That Which Can't Continue, Won't.

Greetings and welcome to Inside Baseball with old Chestnut. I'm Liam Allen with my friend Morris Sacks. How you doing, MB? I'm doing great, bud. Great to see ya. Yeah, likewise. Uh you out in Scottsdale? Are you out in the in the desert? Yeah, out in the desert. A horse with no name. Yeah. You're out in the icebox, huh? Terrible, dude. It's just brutal. It's twenty-nine degrees and It's sunny, it's just it's useless weather. The dead sticks. It's stick season here.

Yeah. My friend Marty's here and he's been bemoaning the fact that it's cold enough to get ice to climb, but there's no water. Bingo. Bingo. Uh that's a good leader though. Your buddy Marty, you're gonna follow him up a wall. That guy's a leader. Okay, so that's a that takes something special. Um, to get on a wall with a guy, right? Can you tilt your screen tilt your screen down? Like tilt your screen.

So I can see you. I can see your profile. Yeah. Cause I thought of some leaders. I thought of some leaders like right after the show and one really bothered one really bothered me that I didn't think of on the show. And it like Dude, this is as a kid, I I was in I was born in eighty one. So in nineteen ninety five, as a freshman in high school, the major things that were going on in New York City, okay, were the Yankees The Rangers, okay, and the Knicks.

And dude, the Yankees were run by Joe Torre. That was a m that guy led men. Okay. Joe Torrey was a leader. As a kid, I was like, Joe Torrey's a serious guy. Like I I would uh Joe Torrey, that that's a leader of men. Okay. The other one, dude. Pat Riley Riles dude. Pat Riley was a fucking leader, dude. He ran the nick. He had a bunch of badass thugs on that team. He ran the he was a leader. Guys would guys would fight. Guys would run through a wall for Pat Riley.

So if anyone doesn't know, anyone MB lives in Riles' old house in Greenwich. So there's a little connection there. So it really bothered me that that like so as a kid, I'm and dude, the other one was Bill Parcells. All right. So like as I And like Parcell, th like those were three as a fifteen year old kid and I played sports.

And like that that dominated the headline and the social like climate of the time was like Nick's Nick's Giants Rangers. I was like, okay, well th those are three serious guys. I wanna coach like that. I wanna like those were men, those were serious men. I know that's sports and I said off the bat we weren't gonna take sports and role models seriously. But yeah, Riley, Tory, Parcel.

Like those guys they were they were stand up guys, it seemed like. Yeah, those were like, you know, big tough American men. Like they could they could they got a room of pro athletes who are paid big bucks to go hard for them? Anyway. They found a way to motivate Yeah. Coach K. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, Bobby Knight. Like Bobby Knight was a prick. Bobby Knight.

Okay, so this is where this is where, you know, I don't wanna do Bobby I don't wanna break down Bobby Knight's career uh inside baseball, but but he he could he's arguably a leader of men. He uh he spoke a few times at Greenwich Capital client audience. No way. Yeah. They brought in him for a get out of the meet and greet. Yeah, you know. Oh, but was he an abrasive prick?

Well not when you're paying them like ten grand for an afternoon of golf and drinks. Well I want the real experience. I want like I don't remember other than he he kind of made fun of the Greenwich Chapter guys. Amazing. That's what I think. But um Hey, a little factoid came up that I wanted to ask you about before it slips my mind.

Now the number one Boy's name is now Liam. Oh, it's been Liam for ten years. And you're the first in the long line of them? It it's it's very simple, okay. Like I said, you just go to the Social Security database, okay, and you pull up nineteen eighty one, and you'll see how many Liams were in America. It's me. Me. Okay. The next thing is My mother's a teacher. My mother taught for thirty-five years. My father taught for thirty-five years. So there's a concern.

There's a combined seventy-five years of teaching. So you do a hundred kids times seventy, probably more than a hundred, two hundred kids. My take my parents taught thousands of kids. So there's thousands of kids who grew up aware of the name Leo. And then I was raised like dude, I trafficked in a lot of social circles as a as a kid because of Irish Yeah, exactly. Because of I dude, Irish step dancing and then lacrosse and then I went to like a bunch of different schools scattered around.

So there was I like it was like uh it was like a Kind of like COVID, it spread it spread slowly. Stole the name and stole the name, dude. And by the time I got to college, like twenty two, like people were familiar with it from like Liam Neeson, the actor, okay, but then it really gained traction and then like it just took off like wild. Wildfire. Just like Morris did. Dude, there's a kid, uh, so this is how how bad it's gotten.

In my in my five-year-old daughter's preschool, there's 12 kids in the class. The kid's name is Liam, l little Hellion, obviously, which is fine. The kid's middle name is Alan. He is he is a Liam Allen. Okay. Verbatim to me. And the the mother's before that's before the podcast started.

I I the mother came up to me and she was like, just so you know, she was like, his middle name's Alan. I was like, lady, I was like, this is too I was like, you gotta be kidding me. I just laughed. I said, All right, you guys have a good weekend Liam Allen Jackson, whatever his name is. But yeah, dude, the um the name I would like to yeah, like I mean it's just you go through the social security database and I mean the numbers don't lie and then like

But yeah, dude, it's been super popular. It's been totally taken over. I hear people yell at their kids. I was like, Liam, stop doing that. I turn and look and they're yelling at a two year old like running into in the road. Um Yeah?

Yeah, my mother was way ahead of the curve. Dude, she I she had a Liam, a Caitlyn and an Eamon. All right. A Liam a Caitlin and Eamon in nineteen eighty one. Th those are like off the boat Irish names. Um my sister Caitlin. Caitlin is is the same thing. Caitlin has been Expelled a million different ways, and Caitlin got taken over well before Liam. Um but Amon, my son's name, has

Zero, zero traction from my brother. My brother didn't his name didn't take. Liam took. Um, yeah, because Eamon spelled funny E A M O N N. Um so people can't say it. They butcher it when they say it and they they don't love it the way that Liam is really easy. Oh, one more thing about Liam. For all those little dopes out there that haven't been to Ireland.

And don't and aren't familiar with the etymology of your name and the history attached to it, the cornect the correct pronunciation you will find. When you go to Ireland, it's L E E M. Okay. It's one syllable. All right. It's not Lee um. It's leem. Okay, so when I go to I Oh Lee my no I we dragged you out of the ditch last night that you must have had a tough tough time getting home from the pub. Uh yeah, that was me. Okay, thank you.

Are you familiar with that Irish comedian Kathleen Madigan? No, no, she good. Oh, she's terrific, but she talks Traveling to Ireland and she goes into a store and says, uh do you have any corn? Corn. No, I haven't had any corn in forty years. It's just this is

What a week It's that kind of week that makes me realize how much I love doing this show. So You may recall not that long ago, I asked the question, what happens when a bunch of people show up outside your house with pitchforks and torches? Like is the Greenwich Police Department? Well

That poor guy working for United Healthcare, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Somebody walked up to him, if you don't know, somebody walked up to him on the street in Manhattan and shot him twice in the back and he's dead. is going to shareholders meaning. So this kind of prophecy about the masses saying enough So I I got a lot of friends out here who who like guns. No no judgment. But

One guy showed me a bullet that he hit an iron post from over a mile away. So If they can get within three millimeters of killing the most guarded man in the world, what chance you think Lee Cooperman's got walking around Miami?

Yeah, it's it's it's it's s it was jarring. That is jarring. Um yeah and and the immediate Uh response was people taking their executive pictures off of websites and stuff like that and Blue Cross Blue Shield came out immediately and said, Oh stop, we're w we are gonna pay for anesthesia'cause they came out and said, Oh, we're gonna pay for like three quarters of your anesthesia, you know?

So basically there are terrorists which they acquiesce to. That's gonna incentivize more people to do it. You think you look back in history and this is like as important of a turning point as other major milestones, other assassinations. You got a health deal. A health ins you got the health the you got you have the health insurance. You you know healthcare is the biggest one. Like, you know, you

They're the top four or five. Um not that Schmoe that went around telling everyone he shortened their house and made a billion dollars in the um the housing crisis? You think a lot of people don't need to look over their shoulder. Like now you if you have a look if you have the look over your shoulder factor in play, things change, I think.

I I don't know how it's gonna play out. That's not really what I'm trying to achieve here. I'm just trying to point out some stuff that looks like or can't go on forever long. And This is kind of a personal story, but uh you've been to my house and it's an old house and so with old houses. are old parts. So you can't necessarily just throw out the old one and put in a new one. And so we had a a locksmith come over and anyway, uh he lost one of the parts.

and Cheryl went off on'em, as you may have heard last week's episode. And she comes looking for me crying. And I I said, What what happened? And she explained. And I said, What'd you say to the guy? What did he say to you? And he used the magic word that you're not supposed to use. But I said, honey, you understand. That guy's as likely to pick up a wrench and just bash you in the head.

They said, yeah. Is he breaking the law? Yeah. Is he gonna fix your head? No. And you know, she's a nice person, but you know, people lose. perspective for that one moment. And you know, guys who got, you know, misogynistic tendencies anyway. I'm not telling women to shut their mouth. That's a fool's error. But you know, it's just

Well it's a different era. Yeah. Maybe it started with the unabomber blowing people up. And by the way, if you think he's crazy, he he may well be, but if you read his book. The guy had it figured out. It's a quick read. Yeah, it's sure. You can probably get it for free on technology somewhere. Um

So what else uh what else happened? We had that thing. Um we were having a FaceTime call with some friends yesterday and uh Yes, what kind of stuff I'm following. And I said, I'm I was very careful because they're suffer f suffer from potential Trump derangement s syndrome. I said, I'm sort of looking forward to the day uh president elect Trump. Did I pronounce that correctly? Yes, Trump is inaugurated. I can't believe you said that. Yeah. Well they said why? I said because

They're gonna take cotter and send it back to the Stone Age. Before then. Like the nineteenth, they're gonna send it and the paperwork will be done on the twentieth. Yeah. So they of course said he's full of shit, he's not gonna do it. I'm like, I don't know, it seems to me to be the low-hanging fruit. Um, I'll be a little disappointed. Uh but I think that's easy for him to do. Cause everyone knows that's where the bad guys were.

They're part of it. They're still hanging out there. This is the part where um we rotate to the next portion of the show, which this this saddens me greatly because my brother and I Uh spent a lot of time in England, have a great affection. But I don't know if this caught your eye. But apparently the British Royal Family has invited the royal family of Cotter. To come stay. with them and so

the turmoil in Qatar, i.e., it's turned into a glass factory, has has taken place. And I started thinking about the British. And, you know, there was that um King who Philip? Edward? I don't know. Anyway, he he stepped down so he could marry that that awful looking woman. This was not Elizabeth Hurley. This was the troll under the gate. It wasn't Marissa Tomei? Guys do a lot of stupid things for, you know, getting some. But I I don't know. So he he uh is a Nazi sympathizer.

During World War Two Churchill had so much of'em. This has was so full of'em, he sent'em down to the Bahamas, I think, to be uh ambassador or foreign secretary. But yeah, there was some school of thought he had cosied up to Hitler because if Hitler took over The UK he could be titular head of the government. Now I don't know if I mentioned this to you, and I highly suggest it, but I have read from beginning to end twice Winston Churchill's World War II memoirs.

The guy may be a warm criminal. I don't know. He can fucking write. And so I read that thing from beginning to end twice. And sometime in the year isn't necessarily all that important. But let's say in the late 30s, early 40s. The Germans had put together an operation called Sea Lion, and that was the amphibious invasion of the United Kingdom. And Churchill figured Hitler was gonna have to attack, or ultimately the a war of attrition wouldn't would end it.

But because they had to cross the channel, they had to deal with like darkness of the moon, the tides And so he gave a he gave a great speech where he talked about he thought they may be invaded. And uh he said, we'll be waiting for you, so will the fishes. Which I think is just a gruesome line. But here is a here is a guy that had Real issues with people taking over his country. Now I read. What's the most popular name in the UK now? Mohammed. Mohammed? Yeah. So they're gonna be taken over.

Bye. A set of enemies without firing a bullet.

Unique situation. Things are not well in France, apparently. You know, I I I I've only picked that up kind of uh secondhand. I saw the government fell. Is that a big deal or not? Well, I I think it's sorta like saying we're having an election. Okay. But I'd rather yeah. Defer to those, you know a little bit more familiar with that government than I had. Um But I I I think stuff's fucked in and it starts a lot of this to do with political correctness and uh Lack of willingness to show force.

That that will that will that ch change be led by President Trump? Will that will that change will will the global unrests uh quell When he is inaugurated, will will people fall into line. Will the will and the Russia war on day one? Is he gonna you know, is is Russia gonna be the Russia Ukraine thing? Is he gonna wrap that up? I mean like Syria, the Assad government fell last night. Um I didn't the last update I heard

was on uh they were tracking Assad's plane on flight aware and it went from s six thousand feet to one one hundred and twenty feet in a rapid descent. Not good. I didn't get an update this morning, but I know the plane was not doing well last night. I'm not laughing, but yeah. Yeah, like the you know, everyone follow you can track the jet now. You can follow the jet so they get the tail and they watched it go down over Close in the no. No you can block that. So that's a rookie.

situation. But yeah, it's okay. There's people that might not be in the know like you, okay? Like Elon had trouble blocking that, okay. But I used to track you all the time. I'd be like, oh he's not answered. Oh he's in route. He's up in the air. I could you know I know the tail, N eight seven, whatever, whatever, you know. But I'd be like, oh, he's in planes in Lancaster, he must be home.

That's right. Or more likely the plane's down for maintenance. So I I was enjoying watching the Sodge Tracker. If if I said big if true, you know, I was like he's, you know Couple hundred feet in a minute? Yeah, that's fast. Yeah. But the global you know, okay, global concerns. What is the bond market telling you about the global concerns? Can we do that? Yeah, sure. Well

Um I did the I did write it down this week. Let's see if I can find it with my glasses. So the ten years at a four thirty-five. In the two year to four twenty six. So that's a positive curve of a hundred and I got the two at four point oh nine and the thirty at four point three. And the ten at four point one four. Is that all jive with you? That's close enough. I mean, you know, if you close it a Thursday or a Friday, it doesn't it doesn't really matter. Um

You know, those are not unattractive investment yields. Um what number do you want to put on inflation? Three percent, two percent? R it when the Fed cooks the number, it's probably one point five, but yeah, two percent. Call it two percent. Okay, so you get ten percent less two percent, you get eight percent real rate uh return. That's fantastic. Now I I'm not advocating only the tenure right here. I I suspect there's gonna be enough shaking and jiggling.

Yeah, you'll be able to steal some stuff. Um, let's say you get the Fed meeting and they don't do anything and they bang the market back or something like that. What stop. They don't do anything. They're gonna they're gonna cut it, right? I don't. I'm not in the being definitive camp, hardly ever. You're doing a show. Get definitive. Well, definitive is we ran out of hats. I know. I think we'll get to that later. I wanna want to talk Um, cause Doc Slock chimed in talking about a hype.

Okay, I s yeah, Doc. All right, so this is Dr. Slock. Good morning, Doc Slock. December seventh. Doc Slock chimes in. GDP growth in the third quarter came in at two point eight. And the Atlanta Fed estimates GT GDP growth in the fourth quarter will be three point three percent, well above the CBO's two percent estimate of long-run growth in the US. Combined with the recent uptrend in inflation, the probability is rising that the Fed may have to raise interest rates in 2025.

In other words, a repeat of what we saw in the mid-90s, where the Fed, after a few cuts, started raising interest rates again. You want me to read it slower again for the doubters? Bucket uh I don't want to throw him in, but people as nefarious as Dave Rosenberg. I was gonna say Rosenberg. Rosenberg made some headlines this week. Don't no we're not gonna call we had the Kathy Wood thing nailed. So here's the guy still hasn't learned a thing. The glimpse I saw.

It's that they're not throwing in the towel, but they're admit their strategy for the past several years has been wrong. So they're gonna have to come up with a new strategy. Now I wrote to you, I'm like, what could that be? You you've been neutral and wrong, you've been short you've been wrong. Yeah. But either way, Duke and Duke get the commissions. He's really bucks. Yeah. So that's what I loved about trading. It was just

You know, revenue less expenses times percentage. There's no stories, there's no crime. I mean there might have been crime, but that was more like begging. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but there's no story. There you those are storytellers. Um but dude the combined with the recent uptrend in inflation, the probability is rising that the Fed may have to raise interest rates in twenty twenty five. I know that's a v a a

Vague statement. He could mean December of twenty twenty five. You know, that's why I don't like getting Pinned down. And it's not because I'm afraid of looking wrong. I mean, half of the episodes, all we do is talk about stuff I fucked up. I mean, I

I've already admitted I'm not perfect. Let me talk what about the mid nineties? Do you remember in other words a repeat of what we saw in the mid nineties where the Fed after a few cuts started raising interest rates again? Do you r can you remember that part of the cycle? Vaguely, I think that was Maybe around the plaza cord. Okay. All right. Um, that's where they decided the dollar was too strong and they had to weaken it. Um

That was a pretty profound moment because you know the they made some announcement. It took people a coup second or two to digest it, and then it's like The two year went, you know, straight up and the longbound went straight down. I mean, before your very eyes, it was like a cartoon. Wow. Um but um To me, it seems such a fool's errand to try and predict the funds rate, because for guys like us. We're looking at relationships.

So you gotta predict which way the Fed moves, then you gotta be right about predicting which way your relationship's gonna move. There's too many ways that can go wrong. And you know, you just again it's beating a dead horse, but You know, even Warren Buffett talked about, you know, when you're born you get a ticket with ten punches in it and you can only make ten investments in your life. I mean, I'm a little different. I I don't put a number on it, but it's basically Just hang tight,

and wait for the low hanger and take a huge fucking cut at it. And believe me, those opportunities come around. You know, I mean look, for the average guy, maybe you're not gonna see them or they're not gonna be as obvious, but You know, you don't need to be chasing. That's why kind of longer dated index funds that have good credit in them. That's you know the one of the very few advantages, again, repeating the same thing over and over again.

And uh the advantage you have is time is on your side. So here's here's a little example that hit me like a ton of bricks uh last week. So uh I remember at one point you did a deep dive into my background and discovered that my grandfather had been somebody famous. So my grandfather was a successful merchant in Chicago. So he came over from Lithuania sometime in the 1900s.

Nobody was waiting for him. He ended up meeting a butcher and sleeping on the floor in the guy's butcher shop. And anyway, somehow he made his way out to Chicago. worked on this area called Maxwell Street, where a lot of Lithuanians lived. It's kinda near the uh Chicago stockyards. And he got a push cart and you sell'em You know, Irish linens and silk ties to people. And he built it into a real business, and it was called Morris P. Sachs.

But he loved being popular. So like at the end of the war, any, you know, GI could come and get clothes and he could buy it on credit. He had a lot of uh contests at the um parochial schools for like designing dresses for women and then he had a TV show, an amateur hour, where people would come and You know, if they'd won they got a gold watch or something. Anyway, he became treasurer of the city of Chicago.

And he he ran for governor. This is, of course, all on his own dime. And then he donated his money to charity because it was a very popular thing to do. And uh he didn't win for governor. Daly got irritated with him because apparently he had his different way of doing things. So you got got fired by daily effectively. I think that's is that good? I think that's I think that shines well on yeah. Well that was his thing. It was no political favorites. That's good.

They expected my grandfather to take into the Department is like I don't have the budget for it. So just so anyone that's not familiar with sho sh the history of Chicago, govern uh what mayor mayor Daly? Mayor Daly or May Every Mayor or Governor has been in jail. It's like ridiculous. Like Daly was a legend. Yeah, the boss. He ran he ran the city. Um so anyway, my grandfather's too busy getting his name out there. The business kind of gets run down. He has a heart attack and dies at 52 maybe.

stuffs my father with this business that's making no money. And then they go into like the recessions in the seventy and whatever and he's gotta close it. So he dies again of a heart attack, but I think he died it just Shame because to the world, he was the idiot son that took this great business and broke it when in fact it was broken when he got it. Yep, yep.

So what's this got to do with investing, you ask? That's an excellent question. So is part of I'm sure what was my grandfather You know, biggest dick contest was there's a Jewish cemetery in Chicago, and he bought a massive plot. For the family, of which is a ginormous headstone that says Morris P Sachs on it. Now I've I had been there and I've seen this thing, and the thing is fucking enormous. So what he does is

He buys this huge plot so he can get his name on this huge headstone. And then it's like, ah, it's for the kids. So they they put it in a trust. And I know about this because last week a distant Uh, cousin said, you know, just filling in, we're kinda like the last of the generation. There's six of these plots. Are you gonna want any? And I'm like, No. I am no.

No. Not unless it's called Columbine. But I sent a note back and I said, no thanks. But one of the cousins said, well, I bet those are worth something. Mm maybe if no one wants'em, maybe we should sell'em. I said that's a that's a pretty good idea. So I figured can't be worth much. But I'm just curious what's a what's a what's a gravestone cost? And I look it up, it's on fucking eBay. It's six thousand bucks. Okay. So he bought this thing. You know, fifty years ago.

I'm thinking about if you just take in the couple hundred bucks 50 years ago, right? So where does the investment then come in? So I walk out into the family room, and there are my Two granddaughters. And I'm dealing with this Gravestone that my grandfather bought 50 years ago. This is like in my lifetime, right? So I immediately think about God, if the guy just took 200 bucks and put it in a truss with his name on it.

I it didn't aggregate to as much money as I thought, but it comes down to investment right now. I use just just use six. But you know, if he had just put the money away some rate or maybe a little bit more, there'd be a trust with his name on it that would go on forever. So the point of the story is that grandpa Morris Sacks is gonna buy his two granddaughters Bitcoin at a hundred K in twenty twenty four.

So that my daughter can hear the stories from them about how grandpa bought them Bitcoin with a hundred K and it's worth two million dollars in two months.

Yeah. ethical situation. So last week's episode, Take Me to Your Leader. Right. Which by the way, you were nominated for an Emmy. Congratulations. I hope I hope it goes. But we got a really emotional Tearjerk or story from a guy who got his family out of a war-torn country and thanks to Bitcoin. So of course. How can I? sit here and badmouth Bitcoin when it did such a wonderful thing.

For this human being. Well then over the weekend, well as you or Leslie, the UK, while it still has its own government, um broke a Russian espionage money transferring ring using Bitcoin. So they were funding terrorism. Human trafficking, drug trade. And it was the money was being transferred using Bitcoin. So

You know, there was a whole to-do about Warren Buffett, because he had bought cigarette companies and they asked him about it, because it's a great investment. It costs you nickel, you sell for a dollar, and it's addictive. Then for eight seconds he was a pariah. Right, right, right. Warren Buffett. Right, right. Um, the only other person could have gotten away with that was Bill Clinton. Um but uh so.

I don't know that we ever put a price on Bitcoin. I hope we didn't. No. What I attempted to do with you was talk about the nefarious activities this thing could be used for and just make people aware of it who weren't. Now you know It's up to you philosophically whether you ought to provide liquidity. to this operation. I have no problems because I the they they do it with cash. I have no mon I can't

They do it with cash. They're gonna do it some other way. At least they can catch them with the Bitcoin. It's on a computer. You're more likely to get caught doing it with Bitcoin than you are doing it with cash. If you're doing that transaction in cash or gold, we're not catching it. If you're doing it on the ledger on the on the thing, that's how we caught ya. Your thoughts. Well I I'm not certain that They're catching guys on the web.

doing illegal things. I I I haven't read much about it. I don't know, maybe maybe Yeah. But I your point about cash and gold. So If you're looking that from the standpoint of the bad guys That's that's a lot harder. I agree. Yeah, you're right. You know, moving on you gotta persuade the other side it's real.

Any one of a number of T V shows have shown you how uh difficult it is to keep cash for long periods of time. Yeah I used to keep cash in the house like Case. Yeah, yeah. Yeah I know. So I got smart and I stuck it in a couple of plastic bags and I stuck it in the wine. Uh you know the one forgot about it. No, that I remember, but when I went and go got it, it's it started to turn to mud. Like yeah, that was a couple hundred dollars. So um to me the cash thing is still

If you wanna do something wrong, it's there for you. Yeah, yeah. If you wanna f follow the law, you can and you don't have to do anything differently. Um But uh you know, to see the Russians using it as part of the spy ring just indicates the how far this thing can go. So I I'm I'm still not not a fan. I don't know what price it'll go to. It it's uh

Again, people say it's an interesting trade though. I mean like number one, like the emails, we if you if you if you talk about Bitcoin, I'm gonna I'm automatically gonna get at least ten emails today about answering your your concerns about the Russian spies. How everyone and I can that's only a small percentage and da da da there there'll be a million answers, but it lights up it it it sets people's Antennas up. Um, because we talk about the two year 10 shows in a row and I get two emails.

And then we talk about Bitcoin and I get forty five emails. Um people people Yeah. It's it's it's I mean, I'm not doing we're not here I'm not here for the emails. I'm not d doing this for clicks or talking about, but it's a fascinating It's it it really is a fascinating topic and you you you you go ahead. If you ever read that book by that American kid who defected to the Russians. He was working for the NASA.

Snowden? Snowden's book? Yeah, Snowden. Right. What about him? So well he wrote a book and I read it. And the NSA collects all this metadata. And so effectively, if I understand it correctly, all those little pings from your cell phone Collected by the NSA, but they keep it in a file. That they can't access without getting a judge's permission. Okay. By the way, the percentage of permission rate is like 90%. Okay. So if they can catch all these bad guys with the Bitcoin.

Remember a couple years ago, there was a guy we rode with. I want to say Paul E G. He got hit by a car riding. To work one morning in Westchester County. And he had a Garmin, meaning he had a clock and he had a GPS coordinates. And They know what time he got hit, where he got hit. And they never caught the guy who hit them. How hard would it be to just go search for all the cell phones in that area between that time?

Or maybe that time every day you just check the area because maybe that guy hit him on his way to work or you know that that uh cliche the um Criminal returns to the scene of the crime. Which by the way, it looks like the guy who shot that guy dead did. Who? Sh oh. The What United Health Life. I thought he went to the park and then left. No. Well, if you go to one of the local newspapers, it's got five minute intervals of where the guy is. Oh really? Yeah.

So if you're pissed at Stephen Gray at BlackRock, and you get up on top of a building. Can we not please? Well I Dude, it's a scary world. I I know this f because uh My buddy my dad's buddy works security for Nelson Peltz and I that and I knew that for for tw yeah twenty years ago and I and I was like why does pelts need bodies and then I I read his all I had to do was go to his Wikipedia page and read about the twenty hostile takeovers that he orchestrated and all of the business

dealings that could be perceived as as h as hostile or nefarious. And I totally understood why he wanted a man with a gun at three yards away at all times.

That's Peltz and Peltz is like okay, like w he's not a big b well, he he was a bold face name, a big bold face name, but he wasn't as big as the guy running United Healthcare. Um But yeah, there's some people out there that have that have done some things that pro yeah, it's it was definitely a lot of this stuff is you know, it's like Cheryl screaming at the guy hitting them Runs the risk of getting hit in the habit of hammer.

Guys going for a walk. I mean people bump into Bill Clinton in uh New Canaan all the time. Oh Chapel Car, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I s yeah, yeah. I bumped into him. He'll hang out and talk. He's smooth as yeah, no, I know. Yeah. So two and a half. Yeah. Right? Mikey. You know, um

All right. Well what about um all right so you what else Let me go let's go back to this Zoom meeting. I can only imagine you on a Zoom cocktail hour, um and and starting with what's going on in you. I'm looking forward to the inauguration. That is that's really really cocktail party bullshit. They feel like there's nothing. that Trump has ever done or could ever do. And in the meantime, Cheryl, who is not a fan, said, well, you know, he said he got the Abraham Accords. And then during the cova

Apr that's a big it was a big deal. But how about he came up h how about his statement about releasing the hostages or else I'm gonna unleash hell? Well that's Yeah, that's what I started with and they were wanting oh he's full of shit. No, he's not.'Cause you got thirty six guys With erection. Looking for the launch signal out in the ocean, right? Those guys have been waiting for Biden to step aside and Trump to come in and start giving orders. And those guys know it.

That's why like the the day he was elected Hezbollah was like, Okay, enough, we're gonna or Yeah, but yet we have the British royal family taking in the We don't take them seriously. Sorry. I apologize to Anthony, but we don't take the royal family seriously Um, it's tough to t they're they're they're more cartoon characters than they are leaders of their nation. Who's the leader of Great Britain?

Uh okay. Bingo. Bingo. Last time I checked, it was that Goldman Sachs guy that was there for a minute after the cabbage left. So I don't even know who runs. Teresa. Once the cabbage went, they brought the Goldman guy in. They did then the Goldman guy didn't w work. Sundar? Yeah, yeah, whoever it was. Yeah, I don't know. Um but I don't know who runs Britain. Who who runs Britain and England and Barter Town? Right, exactly. Who runs France? You get Trump almost

Bartertown, you brought up Bartertown. Your buddy Hanler posted a picture. You guys are weird. You you f apparently ever everyone that works on Wall Street needs to watch Mad Max. All you young guys out there, go watch Mad Max. So you can understand these references because Handler posted a picture of Elon carrying his kid on his shoulder.

And then a picture blaster. Yeah, exactly. So and Handler posted something like, Is this the next is Master Blaster Barter Town? And I was like, These fucking Mad Max guys. So so here we are. All right. So So Hanler and more dude, I I still haven't watched Mad Max, so like every time you talk you use you only need to watch the first twenty five minutes because after that it falls

Out of the boat. Dude, when Handler posted that thing the other day, I was like, God damn it, Mad Max. Yeah. So all right. Um Sorry. No, that's funny. No, you're John you're getting you're getting a John Wick 4 now too. Are you will you go see that in the theater? I saw John Wick too in uh Tucson by myself probably. I love it. Yeah, and they got one coming out with like a woman.

Um yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so I all right, so note we gotta watch Mad Max. Um all right, so but yeah, the what else what else did you got going on? You know, the apple falling far from the tree. Um My middle daughter caught glimpse of The Godfather, and so we watched all of The Godfather too, and now she needs to go Godfather won because she realizes there's all these quotes she hears all the time and doesn't know the

Yeah. And then she's gonna sit with you then she's gonna sit with you, me, and Leslie. Okay. She should she should watch it and get it get a be so lucky. Exactly. We'll put a day down, we'll like we'll get some some red sauce and sausages and spaghetti, okay? And we'll put one on and we'll watch it and she We won't pause it. But but once you dude, you gotta watch it like two two, three, four times.

I can't believe you let her go this long. So how old is she? She's gotta be fifty-one now, right? The middle one? Fifty-one. I t right. No, she's in her thirties. Oh, okay, okay. I couldn't all right, so all right, so she's in her th late, late thirties, all right. She's gone this far without watching the Godfather as your child?

I know. I've You're I mean you've done a lot of things, but I'm gonna I'm gonna you you you're gonna you're gonna demerit on this one. What now I assume Lisa's seen it. Lisa's square away. Lisa's seen it. Okay. Okay. All right. Um Okay. Yeah. That's about all I got on my pad. I I again the markets are just Good, it was a quiet week. It was a quiet week. Um I'm sold out of hats. We got another order in. We contacted we contacted our hat supplier and and and we got another

did not expect the overwhelming demand. I should have'cause we're giving w more stuff away for free. Um But yeah, we got a nice list. We got New York, Chicago, Texas, California, Australia, Norway, Chicago, Philadelphia. Okay. We St. Louis, Kansas City. We we've really covered Quite a nice area up. Oh, and how could I forget the villages? We have the villages and villages. So we have permeated the villages. We are talking accolade. That thing's gonna grow like a virus now.

So no smallpox on those hats. Yeah. All right. So do the ten year w the two ten spread, dude. What is going on? Like that just That's my point. What's I don't know. We're waiting for the Fed. Run around in circles. I don't know. It's just The one thing Tours and Slock had mentioned this morning was there's been an uptick in sales of annuities. I'm gonna say something. I don't know why. But I don't think annuities are good.

I think there's a huge sales fee. I think the returns are mediocre. I think they get stuff full of bad credit to get the yield up. And that's what I think Torres and Slock was alluding to that the The drop in the you know What's the appeal of the annuity and who does it appeal to? I feel like those are like people that are about to retire with a pile of money.

Yeah, or ordinary people. Yeah. I mean, Social Security's an annuity, it's just the government's fuck it up. Um if you were an older person uncomfortable with managing investments, a life insurance man would prey on you and convince you if you bought this, your problems were solved. I don't know m anything more than that other than I don't think that phrase obtains. Uh strong annuity sales create strong demand for credit. Strong annuity sales create strong demand for credit. Interesting.

Yeah, so again, they're just buying credit. You're buying, or there was a economist who once said, credit risk cannot be destroyed. It can only be shifted. I think that was called Peter's second law of credit, maybe. So basically they're taking Credit out of funds of Blackstone and there's stuffing them into these people who don't know better. Um, I have a friend, I won't be specific because it would get me in trouble, but they were an investment advisor for a couple of um charities.

And since they knew she was married to me, they asked if I wouldn't mind taking a look at the thing. And uh I look at the thing and it's it's nothing but these structured funds filled with just shit. Products. Yeah. Yeah. And uh I think they ended up getting a lot of it. You know the lady? There's a woman named Edith Lasker, and what she does, a very uh wealthy older woman. philanthropist and she uh

She's the one that pays to put the flowers on Park Avenue every year. Oh wow. And so I guess she's got a pretty big job in philanthropy or big big donor. And a mutual friend was asked, you know, they needed some outside investment advisors. So I interviewed there and I obviously didn't get the job. And then we had inside baseball all chestnut.

That's one lady's responsible for those beautiful tulips up and down the I think so everything would be now is taken with a grain of salt, but I think that's true. Oh, those are that's like the highlight of the spring in the city, the Easter for the uh yeah, those tulips on park.

Every time we come to the show now and I venture off of my path, I I start to feel the whips of Bob Cobb. I appreciate that. Seriously, it keeps me in line. Who knows where I could go? Thank yeah, thank you, Bob Cobb. Um and thank you to the the big brothers and big sisters of Kalamazoo uh Michigan because after we mentioned it Thanks to your sister and the big brothers and the big sisters. We talked about on the show last week and then lo and behold, CBS News

runs a three-minute or four-minute long segment on some NFL stud that wants to thank his like big brother that made it happen. And they did a nice Yeah, they did a a three minute CBS news puff piece. That was a big brother, big sister promo essentially. Um, so I just you know, I stood up and I applauded a CBS News. Like somebody in the newsroom at CBS News or the producers at CBS News listened to Inside Baseball and they're like, uh, you know, we should do a How does this happen?

Pete you tell me like Monday morning you listen to the news just to recap our show. Exactly. It really is. So yeah, Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Kalamazoo. And I'm gonna do some more research, but I'm pretty sure Derek Jeter is from Kalamazoo, Michigan. And if he is, if I if that pans out, I'm gonna m I'm gonna try to pin him down because he should be doing big brothers and big sisters. He's the ultimate big brother, big sister.

He should be doing if he's from Kalamazoo, if that's his hometown, he needs to step up to the play for that. And I've got some people I've got a our Ven our Venn diagrams overlap. So I I might put some pressure on him for the big brothers and big brothers. We could just go over and knock on Tory's door. He lives in Greenwich, I think, doesn't he? Yeah, he's got a yeah, he's got a lake house up by me too. Um All right, very good. Um this was uh this was a good this was nice. Um

So always great to see you. Yeah, thank you very much, my friend. And uh what do we got next week? We'll check we'll do a show before Christmas. Tomorrow we got another week before Christmas. Um Yeah, we're gonna organize our gang to go out, you know. Yeah. Oh. Please. Um let's get all right, so for the people to get the hats, we got a I got ten out already and I got another fifty coming.

And I got a stack still here that I got to ship. So th you know, they're coming. All right. That's fine. That's fine. We'll get it. The order's in. Okay, the order's in. You heard it here first, folks. All right. Okay, good. All right. Tell Maddie I love tell Maddie I'm just kidding and I love her, okay? Right away. Thank you. Goodbye.