Trump's Permanent Shutdown: Is Your Inner Ron Swanson Celebrating? | Between The Lies 010
Release Date: 10/10/2025
Boomer Home Equity Crisis: Why Housing Prices Must Fall for America to Recover | Between The Lies 023
Between the Lies Podcast
Trump's team announced you might be able to raid your 401k for a down payment on a house. Sounds like IBC at first glance, right? Not even close. Welcome to Between The Lies, where Rob Brayton from Perfect Spiral Capital helps me understand why government solutions to government-created problems always make things worse. This week we're tackling Kevin Hassett's proposal to let people withdraw 401k funds for home purchases, and why it's actually a desperation play disguised as help. What We Cover: Why withdrawing from your 401k kills your future earning capacity permanently ...
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Visa, Mastercard, and the Coming Credit Crunch: Why Rate Caps Could Backfire | Between The Lies 022
Between the Lies Podcast
I heard a rumor that Trump wants to cap credit card rates at 10%. Personally, I was just thinking it's already too easy to move up economically in America. Not like we have an unaffordability crisis constantly making headlines or anything. Welcome to another episode where Rob Brayton from Perfect Spiral Capital and I break down another government solution that's likely to create more problems than it solves. Spoiler alert: When you cap what lenders can charge for risk, they just stop lending to risky people. What We Cover: Why credit card rate caps mean fewer people get credit,...
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Housing Crisis Solution or Bait and Switch? Trump's Single-Family Ban | Between The Lies Podcast 021
Between the Lies Podcast
Housing prices are too damn high. You can try Mamdani's approach, or you can try Trump's. Time will tell who's right. My guess is neither. Welcome to another episode where Rob Brayton from Perfect Spiral Capital and I try to figure out what unforeseen and cataclysmic effects might come from Trump's latest housing market intervention. This week's headline: banning institutional investors like BlackRock from buying single-family homes. Sounds great on the surface, right? Get the big bad corporations out of residential neighborhoods and maybe regular people can actually afford...
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Infinite Banking in Practice: Perfect Spiral Capital's 2026 Policy Loan Plans | Between The Lies 020
Between the Lies Podcast
We barely contained ourselves last episode talking policy loans, so naturally we're back at it this week. Welcome to another episode where Luke Tatum, Rob Brayton from Perfect Spiral Capital, and I dive into exactly how we're putting infinite banking to work in 2025. Not theory. Not sales pitches. Just real examples of what we're actually doing with our policies this year. What We Cover: Luke's plan: Managing uneven income taxes, floating business expansion costs, and financing his nephew's first car Rob's vision: Launching his own podcast, exploring passive income...
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IBC Year-End Review: How Policy Loans Beat Bank Financing in 2025: Between The Lies 019
Between the Lies Podcast
As we close out 2025, Luke, Rob, and I wanted to do something different. Instead of talking theory, we're sharing exactly what we actually used our policy loans for this year. Welcome to the Christmas edition of Between The Lies, where we get real about infinite banking in practice. Not the sales pitch version - the actual day-to-day mechanics of how this works when you're running your life and business. I'll be honest - my policy is tiny. About $50 a month. That's it. But you know what? Once a year, without fail, my car needs something I don't have cash for. And every single...
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One Big Beautiful Bill Act Exposed: Tax Cuts Without Spending Cuts = Theft: Between The Lies 018
Between the Lies Podcast
Here we go again. Big tax refunds are on the way, I'm told. Sounds like the money printer is revving up again. Welcome to another episode where Luke Tatum, Rob Brayton from Perfect Spiral Capital, and I try to make sense of political bribery disguised as tax policy. This week we're tackling Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" and why your bigger refund check is actually just theft with extra steps. The pitch sounds great on the surface: expanded standard deductions, no tax on tips or overtime, boosted child tax credits tied to inflation. Everyone gets more money back! Don't you...
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Are Life Insurance Companies Safe? Mutual vs Stock Companies & PE Firm Truth: Between The Lies Episode 017
Between the Lies Podcast
We keep getting asked in the YouTube comments: How are you any type of alternative when life insurance companies still make money off investments? This week's Between The Lies tackles that question head-on with some uncomfortable truths Bloomberg doesn't want you to understand. Luke and Rob break down a recent Bloomberg article warning about private equity firms creating "credit hazards" in retirement funds. The article highlights companies like Apollo Group and Athene taking risky leveraged positions with your money. But here's what Bloomberg conveniently omits: They're talking about...
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Markets Without Memory: Investing When Big Tech Has No Track Record | Between The Lies 016
Between the Lies Podcast
Welcome back to Between The Lies, where we navigate economic uncertainty with Austrian economics and practical wealth strategies. I'm Nicky P, joined by Luke Tatum and Rob Brayton from Perfect Spiral Capital. This week we tackle something that should terrify every investor: what happens when the people you trust to predict market behavior can only shrug? Nvidia and Alphabet together make up 13% of the S&P 500. Bitcoin ranks third in global market cap. These aren't century-old companies with predictable patterns. We're literally older than significant portions of the market we're...
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Trump's 50-Year vs FDR's 30-Year Mortgage: Why Bigger Isn't Better | Between The Lies 015
Between the Lies Podcast
Trump just announced 50-year mortgages to "fix" the housing crisis. His logic? If FDR's 30-year mortgages were good, then 50-year mortgages must be better. Bigger number equals better, right? Wrong. In this episode, Luke Tatum and Rob Brayton from Perfect Spiral Capital break down the mathematical reality behind Trump's latest intervention. The numbers are brutal: After 10 years of payments on a 50-year mortgage, 93% of your money goes to interest. You'd have just 7% equity in your home. You don't hit the 50/50 point—where your payment is equally split between principal and...
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Washington's SNAP Shackles: When Foreign Aid Trumps Your Groceries | Between The Lies 014
Between the Lies Podcast
Welcome to day 36 of the "apocalypse" - also known as the longest government shutdown in US history. Except nothing actually collapsed. Parks closed while we sent billions overseas. SNAP benefits are being held hostage while Congress gets paid. It's almost like they're using your groceries as a political weapon. Luke Tatum & Rob Brayton from Perfect Spiral Capital, and myself break down the strangest hostage crisis in American history - where 42 million people (34% of which are children) get caught in the crossfire between politicians arguing about which subsidies matter more....
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