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E98: Big tech starts making cuts, Fed incompetency, global debt, Russia/Ukraine & more

October 01, 2022 / 01:19:38

This episode of the All In podcast covers the current state of big tech companies, layoffs, and the economic outlook. The hosts discuss Meta's hiring freeze, Apple's production cuts, and Google's productivity concerns. Guests include Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and Erik Finman.

The conversation begins with a light-hearted exchange about personal appearances and then shifts to serious topics, including Meta's announcement of reduced headcount for the first time in its history. Chamath Palihapitiya emphasizes that this marks the end of an era of rapid growth for big tech companies.

Jason Calacanis recalls his experiences in Silicon Valley during the dot-com bubble and how the current climate mirrors that period. He notes that big companies are tightening their belts, which will affect startups and the job market.

David Sacks discusses the implications of these changes for the startup ecosystem, suggesting that talent will consolidate among stronger companies. The group also reflects on the broader economic landscape, including inflation and potential recession.

The episode concludes with a discussion on geopolitical risks, particularly regarding the Ukraine conflict, and how these factors may impact market stability and investor sentiment.

TL;DR

Big tech faces layoffs and economic uncertainty, impacting startups and the job market.

Video

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hey everybody Welcome to episode 98 of
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the all in podcast with us again
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the Sultan of science the queen of
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quinoa looks like he brought a trucker
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hat what what are you getting jealous of
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the Montclair hat or are you just not
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bathing anymore I haven't had a haircut
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in like six weeks I'm getting my hair
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cut this afternoon it's not gonna make a
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difference I think what Friedberg is
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trying to tell us is that he is the
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Zodiac Killer
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it's long been known
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all right there he is the unibar uh all
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right uh and Montclair sax is here with
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his 400 Montclair hat
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and of course the dictator himself I
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asked Ron I asked Ron to cut my hair so
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that the white patch is more prominent I
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think he did a good job do you add the
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white patch with coloring or is it uh no
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it's natural it's just there it's just
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there make it look so odd if you were
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doing it on purpose it's super random I
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like the way it looks I like the way it
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looks Jay Leno had a look like that I'm
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about to go by the way you know this in
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the fall it truffle season I like to
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grow it so that it's more wavy white for
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white truffle season got it I needed to
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have a reset cut so then we could grow
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it wavy
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for the fall for truffle season listen
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sir moth the only thing less relevant to
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us than your cashmere sweaters is your
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haircut
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[Music]
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[Music]
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I believe
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all right second now it's the hiring
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freeze and a reorg at meta he also said
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meta will reduce head count for the
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first time in its history
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medicine count in 2023 will be smaller
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than it was this year he called it the
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end of an era of rapid growth this on
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top of uh Apple reporting and apple got
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walloped in the market for the first
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time in forever uh Apple pullback iPhone
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production for the 14 after slower that
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anticipated demand as I mentioned on
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previous episodes they've kind of done a
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gentleman's layoff
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similar to I think meta in that Apple
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said you have to be back in the office
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three days a week a bunch of people quit
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so uh you don't have to pay them I guess
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huge packages when they quit that way
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Google CEO Sundar pichai also called out
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employees in July as you guys all read
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and he wrote there are real concerns
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that our productivity as a whole is not
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where it needs to be for the head count
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we have Google of course 174
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000 employees so I guess the question I
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have for you is are these the last
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Towers to fall chamoth in this uh
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pullback that we've seen these are
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companies that don't need to do the
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layoffs they have tons of cash so
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they're obviously doing that to maintain
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earnings uh one would and to maybe send
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a signal to employees that they need to
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work harder what's your read on these
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this past week's shoes to drop well it
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definitely is the end of an era I think
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it is sort of like the the end of this
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phase of big Tech where you had this you
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know unfettered growth where these
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business models were largely
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unassailable and they you know we're
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really just fighting to grow into their
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valuation and just generate more Revenue
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to justify where they
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um where they traded at
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and now it's this next phase where they
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have to operate more like a cash cow
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business and so you know it's an
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acknowledgment that the growth is
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tapering
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it's an acknowledgment that they're
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going to trade on a pretty tight band in
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terms of multiple which means that they
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have to manage expenses much more
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tightly which means that they can't have
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a really broad-based
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surface area in which to operate an
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experiment you have to keep the
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experiments small
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you have to manage your expenses you
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can't have employees basically you know
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run over the place management has to
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have a firm hand in in dictating
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strategy and what people work on
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so I think all of that signals that I
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actually Jason I don't think this is the
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end I actually think it's the beginning
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because these companies Apple Facebook
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Google
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maybe a little bit Microsoft
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are the most sensitive to valuation
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because they are the most widely held
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right these are the these are the you
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know the equivalent of U.S treasuries in
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the equity markets the safest most
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predictable Safe Haven in times of
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stress if you want to own big chunky
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cash flow generating businesses that you
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know are relatively unassailable you
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couldn't pick four better businesses
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than those and so the fact that they see
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enough in the Horizon to say that we
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need to batten down the hatches should
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be a warning to everybody else
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uh Freeburg is it as simple as this that
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the they're moving from Top Line growth
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to bottom line and they're going to need
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to look at the expenses what's your read
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on this for Silicon Valley well I just
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want to zoom out for a second because
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I remember I started working in Silicon
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Valley in 2001
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you guys are a little older than me I
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think but like we were right at the kind
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of year one of the.com implosion and all
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the Fallout that happened from all the
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funding that happened from 97 to 99 and
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2000.
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and so from 01 to O3 it was super like
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deflationary everyone was cutting costs
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and all the money that had been raised
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was kind of being pissed away or
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companies were liquidating and you know
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so on and then starting in 2004 which is
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actually when I joined Google but there
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was also this big movement starting 0304
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of like what people called Web 2 then
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kind of new business models and new
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businesses started to emerge that seemed
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to have real traction and real legs and
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it was a different story and a much more
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rational story than what you saw leading
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up to kind of 2000 2001.
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and it was around that time when Google
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started offering these crazy benefits
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right it was like there's a gym and free
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food and all these amazing workplace and
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suddenly everyone had to do that to keep
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up right Facebook obviously mimicked it
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all the other big companies mimicked it
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and then it became Mainstay and they
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also raised compensation in the valley
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significantly because Google had really
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cracked a nut on how to extract value
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from the internet and it really changed
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everything in Silicon Valley and changed
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everything in Tech because suddenly
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every tech company whether you were
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Enterprise software or Hardware or an
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internet eCommerce site to be
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competitive and hire great talent you
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have to have the same sort of
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environment High wages
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great salaries really share the value
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with your employees you know gyms and
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free food and all this sort of stuff so
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it's the first time I think in a
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generation since like 2003 2004 that
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we're seeing things start to turn the
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other way where instead of adding more
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benefits you know making things more
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attractive giving more value to
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employees we're really seeing the
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recession hit these kind of leading
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indicators of how things are going to be
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in the valley and as a result I think we
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should expect to see a similar impact on
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compensation on benefits on value share
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and on kind of proclivity to hire an
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opportunity to kind of jump jobs and you
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know opportunities that we've all kind
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of taken for granted over the past 18
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years and this is going to be a real
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shock to a lot of people that work in
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Tech and a lot of people that have
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gotten used to the idea that every
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company offers great benefits there's
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always another job to jump to that'll
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pay you more and that that as that
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engine of growth that was really driven
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by these big companies by Google
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Facebook Apple starts to slow no one
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needs to compete with them anymore as
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much and the compensation bands get
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tighter and the option value gets
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Tighter and the free stuff gets tighter
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so it's the end of an era and I think
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it's a new world for tech and and
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Silicon Valley sex what are your
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thoughts here in terms of startups in
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relation to Big Tech maybe having these
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austerity measures kick in and a
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refocusing on profitability the big
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takeaway here is just that nobody is
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safe and it's not just starts to have to
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you know tighten their belts it's these
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big companies too and I think we're
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headed for a broad-based recession
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that's what it seems like you saw
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druckenmiller's comments this week
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predicting a hard Landing in 2023 no
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one's talking about soft Landing anymore
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in fact I think we're all wondering
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who's flying the plane so I think we're
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headed for a pretty big recession and I
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just take it in a slightly different
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direction I'm down here in La had dinner
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the other night with a friend who's a
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showrunner in Hollywood and so a
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showrunner basically is like the head
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writer and they basically put together
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the writing team and the you know the
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content for a show and then they sell
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them to networks he said that like no
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one is buying anything anymore here that
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last year you had there was tremendous
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you know activity and you saw like the
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The Game of Thrones guys you know uh DND
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they got like a 300 million dollar deal
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from Netflix and Shonda Rhimes yes they
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did yeah they got like these they were
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massive multi-hundred Million Dollar
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Deals being made last year and that was
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just for like future writing deals like
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Netflix wasn't even buying libraries
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when they did those deals they were
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locking down talent for the next day
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yeah exactly so all of that has stopped
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and the reason is that Netflix's stock
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has been hammered right and only so they
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not have the capital to do those kinds
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of crazy deals anymore but they know
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that Wall Street is watching them and so
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fundamentally they're questioning
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whether a business model even works if
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they have to spend that much money on
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content so then all of Netflix's
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competitors basically have stopped so
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this whole like frothy environment that
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you had for in Hollywood last year
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that's just over the faucet's been
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turned off and it's not even turned off
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to a trickle it's just stopped so you
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think that this like massive asset
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bubble that we had last year was just in
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crypto and growth stocks it's not I
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think it actually trickled down into the
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real economy because Netflix is one of
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those gross stocks the money then flowed
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into writers in Hollywood and then lots
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of other places this is one small
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example right that that this asset
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bubble wasn't purely just something
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that's going to be localized to crypto
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it affects real people in the real
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economy and we are just beginning to see
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the unwind of that
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yeah what's absolutely correct I think
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is people were more risk taking they had
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free Capital they wanted to place more
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bets and sure why wouldn't you bet on
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the Game of Thrones writers for the next
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decade but looking at this is going to
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be fantastic for startups I mean the
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startups I've worked with over the last
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five years have been they always come to
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me oh I got a developer but this
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person's got three offers from you know
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Facebook Google and they're like how do
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I land this person they got 300
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000 a year offering a million dollars in
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rsus and
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basically Founders had to say no I can't
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get that person and so they had to get
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creative and they would hire people
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Ukraine Uruguay everywhere in between to
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try to find developer talent and they
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had to get creative now all of those
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people are not going to have four job
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offers they're going to have no job
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offer so they may have gotten laid off
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uh and those crazy
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unrealistic out of school deals are
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going to be gone and this means massive
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consolidation of talent you look at the
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startups uh Community right now
00:11:04
tons of companies are just going out of
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business they're packing it in those
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people are going to go work at the other
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startups that are stronger so whoever
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makes it out of this as a startup this
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is how the cycle restarts is Talent then
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consolidates on the winners it would be
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like taking the NBA and getting rid of
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the bottom you know 10 teams and just
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telling the best players there move up
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to the other teams and uh everybody else
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you're out of the league so I I think
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this is incredible setup for 2023 for
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startups to consolidate Talent so I'm
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I'm actually excited yes it's another
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data point that again I said it last
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week I'll go out on a limb and predict
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my equivalent November fall predictions
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last fall it was at the markets were
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going to Coop the bed
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my prediction now is that I think the
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markets are bottoming and consolidating
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yep 100 and this is the time I think to
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start nibbling and start getting ready
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to really rip the money in and I think
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there's enough signals every day that
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kind of like tell me at least that on
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the margin
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it's time because I think the markets do
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a reasonably good job of digesting news
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and then pricing the forward reality
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right like today's price is really
00:12:12
everything we already know and so the
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real guess is what's about to happen in
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the future and from my perspective
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I'm actually pretty starting to get a
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little constructive here I think that um
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when when companies like Facebook really
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do this and you know like if you think
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about it one way the financial markets
00:12:29
have always had this thing that we have
00:12:32
called the fed put what does that mean a
00:12:33
put is essentially the right to sell
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something
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and what Market participants have always
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known for the last decade is that if
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things got very hairy if there was
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uncertainty in the market the Federal
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Reserve would and they have consistently
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stepped in to create a buyer of Last
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Resort and so it always eliminated that
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last part of true
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you know Supply demand balance because
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they would just come and say don't worry
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in many ways in Tech
00:13:02
what the big tech companies were were
00:13:04
that you know you could never really
00:13:06
find what the true market clearing price
00:13:08
for an engineer was or what the true
00:13:10
amount of expenses you should spend on
00:13:12
office space or you know free services
00:13:15
because you always always had these
00:13:17
companies which was an escalating arms
00:13:19
race you know if one company had a
00:13:21
massage
00:13:22
the next company had gyms in massage and
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physical therapists and the other
00:13:26
company would have buses to take you to
00:13:28
the gyms in massage and therapists in
00:13:30
the next company would have protein
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shakes that were freshly made you know
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and it just kept escalating and
00:13:34
escalating because the costs didn't
00:13:36
matter and they wanted if nothing else
00:13:40
to get that marginal engineer or product
00:13:43
manager or business person to work at
00:13:46
their company
00:13:47
which eliminated the risk that they
00:13:49
would actually start something to
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disrupt them
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blocker strategy is very real you should
00:13:54
on the blocker strategies is very real
00:13:55
so when you take this big Tech put
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out of the market
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you will get true price Discovery and
00:14:05
you will find out what the real price
00:14:06
should be for this kind of an engineer
00:14:09
that kind of a product manager you'll
00:14:11
find out what are the real expenses you
00:14:13
need to bear in order to build a real
00:14:14
lasting business and you'll be able to
00:14:17
sort through all of that stuff out so I
00:14:18
think it's a really good moment and
00:14:21
again it's yet another indication to me
00:14:23
that I think broadly speaking
00:14:25
the markets are now starting to
00:14:28
stabilize all the irrational Behavior is
00:14:31
starting to exit the system the party is
00:14:33
in the last few hours volumes going down
00:14:36
the alcohol has been taken away people
00:14:38
are hanging around with a little bit
00:14:39
lights are coming on they're like I've
00:14:41
been here a little too long
00:14:43
and I think that that's a very healthy
00:14:45
process for an economy and I think that
00:14:47
that's what's happening right now so I'm
00:14:49
constructive I'm a little bullish I'll
00:14:50
go I'll go out on a limb I think you
00:14:52
know we could be three to five percent
00:14:53
from the lows but we're more near the
00:14:55
lows than the highs it certainly feels
00:14:57
like the double bottoming out process
00:14:59
was the The Bouncing along the bottom
00:15:00
and yeah who knows how hard the landing
00:15:02
uh is but I think it's a great setup for
00:15:05
startups and people who want to start
00:15:07
companies I don't know if you saw a girl
00:15:08
who did a great interview
00:15:10
that trended on the Twitter and you're
00:15:13
just saying this is the best time to
00:15:14
start a company and I have to agree with
00:15:15
him like you're going to have talent
00:15:16
available and like who are you competing
00:15:19
against for buying ads like there's so
00:15:21
many marketing opportunities available
00:15:23
the first thing to go in a down market
00:15:25
like this is advertising and marketing
00:15:27
so and by the way we will we will also
00:15:30
relive what we have
00:15:33
empirically known to be true and it's
00:15:35
been it's been pretty well proven the
00:15:37
Investments that one makes in this
00:15:39
period will probably be the best for
00:15:42
many many years to come because they'll
00:15:43
have the most asymmetric upside and that
00:15:46
was true in 2008 and 9 and 10.
00:15:50
it was true in you know 2002 three and
00:15:53
four you I mean you're talking
00:15:55
incredible companies just in those two
00:15:56
periods think about this atlassian Tesla
00:15:59
Uber Google Airbnb Uber Instagram
00:16:02
WhatsApp incredible businesses that have
00:16:05
created tremendous value and so there
00:16:08
are businesses that have been invested
00:16:09
in
00:16:10
for the first time in 2022 and will be
00:16:13
invested in for the first time in 2023
00:16:16
and 24 which will be the leading winners
00:16:19
of this next phase and this next leg up
00:16:22
and so the real opportunity is to find
00:16:24
out who those companies are and get
00:16:26
behind them I think 100 as I always tell
00:16:28
people fortunes are made in the down
00:16:30
Market they're collected in the up
00:16:31
Market Freeburg what are your thoughts
00:16:33
here in terms of the startup Community
00:16:35
or company Builder uh and talent because
00:16:39
that that seems to be the piece that uh
00:16:41
could be a silver lining on all of this
00:16:43
uh Maelstrom that we're going through I
00:16:46
mean technology always marches forward
00:16:47
so there's always
00:16:50
you know there's always progress to be
00:16:52
to be had and to be made
00:16:55
that's one universal truth about
00:16:58
it's weird that we call it an industry
00:17:00
because a lot of technology companies in
00:17:02
Silicon Valley today
00:17:04
don't sell technology to other companies
00:17:06
which is how Silicon Valley started
00:17:08
nowadays Silicon Valley
00:17:10
is Reinventing other industries by being
00:17:12
technology LED
00:17:15
and that is certainly still true because
00:17:16
there are so many
00:17:18
I hate using the term but undisrupted
00:17:20
Industries
00:17:22
to pursue efficiency gains across and
00:17:24
Technology built in Silicon Valley can
00:17:27
can drive that now when I say Silicon
00:17:29
Valley I don't mean the physical
00:17:30
location anymore and that's the
00:17:32
confounding Factor here which is that
00:17:34
there does seem to be this
00:17:36
distribution opportunity that's also
00:17:38
emerged at the same time
00:17:41
where people are doing remote work and
00:17:43
work from home and distributed Workforce
00:17:46
models that seem to be highly effective
00:17:48
you guys talked about atlassian I don't
00:17:50
think they ever had an office right I
00:17:51
mean don't most of the people work from
00:17:52
home there
00:17:54
and I think that the success that's been
00:17:56
seen in software
00:17:58
companies that have operated that model
00:18:00
also changes the calculus because not
00:18:02
only are
00:18:04
are wages lower and therefore the cost
00:18:06
of operating is lower not needing a
00:18:08
fancy expensive office in San Francisco
00:18:09
is needed
00:18:11
but you can also access far more Talent
00:18:13
than you ever could before you don't
00:18:15
just need people to live in the Bay Area
00:18:16
or New York or LA or wherever you're
00:18:17
operating from
00:18:19
so from a software perspective this is
00:18:21
an amazing time I'll tell you there's a
00:18:23
flip side to this like in life sciences
00:18:25
real estate is more expensive than it's
00:18:27
ever been right now in the Bay Area to
00:18:29
get lab space there's a total dearth of
00:18:31
space
00:18:32
so there's certain segments that I think
00:18:35
uh
00:18:36
lab space like a specific a specific
00:18:39
designation I mean there's a revolution
00:18:41
and genomics that's totally transforming
00:18:43
all of biology and human health and what
00:18:45
I'm saying is like do you need a certain
00:18:46
type of location that's sanctioned for
00:18:49
that yeah yeah lab space is a certain
00:18:52
kind of build out and it's not you know
00:18:54
and so there's a certain amount of
00:18:55
square footage and it's being built out
00:18:56
a lot around the bay area but
00:18:58
um the thing about life sciences
00:18:59
companies is you do have to operate
00:19:02
physically because you're doing some
00:19:03
you're building something physical
00:19:06
and so that is an industry
00:19:08
that continues to remain very well
00:19:11
funded
00:19:12
and very competitive and I think
00:19:15
you know there's still tremendous value
00:19:16
and by the way there's a lot of public
00:19:18
companies to invest in not on the
00:19:19
primary basis but that are tools
00:19:21
companies that are benefiting greatly
00:19:24
from the continued demand and and growth
00:19:26
in spending in that category sex let's
00:19:29
talk about competition you know a lot of
00:19:31
talk you know of these large companies
00:19:34
pursuing many different verticals we
00:19:36
talked about anti-competitive stuff Lena
00:19:38
Khan the bundling in the suite of
00:19:40
products at Microsoft other firms
00:19:42
now you have uh all these being cut
00:19:46
death to the Roomba
00:19:49
death of the room
00:19:51
by the way did you see
00:19:54
the letter to the FTC about I guess she
00:19:56
sent a letter about the Roomba I mean
00:19:59
Senator Karen is just too much man I
00:20:02
mean there's a lot of other stuff going
00:20:03
on but you can let the Roomba slide
00:20:06
that's not important oh you know all the
00:20:09
things that are going on right now in
00:20:10
2022 it's the Roomba that gets on the
00:20:13
that gets that's above the line at this
00:20:15
point believable oh my points actually
00:20:18
is sleepwalking oh my God what is going
00:20:21
on no there's a there's a famous history
00:20:23
of world war one called The Sleepwalkers
00:20:25
because that's basically what it felt
00:20:27
like is they just slept walked their way
00:20:29
to World War One basically what should
00:20:32
have been a minor Regional War the third
00:20:34
Balkans war that nobody should have
00:20:36
cared about nobody should have cared
00:20:38
about this Franz Ferdinand guy except
00:20:40
for you know the austrians and yeah
00:20:43
exactly but the whole world basically
00:20:45
got themselves invested in this thing
00:20:47
and it feel and this is what we're
00:20:49
worried about we're worried about the
00:20:50
Roomba when the administration is
00:20:53
sleepwalking its way into the next World
00:20:54
War well I do not want Amazon okay to
00:20:57
control my vacuum cleaner I'm just gonna
00:20:59
put that on the record okay because you
00:21:02
know where the dirt is they know which
00:21:03
rooms are dirty what happens if they get
00:21:05
a hold of the Roomba I'll tell you what
00:21:06
happened happens the next thing is
00:21:07
they're going to go after Dyson okay and
00:21:09
then once they do that they're going to
00:21:11
put chips in these things and all of a
00:21:13
sudden they're going to know exactly
00:21:14
what Jason said what are you eating
00:21:16
where your dust bunnies are yeah all of
00:21:18
this stuff it's This Must Be Stopped
00:21:20
Lena Khan now no but to the point of
00:21:23
competition you you you're seeing cuts
00:21:25
to you know all the uh non-core projects
00:21:29
at these big companies this is going to
00:21:31
be great for startups right like the
00:21:33
idea that Facebook could focus on you
00:21:36
know a fourth fifth sixth thing is going
00:21:38
to go away yeah well look you're right
00:21:41
that great companies are built during
00:21:42
downturns uh PayPal was built largely
00:21:45
during the downturn the starter pack
00:21:46
created Yammer was built largely during
00:21:48
a downturn so listen there's going to be
00:21:50
opportunities Innovation doesn't stop
00:21:52
just because we're in a recession or
00:21:54
depression but I gotta tell you I unlike
00:21:56
tremath I'm having a hard time finding a
00:21:58
silver lining right now uh part of it is
00:22:00
the comments that druckenmiller just
00:22:02
made which and he's been right about
00:22:04
this stuff we've been talking about his
00:22:05
predictions for over for a year on this
00:22:07
podcast and he famously shorted the
00:22:10
pound uh for George Soros that was one
00:22:13
of his first things started but yeah
00:22:14
since then um he's one of the most
00:22:16
successful macro traders in the world
00:22:19
and and you know universally respected
00:22:21
and I think deservedly so remember he
00:22:23
said that that this was in mid-2021 he
00:22:27
said that the Fed was engaged in a
00:22:28
radical
00:22:29
uh monetary policy because even though
00:22:32
we were starting to get inflation it was
00:22:34
around five percent then that they were
00:22:36
so engaged in this Bond buying program
00:22:38
they're still bought like 160 billion of
00:22:40
bonds and he is the first one waving the
00:22:42
alarm bell saying what are they doing
00:22:43
and now his predictions have come true I
00:22:46
mean we're in a inflationary spiral and
00:22:48
his prediction now is his Central
00:22:49
Outlook is that the Dow Jones will be in
00:22:51
the same place
00:22:53
where it is today in 10 years and he
00:22:56
made the point that yes Equity markets
00:22:57
do go up in the long term but how long
00:22:59
term are you talking about from night
00:23:01
from roughly 1966 to 1982 the stock
00:23:03
market was sideways Japan had a lost
00:23:05
decade as well like this is not
00:23:07
unprecedented after an asset bubble
00:23:09
right and then from the Great Depression
00:23:11
it took until 1955 for the stock market
00:23:14
to recover so in the long run the stock
00:23:16
market will go up but it could be you
00:23:18
know we could have
00:23:20
um a flat decade this is his prediction
00:23:22
right but he's very smart guy and and
00:23:25
then on top of that that's not to say
00:23:27
that you can't be one of the ones who
00:23:29
make money during that period because
00:23:30
lots of people do but we're in for I
00:23:33
think a very tough economic period
00:23:35
because of just this radical uh
00:23:39
expansionary fiscal monetary policy
00:23:41
we've had basically the fed and the
00:23:44
administration printed the last two
00:23:46
administrations but especially this one
00:23:48
printed 10 trillion dollars
00:23:51
over the last couple of years
00:23:53
most of that was under Trump but
00:23:55
continue no it's not 100 I'll pull it up
00:23:59
in a second but anyway keep going we had
00:24:01
Biden basically kept digging this hole
00:24:04
we had the two trillion dollars of
00:24:05
American Rescue plan which we didn't
00:24:07
need we just had uh another two trillion
00:24:10
of the infrastructure Bill the inflation
00:24:13
reduction act 500 billion for student
00:24:16
debt yeah exactly so Jason what are you
00:24:19
talking about and this was all after the
00:24:20
emergency was over but I think I think
00:24:22
that you guys are debating the wrong
00:24:24
thing I think that what drucken Miller I
00:24:26
think by the way just to be clear both
00:24:27
drucken Miller and I
00:24:29
can be right which is he's commenting on
00:24:33
the real world economy going into a
00:24:35
recession what I'm saying is that the
00:24:36
stock market tends to be 9 to 12 months
00:24:38
ahead of where we are Nick throw up that
00:24:40
chart please that I asked you guys to
00:24:42
share just to give you guys a sense of
00:24:43
what I mean by this by the way while
00:24:45
you're doing that jamas Jason look I
00:24:46
will agree with you that a lot of this
00:24:48
is
00:24:49
7.8 trillions more than Biden but fine a
00:24:53
lot of the stimulus happened under Trump
00:24:54
you're right because that's when
00:24:55
basically covet happened remember in the
00:24:57
in that Q2 of 2020 quarter the economy
00:24:59
shrank at a 30 percent annualized rate
00:25:02
everyone thought we're going to a great
00:25:03
depression and that's why they passed
00:25:05
all the stimulus by huge bipartisan
00:25:08
margins director Miller's best point is
00:25:09
that this is all post-vaccine right yeah
00:25:11
yeah so look and I think we can
00:25:13
definitely go back and second guess what
00:25:16
happened during the Trump Administration
00:25:18
there's an old saying that many of the
00:25:20
worst ideas are bipartisan but and so
00:25:23
you know the spending that happened in
00:25:24
2020 was clearly bipartisan and maybe it
00:25:27
went way too far but in the last two
00:25:30
years like drug said it was post-vaccine
00:25:32
post-emergency and they kept spending
00:25:34
and it's not just Administration it was
00:25:36
the bond buying program of the FED where
00:25:39
the economy was already fully back and
00:25:40
they bought another 160 billion of bonds
00:25:43
yeah I think I think the thing is that
00:25:45
you know I think Stan is a proven
00:25:48
Republican so maybe he is speaking a
00:25:51
little bit of his book as well I think
00:25:53
it's fair to say that both Trump and
00:25:54
Biden did not help but overwhelmingly I
00:25:58
think where the where the problem stands
00:26:00
is a central bank that was the same
00:26:02
through both of those administrations
00:26:03
and I think we should probably focus on
00:26:06
them because you're right what they did
00:26:08
was excessive and what they essentially
00:26:10
said is that if there is volatility
00:26:13
Beyond a certain amount and people cry
00:26:16
Uncle we will not allow the markets to
00:26:19
sort themselves out in an orderly way we
00:26:22
will step in and that's what you know
00:26:24
again what we just talked about the
00:26:25
Central Bank put in this case the FED
00:26:27
interventions yeah and these
00:26:29
interventions really uh pervert a market
00:26:31
because you don't know what's going on
00:26:33
and that has huge ramifications in the
00:26:34
real economy so Nick if you just throw
00:26:37
up this chart the the thing that is
00:26:39
really important here and what this
00:26:41
chart shows is essentially all of the
00:26:44
hiking cycles that we've gone through
00:26:45
since 1983 so 83 87 89 94
00:26:50
9904-15 in the current one and here's
00:26:53
what I just want to call out for you
00:26:54
guys what's incredible is that other
00:26:57
than the one in 83 so this is sort of
00:26:59
like you know
00:27:01
that last big one
00:27:04
what we've seen is that the stock market
00:27:07
has a tendency
00:27:09
to immediately go to the conclusion
00:27:12
very early on in a rate hiking cycle
00:27:15
and now why is that important for normal
00:27:17
folks listening to this thing well the
00:27:20
reason why that's important is right now
00:27:21
we're in month seven of a cycle we
00:27:23
obviously don't know how long it's going
00:27:25
to be
00:27:26
but the odds are improving every day
00:27:30
that we're near the end versus the
00:27:32
beginning
00:27:33
and why that's important is again if
00:27:36
you're thinking about when to you know
00:27:38
buy equities for example this is a
00:27:41
really instructive guide because what it
00:27:43
tells you is the closer we get to the
00:27:45
end
00:27:46
or more importantly the closer we
00:27:48
psychologically know that the end is
00:27:50
coming
00:27:51
we start buying and that and that's just
00:27:53
a broad-based statement that has been
00:27:55
true so you know what you see right now
00:27:58
I think is really interesting which is
00:27:59
that despite all the bad information
00:28:03
oh my gosh the nordstream pipeline blew
00:28:05
up could it have been sabotaged was it
00:28:07
the CIA was it the Russians oh my gosh
00:28:10
big Tech is slowing spending and firing
00:28:12
people China's in a coup I don't know if
00:28:15
you saw that rumor yeah how about
00:28:17
something more benign you know the the
00:28:18
US you know us yuan is really trading in
00:28:22
a crazy way the U.S euro is trading in a
00:28:24
crazy way the U.S pound is going crazy
00:28:26
despite all of that
00:28:28
every time we trade down
00:28:31
the market consolidates very quickly and
00:28:34
we sort of like so I think we're forming
00:28:36
a bottom I do think that Stan is right
00:28:38
we are going to see a hard Landing
00:28:41
recession something will break in 2023.
00:28:44
I hope it doesn't I hope it doesn't
00:28:46
affect a lot of normal people but it's
00:28:48
likely but at the same time to find hard
00:28:51
Landing us so I'll tell you in a second
00:28:52
but at the same time I think what's
00:28:53
happening is in the equity and financial
00:28:55
markets
00:28:57
we are consolidating a bottom because
00:28:59
we're seeing through to that end state
00:29:02
and this is where cheap Equity gets
00:29:04
bought so why is there a reason to sell
00:29:06
now I think a lot of the people that are
00:29:08
selling the smart money sellers that I
00:29:11
talk to are essentially right now
00:29:13
selling to book in capital losses to
00:29:17
offset other capital gains from this
00:29:19
year a term that's called tax loss
00:29:21
harvesting and so if you have gains
00:29:22
through this year which some of us do
00:29:24
this is the great moment to just sell
00:29:27
the losers to book the loss to net it
00:29:30
out so that you can minimize your taxes
00:29:31
for next year that's probably I think
00:29:33
where we are at
00:29:35
and I think that's why they're still
00:29:36
Consolidated by so what is the hard
00:29:38
Landing Jason if I had to predict I
00:29:40
think what David said is absolutely
00:29:42
right you're going to see unemployment
00:29:44
get to an awkward and uncomfortable
00:29:46
number
00:29:47
five six percent I think could be
00:29:50
something that we see
00:29:52
and I think you're going to see a lot
00:29:53
more companies
00:29:55
pull way back on their spend because
00:29:58
demand is going to really modulate uh
00:30:00
you know I'll give you a crazy example
00:30:03
you know what happens to all the people
00:30:04
in the United States that are on armed
00:30:06
mortgages right adjustable rate
00:30:08
mortgages when those things reset
00:30:11
they're going to reset two 300 basis
00:30:14
points higher their monthly payments are
00:30:16
going are going to go nuclear it's
00:30:17
already happened I've literally had a
00:30:19
family member call me about this and
00:30:20
they were like what do I do so in the UK
00:30:22
in the UK 40 percent
00:30:26
of all mortgage dollars are interest
00:30:29
only arms that will reset in January to
00:30:34
around four percent
00:30:36
forty percent can you imagine how upside
00:30:39
down the UK economy is going to be when
00:30:41
people have to spend three and four
00:30:43
times more together and then people have
00:30:44
to go to work so people who have not
00:30:47
been participating are going to have
00:30:48
those bills come in and they're going to
00:30:49
have to go to work they're going to have
00:30:50
to go to work yeah so free bird what do
00:30:53
you what do you think uh hard Landing
00:30:55
here and then what do you think 2023
00:30:57
looks like in that regard uh
00:31:00
looking pretty bleak do you buy that
00:31:03
we're bottoming out now as chamatha's
00:31:04
sort of hypothesizing I mean I'll tell
00:31:06
you
00:31:09
I was running some back of the envelope
00:31:10
math
00:31:12
you know how much debt there is in the
00:31:14
world
00:31:15
take a guess
00:31:20
200
00:31:22
couple hundred trillion
00:31:25
200 trillion about 300 trillion yeah
00:31:28
that's um debt
00:31:31
owed by governments businesses
00:31:34
and households and if
00:31:37
in response to the inflation which is
00:31:40
response to fiscal stimulus which is a
00:31:43
response to the entire economy of the
00:31:44
world shutting down for a couple of
00:31:46
months
00:31:47
we end up raising rates from zero
00:31:50
to five percent
00:31:52
that's uh 15 trillion dollars
00:31:56
of annual Debt Service
00:31:58
which is like 18 of global GDP
00:32:03
like that The Debt Service alone but
00:32:07
what does that mean that means that for
00:32:09
every dollar transacted
00:32:11
no it means nothing tax it no it means
00:32:13
what does it mean like so so what so I'm
00:32:16
saying that there's a massive
00:32:18
squeeze hap that's gonna happen right
00:32:20
and so what ends up happening ultimately
00:32:21
is because you could run this across
00:32:23
local governments
00:32:25
I think it means demand destruction I
00:32:27
mean if you're in debt households yeah
00:32:31
thick no no I'll tell you I'll tell you
00:32:33
about what it means
00:32:34
but it means nothing and I'll tell you
00:32:37
why these people keep because you can
00:32:38
print more money you print more money
00:32:40
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news
00:32:42
but like it is not as if we have a law a
00:32:45
constitutional law or it's not as if
00:32:47
governments have collectively decided
00:32:49
that you cannot have debt to GDP uh
00:32:52
above a certain number that doesn't
00:32:54
happen guys we passed 100 under Obama
00:32:56
and we've just kept printing money so
00:32:59
whether we like it or not and I'm not
00:33:00
saying I'm a fan of this or it's right
00:33:02
we are kicking the can down the road and
00:33:05
what we're doing is we're extending the
00:33:07
maturities you know you'll eventually
00:33:09
have 100 Year government bonds okay just
00:33:12
like you have like now you know
00:33:14
multi-decade long corporate bonds we
00:33:16
missed a chance for that we missed it
00:33:19
because brilliant Yellen actually said
00:33:21
no to that when when rates were like
00:33:24
near zero and we had the opportunity to
00:33:25
refinance the U.S government debt using
00:33:28
long-term rates basically long-term
00:33:30
bonds and actually was Trump who you
00:33:32
know crazy Trump who suggested let's
00:33:33
basically shift the debt to 100 Year
00:33:35
bonds and she said no you have a dollar
00:33:38
right so the the problem is that we have
00:33:41
all the short-term debt and look at what
00:33:43
just happened in the UK when Liz trust
00:33:45
tried to prop up the uh Bond rates by
00:33:49
basically intervening she was basically
00:33:51
an inflationary policy to fight an
00:33:53
inflation the markets puked all over
00:33:55
that and that's when their the pound hit
00:33:57
you know exactly there's only so you
00:34:01
have to have a buyer of the debt right I
00:34:03
think the list trusting is really
00:34:04
actually a microcosm of how
00:34:06
unfortunately Western governments are
00:34:08
working but I think there's a silver
00:34:09
lining like she basically came in a day
00:34:12
after she got elected and said okay
00:34:13
guess what guys at the same time I'm
00:34:15
going to massively cut taxes and I'm
00:34:18
going to give you fiscal stimulus I'm
00:34:19
going to cap your energy bills and I'm
00:34:21
going to have these huge transfer
00:34:22
payments from the government into the
00:34:24
hands of uh of uh British citizens I'm
00:34:27
not going to comment on whether that's
00:34:28
right or right right or wrong
00:34:31
but the financial markets to your point
00:34:33
David absolutely hated it and within a
00:34:36
few days you basically saw the pound get
00:34:38
crushed but then what did you see you
00:34:41
saw the bank of England decide that
00:34:43
Financial stability was more important
00:34:45
than financial viability meaning the
00:34:48
things that she wanted to do were not
00:34:49
viable so you could have let the
00:34:51
financial Market sort this out which
00:34:53
would have forced the prime minister to
00:34:56
basically abandon the policy but instead
00:34:58
the Boe said now we're on the unlimited
00:35:01
buyer of UK guilts which is the name of
00:35:03
the UK Bond and everything snap back
00:35:06
we're back to where we were before her
00:35:08
speech and before the chancellor of the
00:35:10
exchequer speech and so it's as if
00:35:11
nothing happened and that's what's so
00:35:14
insane to me which is that even though
00:35:16
the bank of England by the way in the
00:35:17
next week or two are going to raise
00:35:18
rates 140 basis points 140 basis points
00:35:22
almost double what the FED is
00:35:25
that is they're doing both at the same
00:35:27
time they're both raising rates and
00:35:29
they're acting as a backstop for bad
00:35:31
policy and this is what's wrong right
00:35:33
now in the world we do not have a real
00:35:35
check and balance so my point to
00:35:37
Friedberg is just that I'm like
00:35:40
emotionally on your side
00:35:42
but the problem is with these folks keep
00:35:45
getting bailed out David they're just
00:35:46
going to keep doing this stuff and
00:35:48
there's no end in sight well and the the
00:35:49
consumer doesn't get bailed out so that
00:35:51
if you look at it on a micro basis
00:35:52
instead of a macro basis you're correct
00:35:54
these governments will just bail people
00:35:55
out even if they make bad decisions as
00:35:57
we're seeing but then the person whose
00:35:59
uh variable interest mortgage just
00:36:01
kicked in has 500 less a month in
00:36:04
savings so they're now not going to buy
00:36:05
an iPhone 14. they're not gonna upgrade
00:36:08
their car every six years they're gonna
00:36:10
do it every eight years so the demand
00:36:12
destruction that's happening is going to
00:36:14
be quite severe and that's going to
00:36:16
reduce money then monetary velocity and
00:36:19
then we mark my words the Federal
00:36:21
Reserve will intervene this is why I
00:36:24
think we're in a bottoming process I
00:36:25
think the the bleeding edge of the Smart
00:36:28
Financial actors are actually on Sax's
00:36:31
side and friedberg's side
00:36:33
but then they're taking that next
00:36:35
intellectual leap and saying okay well
00:36:36
what happens when Apple basically says
00:36:39
hey guys I'm gonna have to fire 15 of my
00:36:40
employees
00:36:42
I think what happens is the fed
00:36:43
intervenes and I'm just using apple as
00:36:45
an example but there there is a
00:36:47
threshold of demand destruction Jason I
00:36:49
think you're right where we have the fed
00:36:51
put come back on the table and the
00:36:52
markets just go Bonkers so they instead
00:36:54
of doing 75 basis points two or three
00:36:56
times they're just gonna be like yeah
00:36:57
I'll do 50. we'll throw it down no no no
00:36:58
no no no no no they're gonna they're
00:37:00
gonna get to four and a half very
00:37:02
quickly
00:37:03
and then this Something's Gonna Break
00:37:04
like all these guys are saying I think
00:37:06
they're right and then the fed put comes
00:37:08
back on the table and we'll have this
00:37:10
we'll have the UK you know the UK thing
00:37:13
happened in what six days
00:37:15
bars will play out over six or nine
00:37:17
months
00:37:17
but it's going to play out the exact
00:37:19
same way and freeburg's right you know
00:37:21
we should have capped debt at you know
00:37:23
100 of GDP or less and sax is right we
00:37:26
should have issued 100 Year bonds at
00:37:28
zero rates when we had the chance
00:37:29
we didn't do either of those things
00:37:31
that's so incompetent sex I mean there
00:37:33
was no need to have rates this low for
00:37:34
that long
00:37:35
and it maybe they could just keep them
00:37:38
at some average number instead of going
00:37:39
down to zero or that's spiking back up
00:37:41
and just steering you know spitting the
00:37:44
steering wheel uh you know so violently
00:37:46
why don't we have some basic uh concept
00:37:49
of maybe not having zero rates and
00:37:51
keeping them at two percent or something
00:37:53
reasonable so you have some dry powder
00:37:55
well if you go back and and listen to
00:37:57
what the FED said and Drug makes this
00:37:59
point they were all worried that they
00:38:01
got there was an inflation print a few
00:38:02
years ago where I was at 1.7 percent and
00:38:04
they all started panicking about not
00:38:06
being at two percent so for a point
00:38:08
three percent move that they try to
00:38:10
engineer they opened the floodgates okay
00:38:13
and that's basically what happened and
00:38:14
that's why he's so critical of it the
00:38:16
other thing is the federal remember the
00:38:18
FED said we're going to be data driven
00:38:19
but then the data came in last summer we
00:38:22
got that surprise 5.1 print and they
00:38:25
dismissed it as transitory so they said
00:38:28
they're going to be data driven but they
00:38:29
weren't they they were dismissive now on
00:38:32
what basis did they conclude
00:38:35
transitory like what was the proof for
00:38:37
that there was no proof that was a
00:38:39
political consideration the
00:38:40
administration and Yellen is a big part
00:38:43
of that immediately reacted to basically
00:38:45
downplay the news I mean they PR did I
00:38:47
mean they didn't want to admit that
00:38:49
there was a problem they went from
00:38:51
transitory to this is permanent to next
00:38:54
six months but during and now we're at
00:38:56
hard Landing like right these people are
00:38:58
not competent are they just not
00:38:59
competent no I think they're really I
00:39:01
think they are competent but I think
00:39:03
that they're a little bit fighting with
00:39:04
one hand type behind their back I think
00:39:06
if you had to take the other side sacks
00:39:08
you know the problem is they have a very
00:39:10
specific strain of data that they focus
00:39:13
on and that data has all these weird
00:39:16
anomalies to it like you know they
00:39:18
should look at rent data but the way
00:39:20
that the rent data works is that you
00:39:22
know you bleed it in one-sixth a month
00:39:25
over six months just as an odd example
00:39:28
or like use card data only comes in a
00:39:30
certain way so I think they're driving
00:39:32
in the review mirror I think there is
00:39:33
something to that I think it's simpler
00:39:35
than this which is listen I think all
00:39:36
politicians do this which is when they
00:39:38
get bad news they want to spin it and
00:39:40
they're going to delay acknowledging the
00:39:42
bad news as long as possible so what
00:39:44
happened last summer when this inflation
00:39:46
started they all dismissed it it was all
00:39:48
a talking point I mean every single one
00:39:50
of them and here's the crazy thing is
00:39:51
Jay Powell he's the only Trump official
00:39:54
who got reappointed by Biden by a huge
00:39:57
majority how do you think that happened
00:39:59
and when did it happen it happened at
00:40:01
the end of May last summer so just when
00:40:03
this inflation print came out and yell
00:40:06
into the administration were saying it
00:40:07
was transitory that's when Powell was up
00:40:10
for renomination and he swept through
00:40:12
the only Trump appointment to basically
00:40:15
be renominated without even a question
00:40:17
by Biden why because he got on board the
00:40:19
talking points he wasn't gonna basically
00:40:21
Buck them at that time so he waited six
00:40:24
months he bought into the talking points
00:40:26
that was a hundred percent political 100
00:40:29
I told you I read Paul it's a very
00:40:31
compelling argument I read them there
00:40:33
it's really compelling it's really it's
00:40:35
sad but compelling sax you should read
00:40:37
the Paul volcker uh book keeping at it
00:40:39
he basically says Reagan came to him off
00:40:42
site where they knew they wouldn't be
00:40:43
recorded and told them do not raise
00:40:45
rights uh so this idea that the FED is
00:40:48
independent like history now has shown
00:40:50
us it is not like the the there is
00:40:52
massive uh political pressure on them I
00:40:55
I think especially at the time driving
00:40:57
in the review mirror clearly the data
00:40:59
they have is not great and then all this
00:41:00
data is nuanced you know jobs and this
00:41:03
massive amount of jobs we've had in this
00:41:05
country is because of you we have a new
00:41:07
immigration policy we don't let people
00:41:08
into this country we kick out phds that
00:41:10
we trained and then housing we have eye
00:41:12
buyers buying this so to your point
00:41:13
jamoff I think a lot of the data has
00:41:16
changed and they're they've got a bad
00:41:18
data set they have a bad dashboard and
00:41:20
they're driving with bad information
00:41:21
they don't know their Direction they
00:41:23
don't know their speed perfectly if you
00:41:24
want more Fidelity on the data you're
00:41:26
right if you went to a board of
00:41:27
directors meeting for your company and
00:41:29
said
00:41:30
how's the business doing and the CEO
00:41:32
says well you know well we're going to
00:41:34
have data from six months ago and it's
00:41:36
like okay I got that but what about like
00:41:38
last week uh you would fire that CEO to
00:41:41
your point Jason
00:41:43
um and these things are knowable today
00:41:45
like there are businesses for example
00:41:47
that are selling billions of dollars
00:41:49
worth of like iot sensors here and there
00:41:51
energy sensors here everything is
00:41:54
connected to the internet everything is
00:41:56
automated everything is running in code
00:41:59
um you would think that the government
00:42:00
would say there's a national level
00:42:02
directive here to get this into some
00:42:04
kind of a system that we can use because
00:42:06
these decisions are becoming more and
00:42:08
more important
00:42:09
I think that would be a wonderful idea
00:42:11
and a project and what had huge value
00:42:14
a Manhattan project for understanding
00:42:16
the economy on a very granular level we
00:42:19
you invested in a startup at one point I
00:42:20
remember I heard the pitch where they
00:42:22
had people around the world taking
00:42:24
pictures of food prices Africa India the
00:42:27
United States anywhere and then putting
00:42:29
them into a database normalizing them so
00:42:31
you could know the price of tomatoes or
00:42:32
potatoes on a global basis you know and
00:42:35
normalizing all that data they don't
00:42:36
seem to have this data there
00:42:38
they're talking about August data and
00:42:40
it's you know we're now in October
00:42:42
it's a really odd situation I think you
00:42:45
know our friend
00:42:46
Brad grosser made this point which was
00:42:48
that look in this last fomc meeting the
00:42:51
FED raised their forecast for what the
00:42:54
neutral interest rate would be from
00:42:56
three and a half to four point six
00:42:57
percent so in two months they raised
00:43:00
their forecast by over 100 basis points
00:43:02
what is that based on like is there a
00:43:03
model I assume there is a model I assume
00:43:06
there's data so why don't they just open
00:43:07
source that why don't they let the
00:43:09
markets like see the model they're using
00:43:12
so we have a little more predictability
00:43:13
of course they always have the
00:43:15
discretion to bucket or not follow it or
00:43:17
whatever or change it but like you know
00:43:20
wouldn't that be a better approach is to
00:43:22
like let us see the data and the models
00:43:24
in real time as it's happening and then
00:43:26
the community like like an open source
00:43:28
project could actually like Fork the
00:43:31
model and actually create like better
00:43:32
ones well to your point to your point
00:43:35
like there's the the FED is actually
00:43:37
known as the gold standard of
00:43:38
transparency so the IMF has kind of like
00:43:40
a a view in how all these central banks
00:43:42
act last week they actually explore
00:43:45
created and this is good this hurts me
00:43:49
to say Canada
00:43:51
because of their lack of transparency
00:43:52
apparently Canada doesn't even put out
00:43:54
minutes
00:43:55
and so they're like hey Canada you uh
00:43:57
you guys like yeah and you know well
00:43:59
Canadians are I mean the Canadian
00:44:01
government at least like total moral
00:44:03
virtue signalers but they don't value
00:44:04
transparency apparently
00:44:07
but to your point David there is a lot
00:44:09
of opacity
00:44:11
in these things that really determine
00:44:13
how the real world works and the impacts
00:44:15
the individual people are going to go
00:44:17
and get ratcheted way up and nobody
00:44:19
really knows what to expect even though
00:44:22
the data is there sitting in plain sight
00:44:24
I think two things can be true
00:44:27
I think
00:44:30
the Fed
00:44:31
the process of setting Central Bank
00:44:34
rates by the Federal Reserve
00:44:38
should be reset
00:44:41
I also think that it could be true that
00:44:42
the FED is not responsible
00:44:44
fully for a lot of the conditions we're
00:44:47
now facing
00:44:48
we did have a bunch of policy decisions
00:44:51
that the whole world got swept up in and
00:44:54
seemed to accept as appropriate at the
00:44:56
time when we shut the global economy
00:44:58
down
00:44:59
and there was some weird assumption or
00:45:02
belief that fiscal policy would allow us
00:45:05
to soft land or recover out of that and
00:45:08
at the end of the day all that fiscal
00:45:10
policy did and I remember I was speaking
00:45:13
with
00:45:13
a smart person at the time and he said
00:45:17
all the fed's going to do is they're
00:45:19
just going to inflate everything and
00:45:20
it's going to take a while and
00:45:21
everything will inflate and that way
00:45:22
everyone will feel good for a while but
00:45:24
you can't just stop the spigot of
00:45:26
capital moving Goods moving and services
00:45:27
moving for months on end and assume that
00:45:31
the repercussions will not actually be
00:45:32
felt extremely harshly and at some point
00:45:35
things are going to come home to roost
00:45:36
and that is what's happening there was
00:45:38
no winning solution for the fed or for
00:45:41
any Central Banker
00:45:44
in light of the policy decisions that
00:45:46
were made to shut the global economy
00:45:47
down when covid began not to argue
00:45:50
whether or not that was appropriate but
00:45:52
that was simply a statement of fact I
00:45:54
said it before and I don't understand if
00:45:56
you were to take a first principle's
00:45:58
point of view on this today and say hey
00:45:59
let's create a central bank and how
00:46:00
should it operate you would take all the
00:46:02
data from into it from PayPal from visa
00:46:06
from MasterCard from the internet you
00:46:08
would take all of that data you would
00:46:10
let the algorithms or the AI or the
00:46:12
software figure out what is most
00:46:14
predictive of certain inflationary
00:46:16
recessionary totally and growth
00:46:20
indicators totally and you would
00:46:22
basically say look X percent growth X
00:46:25
percent inflation solve for what the the
00:46:27
central bank's interest rate should be
00:46:29
and it should vary at a hundredths of a
00:46:31
percent or a basis point every day
00:46:34
and every day the rate is reset and the
00:46:36
software resets it and to have you know
00:46:39
some degree of human logic or oversight
00:46:41
seems appropriate but to have a decision
00:46:43
made in quarter percent increments once
00:46:46
every couple of weeks uh seems seems
00:46:48
kind of Arcane so I think both things
00:46:50
are true the FED isn't necessarily fully
00:46:52
responsible we all want to point fingers
00:46:54
you know we can point fingers at at the
00:46:57
the Mania that swept over the entire
00:47:00
world when we started our podcast and
00:47:02
everyone was like what the hell is going
00:47:04
on why are we locking down the world and
00:47:06
this is nuts and it felt nuts and the
00:47:08
response may or may not have been
00:47:09
appropriate but at the end of the day
00:47:11
there was a cost and the cost is going
00:47:13
to be born for very likely a decade or
00:47:15
more if we are able to get through it
00:47:17
all a lost decade is a possibility
00:47:19
handset central banks can be Rewritten
00:47:21
so yeah well I think there's actually
00:47:22
two original sins of the economic crisis
00:47:24
we're in one is lockdowns you're right
00:47:26
like that was a fiasco it didn't do
00:47:29
anything to stop kovid it was an
00:47:31
economic disaster and then we
00:47:32
overreacted to lockdowns by them
00:47:35
printing all of this money both fiscally
00:47:37
and through expansionist monetary policy
00:47:39
so freberg's right about that I but I
00:47:42
think the other original sin here is the
00:47:44
the QE and the zerp right the zero
00:47:46
interest rate policy that began in 2008
00:47:49
2009 we broke the glasses emergency
00:47:52
totally yeah and then it just became
00:47:54
standard like it was on autopilot why
00:47:56
did we keep printing why did the
00:47:58
government keep buying it was a long
00:48:00
tail event that became the mean
00:48:02
problem is that every time government is
00:48:05
a bad idea I mean it's just yeah Milton
00:48:07
Friedman once said there's nothing quite
00:48:08
so permanent as a temporary government
00:48:10
program how many times have we seen this
00:48:12
every time the government's supposed to
00:48:13
do something on a one-off emergency
00:48:15
basis like zurp it ends up becoming
00:48:17
institutionalized we still have kids in
00:48:19
schools in California wearing masks I
00:48:21
mean that it's the same crazy thing that
00:48:23
people cannot get off these programs the
00:48:25
the thing about zurp which if you look
00:48:27
back
00:48:28
what really happened if you think about
00:48:30
like how people live their lives every
00:48:32
day what what if what has happened in
00:48:34
our view of government and politicians
00:48:36
it's really eroded since 2007-2008 right
00:48:39
there's huge amounts of rancor nobody
00:48:42
gets along everything tends to happen on
00:48:44
partisan lines and the reason I think
00:48:47
that that was allowed to happen or that
00:48:49
accelerated is actually because of zurp
00:48:51
because if you think about it if you had
00:48:53
failed policy
00:48:55
right and the economy was completely
00:48:57
broken
00:48:58
politicians would actually have to get
00:49:00
together and try to solve the problem
00:49:01
themselves and the last time they really
00:49:04
did that was actually in the great
00:49:06
financial crisis if you look at tarp and
00:49:08
if you look at how all of these smart
00:49:10
people actually had to get together in a
00:49:12
bipartisan way to figure out how do we
00:49:14
bail out America and prevent a banking
00:49:16
crisis that was the last real effort
00:49:19
that touched a lot of people but then
00:49:21
David as you said on the heels of that
00:49:23
we broke the glass and we've been
00:49:25
fighting ever since and the peak of that
00:49:28
fighting was basically Donald Trump
00:49:30
getting elected and so I think like what
00:49:32
it shows is that if you have these
00:49:34
irrational Central bankers
00:49:36
that will or that are willing to
00:49:38
constantly bail people out you will
00:49:40
never get a high functioning government
00:49:42
because policy is irrelevant good policy
00:49:45
doesn't matter I think our policy
00:49:47
doesn't matter if any of it goes wrong
00:49:50
the central Banker will come in and bail
00:49:52
us out well and the the second and third
00:49:54
order impact of these is can become
00:49:56
quite acute and just for people who
00:49:58
heard the word zurp like three times
00:50:00
zero interest rate policy basically
00:50:02
keeping interest rates very low very
00:50:04
dangerous to do because you get [ __ ]
00:50:06
like this like look at the number of
00:50:08
unemployed people
00:50:10
per job opening and if you just look at
00:50:12
this like ratio this is the number of
00:50:14
jobs per unemployed person it gets way
00:50:17
out of whack and then if you look at
00:50:18
this other chart just in terms of the
00:50:20
total number of job openings you know we
00:50:22
started we talked about this earlier in
00:50:24
the Pod hitting 11 million to burn that
00:50:26
office crazy then what happens if you
00:50:28
have too many jobs you don't let
00:50:30
immigration you you don't have a
00:50:32
functioning immigration policy well then
00:50:34
you get this great
00:50:36
um you know people quitting their jobs
00:50:38
quiet quitting and then
00:50:41
the Boomers saw their net worth go up so
00:50:45
high because of their retirement
00:50:46
accounts because of the stock market
00:50:47
boom and because of the housing boom you
00:50:50
had all these rich parents now who are
00:50:52
bailing out their kids who refused to go
00:50:54
to work and labor participation goes
00:50:55
from 70 down to 62 these are the
00:50:58
unintended consequences of zurp that you
00:51:01
know now how do you get a generation to
00:51:02
go back to work if their parents have
00:51:05
you know a two million dollar home and 3
00:51:07
million in stocks or a million dollar
00:51:08
homes
00:51:10
yeah and that's what they're doing now
00:51:12
they're like we're going to break this
00:51:13
we're gonna we're gonna get Google and
00:51:15
apple who have unlimited cash to do a
00:51:18
riff
00:51:19
those companies don't need to do a riff
00:51:21
they're doing it because they have no
00:51:22
choice now
00:51:24
because they want to break the economy
00:51:26
so hard Boomers have 71 trillion in
00:51:28
assets over March I mean the wealth
00:51:30
transfer that's going to occur between
00:51:31
these two generations is crazy why would
00:51:33
any U.S except for Millennial with a
00:51:35
boomer parent even go to work if they've
00:51:37
got a million U.S Boomers have 71
00:51:39
trillion dollars in assets is that what
00:51:41
you said no yeah that's the number I
00:51:43
have here so an entire turn of global
00:51:45
GDP in savings that's about one-seventh
00:51:48
of the world's total assets it's just a
00:51:50
lot of Locked Up well
00:51:52
and this monetary policy was done by
00:51:54
Boomer 70 trillion
00:51:57
controlled by 76.4 million people yeah
00:52:00
so if you want to really talk about the
00:52:03
you know the rich in a global context
00:52:06
the Richer very specifically U.S Boomers
00:52:09
yeah that's one-seventh of the world one
00:52:12
seventh of the world's assets is
00:52:14
controlled by 76 million people how much
00:52:16
of it is their homes
00:52:18
I mean they were they were at Woodstock
00:52:20
they you know they lived the best life
00:52:22
in the best times they enjoyed the most
00:52:25
of the peace dividend in the 80s and the
00:52:27
90s and the 2000s they are the ones that
00:52:31
control everything
00:52:33
it's pretty crazy
00:52:37
it's I think it's less like Jeff Bezos
00:52:39
and Gates and musk it's Boomers that if
00:52:44
you want to go and really zoom out and
00:52:45
get it right it is Boomers
00:52:47
it's one percent of the global
00:52:49
population that controls one seventh of
00:52:51
the global wealth and they're all in the
00:52:54
united U.S Boomers hiding in plain sight
00:52:56
U.S Boomers there you are well once
00:52:59
these housing prices decline and the
00:53:00
stock market declines that number is
00:53:02
going to shift and that really is what's
00:53:03
fundamentally happening with the fiscal
00:53:05
policy and the effects that's happening
00:53:07
today it's happening today which is a
00:53:09
redistribution of that value because
00:53:11
we're basically deflating all those
00:53:13
assets now we're deflecting the average
00:53:16
Boomer is and we're going to deflate
00:53:18
real estate assets I mean if you just do
00:53:20
the math on that back of the envelope
00:53:21
these boomers are worth a billion a
00:53:23
million dollars each like think about
00:53:25
that like every Boomer is worth 900k a
00:53:28
million something in that range 1.2
00:53:30
million I mean it's bonkers
00:53:32
that's the average
00:53:35
that's how much wealth they have Bonkers
00:53:38
you you two are a boomer Jacob no we're
00:53:41
Gen X
00:53:43
we're Gen X can we get the worst we had
00:53:45
the we had like we got really shafted
00:53:46
it's like you know we grew up with
00:53:48
flannel
00:53:49
Alanis Morissette Alanis Morissette no
00:53:52
hold on hold on
00:53:54
Smashing Pumpkins
00:53:57
93 was probably the best year Smashing
00:54:00
Pumpkins ever did it for me Billy
00:54:01
corgan's voice was always like ah yeah
00:54:03
really annoying Rage Against the Machine
00:54:05
can we do a quick shout out for
00:54:08
um Julio sad to hear that he passed
00:54:11
we're here for you yeah I mean it was
00:54:13
really sad the guy was uh how old was he
00:54:15
50. were you a big fan of Coolio's I
00:54:18
love cool in the 90s his Coolio story
00:54:21
from the Pod when he said Gangster's
00:54:23
Paradise I feel you
00:54:25
yeah and then when I saw him at Sax's
00:54:27
birthday last year I was like dude I
00:54:30
love Coolio I mean I cannot tell you
00:54:32
what a big fan I am what was the line
00:54:34
you said to him you said I feel you I
00:54:36
said I appreciate you I appreciate you I
00:54:38
appreciate you
00:54:40
we fly down for the birthday
00:54:42
they you know they shuttle you on the
00:54:44
cars from the plane to the to the house
00:54:46
we get to the house and you know we're
00:54:49
all waiting of course sax is late two
00:54:50
and a half hours to his own party we're
00:54:52
all hanging out starving but then we go
00:54:54
into the party and then they have like
00:54:56
uh Coolio shows up so we're like sitting
00:54:59
down to dinner for course two all of a
00:55:01
sudden pop comes out of the the woodwork
00:55:03
Coolio I lose my [ __ ] I run up on the uh
00:55:08
so dance before I grew up Coolio like
00:55:10
it's like high school jams man I mean
00:55:12
that's like in the car cruising and at
00:55:14
this point I'm like seven tequila
00:55:16
watermelon Tequilas in so I'm playing oh
00:55:18
my God
00:55:21
on the Dance Floor you know jamming up
00:55:24
to Coolio I think Kaleo thought I was
00:55:27
sex you know because he's like yeah he's
00:55:29
like oh two South African Jews you guys
00:55:30
all look the same Coolio comes up starts
00:55:33
high-fiving me and hugging me and I'm
00:55:35
like What's Up Coolio my God this is
00:55:36
like a dream come true he's like hugging
00:55:39
me his face is right next to my face I
00:55:41
didn't know what to say and I like I'm
00:55:43
I'm I've had a little bit of tequila and
00:55:45
I and I whisper in Coolio's ear I'm like
00:55:47
oh no I appreciate I appreciate you
00:55:54
I appreciate you wow
00:55:59
oh my God I think I saw Freeburg throw
00:56:02
his panties on stage 201 yeah
00:56:08
know what to say I mean what do you say
00:56:10
clearly clearly you don't know what to
00:56:12
say yeah my team my my team and TPB they
00:56:16
had a they had a cameo made for me of
00:56:18
that Coolio sent in it was super
00:56:20
heartfelt and awesome sax posted it on
00:56:22
the internet I think yeah retweeted it
00:56:24
yeah retweeted it and it was uh
00:56:27
I don't know man it was uh he was he was
00:56:29
actually a super nice guy great guy and
00:56:31
uh it was super sad yo Dave
00:56:35
it's your friendly neighborhood Coolio
00:56:37
bro
00:56:38
I'm out here on the golf course thinking
00:56:40
about you
00:56:42
I appreciate you man
00:56:44
so I want to wish you a very very very
00:56:46
happy birthday man
00:56:48
you feel me
00:56:49
I want you to drink it I want you to
00:56:52
smoke good I want you to eat good I want
00:56:54
you to have some fun bro
00:56:56
go big do it right
00:57:00
yo Dave happy birthday man from Coolio
00:57:02
Shaka Zulu man well all the stories are
00:57:05
coming out now and not your experience
00:57:07
was not unique he touched everybody he
00:57:10
met literally these college kids were
00:57:12
like genuine very kind like yeah he was
00:57:16
a real super friendly and like you know
00:57:17
and and like wanted to ask about you I
00:57:19
mean it's like a very like
00:57:20
I could have been a politician if you
00:57:22
didn't become a music a music Superstar
00:57:26
he looked incredible he looked like he
00:57:29
was 25. I mean he literally went to
00:57:33
these college kids met him he went back
00:57:35
to their like you know uh frat house he
00:57:38
cooked them dinner and then he got a
00:57:40
guitar out with them and he sang
00:57:41
gangster paradise with them and he like
00:57:43
orchestrated it with the crowd singing
00:57:46
whatever he was then there was a video
00:57:48
of him in Dublin on the bar singing can
00:57:51
I just say something to I I've given the
00:57:53
message uh
00:57:56
before yeah before but like you know
00:57:59
take care of your health yeah take care
00:58:00
like there there are these incredible
00:58:03
drugs I just want to call out Health as
00:58:06
wealth
00:58:07
if Lipitor for example or Crestor or
00:58:09
these statins are not working for you
00:58:12
there's this next Generation kind of
00:58:13
drug called the pcsk9 inhibitor which
00:58:16
essentially is uh effectively a gene
00:58:19
therapy that's modeled after this very
00:58:21
specific group of folks in the nordics I
00:58:23
believe who actually have effectively
00:58:26
immunity against heart disease and so
00:58:28
it's taken 20 years to refine this drug
00:58:29
but this drug is a wonder drug and you
00:58:31
know there are versions of it now that
00:58:33
are injectable you know once every six
00:58:35
months or whatever so go and ask your
00:58:37
doctor if you're not if statins don't
00:58:39
work for you look at the pcsk9 inhibitor
00:58:42
and then separately after you're 45 or
00:58:44
so you should
00:58:45
again a CT angiogram because these
00:58:50
things are really important or you know
00:58:51
a heart flow
00:58:53
where they actually inject a die they
00:58:56
characterize all your veins they give
00:58:57
you a calcium score
00:59:00
may not prevent this but at least if
00:59:02
it's if it's something cardiac related
00:59:03
you can get to the bottom of it and it's
00:59:06
a knowable thing nowadays yeah rest in
00:59:08
power to
00:59:09
um our friend and uh
00:59:12
yeah take care of yourselves your health
00:59:14
and uh speaking of Health shout out to
00:59:16
Gwyneth Paltrow uh G pal uh who
00:59:20
in her group newsletter pointed out that
00:59:23
she loves the all in pod and has to be
00:59:26
honest she's obsessed with the
00:59:28
personalities a little bit
00:59:30
anybody want to handicap that listen
00:59:32
let's be honest uh what doctors say not
00:59:35
you if that's what you're trying to say
00:59:36
I've met her actually doctors say she's
00:59:39
a delightful if you want if you want to
00:59:40
live in health after a meal the best
00:59:42
thing to eat is a little dark chocolate
00:59:45
hmm do you get your dark chocolate from
00:59:47
goop do you have goop dark chocolate
00:59:49
Jason I was trying to make a story where
00:59:51
I am the dark chocolate where I'm saying
00:59:52
that I am her favorite personality you
00:59:54
[ __ ] [ __ ] so you're handicapping
00:59:57
that you're her favorite she said she's
00:59:58
obsessed with the personalities plural
01:00:00
I'm gonna I'm gonna where did she rank
01:00:02
her besties I need to know I'm gonna
01:00:04
rank as rebirth oh really you think
01:00:07
she's a free person that makes that's on
01:00:09
yeah okay
01:00:10
then me then you okay I'll take it the
01:00:14
fact that
01:00:15
Gwyneth Paltrow even understands like
01:00:17
who we are is a win in my book so I'll
01:00:19
I'll be number four on her list but uh G
01:00:21
pal if you could rank the besties in
01:00:23
your next newsletter that would be
01:00:24
appreciated
01:00:25
and we'll we'll take rank your besties
01:00:31
all right if sakshi wants some red meat
01:00:33
you'll I I saw you wrote a piece you
01:00:35
want your red meat should we throw it to
01:00:37
you yeah yeah all right I think we we
01:00:40
need a Ukraine update because I mean
01:00:42
we're talking about all the reasons that
01:00:44
there could be a silver lining or the
01:00:46
Market's bottomed out I don't think you
01:00:47
can know for sure that the markets are
01:00:50
going to bottom out unless you know that
01:00:52
there's going to be successful
01:00:53
resolution of this Ukraine war at least
01:00:56
a non-escalation of it and all the
01:00:58
things that have happened in the last
01:00:59
couple weeks have been
01:01:01
on the road towards escalation exactly
01:01:03
so in the last like just few days you've
01:01:06
had zelinski saying that they want to be
01:01:07
admitted to Nato you've got Putin
01:01:10
basically annexing or saying he's going
01:01:12
to Annex the Don bass and somebody we
01:01:14
don't know who but according to radic
01:01:16
Sikorsky who's the Polish foreign
01:01:18
minister he think the U.S somebody blew
01:01:21
up the Nord pipeline so what is the
01:01:23
common denominator did they say was
01:01:25
blown up was it one or two was this
01:01:28
so it was the one that was actually like
01:01:31
working what is the common denominator
01:01:33
of all these things they're all
01:01:34
eliminating key elements of what a peace
01:01:37
deal would look like so everyone
01:01:39
understands that a peace deal would
01:01:41
require uh zielinski to give up on NATO
01:01:44
it would require Putin to make some
01:01:46
compromises likely in the Don bass and
01:01:50
it would require the sanctions to be
01:01:52
lifted and the energy flows to be turned
01:01:54
back on well so now those things
01:01:57
basically have been removed from the
01:01:59
table or at least potentially that's
01:02:00
what's happening so I don't see how
01:02:03
you're going to get a peace deal now and
01:02:05
so if you remove all the off ramps
01:02:08
what's left escalation
01:02:10
wow so it seems to me this thing's just
01:02:11
going to keep escalating I thought you
01:02:13
wrote a good piece in the American
01:02:14
conservative should America go all in on
01:02:16
Ukraine if you haven't read it it is 80
01:02:18
of rehash of what we've talked about
01:02:20
here for the last year but there's 20
01:02:23
new in it I think and I thought what was
01:02:25
interesting uh in terms of new stuff you
01:02:28
put in the piece and it's a good summary
01:02:30
of you know poker strategy versus what's
01:02:31
going on here is that we've already
01:02:33
proven you know if you did want to prove
01:02:37
that Russia is not a threat with the
01:02:39
exception of their nuclear we now have
01:02:41
proven that they're really not going to
01:02:43
be able to do a domino and go into all
01:02:45
these different countries with the
01:02:46
exception of obviously the threat of
01:02:48
nuclear power so I thought that was well
01:02:50
that was really a point yeah yeah what I
01:02:52
was really responding to in that piece
01:02:53
is the assertion by the media that Putin
01:02:56
is bluffing how do they know that
01:02:59
you know how do they know that like you
01:03:01
know I think all of us understand poker
01:03:03
pretty well and none of us ever would
01:03:06
have the confidence to assert that we
01:03:09
know exactly what cards our opponent
01:03:12
holds in any given hand and how exactly
01:03:14
they'll play them what do we do what do
01:03:16
smart players do we put our opponent on
01:03:18
a range a range of possible hands of
01:03:22
possibilities and then we evaluate what
01:03:25
did their previous actions tell us what
01:03:27
story are they telling through their
01:03:28
previous actions well what story has
01:03:31
Putin been telling this is not a guy who
01:03:33
Bluffs in my opinion or at least that is
01:03:36
not the story there's a chance he he
01:03:38
would pop off a tactical nuke it's a
01:03:40
non-zero chance if that if his life is
01:03:43
on the line he is incentivized to use
01:03:46
every weapon at his disposal to try and
01:03:49
prevent his violence his life isn't on
01:03:51
the line here he can he can back out oh
01:03:53
yeah but where's this thing headed if
01:03:54
there's no compromise I I think they you
01:03:56
know I I I'm gonna stick with my
01:03:57
original prediction that we wanted to
01:03:59
you ankle Putin we wanted to prove he
01:04:02
didn't have you know as much strength as
01:04:03
he did and we wanted to exhaust his
01:04:05
resources so we could finally
01:04:08
basically get him out of office at some
01:04:10
point so I do think regime change via
01:04:12
exhausting him and I think it seems to
01:04:14
have worked we have exhausted
01:04:15
you're agreeing with me
01:04:18
I agree that we have exhausted his I
01:04:21
mean he's proven he can't fight a ground
01:04:22
war right I mean that that's a pretty oh
01:04:24
he's escalating now he's escalating you
01:04:27
think he's just gonna roll over he's not
01:04:28
going to roll over I think he but I
01:04:30
think what we've proven haven't we is
01:04:32
that he can't fight a ground war
01:04:34
effectively he doesn't have the Army he
01:04:37
doesn't have the weapons uh compared to
01:04:39
the west and he's been exhausted you
01:04:41
know and I think his he's spent now the
01:04:44
only thing he has left is what you're
01:04:45
talking about is the new corruption
01:04:46
literally no no well no there's there's
01:04:48
more intermediate options first of all
01:04:50
he's just called for the the
01:04:52
mobilization of 300 000 more troops so
01:04:54
that's going for step one people are
01:04:56
coming into the country yeah exactly
01:04:58
look there's gonna be very high
01:05:00
yeah they're gonna be very high costs on
01:05:02
the Russian side I would not assume that
01:05:05
means that there's something in it for
01:05:06
us
01:05:07
even with this um you know the the
01:05:10
conscription he's doing this draft he's
01:05:13
doing forced draft I mean he is kind of
01:05:15
redundant but
01:05:16
um this conscription or draft whatever
01:05:18
you want to call it has proven that he
01:05:19
doesn't even actually have the standing
01:05:21
inside his own country people are
01:05:23
leaving they're breaking they're looking
01:05:25
up how to break their arms like it's
01:05:26
it's pretty dark I think you're making a
01:05:27
lot of assumptions there just like the
01:05:29
media who are saying that he is
01:05:30
definitely bluffing what I'm saying is
01:05:31
we cannot know that he's definitely
01:05:33
bluffing no the United States of America
01:05:35
is blessed with being the most safe and
01:05:38
secure country in the world and really
01:05:41
in human history and the history is full
01:05:44
of humans constantly being at war with
01:05:46
each other so that is a really valuable
01:05:48
thing that we have why are we so secure
01:05:50
we're surrounded by gigantic oceans we
01:05:53
have these gigantic moats in addition
01:05:55
thanks to the wisdom of the Monroe
01:05:57
Doctrine for 200 years we have prevented
01:05:59
any great powers from getting a foothold
01:06:00
in the western hemis Fleet we are
01:06:02
completely dominant here and no one
01:06:04
could ever stage an invasion of the
01:06:06
United States we only have one one
01:06:07
vulnerability just one icbms that's
01:06:11
really it so what are we doing we are
01:06:13
basically engaging in a proxy war with
01:06:15
the person in the world who has the most
01:06:17
icbms and we are basically putting
01:06:20
ourselves on an escalatory path with him
01:06:23
this would be like if Achilles had gone
01:06:25
in front of the walls of Troy and
01:06:27
basically taken off his armor and stuck
01:06:30
his foot in the air and drawn a little
01:06:31
Bullseye around his his heel that's what
01:06:34
we're doing the other side in the world
01:06:35
why would we do that why would we do
01:06:37
that if they are the last real
01:06:40
um threat and they are the Achilles heel
01:06:42
if we can uh they're not the last threat
01:06:44
they're not the last threat we're never
01:06:46
going to be out of threats okay well we
01:06:48
got two major ones with icbms but anyway
01:06:51
it looks like we're in the end game now
01:06:52
what do you think happens here we're not
01:06:54
in the end game we're on a path towards
01:06:55
escalation because all the off-ramps
01:06:57
have been removed that's my point and
01:06:59
instead of saying instead of trying to
01:07:01
find a diplomatic solution first of all
01:07:03
we keep removing off-ramps and then we
01:07:05
we blithely disregard the threat to
01:07:08
ourselves by saying he must be bluffing
01:07:10
this is incredibly stupid questions hold
01:07:14
on a second the better question to ask
01:07:15
is what's in it for us what's in it for
01:07:18
the United States of America what is the
01:07:20
vital interest that compels us to risk
01:07:23
our security there isn't one this Don
01:07:26
bass region hold on this donbass region
01:07:28
is the Franz Ferdinand of this situation
01:07:30
it is not historically important to us
01:07:33
we have invested in it all of this
01:07:36
importance and we are potentially
01:07:38
turning a regional War into a World War
01:07:40
we are sleepwalking towards this unless
01:07:43
somebody finds an off-ramp we are
01:07:45
escalating our way into a much larger
01:07:46
conflict that is my point
01:07:49
and I don't see how anyone I don't see
01:07:50
anyone should re-enter the markets with
01:07:52
this geopolitical risk hanging over our
01:07:54
heads yeah this is kind of like what I
01:07:56
said a few weeks ago and JP Morgan put
01:07:59
out a analyst report today saying that
01:08:01
they were shifting from being
01:08:04
you know call it roughly positive sort
01:08:06
of like chamoth's Point earlier about
01:08:08
being a little bit constructive in the
01:08:09
markets right now and coming in and
01:08:10
finding opportunities to buy
01:08:12
to
01:08:14
realizing that the sum of the portfolio
01:08:17
of tail risks right now
01:08:20
you know outweighs the upside that may
01:08:22
arise from finding these low priced
01:08:24
opportunities in the market and that
01:08:25
seems to be the prevailing Market
01:08:27
sentiment right now is that there are
01:08:30
too many of these moments that while
01:08:33
each one of them is low probability the
01:08:36
impact is of such high severity that the
01:08:38
aggregate value expected value or
01:08:40
expected loss of all of them is actually
01:08:43
quite significant and that is heavily
01:08:44
Weighing on the market and so huge
01:08:46
amount of point I think and to the
01:08:48
question earlier about market conditions
01:08:50
one Catalyst for upside in the market
01:08:52
while there is fiscal strain and
01:08:54
economic strain and growth strain there
01:08:56
is also this geopolitical strain in the
01:08:58
market if one or more of these things
01:09:00
starts to resolve I think that weight
01:09:01
starts to come off the markets and you
01:09:03
can see look I can see the market taking
01:09:05
off like a rocket if Ukraine gets
01:09:07
resolved and I do think you're right
01:09:09
it's all fat tail risk that's about to
01:09:11
get resolved I think that can
01:09:12
potentially be
01:09:13
the political motivation here which is
01:09:16
that enough people like chamoth and you
01:09:18
start making the calls to your
01:09:21
representatives pointing out how
01:09:23
strained the market is because of this
01:09:24
tension in the region right now that
01:09:27
maybe there is some path to resolution
01:09:29
that becomes more active rather than
01:09:31
passive because of that this may be a
01:09:33
little controversial so we can talk
01:09:34
about it but I um think that the markets
01:09:37
would have reacted
01:09:39
much much more negatively
01:09:41
to a nuclear incident three months ago
01:09:45
then now and may not even react as much
01:09:49
as we may think it would three months
01:09:50
from now
01:09:52
but what do you mean by nuclear incident
01:09:54
you may not goes off or just a threat
01:09:57
you're saying if Putin blows up a new
01:09:58
the markets may not react that much I
01:10:01
think that the markets are
01:10:03
basically
01:10:05
um ring fencing Russia Ukraine risk in
01:10:09
terms of currency and stability but
01:10:13
that's sort of now gone away
01:10:14
we've ring fenced the energy risk
01:10:17
because it looks like energy reserves in
01:10:21
Europe are actually going to be pretty
01:10:22
meaningful they're going to spend
01:10:23
whatever it takes so all of the second
01:10:26
and third order effects it would be a
01:10:28
humanitarian crisis which would be
01:10:29
horrendous okay but the markets don't
01:10:32
whether we like it or not react to
01:10:34
humanitarian crises they react to the
01:10:37
second and third order economic impacts
01:10:39
of those things and if you actually try
01:10:42
to think about what the second and third
01:10:43
order economic impacts are
01:10:46
you're seeing many of those things get
01:10:48
solved and so what it would be it would
01:10:50
be a highly isolating effect it would be
01:10:52
a humanitarian atrocity he would be
01:10:57
completely cornered from a from a
01:10:59
worldwide perspective
01:11:01
um the the the monetary and fiscal
01:11:04
implications of that
01:11:06
um may not be as meaningfully disruptive
01:11:09
today as they would have been three
01:11:10
months ago that's what I'm saying
01:11:13
well it's one thing I should clarify I
01:11:15
like friedberg's analysis of the fat
01:11:16
tail risk because I'm not saying it's
01:11:18
likely that this conflict goes nuclear
01:11:20
but I don't need there to be a high
01:11:22
likelihood in order for me to be very
01:11:25
concerned about it because of how
01:11:27
disastrous an outcome that would be so
01:11:29
if you're doing an expected value
01:11:31
analysis it's really hard to analyze the
01:11:34
expected value or negative value of a of
01:11:37
a low probability disastrous event right
01:11:40
that's the classic fat tail risk I do
01:11:42
think that if the markets think they
01:11:44
have priced in the effect of this war
01:11:47
then I think that's an argument for a
01:11:50
lot of downside to this Market because
01:11:51
it seems to me that we're on a one-way
01:11:54
ratchet here all the off ramps for us a
01:11:57
piece or a diplomatic solution have been
01:11:59
systematically taken away and all that's
01:12:01
left are potential escalations so no I
01:12:05
hear you but how do those translate
01:12:06
those escalations
01:12:08
to outside of those two countries and
01:12:10
into economic terms for the rest of the
01:12:12
world oh my gosh well I mean if the war
01:12:13
spreads here I'll give you a couple of
01:12:15
scenarios I mean
01:12:17
well here's one I think we're just
01:12:18
assuming that China is going to stay out
01:12:20
of it imagine if you're China and you're
01:12:22
watching what's happening and you're
01:12:24
worried that actually Russia could lose
01:12:26
this war so badly that it emboldens
01:12:30
Hawks in America who want to Target
01:12:33
China next you know who are basically on
01:12:35
This Global struggle against autocracy
01:12:37
you're going to look at that and go wait
01:12:39
a second is it really in our interests
01:12:41
for Putin and Russia to be completely
01:12:44
toppled by This Global struggle against
01:12:47
autocracy it seems to me they could
01:12:49
enter the Russian side not militarily
01:12:52
but in terms of support so they would
01:12:54
have an incentive again not to lose an
01:12:56
ally and then by the same token I think
01:12:59
the Russians could lash out I don't
01:13:01
think they're going to go nuclear right
01:13:02
away but I think they could pull a
01:13:04
grozny
01:13:05
I mean don't you think that is
01:13:08
well when you know in the Chechen War
01:13:11
when Russia was losing they just rubbled
01:13:13
Grazie I mean they basically level it to
01:13:14
the ground so I mean Putin hasn't done
01:13:16
anything like that yet but if he's
01:13:18
facing defeat isn't that something that
01:13:22
would be on the escalatory ladder is to
01:13:24
basically start leveling Ukrainian
01:13:25
cities destroyed infrastructure and then
01:13:28
what is the response to the West yeah I
01:13:31
know I know because the West may say you
01:13:32
know what that's unacceptable to us I
01:13:34
agree no no I I look I'm not debating
01:13:36
how bad all of these things are I'm just
01:13:38
asking the question
01:13:39
what are the second and third order
01:13:41
economic impacts because the market
01:13:43
doesn't reflect human atrocities we may
01:13:47
want it to but it just doesn't do a good
01:13:48
job of that it does do a reasonable job
01:13:51
of reflecting a discounted set of events
01:13:54
in the future related to economic events
01:13:55
and impacts and all I'm saying is that
01:13:57
you know the most obvious impacts of
01:13:59
this war have been to currencies to
01:14:01
Commodities and to energy
01:14:03
and the world has had
01:14:06
six or seven months to reroute what
01:14:09
they've needed to roughly solve a large
01:14:12
percentage of those problems it doesn't
01:14:14
take the fact that this is a bad war and
01:14:16
it should end
01:14:18
I'm not saying any of it right right no
01:14:19
I look you make you make a good point
01:14:21
which is that look the Market discounts
01:14:23
cash flow so how do the cash flows get
01:14:25
impacted you maybe write that valuation
01:14:27
multiples have gotten close to
01:14:30
correction but I think the thing that we
01:14:32
don't really know is what earnings and
01:14:34
profits and revenues are going to look
01:14:35
like next year and part of that is about
01:14:37
the hard Landing right like how inflated
01:14:39
are all these companies revenues and
01:14:42
earnings because of what are you I hear
01:14:45
you but this is why that chart is so
01:14:46
important every other time except in
01:14:49
1983 in modern history so the modern
01:14:51
history that we have all lived
01:14:53
says that the stock market Bottoms in
01:14:55
the first third
01:14:58
of a process
01:15:00
and so if you think that this process
01:15:02
ends in 24 that's a roughly 24 month
01:15:04
process 21-month process we're in month
01:15:07
seven we're in the power rally of what
01:15:10
would map to the last six or seven
01:15:12
patterns of behavior
01:15:15
yeah I mean I I guess you may end up
01:15:18
being right about this prediction I
01:15:19
guess what I'm saying is that I
01:15:20
personally would not want to enter the
01:15:22
market until some of these fat tail
01:15:23
risks are taken off the table oh yeah
01:15:25
well talking about nibbling in the
01:15:26
market for a second I'm not saying
01:15:27
they're likely I'm just saying that yeah
01:15:30
I understand obviously none of us want
01:15:31
this to happen I'm just asking a very
01:15:33
specific question which is and making an
01:15:35
observation which is I wonder how the
01:15:38
markets would react and I I I don't see
01:15:40
it being down a thousand points and that
01:15:42
may be wrong but by the way it could
01:15:45
certainly be shocking to to see that
01:15:46
yeah the diversity of views that you
01:15:48
guys all share I think really represents
01:15:51
the market
01:15:54
what view do you have you too you have a
01:15:56
view
01:15:58
dude I I'm like what the [ __ ]
01:16:01
wow what is your hand no but what is
01:16:04
your view here's your view that we're
01:16:06
okay we're about to just go through the
01:16:07
toilet like what is your view
01:16:09
from an equity Market's point of view oh
01:16:11
just in general yeah like Equity markets
01:16:13
your temperature how do you feel like
01:16:14
how do you feel yeah I'm worried about
01:16:16
money not moving
01:16:18
what does it mean money not moving I'm
01:16:20
really anxious about
01:16:22
invested dollars everyone seems
01:16:25
I think I mentioned a while ago that
01:16:27
dollars were kind of locked up in March
01:16:29
and then I went to this conference and
01:16:30
people were like yeah we're loosening up
01:16:31
and making a plan again in July because
01:16:34
the market was kind of turning back up
01:16:35
and now Equity markets are turning down
01:16:37
Bond markets have turned down interest
01:16:39
rates have spiked and there's a bunch of
01:16:42
these currency problems so I'm very
01:16:44
nervous
01:16:45
about the flow of capital which I
01:16:48
remember happening in 08 and I remember
01:16:50
happening when we were all joking over
01:16:52
text when covet happened and we're like
01:16:54
hey the market can only go down 10 a day
01:16:56
for so many days in a row and everyone
01:16:58
was kind of like you know Jamal was
01:17:01
talking about wearing jeans instead of
01:17:03
he's like I could just wear the same
01:17:04
pair of jeans for the rest of my life or
01:17:06
something that's true demand destruction
01:17:11
yeah yeah he's like I don't need fancy
01:17:13
clothes I can just wear the same clothes
01:17:14
I have let's go into a storage locker to
01:17:16
pull those clothes out right
01:17:19
on sale rent the rent tomorrow the CEO
01:17:23
of Laura Piana did send me a note after
01:17:25
that podcast he's like is everything
01:17:26
okay
01:17:29
[Applause]
01:17:32
indicator of economic health is the rate
01:17:35
of rotation of chamat's closet because
01:17:37
that is he's like you know what I can
01:17:40
take this season off I'll just wear last
01:17:42
Summer's season
01:17:44
I would guess that the rate of rotation
01:17:46
of chemov's closet is probably
01:17:48
predictive of IPO Market you know what I
01:17:51
was I was there last one rotating it I'm
01:17:53
rotating it so maybe that's a good sign
01:17:55
the economy is about to read it again
01:17:56
I'm ready to take some companies public
01:17:58
no no I'm buying I'm buying stocks
01:17:59
because I was at chamat last week and it
01:18:01
was supposed to be black truffles and
01:18:03
then he jumped the fence all of a sudden
01:18:04
white truffles over my shoulder I was
01:18:07
like chef chef chef
01:18:11
all right Lesson Four The Dictator
01:18:15
uh the prince of panic attacks the
01:18:17
Sultan of science the queen of quinoa
01:18:20
himself so see the Kevin Hart show if
01:18:21
you're in San Francisco or San Francisco
01:18:23
he's hilarious and uh for Montclair
01:18:27
Ambassador David sacks the dictator
01:18:30
himself
01:18:33
it's moderate and we'll see you on
01:18:34
episode 99. love you guys love you guys
01:18:38
we'll let your winners
01:18:43
[Music]
01:18:57
somehow
01:19:02
[Music]
01:19:22
we need to get Mercies
01:19:27
[Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most shocking

Episode Highlights

  • End of an Era
    The tech industry faces a significant shift as companies move from growth to profitability.
    “It's the end of an era of rapid growth.”
    @ 02m 56s
    October 01, 2022
  • Opportunities for Startups
    Despite challenges, this downturn could lead to a consolidation of talent for startups.
    “This is incredible setup for 2023 for startups to consolidate talent.”
    @ 11m 34s
    October 01, 2022
  • The Fed's Incompetence
    Critics argue the Fed's handling of inflation has been marked by incompetence and political pressure.
    “These people are not competent, are they?”
    @ 38m 58s
    October 01, 2022
  • Crisis of Confidence in Government
    The erosion of trust in government since the 2008 crisis is linked to zero interest rate policies.
    “There's huge amounts of rancor, nobody gets along.”
    @ 48m 39s
    October 01, 2022
  • Wealth Transfer Between Generations
    The staggering wealth held by Boomers raises questions about economic participation among younger generations.
    “U.S. Boomers have 71 trillion dollars in assets.”
    @ 51m 39s
    October 01, 2022
  • Coolio's Birthday Wish
    Coolio sends a warm birthday message to a friend, expressing appreciation and good wishes.
    “I appreciate you man”
    @ 56m 42s
    October 01, 2022
  • Health is Wealth
    A discussion on the importance of health and new medical advancements.
    “Health as wealth”
    @ 58m 06s
    October 01, 2022
  • Tribute to Coolio
    Reflecting on Coolio's kindness and impact on those he met.
    “Rest in power to our friend”
    @ 59m 08s
    October 01, 2022
  • Economic Health Indicator
    The rate of rotation of Chamat's closet may predict the IPO market's future.
    “The rate of rotation of chamat's closet is probably predictive of IPO Market.”
    @ 01h 17m 44s
    October 01, 2022

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • End of an Era02:56
  • Incompetent Fed37:31
  • Driving in the Rearview39:32
  • Crisis of Confidence48:39
  • Wealth Transfer51:39
  • Heartfelt Message56:42
  • Market Anxiety1:16:18
  • Economic Predictions1:17:44

Words per Minute Over Time

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