Burke Koonce and John Fichthorn discuss the latest topics of interest in politics, financial markets, and the cultural forces that shape the world around us. This is the ninth episode of Season Two.

John, who regularly appears on financial news networks, and Burke, who runs the Capitalism Maven site for TheStreet.com, have a long history together discussing markets, politics and contemporary subjects. These discussions sometimes get made into films such as Betting On Zero, and as of just two months ago, Gaming Wall Street, now on HBO Max.

Gaming Wall Street is an HBO Max Original, produced by our little old Biltmore Films, Prodigium Pictures and Gunpowder & Sky. The film was directed by Tobias Deml. The two-part documentary explores the GameStop and meme stock trading frenzy and the light it cast on the dark plumbing of Wall Street.

In this new episode, as John is midway through his dive down the rabbit hole that is TerraUSD, the stablecoin that wasn't so stable, when Burke gently reminds him about something interesting and highly unexpected that happened last week--Burke got invited to go on Tucker Carlson Today to talk about GameStop. After a whirlwind sequence of events, Burke traveled to Tucker's studio to talk about the meme stock frenzy that of course was the subject of Gaming Wall Street. Tune in to see how the interview went (spoiler alert--Burke did not think he sounded as stupid as he feared he might, at least in his own mind.)

After paying proper homage to Burke's 15 minutes of fame, the conversation turned back to TerraUSD, the crypto stablecoin that wasn't--and what may in fact be the canary in the coal mine for the entire crypto ecosystem and potentially other ecosystems. As much as we try, algorithmic-backing of a digital currency is not a subject we really comprehend. But try, and laugh we do!

And of course, no episode of the Betting On Zero podcast would be complete without us bashing Russia and China for their brutal regimes. 

And of course, this leads us to Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter! We'll see what happens! 

Rates are up again and, stocks are down further. Tune in to hear more about what's happening in the always exciting financial markets, and enjoy!