Check out this controversial episode with Balaji Srinivasan, who predicted Covid on Twitter and put $1M of his own money on the line just to get eyes and ears on what may be the worst financial crisis of our time. We delve into uncomfortable topics that are sure to spark a range of opinions and emotions.
So, what are we unpacking in this epic interview?
- Balaji's tweet, where he puts up $1M to raise awareness about the trillions of dollars being printed, with his bizarre bitcoin bet.
- The concerning state of the US economy and the need for alternative forms of money to hedge against a potential collapse.
- Historical cycles of empires that rise to power and eventually collapse, and being prepared for potentially catastrophic consequences.
- Balaji's idea for the Network State that will blow your mind.
In this conversation, Balaji really exposes the increasing political polarization between Democrats and Republicans, both in Congress and on social media networks.
China's ascent as a global power and its implications is a huge concern and where this is potentially heading is why you must take this seriously. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on these fascinating and contentious issues!
What are your thoughts on the role of fiat currency and the military power of a nation in shaping its global standing and influence?
Check out Balaji's book, The Network State: How to Start A New Country: https://www.amazon.com/Network-State-How-Start-Country-ebook/dp/B09VPKZR3G
Balaji Quotes:
'I do believe an enormous amount of money is going to be printed just like Ray Dalio, just like a number of other people do, and in such a case, you want to have outside money, whether that is gold, whether that is a foreign fiat currency that you have faith in.'
'The safest asset in the world became the riskiest asset in the world'
'This is sort of obvious, but you don't become number one by accident.'
'People will selectively excavate aspects of history and use them as a weapon'
'Printing money is in a sense like official counterfeiting.'
'The U.S. exports its inflation in part because it is the consumer of all these products around the world, and the dollar is its major export, and what is a small or tolerable rise in prices in the U.S. is intolerable abroad'
'You can't build America by hating China, you need to love America or love other Americans. It's not one country, it's two parties.'
'96% of Democrats are not married Republicans. So ideology becomes biology in one generation.'
'Good, is helping somebody else without concern for yourself. Smart is helping somebody else, but also helping oneself. Evil is harming somebody else while helping oneself, and stupid is harming somebody else while harming oneself.' (65)
'Typically the right thinks about things in terms of heroes and individuals and the left thinks of things in terms of institutions and ideologies.' (87)
'It's kind of hard to unify a gigantic swath of land without both left and right tactics, because on the right is economics and the military, but on the left is propaganda and ideology.'
'A lot of these people who believe the US can print money or that has an invincible military are literally people who think of the government as God, they don't think it has limits, They're secular, they don't believe in the supernatural. They also don't believe in encryption and they don't believe in other states. They are secular nationalists.'
'After Trump was deplatformed in early 2021 from Twitter, Trump wasn't even the most powerful man in his own country.'
'Bitcoin and Ethereum are bigger than most national currencies. Social networks are bigger in scale than most countries. Tech founders are wealthier than most politicians and so on, [...] there's already been a significant transfer of sovereignty.'
Follow Balaji Srinivasan:
Website: https://balajis.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/balajis/
WARNING: I will never ask for your contact info in the comments section, that is someone impersonating me!
@georgeyao436 Says:
Very few people understand what money or the financial system really is. Wealth like energy can neither be created or destroyed but change form. The question is what form will all this money take so you can profit from it in once in a lifetime wealth transfer from one form to another. That is the power of thinking outside the system of the paper/debt based financial system to an asset based financial system. You will own nothing if the financial system crashes and you can't get your wealth out of perpetual paper/debt system. The system is designed to keep you firmly in its grip. Like the Matrix, are you going to take the red pill or blue pill. Wake up before it is too late.
@leiladarling4495 Says:
How do you link this economic forecast , link this to Climate Change and agriculture competitiveness?
@AnthonyWasiukiewicz Says:
Wow. What a long deep dive.
@AnthonyWasiukiewicz Says:
I’ve been saying this for a few years now. They don’t want to pay down the debt. If the system is to collapse, they can just say, hey, we have a solution, here is this new fandangled central bank digital currency. And cash will be worthless…
@jeremywestern7067 Says:
TOTAL SHIIIITE DONT BUY
@JuStTrUsTMeBrO-ny4hj Says:
your built in adverts plus youtube adverts xD all under the guise of helping people but in essense its all just clickbait and the creation of an ad farm.
@VarunSharma-cf7ir Says:
Can someone tell me where does the positive talk start? Man, I am so anxious like 30 mins in to this. Does this talk about solutions? 🥲🥲
@yacht3167 Says:
Dude is on glue . Lol
But brilliant. Dang how does this guy even sleep haha.
@jscottfischer Says:
Totally got Santa wrong. Saint Nicholas was a martyr for the faith who used to spread the gospel by giving children presents. Whatever happened after Constantine was a perversion of the actual man Nicholas.
I suppose in the way he describes you're combining a real person with a Krampus or some other folklorish tradition, sure.
@davidalmes Says:
the thought of just trsuting cryptocurrency itslef see,s a bubble on its own. one good thing is the number of bitcoins is finite so no more printing but what about other crypto currencies. just a guy who starts a company with 1000 coins which r digital they value it. seems similar to paper money. gold seems reasonable less risky since gold always appreciates and never loses value
@davidalmes Says:
Best podcast on economy and inflation
@sid8574 Says:
Bro this looks like AI
@sonnington1035 Says:
I don't understand why he thinks WeChat and GrabPay are more advanced than what the USA has. These apps do two things, they act like venmo, cashapp, zelle, and applepay. I have no idea how this is more advanced than what we have. Comparing WeChat to ACH seems silly to me.
@puti2147 Says:
The Sickness in the US Politics is hunting for Enemies to go to War with. Peace is not even on the distant Horizon. Looking to their Waring addiction makes one predict that the Military Indusrial Complex is the main source of their GDP since WW-11. However None of the Wars have Resulted in Victory on any Front.
@ndotl Says:
This clown has shorted and is now preaching gloom and doom. Should be against the law. Just as Musk has proven, money does not give you a big brain, it gives you a big mouth.
@Anthony-dj4nd Says:
PBD
@yellovvpurple Says:
LMAO! 🤣😂🤣@ bipartisan government crash by the stupid party and evil party. Go Balaji you should try stand up.🤣😂😅
@featme7931 Says:
This didn't age well.
@DevonBagley Says:
The biggest problem with the debt is that it creates economic drag. The cost to service debt over 100% of GDP actually reduces the effectiveness of government spending. When debt is less than 100% of GDP you can get positive GDP growth for each dollar of government spending. Once you are over 100% of GDP you begin to see less than a dollar of GDP growth per dollar spent.
@barbaraatkinson2204 Says:
Tom I call it eat my dust!
@barbaraatkinson2204 Says:
Governments dislike free market capitalism because it stops crony. Capitalism, they lose their control , we can also see that are economic platform has failed
@barbaraatkinson2204 Says:
This fellow has a great handle on the the monitory system , Tom you have to understand , we can only encourage.and teach people to lift themselves. Out of poverty , throwing money at a person weakens them it doesn’t lift them out of poverty . I know you don’t believe in God ,God calls the way you are thinking is.misuse of mercy which destroys mankind .history teaches. Us. That . The people that got those housing loans lost their home in 2007, we also can see that the welfare state also cannot lift people out of poverty free markets are what this country was built on, we through social programs used for a life time solution is so destructive to the recipient 2 year programs with teaching people that they have their own worth and limiting the time line that gi chance to lift themselves out of poverty. If we as a nation sets boundary’s for social programs are key. Misuse of mercy is very destructive to society.Love what you are doing,remember your interview with PBD . Spare the rod spoil the child ❤
@rumplestiltskin72 Says:
"But why is that bad"
that the US went on a crusade from the 90's to the present day, I'd argue.
How uninformed can you be.
@alicassidy8913 Says:
Such an interesting, informative podcast.
Tom, your concent is fabulous and I've learned a lot here. Thank you.
I agree with Balaiji on everything (but, then again, I dont know much ).
Competition is gone from America.
We've become fat and lazy instead of kicking ass like the old days. We better fix this before its really to late.
Kudos to you both 👏👏
PS.. it was called Czechoslovakia...
I'm Czech, Hungarian and Italian
@TheBlake1980 Says:
Interesting new take on "strong man theory." It's usually strong man IDEOLOGY that paves the way for charismatic leaders to assume total control.
@FractalPrismGlass Says:
❤️✌️
@cglavin Says:
This guy is a clown... the 7 months since this podcast has seen nearly 5% growth in each quarter and a reduction in inflation back to pre-pandemic levels... he sounds like the type of dude who shorts the US economy and then spends his own money and going on podcasts to push that narrative in a desperate attempt to save his bad bet... meanwhile manufacturing build out in the US is greater than the post WWII boom, the dollar is still king and there isn't even a pretender to the thrown, the US is the least-exposed industrial economy to foreign economic slowdowns, and while bigots like to cry about the border, immigration to the US bolsters American demographics while nearly every other industrialized economy is facing a demographic cliff... this dude has no fucking clue what he's talking about.
@AndyR-yb8rh Says:
This guy has been so consistently confident and consistently wrong on his economic crash prediction for a very long time. He's obviously very smart, but with so little humility he doesn't end of self correcting, which ends up being a very sad waste of talent
@julesmeyeri2056 Says:
Women marrying up should understand that they're being shot changed by these premises but maybe they've already done a calculation and accepted the risk😊
@julesmeyeri2056 Says:
I'll stay in English £notes and take my chances but don't necessarily expect my children will do so and obvs Gold will also be relatively stable on the whole ..making money may be a fun game but counting is mundane and tiresome but vital and we all need dependable people doing that job😊
@greigsanderson Says:
No need for this to be 4.30.55 long, Get to the point and make it 1h.
@MaxMohammadi Says:
Tom has got to stop interrupting so much
@GrindThisGame Says:
His name got truncated in the video title.
@skillsgaptrainer Says:
Balaji. Thanks for the intricate insight you leave on videos throughout the web for free. It will help us to brainstorm and take perspectives on issues. Would be amazing to see a brilliant person like you, to take a look one day at the last 5, or last 8 years, economic, social, and political trajectory of Canada. Your thoughts, might help us forecast or talk about the future of Canada.
@explodingstardust Says:
Appears as if Balaji has neuralink implant from how deep and broad is recall capacity
@kiranas Says:
The debt crisis will rise, stock markets will crash to 2008 bottom level or may be below also and drastic not allowing anyone to get any time, gold and dollar will also fall along, the long term government securities bonds will become way too attractive and will give huge returns surprisingly even to the tune of 50%, in India. As stock market will crash, people at some point will rush through the long term government bonds, being the safest. government may also extend the current bonds by 5 or 10 years ... the yields are rising for quite long and yields will fall much more towards lowest..
@michaelholmes8848 Says:
Shhhhhh Tom.
@WeekendsOutsideFL Says:
I find listening to these discussions to be therapeutic. Things are bad, I know they are bad, so to hear knowledgeable people talk about it is therapeutic to me. Because boy I work hard full time but it’s so hard to afford the basics. I can barely save Pennies which don’t accumulate fast enough to become substantial even after a few months of diligent saving and it always winds up being spent on something important which comes up inevitably. One type of debt spending I find to be more benign on civilians is the pay in 4 programs from shop pay, SEZZLE etc. they don’t allow you to go too deep, and you have to pay it off within 2 months. That is much better than the long term high interest credit cards.
@WeekendsOutsideFL Says:
I think the biggest shift which happened in the US was in the form of shifting all our manufacturing to foreign nations, leaving only service jobs to be had here, and then advanced in consumption with time, making the economy utterly dependent on heavy continued consumption. People are even referred to as “consumers” here which is dehumanizing. If an entire country is just taking taking taking and not producing and building homes, WHILE cutting taxes to new lows AND spreading defense to multiple external locations, overextension happens quickly. Worse still, the country has embraced doing everything with major amounts of debt. Peoples entire lives become a system of debt and live only paycheck to paycheck. Especially over the last 3 to 5 years, now the bulk of Americans are insolvent, not just the government
@andrew.alonzo Says:
In spite of how everyone is frightened and calling the crash, there is already an excessive amount of demand waiting to absorb it, which is another reason it's less likely to happen that way. This forecast was not made in 2008, at least not by the general public, as I will explain below. The ownership rate peaked in 2004, according to the other comment. We reached a peak in the second quarter of 2020 and are currently at the median level. From 2008 to 2012, it fell by 3%, and in the second quarter of 2020, it dropped from 68 to 65.
@SpaceCredits Says:
chapters? place in chapters so we can watch this
@ryangabriel1623 Says:
I have watched this entire interview all the way through twice. Is there a transcription?
I could listen to Balaji Srinivasa all day, but the subject-matter of this interview and most of these talking points were already the center of gravity for most of my thoughts for 2023.
@user-wq7ct4yu7k Says:
this whole talk is a bitcoin ad, lol.
@loh1870 Says:
It's worse than 08 because in 08 you couldve said it was a mistake and no one besides banks knew..now everyone knows the system is rigged or entirely fraudulent. The biggest hedgefund in the usa was a ponzi scheme that went on for decades because the people that were supposed to protect us (sec) were in bed 🛌 litterly with madoff family. The collapse will be worse on a global scale.. it will be game over. Hopefully we grow from it but something tells me we won't, the education system will remain trash..we'll keep printing money and bailing out institutions while leaving the avg person with the tax bill. It's sickening and shameful but the one thing you learn here first is there is no shame just money. Fake fiat currency that depreciates by the time you put it in your pocket. Backed by thin air..
@WhitePearl369 Says:
This could spark a civil war in Uncle Sam😨
@pratapkp6139 Says:
if a country is built on slavery and blood money. When they mess up money, they will end up fkin themselves heavily. Not a surprising prediction at all by balaji and spot on. The one thing you need to be careful in a society built on money=success is printing money.
@_spicypainliquor Says:
Tom takes way too long to get to a point, he's very wordy and ends up talking over or cutting off his guests
@Vicky-Blue Says:
“Chinese government ‘ruthlessly’ makes their people’s life better so people don’t revolt” 😂 I think a lot people of people would welcome this type of “ruthlessness”. Another way to say it is “ parental governing”-The government knows what’s best for their people. I govern my kids this way - hate me now thank me later. 😂
@josegrande8420 Says:
This guy is really informed, but he is a terrible communicator 😅
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