The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Savanah Hernandez & Jeff Brown ｜ 5⧸11⧸22

00:00:00.000 Holy cow, as we get ready for Stu's 500th episode, 500th episode, we get you ready for the Glenn Beck radio program, episode 14,582.

00:00:16.380 I'm just saying.

00:00:18.020 But today we have a little bit of everything.

00:00:21.360 We have a fascinating look at the border of somebody who just got back from the border and told us some of the things they saw and also were informed on with the border patrol.

00:00:35.160 It is much worse than anybody really, really thinks.

00:00:38.680 And we spent an hour with Jeff Brown, who is a futurist, who is absolutely fantastic guy who really knows high tech.

00:00:46.720 We begin the conversation about quantum computing.

00:00:50.420 It is closer than anyone thinks, and it is going to change everything, all the way from Bitcoin to military to batteries.

00:01:00.380 We talked to him about all of those things and banana milk.

00:01:05.920 I'm just saying, banana milk, all on today's program.

00:01:16.100 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:01:20.420 For tens of millions of Americans, the good times are right now.

00:01:29.040 Are you ready, Stu?

00:01:29.780 This is good news.

00:01:31.260 I'm excited.

00:01:31.800 This is good news.

00:01:32.940 This is the era of great political division and dramatic cultural upheaval.

00:01:38.360 But much more quietly, it has been a time of great financial reward for a large number of Americans.

00:01:44.600 Now, I want you to remember the class warfare that has been going on, okay?

00:01:52.280 I want you to remember also that the truth is, wealthy Americans are getting wealthier.

00:01:57.960 Everybody else is not.

00:01:59.940 But we're not going to learn that in this.

00:02:01.760 We're going to be corrected.

00:02:02.660 For the 158 million people who are employed, prospects haven't been this bright since men landed on the moon.

00:02:11.080 And as many as half of those workers have retirement accounts that were fattened by a prolonged bull market in stocks.

00:02:18.460 There are 83 million owner-occupied homes now in the United States.

00:02:23.220 And at the rate they've been increasing in value, a lot of them are, in fact, giant piggy banks that families live inside.

00:02:32.300 This boom does not get celebrated much.

00:02:35.340 No, no.

00:02:36.200 Because it was a slow-build phenomena in a country where news is stale within hours.

00:02:41.740 It's happened during a time of fascination with the schemes of the truly wealthy, see Elon Musk.

00:02:49.020 And against the backdrop of increased inequality.

00:02:52.260 If you were unable to buy a house because of spiraling prices, the storing amount of homeowners' equity is not really a comfort.

00:03:00.660 The queasy stock market might be signaling the boom is ending.

00:03:04.640 A slowing economy, renewed inflation, high gas prices, rising interest rates could all undermine the gains achieved over the last few years.

00:03:13.700 But for the moment, this flood of wealth is quietly redefining retirement.

00:03:18.440 Helping fuel Silicon Valley and stoking a boom in leisure and entertainment.

00:03:23.840 It's boosting corporate profits by unprecedented amounts, while also giving just about everyone the notion that a better job is just within reach.

00:03:33.420 More than 4.5 million workers voluntarily quit in March.

00:03:38.640 That's the highest number since the government started keeping statistics.

00:03:42.000 The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week, a few years ago, the monthly total was between 3 million and 3.5 million.

00:03:50.560 It's now 4.5.

00:03:52.340 Wow.

00:03:53.520 Maybe it's easier to focus on the negative.

00:03:56.400 But a huge number of people, maybe 40 million households, have been doing pretty well, says Dean Baker, an economist and co-founder of the liberal-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research.

00:04:09.100 You'd have to go back to the late 1990s to find anything like this.

00:04:13.880 Before that, the 1960s.

00:04:16.980 This widespread wealth.

00:04:19.320 This widespread wealth, according to the New York Times, throws light on why the number of workers who say they expect to be working past their early 60s has fallen below 50% for the first time.

00:04:33.040 It accounts for the abundance of $1 billion startups known as unicorns.

00:04:40.080 Wow.

00:04:40.300 That's the little guy that went in there, isn't it?

00:04:42.980 The $1 billion startups?

00:04:44.920 Just the average Joe taking his lunchbox and his blue shirt to his tech startup.

00:04:50.220 That's right.

00:04:50.700 More than 1,000 now, up from 200 in 2015.

00:04:55.080 It offers a reason for the rise in interest in unionizing companies from Amazon to Apple to Starbucks as hourly workers seek to claim their share.

00:05:05.180 And it helps explain why Dwight and Denise make...

00:05:08.460 Wait, the sign of prosperity is that workers have tried to seek their share?

00:05:13.680 Doesn't that mean they don't have their share?

00:05:15.360 No, they're living in a giant piggy bank right now.

00:05:17.800 So they can't get out.

00:05:18.740 They can't find money.

00:05:20.180 They're seeking it.

00:05:21.060 No, they got it all in their house in the piggy bank.

00:05:23.680 They live in a giant piggy bank.

00:05:25.540 Are you listening?

00:05:26.320 Well, you said 40 million households are doing well, but there's 124 million households in the United States.

00:05:32.060 Whatever.

00:05:32.140 What about the other 84 million households?

00:05:33.820 Okay, Mr. Raincloud.

00:05:34.640 And it helps explain why Dwight and Denise Mackerson just returned from a 12-day cruise through Germany.

00:05:40.440 You know, I had not considered the Dwight and Denise Mackerson part of the economy.

00:05:45.620 Well, listen, our net worth has reached the millionaire level due to our investments.

00:05:51.380 Congratulations.

00:05:51.800 Which was unfathomable when we were married 40 years ago, said Mr. Mackerson, 76, who's retired from the U.S. Forest Service.

00:06:00.220 The couple who live near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, have a company.

00:06:04.200 There are 22 million U.S. millionaires, Credit Suisse estimates, up from a fewer than 15 million in 2014.

00:06:14.940 Isn't that great?

00:06:16.060 Well, that is great.

00:06:17.160 I know.

00:06:17.700 That part is great.

00:06:18.560 I know.

00:06:18.660 That does not necessarily mean the economy is currently healthy.

00:06:21.780 Right.

00:06:22.400 And when you're talking about investments, how you're getting the Mackerson family onto this wonderful 12-day cruise,

00:06:28.680 it doesn't seem like when the markets are tumbling is the time to brag about that.

00:06:34.600 Oh, my gosh, Stu.

00:06:36.260 What am I missing?

00:06:37.540 You're missing the enlightenment that is coming from the New York Times.

00:06:42.200 Yes, that I would agree.

00:06:43.940 Some would have concentrated on, wait a minute, 22 million U.S. millionaires, up from 15 million in 2014.

00:06:51.880 Some might point out that the New York Times has always hated stats like that, but I'm not going to do that.

00:07:00.640 The Mrs. Mackerson, I'm sorry, Ms. Mackerson says, I use coupons to buy things.

00:07:07.520 One of my daughters would say, Mom, that's so embarrassing, but we believed in saving.

00:07:12.660 Now she uses coupons, too. 0.82

00:07:15.200 Every economic transaction has several sides.

00:07:18.240 No one thought home prices in 2000 were particularly cheap, but in the last six years,

00:07:23.620 prices have risen by the total value of all housing in 2000.

00:07:28.720 In many areas in the country, it has been practically impossible for renters to buy a house.

00:07:35.220 This fracturing society, even as the overall home ownership rate in 2020 rose to 65.5%,

00:07:43.700 the rate for black Americans have severely lacked at 43.4%.

00:07:50.080 It's even lower, 44.2% in 2010.

00:07:54.100 The rate for Hispanics was only marginally better.

00:07:58.040 This disparity might account for a muted sense of achievement.

00:08:02.540 It's a time of prosperity, a time of abundance, and yet it doesn't seem that way, says the vice president of enterprise research at Black Knight.

00:08:13.320 Sean and Stephanie McCauley said the value of their house just 20 miles north of Seattle has shot up 50% since they bought it just a couple of years ago.

00:08:21.620 We're very fortunate now, given the situation for many others during the pandemic.

00:08:27.740 He works for a data orchestration company.

00:08:30.600 Somehow we're doing even better financially, and it feels a bit awkward.

00:08:35.600 Even for those doing well, the economy feels precarious, however.

00:08:40.000 The University of Michigan's general index of consumer sentiment fell in March, the same levels as 1979.

00:08:48.020 And politicians have been mostly quiet about the boom.

00:08:55.280 Now, listen to this.

00:08:57.660 Why?

00:08:59.100 Because Republicans aren't anxious to give President Biden the credit for anything, said Mr. Baker, the economist.

00:09:05.600 The Democrats could boast about how many people have gotten jobs and the strong wage growth at the bottom,

00:09:11.040 but they really seem reluctant to do this, knowing that so many people are being hit by inflation.

00:09:19.040 Oh, so they're out of compassion.

00:09:20.940 They don't want to rub people's noses in it.

00:09:23.220 That's the only reason why he's not taking a victory lap is because he knows that people are suffering.

00:09:28.840 He doesn't.

00:09:29.500 He wants to connect with them.

00:09:31.300 The initial coronavirus outbreak ended the longest U.S. economic expansion in modern history after 128 months.

00:09:38.780 A dramatic downturn began.

00:09:41.120 The federal government stepped in, generously spreading cash around.

00:09:45.480 Spending habits shifted as people stayed home.

00:09:48.240 The recession ended after two months, and the boom resumed.

00:09:52.120 Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chair, recently warned that there were too many employers chasing too few workers,

00:09:58.300 saying the labor market was tight to an unhealthy level.

00:10:02.600 Well, that's probably because everybody is so rich now, you know.

00:10:06.000 Right.

00:10:06.340 We learned that, you know, what was it, 40, 4 million?

00:10:11.720 40 million.

00:10:12.280 40 million.

00:10:12.920 40 million households are doing well.

00:10:14.280 Yeah.

00:10:14.460 There's just the other 84 million households.

00:10:17.480 So a decade ago, the housing market was in chaos.

00:10:20.980 Between 2007 and 2015, more than 7 million homes were lost to foreclosure.

00:10:26.520 But that was because they were egged on by lenders, and people lived in houses they couldn't afford.

00:10:33.940 But now the reverse is true.

00:10:36.180 People own much more of their homes than they used to, while the banks own less.

00:10:41.080 And that acts as a shield against foreclosures, which in 2019 were only 144,000.

00:10:49.340 During the pandemic, foreclosure mostly ceased due to moratoriums.

00:10:53.620 That's parathetically speaking, of course.

00:10:56.520 The equity available to homeowners reached nearly $10 trillion at the end of 2021.

00:11:02.480 That's double what it was at the height of the 2006 bubble.

00:11:07.060 Oh, that makes me feel better.

00:11:09.180 Because we know 2006, I mean, that's double.

00:11:13.500 Of course, we're double of the value of all of the homes.

00:11:17.140 It's just the increase is double than the value of all of the homes in America at full price in 2000.

00:11:25.100 So I don't know exactly what that means, especially since 2006.

00:11:29.260 We were double that, and then we had a huge bubble that broke.

00:11:34.860 Anyway, for the average American mortgage holder, that amounts to $185,000 before hitting loan-to-value tripwires.

00:11:43.360 That figure is up $48,000 in a year.

00:11:47.200 That's what the American family earns annually.

00:11:50.920 Wow.

00:11:51.400 Even new homeowners feel an economic boost.

00:11:55.280 We've never had enough for a down payment.

00:11:57.620 But then, Stu, the summer of 2020, we got a good tax return.

00:12:03.080 We got a stimulus check.

00:12:05.360 And we had a little money in the bank.

00:12:07.620 So this is according to Magalay Pina, 41, an architect for the federal government.

00:12:15.960 She and her husband bought a townhouse in the Miami suburb of Homestead.

00:12:20.760 She's a first-generation immigrant from Nicaragua.

00:12:23.620 She likes to check out the estimated value of her home and her neighbors in the real estate website Redfin.

00:12:29.020 Sometimes I check it every day or every three days.

00:12:31.860 It's been crazy.

00:12:32.780 Everything's skyrocketed.

00:12:34.600 In 2006, homeowners cashed in their equity.

00:12:37.620 Sometimes they use the money to double down on another house or two.

00:12:41.660 In 2022, there is little sense of excess.

00:12:46.440 Brian Carter, an epidemiologist in Atlanta, said he and his wife, Desiree, had about $250,000 in equity in their home.

00:12:54.780 But they didn't plan to draw on it.

00:12:56.760 I was 27 in 2007.

00:12:58.720 I watched a lot of people lose their houses because they couldn't leave their equity alone.

00:13:03.520 That included my next-door neighbor and family across the street.

00:13:06.380 I don't want to worry like that.

00:13:08.640 In May 2000, the entrepreneur, Kurt Anderson, said raising money for a media startup called Inside was as easy, excuse the expression, as getting sex in 1969.

00:13:22.420 That was just a few weeks after the stock market peaked.

00:13:26.700 17 months and one merger later, inside shut down.

00:13:31.440 Wow.

00:13:32.120 In 2000, the startup downturn was the first sign of a wider economic trouble.

00:13:36.420 This time, it may simply be that people are doing too well.

00:13:40.180 U.S. households are in the best shape in 30 years.

00:13:44.940 But does it matter?

00:13:47.400 Oh, my gosh.

00:13:48.220 This is such great news.

00:13:49.520 I came in here today a little down.

00:13:51.700 You did?

00:13:52.180 Yeah, I did.

00:13:53.280 I just saw that the inflation numbers were worse than expected.

00:13:58.200 Oh, no.

00:13:58.520 It was only going to go up 0.4.

00:14:01.360 Okay.

00:14:02.420 Okay.

00:14:02.740 Yeah.

00:14:03.320 So, like, to 8.1, I think, is what they were expecting.

00:14:06.540 Yeah.

00:14:07.000 I know one of the numbers I saw was it was up just a little higher.

00:14:10.120 I think they expected 6% and they got 6.2, which is, of course, doing wonders for the markets once again.

00:14:17.680 This Joe Biden economy is so vibrant.

00:14:20.820 Sometimes, and this is something people don't consider, sometimes the vibrancy of this economy blinds people and they click the sell button instead of the buy.

00:14:30.320 Yes.

00:14:30.580 That's what's going on.

00:14:32.100 Yes.

00:14:32.340 People have so much money.

00:14:34.720 They want to buy more.

00:14:36.160 And because of this vibrancy, they're clicking the sell button.

00:14:40.440 That's what they're saying.

00:14:41.260 And that is going to clear itself up soon.

00:14:43.420 This is just a transitory issue that will be over in moments.

00:14:47.480 It's probably over already.

00:14:49.620 I mean, it's not quite reflected yet, but soon it will be.

00:14:52.020 Well, I just want you to know, anybody who says, who talks down this economy really ought to be censored.

00:15:00.200 I mean, for disinformation, probably even malinformation.

00:15:04.120 You know, they know exactly what they're doing.

00:15:06.320 They just don't want to give Joe Biden credit.

00:15:08.560 Now, I'm different.

00:15:11.100 Believe me, I'm going to give Joe Biden all the credit he deserves.

00:15:16.800 This is the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:15:24.760 It is great to have Savannah Hernandez back in the building.

00:15:41.480 She was a producer here at the blaze for a while and really top notch producer.

00:15:48.520 And now she's her own host, rapid fire. 0.78

00:15:51.500 And she's just gotten back from the border with some stunning footage tonight at 9 p.m.

00:15:58.900 We're going to tell you about the bloodbath, the death that is involved at our border.

00:16:04.020 And it's happening in your own communities.

00:16:06.440 This part of the story is only part of the special tonight at 9 p.m.

00:16:11.500 Only on blaze TV.

00:16:13.420 Welcome, Savannah.

00:16:14.340 Welcome back.

00:16:15.220 Thank you so much for having me.

00:16:16.580 You know, typically I was behind the desk.

00:16:19.040 Now I'm here at the desk with you.

00:16:20.820 Very exciting.

00:16:21.600 And I'm excited for you.

00:16:23.340 Excited for you.

00:16:25.080 Take us through what has happened with you.

00:16:27.840 You went down to Eagle Pass and Brownsville.

00:16:30.160 And you saw some amazing things, but also you saw some amazing things on the phones of the border guards.

00:16:39.140 So tell me what you saw.

00:16:40.940 So when I went down to Eagle Pass and Brownsville, it was pretty crazy because I got to watch the entire process of how illegal immigrants cross over into our country and then how they are bused throughout our country. 0.99

00:16:52.040 So in Eagle Pass, you have the Rio Grande River, which is where a lot of the illegal immigrants drown trying to make this journey across.

00:17:02.100 And so that in itself was very terrifying to watch because you're essentially watching people on the Mexican side of the border just jump into the river and hope that they make it across. 0.99

00:17:09.960 Sometimes there are children in tow.

00:17:11.680 You never know what's going to happen.

00:17:13.500 Eagle Pass is not an I've not been there, but it's not necessarily an easy place to cross.

00:17:18.360 I mean, aren't there aren't there cliffs on on the American side of parts of Eagle Pass or is it?

00:17:25.000 There are parts that are like that, but the primary part where they do cross, you know, it's pretty easy to get in and out of the river.

00:17:31.960 However, at that section, there are currents that typically drag people under the bridge.

00:17:36.040 And that's why we had, for example, National Guard Bishop Evans.

00:17:40.040 You know, he drowned trying to save the illegal immigrants, making that cross over. 1.00

00:17:45.080 So it was very shocking to see.

00:17:48.300 And I asked National Guard, I asked Border Patrol, I asked, you know, so these people are allowed to get into this river, cross into our country, and Border Patrol is just supposed to come pick them up and process them. 0.73

00:17:57.800 And they were saying, yes, our job is to observe and report at this point.

00:18:01.860 National Guard was telling me that, you know, they had a lot of empathy for these immigrants coming through.

00:18:07.320 Sure.

00:18:07.560 But then they expected Border Patrol to come pick them up in the vehicles, go take them to the processing centers.

00:18:13.740 The National Guardsmen would give them water bottles.

00:18:15.820 One of the National Guard telling me that one of the illegals just opened the bottle of water, poured it down at his feet, and threw the trash down.

00:18:22.160 If you go to where these illegal crossings are happening, there's clothes littering the border.

00:18:27.560 Let me show some of those pictures if you happen to be watching on the blaze.

00:18:30.960 This is shocking, what our border looks like.

00:18:37.800 Keep going, scroll through.

00:18:39.560 I mean, look at that.

00:18:40.420 It's just clothes and garbage as far as the eye can see.

00:18:44.700 It was very shocking.

00:18:46.140 And Glenn, one of the worst parts of being down there was seeing condoms and boxes of birth control at the border.

00:18:53.220 Because we know what is happening there.

00:18:55.460 We know what these women and children are going through, making this journey across.

00:18:59.280 We know what the cartel members and also even members of the Mexican Police Department are putting these people through.

00:19:04.540 They are taking advantage of these migrants trying to make this journey. 1.00

00:19:08.060 I was talking to National Guard who was telling me that the cartel oftentimes kidnaps families, will rob them of their money, will basically hold them hostage and torture them.

00:19:17.920 This is just a tactic of the cartel to keep people subservient to them, to keep the migrants scared, let them know that they're in control.

00:19:24.760 A National Guard also telling me that the cartel members own cell phone towers on the Mexican side of the border.

00:19:32.180 They're tracking the National Guard cell phones, sending them pictures of dead bodies and death threats, saying that you are next.

00:19:38.340 So that's what the Biden administration is allowing to prosper.

00:19:40.740 That is what the Biden administration is putting our Border Patrol members and National Guard members through.

00:19:45.900 Did you see any of those cell phone texts and pictures?

00:19:50.400 Or did they just tell you about them?

00:19:52.320 They told us about them.

00:19:53.540 Oftentimes the, you know, Border Patrol and National Guard don't even want to speak to reporters.

00:19:58.300 And the reason is, is because they do fear for their jobs.

00:20:02.640 They fear, you know, being, dealing with the pushback of coming out and talking to a reporter and telling the truth about what's going on.

00:20:10.440 So oftentimes they'll come and speak to us off the record about these things and say, hey, you know what?

00:20:14.620 You didn't hear this from me, but this is what we're really going through.

00:20:17.140 And this is what's going on.

00:20:18.120 This is, I mean, this is so easy to see what the right thing to do is.

00:20:24.240 And yet no one will, no one will even address it.

00:20:28.120 No one in mainstream media is talking about this.

00:20:30.600 The human trafficking that is happening at our border is obscene.

00:20:35.020 And beyond that, the fentanyl problem, the drugs that are, we are empowering these cartels and they are taking fentanyl and just pouring it into our cities.

00:20:47.220 It's absolutely horrifying to see.

00:20:49.240 And going back to the human trafficking quickly, one of my friends who reports extensively on the border, Eagle Pass, Brownsville, all of these areas,

00:20:57.400 he actually got footage of small children who had been drugged by the cartels.

00:21:01.060 The reason the cartels do this is so that way they can keep the children quiet as they're trafficking them at night.

00:21:06.000 One of the most horrifying parts of this story is that Border Patrol is saying that they oftentimes see these children multiple times

00:21:12.480 because the cartel will use these kids as a way to get grown men into our country as a family unit. 0.87

00:21:18.680 That's how they get these people into our country. 1.00

00:21:20.820 That's how they help disguise them.

00:21:22.260 So horrifying what we're seeing.

00:21:23.940 And then going back to the fentanyl crisis, I was in the Tenderloin District in San Francisco,

00:21:28.120 and I was absolutely shocked watching people use meth, fentanyl.

00:21:32.700 They had crack pipes out in the middle of the day at 2 p.m.

00:21:35.920 Glenn, I have been to BLM riots.

00:21:37.640 I covered them for the entirety of 2020.

00:21:39.640 I felt more unsafe on the streets of San Francisco at 2 p.m.

00:21:43.920 with the police right next to me than I did at a BLM riot.

00:21:46.360 That is how terrifying San Francisco is.

00:21:49.560 So what is the fentanyl is being made in Mexico and in China, right?

00:21:58.120 Yes.

00:21:58.580 Biden is saying all this fentanyl problem is coming from through our ports.

00:22:04.160 But how come that's the only supply chain that is working now?

00:22:09.560 Those are the only ships that are coming in from China.

00:22:12.580 That doesn't seem to make an awful lot of sense.

00:22:15.160 And Glenn, too, the art of journalism is so great because anybody can do it right.

00:22:19.460 Anybody can go down to the border right now and see with their own two eyes how open this is.

00:22:24.460 Anybody can go.

00:22:25.700 And if they stick there long enough, talk to Border Patrol or National Guards members or even locals of these border cities and ask them what they're going through.

00:22:33.060 Many of them talking about the immense drug trafficking that is happening in their cities, the crime rates going up, cartel members walking through their neighborhoods with machetes terrorizing them at night.

00:22:42.440 That's what these people are going through.

00:22:44.120 And that's why in border cities specifically, we are seeing a big uptick in people voting Republican and more red because they are terrified at what is happening every day.

00:22:53.640 And they are these these cities on the border.

00:22:58.200 They are now many of them under control of the cartel or living in fear of the cartel.

00:23:04.880 I would say living in fear.

00:23:05.980 I've just started my investigative reporting into this.

00:23:09.380 So as of now, it's been very surface level.

00:23:12.480 Me just going and kind of speaking to locals.

00:23:14.640 I haven't you know, the next step is dig deeper and ask these family members.

00:23:18.520 What have you really been experiencing?

00:23:19.880 But just on the surface level of talking to locals, they do fear the cartels in these cities in California, in Texas.

00:23:25.840 We know that the cartel has made their way all the way up to Dallas.

00:23:28.540 So this isn't even an issue that just affects border towns, unfortunately.

00:23:33.400 Thank you so much.

00:23:34.300 We'd love to have you back when you continue your investigation and get the facts from you on on what you're doing.

00:23:41.300 I'm so happy for your success.

00:23:42.780 Thank you so much, Glenn.

00:23:43.700 And I really appreciate you highlighting this issue.

00:23:45.600 I really do.

00:23:46.100 Yeah, not a problem.

00:23:47.180 Savannah Hernandez, host of Rapid Fire. 0.96

00:23:51.160 You can find Rapid Fire where?

00:23:55.540 Any podcast?

00:23:56.860 Podcasts.

00:23:57.320 Anywhere podcasts are streamed and follow me on true social at Saf says I'm banned on Twitter.

00:24:01.440 Great.

00:24:01.840 Thank you.

00:24:02.180 You're banned on Twitter?

00:24:03.280 Twice banned.

00:24:03.740 Yeah.

00:24:04.260 Well, probably not for long.

00:24:06.180 Probably not.

00:24:06.520 Hopefully not.

00:24:07.140 Hopefully not.

00:24:07.840 Thank you so much.

00:24:08.820 God bless.

00:24:13.360 You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:24:16.020 Jeff Brown, welcome to the program, sir.

00:24:38.600 Good morning.

00:24:39.440 It's great to be back, Glenn.

00:24:40.380 It's great to have you on.

00:24:42.260 You are the founder and chief investment analyst at Brownstone Research, editor of the Bleeding Edge.

00:24:50.140 I mean, I'm not saying this to you.

00:24:51.940 I'm saying this to everybody who is listening.

00:24:53.900 You know who you are.

00:24:55.000 And a favorite on this program, would you call yourself kind of a futurist?

00:25:04.880 I would definitely say I'm a technologist and a futurist.

00:25:08.520 Okay.

00:25:09.340 So let's start with what happened last week.

00:25:14.040 The Biden administration signed an executive order that said we got to get serious about quantum computing.

00:25:21.640 And because I don't trust anything in an executive order, I wondered what it was and why the sudden haste on quantum computing.

00:25:33.840 And I knew you'd be the guy to answer those questions.

00:25:36.720 Yes, well, you know, in terms of this particular administration, this particular announcement is largely driven by really what's happening in China.

00:25:50.880 You know, we've seen at a state level in China, billions of dollars invested over the last decade to develop quantum computing technology in China.

00:26:05.440 And there is a very growing concern that these machines, these quantum computers, will quickly become powerful enough to decrypt existing data and information, particularly that of which which has been collected and stolen and hacked over the years.

00:26:29.460 Quantical computing basically allows these repositories of state secrets and technology to basically become visible, readable, usable.

00:26:44.920 And obviously, if China has the ability to have this level of computational power, the U.S. really needs to do something in terms of being able to find new ways to encrypt and protect.

00:26:59.460 Existing and new information from these types of potential hacks.

00:27:06.840 Okay, can you, first of all, explain what quantum computing even is?

00:27:13.000 You know, probably the easiest way to think of this is that it is really the next generation of computing systems.

00:27:22.520 It is.

00:27:24.100 But it's a lot.

00:27:25.860 I mean, if the abacus to the modern-day supercomputer, is it as much of a change as saying that today's supercomputer compared to a full-blown quantum computer is the abacus?

00:27:45.060 It's even more dramatic than that.

00:27:49.240 It's more significant than that.

00:27:50.680 Holy cow. 0.89

00:27:51.200 You know, quantum computing has the ability to basically manipulate particles in a way that has doubly or triply exponentially more computing power compared to a supercomputer.

00:28:09.220 Not just the computers that we use every day, a laptop or a desktop, but to the world's most powerful supercomputer, it's doubly or triply exponential in terms of computing computational power than a classical computing architecture.

00:28:25.220 That's how dramatic this shift is.

00:28:27.600 Can you explain, I'm sorry to get into all this tech stuff, but to be able to understand the rest of the stories and the questions that I have, can you explain what a qubit is?

00:28:39.680 Yeah, so a qubit is, we think about kind of a particle, but what makes qubits very unique is that a normal computer bit is like a transistor, it's a zero or a one.

00:28:55.480 And we calculate things with zeros or ones.

00:28:57.760 It's obviously very efficient and effective.

00:28:59.820 It's what all of our computing systems are built on.

00:29:02.440 But in comparison, they're relatively slow.

00:29:04.660 When we're manipulating a quantum bit, a particle, it is able to have something called a superposition, which means it can almost have an infinite number of positions.

00:29:15.540 So rather than a zero or a one, you know, it can have almost an infinite number of positions that can be used to calculate or solve complex problems.

00:29:24.460 And so what happens is, with every qubit that we add to a quantum computer, it has this doubly exponential effect on the power of the computing system.

00:29:37.200 And that's what makes it such a radical breakthrough.

00:29:40.540 It doesn't just, when you add one qubit, it doesn't just double the power.

00:29:44.420 When you add four, it doesn't quadruple the power.

00:29:46.920 It just multiplies.

00:29:49.800 And that's why you can have a single quantum computer that's more powerful than the most powerful supercomputer on Earth.

00:29:59.420 So a qubit is kind of like, excuse me for, you know, I'm a poor man's futurist here.

00:30:07.680 A qubit is kind of like, we would compare, like, the Commodore 64 was, what, 64 bits at the very beginning of computing?

00:30:19.860 So we're looking at qubits, which are far more powerful.

00:30:23.420 But we're still at the beginning.

00:30:25.080 What are we at?

00:30:27.540 120 qubits?

00:30:31.620 Where are we?

00:30:32.380 This is a, there's some, there's some nuance there.

00:30:35.380 So back in 2019, we reached a point, or I should say, Google reached a point of demonstrating something called quantum supremacy that was accomplished with a 53 quantum bit, quantum computer.

00:30:54.080 And that quantum supremacy was the moment that a single quantum computer, and just to put things in perspective, this is something that basically is about the size of a refrigerator.

00:31:04.140 Physically, a single quantum computer was able to outperform the world's most powerful supercomputer, which is something that physically is the size of football fields.

00:31:19.380 Holy cow. 0.89

00:31:20.640 For perspective.

00:31:21.800 And 53 qubits is, that was our first, you know, we're just, just brand new getting into it.

00:31:30.360 53 is kind of like 24, 24 baud, or 2400 baud, when we were like, oh, look how fast it is.

00:31:38.260 And it took, you know, a day to print a picture.

00:31:42.600 Exactly.

00:31:44.040 You know, we're just stepping into the water, and we've already seen that power.

00:31:48.060 And by the way, that was three years ago.

00:31:50.660 And what's very interesting about what Google has been doing is that they really, they've been keeping their cards close to their chest.

00:32:00.560 They haven't really revealed how much progress that they've made since that September 2019 quantum supremacy date.

00:32:09.000 We know they've made radically large progress.

00:32:11.560 We just don't know exactly how much.

00:32:13.280 And they recently spun out their quantum computing division into a newly formed company called Sandbox AQ.

00:32:23.640 The A stands for artificial intelligence.

00:32:25.860 The Q stands for quantum computing.

00:32:28.120 And they've taken in some large nine-figure amount of investment.

00:32:33.640 And guess who's there as well?

00:32:35.960 In-Q-Tel, which is the venture capital arm of the CIA.

00:32:41.720 Holy cow. 0.89

00:32:42.560 So, all right.

00:32:44.480 So, IBM is saying that we could be at 4,000 cubits, which, again, the supercomputer is beaten by 53 cubits.

00:32:57.340 At what point can we break all encryption?

00:33:03.060 So, again, there's a little bit of nuance here.

00:33:06.700 One of the predictions that I've made is that in 2022, we will see a 256 quantum bit computer that's announced.

00:33:16.900 And obviously, that will be massively more powerful than what Google demonstrated back in 2019.

00:33:23.620 Within this year, theoretically, a computing system like that could crack all existing kind of standard encryption that's been used over the last two decades.

00:33:38.480 And it's not something that would have to run for months or years or weeks.

00:33:44.360 It would literally, you could crack a file in seconds, really.

00:33:48.920 Now, the nuance here is that these computing systems, quantum computing systems, have one major problem that the industry is working hard to solve, which is noise.

00:33:59.800 They tend to be very noisy, and because of the noise, they're error prone.

00:34:04.800 And so, the big focus of the quantum computing industry this year is really around kind of error correction and reducing the noise in these systems so that they can be used for their desired purposes.

00:34:18.140 And when you're talking noise, you're not talking about noise that we hear with our ears, right?

00:34:24.340 You're talking about...

00:34:25.360 That's right.

00:34:26.540 I mean, the only thing I can...

00:34:28.020 Go ahead.

00:34:29.580 We think about these quantum bits.

00:34:32.420 You know, they're obviously very sensitive.

00:34:34.880 Anything from vibration to heat.

00:34:39.300 The quantum computers tend to run in basically large refrigerators.

00:34:47.520 But it's not, it's not really, I mean, it's, isn't it 80 below zero and aren't most of them underground?

00:34:56.020 Well, it's, they just do that to help with, again, the stability of the environment.

00:35:02.600 But they run, right, basically at the temperature of deep space.

00:35:09.780 Okay, so now let's talk about some practical things here.

00:35:13.300 How long are we before China, or what do you have to get to before a country or company could actually hack into our banks, into the Pentagon, or into cryptocurrency, blockchain?

00:35:31.040 Well, hacking into a network is something that happens now, every year.

00:35:39.180 But I mean, I mean enough to be able to break the codes.

00:35:43.000 And I mean, they're always attempting, especially with the military.

00:35:46.500 But we've blocked them so far, is, is, will quantum computing help get control of our banking or, or, or military?

00:36:00.580 The, the, the bad actors, at least my prediction, my forecast is that within the next 18 months, therefore, before the end of 2023, that the quantum computers will be powerful enough to basically break any file, encrypted file that has been stolen.

00:36:21.300 And this could be from the private sector, could be from the public sector, will be able to break the encryption of that file.

00:36:28.480 And so anything that's been stolen to date, and has been held, will soon be visible, I think, by the end of next year, because of how quickly I'm seeing quantum computing technology develop.

00:36:40.820 Okay, so I'm going to take a one minute break, when you come back, explain, what do you mean by file that had been, can you give us some examples of what you think that might mean, might be coming our way?

00:36:50.520 In 60 seconds, as we continue with Jeff Brown.

The Glenn Beck Program - May 11, 2022

Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Savanah Hernandez & Jeff Brown ｜ 5⧸11⧸22

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