Creating Communities of Distributed Trust

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up the down escalator no III think I
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think there are real possibilities of
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creating communities of distributed
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trust right which is which is at the
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core of the to in my mind the whole
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effort right have now how do you create
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a community of distributed trust and and
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and what I’d like to see is that that
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distributed trust is applied to areas
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that are not so fiercely guarded by the
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you know the the powerful you know
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states governments and and and
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businesses right because again it when I
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think about how to play the long game
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here I think that is possible to carve
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out
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areas of got resistance but what I
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really mean is areas of sovereignty self
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sovereignty over issues again they’re
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not so fiercely guarded as money yes
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about the state and and so again this is
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an issue of tactics or other than
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strategy right and and and so that I
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would pursue a different tactical
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approach to the I think the goal we all
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or most of your listeners share with you
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and I for sure it it does seem to me and
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I want to bring this back to the run of
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iris now right which is that everything
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you’re describing whether it’s whether
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it’s your tactical approach my tactical
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approach I
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I think it’s tempting to think oh the
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instability that the virus brings is
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going to be an advantage in fighting
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this long game right I actually think
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it’s it’s it’s it’s a very much
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disadvantageous to both of us right the
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both of our tactical approaches here and
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and I don’t think you have to look much
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farther than what happened in Hungary
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right over the last two days where the
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the Hungarian Parliament and this has
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been building for a while right and
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event but Hungarian Parliament in
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response to the throne of iris emergency
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and it is an emergency gave really
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dictatorial powers to to Viktor Orban
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the the Prime Minister where he now has
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the ability ability to rule by decree
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right don’t have to pass the law doesn’t
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have to go to Parliament whatever the
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executive says is law there’s no time
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limit on this now in hunger there’s a
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new law that if you spread false
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information I think and use as the
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executive describes this what at stake
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or not you’re in prison for five years
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and if you try to leave the areas of
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confinement quarantine that they’ve set
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up that’s in the this this is what
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happens I think in weaker states
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go back to some you know idyllic state
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of nature where you know you can set up
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your you know Kingdom of Wakanda you
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know alright what happens is they’re
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taken over by thugs they’re taking them
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by warlords and by thugs and and you
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know in Hungary is uh it’s a member of
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the yeah I mean I mean it’s a core
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member of Europe so when I when I think
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about what’s going to happen in the next
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year and a half in Indonesia what’s
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gonna happen the next year and a half in
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Egypt it’s going to happen in today
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what’s happening right now in Iran for
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God’s sakes I I don’t think it works to
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our advantage
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III think that the impetus in every
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country and particularly in the weaker
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States is going to be for reclaiming of
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the physical of the violence of the gun
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and so this is why I think it’s more
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important than ever that we identify
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each other in our communities of empathy
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in our communities of our pack right so
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that we can fight this long game this
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long war and so we can support each
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other so anyway that’s not I’m just
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trying to bring it back to what’s
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happening today and and how we should
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think about this unfortunately I don’t
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think it’s a great opportunity but I
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think it’s something that we all need to
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come together even more around so that
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we can can stray stay strong or the the
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dark times that are ahead and I do think
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they’re dark times well never one to
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mince words and and and I certainly
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appreciate the perspective on I’m
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slightly more optimistic for the reasons
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that I outlined you know in the physical
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realm but in the digital realm right is
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the internet still a bastion of freedom
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and can you ultimately get people to act
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freely outside of you know some of the
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more restrictive social media platforms
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for instance but just any type of
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peer-to-peer communication system
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peer-to-peer digital realms would seem
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if you’re more conducive for the silent
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distance the quiet resistance yes and
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that individual thesis but how exactly
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we get there not not debating that it
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could get ugly I want to change gears
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for the the last a little bit that we
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have and just talk about your
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understanding of the investment you know
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as I guess for this generation of
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investors because one of your more
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popular posts this is water and yeah
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it’s still water it kind of talked about
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this shifting mindset where deflation
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expectations that were driven by
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technology are now inflation
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expectations there’s and this isn’t
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necessarily new but I like the way they
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laid it out the the globalism that had
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permeated the the macroeconomy for so
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long is now becoming more nationalistic
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now in some respects that’s not a bad
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thing because now you might have
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countries that are more resilient in the
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face of issues like pandemics when when
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today you know we’re seeing just how
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levered we are via global supply chains
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you talked about the kind of shifting
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from you know capital markets into you
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know true market mechanisms just
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political utilities and um and then just
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overall how financialization is kind of
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exacerbated you know all of those trends
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what what’s what’s the what’s the next
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step in in financial markets right yeah
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if if you run out of the capacity to
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print if you run out of the capacity to
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spend let’s not even talk about the u.s.
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let’s talk about some some country like
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like Hungary they don’t necessarily
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control their own currency it’s a small
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but usually functioning democracy what
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does a market system look like in a
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situation like hungry and then how do
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you ever get back to normalcy or how do
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you set the reset button so that the
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short answer is that for in a I’ll go
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back to
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I’m gonna go back 2,500 years yeah this
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is the academic in me right I can’t I
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can’t I can’t give you a straight answer
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right what you’re asking has all
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happened before like it’s all happened
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before right so Peloponnesian War you’ve
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got a thens and Sparta the big countries
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you know fighting each other and then
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the question is well what happens to the
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little countries what happens to ya
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you know magar you know all these these
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these little city-states and the the
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Athenians they’re trying to get their
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their allies together in one of the the
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little allies is saying well you know
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but you know you’re asking us to
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sacrifice everything is all for you I
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mean this this sounds this justice out a
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great deal and the Athenian ambassador
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says you know it was ever thus the
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strong do as they will the weak do as
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they must strong do as they will the
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weak do this they must
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and nothing has changed in 2500 freaking
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years when it comes to the ability of
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countries to chart their own course to
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deal with the exigencies of power hungry
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will do as they must even weaker
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countries than hungry will definitely do
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is they must and the strong do as they
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will so what they will when it comes to
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Europe when it comes to the United
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States when it comes to Japan which
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comes to to China is that there are no
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limits on you know printer Gober right
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there are no limits on you know we we
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haven’t even really touched yet modern
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monetary theory in the notion that well
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there’s not even a relationship between
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spending and taxing right
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you can run deficits as much as you want
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go on go for it we’re just getting
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started man
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getting started hey we’re not at the end
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game of this where yeah it’s like it’s
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like this is halftime hey this this
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isn’t the last few minutes of the fourth
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quarter
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with how governments are going to
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transform capital markets and the fourth
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key utilities with how they’re going to
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you know transform the meaning of money
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into what supports political power yeah
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this is just half time so I I think we
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really do have to take that long-term
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perspective that the printer can go burr
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for a lot longer and it doesn’t matter
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who gets elected you know you know it’s
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it’s it it’s all the same that the last
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10 years have been the greatest transfer
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of wealth – I call it the managerial
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class then I really think anything in
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history it has come through stock
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buybacks through stock sales through
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stock based compensation it’s all
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happened in the last 10 years and it’s a
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transfer of hundreds of billions of
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dollars of wealth to managers not
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entrepreneurs not founders not Shinya to
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managers managers and when that much
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wealth is transferred to that number of
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people in such a short period of time
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it doesn’t reverse itself yeah you know
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you know people don’t the the cheese may
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move but people still want their cheese
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yeah and and and I just I just think
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it’s so important to remember that we
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really are playing that long game to
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remember that the strong do is they will
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and the weak – as they must and to have
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in mind a set that that we’re just half
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time right now and that we need to play
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the game accordingly because what you
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don’t want to do is you don’t want to
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yeah you don’t want to storm an
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entrenched machine-gun nest you know
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with you know huzzah now is our time you
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know then you you really do I think want
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to play the long game
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I think there
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a real power of conviction and belief
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that allows us to play a long game
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mm-hmm and to keep it all together
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of course people like you doing your
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podcast it requires people like me doing
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our writing and most of it all it it
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requires a critical mass of people who
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whose greatest regret would be to give
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up and to be co-opted by the powers that
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be rather than play the long game and
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fight the long fight I can’t think of a
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better way to wrap up this conversation
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than calling for conviction and long
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term ISM and a market remedies panicked
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and and you know short termism generally
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drills the day then where can people
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find you on twitter I’m easy it’s it’s
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it’s all epsilon Theory all the time so
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at epsilon theory and epsilon Theory
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comm it’s for you to read and love to
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love to have you on board it’s a it’s an
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excellent read always I’ve been
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following you for years now and and
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definitely appreciate your commentary
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and watching it at all even as we get
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into a slightly darker period and you
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can tell for those that are tuning in if
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you can hear the background noise that
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naptime just ended so we we just wrapped
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up with the most perfect time because I
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just I just heard my kids wake up and
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surprise that they haven’t run in here
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already thank you for having me Ryan’s
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really a pleasure anytime Thank You Ben
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and stay safe
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YouTube take care