How to Download YouTube Videos using Python

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Every once in a while I see a YouTube video that I fear is significant enough that it may be censored or deleted at a future date.

Such is the case with my recent post about Jeffrey Sach’s interview with Bloomberg :

Interview:  Bloomberg “Surveillance” : Jeffery Sachs:  10/03/202

Interview Starts @ 1:51:21  | Read original blog post.

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) IF NO TECHNICAL SKILLS:

  • If you don’t have the technical skills, YouTube’s Premium subscription gives you access to do this.

 

2) IF SOME PYTHON TECH SKILLS:

  • But if you have a little programming savvy, you can use a program that I’ve used to do my CiteIt transcripts.
  • In this example we are assuming you have Python and pip installed. (pip is included in Python 3.4+)

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Tributes to Glen Campbell: musician and guitar virtuoso, who performed publicly with Alzheimers

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Yesterday, I found some really positive comments online about Glen Campbell and and saw a sad and inspiring movie about him:

 

1) Public Alzheimer’s diagnosis:

 

2) Talented Musician, admired by famous guitarists

One Quora poster said that Country music has a reputation for being “overly simplistic,” (as compared to rock) but commenters overwhelmingly replied that some of the most famous rock guitarists have been big fans of Campbell’s.

 

Here are examples of his guitar playing, including a performance in his later years.

3) Watch Documentary:

Which is more important: the bond market (inflation) or reshoring industry?

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Luke Groman outlines 2 factions within the US government:

  1. Whatever is good for the bond market should be US Policy:
    • We need to fight inflation.  This is the Larry Summers view that we need high unemployment to fight inflation even if this means a deep recession/recession
  2. We need to reshore, even if this leads to high inflation.
    • A faction within the Pentagon realized the the current dollar-based system requires us to outsource our manufacturing because a strong dollar makes US exports uncompetitive.
    • This outsourcing of manufacturing weakens the military supply-chain and has prompted the military to publish on this subject in 2010 and 2018.
    • The decision to sanction Russia may have been intentionally designed to precipitate a shift away from the dollar’s status as global reserve asset (but not US dollar as global reserve currency)

 
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Threats to the Petrodollar: Ukraine War & BRICS

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“Foreign Affairs” semi-openly admits to “Petrodollar” defense

Foreign-Affairs-The Dollar Still Dominates



 

What is the Petrodollar?

  • The Petrodollar system is based on buyers paying for oil in US dollars. 1
  • Petrodollar recycling is when oil producers lend their suplus dollars back the the US, financing the US debt or buying US assets. 2 3
  • In the Russia/Ukraine war, Russia required “unfriendly” buyers to pay for their energy in rubles, creating a “petroruble“.
  • In a break from the past, Saudi Arabia is now considering selling oil to China in Chinese yuan. 4

Why this “Foreign Affairs” article is interesting:

I’m not surprised by the content of Carla Norrlöf’s recent “Foreign Affairs” article.  I’ve seen most of this material before from less credentialed sources on the internet (and in books), but I think it is outside of the Overton window for television. If a guest on a network like CNBC started talking about the Petrodollar, I think the producer would cut to commercial break.

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  1. The US made an agreement with Saudi Arabia in 1974 that it would require buyers to pay for oil in dollars. This increases demand for dollars, which increases demand for interest-bearing dollars (US Treasuries), which means more people are willing to finance US debt.↩

  2. After the US quadrupled its grain export prices shortly after the 1971 gold suspension, the oil-exporting countries quadrupled their oil prices. US diplomats had let Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries know that they could charge as much as they wanted for their oil, but that the US would treat it as an act of war not to keep their oil proceeds in US dollar assets.↩

  3. When countries hold dollars, they usually buy US treasury bonds (US debt), so as to get interest on their dollars. The more people that want US dollars, the easier it is for the US to run perpetual deficits and finance that debt. ↩

  4. This decreases demand for US dollars, hence demand for US Treasuries (US debt)↩

  5. In the past, I’ve seen people deny that it matters whether oil is priced in dollars and whether the dollar is a dominant global reserve currency.  Professor Norrlöf ‘s article confirms that not all the critics are “delusional conspiracy theorists.” ↩