Messy Times

#Bitcoin started as a libertarian revolt against central bank fiat currencies and value-detractive rent-seeking from credit card companies and banks for online payments processing.  Somewhere along the way, as BTC HODLers accumulated large amounts of theoretical wealth, in large part due to extremely low interest rates from The Federal Reserve, the tone shifted from opposition to begging for...

#Bitcoin Historian Kurt Wuckert Jr visits the Messy Times studios fresh off his trip to Norway. He was visiting the oil-rich Scandinavian paradise to report on the defamation case against a Norwegian schoolteacher who likes to spend his time online hurling adolescent insults at people he has taken a dislike to, in this case, the Chief Scientist of nChain, Craig Wright.    So far as I car...

With 30 days before the American midterm elections, Heshy and our Glittering Host dive into the imponderable mysteries around Voter Apathy.  The Political Class has managed to be universally reviled AND to keep themselves in power.  How is this possible?  How can 80% of New Yorkers hate the crime and decay of their city but only 11% of registered voters bother to go to the polls? &n...

Ed Martin came by the Messy Times studios to talk about his role as the President of the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles and the important work that Phyllis began decades ago which the Eagles continue in her name and spirit. Grab a soothing caffeinated beverage, settle back and have a listen to what reasoned discussion about principles-driven policy sounds like.  It'll be startling to those accustome...

For those normal humans who prefer to live in an aesthetically pleasing built environment, we're in luck! The #Arkitekturupproret is upon us! Strap in, strap up and fight the New Classical Fight! Michael Diamant joins us via an encrypted connection from his anti-Modernist bunker in Stockholm, whence he discourses on the horrendous violations of human rights committed on the daily by architectural...

Lawyer, engineer and entrepreneur Bob Seeman dropped by the Messy Times studios to share his criticisms of Bitcoin as currently implemented.  Bob is a deep thinker as well as the author of Coinmen and an upcoming book written under his pseudonym Nakaloco.    Join us as we dive into the depths of relative versus absolute value, what constitutes an asset, how and if regulators ever ad...

Experienced attorney and cyber insurance expert Bruce De'Medici visits the Messy Times studios for a robust and highly Enlightentaining conversation about the cyber risk ecosystem. Bruce focuses on helping small and medium sized businesses grapple with a very hostile environment, which sees them buffeted on all sides by hackers, nation-states, insurance companies and their "own" - HAH! - governmen...

We are delighted to have Kurt return to the studios to further untangle the general public's confusion about how Bitcoin actually works.  Join us to discover why environmentalists and power grid operators should love Bitcoin miners, what a SHA-256 hash is (you know you were afraid to ask), why a basic laptop used to get you 6 Bitcoins every 10 minutes and how all of this resembles little chil...

Messy Times is delighted to welcome Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli in the studio for a deep dive discussion about green bonds, carbon markets and separating substance from greenwashing fluff in the capital markets. It is not every day that we get to host a former City of London Aldermanic Sheriff for a dialogue about the perils of non-financial accounting and how "stakeholders" are trying to...

Free people using free markets is the only thing that has ever lifted people out of poverty.  From Irish mutual societies to the advanced Internet of Economics, tune in for a rollicking intellectual ride connecting LEGO kits to #DLT on the way to global prosperity free from the stifling rent-seeking of companies that COULD offer truly low-cost effective solutions, but choose not to by sustain...

Messy Times is delighted that Bitcoin Historian Kurt Wuckert, Jr. dropped by the studios. Join us for a truly #Enlightentaining discussion.  Highlights include why Small Blockers are the Social Justice Warriors of Bitcoin, why Ludwig van Mises was the bomb and how money - O! The sweet crypto irony of it all! - distorted Satoshi's original vision into the hodge podge mess we're now trying to s...

We are honored that  @Joshua Henslee  dropped by the  @Messy Times  studios for an in-depth conversation about blockchain, how Bitcoin (BTC) differs from Original Flavour Bitcoin (BSV), why massive numbers of "cryptocurrencies" share correlated characteristics with one market factor, how far these "new" markets have drifted from #Satoshi's original intent, and how real applicat...

Experienced mining CEO Mark Saxon visits Messy Times to discuss the paradox at the heart of our industry.  Humanity's present and future depend critically on the materials we mine from the earth and the food we grow.  So why are so many investors reluctant to commit the capital required to grow this fundamental input to the success of society and a flourishing, environmentally healthy pl...

We are delighted and honored to have Minister Høegh Kenneth Høegh visit the Messy Times Messy Times studios for a wide-ranging discussion. During a lively conversation, we cover current trade and investment policy for Greenland, the glorious tourism opportunities its natural and cultural wonders provide and of course, the topic near and dear to my heart, mining. We even touch on a bit of the inter...

Craig Wright, Chief Scientist at nChain , visited the Messy Times   studios for a wide-ranging discussion around technical intellectual property, the origins of blockchain, Bitcoin, the myriad applications and potential confusion about the technology and a future comprised of one blockchain versus the current diverse portfolio of blockchains we have now.  We even mourn the loss of Little...

Maureen Tatsuko Loughnane is the Chicago Executive Director of the non-profit Facing History and Ourselves . I am delighted to welcome an old friend and college classmate as she shares Facing History's mission, its origins and the important role it plays in supporting our nation's middle and high school teachers in what is arguably the most important job in our society - preparing young minds to p...

Nick Hudson, Actuary and Man of θύμος visits us in the studio to discuss the genesis and driving force behind PANDA , the Pandemics Data and Analytics think tank he co-founded in 2020 to shine an objective analytical light on the enormous piles of nonsense shoveled at us daily since February 2020. Join us for a buoyantly Enlightentaining discussion, including such exciting tidbits as how the Upper...

Wolfram Research will be familiar to many people for their advanced computation tools. Separately, in the public policy arena, Conrad Wolfram has founded https://computerbasedmath.org and written a book, The Maths Fix , all part of an effort to improve how we teach mathematics in our schools. If you are one of the people who find or found mathematics a challenging subject in school and are looking...

How lucky can one State get? It's starting to appear that the Almighty has a particular preference for The Last Free State in America, Florida. A focused, clear-thinking, entrepreneurial patriot has decided to fix his patch of America by running for Mayor of Orange County.  Freedom-loving family man Chris Messina (https://chrismessina.com) is campaigning to be the next Mayor of Orange County....

We at Messy Times love nothing more than great, driven people building businesses and developing communities on principles of free choice and rational markets. Founder, Chairman and CEO D'Arcy Rahming has deep experience to show that the only way to foster better economic and social development is through private capital growing the economic pie with more participants, rather than governmental zer...

We are honored to be joined by Dr. Kenneth Dekleva for a fascinating discussion spanning the role of physicians in the US diplomatic corps, the process of open source analytics as a tool to aid US government understanding of world leaders like Putin and how the art of analytical profiling contributes to critical decisions made - often in real time - about how America and its allies deal with oppon...

Jeffrey Tucker, Founder of the Brownstone Institute joins us for an in-depth conversation on issues of passing import, like societal cohesion, trust in authority figures, the remote possibility of honesty and dignity in any of the people perched atop our governmental structure. Y'know, the small stuff. Tune in! Enlightentainment does not get much more fundamental!

Thomas Harrington, Professor Emeritus of Hispanic Studies at Trinity College (https://www.thomassharrington.com) visits Messy Times for a rollicking discussion about the radical changes in American behavior over the last thirty years.   Is it weird that the most educationally overprocessed - in terms of years slogging through higher education - people in our society are susceptible to the obv...

Ari Pine, veteran trader and Co-Founder of the crypto trading firm Digital Gamma braves the Messy Times studios for a Valentine's Day discussion. Until recently, people knew that money was stateless and currency was local; crypto enthusiasts have "discovered" this ancient fact and made it shiny new. Why does the USD seem immune to the forces of financial gravity? What's this whole crypto thing abo...

Larry David did a great job hyping #FTX during the Super Bowl. Closer to the actual functioning of crypto derivatives markets, we welcome Larry Thompson, current Chairman of Ledger X LLC which was bought by FTX in October 2021. Join us for a thoughtful discussion ranging across Larry's impressive career on Wall Street, his transition from traditional finance to the digital markets, and what these...