The Blue Beetles, weeping down upon the underworld as Masked Ganglin comes the mysterious, all-powerful character who is a problem to the police but a crusader for law. In reality, Dan Garrett, a rookie patrolman, loved by everyone but suspected by none of being the Blue Beetle. As the Blue Beetle, he hides behind a sprained mask and a suit of impenetrable blue chain armor, flexible as silk but stronger than steel. Today's episode of the transcribed Fox Feature, the Blue Beetle, is the second part of a story entitled The Asylum of Dr. Drear. In the previous episode, Diana Tilson asked patrolman Dan Garrett to locate her missing foster father, Banker Tilson. He has disappeared leaving a note addressed to her saying he was going away for a rest. He is suspicious, however, of the actions of Tilson's nephew, Linus Weatherby, and a Dr. Drear, a psychiatrist, whom Weatherby brought in to examine the banker. Armed with the description of the banker, Dan Garrett and Mike Manigan visit the private sanitarium of Dr. Drear. They are permitted to interview a man who fits the description of Banker Tilson. He claims he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and wishes to remain for a long rest. But a suspicious circumstance makes Dan Garrett decide to return later as the Blue Beetle. He finds the real Tilson and is about to release him from a cell when he is discovered by the guards and Dr. Drear and overcome by tear gas. As the episode ended, he was strapped in a straight jacket and locked up among the more violent inmates. As today's story opens, Diana Tilson telephoned his ring. Hello? Is that Miss Tilson? Yes. Have you seen Dan Garrett? Who is this? This is Officer Manigan, Danny's pal. Oh, no. I haven't seen him. Well, that's strange. I haven't either. Not since we got back from Dr. Drear's in Sailor's Island. Oh, tell me. Did you find my father? Yes, we did. Did you show him my new? Yes. He read it himself. Or did he have his glasses? Yes, but he... Hello? Hello? Oh, hello. That's what you are. Oh. Hello, Linus. Yes. I was talking to someone about father. And what did they tell you? Well, they've seen him out of Dr. Drear's sanitarium. Oh. Diana, why don't you marry me and let me take care of you? One day I'll inherit Uncle's money and we'll be rich. No, Linus. No use. I'll never marry you. You may change your mind. You're upset now. I think I'll have Dr. Drear talk with you. Perhaps we'll rest at his sanitarium and we'll get your thoughts in the right channel. Pardon me, sir. Dr. Drear calling to see you. Thank you, Edward. Show him into the library. I'll be right down. Very good, sir. Before I go, I want to warn you, young lady, if you want to save your father's life, you'd better do as I say. Good night, my dear. You say Dr. Drear, the Blue Beetle, was also out there? Yes.  That's bad. No, we'll take care of the Blue Beetle. Don't worry about him. What about Olson? The actor who's impersonating Tilson. I'll take care of him also. And by the way, he'd like to have some more money on account. And so would I. You'll get it. And you will get it when I get it. What about the meeting with the mayor's committee tomorrow? That's all arranged. You have Olson there and made up with my uncle. You'll verify what I tell the committee. Very well. But I must be getting back to my sanitarium. It's quite late and...  Everything's in order out there, isn't it? I believe so. Fine.  After tomorrow, our worries will be over. What is it now? It's the Blue Beetle. I'm going to get you out of here. Good. I'll pay you well if you make it. The Blue Beetle doesn't work for money. You belong here, Blue Beetle. You're really crazy. Where are the guards? The other wing drunk, apparently. Come on, Mr. Tilson, follow me. How did you get out of that cell and straight jacket? Master keys and a special 2X formula that gives me super strength and vitality. Lock the guards in their quarters. What a headache they're going to have in the morning. That may be for Dr. Drear. Oh, what are you going to do? Wait here until we see if Dr. Drear's in his office. Huh. I wonder where Drear is. He's probably in town with that no-good nephew of mine, painting the town red. I'm going to take a chance and answer the telephone. Huh? Yeah? Who? Is that Dr. Drear? Yeah, this is Gus. Yeah, Gus. Sure, everything's under control. Yeah, you stay on town tonight. Okay. Who? Oh, the guy impersonating Tilson. Oh, surely we'll message you for him. I mean, I tell him to come to town the morning. Blue Beetle? Say Dr. Blue Beetle and Tilson are just where they ought to be. Yeah. Okay, goodbye. Why, you'd make a good actor, Blue Beetle. Oh, thanks.  My car's hitting the long side of the road about a mile from here. You can make it, Mr. Tilson. I never felt better in my life. Come on. When I get back to town, we'll put those scoundrels where they belong. Oh, here comes weatherby now. Oh, where's Tilson? I don't know. He should be here. Gentlemen, have the mayor arrived? Well, he couldn't make it. Press of official duties. Oh, I'm sorry. Will you be seated, please? Yeah, thank you. Well, I'll be right back. Where's your uncle, Mr. Weatherby? I'll have to ask your indulgence, gentlemen. Uncle Amos is a very sick man. He'll be here in just a moment with his physician, Dr. Greer. Well, that's too bad. Why, I didn't know he was Adel. In the meantime, we'll get down to business. You gentlemen are a committee appointed by the mayor, I believe, to represent the city in receiving a gift of one million dollars from my uncle, to be matched by another million appropriated by the city to build a children's hospital. Yes, yes, that's right. Well, gentlemen, it is my sad duty to have to inform you that my uncle is withdrawing his offer. What? What's that? Did we hear you right, young man? You did, gentlemen. My uncle feels that he has too many obligations and too many duties right now. He's on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Therefore, he is turning his affairs over to me to manage. Well, what about your authorizing this gift? Oh, gentlemen, I agree with Uncle Amos. I do not feel that his financial condition will allow such a gift to be made at present. But what the city has already appropriated its share, the land has been condemned, and the work of demolishing old tenements has been started. I'm sorry, gentlemen, but the decision is final. Well, I demand to see Amos Tilson. Until I hear it from his own lips, I will not believe it. At just a moment, gentlemen, here's Uncle Amos now. He will speak for himself. What my nephew has just told you is true. I'm turning my affairs over to a younger man to handle.  As soon as my nephew converts my real estate holdings and other possessions into cash, we are going away for a long trip. Heaven speed the day. I am very tired. Dr. Dreyer, my uncle, I'm afraid he's... He's just painted. If you'll have the maid get some water, I'll give him a hypodermic. Gentlemen, I know you'll excuse me, but I must be with my... It's a very pretty scene, but it won't... Who's that? It looks like... It is Amos Tilson, the real Amos Tilson. This man is an imposter. I'll call the police. Imposter, my eye, you young chickenettes. You and that crooked Dr. Dreyer thought you could get rid of me and take over my fortune, but your plans didn't work out. Look, look there. It's the other Tilson. He's running for the door. And Dr. Dreyer with him. Stop him. Look there in the doorway. Who is it? The Blue Beetle. And I've come to nip three crooks. Stand where you are. Dreyer, Weatherblade, and Olson. Officer Manigan and his assistants will escort you to headquarters. They're on their way here now. Good work, Blue Beetle. But where's my daughter? Here I am, Uncle Amos. The Blue Beetle just released me from my room. Her line has locked me in. Well, he'll soon be locked in where even the Blue Beetle can't free him. Gentlemen, tell the mayor my gift to the city still stands. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tilson. Don't thank me. Thank the Blue Beetle. If it hadn't been for him, there'd be no children's hospital for York City. Well, Danny, and how did you like your visit to the booby hatch as Manigan calls it? That's a terrible play. Well, what will happen to it now, the Dr. Dreyer is in prison. Hey, Miss Tilson's going to take it over and make a real sanitary amount of it. Put a real psychiatrist at the head of it, install modern conveniences and more humane personnel. Ah, that's splendid. What about Weatherblade? He's to be disinherited. Tilson's money will go to his foster daughter Diana. Well, the Blue Beetle certainly straightened that situation out. But there's one thing he forgot. Forgot? How much he made to King Arthur? King Arthur? By who's King Arthur? One of the unfortunate at the sanitarium. Uh, where are you going, Danny? I'm going to buy King Arthur the new round table I promised him. And so a little private work of patrolman Dan Garrett, as the Blue Beetle, brought happiness to many people, as well as justice to a group of dishonest men. The moral of this story is always find time to help the unfortunate. And whenever you make a promise, keep it. What further adventures await the Blue Beetle in his crusade against crime? This question will be answered in the next transcribed episode of the Blue Beetle. The Blue Beetle is a copyrighted box feature appearing in Mystery Men comics magazine and the Blue Beetle magazine. The Blue Beetle is on the air twice a week on this same station. Consult the broadcast schedule in your local newspapers. And don't forget to listen in to the Blue Beetle.


And so, the future value of money is less than the present value of money. Things that you need tomorrow are going to be way more expensive than they are today, and your money tomorrow will be worth nothing compared to your money today. Hey, folks. I'm Adam Elavine, and this is Speaking of Bitcoin. As always, I'm joined by the other host of the show, Stephanie Murphy. Hi. Jonathan Mohan. Hey. Hey. And Andreas M. Antonopoulos. Hello. So, inflation is back in the headlines, and really, it's living rent-free, as they say in my head these days, pretty much full-time. This isn't just some vacation rental thing either, we just signed a year-long lease on that part of my brain with an option to extend another three, and I'm starting to get complacent. It doesn't matter what the official measures of inflation say, it's getting to be normal, and that's not necessarily a good thing. In a couple of weeks, we're going to have John Williams, the man behind ShadowStats.com on the show to talk about how the government measurements of most important things have changed over time, and what those changes all have in common. But just for today, it's worth noting the way the government measures inflation has changed a lot. Since the 1980s, and when they quietly admit that your money has lost 4% of its purchasing power over this last year, well, I've got some bad news. The way that they used to measure inflation back in the 90s tells us inflation is near 8% today, and in the 1980s, today's data would have told us it was 12% inflation. It's a pretty big deal, actually. So on today's show, we're going to talk about inflation, some of the signs we're seeing, and what it means in the big picture. Okay, so this week, we saw Larry Summers, who was a former Treasury Secretary, and also the chief economic advisor to Obama during the whole TARP situation in the bailouts ten years ago, writing a letter to the Biden administration saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, we are going off a cliff. He said something about red flags or red fires burning or something like he was using really strong language about this inflation and that all of these economic indicators are pointing to that inflation is going way too fast. This is not just a temporary situation, as they all keep saying, and the cause of that is the policies that are being proposed and enacted by the government of just kind of limitless spending and creating more money without really having anything to back it up. So I was just kind of stunned by that, like, you know, one that he's admitting it and calling it out onto the carpet and also like considering what he did and who he was and how he played a role in the massive inflation that accompanied what happened ten years ago, it was really interesting. So this is a sign that we've got a problem and we've been saying this, too. I think everybody knows it. Everybody feels it. It's time for people to sort of start talking about it, but also it's time for people to start connecting it to why is this happening? Well, it's because we have massive government spending and, you know, they don't have any way to finance it. They're not increasing the money that they're taking in. They're just creating more money, which makes all of the money that currently exists worth less. You know, inflation is a topic where the difference of opinion between mainstream economists and kind of the fringe, which includes the gold bugs, the libertarians, the fiscal conservatives or whatever other labels you want to use and a lot of crypto people and all of the crypto people, almost all of the crypto people, it's enormous. So if you read the conversation here, and this is often a talking point that we see from people like Paul Krugman and others, one of the foundational thesis points for Bitcoin and other cryptos is the idea that fiat money is not a reliable long-term store value that we are heading towards increased inflation, possibly hyperinflation. And you see this narrative constantly in the Bitcoin space, especially with the stock to flow model and the kind of Bitcoin maximalist approach to monetary economics, the Austrian economics groups within Bitcoin and others. And many economists who come from more traditional schools of economics say that's nonsense. Inflation isn't coming back. In fact, the amount of stimulus is unlimited. The government is not restricted in how much debt or currency it can issue, especially the US government with the reserve currency. And two decades now, the inflation has effectively disappeared and being conquered or whatever. And it's not something we need to worry about. And we have a completely opposite narrative inside crypto. And it's interesting because, of course, it's very difficult to get facts and data to see which approach is right. I'm skeptic and I'm also very reluctant to take a strong position on this topic, among other things, because I have neither the data nor the training and monetary economics to have an informed opinion on this. I have a tendency for remembering an inflationary environment increase to not believe the idea that monetary stimulus doesn't matter and inflation isn't coming back. But at the same time, I'm confused by all of this. Maybe they're right, maybe they're wrong. And how do we find out? How can we tell the difference? It's made much harder when all of the data on that is being manipulated and used to fit a certain narrative, which is that inflation is not a problem. It's no big deal. Well, yeah, I think a lot of people's lived experiences telling them otherwise. And some people are starting to panic, especially when you look at something like the real estate market right now, where there's housing in short supply, that the low interest rates on mortgages are starting to almost be not worth it because the prices of the homes themselves are rising so fast, it's sort of canceling each other out. So, you know, when you start to feel it in your basic security needs, there's definitely a problem going on and people know it at an intuitive level. And when it's not being openly talked about, that is really distressing. And people start to get the sense that, you know, the government's lying to us, the mainstream media is lying to us. And what else are they lying about? And it raises those kinds of questions. I want to go back to the point that you made earlier about how Larry Summers is out there saying this. Now he played a big role in kind of the last round of all this stuff as the Treasury Secretary, right? So that reminds me of Alan Greenspan. Because Alan Greenspan, again, like there seems to be a rule, which is that when you are in a position of power, you're just going to carry things on, right? Like you get into a position of power. Well, you're not in a position of power to change anything. You're in a position of power to continue things, to keep things going, right? But once you get out of that position of power, I mean, you look at Alan Greenspan and Greenspan was supposedly, you know, Acolyte of Anne Rand, right? Very sort of libertarian mindset around many of these things, very much a gold bug until he got into a position of power. And then during that time, there was none of that. There was all of kind of this status quo, continuation, breaking rules in order to keep things going, keep things going, you know, at any cost. And then he gets out of it. And suddenly he's warning about it, right? Suddenly he's warning Bernanke not to do the things that he actually himself started. Larry Summers, that seems to be almost exactly the situation here is that, sure, yeah, now he's saying these things when he has no power to do them, when the only thing that he can do is kind of, you know, get out in front of what he knows is coming because he was in large part responsible for perpetuating it through as long as it's sort of been going on. So maybe I'm just maximally cynical at this point about people who put themselves into positions of power in this way. But I have yet to see an exception to this role. No, I completely agree with you, Adam. I think you're not cynical enough. I mean, there's one very cohesive reason as to why they would do that. And it's because these are the type of men that say whatever they need to say and construct whatever argument they need to construct to most maximally benefit their career in the moment. And so when they had a government job, they say whatever the government wants to hear. And then the moment they leave the government job, they say whatever it takes in order to get a book deal. And so I don't even think their opinions changed. I just think they're lawyers and even more fundamentally than that, they're soft as and what a softest does is say and construct any argument that their patron wants them to say or construct. And belief is meaningless in the eyes of a softest because it's the argument and the payment for the argument that is what you are. And so when they're in power, they say what their power structure wants to be said. And then when they're out of power, they say whatever the financial system wants them to say. So the question then becomes really simple. Was Larry Summers lying then or is Larry Summers lying now? Or isn't it even a lie? It's just was Larry Summers spinning a narrative that happened to coincide with truth then or is Larry Summers spinning a narrative that happens to coincide with truth now or is neither of those true? Maybe the recent announcement that there is inflation, the book deal announcement is the one that's wrong. Right. I mean, ask yourself with a lawyer. It's like when a lawyer takes a position, is it because it's the side of truth? And then when he's asked to take the other position, is it because that's now the side of truth or is it just whatever the client wishes him to argue is the argument that he makes? Yeah. You see, the thing is, that's the exact same kind of argument and criticism that occurs nonstop in Bitcoin space, which is that when Bitcoiners say sound money matters, inflation is doom, hyperinflation is coming. A lot of people who have a different perspective will say, yeah, but you're only saying that because you're holding off these Bitcoin bags. And if you can persuade enough other people that hyperinflation doom is coming, your purse gets bigger. So you're just pumping Bitcoin with this narrative and you have an incentive to scare people about hyperinflation. Correspondingly, though, that would almost be the argument of someone who doesn't live with integrity because you should be more like me, someone whose everyday actions do not in any way correspond with the values that he thinks are occurring or the way the government's going to unfold. Right? So it's almost this paradoxical moral framework where someone who doesn't live the values that they claim could then attack you for actually living in a corresponding incentive structure with what you're proclaiming will occur. It's almost like that would be the way that someone with no integrity would attack someone with integrity and finance. You know, the question of whether a politician is lying, I think we all know the answer to that. Are their lips moving? Yes, they're lying. Of course, that's a saying for a reason. But this is like people's livelihoods we're talking about. And that's really important to remember is like they're talking about changing the value of people's money.  And especially if you're saving towards some goal like buying a house or having a family or whatever, you know, this is important for you to know that your money is still going to be worth something in the future. And the rug is being pulled out from under people when they feel that sense of security that they can save and have it matter being taken away from them. That affects so many of our decisions. Right? When we incentivize people or the government incentivizes people not to save because your money is not going to be worth anything in the future or incentivizes people to go into riskier and riskier investments because they're chasing a return to try to beat this inflation that's going on. That really changes people's lives. And so these politicians, you know, often throw out statements like really blasé and almost like they don't understand or maybe they do understand and they don't care what they're doing. But this really affects people's lives and people's decisions. So it's really important to remember that. Yeah. So how do people make informed decisions when you have essentially competing authorities, some very credentialed, some not at all credentialed, providing competing presentations of what the world is like? So where do we go for primary data? How do we find out? Is it Paul Crogman who's correct? Is it Larry Summers now or Larry Summers then who is correct? Is it the Bitcoin maximalist in Austrian economics? People who are correct? How do we figure it out? And so if I look at my experience of what's happening in markets, what I see is some things that have a disproportionate impact on my life, specifically healthcare, education and housing have become much, much more expensive over the past two decades. And that's very, very noticeable. It's also starting to become noticeable with food at this point too, just in the last six months or so. People are also starting to notice things like food and gas, you know, the prices going up. Maybe gas isn't all due to inflation, but when you start to hit all of those basic needs, you have to wonder, is there any point in calculating a consumer price index with computers and TVs that are getting cheaper because of technology improving and manufacturing processes? Those statistics lose all meaningfulness when they don't include the basic needs that people need to pay for and are now spending more and more of their budget just to keep buying because they need them to survive. I mean, clearly the point is because it's about narrative, right? So much of life in the modern era has become about narrative because if we can't control reality, but we can control the way that people measure reality, talk about reality, analyze reality, think about reality. That's not as good, but it sort of accomplishes the purpose, which is that we're not getting mad at the right people. There's an apocryphal quote, it's difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. And I think suddenly we're right back at Larry Summers, right? Like at the point where the paycheck he's pulling relies upon his continuing a system that is inherently going to fail and that is inherently unfair to the vast majority of people who have to live under it. Well, he's not going to understand it, but now that we're out there in book deal land, well, you know, suddenly he's a little bit more in tune with the zeitgeist. And it's just kind of interesting disheartening certainly. And as Jonathan said, perhaps as cynical as I am, I am not yet cynical enough to understand the full scope of kind of what's at work here. So after the break, we're going to come back and we're going to talk about hyperinflation and preconditions for that. Stay tuned. So we don't usually go to Twitter for content, but I saw a tweet today that I thought was really kind of on the nose and I wanted to share it here. So Luke Raman said, the clearest indication that we are going to have a highly inflationary outcome and non-transitory inflation at that is the number of people on financial Twitter or FinTwit that think that using electricity to create a hard store of value like BTC is a waste of energy. Let them eat bonds. And I thought that this was really a poignant statement, right, an interesting way to kind of think about it. And really the takeaway for me here is that we have entered an era of complacency. As I said, kind of at the open of the show, the idea that we have four percent inflation by official measures and 12 percent inflation by the way that we used to have official measures, that feels about right to me. And on the one hand, it's really concerning. And on the other hand, I can think of not a single action that I can take as an individual, whether as just myself or as part of a group of a lot of people who all believe the same thing to do anything to change that. And I think if you look around, what that says to me is that at least as far as the official narrative is concerned, the Fed has won, the government has won. And what that victory means is that nobody believes that anything bad is going to happen as a result of this crazy monetary experiment that we're in because all of the money printing and all of the stimulus. And again, the, you know, we talk about housing prices and how crazy they are. Well, the Fed buys 40 billion dollars worth of mortgages per month. So like, that's why those things are so crazy is because they're creating this demand where there wouldn't be if they weren't there. And they're not doing it with money that they earned. They're doing it with our money and they're doing it with future commitments that we will eventually need to pay back unless they're defaulted on, which is arguably just as bad. So that's kind of where I want to take this conversation now is like, is there any exit from this? Because again, like the Fed can't raise interest rates. Fed doesn't really control this, but they have to do anything they can to keep interest rates low just because of the way that the debt has stacked up. And this is particularly a problem in the United States. But it's a problem globally. And it's not a new problem. It's just a problem where we've now seen kind of like all of the different nooks and crannies that this stuff could flow into, right? To not build up in one particular area, right?  And so the water level is rising. And as that water level rises, that's not a good thing. And it's not sustainable. So I'm curious, like, does anybody see any ways out of this like hypothetical or not that could actually work to pull us out of this without some type of terrible ending? Well, I think the first thing that would have to happen for the doom and gloom to not occur is for those in positions of control to no longer subscribe to this nonsense called MMT, which is an economic death cult. It's financial scatology. It's the only way I could describe how grotesque and broken this ideology is and the fixation upon it. It's the bro science equivalent of when you go to New Orleans and someone says if you never sober up, you'll never have a hangover. That's what MMT is. Yeah, that's a really good analogy because it is an economic hangover. Right. And it says that if you denominate your debts in dollars and you can print dollars, you will always be solvent because dollars equal dollars. But the thing that it misses and the thing that it fundamentally under evaluates is that services don't inflate. Obligations for services don't inflate.  You don't get to debase the dollar value by 10 or 20 percent or 100 percent or 1000 percent and still be able to meet the obligations of those services because services cost stay the same. An hour of a doctor's time is still an hour of a doctor's time. And so the scariest thing with this MMT death cult is sure the Fed will always be able to pay out a bond. FDIC will always be able to print money, give you your money back. But everyone's 401k, their pension, their Social Security, their health care, those services, where are they going to come from and how are we going to afford them? Because every day the dollar goes down, those services go up and you can't inflate out of the delivery of those services. And so what's going to happen is 20 or 30 years from now, no one's going to have health care, no one's going to have Social Security, no one's going to have those services that have been unfunded and have been inflated into impossibility to achieve. And then pretty soon going to a doctor will be seen as as bourgeois out of the middle class as ever owning your own home. Adam, you were saying, is there anything we can do? And, you know, I agree with everything you said, Jonathan, but unfortunately, we have no control over politicians. I guess maybe the only thing we can do is speak out, spread the word, you know, get people to become more aware of what's actually happening and how the statistics are manipulated. And we're trying to do that with the show. But personally, we can take more control over this by one increasing our knowledge. So like we're going to have the awareness that we want everyone to have about what's really going on and how the story is being manipulated to keep us unaware of what's really going on. And then we can actually opt out of the financial system. I'm not suggesting like everyone go live in the woods, although that is an option for some people.  That's one way to do it. But there's other ways to do it too. Crypto is a giant opt out of the government controlled financial system because it's not controlled by government. It's controlled by software code. And so you can find creative ways to opt out of systems that you don't like. You always have some choices and we're all about that. Everyone being able to exercise their choices and live the best life possible. And when the government makes it hard and crappy for you, hey, you can try to opt out as best you can. I think more fundamentally to your point, Stephanie, and then also to Andreas's point before about having the solution sound to self serving is this isn't like you have to buy Bitcoin type of argument. This is just a you have to understand that the cost of the things that you need to live are going to be going up. And so the future value of money is less than the present value of money. Things that you need tomorrow are going to be way more expensive than they are today. And your money tomorrow will be worth nothing compared to your money today. That also means that if you take out debt, you're going to be paying it back with cheaper money in the future. Right. But the best way to think about it in terms of asset acquisition is, you know, no one ever likes to talk about giving investment advice. I'll give you investment advice right here with a guaranteed return. If you're a normal person and you're thinking how can I make five to 10 percent guaranteed return on investment? And I'm not going to say the word bit shares. The way that you would do it is you look at every proctor and gamble product that you intend to buy this year over the next 12 months and buy them now because proctor and gamble just announced that there's going to be an across the board five to 10 percent increase in every product they make and they make basically everything. And so if you want to know the price of inflation and how to guarantee returns or hedge against it, just right like sit down with your wife or your husband, look at all the proctor and gamble products you'll buy this year and buy it now because you will have a guaranteed return against the devaluation of the dollar and your ability to purchase those goods 12 months from now. The proctor and gamble example kind of reminds me of something very similar that the economists doing for I don't know, 25, 30 years. I certainly remember it since I was in college. It's a long time ago is the big magnex, yeah, which is basically the purchasing power exchange rates of different national currencies based on the local currency price of a big Mac in that country, because for the most part, the cost of making a big Mac is a standard unit of measurement. So you can then value the currencies against that. And it's been remarkably good at really giving you a sense of purchasing power. As funny as it seems, at first thought, you can use the same kind of logic with something like proctor and gamble consumer products to estimate inflation. But even that is not going to give you an accurate perspective on the unequal impact of inflation. Going back to the thing I said before, which is does an equality cause inflation? Is inflation caused inequality? How does that cycle work? The bottom line is that when a lot of the inflation is going into assets, if you have assets, if you own assets, then you can ride that and almost, but not quite, neutralize the effect of inflation. And so, yes, houses cost more, health care costs more, energy costs more, education costs more. But the rich have been getting richer at an even faster rate. So it doesn't really matter if you have assets. If you don't have assets and you're in the stagnant middle class or worse in the lower middle class or worse, then you buy Dogecoin. Well, yeah, then you start gambling on high risk, high yield things like lottery tickets and Dogecoin and of course, Bitcoin. And so you try to beat inflation some other way. You don't have access to mainstream investments necessarily. You certainly don't have enough disposable income to make a big difference. So you need even bigger gains to get out of a poverty trap. That's where you really start feeling the inflation of these assets because you don't own any of them. You know, the Big Mac thing you were talking about, Andreas, reminds me of it's a little off topic, but this is something that also happens that hides inflation is this idea of shrinkflation, right? You go to the store, you buy a product, but all of a sudden there's less in the package, right? It's the same package, the same price. It looks the same. The price has not increased, but suddenly you're getting one less roll of paper towels or your ice cream has 20 percent more air in it. Instead of what it was before. So I have two points to make here. On the one side, I think that shrinkflation was a lot more of a thing or certainly it will happen again. But I think we're going to see more straight up price increases. Well, they can't shrink anymore in some cases. Well, first off, it's that they've already done the shrinking. And so they've reached a point in which it's not like it's going to go unnoticed, right? And on the other side, price increases are being accepted. Warren Buffett for Berkshire Hathaway said on May 1st at their annual meeting, we're seeing very substantial inflation. It's very interesting. We are raising prices. People are raising prices to us and it's being accepted. He's talking specifically about the housing markets, cost of steel, cost of lumber, things like that. But just broadly, I think that this is true. We've reached something of an endgame with the shrinkflation idea, because the whole point is that it's easier to make the product smaller than to charge more. I don't think that's true anymore. I think people are getting used to it. That's because everyone's legally compelled to stay home and not go out. And so all of their discretionary income is sitting stagnant. And so the elasticity on their demand is greater and they can afford to pay for more. But what they're not realizing is when the price of everything moves upward that this is now your standard of living. I think that what's happening now is the government realized they got a free 20 to 30 percent increase in the price of everything by making it illegal for people to be American. People didn't realize it because that 20 to 30 percent they would have spent on enjoying their life is now new elasticity on just keeping the standard of living they have now, which is doing nothing, staying home, atrophying and then dying with no joy in your life. And what people don't realize is that when we allegedly go back to normal once the two weeks to flatten the curve has ended that standard of living that they have now, that's the new normal. That's their new reality. Because once these prices reestablished, they don't go back down. So let's talk about what comes next, because I think we are seeing kind of the beginning of the end. And so I think we're going to see a rush of new economic activity. And if you look back at historical examples of this, of course, although it's very difficult to pin down the causation with certainty, it seems like the end of World War One and the Spanish flu led then to the roaring 20s, right? And that was a period when coming out of a global pandemic and a war recession, et cetera, there was a massive increase in productivity and economic activity. So if something similar happens and we have another roaring 20s, coincidentally also the 20s, then that actually is one of the possible precipitating events for very, very strong inflation. So a market's commenter, who I've been reading for a lot of years named Ms. Shedlock was talking about how hyperinflation feels like it should be a monetary event, feels like it should be something that, you know, is maybe caused by a central bank or something like that. But in practice, he said it's always a political event and the monetary policy follows the politics. And that, I think, is another really interesting thing to think about here, because one of the reasons why it's so frustrating to look at inflation statistics, you know, what the official measures are relative to what we experience in our real lives is that the government actually has a responsibility to track this appropriately, because a lot of the services that are provided to citizens are based around how much inflation there is, right? If you're on Social Security or something like that, that is indexed to inflation. Or what they say is inflation. Exactly, the official measures of inflation. And so if inflation is really, you know, 10 percent, but they say that it's 4 percent, well, then that means that you're actually losing 6 percent that year. And this is kind of true across the board. So it's interesting to look at, you know, I mean, for a long time, wages were really, really sticky in the United States, especially at the lower end of the scale. And these recent pushes sort of towards that $15, irrespective of whether it actually makes its way into law, which I don't think it did, did it? No, I don't think it did either. But it's just happening naturally as a result of, well, depending on who you ask, it's more difficult for employers to hire workers if they don't pay that much. Right, exactly. Because cost of living really is higher. And so it requires more. And I mean, there's other factors that come into play here. This is obviously a more complex topic. Yeah, there's the issue of unemployment as well. But bottom line, it doesn't make sense for people to work for less than about $15 an hour in most places. Right. So, you know, I've been looking around at, you know, this was a couple of months ago at this point, but looking around locally, you know, like all of the fast food places are actually like the most prominent signage they have is competing with each other for how much they pay at a starting level. And that level at, you know, like a Taco Bell or a McDonald's or something, you know, has gone as high as, you know, between $13 to $16 per hour as a starting wage. These were not normal kind of rates years ago. Right. And it's again, not that it's a more valuable job to work there. It's that that's how much is required in order to even just like have that subsistence level existence. So again, like, it's interesting to me as we go through all of this to see that the government kind of finds itself trapped in this situation of its own creation, right? Because they don't want to let the illusion go. They are on the one hand lying to us about how much inflation there is. And on the other hand, they are lying to us about the reasons why they are lying to us about it.  Like in crypto, we have silly season in kind of the rest of the real world, right?  And the way that they got out of this in the 80s was with what 13, 14, 15% interest rates. And it was hard and it was painful. And it was a really meaty sandwich. But they ate it. And then they got out of it. Because guess what? Interest rates deal with inflation. Unlike that in Turkey, what did you to believe, which by the way, we should do a topic on that because he's the first person in charge of a country who says that increasing interest rates increases inflation, which is why Turkey is currently in the middle of a collapse. I don't think like I'm just at the age where to me, it's impossible to think about a world where interest rates were 6%, where that was considered normal. For me, two to one and a quarter makes sense. But I can't even conceive or think entrepreneurially within a framework of what 6% rates look like. And I don't think we're ever even going to get to 6% again. I've heard a new phrase, and this is another way that you know that inflation is coming. It's whenever the goalpost gets moved in the conception of what reduction looks like. So you knew that America would never repay the debt when the Republicans and the Democrats went from arguing about reducing the debt to arguing about how much to reduce the increase in spending as a cut. And so if you only increase the amount that we give Social Security by 50 million instead of 300 million next year, you cut Social Security by 250 million. Right. And that's how you knew America was fiscally. Right. I am now hearing the phrase repeated over and over again about this new term. I haven't heard before. Maybe I just don't know that much about economics, which I'm sure some people listening will agree with. But it's called disinflation. Yeah, I've heard that too. And also reflation. And it's the fear not of deflation. It's the fear of the decrease in inflation. So God forbid if inflation is at 5% and then well, what if the federal government wants inflation to go back to 2%? Well, that's a deflationary 3% Delta. We had 3% deflation. How can the economy deal with 3% deflation? Do you want 3% deflation disinflation? Excuse me. Oh, see how I did that right there? Whoa, got really scared. And so just as in physics, there's no concept of deceleration. It's just acceleration against the different vector. I guess the economists thought that sounded right. Yeah, I was actually thinking of that, Jonathan, it's like the difference between velocity and acceleration, right? Yeah, but it's like we're going into the La La Land where I don't even think we're ever going to see 2% again. I think in the same way that you defunded social security because you're only increasing it by 50 million instead of 300 million. When I have a kid in Feast 15, the concept of 2% inflation will be seen as insane because that would mean that there had to have been a disinflationary event of 10%. This is obviously a conversation we are going to be returning to on a fairly regular basis going into the future. There's more, I think, to say about it, but I think this is probably a good place to end our conversation for today. This episode is speaking of Bitcoin featured Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Stephanie Murphy, Jonathan Mohan and myself Adam B. Levine. Our music is provided by Jared Rubins and the show is edited by Jonas. If you enjoyed this episode, send us an email at adamatspeakingofbitcoin.show or just leave a review on your favorite podcast player. And until next time, thanks for listening.


Venous thrombosis can occur in either the superficial or the deeper veins. Superficial veins are not as concerning as deeper veins when they have a blood clot. Superficial veins might just appear like a cord where you can actually see and palpate the blood clot in the superficial vein. Signs and symptoms are usually mild such as a little bit of swelling, maybe some discomfort, some redness, tenderness to the touch. Signs and symptoms for deep vein thrombosis might be similar but also the patient might have some unilateral edema where the circumference of one calf is bigger than the other one in addition to edema and some discomfort and then sometimes they can also have some warmth because of the inflammation that happens. And typically superficial vein venous thrombosis it just kind of goes away where deep vein thrombosis is much more concerning and we have to watch out for complications and treat the patient accordingly. Check out my full YouTube video about venous thrombosis to learn all the details.


look at that look at that don't look down don't look down don't look down everything is okay everything is fine hello guys hello hello so we came to Lotte world adventure of muslim park the famous of muslim park in korea and i came here with my indian friend let's go wow finally we arrived to Lotte world yeah amazing i'm excited let's go wow there are so many things oh he's so cute ice skating really beautiful that looks scary oh that looks so scary game factory oh that's cool oh today's not very crowded so wow it's good wow i love this what is that a horse turning around horse oh little princess oh my gosh you're so cute you're so cute so which lines do you want to take why should we gonna try that biking biking okay okay okay let's try that it's not basic oh my god wow who are they oh my god they're so cute wow so cute it's very long so every ride gonna be like this only now are you ready yes are you ready and it's time to take cute adorable train hello nice to meet you so cute so i'm so excited start that's a little closer right yeah this is a little closer the castle that is very scary oh my god look at this guy don't drop guys wow it looks so scary so scary look at the roller coaster wow do you cook by yourself ah yeah wow Japanese noodle ramen Bismillah so this is Japanese noodle is it good no no oh my god can you believe that muslim prayer room yes oh i didn't know that it's very respectful place you can watch here men wash here and woman oh it's very respectful the curtain makes for the female yeah yeah yeah well it's very respectful yeah and you can pray here wow so there's a separate male place and female place how do you think about this yeah i'm really impressed wow see this here normally we don't see this kind of things in adventure parts yeah yeah right right we used to see this so korea is changing wow i'm so i'm so happy wow magic island let's go oh that is the best photo zone okay yep so fast i have some questions i always curious that there are really many muslims in india yes yes in in india there is almost 18 percent of the population is 18 percent 18 percent wow that is equal to 20 to 25 crores because the total population of india is 125 crores wow this is over korean's population yeah much more than that much more than that yes a lot yeah how indian people think about korea usually koreans have very good generosity they are very generous people which island they are very kind and they are very very conscious about caring people apart from that you can also say they are very advanced compared to other countries even it is a small country south korea they are doing into a lot of business like the way samsung lg hyundai all these big companies which are rolling the world are from south korea so we are also really proud of you guys south korea yeah thank you aren't there any hardship to live in korea as a muslim muslims eat halal food so it's not so easy to find it here yeah and apart from that everything is okay oh really we get a lot of love and respect from these people okay thank you for answering yep thank you go to gyro drop gyro drop yeah win or lose yes so if you win you go to gyro drop right right right right right right okay so this is a coin one side is head another side is tail so choose one which one you want i want this okay he has to then head so let's toss let's see who will win okay i want one you need to get to that right so finally we are going so you are trying to go there you can do it you can do it oh it's really scary we are going oh look at that look at that everything is okay everything is fine came so how was it awesome awesome we did it yeah we did it it's nothing nothing yeah only a matter of few seconds yeah we went to win the stop in the top yes it was so so scary but nothing yeah yeah we did it looks nice we are the castle which i walked in i've never been here but it's really beautiful half way or something so good you want to see that uh today we went out there world and it was so fun and thank you for joining me together yes it was really good and if you come to korea the local world of muslim park is one of the most you have to come yes right it's really mandatory mandatory yeah take care and be safe and thank you for watching my video bye bye guys mashallah love you see you see you good good


Anyone can sell building materials, but not everyone is a hundred-year company. Welcome to the Smarter Building Materials Marketing Podcast, helping you find better ways to grow leads, sales, and outperform your competition. All right, everyone, welcome to another episode of Smarter Building Materials Marketing, where we believe your online presence is your best salesperson. I'm your host, Beth Popnikolov, and in the studio with us today, we have a fellow marketer who has been heading up a family-owned distributing company for quite a while and has got some great insights to share, and maybe even a little bit of contentious input. So I'm really excited to welcome Cassie Nealum into the studio. She's the director of marketing for Deedering Company. Welcome to the show, Cassie. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. So before we get started, just take a few moments, if you will, introduce yourself and the Deedering Company to our listeners. My name's Cassie. I have been working at Deedering for coming up on 12 years now. I grew up in Houston. I left when I was 15 and went to boarding school, and then college, grad school, made my way back home when I was 27 and started working at Deedering. I started in a hybrid HR marketing position, which we have come a very long way since then, and I focus mostly on marketing for the last 10 or 11 years. I feel like I've spent the majority of my adult life working at Deedering, and it's really been an exciting adventure. I work with my family, my dad, and my brother, and I all own the Deedering Company together. We are a third generation building materials distributor in Houston. We also have a brick and masonry company called South Texas Brick and Stone that has offices in Houston and Austin and a showroom in San Antonio, and historically, we are a millwork-only company, but this summer, we are opening the lumber arm of our company and we'll be opening our new lumber facility, which is about a mile from our current facility on July 1st. So, an exciting time. Yeah, for sure, thank you. And for our listeners, we've just opened registration for this year's Building Products Customer Workshop. You can head to venvio.com slash 2024 if you're interested in signing up. Cassie, what I remember from meeting you is you said, like, I just found out about the Building Products Customer Workshop and I turned this around in, like, 48 hours. Found out about the event and showed up 48 hours later because you were like, it's a marketing and sales event specifically for building products. I have to make this happen. Marketing is so funny in our industry. Building materials to me is so different than any other industry out there. It's like the least sexy. For us in particular, we sell molding and stair parts and doors are exciting, but like in the raw form, there's not a lot there, you know, to be like, yes, this product is so much better than this product because of, you know, and once you see it finished, it's so much easier to talk about why this crown molding is so great or whatever, but should we tell the listeners that I'm having new windows installed from D-Ring today? Yeah, this is building materials in real life. Cassie's walking the walk right now and having her windows replaced. I know at our event in Denver, when we were talking, I think it was you who mentioned that similar idea, which is, you know, when you all have the same type of product, it's really difficult. If you're just focusing on the, you know, millimeters that mine is better than yours, it ends up being erased to the bottom. It's just whose price is cheaper. But when you talk about what happens on the front end and what happens on the back end and you make that the whole project, that whole experience is part of what you do, you're able to have a more strategic conversation that suddenly moves away from price and moves into partnerships. And I think too, there are always going to be those people that are buying for price. You are probably not going to capture those people every time, not saying that we're not the lowest sometimes. We definitely are, but when we're not, I think we just have to accept that and that's okay. But there are plenty of other people who care about that service, those relationships.  Like this building a home, remodeling a home is not for the faint of heart and it's very expensive anyway you slice it. And so you really, I think want someone that is going to be looking out for your best interests because this is not just like a new pair of jeans. Like this is a very big purchase. They're not small decisions. And so in my opinion, you want someone that is looking out for you. How are you measuring success for your marketing? This is definitely something that we could be doing a lot better. We have like a very informal process. I think right now it's sort of like, we're growing year over year, you know? Like we're capturing that market share. So it's really easy when times are very good to kind of like not worry about it, but times aren't good forever. So I think that this will be something that we'll be working on over the next couple of years, kind of how to formalize tracking our marketing success. Do you get DMs with specific requests or that are turned into actual leads? Yeah, occasionally we do. And it always like brightens. Getting a DM is like my favorite thing, especially if it's not a bot.  And so yeah, we get a couple here and there. We don't have a ton of followers, but I do, I love interacting with customers and potential customers on the gram. What marketing channel is working the best for you? Right now I'd say probably Instagram. We're on Twitter, we don't really tweet. We have a Facebook page that stays pretty active. I teed us up that we've got at least one controversial topic. So let me present my case that we've said a lot. This won't be news to any of our listeners, but we have a saying that your number of years in business is not a value proposition.  And so I know that what you do is genuinely really intentional and thoughtful. And I do think that that's a product of you all being in business for a long time. But we tend to see that as that's not why someone's on your website is the place where I'm coming from. My understanding is that you have a different stance and frankly as someone on the front lines, I feel like you're warranted your own opinion. So I'd love to hear from you how that lands with you and what your thoughts are on that. Yeah, I mean, I definitely see what you're saying. And I don't disagree. We've worked with professional marketing companies over the years that have said the exact same thing. And I get it. I don't think that people are Googling hundred year business. Like I wanted to business with them. Like of course not. But I think where our number of years in business comes into play is if you do land on our website because you have Googled exterior doors or crown molding or new baseboards or whatever that seeing that legacy and history might tickle something in your brain that otherwise would not have happened. We're a relationship based business. I think that people like the idea of doing business with people that have showed continuity that have been consistent, that have survived multiple downturns and are still out there. Like the number of independence in our industry shrinking at a clip. And so I think that it really says something about who we are that we're still in it. And not only are we still in it, but we're growing. Yeah, like maybe it's not for everybody but to me it's such an important part of our story. Right? Like we don't just sell building materials. Anyone can sell building materials but not everyone is a hundred year company that's still family owned three generations in and is queuing up the next generation. My oldest is seven, so we've got a ways to go. But I think especially now more than ever with all the murders and acquisitions that are taking place in our market that it might be relevant to people to buy from an independent, to buy from someone who has been in business for 96, 97 years. I mentioned earlier that kind of stuff's important to me and maybe I'm an anomaly. Maybe I'm biased because it's my own experience but I don't think it's not important. I think it's a piece of the puzzle or like a tool in the toolbox, you know? I don't think that you can rely on being having been around for 97 years but I think it's important to mention. I think it shows long-term success. That's fair. The place where I would offer is there's a lot of work that that puts on the people that come to your site to infer all of what you said. Because I completely agree that everything you said is what people want, especially when I start to think through if I have a problem, I'm gonna call Cassie and Cassie's gonna make it happen because her maiden name is Deedering. Not if I have a problem, I'm gonna call Cassie and she's an outsourced rep for this multi-billion dollar distributor who's gonna have to push it up the chain and they don't care about that person because they've got 400 outsourced reps and this is the 30th call that they've had that needs to get escalated today. I think that is really compelling.  What else you got? Versus you being like, no, if you have an issue, like I can make product show up on your doorstep tomorrow and like the nimbleness and I, I guess the other thing I would say is I'm surprised to hear how you guys apply your 97 years because and this could be the millennial in me, we all have our own biases that we bring to the table. The millennial in me sees 97 years and I'm like, that is some outdated concepts that I am about to engage with enough. That's cause I don't know, if I didn't know you and all of the really cool, thoughtful things that you guys are doing, that's easy to say from my seat, I don't do what you do every day. One of the things that we like really value at Benvio and on the SBMM podcast is organizations being able to showcase their value and the number one thing that I would, that I, that frustrates me is really cool organizations that are not getting the credit and the limelight that they should simply because others are just out marketing them in a way that is not necessarily difficult or even very clever, it's just being done. Do you know what I'm saying? Of course. I mean, I think about this a lot actually, but again, like I'd go back to like just, this is a part of our story that I feel like is worth sharing.  And I think that that, you know, hopefully that is upended when they go, do go to our website and do see, you know, what we're putting out there. I just think that it's, you know, telling our story has served us well, at least in my tenure. Also your story is really what is differentiating you and that's not to be overlooked. You are competing against just monstrosities who do have a story like it's not for nothing. It's not that they're, you know, they're not just machines and conglomerates. We're not saying bad things about them, but your story is really what's unique about you. And so we, for sure, I would never tell anyone to move beyond your story and get to the facts, but just how is the story being presented in a way that your customers can perceive it or like digest it? We've worked with some really cool video companies over the, or video one video company over the last couple of years. We have two videos that are really amazing. The company is called Chispa House and they have done such a nice job of like highlighting the story, the story, you know, while I think really showcasing our value proposition and like this like service oriented model that we present to customers. And so that's been really great. And that's, you know, that's on our website. On our website, we recently tweaked it a little bit, but there's like an about us page where you can, if you feel so inclined, you can kind of go back and read the story about my great grandfather opening his grocery store and then my grandfather opened Deedering on the same site and we moved locations in 2014. And I think that there's a lot of interesting stuff there that's available for the taking, but also like if you just want to quote or some trim, like it's there too, you know? We can do that too. But I think, you know, we do a lot with our builders association here in Houston and that's been very successful and kind of goes back to that like brand recognition and being front of mind. And I think that in that like face to face, like relational context is where telling our story really shines. And so that has been really helpful for us in that like networking piece. I think people do really love hearing more about Deedering like directly in like present time, face to face. So that's been a big success for us really like putting some of our time and energy into the builders association where we are really active on the Custom Builders Council and the Remodellers Council.  So, you know, y'all are the digital marketing professionals and I feel like our digital marketing is definitely a work in progress but we've also had a lot of fun with it and it's because we are limber and because we are flexible, I think it has allowed us to try lots of different things without an enormous fear of failure, right? Like, we're not, I mean, our marketing budget gives me a lot of room to play with things to see if something works and if it doesn't to do a quick pivot and try something else. And, you know, I think I'm hoping that our marketing team will continue to grow over the next couple of years and then we'll really be able to allocate more time and resources to like specifically digital marketing and social media and, you know, those kinds of things and, you know, it's just progress over perfection, right? I bet there's a way to do both. I think that's the key. For you guys, when it matters, it matters. For so many people, it's the default and it's not thoughtful. And what I'm hearing from you is it's thoughtful, it's intentional, we've continued to evolve and develop but we've also butted heads against change when change didn't serve us and serve our customers and I think that's the part of the story that is really, really valuable. It's not an all in or all out.  But it's like, how do you make the story resonate in a way that showcases how thoughtful you've been? You can't just like lean into, we are 100 year company and that's why you should buy from us. That does not work. And so in that case, we completely agree with each other. My life motto is it's both and, like nothing is either or. Yes, absolutely. Like literally everything is both and. And so, you know, you can be both an excellent company providing amazing service and top of the line material as well as a 100 year privately owned local company. Like those can coexist. And I think that that's one area where we've really gotten it right. It's like finding that sweet spot where we tell our story, we share our story. It's a very big part of who we are. It is not the only thing. It is not the only reason that you should buy from us. And I think that that's a really important distinction. I completely agree. And I am also a huge believer in both and we're a digital marketing company who goes to trade shows to meet people face to face. Like we're a digital marketing company who believes in the importance of sales reps and customer service and all of those other things. It's not about forsaking one for the other but making it all work like a cohesive system. I 100% agree with that philosophy. I think that it's really important that people understand that you can be both. That you can be a multi-generational company that has a wonderful legacy and a great story and you can effectively market your products to your customers in a way that is going to make them want to buy from you. Cassie, thank you so much for your time. If any of our listeners want to reach out, get in touch, pick your brain. What's the best way for them to get in touch with you? So you can find the Deedering Company on basically every social at the Deedering Company is our Instagram handle, Facebook, LinkedIn and I am there on all of them. Thank you so much for your time. Again, this was awesome. Thanks for letting me challenge some stuff in for pushing back. If for our listeners, if you want more great content like this head to benvio.com slash podcast to subscribe. Until next time, I'm Beth Papuquola. Thanks everyone.


Twisted 2D materials have recently emerged as a controllable quantum simulator platform. Here, the authors apply the same approach to tune the edge states of zigzag graphene nanoribbons, showing a unique degree of freedom represented by the lateral stacking offset of the 1D nanostructures. This article was authored by Deng Fei Wang, Diliang Bao, Qi Jing, and others.