Top Podcasts of the Week

Below is our “Top Podcast” episode with our curator, Colby Donovan!

Today we have Jim Chanos on why we’re living in the golden age of fraud, James Aitken with his thoughts on the market and economy, and a startup providing prize-linked bank accounts.

InvestingReal Vision: Finance, Business & The Global Economy: The Golden Age of Corporate Fraud (w/ Jim Chanos & Mike Green). Chanos is the President of Kynikos Associates and one of the most successful short-sellers of all time. He explains why he believes we are in the golden age of fraud and looks back at his short of one earlier this year (Wirecard). He talks about the current mindset of investors, with retail investors facing no trading fees and therefore trading more and institutional investors willing to buy stocks like Grubhub & Uber for the sole focus on total addressable market instead of P/E, or even P/S. As they wrap up, Chanos talks about why he thinks IBM is a great short and why the commercial real estate market is in for a slow, painful decline as office and retail rents fall off in the next few years. [December 20, 2020–1 hour, 28 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website LinkEven if you have smoking guns…the market can make you look wrong for a long time.The Grant Williams Podcast: The End Game Ep. 13 — The Return Of The Lord Of The Dark Matter. Aitken is the Founder and Managing Partner of Aitken Advisors, a one-man macroeconomic research boutique based in Wimbledon. It’s a long but great episode. They talk about every topic you can think of: the impact of the Fed, the impact of having monetary stimulus, fiscal stimulus, and the vaccine simultaneously, Brexit, global currencies, inflation and reflation, potential of digital currencies. He also talks about picking his spots with certain value stocks with valuations at all-time highs. [December 20, 2020–2 hours, 19 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website LinkOn a lot of occasions over the past dozen years or so, it often pays to leave your brain at home.Real Vision: Finance, Business & The Global Economy: The Investment Portfolio that Grows and Preserves Wealth for 100 Years (w/ Jason Buck & Chris Cole). Cole is the founder and CIO of Artemis Capital and well known for his focus on volatility and the “dragon portfolio,” which consists of gold, long volatility, and commodity trend-following in addition to stocks and bonds. He begins with his core investing beliefs and what he thinks about the current market environment. He thinks investors need to be very cognizant of both the left tail (deflationary deleveraging) and the right tail (inflationary deleveraging), both of which he thinks are on the horizon, and explains why most institutions and pensions are set up to fail with their current allocations. He wrote a 2020 paper called The Allegory of the Hawk and the Serpent: How to Grow and Preserve Wealth for 100 Years that covers these ideas as well. [December 22, 2020–1 hour, 12 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website LinkTop Traders Unplugged: 119 Systematic Investor Episode ft Jerry Parker. The three hosts give a familiar reminder that regardless of what the market does, your ability to make money over time hinges on sticking with your process and being disciplined. They talk about the difference between having a discretionary or systematic process (or combination of both) and the importance of risk management through position sizing and diversification. [December 21, 2020–1 hour, 22 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website LinkReduce your positions faster than you lose money.Hidden Forces: Understanding the STABLE Act and the Push to Regulate Crypto | Rohan Grey. Demetri Kofinas talks with Rohan Grey, an expert on the legal design and regulation of digital fiat currency and one of the prime authors of the recently proposed STABLE Act put forward by congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. Kofinas is up front that he disagrees with the majority of Grey’s views which makes it a really interesting conversation. As Kofinas says, it’s such an important conversation because regardless what you think is right or wrong, more regulation and government spending will almost certainly occur going forward. They talk about Facebook’s Libra, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and why Grey isn’t a fan of them. The second half of the episode can only be listened to here — it is typically behind a paywall but since this episode has received a lot of attention, Kofinas made it public for everyone. [December 14, 2020–1 hour, 1 minute] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website LinkUnemployment is prima facie evidence of the failure of public policy…The fact that we have unemployment is because we allow unemployment to persist.The Meb Faber ShowThe Meb Faber Show: #273 — Adam Moelis, Yotta Savings — Almost Half Of American’s Can’t Come Up With $400 In An Emergency And 78% Of People Live Paycheck To Paycheck. Moelis is the co-founder and CEO of Yotta Savings, which is a lottery-linked savings account that allows users to earn entries into a lottery for up to $10 million based on how much they save each month. He explains the dire financial picture for most Americans and why this product offering is best for low income Americans. He explains why this wasn’t legal in the U.S. until 2015 what led him to start the company. He also discusses going through Y Combinator’s first remote batch and how it helped the company. [December 21, 2020–37 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website LinkThe Meb Faber Show: #274 — Mitch Baruchowitz, Merida Capital Partners — Is The Trade Over? No…It’s Just Getting Going In Some Ways. Baruchowitz is a Partner at Merida Capital Partners, a private equity fund targeting fundamental growth drivers underpinning the rapid development of the cannabis industry. He talks about what peaked his interest in the cannabis space and trying to acquire a license in CT early on. Then he explains what led him to start Merida Capital and why he invested in the unicorn GrowGen. He finishes with what the impact of COVID and 2020 elections have had on the space. [December 23, 2020–1 hour, 9 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website LinkRECOMMENDATIONSBooksReid Hoffman (Co-Founder, LinkedIn):Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanAmusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show BusinessJerry Seinfeld (Comedian):The Last Laugh: The World of Stand-Up Comics by Phil Berger

Good investing,Meb Fabertheideafarm.com