Latest / Simply Bitcoin / Dr. Jeff Ross & Joe Carlasare | Simply Bitcoin IRL
Transcript
- 0:05Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of
- 0:07Simply Bitcoin IRL. Today we have a very special
- 0:10show lined up. We have dr.
- 0:12Jeff Ross, and joão Carlos, re think I nailed the last name
- 0:17anyways. Before we jump into the show and
- 0:19to give a quick shout-out to the Bitcoin companies that make this
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- 0:39the largest Bitcoin conference on the face of the Earth Bitcoin
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- 0:45Miami Beach Florida May 18th through the 20th 2023 and you
- 0:49could use the promo code simply to get a 10% discount on your
- 0:52tickets. All right, no more no more
- 0:55delay. Joe on a scale of 1 through 10,
- 0:59how badly did I butcher? Your last name, I think you're
- 1:04me to Joe. Sorry, I just said you nailed
- 1:07it, you absolutely crushed. Yes, awesome.
- 1:10Awesome, awesome. Okay, great great.
- 1:12All right, well, it kind of makes my job easy because of all
- 1:15the madness that's been going on and you guys are, you know what,
- 1:19I consider some of the macro, heavyweights on Twitter.
- 1:23I just want to read a statement by the treasury and then I want
- 1:26to, I want to get your, take your guys takes on this.
- 1:29So treasury said this yesterday and this was before pacwa West
- 1:35Bank Corp stock, just plummeted like a shit coin.
- 1:39They said, the banking system remains sound and resilient and
- 1:42Americans should feel confident in the safety of deposits and
- 1:45the ability of the banking system to fulfill, its essential
- 1:48function of providing credits of businesses and families.
- 1:51I don't know about you guys, but I don't know, I don't know how
- 1:56much I believe that. You gotta believe Nico, the
- 2:01number one, the number one job right of the FED officials and
- 2:05our governing officials is to manage expectations.
- 2:07It's not the Dual mandate. It's not all this other stuff.
- 2:10They talk about. They're literally like their
- 2:12main job is to manage expectations.
- 2:14They know what a circus it is. They know what's going on behind
- 2:17the scenes, they're on the phone.
- 2:18With these people all the time, they're having emergency
- 2:23meetings, I promise you on a regular basis right now and but
- 2:26but their job they cannot show Panic, right?
- 2:28If they say anything that would instill, any sort of panic,
- 2:31there would be just even more massive Bank runs than they
- 2:35already are. So I think that they're trying
- 2:36to stop it. I think we're going to see more
- 2:40more of these Regional Banks go down before this is over.
- 2:43You know, I'm not just massively bearish, I think at some point.
- 2:49I mean, it's hard. It's hard to talk about this
- 2:52because, you know, I don't personally want to, you know,
- 2:55Insight any sort of bank run. I don't think there needs to be
- 2:59one, but this is the kind of thing that happens when people
- 3:01start to lose confidence, they people get really, really
- 3:04worried about their money. And if they think that it's
- 3:07unsafe, even if it's not necessary to do to, you know, to
- 3:10flee to go somewhere else to take their money somewhere else,
- 3:13people panic and they do crazy things when they're scared.
- 3:15And so, I think that's what we're seeing In the End, the Fed
- 3:18officials the other Central Bank Those are doing everything they
- 3:20can to prevent this from happening.
- 3:22I'm not sure they'll be successful, but I'd love to hear
- 3:24Joe's take. No, I think that's great and I
- 3:27agree. So let's let's see if I can if
- 3:31you'll indulge me let's go back to the beginning.
- 3:33Okay, why this is occurring right?
- 3:35So obviously it's well-known. I think that the Federal Reserve
- 3:38has been on this rapid accelerating rate hiking
- 3:41campaign, right? And that has diminished the book
- 3:44value of many assets bonds, MBS that is held at all these
- 3:48Regional Banks. So how are the regional Banks
- 3:51different from the more Global systemically important Banking?
- 3:56And the reason is very simple it's that they're just not as
- 3:58robust. They don't have the cash flow,
- 4:00they don't have the balance sheet capacity, they're weaker
- 4:02players right in the system and in an economic downturn in a
- 4:06situation where there is a rush to get your deposits.
- 4:09Okay. You are going to naturally.
- 4:11If you're an entrepreneur, if you're a business owner you're
- 4:13not going to just risk. Uninsured deposit sitting at
- 4:16these Regional Banks where they're jeopardized.
- 4:19So what You've tended to see is that the weaker players?
- 4:22The particularly place like Silicon Valley Bank, the ones
- 4:24that had, you know, a lot of uninsured deposits.
- 4:26A lot of people that had transactional accounts, meaning,
- 4:28they weren't investing those assets or just holding them in
- 4:31deposits on behalf of businesses who had cash flow concerns.
- 4:34They got nervous right? Because they know that their
- 4:37Book value of all these assets mark-to-market are substantially
- 4:40lower because of the feds rate hikes.
- 4:42So if you're in that situation or people like Peter teal and
- 4:45all the companies investing in, you're going to say, I'm not
- 4:48going to risk my deposits. This bank, I'm going to err on
- 4:50the side of caution. I mean, it's kind of a
- 4:53primordial urge to protect your Capital.
- 4:56If you haven't met a bank that is even so slightly exposed.
- 4:59So you seen it start at the edges and it will work its way
- 5:02towards the core to the bigger more robust Banks.
- 5:04And that's what you're seeing one by one.
- 5:06They sort of get weaker players are purged from the system.
- 5:09I think it's important if you're analyzing this is to realize
- 5:12unlike the 2008 crisis. This is not starting out as a
- 5:15credit problem per se, it's not people that are defaulting on
- 5:19loans. Loans, defend their delinquency
- 5:21delinquent in their obligations. It's starting as a problem with
- 5:23these banks that have all of this stuff that they thought
- 5:26that it was going to be a very low interest rate environment
- 5:28for a long time and they could load up on these extremely low
- 5:32yielding instruments that are now worth a whole lot less.
- 5:35And then as things have progressed longer as they've
- 5:38gotten tighter with respect to liquidity and credit, it puts
- 5:41more and more stress on them. So you know we can get into a
- 5:43whole path forward here where we think this is going to go but
- 5:47the ultimate problem starts off from the point.
- 5:49Sam point is that these smaller Banks just don't have balance
- 5:52sheet capacity compared to the bigger ones.
- 5:54Yeah. And then, what is the unintended
- 5:56consequence of that, right? Over a long period of time.
- 5:59As you've seen the smaller Banks consolidate into the bigger and
- 6:04bigger Banks and actually have a chart.
- 6:05I'm really glad that you brought that up Joe.
- 6:08I'm actually going to pull it up right for audio listeners,
- 6:11right? It's like chart that starts from
- 6:131995 and fast-forwards all the way to 2009.
- 6:16So this is e. This problem has gotten even
- 6:18worse, right? Right, where, you know, the the
- 6:20smaller bangs, consolidate into the bigger Banks, and it goes
- 6:24from Wachovia for Western Union. First Union that, what that can
- 6:27solid into Wells, Fargo? Right Bank of America.
- 6:31You have all these Banks, you know, Merrill Lynch is in there
- 6:34as well. Bear Stearns Consolidated to
- 6:36jpmorgan's chase. Now, First Republic, and what
- 6:39are the unintended consequences of this on a long time scale and
- 6:43the and on the federal officials, you know, they don't
- 6:48really care about it. There was A very there's a viral
- 6:51video of a senator from Oklahoma confronting Janet Yellen about
- 6:55this US Treasury secretary. Like a, what don't you worry
- 6:59about this? And she, you know she kind of
- 7:01gasoline them a little bit. I don't know if you guys know
- 7:03what I'm talking about that that specific video but what are your
- 7:06thoughts on that? What are the unintended
- 7:08consequences of just? A handful of banks, controlling
- 7:14everything, basically. So I'll jump in first on this
- 7:17one. So I think number one, it's Ad
- 7:19for America. I think you have to look at why
- 7:22we have Regional Banks. Why we have local banks while we
- 7:25have credit unions in the first place and it's because they have
- 7:27people on the ground in these communities that have the
- 7:30ability to use what I call soft factors in assessing credit
- 7:33risk. Okay.
- 7:34Meaning that they know some of these Farms their lending to,
- 7:37they know some of these local businesses on a first-name
- 7:39basis. And they know that if I give it
- 7:41to Joe Smith, he's going to repay this loan, and he's using
- 7:44it for the local pizzeria. So it provides that liquidity
- 7:47provides that credit for entrepreneurial.
- 7:49And it doesn't, those entities don't get lost in the
- 7:52bureaucracy of the mega Banks, right?
- 7:54Which have much tighter requirements, they don't have as
- 7:57much leeway. They don't have as much
- 7:58discretion, and that's really why if you started its core, why
- 8:02do all of these? You know, institutions
- 8:05companies? Why do they put their money into
- 8:07Regional Banks? Why doesn't everybody just bank
- 8:09at JP Morgan, right? And the answer is because they
- 8:12prioritize that relationship that relationship with the local
- 8:15Bankers important. And they're saying, we're going
- 8:17to even risk having uninsured to deposits at places like Silicon
- 8:21Valley Bank because of the unique access that that bank
- 8:24provides to that investment community and to the resources
- 8:26that come there with it. So I think the, the answer, your
- 8:30question, the intense and unintended consequences are this
- 8:32consolidation of the banks is your showed in the chart but
- 8:35also you're starving credit from people.
- 8:38That would otherwise have access to credit if there was a
- 8:41regional banking apparatus. And that's that's a terrible
- 8:44thing for the country and for the economy, Yeah.
- 8:47So, what would you say to that, dr.
- 8:49Ross, I'll just jump in to say I'm not convinced.
- 8:52It is unintended these consequences.
- 8:54I think that the government and the Regulators love to see
- 8:57consolidation. I think they want their
- 8:59tentacles in everything, right? They want to see what's going on
- 9:02and it's way easier to see what's going on at four huge
- 9:06Banks than it is to see at you know, 4,000 Regional banks on
- 9:11top of that. So I think they would love
- 9:13nothing more than to see all of that, get Consolidated under the
- 9:16Big Four. Totally agree with Joe.
- 9:17I think this is really difficult on smaller local communities.
- 9:21It's really difficult on small businesses.
- 9:23I'm a small business owner, I deal with this all the time.
- 9:26I deal with Regulators a lot. I'm I'm fairly convinced that
- 9:31they are not on my side, right? I mean, II, me and my attorneys
- 9:34spend lots of time trying to comply with regulators.
- 9:38And and from my standpoint I'm like, I feel like you're trying
- 9:41to put me out of business with all of these regulars, I can
- 9:43barely survive. I'm not getting a paycheck
- 9:45several months. A year because all of it goes to
- 9:48my attorney fees, and Joe obviously is a good friend of
- 9:51mine and is an attorney it. So I'm not coming down and
- 9:53attorneys are like their attorneys are my best friends
- 9:55during these times because The Regulators are making it so
- 9:58difficult. So, I'm of the sort of
- 10:00conspiracy conspiratorial type opinion that they would love
- 10:03nothing more than to see lots of consolidation in small
- 10:07businesses and especially in Regional Banks, they would love
- 10:10to see them turn into, you know, it morph into the big for a
- 10:13larger Banks. I do you know what dr.
- 10:16Rod. No go ahead.
- 10:17I was just going to say, if you want to go down the
- 10:19conspiratorial route, one thing to think about is that during
- 10:22the oh, a crisis, right? You had similar issues with the
- 10:25smaller players that they were fearful of potentially liquidity
- 10:29issues and they ramped up alternative programs.
- 10:32One was called, I was actually just looking at this today, the
- 10:35transactional account guarantee program, the tag program and
- 10:38that's where the FDIC provided unlimited insurance coverage for
- 10:41non-interest bearing. Transaction accounts.
- 10:45It's interesting given the Particular issues facing the
- 10:48banking system right now how they have not resurrected that
- 10:51program yet, so along a conspiratorial lines, you know,
- 10:53maybe it's not the worst thing that they, they want to purge
- 10:56some of these players from the system.
- 10:58Particularly, I mean, it's well documented with respect to
- 11:01Signature Bank, according to Barney Frank, former chair of
- 11:04the house Financial Services committee that that message
- 11:07there is a message sent to bring that back down to send a larger
- 11:11message to crypto in general. So there are targeted efforts.
- 11:15I think that are under way whether it's Is it or not to
- 11:18purge the system of certain players?
- 11:22And in and I would, I would also say that dr.
- 11:27Ross, I don't think it's a conspiracy.
- 11:30I I think that that's a convenient label, right?
- 11:34I had the privilege to have Caitlyn long and I asked her
- 11:38point-blank, right? Why did they deny, you know?
- 11:42Custodia the Federal Banking Charter which would make her
- 11:44competitive with these other Banks even though custodial was
- 11:47108 percent, backed, right. And she said, At the orders came
- 11:52directly from the top, meaning the White House, right?
- 11:56And then this kind of fits into the writing of the writings of
- 11:59Nick Carter with operation choke point 2.0 with this.
- 12:03Massive move by the administration in the hopes of
- 12:06isolating the traditional Financial system from Bitcoin,
- 12:10right? And it is very very convenient
- 12:14for them. If there's only a handful of
- 12:16banks of which they of which they have to you know, control
- 12:21basically And then there is another thing that you're
- 12:23mentioning dr. Ross, and I'm curious to get
- 12:25Jose takes on this and sees a lawyer.
- 12:27Is this idea of this regulatory mode right?
- 12:30And I think the big Banks, see it as a cost of doing business.
- 12:33But if you're a small bank and you're trying to compete, it's
- 12:38almost impossible because you're spending more on just
- 12:41compliance, then actually trying to provide a good user
- 12:45experience for your customer. Yeah, I don't have much to add
- 12:50it in that other than the fact that that's a real thing.
- 12:52I mean that's that's one of the reasons why we haven't had more.
- 12:55I think Bitcoin only exchanges in the United States because
- 12:57it's extraordinarily difficult to set up the proper accounts.
- 13:01The proper registration is to get the licensure.
- 13:03I mean, it's so cost prohibitive and four Banks, they're one of
- 13:07the most highly regulated Industries.
- 13:09You know, they're up there with insurance in that the amount of
- 13:11Hoops you have to jump through an approval to get anything
- 13:14done, even something simple, we were helping a client, Aunt, who
- 13:18was providing Bitcoin services and offering custody Services?
- 13:21They wanted to just permit. They wanted to get the green
- 13:24light to withdraw Bitcoin, right?
- 13:26Just let customers withdraw their own Bitcoin.
- 13:28So we don't have to custody on their behalf and they can go in
- 13:30and out. It was extraordinarily
- 13:33expensive, I'm not going to give you the exact number because it
- 13:35would shock you, but it was so expensive that it would say this
- 13:37is just not worth it economically.
- 13:39We're just not going to go down this product line.
- 13:41Yeah. So and this is actually a
- 13:44question that I've asked dr. Ross.
- 13:47But I think that as human beings, we, you know, just just
- 13:50the way they're our relationship with time.
- 13:52We think that things are going to happen a lot faster than we
- 13:56anticipate. Right?
- 13:58The reality is that this recession hasn't happened or
- 14:01maybe in the mainstream eyes, is that going to happen if I've
- 14:07read a lot that it's now like unavoidable?
- 14:10It's going to happen later on this year.
- 14:13Why do you think it's taken so long?
- 14:15I think people were expecting it.
- 14:17In the beginning of this year, or late last year, why do you
- 14:20think the recession hasn't happened?
- 14:25Hey Joe. Well, let me start out by giving
- 14:28Joe Kudos because when I was, you know, you screaming from the
- 14:31rooftops in the fall of 2022 that the recession was basically
- 14:35here, Jose like no, no, no. The economy is still strong
- 14:39unemployment is still low. I still think it's stronger than
- 14:43then then you're saying it is to me which was good kind of
- 14:47calling me out on that a little bit and and it's probably still
- 14:50not going to be here for a little while.
- 14:51And so kudos to Joe for being right on that you I look more
- 14:55at. What do you do?
- 14:56How do you risk assets? Perform regardless of whether or
- 14:59not we're in a recession, but I will say.
- 15:02So that's why I don't really like making recession calls.
- 15:04Personally, I don't really care. And that's not to say, I don't
- 15:07care about the cost, and the human suffering that goes on, I
- 15:10care, deeply about that. But for my clients and as far as
- 15:14you know, making money preserving purchasing power,
- 15:17things like that, I care more. You know what is bitcoin going
- 15:20to do? What our risk assets going to do
- 15:21in general, what our stocks bonds?
- 15:22Those kind of things going to do.
- 15:26I would say that the thing that the way the economy is setting
- 15:29up right now to me still looks extremely worrisome.
- 15:31The fact that the you know, the yield curve, I let you look at
- 15:34the three three months, 10 year, yield curve, and it's inverted
- 15:38and 178 points basis points. I believe somewhere around there
- 15:42right now. I mean, it's just ridiculous.
- 15:44How inverted is now. That doesn't mean that that
- 15:46means the recession is going to be extremely terrible.
- 15:49It that it's no, they're not correlated necessarily but when
- 15:53you look at that and you see what's On with the banking
- 15:55structure and you see what's going on with the FED continuing
- 15:58to tighten into this economic slowdown.
- 16:01So even though we're not having negative GDP growth, we still
- 16:05continue to see slowing UDP growth, all of these things
- 16:08going in tandem with each other. Just portend to, I think a
- 16:13really negative outcome at some point.
- 16:15I think at some point we still get the floor drop out moment.
- 16:18I think tomorrow is our, we're recording this, you know,
- 16:20Tuesday, May 2nd tomorrow, Jerome, Powell speaks.
- 16:23I think if he comes He's out with guns blazing again and is
- 16:26extremely hawkish and they, and I for sure, I think they're
- 16:29going to raise 25 B, but if you comes out and says, hey, we're
- 16:31going to continue raising. We still think inflation is too
- 16:34hot. We still think the economy is
- 16:35very strong. So buckle up for more hawkish -
- 16:38I think the risk, the risk assets that that market in
- 16:42general has is going to be very tumultuous.
- 16:46And I think that there's a chance, the floor does drop out
- 16:48sooner than later. And then it, when you layer on
- 16:50top of this, and then I'm sorry. I'll stop talking on here with
- 16:52Joyce. Has a, when you layer on top of
- 16:54this. The debt ceiling debacle that's
- 16:56coming to a head. Specially based on what Yellen
- 16:58was saying that they may run at the treasury may run out of
- 17:00money by June 1st. This is all going to come to a
- 17:03head basically this month. So it's very I'm very curious to
- 17:06see how things respond. I'm very bearish in the near
- 17:08term for risk assets for even Bitcoin.
- 17:11I think bitcoin price gets sucked down.
- 17:12Probably yeah, it's hard for me to be optimistic at this point
- 17:18and whenever you know regardless of when the recession officially
- 17:21hits, I think that things like stocks in Bitcoin Are going to
- 17:25struggle for the remainder of this year, unless we, unless we
- 17:30unless the floor drops out and we get a bottom in the near
- 17:32term, so I'm not sure if that made sense.
- 17:34I don't know when it's going to happen but it's but we are
- 17:36getting closer and closer to that moment.
- 17:38And I don't think we're going to have just kind of a soft
- 17:40Landing. Where we're all of this, just
- 17:42gets smooth out and, and we had the higher levels.
- 17:45I know some prominent people that think that I'll just throw
- 17:48out raw Paul as one guy who thinks that, you know, we're
- 17:50probably going to have a little bit more tumultuous nests for
- 17:52the next month or so. And then a Us free sailing from
- 17:55there and we're going to go on to higher highs and I'm
- 17:58definitely not in that camp. Yeah.
- 18:00And what's your take on that Joe?
- 18:02You know what's going on here? I think a lot of people were
- 18:05anticipating it earlier are you on that?
- 18:08I of course as a Bitcoin. I'm like this definitely not
- 18:10going to be a soft Landing. Why?
- 18:12It was it just the strength of the US economy?
- 18:16Yeah, what's your take on that? So let's go back to again 2022
- 18:20and what I think happened. I think be cutting this goes
- 18:24back. Back to, you know, the hardcore
- 18:25Bitcoin Spirit here, right? Because we don't have a good
- 18:28money in society. I think our psyche is just
- 18:31conditioned that when asset prices are declining, when the
- 18:34stock market's down 15-20 percent.
- 18:36People just associate that with the recession and that messed up
- 18:39a lot of people last year because you saw asset prices
- 18:42performing very poorly coming out of 2021, which was a
- 18:45fantastic year. And the year before that after
- 18:48covid-19 other fantastic year in 2020, but what really happened I
- 18:52think is that you had, you know, the peak Did he or the peak
- 18:55low-rate environment? You had the peak optimism over
- 18:58reopening of her covid. All those things started to peek
- 19:00out in Middle to the end of 2021, you saw this sort of
- 19:03rolling through the asset classes and then you said the
- 19:05FED, which were slow to react to the CPI prices.
- 19:08They were just starting to press their metal, to the put on the
- 19:12gas to get as fast as they can. To try to catch up with the
- 19:15inflationary stim pulse, right? So, this confused a lot of
- 19:19people when if you looked at the actual coincident economic
- 19:21indicators, the leading indicators, they were still
- 19:24fairly early robust through most of the year.
- 19:26And that's what I was looking at four terms of the real economy.
- 19:28But as Jeff pointed out, like, nobody really cares about, I
- 19:31tweeted this out, like, I think most people wouldn't actually
- 19:33care what happens to the real economy unless they either lose
- 19:35their job or their assets are declining, right?
- 19:38Otherwise, they just, you know, the economy which has been
- 19:40running under Trend growth for the last 20 years, basically,
- 19:43since 2000. They just say whatever it's
- 19:45fine. As long as that's keep going up,
- 19:47I'll get richer and richer on paper, putting all that aside.
- 19:50What happened? What, where are we at right now?
- 19:51Well, we already had sort of the liquidity.
- 19:54Evening cycle. Okay, that's the key part.
- 19:56Liquidity is tightening. We've drawn for the system rates
- 19:59are getting higher. You can see this across all
- 20:01asset classes. You had these little bumps,
- 20:03right? Because nothing goes in a
- 20:04straight line down, even a ball rolling down the hill, tends to
- 20:06bounce, right? So you have these bounces of
- 20:09liquidity, most notably in the last quarter of 2022, but
- 20:14realistically, the actual economy has not yet slowed.
- 20:17So I think we're moving into the second phase where liquidity is
- 20:20being withdrawn. And then now you figure out
- 20:22who's swimming and who's swimming naked.
- 20:24Naked, right? This is the credit crunch.
- 20:26This is the credit contraction part of the economic cycle and I
- 20:29my base case is at a minimum, not necessarily A collapse, not
- 20:34necessarily a 2008 style recession but a serious
- 20:36recession recession that will be meaningful in terms of the rise
- 20:40in unemployment. I think that comes this year and
- 20:43again these are sort of long slow processes.
- 20:46Okay. I don't expect this to be over
- 20:48with this year. I don't expect it to be over
- 20:50with next year. I think there's a great
- 20:52possibility. We could be having the same
- 20:53conversation a year. Now talking about the recession
- 20:56and when it's when it's going to be over and winter you know
- 20:58assets going to start to go higher, I don't think it's going
- 21:00to be a quick easy one. We're sort of a custom of these
- 21:03sort of V, recoveries, I don't think it's going to be this one.
- 21:05I think is going to be a grinding slow-moving environment
- 21:08and from my standpoint I go back to the academic literature and
- 21:11the research, right? The research shows that when you
- 21:14hike interest rates, it's anywhere from a 12 to 24 month
- 21:19lag, before those rates actually percolate through the economy
- 21:22and the majority of debt from. Hi.
- 21:24I yield needs to be rolled in 20 late 2023 2024, right?
- 21:28So these people, these companies are going to be rolling their
- 21:30debts at very high interest rates relative to what they took
- 21:33out. The loans at which is going to
- 21:34put all sorts of strain on the financial system.
- 21:36So I think we're like in the early Innings of this and it's
- 21:39going to go for a long time. And the only thing I think that
- 21:42would be reverse. This trend is if you have
- 21:44something serious, systemic that breaks that forces a re
- 21:48acceleration of the liquidity, the zirp the the stimmy checks
- 21:52that type of thing. But honestly I don't see that.
- 21:54Coming anywhere near in the future.
- 21:56So I think we're in the early Innings of a recession.
- 21:58I think it comes starting, probably later, part of this
- 22:00year. All the early leading indicators
- 22:02show, the economic growths, falling off month-over-month
- 22:05even unemployment is starting to soften ever so modestly.
- 22:09But again, don't get confused. Last year, was not the
- 22:12recession, it was the economic data was robust throughout the
- 22:14entire year. You had the word consecutive
- 22:17quarters, where Judy? I was positive, you had two
- 22:20quarters were GDP was positive. Nominal growth was high the
- 22:23entire year. So you really just didn't have a
- 22:26record low unemployment through most of the year.
- 22:28You didn't have what we typically see in a recession.
- 22:30It doesn't mean it's not coming. It's just going to take a lot
- 22:32longer than people think. Yeah and then also what's being
- 22:35talked about as well? Like what I've been reading on
- 22:38reading up on is this idea of stagflation as well, right?
- 22:41Where you have this persistent High inflation?
- 22:43And then you know, potentially heading into a recession, like
- 22:46you said, Joe. We as a country.
- 22:49I don't think we've experienced that since the 70s, right?
- 22:51And this in the 70s, we had about a decade of Static
- 22:55economic growth. What are your thoughts on that?
- 22:58Is that a possibility? Stack, I don't see that.
- 23:03I actually think we're heading into recession because I think
- 23:06that the FED is very much Resolute in their efforts to
- 23:10Stamp Out inflation. And again, they have sort of now
- 23:13admitted it publicly that they're forecasting recession,
- 23:16right? Which many people in macro
- 23:18circles have known for a while, right there coming to the terms
- 23:21with finally accepting it. But if you looked at their own
- 23:23summary of economic projections, they think unemployment is going
- 23:25to get to levels, where you would only see those types of
- 23:28levels in a recession, right? So it's, it's Well, within their
- 23:32their forecasts and I think it's their stated or unstated goal to
- 23:36trigger a recession because they, they know there's no way
- 23:39they're going to get the CPI down to 2%, which is their
- 23:43target unless they trigger a recession now, can they revised
- 23:48their target? Can to become the lower end of
- 23:50their expectations and they revised it higher 23, and just
- 23:53accept it and call it a day. I think that's a higher
- 23:55possibility than most people think.
- 23:57But right now, you're seeing 80% of the basket still. 12 points
- 24:01above where it should be, that's not that's nowhere near where
- 24:04they needed to be. So I don't see them pulling
- 24:07their foot off the gas, and every other cycle, you've talked
- 24:09about where they've come in, and they've they've sort of been
- 24:12able to massage it through interest rate Cuts or maybe
- 24:15stimulus checks. Okay, you didn't have the type
- 24:17of CPI numbers were still seeing right now.
- 24:20The persistently, High CPI, and the easy downturn, and CPI the
- 24:25easy pull back, we've gotten rid of that, we've exhausted it.
- 24:29The last two percent are going to be the hardest.
- 24:30List of those stickiest components and to do that,
- 24:33they're going to have to trigger what is more than a
- 24:35garden-variety recession. It's going to be a painful one,
- 24:37I think. And what about where to risk
- 24:39assets to in the environment? It's a whole nother discussion
- 24:41right? Because it's a whole separate
- 24:42inquiry, we can get into but I think in terms of unemployment,
- 24:45I expect unemployment, they could be going up substantially
- 24:48over the next 12 to 24 months. Wow.
- 24:51Okay. And actually, I want to get back
- 24:53to how risk assets are going to perform specifically Bitcoin
- 24:56because this is why everyone's here, but before before we get
- 24:59to that, I want to pass it on to dr.
- 25:01Jeff Ross's. Same question about stagflation.
- 25:04Do you think that the FED is hell-bent on, you know, doing
- 25:08whatever it takes? Even if it means putting
- 25:10millions of people out of a job to get inflation under control.
- 25:15So yes I'll say just flat-out for that but I'd like to add, I
- 25:20think. That's a terrible way to address
- 25:23this situation, right? I think it's barbaric to, you
- 25:26know, to try to bring inflation down by destroying demand.
- 25:29Because when we say destroying the man, what we mean is, they
- 25:31want to put Americans out of work.
- 25:33So Americans don't have the excess spending capacity to
- 25:37drive prices higher and that egg, that lack of excess
- 25:41spending capacity will cause prices to fall totally barbaric.
- 25:44There are other ways to go about this on a supply demand curve.
- 25:47There are two curves and one of them is demand and one of them
- 25:50is Supply. I think we should be focusing on
- 25:52Supply personally, and not worrying about inflation so
- 25:55much. Personally, that's my opinion.
- 25:58And obviously the FED disagrees with me.
- 26:01I do think when we look back in history that we will consider
- 26:05the 2020s to be in general, a stagflation.
- 26:08Airy period, I think, but, but like the 70s we consider the 70s
- 26:12to be stagflation area, but there were, there were lots of
- 26:15smaller shorter periods within the 70s that you did not see
- 26:19stagflation, right. You have periods of and I think
- 26:23we're going to see this this decade periods where we see
- 26:25deflation flat-out. We see deflationary bust.
- 26:28I think we're at a high risk for that happening over the next
- 26:30year. At some point where the floor
- 26:32drops out under prices, under Commodities under stocks even
- 26:35possibly under Bitcoin again and and and inflation.
- 26:39I don't think is just going to go away at that one.
- 26:42Other point, I want to bring up. I've been thinking a lot about
- 26:44this and I really kind of hope I'm wrong.
- 26:45Sort of, I do, I'm not convinced.
- 26:48The FED is going to come out immediately with a bazooka.
- 26:51Zuka this time around because I think they know, and, and Paulo
- 26:54has brought this up, he does not want to be Arthur Burns of the
- 26:5770s. He does not want to say, okay,
- 26:59we finally defeated inflation. Yes, the market is tanking.
- 27:04Everything looks terrible. And what they did in the 70s is
- 27:06then they quit trying so hard to destroy Demand, right?
- 27:09And so they allowed they came in with easing basically their
- 27:13version of it. They pulled rates way down and
- 27:16what happened is inflation. Just spiked again.
- 27:19I think the 2020s even though it's different In the 70s, in
- 27:21many ways, I think the the 2020s is going to be marked by very
- 27:26tumultuous and volatile inflation in general.
- 27:29And so I think Pablo will be loathe to open the Bazookas up
- 27:34and just be like, okay, Q E Infinity.
- 27:36I hear a lot of people saying this and I even eat was saying
- 27:39this six months ago, but I'm not so convinced that that's
- 27:42actually going to happen. I think he doesn't want to do
- 27:45massive QE because they run the risk of sort of reigniting
- 27:49inflation again. Then just get in being right.
- 27:51Back in the same problem that they were, you know, two years
- 27:53earlier. So and so I'm very curious to
- 27:56see how he responds to this and I'm not overly optimistic about
- 28:00it, to be honest. So that's a long answer to say
- 28:05I'm pessimistic and I'm also kind of increasingly pessimistic
- 28:10about the solution. Lots of people are really
- 28:13excited for the FED to turn and to you know, into and use all of
- 28:17his weapons and get Q. E Infinity, just going again,
- 28:20I'm not That's going to happen as soon or is massively as many
- 28:23people think. Okay.
- 28:26All right. Gentlemen.
- 28:28So moving on to why I feel like a lot of people tune into this
- 28:32type of show, which is in this, you know, in the next six to
- 28:37nine months. Right?
- 28:38You know, whatever happens, recessionary wise What's going
- 28:42to happen to the price of Bitcoin?
- 28:45How is going to how is Bitcoin going to behave in this
- 28:47environment? Specifically, since if you look
- 28:50at Bitcoins historical performance, as it gets closer
- 28:55to the having it tends to go up, right?
- 28:57So is it, is it going to change Bitcoins, historical Behavior?
- 29:01Do you think it will continue to be treated by the market as a
- 29:03risk on asset? Is the having going to play, you
- 29:07know, play a role in this? What's your take on that Joe?
- 29:10And then we'll pass. Sit on to dr.
- 29:12Ross, so I think that Bitcoin can hang in there and do
- 29:18reasonably well for the remainder of the year before
- 29:22unemployment begins to rapidly rise.
- 29:24And I don't honestly think that unemployment is on the verge of,
- 29:28you know, wrap soaring higher in the next couple months.
- 29:32But I think Bitcoin is still going to be caught up in this
- 29:34environment with risk assets generally.
- 29:37And I think that is long as you have a relatively stable
- 29:41employment Market, you don't have many for Sellers.
- 29:44And once for sellers, enter the market with respect to the
- 29:47equity Market. I think there's a lot of funds
- 29:49that are just going to sell everything great because they
- 29:51have to cover positions and they will sell Bitcoin.
- 29:54I don't necessarily think it's it needs to go down and make new
- 29:56lows for say. I think you can sort of Trend in
- 29:59the same range, but I'm optimistic about next year,
- 30:03particularly the faster we get into a recession because
- 30:06ultimately, I think you need some green light from the fat
- 30:09even if they're not going to come with and I agree with Jeff.
- 30:11If on the comment about more stimulus and liquidity being
- 30:14provided the system, ultimately what you want is you want them
- 30:18to be relatively stable, okay? You want to do want them to have
- 30:21the ability to bring down inflation to a level where
- 30:24they're going to just hold. Okay.
- 30:26And in that environment, if there is a recession, hopefully
- 30:28it's a moderate one. And by the time you get to the
- 30:31other side of that Bitcoin kind of already bottom doesn't
- 30:33necessarily have to make a new bottom but it can effectively
- 30:36range in this will build a nice bass range for the next cycle
- 30:40range until we get out of Session are forces that are on
- 30:43the horizon and had higher. Okay.
- 30:45I always tell folks I don't really, I don't trade Bitcoin.
- 30:47I don't think it's wise to trade it.
- 30:49I think it's more makes a lot more sense to just slowly dollar
- 30:52cost average into a position. But I'm not so naive to think
- 30:55that in a recessionary environment where liquidity is
- 30:58being drained from the system by the billions of dollars on a
- 31:01weekly basis and money's getting Tighter and credits, getting
- 31:04more expensive and businesses are going to have to lay off
- 31:06employees that Bitcoin is going to go into this Raging Bull
- 31:09Market, where we're going to be at 200 or Hundred thousand
- 31:12dollars. Now, this Bitcoin have to do
- 31:14terrible and in advance of the having and, you know, go to 10K
- 31:18or these ridiculous things that people throw out.
- 31:20I don't happen to think that's necessarily the bull case or
- 31:22better case. Whatever case you want to make
- 31:24it. I just think that you know,
- 31:26Bitcoin has already struggled a lot.
- 31:28Last year, was sort of on this rolling recession, was sort of
- 31:31the, the front end of it, experienced a brutal 2022.
- 31:35And right now, I view this entire year, sort of Base
- 31:37building to take us higher into the years ahead.
- 31:40Okay. And what do Think about that,
- 31:42dr. Ross, do you think that you
- 31:44think Bitcoins hit bottom? Yeah, I do.
- 31:48Although, you know, I don't like to make those kind of calls
- 31:50because Could It Go lower. Sure, if the floor drops out on
- 31:53a risk assets and everybody is panic and panicking, you know,
- 31:56and they think the FED is making terrible mistakes, things like
- 31:59that, could it go down? Lower, could it break new lows,
- 32:01for sure. So, I don't like to say that it,
- 32:03you know, just because it hit that 15 6 or whatever hit that.
- 32:06It can't go lower probabilistically.
- 32:08I don't think it gets back to those levels again for sure.
- 32:14Piggybacking onto it. Joe said I think liquidity is
- 32:18really important, right? I often talk about Bitcoin as
- 32:20being the great absorber of liquidity and you have to take
- 32:23both sides of that. So if we're okay with it being
- 32:26the great absorber of liquidity during periods of liquidity
- 32:29expansion, what we've seen in the past is that Bitcoin does
- 32:33just exceedingly. Well, you also have to take the
- 32:36flip side of that and be okay with it.
- 32:38If liquidity is Contracting, lots of people are talking about
- 32:41liquidity. Now, you know, I I'm not
- 32:43certainly not the first one, but I better about that all the time
- 32:46on Twitter, you know, and I've seen it go from basically nobody
- 32:50talking about it to now, you see it all the time on Twitter and
- 32:54even on like the main news station, CNBC, Bloomberg and
- 32:58such. They're talking about that if
- 33:00we're going to be honest with ourselves.
- 33:02So net liquidity bottom did in the fourth quarter of 2022 that
- 33:07was very exciting, Bitcoin, sniff that out immediately and
- 33:10obviously had just a few A fantastic performance.
- 33:13But what I haven't seen anybody talked about since then,
- 33:15including one of the guys who's famous for talking about
- 33:18worldwide. Liquidity cross-border capital
- 33:21capital. He goes by on Twitter and his
- 33:23name is Michael Howell brilliant, man.
- 33:25He's fantastic. He puts out some of the best
- 33:27research on it, but what he hasn't shown and I think he
- 33:30should show and be a little more clear on is that worldwide,
- 33:34liquidity, basically peaked in February and it's since been
- 33:37coming down and coming down pretty substantially.
- 33:39And we've been seeing in the u.s. here, net.
- 33:41Quiddity peaked in mid-march and has since been coming down
- 33:45pretty dramatically as well. So it would be to me, it would
- 33:49be nonsensical to think that risk assets and especially
- 33:52Bitcoin being the great absorber of liquidity that it would
- 33:55perform well at least in the near term while liquidity is
- 33:58Contracting. So, that's something to consider
- 34:00when you have liquidity Contracting on top of an economy
- 34:03that slowing on top of a fed that's tightening on top of
- 34:07having this debate happening with the debt ceiling, you know?
- 34:11Coming to a head by June first. Those are many strikes going
- 34:15against risk assets at least in the short term.
- 34:17So so very much not bullish in the near term and you know, how
- 34:21low will Bitcoin go, I don't know, but I do think
- 34:24probabilistically speaking that it goes lower in the short term
- 34:27and if things don't improve from kind of a macro standpoint, it
- 34:30could continue to go a lower kind of in the medium term as
- 34:33well. Now, that's my whole caveat.
- 34:35All of that to say, I think that the, the longer term bull market
- 34:39has started. And I do think that word Out
- 34:42month five or six of the new approximately 35 month, bull
- 34:46market year. One of the bull markets
- 34:48generally are kind of the least impressive of the three years as
- 34:51we know. Right.
- 34:52Your to is a little better and then your three generally is
- 34:55amazing and that's when you see that parabolic blow off top, I
- 34:58still think it's basically, you know, based on past cycles and
- 35:01also based on business cycles and liquidity Cycles.
- 35:04All of these are kind of lining up to happen again where I think
- 35:072023 is an okay year for Bitcoin.
- 35:09We've already. It's already been pretty
- 35:11impressive. It's far outperforming all other
- 35:13asset classes. I think that 2024 bodes even a
- 35:16little bit better and I think 2025 should be pretty fantastic
- 35:19year based on business Cycles based on the quiddity,
- 35:22obviously, I'm just looking into a crystal ball, totally guessing
- 35:25right, I have no idea what's really going to happen in 2025
- 35:28but I'm very optimistic that we're at the early stages of the
- 35:31next bull market. Yeah and go ahead Joe.
- 35:35Sorry I was just going to add so when you're talking about
- 35:37liquidity in everything, I agree with everything Jeff said there
- 35:40but I want to I want to point out just Distinction from how to
- 35:43look at this, okay? All liquidity is not created
- 35:46equal in end. That's really important.
- 35:48What I mean by that is, like, for example, people look at the
- 35:50FED balance sheet and they say up, fed added a ton of liquidity
- 35:54to its balance sheet in recent weeks because of the Silicon
- 35:56Valley Bank and the blow-up in the banking system.
- 35:58Well, well, three weeks later, the FED is taken out 50% of that
- 36:02liquidity through various programs, through expirations,
- 36:05through payback Sloane's, the spike you saw, it's almost half
- 36:08gone in three weeks and if it stays on this current Pace,
- 36:11okay? You're gonna have it all
- 36:12withdrawn, in addition to the QT that continues by this time next
- 36:16month. So the feds going to make a
- 36:17lower low next month on its balance sheet, combined with the
- 36:21fact that the treasury General count.
- 36:23Which as you know, is part of the fed's balance sheet that is
- 36:26being drawn down in a weekly basis because yelling can't
- 36:28issue new debt into the system because the debt ceiling, right?
- 36:31So all of these things just in the United States and we're just
- 36:33talking about us liquidity there from the TGA, and from the
- 36:37banking system, which again is going to be much closer, much
- 36:40more guarded in terms, Is lending to right now, in this
- 36:43environment given recessionary forces that are in play, all
- 36:47this is to say that, you know, liquidity little, you know, fits
- 36:50in spouts of liquidity, don't necessarily mean you're in a
- 36:53liquidity cycle, right? Like I said, if you throw a ball
- 36:56down a hill, it's going to bounce as it goes down the hill,
- 36:59it doesn't go straight down. That's not how markets work, and
- 37:01that's not liquidity works. Okay, there's seasonality with
- 37:04respect to the fed's balance sheet and the seasonality with
- 37:06respect to a lot of governments. Write a lot of governments tend
- 37:09to spend issue new debt. At Puri periods during the year.
- 37:13So you can see these little Pops in liquidity, doesn't mean it's
- 37:16a sustained, you know, the punch bowl is back and we're at the
- 37:19beginning of liquidity cycle, particularly given what their
- 37:21policy makers are trying to do, which is Stamp Out inflation.
- 37:26Yeah. So I want to, you know, take
- 37:29advantage of the 20 minutes that we have left left gentleman and
- 37:33I want to Pivot the conversation to the things I've been
- 37:38happening. The last couple months in terms
- 37:40of this this Uh, none of this pattern and I believe it's
- 37:44because of the weaponization of the dollar kind of force other
- 37:48countries to try to seek an alternative for the first time
- 37:52that you on overtook the dollar, to become the most used currency
- 37:57in China's cross-border. Transactions also came out that
- 38:01Russia and China. We're going to transact and
- 38:04Juwan. Also, I believe Argentina this
- 38:06very similar news. So it seems like people are
- 38:10choosing an native to the US dollar which is very bad news
- 38:14for Americans. If the u.s. uses loses its
- 38:18Global Reserve currency status. So what do you think that's just
- 38:22noise? Do you think that's even a
- 38:23possibility? Do you think that this is just
- 38:26these countries like pounding their chest?
- 38:30What's your guys takes on that? Okay, Joe.
- 38:34Yeah, so what I say on this issue is that I think that the
- 38:39answer lies really in the, in the middle between the two
- 38:41extremes, you'll see some folks that sort of say you know the
- 38:45death of the dollars here that this is going to fall apart and
- 38:47go off the rails in the next year or two and then you see
- 38:50other folks say this is you know, just will dismiss this, it
- 38:52doesn't really matter. It's insignificant, it's minor
- 38:55players, it's countries that don't have the the strength and
- 38:58a Gemini of the United States. And I think the real answer is
- 39:01that you should at least As what I expect.
- 39:04I expect that you're going to see continuing loss of what I
- 39:08would say, market share of the dollar globally through the
- 39:11remainder of this decade. And in the next decade, it's not
- 39:13going to be overnight, but it's something that is serious and
- 39:16it's going to make it harder for the u.s. to finance.
- 39:18Its structural deficits. And so that's something
- 39:21meaningful. You got to focus on, right?
- 39:23But this is still something where you're in the early
- 39:25Innings again and change happens, you know, as we say
- 39:29gradually, then suddenly and I think you could be waking up in
- 39:3210 years. And this conversation, we far
- 39:34more serious and will be attracting policymakers
- 39:38attention, much more acutely than it is right now.
- 39:41Right now, you've got, folks trying to do certain activities,
- 39:44they're trying to for search for alternatives are not happy with
- 39:47some of the economic efforts of the United States and some of
- 39:52the features of the, the euro dollar system, which is
- 39:55primarily what they're concerned about.
- 39:57However, okay, what I will note is that you've gotten many
- 40:00examples, anecdotes and reasons recent days.
- 40:03For example, I can India and Russia where they were trying to
- 40:07structure trade deals trying to structure the cell sale of oil
- 40:10in the Ruby, right? And Russia said no we don't want
- 40:13your rubies. We want dollars.
- 40:15Go, find dollars and there's I can give you a dozen other
- 40:18example similar to that where structurally still, even if
- 40:21they're writing law, rather settling other transactions in
- 40:25currencies other than the dollar, the actual face value of
- 40:28the contract, the notional value of the unit of account in
- 40:31Bitcoin, speak and money speak. He is still the dollar, right?
- 40:34Even if you don't have dollars themselves, when companies
- 40:38entities globally are doing transactions, they're doing
- 40:41transactions where the face value, the contract says you owe
- 40:441 billion US Dollars payable in your currency of choice, okay?
- 40:48That all of that activity, even if it's not specific dollar
- 40:51activity, it's promotes the standard the unit of account of
- 40:55the dollar globally, which is how many finance and
- 40:58transactions occur. The vast majority of Trent
- 41:01financing transactions occur globally.
- 41:03Yeah. And what's your take on that?
- 41:04Dr. Oz almost exactly the same answer is Joe.
- 41:08I agree with what he said and and just to add to it, I mean,
- 41:11and we've been talking about this for a couple of years, I
- 41:13think we're moving to a multipolar world, right?
- 41:15And it doesn't happen overnight. This is the calls for the
- 41:19dollars demise are greatly exaggerated, right?
- 41:22I mean, it's going to be around for a very long time, but the
- 41:25trends are clear. It's clearly losing its status
- 41:27slowly as the world's Reserve currency.
- 41:30And I think the world's Reserve asset also is coming Under
- 41:33question very slowly though, this is going to take decades
- 41:36and decades to play out. I think a decade from now, most
- 41:39of the world's purchasing power is going to be in the u.s.
- 41:42dollar system, like it is currently the Chinese Yuan, the
- 41:45bricks Nation. I think that Coalition continues
- 41:47to get larger and larger and then Bitcoin as well.
- 41:50I think Bitcoin is kind of the Dark Horse, that's going to sort
- 41:52of come up from behind and sort of be, you know, inner playing
- 41:56throughout all this. It's hard to see how it's all
- 41:57going to play out. I don't think Bitcoin takes over
- 41:59the world you know, within five to ten years But it is growing
- 42:04quickly and it's not even on the radar of many people, but I
- 42:07think it will be on everybody's radar 10 years from now, for
- 42:10sure. So Joe like Avi and I completely
- 42:14agree with you dr. Ross.
- 42:15But it's interesting. So you say, 5 to 10 years I
- 42:18would say 15 to 20. I think Bitcoins inevitable
- 42:20Bitcoins incentives, stay winning.
- 42:23One of the, one of the breaking news that happened this week was
- 42:26the kingdom of Bhutan since 2020.
- 42:29Before, El Salvador was not only stacking Bitcoin.
- 42:33It using their massive hydroelectric capacity to mine
- 42:37Bitcoin and they were all doing it in secret.
- 42:39They weren't telling anybody they weren't telling anybody and
- 42:42the only reason that the people found out was because of the the
- 42:45Celsius lawsuit disclosure and I believe that there's a lot of
- 42:49other countries that are doing something very, very similar.
- 42:52So I guess the, the question to you Joe is, you know, the US
- 42:57government gets a tremendous amount of power from basically
- 43:01weaponizing the, the money, Right.
- 43:03It, which is the reason as to why these countries are seeking
- 43:05an alternative in the first place not to mention us
- 43:08sanctions policy which they use. I mean you can't even make the
- 43:13argument that is very effective but they use it tremendously
- 43:15specifically against countries that the u.s. government is not
- 43:19in good relations. With they have a lot to lose if
- 43:24people start to transact in Bitcoin, rather than dollars,
- 43:28which, you know, kind of coincides with, with operation
- 43:32trouble. 2.0. Right?
- 43:33Why? The B Administration doesn't
- 43:35feel so so good about Bitcoin. So I guess my question to you
- 43:38is, you know, Obviously they're going to try to stop it, but
- 43:45will they be successful? And what what do you think on
- 43:48the legal front? What do you think they can do?
- 43:52They can do. Well, we could talk for an hour
- 43:54about that. I mean they let me just go back
- 43:56for a second because I want to make one point.
- 43:58The dollar is really important but what's more important than
- 44:02the dollar is the treasury market?
- 44:04One of the reasons why the global dollar system the global
- 44:06eurodollar system works is because of the treasury market
- 44:09which is the underlying collateral.
- 44:11Oh, Hell by commercial banks that allow people to borrow
- 44:14against lend against do Financial activity.
- 44:16All on your treasuries, with that lifeblood of the
- 44:18treasury's, you can literally create money and the commercial
- 44:21banking system can create money with those treasuries.
- 44:24So just to talk about the evolution of this and how it
- 44:26pertains to bitcoin, right? What is a game-changer in my
- 44:29mind and I think, as Bitcoin as we tend to focus on what the
- 44:31government's going to do, just because there's this sort of
- 44:34Suspicion about the government in Bitcoin circles rightfully
- 44:36so. But I think what's far more
- 44:37impactful? As if you have private actors,
- 44:39the private commercial banking system, they And non-banks
- 44:42globally. If they start to use Bitcoin as
- 44:44reserves, which I think is probably more likely than a lot
- 44:47of people expect and allow you to borrow against land against
- 44:50use. Bitcoin is as real pristine
- 44:52collateral that's going to be a game changer and it will be a
- 44:55game changer in how credit is available throughout the world
- 44:57with an underpinning asset that you have really pure knowledge
- 45:01of what it is. Where it is, how who holds it?
- 45:03No custodial counterparty risk of banks.
- 45:05Hold it. But putting aside go, let's go
- 45:07back to your exact question, which I think you're saying what
- 45:10would governments do? So in the United States, what I
- 45:13fully expect is that it consistent with operation
- 45:17chokepoint 2.0 and there's some great Cooper and cook has a
- 45:19great report about this. I have to plug that because it's
- 45:21fantastic. It's the best, our you could
- 45:23spend reading. It's a Prestige report, by a
- 45:27very prestigious Law Firm that broke down.
- 45:28All of the anecdotal evidence out there.
- 45:31That shows there's been a coordinated concerted effort by
- 45:33us policymakers to clamp down, on exchanges and exchange
- 45:37activity. And what I would say from a
- 45:39Bitcoin of standpoint, everybody should You hyper sensitive to
- 45:42the fact that if you have any association or relationship with
- 45:45the US base exchange, they are squarely in the crosshairs.
- 45:49Now, after the blow-up of SV, s, BF + ft acts and all that
- 45:54happened in 2022. Right now.
- 45:56The policymakers have said, we're not going to get any
- 45:58legislation passed through the Congress.
- 46:00So, all the enforcement Chiefs, the cftc, the SEC, the E OJ, go
- 46:05out there and handle it, get control of this industry and
- 46:07what you've seen through a lot of evidence.
- 46:09Now is that they're trying to To make it harder to transfer money
- 46:13to exchanges. They're trying to, I mean,
- 46:15there's Public Accounts of ACH rails being taken down.
- 46:18There's banking partners that are being told, we don't want
- 46:21you doing business with these exchanges, and I don't
- 46:24anticipate a direct attack on bitcoin or people that are
- 46:27holding Bitcoin. I see it as sort of a cold war
- 46:30where they just say fine, you want to hold Bitcoin.
- 46:31In your self storage, you know, Hardware wallets.
- 46:35Great, have it all you want, but if you want to convert it to
- 46:38cash, if you want to get it in the Fiat, if you want to do
- 46:40anything with respect, To you know pivoting out of the Bitcoin
- 46:43natives ecosystem and having to go on to an exchange.
- 46:46It's going to become increasingly difficult.
- 46:48I expect new kyc requirements. I expect new requirements.
- 46:51With respect to withdrawals, you requirements for money, coming
- 46:54onto the exchanges and off. All of this will accelerate into
- 46:57the near future. And if you're a platform that is
- 46:59selling anything, that could remotely be considered a
- 47:02security. I expect enforcement actions to
- 47:04come against you. Obviously, I'm sure you've heard
- 47:06about the wells notice. That was issued to coinbase.
- 47:08The clock is ticking on a the wells noticed, the coin based
- 47:11The SEC is going to file suit at some point before, the beginning
- 47:14of September because there's a finite date with they have to
- 47:17file the suit. So you're going to see a lot of
- 47:19this activity and I think the idea is maybe we can scare the
- 47:23general public, maybe if we do enough of this, we can scare the
- 47:26general public into. You don't want to mess around
- 47:28with this this crypto stuff because it's just too dangerous
- 47:31for your own good. And maybe that's the best way
- 47:33they think they can. You can stamp it out just from a
- 47:36reputational standpoint attack, the institutions and make them
- 47:39general public. Think it's not safe to do
- 47:41business. With these guys because of their
- 47:43association with terrorism or illicit drugs or whatever.
- 47:47Yeah. And then my favorite, my
- 47:48favorite buzzword, the financial stability.
- 47:51Yeah. So yeah, it's interesting and
- 47:55it's funny that you said that I remember seeing this in a tweet
- 47:58that one of the new requirements from coinbase for you to
- 48:03withdraw, would be to list the name and the address of the
- 48:07individual of which you were sending that withdrawal to just
- 48:10very Euler to how the Fiat system works.
- 48:13But again the enforcement mechanism isn't quite there.
- 48:17Once you get your money off the exchange altogether.
- 48:21So I mean the best that they could do is they could really
- 48:24like slow down the wood drawers but once it's out like for
- 48:30example like it once someone is fully orange pilled What
- 48:35incentive do you have to go back to the traditional Financial
- 48:38system? You know you don't really have
- 48:40that incentive and I guess maybe I'm looking at it from a you
- 48:43know crazy Bitcoin or lens. The idea of trusting someone
- 48:49else holding my money is absolutely absurd at this point,
- 48:52right? And I think that as time
- 48:53progresses in the system starts to break more and more and more.
- 48:57I think that question, I mean, you see you saw Tim pool, ask it
- 49:02in is very, very popular podcast.
- 49:05First Republic is going down. He read the quote that I read
- 49:08you guys in the very beginning of the show and he said, f that
- 49:11I'm putting my money in Bitcoin and I think that more and more
- 49:15as time progresses and just clown World continues to
- 49:19accelerate. I think more and more people are
- 49:21going to ask that question, but I do agree with you, Joe 100%.
- 49:25I think that they're going to, they're going to do whatever it
- 49:27takes to, at least slow down the adoption of this thing, dr.
- 49:32Ross, I'm gonna pass it on to you.
- 49:33What's your take on all this? Well again, I actually agree
- 49:36with all of Joe's take. I think we gotta find something
- 49:38to disagree about Joe but I would have answered it.
- 49:40Just the same, he was more eloquent, but I will say the one
- 49:43problem so far is I agree with you.
- 49:45Why would any Bitcoin or want to go back to the system?
- 49:48I'll say from personal experience because we still have
- 49:50to use the, the traditional system, right?
- 49:52I still have bills to pay, I have a mortgage, you know, you I
- 49:55can't pay that stuff directly with Bitcoin yet.
- 49:58So the Bitcoin ecosystem is rapidly being constructed and
- 50:02built out that infrastructure is being built.
- 50:04But it's still nowhere near robust enough so that people can
- 50:07live solely on a Bitcoin standard for the most part,
- 50:10there are Exceptions. There are places in the world
- 50:12where you can certainly cannot do it yet in America, right?
- 50:15I can't go to the grocery store yet and buy my groceries with
- 50:18Bitcoin. You can you can do work around,
- 50:20you can get gift cards, you can do these things.
- 50:22But until that system is robust and complete and totally
- 50:26fulfills all of those roles we're still stuck with this kind
- 50:29of awkward hybrid system and I think that's going to be with us
- 50:31for at least a few more years yet I was hoping That it would
- 50:35be better. You know I remember listening to
- 50:36Jack Mallory is talk at the Bitcoin conference in Miami last
- 50:40year and I was I came back from that telling all my friends and
- 50:42family that you're going to be able to pay you know, buy your
- 50:45groceries at the grocery store with Bitcoin before 2022 is over
- 50:49because that was the timeline he was saying, right?
- 50:51And it didn't happen and he came out and publicly apologized.
- 50:54He said, I got too excited about it.
- 50:56This was way harder than I thought it was going to be.
- 50:57I think The Regulators are probably making it harder,
- 51:00right? Yeah, they're they're gumming up
- 51:01the gears for sure. But that's what I would say.
- 51:04You are a Bitcoin developer and you're building in the space.
- 51:07God bless you like get it going like get this parallel system up
- 51:11and running so that if we do, you know.
- 51:13So if operation choke point 2.0 is massively effective and they
- 51:18start shutting down all the pathways, we need to have the
- 51:21parallel monetary and financial system up and running, right?
- 51:25We need to be able to go buy our groceries and everything else
- 51:28with Bitcoin. And in that case, then we're
- 51:29kind of, I don't want to say Untouchable, but man, it's a lot
- 51:33harder for the regulator Has to get their tentacles into what,
- 51:36what the bitcoiners are doing at that point.
- 51:38Yeah, 100%. And that's actually one of the
- 51:40thing. And I had it pinned on my
- 51:41Twitter for the longest time, which is this idea of if enough
- 51:45people take self custody, we will win this thing and there's
- 51:48absolutely nothing they could do about it.
- 51:50I actually have a theory about what you said, dr.
- 51:53Ross, I want to pass it on to Joe is I think when El Salvador
- 51:58made Bitcoin legal tender, it completely caught them off
- 52:01guard. And the reason I said that is
- 52:03that they actually passed the resolution.
- 52:04Lucien, it was either in the senate or the house.
- 52:07Literally the purpose of that resolution was to look into El
- 52:11Salvador and the fact that I'll Salvador made Bitcoin legal
- 52:14tender. And I think after that, The
- 52:16Regulators really woke up, and I think that it really just slow
- 52:21down the process. I remember it was 20 21 that he
- 52:23made that announcement in 2022. Everyone was anticipating
- 52:27another country, but it's almost as if you know it kind of got
- 52:31slow down and someone someone put on the brakes.
- 52:34All right, so yeah, I agree. I think there's massive amount
- 52:39of pushback in the background and I want to get your guys
- 52:42takes on this. Something that I was, I was
- 52:45very, I was very, very heated about was very passionate about,
- 52:48it was over the weekend where the IMF and one of their
- 52:52conditions to bail out Argentina.
- 52:54Was that Argent the Argentinian government?
- 52:56Must D, incentivize the adoption of Bitcoin and shit coins in the
- 53:00country fast forward after that announcement was made fast.
- 53:04Year argentinians are currently suffering through 104 percent
- 53:08inflation. Around the same time.
- 53:11This was when the IMF sent their message to all Salvador saying
- 53:15I'll Salvador, by making Bitcoin, legal tender, it would
- 53:18destroy the financial stability of El Salvador.
- 53:21It was, it was going to be terrible fast forward a year.
- 53:24El Salvador is, is currently experiencing peace and
- 53:28prosperity. The likes of which have never
- 53:30been seen before. So I guess my question to you
- 53:32guys is what is what? What is truly the purpose of the
- 53:36IMF? Because I think what we've been
- 53:38told the purpose of the IMF isn't really what the IMF is for
- 53:43and I know Alex gladstein has done an incredible job looking
- 53:47into this matter and he just released a new book but I'm just
- 53:50very curious to hear what you guys think.
- 53:53Joe Joe, why don't you go first? So there have been
- 53:59well-documented criticism to the IMF for for many years and And I
- 54:04think their policies are a perfect example of when a
- 54:09government is involved, there can be all sorts of unintended
- 54:11consequences. I will tell you that, you know,
- 54:15I don't necessarily think that the folks at set out and build
- 54:19these organizations are necessarily evil per se.
- 54:22I just think it's misguided and I think that some of the times
- 54:25they put forward plans, they think, you know, will be in the
- 54:29best interest of that country, right?
- 54:31This is going to be good for you, right?
- 54:33You take this medicine. And you'll feel better when in
- 54:35reality actually hurts and paralyzes the country.
- 54:39That's my comment on that. I don't want to get too much
- 54:40more into that. I got to be careful with some of
- 54:43the compliance folks that may watch this at my firm.
- 54:45So let me just say that there enough dr.
- 54:48Ross, what's your take again? I agree.
- 54:51I think it wasn't intended to be harmful.
- 54:53I think it was intended to help, but the law of unintended
- 54:57consequences. Suggest that as the as the
- 55:01system progressed, maybe there were some unintended
- 55:04consequences. Quinces that have been fairly
- 55:07destructive. I like the work that Alex
- 55:09gladstein does on this. I think it's very provocative
- 55:11thought provoking, you know, if you believe that debt is a form
- 55:15of slavery and they're basically exporting debt to countries you
- 55:21can, you can make arguments that it's helping a nation and you
- 55:24can make efforts that it's hurting a nation to, you know,
- 55:27offer that extend the credit to them.
- 55:29And so like, Joe, I got to be careful what I say to but I'm
- 55:34you know, There's good and there's bad and it's the bigger
- 55:37it gets and the longer it goes on it tends to lean more towards
- 55:41it gets kind of worse and worse as these systems, grow larger.
- 55:44So if I could just go back for one second to something you
- 55:47said, which I think is really key.
- 55:49So at its core, I think that the idea of Bitcoin is fundamentally
- 55:54American, right? I think it aligns with the
- 55:56spirit and promise of America and I I if you're going to have
- 56:01all these, you know, this clamp down and chokepoint 2.0 and make
- 56:03it more difficult. People in some ways that can be
- 56:06a positive in the long run and let me explain why the, the more
- 56:10aggressive that Central planners and policy makers are and
- 56:15unjustifiably. So, it sets up what I call taste
- 56:18test cases. And I'm involved in some of
- 56:20those now, you won't hear about them because I can't really talk
- 56:23about clients. They wouldn't appreciate me.
- 56:25You know, mention them by name, but there are increasingly,
- 56:28there are millions of Americans who hold Bitcoin who they have
- 56:32personal philosophies that align with what Bitcoin is.
- 56:34Trying to do. And there are judges right,
- 56:37there are lawyers, there's a whole group of people in the
- 56:40legal industry. You'd be surprised who actually
- 56:43had they understand the spirit and the core of what Bitcoin is
- 56:45trying to accomplish. And if the policymakers do what
- 56:48I think are unconstitutional and unlawful restrictions on
- 56:52people's ability to save their value to save their hard-earned
- 56:55dollars in a something much stronger form of money.
- 56:59That will that will trigger people to go forward and fight
- 57:02these things in courtrooms across the One of my biggest
- 57:05frustrations with the, you know, representing bitcoiners is that
- 57:08sometimes I have a great case, a case I would say this is a
- 57:11wonderful test case if we were to pursue litigation on this, it
- 57:14wouldn't cost a ton of money and it would set a precedent for
- 57:17people moving forward. And that's how you develop law
- 57:19that can be really strong and protect the individual
- 57:23sovereignty, and Liberty of people out there.
- 57:25So, I think I sense a change because I early bitcoiners that
- 57:28I've represented work with. They very, very reluctant and
- 57:31suspicious of the justice system and the legal system, rather In
- 57:35general they don't want you involved the newer breeds in the
- 57:37last few years, you know sophisticated High net worth
- 57:41individuals, they say this is BS.
- 57:43You know these rules, they're imposing these exchanges and how
- 57:45they're they're totally screwing us on many levels.
- 57:49We're going to involve, we're going to fight this because
- 57:50we're right in the law is on our side.
- 57:52And once you do that, and once enough people do that, you
- 57:55again, you set up those test cases in those precedents moving
- 57:58forward. So I say, for chokepoint 2.0,
- 58:01bring it on. We'll fight him in the
- 58:02courtrooms and we will eventually win.
- 58:04That's Maybe I'm overly naive and optimistic but I believe it,
- 58:08there we go. Yes, okay all right Joe, I
- 58:11really appreciate I really appreciate you saying it that
- 58:15way. And yeah, I completely agree.
- 58:19You know, Cory has the theory the race to avoid the war, you
- 58:22know, we want a transient majority of 10 million
- 58:26bitcoiners in the United States. So that if there's any, you
- 58:30know, potential anti Bitcoin regulation, you know, Coming up.
- 58:35It just becomes impossible possible to pass just like the
- 58:37just like the gun lobby, right? Try passing a gun law in the
- 58:40u.s. it's literally like almost impossible.
- 58:42Exactly. So yeah, Joe and that was very
- 58:45inspirational answer and I'm very, very glad that you gave us
- 58:48your outlook on that side because not that many people
- 58:51have, you know, the that that perspective on things,
- 58:55especially because of where you work in your field.
- 58:59So to end guys just kind of wrap it up and you know, to at least
- 59:04provide Value to our listeners. In the end of the wrapping up of
- 59:08this conversation. What do you?
- 59:12Let's start off with you, dr. Ross, what are you looking at
- 59:15nowadays? What is, what is the most
- 59:17interesting thing? And what piece of advice, not
- 59:19Financial advice, just piece of advice.
- 59:21Friendly advice, would you give to anybody heading into the next
- 59:266 to 12 months? Who has a good?
- 59:30That's a good question. Well, I think anybody who's been
- 59:32paying attention at all, realizes that something is up,
- 59:34right? When you see Banks collapse,
- 59:36that's not normal. When you see, you know, people
- 59:39talking about recession and people starting to panic a
- 59:41little bit. None of this is normal.
- 59:43This is, this is kind of the downside of these these asset
- 59:46bubbles, that get inflated. Now, we're seeing them get
- 59:49deflated and, you know, down right pop that can make life
- 59:52difficult for people. And so I would just challenge
- 59:54people to, you know, really think hard about how you Can
- 59:58protect yourself and your family and your purchasing power in the
- 1:00:02near term in the coming year. If we have a tumultuous coming
- 1:00:05year, if the economy gets really rough, if people start losing
- 1:00:09their jobs, men do everything. You can to keep your job, you
- 1:00:13know, keep your head down. I would strongly recommend
- 1:00:17considering to figure out what what makes Bitcoin and I would
- 1:00:22even throw a gold in there if you want to especially for older
- 1:00:24folks. What makes those different wire?
- 1:00:27Why do we call? All those hard money.
- 1:00:28What's different about Bitcoin? Compared to government Fiat?
- 1:00:32And if Fiat is basically programmed to take your
- 1:00:35purchasing power methodically year-over-year, what are some
- 1:00:39ways that you can actually, preserve your purchasing power?
- 1:00:42It's different for everybody, you know, I come from the
- 1:00:44finance industry. So so I grew up talking about
- 1:00:47stocks and bonds and thinking about things like that in real
- 1:00:49estate and whatnot. But there are, there is a kind
- 1:00:52of money that literally it was designed to not only protect,
- 1:00:56but appreciate your purchase. And power over time.
- 1:00:59And so I would consider looking into that and taking the time to
- 1:01:01learn a little bit more about Bitcoin, especially over the
- 1:01:04coming six to 12 months and thank you.
- 1:01:07Thank you, dr. Ross and same question to you.
- 1:01:09Joe, is there any indicators or anything that you know, is on
- 1:01:13your radar that you're looking at?
- 1:01:14Is that the unemployment rate? What are you looking at and what
- 1:01:17piece of advice, would you give to Friendly advice?
- 1:01:20Not Financial advice to anybody watching the show, heading into
- 1:01:24the next 6 to 12 months? Well, thanks again for having me
- 1:01:27on, what L say is this. Let me give you two things just
- 1:01:30to look at in terms of the broader crypto landscape.
- 1:01:32So I still think you're going to see a series of new enforcement
- 1:01:36actions filed. We've only seen the tip of the
- 1:01:38iceberg over the next say 90 to 120 days.
- 1:01:41Most notably the coinbase filing when you get that filing, okay?
- 1:01:44When it comes out, a scroll to the end and and there's
- 1:01:47something called the prayer for relief in before you read the
- 1:01:49bad news articles about you know, legal journalism and
- 1:01:52whatnot. Read the prayer for relief in
- 1:01:54that complaint that's filed by the SEC.
- 1:01:56See how broad it is? See if it seeks an order asking
- 1:01:59coinbase to suspend their exchange or suspend, the trade a
- 1:02:03certain assets that's going to be huge.
- 1:02:05I mean, that could be an existential threat for coinbase
- 1:02:07and every other public Exchange in the United States.
- 1:02:09So that's really key. It's probably the biggest story
- 1:02:11in quote, unquote, crypto as we move forward.
- 1:02:14But for the economy, okay, which is, I think what you're trying
- 1:02:17to get mostly at with it, with your question, the two things
- 1:02:20that I'm looking at again, continue to be the credit
- 1:02:22markets. I still have seen, you know, the
- 1:02:26Spreads hold up reasonably. Well, I expect those to blow out
- 1:02:29at some point this summer. As we get closer to a recession,
- 1:02:33I think unemployment will be the last thing that really gets this
- 1:02:36accelerate first. You know, there's a sequence of
- 1:02:38all this first is the credit deterioration and once the
- 1:02:41credit deteriorates, then companies which have are starved
- 1:02:44to that credit then they have to start letting go of workers.
- 1:02:47And I think because of shortages in the labor market and the fear
- 1:02:50of not having workers, they're going to prolong people on the
- 1:02:53payrolls for much longer than they.
- 1:02:54Probably should they're going to err on the side of keeping
- 1:02:56people. Unemployed probably into the
- 1:02:57later part of this year, but those credit spreads are key.
- 1:03:02Any metric, you want to look at it, will all tell you the same
- 1:03:04story. Look at those private credit,
- 1:03:05spreads, particularly at the high yield.
- 1:03:07And and then the other thing which I think is far more
- 1:03:09leading and important to look at is look at some of the commodity
- 1:03:12prices, look at the action and copper and oil.
- 1:03:15And if you notice noted today, what everybody's talking about
- 1:03:18the banks and the Regional Bank blow up to me what was far more
- 1:03:22interesting is what's going on with the XLE, which is the
- 1:03:24energy sector ETF. And Also, the price of oil,
- 1:03:27right? You you will recall a few weeks
- 1:03:29back. I think it was the Saudis
- 1:03:30announce those production cuts and they were trying to shore up
- 1:03:33the oil Market to say listen we need to, we need to make sure we
- 1:03:36maintain price stability. It popped, then went straight
- 1:03:40down, right? It's been a freefall selling
- 1:03:42mode, which aisle is so important to lifeblood of our
- 1:03:44economy and it's not bullish. That oil is selling off like
- 1:03:48that, right? If we were entering a new growth
- 1:03:50cycle if China reopening was going to propel us to a
- 1:03:52long-term economic growth period for the next two years, Nazi oil
- 1:03:57for performing like it is right now.
- 1:03:59So if you want to pull those things up high yield spreads oil
- 1:04:02copper, they'll tell you the signal in a bar before the stock
- 1:04:06market, or the S&P 500, which isn't particularly meaningful on
- 1:04:09economic growth, interesting. Well, Joe dr.
- 1:04:14Ross, it's truly been a privilege to have you guys
- 1:04:16together on this simply Bitcoin IRL.
- 1:04:19Thank you guys so much for coming on the show, dr.
- 1:04:21Ross, wedding and tell everybody where they could find you on the
- 1:04:23interwebs and then we'll move on to Joe.
- 1:04:25Sure. So I'm I'm on Twitter all the
- 1:04:27time, you can find me. My handle is at Vail shower cap
- 1:04:30other or you can also, you know, I run a hedge fund and
- 1:04:34investment advisory that's at Vail share.com, if you're
- 1:04:37interested, you can actually shoot me an e-mail directly.
- 1:04:39If you're interested to know more about that, info at Vale
- 1:04:42Shire.com, and I just got to say, Nico, thanks so much for
- 1:04:45having me again and having me on with Joe love.
- 1:04:48Doing these kind of things with Joe.
- 1:04:49He's brilliant and and really fun to talk to.
- 1:04:52So thanks for. Thanks for having me on always
- 1:04:54dr. Ross and hope to hope to have On
- 1:04:56again, in the future as well. So what about you Joe?
- 1:04:58Where can people find you on the interwebs?
- 1:05:01Yeah, I my Twitter is at joão Carlos re probably easier way if
- 1:05:04you Google me, you'll see my firm.
- 1:05:07It'll pop up amundsen Davis. I'm a partner there and I didn't
- 1:05:10mention that I need to do that. I specialize in litigated
- 1:05:13disputes involving you know, commercial transactions,
- 1:05:17commercial entities, anything with respect to breaches of
- 1:05:19fiduciary duty contract disputes.
- 1:05:22So if you have a litigator dispute and your Bitcoin ER
- 1:05:24please reach out. I'd love to help you and fight.
- 1:05:26Pretty hard for you in the courtroom awesome.
- 1:05:28Well gentlemen, thank you again for joining me on simply Bitcoin
- 1:05:31IRL if you don't mind hanging out backstage for a second.
- 1:05:33While I wrap it up, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in.
- 1:05:36Shout-out to the Bitcoin companies that make this show.
- 1:05:38Possible Swan best place to build your Bitcoin stack and of
- 1:05:41course, the biggest Bitcoin conference on the face of your
- 1:05:43Bitcoin. 2023 will see you tomorrow for the live show.
- 1:05:4712:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
- 1:05:49See you guys tomorrow.