Schiff Sovereign Podcast

It’s been another historic and mind-blowing week to say the least. Over the last several months we’ve heard some of the most ridiculous lines of BS from politicians. Things like, “The economy is not in recession.” Last year’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan was an “extraordinary success”. Multi-trillion spending bills “cost nothing”. “The border is closed. The border is secure.” And so much more. But yesterday the Attorney General of the United States made a public statement during which he told the world that “upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly, without fear or favor.” The Attorney General was trying to justify his department’s raid on Donald Trump’s private residence earlier this week by claiming that no one is above the law. And that’s 100% correct. The rule of law is supreme in America, and no one is above the law. Except for Nanci Pelosi, Paul Pelosi, Paul Pelosi Jr., every Federal Reserve official who was caught trading the stock market, Hunter Biden, the mysterious “Big Guy”, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Steel, Andrew Cuomo, every Bush administration official who committed war crimes, etc. Except for all of those people, and everyone else who is above the law, no one else is above the law in America. Millions of people must have simultaneously laughed out loud. Naturally the Attorney General made no effort to speak plainly and admit that, at a minimum, the raid looks really, really bad. Nor to offer understanding as to why people would be suspicious of the government’s motives. Nor even to acknowledge that it was unprecedented. This is exactly the sort of response that makes people lose even more trust in their government officials… at a time when the trust deficit is already at a historic low. This is the topic of our podcast today: trust. We start off by talking about taxes– because, believe it or not, trust and taxes are closely linked. There are countries (like Greece or Italy) where tax evasion is rampant. And one of the reasons why is because people have no trust or confidence in their governments. Lack of trust is a really, really bad trend. It makes growth and prosperity more difficult. But rather than actually fix the trust deficit with honesty, transparency, and plain talk, they keep making the problem worse. This is what makes having a Plan B so obvious… and today we also discuss why looking at some options abroad might make a whole lot of sense. Click here to listen in to today’s episode.

There’s an old saying that people often misattribute to Albert Einstein– that ‘the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.’ The saying has become a bit of a cliché, but there is actually some truth to it. About 80 years ago, a psychologist named George Kelly became fascinated with the way human beings make decisions, and he developed a framework that he called the Personal Construct Theory. Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory suggests that people behave and make decisions based on their unique sets of life experiences. For example, a child who is constantly spoiled and coddled by helicopter parents may (according to Kelly’s theory) grow up to expect constant support and safety nets… and make life decisions accordingly. Kelly theorized that, over time, human beings often behave poorly and make bad decisions because their personal constructs are flawed. In fact in his 1955 book The Psychology of Personal Constructs, Kelly wrote “we may define a [psychological] disorder as any personal construction which is used repeatedly in spite of consistent invalidation.” Kelly, in other words, defined insanity (or at least a psychological disorder) as repeatedly relying on a flawed way of thinking. This is clearly the psychological state of most of our ‘leadership’ today. They have a very specific worldview, which, like Kelly’s theory suggests, is based on their experiences. The President of the United States loved to brag during his campaign about his decades of political and diplomatic experience. The Speaker of the US House of Representatives likewise has decades of experience that has formed the foundation of her worldview and decision-making process. Anthony Fauci has decades of experience atop one of the largest public health agencies in the world. But it turns out that these collective decades and decades of experiences have resulted in terrible decisions… and even worse outcomes. Based on Kelly’s theory, however, these people are incapable of learning from their mistakes and making better decisions. Even though their decisions have been consistently wrong, these people are unable to adjust their thinking. They continue relying on the same, flawed decision-making constructs, which are based on their decades of experience. Kelly used the right terminology for this– a psychological disorder. And that aptly sums up the ‘leadership’. These are the so-called experts. And they broke the world. But as I’ve written before, their regime is quickly coming to an end. Listen in to today’s podcast as we walk you through four key examples of their disorder that we suffered through literally just in the past few days.

For this week’s podcast I had the pleasure to speak with Viktorija once again, fresh off a long flight from Istanbul and several weeks in Europe. We had a really in-depth discussion that covers a lot of ground. We talked about Mexico City… and why it’s such a pleasant surprise: cheap, chic, clean, civilized, and more. We also spent time discussing Citizenship-by-Investment programs, including why Turkey’s program is so attractive. Click to listen in.

Prince Harry ventured out of his nine-bedroom, $14.7 million oceanfront compound in California earlier this week to deliver a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. The fact that Prince Harry is even addressing the UN General Assembly is absurd itself. But even more absurd were his weeping, whiny, wimpy remarks: “The right thing to do is not up for debate,” Harry told his audience of mostly masked onlookers. “And neither is The Science.” So, the guy who was born with the ultimate silver spoon up his arse believes that there should be no debate about science. Or what’s “right”. He continued to lament the “rolling back” of Constitutional rights in the US, climate change, COVID disinformation on social media, and more. “The only question is whether we’ll be brave enough, and wise enough, to do what is necessary,” the unelected sage continued, without elaborating on what, exactly, he and The Science have decided is “necessary” or “right”. This is our topic for this week’s podcast. We start off talking about what another unelected body– the Federal Reserve (i.e. the US central bank)– has deemed “necessary” and “right”, which has just so happened to have engineered stupifyingly high inflation. I also explain why the unelected Federal Reserve is VASTLY more powerful than the President of the United States. Think about it — because the Fed has supreme executive authority over setting interest rates in the United States, that gives them unbelievable power over the entire US economy, as well as critical financial markets. And yet, there are ZERO checks and balances with the Fed. If the President does something stupid (gee when would that ever happen), his executive actions can be blocked by the courts. But if the Fed does something stupid (like conjuring trillions of dollars out of thin air), there’s NOTHING that anyone can do. We can’t sue them. We can’t fire them. We just have to suck it up, buttercup. Then there are ‘Emperors’ like Larry Fink of Blackrock, another unelected Crusader who has weaponized our own money against us, to force us to submit to his woke fanaticism. And of course there are the unelected professional weepers like Prince Harry who constantly want to tell us what to be outraged about, and how to live our lives. In his UN speech, Harry painted a very bleak, sinister picture of the world. And that’s great for Harry. But I choose to not live in Harry’s world… where everyone is outraged and terrified, and they can’t manage to find their big boy pants. Yes, there are a lot of risks out there, most notably from people like Harry who have anointed themselves our social and financial overlords. But the world is still full of opportunity and triumphs as well. People with courage and independence of mind can always choose which world to live in– Harry’s wimpy, fearful world, or the world of your own making. Click here to listen to today’s episode.

It’s rare to find someone, anyone, who has yet to witness, hear about, or directly experience the devastating consequences of the supposed leadership that ‘experts’ have unleashed on us over the past few years. They have engineered and mishandle crisis after crisis after crisis… The world over, from California to Sri Lanka, people everywhere are suffering from their incompetence. Western Europe is on the verge of a major energy crisis; the 4th-largest economy in the world (Germany) is dimming its street lights lights and thinking about firing up its coal power plants (previously considered UNTHINKABLE!) because they’re running out of energy. Even in Texas, which could be considered the world’s 10th-largest economy by GDP, the independent energy grid is so fragile that power companies are remotely turning down people’s home thermostats to save on energy supply. We have also just seen a leaked hour+ video showing the ‘authorities’ in Uvalde, Texas– fully armed law enforcement professionals– ignoring the literal screams of dying children only a few dozen feet away. Instead they texted on their phones and sanitized their hands. You know, because of Covid. I guess that was the priority. All of this is an utter indictment of how pitifully our experts and authorities have betrayed us. In short, the people in charge broke the world. But the good news is that their reign of ineptitude is rapidly coming to an end.. That much is obvious. And even better, there are a lot of solutions and technologies on the horizon that could make this all go away relatively quickly… just as soon as they get out of the way. You can listen in to that discussion in today’s podcast, which you can access here.

As longtime readers know, I’ve been a tremendous fan of Lee’s since I was a small child. He was wise beyond his years and packed a great deal into his short life. I put one of his quotes up on our former office’s walls in Santiago. It reads: “To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” This idea is especially apt for the times we live in. It’s easy to be incredibly frustrated about the state of the world right now. The ‘experts’ in charge — whether in the media, Federal Reserve, tech companies, etc. — have led us astray and allowed devastating consequences to take root. Witness massive inflation, the conflict in Europe, the fracturing of society along ideological, medical and skin color lines, the debacle in Afghanistan… These were all engineered by the ‘experts’ in charge, and none more so than the response to Covid-1984, which brought the global economy to its knees. People traditionally placed great trust in experts. In the United States, the media once held a place of great esteem; CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite was often cited as “the most trusted man in America.” And although healthy skepticism always has existed about the government, I recall a time when people largely thought that it had their best interests at heart. I’d venture that none of this is true any longer. Trust in media, business, and especially government has dramatically eroded over the past two years. If someone is deigned to be an ‘expert’ these days, the antennae go on high alert. For example, we start today’s podcast discussion with a Tale of Two Headlines, in which we present to you side-by-side the headlines by both Bloomberg and CNBC. One says one thing, and the other the opposite, both conclusions undergirded by ‘experts.’ This gives us a great indication of the prowess of so-called experts, especially when it comes to their handling of the economy (or lack thereof). Today we also talk about where things are likely going in the economy, how we ended up here, and most importantly, how to keep a clear and rational outlook. It’s irritating and sometimes exasperating to see where the experts have led us all. But it’s important to remember that the world is not coming to an end. For anyone who has the courage and discipline to embrace it, there’s an abundance of opportunity out there. For more on this, we invite you to listen to today’s discussion, here.

Happy Canada Day to our Canadian friends. And Monday, of course, is Independence Day in the United States. It’ll be an odd one for sure. Many cities are reportedly cutting back on their fireworks displays due to… yes… supply chain shortages. And many people may scale down their traditional backyard grilling due to insanely high food price inflation. There’s undoubtedly a lot of reason for concern right now, and people of all personal philosophies across the political spectrum feel it. Those on the left are angry about recent Supreme Court decisions and concerned that they may lose other rights. Those on the right fret about cancel culture. Almost everyone is concerned about inflation… and we constantly hear the cry that ‘Democracy is under attack’. There’s a mountain of problems and no real solutions on the horizon. More importantly, it seems like intense social factions have developed. Public “debate” and civil discourse is governed by those who feel but don’t think… by people who are professionally outraged but outrageously ignorant. And it is under these odd circumstances that citizens celebrate the birth of their nations this weekend. Today I wanted to provide a little bit of historic context. There are problems, yes. But you might have a more hopeful outlook for the future after hearing more about the early days of America. Click here to listen to today’s conversation… and we wish you a safe and relaxing holiday weekend.

Today’s missive looks a bit different from our normal Friday roundup. As you probably know, a few big rulings came down from the United States Supreme Court over the past 24 hours– one on gun control, the other on abortion. Predictably, the rulings were accompanied by a great deal of noise and outrage. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that ‘mostly peaceful’ protests don’t start up again. More importantly, we wanted to weigh in with a healthy dose of rationality. My bet is that the vast majority of angry protesters have probably not bothered to read any of the Justices’ opinions. They probably never read the original Roe v Wade opinion. They probably don’t know who was Roe and who was Wade. They probably haven’t even read the Constitution. All they know is that they’re outraged. Lately we’ve been hearing a refrain over and over again that “Democracy is under attack.” Yes I agree. And this is part of what that attack looks like. A representative democracy means that elected leaders make laws, and judges determine whether or not those laws are Constitutional. The latter is the sole responsibility of the Supreme Court. The Justices examined the cases, and they made a decision about what is/isn’t Constitutional. Yet those rulings don’t conform with what the Twitter mob or mainstream media want. Instead, they expect the Justices to simply invent new laws based on their personal beliefs and opinions. That’s not how a democracy is supposed to work. A truly civilized society adheres to its democratic values, even when the system delivers an outcome that people don’t like. A democracy only survives because it remains a democracy in both good times and bad. Trying to overturn outcomes through violence and intimidation is the mark of a society that has lost its way. And we’ve seen far too much of that approach over the past couple of years. What we present to you today is a rational discussion. It’s not about the rulings themselves. We’re not talking about abortion or gun control. Instead we’re talking about how the Constitution is supposed to work… and how to turn down the noise. Spoiler: a little bit of education goes a long way. So if you find yourself accosted by an outraged family member, friend, co-worker, or protester this weekend, ask them if they’ve actually read the rulings, and if so, what specific assertions in the text do they disagree with? You’ll probably get a dumbfounded look… but possibly inspire someone to educate themselves before getting outraged next time. If you want to read the rulings yourself (which I highly recommend) you can do so here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf You can listen to the podcast here:  

In late 2019, a team executive for the NBA’s Houston Rockets Tweeted a very brief statement of support for pro-freedom protesters in Hong Kong. Hardly anyone should have noticed; he didn’t have much of a following, and it was an incredibly harmless comment. Yet that single Tweet caused a massive firestorm. The Chinese government lost its mind — how dare this American peasant say anything that’s counter to our interests?!?! And like that… poof… China’s government censors erased the Houston Rockets off the face of their Internet. It was an amazing display of speed and efficiency. And to be frank, my biggest surprise of 2021 is how well the US has adopted this Chinese-style censorship. It is fast. It is efficient. And it is shockingly brutal. Nowhere is this more obvious than with Covid-1984. A number of Lord Protector Fauci’s emails have recently come to light which show the ridiculous lengths they went to last year to squash any opposition to their policies. The ‘Great Barrington Declaration’ was a joint statement signed by THOUSANDS of scientists around the world, including professors and medical professionals from Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, plus Nobel laureates, etc. These scientists argued for a more common sense, humane approach towards Covid. Lockdowns, they said, came at a significant cost to mental health and childhood development… and the costs of the lockdowns should be carefully weighed against the benefits. But according to their email exchange, Fauci and his colleagues wanted a “quick and devastating published take down” of the Great Barrington Declaration. The idea of ‘trusting science’ quickly turned into ‘trust only the science that WE put in front of you. Don’t trust any other science.’ It has become so absurd that Fauci has now anointed himself as the Holy Duality; last month on CBS television he claimed “I represent science”. So Fauci and science are one and the same. Now, we are quick to point out in this column that the government is generally incapable of doing anything right. Or at a minimum, incapable of doing anything quickly or efficiently. But I have been really surprised at how quickly and efficiently they’ve been able to commandeer total control of the narrative. They have the media and tech companies in line. They have major medical associations in line. They’ve convinced hundreds of millions of people that they are the only source of truth and information, regardless of their obvious lies and bias. And anyone who publicly expresses independent thinking, or dares to challenge this narrative (no matter how strong the evidence) is canceled off the Internet with a Chinese-level of efficiency. This is the topic for today’s podcast as we assess the incredibly bewildering year that we’ve all just experienced. You can listen in here.

It’s a simple question of arithmetic. Imagine you could go back in time to 1871 and ask one of your long lost ancestors to invest $2,500 for the benefit of future generations. That amount of money wasn’t insignificant… but certainly not a major fortune; it would be worth roughly $50,000 in today’s money. When placed in the right structure, and benefiting from compounding returns over the next 150 years, that $2,500 initial investment would be worth an astounding $1.4 BILLION today. Now, sadly none of us owns a time machine. But we do have the power to be that long lost ancestor to future generations. In other words, there’s little stopping you from setting aside some savings in a long-term structure– like a trust, or even a smart contract– that could have an enormous impact on the future. $50,000 invested in the right structure today at, say, a 10% compounding return, will be worth $73 billion in 150 years. Granted we’ll all most likely be long gone by then. And inflation will definitely have eaten up a large chunk of that return. But it’s still going to be an enormous amount of money. And with the right planning, you have the power to decide, today, how that money will be spent and allocated in the future. If you wanted to, you could leave behind strict instructions (which are legally binding) to have the assets liquidated at a certain point in the future, and donated to your favorite charity. Or you could provide future trustees the discretion to make certain donations based on causes that are important to you today. The point is that it’s possible to continue growing your wealth long after you’re gone, and to still exercise significant control over how it can impact the world and future generations. This is the topic for today’s Freedom Podcast, which you can listen to here.