Stark Warning: Economic Meltdown Could Rival the Great Depression | Speak Up with Anthony Scaramucci

Stark Warning: Economic Meltdown Could Rival the Great Depression | Speak Up with Anthony Scaramucci

I had dismissed it I was sitting and
this is really important I was sitting
in Wall Street I was sitting at a hedge
fund the one the one area in Wall Street
where you would be looking at these
things and I just dismissed it outright
you know it’s a pondi scheme it’s not
worth anything has no underlying value
it’s going to collapse it’s G to go to
zero and so I didn’t pay
[Music]
[Applause]
attention beaming in from Sunny Disney
World joining us now on speak up James
lavish he’s a managing partner of the
Bitcoin opportunity fund James it is
incredible to see you I’ve been dying to
do this interview uh you have a hybrid
fund I’ll let you tell everybody what
that’s all about it makes public and
private investments in companies and
Assets in the Bitcoin
ecosystem uh but welcome to the show I
appreciate having you on tell us a
little bit about your fund and then
we’ll get into some other fun stuff of
course it’s great to be here Anthony
thank you for having me and uh looks
nice and sunny out there I’m in Vegas so
I know what uh I know what you’re
dealing with but yeah the Bitcoin
opportunity fund I’m a co-managing
partner of that uh with David Foley uh
you know traditional asset managers
coming into the Bitcoin space and what
we’re doing is we’re we have that hybrid
model like you said we’re we’re looking
at uh any opportunity in the Bitcoin
space so in the Bitcoin ecosystem and
public private early stage late stage uh
the the the point of our structure is
that we can take advantage of any
opportunity and the space is so small we
felt it was important to keep it open
you know we’ve there are a lot of uh
just Venture Capital funds out there and
of course we could be an also ran there
but we we uh we deliberately structured
this fund so we could take advantage of
any
opportunity okay so I’m I’m a
60-year-old white male which is
definitionally miserable might as well
just say that up front I’m I’m I’m a
died in the wool cynic and I think
Bitcoin is a decentralized Ponzi scheme
so now I meet you in the elevator tell
me what I got wrong James tell me tell
me what I enlighten me uh uh give me an
anti-is sism tonic I deal with these
people all day by the way that’s why I’m
asking for some help here typically what
I what I start with is uh just the the
money and how the money is broken and
how Fiat money is broken and
specifically uh Fiats that are are
created by um and and bonds that are
issued by uh sovereign states that that
create their own fiat currency and so if
you want to look at Ponzi schemes this
is like the ultimate Ponzi scheme right
where you issue debt you create more
money and uh you expand the money supply
uh and and in order to deal with that
debt and so um it’s easy to start with
just the simple question why is
inflation necessary and do you feel that
it’s normal and most people say yeah 2%
is normal and then when you break that
down and they start to understand why 2%
inflation is really just a Target and
the only reason that they do it is
because they can get away with it that
gets people to understand okay the money
is broken and when you have a when you
have money that’s been created digitally
and then you go to the digital gold uh
comparison where hey gold has been
around for 5,000 years uh if you you
know want to buy a nice uh if you want
to buy it one ounce of gold get you like
350 loaves of bread back in Roman times
right and now it’s still about the same
350 nice loaves of bread for an ounce of
gold if you want to buy a nice suit
today it’s the same thing you you it’s
about an ounce of gold versus a nice
suit back in uh Roman times it’s an
ounce of gold
now we have progressed into this Fiat
system that’s been around for a couple
hundred years at most and and uh and
it’s obviously faulty and it’s got
problems and so and it’s just been this
really narrow test case in history and
now we’ve got digital gold to replace
the physical gold which has much
Superior properties to it and that’s and
so that’s kind of where I walk people
into show how the money’s broken talk
about how this is a gold 2.0 3.0 upgrade
and then they can understand why it’s uh
why it’s important why it’s a necessary
protocol for us okay so I’m starting to
understand that I’m becoming slightly
less cynical uh and slightly more
enlightened so you’re let me let me let
me say it back to you see if I have it
you’re basically saying that U we’ve
corrupted the system the central banks
have effectively been drunk driving with
our currency a result of which people
have lost trust in fiat currency it’s
not just here in the United States in
fact the United States has been more
benign frankly and some of the other
countries forget about the Western
democracies how about the rest of the
world places like Argentina Africa uh
South American states they’ve lost
control of the money and the people in
those countries have lost confidence in
the money which is why there’s places
like El Salvador experimenting with
Bitcoin saying okay listen we’re going
to put ourselves at the
decentralized uh we’re g to put
ourselves at the behest of the
decentralized bank as opposed to a
centralized Bank something where
individuals can’t have control uh do you
believe though now I’m going to push you
harder if you don’t mind play the
skeptic further do you believe though
that people believe that you and I
believe that but do you believe that
people will eventually get to where you
and I are
yeah well you have to take a leap of
faith when you’re in a developed Western
Country that in especially in the United
States we have the benefit of being the
global Reserve asset and the global
Reserve currency in US Dollars and
treasuries so we we look at Bitcoin
typically people in the United States
come to bitcoin as an investment as a
way to make a bunch of money as you know
it’s an alternative way to make money
it’s uh it’s just something interesting
and out there on the risk curve right
but if you go to those countries you’re
talking about Venezuela Argentina uh
Lebanon Egypt these people need a place
to store they’re hard-earned money so
you go out to work you work for this you
get compensated and if you don’t want to
spend all that immediately and you want
to save that where do you save it you
can’t access US Dollars typically out
there difficult to get they’re super
expensive so how what do you do do you
just keep it in your currency do you
keep it in the boulevar do you keep it
in the peso no you want to do something
else with it and so even the IMF put out
a report that admitted that Bitcoin is
an important tool a store of value for
for people in those countries why they
don’t care about the volatility because
they know it’s a volatility an asset
that’s increasing in adoption which
means it’s increasing in in worth as as
opposed to if they put their money in
the peso they know that it’s it’s
volatile but it’s decreasing down to
zero and it will be revalued time and
time again so this is a really important
you know uh form of currency a form of
money for them to store their value in
and then secondly if they want to flee
someplace that is oppressive you know
this you’ve done a lot of work on this
Anthony that if you want to leave
someplace that’s oppressive how do you
do that with cash how do you do that
with gold you can walk across the border
and I know somebody who has done this
with his whole family from Venezuela he
talks about it uh how he was able to
sell all of their assets put it into
Bitcoin walk across the border to
America have those you know those 12
words in his head and they took their
entire net worth with them it would not
have been possible without Bitcoin so it
it’s it’s a different mindset and it’s
going to grow kind of from from the
ground up in my opinion it’s organic and
it’s going to grow in the countries that
need it so badly at the same time that
now in the United States we have the
ETFs which has allowed the institutional
adoption of Bitcoin and for them to
understand it’s the first kind of step
for for investors institutional
investors we’ve been doing this for a
long time I’ve been in the game for 30
years and so I’ve seen how difficult it
is for people to get their head around
fiat currency the money is broken and
this is something necessary so this this
is the next step and it’s kind of it’s
an evolutionary process so it’s actually
pretty normal in in my
opinion all right it’s about as
beautifully articulated as anybody I’ve
heard so I’m gonna if you don’t mind I’m
going to be stealing and plagiarizing
from you lavish in the months ahead okay
it’s very well put let’s go back to the
economy for a second okay because I ask
all of our Wealthy on guests the same
question uh what’s relevant right now
you’re looking at the economy today
you’re saying okay this is a trade I
would put on right now this is something
I’d be doing with my personal money
right now today and then based on why
give us your perspective on the economy
and then something actionable that we
could do this week yeah so I think the
most important thing uh to that you that
people are confused about the economy
right now right so you’re seeing all
kinds of conflicting numbers come in
from the CPI to uh unemployment numbers
and you hear the FED talking they’re
talking about a pivot you’re hearing the
treasury talking um the most important
thing is to understand that we are in a
battle right now we’re witnessing a
battle between the treasury and really
it’s the US government’s Congress and
the FED right so we had infl we had
inflation was created by the expansion
of money supply and you know uh and
there was as as you know that there were
uh supply chain issues during the 20 uh
year and pandemic lockdowns but that
inflation was sought to be battled by
the fed the FED has two mandates they
have the Mandate of of stable prices
which is really just that 2% inflation
we can come back to that and then they
have the Mandate of of Full Employment
but they raised rates exponentially in
in terms against zero interest rate
policy when we were at zero interest
rates they raise them up to over 5
percent five and a half percent at the
top end so that’s supposed to have uh
contractor kind of influence on the
economy it’s it’s supposed to uh it’s
supposed to make the economy contract it
disincentivized loans and for borrowing
and and that’s the Natural State
meanwhile up in Congress we’re like you
said we’re we’re spending like drunken
Sailors it is just out of control how
much we’re spending to give people an
idea we have a two trillion plus deficit
run rate right now this year and we are
not in a recession this is unheard of we
are literally spending like we there no
tomorrow is just is pouring liquidity
into the markets part of that liquidity
is coming in the in the form of all the
interest on our debt we’ve got 34 and a
half 34.6 trillion doar of debt that we
have now on the books
and we’re paying over one it’s like $1.1
trillion dollar a year on interest just
on that so that goes into the economy
then you’ve got things like the you know
the uh the inflation reduction act which
is it it spends money on infrastructure
and green energy and green projects and
that pours money into the economy and
and so you’re seeing in the economy we
kind of have two economies in America
right so you you we WI this some
recessions and some contractions so
you’re seeing layoffs 200,000 plus jobs
have been lost this year alone and then
on the flip side you’re seeing some
expansion and you’re seeing the interest
the the the inflation rate just kind of
stuck at 3% why is it stuck there well
you’ve got some expansion in areas
because of the all the spending and the
additional liquidity coming into the
market versus the contraction of like
commercial real estate for instance
office real estate we we’re seeing a
major problem there well it’s very
sensitive to high rates so that makes
sense so you’ve got these two things at
play and so what I’m watching really
carefully is the bond market and for
clues in the bond market of what’s going
on because people understand inherently
even if you’re not thinking about it you
just understand that if we’re running
these deficit
if we have this much interest on our on
our debt and we’re expanding on our debt
the only way to manage that is with more
inflation so you’re looking for things
that will do well with inflation and if
you you should have been owning gold
through this period and that is one of
the things that I own and you should be
owning Bitcoin we can talk about more
about Bitcoin as an investment in a
second but uh what I wouldn’t be doing
is I wouldn’t be owning long bonds not
unless it’s for a a very short trade uh
what I would be doing is moving my debt
exposure all the way up to the near end
to two years and and uh and shorter
because the only way around this is for
higher inflation which means ultimately
higher rates on the longer end more debt
that’s going to be issued and you’re
going to have Bond investors demanding
rate premiums at the longer end in order
to uh to be compensated for that and
that’s just
reality so what one of the things that I
think troubles me the most and this is a
der reliction of Duty on my generation
and you’re a few years younger than me
but I think we’re
contemporaries is uh we’re stealing from
the future generation and so basically
our politicians have said okay young
people don’t vote old people vote we’re
going to give old people benefits in the
form of Social Security and Medicare
other types of benefits and we’re going
to take them effectively from a younger
generation of people and oh by the way
inflation is a form of regressive
taxation because it hits the poor harder
than everybody else because the poor
don’t own assets you and I both know
that James and then the secondary thing
I want you to react to is while we’re
doing this this
inflation the deficit spending that
you’re speaking of is effectively
unfunded tax liability so it has to come
somewhere it either has to come through
the invisible taxation known as
inflation or we’re eventually going to
have to have a reckoning and some type
of measure to
increase taxation like honest taxation
or reduce spending so what say you or or
we just gonna liquidate F currency you
know we’re we’re 30 years from now and
our our currencies effectively worthless
that’s a great question and and this is
the point of of you know exactly what
we’re talking about with the debt so
what can you do we have 30 we have we’re
approaching $35 trillion of debt and uh
and so what can the politicians do well
they have they have a few choices you
can have austerity which is to cut
spending which you spent uh a few days
in Washington long enough to understand
that they’ll never do that neither party
will ever cut spending because it’s
political suicide they have to take care
of their constituents and they will keep
spending in order to do that each side
tries to trick the other side to do it
you see it come up in the debt sealing
crisis every few years but the debt
ceiling keeps getting raised we don’t
even have one right now that’s how
absurd it is it’s just kind of put on
pause and so that’s not going to happen
the second thing you could do is raise
taxes so people clamor about raising
taxes raise tax on the rich raise tax on
companies make people pay their fair
share but the reality is when you raise
taxes you end up limiting productivity
you
disincentivize reinvestment in the
companies into research and development
into expanding product lines into
profitable product lines to where they
they could actually hire people and so
it winds up hurting the economy because
you’re you’re going to get you have
higher taxes on Lower productivity so
you wind up in the same spot but it’s
actually worse because your productivity
is declining so it ends up being being
worse in the long run so you don’t want
to do that the third thing you can do is
just issue more debt which is what we’re
watching happen right now you know so
the the the treasury today is this week
they’re going to be issuing
over
2005 billion in t- bills and another 180
183 billion billion dollars in in uh
notes in twoyear five year seven-year
notes which an auction’s happening right
now it’s going to be interesting to see
what happens there but why are they
doing this because they can’t pay for
the maturing debt they’ve got to issue
more debt to pay for the maturing debt
okay so that’s the solution well at the
at the same time they have to allow for
high structural Perpetual inflation like
the inflation has to continue why is
that because you need High inflation to
create higher nominal GDP GDP and
greater dollars even though the dollars
are worth less there’s more of them
around they’re printing more dollars and
they’re they’re creating inflation in
order to have that debt that they’re
paying down they’re going to use cheaper
dollars to do that in the future because
the dollars are not worth as much so
when you buy a 30-year Bond and you’re
getting 5% on that you’re probably not
making out because if you look at
inflation it’s really closer to the
expansion of the money supply Anthony
you know so and that’s been over 7%
since the 70s and so you’re losing out
on purchasing power on those on those
bonds and so but I got cut but I gotta
cut rates though don’t I I’m I’m the
Central Banking chair now I heard
everything you just said you’re in the
meeting with me we’re having an honest
moment you and I you’re on my board at
the Federal Reserve and I look to you
and say yeah everything you just said is
true but I still have to cut rates I
have to take some pressure off of the
Congress because they’re not going to
stop spending and so I’ve got to figure
out a way to slow down the interest rate
train here yeah and that’s going am GNA
cut rates by the end of the year you’re
gonna you’re going to allow for
exacerbating inflation I do think that
they’re going to cut rates but because
of what we talked about before you’re
seeing two economies and and something
will happen between now and the end of
the year whether commercial real estate
uh problem burns out of control and
they’re trying they’re they’re working
really hard on it the FED is working
with these with these uh the regional
Banks to make sure they’re short up and
that they don’t get into a major problem
there’s not a black hole there somewhere
but you’re seeing Office Buildings sell
you know for 203 cents in the dollar
from just a few years ago and that’s
that’s a major problem those are major
hits to those Banks because they’re
non-recourse loans the people the the
companies that own them the the
investors that own them just hand back
the keys and say I’ll take the loss on
my on my down payment but you take the
rest of it and it it’s an impaired asset
and so those are problems that are
creeping up I do think that we’re
running towards and this is just this
there’s nothing that can stop this
Anthony nothing can stop what is
happening in Congress unless they cut
back spending which we know they won’t
do so fed’s going to have to cut rates
sooner or later because of some sort of
event likely or because unemployment
does does start to tick up because the
government isn’t filling in the rest of
those jobs and so they will cut rates
which will just perpetuate the inflation
problem it’ll come roaring back in my
opinion it will come roaring back and so
your actionable thing to do now is to
hold things longer term think past this
little cycle here because when we
printed money and we can go back and so
people understand where this all comes
from this started in 1987 after Black
Monday you you and I were were likely in
high school and college right I was in
high school and when Black Monday
occurred it was I could see some of my
friends I didn’t come from money but
they did and they had stock portfolios
and they were explaining to me how they
suddenly were you know way poorer today
than they were the day before and who
stepped in you know uh Greenspan stepped
in and said look don’t worry we have
your back they didn’t do anything but
they have their back Flash Forward Flash
Forward to 1998 with long-term Capital
Management you likely remember this well
I was sitting on a trading desk and I
get a call from somebody who’s another
big hedge fund I’m I’m at a hedge fund
in in Fort Worth and I get a call from
somebody’s another hedge fund I don’t
want to dox them but there they said hey
look do you guys uh do you guys Prime
broker with Goldman because they’re
going under tonight so you better get
your assets out of there Well turns out
Goldman has an emergency meeting with a
New York fed and and engineered rescue
for Goldman because they were going to
go under because of long-term Capital
Management and their massive leverage so
that was the first real step here right
so you had Greenspan nodded and and gave
the hint then you had the rescue from
the New York fed of of Goldman in 1998
and actually occurred and then you
flashed forward to 2008
and we have the absolute Rescue of all
the banks from the government so the
government took on all the banks
problems and they printed over five
trillion dollars uh or over they excuse
me they printed almost a trillion
dollars Flash Forward then to 2020 where
they print over5 trillion dollar in
order to show up the economy from covid
and lockdowns what do you think is going
to happen the next time that we have an
event it’s not going to be less than
five trillion we are now running
deficits that are massive we have $3.5
trillion do$ 34.6 trillion of debt so
when the next event happens as we both
know the the when you when you have an
event and you have a steep draw down in
the economy what happens is your
expenses your your government expenses
go up by 10 to 8 to 12% typically
because of entitlements unemployment and
all that then then your your tax
receipts go down by 8 to 12% stock
market crashes you’re not getting
capital gains taxes uh people are making
less money you know out of jobs and so
your your your revenues drop so what do
you think we’re going to we can’t have
that there we must keep going we must
keep the treasury market liquid we must
keep going so if there is an event they
will print so much money it’s going to
be mindboggling it’s not going to be5
trillion it’s going to be 10 12 1518
trillion maybe even more who knows how
bad the event is so you want to be
holding assets that will be able to
protect against that that is the
long-term that is the through this cycle
and looking past this cycle play and
that’s that’s what I’m
recommending okay so so where is Bitcoin
I think you’ve the reason I’m not
interrupting James is that you’re you’re
giving a
wonderful macroeconomic rendition of the
plight and Peril and you’re grounding it
in your investment experience and you’re
grounding it in the trials and
tribulations and the pain that you and I
have suffered through three decades plus
of investing so so that’s why I think
we’re both drawing the same conclusions
that we are on digital property and
digital assets so so where are things
like where is Bitcoin in the next three
years yeah it’s a it’s a great question
and so um I’ve been I’m relatively new
to bitcoin I mean I came into it in late
2020 uh early 2021 and so of course I
was introduced to it by my son because
he’s in college he’s up at Cornell with
a bunch of really smart engineers and
and computer science scientists and
they’re into these digital ass he said
dad you got to check this thing out
because I had dismissed it I was sitting
and this is really important I was
sitting in Wall Street I was sitting at
a hedge fund the one the one area in
Wall Street where you would be looking
at these things and I just dismissed it
outright you know it’s a pondy scheme
it’s not worth anything it has no
underlying value it’s going to collapse
going to go to zero and so I didn’t pay
attention uh and so Flash Forward to
2021 I started paying attention because
of what happened with the money supply
exactly what we were talking about I
thought wow this is interesting gold
really should do it should have done
better than it did but we also both know
that gold is highly manipulated in the
derivatives Market there’s just so much
paper in that market it’s difficult to
to uh you know to to capture all of that
anyway so where is Bitcoin I was an
Institutional Investor I I dismissed it
just like most in institutional
investors have all along the way so
Bitcoin is an is an asset and right now
it is I would put it in the category
unfor I would put it in the category of
it should be considered a risk off asset
and it’s anti-inflationary it’s a
perfect place to just store value for a
long period of time super easy to do
it’s decentralized it’s not overseen by
one Central Authority or Central Bank it
can’t just be expanded uh it’s super
resilient it’s it’s the hardest money
it’s ever been created and it’s digital
and so that’s where it should be but the
problem is it’s not understood yet
there’s so much misinformation out there
about Bitcoin mining about the energy
use about uh all the other coins and how
there that there could be another
Bitcoin that that just created and
that’s all nonsense and so what it takes
Anthony and I’m sure it took you a while
to get to this point is it takes some
deep mental work it takes some critical
thinking to get there no question yeah
so you have to critically think but how
do you do that when you’re not
incentivized to so up until now all the
way up until the the second week of J
January your institutional investors
were they were not being paid to
critically think about this they could
just dismiss it why because no no other
institutional investors owned it because
it’s too difficult to own and for your
listeners and for the people watching
this to understand coming from
institutional investing it is it was in
exceedingly difficult to own Bitcoin
prior to this year if you an
Institutional Investor if you even if
you want understood it if you’re an
analyst you convince your portfolio
manager portfolio manager understands it
he’s sitting there at you know the a
Cleveland firefighters pension fund and
he’s thinking yeah but how do I how do I
buy it is it on it is it on a regulated
exchange and then who’s overseeing that
and then where does it get settled do I
settle it with my bank what’s this
coinbase thing I mean I don’t know if I
trust that thing and do we where who
going to custody it what do you mean I
have to have a key phrase do I have to
do am I going to take this home we going
to put it in a safe here we going to put
it in a safe deposit box what if I what
if I somehow die or I quit my job or
something who how where’s the succession
of this knowledge and how does that get
worked out and then what are the tax
implications of it and so it was just so
it was so difficult to get past all
those questions even if you got past it
on the portfolio management side you had
to talk to the compliance committee and
the uh and the you know your internal
counsel your general counsel and get it
approved and have all the checks and
balances and and this would take six
nine 12 months just to get to that point
and at that point you know even if you
got it all the way through you still are
staring at the problem of holding your
own keys or or finding some sort of
custodian that will do that for you that
is not a JP Morgan that is not a maril
Lynch or Goldman Sachs you know you had
to to get outside your comfort zone go
to Fidelity or something and it was it
was a huge hurdle flat then then you go
to today and in January we get the
approval of these ETFs and then one Fell
Swoop just like that you know where
they’re change where the exchanges that
they’re trading when it’s going to be
marked before you didn’t even know
you’re going to mark it in London time
New York time like midnight where do we
mark it now it’s going to be marked at
New York New York close trade on New
York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ you you’re
buying it and settling with the same
Prime broker and Traders on these
regulated exchanges you’ve got the same
custodian through your Prime broker you
know exactly what the settlement DTC
it’s just like buying in any other stock
the only question is are you going to
get any margin on it and that’s worked
out with each your Prime Brokers but
that’s it it’s so easy now so now you’re
seeing institutions start to dip their
toe in and that’s why the price has been
staying stabilized from 30,000 all the
way up to 60,000 here it’s kind of
stabilized here even though it is still
considered a risk on asset it’s starting
to be considered an asset that you
should have in your portfolios so the
career risk of owning it has flipped to
the career and personal risk of ignoring
it and so that’s where we are now and
it’s taking time but that’s we’re at the
beginning stages of understanding it as
a separate asset on Wall Street
all right so so sit tight I’m GNA I’m
going to bring in your message I mean is
to sit tight for investors be patient
that’s my my that’s my my sit tip let’s
go to questions okay we’ve got questions
from the outside
audience what’s going on with the debt
box case and what impacts could this
have on crypto going forward this is J
from Las Vegas the debt box case I’m not
sure what he’s talking about yeah so I’m
not I’m not 100% sure what that is so I
got to have our control room look up
what the debt box case is and then we’ll
return to that question let’s go to the
next question what is your take on junk
fees and should they be eliminated while
it seems good for the consumer could
this have a bigger economic impact from
losses on the corporate side well I mean
the problem is they’re all doing it
right so if you if you had some sort of
of limit or some sort of of law on these
I don’t think it would be a bad thing
but the reality is we just need we need
true competition that’s what we really
need it’s not the laws and we need we
need the ability to have true
competition so if you if you have banks
that are open that are able to sustain
themselves without these kinds of fees
and credit card companies and whatever
th that will be a a way for invest to
move away because you’ve seen it in in
the big Banks the the fact that these
Banks still have deposits anywhere just
blows my mind I was talking to somebody
who’s in you know she’s in her uh late
70s and she’s sitting on a little nest
egg and she’s got sitting in a a a a
savings account at the bank and I asked
her what is your what’s the interest
rate you’re getting on that
0.1% we we had to look it up because she
didn’t know like well you need to move
that into a money market account you
move it over to Fidelity move it
somewhere else move it to someplace
where you can actually get get some
interest on that so to answer your
question that’s a way that consumers can
can can battle this is by doing business
with companies that don’t have those
fees and that’s really the the big Crux
there that’s what we need is the ability
to open up and allow some companies that
are not they’re not depending on those
junk fees to make their profit
okay very very well said let’s go back
to the debt box case because I I didn’t
recognize that term debt box but uh
James this is related to the two SEC
lawyers resigned after the judge blasted
them for the abuse of power and so yeah
I I’ll start then I’ll get your opinion
I think the the SEC this ten year for
the SEC if you were an economic
historian and you were looking back 25
or 50 years from today uh you’d be
looking at the situation and saying what
a nightmare the Gary Gensler SEC
ultimately was uh rather than focus on
what was right or wrong for the economy
he got very very political uh maybe he
thought he was going to be the Secretary
of Treasury or something like that and
so he did things in a very manipulative
way to the point where he was rebuked by
the court system and so uh the
corruption of some like Gary Gensler the
political corruption and personal
political ambition I think has
foreshadowed the SEC for his tenure and
I think he’ll go down as one of the
worst Commissioners in the history of
the SEC I’ll turn it over to you I think
I don’t have much to add there uh I I I
agree and all I saw was and I was in
meetings most of yesterday so all I saw
was uh it it sounded like these
attorneys were just they people inside
the SEC were saying they would just shut
they would just shut down any questions
from the uh especially from the
companies that were looking to to push
forward an an eth ETF uh and the Bitcoin
ETF they were just they just plugged
their ears and yelled loudly and shut it
down and so it’s clear that there was
just obstruction there and so I I don’t
really have much more to add than that
I’ll have to dig into it in this week
and see uh and see what exactly happened
there okay let’s go to uh the next
question brics is considering the
development of a stable coin to
facilitate global trade settlements
what’s your take this is Mark from San
Francisco yeah so bricks is an
interesting thing I’ve written about
this um so I have a I don’t know if you
know this Anthony but I have a
newsletter I write every week that
simplifies uh Financial topics and so um
it’s free but the the the thing about
bricks is it’s interesting but really
what it is it’s it’s it’s the
significance of bricks and just forget
about the stable coin right now the the
significant of bricks is that it’s a
signal to not to America and in
particular that you have countries that
are seeking to uh not replace the US
dollar AS Global Reserve currency but
just to get out from under it so they
want to be able to do they want to be
able to settle trades and settle
crossborder payments without the US
dollar the US Treasury involved why is
that well we made a tactical error in my
opinion severe tactical error back when
Russia invaded uh Ukraine and we shut
off and and seized their their treasury
assets we shut them off of Swift and so
what that signaled to the world is that
if you are not one of our close allies
and you are and you do something we
don’t like we can we can seize your
assets and shut off your money well that
only serves to make these countries seek
to have a way to do trade without having
to touch the dollar and so what we have
seen is we’ve seen a lot of these
countries that are not buying us us
treasuries aggressively anymore China in
particular and they’re instead seeking
to buy gold
physical gold and do uh and and make
crossborder transactions outside of the
the treasury by either doing it in wand
or gold or something else so that’s
really the significance of bricks and as
far as the development of stablecoin and
to do all that that that could be an
internal thing for them to do that
stable coin does not uh that does not
own treasuries but that’s a for for me
that is a uh it’s a low likelihood of of
um of
uh of success in the next few years it’s
gonna that would take a long time for
them to be able to get together and all
of those leaders and dictators to agree
on something that they can they can all
trust that’s going to be
difficult go to the next question I
think it’s well said do you think the
residential real estate market is tied
too much to fiat currency and
inflation and is Bitcoin a better
long-term more stable strategy C Cameron
from Dallas yeah this a good this
another look real estate to me has to
have a a strong function and if you’re
if you’re an owner of real estate you’re
you’re you’re leasing it out uh but if
you buy a house and you’re living in it
that’s got strong function for you it’s
a and it it makes it it it creates a
life for you and and a uh and a
lifestyle for you so is it tied too much
to Fiat inflation yeah I mean everybody
talks about how their house how their
house is going up in value but in
reality it’s really just the dollars
going down in value versus it it’s a
good it is a good long-term store of
value but it’s super ill liquid so the
question really is what do you want to
do with your money do you want to invest
it in something that will give you a
lifestyle and function uh or do you need
access to that Capital quickly and do
you can you can you weather storms over
the next three five years and be able to
hold Bitcoin not you I would not say
take all of your money and put it in
Bitcoin if you might need it in two
weeks but if you’re not going to need it
for years then you can put a a portion
of your net uh worth in Bitcoin and feel
comfortable with it in my opinion and so
so it is a it is a good long-term
strategy to battle against inflation I
think the only thing I would add to that
Cameron is
the I think James and I share the view
that if Bitcoin is digital gold and gold
has a 16 trillion doll market cap and
Bitcoin has a $1.5 trillion doll market
cap uh it will reach the market
capitalization of gold and so there are
a few times that we’ve seen this sort of
thing happen Amazon is one of them when
we looked at Amazon and said okay that’s
going to exponentially scale and it will
end up be becoming one of the largest
retailers in the in the country uh
despite whatever the near-term
volatility was if you just held the
position you did very well same thing
with a Facebook or same thing with a
Google and you know we just think that
Bitcoin is going to be a store of value
digital gold therefore should trade
comparable to the sizes scale of an
asset class as opposed to an individual
stock which is where it’s trading right
now let’s go to the next
question where are your Mickey ears and
do you not wear them since you’ll ruin
your hair these are these guys are
breaking my balls because I’m here at
Disney World let me just show everybody
what’s going on out here okay there you
go that’s the Caribbean Beach resort I’m
staying at the Riviera and uh life is
pretty good here in Disney World uh but
it’s better on the wealthy on network uh
with speakup and and James you’ve been a
terrific guest I hope I can get you to
come back I appreciate the uh the time
that you’ve shared with us any last
thoughts before I say goodbye to you for
the weekend no it’s uh it’s been a
pleasure to be here and uh to talk with
you and I look forward to coming back
again all right well this is a speak up
with Anthony scaramucci signing off from
the land of Mickey uh and I am wearing
this headset which is not great for my
hair but promise you I’ll be fixing my
hair as soon as the show is over thanks
again for joining us all right see you

In this episode of Speak Up with Anthony Scaramucci, reformed hedge-fund manager James Lavish, joins Anthony to discuss the latest on crypto, investing and the economy. Lavish delivers a stark warning about an economic crisis that could surpass the Great Depression in severity.

James and Anthony dive into the implications of recent federal rate cuts, the looming threats of inflation, the state of the global economy and will touch on their market predictions within the crypto market. Learn exclusive wealth protection strategies and hear Lavish’s predictions that could safeguard your financial future.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 – Introduction
01:30 – The State of Global Economy
05:45 – Federal Reserve and Rate Cuts
12:15 – Inflation and Its Impact
19:00 – Crypto Market Predictions
25:40 – Wealth Protection Strategies
33:20 – Audience Q&A
40:00 – Key Takeaways and Closing Thoughts

#bitcoin #crypto #investing #inflation #thefed #interestrates #gold #rate #wealth
———————
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