Speaker 1: If you want an economic future for your kids and grandkids,
We're going to have to do some things that for
conservatives might feel icky or wrong. Talk about this with
the help of Zach Abraham, chief investment Officer of Bulwark
Capital Management, and we'll do this with the help of
God Almighty.
Speaker 2: But Todd Herman show is one disapproved by big pharma
technocrats in tyrans everywhere from the high mountains of Free America.
Here's the Emerald City exile Todd Herman.
Speaker 1: Today is the day the Lord has made and these
at the time Super Scott has decided we shall live.
Joining me is my friend and brother, Zach Abraham, chief
investment Officer Bulwark Capital Management. Then let me start with this, Zach,
let me check out with you emotionally. I know the
Mariners lost, so let me start with do you need
a hug, some more anti depressants? Is there anything I
can do? More bone Frog coffee? Are you making it through?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well yeah, we're surviving. We're surviving.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: I'm not a I'm not a I'm not a huge
baseball guy. I never played it growing up.
Speaker 4: But that being said, there are a lot of aspects
about this team that were really compelling and one of
the one of the compelling parts about it that really
caught my ears how many of the guys were Christians,
and how big a part of the bigger part of
the clubhouse that was, how many of the guys had
pretty outspoken political.
Speaker 3: Views that I liked. Just seemed like a lot of good.
Speaker 4: Dudes that really loved each other and uh and battled.
And you know, as an ex athlete, I I love
the I love competition in sports, but I also have
such a great appreciation for like what my college coach
used to say, the third side of the coin, right,
which is, you know, he had this analogy heads tails, win, lose.
Speaker 3: But there's also this third side of the coin that
is edge.
Speaker 4: Right, So like in trading we talk about your edge
being your advantage, and that when you when you have
a group of people that really love and respect each other,
that's like the third side of the coin.
Speaker 3: It it makes the it makes the whole greater than
the parts, right.
Speaker 4: And whenever I see a team doing that at any level,
it's just compelling to me because you see this sort
of undercurrent, this this this effectiveness that seems to outweigh
each of their individual abilities. But together that synergy creates
that and they they very much had that going, especially
later in the season, and it was compelling. And but
you know, you lived here long enough, the one thing
you know is that no matter how good it looks
or how exciting it might be, the history of the
franchise is pretty is pretty consistent. Right, keep an eye
out over one shoulder and wait to get bushwhacked, because
that's usually what happens.
Speaker 3: Yeah, unfortunately ended that way, but it was a fun run.
Speaker 1: Well, now I get to I see, I'm not a
big baseball fan either, And you know, the marriage did
some cool things.
Speaker 5: Great Armed Forces Knights.
Speaker 1: They used to have there, and I got to participate
in two of those and watch World War two vets
deliver the game.
Speaker 2: Ball.
Speaker 1: Dude, You've never seen anything cooler than a guy who
flew b seventeens sitting there in the tunnel and there's
players coming by Zach and checking in on him, sir.
They're calling him, sir. So cool to meet you. And
and and our fact, in fact, one of our friends,
the guy who does the web stuff for us, Dave
Barkurst at Greenhaven Interactive dot com. By the way, if
you need help, with Google SEO all that stuff.
Speaker 5: Greenhaven Interactive dot com.
Speaker 1: Dave is awesome at that and he's a Christian and
a Conservative. I get to meet his pop and he
was a Vet. And you haven't seen anything cooler than
when you take those guys out into the field.
Speaker 5: And this role in this gentleman out.
Speaker 1: He lost more guys in his B seventeen through freezing
to death than he did seeing them shot and killed
freezing to death in those things.
Speaker 5: He told me a stories act.
Speaker 1: Of flying over France and they couldn't land, they couldn't
drop their bombs. They're disc close to losing fuel of
having to fly back, they might have to crash land.
And one of his fellow pilots got both engines shot out,
and he made eye contact with the guy before he
went down. Like he turned to his left and made
eye contact with a fellow pilot whose plane is going down.
Speaker 5: And this is the guy getting rid of guilious game ball.
Speaker 1: We were in the tunnel and the guy with the
mariners who organized that night, he led the armed forces night.
Speaker 3: He walked up.
Speaker 1: He saw this guy had his medals on and his
hat and he said, sir, what an honor to meet you.
And this gentleman said, did you serve He goes, yes,
but only in Vietnam.
Speaker 5: Only in Vietnam.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that different breed man, totally different breed, and that
World War two Vett struggled to stand up and stood
up and saluted him. Since warlike any other. So I
wheel this man out to the dugouts and the players
make a tunnel for this dude. And if you've never
stood on the field next to some and the professional
baseball players, they are so jacked and big, and you
don't think that because they're baseball.
Speaker 3: Guys, right right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And we roll him out to the field and
his son says, okay, and I give him the game ball,
and they're they're running pictures of him and his bio
on there and they were supposed to run my name,
and now k t TH radio said, no way, no way,
not with this guy. He's the focus and he's going
to deliver the game ball. And he stands up to
walk and a son's like, dadd he goes, I am walking, wow,
And you see the players watch this dude, this old man.
Speaker 5: He goes that he delivers the game ball, the place explode.
Speaker 1: It comes back and sits in his chair and he
died shortly after Ah and but Zach on his deathbed
he said to his son, they remember us. Yeah, I
can die now. It's okay. Even and he said, even
in Seattle they remember so sorry, that's my baseball story.
Speaker 3: No, that's cool, that's more. That's certainly a better story
in the game.
Speaker 4: You know, hey, they could be back, but now no, no,
I mean just the game of baseball, like my story,
like dad just transcends sports.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm voting for the Blue Jays. Wont to know why?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean they're not from LA.
Speaker 1: Well, and they didn't honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,
which is a satanic sexual left group. They didn't just
give Leah Thomas, the fake female swimmer, a courage award,
so to me, And maybe the Blue Jays are horrible,
but I'm voting for them because they're not the Dodgers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, yep, yep, yeah, I would. I would have
to agree with you.
Speaker 4: Like I said, it's if you're betting against anything coming
out of LA Yeah, you're ninety percent of time you're
gonna be on the right side of it.
Speaker 5: Is solid. Absolutely, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Did you know in Mexico that they do not push
you to surgery first. Think about this in the States.
Let's see, let's try some physical therapy with that ailment. Oh,
that didn't work. Let's get you cut open, and that
violates the Hipocratic oath, which is to first do no harm.
Cutting you does harm. Cutting into your muscle fibers does harm.
Cutting into your bone, your cards, that all does harm.
So what's the least invasive thing you can do? Did
you know that New Mexico they take the next step
of looking at things like stem cells. That's why renew
thrives down there. Secondly, because renew is allowed to use
donor stem cells, meaning they get to pick and choose
whose stem cells they use from umbilical cords the Wharton's
jelly portion of that, they get to reject some. I'm sorry,
this person's been a drug addict. I'm sorry, this person
has had these diseases. This person had cancer. We're sorry
about that. This baby does not appear to be healthy.
God help the baby, but we can't take the stem cells.
Don't get to do that in the States, do just
the stem cells or stem cells In Mexico. When Renewed
gets these stem cells, They take them down to a
world class lab, they analyze them. If there's any problems
they see, they just reject them. That's how they reject
eighty to ninety percent of the cells. So what they
put in your body to solve things like erectile dysfunction
by bringing that part of the body back to life,
or male or even female pattern baldness by bringing.
Speaker 5: The follicles back to life effectively.
Speaker 1: Or getting people back the use of their hands or
their feet carpal tunnel, you know, or keeping you out
of surgery, knee.
Speaker 5: Surgery, back surgery, et cetera.
Speaker 1: That's why it's so potent if you have any of
these ailments or even things like traumatic brain injuries. Stop
just go to the website renew r E n UE
dot Healthcare. It's not dot com, it's renew dot Healthcare.
Are E and u E dot Healthcare. Tell me are
part of the Todd Herman Show family, and they will
tell you if they can help you or not.
Speaker 5: So there's an act.
Speaker 1: I want to talk with you about, Zach, and we'll
do that.
Speaker 2: Just do it.
Speaker 5: We'll do this right here.
Speaker 1: So there's the invest America Act. I found this really
interesting because of the responses to it. This is a
video explaining it, and I'm so curious what you think
about it is you've changed the way potentially the country
is going to deal with financial literacy and also having
a stake in the markets.
Speaker 5: Which is that this bill finally passed and you come
on the show. I'm trying to think when you.
Speaker 1: First two and half away with the idea and here
we are yes, So they.
Speaker 6: Invest America Act. You know, it's really there's a battle
for the soul of America, I think going on. We
see it in New York with the election fight over Mandami.
You know this this drift. There are sixty percent of
people who say, hey, I'm left out of capitalism. This
isn't benefiting me right, And we have that problem. We
have this massive wealth gap that has grown. So we
have to get everybody into the game of capitalism. The
President ran on a main street agenda. The main street
agenda was my people in Indiana, how do we get
everybody else into the game of capitalism. So he and
the leadership in the House and the Senate helped get
this included in the big bill. Invest America Act is
now the law of the land, starting in twenty twenty six,
every child born forever more in America. We'll start off
with a prosperity account one thousand dollars private, four oh
one k at birth their family owns, they own in
the s and P five hundred that everybody can add
money to mom and dad, grandparents birthdays. Bar Mitzvah's right.
Companies are going to match. The list of companies we're
going to announce in early December is going to blow
your socks off.
Speaker 5: So a lot of this sounds super super cool.
Speaker 1: And then there's some nuance of this act that's really
interesting to me because people are saying this is a
fix against socialism, but it's the government doing the investing
for you. And tell me that this doesn't metastasize into
something like social securities become. I mean, I don't know,
there's a lot to talk talk about here.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm I'm really torn on this topic too.
Speaker 4: And the reason I'm torn on it so to be fair,
so you know, you know, in support of the idea
of this concept, I would have been torn on this
topic in much of the same way that I would
have been torn about a lot of the government spending
projects in the thirties, we're on the face of it,
And let me explain what I mean.
Speaker 3: My initial reaction.
Speaker 4: To things like that, especially when I was younger, would
be like, this isn't capitalism.
Speaker 3: What are we doing right?
Speaker 4: When you look at a lot, when you look at
many of those programs, I don't know what the percentage was,
but many of those programs ended up being incredibly successful
investments in America that paid dividends for decades and still
do you The Hoover Dam I've mentioned before being one
of them. And so there are times that in defense
of capitalism or in defense of liberty, you have to
do things that seem to be counter to that. I
think of Abraham Lincoln, you know, rescinding Habeas corpus during
the Civil War. I think it's some of the things
that Teddy Roosevelt did at the turn of the century
that had Republicans up in arms. I already mentioned some
of the stuff that was done in the thirties.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 4: I think when you look at where we're at is
a country, and you look at the state of social security,
I think that looking at from that frame, I do
not think that this is a bad policy. Okay, something
is clearly going to have to be done with Social Security.
And when you see, when you do the math on it,
which which we have done in great detail, what you see.
Speaker 3: Is had, for instance, over the light.
Speaker 4: Now I'm not saying somebody has or I'm not saying
that that this will work the exact same way. But
if people could see what would have happened if every
dollar they paid into Social Security would have gone into
an account that held the S and P five hundred, yep,
their Social Security payments would be ten to twelve times
what they are yep. Right, And I've listened to people
sit there and say, oh, but the market can crash,
not over a sixty year career. It can't, Okay, not
even Japan. Japan had broken out to new highs and
they had the worst, you know, for developed markets, they
had the longest sideways action. I mean their market went
negative and stayed negative for thirty two years.
Speaker 3: Okay, so they didn't make new eyes for thirty two years.
Speaker 4: Even in that scenario, had they been putting money in
the Japanese stock market, because remember, people forget about this.
If the market crashes drop seventy percent next month, what
you're putting into it you're paying seventy percent less to
go into.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So even when that market gets back to two thirds
of where it was, if you kept plugging money in,
your money's grown, right.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 4: We are going to have to do something like this
to replace Social Security because Social Security isn't going to
I mean, it's bankrupt, right, and it's going to continue
to get bankrupt. And we are not going to have
if you look what's going on in AI, we're never
going to get back to a place where we were
when we started, which when we started, I believe you
had something like thirty to thirty five workers per every
person getting a Social Security check. That those days are gone,
that's not going to happen anymore. So the other thing
is is I think that we do need to make
quote unquote capitalism in the market American dream more accessible
to people.
Speaker 3: Do I think this is the best way to do it.
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: Do I think it is a step in the right
direction potentially. Do I think it is good for our markets?
Speaker 2: No, But.
Speaker 4: We have turned our markets into a utility of some
some shape, right, Like if you know, look look at
the way policy is directed at equity or asset prices today,
like it just wasn't thirty years ago. You know, thirty
years ago you would hear central bankers and government politicians
say the stock market isn't the economy. We're not worried
about the stock market. You don't see that today, and
it is concerning. It's not a it's not a it's
not a perfect solution. At the same time, flipping back
now and arguing for it, I think we're in a
pivot where I think we're in a very dangerous and
pivotal place in this country where we're gonna, if we
get things back on track, we're gonna have to do
things that are not conventional, at least in the ways
that we that we think of.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree, mom, because they don't worship systems. And
what you said about social Security being bankrupt is true today,
and it's structurally bankrupt. To me, that means it can't
be fixed. It's like, you know, the load bearing beams
are shot. I'm sorry, the house is shots. What about
the foundation? Well, the foundation has cracks. Okay, so I
can't live here. No, I mean you can live here,
but eventually this is going to fall down, and maybe
you'll be inside when that happens right.
Speaker 5: So that's an argument for this.
Speaker 1: It's easy to be arrogant in a world that values
arrogance and that pushes arrogance. For instance, there's this arrogance
of doing things you've always done it because of the
way you've always done it. My dad, till the day
he died, swore that his soap was the right soap,
and it was that old Irish soap, and he thought
it smelled like Ireland. And every time I smell the soap, yes,
I have this loving memory my dad, But I also
remember the toxic, noxious smell of this stuff hitting the nostrils.
You probably, for a lifetime use the same soap, and
I'm here to tell you it's probably made by a
company that probably doesn't care about your values and probably
doesn't care about your skin. They simply care about you
feeling clean. On the other end of the equation, there's
Alan Soaps. It's made in America by a family with
three generations of soap making expertise. It has no chemicals
in it at all. All the fragrances are unique. It
comes from the mind of a young guy named Alan.
He has been through eighteen operations. He's at the age
of fourteen, and right now, this world's best soap is
something more.
Speaker 5: Yes, it's a.
Speaker 1: Place Alan works, his brother works. They're also impacted by autism.
But it's also a chance for you to do something
incredible for yourself, soap that actually cleans you and is
good for the soul and helping a company make a
difficult transition. The guy who started the company for his sons,
John is on his way to the Lord sometime, probably
coming in April, April to August. He'll go to the Lord.
His wife's taking over. Go try this soap when you.
Speaker 5: Love it, subscribe.
Speaker 1: It's not a charity, it's a full fledged company. It's
Alan Soaps dot Com slash todd. Alan Soaps dot Com
slash Todd hand over a well run company to John's
wife so she can continue the legacy of hiring people
like Alan and Ian. Now here's my concern. It's thirty
million dollars per year. If you're saying there's three point
six million babies born in the United States every year,
which is the numbers that's it's I found.
Speaker 5: So it's okay, fine, that's nothing.
Speaker 1: You know, we're already three hundred trillion dollars in real
debt if you count the off books debt, that's no ingose.
Speaker 4: I think that would be I think that would not
be thirty three hundred and sixty millionayere.
Speaker 5: Oh sorry, what did I say? I said, are you
three thirty? Okay?
Speaker 1: So three hundred and sixty million a year? Three hundred
and sixty million a year. Now that's again small money
when we're three hundred trillion dollars in debt. Here's my concern.
You're a democrat, why is it just a thousand bucks?
So this needs to go up costs of living? Incidentally,
why are the black and brown people at getting more?
And what about this company in that company? And why
is it the S and P five hundred? Why isn't
select companies? What about the green companies? Why are we
having people investment? There's oil companies in here, there's defense
contractors in here.
Speaker 5: Well, look can't you have that? That's that's this is
my perduceiction.
Speaker 1: If they don't lock this into say it is a
thousand bucks, or tie it to some ratio of income
or ratio of debt, something where it's predetermined, make it
hard to change. If I'm a democrat, getting into office. Man,
I can't wait to take this thing and blow it out.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I.
Speaker 4: But here's the here's the tough part about where we are.
When you try to start, I think back to George
Bush talking about compassionate conservatism.
Speaker 5: I was checking his watch during the debate. Who am I?
Why am I here?
Speaker 3: Yeah? There? You run into a you run into an
issue when.
Speaker 4: Look you as a society, I think you've got to
determine what is the most important thing to you and
if individualism and liberty and personal liberty or the mo
to important things to you, which I think they should be,
because that is the antithesis of the greatest threat that
government poses to anybody.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 4: When things have been too good for too long, people
only see the downside of things and they quit viewing
the upside. And the reason they quit viewing the upside
is because the upside's baked into the cake.
Speaker 3: They take it for granted.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: For instance, you go listen to these kids talk.
Speaker 4: They think that they can get socialism payouts and socialism
aspects and not lose any of the.
Speaker 3: Upsides of capitalism, you know what I mean? Yes, And
you look at them and go, guys, that's not how
it works.
Speaker 4: Okay, now, I understand why you're frustrated, and you have
every right to be frustrated. But you're not witnessing the
failure of capitalism. You're which you're you're witnessing the failure
of capitalism receding. Right, You're you're witnessing the unholy union
of big corporations and big government. That's what you're witnessing.
That's what's throwing all this off. And the empirical evidence
is startling. Let's go sector by sector in the United
States and see how many competitors there are in each sector.
That number has been absolutely decimated.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So if you want to know why more of the
riches are not getting down to the working class, it's
because large corporations are not competing nearly as hardly for
that talent anymore. Right, And and that's why, right, increased
competition equals increase pay.
Speaker 3: They just think about it.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So you've got it's like going to like a marketplace
for employment. If you've got one hundred employers there bidding
for talent versus three, who do you think is going
to get a better deal?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: And so that's that's the that is the most frustrating.
Part of this whole thing is the people thinking that
the way to fix this is given, and you go no, no,
because you don't understand if we give you that, you're
going to lose that right, right, and you're assuming that's still.
Speaker 3: That's still going to be there. It's not the way
it works.
Speaker 4: And yet at the same time, it has created this
incredible inequity, right, meaning we've never had a wealth gap
like this in the country.
Speaker 3: And the greatest crime.
Speaker 4: Of that to me is capitalism is getting blamed for
big government and big business cabal and it's not an accident.
Speaker 3: This was big business.
Speaker 4: Now I think part of it is on the government side,
and that's reflective in the fact that we no longer
have the best and brightest in government because I think
a lot of them were just duped and I just
think a lot of them aren't smart. But this was
big business's strategy, right. We've talked about regulatory capture. That
didn't happen on accident. They knew that, right. So what
you're seeing is the results of big business and really
smart people gaming the system, tricking politicians.
Speaker 3: And getting them to do exactly what they want. And
wouldn't you know that.
Speaker 4: That is correlated to previously unheard of corporate profits at
the expense to the working guy.
Speaker 3: And so that was the strategy. That was the strategy
all along.
Speaker 1: Yes, if you reverse engineer back to where things began,
you can look at the you can observe the design
of the thing by what the thing does. Okay, so
here's what the thing does that you're talking about. The
thing does this. It takes some people, a class of people.
It's designed to make them perpetual renters, perpetual people buying
on credit, people who never truly own a thing.
Speaker 5: And it's designed to create a.
Speaker 1: Class of people who are worker bees because they have
to be forever. If I were to take this back
to one article, I would take it back to This
was probably gosh, fifteen years ago, back when I was
working in tech and doing stuff with Microsoft, and we
had the people from Detroit out and they were talking
about taking all cars and turning them into rentals. They
saw this coming then most cars.
Speaker 5: Are unused during the day.
Speaker 1: They were got behind in the sharing economy, they got
flanked by Uber, but they had this vision, why do
we sell a car once?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: We could make so much more money if we owned
the cars, and we simply leased the cars hour by hour.
Now you have a whole generation of kids who've been
taught they don't need to drive, they don't need to
have their own car. That this is Now it's being
extended into apartments. I was talking to a young person
the other day who's working hard, you know, four twelves
in a row for seventeen bucks an hour, because this
is what they can find. There's some tips, and she's
talking to me about apartments and she says, the apartment
I can afford is that the lowest. And this is
in Spokane, Washington, eighteen hundred bucks a month. Geez, spoke cane, Washington,
she said. And this isn't a bad neighborhood. And this
is a studio apartment spoke cane stink in Washington, eighteen
hundred bucks a month. And there's no park. And now
this is someone who's talking about having to rent a
car to get to work because camp park.
Speaker 5: And I'm not here to create a sob story.
Speaker 1: I'm here to say to this young person, Look, this
is why you need to be in business for yourself.
This is why you need to use entrepreneurial skills. You
are not stuck in this station. God has a design
for you. You can beat these things. You need to
beat this, and you know, we're talking about things to
do that. But in the sector she's working in, she's
watching AI come and eat the senior jobs. She saw
people tossed out of jobs because of AI. She's already
seen this. She's twenty one and she's seeing this stuff.
So yes, all this stuff is by design. So on
the side of what President Trump is doing here this
prosperity accounts. Okay, that's helpful. But then there's this. It's
the inflationary nature of it. You think Wall Street doesn't
know this is here, and the big companies don't know
this is here. Hey, here's the way you can spend
your stock money, etc. So this has to come along
with actual literacy. And then I think we may be
in the business act of needing to break some things up,
like for instance, and this is close to your heart,
and we'll talk about this rarer thing. We need to
talk about the build on the White House because it's
insane how they're responding. It's not a conspiracy, it's simply
the way banks do business. They don't tell you every
little detail of your financial dealings. For instance, your bank
did not tell you that they didn't really set up
corporate credit for you. I mean, you may well have
taken out a business loan. You may well pay on
that business loan. If you took out the loan, I
hope you do pay on it. You probably got a
credit card that's really pretty cool. It's got your logo
on it. That feels cool to use because it's your
business name. It might have been five years ago, it
might have been ten years ago. Now, if you were
to let's say the fault on that loan, God forbid.
Let's say the business went under. Let's say there was
a force measure and.
Speaker 5: Act of God that took the business down.
Speaker 1: If you think you have corporate credit, you will find
out when your bank comes and says, we're going to
need to take the money out of your savings account,
We're gonna need to seize your home.
Speaker 5: You might well go to your bank and say, what
are you talking about.
Speaker 1: I have a corporation. This happened to the corporation, not me.
You can only go after the corporation. Your bank may
tell you, no, that's not true. We made sure it's
not true. We never open corporate credit for you. We
put it in a business name, but it's based upon
your personal credit. Now that's one bad scenario that go
bisible can save you from.
Speaker 5: They'll tell you if you have actual corporate credit.
Speaker 1: Their website is gobisible dot com and they'll tell you
that for free, absolutely free information, Go bisible dot com.
Speaker 5: That's one scenario.
Speaker 1: Another scenario is this, it's not your bank, but it's
a nasty lawsuit.
Speaker 5: Maybe it's a competitor, maybe it's lawfare.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's an employee you forced to fire and that
employee got angry so he sued you.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: See again, you might think all they can go after
is the corporate but again, the first thing the lawyer
is going to check to see is do you have
the corporate veil? You probably don't, and if you don't,
then they can go after your own accounts. Go bisible
will tell you, for free and a free no obligation
consultation if you have the corporate veil or not. If
you do not, they'll fix it for you in seven
easy steps. Just go to their website and sign up
for the free no obligation consultation. The website is gobisible
dot com. That's with a z gobisible dot com. I
was just reading that Blackstone and Blackrock are they they
must watch you because you've given them some financial advice.
They're now going out and buying up energy utilities as
fast as they can find them. They're buying up energy
producers as quickly as they can find the United States.
And they're like that Abraham guy, he's his genius. But Zach,
once they own these things, this is beyond means of production.
I mean, this is up level of means of production.
Now it's means of energy. We may need as conservatives
to say maybe part of conservitism missaying to a black
Rock and Blackstone.
Speaker 5: No, you guys don't get to own this much.
Speaker 1: Sorry, you are a virtual monopoly over far too many things.
Does that sound like sacrilege to you?
Speaker 4: No, we have to look, it's it's and and here's
going into it, and there's there's a lot of example.
There's many examples of this in the past. But going
into it, if we are true free market people and
true capitalists, we are going to have to make some
decisions that don't taste very good. Because I am very sympathetic,
I've got clients sit there and go absolutely not competition, Zach, you,
It'll take care of itself over time. Da da da,
And I'm and I just firmly disagree. I believe that
when you look at the EcoSpheres that these guys have built,
and when you look at how intelligent they are, when
you look at the mistakes that they are not making,
for the most part, i'd set Apple aside. Apple to
me is like the classic big company. They're they're losing
the narrative in my opinion, and they're descending. The rest
of them have done incredibly well at staying vigilant and
staying on top of things and continuing to push the
edge like so other companies haven't. Because if you look
at and I know I'm not telling you anything you
don't know, but if you look at the arc of
most corporations, you get to a point when when you
get to the point of dominance or behemoth, that's usually
your zenith because you start believing that you know, you
believe your own hype, you lose dynamism and then somebody
catches up to you and passes you by. Right, these
guys have been remarkably efficient and remarkably successful at not
allowing that to happen. Right, Unlike any other companies we've
seen in the past, there's always been this atrophy that
you see. And like I said, Apple is not done
by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 3: But to me, they're a good example.
Speaker 4: Right, look at the lack of dynamism, look at the
lack of innovation, look at the lack of revolutionary products
that have come out in the last Right, they're not
taking chances and they're not pressing the edges like they
used to. But most of those big companies are they've
learned that lesson and they are not nearly as vulnerable.
Speaker 3: As big conglomerates were in the past.
Speaker 4: And we're gonna have to do some things that feel undemocratic.
We're gonna have to do some things that feel like
not free market because and we're gonna have to do
those things to save capitalism because if we go down,
like you said, you cannot have somebody that is controlling
you know, I don't even know how much black Rock has,
but but but like think about the level the amount
of votes that they control at publicly traded companies because
of their passive ETFs right, Right, and then you simultaneously
give allow those people to control large swaths of the
energy market. I just I don't unders stand how that
is not a massive conflict.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, you think of this.
Speaker 1: They own the energy markets that supply the power to
the houses they own, where they own neighborhoods, entire neighborhoods.
They own the fuel that's delivered to the neighborhoods. They
own controlling shares over the cable news that goes into
the houses. They own controlling shares over the government, or
they own massive influence over how government invests its money.
Blackrock says, we need liquidation, we need to pump capital,
We need quantitative easing to the tune of three hundred
and sixty billion dollars. And the Fed turns around and
does this twice for them, and the Treasury breaks the
law and goes and gives that money to them through
money laundering.
Speaker 5: We can't have that.
Speaker 1: They own the land beneath the houses, they own the
building companies, they own the controlling shares of that. They're
buying up farmland along with Bill Gates, et cetera. Now
here's the means of food production, and it's not just here.
They own it globally, and they've done this with the
help of government, where you told me I didn't know this.
They get zero interest rate loans that are not available
to us.
Speaker 5: Those aren't loans.
Speaker 1: Those are gifts that you pay back if you feel
like it. That's not capitalism. That's the China model, just
not yet in the complete control. So I can convince
myself by this that it's it's conservative to go and say, yeah,
we're breaking this up black Rock. You need to separate
into separate countries, vanguards, you need to separate into separate companies.
You can't have this much of our ownership of everything.
That doesn't even feel wrong to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, and it doesn't.
Speaker 4: And to be clear on the loan thing, structurally, the
way it works, it's not like they go and take
out big Now they can take out big loans from
the Federal Reserve at that rate. But when I'm talking
about them getting access cheap capital usually the way what
I'm referring to. Just to be clear, I just want
to make sure everybody's clear on this. Yeah, is that
you know, and I've heard a lot of people make
this comment. If your money is sitting an account at
a bank, and let's say you look at it right now,
and you're making one and a quarter percent interest. Okay,
that on that safe Now. I know the people like
exact they got high yield.
Speaker 3: No, I know that. I know that.
Speaker 4: But like in your brokerage account, you know, if you
sell some stock, it's sitting in that account. You look
at that account and it's probably paying you a one
percent okay, something like that. What most people don't realize
is that is their cost of capital, right because then
then that what they're doing is they're turning around and
taking your money and buying us government bonds that are
stay paying four Okay. So when I talk about them
having a negative cost of capital, what I mean is
they've got a negative cost of capital when it comes
to everybody else. Meaning if I can borrow at one
and invest at for I've got a positive carry of
three percent, not even using my own money. And so
they and they can invent like that's the way banks work.
They can do that.
Speaker 3: That's totally legal.
Speaker 4: They can keep as much of that interest earned off
that cash as they want to, assuming that's the type
of account it is, right, they've got to say that.
But and so look that money on account with them,
that's sitting there in cash. That's money that they can
use and invest in other places. So what is their
cost on that capital? It's like one percent. Well, in
a four percent world, that's a zerouse. That's zero percent
cost of capital. Yeah, right, Just it's an unfair advantage
that they've got when they can access capital at a
cheaper price than anybody else can. Why are you allowing
them to transact in retail markets? It's structurally unfair, right.
Speaker 1: And then there's the thing you've taught me about where
they get to skip into the line to buy things
based upon signals that us, us stupid monkeys are buying.
Speaker 3: And this is the high frequency trading.
Speaker 1: Yeah, high frequency trading where this is insane that we
you know, there's this these programs like robin Hood that
pretends to be in this for the you know, the
retail and investor and no fees, et cetera. Wow, that's cool.
I can invest with no fees, right, because we're observing
the things you want to buy, and then we give
the big investors the ability to hop in by it
just before all these massive people do and then sell
it to you at more than you would have paid.
Speaker 5: And this is legal. This is insane. This is someone.
Speaker 1: This is like ticketmasters saying, here's how much the you know,
rolling stones and pearl jam, roll the bones and the
wheelchairs out to watch people perform show you can go
and hey, here's all the rush. But now rich people
get to go buy the seats and sell them to
you at a five percent markup. And they don't even
do five percent, it's like one half percent. But the
volume on this is massive. We don't get to do
that that and they're saying they defend this as putting
liquidity into the markets.
Speaker 5: No you are.
Speaker 1: They's a sure bat.
Speaker 4: Look they defend it the same way that I put
this in the same category as the carried in for sloopole.
Yeah right, meaning meaning everybody including Warren Buffett de cries it,
but it never gets repealed and they all use it, right, so.
Speaker 3: So and and and this one is just like.
Speaker 4: That because what you're describing there, it really is like
a financial investment or whatever, like uh, like dairy farm,
meaning right, there's they're stacking y'all in there, and they're
they're taking residuals off you, they're clipping those coupons off you,
and it's almost like you're in like a financial prison,
you know what I mean, where you've got to keep
paying the rate, You got to keep paying this fee,
you got to pay that fee. And and and you
brought up a classic one, you know, Robinhood and and
and this was what's so frustrating to me about people.
How I don't understand how you have adults that realize
that nothing is free or meaning, yeah, don't realize, right,
nothing is free. So, so Robinhood is a public listed company.
They don't charge any fees. The first question in your
mind goes should be like, Okay, how.
Speaker 3: Is that possible?
Speaker 5: How do they make money?
Speaker 4: Yeah, how do they make money? Well, they sell your information. Okay,
look at how much money they're making. Now ask yourself,
why is somebody paying that much money for your information?
Because it's a guaranteed bet right, yep. How much do
you pay for a guaranteed winner as much as somebody asks? Yep, right,
as long as there's a guaranteed win on the other
side of it.
Speaker 3: So, and how do they defend it?
Speaker 4: They defend it because they get told all of this
nonsense by people that it improves price that and they
show them all their charts and all their stuff, and
again reflective of the fact that we don't have smart
people in office anymore.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: And then on top of that, they noticed that a
political action committee while they're talking to this company, just
happen to dump five million dollars into their reelection campaign.
Speaker 3: And now all of a sudden, those charts and everything.
You know what, man, this is good for a vestors.
Speaker 4: Look look at this, right, this is good for investors.
Speaker 3: You know what, We need to let them do this.
This work.
Speaker 4: And on the surface it is when they say that
it improves liquidity and volumes and price execution markets, they
are correct, okay, But again as adults, what is it
at what cost? At what cost? This is because what
you've done. What you've done is you've built another apparatus
that is designed not to deliver value but to scalp
it from unknowing consumers.
Speaker 3: That's what you've done.
Speaker 4: So the cost of that will be a lack of trust,
greater wealth, inequality. So any benefits you say this provides
the market, I think it is a very very logical
conclusion to come to that the benefits do not come
close to outweighing the costs.
Speaker 5: I tell people this all the time.
Speaker 1: If you're using a free service like Facebook, understand something,
you're the product. Yes, anytimes it's free, you are the product.
Anytime it's radically discounted, you are the product, for instance,
and this sometimes it's things you even pay for. There
are places in America still where there's one cable provider.
Do you remember back in the days when there were
big time competitions for inter service providers, had all these
local ISPs. I still remember some of them. C nets
were was one in Seattle, had all these local ISPs,
and then the cable companies are having trouble competing with
them because they could provide services they couldn't. They went
to Congress and they lobbied them out of existence with
fees and regulations in institutional capture.
Speaker 5: So there are places in New York where you have
one cable company and.
Speaker 3: We have that in my area.
Speaker 4: Okay, only if you want internet or cable, there is
only one place to get it, and it's regulated.
Speaker 5: And they purchased that. They purchased you.
Speaker 1: How much are we bid to provide cable for this area?
They purchased you, and then they simply mark you up
and they sell you to someone else. That's what Robin
Hood's doing. These are things that should be broken up.
It is not capitalism, it is a perversion of it.
And one other thing I wanted to check off with you,
and I do want to talk about this, this thing
at the White House. No one wants to see stuff
like this. No one wants to see the outcome of this.
A young man who's gone through that. No one wants to.
Speaker 5: See the after effects of war. Anybody not up close.
Speaker 1: You know, to talk about it changes people. My friend
Tim Krukshank, three separate times, went and was deployed on
my behalf in yours. I'm wearing one of team shirts today,
Bone Frog Classic shirt, and three separate times he did
that as a medic attached to the Seal teams, so
he was in the business of reviving and saving the
lives of terrorists they confronted on the battlefield so that
they could be interrogated. He was in the business of
rushing to try to save the lives of fallen teammates
and often succeeding, sometimes not being able to save their lives,
and being with them as they passed on. He had
the experience of shooting ats and being shot ats, placing
explosives and such, and he came home decided to teach
other people how to become Navy seals. He did that
for a while at Buds as a Buds instructor. All
the while in his mind he was constructing the coffee
company he runs today, called bone Frog. It began with this,
what will I call my coffee company? He went through
several names, landed on bone Frog, and the insignia of
the bone Frog indicates a fallen Navy sealed. Makes sense
since he was a medic or some people say Corman
Tims's medics, so I'll say what he says. And then
the coffee company began to take shape. Coffee's a big
thing when you are down, it's a hell week and
you're one of the instructors and you get to have coffee,
and the people going through it don't, but you do.
And when he founded the company, then he went and
was very honest with himself. I don't know a bloomin
stinking thing about making coffee. So he went and did
what seals did. He put together a team, brought on
Dave Stewart as a mentor. They he makes some of
the roast. He mentors the team Dave started Seattle's Best Coffee,
which is a legendary coffee company. When you buy from
bone Frog, you are supporting the fallen. The families have
fallen Navy Seals. Ten percent of proceeds go to them.
Every time. You're supporting a company that stands proudly with God.
H beg says God Country Team, and you will enjoy
the best coffee in the world, made either through the
mentoring or the direct work of a coffee legend who
got in the way of Starbucks so much that they
had to give him a ton of money. To buy
Seattle's Best Coffee. There's no downside. Go subscribe to their
coffee Bonefrog Coffee dot com, slash todd. Use promo code
todd to get fifteen percent off subscription in Coffee for Life.
And yes there are people buying Christmas presents already. I
know Halloween's not here, but yeah, you could buy this
shirt Bonefrogcoffee dot Com slash todd. So the Rare Earth
deal with what with Australia. President Trump is really touting this,
they signed this, and China is trying to own the
rare Earth markets. They're trying to own cf Seawater they're
trying to own salt. They want to own all the silicon.
I mean, they want to own everything. And is this
meaningful for us as you guys have studied it? If
you're an let's had a chance to look at this,
that we're not going to be able to get rare
earths from Australia and this is apparently going to help
us as you guys, have you looked at this at all?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: Yeah, Tonska and I should we be happy?
Speaker 3: Yes? And no?
Speaker 4: I mean I'm happy that they're recognizing the issue here.
The issue is one that has been decades in the making.
It's also a very ironic conversation because the reason you
don't have rare earth production here in any serious level.
You've got a little bit, but not very much, is
because it is a very polluting process.
Speaker 3: It really is. And so can you do it here? Yeah?
Speaker 4: But think about how much more expensive it is going
to be to do it here than to do it
somewhere in Africa or somewhere in China.
Speaker 3: I mean, let's be on right.
Speaker 4: And that's one of the things I've laughed so much
about the climate cabal and all the climate people. Yeah, right,
they're all Levy in their sites. What do they talk
about all the time they talk about us in Europe, yep,
us in you're a part of the source of anywhere
close to all of the carbon being pumped out. Right,
So when they're not talking about China, you know, the
fixes in because there's there are monetary reasons for why
they're not right, like you, I'm not telling you anything
you don't know obviously or your listeners even but the
environment doesn't care whether carbon's coming from China or whether
it's coming from America.
Speaker 3: Right, it's a it's all fungible, it's all so.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, the ludicrous, just the lunacy of the
whole thing is is mind numbing. But what we've done
is because of that environmental those environmental issues, you have
virtually no domestic production. And if you think about that,
that's ridiculous because these rares. I mean, if you don't
have rares, you're not making missiles. Right, if you don't
ma have rors, you're not making satellites, you're not making automobiles,
you're not making so many of these different things that
you can't live without. And so this is kind of
that what I remember people referring to it is that suicide.
The suicidal club that is is then the environmental lobby
and the extremists, because they are literally putting a gun
to our head economically. And so you look at China
right now. China responded saw that. You know, they're not
worried about the environments. So their attitude is pull those
suckers out of anywhere you can possibly get them. But
what we're doing to strengthen bonds with other countries that
produce them, we have to do that. We also need
to pass some legislation that expedites the build out of
those minds, because you are probably somewhere and then if
you start today, you're probably in the neighborhood of six
to eight years away from producing any serious amount of
rare earth metals out of now. I'm sure there's some
projects that you could turn on quicker. The question is
is what is the yield off of them going to be?
What percentage of the demand will it make up. My
belief is that if you expedited it, cut a lot
of red tape within six to eight years, you could
have a meaningful amount of domestic production That might be
over aggressive on mind, it may be closer to ten.
But if you're not passing that kind of stuff at
the same time, then all of this is for not
We have all the natural resources we need here, and
we need to make it permanent policy that a certain
percentage of that production will never go down, right, And
if you need government subsidies for that, then then then
that's that is the kind of thing you should be
subsidizing rather than corn.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you, have you seen the unprecedented
and frightening I don't even know how to defend this,
but President Trump has sent backos and cranes to destroy
the walls of the White House.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean he yeah, and the country. I mean,
he's a tyrant and he's an authoritarian.
Speaker 1: And I'm putting a picture into the show notes because
people have to see this.
Speaker 5: It is a picture of the.
Speaker 1: White House, the whole White House from the sky. There's
the West wing, there's the residence, there's the East wing.
Then there's the parts of the rebuild that President Trump
is rebuilding. And this speaks to the poisoner media. I
am torn on whether I like donors paying for this.
I probably don't, because it's a way to buy the
president off. I want to know how much money the
President's putting into this. I like the fact in a
way it's not the taxpayers doing this. But Zach I
was listening to local television news simulcast SUN Radio. It's
kicks Y, ABC affiliate out of Spokane. I do this
to torture myself. In the morning, they do the weather,
they do a story about a local nonprofit. Then I'm
not kidding you, it's boom boom boom, breaking news now
from Washington, d C. A crane can be seen on
the east side of the White House tearing the walls
off the White House in a construction project two hundred
and eighty million dollars. Critics say it's happening too quickly
and there's not enough transparency in this. They're demanding more
transparency in the process. President Trump remise people that don't
should pay for this. Now onto sports and it's the
grim mouse Stone take on this, and it's the panic
thing and they're cutting.
Speaker 3: Live to this.
Speaker 1: They are never going to get the fact that they
continue to show utter hatred for people who.
Speaker 5: Are not them in the Musclebard media. I mean, I
don't know.
Speaker 4: This is a little bit off the beaten path. But
I was watching a social media clip last night. Yeah,
and there kind of protest somewhere. Yeah, and this, this
white protester is going after this black guy wearing MAGA stuff.
Speaker 5: No, this is out of Portland.
Speaker 4: We ran this, yes, yeah, yeah, and telling him you're
a despicable piece action, right, right, And he goes, you
hate yourself, you have self loathing.
Speaker 3: And I'm listening to all of that and going.
Speaker 4: Because he's black and doesn't think like you, ruddy, you
know what we call that?
Speaker 3: That's racism.
Speaker 5: Right, you are a racist.
Speaker 3: Right, You're a racist.
Speaker 4: You are literally exactly because the black man, which you
have no experience, walking in his shoes, you're telling him
because he doesn't think like you.
Speaker 3: How was that different than Jim crow laws. Right?
Speaker 4: Jim crow laws were because they didn't look like us.
Now the new Jim Crow laws are just about if
you don't think like us.
Speaker 3: And right, it's the same thing.
Speaker 1: I saw that same clip, and Zach, I'm a Christian man.
I turned the other cheek. I don't want my flushed
heize up. I want to be in the spirit. But
I come from a time where if you as a
white dude went to a black dude and said, you
are a disgrace to your race. Where what you're saying
is I would like my butt kicked. Sorry, I mean,
and that's what you were saying. Or do you remember this?
This is the soft, bigger tree of little expectations. I
heard this once back when I was like six years old,
and my mom was so offended. And I didn't get
it because as a kid, a man said to a
black waiter at a hotel, we were there because my
aunties once a year would take us to a nice
place for dinner.
Speaker 5: Like fancy place. And a man said to a waiter
as he was giving him a cash chip, he said,
you're a real credit to your race.
Speaker 1: And my mom looked over there and got this red face,
and she I could tell.
Speaker 5: She said, sisters, what's wrong? She we'll talk about it later.
We'll talk about it later. And we got into the car.
What was wrong? He gave him a company? He did not, No,
he did not.
Speaker 1: As if one black man is the one person who
can get the get service right at a table.
Speaker 4: It's like, Hey, you're the only honest black man I've
ever met.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know that, you know what I mean, you're like, well,
that was the what was it Biden talking about?
Speaker 5: It was Biden talking about Obama man his storybook.
Speaker 1: I tell you he's clean, articulate, no discernible Negro accent.
Speaker 4: Or what he said to them. If if you don't
vote for me, you're not black, I vote for me.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you some of you you ain't black.
Speaker 3: By Son Hunter's black.
Speaker 5: I know, I know, well, we got off track.
Speaker 4: The the no, but the it's, it's the undercover racism
of it all is just astonishing. And yeah, we've even
had we've had to deal with some very minute issues
surrounding racial stuff at the kids' school.
Speaker 3: Very minute.
Speaker 4: But it it amazes me how bad words some of
the thoughts are on that side, especially on the left.
Speaker 3: It's unhinged. Yeah, but even even on the right. I just.
Speaker 4: We like the it's it is so reductive what we're
currently doing, because as we move forward as as a people,
everybody should the response to racism should you, So everybody
should quit caring about it, you know what I mean. Like,
I've always said that a hallmark of the end of
racism would be listening to a group, a diverse group
of kids talk and say the most horrific racial things
to each other and then crack each other up and
laughing about it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying I want to hear that.
Speaker 4: I don't allow my kids to make racial What I'm
saying is when we get to a point where we
can laugh and joke about those differences, that's the end
of racism, not the memorializing of those differences.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well said super Well said. I was great to
get wise counsel from you, brother. Thank you for coming on.
It's Know Your riskpodcast dot com. Zach Abraham's work. This
is a Todd Herbert show. Please go, be well, be strong,
be kind, and go make every effort to walk in
the line of Christ.