The Breakdown

The week's episodes in one long run. 

• Monday | Bitcoin vs. QE Infinity: The 4 Archetypes Of The Halving Debate
• Tuesday | The Mass Surveillance Machine, Feat. Maya Zehavi
• Wednesday | When Currencies Fail: A Primer on the Crisis in Lebanon
• Thursday | From Corrupt To Broken: An Insider’s Analysis Of The Fed, feat. Danielle DiMartino Booth
• Friday | Why The Dollar Has Never Been Stronger Or More Set Up To Fail [Money Reimagined Pt. 1]

The week's episodes in one long run. 

Monday | Bitcoin vs. QE Infinity: The 4 Archetypes Of The Halving Debate

Tuesday | The Mass Surveillance Machine, Feat. Maya Zehavi

Wednesday | When Currencies Fail: A Primer on the Crisis in Lebanon

Thursday | From Corrupt To Broken: An Insider’s Analysis Of The Fed, feat. Danielle DiMartino Booth

Friday | Why The Dollar Has Never Been Stronger Or More Set Up To Fail [Money Reimagined Pt. 1]

The first of a 4-part docu-style series on the battle for the future of money.

In this first episode of Money Reimagined, we look at:

• Why US markets took so long to react
• How the stock market became a political utility
• Why, even before the crisis, “increasingly exotic forms of quantitative easing” were inevitable
• Why the bailouts have some investors accusing our entire market of being cronyism rather than capitalism 
• What unlimited money printing means for the US dollar. 

Featuring insight from Matthew Graham, Caitlin Long, Scott Melker, Kevin Kelly, Ben Hunt, Luke Gromen, Travis Kling, Mark Yusko, Anthony Pompliano, Jared Dillian, Dave Portnoy, Michael Casey, Preston Pysh, Peter Zeihan

Music by DJ J-Scrilla "Faith In My Money (Money Printer Go Brrr)" from the “Sound Money” album.

The first of a 4-part docu-style series on the battle for the future of money.

Featuring insight from Matthew Graham, Caitlin Long, Scott Melker, Kevin Kelly, Ben Hunt, Luke Gromen, Travis Kling, Mark Yusko, Anthony Pompliano, Jared Dillian, Dave Portnoy, Michael Casey, Preston Pysh, Peter Zeihan

Music by DJ J-Scrilla "Faith In My Money (Money Printer Go Brrr)" from the “Sound Money” album.

Danielle DiMartino Booth is the CEO and Chief Strategist of Quill Intelligence. Before that, however, after correctly predicting the mortgage meltdown, she was called upon to serve and spent 9 years as an advisor to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. That experience led her to write “Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America.”

In this episode, Danielle and NLW discuss:

• How the Fed went from simply corrupt to corrupt and broken
• Why we’ve been living through the largest experiment in monetary policy history
• Why interest rates are the lowest they’ve been in 5000 years
• Why COVID-19 was the pin, not the balloon 
• Why current Fed action compromises the Fed’s independence 
• Why the market structure incentivizes consumption and risk investment over savings
• Why risk investments have ceased to be risky because of Fed backstopping 
• Why a key concern going forward is a second wave of COVID-19 layoffs in industries beyond the obviously impacted

Danielle DiMartino Booth is the CEO and Chief Strategist of Quill Intelligence. Before that, however, after correctly predicting the mortgage meltdown, she was called upon to serve and spent 9 years as an advisor to the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. That experience led her to write “Fed Up: An Insider's Take on Why the Federal Reserve is Bad for America.” Learn why current Fed action compromises the Fed’s independence.

The Lebanese pound has lost at least 50% of its value since last year. 220,000 people have lost their jobs. Food prices are up 58%. An estimated 75% of the population needs assistance of some kind. And over the last two nights, at least a dozen banks have been torched by protesters.   

The catalyst? Not coronavirus, but a massive dollar shortage that is destroying an economy that relies on inflows of USD to function. 

In this episode, NLW breaks down how Lebanon models what it looks like for a currency to fail, and why this likely isn’t the last emerging market currency to experience a similar crisis in the months to come.

The Lebanese pound has lost at least 50% of its value since last year. 220,000 people have lost their jobs. Food prices are up 58%. An estimated 75% of the population needs assistance of some kind. And over the last two nights, at least a dozen banks have been torched by protesters.

The catalyst? Not coronavirus, but a massive dollar shortage that is destroying an economy that relies on inflows of USD to function.

As the COVID-19 crisis rages, it takes on new economic and political dimensions. The frames for many of the most important questions for the next decade are being set now, in this moment. 

On this episode of The Breakdown, NLW is joined by Maya Zehavi, a long-time blockchain consultant known for her insightful domain-spanning takes. 

They discuss: 

• How the COVID-19 health crisis overlapped with a political crisis in Zehavi’s home country of Israel 
• Why governments use times of crisis to take extraordinary powers
• How contact tracing apps have become a battleground for mass surveillance 
• Why the shift to localism from globalism creates new challenges 
• How the problems distributing stimulus are shaping the conversation around central bank digital currencies

NLW is joined by Maya Zehavi, a long-time blockchain consultant known for her insightful domain-spanning takes.

How the COVID-19 health crisis overlapped w/ a political crisis in Zehavi’s home country of Israel

Why governments use times of crisis to take extraordinary powers

How contact tracing apps have become a battleground for mass surveillance

Why the shift to localism from globalism creates new challenges

How the problems distributing stimulus are shaping the conversation around CBDCs