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Greetings and welcome to Inside Baseball with Old Chestnut. I'm Liam Allen with my friend Morse. How you doing, MB? I'm doing great, kid. How about you? Big week, buddy. Big week. We had action this week, my friend. We had action. We did, although I I got a a lot of stuff to talk about and very little of it with the market. Is is there something in particular that caught your attention?

No, no, no, no. I've determined that that rate h rate hikes don't matter to the American economy. That the rate the rate hikes will not impact the American economy. Nobody cares. J pal can say whatever he wants. Um It doesn't matter. Nothing, nothing uh up, down, hold, nothing changes. Stocks go stocks go up. Yeah, for for now I guess. Uh his speech uh I didn't

You know, just to back up, I've made the point the last few weeks of spending less time in front of the computer screen, and the results have been nothing short of profound. Um I did take the time to uh listen to a bit of the speech and then a couple of the questions. Um I I I think that uh it his tone was overtly uh dovish. And uh then we got a week payroll number on um on uh Friday. So I I you know, I think the market's trying to reprice itself a little bit, you know.

We meaning I've been on the sidelines for a while. I'm content to content to stay there. Um, you know, the the transmission mechanism of interest rates to the economy has changed. Is um I a big fan of the show. Dr. Torres and Slock points out, you know, uh so much of the uh Consumer debt is fixed rate, mortgages. You know, uh people.

Doc Slock, great note this morning. Finally, everybody, Dr. Dr. Torsten Slock at Apollo. Um, you know, we hold out with the show long enough. You get a good note every once in a while. And he he hit a home run this morning, Sunday morning. His his note. Yeah, well I mean it's it's like you said, you know, but the yeah, the the the rates do not impact those you know, forty five percent of America doesn't have a mortgage and ninety percent that do have a have a thirty year fix.

Yeah. Well uh ultimately these things matter, but ultimately is a is a long time and you know there's a lot more uh things that can play a play a bigger role. Um uh in the the shape of the economy than rates in the short run.

You know, I uh for instance, we we have an election coming up and one of our uh longtime listeners sent me a a note asking me uh You know, should he be concerned if uh Trump was elected, whether the Fed would lose its independence, should he be worried about that? And you know, as we uh say repeatedly, we we try and not to pick political sides here. Um

But I don't think prognosticating on what someone will do if they wins is picking a side. You know, I would imagine if Biden wins, he would probably uh reappoint Paul or somebody of similar uh experience. I'm sorry. Brainerd? Yeah, they want to put Brainerd in? Uh you know, it's hard. Uh you know, I'm not following it that closely that I I do know, um you've seen uh your uh TikTok pal David Zervos.

Have you noticed he's been dating a a woman who's in the public domain, right? I was stunned by that. All right. So for anyone that's not paying attention, Zervos has has been running around with Kellyanne Conway. Kellyanne Conway, the former press secretary for Trump, um, high-powered Republican gun. I just thought that was a strange.

a strange. But then when I but then when I asked someone about it, that person said, and I don't know if they were joking or not, they said, yeah, he's looking to get in line to be the Fed president under Trump. So No, it's not a it's it's a non-zero. There's a non-zero chance. I might know that person you talked to about it.

I mean, so this is public stuff. This is any uh this is dude, Zervos is great on Instagram. Anyone that doesn't follow anyone, any m old time market, you know, buzzards that aren't on Instagram, okay. For all the young guys out there, follow Zervos on Instagram, okay? Because Zervos is awesome. All right. So this is public stuff. Like I I get the behind the scenes for his C N B C shoot.

And he's a globetrotter and he has fun. And dude, he's a man. I love him because he's a vegetarian. Um and he he's had he's a vegetarian now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on. He eats potatoes like he's an Irishman. Okay. So I get potatoes. porn. I get potato porn on Zervos' Instagram like you read about. It is phenomenal. He goes to

Oh, all the best. Uh Casa Cipriani. Okay. He he's fine dining too. Like he's he lives a lifestyle. But the potato porn that Zervos puts on his Instagram. So I follow for the potatoes. And the other night, who lo and behold, chumming with Kellyanne Conway and I and I said to myself what what what okay so that that that was an interesting little tidbit yeah and I'm waiting for some pictures from handler of the boat okay I want to see the boat

All right, so in in it Instagram is good to Handler. Handler's good on Instagram, but I I gotta see the boat, Rich. I wanna see this thing. And I I wanna see the name. He better come up with a really clever name. A lot of pressure to name that pub. Well, I'm I'm not quite as interested in Handler's boat name as you are, but hey, you know, potatoes, potatoes, as they say. I will tell you, um

Not that long ago, I had dinner uh with Zervos sitting next to him, and I watched him polish off single handedly a tomahawk steak. No, you did not. Oh yeah. Put a number on it. How how long ago is this? This is years ago. This gotta be years ago. It's pre-COVID. Okay. All right. I guess it's been a while. Actually actually it was pre-Kellyanne Conway. Maybe pre pre-Kellyanne Conway. But no, he

Uh you know, I I've known Zervos for it's gotta be twenty something years, right? Probably you're old now, okay? Yeah, the new definition of a kid is anyone who doesn't have to get up twice in the night to pee. Right. Um So Zervoz and I uh met at Brennanch Capital, but we both discovered we had a fondness for uh climbing.

And he he's a he's a good climber, uh you know, substantially better than me. Uh but that's the beauty of climbing. You can go out and you can be various abilities and still have a good time. But he was the heavy Zervos at that point and he was eating nothing but

Beef jerky and you know, this, that, and the other thing. So an incredible transformation. He really has. I've seen the old pictures where he looked like a WWF guy. Um he ran big and bearded. Um and now he looks like like a skinny Jesus. So good for him. Good for him. Dude, and he's been killing it, dude. Nobody has more fun. Dude, for all these Wall Street mopes that take I'm with you. I I I I I'm

I'd like to think that's kind of how we roll, right? We think. And although Jeffries doesn't pick up our T and E or pay us a W-2, um You know, I was thinking about uh the the I saw this name come up in an unusual place.

uh Lynn Alden and um very, very talented woman. I think I saw She reviewed a book or something like that. I'm thinking, Wow, you know that She's come quite a long way. But I I I've had the the pleasure of speaking to her once, maybe twice on the phone. And uh, you know, for a while I uh subscribe to the newsletter. Uh but it it didn't really fit what I was looking for. But here's a gal. I think she's really missing the bus.

Yeah, I'm sure she is very happy with her situation, but selling newsletters for however bunch a month, I don't know. She could get a seven figure job working in investment bank. You know, maybe she doesn't want that. I don't know. But, you know, she's got quite the talent and you know That would be my career advice to that young lady. You know, health benefits. Night of the long knives every every day, you know, like You say that like that's a bad thing. Right, no, I know, I know.

Um it anyway, it it was an interesting week for me. with some of my interactions vis-a-vis the market history, Ibwak questions. And the the f first thing I wanted to hit was the question about Fed independence. And you know, would Trump do such and such and so and so and I I have no idea what Trump's gonna do. I uh he's talked about it. He I think I think the concern stems from some of his comments that I know always shouldn't always be taken seriously.

Uh but I think he has I think he's mentioned it. Can I just read the comment? I won't say that let me just A question for for the uh for the listeners. So we're all on the same page. But what value do you feel to the Fed Reserve? All right, let me slow down. Question for you.

What value do you feel the Federal Reserve provides to the markets or for the best interest of the United States versus letting the market determine all rates? I think whichever is wiser should be in charge. I think if Trump oh wait, hold on. So okay. I think if Trump were to win, he may make a dramatic change or eliminate the Fed. Sounds scary. Maybe my fears are unwarranted. All right, because he has mentioned that where he's like talked about, you know, the

The separate, like you know, abolish the Fed and like the independence of the Fed, where like he's made some of these reckless comments where people have been like, What what? You know? Well, people have been talking about Getting rid of the Fed independence since I lived on 90 90th Street on the Upper East Side.

taking the bus down to Wall Street. Okay. So I I don't think eliminating the Fed pr in a practical matter is the easiest thing to do, although governments historically can do whatever they like. The the comment that the Fed sets the rates, I'm kind of old school with i they can set the overnight rate. The long end rate can go wherever it wants. However, we've seen them produce, you know, operation twists.

Which was not the first time it was done in history. And then you have the quantitative easing. So the the Fed has decided it can do kind of what it pleases. That said. To the extent they serve longer terms. they should suffer from less political bias. But I I'm not naive. I mean, you know, it's a little bit like the Supreme Court, right? Somebody's appointed for life, but then there's still

kind of walking the party line. So I I don't know. Personally, I think an independent Fed is vital for a number of reasons. One is and this is I'm not guaranteeing I got any of this right. But government securities, the treasury market, I believe they're unregulated securities, unlike stocks, which come under the auspices of the SEC. And the reason I seem to think that is.

For a large portion of my career, I I never had to have any securities regulation. I didn't have the series seven. I didn't have The three I I I got the either the twenty-three or twenty-four, I don't know remember which one, but they were both. big deals and they were fucking R, right? So Uh we need

Some form of regulator there because you don't want people like Bobo and Ken Griffin deciding what the interest rate structure can be. Because I'll tell you what they're gonna do. They're gonna fit it To make the most amount of money. Uh just there needs to be some form of power that in times of turmoil can help, you know, mend fences, bring some confidence to the system. Cause remember The system r whether it's fiat currency or gold, okay. re relies on confidence.

You know, because banks loan lund out a bunch of their money. They don't have the all the money sitting in the vault. If everyone ran to get their money out in one day, it you know, it'd be a little bit like it's a wonderful life. And you know, you can argue whether gold would be better or not. I you know, I don't care to have that discussion. I don't I don't think I have any insight into tying the dollar to a uh uh a medal which really isn't

used to trade. How how are you gonna, you know and th you're even talking now about a lot of I saw this thing, the people are all running to Costco to buy the the little little and um you know uh that Shakespeare sell when you can, you are not for all markets. You know, buying's easy. Selling anything is hard. And what happens when you find out that the those coins from Costco, they got'em from China. And they're two percent gold, eighty percent lead, and four percent. Costco would

Maybe at your pawn shop out in Scottsdale, but not Costco. Okay. That's a reputable retail. Don't besmirch my bullet.

To tell you how fucked up the world's gotten, there was a crime spree in Arizona, Scottsdale, Arizona. all these guys gangs coming across the border and coordinating using Um night vision goggles, GPS, drone drones. Oh, dude, you see the jammers they got too? They got the the the frequency jammers so that they can shut down like the radio waves. Oh high tech But here's the funny thing to me, which is

What they're stealing, they're stealing shoes and purses. Come on, really? Yeah, well, think of it. You can buy a 70 inch. High Def TV for six hundred bucks. Right. Who needs that? What are you gonna do? You're gonna rip it off the wall and schlep it across the Sonoran desert? Yeah, those birken bags for forty thousand dollars. That's it.

Yeah. And they're not they don't lock them up. They hang them up in their dressing room showing them up. And if you don't believe me, go to wheeler.com and look at some of the houses. It's like I'm gonna guess uh Uh another week has gone by and you haven't seen my new favorite movie, Dumb Money. Um I don't need to watch the movie, but I can just watch it play out in real life. You know, GameStop's going again. Apparently it's up like forty percent in the past week.

So we segue into I think what I really wanted to talk about is uh Friday afternoon I get pinged on the Bloomberg IM from a fellow and he said, Did you see Carvan is up a zillion percent? And I said, Oddly enough, no. Um But the guy says, tell Liam. So I send it over to you. And all of a sudden, having watched this uh Dum Money movie like eight times, I send a note over to um

Kevin Muir,'cause he's like the stock guru. And I said, Do you think this Carvana thing could be the next GameStop? And he's like, Well, I don't know. Um But if you're thinking of following it, you should you should check out Reddit. Well, I yeah, it's a l that's a bridge too far for me. But all of a sudden, um I start getting some notes from people about the Carvana thing and I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole. Welcome to the web.

Where do you wanna start? You wanna start with the old man Garcia? Or do you wanna start with the kid Garcia? Let's start the fish fucking rots from the head down. So let's start with the old man. I I would rather just keep it on home. Apparently, uh one of Harley Bassman's funds, uh Big F-I F I G I can find it. Um apparently he owned a lot of Carvana puts no no no no no no to say no like you disagree or no like I'm wrong.

Yeah, well I mean six months ago we we I mean if anyone that listens to the show knows we shouldn't be shorting shit stocks, okay? And of all stocks, Carvano, this has been on the radar for six months. You had time to get out of this. Well he You know, I tried to get the webmistress to post the position, but she's off in Las Vegas. And you know what goes on in Las Vegas stays in Las Vegas. But the stock, um

the uh FIG it prices down some crazy amount. So I start getting some notes from Kevin and a few other people wondering about what what happened with uh you know the FIG and I went in and I looked at the position and they have or had a lot of these uh carvana puts to the extent that it It it was a problem. I mean, the stock went down substantially and um You know, Harley's been around a long time. The fund has got a very broad mandate and um

So that's in anything else interesting in the fund? Well that's what I you know one of the biggest lessons in life is to know what you don't know. So here's something I don't know. Uh I've had one of these Bloombergs forever, right? I I was one of the first five people to have one in his house. kind of thing. And yet I know like my eight or nine pages, I know how to get up.

So the the vast majority of this thing I can't use. Thousand functions you don't know. Unbelievable. But uh you know what, like I've already got a nursing home picked up that's got uh, you know, high speed internet, so I'll have my Bloomberg. But what I ask in Jeopardy fashion in the form of a question When I look at the fig holdings and again.

I'm not claiming I have this right. Okay. I tried to get it up on Bloomberg. I'm gonna invite you who those who have a Bloomberg can check this. But this fun fig. which is a Bassman fund in it owns other Bassman funds. Smart, right? Well, see that's but I'm kind of want well yes, yes, but so for instance FIG in it has the simplified intermediate term treasury fund. It has the simplify US Equity Plus QIS ETF.

It has the simplify next intangible value index. But but wait, there's more. But you you get the idea. So again. So it's like so it's like the Liam fund, if the Liam fund had Liam's ham, Liam's cheese, Liam's tomato, Liam's lettuce. Not not just that, it would be if Liam's ham was charging Oh right. You you see where I'm going with this? Well I I I think it's a beautiful thing. I think I applaud it up upon closer upon closer thinking about it.

Upon further analysis, I applaud it. Just just to be clear, and I again I'm not taking any responsibility if this is wrong, because I admit I don't know. But it seems like he's got a fun that he charges a fee on stuffed with his own funds. I'll tell you what, that's genius. We're sitting here doing a podcast, not making any money. No wonder he's been so busy marketing. Oh all right. Well that's that's exciting. That's excit uh that's unfortunate the Carvana like I I you know I've probably

I'd probably have some some some second thoughts about that. Um yeah. So that's interesting. So people people can buy this ETF. This is a publicly available. I could go buy the the fig fund on Monday if I wanted to, right? You know, do your own research, look at the prospectus, but yeah, I mean if you want to, Carvana, bro, bro. Like who like like you've barely been paying anyone that's listened to this show. It's probably been it's gotta be a year now because we went to dinner.

At the place in Greenwich and Ed sat next to me and said something about Carvana at seven dollars. He was making fun of me at seven dollars. Okay. I was so close to it going to zero. We were so close. That was last summer. So that's a year ago that we were talking about it at seven bucks and it's up at like 120 or something on Friday. 40% in the week. Yeah. Well so this is why I this was particularly interesting week for me because we're dealing with a short set.

which is the toughest thing to manage. for a trader. I mean short options, obviously, we don't do that, so that's not that hard. But um what struck me is unusual both in the Carvana and then the GameStop when I was watching that movie Dumb Money. So you have these guys now i at least to the extent I understand the the fig position, he had puts. So the you know that that's it. You can lose your premium.

Whether you know that was a good call or not, hey, you know, that's part of the it's it's a roll of the dice, right? But they show in this dumb money, this Gabe Plotkin guy. Uh selling GameStop short and In this equity market, It might be in treasuries too, but you can look and see what positions are. Yeah. And For me, and I I think we may have talked about this back when Billy Ackman was touting his short herbalize.

Like the last thing you want anybody to know is if you're short. You can hit the function on the Bloomberg, it'll show you the open interest for it, right? Right? I again I think there's a lot of information available. I I I'm not gonna claim but you know, um So in the movie and in real life, these guys keep shorting this stock, and there's things about it that perplex me. One is

If you short a stock at X, the most you can make is it goes to zero. So what what's the point? Right? And and if it goes against you. it you know, at some point it can go to infinity and beyond, right? Um why I liked the movie was it it's an example of what I really dislike. about the hedge fund industry. You know, you you have these arrogant guys Walking around, making a lot of money. Um, Stevie Cohn, who

Paid a zillion dollar fine to uh not uh admit or this or that. You know, if this is true, this is repugnant. He has a pig walking around his house. It it's in the movie. I I can't imagine it's not true. Could you imagine? I mean, and and not that this matters, but the guy's Jewish. Like I can see. You know. No, I couldn't. Can you imagine? You you you bring a pit home a pig home? He loves animals more than me.

You can't have a pig in the house, okay? Like go you you got enough money, go buy a little farm. Go get a little farm. Maybe they took some latitude, but you know, here's a guy who, you know, has had some trouble with the law. Maybe he was guilty, maybe not, I don't know. But clearly, you know people have been sniffing around a long time. And i it's funny how this movie Wall Street, which it came out when I was young.

Uh they have um Daryl Hanna talking to Charlie Sheen, both of them who were not aged very well. And uh Daryl Hanna was banging Michael Douglas. And uh she was his art consultant. Right, right, right. Talking about Gordon has such an eye, right? So um our good friend Ed a couple years ago recommended me this book called uh I want to say it's like the$10 million shark or something like that. And and it's this artist, I think it's Damian Hurst. He got a shark.

Alive once live, now dead sharp, and he stuck it in a tank full of thalmaldehyde and said and said it was art. And I wanna say I think Stevie Cohn bought that thing. Definitely. Yeah, he did. Yeah. Okay. So According to the book Apparently the shark kind of rotted. So they went out and got another one. Waste it, yeah. So I clowns. So what

Like when they throw soup on the Mona Lisa, they just go out and get another Mona Lisa? Is that how that works? No, I don't think so. So, but there's this whole industry built around Hiken up the price of art. Because the higher the price goes, everybody wins. There's nobody nobody short it, right? So now you got, you know, Stevie again, a prolific collector.

Bobo trying to buy his way into polite society, buys a painting which was stolen or something. Right? Remember that thing? Yeah. Um, don't worry, Bobo. She's banging her trainer.

Don't kid yourself. So we're talking about short squeezes, right? And so uh when we were at Greenwich, We were generally market neutral, which meant we had longs and shorts. And um so we heavily monitored the short positions. We spent

uh a lot of time communicating with our repurchase desk um because they would be the first line of defense they would notice if an issue is getting hard to borrow. So for instance, uh Uh Brian Ciardi, uh also famous for his playing bass at Eiji's band, Deep Donkey, don't Google it.

Have you ever been to one of his summer parties? Nope. Nope. Only been to the downtown ones. Downtown ones are all wow, what the summer one out on the island? Oh that yeah. Some people don't come home alive from that one. I can't imagine. At least in the city it's oh you you can imagine like he can't get loose. Like if he can be if he has more space to bounce around, geez. I had a moment on tambourine and background vocals in Shock Dust Torture that they're still Jesus.

But um where was I? Yeah, so Brian would be really good at giving us a heads up when stuff would get You know, type. Mm-hmm. And we would, you know, take appropriate measures, right? So we were very conscious about the short position. i these guys at these hedge funds, at least the ones portrayed in the movie, they would just sell stuff with reckless abandon. And it was a very to me a very unsophisticated uh situation. But uh to stay on the topic of the short squeeze.

I was it you who forwarded to me? Somebody uh one of our listeners had uh went and looked up the book written by Ben Carpenter and saw a glimpse. Of a story about a famous bond trade, the nine and a quarters versus the nine and seven eighths. Yep. And that trade. almost put Greenwich Capital out of business. And um this was before I worked at Greenwich Capital. Uh I was out on the town and the joke is what's Greenwich Capital's new name? Greenwich.

We got right. Yeah, it was it was close. Wow. Yeah. Um so in this instance, um I went back and I looked. The interest rate in very short order in the long end, fell like a couple of hundred basis points. This is an eighty-five? Yeah. So you went from like a nine and a quarter long bond. to a seven and a quarter long bond in in relatively no time. And several things happened. Uh again, this is

30 years ago. I don't know. I'm just just trying to do this from memory. But uh a conventional trade was to sell. the uh current long bond or current active as the new issue is about to be announced and the then current would become the old. People would lose interest in it because it was no longer the benchmark and it would cheapen and you could buy it back.

Now, again, you know, it's a little more complicated than that, not a lot, but explainable to a like a like a ten year old kind of thing, right? But again you had a confluence of events and that rate it fell sharply and quickly. And you had a situation, I believe, where there are a lot of Japanese funds who needed duration. Like I remember at that point, the only word you heard people talk about was duration, duration, duration. I need duration. I need duration. Yeah, yeah. And so um people

didn't roll. They didn't sell their nine and a quarters to buy the new one because they didn't want to give up their duration. After a while, the rates actually for a short period of time But again, when I looked at the chart, a short period of time could have been six months, right? Rates rates backed up, meaning the prices of the bonds fell. So now you have a lot of people who won't sell the bond because they don't want to give up their duration.

You have a lot of people who can't sell the bond because it's now at a loss. And um There just was there were more shorts than there were bonds people could borrow. The reason they talk about the nine and a quarters to nine and seven A. And again, forgive me if I get this wrong, but I think the nine and a quarters traded even dollar price to the nine and seven eighths. Now, if you realize you got the same credit. Maybe three or six months apart.

One's nine and a quarter, the other's nine and seven A's, they're trading at the same price. It it right. I mean the the nine and a quarters trading really really expensive. So um That was one of the notable uh popular squeezes. I I talked about one a couple of years back when you and I first started podcasting. Um there was a two-year note squeeze that surrounded the Solomon brothers. when they uh got in trouble putting in the bids for too many two year notes and um

Yeah, there there was a a big problem in the treasury market there. And again, you know, the the Treasury was monitoring the situation. You know, I I can't remember exactly uh what they did. But over time these things work themselves out, but they they they leave a mark. And why I think it's kind of interesting that these things all come up, whether it's GameStop. Carvana, people are talking about the nine and a quarters. Um, it's just part of the business that I I think gets very little.

uh discussion and it's it's something you have to know how to manage. It's gotta be a tool in your toolkit. And so Yeah. Um I had Bond people. Did you see did you see the the the quote from Jared Bernstein, Biden's uh Biden's economic well, whatever economic I don't even know what his title was, but it's brutal. He's the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. His

His c dude, he literally doesn't understand how bonds work and he's it it was just atrocious. Anyway, I'll post it again on on Twitter. But yeah, or anyone, just Google Jared Burns. The chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. The clip Is that the guy who ate the Subway sandwiches and lost all that weight? No, no, no. That guy is probably brighter than this guy. Um, no, the clip was just astonishing.

So a couple things. One is uh the Wall Street Journal did an article about Warren Buffett and you know for Years now I've been talking about how unfair these hedge funds are. And I think the fellow at the journal did a pretty nice job explaining to how much money people have made investing with Warren Buffett simply by his business structure.

Because he doesn't charge twenty percent, he doesn't take twenty percent of the up, you know, the blah blah blah blah blah. And uh and again, you know, again, I I beseech you hedge fund managers to See the light, you know. Well this somebody got it dude that if you if you don't get out, they're gonna you're gonna get kicked out. Who who got blown up this week of a nice big old one that went from uh you know a hundred billion dollars down to ten billion dollars and they shut the door?

It was Monday. It was a long time ago. You but you were happy about it. Well, yeah. I I I like you know the fun. What was the fund? It's gonna bother me now. There was somebody got somebody got bankrupted on Monday. I I I think that if you fuck something up, there's supposed to be a penalty. So m am I happy? Um Uh Harley Bassman's fund lost a lot of money. No, I'm not happy, but tell me, what does he know about Carvana? That I mean, I I'll say best mortgage trader in the history of the world.

I it's probably not true, but uh uh let's just go with that. Okay, how does that translate to Carvana? I I It's like I would you would say to me, explain it to me like I'm a three year old. I I I don't understand. So When you're fucking around and shit you don't mean you shouldn't be fucking around in? And and you and you get you get clusterfucked. Yeah, I think it's fucking great.

So many rules that we've laid down on this show are violated by that whole by the whole situation that it's just it's it's tough not to kind of smirk You know, like you're short you're knuckling around short and shit. Okay. Like you're selling it, you're pitching it. That's why I love that fucking movie so great. You got this. Chucklehead, I forget his n I keep forgetting his name. Um anyway, uh They're going through the whole thing, you know, he's Gabe Plotkin.

And he's he's playing the whole, oh, you know, I grew up from a simple family, yeah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And And you know, and he's talking about how, you know, last year I made, you know, five hundred million dollars and he's bitching how during COVID he can't get a fucking tennis court built on his house. And you know, it's just there's just this great scenes with the him and his wife and she's like How much did we lose today? Um a billion. How much did we lose yesterday?

A billion. Yeah, I love that. That's kind of awesome. Perfect. Yeah. It's uh in any event, you know, there's a the Germans have a word for it. It's Schadenfreude. And uh, you know, so to tell you I am not And I know you know this because you've seen me in my in in my most vulnerable moments.

Yeah. I was thinking about you and I growing up, and you're from the Irish side, I'm from the Jewish. Now we talk about the Irish guild. Being a Jewish guy, I don't I don't really get that. Right. Now there's Jewish guilt, and you may maybe you don't get that. What I remember, so I went to Hebrew school and Sunday school. Yeah. Fascinating. I I I failed every year and they kept promoting me. Right. Perfect.

And I don't know whether you had this, but in Hebrew school, if you didn't get the prayer right, they'd wrap your knuckles with the ruler. In the eighteen hundreds. We didn't have that when I was a kid. Well Anyway, I guess they have worse things now, but uh that anyway, um every Sunday we'd get an hour lectured about the Nazis. We get a ten minute break and then we get another hour about the Nazis. And and this is like years of doing this. And you know what? Hey.

Was it overkill? Yeah. Do I get it? Yeah. When when a A government wants to eliminate your people and they do a pretty good job. You don't want the kids to forget about it, right? So I became For better or worse, interested in the history of World War II. Because when You're a kid and you're learning these things and they start telling you how

you know, Hitler came to power. And when you're young, and even as we've seen now some uh people in their early uh late teens, early twenties, are having some uh emotional issues. You wonder how could it happen? I'm thinking to myself, why didn't why didn't the the Jews just up and leave? And there's a whole host of reasons why, because you you you don't It's like I saw a quote which was great. It's like history is backwards. Like, you know, you're creating history now. You can't

You can't go forward and see history, you have to live it, right? So these were assimilated into the German society and they were part of the fabric and you had many of them were decorated, you know, military people and in the whole thing, right? And But as I said, I got to be a little bit enamored with that time period. And I've read a great deal of stuff. And a number of years ago, there was a book review.

And I don't want to say the name of the newspaper because I don't like their political views, but they recommended a book called Gulag by Anne Alpaum. And and I read it and it talked about the Russians sending their people to Siberia. And um Then there was a famine, which upon research I discovered really wasn't a famine. They They made the people starve to death, th the Russian government. Uh, they stole the food, you know, the the whole thing. It was just just fucking

Total massacre. Famine's the wrong word, because I to me famine is like there's an agricultural reason. Maybe I'm dictionary is wrong, but these people were murdered. And why I bring this up is there's a show on the uh Maybe it's Netflix. Now I'm not sure. It's called uh Man in Moscow. And uh basically it's uh

A Russian aristocrat who's on the wrong side of the politics. But because he wrote a poem which helped star the movement, he was spared his life, but he was uh under house arrest in this hotel for the rest of his life. And is the sh is the story goes on, there's uh a young girl who's a guest of the hotel and he befriends her. And this takes the place over years, and so she starts, he meets her when she's sick.

And then she's twelve and then she's eighteen and she comes to visit. And you can tell she has been brainwashed by the Soviet Communist Party. And these two people who'd known each other very close to a father-daughter relationship, she was saying how You know, it's really Everyone should be trying to help everyone else. You know, the fact that you have property, you really took it from somebody else. And, you know, you can tell and you can see just the demeanor of this poor man who had

been an aristocrat, spared his life. I'm sure most of his relatives were murdered. Um and he sees this young woman who's been brainwashed and uh the the poignant moment came to me where she comes to visit him in the hotel and She and her husband are being sent off to a part in Siberia and he's trying to talk her into not going and uh She's like, Well, no, there's all this land out there that belongs to the people and we need the feed people. So we're gonna go out, we're gonna help grow.

you know, the crops to feed all of Russia's people. And of course he knows. And so she goes on the train. And then, you know, long story short, She dies with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other people. Why do I bring this up? Well, because

You ask yourself, well, how can it happen? You you're seeing it happen now. Okay. You have a lot of stuff going on in college campuses. where people are getting sucked into movements. And I there was a book I think I re recommended last week, The True Follower. Did we talk about that? So i i I think that's the name of it, the true follower. And it talks about how these radical uh situations get going. And you have people, and the college students are excellent examples. They're young.

I think it's fairly well accepted that your the brain isn't fully developed until your your early twenties. I I a lot of guys we cycle with still don't have the interfail. But lacking direction, lacking a definitive goal, they're vulnerable and they want to be part of what's cool. And now we see this going on on the college campuses. And I'm watching this in the movie, right? And I I've read the book about the gulag and

like knowing where this poor girl is going to, I I i it was very emotional. And and so to and I I don't know that this is political. If it is, I apologize, but you know Being a Jewish guy in America, which was founded for religious freedom. I can't go to a Jewish um event without there being armed guards there. Think think about that for a minute. Did did do you ever see armed People at at the church?

Good. I was in Scarsdale. What was going on Tuesday? What was I doing what were you guys all walking around for on Tuesday? You guys dragged your ha your holidays out. Sunday was the end of Passover. Tuesday, your people are are all over Scarsdale. Okay. Where are you guys walking to on Scars? What was Tuesday? I don't know. I'm I'm is is Rich Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok American Jews, you don't even know what's going on Tuesday. Um is Rich Handler told me I'm Jewish. Okay, yeah, exactly.

So yeah, no, but in Scarsdale, I knew something was going on because you guys were all walking to the temple there on Mamarinic Road and sure enough, what's there? Two Scarsdale police cruisers at the entrance, okay? You go down the street to St. Patrick's Church on Sunday morning, there's no police cruiser at church on Sunday morning. Okay. But I was thinking about this last night that like

All those idiot fucking kids on these college campuses. Like, I grew up With a Jewish kid across the street from me. Like I I don't know like it was it was just normal to me. It wa like and I could never imagine. pit like that making him my enemy because he had a menorah in his window and I had a Christmas tree. That's just so insane to me. Maybe maybe that's just because I grew up in New York, but there's got

the rest of the country maybe maybe didn't have a Jewish kid or a Jewish family. I I find that hard to believe that that there's such a distinct difference and that people are like, Oh well he's Jewish and like But dude, the the the Jewish kids on campus, if I was a Jewish kid at Northwestern, or a Jewish kid at Columbia, or a Jewish kid at UCLA, or pick whatever school this insanity is going on at.

I'd want my money back and I'd be like, I'm never coming on your fucking campus again. All right. It's insane. Insane. The professors are a part of it. It's gone the sh the Dude, those kids want a cause. Like like you said, they're kids and they want a cause. I'll tell you whose cause you're helping. Who do you who are you helping? Who's sitting over there in the fucking desert in their tunnel or in their hospital headquarters is Hamas, and Hamas loves this.

Perfect. It's Hamas has hijacked hijacked the news cycle. Hamas has hijacked higher education. Okay. And to and to a degree. I don't it's not it's not all college kids because I haven't seen this at like the University of Texas. Okay. I don't think this is gonna fly at Texas. All right, or Oklahoma. All right. There's places where this is not gonna fly. And and you've seen the pushback. I think it was at the University of Chicago.

I think at the University of Chicago some kids showed up with the American flag. And we're playing Bruce is born in the USA and chanting USA and telling the the Palestinian Hamasomers to fuck off. Um, I've seen the pushback come and I've seen the groundswell of support.

for the pushback and the counter protesters. Um, you saw the kids at North Carolina, the Frat Boys protecting the flag and Bill Ackman kicking them ten grand for their party, which is the aw the most awesome thing Bill Bill has done in a month. Okay, Bill, I know you're listening. So good job kicking that those kids money. And I don't think he even knew he would get it, but the internet's such a beautiful place. They see the top donation, William Ackman, ten K with the

That was just brilliant. Best thing you've done in a month, Bill, really. That was just fantastic job on that part. But dude, this

The Columbia scenes were disgusting. The Columbia scenes and then when you when They break it down. Dude, half of those people are agitators. So Hamas has hired their professional liaisons to go into Columbia and rabble rouse, all right. And desecrate these campuses. Are these like Columbia is like one of the highest levels of uh higher education? It's an Ivy League school in Manhattan. One of like look at the alumni list. This is the cream of the crop.

And now it's become a circused laughing stock. Good job. There's a uh a reporter, Barry Weiss. She used to write at the Times. I'm sorry. Love. Yeah. Apparently I I saw something she wrote. A lot of these agitators are now handing out pamphlets on how to break into the university, like how to how to take um uh of crowbar break open a window, how to take a garbage can and cut it apart and use it as a barricade against police. Um so again I I hate to spend a lot of time talking about uh

non market stuff when we bill ourselves as a a political um non market podcast. But I I just felt this one time remiss if I if I didn't tell you f really for the first time. in my life, I I don't feel safe in this country. And You know, the here's the problem. We go back to when I was in Sunday school and I ask why why didn't the Jews leave? Well here, what where where where can I go? Well, I could go to Canada. Maybe. Maybe. Uh...

But you know, two of my kids live here in the States. The fact that you have to even consider that is insane. In twenty twenty three, you're you live in the safest Town in America. But still you don't feel like you could go down You couldn't wear like a s like like a support Israel. You couldn't like you know you you wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. That is so insane to me. That's 50 years ago like Oh like you said, you were in Scarsdale and there were police cars there. I've been to some

events with Cheryl, you know, just to support her. I I try and keep my stuff to my to myself. But to be honest with you, when we sit down in the congregation, I'm looking where where are the exits? Where where if there's a if there's gunfire, what am I gonna do? Right? Yeah. Uh how how d how how was that how was that right and uh I can't solve it, you know, and I don't want to spend any more time going on and on or something, but I just wanted to take my two minutes to explain.

How I see this thing unfolding which You know. I don't understand how people aren't irate about it. I don't understand like the alum there should be alumni. You know, there should be Columbia alumni. I know like Penn had alumni pull, like, but there should be enough powerful people that that can put an a stop to it, but it's just Uh dude, the fact that they're flying Hezbollah colors in their protests?

How can you d how could you proclaim to be some sort of pro you all right, so like I've seen the div disclose divest, which is comical. All right, yeah, you think Columbia's gonna open their book and be like, oh, we're invested in this stop. That's that's comical number one. But then the idea that okay, so if all right, so the basic you want them to stop bombing

Palestine? Okay. So under that under that you like so October seventh didn't happen. So we're gonna w like the the whole flying into a music and like slaughtering a thousand people, we're gonna overlook that and now you're mad about um you know killing innocent civilians in in Gaza. Okay. That's you you can't have it both ways. This is the problem. You can't have it both ways. All right. So if you want peace.

Okay, that's one thing. But if you're gonna call for peace with your Hezbollah do rag on. I can't I can't take you serious. Thank you. Thank you. The hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is one of my favorite things and the apoc the levels of hypocrisy in these protests is so glaring that anyone that was objective, an alien came down and said, Well, what's happening here? They're protesting what? Against what? Oh w it doesn't it's it doesn't compute. It's it's so hypocritical.

That it's like I it's tough I don't know, here we are talking about it, but yeah, um But dude, there's been pushback. There has been pushback. The the US like there's they've they've the some campuses have turned against it. So I'm looking forward to some really violent clashes in which um These fucking soy boys get the shit kicked out of them by some country Americans, um, because it's coming. It's it's gonna happen

Those kids at those protests are fucking losers. Okay. Sorry. I'm gonna say that. Like like I I was a I'm not gonna say I was a cool kid in high school, but there's cool kids and there's losers. Those are the fucking losers, all right? Those are the losers. I'm I'm gonna say the same thing Megan Kelly said. Why are they all ugly? They're all ugly fucking losers. And like Scott Galloway said. Those are those incels. Those dudes aren't getting laid.

Hey, if you had a hot girlfriend and you had something cool to do on Friday night, you're not going to the protest on Thursday, you fucking loser. Okay. These are the video game guys. These are the girls that hate boys. Uh the I'm telling you who these people are. No, I I I I to to your point, what I love is if you took Trans people for Palestine. Yes. If you took them took them on a tour there, they wouldn't make it back alive.

You ca the the hypocrisy, okay? That th th like you're just showing how g dude, if you read the thesis, the chick that they they got they put a microphone in front of this one girl of Columbia and they got a um a minute out of her where she was like You know, we have illicit demands and we also want snacks delivered basically. And they were like, Yeah, yeah, that's right. I want

We need food delivered. We need food delivered. Right. She was like, I don't think Colombia wants people to starve and uh die of thirst. I almost this is the that was the fucking best fucking thing. They break into the the dorms or the the the schoolrooms and then they don't know why the university doesn't want to honor their meal plan.

Incredible, dude. All be expelled, no refund. And if you broke into a and if you broke into a building at Columbia, you should spend the weekend or a week at Rikers. All right. That'll put an end to that shit. If you listen, I'll tell you what, they that would be right. And and you know what? I'd I'd respect that. Yeah. Like, hey, I really believe in this and I'm I'm going to prison because I broke the law and I'm proud of what I've achieved. Hey.

So y you know there's that talk about it's and it's not just Let's not kid ourselves. It's not just the Jews. And I I won't use the words, but in racially diverse wealthy Greenwich Connecticut. Two weeks ago A couple of white girls went to the town park and interacted with a couple of black girls. The N-word was thrown around and a scuffle ensued. And as a calmed down, the white girl Stood up and said Hit me again. N-word. Yep. And then all hell broke loose. So you know the people have compared

I've heard, and this makes sense. The Jews are sort of the canaries in the mineshaft. When people start coming after the Jews, That's the low-hanging fruit. So, you know, if and I'm not going to pick on any other racial minorities, what's the difference? Because then I'm the bad guy. But I'll tell you. They're coming for everybody. And to think you're exempt. Because you don't happen to be the guy getting picked up right now.

It's just a mistake. So anyway, I I feel like I overstepped my authority here. No, no, dude, it's not no, you should be able to speak that because I don't hear any other podcast giving a voice to a Jewish guy living in the w n in the northeast that that

talking about boots on the ground, how it feels to be a a regular you're a regular civilian. You're a you're a normal guy. All right. You're not you're not celebrity. You're not, you know, but and for you to not feel comfortable, I can't imagine how your wife feels. That would really bother me. Like Cheryl I c I can imagine that Cheryl must be incensed that like, you know Wait a minute. How come you guys don't have a leader? Who's your leader? How come there's not, you know wh who's the Jewish

Who's who's the uh the the head Jew that should be pushing back against this? Why is it why is it so I'll tell you, it the the Jews and I am one are the most politically in Group of people I've ever met in my life. You know, they they cure polio, they cure cancer, they save lives, they invented the remote control for the television, you know, the birth they invented birth control. They there's that old joke about the there's a uh

island. Yeah. And there's three stranded people. You know, there are two Jews are stranded on desert island and they're not talking to each other. They you you have That's so that's amazing. It's it's crazy. It's just it's just crazy. And uh so Cheryl's active in one of these things and she's very active in it. And I I applaud her

work. I mean, she works tireless tirelessly. They they have every year a a diversity breakfast where they bring religious leaders from different uh ethnic backgrounds and you know all the local politicians come and and I think there is some activity, but you know, there's just something below the surface. And when times get tough, and times are not tough right now. And that's what disappoints me, disgusts me with the Stevie Cohns of the world and the gay Plotkins of the world.

The wealth disparity that's happened since the COVID. is absurd. Okay. If you look at what's happened, the the prices of houses in my neighborhood in Arizona, I don't know, tripled. And they weren't, it didn't go from 100 grand to 300 grand. Right. You know, you drive by uh the high end car places in Greenwich and they're they're the lots are full of Rolls-Royce's and McLaren's and Porsche's and Mercedes and Ferraris and it's

This is not gonna last. This this there's gonna be a wealth tax. It's different than it sounds, but there's this whole arm where you can have wealth and you can go borrow against it. And spend the money. and not get taxed because it's it's a loan. You're not allowed to do that in Canada. that that's they got that figured out. And I I know in my case, I'll give you an example. We're refinancing a retail office space in lower uh uh in um Lower Manhattan. Yeah, um Nolita. Nolita. Okay. And so we

I've owned the building. We have a$5 million mortgage. We're going to take, we have to refi. So we're going to take a$6 million mortgage. We're going to pay off the five. We're going to take a million bucks out. And that that's tax free. Now If I sold it, I'd have to pay for it. But if I don't sell it, Until I die, the bases get stepped up. And so that that money is never taxed as income. Now it's in the law. I I didn't make it up. Um, but that's not right. But when I turn sixty five

I'm gonna take Social Security, but I d I shouldn't be entitled to it. Why why should I don't need it? That's supposed to be a safety net. Yet anybody I know, Democrat or Republican, who is 65, is taking their Social Security. And I mean, how much could it be? I uh honestly, it for me, social policy You want to take my Social Security because you want to admit you fucked up and we need to help everyone else? Take it. Right? But

You wanna pretend like we had a deal? No, the deal was you were gonna give it back to me. So admit you made a mafuck a mistake. Don't Just be honest, you know, and that's that's why I don't really feel excited about the future because you know. Nate Fick, where are you? Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. Yeah, really.

All right. Well that's uplifting. Thanks. Um oh what about the what about the life insurance? People wanted to people had life insurance questions again. They're like they you you need to do another show about the life insurance. I these loopholes and the way that people are guy says I have six policies and it's just some real interesting stuff going on with the life. It's complicated. I I I have a fundamental dislike because the life insurance guys um

get paid a huge commission, number one. Number two, they don't they don't tell the truth. I and I know and I know this because I took notes. And now it's ten years later and th it's not uh there are fit. So um You know, I'm uh I it's pointless for me to go and say, Hey, ten years ago you said this and now it's this, because you know, they don't give a fuck. That money's spent, they're dead or they moved. Yeah. But A away from that, away from that, if you can get past all of that stuff.

You know, it's a little bit like using a broker, which I I I I think about a lot because I disparage um brokers. Now, real estate brokers especially, and I was heartbroken to see ads. We were at the beehive having lunch yesterday, Cheryl and I, and there was an ad for a real estate broker that said Use us, we'll only charge you three percent, not the customary six percent. I'm like, buy a round for the house.

that's great but uh yeah just the last thing about the broker concept is If you find the right guy who can help you understand you, what is it you need to accomplish? and knows all of these tools that you and I've talked about for many years now, that's worth something. And that guy should get paid. But, you know,

sticking money in an ETF that takes money and sticks it in another ETF that probably takes it sticks it in the third. You know, it's like we used to do with the Yayho. I get a pound of blow. And then you get a pound of uh Manitol and you mix it together. Yeah and now you got twice. Right. Worked out well for you. Inside baseball cast at anyone who wants to fact check anything today. Inside baseball cast at Gmail. Inside baseball cast at Gmail. Good job, Bill Ackman.

Thanks for the nice email reply too. That was very, very timely. Nothing makes me happier than getting a nice little smiley face from Bill. If I can if I can say that on the hopefully we'll have a show next week that the Allah Akmar doesn't come and slit our throats. Inside baseball cast, thanks, pal. This was fun. Um, as usual. Um, it's been it's been fun, and uh, I'll see you next weekend. Look forward to it.