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Harry 0:01
Hello, and welcome to the After Hours podcast presented by my Investing Club. I’m your host, Harry Hoss. And joining me as always is my co host James Freedlender. Today we have a very special guest, Steven joining us to discuss some hot topics in the world of finance and politics. We’ll be diving into the fascinating world of CBDCs, or central bank currencies, and how they are disrupting the financial system. We’ll also touch on digital ID and the Federal Reserve and the recent controversy surrounding the Donald Trump indictment. So sit back, grab a drink, and join us to explore these pressing issues and the world of finance and beyond.
James 0:37
Whats going on guys. We’re back with another episode of the after hours Podcast. Today we have Steven who is a returning guests from a long time ago. So Steven, welcome on. Thank you for coming back. Thanks, Of course, man. So we have a full docket today. So we definitely want to get through a lot. So starting off, we want to talk about the rise of CBDC, which are central bank digital currencies. And we kind of want to talk about the implications and what that might mean for you, as an investor, as an individual, and as a member of society. So Harry, I know you are living in Canada, where that is just kind of slowly becoming a real thing. And I mean, it is here too. But do you want to lead off and kind of let us know what your what your feeling on it and how you feel it might impact society?
Harry 1:20
Yeah, so basically, this has not a Canada yet. But they’re definitely taking steps towards it. Yesterday, TD Bank in Canada came out and basically said, Hey, we are going to start limiting your transactions. And we’re going to start playing with your limits. And we don’t have to tell you. So that’s pretty scary when you’re when you’re banking, and you’re at the grocery store, and all of a sudden your card doesn’t work. And you’re saying hey, why doesn’t my card work? Well, it’s because they changed the limits. And they didn’t tell you. And so a lot of people in Canada, from what I’ve been seeing, have been starting to close our TD accounts because they are afraid. And TD basically said like, you don’t have to sign anything to accept this. If you’re still using TD Bank by April 26, you automatically agree to those terms. So I’ve seen a lot of people close their accounts. As far as the central bank, digital currency, it is kind of scary, because I’ve heard different things from different sides. Some people are saying, you know, this is going to be okay, you’re gonna know where your money is being spent, you’re gonna know where your money is being, you know, distributed and how you’re getting it, and there’s not going to be as much illegal activity associated with that. So that’s good. From what I’ve kind of heard, and what I’ve kind of read, there could be a whole spectrum of how far this goes. So number one, the government would be able to track and see where all the money is going, where all the money is being distributed. So that, to me, definitely limits people’s freedoms. Because, you know, obviously, if you’re being watched, whatever you’re doing, wherever you’re spending your money, you are right now, but if I wanted to take out $500 cash, and go and buy drugs off, Steven, you know, obviously, that’s a lot harder to track. I’m not saying Stevens drug dealer, but you know, basically, that’s hard to track. But with the CB, DC, there would be no such thing as cash. And also, you know, obviously, they’re going to be a lot more, it’s going to be a lot easier to see where things are going. Another thing that I have heard, and this is very interesting, as far as the CBDCs, is that there may be a type of, I guess, type of, you know, I don’t know how you could call it, you’d have like a wallet, okay. And everyone based on their kind of social credit score would get a different limit. And maybe your limit is only 20,000 coins. So for any new money to come in, you need to spend those 20,000 coins out of your wallet. So that would be a type of scenario where everyone would be forced to spend money, keep the economy going, keep that generator kind of running, but you could only have so much money in your wallet, which would be absolutely crazy to me, because how are people supposed to save? And, you know, obviously, people are just going to be spending spending spending. And if you have like an inheritance coming in of like, let’s say, you know, $70,000 and your limit is also 20. That, to me is a little bit concerning, because, you know, how are you supposed to save any money? You know, we’re kind of taught, you know, at a young age, like you know, you get a job, you work hard, you save your money, and then at the end of that you’re gonna have a nice retirement to fall back on and that’s kind of how you live your life. That’s kind of what everyone’s told from the beginning. But now if I can only save 20,000 coins, I’m like shit, what is the point? You know? So it’s definitely interesting. Hearing different theories, hearing what’s going on. Some people are going to hairier conspiracy theorists, other people are gonna go Oh, I know, bro. So it’s definitely interesting, but cbdc definitely coming, if they keep planning to print the dollar into oblivion, which is what they’re kind of doing right now,
James 5:15
Ya know, Steven, you’re someone who’s worthy, like very well travelled, and, you know, you go all over the place. So you’re, you’re used to different currencies and all that stuff. So coming from your perspective, what do you think are the implications or positive notes on introducing some sort of central bank digital currency between, you know, other nations?
What Are the Conversion Fees?
Steven 5:36
Sure. So, I mean, obviously, the the basics are, like, you know, conversion fees suck, like, anytime I take out cash anywhere I need to pay, it could be 5%, it could be 10%, right. So if I go to a currency conversion, they’re gonna get me, if I go to an ATM machine, they’re gonna get me, the only way they don’t get me is if I’m able to charge it on my card. So that’s kind of the same concept, right? So I, I have a travel a couple of travel cards, because, you know, I, they give you zero conversion for conversion fees, and they pay me like 2%. So but they’re still making money. I mean, they’re making money from the guy who’s got the machine that I’m swiping the transaction from. So they’re still making money on the transaction, but they’re given me back 2%, and they’re not charging me for that foreign conversion. A lot of people don’t have these cards, to use cash you’re gonna pay. So that’s the downside to use cash, you’re gonna pay, you can’t get the money from US dollar to Euro from an ATM or conversion place without paying some kind of premium. So I’d say like, in that sense, it’s probably good if they all go on the same page. But kind of like Harry mentioned, I mean, I, I don’t know, like, personally, it kind of depends on the government. I mean, you’re not trusting each government to treat your information, you know, with a certain level of respect or privacy? And if, I mean, I’m in Turkey a lot. They’ve got elections in two months. I mean, do I really want, like the Turkish government, who the current system is probably going to be, might be ousted, right? To know where I’ve been spending money and what countries I’ve been in, and all this kind of stuff, it’s kind of like, corruption can lead to, in my view, to more corruption, where I see some governments might be controlling you a little more than others, or they might judge you on what you’ve been spinning to go into their country in the first place. You know, kind of track that so I guess, like good and bad, but for me, I’ve got probably more fears than than anything.
Educate Yourself on the Rise and Fall of Empires
James 7:37
I think a lot of people should educate themselves, too, on the Rise and Falls of empires, I think, because the idea of the central bank digital currency, I, in my opinion, I think it has two things that it’s going after one, I think it’s going after taxes. I think it wants the government wants to collect as much in taxes as they can now I’m someone who, you know, I’ve worked as a barber, I’ve worked as a restaurant as a delivered food when I was younger, right? Everybody knows that those people they try to take cash, right? I’m someone I’m very, like honest, like I very, I always claim all my cash tips and everything like that. But in the industries I work in, a lot of people don’t. And a lot of people, they feel the need to you know, pocket cash and spend it. So I think the government unfortunately has put itself in a position where it spends more than it earns. And the way that a government starts to fix hopefully, the decline of a of an empire is by collecting more money, and by taxing every single person every single dollar. So I think that’s kind of their purpose. I think I’m purpose number two is to eliminate something like Bitcoin from becoming an infection in the economy. I think that way, they’re able to track and get rid of cryptocurrencies, because I think right now, people think of Bitcoin as a way to spend outside of the US dollar and stay on track untraceable, whereas with a cbdc, that’s just not going to happen. And if they don’t allow Bitcoin to be spent in this country, then they won’t need it. You know, I think the tracking stuff is very interesting, which just kind of brings us to our next topic of these, you know, digital IDs and like the federally mandated and all that. And, you know, I think from there, I want to ask Harry, because this is something that’s really happening in Canada right now. That’s something I see as a tracking mechanism, right? Less than cbdc. But how do you see the federal ID Do you think that it’s going to Canada as it’s kind of being introduced right now?
Harry 9:26
Yeah. Well, so far right. Now, what I have noticed, and this is just me, I’ve lived in Canada now for 23 years. There’s a lot more, I would say like there’s definitely so the grocery stores here are starting to build infrastructure around so when you enter the grocery stores here, you have to go through like a little gate now. And that may be standard in the States. But for the longest time in Canada, we’ve been able to just walk into the store you know, obviously You go through those, like little two devices that like, detect for shoplifters or whatever. But now in a lot of stores, we have this gate. And what a lot of people are saying here in Canada is that we’re going to need to get a digital ID on our phone. And we scan it when we go in the store to allow us to get in the store. And now it’s going to be used as that kind of tracking mechanism. So just like a vaccine mandate, they’re going to try and implement these digital IDs. So far, they’ve only made it to Ontario, which is like probably the most populated population in Canada right now. But my fear is just it’s just more tracking.
Tracking Your Habits
Harry 10:42
They know exactly where you’ve been. They know exactly your habits. They know exactly your analytics. And to me, it’s kind of scary, because it’s like tracking for no reason, right? Like, why do you need to see what I’m doing all the time? Why do you need to track me further? Right? They’re like, oh, oh, you know, Harry hos he was at the grocery store at 5:02pm. A little suspicious, right? But you guys would be like, Oh, fuck, it’s just after the close of trading. Of course, Harry’s gonna go, you know, grab some food or grab some snacks or beer or whatever. Right here. But yeah, well, not so much anymore, sadly. But yeah, I mean, it’s definitely interesting. I don’t like it. I’m not a fan of that, obviously. But yeah, again, we have these kind of digital ideas coming in. And it is kind of scary.
James 11:33
But for someone like like, for example, for Steven, like we said, he’s very well travelled, like, Do you not see it as a potential safety mechanism that someone is able to travel nation to nation or country to country with a more digital and easy to access form of ID that lets people know exactly kind of who you are, where you’ve been, especially in a time of domestic terrorism and national terrorism and everything like that?
Harry 11:57
With the stuff coming in. It’s more so what I found is not necessarily about whether someone like Stephen is a terrorist threat. It’s more so about these new kind of laws that they want to implement with the whole 15 minute cities thing and the whole Carbon Tax here. Whereas like, I think what they will do is they will put restrictions and they they’re already doing it like so on April 1 Here, gas is going to go up 14 cents a liter and alcohol tax was supposed to go up another 6% here, but now it’s only going up another three because people bitched and moaned so hard. So you know, alcohol is going up, the carbon tax is going up. But what they do want to eventually propose, what I’ve seen from the World Economic Forum, is that they’re going to give you a carbon quota. So everything you do is going to come out of that quota. So taking a plane, you’re going to use points out of that quota driving around, they’re going, you’re going to use points over that quota, are on that quota. If you go over that quota, you are going to be taxed and fined. And they’re going to track it by using this digital ID in this digital wallet, because they’re going to know exactly how much you’ve spent, where you’ve gone. How have you done this? How have you done that? They have you with the currency as well, what do you spend your money on? Right? So you know, and of course, if you’re driving an electric car, they’re gonna know exactly where you bend. Right. So now it’s gone to an extreme point of tracking. So I do think it is good. But for someone like Steven Steven has a passport, we know generally, where the hell he’s been right? Because he has to swipe his passport when he’s coming into every country. And if they feel that even is a domestic terrorist threat, they’re going to stop him at the gate and search him and do whatever and do that investigation there. Right. So I mean, when you’re letting someone in the country, you’re already saying, Okay, we feel they’re safe enough to kind of come in the country, right? We know where he’s been because we have his passport. And we know that he’s not a threat. So let’s, let’s leave in it, right. Whereas I feel with this, it’s more of like, tracking everyday citizens and tracking every day. Not that Steven isn’t an everyday citizen, but it’s more like, you know, tracking the everyday man who’s not going to Turkey and then flocking to like, you know, he’s the UK or like, wherever the hell you know, Stephens gone. Right. You know, it’s just I feel like it’s just overdoing the tracking on the everyday man. But also James, on your point. I do feel like, you know, in my view, and in my opinion, I think that what you said on the set, I absolutely lost my place. But you know, what you said on the, you know, Rise and Falls of empires is what it was and what you said on the that the government is going to try and tax the life out of every single person to prevent that fault. The Empire is completely right. And I completely agree with that. That’s what I lost my point.
James 15:02
Steven, you must see some sort of positive benefits something like this. Because for you, we just had this conversation before the podcast started about how you, you had trouble getting into a country because you got your passport was full, and like they couldn’t get in on or something like that. Or maybe it was expired. Now, with something like a digital current digital ID I mean, they that’s the phone happened, right? Like, you know, how do you feel that will impact your travel? Because that’s something you’d like to do.
Is It Easier to Get a Visa Online?
Steven 15:27
I feel like, it’ll definitely be it could definitely be easier in those small ways, like convenience. And, you know, they, they could see like, Hey, he’s got a visa. So maybe I don’t need to, like print out the visa and I don’t need to, you know, do all these other things. I could just do it online. And it’s applied to my whatever my digital ID and then they would know, right? That’s, like beneficial. I guess like I would just worry a little like to give an example in May, I’m going to Israel. And they’ve got a lot of protests right now. There’s a lot of stuff going on. And I guess they could see my passport. They know that I’ve been in, you know, a lot of Muslim countries, or countries that they might not like, but what I really want them to like dig into that, like you spent this much money in this country, you know, like cyber worry about that. But the ease would be would be better like the day to day stuff. And I’ll tell you guys something. Maybe it’s normal to most people listening, I don’t know. But I was pretty shocked by it. When I came back to the US on a trip about six months ago, with SFO. First time this ever happened to me. I’ve been you know, in many, many countries and many passport controls. But I walked up in the passport control guy, the customs officer said, Stephen Hansen, and I didn’t even handle my passport. I kid you not. So I’m like, wow. And I had my passport, my hand ready? And he said, Oh, stop, stop there. Then he said Steven Hansen. Welcome back. And I said like, Wow, that’s pretty good. You know? And he’s like, Yeah, and I and then after he, you know, just welcomed me. I said, so the camera facial recognition. I guess he goes, he goes, Yeah. And he never even touched my passport. So like the shit that’s, I guess, this kind of facial recognition. It’s pretty cool. I mean, I would say at the time, I wasn’t really scared. I was more like, that’s pretty cool. And then it happened to me, too. When I was flying domestically in the US, we’re normally you have to show your ID again, to board the plane. But they had a scanner and actually posted in after hours. And it just beep it’s green beep beep. And then if it doesn’t recognise you, it’s red. And then they check. But it’s checking your face. Oh, Stephen should be on this plane, you know. So like, I see that the places I’ve travelled to, which is mainly Europe and the Middle East lately. I’ve only seen that in America. And I’ve seen that their technology is really even London, I go to London a lot. I didn’t see any of this there yet. So I would say like, even if we don’t know about it, it’s already been rolled out. You know? I mean, always it’s kind of cool. In some ways, you know? I mean, absolutely.
Positive and Negative Use Cases for a Digital ID
James 17:51
I see, I see a couple positive use cases. For a digital ID one, I see that, as far as you know, just like general usage and like accessibility, like having an ID on your phone or something like that. Something that’s just super easy to do see as easy, right? As I see, as you know, we don’t have to deal with expiring licences. We don’t have to deal with, you know, giving our ID to a bouncer and all that stuff. It’s just very, everything’s super easy, right? I think those are positive use cases. The negative use cases that I see for this is the smart cities that come countries like China are creating, they will probably come to the US. And for those who don’t know, in I think it’s a company called WaWay. They actually are, are, they’re banned in the US, they have a bunch of issues. They create smart cities. And there’s a lot of companies are doing that now in communist countries or places like China, where the second that you step into the cities you are identified. It can not only tell you, it tells you by your identity, your facial recognition, it can do it by your walk your voice, if you’re near something like that, it has so much power. I have a friend who works for the American government. And he was explaining just how crazy these things really are and how they really know everywhere you go. It will disallow for things like espionage in other countries, and stuff like that. But we are all being entered into a massive database, which I think is a little bit scary at times. So I think that unfortunately, just the way that things are gonna go. I think that that’s the reality is that we’re heading in a direction where we have these these ideas and identities. And we’ve already put them online and everything like that social media and all that stuff. And eventually it’s just going to be in this giant database of like who we are and exactly where we’re going to go all the time. So it’s scary, but it’s cool. And I like hearing that you guys both you guys are all in different countries, Harry’s and Canada, Steven travels, he’s very worldly travelled. And it’s just going to be something that either we’re going to find a tremendous benefit over, or it’s going to really kind of scare people into feeling like they’re being tracked can watch right? Like, I mean, we had a huge issue with vaccinations in this country. It was a big fight 50% of the country didn’t want to get x 50% Did if your digital IDs now showing that you’re getting vaccinated or not? I don’t know how I feel about that. You know, I don’t know how you guys feel about that. But it’s, it’s scary. And that’s, that is an invasion of our privacy, in my opinion. So that, you know, there is so many use cases, but again, I see the negative sides of it.
Steven 20:24
Yeah, I guess it all boils down to how much control do you want your government to have over you? And if you don’t know it, they might have control me, there was a whole thing I don’t remember 10 years ago, or so where they found out that the government was listening in on conversations, you know, so like, even if they don’t admit it, like they’re still tracking us. I mean, they know when you’re like on some kind of list, I mean, so like, I don’t know, I guess, like you mentioned China, like, that’s, that’s kind of scary, too, because they’re actually tracking in public people’s faces, and attract them to the social media, what they might have said, and then they’re kind of watching them more, and or, you know, worse. So I mean, I don’t know, I guess if, if you really trust government, it could be good. The overall ease of to a normal guy like me who’s not, you know, on any hopefully, on anybody’s bad guy list, you know, probably my life will get easier. I don’t know, there could be mistakes made, or your government could just go a little too far. I mean, in Turkey, they had an attempted coup A couple of years back, and a lot of people in the government left, and they caught a lot at the airport. And I mean, you can imagine, and they’ve got elections coming up in a few months, you can imagine a government like that, not to pick on them. But it can happen anywhere government like that could say, Wait, who was voting during this time at these polling stations, who was you know, involved with this, affiliated with this group in this group? And even stuff like football clubs around around Europe in the world? They’re affiliated with political groups? You know, would you really want like your government to know all this kind of private stuff? You know, so? Pros and cons, but I don’t think we could stop it.
James 22:05
It’s really interesting. I like that. I think that you brought up another interesting topic for us country’s position, too, is these other countries and other world powers and all that in the changing world order. And, you know, as, as of right now we sit it is Thursday, March 30. A lot of countries around the world or transitioning away from using the US dollar and trade, they’re moving over to the yuan, which the Chinese currency. You know, we since Bretton Woods, in the 40s have been the world’s reserve currency, which has made us the world power, we are the most right now important nation in the planet. But that is changing in front of our eyes. And Harry, I don’t know what you think about all this, because it is scary, I think, in my opinion. But how do you feel about all of this kind of happening now?
Harry 22:49
Well, I just think it’s another example of Biden asleep at the wheel, you know, we have so many things going on right now. And they’re choosing to focus on, you know, trans rights and stuff like that, which I’m not saying are not important, they are important. But in my opinion, we need to be focusing on economics, we need to be focusing on maintaining that world power, because if things are not maintained and well kept, then you know, things tend to fall apart, right. And right now, we need to be focusing on maintaining foreign policy, and maintaining good relationships. And behind, not even behind everyone’s back right in front of our faces. We’ve seen China partner with Russia, we have seen China partner with the Saudis. We have seen China partner with Brazil, to do these kind of foreign oil transactions that they do and to do transactions that these companies are making between each other with the Chinese Wan. And if the Chinese Wan does somehow become the world currency that has catastrophic effects for the dollar, including inflation, how much debt the US is even able to borrow in the first place. The question of how valuable is the dollar? You know, we took the dollar off the gold standard Richard Nixon did in 1971. And now it’s like, okay, what is the dollar value even based off of now, right? So impacts a lot more than people realise. And right now, everyone’s focused on these other distractions. Everyone’s fuckin minding their own business head down doesn’t really know you like they don’t really know what’s going on, I’d say a vast majority of people. And I think that people really need to pay attention. And I think that people really need to vote accordingly. I think the next two elections in Canada and the USA are going to be two very important ones even more important than the last one we had. And I think people really need to vote with I think how James kind of Got it the other day, I was thinking to myself the other day, like when we were on a podcast, you know, you vote really country first. And I think that’s how people need to be voting now is really country first. You know, I think that you made a great point and the other podcast and even I was thinking about it thinking, Yeah, you know, vote country first and vote for the next 100 years, because I think, you know, we’re going definitely, if we’re not in it already into some economic pain, you know, but with pain, you know, can come resilience and can set us up for the next 100 years, you know, so I really do think that if we are focused on the next 100 years, the next 200 years on building and growing and getting better and strengthening the US and Canada, then we can really make a difference. But if we’re focusing on things that I’m not saying don’t matter, but in the next 200 years, you know, there are more important issues here than just people’s feelings and how people are feeling you know, it sometimes you have to put feeling second, you know, and sometimes you have to put in the work, it’s just what we did with training, you know, how many times could we have sat back and complained and bitched and whine, but what do we all do? We all put in the work, you know, and right now, I’m seeing a lot of complaining and bitching and whining, and not a lot of fixing things, and how they are going about fixing things is in my opinion, not the right way. You know, so I think the next, you know, 100 years, you know, these, these elections are what really matter? Because, you know, you see Putin and you see President Xi, President Xi said to Putin, you know, the next 100 years are going to be a big wake up call for the for the United States and for Canada and for Mexico for the West. Right. So that is kind of scary that the way the Chinese are thinking is that they are coming after us. They’re coming after our world’s reserve currency status. And you know, if you think inflation is bad, now you just wait. So we lose that status. If we do.
James 27:09
Steven, how do you feel?
The Dollar’s Value and Currency Wars
Steven 27:10
Yeah, so mainly to that point. I mean, if if oil and debts and everything else aren’t settled with the US dollar, then we end up having too many dollars. And that means that it loses value. Right. So that’s the scary thing. I’d say, to your point, hairy China has a 50. Right? Not to brag, but I speak Chinese I lived in Taiwan a while and I studied Chinese there. So humblebrag No, just kidding. So China has a 50 to 100 year plan, right? We do not, you know, we seem to be focused on what’s happening now, when that’s happening. I mean, what’s the next election? I mean, we don’t even know what these candidates are going to be pushing for. But it’s just, you know, these kind of fringe issues, right? China has the whole country on the same page, which I’m not saying is good, because it’s a one party system. But in our system, we don’t have mandatory voting. So what ends up happening is the fringes, the far left, the far right end up being the ones that vote, and they end up being the ones that matter. So you get political parties that appeal to either side. So you don’t get just this normal guy who’s focused on economics, you get somebody way out here or way out here. My opinion, right? So that’s kind of the downside. And, you know, I travel like, you know, we keep saying, I’m in another country all the time. And what I see in the past four years, almost, is everybody who talks to me and says, Oh, you’re American, you know, that’s good. And then they kind of smile. And then they wanted to, like, say, what’s on their mind, right? I’m like, What’s up? Why do you guys like, why do you guys focus on this? Or why is this your issue, kind of, like Harry said, or why there’s so many school shootings, why this and this, it’s kind of like, you know, currency, and the power of any currency is based on our faith in that currency. So like, people have faith that the US government will be here tomorrow, and that the dollar is strong, and it will be strong tomorrow. So they invest in it, right. And they use it to settle debts. transactions. So when we throw that all into turmoil, and everybody says, Well, there’s a school shooting every week, and these guys aren’t even thinking about the economy, they’re thinking about his feelings are hurt or his or hurt, or you know, what’s going on. And it’s all these kinds of friends issues that are now in the front. These issues are important. I’m not saying they’re not, but they shouldn’t be the number one determining factor for whether you vote for Democrat or Republican. It should be like, Hey, here’s the plan. Here’s an economic plan. This is what I want to do. If you’d like my plan, vote for me, but instead, it’s like, hey, you know, oh, we want to repeat the crazy things that these guys say. So to me this is making a miracle making the world loose.
Harry 29:52
Like how do I how do I not get cancelled?
Steven 29:56
Cancelled right? I mean, I’ve been I haven’t been cancelled yet. But I’m I’m telling you like, I’ve had a lot of beers with a lot of people in a lot of countries, and it’s always falls back this conversation, why you guys worried about this and this and that. And, you know, it makes the world I think, and I see lose confidence in us and in our currency. And that’s bad for the dollar.
Educate Yourself on the Political Landscape
James 30:16
I agree. And I feel like, I feel like unfortunately, like us as a country, we as Americans were very arrogant in a way thinking that things can never end that the train can never stop. I think that the American way is the only way and that that will never change. And I think that people need to wake up and realise, like, we do need to band together and we do need to be stronger together. Because I think countries notice when nations are divided politically, again, if you guys all, like learning, you know, watch Ray Dalio is changing world or, and he talks about it very clearly when countries become divided politically, and they have social issues. And they have economic issues like recessions, depressions, etc, you know, we become weak. And it’s not necessarily just who’s in charge at the time, although I do feel like right now, we’re focused on the wrong things. But I do think that people in other countries take advantage. Just as you know, China has 100 year plan, they always talked about it. Right now. They’re taking action now. And that’s not coincidence. So I think they’re taking advantage of who’s in charge. And what we’re focused on. At this time, we’re focused on wars and Ukraine are focused on social issues, when we really should, in my opinion, be focused on keeping America strong, amazing, resilient country, that we have all come to know and love. But, you know, American patriotism right now feels dead. And we kind of need to revitalise that. So, it’s scary, it’s scary, for sure. And I think, you know, as the what you can do, as an individual, as an investor, as a person and a trader, or whatever, is really educate yourself on the issues at hand and what’s going on, you know, don’t just kind of fall into this mainstream media and see, see what you see on the news or whatever, wherever you follow, you know, do your own digging and realise, like, you know, things can change. And what we’re going through right now is not necessarily going to be better for us in the long term, focusing on social issues, you know, when it comes to voting time, you need to vote on who’s going to fix the country and keep it the country that you grew up in, in the amazingness. That we have now. So
Steven 32:17
To sort of to your point here, James, you know, our enemies, I would say countries hostile to America know exactly what you were describing. They know that we can’t be beat all out in a war. I mean, it’s never going to happen. But we can succumb to civil war and civil unrest and destroy ourselves. And that’s how the Romans and a lot of empires fell. Yeah. And they know that, and they use that against us in social media and everything else. Yes. You know, there was a lot of interference in previous campaigns from hostile nations who were, were using wedge issues to drive voting, and it was like, they would, they would call on one party to go protest here then call the other guys who didn’t like that issue to also go protest in the same area. And they will just try to get this kind of civil unrest out to the world. And again, it’s about confidence, and it’s about our stability. Yeah, it’s dangerous. So I agree. 1,000%, we need to find a way to come together a little better than we do. I mean, we’re really not all that different, no matter what your political views are.
James 33:16
I agree. 100% I think that we are coming up on the time that we have to wrap it up. But I think that we’re all kind of on the same page that it’s time that we all kind of work together figure out some some more serious issues. And you know, use these podcasts, get educated, you know, use these things. Look up radio, please, for the love of God. Look up. Ray Dalio is changing world order video, you guys will love it. And it’ll really educate you on what’s going on in the world. And what’s kind of happening in the US and I think sometimes we get so hyper focused on our personal issues and our social issues, not to really see what’s happening in the world. So I do want to thank you guys. Yeah, you guys have been awesome listeners all the time.
Steven 33:55
If we ever said, Could we just touch on one fast thing? Yep. What do you guys think? got indicted? I mean, this is crazy. Right?
James 34:03
That is crazy.
Trump Indictment Is Extremely Dangerous
Harry 34:04
I know. We got three minutes left.
James 34:06
Okay. I think that the Trump indictment is extremely, extremely dangerous for society. I think that that is a show of political power in trying to take out another former president and a nominee in the next election, as he’s already announced. He’s running. I think it’s really scary. And I think that I’m not saying go away vote for none of that. But I do think at the end of the day, that it’s political pressure for one person to basically take him out of the race, because I think they know that if Trump runs, he’s probably going to win.
Harry 34:38
Awesome. So that means I got a minute and 28 I guess, no, I’m getting no, I do think I do think that that, you know, obviously it’s bad and but I also think it’s pretty good for Trump. You know, if you’re a Trump supporter right now, this is rallying up the base, this is pissing people off, you know, that they’re going ahead and do Dealing with these type of issues. And I think a lot of people on the Republican side really see that, you know, we have a lot bigger issues going on right here. Then did Trump pay stormy Daniels? 150,000 To shut up, you know, there. I mean, that’s what this is over. It’s not that Trump did, you know, extreme wire fraud or Trump colluded with China, which you could say some people on the other side have some pretty good proof that that happened. Right. So again, I do think that there are worse things going on and worst things that have happened, like what happened to the Epstein Island, you know, like, what happened with that. So, you know, obviously, I’m coming up on my one minute mark, but I do think a lot worse things have happened. And I think that this is going to rally up the Trump base and secure Trump though, Steven.
Steven 35:46
Yep. I think it’s a big distraction. I think the Trump base is going to come out even more than they were before they’re going to support them. And again, it’s just something that we shouldn’t even be really talking about, we should be focused on real issues. But now, it’s all we’re gonna send the news for the next six months. So I think it doesn’t help anybody. And I guess it helps Trump. I don’t know, but it doesn’t help our country and our reputation in the world.
James 36:09
Alright, this was exactly what you just said with the Civil War, the civil unrest and I think that’s a good spot to end it as we’re coming up on our less than a minute warning here.
Harry 36:21
Great podcast. Thank you, everyone for coming out. And yeah, we’ll definitely see everyone for the next one. So see you guys. Thanks, guys.