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Speaker 0 argues that the movement toward tokenization and decimalization is necessary. They note it is ironic that two emerging countries are leading the world in tokenization and digitization of their currency, specifically naming Brazil and India, and urge a rapid shift in that direction. The speaker contends that tokenization would reduce fees and democratize investment access. This would be achieved if all investments operated on a tokenized platform, enabling seamless movement from a tokenized money market fund to equities and bonds and back again. The idea is to have one common blockchain to support these activities. They assert that with a unified blockchain, corruption could be reduced, implying that tokenization and a shared infrastructure would enhance transparency and integrity in financial processes. While they acknowledge a potential reliance on a single blockchain, they maintain that the activities conducted on this system would be processed and more secure than ever before. In summary, Speaker 0 advocates for rapid adoption of tokenization and decimalization of currencies, highlighting Brazil and India as leading examples. The intended outcomes are lower costs, greater democratization of investment, and fluid movement across asset classes via a tokenized platform built on a single blockchain. They believe this approach could curb corruption and yield more secure financial operations, despite the trade-off of concentrating dependencies on one blockchain.

Speaker 0 uses a casino analogy to describe how Bitcoin and crypto markets operate. They say: it’s like a casino chip. When you go into a casino and place a wager, you exchange dollars for chips, you gamble, and you can either win money or lose money. At the end of the session, you cash in your chips for dollars and leave. In the crypto world, Bitcoin functions similarly to that casino chip. The speaker notes that, in practice, people use dollars to buy Tether, a stablecoin, and then use Tether to buy Bitcoin. This leads to the claim that Tether effectively serves as the currency of the crypto world, or at least a primary vehicle through which value moves into Bitcoin. The sequence is described explicitly: people buy Tether with dollars, then they use that Tether to purchase Bitcoin. The implication is that the path from dollars to Bitcoin typically runs through Tether, rather than using dollars directly. Regarding gains and losses, the speaker emphasizes that Bitcoin can generate profits or incur losses just like a casino chip does when you gamble. The parallel is drawn between the financial risk and potential reward in gambling and in holding or trading Bitcoin. When it comes to exiting the crypto position, the speaker explains that there are practical steps to convert crypto back into traditional currency. To exit the “casino,” you would sell Bitcoin, usually for Tether, and then redeem that Tether to obtain dollars. In addition to these once-for-trade dynamics, the speaker mentions that certain banks act as portals between the crypto world and the real-world dollar system. These banks enable you to extract dollars, which you can then use for purchases such as a house or stocks, underscoring the bridge between crypto holdings and traditional financial activities. Overall, the comparison frames Bitcoin as a gambling-like instrument that relies on Tether as a stable intermediary currency, with potential for both gains and losses, and with a defined process to convert back to dollars through Tether and bank-facilitated exchanges. The closing sentiment reinforces the view that the casino-chip analogy captures the essence of Bitcoin’s role in the crypto ecosystem.

ETFs solve problems of credit access, compliance, accounting, convenience, and reporting. There will likely be a different ETF in every city or country. If the Saudis want Bitcoin to stay in Saudi Arabia, they'll have an ETF in Riyadh. The speaker believes the avalanche of ETFs will continue, noting there are already 34 holding more than 1,000,000 Bitcoin. An ETF in Argentina could keep Bitcoin custody in an Argentine bank, preventing capital flight. When the Chinese buy $1 billion of Bitcoin, they drive up the price in New York and Argentina. ETFs are an application, as are companies on the Bitcoin standard like MicroStrategy, Cash App, and Strike, and crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Binance. Eventually, Bitcoin will be built into mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance plans. Each application wants Bitcoin and swipes it because they want capital.

The speaker claims Stellar Lumens has been secretly working with the US Treasury and is a major gainer in the last 24 hours. The US government wants to push a central bank digital currency and needs specialists. The Stellar Development Foundation was listed as a team of experts for the US Treasury in a 2021 report. In April, Stellar became the first public blockchain to host a US registered fund, with most investors allegedly connected to the US government. Stellar is a nonprofit, and its CEO previously worked for Mozilla and testified before Congress. The CEO is also a representative for the Biden administration on crypto and digital currency. The speaker suggests these connections indicate a long-term plan, and questions Stellar's recent market activity.

Speaker 0 argues that losing the, the world standard dollar would be like losing a war, a major world war, and "We would not be the same country." The claim casts the dollar as a critical global benchmark whose disappearance would fundamentally change the United States, equating monetary dominance with the outcome of a major conflict and implying profound national implications. The statement underscores the perceived link between currency status and national power, suggesting that currency leadership shapes international influence and the country’s future trajectory. It frames the dollar's status as a strategic asset whose loss would amount to a strategic setback.

The tokenized securities for GME on ftx.com are backed by a German broker dealer, with each token representing a GME share held by the broker dealer. While users can convert tokens to shares through the broker dealer, most prefer to trade tokens. However, trading volume is low due to US stock market dominance. Despite being an exciting product, the preference for physical shares limits its impact.

Aaron Day discusses the Epstein files’ implications for Bitcoin and global finance, presenting a tightly linked web of players and events. - The hijacking of Bitcoin is framed as a deliberate shift from Bitcoin’s original vision of peer-to-peer digital cash to digital gold and a store of value for Wall Street, with slow, expensive transactions for everyday use. The article on brownstone.org, “the hijacking of Bitcoin,” by Aaron Day, is central to this claim. - Original Bitcoin vision and early adoption: Bitcoin’s white paper envisioned peer-to-peer digital cash, a global currency usable for day-to-day purchases with low transaction fees. By 2017, major retailers accepted Bitcoin (Overstock.com, Microsoft, Expedia, Subway franchises), and Bitcoin was faster and cheaper than traditional systems. By late 2017, average transaction fees rose to about $50 and finalization times stretched to 7–10 days, leading to a shift in narrative toward Bitcoin as digital gold and a store of value. - The block size fight (2015–2017) and its subversion: The discussion centers on the block size debate and the decision to throttle Bitcoin to seven transactions per second by capping blocks at one megabyte. Blockstream, a for-profit company founded by early Bitcoin Core developers, is described as promoting second-layer solutions and benefiting from smaller block sizes. The original vision called for higher throughput and scalability, but Blockstream allegedly aligned with interests favoring smaller blocks and second-layer implementations. - MIT funding and Epstein’s involvement: Brock Pierce, who served as chair of the Bitcoin Foundation, allegedly advised Jeffrey Epstein on cryptocurrency starting from a 2011 MindShift Conference at Little Saint James Island. Epstein’s influence extended into funding core Bitcoin developers through MIT after the Bitcoin Foundation collapsed in 2015. Joy Ito, head of MIT, allegedly exchanged emails indicating Epstein’s money was earmarked to fund named developers (Gavin Andresen, Vladimir Vanderland, Corey Fields). Epstein’s funding coincided with MIT taking over developer funding as the Bitcoin Foundation waned. - Brock Pierce’s intertwined roles: Brock Pierce is linked to Epstein, the Bitcoin Foundation, Blockstream, and Tether. Pierce’s trajectory includes cofounding Tether, a stablecoin, and later pressuring the narrative shift to digital gold. Blockstream’s investors included traditional finance figures tied to Epstein’s network. Epstein allegedly invested in Blockstream before the Bitcoin Foundation’s collapse, and Blockstream benefited from a Bitcoin ecosystem that would throttle block sizes. - Tether, stablecoins, and price manipulation claims: Pierce co-founded Tether, a stablecoin whose 1:1 peg to the dollar is claimed to have been maintained without full backing. A University of Texas study reportedly found that over 50% of Bitcoin’s 2017 price appreciation was due to Tether being used to buy Bitcoin. The CFTC and New York State investigations allegedly found Tether not fully backed, with as little as $0.26 backing per $1 in circulation according to those findings. Tether’s role is tied to Bitcoin’s price rise and the store-of-value narrative. - Howard Lutnick and the Genius Act: Howard Lutnick, Epstein’s ally and neighbor, is described as having funded Tether (Cantor Fitzgerald reportedly invested $600 million), with Cantor Fitzgerald gaining an exclusive contract to manage U.S. treasuries backing Tether. Lutnick reportedly lied about his ties to Epstein during Senate testimony and later became Commerce Secretary after involvement with Bo Hines, a crypto adviser who helped draft the Genius Act. The Genius Act purportedly requires private stablecoins to be backed by U.S. treasuries and to comply with financial surveillance, benefiting Lutnick’s firm, which manages treasuries. The Genius Act is portrayed as a backdoor to a centralized, surveilled monetary system, and the act positions stablecoins as a key funding mechanism for U.S. debt (billions added to treasury issuances). - The Clarity Act and tokenization fears: A forthcoming Brown Center Institute piece on the Clarity Act is described as not just about crypto rules, but about tokenizing everything—stocks, 401(k)s, commodities, oil, agriculture, and eventually real estate—under centralized surveillance. The Clarity Act is presented as enabling programmable, trackable, censorable digital tokens for all owned assets, with BlackRock’s Larry Fink cited as indicating widespread tokenization. The Clarity Act is said to be moving through Congress after passing the House. - Broader implications and calls to action: The interview frames technocracy, digital currencies, and centralized tokenization as accelerating far more quickly than imagined. Aaron Day advocates publicizing and understanding how corrupt arrangements and tokenization schemes integrate Epstein’s network with MIT, Blockstream, Tether, and political leadership. The proposed personal strategies include exiting fiat, avoiding government-regulated stablecoins, using privacy coins, gold, and silver; exploring private healthcare and medical tourism; forming trusts; and building parallel systems to reclaim free will amid what is described as technocracy. - The conversation closes with references to continuing coverage and a promised deeper dive into the Genius Act and Clarity Act, accompanied by show notes and links at corbettreport.com/epstein Bitcoin and brownstone.org.

Speaker 0: Nearly two weeks into this conflict, the official story is cracking, and the number of Americans wounded is slowly coming out. Yesterday, we reported based on our sources that the number of American wounded was at least one hundred and thirty seven. After our report ran, the Pentagon has now publicly acknowledged about one hundred and forty wounded. That confirms our sources on this. So why did it take a little news show like ours to report this information? Why wasn't Fox News reporting this information? The Pentagon I know it's really weird. Why is the mainstream media silent on this? The Pentagon finally comes out and actually admits to this. Speaker 1: Reuters comes out and reports this. Exclusive. As many as one hundred and fifty US troops wounded so far in Iran war. They just published this today, this morning. March 10. That's remarkable. Exclusive. Just curious how that's an exclusive when we reported it yesterday. Yesterday. Whatever. Hey, Reuters. Bite me. Anyway, this war is clearly not winding down no matter what the messaging says. President Trump is saying the war could end very soon. But Iran says talks with The United States are off the table for now. Tehran is prepared to keep striking as long as it takes. And they're vowing an eye for an eye. So what is an eye for an eye actually mean? Does it mean you hey, you killed our leader. We kill yours? Does it mean, hey, you killed all these girls who were the daughters of members of the the Iranian Navy at a girls school, do we also do that to you? Like, what is actually does that look like? Speaker 0: Does it mean we took out your water infrastructures or you took out ours? So we do that. Right. Your gas infrastructure, civilian infrastructure, that's that's a war crime. But we did it. Your oil infrastructure, we do that. Like, what exactly does that look like? Meanwhile, the Strait Of Hormuz is getting worse by the minute. US intelligence tracking Iranian mine laying threats now as Gulf energy infrastructure there is taking a major hit with about 1,900,000 barrels per day of refining capacity across Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and The UAE. All down. CBS now says shipping through the Strait Of Hormuz has ground to a virtual halt. Nothing getting through. That's of just a few minutes ago. And Israel's hammering Beirut's southern suburbs and Lebanon. So they've essentially invaded Lebanon. Speaker 2: And then there's the neocon political class in Washington saying the quiet part out loud. Senator Lindsey Graham is now openly talking about, you know, going back to South Carolina to tell the sons and daughters in South Carolina, you know, you gotta send your loved ones to the Middle East. That's what I'm doing here in South Carolina. I gotta tell them to go fight in the Middle East, and he's calling on other Middle East countries that have been sitting on the fence that we've supported over the years as allies. Get off the fence. Go bomb Iran. Help out with Iran. And, oh, by the way, Spain, we're pissed off at you because you don't want us using your air bases or airspace to bomb Iran. Listen. Speaker 0: To our allies step up, get our air bases out of Spain. They're not reliable. Move all those airplanes to a country that would let us use them when we're threatened by a regime like Iran. To our friends in Spain, man, you have lost your way. I don't wanna do business with you anymore. I want our air bases our air bases out of Spain into a country that will let us use them. To our Arab friends, I've tried to help you construct a new Mideast. You need to up your game here. I can't go to South Carolina and say we're fighting and you won't publicly fight. What you're doing behind the scenes, that has to stop. The double dealing of the Arab world when it comes to this stuff needs to end. I go back to South Carolina. I'm asking them to send their sons and daughters over to the Mideast. What I want you to do in The Mideast to our friends in Saudi Arabia and other places, step forward and say this is my fight too. I join America. I'm publicly involved in bringing this regime down. If you don't, you're making a great mistake, and you're gonna cut off the ability to have a better relationship with The United States. I say this as a friend. Speaker 1: Ugh. He's an odious friend. Speaker 0: Say this as a friend. Speaker 3: With friends pick up a gun and go fight yourself, you coward. Yeah. I freaking hate that. But you're calling so, like, bluntly for somebody else to go die for his stupid cause. Speaker 0: Yeah. Speaker 1: I am so curious about this. I mean, he's a liar. But how many people in South Carolina are really walking up to him and saying, who are we gonna get to fight with us? Who are we gonna get to fight Iran? Worried about this. My son can go, but who's going with him? Let's make some war playdates. Who does that? Speaker 0: Larry Johnson is a former CIA analyst, NRA gun trainer, and, he's been looking at all of this and doing some incredible writing over at his website, Sonar twenty one. Larry, thank you for joining us. Great to see you back on the show. Speaker 4: Hi, guys. Good to see you. Speaker 0: So I wanna talk about the American war wounded first because Mhmm. I know that this is, near and dear to your heart and, of course, something that you've been watching, closely. And the lies, of course, that are coming out about this. Again, I spoke to sources over the past forty eight hours that were telling us here at Redacted about 137 Americans wounded. Then the Pentagon comes out and then confirms about a hundred and forty. So right pretty much right on the nose. And does that number sound low to you? Or does that sound about right? Speaker 4: That sounds a little low. So on March 4, let's go to Germany. Stuttgart, just North West of Germany, there is a hospital called Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Landstuhl's primary mission is to handle American war wounded. On March 4, they issued a memo telling all the pregnant women that were about to give birth that, sorry, don't come here. We're not birthing any more babies. We gotta focus on our main mission. So that was the first clue that there was there were a lot of casualties inbound. I know, without mentioning his name, somebody who was involved dealing with the combat casualties during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he dealt with the personnel at Lunstul. And he called someone up and said, can't say anything, but there's a lot of casualties. Then 13 miles to the east of Landstuhl is an army base called Kaiserslautern. Kaiserslautern and the Stars and Stripes issued for that base had an appeal, a blood drive appeal. Hey. We need lots of people to show up and donate blood. So those that was on March 5. So I wrote about this March 6. So I wrote about this four days ago, that, yeah, we had a lot more casualties, and there are more coming, because Iran's not gonna stop. You know, right now, we're getting signals that the Trump administration is reaching out, trying, oh, hey, let's talk, let's talk cease fire. Iran's having none of it. They've been betrayed twice by Donald Trump and his group of clowns. Speaker 0: Right. Speaker 4: You know? And and so they're not ready to say no. No. They've got the world, by the testicles is the polite way of saying it, withholding the Strait Of Hormuz. They've shut down the movement of not only oil, liquid natural gas. They're the supplier of about 25%, 25 to 30% of the world's liquid natural gas, and, about 30%, 30 to 35% of the world's urea, which is used for fertilizer. Now, that may not I just learned that that may not be as important as I once thought it was because most of it comes out of Oman. Oman, you don't have to worry about things going through the Strait Of Hormuz. But on oil and liquid natural gas, huge. 94% of The Philippines depended upon the flow of gas, both liquid and the petroleum oil, out of the Persian Gulf. India, 80%. Japan, South Korea. So this is gonna have a major impact on certain economies in the world. Now there there I I I've said this ironically. I I think Vladimir Putin's sitting there going, maybe Donald Trump really does like me, because what he's done is he's making Russia rich again in a way I mean, they're getting, you know, they were selling they were forced to sell their oil previously under sanctions at, like, $55 a barrel. Now they're getting $88.90 dollars a barrel. Well, and they just opened it up to India. I mean, that story over the past forty eight hours, like, so they The United States has eased its restriction on Russian oil flowing to India. I mean, talk about an absolute disaster. Speaker 4: Well, yeah. And remember what had happened there is India was playing a double game too. You know, bricks India is the I in bricks, and Iran is the new I in bricks. And so what was India doing? Well, India was pretending to play along with The United States, but then going to Russia and saying, hey, Russia. Yeah. We'll buy we'll buy your oil, but we needed a discount because we're going against the sanctions, and we need to cover ourselves. So Russia said, okay. As a BRICS partner, we'll let you have for $55 barrel. So they got a discount. So now when all of a sudden the the the oil tap is turned off, including the liquid natural gas, India goes running back to Russia. Now remember, on, February 25-26, India was in Israel buttering up the rear end of BB, Net, and Yahoo, kissing rear end all they could. Oh, man. It was a love fest. We're partners with Israel. And then Israel attacks their BRICS partner. And what does India say? Nothing. Zero. They don't say a thing about the murdered girls. So now all of a sudden, the oil's turned off. It's nine days now with no oil coming out of there for India. They go running back to Russia. Hey, buddy. Let's let's get back together. And Russia says, sure. That's great. But it's gonna cost you $89 now a barrel. No more friends and family program. Gonna get market conditions. Speaker 0: We've had many journalist friends that have had their bank accounts shut down. We were literally in the middle of an interview with a great journalist from the gray zone who found out that his banking was just shut down. Literally, in the middle of an interview, he got a message that his banking was shut down. Well, Rumble Wallet prevents that, because Rumble can't even touch it. No one can touch it. Rumble Wallet lets you control your money, not a bank, not a government, not a tech company, not even Rumble can touch it. It's yours, only yours, yours to protect your future and your family. You can buy and save digital assets like Bitcoin, Tether Gold, and now the new USA USA app USAT, which is Tether's US regulated stablecoin all in one place. Tether Gold is real gold on the blockchain with ownership of physical gold bars, and USAT keeps your money steady against inflation. No banks needed. It's not only a wallet to buy and save, but it also allows you to support your favorite creators by easily tipping them if you want with the click of a button. There'll be no fees when you tip our channel or others, and we actually receive the tip instantly unlike other platforms where we have to wait for payouts. So support our show today and other creators by clicking the tip button on our Rumble channel. Speaker 1: Now I wanna ask you about president Trump responding to CBS News reports that there may be mines in the Strait Of Hormuz. That doesn't make a ton of sense. He says we have no indication that they did, but they better not. But they are picking and choosing who gets to go through, and their allies can go through. So why would they mine their allies? What do we make of this? Do we need to respond to this at all? Speaker 4: Yeah. I don't think they've done it yet. But let's recall the last time Iran mined the Persian Gulf. They didn't mine the Strait Of Hormuz. They mined farther up. It was 1987, 1988. Why did they do that? Well, in September 1980, when Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski were still in office, The United States encouraged a guy named Saddam Hussein, don't know if you've ever heard of him, but they encouraged Saddam Hussein to launch a war against Iran. And then Ronald Reagan comes in with Donald Rumsfeld and Cap Weinberger, and by 1983 had provided chemical weapons, or the precursors that Iraq needed to build chemical weapons, and Iraq started using chemical weapons against Iran in 1983 and continued to do it in '84, 85, 86. During that entire time, Iran never retaliated with chemical weapons. They were not going because they saw it as an act against God. They were serious about the religion. So 'eighty seven, 'eighty eight, they start dropping mines there in the Persian Gulf. Well, at that time, they didn't have all these missiles, so the United States Navy, a Navy SEAL, a good friend of mine, set up what was called the Hercules barge, and he had a Navy SEAL unit with him, and they fought off attacks by Iranian gunboats. He had some Little Bird helicopters from the one sixtieth, the special operations wing of the Air Force. And but we ended up disrupting the Iranian plan to mine The Gulf back then. Well, we couldn't do that today. We do not have that capability because Iran would blow us out of the water with drones and with missiles. You as we've seen, it's been happening over the last ten days. So United States would be in a real pickle. Speaker 1: And especially given the rhetoric of US war hawks in power for three decades. Like Yeah. Yes. They kind of had to prepare all of this time. Did we think that they weren't paying attention when we said it to the world? Speaker 4: Well, when we're writing our own press clippings and then reading them, there is a tendency to say, god, I am great. Can you see this? How good we are? And so they really believed that our air def the Patriot air defense systems and the THAAD systems would be they they could shut down the Iranian missiles and drones. And what they discovered was, nope. They didn't work. And they worked at an even lower level than the you know, Pentagon kept foul. We're shooting down 90%.

Speaker 0: I had a guy who worked, very, very, very high up at Citibank. And he told me around 2008, he said, Glenn, you know, don't worry about the financial system. And I'm like, uh-huh. And he said, you know, we're never gonna go broke. I mean, do you know how much just the national parks are worth? And I looked at him and said, are you seriously telling me that we should commoditize the national parks? And he said, it's gonna happen. And I wonder now if this is what he was talking about. If it was just a digital not actually selling them, it's just a digital commoditization of our parks. Speaker 1: Yeah. So apply this now to the the phrase that we all heard during the COVID era, you'll own nothing and be happy. Well Yes. There's certain people that want to own everything, and that includes things that have never been able to be owned before that were considered things like the public commons, like rivers, lakes, the ocean itself, natural forests, all sorts of it. These people want to put all of that into the financial system, fractionalize it, tokenize it, and sell pieces of it around, use it to speculate on. Mean, it's It's very insane. Yeah. And so, this is just one aspect of digital currency play. Obviously, there's a lot more than that just going on as well. I would argue that a lot of this push, particularly in The US for dollar stablecoins supposedly being better than a central bank digital currency, also falls into this paradigm we talked about earlier of, you know, moving from the public to the private of the public private partnership because a lot of these stablecoin issuers, you know, if the the big concerns about CBDCs was that they're seasable, they're surveillable and they're programmable, Well, all of those three things also can apply to stablecoins. The only difference is that you would have a private company issue it and control it. But we've seen time and again how a lot of these private entities are willing to do that. When contacted, just look at how Bank of America behaved with January 6, people accused of wrongdoing on that day, for You know, they have no qualms in doing that and engaging in those type of activities. And the biggest dollar stablecoin issuer, Tether, which just hired Bo Hynes from the White House, they have openly said that they are a close partner of the US government for dollar hegemony globally and have uploaded the FBI, the Secret Service and other aspects of the US government onto its platform directly and have seized tethers from people just because government told them to, and this was during the Biden administration. So they obviously are willing to do that under any administration, and it's essentially functioning as a de facto public private partnership, even though we're being told it's a it's much better than a CBDC, but in terms of its impacts on civil liberties, you know, that's not necessarily true. So, again, vigilance is is important here.

The speaker argues that using the dollar as a tool of foreign policy is one of the biggest strategic mistakes by the US political leadership, stating that the dollar is the cornerstone of US power and that printing more dollars leads to their wide dispersion worldwide. Inflation in the United States is described as minimal, about 3% to 3.4%, and the speaker asserts that the US will not stop printing. The debt of $33 trillion is said to indicate emission, and the dollar is described as the main weapon used by the United States to preserve its power globally. Once the political leadership decided to use the US dollar as a tool of political struggle, the speaker claims a blow was dealt to American power. The speaker avoids strong language but calls the strategy a stupid thing to do and a grave mistake, pointing to world events as evidence. The speaker notes that US allies are downsizing their dollar reserves, and asserts that these actions cause everyone to seek ways to protect themselves. They claim that US restrictive measures—such as placing restrictions on transactions and freezing assets—cause great concern and send a signal to the world. A historical point is made: until 2022, about 80% of Russian foreign trade transactions were conducted in US dollars and euros, with US dollars accounting for approximately 50% of Russia’s transactions with third countries; currently, the share is down to 13%. The speaker emphasizes that Russia did not ban the use of the US dollar; it was a decision by the United States to restrict transactions in US dollars. The speaker contends that the policy is foolish from the standpoint of US interests and taxpayers because it damages the US economy and undermines US power, and notes that transactions in Yuan accounted for about 3%. Today, 34% of transactions are in rubles, and a little over 34% in yuan. The speaker asks why the United States did this, offering “self conceit” as the guess, claiming the US probably thought it would lead to full collapse, but nothing collapsed. Additionally, the speaker states that other countries, including oil producers, are thinking of and already accepting payments for oil in yuan. The question is posed to the United States about whether anyone realizes what is happening and what they are doing, as the speaker suggests that the US is cutting itself off. Finally, the speaker asserts that all experts say this, and that anyone intelligent in the United States should understand what the dollar means for the US, but claims the US is “killing it with your own hand.”

Mario and Jeff discuss what the current geopolitical and monetary environment means for gold, the US dollar, and the broader system that underpins global finance. - Gold and asset roles - Gold is a portfolio asset that does not compete with the dollar; it competes with the stock market and tends to rise when people are concerned about risky assets. It is a “safe haven store value” rather than a monetary instrument aimed at replacing the dollar. - Historically, gold did not reliably hedge inflation in 2021–2022 when the economy seemed to be recovering; in downturns, gold becomes more attractive as a store of value. Recent moves up in gold price over the last two months are viewed as pricing in multiple factors, including potential economic downturn and questionable macro conditions. - The dollar and de-dollarization - The eurodollar system is a vast, largely ledger-based network of US-dollar balances held offshore, allowing near-instantaneous movement of funds. It is not simply “the euro,” and it predates and outlived any single country’s policy. Replacing it would be like recreating the Internet from scratch. - De-dollarization discussions are driven more by political narratives than monetary mechanics. Central banks selling dollar assets during shortages is a liquidity management response, not a repudiation of the dollar. - The dollar’s dominance remains intact because there is no ready substitute meeting all its functions. Replacing the dollar would require replacing the entire set of dollar functions across global settlement, payments, and liquidity provisioning. - Bank reserves, reserves composition, and the size of the eurodollar market - The share of US dollars in foreign reserves has declined, but this is not seen as a meaningful signal about the system’s functionality or dominance; the real issue is the level of settlement and liquidity, which remains heavily dollar-based. - The eurodollar market is enormous and largely offshore, with little public reporting. It is described as a “black hole” that drives movements in the system and is extremely hard to measure precisely. - Current dynamics: debt, safety, and liquidity - The debt ceiling and growing US debt are acknowledged as concerns, but the view presented is that debt dynamics do not destabilize the Treasury market as long as demand for safety and liquidity remains high. In a depression-like environment, US Treasuries are still viewed as the safest and most liquid form of debt, which sustains their price and keeps yields relatively contained. - Gold is safe but not highly liquid as collateral; Treasuries provide liquidity. Central banks use gold to diversify reserves and stabilize currencies (e.g., yuan), but Treasuries remain central to collateral needs in a broad financial system. - China, the US, and global growth - China’s economy faces deflationary pressures, with ten consecutive quarters of deflation in the Chinese GDP deflator, raising questions about domestic demand. Attempts to stimulate have had limited success; overproduction and rebalancing efforts aim to reduce supply to match demand, potentially increasing unemployment and lowering investment. - The US faces a weakening labor market; recent job shedding and rising delinquencies in consumer and corporate credit markets heighten uncertainty about the credit system. This underpins gold’s appeal as a store of value. - China remains heavily dependent on the US consumer; despite decoupling rhetoric, demand for Chinese goods and the global supply chain ties keep the US-China relationship central to global dynamics. The prospect of a Chinese-led fourth industrial revolution (AI, quantum computing) is viewed skeptically as unlikely to overcome structural inefficiencies of a centralized planning model. - Gold, Bitcoin, and alternative systems - Bitcoin is described as a Nasdaq-stock-like store of value tied to tech equities; it is not seen as a robust currency or a wide-scale payment system based on liquidity. It could, in theory, be a superior version of gold someday, but today it behaves like other speculative assets. - The conversation weighs the potential for a shift away from the eurodollar toward private digital currencies or a mix of public-private digital currencies. The idea that a completely decentralized system could replace the eurodollar is acknowledged as a long-term possibility, but currently, stablecoins are evolving toward stand-alone viability rather than a wholesale replacement. - The broader arc and forecast - The trade war is seen as a redistribution of productive capacity rather than a definitive win for either side; macroeconomic outcomes in the 2020s are shaped by monetary conditions and the eurodollar system’s functioning more than by policy interventions alone. - The speakers foresee a future with multipolarity and a gradually evolving monetary regime, possibly moving from the eurodollar toward a suite of digital currencies—some private, some public—while gold remains a key store of value in times of systemic risk. - Argentina, Russia, and Europe - Argentina’s crisis is framed as an outcome of eurodollar malfunctioning; IMF interventions offer only temporary stabilization in the face of ongoing liquidity and deflationary pressures. - Russia remains integrated with global finance through channels like the eurodollar system, even after sanctions; the resilience of energy sectors and external support from partners like China helps it endure. - Europe is acknowledged as facing a difficult, depressing outlook, reinforcing the broader narrative of a challenging global macro environment. Overall, gold is framed as a prudent hedge within a complex, interconnected, and evolving eurodollar system, with no imminent replacement of the dollar in sight, while the path toward a multi-currency or digital-currency future remains uncertain and gradual.

Jeff: Gold is not a monetary instrument the way people often think. It’s actually easy to understand once you move away from the idea that gold is tied to dollar inflation. Gold is simply a portfolio asset, a store of value, and the preeminent safe haven store value. Gold doesn’t compete with the dollar; it competes with the stock market or risky credit markets. The notion of “de-dollarization” largely comes from political context rather than monetary mechanics. Mario: So gold prices rising—how should we think about that trade? Jeff: Gold tends to go up when people are concerned about risky assets because it’s a safe haven. It performed poorly as an inflation hedge in 2021–2022 when the economy seemed to recover and policymakers seemed to have hit the right policy mix. Now, with conditions leaning toward an economic downturn and “Nvidia AI stocks” looking bubbly, gold has revived as a safe haven. The last two months reflect the factors I’ve cited being priced into the gold market. Mario: People talk about the death of the US dollar. Is gold not tied to that? Jeff: They’ve been talking about de-dollarization for twenty years. The dollar remains dominant because there is no replacement for its functions; replacing it would be like recreating the Internet from scratch. The Eurodollar system grew because it could meet many needs in a flexible way, including for asset-holders who want to keep things in US-dollar terms. If you’re trying to hide assets, you keep them in US-dollar terms, and there are places to do so. Mario: The dollar’s share of foreign reserves has fallen from 72% to 58% in recent years. Doesn’t that show a shift away from the dollar? Jeff: That drop isn’t necessarily meaningful for reserve mechanics. What matters is the level of settlement and payments, which are still 90% in US dollars. The yuan is rising in FX settlements, but it’s not replacing the dollar; it’s competing with other currencies on the other side of the dollar. The dollar is as dominant as ever, and there’s no easy replacement because you’d have to replace all its functions. Replacing the dollar network would be like recreating the Internet—massive, complex, and gradual. Mario: What about the Eurodollar market itself? How big is it? Jeff: Nobody knows. It’s offshore, regulatory offshore, with little reporting; it’s a black hole. Eurodollars are “numbers on a screen,” ledger money, not physical dollars. The Eurodollar system lets money move quickly worldwide through bank-ledger networks, integrating various ledgers. It’s the global settlement mechanism, and its size is effectively unknowable, yet it’s the currency the world uses. Mario: Why do central banks buy gold now, especially China? Jeff: Gold is a portfolio asset, a diversification tool. Central banks must diversify reserves; they still need some US Treasuries for the eurodollar system, but gold helps balance risk. In China’s case, gold supports yuan stability and diversifies reserves beyond US assets. Mario: What happens if a conflict with China disrupts the system? What replaces the dollar or the eurodollar plumbing? Jeff: It’s the great unknown. If there’s a real shooting war, China could be cut off by many, and the dollar system would shrink to those willing to participate. The eurodollar would strengthen as a settlement medium, though with a smaller global footprint. The idea of replacing the eurodollar with a Chinese-led system is unlikely; gold’s role in cross-border settlement remains limited, and gold alone isn’t a reliable settlement instrument. Mario: Is China building a “gold corridor” to decouple from the dollar? Jeff: The gold corridor theory reflects ongoing speculation. There have been many schemes—Petro-dollar, digital currencies, Belt and Road—that have not proven game-changing in defeating the dollar system. Gold in that context is not a robust settlement mechanism across geographies; the eurodollar system arose to move away from gold settlement. Mario: Why are people hoarding gold? How does the US debt situation affect the dollar’s safety? Jeff: US debt is a concern, but safety and liquidity demand still drives demand for government debt, not gold. Gold is safe but illiquid as collateral; liquidity is why Treasuries remain central. The debt grows, but the treasury market has remained robust because it’s the deepest market and the safest liquid asset. The larger risk lies in the federal government's expanding footprint and the potential debt trap, where stimulus doesn’t spur growth and leads to rising debt. Mario: What about Bitcoin as a store of value? And how about Russia? Jeff: Bitcoin behaves like a Nasdaq stock—more of a store of value tied to tech equities than a broad currency. It’s not likely to become a widespread medium of exchange. Russia remains connected to the US system; it’s less about the Russian economy collapsing and more about how energy and sanctions interact. The eurodollar system has kept Russia afloat through channels like the UAE, and it’s unlikely that Russia’s fate hinges on a single currency shift. Mario: Will the US empire fall or evolve into a multipolar world? Jeff: Likely a multipolar world, not a complete fall of the US empire. I’m long-term optimistic on the US and global economy. The eurodollar system could slowly be replaced by private digital currencies, with stablecoins evolving toward independence. The transition would be gradual, with multiple private digital currencies emerging, while the eurodollar would persist in a rump form if needed.