Take Me To Your Leader

Greetings and welcome to inside baseball with old chest. I'm Liam Allen with my friend Morris Sandler. Happy Thanksgiving, my friend. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to you. Did you have a nice one? I had a great Thanksgiving. Uh I dragged the kids down to the Macy's Day Parade. That's not true. I dragged one kid. Just the uh just my four year old daughter came with me to the parade.

Because we woke up here and it was driving rain. All right. So my little daughter. Perfect. Right. So the four-year-old says, well, rain doesn't bother me. I said, that's my girl. Let's go. Put the boots on, put the slicker. We'll get on Metro North. Not a soul on the train. We're off to we're off to a good start. Right. We get the express, one stop, Harlem one two five. Buzz right down to Grand Central. Fifty two minutes.

Grand Central is disturbingly empty. Okay. All right. So again, we're off to a good start. All right. I get outside, pissing rain. No big deal though, because you know the buildings, you walk under the awnings, the rain doesn't bother. And then I start seeing now we got on a nine thirty. We got there at like ten twenty, like ten forty-five. I'm swimming upstream against Taurus coming away from the parade.

And I said to the kid, I'm like, I'm like, there's no way we missed it. I said the parade is nine to noon. Santa doesn't come down until I said, there's no way. But we we are against the current getting to getting over to it goes down six. So we get to like the library, they got it blocked off. I go down to like thirty-eighth or something, and I see in the distance, I s I see a float going down going down six hours. All right, we made it, good.

But the next thing, I figured that the rain would decimate the crowds, which it didn't really, because everyone that went brought an umbrella, okay? Oh responsible outcome. So exactly. So I get to get so I'm like, all right, Fiona, I'm like, look. I'm gonna put you on my shoulders. I said anyone's umbrella comes near you, you bat it away. I said that umbrella I said you protect your eyes, you repet you protect my eyes. I said so if you anything comes near you, bam, hit it.

She goes, all right, she's on board. All right. So now I'm I'm used to I can get to a nightclub. I can get to a crowded nightclub. I have no problem getting to the front if I need to. So with the kid on my shoulders. I can't tell you how many tourists turned and looked at me after I put my shoulder or her boot right into their back to move them. Yeah.

No problem. Right right now. It's a real it's a real New York moment. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. I've done this a million times. I'm going to do that story twenty years from now. Yeah, exactly. Get the umbrella out of my way. I'm going to the front, okay?

So we march right to the front, you know, bang, bang, bang. She goes, Papa, I've never bumped into so many people. I go, Are you all right though? You're good? She goes, I'm good. I said, can you see? She goes, I can see. We get like three balloons. Dude, we're there for like forty five minutes, pissin' rain. We get Santa, we're out of there. Perfect. Checked all the boxes, got an express home, first stop Stanford.

Done. I was home at twelve ten. Okay. There are a group of New York policemen waiting for you for assault. No, no, no, no. No, luckily the New York police were dealing with the uh with the Hamas supporters. The the Hamas supporters showed up. to slow down the parade, which I'd like to thank them for slowing down the parade and allowing me to be tardy and s and still catch the end of it. So so thank you all you dipshits that thought you made your voice hurt.

I'm uh I'm glad you mentioned that because I had an idea for a new business venture. I don't know if you want in or not, but I was thinking open up like Hamas Cellular. Dude, why don't you just sell like Hum Hamas scarves? If you just go online, make a website that's like you want to sell those Hamas scarves and then just give all the money to like the AG AJC or something, you know? Yeah.

Go ahead. No, no, no, no. That that was that was my Thanksgiving morning. Um so the Macy's Parade, all all the all the people that put on the show, that was that was fantastic. Um it was it was really a good I checked that box for the kiddo, we had a blast. Um

Yeah, it was a lot of fun. So that was that was Thanksgiving. We came home to a lovely meal. We didn't go anywhere. My parents stayed at their house. My sister stayed at her house. Everyone was at their satellite locations. It was fantastic. No tr no traffic problems. No, nothing. No. No, for those of you who aren't familiar with the tri state area, any holiday

Especially the Jewish holidays, we get what's called yidlock where you can't go anywhere. So that poor lady who got the house by the merit in case there was a nuclear war. Like you know, head south. Yeah, yeah. See where you're going. Um we had uh had the whole shooting match here, uh which was really nice. I had a who cooks that who who's the head chef of this operator? Cheryl is is boots on the ground. You know. She's the general contractor. Awkward. Nothing deviates from plan.

It's the whole it's the whole thing. So I I had a creepy moment where, you know, I'm kind of playing with the grandkids and I got the you know the three grandkids and then my children and I'm looking around and I'm going This is like an obituary. Yeah, there he is, surrounded by his children, his grandchildren. I'm like, I get out, I gotta get out of here. This is like the um Bermuda triangle of grandparentine.

No, it was really something. What kind of number do you? You got 10 people? You got 10? 11? You got 3? 4? 5? 7? 9? 11? 12? Yeah. Yeah, that's a lot. You got it all. Yeah.

Yeah, it's crazy. Well you're the you're the umbrella and the and nothing the head of the snake. So as an act of kindness, somebody wanted to watch the um Macy's Day parade. Yeah. Because they had a float in it. Their company had a float in it. And they couldn't get it on their iPad, so they know stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. I need to know what company had the foot.

Big brothers, big sisters. Oh, excellent. Okay,'cause there were some interesting new floats. All right, so go on. So th all right, so this is your sister. So what it please say it again. Big brothers, big sisters. Yeah, big brothers, big sisters. So they got a they had a float in the parade? Okay, that's legit. That's my understanding. There actually by the time I get done with this story, I'll tell you there better have fucking been one.

Well, um, you know, since the writer's strike when we fired all the riders. We've been having to cobble together a show, and it generally happens in the last minute. And so uh I've let My sister used my computer and then I go to log on this morning to get some things for the show. And I realized that they had wiped out all my passwords.

So luckily, um by the way, did I say I had three grandchildren? Yeah, I don't I was I don't I just figured there was an extra one. It's just just strap on because we're going deep today. Dude, it seems like three. It might as well be three. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it's I think it's two. Yeah. Um Anyway, uh I constantly get their names wrong. Of course, dude. Welcome to the world. Well, like one's got red hair. Yeah. I won't say their name because I'm not saying the other one.

regular hair and she's slightly larger than the other one. And I look at the kid and I see red hair and I go, oh that's telling some. And then it starts laughing. Yeah, good, good, good, good.

So um anyway, here we go. Uh I got some interesting comments from people. in the brief hiatus that we had. Um and and to everyone who uh expressed concerns for my health because we didn't podcast. I know. Thank you, I'm fine. But so trying to come up with a unique show every week can be a bit challenging. So I'm always on the... Always on the lookout. For something that's going to give us a theme to run through. And uh this one I'm gonna uh

cobbled together uh by stealing from our good friend Anthony Peters. Nice. Now if I had access to my computers, I could quote him word for word, but I can't You start and I'll pull it up. Go ahead. Yeah. About what got done or what k so you with me, right? Mm-hmm. And so Anthony. Does this um because he likes it, which is why we do it. So What I really like about his work is he's a very, very bright man with a good knowledge of history. And you get

Like with us, I think. You get sort of the the unfiltered truth because he's not taking money for his work, right? And if uh if you'd like uh to subscribe, send us a note and we'll see if we can hook you up. It's not for everyone. It's not a snob thing. It's just the UK has different copyright rules and so every person has to be vetted in some Sort, so uh

But I I I read it pretty much every day. Every day. He's had good ones. He's been on one lately. He's been on a tear. It must be the uh it must be the seasons up there in London. He's got more time up there in the Cotswolds to uh'cause he's been cranking out. Just like legit, voluminous, great reads, which has been really helpful for us. So you're on in the States on. On slow news week and breast of Europe.

It's nibbles, right? You're not getting twenty pages of pontificating nonsense like the Gave Cal creeps. Correct, correct. Not need to hear about how this compares to the French Civil War. Yada, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, comparing the price of gold to crude oil four hundred years ago. Okay, that's great. You know, anything longer than forty days, as you can tell, I don't remember anyway. So

But anyway, Anthony mentioned how there was this meeting, I think it was in Davos, and how nothing interesting came out of it. And it it hit me because It's this theme I've felt strongly about for a long time, which is We're really su suffering from this tremendous lack of leadership. So what's the most I'll answer my own question so we get the right answer. What was the most noteworthy thing that came out of Dov Davos this last cycle?

It was the fact they couldn't get enough prostitutes up there. I do remember that. Okay. Right. Okay. So here we are, you know. Oh gee, barking at the snowflakes, snowflakes, how you don't know how tough it is, yada yada. Meanwhile, you got a bunch of gray haired guys. Banging whores for a couple of Yeah, I know. Lining up the private jet. Lining up lining up four hundred private jets to talk about uh to talk about climate climate change. Yeah, that's the it's fantastic. It's pressing.

I mean look who would right it's like it's all fun until somebody comes out and I can I stop can I interrupt you and I apologize can I apologize to Anthony but I was so excited this week that I was on I I admit, I was scrolling Instagram, all right, and I got a clip showed to me Of a of a learjet.

About to get de-iced, dude. Okay. So the alg the algorithm has dialed it in so perfectly. So it said, Liam, this video for you. And it's like, whatever. It's it's a it's a brand new, beautiful leer, and it's cover, it has like 12 inches of snow. It must have dumped snow and not been in the hangar and they're rolling it onto the tarmac and they talked about the cost and it was like it'll be fifty K to de- ice this plane and it'll take

this long and there was six thousand comments about why, how, with what the cost, why didn't they park it in the hangar? It was great. Because the hangers get full, like the horse. I the hangers are full unless you got uh the the hangers are never full, right? You could always get your plane inside for a number, okay? R that's what you taught. That that that you you listened well, grasshopper. So just to put in perspective, for anyone out there who's like a green earther.

There's nothing worse than de-icing stuff, I'm telling ya. First of all, it's fifty bucks a gallon. Not that it's some vicious chemical. Oh yeah, well it yeah, exactly. And it it perks into the groundwater and To de ice a whole plane. Okay. I don't know. Thousands of gallons of a ship. Quarter million bucks probably to do a commercial jet, right? I cannot imagine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why anyone living New Westchester County airport, you don't

Bottled water. Okay. I I mean I know it it sounds kind of an asshole asshole of comment, but yeah, you don't want to live near fucking airport. No. I mean In incredible. I was just so excited that the that I they got I got a de icing clip and it was just like everything for me on a silver platter.

It was I was just so excited. I was so dismayed that like technology has done has crept into my life. But at the same time, I was thrilled because it was the first time I got beautiful plane, beautiful, it looked like aspen. Something like gorgeous jet and it was just it was perfect. Okay. And I was like I was I was ahead of all six every six Every one of the six thousand comments I already knew the answer to on the cost and the chemicals and the and the alternatives and the oh

This is great. Full service podcast, okay? I really want to thank you. So anyone out that's anyone that's been listening knows how excited MB gets. We've talked about de-icing the plane, all right? So anyone somebody if you're sitting around today on the weekend, go on Instagram and just type in D icing, you can watch the clip, it's fantastic. All right. And you now you'll be in the no thanks to Ibwok. Okay. So if you really want to get the pro tip.

Uh I have we have a friend who's gonna be doing the Leadville um 100 run. Which I there's some debate, but that's definitely harder than than the bike. But regardless of which is harder, it's both an epic struggle against good and evil, right? The evil evil of of Columbine. Yep. Yep. Kind of thing. I was trying to explain what it's like to someone to make that left hand turn.

When you get the first glimpse of Columbine and your heart just fucking is in your throat and you're like, You gotta be fucking kidding me. It's like it being at the base of a ski mountain and not having a lip. Yeah, it's ba it's uh it's what it is. It's no lift. If you get to the bottom and if you've ever been to a big mountain like Breckenridge or something where you're like, Whoa, I'm gonna be on the lift for for six minutes and I can't see the top.

That's what Columbine is. You're gonna do it on a bike, buddy. He'll talk about when he was skiing how he'd strap the skis to his back. And there's um out in Vermont. It's not Killington. It's uh Tuckerman's Ravine probably. Tuckerman's Ravine. Yeah, that's Mount Washington, dude. That's up Mount. That's crazy. It's he would speed down that, but Of course he did. Of course he's done Tuckerman's. Two people died last year'cause too many idiots do it, you know?

I trust E.G. doing it. Dude, I went to the Mount Cosh the Mount Washington Cog Railway. I brought the kids up to the Mount Coshington Mount Washington Cog Railway. Yeah, dude, it's like six thousand feet. You go up and it's like 30 below, winds blowing sideways. Yeah, I'll e leave it to EJ. I'll I'll ski down that. He could talk he could sell ice to Eskimo. He got me to get on that the the tram going up to the top of of um Jackson Hole or something. Jackson Hole.

And they start cranking the who we want to know. I'm just watching this thing go up and up and up and like We need a bigger boat, right? Yeah. All right. Go back to go back to Anthony. I I apologize to Anthony. I but the de i the de icing thing was good. Go back. I'm sorry. That's okay. So he

Brought up this question of like what's with the leadership? And you know. It kind of really it really resonated with me because at first, you know, we've got a number of young people who listen to the show, and we've communicated with some of them. And, you know, for that generation. It's tough. You know, getting jobs are tough. Uh houses are expensive. Who's the American male role model?

That's a great fucking question. Because I asked Cheryl this, okay, knower of all things. I said, tell me what are you gonna talk about? She says, what are you gonna talk about? I'm gonna talk about leadership. She goes, oh, great. Don't listen. I said, well tell me, name one good leader today. Okay. Now are you sitting down? Vladimir Putin. She's not wrong. Well, based on her criteria, you know, he he's a leader.

And you know, there's yeah, now she'll admit that he's a malevolent Oh right, right. No, I understand her position. So what about a guy in China? The guy in China? Z uh G There's something about those Chinese. Okay. Oh I know okay, so go ahead. You proceed. Go ahead. So uh you know I'm scratching my head thinking about

You know, who's a leader? And I I'm having trouble coming up with anybody. So for whatever reason, I think about The 30-year-old analyst who's either at a hedge fund or working at you know one of the big banks, working 70 hour week. Everyone bitching at him about quit complaining, you don't know how hard it used to be. And then you get that fucking bozo or Goldman, DJ Sal. Now what kind of leader are you barking at these kids?

Yeah, you're paying a lot of money. They're there till two in the morning, three in the morning. Have you read about some of these pitch books? Like kids will be working for 30 hours on a pitch book. And the partner will like X out huge pages and go, I don't like that color green. I I have no sympathy for the Goldman analyst. None. No, I I reject that argument. Well they get they get

Sucked into this foam mode deal. It's Goldman Sachs. They're working at Goldman Sachs. I will not hear a complaint. Go work somewhere else. Okay. Right, right, am I right? You're well it's ten guy there's ten kids behind you ready to take your job. There's no complaining about the workload of Goldman Sachs. And if your pitch and if your pitch book gets thrown out, do better next time and it won't get torn apart.

So to augment what you just said, I get a lot of younger people telling me they want to be in the business. And the first thing I ask him is, are you doing it for the money? And if they say yes, is it is wrong business for you. Yeah. Like, what? Yeah. Like, trust me, to get the money you think you're gonna get, you're signing a deal with the devil. And the devil is that the guy spinning records. Because he doesn't give a rat's ass about your mental health, about your physical health.

He's just worried about hidden earnings and but like you said, it's America. Still, contrary to a lot of people who who've now threatened to move since Trump won. Yeah, I know, please. Um can I say one thing about that? Working for a guy like DJ D. Soft? That that you think it's if even that's at the topic, Goldman Sachs.

My buddy on the fire department on the FDNY, all right, he's got two years till he retires, and we were having a conversation, and he said something about no matter how much you love the job, the job will never love you. And that's the and that's the fire department of New York, which is like w guys dreams to work there. Anyone wants to work in and go and those guys love the job. They love that job. They love the firehouse.

Those guys work for 45 years. They don't retire. They work there forever and they love it. Okay. But he like uh he hurt his knee getting off a rig. And now he's going through the bureaucratic bullshit and trying to get a disability'cause he he'll he'll never go to a fire again. And now he's on the the cold side of the department, all right, where he's dealing with doctors and And and it and it hurts him and it and it bothers me, you know. And he said he was like

No matter how much you love the job, the job will never love you back. And that's the fire department, dude. That is the FDNY. The guys love the job. Guys at Goldman Sachs, they might like working at Goldman. Nobody loves Goldman. Nobody adores. Nobody dreamed of work at Goldman as a kid, you know? But at the end of the day, when you're you could it might take you to be f he's 42, okay? So he's he's young. It's not like he's 58.

But you if you don't realize that until you're 42, you r need to realize that at 20, 25, and 30 at the latest, that no matter how much you love it, it's never gonna love you back.

I may mention this last week, but I was reading something about Seth Klarman. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then he turned the offer down. He's like, I looked at people who work there. I'm like, they were all miserable. Yeah. It's no good. You know, I the advantage for me was this is uh what I wanted to do since the day I heard about you can make a living.

Without relying on anybody else. You do your own research, you figure out which stocks gonna in my case, I I say stocks, but we know that's not not one. But yeah, it it was like This is great because my father would come home from work. You know, the weather was too bad, nobody went shopping. The weather was too nice, nobody went shopping. It was a hot holiday, you know, we got robbed. Marshall had sales. I remember, yep.

raise on detrif for you know the difficulty and I just I want to take as much ownership of my own future as possible. Um But you know, the job has its costs. There are a lot of long nights. There are family events. I fortunately I didn't miss too many, but you know, there's no way around it. Um

But uh um I loved what I was doing. It was intellectually stimulating. Um and uh I seemed to have a knack for it. But You know, we're talking about leadership right now and I wanna make a point of this and I uh and I know I'm stuck on something but I I gotta really get it through'cause My brother was here for Thanksgiving, and he and I are like-minded on this thing. But we were going back, and he had, Mark had mentioned this long before anybody had heard of the guy.

Barack Obama was a politician in South Side of Chicago, and he said MB, this guy is a bad guy. He he goes to all these churches where they're spouting all this hate and And that was the first time I heard of him. Then he ended up becoming president. I claim he's the worst president ever. And people, uh, maybe I get canceled for this. But the reason to me he's the worst president ever was he's black.

He was elected president, which by the way, I thought was a great thing for America. Like we did it, right? Yeah, totally. Everyone felt the same way, I think. Yeah. And then he's not out of office. The year. His wife, who is quoted as saying, My parents always told me not to trust people who took more than they gave. Out doing the book cour tour. He's got mansions and

You just it's like use some sense, dude. Go buy something in Chicago. Go back to Chicago and work for Chicago. It seems simple. Yeah. Jimmy Carter went back to Georgia and lived on his peanut farm and and built houses for Whatever. You Jimmy Carter was banging nails at eighty nine years old with his neckerchief on. doing the Lord's work and nobody cared. Nobody ever had nobody cared about Jimmy Carter doing that. Jimmy Carter never got rich.

Jimmy Carter never got famous, but my I I was born in nineteen eighty one and I can just remember Jimmy Carter old man banging nails on Sundays doing Habitat for Humanity and that's a former present. So you want to compare

President to president in their former lives, what did they do after what did Bubba do? Bubba didn't do much. All right. The Bushes, we don't care about them. What did Reagan do? Nothing. But like Jimmy Carter, if I go back in my memory, you asked me for like what was a president if you wanted a model citizen and a model leader? And you want to see somebody that did something after office is Jimmy Carter, uh you know? That was easy, it's an easy

being a pedophile. Bubba was losing s yeah, I know, please. Bubba, please. I I'm sorry, I I just can't help it. I the second hear their names again if I never had to hear them them or uh him.

Let's move forward with our leader. Let's g I wanna I wanna nail this down. Hillary Radham Clinton? No, okay, no. Please don't she can't control her own husband. I know. So Melinda Gates gets a whiff of Bill. Bill Gates is Bill Gates a leader? I don't No. It's a hard no, dude. Nobody's running through a wall for Bill Gates. Nobody's going to bat for Bill Gates, okay?

Oh. What about the who's the American real who's the if you had a son and you were like, look, that's that's somebody you want to be like, who's your American role model?

I I don't have anything tough call, you know. You go you're gonna you you you can't do a an athlete. We're not doing an athlete, you're not gonna do a musician, you're gonna do you're gonna do a businessman, are you gonna do a teacher, are you gonna do you're not gonna do a politician like an a a mil you don't have a military guy, if uh may you don't have an astronaut, do you have a navy admiral?

Um, you know, like w what are we doing with this? Like where where is the American where's the John Wayne?'Cause like w when you guys you know, you guys had a John Wayne and it was different then, but like I you know, was that the American mold? Did they see this recently? I don't look at social media, so I'm not sure. I think it must have been the the the whole truth. Apparently. Somebody got a newspaper clipping of something John Lane said right before he died.

Yeah, okay. And it wasn't great. Let me grant it. It wasn't great. Yeah. But they're going up on the guy that, you know, has been dead for eighty years and said something eighty years before that. I know, I know. Um, no, I I really don't have an answer. I don't like and that's and I don't know what like the global I think in Russia the kids the Russians are like, Oh, Lord Putin if you wanna compare like what's a Russian kid looking up to? He's like

Oh, Mother Russia, you know? Um, or American kids American kids are you you know what? I think it's scary, but like I I think a lot of little boys

And like middle school to young high school kids like Trump, dude. He's got uh he has a segment. No, I mean he has a dance. Yes, of course I do, dude. He did not know that. He's got that of course. D he's a character, dude. He's a character. I talk took a lot of heat at Thanksgiving dinner because I'm like, look. Take the I'm taking the politics out of this, but I gotta tell you something.

The guy's fucking incredible. He gets shot at, misses getting his brains blown out by a couple of centimeters, and he's up giving the pumping fist pump. The whole it's like you can't make this stuff up. You really can't dude. It is too good. It is too good. It has it it's put Saturday Night Live out of business and I apologize to Saturday Night Live, but we don't do any more'cause we've got a clip every day. Of s of either him saying something hilarious.

You said she's not my type. He's like, yeah, I didn't find her physically attractive. For instance, you're not my type. Like you, for example. I thought I was pretty Open mouth about That one is just it's it's a game ender, right? How do you It it's so real too. It's not an act, dude. He was not acting, dude. That was an illegal deposition to an attorney, okay? That was in a deposition, not an interview. That was a legal depot. an a to an opposition attorney. There's there's an element in there.

God help me, but he's a little bit my hero. It's hilarious, dude. Anything at any time. Let me send you. I will send you the 90-minute clip of him batting reporters as if they are children, where he's like, don't talk to me like that. I'm the president of the United States. Or he'll be like, Oh, you always ask terrible questions, another terrible qu dude, he is just vicious and it it's it's comical. And they splice together like a ninety minute clip of his all time greatest hits.

It's we're into that cocktail party bullshit theme that I keep talking about right now. It totally is, dude. Uh but I wanna get back to this. Let me like if I had to tell like dude, I I know I fanboy him a lot and and I and it's like become a joke almost.

But Jamie Diamond, I know I'm not gonna tell my kid, oh, you're gonna be like Jamie Diamond, but like that dude is pretty much if I okay how about this if I had to send a representative of America to some global meeting where I had to send uh our my most serious individual in the country to handle what's best for America. If the meeting was on the fucking moon and it's Putin, Kim Jong-un, pick everybody else in there, I'm sending Jamie fucking diamond. Period. Stop. What about um

Nancy. Yeah. Nancy's. No, no. Can I be can you be serious? Because I'm gonna send Jamie Diamond and then I don't look I I get it. I get it. I I I I just That's why I brought it up. Who do you think is supposed to be a role model? I mean LeBron James. Like who's the number one who has the most visibility? Who's the most visible American male? It's probably like LeBron James, Tom Brady. You and I had a bit of an on screen. disagreement the the denizens of this podcast will remember.

You you brought up Charles Parkley. Oh, my favorite. He was he was going on about, hey, I'm not a role model. And he was right. Okay, well I take the other side of that, Jane, you ignorant slut. Um he's a wealthy black guy. He has visibility, he is a he has an audience. Um I mean, maybe I'm racist to think just'cause one person's black that they're gonna relate to another person. But you know, I got a bunch of listeners that only listen'cause I'm Jewish. I'm not going to turn them away.

Baruch Hashem. Um yeah. I don't think Charles had an obligation. I don't think I don't think he I I don't think he did. And I think I applaud him and I applaud him for taking that stance and telling kids I'm not a role model. I'm just a basketball player. I'm not he was like I really think that and when I was a kid and I was a kid when that happened.

And I think I was like, and that was cool. And I th I was like, yeah, he's right. I was old enough, like I I didn't worship athletes, but like Charles like I remember that I think it might have even been a Nike ad. It might have been a Nike advertisement. But him coming out and being like, I'm not a role model, like reinforced what my parents had said. And I was like, all right, well, if Chuck's gonna say it, man, my mom and dad said it, then he like don't uh don't worship athletes.

Yeah, I really like that. And I always liked Charles. Um I know I got a I'm a I'm a Charles fanboy, so I'm gonna defend him. Um I think and I think that was a big if you look back, I think that was a huge Huge move and the right move for Charles. because he now

Today, I bet that happened in nineteen eighty-four. We're here twenty twenty-four, forty years later, and he's getting paid more today than you and me put together and most of the big athletes. Okay. And we get paid a lot. All right. I mean, we're not making OnlyFans money. But Charles is pulling down a big check from TNT. And like I said, when I made he kept that broadcast going'cause he wanted s to support the staff. And I don't think and I think going back in hindsight, that's set him apart

from other guys where he said, I'm not a role model. I'm but I'm an athlete. And I, you know, he went on to be an Olympian. Um and uh and he'll be a hall of fame, hall of fame broadcast. Okay. He's a better broadcaster. He's better on a microphone than he is as an athlete. So as like a fellow guy behind a microphone and l and like dude, I like listening to Charles.

Okay. I love listening to Charles. He's entertaining. Um, so I will not have you badmouth Charles Barkley on my show. Okay, well I I I withdraw my question, Your Honor. Um you had uh sent me

A pre-show note a couple of weeks ago. You wanted to talk about Bitcoin. And uh I bring it up. Michael Saylor is a leader. I was gonna say it I I didn't I look I wasn't gonna bring it up, but you brought it up. But when you mentioned the leaders, Dude, he is the Jesus. All right, here we go, folks. I've I'm gonna con I'm gonna play heal now, all right? Sailor is the Jesus. He is Bitcoin Jesus. Like it or not. Bitcoin nerds might argue with me.

that he is not the Bitcoin Jesus, but I think he he is the tip of the spear for that movement and he has drummed up the publicity and dude he ha okay, he's not a leader. It's a cult figure. Okay, so what's the difference between a cult figure and a leader? It's like the fanatical. What what what do you you know? He's a cult leader and Elon's a cult leader, but like the Bitcoin thing.

Sailor, um look, I would've argued with you if it broke a hundred K, but I don't want to talk about Well I I I'm not here to argue. I'm here to provide contrition. Oh, oh. Wait a so proceed. Let me whip myself and then you can jump in. Let me let me shut my microphone off. So I got a uh email from a man.

Who because of my technology difficulty, I can't read the fucking email. Mm-hmm. That's awesome. But basically, I'll I'll paraphrase. Um It's a man with a wife and a child trapped in Eastern Europe and they had twenty or thirty thousand dollars of savings and they wanted to flee the country. And so they loaded up the money into crypto and the wife.

took off with all the passwords and the husband and the their child was going to join them at some point. And you know, I was looking at that. Let me read it. I'll read it quick. I'll read it quick. I am from

X country and not a and not a crypto fan at all. Since the start of the war on twenty two, as a male between eighteen and sixty, I'm not allowed to leave the country. On the twenty-second of February, no one knew what would happen in a day, not mention not not even mentioning what would happen in the The logical decision was to send wife and son abroad with all the funds that we have so they could live there as long as possible.

Trying to be calm and not notice tears on the wife's end and the kids faces as I'm s trying to equip her with logins, passwords and what can be deemed as liquid acid. What are options for a woman with a kid to cross the border alongside a wife's friend who's also leaving a kid with a six and a ten? Cash, US dollar, 10K max, no guarantee, won't be stolen.

You can't send your wife and kid with ten K cash. Gold, forget it. Maybe a couple ounces, but maybe more will be found. And it's hard to turn into gold just isn't practical. That was the moment when I realized the use of Bitcoin. Couple of clicks, she had it on her wallet, secret phrase remembered, program erased from the phone, she goes. Later, she told me that she was sitting on a bag in a train in Budapest, and she was a war, and she was worried about everything but her big

She used it, she crossed multiple borders, Hungary, et cetera. When the question is taking along, multiple conflicts and wars, this gives Bitcoin some use case. I don't mentor he's not he doesn't he says I don't care about hyperinflation. Blah blah blah blah blah. But he you and I talked about it and that note came in the day after from a guy over there in the front lines of a war ravaged East Europe and a lap of luxury.

And bitch about the thing. When he said, My wife is sitting on a bag in a train station in Budapest. And the only thing that she was worried about, the only thing she was not worried about was the money. The money was safe. So I want to apologize. I I mean I felt like a creep because, you know, I saw something and I got caught up with the um

Illegal uses of it. This is my nature. Um, I didn't put it into practical use. Um maybe being Jewish uh should have resonated more with me. And you know, I could have left it alone, but no, I had to get on my soapbox and and and so I when I read that I I mean I don't cry because I'm a man, but I otherwise I I would have been in tears. And you know.

There's no there's no solution. You know, I remember on a podcast saying, you know, like being Jewish, where do I go? And then I got schooled by someone talking about people and um You know, the Middle East. Yeah, it sucks. There was his basketball announcer. named Don Cricky. Yeah. He said a couple of things. One of them got him fired. Um, but the thing he said that I remembered the most was, if you think you have it tough, read history.

And you read about what people have been through and all of a sudden, you know, you look at a lot of what's going on around the world with the conspicuous consumption. Yeah, I I don't know. We have a a friend. Maybe a little bit north of a friend, or I guess it'd be south of a friend and acquaintance. And I got a call and it's like, oh, you know, my wife, she just bought a yellow Lamborghini.

And and so this is this passive aggressive wealth signaling. Like, you know, I my wife can go and do whatever she wants. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And uh That would not be my car of choice. I I don't know. Um but uh you know that's that's where we're living right now and that's what's pushing these kids work the zillion hour weeks at Goldman Sachs. It's FOMO. It's the fear of missing out. And Um you know it's easy when you get older.

And you've achieved freedom from material wants and needs, meaning food, shelter, healthcare, to talk about. Valuing your free time and taking the high road and when you're not constrained. And that's an example of this fellow with the crypto.

You know, would it have changed my life to just shut up about it? No. I mean, that's not why people people pay hundreds of dollars every month to listen to us, but um You know, maybe may uh maybe there's a place in some form that allows people to. Transfer wealth. The the problem is you you have laws. And Uncle Mark had a great comment the other day. Go ahead. I was just gonna say he made a comment. Rules without consequences are just suggestions.

That's what I was gonna say. I was like w I was like who's following these laws? And I'm using air quotes. I'm gonna use the air quotes. Okay. I've made oh let me tell let me I'll I'm gonna divulge a little a little secret. Okay. Every morning on my commute, I need to make a left turn to get on to 95.

I got a red arrow there. All right. It's a red arrow. All right. Nobody's there at 6 30 in the morning. Okay. I don't need to sit at the red arrow for two minutes. Okay. So I treat the red arrow like a Okay. And sometimes a car behind me, all right, and I'm sure that guy is a gap.

that this fellow citizen doesn't follow basic rules of the road, okay? But however, in in some places do you get a blinking red hour? I treat it like a blinking red. So every morning on my commute, I violate a traffic law All right. But that that is accretive, okay, and that's snowballs. And I feel that I am prepa I am increasing the likelihood of the guy behind me not following similar rules and then wearing The point I'm trying to make, right, with the leadership.

And so you're yelling at these younger kids being snowflakes, yet You know, where where are people manning up and doing the right thing and and you don't you don't see it. It's like you talk about the fanboy worship, think of Lance Armstrong. Yeah. How big a con was that? I mean great great leader though. Still still a great leader. I would run through a wall.

Okay. Good leader. I would like I would I might I might send him in the American delegate on on my on my group to the moon. Might be Jamie and Lance. Right. I trust the two of them. Maybe Nate Fick can tag along just for balance, okay?

Yeah. Well, with Lance, it's um it's there's a Latin phrase. I I'll give you the English translation'cause well you probably learned a lot of Latin in in uh Oh, please. No, I didn't. I was in the 80s. I think it's Kui Bene. It's who benefits. Yeah, yeah. Basically follow the money. Yeah, of course. Of course. But yeah, I would like the listeners to send in your who's the American leader? Amer uh inside baseball cap.

Gmail. And you can go around the world and and and Cheryl Cheryl makes a good point. Um And I couldn't name you the leader in Japan, I couldn't name you the leader in South Korea, I couldn't name you uh is uh embarrassing it is to say, I'm gonna go around the global room here. The Italian prime minister

People feel uh people have feelings about her, and it seems like she is no yeah, she has no nonsense, and I think she's got a little bit of gravitas and some support behind her. Um but like who else? Like and like who who's running Germany? G uh, Angela Merkel, is she still running Germany? Is McCro is McCrone a leader? Is anyone running through the wall for the little guy? I don't think so.

Or or Gavin Newsome is like are we gonna I'm going through my list here, like Gavin Newsom, does anyone care? Like that's not a leader. I'm stopped. But the point I want to make is you got a whole country, right? And you look at let's I pick on Nancy Pelosi just because I think it's it's It's an overt and hostile act on her part. This would be an interesting exercise if summarily they went through every public official. Source of income for the last twenty five years.

And you treat it like a balance sheet. So you look at what you have today and you started zero. How did you get where you're at? Please. Um special interest. You know, I'm I'm a little naive in the ways of corruption, even though I'm from Chicago. Let me tell you, your people are right in the chat.

Nancy's getting a check from you guys. Ever Nancy's getting a check from a lot of people through somebody else. But the special interest groups, it's special interest, dude. Everybody's getting a check. Everybody's gotta get a get paid. Yeah, and and I was having a little trouble figuring out how it worked and then Um, life coach listener Leslie Leslie Harris explained it to me. So um there's a building on Sixth Avenue, 666, Sixth Avenue, which is a was a total horror show. For the honors.

Who were the Kushners? I think. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So all of a sudden. word on the street was a bunch of Arab interests sublet the building. So it's a seemingly arms-legged transaction, but the accretive change in value is enormous. And then you just build upon that model, and all of a sudden you can see. where people are talking about the conspiracy between Putin and um

Trump. Now I I I don't want to have this debate with people so I'll just give my opinion. But When they talk about the wealthiest person in the world, to me it's undisputably Vladimir Putin because of the vast size of Russia. The mineral resources are worth, even though, did you see last week? I didn't realize China found. I don't know. Eighty billion. Eighty billion. Yeah, now get a goal.

eighty billi yeah, they got a a a gold patch the size of Rhode Island underground, okay? Yeah. I saw that. I didn't want to I didn't want to spend it to you. I didn't want to send it to you'cause I was like, come on. I was like, if is it if it's true? Great. If it's not even funnier. One of my kids uh comes out and says they found this huge chunk of gold. Okay. And she's like, but the the price went up.

But I had explained to her that the week before gold had the single biggest down bay in a couple of years. And that was probably when the gold Yeah. And she reminded me she sold it at one thirty five or something, way way beyond uh what uh Old chess not dead, but uh so Oh dude, I'm just reading the six six six six Avenue story. This is a fun story. You want to open?

No, just uh I mean it's pretty cut and dry. It's exactly what you said. He was the building was hemorrhaging money, so he you know, he needed to get a deal done. He got a Chinese buyer, shady Russian guy in the background, and uh away we go.

All right. I wanna if I can find it,'cause I've got my notes are all for cocktail. Yeah, Vornado was involved, of course. I should call Putin. I got an office building. Maybe I make him nice deal. So um I'm I'm really embarrassed that I I don't have my stuff more organized. Well you can thank the big brothers and big sisters of Chicago. Um Um, but they're it's a good cause. It's a good cause. So um the The two year note yields was like

Four something, four, two, four, three. Yeah. Four two four three. And the yield curves a little over a hundred basis points. Okay. What struck me as unusual was The minutes came out and there was some talk about them not needing to ease aggressively. No rush, right? No rush? No rush. Right. Okay. So instead of A huge steepening. We got a very modest steepening. And I think it would indicated to me with that is that. The bulk of the steepening positions were speculative because they didn't

the the real sellers of the long end didn't panic and come in and start buying. So it's merely spec positions. And um You know, as we head to the upcoming Fed meeting. It's a good time to be cautious, and I guess we always say that, but you know, to back up. You wanted to talk about that uh Um synapse? Yeah. No, I did not want to talk about that. You did, but I want to talk about the bonds. Let's go. Okay. Well, I just I'm having a hard time figuring out which way the economy's going.

And I'll tell you, Doc Dr. Torsten Slock chimed in this morning. Again, good job, Doc Slock, okay? Inflation inflation is low, but living costs are high. Th thanks, Doc Slock. That's you're really breaking news this morning. No offense.

You you you reeled me in with the headline. So I'm out here I am. The CPI index is twenty-two percent higher in January of twenty twenty. Where where are you gonna go look for the economy? You're gonna go look at mortgage rates? Mortgage rates are through the roof. You're gonna look at like holiday sales, you're gonna look at inventory, you're gonna look at retail sales numbers. Where are you gonna dig around? Um I just have a way of meandering through the software data.

You care about the gas price. The gas price is is thr is fumeting, dude. They gas has never been this low. Um I could drive to Florida tomorrow for like a hundred and twenty bucks. It's bananas. It's like two two eighty nine. Yeah, it's cr gas is cheap. Gas is cheap and going down.

So that to me is is a is a surprise. So I don't uh anyone that had the Joe Biden like uh look at that gas price thing, okay, well that's false because he brought it's down at at two eighty nine when I can remember it being at four for whatever the fuck. So gas is low. Um, I don't know, you're gonna look at retail spends, you're gonna look at jobs data, all that stuff is murky. Um

And it's been and the economy has shifted from buying goods and doing things to experiences and travels, which has been at all time highs. Like the travel is gonna be bananas over the holidays. FAO I went to FAL Schwartz, I d I did back to back Manhattan. I w I took the kids to FAL Schwartz last night, um, which was a giant mistake and if they

Crowded and expensive. Put four hundred people in the elevator in an elevator, drop a shit toy on the floor, and turn the heat up to a hundred and ten degrees. And that's FAO Schwartz. It's mine. Okay. Because I had this fabulous memory and going there as a youth with my father into the cavernous warehouse of Plus. quality, expensive toys and roaming aimlessly for an hour

And it was like, dude, it was the worst experience I've ever it was like the subway kids are overstimulated. Uh no, the kids are I I handled it. Uh you know, I I manage it well, but it was it was junk shit toys. Packed to the guild and I swear they lost office. They must have lost space. They lost square footage, it's not my memory line.

But they must have gone from a million square foot down to four hundred thousand and shooting. Well they they went bankrupt. Exactly, exactly. They're fucking sly. All right, so let me take this minute. You guys are slobs, all right. You uh you're selling shit toys, all right. Your window decorations were half assed.

and you do a terrible job of of managing the store, it's no wonder you went out of bank you went out of business. All right, bad job, Fortune. I'll bash you again every week until Christmas if I have time. But I don't have time for that now. I wanna talk about the economy. So if you judge it by like the city, the city rips. The the restaurants are full, the tourism is booming. But like the American economy, I don't know, you gotta you wanna ask a a farmer

Here's an idea. Okay. I was reading about some guy who won like 90 million bucks betting on Trump. Yeah, the polymarket. What he did was a new type of sampling. Where he didn't ask people who they were gonna vote for. He asked people who he thought their friends were gonna vote for. Neighbor pole. The neighbor poll. Okay. So I'm thinking the best way

to figure out which way the economy is going is use something like that. So there's that old joke about recession is when um your neighbor's out of work and a depression is when you're out of work. I think you know, all politics is local. Everything starts at home. So if you're finding it tough and you're telling your buddies it's tough, that's a pretty good small sample. And with with things like the um central limit theorem.

This is from the guy who can't remember how many grandchildren he has. But if you can use things like the central limit theorem, which allows you to take smaller samples. but expand them to large groups. I think you can come to a lot of conclusions. So There's just something about a four percent to your note in times of uncertainty that I feel really good about. Um You know, the things like the commercial real estate market, which has been the poster child for badness.

You know, things seem to be Stabilizing there. Never really collapsed, dude. There was never They put a dent in it, but there was people that swooped in and and will buy that stuff. That it was basically a giant sale for a lot of buildings. And yeah, if you're stuck with a C class that you can't convert, you're gonna struggle for a while, but

You knew that getting into it, you know. If you have a triple A, then why it was so cheap. Yeah, yeah. You know, so um one little thought came to mind that'll be of virtually no value to anyone, but um back

When I was uh compass mentis and used to trade, do you get the book of positions of different securities? It would not be uncommon for me or one of my colleagues to have. 40 different positions. And there's a lot of bonds, and a lot of them aren't all that actively traded, meaning, you know, they're not that liquid. So, how you buy and sell them has a big impact on the outcome of your of your position.

So I'd get stuck with a position that I didn't want and it wasn't very liquid. So the price wasn't very good. So you would do this thing called legging a trade. You would get out of half. You'd try and guess which way the market was gonna go. So if you thought the market was gonna go up. You'd buy in the short, you wait for the market to go up and you'd sell your long and hopefully you were right, right?

But you're not always right. So now you're stuck with two bad positions. The one you want to get out of and you're the wrong way in the market. So what I concluded, this is not Nobel Prize-winning stuff, but this saved me a lot of money, was if you're going to leg out of a trade. You leg out of the illiquid side first. The reason being if you make a mistake and you decide enough's enough, you can get out of the liquid side and limit your loss.

I typically got out of the liquid side'cause that was the easy side. When you're wrong, all of a sudden you're grabbing for shit. And if you got a million, it was just air. Yeah. A million and then there wasn't an offer. And then like, why the you just make it worse? It's just so anyway.

I didn't want that philosophy lost to history. Understood. And by the way, I I while we were talking, my phone went off and it was a call from my sister. So I can't imagine she's started listening to podcast already. So I'm blaming you. Boys and Girls Club. What is it? The Boys and Girls of Where is it? Um Milwaukee? Kal Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kalamazoo, Michigan. I'm all over the place. So let's get it right. Boys and girls of Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo. These are more things I can't remember, okay?

Well, I don't know. I'm getting the red light. All right. See you later. It's been fun. Dude, people people liked people liked uh Cheryl showing up and and and voicing her opinion. It was a nice guest. She liked it too. I need to thank I need to thank Ngamba because I dude I thought I I'm not kidding. I thought you were joking about your friend. Pronounce his name correctly for me? Zhao. Zhao. Zhao. Yeah. Jao The nicest man you're ever gonna meet. He sends me dude send me a full

Head to toe, I'm talking gloves, socks, hat in gamba kit, okay? Shows up from Portugal. All right, so I get the overseas kit. All right, so In Gamba Tours, as previously mentioned, In Gamba, I-N Capital G A M B A, In Gamba Tours, okay, is now the official sponsor of it. I've gone I've gone five times. Oh you have not. Where did you go? Italy. I took Cheryl and Lisa. No, you dude. Dude, it's sick. It's it's fucking sick. You ride with Tour de France pros. You're riding brand new$30,000 bicycle.

You're eating Italian food. You're drinking wine that came from a vineyard a hundred yards from where you're sleeping. So th uh there's a picture. Of Cheryl sitting next to Lorenz Tandam. Yeah he's such a good dude. Dude. But talk about two people sitting next to each other who absolutely no comprehension of each other's existence. Dude, I think there is a all time classic photo of him with his

Face mangled, riding Latour. Okay. Yeah. Lawrence Temdan. Dude, he's an amazing dude, an amazing cyclist, but he's like a total bro. But to ride in gamba with him, okay So he's sitting next to Cheryl and he's talking about, you know, he's he's tired, he's hungry. So she looks and just don't ride your bike so much. Like she doesn't care. If that's what you're gonna do? Then Oh

That's so perfect. That is so per perfect. Uh you know, I don't I don't like Hawk and stuff. I do. I'm I'm I don't care about it's my show. It's in Gamba Tours, okay. Next year next year we're going to Introduce a new line of cats' nails. No, dude, and I got a b and I also got a nice note from someone associated with Bass Pro Shops. Okay. I didn't send it to you. I was so excited. I sent it to everyone, my mother, my father, everyone. I got a note that was like they were like look

Uh I'm a longtime listener, first time emailer. I just so happen to be close family friends with Morris Sacks, who owns Bass Pro Shops, okay? No, it's not more the guy's name, like Joe Smith or whatever. He's like, I'm friends with Joe Smith who owns Bass Pro. He goes, I just don't know if Morris's language would align with the family values of Bass Pro Shop.

Fair enough. The outdoor world. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was dude, it was it just it's it's amazing. It's a small world. And I really I I dude, I have guys I gotta send hats to. Send me dude, all right, how about this? Send me an email and your address. I got a stack of hats that I want to get rid of for Christmas and I wanna put'em out on the streets. Inside baseball cast a gmail. I got a guy that I I owe I got two hats that I know I owe.

that I'm gonna go through the email and I'm gonna send you but send me an email inside baseball cast at Gmail. I'm in a very giving mood. Um we're gonna send these hats out for the uh 'Cause I'cause it was so nice to receive the in gamba stuff. I know it's not equal if you're gonna get an inside baseball hat, but send me some emails and I'll send out some merch. You know, there's bragging, right?

It was dude. Just getting the package and seeing Portugal and like do they send you the special package all wrapped in like a whole newspaper with I mean it's a fucking home run. Yeah, I know, exactly. It's so like but I can't wear it because now I'm gonna go out on a ride and people are gonna be, oh you didn't get no, I just got the kit in the mail. Or the answer is they they sponsor my show. I I as you you know, they sponsor my show. I am sponsored by

Okay. I am a brand ambassador. I think that's what the nerds call it nowadays. They call it a brand ambassador. So I know maybe I I wanna run that by Zhao before I shoot my mouth off because he might not want to align with me. Um But I wanna thank him. That was ex that was I was so excited. I was like a kid on Christmas. Castelli, a Castelli kid!

Like Christmas every day. Yeah, exactly. Just uh since we're in this soppy thanking everyone mood, I I do want to mention we've gotten a number of lovely emails. the last several months a few recently and It means so much that... Doing things that have helped other people. Dude, how about the CPA that got it that talked about a grat? He's like, I got a c he's like, I've already got my grat set.

And you were like, This is what I've been waiting for. You got a CPA, you got a CPA that's sent in that said he was a listener and he fired off like three bullet points, like the Morris Sachs playbook. It's good. It's it's good because Any person who reads a single textbook on behavioral economics will know that you get more joy out of helping other people. or giving something to someone else, then buying it for yourself. Then So this is payback for all those

Widows and orphans and money. Yeah, yeah. And ask for forgiveness on Bitcoin. So I'm a broken man. Dude, I forgot to mention one thing before you go, the parade. And you tell that story about you've told you told it during COVID, you've told it like three times about eating at the restaurant, the poodle with the water going over your feet, okay? So as I told you at the parade it's driving rain, you know? And the way the the beeline out of the out of the crowd.

is through the puddle. Okay. The drive the stream. Like it's like now this is a New York City stream, dude. I'm talking like it was over my shoe and like I got a little bit of water in my socks. And all I could think about was you sitting on Greenwich Ab and that story and I was like a tetanus shot? Exactly. I was like, I know what's in that water.

Don't do that to yourself. Yeah, I was like, yeah,'cause you told it like two weeks ago and you told it before I was like, all right, I'll let him tell the story. He's gonna get his foot wet and there I am getting my foot wet in midtown Manhattan thinking about you telling that fucking story. Why is it on scene? Simon reaching down, cupping a thing of water, dragging it out of him. Thank you. That's worth a smack. That's a smack, you know.

All right, kid. Alright, I'll see you next week if there is a next week, pal. I fucking hope so. All right, goodbye. All right, let me shut.