The money map is shifting under our feet, and the clearest signals aren’t in press conferences—they’re in vaults, balance sheets, and price mechanics. We dig into why central banks are flipping from Treasuries to gold, how sanctions and policy shocks sped up de-dollarization, and what China’s bid to custody foreign bullion says about where trust is migrating. If markets run on confidence, then custody is the truest vote, and that vote is moving East. We also unpack the liquidity habit that never really ended. From 2019’s repo rupture to today’s mixed data—higher prices paid versus weakening labor—we’re living through a K-shaped reality where leverage gets bailouts while households fight erosion. Ron Paul’s blunt assessment of moral and fiscal bankruptcy frames the question that matters: are we solving problems, or just hiding them with cheaper money and new acronyms? That’s where CBDCs enter the story—programmable rails that promise efficiency while centralizing control. On the risk side of the barbell sits Bitcoin, fresh off a sentiment swing that looks less like panic and more like accumulation. ETFs opened the door; now the big players decide when to talk their book. Scarcity math hasn’t changed, and neither has the network. Dips may simply be the toll for long-term positioning in an asset that can’t be printed. Meanwhile, we follow the friction in precious metals—delayed scrap payments, tight wholesale liquidity, and the unmistakable rise of physical over paper. We don’t stop at markets. We connect political outcomes to financial incentives, from big business aligning with big government to EU-Ukraine funding framed as defense but aimed at debt mutualization and federalization. Consolidation thrives on crisis, and crisis is rarely wasted. Our take is practical: diversify your risk, keep fiat for utility not storage, stack physical for sovereignty, and consider a measured slice of censorship-resistant assets if you can stomach volatility. If trust is the rarest commodity, owning what cannot be printed is more than a hedge—it’s a stance. If this resonated, tap follow, share it with a friend who cares about financial sovereignty, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find the show.
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The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.