How US Money Printing and Crypto Shape Global Power: Lessons From Gold, Inflation, and Innovation

This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. Last year, I went through many different life changes. I needed to take a pause and examine how I was feeling in the inside to better show up for the ones who need me to be my best version of myself. When you're navigating life's changes, Talkspace can help. Talkspace is the number one rated online therapy, bringing you professional support from licensed therapists and psychiatry providers that you can access anytime, anywhere. Living a busy life, navigating a long distance relationship, becoming a first step father, Talkspace made all of those journeys possible. I could speak with my therapist in the office. I could speak with my therapist in the comfort of my home. I was never alone. Talkspace works with most major insurers, and most insured members have a $0 co pay. No insurance. No problem. Now get $80 off your first month with promo code space 80 when you go to talkspace.com. Matched with a licensed therapist today at talkspace.com. Save $80 with code space 80 at talkspace.com. In 1933, under the veil of the Great Depression, the US government did something unthinkable. They made it illegal to own gold. Executive Order sixty one zero two. It didn't just ask people to turn in their gold, it demanded it. Every coin, every bar, every certificate. And if you didn't comply, you faced ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine. What was even more terrifying than the act itself is the reason for it. The goal wasn't to have the gold, it was to re price it. So one year later, the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 was passed, giving the government the power to jack up the price of gold, taking it from $20.67 an ounce to $35 an ounce. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but in fact, as you're going to see, it's one of the most immoral things the government has ever done. Why? Because they had to reprice gold because they had spent years counterfeiting their own currency. It's a practice known as money printing. But if you want to understand its effects, just think of it as legal counterfeiting. By creating debt, you create a bunch of new money, but the only way to create money without creating a problem is to create it in the same amount as the businessmen create things people actually want to buy. Get that balance wrong and prices go up, because everyone now has more money, but there's not more stuff to buy. So people will pay extra for what there is. If there's only one pizza in existence and everyone has a million dollars, suddenly pizza becomes worth a lot more. So with EO 6102, a single stroke of the pen stole 41% of the dollar's value. I would tell you to imagine it, to imagine what it would be like to have a $100 in your bank account that buys a $100 worth of stuff one …