Why the Dollar Is Failing and Bitcoin Was Inevitable

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0:37Included with Prime. This is the Rich Dad Radio Show. The good news and bad news about money. Here's Robert Kiyosaki. Hello, Robert Kiyosaki, the Rich Dad Radio Show. I'm broadcasting from beautiful Scottsdale, Arizona, where it's either heaven or hell. And right now it's heaven. It'll soon be hot as hell. But anyway, our guest today is Natalie Brunel. She is the author of the book called Bitcoin is for Everyone. And the reason I wanted Natalie on board here is I'm the old guy. I'm up there with Warren Buffett and Peter Schiff and myself. And Buffett and Schiff, they talk badly about Bitcoin. And I think that's really stupid personally.

1:21I'll say that publicly. Why would you be against Bitcoin? But they have to talk their book, you know? So Peter Schiff sells gold, so he has to talk his book against Bitcoin. And Buff is just an old guy. He's 90-something years old. And I think I have more gold than Schiff. I mean, I actually start gold mines. So this is a gold mine I took public. And I love gold. I love silver, I love Bitcoin, I love Ethereum. I just don't like the Federal Reserve Bank. And America today is the biggest data nation in world history. And when I was born in the 40s, we're the richest country in the world. But because of the Federal Reserve Bank, and I ask people to study this book here, it's called The Creature from Jekyll Island.

2:12You can see I study. I was a real stupid kid in school, but I do study. and the creature from Jekyll Island is about the Federal Reserve Bank which was 1913 or something like that and the creature from Jekyll Island also brought on board the Federal Reserve Bank also brought on the Internal Revenue Service taxation and America was found as a tax-free nation in 1773 as you know it was called the Boston Tea Party and we revolted against taxes And if you study the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx, who was an intellectual, said that the object of communism was the abolition of private property. Labor unions, workers of the world unite, and taxation.

3:03And what Marx said was that taxation was essential for the spread of communism. So when the Federal Reserve Bank was kicked in, the creature from Jekyll Island, it was communism taking over America. That's how I see it. I'm a U.S. Marine. I went to military school. I fought against communism in Vietnam twice. So I'm very much anti-communist. I just don't understand why guys like Schiff and Buffett would have to downplay Bitcoin because the real enemy isn't Bitcoin. the real enemy is the Federal Reserve Bank and our treasury that prints fake money and now America's the biggest debtor nation in world history that's the problem so I guess today is Natalie Brunel she's infamous for Bitcoin and I love what you're doing Natalie and I have lots of Bitcoin I've made millions off of it I got started real late I got started at 6 ,000 and I'm still doing pretty good I'm still in the money out there So anyway, welcome to the show, Natalie.

4:09Oh, thank you so, so much for having me. This is quite an honor. You did very well on Bitcoin, and it just goes to show you how open-minded you have been. Because I think for so many people, the ego gets in the way. They heard about Bitcoin. They could have bought it much cheaper. And it does take a little bit of unlearning what you think you know, especially about the financial system, which you've done such a great job throughout the years educating the public on. The enemy is the Fed and the US. And we have a president today. I wrote two books with him named Donald Trump. He and his sons were friends of mine, Don Jr.

4:44and Eric. They're very pro-Bitcoin. And so every time Schiff gets on television, Schiff's one of the smartest guys I know. I've never debated with him because he'd be a waste of my time. He's very smart. But he just hates Bitcoin, so does Buffett. and if they treated it like any commodity trade, they'd be okay. I made millions. I bought it. I wish I had bought it at six. Yeah,$6. I bought it at 6 ,000, but I'm still in the money. So, Natalie, how'd you get into Bitcoin? Sure. So, for me, it was actually a really interesting journey that I think really has to date back to my humble beginnings. I was raised in a communist country or I was born into one.

5:29My parents were raised in Poland And so they dreamt of coming to the United States for the American dream and the economic opportunity here. So they left when I was very young. We were able to come here, move to the Chicago area, and they started over. They learned the language. They asked for nothing. They expected nothing from the government. They just wanted a chance. And really, it was a self-sacrifice so that their children would have a better life. So I grew up watching them work really, really hard. and I went off to college and the great financial crisis hit. And just before I had gone to college, they were finally able to achieve a modest version of the American dream, purchase a small townhouse outside of the Chicago.

6:13And then the great financial crisis hit and they lost everything and they had to file for bankruptcy. And so I graduated into that recession in 09 thinking, well, this system is very unfair and broken. All the bankers are getting bailed out and people like my family are losing their home that they worked so hard for, played by all the rules. And that's when I knew something was wrong. I could recognize that there was a problem. And I went out into the world as a reporter to pursue a career in journalism. And I was reporting on so many of these issues and symptoms that were ultimately rooted in this broken financial system.

6:52but I didn't know it at the time. So I was reporting on the increasing cost of living and the growing fragmentation, the political polarization, and people just feeling so frustrated that they're working harder than ever, but they're not able to afford what a generation or two ago was much easier. And as you've pointed out in your writings, they don't teach you in school that you need to accumulate assets because the world is really built on inflation and a system of printing money. So I learned about Bitcoin in 2017 when it was about$3 ,000 a coin. And like so many people, I initially dismissed it.

7:27I thought, well, it's digital. It could be hacked. I'm going to lose all my money. But I went on a years-long journey of really studying the financial system to come to the conclusion that Bitcoin is the best form of money that has ever existed. The hardest form of money, it improves on the properties of gold. And I think it will be the base layer for our economy going forward as the base layer of capital that we can build on to have a more fair system that offers opportunity to more people. You sound very much like a Bitcoiner. Being an old guy like Buffett and Schiff, I have tons of gold, I have tons of silver.

8:07I have Ethereum. I have Bitcoin. And I just don't like the Fed. And the Fed is communism, centralized banking, anything that's centralized. So the real problem is our banking system. Right. And it's the thing that none of us are taught. It's the thing that no one understands. That's why I tried to break it down as simply as I could. And Bitcoin is for everyone kind of describing how this banking system actually works and why the fact that we can print money out of thin air, that destroys our purchasing power. And to your point, since the Federal Reserve was established in 1913, the dollar has lost 99 % of its value.

8:55And so people are struggling and they don't really know why. And I think they're putting the blame on the wrong things. And that's what makes me actually the saddest is to look out and see how politically charged everything has become and people actually craving the type of government that my family fled that offered no opportunity, that removed the ability to own private property. We're seeing it right now happen potentially in New York City, right? But instead, we need to point at what you said. It's the financial system that's to blame. And we have the opportunity to fix it. And I think if Bitcoin didn't exist, I would be the hugest gold bug.

9:31I really would. But I think that one of the reasons that we're here is because of some of the flaws in gold's properties. In a digital world, in a world where we're really just connected, economies across the world, it's very difficult to transfer and settle gold. You have to verify that it's actually there. I mean, has anyone audited Fort Knox, for example, right? You can't just send it across the world in a matter of seconds and have it actually settle. But with Bitcoin, you can. That's why I think it's a great comparison to say Bitcoin is like digital gold, because it takes the properties that ultimately led to papering over gold, led to the fiat system.

10:12Oh, just trust us, we have it in our reserves, but we're going to paper over it and obscure it. And now all of a sudden, we're in this world of fractional reserve banking where you have no money actually backing our currency, nothing of actual value. We don't have a gold standard. I think that's where things went really wrong. And unfortunately, I mean, we could take a step back and gold is certainly better than U.S. Treasuries and its properties, but we live in a digital world. So I think we need something digital as a form of capital and as a hard asset going forward. Well, I've spoken about a true Bitcoiner.

10:46I have it all. I don't know why people, I mean, I started my own gold mine, you know, and I took it public and it's called capitalism and I've made fricking millions off of it. So why don't everybody do that? I don't understand. So I talked to Bitcoiners and Bitcoiners don't invite me to their conferences because I own gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum. And I'm going, you don't have to make one right, another one wrong. Each one has a different value system. I'd be buying silver up to yin-yang. I own lots of silver. I started silver mines. And silver is going to make the biggest jump ever. I think today's around 80 bucks.

11:30And it's going to jump to maybe 200 in the next two years. So I'd rather play that than make gold or silver or Bitcoin or Ethereum right or wrong. I just play the game. So that's why every time I talk to Schiff, he was trying to sell me some gold cufflinks once. I'm going, give me a break, Peter. Gold cufflinks may be gold, but they're not liquid. At least a Grugerrand is liquid. I can take gold and spend it anywhere. But I don't know why people make something right or wrong. You want to own it all. That's my point of view. So that's why I invited you on this program. Because you speak for a generation that's a lot younger than mine.

12:11And the boomers are in serious trouble. Because when this stock market crashes, the S &P 500 crashes, the retirements are shot. And Natalie, what I've been saying, which I get, I'm not very popular for it, because these financial planners, they say the 60-40, 60 % stocks, 40 % bonds, I go. and the Japanese and Chinese are dumping our bonds. Wake up. So that's why I'm very happy you're part of this program. And for the younger generation, I just ask people to keep an open mind. Each has a strength and a weakness. So if I could take a Bitcoin mining company public, I might look at it. But I only make money when I go public.

12:57And very few people can do that. So I don't talk much about that. Anyway, so when we come back, we'll be talking to you more about why you like Bitcoin so much, but also be aware that I'm very anti-making one right or wrong. Each has a strength and a weakness. And today, silver, in my opinion, is$70 going to$80. And I think it's going to go to$200. So Bitcoin, everybody says it's going to$2 million like sailor. He might be right. But anyway, I think Bitcoin's a fabulous way of getting rich. So we'll come back when we talk more to Natalie Brunel. We'll be right back.

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14:34Welcome back. Robert Kisaki, Rich Dad Radio Show. Our guest today is Natalie Brunel. He's a troublemaker. He's one of these Bitcoin advocates who's making old guys like me look bad and all this. And we're talking about why, you know, I'm not talking about her, but why do people like Schiff, who's my age, and Buffett, who's my age, they make Bitcoin wrong and gold is silver right, and Buffett makes bonds right, and we have a president who is my friend, Donald Trump. We wrote two books together, and he's called the Bitcoin president. So the world is wide open right now, and in my opinion, the big problem is the Federal Reserve Bank.

15:14There's a book called The Creature from Jekyll Island. I suggest people read it. You understand that communism is based on centralized banking. And we're communists. So we have a frickin' Nazi communist as mayor of New York City. Why does that happen? Because when you print money, inflation goes up. And today, the people, the young women, like, Natalie, I was watching the, how did this guy, what's this, Mondami, or whatever his name, get elected? Well, it was primarily young women. And the reason young women are upset is because men are so freaking incompetent today. They can't find a husband who makes enough money who can afford the rent.

16:00So that's why they invite a communist in there. I think it's just a sick, sick world. So I want Natalie on board so we can keep an open mind as gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum. All have their advantages. And can you play at all? Like real estate, I own tons of real estate. But real estate is debt. I'm a billion two in debt. There's so many opinions out there. So I wanted Natalie to speak about Bitcoin because she's making big waves out there. She's a troublemaker. So welcome to the program, Natalie. Thank you for having me. Well, the core theme and what you're saying is hard assets. You need to save in something that they cannot print and inflate away from you because that's what our world is based on, which is a system ultimately.

16:46I mean, if everything's built on debt, why not take out debt? You can leverage that debt, and that's how people have generated a lot of wealth for themselves. But the problem is, what if people are stopping to trust the debt that underlies everything, right? I mean, that's what we're seeing around the world, and I'd love to talk about that with you. You keep quiet because, like I said, I sit there listening to the old guys and young guys and Trump and myself, and everybody's got their opinion. And I said, why not have it all? Take one right or right. Yeah, well, I know a lot of people are turning back to gold, turning to silver.

17:26All of these are performing very well. And I think if you zoom out, the big picture is really important. I think that we're moving from a world that relied on this one trusted reserve asset tied to a sovereign nation, which, by the way, is an IOU, paper promises. We're moving from that to a world that increasingly prefers neutral settlement again because trust really has broken down. And the system is getting more political and more fragile. Every time you print money, the rich get richer or middle class get poorer. So who was the guy, Thomas Jefferson, who said, if you allow a central bank, which the Fed is, it's a creature from Jekyll Island, that children will wake up homeless in the land that their parents fought for.

18:16Way back when, Thomas Jefferson, because they tried central banks before. And the Fed is a central bank, which is communism. And I think Jefferson also said, paper is only the ghost of money, it is not money itself. right it's just it's just a promise but it's an i o u i love debt you know because i use debt to buy money buy buy assets now that right buy real money so anyway what advice do you have for all guys like me well i mean i certainly um think that everyone should embrace bitcoin that's why i wrote this book um the first half you might be you might be surprised that despite this title the first half is not even about Bitcoin at all.

19:01The first half is about why you need to own assets, what inflation really is, how the Federal Reserve Bank works, how the banks print money. And I think it's just a really core introduction to money itself and why we aren't able to save easily anymore and why people complain today, right? They're working so hard, but they need three jobs and a side hustle to afford the house that the parents could afford on just one income. So my book breaks all of that down. And I think that we are just in this really transformative shift globally. I think for a long time, markets behaved like capital and liquidity were the main constraints.

19:44But I think the constraints now are becoming physical again. They are commodities, they're energy, they're industrial capacity, they're supply chains. And those are the things you can't print. You can't print energy. That's what makes Bitcoin so great because it's backed by energy. And you can't print time, the time that it takes to make all the things that we actually need. You can make money out of thin air. And that's why I think hard assets are not just an inflation hedge. That's not the only story. They are really a geopolitical hedge, and they're a necessity now. And we know the fiscal burden is going to rise.

20:17the language of my crowd. See, my generation, my family, fought against Japan. That's how, you know, our family was put in concentration camps in California. And we fought against being, we fought to liberate the Jews of Eastern Europe, to get them out of Dachau and those guys, and Bucharest, those guys. So history proves we don't learn from our history. but the Japanese, they save cash. What message does Natalie Brunel have to this idiot, highly educated people who are saving U.S. dollars for the long term? Well, they're like a melting ice cube. And I can relate because that's what my family did for so long.

21:03And that's why my family really fell behind because it wasn't a thing back in Poland to invest in the stock market. And people didn't own, most of them didn't own property because they grew up under communism. So here, you know, we think we exist in a capitalist system, but we really don't. I mean, you've made so many of the great points already. We have a central bank that controls our money and destroys our purchasing power. And so the average person, if they're saving in dollars, they're losing. And not only that, if you save money, this guy, I seem, you know, Peter, I was a sailor. What's his first name?

21:38That guy's a smart dude, man. He makes it so crystal clear and it was him and a bunch of other guys turned my head into Bitcoin and go, okay, I got it. But I have to keep, you know, what they say, human mind is like a parachute. The mind only works and the parachute only works when the mind's open. And a lot of people are so close to Bitcoin, like I'm being told, why did you invest in Bitcoin? I made six million bucks last year. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. But they would rather save dollars because they're so old and stupid. Well, you know, I feel like every time a transformative new technology comes around, and we've seen it in our lifetimes with, you know, the internet, for example, people tend to underestimate how much it will affect their lives.

22:29And I think it's natural to be resistant to a new technology and a paradigm shift. I think that it's actually a good thing to be kind of skeptical and ask the right questions. But at some point, I think that you have to open your mind and realize that the world is changing. The world is already, I mean, it's changing faster and faster exponentially with things like advanced technologies like AI, for example. You have to realize that dollars might not be the currency forever. We've seen multiple nations' currencies. One serve as the global reserve, and then there was a shift and we moved to something else.

23:09So I think it's really important to pay attention to all of this. This AI is going to cause more unemployment. You know, UPS has fired like 40 ,000 people. And people still say to their kids, oh, go to school, get a safe, secure job, and save money, and buy U.S. bonds. I mean, how stupid are you? Why don't you add that to that point? Right. And I think they're increasingly going to be wanting the handouts from the government asking for things like universal basic income because we're effectively marrying people to the state now, relying so much on the public sector when really all true value and wealth is created in the private sector.

23:51But also, Natalie, you have a head start because you came from a former communist country. And now it's called the European Union. Germany is going bankrupt. England's going bankrupt. Japan's going bankrupt. China's going bankrupt. And we're still saying to our kids, and AI is coming on, and we're still saying, go to school so you can get a safe, secure job, when they're firing thousands of people today. I mean, it's so stupid. I can't believe it. I know. I know. And I think that it's something that you really have to take into consideration. Like what kinds of jobs are AI proof, right? Because the world really is shifting fast.

24:35And I think we're going to see more robots and AI applications that are really, really taking a massive chunk of the labor market. And what are those people going to do? And what types of people are they going to want to elect, right? And they probably don't own assets because we've seen that there is a massive concentration in who actually owns assets in our country and who benefits from the inflation that we've seen. So, I mean, that's one of the reasons why I felt so passionate about something like Bitcoin, because there are a lot of great assets out there that can generate wealth. But as far as ones that are truly very accessible to the average person around the world, I think Bitcoin is up there, if not the top one.

25:21Because you can start to accumulate just a satoshi at a time, just a little bit at a time. You can't buy a fraction of a beachfront property in Miami. I'd love to, but I can't. Like I said, I started buying Bitcoin at$6 ,000. Yeah. And I remember my friends saying, that's stupid. It's so high. Well, today, it's retraced back down from like 120 to 90. I'm still in the money. And I've made so much money on Bitcoin. And so I really don't understand the old guys and old thinking. So one last thing I'm going to ask you is, how much do you remember of growing up in a communist country that's now called the European Union?

26:02Well, I was very young when we moved. So I rely a lot on the stories of my parents, some of which I share in Bitcoin is for Everyone. And the picture that they've painted for me of the way that they grew up is really a dark one. There were food lines. And my mom says that when I was very little, she was waiting in line for meat, for example. And when she got to the front, there was nothing left. and so I started to cry and she started to cry and the woman in front of us turned around and shared some of hers which she obviously didn't even have enough for her family but she was moved to share some of what she had with us I mean this is what communism gives you there's a total control over resources a misallocation of them across the board and scarcity that results so you know you my mom my mom always said she had money and there was nothing to buy at the store well nothing That's why I think, you know, coming from a communist country, like I have friends who are Cuban.

27:06They ran from Cuba. And they're so anti-communism. Yet American kids, they're woke-ism and we're teaching communism. It's just really sad. Well, and there's this spin on it, right? Mamdani said it himself in New York. The warmth of collectivism, that we have to take care of each other. and he demonized individualism. Individualism is what built America. It's what created a place that so many people around the world look to as a source of hope, as a source of opportunity, that they were willing to sacrifice everything to be able to come here. And he is demonizing it and saying that, you know, we'll just, everyone will own everything together.

27:52You won't own anything, but you'll be happy. And I think that is very dangerous. And I think that's why we need to educate. We just need to educate people about economics and about money and about financial freedom and about why they need to acquire assets and protect private property. And today we have a Bitcoin president, Donald. Yes, we do. I just don't understand. And I was with Charlie Kirk when the Arizona State University professor shut us down. And while most people don't realize that Marx is very much like a college professor, they think just because they have a college degree, they're better than you.

28:31And you and I know, there's these professors that can't even tie their shoelaces, much less tell us how to live our lives. So Natalie, you keep up the good work because we need young, beautiful, powerful, articulate women like you leading the charge. and thank you for being on the Rich Dad Show. Show us your book again. Well, thank you so much for having me. It's truly been an honor. Thank you for the work that you do to educate people. I hope everyone checks out Bitcoin is for everyone. Again, half of it's not even about Bitcoin, but you may be pleasantly surprised that your views change on Bitcoin.