Monetary Matters with Jack Farley

Liaquat Ahamed, legendary financial historian and author, joins Jack to discuss his latest book, "1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World.” Ahamed unpacks the 1873 financial crisis, explaining how Germany's abrupt move from silver to gold during a market panic triggered a massive global scramble for precious metals and severe deflation. He details the preceding infrastructure boom driven by the Rothschilds' bond market expansion, which eventually collapsed due to excessive railroad construction and the infamous Credit Mobilier corruption scandal. Transitioning to modern markets, Ahamed compares the 19th-century railway mania to today's trillion-dollar global AI and data center investment boom. He warns that fierce competition in the AI sector could lead to poor returns and a series of mini boom-bust cycles. While expressing concern over modern speculative bubbles in crypto and loose central bank policies, Ahamed remains hopeful that these technological innovations will spark a significant productivity jump. Recorded June 9, 2026.

“1873”: on Publish Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/306461/1873-by-liaquat-ahamed/

“1873”: on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/1873-Rothschilds-Depression-Making-Modern/dp/1594204179

Follow Jack Farley on X https://x.com/jackfarley96

 Follow Monetary Matters on:

Apple Podcasts https://rb.gy/s5qfyh

Spotify https://rb.gy/x56dx5

YouTube https://rb.gy/dpwxez

In this episode of Other People's Money, host Max Wiethe sits down with Shashank Chiranewala, founder of the new investment platform Plutus, to explore the future of independent research and portfolio management. Shashank explains why his platform is fundamentally different from the copy trading trend, emphasizing the importance of aligning model portfolios with an investor's unique risk-reward needs rather than blindly following a single strategy. They dive into the technical nightmares of executing global, active strategies on your own—like navigating foreign market rules and tracking errors—and how Plutus provides an automated, seamless execution solution for both individual and professional investors. Finally, they discuss why top independent researchers from Substack and FinTwit are choosing to list their portfolios on Plutus rather than launching traditional fund vehicles.

Check out Plutus: https://www.runplutus.com/

Follow Plutus on X: https://x.com/RunPlutus
Follow Shashank on X: https://x.com/sonny_seattle
Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe

Follow Other People’s Money on:

Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M
Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi
YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR
X https://x.com/opmpod

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:37 The Broken Options
03:54 From Research to Investing
04:28 Why Not Copy Trading
07:56 SPY and Portfolio Fit
12:25 Building Multi Portfolio Strategies
14:58 Menu vs Tools Debate
20:34 Execution Is the Moat
25:17 Meet the Research Partners
28:18 Who Uses Plutus?
32:04 Creators and Regulation
36:26 Big Vision and Tokenization
38:42 Taxes and Compliance
44:43 How the Platform Works
46:32 Conclusion

Ed Zitron is one of the most prolific skeptic of the AI Boom. Having just reported OpenAI’s 2025 financial loss, he joins Jack to argue that the sheer size of the losses by the large language model (LLM) companies are unsustainable and the operational costs of training and running LLMs far exceeds the revenue customers are willing to pay. Ed also discusses Meta’s confusing AI strategy, the risk (and fall?) of the tokenmaxxing era, and Anthropic’s suspension of Fable 5. Recorded June 19, 2026. 

Pieces discussed in the interview:

“Exclusive: OpenAI Losses Increased Nearly 8X in 2025, With Spending Hitting $34 Billion”:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/exclusive-openai-financials/

“AI Is Slowing Down”: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ai-is-slowing-down/

“AI's Brokenomics”: https://www.wheresyoured.at/brokenomics/

“OpenAI spending hit $34bn last year ahead of planned IPO”: https://www.ft.com/content/e15b0d7e-ff6b-4f16-ba7a-4068feddb828?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Follow Ed Zitron on X https://x.com/edzitron

Follow Jack Farley on X https://x.com/jackfarley96Ed’s newsletter: https://www.wheresyoured.at/

 Follow Monetary Matters on:

Apple Podcasts https://rb.gy/s5qfyh

Spotify https://rb.gy/x56dx5

YouTube https://rb.gy/dpwxez

In this panel at MacroMinds Symposium, Jack Farley sits down with legendary short seller Jim Chanos and Val Zlatev, Portfolio Manager and Partner at Analog Century Management, to analyze the long and short opportunities of the AI and semiconductor boom. Chanos highlights a significant timing disconnect wherein chip suppliers recognize revenues immediately while hyperscalers capitalize their massive infrastructure costs—a trend mirroring the late-1990s CapEx boom before tech earnings collapsed by 40%. Chanos expresses deep skepticism toward "neo-cloud" data center developers like CoreWeave, modeling a very generous ten-year GPU lifespan (depreciation schedule) to forecast low pre-tax returns on invested capital. From a micro perspective, Val Zlatev outlines the structural upside for high-demand memory stocks, noting they trade at cheap forward multiples because physical supply chain constraints hard-cap semiconductor equipment manufacturing growth at 30% annually. The discussion also scrutinizes Elon Musk’s projection for one terawatt of compute capacity, breaking down the immense real-world barriers facing space data centers, including launch costs, space radiation, and maintenance logistics. They also dissect the SpaceX S1 filing, revealing that the primary rocket launch division continues to lose money despite the profitability of Starlink. Recorded on June 4th at MacroMinds Symposium.

About MacroMinds:

At MacroMinds, our vision is to unite the investment community in support of organizations that are making a meaningful difference in the lives of students and their families.

By partnering with high-impact nonprofits that serve socio-economically disadvantaged communities and schools, MacroMinds is committed to helping close the educational gap and expand opportunity across the New York area.

MacroMinds website:

https://macrominds.org/

https://macrominds.org/donate/

Charities supported by 2026 Symposium:

NYC First: https://macrominds.org/nyc-first/

Opportunity Music Project: https://macrominds.org/opportunity-music-project/

100 Women in Finance: https://macrominds.org/100-women-in-finance/

Follow Jim Chanos on X https://x.com/RealJimChanos?lang=en

Follow Jack Farley on X https://x.com/jackfarley96

Follow Monitoring The Situation (MTS) on X https://x.com/MTSlive

 Follow Monetary Matters on:

Apple Podcasts https://rb.gy/s5qfyh

Spotify https://rb.gy/x56dx5

YouTube https://rb.gy/dpwxez

In this episode of Other People’s Money, host Max Wiethe sits down with Chris Semenuk, an investment partner at Tema ETFs, to discuss the massive secular tailwinds driving the US manufacturing and electrification renaissance. Semenuk argues that after a three-year recession and decades of underinvestment, US industrial capacity and manufacturing are finally entering a powerful recovery cycle. Moving beyond the hype of AI and hyperscalers, they explore how "boring" short-cycle industrial companies like those producing essential components like ball bearings, pneumatics, and filters are primed for extraordinary earnings growth. They also discuss how America’s electrification mega trend goes beyond the AI data center buildout.

Follow Chris on X: https://x.com/ChrisSemenuk

Follow Max on X: https://x.com/maxwiethe

Follow Other People’s Money on:



Apple Podcast https://bit.ly/4e7QJ1M

Spotify https://bit.ly/3Yhaazi

YouTube https://bit.ly/3C63VXR

X https://x.com/opmpod

Timestamps:

00:00 Manufacturing Recession Ends

00:46 Meet the Industrial Bull

02:00 Proof Reindustrialization Is Real

05:28 What Reindustrialization Really Means

07:49 Why Companies Build Here

12:45 Advanced Goods Not Old Jobs

15:52 AI Hype Versus Reality

17:27 Picking the Equipment Winners

21:46 Inside Factory Wall Plays

23:26 Short Cycle Sequencing

27:53 Destocking Rates Tariffs Fog

32:28 Why Stocks Held Up

37:03 Valuing Cyclical Industrials

45:05 Tariffs Drive Onshoring

50:31 Humanoids And Automation

54:31 Grid Demand Inflection

57:05 Behind the Meter Reality

01:01:10 Rural Utilities Winners

01:08:22 High Voltage Bottleneck

01:14:40 Service Backlogs and Duration

01:18:28 Secular Tailwinds Wrap Up