Glenn and Jason are joined by Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of the Home Depot, to talk about what it means to be a free market capitalist and the dangers of socialism. They also discuss the Federal Reserve's plans for a new program called The Fed Now, an alternative to central bank digital currency. And they announce the latest in the Great Reset series, Dark Future, a new book by author Justin Haskins.
00:01:49.620They're making crap denim, in my opinion.
00:01:53.700If they would move 5% of their jobs back to America, you know what a difference and an impact that would make?
00:02:01.620That's really the message from American Giant.
00:02:05.120They are all about American workers and the products that they make.
00:02:08.580And they're trying to set a good example.
00:02:10.100And they're really begging, even their competitors, come back to America and help save this country.
00:02:17.340They began in 2012 when a clothing factory in North Carolina was going to shut down.
00:02:21.580They worked on the factory and they worked with the people of the factory and they invested in new machinery and skill development.
00:02:28.280And 10 years later now, they make the best sweatshirts and hoodies you'll ever own and a lot of other quality clothing.
00:02:36.380Everything with cotton that's grown here in America, milled in America, cut and sewn, assembled, all here in America, thanks to American Giant.
00:02:45.860You pick the right place to buy your clothing when you sign up and get online with American-Giant.com.
00:04:20.680So, Justin, you wrote to me something kind of disturbing.
00:04:25.540Last hour, I played these happy little commercials from the Federal Reserve about the Fed now.
00:04:35.960It's a new service for all of the banks, which will make the transfer of funds, you know, whether you're out shopping or you're a business owner or you're doing bank-to-bank transactions,
00:04:48.380you just run everything through the Federal Reserve and it'll happen fast.
00:04:57.960Now, they're claiming that this is the alternative to a CBDC, which is a central bank digital currency.
00:05:07.420It doesn't really sound so much like an alternative as much as a, I don't know, system to run that on.
00:05:15.760Yeah, I mean, basically, this is like Jason Batrell, your head researcher, because he and I are now best friends and we exchange emails all the time.
00:06:11.180This is our first interaction to using the Fed directly so that we can become more comfortable with it so it's normalized.
00:06:18.540And then after this, you're going to get a central bank digital currency.
00:06:21.760We already know this because there's a billion government reports talking about how they're going to design it, what it's going to look like, why people should use it, what the principles should be behind it, all of that kind of stuff.
00:06:34.640This is just the first step in that process to try to normalize people interacting directly with the Fed in this sort of high-tech instant transfer payment portal.
00:06:45.760So we've been talking about the Uniform Commercial Code, which is complicated, and it's usually nothing anyone should ever have to think about.
00:06:56.780However, they have included central bank digital currency as the new definition of money.
00:07:05.200But money makes us think of money that you can take from the bank, that you own it, you get paid, you get to do what you want with it.
00:07:16.260But central bank digital currency is not really money, correct?
00:07:23.720Yeah, what's happening in more than 20 states across the country right now, and it's going to happen in all 50 states eventually, is lawmakers are looking at updating the Uniform Commercial Code so that a foundation is being laid for a future central bank digital currency.
00:07:42.800And not just any kind of central bank digital currency, but a central bank digital currency that is programmable, trackable, that you won't have any privacy with the things that you're doing with the CBDC, that it can be controlled and manipulated.
00:07:55.300This kind of thing is actually being written into the code.
00:07:58.380They don't use the word central bank digital currency, but they outline it in such a way so that that has to be what they're talking about.
00:08:20.300Bitcoin is such a danger because you get to do with it what you want to do with it, and the Federal Reserve is not aware of anything and can't do anything.
00:08:33.640You have the ultimate power with your money.
00:08:36.480The opposite is true with the Fed coin that they will be introducing, and this is what makes it so dangerous.
00:08:43.960Not just the tracking, they will not just know absolutely everything that you spend, but Justin just said a key word that most people don't really understand.
00:08:56.360It's programmable, meaning it is programmable for the individual.
00:09:03.020So, in other words, if the government decides that they're going to, you know, we need to cut down on fat, fat, fatties, then my digital coin will not allow me to buy fatty foods.
00:09:18.700I wouldn't be able to go to McDonald's.
00:09:22.380There is not, you know, anything in the works to do this, except this is what programmable means.
00:09:28.540They can program it so if they say, you know what, nobody's going to work, you're not an essential employee, your coin will not buy gas.
00:09:40.620So, you can go to try to fill up, but when you put your digital card in from the Fed, it will say denied, and you won't have any way other than that card to be able to buy what you need.
00:10:00.560And there actually has been things, statements that have been made by the Biden administration itself, where it is said, as part of its reports studying CBDCs and the benefits of it and how it would be designed if it were going to make a CBDC, even though they haven't committed to doing that exactly, they've done all the groundwork for it.
00:10:21.000They've said flat out that a CBDC needs to account for climate change, it needs to have financial inclusion built into it, it needs to have equity built into it, it needs to have concerns about pollution built into it.
00:10:36.460They have worked with hundreds of stakeholders, and we all know what that means, nonprofit groups and labor organizations and others, who helped design the CBDC.
00:10:50.340Because it's going to be programmed so that you can use it in certain ways, so that it can be prohibited in other ways, and it can change on a dime.
00:10:57.840See, that's the other important thing.
00:10:59.080It's not, when it's programmable, they can change the rules whenever they want.
00:11:03.100It's not as though they set the rules at the beginning and that's the rules forever.
00:15:11.500But here's the thing about a central bank digital currency.
00:15:14.500And this is what we're beginning to learn, how the commercial code deals with that.
00:15:18.100When you can't put central bank digital dollars, okay, a digital Fed coin, you can't put that in your pocket and walk out the door, can you?
00:15:50.160And that's why they're updating the uniform commercial code the way they are.
00:15:53.400They're putting rules into place so that you could use a CBDC even if it is possible to download it onto a hard drive or something like that.
00:16:01.440But the lawyers behind the uniform commercial code acknowledge in their various meetings and comments and other things that it is highly unlikely that a CBDC would ever be designed in that way.
00:16:13.120It's not...you're going to have to put it into some kind of account.
00:16:17.720What it means, in effect, is that all of the money, all of the CBDC money that exists in society will be owned by whoever owns the account, which means the Fed or the bank or whoever is designated by the federal government to operate that system.
00:16:33.320But you, the individual person, will not own any money.
00:16:37.960The money will belong to someone else.
00:17:54.220Would it be better just to go for states passing law that CBDCs cannot be used for commerce?
00:18:04.300So it's a really complicated question because there are all sorts of issues related to the Constitution and who has the authority to regulate money
00:18:16.060and whether or not a state can even pass a law that outright rejects the use of an established form of money at the federal level because it's a federal responsibility to coin money.
00:18:30.280Of course, there are people who say, well, yeah, but coining money means physical money, not digital money, and so maybe they are allowed to do it.
00:18:37.680And so I think there's a lot of open questions about that that we don't necessarily know.
00:18:42.440I think that the most effective thing that legislators can do, and legislators actually do not know a lot of the things that I've told you today.
00:18:51.240I've gotten that from a lot of UCC lawyers, actually.
00:18:54.680But what they need to do is they need to focus first, in my opinion, I think Americans would be much better off if lawmakers killed the UCC bills, okay?
00:19:05.500If they killed the UCC bills, to update them right now, they would be much better off.
00:19:10.320But then they also need to update the UCC and all other state laws that they can possibly find in ways that would make it so that a central bank digital currency is undermined in the state in financial transactions.
00:19:24.140For example, can you use a CBDC, a programmable digital currency, when you're using for collateral in a loan, let's say, okay?
00:19:50.540So, yesterday, I tweeted and put something, I think, on Instagram, a video of my wife, and I went shopping at Costco yesterday.
00:20:03.300And so, I just tweeted, not saying you should go to Costco, but I'm not not saying it either.
00:20:09.820Just assuming, like a dummy, that people would understand that I'm concerned about the banking system.
00:20:17.560And, you know, just a good idea to stock up on aspirin and children's Tylenol and allergy medicine and things that, you know, you're going to need.
00:20:28.460If there's a breakdown of the supply chain, you don't want to be without medicine and toothpaste and things like that.
00:20:35.080So, that's what I did yesterday, and then, immediately, it caught fire with, Glenn Beck is suggesting that there will be so much unrest due to Trump being indicted that people should stock up on essentials.
00:30:45.900You have some investment in precious metals, an emergency fund, some food and supplies stockpiled, maybe an extra generator.
00:30:53.020Even though you may not be a prepper, you've taken steps to prepare for hard times, which will protect you and your loved ones for weeks, even months.
00:32:39.320Hit that and then you'll find it on that second page.
00:32:43.680This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.
00:32:46.160I don't think, I mean, usually I introduce somebody and I'll say, Hey, he's the co-founder of a home Depot, but this man's, uh, accomplishments are just astounding.
00:33:01.940Um, by the time he was 15, he held, he had already held more than a dozen jobs.
00:33:08.560He had joined a gang, worked as a hypnotist in the Catskills.
00:33:13.280He's a son of a cabinet maker and garment worker.
00:33:16.280His dad survived the triangle shirtwaist factory fire, which is incredible in and of itself.
00:33:21.520He became, uh, somebody who is well known what he did.
00:33:28.480Uh, he is the guy who co-founded home Depot.
00:33:32.360If things were so bad the first day on opening day that his wife said, you're not shaving because she said, I don't want to raise her anywhere near you, your throat.
00:33:42.200From there, they've gone to 500,000 associates, 2300 stores.
00:33:48.580Um, and this is a guy that was a son of a Russian immigrant who just believed in the United States being that golden land.
00:33:58.360He has since retired from home Depot and he and his wife, Billy started the Marcus foundation.
00:34:04.620They have given more than $2 billion in grants.
00:34:08.380They're both, uh, strong believers in, you know, helping out as much as you possibly can.
00:34:14.860The Marcus Institute has programs for children with disorders of the brain.
00:34:19.480Um, it also has, they also have the autism center, which offers expanded services for children with autism.
00:34:26.980He has founded or funded the Grady health system for the Marcus stroke and neuroscience center.
00:34:33.360The Marcus trauma center, the Piedmont heart Institute.
00:34:37.020He established the nation's first heart valve reference center, um, MDA out of Israel.
00:34:42.920He, he partnered with them to build a critically needed new national blood center in Israel.
00:34:48.920Um, he created projects share to ensure that the members of the military and veterans get diagnosed and cared for without any financial constraint.
00:34:58.520By underwriting the housing, transportation, and care costs of any military personnel with brain or spinal injuries who are sent to shepherd hospital.
00:35:08.400He founded the nanotechnology research center building at Georgia Institute of technology.
00:35:17.480He and his wife created the Georgia aquarium.
00:35:19.600It's the largest aquarium in the world, 60 exhibits, 550,000 square feet, 10 million gallons of water, 125,000 animals.
00:35:30.840And it's the world's only aquarium and vet medicine teaching hospital in the world.
00:35:37.900He funded and created the jobs creator network, a group of current retired CEOs and entrepreneurs who have come together to preserve the free enterprise system.
00:35:47.920Uh, during the pandemic, uh, he, uh, granted money to, uh, study the effects of high doses of vitamin C, uh, also for those who have issues that prevent the use of hydro hydroxychloroquine.
00:35:58.900He created a clinical trial for blood tests for Corona-19 antibodies.
00:36:04.520He supported two hospitals that opened floors specifically for the Corona virus patients.
00:36:09.340Um, his job creators network was instrumental in securing funding and for small and medium sized business.
00:36:16.260Um, he was also, he and his wife, Billy, one of the first to sign the giving pledge.
00:38:10.300And she said, if you work hard and you keep focused and you don't let the, uh, bad problems affect you and knock you down, if you keep going, that you will be successful or whatever you want to be.
00:38:27.680She said, you could be the president of the United States.
00:38:30.500Although why, Glenn, why would I want to do that?
00:38:44.700I am so worried about, um, freedom and the free market, the ability to think and become it's all going away so quickly.
00:38:55.280And it just seems like America is asleep or they don't realize that it won't always be like it was.
00:39:05.080You know, I think people have this, ah, well, these things happen and, you know, no, we're on the verge of losing everything that our founders worked for and people like you built over the last 250 years.
00:39:19.080Well, I'm sorry to say that you're probably right.
00:39:24.840You know, I'm 93 years old and I've lived through so many administrations, uh, Republican, Democrat.
00:39:32.860And, uh, I never thought that the world could change so quickly in two years.
00:39:38.740Uh, Biden got into office and he is extreme, extreme in every, every day way you could think of.
00:39:48.860And I'm a great believer, believer in the capitalist system.
00:39:52.740I think capitalism built America made us the strongest land in the country in the world.
00:40:00.140That's why people have come across the border.
00:40:02.500They want to come here and they want to have their own American dream.
00:40:07.220It's the only place you can't have it in India, China or Russia or, you know, uh, Venezuela,
00:42:57.920And today, you know, Home Depot is, you know, a hundred and a hundred billion dollars in sales plus, uh, 500,000 associates in the United States,
00:43:09.440in Mexico, in Canada, in Guam and Hawaii, and is a very profitable company.
00:43:16.100But if you look at what they're trying to do, uh, with this ESG, which is, you know, they're not, they're now doing it with the financial institutions and with, uh, it was the, uh, investment funds, uh, we're going to destroy America.
00:43:37.000They're killing off the goose and I don't get it.
00:43:40.680Well, why, why, why would they want to do this?
00:43:43.440Well, that's, I think why so many people, um, don't understand, or don't accept, uh, anything as a plan.
00:43:54.460They just think maybe this is incompetence, maybe, but it, there's too much that has happened for, you know, anybody's batting average to be that bad, unless it's intentional.
00:44:05.400And what they're doing is resetting capitalism.
00:44:09.820They're resetting it to a, uh, a stakeholder capitalism.
00:44:14.800And the stakeholders are the businesses, the community leaders, if you will, uh, and, um, and the government.
00:44:23.100And they're directing us into this, this new system and destroying the value of our dollar to be able to reset into something that they have more control over.
00:44:35.520It's, uh, it's something that, you know, I don't think people really, you know, most people are not, are not evil.
00:45:02.560I, I, I think that many people, I'm talking about the invest, the, uh, the American people today, uh, are, are really thinking with their hearts, but they're not thinking with their brains.
00:45:15.440Uh, look at this inflation, what it's doing to this country and what it's doing to the middle class and lower class is just outrageous.
00:45:25.280People can't afford to put meat on the table, eggs, or, you know, the simple things because of the inflation and it's all manufactured by the policies of Biden.