The confluence of the pandemic, gargantuan deficits, Democrat rule, and frenzied money creation by the Federal Reserve has gotten a lot of economic types and investors worried. There’s talk of inflation, hyperinflation, a stock market crash, and even the devaluation of the USD: i.e. the U.S. Dollar. I mydamnself thought the yogurt would finally hit the fan two years ago. That’s when the 10-year T-notes sold during our first trillion-dollar deficits (2009-2012) started coming due. But we’re still chugging along, so what do I know? Perhaps these gloom-and-doom sorts that one sees nowadays are alarmists or have something to sell.

Lately, I’ve taken to watching a bunch of YouTube videos featuring rather pessimistic money men, market observers, and such. I’ve already reported on two of these series, Doug Casey’s Take and Wealthion (here and here). But there are oodles of other commentators worthy of one’s time.

One of my recent discoveries is The Keiser Report, featuring Max Keiser and his brilliant wife Stacy Herbert. I haven’t been watching Max and Stacy for very long, but I have noticed how they return to certain things, like the Triffin dilemma, the Thucydides Trap, rehypothecation, and Cantillon effects. The format for most of the programs I’ve seen is the first half features Max and Stacy discussing recent developments in the economy and markets; Stacy looks at news and provides graphs and Max responds, often providing a bit of antic comedy. The second half is Max interviewing guests, mostly investor types.

The thing about The Keiser Report is that it’s not only a YouTube series; it’s also a TV program. And where does this program run but RT, née Russia Today? I don’t know squat about RT and assumed I didn’t have it on my TV line-up. But I finally went looking for it and I’ll be damned if AT&T’s U-verse doesn’t carry it. It probably escaped my attention because U-verse doesn’t pump it out in HD, so RT isn’t grouped with the cable news channels I frequent.

By the by, I don’t believe that Keiser Report has a homepage on YouTube, as the RT link takes one to the page for RT, (where we get this message: “most watched news network on YouTube/ over 10 billion views”). So to get a lineup of just Keiser Report vids, just type in “Keiser Report” on YouTube and a list of the most recent vids will come up. Also, one can find Max’s videos on RT’s website.

The question becomes, since Max and Stacy are doing business with the Russkies, have they gone over to the Dark Side; are they neo-Bolsheviks or something? They seem like prelapsarian libertarians to me, or maybe even anarchocapitalists, but I could be wrong. Besides working on Wall Street, Max dabbled in comedy, and he brings that flare to the first half of the report. Stacy serves as his “straight man” and the two have a wonderful rapport.

Of all Max’s concerns about current economic policy, the Fed’s money printing and zero interest rates may be at the top. Max seems to be a pessimist on these matters and his solution is Bitcoin. In fact, if you look at the pinstriped vest he usually wears on the Report, you’ll see a golden Bitcoin pin. What’s more, Max and Stacy have another YouTube series called Orange Pill: a Bitcoin Podcast. As this Bitcoin podcast doesn’t seem to be under the auspices of RT, Max and Stacy go casual. For more on Max and Bitcoin, here’s more.

Another Anglo-type who’s found a home at RT is one Dominic Frisby. Mr. Frisby also writes for MoneyWeek (his archive) and talks for Money Pit on Dave, a British television channel. You might as well check out his website, too. Frisby classifies himself as an anarchocapitalist, so I checked to see if he’s appeared at the website of America’s anarcho-capitalist Lew Rockwell, but I didn’t find anything.

To find Frisby’s videos, search on his name on YouTube, as he pops up in several series. But since we’re doing RT today, I’ve embedded below two short very recent RT vids of Frisby expounding on Bitcoin. He’s peripatetic and rather brainy, (although my judgment might be clouded by the British accent, which always seems to add I.Q. points.)

What concerns this kid about Bitcoin is: What happens when the lights go out? But that pertains to all currencies nowadays, as they’re all mostly digital and exist at the pleasure of electricity companies. If we’re hit with an electromagnetic pulse, the new currency might become diesel generators, canned goods, and ammo.

Some Bitcoin enthusiasts may think that the U.S. dollar’s demise is inevitable, or they may even want the USD to die. I would like to think that the Fed and Congress could pull back from the brink and save our currency. But unlike Max, Stacy, and Dominic, our government overlords aren’t very swift. Democrat members of Congress who are still obsessed with Russia would do well to watch some Russian TV, although the irony would likely be lost on them.

Jon N. Hall of ULTRACON OPINION is a programmer from Kansas City

Image: Pixabay

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.