Latest / Austin Signal / Georgetown voters to decide on selling part of water system

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Georgetown voters to decide on selling part of water system · Austin Signal

0:08
It is Election Day tomorrow in
0:10
Central Texas, and while not
0:11
everyone is voting this go-round,
0:13
voters in Georgetown will decide
0:15
whether to sell off parts of their
0:17
water system.
0:18
The parts up for consideration lay
0:20
outside the city limits, and
0:21
the election comes as Georgetown is
0:23
looking to manage rising costs.
0:25
And the construction that had been
0:27
ongoing at the Austin Surf Club
0:29
near the airport has come to a stop,
0:30
and now the developers behind the
0:32
rejuvenation reportedly owe millions
0:34
in liens.
0:35
We've got more about these stories
0:37
coming up on today's show.
0:39
The Austin Signal is a production
0:40
of KUT News, hosted by
0:43
Jerry Quijano.
0:44
And actor and Austinite Ben
0:45
McKenzie's new documentary takes a
0:47
hard look at the world of
0:48
cryptocurrency.
0:50
The title is Everyone is Lying to
0:51
You for Money.
0:53
We're gonna chat about his film and
0:54
his appearance this weekend at the
0:56
KUT Festival.
0:58
That's next on Austin Signal.
1:08
Howdy out there, you are listening
1:10
to Austin Signal.
1:11
I'm your host Jerry Quijano.
1:13
It is the first Friday of the
1:15
month, May 1st.
1:16
We are already one-third of the
1:18
way through 2026.
1:20
Thanks for spending plenty of those
1:22
days here with community-powered
1:23
public radio.
1:25
This is KUT News.
1:28
Voters in Georgetown are deciding
1:29
this weekend whether or not to sell
1:31
parts of its water system to a
1:32
private provider, specifically parts
1:35
of the system that fall outside
1:37
Georgetown city limits.
1:38
It comes as the city is looking to
1:40
manage rising costs amid rapid
1:42
development in the area.
1:44
KUT's Williamson County reporter
1:46
Kaylee Hunt is with us now for
1:48
a preview of the election.
1:49
Kaylee, welcome to the show.
1:51
Hey, Jerry.
1:52
So can you tell us exactly
1:54
what is on the ballot that voters
1:55
are gonna be deciding on?
1:56
Yeah, so voters who live in
1:58
Georgetown, they will have the
2:00
opportunity to let the city
2:02
know if they want it to sell a
2:04
portion of its public water system
2:05
to a new private water
2:07
provider.
2:08
And if this does indeed passes,
2:10
who would be operating that new
2:12
system?
2:13
Yeah. So the city has selected
2:15
national utility infrastructure
2:17
as its preferred
2:19
buyer.
2:19
So that means if they do get
2:21
permission and that they could go
2:23
ahead and move forward with the sale
2:25
and yeah, national utility,
2:27
infrastructure is the
2:29
city says their top choice because
2:32
any new owner is just
2:34
getting the infrastructure like
2:36
pipes, right?
2:37
They're not actually getting the
2:38
water. So, they said
2:40
that they have been impressed
2:42
by...
2:43
National Utility Infrastructure's
2:45
plan for finding water for
2:47
the future.
2:48
Well, speaking of finding water for
2:50
the future, that's something that
2:51
lots of Central Texans are worried
2:52
about, lots of Texans in general.
2:54
What is the impetus for this
2:56
particular possible selling off
2:58
of this water system?
3:00
Yeah, I mean, Georgetown is
3:03
one of those cities that's been
3:05
struggling to find enough
3:07
water and keep up with its
3:08
residents' demands over time just
3:10
due to the population growth.
3:12
But the big important thing that
3:14
led up to this is that right
3:16
now, currently, about 40%
3:18
of Georgetown's water utility
3:20
customers currently live outside
3:22
the city.
3:23
And that dates back to 2014
3:25
when the city decided to acquire
3:28
the Chisholm Trail Special Utility
3:30
District. That means that they
3:32
provide water to nearby towns like
3:34
Florence and Gerald.
3:37
And so basically what the
3:39
city leaders are saying is that they
3:41
think these areas are gonna rapidly
3:43
develop in the coming years.
3:45
And although they don't have any
3:47
control over that growth, they
3:49
still have to legally provide water.
3:51
And so they're saying that's
3:53
becoming too much.
3:54
So they're looking to sell it off.
3:57
What would happen next if this
3:59
measure is approved by Georgetown
4:00
voters?
4:01
Yeah, so if the sale is
4:03
approved by voters, then the city
4:05
would go ahead, go
4:07
forward with their agreement with
4:09
national utility infrastructure.
4:11
But then they would also need
4:12
additional approval from the Texas
4:14
Public Utility Commission.
4:16
And that process, they say, could
4:17
take up to two years.
4:19
Well that is one thing that you'll
4:21
be watching with this election again
4:22
election day is tomorrow.
4:24
What else are you keeping your eyes
4:25
on in Williamson County.
4:27
Yeah, obviously the, the
4:29
election in Georgetown is kind of
4:30
the big, big ticket item this time
4:32
around for me, but I
4:34
will also be keeping an eye on
4:35
mayoral elections throughout
4:38
the county and also proposition
4:40
B and Round Rock.
4:41
All right, well we will be following
4:42
that and Kaylee Hunt will
4:44
bring you the latest when she has
4:46
it. She is KUT's Williamson County
4:48
reporter.
4:49
Kaylee, thanks for your reporting.
5:00
Well, it's raining on this Friday,
5:02
but the sun will be out soon enough.
5:04
And if you're hoping to catch some
5:05
waves near Austin any time soon,
5:07
well, you may have to keep your
5:09
surfboard in storage for the time
5:10
being.
5:11
A proposed inland surf park,
5:13
Austin Surf Club, has halted
5:15
construction and reportedly owes
5:17
millions to various companies
5:18
involved in the project.
5:20
Justin Sayers is covering the story
5:21
for the Austin Business Journal.
5:23
Justin, welcome back to Austin
5:24
Signal. Yeah, thanks again for
5:26
having us of course.
5:27
So, uh, can you give us a little bit
5:29
of backstory on this surf park?
5:30
I understand it's being built at the
5:32
site of an existing surf park.
5:34
How big is this space and and who's
5:35
behind this project?
5:36
Yeah, so for those long-time
5:38
Austinites, they might remember this
5:40
as the En Lin Surf Park.
5:42
I believe it closed in 2018 or 2019,
5:44
but that was open to the public.
5:47
A few years ago, Kelly Slater,
5:49
the famous surfer and entities
5:51
connected to him, purchased the site
5:53
to turn it into a private surf
5:55
club and luxury
5:57
houses and other amenities
5:59
like that, catering more
6:01
toward the wealthy.
6:02
We've reported that some of the
6:04
people that have bought into this
6:05
include Drew Brees and Matthew
6:06
McConaughey, so that's kind of the
6:08
clientele that it's aim indicator
6:10
to.
6:10
Okay, so give us a sense of the
6:12
timeline here.
6:12
When did work start on this new
6:14
construction, and when was
6:16
the project originally expected to
6:17
be completed?
6:18
Yeah, so they've never given an
6:20
exact timeline on when it was going
6:21
to be completed, but they've been
6:22
working on construction as
6:24
far as we can tell and flying our
6:26
drone and sending photographers and
6:28
reporters for at least a year.
6:30
What we had been hearing is that
6:32
this construction had halted over
6:34
the last couple months,
6:36
and we did the same, went out there
6:38
to look and then found those
6:40
liens and talked to the company who
6:42
acknowledged it. They have not given
6:44
a timeline on when it's gonna
6:45
restart and based on the statements
6:47
that they've given, it really does
6:49
feel like it's in a little bit of a
6:50
holding pattern until they kind
6:52
of reassess what they plan
6:54
for that site.
6:55
And they have said that this kind
6:57
of halting construction, the
6:59
Austin Serv Club representatives
7:00
have said this sort of thing is
7:01
normal, right?
7:02
It really depends on the project.
7:04
I mean, at least for these very
7:06
high scale, you know,
7:08
high capital investment projects, I
7:10
don't think that's out of the
7:11
ordinary.
7:12
I mean I'll give you the example of
7:13
Samsung up in Taylor.
7:15
It initially was supposed to open in
7:16
2022, and the first chips
7:18
are expected to roll off the line
7:19
this year.
7:20
So, you know, that's four years of
7:22
market factors and construction
7:24
slowing and geopolitical issues and
7:26
everything like that.
7:27
So I don t think it's out the
7:28
ordinary, you
7:30
know. When it restarts,
7:33
that's the question that we
7:35
would still love an answer to as
7:36
well.
7:37
As we read in your reporting, Austin
7:39
Surf Club now owes millions in
7:40
liens. How much do they owe and
7:42
how did that happen?
7:44
Yeah, so they owe, based
7:46
on our totaling of what's available
7:48
in public records, $4.6
7:49
million, and that is
7:51
to contractors that do
7:53
concrete or provide, you
7:55
know, items for
7:57
the surf park and mechanics
7:59
and other stuff like that.
8:00
Pipes and things like that, yeah.
8:01
Pipes, yeah, that was one of the
8:02
things that was in there, but they
8:05
basically, If a company files
8:07
this lien, they do so because they
8:09
haven't been paid.
8:11
As far as we can tell, those have
8:13
not been paid back, and the
8:15
companies that they were using were
8:16
all Austin area-based, so they
8:18
have not received those payments,
8:19
and we reached out to every single
8:21
one of them, and none of them wanted
8:22
to talk about it, so.
8:23
Okay, well, you reached out to
8:25
Austin's Surf Club, what did they
8:26
have to say?
8:27
Yeah, just going back to that
8:28
statement again, they said that
8:30
they're taking a step back and
8:32
reassessing the project and making
8:33
sure that it is high quality and
8:35
caters to that clientele that
8:37
they're trying to hit.
8:39
What they had planned, you know,
8:40
there are some things like a brewery
8:43
that did exist on the site that they
8:44
are repurposing, but it included
8:46
a couple other surf
8:48
basins and other stuff like that and
8:50
custom built homes.
8:51
So this is a complicated project.
8:53
The company that they're working
8:55
with, Discovery Landco, is very
8:57
much known for doing very
8:59
high-end projects.
9:00
They have another golf course and
9:02
luxury home development out in
9:04
Driftwood.
9:05
They actually have a downtown
9:07
club that's exclusive and
9:09
invite-only and member-only in
9:11
downtown Austin.
9:12
So if they're taking that pause,
9:14
you know, it's something that they
9:16
want to make sure that they adhere
9:18
to the quality that they are
9:20
accustomed to.
9:21
All right, we've been speaking with
9:22
Justin Sayers.
9:23
He's a senior staff writer with the
9:25
Austin Business Journal.
9:26
Great to talk to you again, Justin.
9:28
Yeah, thanks again for having us.
9:30
And into the Texas newsroom
9:32
today, or the KUT newsroom, I should
9:34
say, Texas hemp businesses can
9:36
keep selling their cannabis flower
9:38
and concentrate products while a
9:40
lawsuit on the state's new hemp
9:41
regulations plays out.
9:43
Travis County Judge granted today a
9:44
temporary injunction stopping Texas
9:47
health officials from enforcing a
9:49
new total Delta 9 THC
9:51
standard.
9:52
We have more coming up after
9:54
this break.
9:55
This is Austin Signal.
10:00
Welcome back, this is Austin Signal.
10:03
Well, today is May 1st, but it
10:04
has been a busy news weekend.
10:06
Before we leave April too far
10:08
behind, we wanna share the best
10:10
songs from April.
10:11
Here to help us out is Ryan Wen
10:13
from our sister station, KUTX.
10:16
Ryan, welcome back to the show.
10:17
Thanks for having me, Jerry.
10:18
So KUT Fest is coming up this
10:20
weekend. It's a really great
10:21
opportunity for people to
10:24
engage with Austin and to engage
10:25
within the Austin music experience.
10:27
One of the artists who is featured
10:29
and your list of best songs of
10:31
April is gonna be playing at the KUT
10:32
Fest.
10:33
Who is that it's none other
10:34
than shaky graves and what other
10:36
what better musician to
10:38
you know Represent what it is to be
10:40
an awesome musician to be at the KT
10:41
festival. It's honor for him to be
10:43
with us It's also a free show to see
10:45
shaky graves, which is you know,
10:47
quite a rare experience these days
10:48
to be honest You know, he's a
10:50
he's it's been about 15 years since
10:52
he released his debut record LP
10:54
roll the bones and since then
10:56
I mean he is
10:58
become one of the and I
11:00
think has and will endure
11:02
to be one of the most iconic,
11:04
you know, emblematic of
11:06
Austin music musicians in,
11:08
you now, he just, he represents
11:10
Austin, it's the sound of Austin.
11:13
And you know Shaggy Graves, he
11:15
kind of took the DIY approach a
11:17
little further than most have, you
11:18
know, like he started as kind of
11:20
this busker who
11:21
created his own homemade tambourine
11:23
bass drum.
11:25
Which he played, he's using like
11:27
every appendage available to him to
11:29
make his music.
11:30
And he still is like that, you know?
11:32
It's this like resolute commitment
11:34
to DIY,
11:36
doing things his own way.
11:37
And that shows in his latest single,
11:39
When the Love is New as well, which
11:40
is kind of a dusky
11:43
mood, which is not necessarily
11:45
typical of him.
11:46
And I think this is a really
11:47
interesting turn for him and I
11:49
highly recommend checking that out.
11:50
That's very cool.
11:51
We got to chat with Shaky Graves at
11:53
South by Southwest this year.
11:55
You can check that out at KUT.org
11:57
slash signal and you can find more
11:59
information about the fest at
12:01
KUTFestival.org.
12:04
Okay, Ryan, tell me about Magna
12:05
Carta. Tell us about their new song.
12:07
So their new song slide is
12:09
a, I mean, it's been a while
12:11
since we've heard, um, from Magna
12:13
Carta and, you know, they've proved
12:15
once again why they have been,
12:17
you know one of the greatest Austin
12:18
hip hop groups, you know, in the
12:20
last 10, 20 years.
12:21
And, uh, it it's kind of a
12:23
return to, I mean, if you haven't
12:25
heard Magna Carta, they, they have
12:26
been here since 2014.
12:28
They were one of the first, um
12:30
hip hop groups in Austin.
12:31
And like, since then, you know,
12:33
it a kind of
12:36
combination fusion with live jazz
12:38
music that has kind of proliferated
12:40
since they had been doing in 2014.
12:42
So they sound better than ever.
12:44
And Megs Kelly, who is the MC of
12:47
Magna Carta has proven
12:49
once again why she was voted best
12:51
rapper in Austin five years
12:53
in a row by the Austin Music Awards.
12:55
And she has a flow that is similar
12:57
to that like laid back groove,
12:59
that Ladybug Mecca, the female MC
13:01
from Digible Planet's ass.
13:03
And then she, you know, has this
13:04
like force and confidence of other
13:06
like 90s boom bap style
13:09
rappers as well.
13:10
So if you're into that kind of stuff
13:11
and also like really laid back jazz
13:13
and like vibraphones, electric
13:15
pianos, you know the
13:16
Rhodes electric piano sound, this is
13:18
definitely something you'd love.
13:20
Alright, well let's close it out
13:21
with the KUTX Artists of the
13:23
Month. We got to chat with them here
13:25
on the signal. That is Gran Moreno.
13:27
What's the song?
13:28
It's called Temple of Fire.
13:30
It's the centerpiece
13:33
single of their first EP,
13:35
El Sol.
13:36
It kind of reminds me of this,
13:38
I would call forsaken style
13:40
of psych rock.
13:41
They used to be big in Austin,
13:43
in the early era of Austin Psych
13:45
Fest, which is also coming up soon.
13:47
But it reminds me the sword a little
13:49
bit. I wouldn't call the music metal
13:51
per se. I would have called it more
13:53
like psychedelic rock.
13:55
But it has that kind of
13:57
you know, uh, those like pummeling
14:00
doom chords of bands like Black
14:01
Sabbath, but also like very
14:03
introspective lyrics.
14:05
So it's this interesting fusion of
14:06
those sounds and it's a
14:08
two piece too, which is really
14:09
impressive. Like they make a huge
14:11
sound for that.
14:12
And really they're
14:15
one of the best heavy bands in
14:16
Austin right now, for sure.
14:17
Recently moved here from Mexico city
14:19
and something that I don't think is
14:21
talked about enough in the world of
14:22
heavy music and heavy metal
14:23
generally.
14:24
Is that all of the major
14:26
developments of heavy metal music,
14:28
a lot of it, almost all of it
14:30
has been, you know, begun
14:32
with people who have roots in
14:34
Central America.
14:35
Bands like Slayer, Metallica,
14:38
have a huge Latin American presence
14:39
and I think Gran Moreno came from a
14:41
place that like still cultivates
14:43
that sound and you can really hear
14:44
it in their music. It's like, they
14:46
understand it better than a lot of
14:48
Americans do these days, at least.
14:49
All right, well, that is three song
14:51
recommendations right there.
14:52
We have even more for you in the
14:54
podcast Show Notes and at
14:56
KUTX.org.
14:58
We've been chatting with Ryan Wen.
14:59
He's a producer and host for our
15:01
sister station, KUTx.
15:03
Ryan, thanks for the
15:04
recommendations.
15:04
Thanks, Jerry.
15:14
Austin is a hub for the tech
15:16
industry, with many folks making the
15:17
city their home for precisely that
15:19
kind of work, so it's likely
15:21
that you have heard about
15:22
cryptocurrency.
15:23
Perhaps you heard about investing in
15:25
it from someone you know, like our
15:26
next guest actor and homegrown
15:28
Austinite Ben McKenzie.
15:30
Ben took that conversation along
15:31
with his degree in economics and did
15:33
some digging into crypto.
15:35
The result?
15:36
A New York Times bestseller and the
15:38
new documentary Everyone is Lying to
15:39
You for Money, showing through at
15:41
least next week out at Austin Film
15:43
Society.
15:44
Ben is here with us on Austin
15:46
Signal. Thanks for taking the time.
15:47
Oh, thank you for having me.
15:48
Well, you really enjoyed your movie
15:50
and so we want to dive right in.
15:52
In the movie, you call yourself an
15:53
undercover econ dork.
15:55
How did your experience
15:57
in the economics field help
15:59
you out in this endeavor?
16:01
Well, yeah, I had a...
16:02
I received an economics degree
16:05
from the University of Virginia and
16:07
then promptly went into showbiz.
16:09
And so nobody, I haven't,
16:11
I didn't really use it, right?
16:12
Nobody wants to talk about the
16:13
dismal science around the craft
16:14
service table, but it
16:16
was the pandemic and I was extremely
16:18
bored. Showbiz was on ice and
16:20
a buddy of mine came to me
16:23
and said I should buy Bitcoin and
16:24
it was everywhere, right.
16:26
The celebrities were selling it.
16:28
There was so much speculation.
16:31
And I think a lot of people had this
16:33
experience of having someone try to
16:34
sell it to them.
16:35
But my buddy had given me bad
16:37
financial advice before.
16:39
He'd encouraged me to invest in a
16:41
penny stock and we
16:43
both lost some money.
16:44
And so when Dave came to me,
16:45
I said, Dave, I'm not gonna buy it,
16:47
but what is it?
16:48
And he couldn't really describe it
16:50
to me. And so I dusted off
16:52
this econ degree and
16:54
the more I looked at it, the more
16:55
just I became obsessed with it.
16:57
I've always loved Behavioral
16:59
economics, which is the study of
17:01
how people actually behave.
17:03
We are not rational.
17:04
It's a shocker And
17:06
which leads to manias and
17:08
speculation and all sorts of frauds
17:10
and schemes and I also love true
17:11
crime I've always loved true crime.
17:13
I like a particular sub
17:15
genre that I call stupid crime
17:17
where People are
17:19
sort of obviously committing crimes
17:21
Sometimes via tweets and then they
17:23
turn on each other sort of cohen
17:24
brothers as crime and crypto had a
17:25
lot of that
17:26
Did you ever envision yourself as a
17:28
journalist? Because you kind of
17:29
become a journalist in this film,
17:31
talking to people who are leading
17:33
companies, but as well as people who
17:34
have been swindled out of their
17:36
hard-earned money.
17:37
How did you, what was your approach
17:39
from a journalistic view in this
17:40
documentary?
17:41
Yeah, I did not consider myself
17:44
a journalist because I hadn't ever
17:45
practiced the profession, but I did
17:47
team up with the journalist, Jacob
17:48
Silverman.
17:49
I reached out to him in
17:51
the summer of 2021 and
17:53
said, I've got this crazy idea, but
17:55
I think crypto is gonna crash and
17:57
I really wanna write a book about
17:58
it. I don't know why I started with
18:00
book rather than film.
18:01
Maybe it was because of the
18:02
pandemic, but.
18:03
Maybe that's because you expect
18:04
that's how it should go, right?
18:05
You start with the book, and then
18:06
the book becomes the movie.
18:07
Yeah, something like that.
18:09
Anyway, Jacob was fantastic.
18:11
And Jacob and I wrote several
18:12
articles for Slate and the
18:13
Washington Post, the Intercept.
18:16
And so I learned from him
18:17
how to be a journalist.
18:20
And I have to say I'm really,
18:23
you know, journalism,
18:25
particularly independent journalism,
18:26
is so crucial to
18:28
look at these manias
18:30
and, quite frankly, frauds, as
18:32
I would describe cryptocurrency, In
18:34
order to to get around
18:36
what unfortunately happens with a
18:37
lot of corporate media, which is
18:39
they just sort of swallow the
18:41
talking points of whoever
18:43
is selling them on this, and
18:45
I mean that selling,
18:47
without really going underneath the
18:49
surface. So I'm proud that Jacob and
18:51
I were able to do some good
18:51
reporting and also write
18:54
a book that I'm very proud of as
18:55
well.
18:55
I wanted to ask how you approach the
18:57
filmmaking for this particular
18:59
documentary. There is obviously the
19:00
aspect of the story that you're
19:01
following cryptocurrency, but to you
19:03
and your wife are actors as well.
19:05
And so there's sort of this meta
19:06
aspect to the documentary.
19:09
Our KUT Festival, one of the panels
19:10
that's happening is how you
19:12
tell stories in this day and age.
19:14
How did you, you know, the world
19:16
of cryptocurrency is so confusing.
19:17
There's so much to kind of take in
19:19
and figure out with these crap coins
19:21
and all these other things.
19:22
How did you approach, how
19:24
am I gonna tell this story through
19:26
film?
19:26
Yeah, I wanted to go against what
19:29
most people would think if
19:31
you said, I'm making a documentary
19:32
about cryptocurrency.
19:33
They probably fall asleep as you're
19:35
delivering the line.
19:36
And so let's make this
19:38
fun. Let's make.
19:39
This fast. It's a 90 minute comedy
19:41
about how stupid this whole thing is
19:43
and really lean
19:45
into the sort of
19:47
strengths of crypto, which is that
19:48
most of it is sort of patently
19:50
absurd.
19:51
Right, you've got coins like, can I
19:53
curse on?
19:54
Not right now, but yeah.
19:56
That's why I said crap coins, you
19:57
know? Yeah, okay, exactly.
19:58
There's things like that that
20:00
abound, right?
20:00
Even though we're supposed to take
20:01
this industry extremely seriously
20:03
and it's supposed to be the future
20:04
of money, there's crap coins
20:05
everywhere.
20:06
So yeah, once we picked a genre, a
20:08
comedy, then it was about sort
20:11
of telling a story that the audience
20:12
could follow. Who's your
20:13
protagonist?
20:14
I chose myself because I
20:16
figured people might have a
20:17
relationship to me via
20:19
TV.
20:20
And so I make fun of myself
20:21
relentlessly as Ryan Atwood from the
20:23
OC, which is how people probably
20:25
know me.
20:26
But in fact, I'm a secret econ dork
20:28
and I'm very,
20:30
very proud of the movie.
20:31
I think it really came together
20:32
well.
20:32
You mentioned that this was kind of
20:34
birthed out of the pandemic, the
20:35
movie also features South by
20:37
Southwest 2022.
20:39
So it's been a few years
20:41
since you started this project and
20:42
have been continuing to work on the
20:43
project. How have you seen the
20:45
conversation around crypto and the
20:46
industry itself change since you
20:48
sought to kind of explore it more
20:50
and as you're of presenting the work
20:52
now.
20:52
Yeah, I mean, I think I've seen the
20:54
boom bust boom again, right.
20:57
In twenty twenty two, when
20:59
we came to South by crypto was
21:01
still very much in the
21:03
cultural conversation, but was
21:04
starting to go down.
21:05
And then over the summer, it started
21:07
to fall apart.
21:08
And by the fall, Sam Beckman
21:10
Fried, who I interviewed for the
21:11
documentary, was arrested and
21:13
was ultimately convicted of running
21:15
a fraud.
21:17
And so the industry was on, you
21:19
know, down and out. But then.
21:21
I would say in 2024 when Donald
21:23
Trump embraced cryptocurrency,
21:25
it has had this incredible
21:26
resurgence.
21:28
And I think that's worth thinking
21:32
about why that is.
21:34
I mean, it's sort of obvious
21:35
probably to many of your listeners
21:37
that if this thing is mainly
21:39
speculation for the retail public,
21:41
then it's basically in economics
21:42
what you call greater fool theory.
21:44
The price of a speculative
21:46
asset rises far beyond its
21:49
real-world value.
21:50
And so the price is really dictated
21:52
by, can you sell it to a
21:54
greater fool than yourself?
21:55
Which is a fun game until you end
21:57
up at the top and you're the last
21:59
idiot holding the bag.
22:02
So we've seen the boom bust here
22:04
in crypto again, and now
22:06
it's sort of
22:08
meandering around.
22:09
But at the same time, unfortunately,
22:12
because of the Trump
22:13
administration's embrace of crypto,
22:15
they have really managed
22:17
to get crypto further into our
22:18
regulated financial system.
22:20
Which is something that really does
22:22
concern me on a serious note in
22:24
the documentary I show how when I
22:26
testified to Congress in 2022 I
22:28
said, you know if we get crypto
22:29
further into our banking system
22:31
There will be hell to pay and
22:33
sure enough three months later Three
22:35
banks failed in the US all tied
22:37
to crypto. I'm worried that as
22:39
it gets further into a system if
22:40
it were to crash again We
22:43
could be even worse and we
22:44
could end up basically recreating
22:46
the subprime crisis and bailing all
22:48
these guys out
22:49
There were lots of regular people
22:51
who lost money on crypto that
22:53
you interviewed for your story and
22:54
they talk about their loss but they
22:56
also talk about still believing in
22:57
the industry.
22:59
What did you think about that when
23:01
you spoke to them?
23:03
I was deeply affected
23:05
by that.
23:07
When I was speaking to the victims
23:08
of a particular scam called Celsius,
23:11
I asked them, well first
23:13
I wanted to understand why they
23:14
invested. And some of their stories
23:15
were so heartbreakingly
23:18
sincere.
23:19
One guy who lived in
23:21
Fort Worth was talking about how he
23:23
just wanted to have a little extra
23:23
money so he could spend time with
23:25
his daughter.
23:27
Sorry, getting emotional.
23:28
And he felt like he let her down.
23:30
And I'm a father.
23:32
I can relate to that
23:34
And so it was really touching and
23:36
then at the end though I came back
23:37
to these guys and asked do you still
23:38
believe in cryptocurrency having
23:40
lost sometimes their life savings?
23:42
They all to a man and it was all men
23:44
said yes So
23:46
I didn't really make the movie for
23:48
that five to six percent of the
23:49
population. That's really into
23:51
crypto Unfortunately, there's
23:51
nothing I can say or anyone else can
23:53
say that's going to convince them
23:54
that they may be wrong
23:57
I made it for the 84% of the country
23:59
that basically has heard about
24:00
crypto but doesn't really know
24:01
anything about it.
24:02
And so I wanted to demystify it and
24:04
quite frankly make fun of it.
24:05
Yeah, and last question before you
24:07
get out of here. You do make fun of
24:08
yourself a lot and as a way of
24:10
getting your point across for the
24:12
folks on the other side of the
24:14
argument.
24:14
So the people who continue to argue
24:16
for crypto.
24:17
What would you say to them.
24:19
I would say there's a great movie in
24:20
the.
24:20
Theaters called Everyone is Lying
24:22
to You for Money.
24:23
It's a 90-minute comedy.
24:25
Go see it, and if you still believe
24:26
in crypto, well, I think you know,
24:29
well, you might be part of
24:31
a cult.
24:32
Well, everyone is lying to you
24:34
for money is still showing at Austin
24:36
Film Society. And in fact, Ben will
24:38
be at tonight's eight o'clock
24:39
screening and we'll stick around for
24:40
a Q&A.
24:41
And if you want to hear even more
24:43
about this topic, Ben is joining us
24:44
tomorrow at the KUT Festival to
24:46
chat with Texas standards David
24:47
Brown. The whole fest is a free
24:49
event. You only need to RSVP.
24:52
We're going to have a link to sign
24:53
up in today's show notes.
24:54
Again, we've been speaking with Ben
24:55
McKenzie.
24:56
He is the director of Everyone is
24:58
Lying to You for Your Money.
25:00
For money, that's tonight at eight
25:01
o'clock. At Austin Film Society.
25:04
Ben, congrats on your film.
25:05
Thank you for your time.
25:06
Thank you.
25:06
And thank you for tuning in out
25:08
there to Austin Signal.
25:10
We've had a lot going on here in
25:12
Austin this week so check out
25:13
everything we reported on at kut.org
25:16
Have a great weekend!