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Money & Markets Report: May 8, 2025

Justin Woods
May 8, 2025

Money & Markets

Can Billionaire Toddlers Trample Sovereignty?

May 8, 2025

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Money & Markets

Can Billionaire Toddlers Trample Sovereignty?

In this episode of Money & Markets, Catherine and John delve into various controversial and pressing topics in the financial and political arenas. The focal point of the discussion is the alarming influence of billionaire figures and their children on national sovereignty through financial grifting and influence peddling. The episode also covers recent disconcerting developments involving the Trump family’s alleged profits from crypto deals and the implications for national legislation, as well as the administration’s aggressive push to privatize federal lands and its impact on public resources and environmental laws.

The episode further explores the ramifications of rising cost of capital in the U.S. in comparison to China, and its broader impact on American exceptionalism and global financial stability. The conversation touches on the deeply entrenched economic models in private equity and healthcare and their potential fallout. Additionally, the hosts discuss highly relevant and alarming public service announcements regarding Medicaid, AI-driven frauds, and how global events, such as the war in Ukraine and international sanctions, are reshaping the geopolitical landscape.

In a lighter segment, the hosts celebrate heroes and notable contributions, including the photography of Hans de Vries and Catherine Austin Fitts’ recent in-depth interview with Tucker Carlson. The episode wraps up with insights into financial policies, investment strategies, and recommendations for maintaining stability in an increasingly volatile economic environment. Join us for an in-depth, thought-provoking discussion on the critical issues shaping our world today.

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95 Comments

  1. Fantastic work. Thank you. God bless you. And, keep singing to the animals!

  2. TB is a disease of malnutrition. How much have the oligarchs and their minions done over the past five years to increase food insecurity? At one point Doc Holiday quit his life of dissipation and took the milk cure for TB, raw milk that is.

  3. I was at a local police auction today just to see how it works. The cops only take cash. No other methods of payment are permitted.

  4. I don’t what to make of claims that country X has X amount of natural resources. I don’t think that it is knowable. Someone recently (Martin Armstrong, I think) said that the West is looking to get hold of Russia’s 75 trillion dollars in natural resources. But the U.S. is supposed to have 500 trillion according to Lutnick? Something is really off. Is the difference due to the currency used for valuation or some other hocus pocus?

  5. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television was published by Jerry Mander in 1978. Jerry is one of humanities brilliant guardian angels guiding us to see the machine in 1978 and 2025. I am thankfully reading his book for the second time. In 2025 I find Jerry’s explanations to be profoundly helpful for coping with the great fall of America. He reveals mechanisms for legions of humans falling into the TV, computer, machine trap. The trap results in the removal of a hundred thousand generations of human direct unfiltered contact with nature, Divine consciousness and laws, in a mere 4 generations. Rendering people unconscious of what is really happening around them. As damming as it seems, the answer is simple. Get rid of the machine. Person of Interest series is great propaganda for the machine as is the new movie, The Accountant 2. Warren Buffet owns Dairy Queen, so he is a commoner demon poisoning the children and adults in America. No doubt about that. Numbers are only for while we are in this world best described as the purgatory I was taught about in Catholic school as a small child. It was very frightening and remains so today until we access our maker. Then we can begin to move with ease through this.

  6. SEEING CLAIMS THAT THE $21 TRILLION WAS SPENT CONSTRUCTING 170 UNDERGROUND CITIES ACROSS THE U.S.A…..?????

    1. People misrepresenting what I said and trying to avoid the real problems by shifting it into entertainment. Just ignore.

  8. Medvedev’s comments from the Victory Museum pretty chilling. Sorry can’t link.

  9. Catherine, are you seriously worried we won’t be able to buy enough stuff from China for Christmas? Sounds like the most genuine Christmas in 50 years. I think we need to be forced into thinking beyond instant gratification and convenience.

    1. Agreed. Beginning to wonder if we should call these the NY Fed Member Bank negotiating tarriffs:
      You said:
      When Secretary Bessant says he wants china to open their financial markets to american financial institutions, what specific changes does he want?
      ChatGPT said:

      When Secretary Bessant (assuming you mean a U.S. government or financial official—though there’s no known high-ranking official named “Secretary Bessant” as of May 2025) says he wants China to open its financial markets to American financial institutions, the specific changes typically sought include:
      1. Greater Market Access

      Ownership Limits: Removal or relaxation of foreign ownership caps in Chinese financial firms (e.g., banks, asset management companies, insurance firms).

      Licensing: Simplifying and speeding up the process for U.S. firms to obtain licenses to operate independently in China.

      2. Fair Regulatory Treatment

      Level Playing Field: Ensuring that U.S. financial institutions are regulated in the same way as domestic Chinese firms, including in areas such as capital requirements and reporting standards.

      Transparency: Improving regulatory transparency so U.S. firms can better understand and comply with local rules.

      3. Capital Flow Liberalization

      Repatriation of Profits: Making it easier for U.S. firms to move capital in and out of China.

      Investment Restrictions: Easing rules that limit where and how foreign firms can invest within the country.

      4. Legal Protections and IP Rights

      Legal Recourse: Establishing clearer legal protections for foreign firms, including dispute resolution mechanisms.

      Data Privacy & IP: Ensuring that financial data and intellectual property (e.g., algorithms, client data) are protected and not forcibly transferred to local partners.

      5. Participation in Chinese Markets

      Bond and Stock Markets: Expanding foreign investor access to Chinese capital markets (e.g., through programs like Bond Connect and Stock Connect), with fewer restrictions and more operational transparency.

      Would you like a real-world example of a U.S. financial institution that has faced these barriers in China?
      You said:
      YES, PLEASE
      ChatGPT said:

      A prominent real-world example is JPMorgan Chase.
      Background:

      For years, JPMorgan—and other major U.S. financial institutions—were limited in how they could operate in China due to rules requiring joint ventures with Chinese partners and caps on foreign ownership.
      Specific Barriers Faced by JPMorgan:

      Ownership Limits:

      Until recently, JPMorgan could not own more than 49% of any securities firm in China. This limited control, decision-making, and profit potential.

      In 2020, after regulatory changes, JPMorgan became the first foreign firm allowed to fully own a securities firm in China, called J.P. Morgan Securities (China) Co., Ltd.

      Slow Licensing Process:

      It took JPMorgan years of regulatory navigation and negotiations to secure licenses for investment banking, asset management, and futures trading in China.

      Restricted Scope of Business:

      Even after obtaining licenses, JPMorgan’s ability to expand into certain business lines (e.g., retail banking or wealth management) was more constrained than for domestic firms.

      Data and Compliance Issues:

      Chinese regulators have strict rules around data localization, which can conflict with the global compliance systems U.S. firms use to monitor risk and fraud.

      JPMorgan had to build localized infrastructure in China to comply, which raised costs and operational complexity.

      Why It Matters:

      These restrictions illustrate why U.S. officials and firms want broader “opening up” of China’s financial markets—to allow firms like JPMorgan to compete fairly, operate independently, and invest more freely.

      Would you like a breakdown of how China has recently changed some of these rules—or how they compare to U.S. policies toward Chinese firms?

      1. Ha! The one thing ChatGPT forgot to mention is taking over China’s farmland.

  10. The Fed has been taking land from the states for 100 years. I gave up on trying to alert people about it decades ago. Of course it’s being privatized. They’ll get away with it and do even more next time with the people they put in next by leveraging by the current Trump-derangement and Trump-hatred.

    1. My focus is on adding as much friction. You never know what can be stopped.

      1. I think you’re right; that’s all we can do at this point. My opinion is that at this point all we can do is crash. But how we prepare for it makes all the difference in how we recover from it. We want big pieces in-tact that can function as we put the free world back together again.

  11. Interesting on the private equity now running into issues after so much pillage. There has been this ongoing thesis of taking apart chain restaurants for their real estate portfolios. I always wondered who are the people who going to buy this restaurant real estate because all of the other chains are being gutted too.

    I am wondering if you can get some chart data on the profitability of the private equity funds. I was shown some charts when I studied this in 2019 and many of the private equity guys were already saying the times of decent returns had ended then because the model was saturated. If there is some data (especially with news of which sector funds are in trouble), it would likely provide good data on which sectors of the economy are going to pop next.

    If I didn’t already have a decent business, I would be looking to do buyout/turnaround of the Delaware hospital. The building is still there, likely most of the staff is still around. Probably most everything is there for the right person to setup a non-profit and raise some money. This seems like a fantastic time for entrepreneurs who can do turnarounds to put the screws to the plunder guys.

  12. As far as when the Russia are going to take Odessa. The offensive to take the south is already underway. The line of contact has been held almost since the beginning of the war along the Dneiper River outside of Kherson. They Russian have already started crossing the Dneiper with advance force and massing troops for what looks like may be an amphibious crossing to just outside of Odessa. The whole front has been rolling forward faster and faster now.

    https://youtu.be/zo1stB7W_SE

    1. Be careful of Dima at Military Summary. I suspect that he is working for Ukraine. He has a great tendency to build up unreasonable expectations for the Russians while emphasizing video evidence of supposed effective Ukrainian strikes against the Russians. The game seems to be to create despair by trying to show the Russians as always struggling to advance. Advance is not Russia’s strategy. Their strategy is to render the enemy incapable. I haven’t listened to him in over a year. I suspect that he may have helped Ukraine capture Gonzalo Lira. Lira himself mentioned in a video that he had, credulously and in desperation, reached out to Dima for help, which was refused, just before his attempted flight.

  14. Love you so much John Titus! I am 72 years old and wish I had a son like you!❤️

  15. That is one ugly f’ing baby. Is that the point??? Visual pollution. Please my eyes have feelings.

    1. Have let the graphic artist know. Given the phenomenon, we are dealing with the financial implications are truly ugly.

      2. I love the photo. It reminds me of myself when I think of Mr. Globaloney.

      3. Thought the baby photo was totally fitting. That image is exactly what I imagine today’s plunderer’s must have looked like as infants. LOL!

        2. The time-travel movie “Looper” includes a warlord with unexpected impact on his surroundings as an unhappy toddler. The story is about the role of love and redemption in alternate timelines.

    2. I thought it was funny! Kid’s at the beach in the sun covered in sand and Mad!

  17. Excellent analysis. As a farmer in Kansas we’ve been very careful to grow our business slowly and conservatively. Cash flowing is very important for business, the bigger you are when cash crunching comes the harder you fall. The other interesting point was the pension/funds buying hard assets. It’s been absolutely miserable to see them show up and plunk a $10 million dollar check down and out bid a smaller or younger farmer. They have been inflating land prices. The land needs to drop as commodities aren’t high enough. The big players/funds took the income to cost of land ratio away. We bought the land with an engineering in town job, but we are outliers. We also bought about half of the land by private treaty. The people’s bank, high quality relationships, random phone calls from a farmer who doesn’t know us but know we keep the farmer on the land. I’m looking forward to continuing hearing the analysis on the financialism in the pension funds.

  18. selecting a showerhead filter is one of the most critical aspects of bringing the bathroom together; aquahomegroup seems to know precisely what they’re doing.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/166816493139?_skw=showerhead+aquahomegroup&itmmeta=01JTTWEA1EJ4S94A9JNYAY606P&hash=item26d709ae53:g:ZrQAAOSwsFBmZCtK&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1fC5QgRnujiGvUp0uK0V405CYXITFfsm%2BR1SHPf8iaGiRS1lWcs6u8Zn%2FiQkEmEHzg2SkdS1so07Mpqy7p1weBMjbLhNKuXu81HG0AhE14v7KtrQ6w75CBJyWn9CZCcf6k0of9mk61s7mAX9ghvO9cwCvS6xpyo47c4IPhohr%2FFdGixByUvSbjEcGmI4ldS5McZ%2BuEodtqMD0UIdRAubKxF5NqekV2huzCucwc03w%2FSWPVYp9KmeJMPOsZJ5FnmdUOJIuek%2B6RvReQmZ4n2SWw1bJUfhuVNxMHeZWi6jyF%2B%2Fg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM8qG53NZl

    I don’t always shower twice-a-day but now… when I do… I’m wondering if a third wouldn’t be a bad idea.

  19. Could these transactions have been happening naturally? World Liberty has been DCAing ETH and moving towards this in the background anyways. There’s a part of me that wants currency to open up to the entire world, the other part is unsure it’s the best idea.

  20. It seems to me that a lot of odd geopolitical news items only make sense if the intention is to split the world in two blocks – The West vs. The Rest. E.g. sanctions on Iranian oil is not about the 85% going to China, it is about the 15 % going to Europe. Europe needs to come under full control, N-America (Canada & Greenland) too and S-America as well => watch for regime change in Brazil and Venezuela, the only two countries from S-America to join the May 9th parade and sign agreements with Russia. Gaza makes it difficult to control Europe, for which reason Ukraine and oil & gas blackmail are needed.

  21. All fabulous for getting exposure to Mr Carlson’s audience with the Solari inspired message but I am sceptical of someone like him. Miri A Finch in the UK has a saying: “If you know their name, they’re in the game”, and Tucker certainly fits this description. He may well be living his best life, free and inspired with an extended family, but what is his messaging to the masses? The one he did with, for example, Piers Morgan from the UK, could almost be filed under State Propaganda.

  22. I recently had to go to the hospital for A-fib. Luckily, I was able to get insurance. The hospital bill was expensive but not totally outrageous. However, the medication I needed to take was insane. The pharmacy didn’t have my new insurance and priced the medication at “market” rate which was over $1000 for maybe 60 pills.

    That’s when it hit me… this is a money laundering operation. The same tablets in India costs on average $5 for 10 pills. Price gouging would be $200 bucks, heck $500 but $1000 bucks for 60 pills…?

    In theory it’s kind of brilliant, poison the population, get them sick and dependent on the system, charge huge lumps of cash out for basic needs, channel that money it through pharmcy industry, and have insurance funnel the money out through to god knows where.

    Is the medical industry unsustainable? 100%. It’s common knowledge that you don’t mess with the criminal enterprise’s money. That’s why I believe RFKjr is treading lightly. These people are dangerous and can wipe out a huge population if they want to. Having a full stop on vaccines is not just a risk to RFK’s life but possibly the lives of many.

    The question is, with an unsustainable network on the brink of collapsing that is pulling tremendous amounts of cash out for the syndicate what will be its replacement if they can have a replacement?

    That funnel of cash will not stop unless enough people make it stop.

  23. We need to say no to plundering in all of it’s forms. Yes, hubris and arrogance, entitlement is rampant.
    And, I had the same benefit from Sovereignty winning the Derby, Catherine!

  24. Grift, AKA corruption, and it’s a problem on both sides. I’m a liberal, but my grandma is a conservative. Before she got dementia, we used to talk a lot about politics. She became the first female VP of her bank in the 80s. I appreciate a principled conservative position, even if I disagree. That’s why I am here. I love this country, and it breaks my heart to see it failing. We are being stripped and sold for parts.

    1. I want to build the replacement. I used to have a deputy at HUD who would always say, “in the destruction of the old, let their be the creation of the new.”

      1. Sometimes, I envy your power of positivity! Keeping my state of amusement and keep believing in humanity, isn’t always that easy for me. Coming together with high integrity and trustworthy people to survive this onslaught of corruption is primordial and one of the best defences you Catherine have put out. We all need every advantage we can get.

      2. Yes! I have been thinking about this a lot. When they tear down, we are all here to rebuild. The partisan rhetoric is a problem. We have to stop hating each other and come together as Americans instead of letting them divide us. I do business with people of all political stripes. I love family, even if I disagree with them politically. I am suspicious of anything telling me to hate, fear, or distrust my neighbor. Also trying to keep a state of amusement about things, and remember this stuff has been going on since the dawn of time.

  26. Just returned from a roadtrip to SE Pennsylvania. The first time I returned since leaving PA. in 2021.

    I noticed:
    High tension lines have been installed on even back roads with poles standing 30 feet higher than the old poles left standing with telecom wires. I noticed the old Smokey the Bear Forest Fire warning sign that had been there since I was a kid, is now replaced with a new bigger “Wild Fire” warning sign. The smart meters installed everywhere before I departed Pa. are now on, live and broadcasting. I noticed many antenna that were not there before.

    My understanding of wildfires is they are electrical fires (high voltage transients). High tensions lines on back-roads is a clue (I Think). Combined with powered up smart meters, heavy spraying, and low humidity seem to be part of the recipe for “wild fires”.

    Other thoughts:
    Before leaving TN for PA, I made a trip to Clarksville, Shelbyville and areas in between. I noticed that all of the asphalt plants were not operating. I did not encounter any construction on the trip to PA. Not one delay for 13 hours. The paving seems to have stopped when just last year they were chewing up perfectly good roads to lay a new layer of asphalt.

    1. Interesting observations. In my immediate area in Northern Calif. about a 20 much taller wood power poles were installed approx 2 years ago streetside. PG&E, our power company here in NorCal, hired a private, 3rd party contractor to do the work including to cut & replace some existing poles but not others. I questioned the workers on site as to why the poles they were not removing were being left in place. I was told that the older poles were shortened, the PG&E gear was removed and installed on the new poles and what was left was telecom equipment as you mention. The tech then went on to comment that the telecom equipment and remaining poles were useless. The telecom companies work with satellite transmission so it’s a money issue…PG&E isn’t gonna pay to remove the pole and telecom equipment which isn’t theirs. So they topped the pole, removed the PG&E equipment and left the rest. Nothing but an eyesore and use of space for no reason in addition to which the old, wood power poles are flammable and go up in fires…which we’ve had more than a few of here in Calif that the world has heard about. So much for fire safety and concern for the environment…

      1. They just need to resourceful mountain people to come along with a chainsaw and harvest those poles. Lots could be done with them for sure.

    1. Just know that the people who make the poison vaccines for people also make them for pets. Last cat only lived 8 years before slowly succumbing to Feline Immuno deficiency Virus, something she was vaccinated against… Current three cats, 11 and no shots.

  30. Catherine, thank you for the mitometer recommendation years ago. I have found some vehicles unacceptable with regards to the ‘beep count’, and while a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder isn’t in my driveway, that could change.

    Keep up the great work!

    1. 🙂 One of the Solari team now has that Pathfinder. Right now I am driving a rental SUV for this two weeks. Miss the pathfinder like crazy.

    1. Spencer:

      We publish M&M every week except the last week of each month, except for August and December. We do not publish in the last two weeks in August and the last two or three weeks in December.

      We key off the recording day – WED. So last week was the last Wed in April so no Money & Markets,

      Lots to cover next week!

      Catherine

  33. “New comment” form needs to return top of page, instead of current location at bottom, otherwise subscribers may reply to random comment at top of page, because they cannot find the form for submitting a new comment.

  34. Spain and Portugal had country-wide power outs. Interesting that both those countries oppose the genocide in Gaza.

    1. Interesting proposition. The European Union want as fast as possible CDBC’s intalled this year. If anything, this power outage seem contra productive to CDBC’s outroll? One never knows how dumb eurocrats have become. The Spanish and Portuguese, however, should now be up to speed how important physical money can be.

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