections of history. As we look back on key moments from our past and reflect on a new piece of History, each day of the week Monday through Friday. Each episode guides listeners on a historical journey to an event on its anniversary, offering a glimpse into the past and a guide for the present. We will reflect on impactful moments. Listen with me Jon Meacham to reflections of History.
12:34
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12:50
Felice from my perspective and what? I'm studying my limited amount of study from learning on Wall Street, is that those guys like the Warren Buffett's and the ray dalio of the world. They don't seem to their timing is sometimes wrong. But over time. They're at least from what I've seen. They're never really wrong with always. There's some greedy, investor like things are changing. This is different. You don't understand Amazon and they like you can value at x y z and then eventually, it all comes back down to earth and then you're a dollars of the world like I told you, so, I
13:19
Like real question is, I don't think I got an answer for me. I like modern monetary Theory or like Ray dalio is right. If you're looking at these two camps, like, I'm assuming you're on the side of race. Probably, right in this, the current Caesar. We're gonna have a conversation, pretty soon. I will say that Ray makes a very, very compelling case based upon based upon not decades, but centuries of his. Yeah. Yeah, it goes way back. And so imagine this to imagine that you ran a 200 million dollar hedge fund. He literally has a
13:49
an army of researchers who can pull up just about anything, you know, so this book is literally like 400, you know, yeah, 50 pages or something along those lines. Did Ray, dalio, sit there and write 40 50 pages, of course, not like it's filled with data sets and table interesting because he has like a, like, an army of people being like, hey, I'm gonna pull up and got a report here. Yeah, I'm gonna pull up a report on the Dutch guilder, or whatever. You can see how it like relates to Gold God. And so there's so
14:19
Much data in here that if you respect data at all, you look at this and you're like well like it's essentially an arguable. But like like if you you know, I mean it's like a 450 page argument. That's documented back, hundreds a year. So it's very hard to look at this and be like, yeah, this guy's, you know, somehow barking at the wind, you know, like it's hard to compute that. It's one of the things were I, you know, like theoretically anybody can invest in the stock market, right? You and Isaac Javis, mom.
14:49
Uh can buy apple and buys things and try and play the game and be a smart investor, but the difference that these in the inherent advantages that these institutional investors have like we can the average investor the average person cannot wrap their mind around and what I mean by that lie member talk because I used to talk to a research analyst all the time. For example, I think it was a Paulo or sorry. It was black rock or one of the big projects we shops and they were like black stoma to and they were like, the reason people think they know where the markets going in this town.
15:19
Thing we know where the market is right now because we know how many sandwiches Subway sold yesterday. Like we know this real-time data of what's going on. We know how many packages of X at Amazon has sold over. It is and that's data that, you know, the average human doesn't have or doesn't have the manpower to actually like sift through. So usually these, like really like these investors that stood the test of time and they're looking at the numbers. They're usually directionally accurate, you know, so one of the things that came out just the last several days, was that?
15:49
That Elon Musk said there's something very, very bad bringing the economy. Jamie. Dimon says that there is a hurricane coming. Should brace yourself and you don't know what size the hurricane is. And then, Joe Biden got asked about this and then said well until hiring Ford's hiring, you know, economies strong economies good fundamentals are good etcetera. And and one of the major problems we have in American Life today is that everyone needs to talk up their case? It's like because there's so
16:19
Many people right now that are in the administration or around the administration who are essentially making like a bullish case, for various things and you can point to various measurements and say, oh job growth up, like, you know, there are different things that are happening. I mean, right now, essentially like 70% of Americans are not pleased with the direction because right, they just look at the price of gas and then yeah. That's like, you know, like those like a to day life and it's tough but you have different people whose interest. And the thing is like if like, you know, I like, I were Joe Biden like you do have to make a positive case for sure.
16:49
You like, you know, and the rest of it so that that's one of, like, the, the struggles is, like, you like, we've essentially politicized what's going on in the economy. Yes. And Derek Thompson when I interviewed him. Talked about how, like, your perception of the economy is actually very much partisan. Yep. Just depends on how you feel about who's in office. So the people who don't like Joe Biden, the Democrats think economy, super terrible, and then, you know, John the Democrats will talk about how there are some bright spots. So one of the reasons
17:19
I want to talk about this is like for the folks who listen to me. I like Andrew Yang thinks that there are some very very very ominous dark clouds and weaknesses coming on a scale that we have not seen in quite some time. And so please do act accordingly. Like, you know, like if you have assets out there that you know, you feel like frankly are kind of at risk or things that you might want. You might need over like that, you know, some period of weeks or
17:49
Months, like I personally would say, you know, you might want to like bring those assets in, do something or it because I think that if you hear Ray dalio and Jamie dimon and Elon all say something, like, to me, it's like, and by the way, like my intuition is also very much heading in that direction, right. That. And this isn't a partisan thing. This is just like I think this is, I think it's gonna get nasty. I think like really dark and nasty and the spirit of more positive news. Ray also talks about in his book essentially a 30% chance.
18:19
The Civil War, which civil unrest in the United States, Civil War to Civil War. Yeah, stage six. His what he calls a Jesus in Stage 5 of 6 and was it tied to the economy or just simply because of polarization and this changing world order? So just like there's a mega credit cycle that has six stages. Apparently, there's an internal order disorder cycle, that has six stages and it's tied to public use of resources. So there's a priest.
18:49
And prosperity phase and stage 3. And stage 4, involves excess debt and unproductive. Use of resources, Stage 5, which were in right now is called the decline where you have internal conflicts and debt problems. And then stage 6 is Civil War /, unrest, and during my interview with him. I said to him, it's like, hey Ray, you said in your book 30% chance? I mean that's staggeringly high and he was like, oh, it's higher now. Oh, God loud. Because he wrote this probably, you know,
19:20
12-18 months ago. And this is also a mega cycle that takes like, you know, a number of decades. He talked about what you would need to counteract. It said that there are two types of outcomes. The more likely outcome is nasty populist type, strongman figure and then the benign cases what he called the strong Peacemaker, but when he looked throughout history, he found very few examples of the strong Peacemaker more nasty populist that it you're more likely to wind up with the nasty populist.
19:49
And he made this very dramatic argument that I thought was incredibly important, which is that we need to reform capitalism because it's not working for the bottom, sixty percent of Americans. And he said this publicly when I was running for president was like, oh my gosh, like da Leo's on board with something dramatic, which he is, and he recommends that you have essentially a bipartisan Manhattan project trying to fix the economy so that it works for the bottom, sixty percent of Americans and he thought it was an open question whether the path to
20:19
It there is that somehow the two parties get their shit together and start, collaborating, do something bipartisan, which we all know is highly unlikely and I'll talk about that or that there's a political realignment which is what the forward party and I are trying to make happen. Right? But this is the the other the second of the two megacycles, which also says something very, very pessimistic and they his diagnosis of it was very familiar to anyone who's watching where he was like polarization record highs, trust institutions record lows like, you know,
20:49
Like everything gets politicized. People don't know what the truth is etcetera, etcetera. So great challenges in terms of the internal order disorder cycle, man. And then the third Mega cycle is the Verizon and rivalry of different great powers. And so in his view, the u.s. Is in relative decline and China is ascending and that there's going to be increased friction between those two Powers. This book is a bit terrifying. Andrew. Do you risk all your assets by a bunker?
21:18
All these to the, you know, yeah. Just just bring em in. Bring Em In like this or just you know, you listen to me. I mean, you know like I'm saying shit like this. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I've been on this page, you know, I'm still optimistic and can do which you know, I want people to be but also have a clear-eyed view into like there are times when you know, you want to take risks and time when you want to take a bit less out of skin, and I'd say this
21:47
Probably going to be one of the ladder.
21:58
That's one of the things I think most people are frustrated and I'm personally frustrated where you see all this stuff happening. Like it's all declining is all going this and then you feel like you can't do anything. That's probably a good way to segue into. I want to talk about some of these shootings that are happening. We haven't had the chance to talk about on the podcast yet where it's I mean it's been going on for ages, but the most recent ones tragic shooting Buffalo and then an even worse one at an elementary school in Texas, which seems awful. And now it seems since then, we have another shooting every day.
22:29
Are multiple per day? Do you mind breaking this down? The answer to this question? Andrew is that I'd like a real ants? I can enjoy Yang answer. Not like oh, because Congress is polarized. I'd like to break this down. Like we all are a generally agreed that this is terrible. Yet it nothing ever gets done. Like we don't change it and like so and be like I see on our is the Republicans a special interest it but like me break that down for me. Yes. I do think the political incentives are very clear and yeah very Stark.
22:58
Where there was a republican member of Congress represented, buffalo buffalo district, and he came out against Chris Jacobs, Chris Jacobs. He came out against assault weapons, which by the way, frankly, if people get killed by an assault weapon in your District, I would start a rational move. Yeah, like, you know, very human type stance, and then took so much heat and abuse and outraged that he said, hey, I'm not running for congress, which she was planning to do.
23:28
Do so, do you think other Republican members of Congress? Saw that? Of course, they saw that. And we're like, well, I guess that's what happened. Again. This person represented the community directly. Yes. So if you represent another district and you raise your hand and say, hey, I also think that we should look at Banning certain types of weapons that right now are legal. What do things that happen to you? Probably the same or Worse has happened to Congressman Jacob. He was essentially told like you go mad against this. We're going to outflank you from the
23:58
I'm going to run against you on the platform that you're weak on guns. And he said, I mean, he said a number of things publicly, but big ones, like there's gonna be tens of millions of dollars pumped into my community talking about why we need AR-15s or well, assault, weapons or whatever. The heck I'm arguing against either that's divisive in awful. Not with the community needs. So I'm going to resign is that? I mean, that's essentially that's what he said. Yeah. No, I got a call from someone who works in Los Angeles. They said,
24:28
That they were getting calls as to what they could do to help and they said the single biggest move. You could make that might help make Congress responsive to this or anything else would be to ship to open primaries because if you have a closed Party primary like Congressman Jacobs goes through, then he looks at and says hey, I'm either going to lose or there's going to be terrible. There's no way in which this primary does not become terrible. So I am going to resign if you had it so that everyone in his district votes on his re-election. What?
24:58
The people in Buffalo right now are open to a move like that. You know, I'm going to suggest I like it. That's yeah, it's probably pretty high. It's certainly much higher than the proportion of the Republican primary electorate in Buffalo. And so the person who called me made the case, which I agree with is that look if there's one thing you want to change its the primary the Party primary system. Yes. And so this person then is directing resources to try and shift to open primaries. So that look at like that's actually the answer, and by the way,
25:28
A what I'm saying right now doesn't apply. Just to this issue. It applies to just about any very, very fraud or divisive issue in the country where you're going to have some people who are very very passionate on one end or the other. And then most people will look at and say, hey there probably is reasonable middle ground that most of us would like to land on. But we're never going to get there because a lot of people will lose their job if they compromise. And so there is no compromise. Like this is the fundamental argument.
25:58
Word party, which is look politicians will do whatever their incentives are. And so, if their incentives are to stay in their corner and say, Hey, you know, I'm not going to do anything. Because if I do something, I lose my job. Like this, Congressman just did then guess what? They're not going to do anything. Right? And so like all of the frustration passion anger sadness should be directed towards shifting to open primaries, because if there's no change in incentives, and there's no reason why we're going to see different responses now than we saw.
26:28
So after any other of a number of episodes, so right now you have house, Democrats can get a bill through but the Senate can because they need. It's 50/50 in the Senate with Kamala. Harris has a tying vote, but you need 60 Senators to get it to get something to vote through the filibuster filibuster. So that's your issue. Right? They're not and they're you know, there are Republican senators or on board with this a bit. They're trying to find something to compromise on President. Biden has suggested Banning assault weapons, raising the age of 21.
26:58
Background checks storage laws and red flag laws. Holding manufacturers accountable, which is probably the toughest one to actually execute and then the Mental Health crisis to actually maybe action. That's maybe that's the toughest one to ask you because it's so Dynamic but let's just say we could pass laws that would work here. What would work? I'm curious your perspective on the actual policies. I think raising the age limit makes a world of sense. Yep. I think that 18 year olds brains are at a particular moment, and it's different than in.
27:28
One year olds brains. And by the way, what are, what is like one consistent fact pattern that we're concerned about School shooters? Like, and so the big one and so it's someone who's literally junior or senior in high school, you know, more prone to go to that school, obviously, and so that that seems like something. One of the things I'm discouraged by is apparently what strikes me as a very reasonable move of just a three years for owning an automatic weapon. It seems like
27:58
Probably don't like that move, right? Even though that moves strikes me as like, right in the heart of, okay, that would actually make a difference. This is a clear example of where if you had a rational political system where people could come together and say, look, we can agree on some common-sense measures on. Let's land here and draw this line. And, you know, people look at that and say, okay, right like that, that that's reasonable. That's how the system we have. Mean. The, the question now is, what can you get 10? Republican Senators to agree on and
28:28
And we're going to find out at least I was going up like these debates on the polarizing issues. Used to be really interesting to debate the policies and what will work and like, we're gonna do debates. Fastened. One of the major things now is that people are just like, it doesn't fucking matter. That's the thing I think is going to pass. It doesn't matter. No point debating. What would the best effective? But this is the argument. I'm making two is like that people are waking up to the fact that this system is totally dysfunctional. And our Agreements are. Disagreements are increasingly Irrelevant in the face.
28:58
Of what we're seeing. And and so this is by the way I think is going to by the Democrats in the ass in November, which I guess everyone knows when there's a failure in something and so the one that you know was top of mind until very recently was women's Reproductive Rights and Roe v-- Wade being overturned. And a woman said to me that like you did not see this Firestorm of protest among certain groups, certain communities frankly like
29:28
A lot of suburban women where the Democrats would look up and say, okay. It's go time. Like let's go fight for women's Reproductive Rights and they did not see a giant influx of donations. They did not see an influx of supporter activism and I talked to some people who were within this community and they're they're just ticked off at the Democrats for Miss managing this botching. It getting played Etc. And so when these things are happening, when the Democrats are raising,
29:58
The say it's time to fight for this and that like more and more people are just being like, you can't do it. The system is broken. There's nothing that can be done, which by the way, is a case that I have been making via the forward party for a while, but that like that. This is materializing in front of us. And I'm going to cautiously say that the fact that people are waking up to the realities of our dysfunctional political system, may be a good thing. That's our Silver Lining right there. Yeah, that that like, and one of the arguments I making too.
30:28
Like look, you're being played, you're being manipulated. Yes, like 14 billion dollars went into both parties over the last cycle. Essentially, pissing us off at each other and like, you know, by the way, you know, how much God's been in opposition. Essentially, all 14 billion. It was like almost 7 billion on one side and seven billion on the other. So you have these waves of resources and where does it go essentially nowhere? And so, then when someone gets up and says, like, hey, like this stuff is going poorly, like, you know, we need more more and more people are.
30:59
No, like that, like this stuff is not working happy that the system is not going to result in anything positive and that's savvy. So, the argument I'm making is look, if you're 14 billion being spent within the system that leaving us. No, we're good. How much should actually be spent on reforming the system? Yeah, if you had to put a dollar figure on it, and I'm going to suggest that numbers in the billions. Yep. And so if you have you had like the equivalent of a multibillion-dollar and also giant popular movement towards trying to reform the system. That's actually the answer for a lot of the problems.
31:28
I'm describing right now, whether it's poverty and inflation whether it's guns, whether it's social issues me. And you name it because most of us actually are willing to look at it. And be like, okay. Look I'm like I'm on one side. You're on the other side. Like let's compromise and something that we can all be a little unhappy with and go from there, but that's not what the system is producing.
32:00
That's probably Silver Lining word. I'm a big believer that elections are about macro issues and usually not micro issues. Unless your micro issue is really really bad to the point where becomes a macro issue. Like if you're seeing the world crumbling, if you will a country crumbling and just straight-up no action.
32:18
Then you begin to say well, it's probably it's becomes a little more obvious to the Casual Observer that it's a system problem. And that is probably good for the forward party and what the challenge is genuine. Structural reform. Yes, and it will be good. It's one of the things I love about the four parties that are, theoretically, will be someone and multiple someone's to do, kind of what you did in the presidential was, like, raise your hand. Like, hey, it's actually the system that's busted here. And it's like, what your to talking about? Like is stupid on both sides and actually doesn't matter and you're right. That's the other.
32:48
Truth usually will scale here because you're right and over time like this. Will this is already panting out will continue to pan out because we have a school shooting, everybody's pissed off and heartbroken and brand just angry and then nothing gets done. You saw with George floored so it will be weighed. So the school shooting, see what climate change. We're going to see with Wall Street and incorrupt in 2008. Where CEOs, get paid and no one goes. Jay, like you go down the list. People are angry about something, another happened, eventually. I think they'll get fed up. I think two things happen. You either get
33:18
Fed up, or you get it or you ignore it? Well, one of the things I'd say is I get people who take a step back and check out on this stuff. Like I totally get it. I mean, you know, it's like, why would you willingly allow yourself to be upset all the time? Yeah, you know, I spent some time with some family over Memorial Day weekend in the husband wife or into different camps. One was like radicalized. So one side I'll just ignore so they don't share their belief, but they're one side where the other party was evil. And this is what I'm passionate. I got really, really passionate and then the other
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I'd in this case. The husband was just tuned out just any time. It's like, but he's like, walking on the room. I'm not talking politics. And that to me was like, America in a nutshell, in a way, like, we've either become really, really angry about something. And we've tried to help or we're just, like, eff this, I'm gonna go down my own and do my own thing, and not care about it. And you can argue, both are somewhat equally destructive in a way, where well, what one of the arguments I made months ago, which I still believe is that we are slumping toward.
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Words autocracy. Hmm. We tweet that that's fun. I stopping tell me what you mean by that. Just well, it's just that we're trending towards authoritarianism. And then when someone tries to be like, hey, you know, no get up and fight like this and I'm gonna be like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, like like that. That's that's the general direction. We're heading. We had this learning. We were running for president where you know, Trump was such a good example. This. But it was you would you call the Post inspirational America? Where?
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Moran on Hope and change. People are so passionate so idealistic about what we could do. And then he could only do what he could in this busted system and to the point where like the platitudes are just worthless. Like you could say we're gonna you know, we're gonna say this as fire and who did vote for Obama. Yeah. When I see him show him my Netflix queue I'm like actively discouraged or whatever. Yeah. I'm just like this is where we are now. Like you mean him as a Hollywood producer. Well, you know, so he just shows up and like, you know, he's like
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He's a mythical figure at this point. I mean I know but you know, he's getting and this is maybe my biggest beef with Obama as well. Is that like he truly was President as cultural figure and he still a cultural figure, but I'm not sure that's what we need right now. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. I mean, if you're a bomb like like you like, we don't need good content, is what I'm saying. It's like, we don't know. It's like, like will and this by, you know, I mean like, you know,
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Like I really did like American Factory, like I liked, you know like but but it's like, you know, that that shit will not set us free at this point. I mean, you have like, you know, you know, the system is just freaking overrun with cash and in various ways and then the cash is made by in flaming us and in various directions. And so being a practical sword. I'm like, okay, you know what we need? We need cash that reward.
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Odds of thinking, yeah, like, you know, like depolarizing message has been behaviors in that and the rest of it and which, you know, maybe maybe that's not. I think. If your I was at this, if I was a billionaire right now, I would spend
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It sounds dark, but I probably would look too.
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By the system out for good, which obviously, who am I to say that. But you look to go, kind of a Bloomberg, tried to do because the only way to do is pour money into like the broken system. So it is democracy reform or you're just straight up buying senators and congressmen and women who proposed a legislator Liberation fund which is, which is that we will buy you out of your contract with the major party. Like, what did you spend in the last cycle? 20 million, we will give you that plus 50 percent. Say a 30 million.
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Dollars to join this to be a rational human being. Yeah, to be an independent. Essentially. You could just go down the line and by I actually believe it or not, everyone. I priced this out like, you know, get a couple billion. It's less, you know, it's not even that much. The only that makes entered. Yeah, you could buy out for US senators from their contracts with their, with their parties for less than 200 million. I'm assuming you're making this pitch, which is this a real pitch. Yeah. This is a real pitch. This should be a bitch.
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It's a good pitch. Okay, so I think I've said this on the podcast for, I talked to someone who used to be very, very senior at the World Bank has that my former job on Wall Street, and she asked all of the, our big client side like a small dinner. We're having like if you could had all the money in the world to solve a social problem, what would you do and people like education this and and then I flipped on her like what would you do? Should I would get it in cash and use it to pay off the bride people for good guys. Just like most of the world's problem. There's a bigger problem internationally, but it's a big problem United States to where it's just
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All about the money. So it's it goes like that the decisions that are made but they help people hurt. People are made frankly, for the highest bidder and we learned that we ran like, don't kid yourself. It's all money game. It's all money in. So, I want to try and unlock a critical mass of resources to do what I'm describing. Now. It's good fun. I'm enjoying it, you know where the worthy fight for sure. I mean we're, you know, we're in the like seven figures. So, you know, like you're cranking. Yeah, I'm parties cranking and your and the other thing is you guys will
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Unlock other, like they may be like, oh, I don't know about that forward party, but I do believe in the ideas. So here's a board party competitor or whatever. Like I'm sure you'll see that nonsense do but that's good your normalize what you're talking about. Ideally, well lineup, but well, you know, I mean, I see like you said, if you were a billionaire, let's say, Andrew Young was a billionaire, which, by the way, everyone knows, I mean, it's like, laughable and recording the Press you were for a little bit. That would be great stuff. But like what I fundal legislator, Liberation Front, sure, you know what I, what I go around and you could do a lot of good in this direction.
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One of my frustrations with a couple of people who've tiptoed in this direction. So here, these people, Ross Perot, Howard Schultz, like, Bloomberg. Where, when they did their thing, they didn't then, turn around and invest in the Deep. Structural reform. Left pissed off. Yeah, and it's like, look, the process sucks. Get it. I've actually been through versions of it. But let's do the entrepreneur thing and like, build the alternative and like build the counter or set of incentives. And
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You know that there hasn't been that appetite, but the appetites returning because everyone sees how screwed up the current system is. Yeah, so that's you know, again we earlier in this conversation, said, look 14 billion is spent within the system. How much is being spent to reform the system, you know, if we spent a billion dollars trying to reform the system, we do ton of good. Yep. It's oasc. I think it was on Twitter. I saw it on Twitter. I don't know if she didn't like Instagram live or something, but I don't always agree with her and a lot of things but she said something that resonate with me. She said it's really
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Really difficult to operate in a system that's fundamentally corrupt and it's one of the things you notice series. I can go into Congress and I'm gonna do shit. Yeah, and then I just get reduced to like a freaking Off-Broadway Theatre performer, which is what I like most of them become. But this is also an argument that really fueled the the origin of the forward parties. That Ezra Klein said toxic systems compromised. Good individuals with ease. Yeah, and he was, he's, and he was making that argument like,
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It's a toxic system. Yes, like you, we gotta clean the system up one of the fascinating elements. It's like, you know, we gotta, you know, we're going to need money to clean the system up. So, like I'm trying to get righteous money, which is fun. And, and there actually are people who I believe fall in this category, including, you know, people are listening to this who giving us 10 bucks. I mean, that's right, just money. We're rights, money crowd, Grassroots dollars. Are you deadly? The most righteous? But I will say to you, no one feels like it's my, you know, I don't know. I will say to you although we're going to need a combination of like grass, roots and some others.
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Yeah, you need more than that's think. Burnt. Let's call. Bernie the king of Grassroots funding, right? What's he raised over all the elections, 200 million all in maybe probably being. So it was another thing, one of my, one of my more controversial tweets or whatever. I was like, Bernie should have started a third party, which I by the way, totally agree believe. Yeah. Oh, yeah, and there's a lot of people who are part of the burning movement who wanted him to yes, and I don't know why he didn't but he would have had a shot at
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it.
41:43
So we're going to close this convo on an uplifting note. So Zach, how has it been being a published author of the last couple weeks? That's not bad man. I will say, I think I've talked about this on the podcast. So books are an interesting thing to be selling. I think I've met a lot of first-time authors and I worked with you very closely. When you are a second time author and pretty closely mirror. Third, third author, but I was a, a lot of people are two authors have that ambition if they're going to sell lots of books, and I'll light the world on fire me and New York Times.
42:13
I know there's a those Ambitions. I will say, for those of you who have a lot of you have reached out both to me, personally, or on social media, saying, I read the book. I love it. That's been nice to hear. It's a great book. If you haven't picked it up, everyone long shot how political nobody's made Andrew, Yang president, United States more uplifting than raise book. It sounds like a research team myself. It also is more fun and readable and cinematic than my
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So this year, it's more of a narrative. We're trying to trying to make a movie out of it in a way. Yeah. So, so if you want to see essentially like a movie screenplay about, like the madcap Yang campaign, check out Longshot, and as someone who's written a few books that the frame, I put myself in after the first book was, like, look as long as like, you are happy with what you produced, and that people, you respect say to you. Like, hey, good job. Then you're golden. Yeah, that was
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That's like going. Yeah, people have read it. I like and trust you. Like, I really enjoyed this like, and they'll say, like, look, I would tell you but I enjoyed it. That's good. So, on this topic, yeah, it is. Now the beginning of Summer and what content recommendations, some our content Rex. Yeah. From I have some, I just finished the first part of season 4 of stranger things. I got you a stranger things. Yes, I fucking love. Stranger things. I think it's well done, and I didn't love the season the whole
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Those little dramatic and then they I thought they'd end you watch the news one other. They ended it really well and they close a bunch of loop. A lot of, not all of them, a lot of loopholes from first season, like kind of stuff you've been having throughout. So I'm going to load it, match your stranger things, and raise you with the boy sees it. Three, I watched, yeah, it's good. Yeah, it's really good. I'm always a good. I mean, it's dark, it's messed up but it's hilarious way. Yeah, for those of you who have heard of the boys.
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On Amazon. It's about I guess like if you had superheroes that became, if you had real superheroes in the world of capitalism, there is a lot of Calvinism critique going on like Watchman but a less that is less dark than Watchman and it's little more realistic, right? I mean watch, but it's a great watch the boys. Check it out. I'm going to go with a couple of deep cuts for people going out there, Man. Armor content also from Amazon Prime. If you like the boys, there was an animated series called
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The Invincible. Oh, I say it's good. That's I saw answer. That's excellent. I really it's really really good. All right. So also, you know, I mean like Steven Yeun who I'm friends with is like the lead voice actor and that's possible invisible. Just a great freaking show if you like the boys and you want more like that the invincibles in some ways almost like an animated version called boys. Also on Amazon Prime also super enjoyable Reacher. So a creature the Jag reach I think is called Reacher, but it's there's a giant
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On dude. Now the Tom Cruise movie turn into a series, right? Yes. So so is based on the series of books, right? This show is really fun and watchable. So if you have Amazon Prime after you get through the boys, invincible and reach are both really, really like high quality in my opinion, really good watches. I've I finished Ozark. It's good last season. Really like, I love Jason. I've always liked Jason Bateman Laurel and he's really talented. She's annoying in this show, but she's supposed to be
45:43
University grad, I don't know if he's really yeah, nice. That's fine. Well, one of two actors coming out of Brad. How many actors come on eyebrow? A lot of people come out of breath. Really. And a lot of people like, you know, Talent if you have gone. Right? I know I guess you got creative probably most famous Emma Watson. She drowned rat. Yeah. All right. I'm want to do things right now. I'm watching the last Kingdom, which is on Netflix now, which I've heard is really good. I haven't gotten to it yet. I'm going to probably get into Marvel and that's my brother wants me to get him or like the Disney Plus.
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Marvel Series. So that's what do they want Division and Loki and mixed bag. Honestly, are they? I've heard so I was a comic book nerd growing up. So I'm seeing all the Marvel stuff. Okay, and it's a mixed bag a lot. But on Netflix another deep cut that I so is funny is like I was looking for stuff I could watch with my sons and it turns out that this was too dark for them, but it's called Arcane. It's based upon a video game an animated series and
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It's freaking excellent. Like it's too. Dark is a beautiful. Yeah, it's funny. It's like I was looking for something. We could watch the family and then ends up being me and Evelyn watching it. But it's nuan's narratives, great characters Arcane. If you like that kind of thing, it's kind of kind of got an anime style. Okay. So Carly, my fiancé is obsessed. Obsessed with the show, Gilmore Girls. So, I've been begging to watch the show many, many times. So, I've
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Actually caved. And now I use it as like, if she's mad at me. I'll be like, we could just watch Gilmore Girls, right? And that is earned me some points, but I will say, it's not bad. It's actually not bad. At least it's usually has pretty witty dialogue. I'd argue the lead actresses are pretty talented. I watch a lot of Gilmore Girls and I don't know if that's AI, don't know if I should put. I don't know if I want to say. That's what a good man. You know, it is feel good. It's generally feel good. But it's funny cuz its back its shot back when shows were done like in a studio and you wouldn't binge watch them, you know, so
47:43
And it was like, one-hour, episodes, 20 episodes of season. There's a lot of it. Yeah. I mean, I like watching that stuff because I remember another, I saw that, you know, real time but like just times were simpler at a particular Point. Yeah, like yeah, I haven't gone back and watch the o.c. But I imagine. That was the show that is associated the most in my mind with a simpler time as friends. I am because you know, it's like the entire dating life in your 20s in New York City or whatever. It's like I was watching.
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In that shit when I was in college, and then I moved here and then it was like, that's what you like. Yeah, and life's going to be like and it's totally not but it's simple. But it was simple simpler times. There's your X folks plus bozak and I get need to get out there and see Top Gun as RPC. Dirty, got to see it. I've heard I say this, I've had a number of friends, be like Top Gun stick top, got sick. My family said, popgun sick. The fact, the fact that anyone could ever in the same sentence say, it's top, that new Top Gun is as good. If not possibly better than the
48:43
All that may not be true. But the fact that they could say it without sounding like an idiot means. It's probably pretty awesome. It is your patriotic duty to go out and see Top Gun coming from a guy who has not seen it yet. But that's a fine way to close this. I think this this episode, let's get our summers on and look things are challenging out there. But just like look outside, look in your loved ones face is you know, the sun is shining, life is good. So let's get out. Enjoy it later. Al
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