Episode 222: “What You Need to Know About Your Money and the Federal Reserve” with Cato’s Norbert Michel
Release Date: 04/12/2023
Episode 291 : The Ministry of Green Truth: Mark Mills Exposes America's $6 Trillion Energy Fantasy
The Bill Walton Show
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” - George Orwell On The Bill Walton Show, Mark Mills strips away the Newspeak surrounding the innocuously named "Inflation Reduction Act" (IRA) to reveal it as perhaps the most audacious experiment in government-directed industrial planning in U.S. history. is the executive director of the National Center for Energy Analytics, and author of . Like Orwell's Ministry of Truth, which turned lies into official doctrine, the architects of this legislation have manufactured their own reality. They call it the...
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Episode 290: Fifth Generation Warfare: Where Hypersonic Missiles Meet the Healthcare State
The Bill Walton Show
What if modern warfare has evolved beyond anything history's great strategists could have imagined? While Metternich orchestrated the balance of power through diplomatic summits and Machiavelli counseled princes on maintaining state authority, today's battles for sovereignty unfold in unlikely places: doctors' offices, veterinary clinics, and local zoning boards across America. In this deep dive episode of The Bill Walton Show, Brandon Weichert and Brian O'Shea reveal how traditional military threats and internal subversion have merged into an entirely new form of conflict. Beginning...
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Episode 285: A Game Changing Russian Missile?
The Bill Walton Show
In this unsettling episode of The Bill Walton Show, national security expert Stephen Bryen returns to cut through the fog about Russia's game-changing hypersonic missile and what it means for U.S. security. As Joe Biden requests another $24 billion for Ukraine, Bryen reveals how Russia has achieved strategic superiority in missile technology - a capability we cannot match or defend against. Dr. Stephen Bryen, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, has over 50 years national security experience including many stints in the Pentagon where he became one of the world’s leading...
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Episode 284: The CIA and FBI are Beyond Repair
The Bill Walton Show
When former CIA station chiefs admit that only 50 out of 1,500 clandestine service officers are truly effective, you know something's deeply wrong with our intelligence agencies. In this explosive conversation, Mike Waller, senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and author of "Big Intel: How the CIA and FBI Went from Cold War Heroes to Deep State Villains," reveals how our premier intelligence agencies have lost their way - and what must be done to fix them. The timing couldn't be more critical. With Donald Trump proposing a new Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk and...
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Episode 283: A Global War on Freedom: How the US Corporate Transparency Act and the EU Digital Services Act Threaten Liberty
The Bill Walton Show
In a riveting conversation with Peter Mcilvenna of the UK’s Hearts of Oak, we describe what may be the most aggressive US domestic surveillance program since the Patriot Act – and its disturbing connection to a global censorship agenda. The story that emerges isn't just about US regulation; it's about the systematic and coordinated dismantling of economic and expressive freedoms on both sides of the Atlantic. The New American Surveillance State Remember Reagan's famous warning that the nine most terrifying words were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"? Today's version might...
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Episode 281: Are We Passing the Israel Test
The Bill Walton Show
In this compelling and wide ranging episode of The Bill Walton Show, host Bill Walton engages with the great economic, technology and futurist thinker George Gilder to talk about his provocative book, The Israel Test. In The Israel Test George provides much needed context for today’s war in the Middle East. His theory about the root causes of the conflict dramatically reframes the issues and makes it clear why we need to support Israel in this defining moment in History. Despite comprising only 4% of the Middle East's land area, Israel has cultivated a preeminent high-tech economy,...
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Episode 280: How to Conduct an Honest Election
The Bill Walton Show
It won’t be news to anyone that this upcoming election is fraught with many potential problems. Based on a new study by Just Facts, 10% to 27% of “non-citizen” adults in the U.S. are estimated to be illegally registered to vote. Aggressive attempts to debunk the study have completely failed. With roughly 20 million adult non-citizens living in the United States, about two to five million of who used to be called illegal aliens are now illegally registered to vote. This means that there are enough votes to overturn the votes of the American citizens in the upcoming congressional and...
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Episode 279: The Case for Trump
The Bill Walton Show
In this easy to listen to, charming, and informative episode of "The Bill Walton Show," host Bill Walton engages with Mercedes Schlapp and Matt Schlapp in a dynamic discussion about the pressing issues facing America today. Together, and with humor, they dig into the upcoming elections, economic priorities, and the shifting political landscape. Of course, as Trump supporters, the trio delves into critiques of Biden/Harris’ leadership, the importance of economic growth, and why minority communities are increasingly supporting conservative policies. They also highlight the work that CPAC has...
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Episode 278: Stop trying to "Reform" Schools, Start Fresh with New Ways to Teach Our Kids
The Bill Walton Show
Public K12 education in the United States has become the largest government-controlled monopoly in the world, (other than the CCP controlled monopolies in China), spending nearing $1 trillion per year. And for all the money spent, it’s been a failure. In international tests, American eighth graders score 9th in reading, 16th in science, and 34th in math. With few other options granted other than attending their residentially assigned district public school most Americans cannot conceive that there are other alternatives to educate their children. School reform efforts are...
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Episode 277: "NATO Taunts Russia" with Stephen Bryen and Brandon Weichert
The Bill Walton Show
"He who tries to defend everything defends nothing." ~ Frederick the Great of Prussia This episode examines the three explosive national security crises the United States and world are embroiled in today, any one of which could escalate into igniting a World War III. Ukraine/Russia, Israel/Hamas and Taiwan/China. Disturbingly, there’s a lot of sabre rattling with far too many politicians in both Europe and the United States engaged in reckless rhetoric. To provide cogent analysis and a healthy dose of sobering realism at a time when we face dire...
info_outlineIs the Federal Reserve a godlike Zeus able to control our money and the economy, preserve financial stability and keep a lid on inflation?
Or is it like the Wizard of Oz? A little man behind the curtain pulling levers to create smoke and noise to terrify and control people, but in the end only one market participant among many worldwide.
If you’re a bond trader in New York, trying to predict minute day to day changes in interest rates, it’s more like Zeus. For the rest of us, I believe, it’s like Oz.
Trying to figure out the Fed is a complicated business and I'm delighted to be joined again on this episode by one of my favorite guests and good friend Norbert Michel, who's vice president and director of Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives.
“The Fed does set an interest rate target,” says Norbert, “and they do administratively set a policy rate that they pay on reserves. But the idea that the Fed is sitting down in a basement and turning some dials and cranking up unemployment or cranking down inflation or cranking up GDP, it's just not true.”
In this episode we delve into this, and a lot of other news in the headlines about our money. Like whether the United States dollar is likely to lose its status as the world’s reserve currency.
The United States enjoys an enormous gift which is also a curse: with the world’s reserve currency, it can run massive federal budget and trade deficits as long as other countries want to hold dollars. That’s not likely to change in the near future.
“The US economy is still about a quarter of the global economy. And then almost another quarter of the global economy is China. Well, who on Earth wants to hold Chinese currency when it’s controlled by the Chinese Communist Party? And so you're really left with no place else to go.”
Norbert is also one of true experts in the very real threat to our liberty that the Biden Administration (along with many other governments worldwide) is cooking up: a central bank digital currency.
“Our paper dollars today are technically liabilities of the Federal Reserve; but with a CBDC, your checking account is with the Fed, giving it potential control of every transaction.”
“On Cato’s website we have direct quotes from international government officials talking about how great it is going to be to control what everybody does with their money. So this is real. This is coming.”
Given how complicated all this stuff is, Norbert and I try to keep the conversation from getting too dense. Listen in. These are important matters that do concern you and your money.