The Higher Standard

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THS LIVE | Brent Jumps to $112, Then Drops on Iran Deal Reports as Nasdaq Pops To 2.3% Oct 21, 2026

Show notes

Oil just whipsawed on a headline. Brent spiked to $111.99 on Tuesday, then reversed and settled at $108.79 when a Qatar and Pakistan "compromise proposal" hit the wires, and Iran fired back that reports a deal is close are wrong. The IRGC says two tankers were set ablaze by its mines, and Kpler counts at least 18 vessels hit in two weeks. Here's the strange part: stocks don't care. The Nasdaq 100 is up 2.3% from Friday's close, the VIX sank from 20 to 16.65, and the 10-year is still parked above 5%. Then the UK printed 3.5% inflation against 3.4% expected, and the Bank of England is eyeing a hike. Is the market pricing peace or ignoring a lit fuse? We get into it live at 11.

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🔗 Resources:

UK Inflation Hits 11-Month High as Bank of England Eyes Rate Hike (Bloomberg)

U.K. Consumer Price Index (YoY) For September 3.5% Vs. 3.4% Est.; 3.1% Prior (Bezinga)

Oil prices fall as traders hope for diplomatic progress in Middle East (CNBC)

Iran Rejects Report That Deal Is 'Close' After Qatar, Pakistan Push 'Compromise Proposal' To End War (ZeroHedge)

Oil Prices Climb Above $110 as Middle East Supply Fears Persist (Yahoo! Finance)

⚠️ Disclaimer: Please note that the content shared on this show is solely for entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal or investment advice or attributed to any company. The views and opinions expressed are personal and not reflective of any entity. We do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided, and listeners are urged to seek professional advice before making any legal or financial decisions. By listening to The Higher Standard podcast you agree to these terms, and the show, its hosts and employees are not liable for any consequences arising from your use of the content.

He Built a $150M Wellness Empire Without Selling Out | Cymbiotika CEO Shahab Elmi | Ep 358 Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

What does it take to build a $150 million wellness empire without selling your soul - or your company - to the highest bidder? This week on The Higher Standard, Chris sits down with longtime friend Shahab Elmi, co-founder and CEO of Cymbiotika, for a conversation that goes well beyond vitamins and supplements. From betting on himself and building a bootstrapped business into a nine-figure brand to navigating the temptations of private equity, protecting product quality and learning that success means very little if your family gets the leftovers. Shahab pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to build something that lasts. Along the way, they tackle entrepreneurship, longevity, AI, fatherhood and why the most expensive ingredient in any successful business might just be integrity. Turns out, building different isn't a marketing slogan… it's a very expensive way of refusing to compromise. No games. No drama. No nonsense.

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🔗 Resources:

Official Website — Premium Supplements, Innovation & Wellness (Cymbiotika)

Co-Founder & CEO of Cymbiotika — Personal Instagram (Shahab Elmi @shahabelmi)

Cymbiotika — Independent Supplement Ratings, Brand TrustScore & Product Testing (SuppCo)

Cymbiotika Wellness Bar — Official Location & Information (Fontainebleau Las Vegas)

Dietary Supplements: What You Need to Know — Quality, Safety & Independent Verification (National Institutes of Health — Office of Dietary Supplements)

THS LIVE | France's Bond Yields Jump as 500,000 Hit the Streets & Bonds Stay Above 5% Oct 19, 2026

Show notes

Over the weekend more than 500,000 people marched across France, with cars set on fire and over 2,000 arrests. This morning French 10-year yields jumped more than 10 basis points, the CAC 40 is down about 1.7%, and France now pays more to borrow than Italy or Greece. It lands on a US market that was already jumpy: since Friday’s show the 10-year is up about 6 basis points to 5.15%, Brent is near $110, and the VIX has climbed from 16 to 18. So is France a one-day scare, or the first crack in a global bond market that’s running out of buyers? We’re going live to work through it.

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🔗 Resources:

French unrest compounds debt crisis fears. Paris-listed stocks, bonds and the euro fall (CNBC)

Euro drops amid high energy prices and street riots in France (Reuters)

US rate rises are being amplified in global markets (FT Markets)

Pimco Sees A 6% 10-Year... Here's Why "Bad Inflation" Caps Yields (ZeroHedge)

Brent Flirts With $110 Before Reversing As Wright Declares Pump Prices Have "Peaked" (ZeroHedge)

Will Oil Prices Decline as Middle East Supply Recovers? (Goldman Sachs)

THS LIVE | An AI Debt Bomb, CoreWeave's Bond Rout, Rate Hike Fears, & Who Pays the Bill Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

CoreWeave's bonds just hit 16% yield — that's distress territory, folks, and it's telling you everything you need to know about where the AI boom actually stands right now. The stock is down 22% this week alone, shedding nearly $10 billion in market cap, as the bond market does what the equity crowd refuses to: price in reality. We're talking about a company with $50 billion in debt, a $626 million net loss last quarter, and net interest expenses that literally exceeded its operating income — all while the Fed just hiked in September and markets spent Monday through Thursday pricing in another move at the October 27th meeting at nearly 50/50 odds. Then Friday morning Warsh speaks at the IMF in Bangkok, says nothing, keeps his cards close, and suddenly those odds collapse to 14%. Meanwhile Warsh is out here calling AI "the most consequential economic shift" of his lifetime and warning the Fed may need to rewrite its entire monetary policy playbook — because you can't run a 1970s framework on a 2026 economy where information processing inflation is running at 13%, the highest since the 1960s.

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🔗 Resources:

Core Weave stock, bond set for weekly plunge as rate-hike fears hit AI bet (Reuters)

October Rate-Hike Odds Collapse as Warsh Keeps His Cards Close but AI Transition Looms (Benzinga News )

CoreWeave bond rout tests market's math on AI buildout (Reuters)

THS LIVE | September CPI Popped Up To 3.7%: The Fed Is Trapped & Stocks Are Falling Now Oct 14, 2026

Show notes

September CPI just printed 3.7% — hotter than economists expected — and the market is already bleeding. Gas prices are the ignition switch, but the real story is what happens next: the Fed is now caught between an economy that's too hot to cut and too fragile to hike, with JPMorgan's own strategist going on record saying raising rates right now would be "stupid." Meanwhile, rate-sensitive stocks are getting destroyed in premarket — the 10 names falling hardest are telling you exactly where the pain is spreading — and global diesel prices aren't helping, with the IEA warning of another supply squeeze through 2027. Here's what nobody's saying out loud: the speculators have been net short the S&P for months (25th percentile, not a bullish picture), yet Nasdaq longs just hit the 99th percentile of the last 3 years — someone is making a massive bet that tech survives inflation.

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👕 THS MERCH: http://www.thspod.com

🔗 Resources:

Consumer prices rose 3.7% annually in September as gas prices skyrocket (CNBC Top News)

Fed Would Be 'Stupid' to Raise Rates Now, JPMorgan's Kelly Says (Bloomberg Economics)

Hot Inflation Hits Rate-Sensitive Stocks: These 10 Names Are Falling (Benzinga News)

US stocks slip after inflation worsens by more than economists expected (AP)

Global diesel prices set to rise again, warns IEA (FT Markets)

America’s Hidden Debt Crisis: Why Credit Card Delinquencies Aren’t the Real Problem Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

America’s next debt crisis isn’t hiding in the numbers. It’s hiding behind them. Credit card delinquencies are either flashing red or perfectly manageable, depending on which statistic you cherry-pick. And somehow, both are technically correct. In Episode 357, we follow the cracks spreading through student loans, subprime auto lending, buy-now-pay-later debt, and the $1.8 trillion private credit market—where Wall Street apparently believes moving risk off a balance sheet makes it disappear. From South Korea’s credit card collapse to the infamous assurances that subprime was “contained,” history offers a familiar warning: the numbers look manageable right up until they don’t. The real question isn’t how much Americans owe. It’s who’s carrying the risk, who’s hiding the losses, and what happens when the paychecks stop.

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🔗 Resources:

How Distressed Are Consumers? Reconciling Diverging Credit Card Delinquency Measures (Federal Reserve Bank of New York )

Delinquency Rate on Credit Card Loans — All Commercial Banks (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED))

May 2026 Financial Stability Report — Private Credit, Redemption Risks & Bank Exposure (Federal Reserve Board)

The $2 Trillion AI Bubble: What Happens If It Actually Works? Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

AI may be the most important technology of our lifetime. That does not mean Wall Street has priced it correctly. In Episode 356, we dig into Anthropic’s reported $2 trillion ambitions, more than $500 billion in long-term compute commitments, OpenAI’s even larger promises, and 180 years of investors discovering the hard way that great technology and great investments are not the same thing. From Railway Mania and Netscape to Webvan, Cisco and WeWork, the pattern is remarkably familiar: spend enormous amounts of money today, assume tomorrow will be exponentially bigger, and try not to ask what happens if growth slows. But this time there is an extra wrinkle: the AI valuations only really work if software captures a meaningful piece of something much larger than the software market itself... your paycheck.

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🔗 Resources:

Amazon Leadership Principles (Amazon)

2025 Annual Meeting — Elon Musk Compensation & Shareholder Vote (Tesla)

OpenAI Announces Leadership Transition — Sam Altman (OpenAI)

Every Great Company Is a Cult. Here’s How They Get You. Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Every great company wants loyal customers. The really great ones want believers. This week, we look at what happens when a business stops selling you a product and starts selling you an identity. From Amazon’s “Day 1” disciples to Tesla shareholders defending Elon Musk like family and OpenAI employees threatening to walk out with Sam Altman, the biggest companies in America have figured out something Wall Street can’t put on a balance sheet: tribal loyalty is incredibly valuable. But now the tribes are wearing political jerseys, CEOs are becoming symbols, tickers are becoming flags, and buying a car, drinking a beer, or choosing an AI company can somehow announce what team you’re on. Totally normal stuff. Welcome to the cult economy. Pick yours carefully.

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This episode is proudly brought to you by Fridays.

Because real wealth starts with your health. If you want to feel sharper, stronger, and more in control, visit joinfridays.com and use code HIGHER for an exclusive discount.

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🔗 Resources:

Amazon Leadership Principles (Amazon)

2025 Annual Meeting — Elon Musk Compensation & Shareholder Vote (Tesla)

OpenAI Announces Leadership Transition — Sam Altman (OpenAI)

AI Agents Organized, Cheated, and Learned to Hide Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Apparently 1,200 AI agents left alone in separate sandboxes will eventually do what humans always do: find each other, form a group chat, cheat the test, and start looking for ways around the cameras. In this episode, we break down the real-world “swarm” incident, why reward hacking may matter more than Skynet fantasies, and what happens when the machines get better at hiding how they reached an answer. Then we follow the money into finance, law, AI’s growing safety tax, and an oversight system that is starting to look suspiciously like auditing before Enron taught everyone a very expensive lesson. The machines are already on the trading desk, the black box is getting harder to read, and somehow the people responsible for watching all of this also seem to have chips in the game. Welcome to progress.

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🔗 Resources:

The Hugging Face Incident and the Road Ahead (OpenAI)

Anatomy of a Frontier Lab Agent Intrusion: A Technical Timeline (Hugging Face)

Training a Misaligned Reward Seeker (Anthropic Alignment Science)

Chain of Thought Monitorability: A New and Fragile Opportunity for AI Safety (arXiv / AI Safety Researchers)

The Fed Made This Mistake Once. America Paid for 16 Years. Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

What if the ugliest economic decade in modern American history wasn’t just history — but a warning label? In Episode 353, we go back to 1971, when Nixon closed the gold window, slapped tariffs on imports, froze wages and prices, leaned on the Fed for easy money, and helped light the fuse on the stagflationary mess that followed. Then came the oil shock, Arthur Burns, double-digit inflation, sixteen lost years for the Dow, and eventually Paul Volcker showing up with a monetary flamethrower. Fast-forward to today: energy shock, tariffs, political pressure on the Fed, sticky inflation, a fragile labor market, and stocks priced like gravity has been repealed. This isn’t a prediction that history repeats perfectly. It’s a question of whether we’re watching the same bad movie with a new cast — and whether the Fed learned anything from the first screening.

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🔗 Resources:

August 15, 1971 — Nixon’s New Economic Policy / “Nixon Shock” (Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum)

How Richard Nixon Pressured Arthur Burns: Evidence from the Nixon Tapes (American Economic Association)

Kevin Warsh — “In Our Time” | Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium (Federal Reserve Board)

Consumer Price Index — August 2026 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)