Episode 86- Anthony Scaramucci on Inauguration Day, Talking Politics and Bitcoin

Rich sits down with the Founder and and Co-Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital, and one-time White House Communications Director, Anthony Scaramucci for some interesting discussions ranging from Trump to Biden to Bitcoin.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Richard healthy's common bridge. The fiercely nonpartisan discussion that seeks policy solutions to issues of the day. Rich is a successful entrepreneur in the technology health and finance space. He and his wife, Leslie are also philanthropists with interest in civic and artistic endeavors with a primary focus on medically and educationally underserved children. And welcome to the common bridge. We're recording this on integration day 2021. And we coincidentally have a very special guest who has some insight into the operations of the outgoing administration. Rich's guest today is Anthony Scaramucci. Now Mr. Scaramucci is the founder and co managing partner of SkyBridge capital. And he's also the author of four books, including the wall street journal bestseller hopping over the rabbit hole. In 2016, Mr. Scaramucci was ranked 85th and worth magazines power 100, the 100 most powerful people in global finance. But in that same year, he was also named to president elect Trump's 16 person presidential transition team, the executive committee, and in June, 2017, he was named the chief strategy officer of the E X I M bank. And in July of 2017, he served as the white house communications director for a short time. Now this is a really informative, but no holds barred interview that spans from Trump to Biden to the economy. And then finally to Bitcoin, we're going to join this conversation in progress, and it starts with rich and Mr. Scaramucci reacting to the pardons that Trump signed it just hours prior to this interview. So here's Mr. Skillman,

Speaker 2 1:35

But Rick, I mean, if we're, if we're on the record, which I'm assuming we are, let me, let me just say this to you. Some of the 143 people were smokescreen for others of the 143 people, meaning somebody like Kwame or names on that list that you don't know, they were just thrown on there. Uh, you know, and, um, and I'm absolutely convinced that people were paid to get access to that list. I mean, that was a list of corruption. And of course, you know, the bigger ones were Elliott Brody, Broidy, and, uh, at Steve Ben. And, but you know, that's Trump classic Trump to the end, a total corruption, a total violations of the monuments clause, tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds of millions of dollars made during the presidency by himself and his family. And, uh, and we're here now, and then he couldn't even bring himself to admit that he lost the election yet to think about how despicable of a guy this guy is that he would want to turn 50 million Americans against themselves in their country. Uh, it was never America first. It was always Trump first. And so he told this very, very big lie and he perpetuated it and then him and his acolytes planned and conspired to create a violent insurrection at the Capitol building. So set the stop and think about all of that for a moment and think about what a despicable creature this guy actually was.

Speaker 3 3:07

I concur that the second impeachment was earned and that he violated the oath of office by not respecting the results of the election by the nutty idea, that somehow the vice-president could overturn that and then encouraging people to do what they did. And, and I don't disagree at all with the second impeachment. Here's my framework, Anthony, from a guy somewhat distant. And I said this from the beginning of the primaries in 16, and I have not seen any reason to change. And I've said it repeatedly. My framework for Donald Trump is three points. Number one, not qualified to be in the office of the president of the United States. Number two, either unwilling or unable to learn the job of president and number three, massive personal problems, everything he's done, basically you can follow that framework. So we have the result that we,

Speaker 2 4:04

Well, let me, let me react to that because I had a insider's view there during the campaign. Obviously I worked on the transition. I had that ill-fated 11 days in the white house, but remember I was with him for a year. I did 71 campaign stops. Um, I was a lifelong Republican, and so I was trying to stay loyal and probably can party. Everybody goes through the same arc with Trump, uh, who have said nasty and critical things of him. Mike Pompeo, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, uh, you, you pick Kellyanne Conway, Mark Meadows. You begin anybody around him. There's nobody that said nice things about him in the beginning. And then they tried to like them in the middle. And then of course, everyone ends up hating them in the end. Uh, myself included. I think I called them, uh, uh, a low life hack. And I think I said he would be president of the Queens County bullies association. I think I said that in 2015. So, so my bed for going to work for him. But here's what happens. He's got the momentum, you're trying to be loyal to the Republican party. So you say, okay, I'm going to go work for him. He wants me to go work for him. Now you're traveling with him and he is a flawed guy, but as a wrong contour and as an entertainer, and as somebody who doesn't think he's going to win the presidency, believe it or not, he was pretty loose, uh, in that environment. And you're like, okay, this guy's not so bad. And you're starting to like,'em and you're like, okay, this guy can win the presidency. And then you start transposing things on Hambridge and that's the big negative you say, okay, this guy is 70. He could be a post-partisan president. He could be somebody that transcends the current acrimony in Washington and the polemics. And man, did I get that wrong? I mean, I got that as wrong as anybody could get something wrong, but like I tell my kids and I've got five of them. If you get something wrong, admit that you're wrong, but don't stay wrong. You can't be wrong. Know that you're wrong and then stay wrong. And so once I realized how wrong I got it, I got out there and said, Hey, I got this wrong. I apologize for getting it wrong, but this guy's going to lead us into a disaster. I said that in July of 2019, and then as you well-stated, he called me, I think, going on stable, low life. I think he called me a in, I think he called me a disaster or whatever, wherever the that he was writing on his Twitter feed, which I personally could care less about. But, you know, he had the psychological problems that you're mentioning. But the big thing about him is he had no executive management skills, a combine that with massive insecurity and you've got the four years of the Trump administration. So an expert like HR, McMaster walks in, he'll reject him out of hand because he's insecure. Uh, John Kelly knows more about the military. No, I'm smarter than you. And all the generals, Anthony Fowchee tries to tell him what to do with the pandemic. No, my, uh, my uncle went to MIT. He was a professor there. I've got great genetics. And I'm a smarter epidemiologist than you. I mean, I mean, can you believe this? I mean, this is,

Speaker 3 7:18

I remember one of the briefings. They asked them what about the metrics about the pandemic? And he points to his head. And so I got the metrics right here. He has no executive chops whatsoever. And it's New York style negotiation all the time, which is start way on the extreme really, really loud and hope. You can kind of bully the other side into a better deal for yourself. And then like yourself, I'm a computer programmer from way back and an investor in a business builder. So I'm above average at pattern recognition. So from a distance you saw the pattern. So-and-so's great guy, great guy. And then at the end, completely one 80 worst human being ever in whatever way he wants to frame it.

Speaker 2 8:03

See the way he on his kids. I mean, you know, he's, he's, he doesn't like his kids. Anybody tells you that he likes his kids. They don't know.

Speaker 3 8:09

Well, there's, there's two things that I I'm curious about. If you care to comment on, then I'll put them both out there. I don't think they're related topics. One is I'm baffled by the Democrats that their hand that they got after the election 16 would have been much easier to play. If they would've acted like adults stepped back, let people see what got elected and let him stumble on his own. I just don't get these fake scandals and such going on. It basically could have made Trump somewhat of a sympathetic figure. And I can tell you this. So Anthony I'm from a blue collar area and my blue collar union friends were on board with Trump early on, had had enough for the Democrats, not doing anything for them. And a lot of them got back to work in the Trump economy. What I don't get is the Democrats just made it so fricking hard by their behavior. So that's one thing. And then another thing, and I've met him a couple of times, vice president Pence, not when he was vice president. I suspect 10 years from now. There'll be a book out that this was the guy who was the hero in this that maybe kept some of the crazy contained.

Speaker 2 9:22

I mean, listen, you know, everything you're saying is like spot on. I mean, what, what town did you grow up in if you don't mind me asking my, my part of my family's from Ferndale, Michigan.

Speaker 3 9:31

No kidding. Yeah. I'm grew up in a town called Wayne, Michigan out by the year.

Speaker 2 9:36

I know exactly where it is. You know, I'm one of the few Northeast centers that have blend the places like Trevor city and Mackinaw Island. And, uh, you know, uh, I've, I've been all all through the state as a result of, uh, my dad's two sisters living in Michigan. Uh, one of which is still living. Thank God, but, but you know, so I get the area I've been in the area with the president or when he was candidate. I was, I've been all through Ohio with him and yes, uh, blue collar people gravitated to him because they have felt left out of the system at the end of the day. If you want to have one indictment of establishment, politics, Republican and democratic establishment politics over the last 30 years, there's been a vacuum of advocacy for those people that you and I grew up with. And I'll tell you something about me, which is a mortal sin in some ways, uh, because I ended up, uh, growing up with a crane operator as a father, he was an hourly worker. I went to Tufts and Harvard law school, Goldman Sachs built two hedge fund businesses, short stint in the white house. But, but I, I lost my way a little bit if I'm going to be brutally candid with myself, because I started detaching myself from the ecosystem that I grew up in. And so what happens to you is you start to get the confirmed biases. You're talking about pattern recognition, rich. You started to get the confirmed biases of the people you're hanging out with. So if I'm at the world economic forum and with wealthy hedge fund people or wealthy individuals and different salons of wealth, you start thinking and acting and thinking like that. And so there was a revelation for me that is painful for me to admit, but, uh, it was, uh, on that campaign with Trump in 2016, I was like, wait, Whoa, wait a minute. This is, uh, uh, these are people I grew up with. These people are struggling in 30 years. We went from aspirational, working class families and Ferndale Michigan, or my dad's family. And Wilksberry Pennsylvania to desperational working class families. And, and again, some of that's globalism, some of that's a failure of political leadership, some of that's the educational system, some of that's just the natural forces of what's going on in the business community around the world, but it's painful. It was painful to see it. And it was very eyeopening for me. And I was imposing superimposing on Mr. Trump wishes that he would be a transformative political leader to help pull those people out of the muck. And by the way, he never did that. Of course, they still stayed with them. 74 million people voted for him because he was an avatar of their anger. Uh, he was a proverbial finger in the eye of the elite wall street, the media, uh, the Democrats, the radical left, uh, none, none of which those people like. Um, but he didn't provide them with any economic or social policy.

Speaker 3 12:33

Hillary Clinton made one campaign stop in Michigan did not go to a union hall. The cradle of organized labor home of the UAW Walter roots are. And that's how tone deaf. I think the Democrats were it 16, no trips to Wisconsin. She has zero,

Speaker 2 12:53

Zero trips to Wisconsin

Speaker 3 12:56

And Michigan 75,000 votes Democrat. Down-ballot either blank, POTUS or voted for Trump. That's a 10,000 vote margin, any insight onto vice president Pence. He seems just to be the rock in the middle of this, trying to hold things together.

Speaker 2 13:13

Well, listen, I, I had a great relationship with him and, uh, I still have a very close relationship with his staff. Uh, you know, people are very critical of him and they're very critical of Steven Mnuchin and what I would say to people about those two guys, knowing them as well as I know them, you should thank God every day that they were in the muck with president Trump, because for whatever reason, their personalities were such where they were able to diffuse that sociopath at times. And for whatever reason, they were able to get some things done that were helpful to the American people. My nutrient in particular, as it related to the necessary stimulus is relate related to, uh COVID-19 but also the selection of Jerome Powell. Who's turned out to be a very credible, very capable federal reserve chairman. So, you know, you know, you got the left and the radical left, they'll go after Mike, the Cuomo sycophant, they'll say this, he was overly loyal, but you know, he was literally a pin in the hand grenade and he kept just pressing down on that pin, keeping the pin in the hand grenade. And so, you know, maybe someday he'll tell the truth about it. Maybe he won't another person, uh, who did an amazing job. And somebody I started out with in a, in a bad way, cause he fired me. The son of a was John Kell. And so, uh, John Kelly over 18 months and I'm not exaggerating, probably staffed the war. At least one work probably stopped some kind of insane attention getting thing that Mr. Trump would have done that would have even further damaged or prestige globally, you know, and John and I have a good I'm very close. You know, last Monday I went with general Kelly to Iowa to speak at the Iowa land expo. And so the two of us have done a joint presentation together five or six times since we both left the white house and we've become close friends, we realize how much in common that we have with each other, how much love we have for our country. Uh, there were people in the mix that were really trying to stop a catastrophe. And so as I watch president Trump, the part from Washington, uh, the sore loser that he is that he couldn't, he couldn't sit for the inauguration. He had to tell his supporters that was a fraudulent election when there was absolutely no fraud, even members of his own party. Like what are you nuts? There's no fraud here. You sit in your beliefs. All I can say is, thank God. I, I, I literally got up this morning, had a rough nights sleeping, frankly, because I was doing some of the, uh, the British morning shows, which were 3:00 AM on the East coast. And so I was on a rough night's sleep. And it was like my God, this guy knowing everything I know, and his willing acolytes guys like Cruz and hallway, these dispel, the Wolf sedition is trader as human beings, knowing everything that I know, the fact that we're here and we're lucky enough to have survived. This thing is a Testament to our democracy. And I said something this morning on Twitter. So I just want to share with you, I said, this is a day, one of the biggest days since the civil war, I I'm not exaggerating that. Okay. We had our first real systemic threat to our democracy. And, you know, authoritarian was at the Gates of our democracy, literally telling a supporters to crash the Capitol building. And so the fact that we were able to survive that, uh, you know, I think it's tied with V and V J day, and it could be the most important invest day in us history since the end of the civil war. Um, so we have to celebrate today. We have to be relieved today. We also have to know that this is a battle that we've won, but it's not a war that we've won. We've got a very large group of radicalized people. Mr. Trump is the leader of a domestic terrorist organization. I predict he will be convicted in the Senate. I don't think that there's any way they could let him off the hope for what happened on the 6th of June.

Speaker 3 17:17

If Trump took advantage of fissures in the electorate, and I put a paper up on my website about this, and now Joe Biden's elected. Not because people said, all we need is Joe Biden is president. I think the electric side, we don't want Donald Trump as president anymore. It was more a vote against Trump, just like 16 was more a vote against Hillary Clinton. But what we still lack in this country is a major party. That's not dysfunctional, neither the Democrats or the Republicans are dealing with policy. The game seems to be, I've got to be less worse than the other party. And that's fueled by a reporting industry that is all about alarmism. So by way of example, we do not have a healthcare system in this country. We have healthcare methods. So I started the common bridge to say, we're going to talk about policy. And we are going to bring in people that are knowledgeable about policy. If you count me as one of them, we've had six healthcare knowledgeable people, all coming from different perspectives from public health lens, through a hospital industry lens, through a libertarian lens. And we all arrive at the same conclusion about how to restructure the healthcare financing system. We're not the people elected and paid to do that, but there's no gain in Washington or in many of the state capitals with getting solutions there's gain in beating down the other side. So we can all admit, all right, Trump was a horrible president, my humble opinion. We were due for a crappy president because we had two crappy candidates from each of the major parties without going into deep notice what happened to the Clinton global initiative and the Clinton foundation after Hillary lost the election, their money dried up. And then we get, we get Trump. And then we have a reporting industry that says, gosh, why won't you believe me after one story after another that they flogged that turns out just not to be true. That's what I think we need to correct is we needed to get the policy and we need to get to real news reporting. And that's what we're trying to do in some small way here on this common bridge podcast. I don't know if any of that makes sense or not, but that's

Speaker 2 19:39

Well, no, I think, I think it's beautifully stated. I mean, I'd love to get you on Bouchet bam. So you could articulate that to the people that are listening to my podcast. I think it's, I think it's beautifully stated and I think it's unbelievably necessary. And I think weirdly, uh, the orange wrecking ball, the manifestation of Trump and Trump ism, I think weirdly is going to help us get to that goal.

Speaker 3 20:04

I hope so. We've got to get people to understand that the Republicans winning the Democrats winning doesn't make a difference. If we don't deal with solvable problems like healthcare, like immigration, like guns, like student debt, like big tech and their power. These are solvable issues. If people demand that the political system works on them. And if people quit consuming, reporting that isn't really news, I would love to be a guest on your program. And if you want to, like, we can run through firearms. We have a policy on that, uh, that I think would work. The centerpiece around that is graduated licensing. Just by way of example, you know, we don't give a 16, you have five kids at that. You know, they get their driver's license. They don't get to jump in the wheel of a semi truck and take off. They have to drive it with a responsible adult and so forth. And eventually they get more privileges yet in some States at 18 year old can walk into a gun shop, buy a semi-automatic rifle and a thousand rounds of ammunition and walk out. Does that make any sense at all?

Speaker 2 21:18

Oh, I mean, it's disgusting, but I mean, listen, I mean, my point and now, you know, is that, thank God. There are people like you they're doing what you're doing, but I think the country is so exhausted by the hate. And so exhausted by the nonsense of Trump. I think we're ready. I think we're ready for what you're doing. And, and, and, you know, and I, and I said this this morning on the BBC, that neon is, Trump was helicoptering out of the South lawn. I said that, you know, in a weird way, he's a unifying figure rich. And let me just explain why he managed to unify a very large portion of the population against them. And now that his approval rating was blown to pieces by the insurrection that he inspired, uh, you've got a good two thirds, 70% of the country right now, unified against him and relieved that he's gone. And so I think that creates an opening for the project that you are.

Speaker 3 22:22

I agree, but it's not just a Trump phenomena. Trump did not parachute into the scene where everything was perfect in America. We had a lot of underlying divisions and we, the people put the man in place. And what happened before Trump that made it possible for Trump, right? And I look at what the Democrats did in 20 way smarter than what the Republicans did in 16. You remember Trump was winning those really primaries with 20, 22% of the vote and the, you know, the 17 others all with their sugar daddies funding them. So they can stay in, kept diluting the vote to the point where Trump's kind of last man, standing Democrats are facing a similar situation and they, I don't know how they did it, but they all stood down so that they kind of anointed Joe's going to be our guy. But I think they played their hand a lot better.

Speaker 2 23:23

Well, you know, listen, you know, I'm hoping and praying that it works out that way. You know, I've got, uh, one of the cabinet officials while I'm talking to you, uh, is texted me. And this is a former Trump cabinet official that I'll unfortunately have to make nameless here. He sends me a text and he says that, uh, thank God, this is over. And Oh, by the way, I would have gone to Andrews to see him, but I had to rake my lawn. Okay. I mean, you know, I, I basically said on Twitter, I'm having my fingernails pulled out. So I can't go to Andrews to see him, me invited, all of us is in bustle. Um, but here it's a new Dawn, but we also have to limit socialism on our doorstep. See, so you you've got crazies on both sides, rich. Yes. And I think what you want. And I think what I want is a Cedris building consensus, building, not left or right policy, but right. Or wrong policy, like what is the right policy for America as opposed to the right or wrong policy? Do you see what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 24:31

I am tracking you a hundred percent and that's why I'm doing the common bridge. It's to demand better policies. You can't call something a mostly peaceful protest while people are injured and killed and buildings burned and call it a riot when people are injured and killed and buildings burn. And I'm not making a comment on the righteousness of one view versus the other. We have things like a pandemic that is ripped the mask off the healthcare system. And I spoke on this back in March. I had, I said that the health system is not ready for a pandemic and w look what happened. And we still don't have any way of saying, Hey, in this zip code, so many people live and we've had so many infections in so many vaccinations. There's no methodology now put in place to beat this down. There is none. At this point, when we look at firearms on one side, it's like, well, we're going to go confiscate 320 million weapons in private hands. Good luck with that. On the other hand, we're not going to have any restrictions because it's the slippery slope argument. I'm saying there's a reasonable plan in there that says, if you want to get your first firearm, get tested and you use a revolve, or you can use a hunting rifle with three rounds in it, get more training, more experience, demonstrate to an instructor that you're capable. Okay. Now you can move to the next level kind of the way pilots do it. Rarely do you have a, a pilot with some kind of psychotic break and it's, it's the same structure nobody's losing a right. You can own any firearms with the proviso that you can handle it safely. You can store it properly. And that you're, you know, some qualified persons looking at you and making a determination that you're not going to be a problem with this. These are not radical concepts, right? We got to get people to move off the edges.

Speaker 2 26:33

I would like to explore this more with you beyond just this podcast, because I think you're right on the right on where we need to be. And, you know, we can all these other things that have happened over the last 30 years to get us to where we are. And I th and I think we both agree that Trump is a symptom of it. Remember, you can't be a leader like Mr. Trump, unless there's a population that bubbles you up and allows you to be their leader. Some of us made a mistake, myself included, but others really were chanting for that nationalism and that sort of level of populism, if you will. And, and what you're suggesting is, uh, you know, a more inclusive America, a fairer system in America, you know, I'm not for, uh, equal outcomes rich, but I do think America needs a broader and sturdier platform of equal opportunity. You know, I didn't pick my parents. They were humble people, but very hard working and they had good values and they helped me get my store. But, you know, you didn't pick your parents. You didn't pick the location of your birth. And so many people are starting at different, uh, physicians on the starting line, you know, and the starting box, some people are 10 feet behind other people are a hundred feet behind the summer miles behind. And, you know, we have to build our systems so that some of those people, uh, can feel that they can participate in that there can be this sort of platform of vehicle opportunity, which will lead to higher aspiration. And obviously with that higher aspiration, it dials down anger.

Speaker 3 28:09

So I'm sitting here in Southern California and I'm looking at wage rates, and I'm looking at where the first rung of homeownership is. And how do we go to a young person and say, you want to improve your marketable skills. You want to exercise some thrift. You too can own a home. Someday. The numbers work that, and we need to address those kinds of things. How do we develop your marketable skills so that you can earn more so that you can get to that first wrong of home ownership? We can't make the healthcare delivery system as arbitrary as it is. And we need to make sure that we are dealing with our environment and climatic issues. These again are very, very solvable problems, but I think I could sum it up like this. The Republicans don't have an answer. The Democrats don't have an answer. We, as a people need to provide a third option. And the option in my humble opinion needs to be around policy. And it needs to be around actual reporting again, and kind of wipe out this party battles and wipe out this alarmism and what passes for news reporting today.

Speaker 2 29:35

Rich, I got to tell you, you know, I, I love the rough and tumble podcasts too, where people are going after. You know what I mean? I feel like you're giving me on this great inauguration day. You're giving me a, uh, you give me an easy podcast. You usually I'm getting my head hit. Like, I'm one of those, you know, Whopper boppers that come out in the amusement park

Speaker 3 29:53

On my podcast, I give guests an opportunity to speak about their area of expertise. And they've commented on that. I don't do gotcha questions. I want people to be informed. I don't care if people are influenced or not. It's just so that we can get information out. By way of example, I had two people on one and advocate of the electoral college, another on the national popular vote, and I instructed them beforehand. I said, I'm not going to fake a by yeah, but you don't need to win points. You're all your bolts are going to get an ample opportunity to present and, and bring your rationale. And your conclusion turned out to be one of my more popular podcasts. There's enough shouting going on. I told a friend who's a staunch Democrat. I'm very left leaning. So I don't watch Rachel Maddow. Cause I know what she was going to say. I don't want Sean Hannity cause I know what he's going to say, but I tell you what if Handley and Matt owl were on a show together? I would be recording that. Absolutely. Because I think that would be interesting. So Anthony, you've been really generous with your time and I hope we can Polish some of this, but you know, I really did invite you to talk about Bitcoin and what you're up to, and I'm happy to keep going on this track or, or shift over to Bitcoin if it's okay.

Speaker 2 31:22

Let's talk about Bitcoin for a few minutes. I mean, Bitcoin is a monetary network. You know, you could look at Bitcoin when it first started and said, okay, what is that? It's a series of encrypted codes, uh, up over the blockchain. Why would that be worth anything? And then you read Satoshi Nakamoto, white paper, or the group that created Bitcoin. And you're like, okay, well, wait a minute. Why would that be worth something? And then the answer is it would be worth something. If it could beat all of the competitors and robustly become a digital ledger on the internet. And then when you think about the evolution of our technology, uh, technology's transformed in some ways, make better everything. Whether it's our ability to communicate our 4k televisions, uh, the, the fact that I can have a costless phone call to anywhere in the world, all of those things have been major, uh, transformations that uptakes and productivity, uh, you know, we went from a horseless carriage to a car. Uh, we, uh, we invented an airplane, but what could technology do to improve value transfer in our society? And then Bitcoin is invented in two nine. You then know there's going to be competitors for rich. Um, at$400 a coin in 2014, the Winklevoss brothers came to see me at my salt conference. I listened very carefully what they were saying. Obviously they're two visionary guys. And I said, yeah, that sounds like it would work. I'm not ready for it because I'm an institutional investor. And if what you're saying happens, that's great, but it is in fact not yet happened, but as that monetary network expands as if it Reese's escape philosophy, excuse me, if it reaches escape velocity, I'm going to be there. And so I'm watching this thing. I get blown out of the whiteout. I go to, uh, back to the firm. I registered the URL site, uh, SkyBridge bitcoin.com. I'm doing some more research, Bitcoin crashes, big, full on retail crash, watch that. And then I watch it. Rematerialize from the ashes. And I, and I realize now that we're going to start to digitally store it in place of like Fidel or places like Nike dig and all my clothes. And wait a minute, this is now ready for prime time. There's 140 plus million users. It is a full on monetary network. And I would submit to you tonight, if we destroyed Bitcoin, we could recreate it the same way. If we destroyed Coca Cola, we could recreate it. You know, in the sense that, uh, you know, as warm. Yeah, if I said, you can take every plant and manufacturing, Coca-Cola wipe it out. You could still get money for Coca Cola because it's a brand. Bitcoin is now a brand. There is now a Bitcoin standard. And I would suggest to people that really understand that, that do the homework. It is now a decentralized ledger that allows for value transfer between individuals it's fully scripted on the blockchain. And therefore by gambling design is a robust network for retail. And Facebook is a robust social network. And Google is a robust search and advertising network Bitcoin, isn't it emerging as his monetary network. And is that when you stop and think about it that way, and you look at it from a store of value perspective, or you look at where gold is at$10 trillion in terms of its market cap Bitcoin at 700 billion, you could see this mature over the next five or 10 years and easily be five, six,$7 trillion on that monetary network on that monetary platform. And for those reasons, I want to be involved. Last point, I'll make, if you looked at an Amazon shore, right, and you were 12 years in the Amazon, you say, Whoa, what a, whatever. I missed it. And yet if you bought it Amazon 12 years from its inception, you had a 64 X move in Amazon over the subsequent 12 years. So I think we're in very early innings, very early adoption cycle Bitcoin. And it took a lot for me to get over the hump, but we're here now and we've got fidelity storing it for us, Ernst and young keeping an eye on that, the accounting for us. And I can provide this in scale to clients. And, you know, I started it with$25 million with the firm's capital. We've got$60 million in the fund. Now, two weeks from its store. And I bought Bitcoin across my platform for my clients. So the firm now has about$375 million of Bitcoin at its current market prices.

Speaker 3 36:12

When people think about Bitcoin and I did some trading and currency, mostly through actual merch for a period of trying to find, uh, a way to get around some of the currency printing, but you've got the United States, federal reserve, European central bank producing their own currencies. How come the world needs Bitcoin?

Speaker 2 36:32

Well, you know, that's a really good question. I mean, I would say to you that, uh, there's scarcity and stability in Bitcoin, I would say to you with 21 million coins produced probably two-ish million left to be mined and maybe 3 million lost in the early inception. Uh, it's a small number of coins. And so, uh, what we know about human nature is that, uh, people like scarce things, they buy art irreplaceable, replaceable, or they buy a replaceable memorabilia. Uh, and this is sort of it replace a bull digitization if you will. And, and so when you're proliferating money around the world, like the United States is doing it, let's just talk about the U S for a second. Uh, our central bank has produced 23.2% more us dollars in the last six months. And we had prior. So we have a 244 year old country. Uh, and six months ago we had 24% less dollars floating around. Now you're a student of this, but I'm going to explain it to your listeners. Quickly. Those dollars are creating a social engineering havoc and the society because you have people that own assets. Well, if you're creating 23% more dollars, guess what happens to those assets? They go up in value, we've got a global pandemic, you've got 26 million people out of work. Wages are not going up. You're talking about the UAW. What do we know about core inflation? You're not going to get core inflation unless you get wage growth. I can, I can prove that to you looking at 180 years of data. And so you have no wage growth, but yet you have asset inflation as a result of all this monetary supply. So I've almost gone out to my blue collar buddies. You know, guys that are clamming out here on long Island and guys are putting an auto glass. My cousin has an auto glass shop buy a little bit of Bitcoin because the U S dollar that's in your savings account. If the government goes out to stimulate again, let's say the Biden administration will likely do that. And you've got another one to$3 trillion of stimulus coming. That's more money production, uh, your store of value using the us dollar as a store of value becomes trickier because it's subjected to the whims of politicians. Bitcoin is not, and unlike gold Bitcoin has been made and it's never being made again. And so you have a fixed supply of those coins.

Speaker 3 39:07

So Bitcoin, could it be a stabilizing force against these currency collapses? And I've read some of the material from SkyBridge about Bitcoin as a monetary life raft. I mean, could it have, uh, an effect of reigning in maybe some of the excesses of the central banks?

Speaker 2 39:27

I do think it will. I don't think it's scaled enough to do that, but I do think it will do that, meaning that I do think that, uh, there's an opportunity for Bitcoin to, to be, to have that presence. If it, if it's a five or$6 trillion market cap, then all of a sudden it does that. I'll tell you something very radical. Imagine if you were one of these, uh, countries in Africa that have had this wild spiraling inflation reimagine, if you tied your currency to Bitcoin, think about what that would do. Uh, and, and think about if I was right about the move in Bitcoin, that it's a 30 ish thousand now to 40 ish thousand on its way to a hundred, to 200,000 per coin. So, you know, it's almost like a, it's a weird way where you could put your country if you were bold enough on the Bitcoin standard, you know, and, and, and it would, I think it would have a very powerful effect in terms of stabilizing that currency,

Speaker 3 40:29

Getting individuals to participate in the Bitcoin or digital currency world, you know, retail, should they look at something like Coinbase for more sophisticated investors, like as part of their asset allocation? You know, when you think about the risk reward of any investment, if a person doesn't invest in Bitcoin or digital currency, what risks are they,

Speaker 2 40:55

If we take it as a store of value, if I can convince your listeners that this is a store of value, uh, and it's akin to gold, well, the risk that they're running is as we touch upon this massive proliferation of Fiat currency, this massive production, if you will, you would want to have one to 3% of this in your, in your pocket, because as that's happening and that dictates inflation, and that dictates it increase in other assets, Bitcoin being scarce, uh, it will, it will start to expand and it'll start protect your assets. So yes, I would tell people, and I've been telling people, this is sort of a one to 3% sort of a thing.

Speaker 3 41:41

You know, w we've got this entire generation whose business careers have been in an environment of low or no interest, or even now negative interest rates. You know, I remember we used to think about things like playing the float and managing our cash. And I know in some of the material that SkyBridge is research points out that the fed killed the 60 40 portfolio because of those interest rate manipulations

Speaker 2 42:10

Maybe to possible in the bond market, right? You're, you're, you know, you're, you're saving for your retirement, or let's say you're a middle income person, and you've got savings in your community bank. You're going to earn 90 basis points on it. How are you

Speaker 3 42:23

Exactly it's, it's uh, impossible. And if people wanted to take the wagers are interest rates going to be increased by the federal reserve or try to hold them artificially low. I haven't done any recent calculations, but when you borrow$1.9 trillion and you go from virtually 0.9% interest to 2%, the country just can't afford it. So I think all the pressure's going to be about keeping the interest rates down, which of course helps Bitcoin. So Anthony people can invest in a fund like SkyBridge. What's different about SkyBridge approach. And are there competitors out there that go at this a different way? I guess I'm asking in a way, why choose SkyBridge versus another method in ETF or another fund or Coinbase or something,

Speaker 2 43:20

There's no ETF. You could buy it at Coinbase and you could store it at Coinbase. But I would ask people to really study that because there's been some concern about the storage capability of Coinbase and Coinbase even a week ago, they were taken off the grid, uh, and they were shut down. Uh, and so you, you couldn't get access to your account through the internet. Um, the other problem is you get fished on Coinbase. And so, unfortunately I can't tell you the number of people that an email comes in, it looks like it's from Coinbase, they give up their account name. And then the next thing you know, their account has been evacuated by somebody on the internet. That's, uh, that's going after their account. And so I would tell people it, in scale and size, if you want to own this stuff, you want to store in a place like fidelity, but fidelity has a$5 million minimum. And so you can, you can buy into my fund, our fund for the$50,000 minimum. Uh, in fact, we accept 25 that people are making a commitment to scale in up to 50. And so now we're aggregating at a smaller number for, and then we're putting it at fidelity for them. You've got that cold storage there. It's taken off the internet. It's totally not hackable. All of that stuff is usually positive. Um, and then the second reason why you would use us is that because, because there's no ETF and the sec is frowned upon Bitcoin for right now, the regulation around Bitcoin is not sedimentary yet. It's not foundational. And so there's a company called gray scale that got$20 billion in Bitcoin. Uh, what they did was they put the Bitcoin in like this closed end fund wrapper at trays on the OTs, see pink sheets. But if you go look at them, grayscale Bitcoin situation, it's always a 30%, 25% premium to what the underlying coins are trading at. Why? Well, there's a demand for people to own Bitcoin. People like me that see Bitcoin going to 200,000, they don't mind paying the 20% premium, but by the SkyBridge fund, you're getting the nav of the Bitcoin without the premium. Now you have to stay in our fund. We don't have that trading liquidity, uh, but you can get out of our fund at the end of three months. Uh, why is it three months? That's the shortest distance that we can create in terms of duration for it to be perceived as non tradable. You can't trade a limited partnership in the U S for tax reasons. So, so I try to with my team engineer, a product that was user-friendly easy access, the grayscale trust that has that 20% premium is charging 2%. We're charging 75 basis points. So it's at a 60% discount to the gray scale situation, you know, to me, uh, that's the reason why, you know, we're taking in about$3 million a day since we opened, and that's not anywhere to what gray scales doing, but gray skills, a mature company, 10 years old. Um, but I think as people look at our thing and say, okay, wait a minute. I've got people that are selling the gray scale fund at that 30% premium and rolling that money into the nav of Bitcoin into our fund. And then they're picking up the one and a quarter points of asset management fee savings as well. What didn't we cover about Bitcoin or SkyBridge that we should be discussing? Well, I mean, look, I don't want to humble bragging. I'll just be very direct with you. I mean, we're, this is I'm 57. This is my 34th year on wall street, less my 11 day fiasco in Washington. I built two successful companies. I've been at Skypers less those 11 days for 16 years. I founded the company on March 7th, 2005, we've got$8 billion under management. And we have gone through the ups and downs, the global pandemic, the financial crisis varying impacts in the financial world. And, you know, my staff, my senior staff has been with me for 15 years. And so it's something I'm very proud of. And so there's a of core stability there and we sell our products, uh, on the FAA channels, the RA channels, we sell it direct to the consumer. And so I guess what I would say to you is I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of the brand that we built in and listen, we don't have perfect performance who does, but we've got very good long-term performance in our core products. I think this Bitcoin fund is going to be very, very successful for us. And what a middle income investor or saver think about having, you know, some mix of equities and perhaps real estate leave bonds out for the moment, but always have some cash, some gold, some Bitcoin or Bitcoin effectively replaced that savings account. That's not producing any returns. Yeah. So I would definitely say because it's a new frontier for people and I want them to be cautious that they think of it as pizza, when they cut a small slice for themselves with Bitcoin. I wouldn't want them to overdo it in Bitcoin because they do think it's going to be volatile as it marches upward. You could have bought it at a$42,000 a coin two weeks ago. It traded at 30,000. It's now 35,000. And so I wouldn't want to get people, uh, too worked up or too scared of it. But Anthony, you've been very, very generous with your time today on two very important topics. Are there any closing thoughts that you have for the listeners of the common bridge, the have faith in your country? That's all I would say. And, and listen to the common bridge, got a great podcast. God bless you. And, uh, the good news is the countries get a, a, another chance here to big reset. And hopefully we learn a lot less for years and I'm very optimistic. Truer words never been spoken. This is rich LP with our guest today, Anthony Scaramucci discussing the political landscape in the country and discussing Bitcoin and how that works. Remember it's about policy. It's about accurate news reporting. We can make a better future. If we joined together on the common bridge, this is rich LP. Signing up.

Speaker 1 49:41

You have been listening to Richard is common bridge podcast recording, and post-production provided by stunt three. Multimedia. All rights are reserved by Richard helpy for more information, visit Richard[inaudible] dot com.