The Breakdown

Latest Episodes:

TikTok Doge Is Everything About 2020 Finance In One Story Jul 09, 2020

Show notes

What’s old is new again!

What happens when you combine a mostly hibernating memecoin with the world’s most powerful (and controversial) meme platform, and throw in a new generation of daytraders that have become convinced that they can drive the price of anything up?

The great TikTok Doge pump of 2020, of course.

In this episode, NLW breaks down:

The history of Dogecoin
How TikTok became one of the most popular, influential, and controversial apps in the world
Why the r/WallStreetBets, Davey Day Trader Global Global, and Robinhood Rally day trader movement perfectly set up this pump
How #TikTokDogecoinChallenge began to trend
What has happened to Dogecoin since the trend started
Why this all makes a weird sort of cynical sense

Central Banks Cannot Print Jobs: Understanding Real Economic Recovery, feat. Daniel Lacalle Jul 08, 2020

Show notes

Today on the Brief:

Social media apps get caught in geopolitical tensions
Pitchforks around the Paycheck Protection Program
Brazil blocks Binance

Our main discussion is with Daniel Lacalle. Daniel is chief economist at Tressis and is the author of numerous books including “Life in the Financial Markets,” “Escape from the Central Bank Trap” and his most recent, “Freedom or Equality.” He has been named one of the 100 most influential economists in the world by Richtopia.

In this conversation, he and NLW discuss:

Why the recovery will likely be “L” shaped and uneven, not “V” shaped
Why the “bailout of everything” undermines capitalism and promotes zombie companies that can’t service their debts
Why zombie companies crowd out space for startups and small businesses
How government programs can incentivize relationships with government over strong business practices
How the current economic crisis could become a banking crisis

Find our guest online:

Website: dlacalle.com
Twitter: @dlacalle_IA

China Stocks Surge and NYC Real Estate Craters: 5 Stories Shaping Markets Today Jul 07, 2020

Show notes

In this extended Brief, NLW tells the story of the economy through five themes:

The story of the economy as told by five macroeconomic indicators including Chinese stocks, New York City real estate, coronavirus cases and more.

China stocks surge – but how much is it driven by Chinese state-sponsored media hype?
A tale of two cities – real estate in New York City and Hong Kong are telling very different stories
A global currency crisis in Lebanon - foodstuffs are up 100% in the last two weeks as the pound continues to falter
The COVID-19 ticker - daily cases continue to grow in the U.S. but deaths are declining
The cost of the U.S. losing its place in the world - from travelers turned away in Italy to decreasing capital inflows
Plus a bonus: what the Nasdaq all-time highs really mean

Why Bitcoin Matters For Freedom [Long Reads Sunday] Jul 05, 2020

Show notes

An appropriate post-July 4th episode of the Breakdown's #LongReadsSunday featuring Human Rights Foundation CSO Alex Gladstein's "Why Bitcoin Matters For Freedom"

Read the original on Time

Follow Alex on Twitter

It’s Time for a Revolution in Financial Education, Feat. Tyrone Ross Jul 04, 2020

Show notes

Financial education and financial literacy are at crisis levels in this country. Financial advisers spend billions on advertising but a fraction of that on education. The resources that are available tend to be inaccessible and not designed for the people who need them most. Financial media remains a boring, exclusionary acronym game.

The net result of all of this is a population of Americans who don’t have the mental tools to understand, make sense of and make good decisions around their finances.

In this passionate conversation with NLW, financial adviser Tyrone Ross argues that all hope is not lost. According to Tyrone:

Financial literacy is a cross-cutting crisis not limited to any one demographic
Even the resources that do exist aren’t designed for the way their intended targets consume media
Despite all the bad things happening, this moment is also providing an inflection point where change is possible

Find our guest online:Website: tyroneross.io

Twitter: @TR401

Here’s How to Expand Who Contributes to Bitcoin Core Jul 04, 2020

Show notes

OKCoin and BitMEX recently came together to provide a $150,000 grant to Bitcoin Core developer Amiti Uttarwar.

In this conversation, Amiti and OKCoin CEO Hong Fang discuss:

Why OKCoin believes it is essential for companies in the space to support Bitcoin Core development
How OKCoin and BitMEX came together around this grant
Why Amiti is focused on the P2P layer
Why Amiti believes Bitcoin should be private by default
Why Bitcoin Core will better serve more populations if more populations are represented in who is building it

Find our guests online:

Hong Fang Website: https://www.okcoin.com/Twitter: @hfangca

Amiti Uttarwar

Twitter: @amizi

Why the Robinhood Revolution Is the Future of Finance, Feat. Jill Carlson Jul 03, 2020

Show notes

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, Reddit’s WallStreetBets channel was featured on the cover of Bloomberg BusinessWeek as an emerging market force.

Since then, between the surge in signups for Robinhood and the wave of followers of Davey Day Trader Global Global, these day traders have taken an even bigger place in the conversation about the stock market.

While many finance professionals (and, most certainly, traditional financial media) have treated the movement with skepticism, paternalism or outright derision, Slow Ventures’ Jill Carlson has a very different view.

To Jill, this group represents a new wave of investors who are unwilling to wait for permission to play a game that has been largely closed off to most.

In this conversation, Jill talks about why the Robinhood revolution is very, very real, and what opportunities for entrepreneurship and investing she sees in terms of financial education, new exchange tools and more.

Find our guest online:Website: jill-carlson.com Twitter: @jillruthcarlson

Satoshi’s Unappreciated Marketing Genius, Feat. Dan Held Jul 02, 2020

Show notes

Satoshi Nakamoto is often recognized for his technical genius in solving the double spend problem. He is also widely revered for his willingness to walk away from the protocol to make it stronger, something no other entrepreneur who has created anything on the scale of Bitcoin has ever done.

What people discuss less often is Satoshi’s marketing instincts. In this illuminating conversation, serial bitcoin entrepreneur Dan Held argues:

Satoshi had strong instincts about how price would drive bitcoin adoption
The bitcoin white paper document was a marketing pitch aimed specifically at the cypherpunks
The competition between bitcoin narratives is something that gives the protocol strength
The competition to shape bitcoin's narrative is truly free and open to all

‘It Sure Doesn’t Feel Like the Greatest Economy of All Time,’ Feat. George Gammon Jul 01, 2020

Show notes

What would you do if you were approaching your 40s, burned out and realizing the type of financial success you had been pursuing wasn’t actually serving your true goal of freedom?

If you were George Gammon, the answer would be to change everything and start globetrotting in search of new opportunities.

George Gammon is the host of the rapidly growing George Gammon YouTube channel and Rebel Capitalist podcast. He is rapidly building one of the most rapid macro and investing fanbases around.

In this Free Ideas Festival conversation, he and NLW discuss:

The pursuit of personal freedom
Producing a home-flipping TV show in Colombia
Why inflation is at the heart of people’s economic discontent
How crony capitalism is driving young people to Communism
Building a rapidly growing podcast and YouTube empire

How the Fed Fans the Flame - The Best of The Breakdown June 2020 Jun 30, 2020

Show notes

June 2020 will go down in the history books as an extremely chaotic and confusing period.

In this “Best of the Month” retrospective, we look at some of the best guest conversations from The Breakdown, including:

Human Rights Foundation CSO Alex Gladstein on the importance of cash for privacy
DigiChina Editor-in-Chief Graham Webster on China’s decade-long turn away from liberalism
Alhambra Investments lead researcher Jeff Snider on why the Federal Reserve’s power is a myth
Popular Front founder Jake Hanrahan on the media’s veneer of objectivity
Castle Island Ventures’ Nic Carter on why people should have rights to their social media profiles
The Crypto Dog on mining bitcoin in 2011
Independent macro analyst Jesse Felder on the Fed’s role in increasing inequality
BlockTower Capital’s Ari Paul on how people lose faith in central banks
“Think For Yourself” author Dr. Vikram Mansharamani on the recipe for inflation
Independent oil and trading expert Tracy Shuchart on how easy money enabled the shale revolution
Adamant Capital’s Tuur Demeester on historical analogies for seething discontent

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