There's a reason I keep inviting Jim Rickards back to my podcast.
Not because we agree - sometimes we don't - but because he's usually spotted something I need to hear...
And also every time I talk to him, I feel like I should be paying tuition.
The guy&rsquo;s been everywhere, seen everything, and has the battle scars to prove it.
That&rsquo;s why I <a href="http://lnk.to/JRTS">had him on my podcast last week</a>.
Here's the thing about Jim - when he tells you a story about the economy, it's not from reading textbooks.
He was in the room.
Like when Long-Term Capital Management almost crashed the entire global financial system in '98.
Jim was their chief counsel.
He was the guy negotiating the bailout while the whole world held its breath.
So when he tells me we might be heading into a recession, I listen.&nbsp;
But, according to Jim, it's what comes after that matters.
For example, he drew this fascinating parallel to Reagan's presidency that got me thinking.
<h3>Remember 1981? </h3>
Reagan steps into office, inherits a mess, and boom - recession.
But then something happened.
From '83 to '86, the economy grew 16%. Not annually - total.
But still, that's more than anyone expected.
Jim thinks we might see the same movie play out with Trump's second term.
But here's where it gets interesting.
Everyone thinks the Fed controls everything through interest rates.
Jim says that's BS.
He told me this mind-blowing stat: during the longest economic expansion in U.S. history (2009-2019), interest rates were basically zero, but growth averaged a pathetic 2%.
"Low rates don't mean stimulus," he told me. "Hell, we had super low rates during the Great Depression."
So what really matters?
<h3>What Jim Really Thinks About Trump </h3>
Jim was at dinner in Washington recently at CPAC.
The host was going around the table pointing at people:
"There's our next Attorney General... there's our next Treasury Secretary..." 
These weren't just random picks - there's a whole shadow transition team already working.
You&rsquo;ll have to <a href="http://lnk.to/JRTS">listen to the podcast to hear what Jim REALLY thinks about Trump&rsquo;s picks</a>, but I&rsquo;ll say this:
It&rsquo;s going to be a total shake-up.
The next few months are going to be wild.
But for the economy&hellip;
The big question isn't whether the Fed will cut rates - according to Jim, that's theater.
The real question is whether banks will start lending again, whether businesses will start borrowing again.
As Jim puts it, "When neither side wants to dance, nobody's dancing."
By the way, we also talked about Jim's new book about AI and money.
The stories he can tell about what's really going on behind the scenes... that's the stuff you can't get anywhere else.
Don&rsquo;t miss this one. It&rsquo;s one of my most popular yet.
He also dropped a bombshell about Silicon Valley Bank that nobody's talking about. (It&rsquo;s SCARY.)
<a href="http://lnk.to/JRTS">Check out the full episode here</a>.
Stay tuned for part two where we dig into AI and the future of money.
By the way, if you like this kind of deep dive into what's really going on, subscribe to my podcast.

ALC-Issue-11-19-24(1)

We&rsquo;re living in an epic period of change, danger, and opportunity. The economy is blowing up in our faces. The Fed is printing trillions of dollars. People are getting fired and replaced by computers. Every day, we&rsquo;re bombarded with fake news and fake data. Crypto is eating everything online. Every &ldquo;fix&rdquo; from the government makes things worse. Technology is moving too fast for anyone to keep up.
In short, the Old World has been demolished&hellip; the new world is just beginning. Alongside the greatest wealth shift in human history. We get it. People are desperate for answers and to cut through the noise. Everyone wants to become financially secure. Nobody knows who to trust. That&rsquo;s where we can help.
Altucher Confidential&nbsp;is your guide to surviving and thriving in the age of risk, chaos, and tremendous rewards. This is not a newsletter for the faint of heart. It&rsquo;s a guide West, to the new frontier. For those who are ready to hear, James Altucher and Chris Campbell provide an updated map of the new territory for generating wealth and freedom. Consider&nbsp;Altucher Confidential&nbsp;your daily guide to building, keeping, and investing your money and breaking free from the chains of rusted, old thinking.

AltucherConfidential

Altucher Confidential is your guide to surviving and thriving in the age of risk, chaos, and tremendous rewards. This is not a newsletter for the faint of heart.

Altucher Confidential

My Chat With Jim Rickards

There's something weird about our Constitution that nobody talks about.
It's not about voter fraud or rigged machines - it's about actual legal ways the election results could theoretically be changed after the fact.
I talked about this recently on my latest <a href="https://lnk.to/HTCPE">podcast</a>.
Let me break it down.
(And show you whether or not it&rsquo;s likely.)
As you know, when you vote for president, you're not really voting for president. You're actually voting for a bunch of electors who then vote for president.
Each state gets a certain number of these electors based on their size. Win the state, win all its electors (except in Maine and Nebraska).
But there are loopholes to &ldquo;legally cheat&rdquo;.
<h3>Loophole #1: The State Legislature Slowpoke</h3>
According to the Constitution (I've read it, not fun), state legislatures have TOTAL POWER over how electors are chosen.
They don't technically have to follow the popular vote.
But here's the really sneaky part: there's no strict timeline for when states have to submit their electors. So theoretically, a state could just... not send them in time.
If enough states did this, you wouldn't need 270 electoral votes to win anymore - you'd just need a majority of whatever electors actually showed up to vote.
<h3>Loophole #2: The 14th Amendment Twist</h3>
This one's specifically relevant to certain candidates who've been impeached for insurrection.
The 14th Amendment (added after the Civil War) says if you've "engaged in insurrection," you can't hold federal office.
<h3>Why These Loopholes Probably Won't Matter</h3>
I've spent years studying systems that can break - markets, businesses, economies.
The American election system is like a really old car. It's got some weird quirks, but it basically works.
These loopholes exist, but using them would be like trying to cheat at poker in front of a thousand cameras.
Technically possible, practically insane.
I&rsquo;ll explain why, and show you what will happen if Democrats wave the &ldquo;insurrection&rdquo; card, on my podcast.
<a href="https://lnk.to/HTCPE">Check the full version out here</a>.

ALC-issue-11-05-24(1)

How to "Legally Cheat" in the Election

Everyone I know is nervous.
They just want to get it over with.
But don&rsquo;t just tune out now&mdash;this is the moment to stay sharp. Right now is the best time to pay attention.
I've been studying crypto since Bitcoin was $114. I worked on Wall Street for decades. I&rsquo;ve been studying politics for a LOT longer than that.
I've seen innovations, trends, and fads come and go. I've spotted unicorns, predicted bubbles, and watched fortunes made and lost.
(Sometimes my own.)
But what's happening right now makes those early days look like a warmup.
These three things - politics, crypto, and Wall Street - are creating an investment opportunity unlike anything we&rsquo;ve seen before.
It&rsquo;s simple:
Wall Street isn't just dipping its toes in crypto anymore - they're diving in headfirst. BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citibank: they're all rushing into a very specific corner of the crypto market.
In fact, the CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink - the guy who once called Bitcoin a tool for criminals - now says this trend will create "the next generation for markets."
Without going too deep into the weeds&hellip;
Wall Street wants to put literally everything onto the blockchain - stocks, bonds, real estate, fine art, Treasury bills, you name it.&nbsp;
We're talking about potentially $100 trillion worth of assets.
But here's what nobody's talking about:
Tomorrow's election could act as a massive accelerant for crypto.

ALC-Issue-11-05-24(1)

Election Eve: The $100T Bet

Naveen Jain is trying to help humans live to 300 years old.
And you know what's really crazy?
He might actually do it.
Nine years ago, I interviewed Naveen Jain about mining the moon.
Yesterday, I had him back. We talked about poop transplants. And somehow, the poop thing might be even bigger than the moon mining.
Not kidding.
Naveen broke my brain.
He revealed why every fad diet is a lie&hellip; why the &ldquo;bad genes&rdquo; narrative is total BS.&hellip; and the real puppet masters inside your body.
<h3>Your Genes Are Fine </h3>
Let me back up.
I&rsquo;ve interviewed a TON of health experts for my podcast.
Everyone has their thing. Keto people tell me carbs are killing me. Vegan people tell me meat is killing me. Fasting people tell me eating itself is killing me.
I've changed my diet probably 500 times in the past decade based on podcast guests.
But Naveen said something that stopped me cold: "Your ancestors lived to 22 years old. If you want to eat like your ancestors, fine - but you'll die like them too."
Boom.
Here's the really weird part: You know how everyone talks about "bad genes"? Like "Oh, heart disease runs in my family" or "Everyone in my family gets diabetes"?
Total BS. And he proved it.
Less than 5% of diseases are actually genetic. The other 95%? It's all about what's happening in your gut. And here's where it gets sci-fi level weird: 99% of the genes operating in your body aren't even yours.
They belong to trillions of bacteria living inside you.
These bacteria are basically puppet masters. They control your mood, your cravings, what foods are healthy for you (different for everyone), even how you think.
One thing Naveen taught me&hellip;
<h3>I Don&rsquo;t Know Anything</h3>
I've interviewed over 1,000 entrepreneurs.
The great ones all have something in common - they don't just think outside the box. They build a new box, then think outside that one too.
Most people: "How do we make better supplements?"
Naveen: "How do we reprogram the trillions of bacteria controlling our bodies?"
Most people: "How do we live to 100?"
Naveen: "How do we live to 300?"
Most people: "How do we grow food on Venus?"
Naveen: "What if we could modify human genes to eat radiation instead of food?"
(Yes, he actually talked about this.)
I'm getting my gut analyzed next week.
Will it help my chess game? Will it help me live longer? Will it help me build better businesses?
I don't know.
But I do know this: Every time I think I've figured life out, someone comes along and shows me I know nothing.
And that's exactly when things get interesting.
<a href="http://lnk.to/NJDNA">Click here for the full episode with Naveen</a>.

ALC-Issue-10-25(1)

The Hidden Puppet Masters

My social media feed is exploding with election drama.
It sucks.
Hot takes, gotcha&rsquo; moments, conspiracy theories &ndash; all of it posing as &ldquo;news.&rdquo;
Remember: most of it is garbage.
Everyone&rsquo;s yelling, but no one&rsquo;s saying anything new.
Legacy news outlets? Same problem. Bias, bias, and more bias.
The real issue is people confuse opinions with actual news.
But here's where it gets exciting: while everyone's arguing about polls and personalities, they're missing the real story.
The story that actually affects your wallet.
I've been fascinated with elections since I was 12 years old. I interviewed Senator Bill Bradley for my local paper back then.
And since then my fascination has only grown.
Not the drama, but the patterns. Especially the way markets respond. Especially the opportunities that emerge when everyone else is distracted.
Here's what I learned after decades on Wall Street and as a venture capitalist: the biggest opportunities come when everyone's looking the wrong way.
While the masses debate poll numbers on X, smart money is quietly positioning itself for what's next.
Remember 2016? While social media melted down, certain market sectors exploded.
Not gradually. Almost overnight.
We're talking wealth-changing moves that nobody saw coming. Except they did come. And they'll come again.
The key is to understand that elections don't just change governments &ndash; they shift market psychology.
When that happens, money moves. Fast.
What matters here is understanding where the money will flow next.
I've spent months analyzing the data. Not the polls &ndash; forget those.
I'm talking about real data. Money flows. Institutional positions. The quiet moves big players make while everyone else screams at each other on cable news.
And what I've found might surprise you.
Actually, it will definitely surprise you. Because while everyone's focused on red versus blue, there's a $100 trillion shift brewing that nobody's talking about.
But before I tell you my prediction, let me be clear: this isn't about politics.
I'm not here to tell you who to vote for. That's your business.
I'm here to show you where the money's going next. Because in my experience, that's the only prediction that really matters to your bottom line.
Want to know what I found? And my big election prediction?
Stay tuned.

Everyone is Lying About the Election

Forget about ChatGPT writing your emails or AI making pretty pictures.
Let&rsquo;s talk about something that's going to change your life -- literally.
The most important use of AI isn't in tech or finance. It's not about replacing jobs or creating virtual worlds.
It's about keeping you alive.
Longer. Stronger. Feeling better than ever.
I'm talking about AI that's going to add years to your life.
Decades, potentially.
And this isn't some sci-fi pipe dream. This is happening right now, today, as we speak.
That's why I sat down with Hamed Shahbazi.&nbsp;
Hamed is best known for founding TIO Networks, a fintech company that provided bill payment solutions, which was acquired by PayPal in 2017.
He is also the CEO of WELL Health Technologies, a company focused on digital healthcare services using AI.
His company is on the cutting edge of the most important revolution in human history. They&rsquo;re using AI to rewrite the rules of healthcare and longevity.
And what he said is going to change the way you think about the future of healthcare.
<h2 class="subhead nbp">This is Happening Now </h2>
If you want to see how quickly things have changed, consider this:
Before the pandemic, doctors were generally against AI in healthcare.
This has shifted in a big way.
Now they see the light.
As AI systems improved and were implemented, doctors began to understand that AI wasn't going to replace them, but rather support them.
For example, one AI tool developed by Healwell is giving doctors back about 20% of their day.
This addresses doctor burnout and improves interactions with patients.
Win-win.
Thing is, healthcare data makes up about 30% of the world's data and is growing at 36% per year.
Healwell has taken 18 million patient records and fed them into an AI system.
We're talking about every detail of a patient's medical history - from the initial phone call describing symptoms, through various tests and visits, to the final diagnosis and treatment plan.
Now, when a new patient comes in, this AI system starts working immediately.
From the moment the patient describes their symptoms, the AI is already analyzing the data, comparing it to millions of other cases, and generating potential diagnoses and treatment plans.
It's like having a super-intelligent medical assistant working alongside the doctor.
But it gets better than that.
Hamed believes that in the future, AI will be able to provide very precise, personalized health recommendations (e.g., "walk 10,000 steps, consume this much olive oil").
The integration of genomics, metabolomics, and microbiome data will only accelerate this trend.
In fact&hellip;
Hamed predicts that eventually, not using AI in medical practice could be seen as a form of malpractice, though this might be decades away.
Right now, we&rsquo;re at the beginning of a very exciting shift in healthcare.
AI is at the center of it.
And my conversation with Hamed was like looking into the future.
The full conversation is online now.
<a href="https://lnk.to/HSAIP2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here to listen in</a>.

alc-issue-10-16-24-img

Thrive Long and Prosper 

A lot can happen in one year.
In 1996, I sold my first company one year after I launched it.
My cut? $15 million.
I&rsquo;d gone from zero to $15 million in one year. I felt like I&rsquo;d won the lottery.
But then, suddenly, a weird thing happened: $15 million felt like chump change.
I start watching these guys make $100 million, $200 million, and I&rsquo;m thinking, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s wrong with me?&rdquo;
So I started taking on insane risks.
Fast forward a year, I&rsquo;m at an ATM staring at $143.
I lost everything.
Fifteen million to $143.
How? It&rsquo;s easier to do than most people think.
You do it by not understanding risk.
Most people don&rsquo;t understand risk. The world would be a better place if we did understand it.
Risk is the single-most important thing everyone needs to understand.
That&rsquo;s why I recently had Nate Silver and Maria Konnikova on my podcast.
If you don&rsquo;t know them, they&rsquo;re two of the sharpest minds on probability and human behavior.
Nate Silver&rsquo;s the guy who brought data analysis to politics.
Maria Konnikova took on poker to understand how luck and skill intertwine&mdash;she started with zero experience and ended up winning big at the tables.
They both agreed on one thing: most people get it wrong because they don&rsquo;t separate risk from uncertainty.
They think they&rsquo;re interchangeable, but they&rsquo;re not.
Here&rsquo;s the thing about making decisions: we&rsquo;re constantly waiting for all the information, that perfect moment of clarity when we finally feel &ldquo;ready.&rdquo;
But that moment isn&rsquo;t coming.
If you want to get good at decision-making, you&rsquo;ve got to embrace the idea that you'll almost always be working with incomplete information.
Rather than letting that paralyze you, just jump in.
Poker players get this.
They&rsquo;re used to acting on intuition, piecing together small clues, and accepting the inherent uncertainty of the game. And, really, life isn&rsquo;t that different.
Try jotting down what you *do* know about a situation next time you&rsquo;re stuck. Making a list of the known variables can clarify your next move and keep you from getting bogged down by all the unknowns.
BUT there&rsquo;s a caveat: Start small.
I wish I&rsquo;d started small after I sold my first company. Instead, I was throwing money everywhere.
Maria&rsquo;s approach to this was personal.
She talked about how poker shifted her thinking about risk in everyday life, transforming her from a cautious player into someone who could handle a bit more chaos.
It&rsquo;s not about flipping a switch and suddenly becoming fearless. It&rsquo;s about easing yourself into risks that push your comfort zone, but don&rsquo;t paralyze you.
So start small.
If you&rsquo;re risk-averse, don&rsquo;t go for the home run on your first swing. Instead, take small risks and build up your tolerance over time.
The experience will help you get comfortable with uncertainty, and over time, you&rsquo;ll learn to weigh risk versus reward in a way that feels right for you.
One of the biggest takeaways here is to stay process-oriented, not outcome-oriented. It&rsquo;s so easy to judge a decision by its results, but Maria and Nate argue that&rsquo;s a mistake.
Even the best decision-making process can lead to a bad outcome&mdash;it&rsquo;s just how probabilities work. When things don&rsquo;t go your way, don&rsquo;t immediately think you screwed up.
Instead, focus on whether you made the right decision with the info you had. If you did, that&rsquo;s a win, regardless of the outcome.
There&rsquo;s a LOT more tips and tricks like this in the full podcast.
It&rsquo;ll change the way you view risk EVERYWHERE in your daily life.
<a href="http://lnk.to/NSMKR">Click here for the full conversation.</a>

ALC-Issue-10-14(1)

How I Lost $15 Million

Are we more polarized now than ever before? Which forgotten president deserves a second look? How has the presidency evolved since America's founding? What's turning minor disagreements into full-blown culture wars?
I just had Bill O&rsquo;Really <a href="https://link.chtbl.com/BOPL">on my podcast</a> to ask him these questions&hellip; and a lot more.
Most people don&rsquo;t know this&hellip;
Before he was lighting up TV screens, he was a high school history teacher in Florida.
Fast forward a few decades, and O'Reilly is now the author of a ton of bestsellers on presidential history and has rubbed elbows with more presidents than a dollar bill.
We talked about his new book Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden.
To kick it off, I asked him:
&ldquo;In all of your research, who did you change your opinion the most about?&rdquo;
His answer? James K. Polk&mdash;a name that might not ring too many bells, unless you&rsquo;re a history buff or once lost a bet on obscure presidents.
Forget Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase&mdash;Polk managed to add the entire Northwest and a sizable chunk of land from Mexico. All this, while sticking to his promise of serving just one term.
Bill and I then dove into how the presidency has changed over time. Back in the day, he said, many presidents treated the office like a one-time gig.
They weren&rsquo;t in it for the power and prestige - not as much as today.
Guys like Calvin Coolidge and Polk had a checklist, ticked off their goals, and then rode off into the sunset. Compare that to today, where the allure of Air Force One and a lifetime of Secret Service protection can be harder to resist than a 24-hour news cycle.
When we moved on to recent presidents, Bill didn&rsquo;t hold back. JFK, he said, had a vision, especially with his cautious stance on Vietnam. But, says Bill, he lacked courage.
Lyndon B. Johnson? &ldquo;Unbelievably corrupt&rdquo; and &ldquo;massively incompetent.&rdquo;
Even Richard Nixon, the man synonymous with political scandal, got some credit from Bill for having a strong foreign policy vision, even if his domestic record is still wading through Watergate.
Naturally, the conversation turned to the current political climate, which Bill describes as the second most polarized time in American history, after the Civil War.
The culprit? Social media and a lack of journalistic standards.
If the 24-hour news cycle was the match, then social media is the kerosene-soaked rag, igniting every minor disagreement into a full-blown culture war.
Regarding the upcoming election, Bill was cautious about making predictions.
He estimates that there's a significant "middle group" of voters who could be swayed by events in the coming weeks.
Throughout our conversation, Bill emphasized the importance of understanding presidential history to make sense of our current political situation.
His book aims to provide a candid look at each president, highlighting both their accomplishments and their flaws.
He also had some surprising things to say about Obama, Trump, Biden, and Kamala. (Especially Obama.)
<a href="https://link.chtbl.com/BOPL">Check out the full podcast here</a>.

ALC-Issue-09-24(1)

Oval Office: An Insider's View

I&rsquo;ll admit, I was jealous.
Back in &rsquo;99, I was playing poker at the Mayfair Club in New York City, and someone mentioned he worked for this guy:
Wilbur Ross.
You&rsquo;ve probably heard of him.
Ross built a reputation by taking on industries everyone else had written off&mdash;coal, steel, textiles&mdash;and turning them into success stories.
Through his private equity firm, WL Ross &amp; Co., he mastered the art of distressed investing, restructuring failing companies into profitable ventures. That ability to see value where others saw ruins cemented his status as a legend in the world of finance.
Now, Wilbur has a new book out called Risks and Returns. &nbsp;It&rsquo;s about his 55-year career building businesses and his experiences in government as Secretary of Commerce.
So, I can&rsquo;t believe I had the chance to talk with him this week about this incredible journey.
Ross told me stories about how he navigated bankruptcies, outsmarted Warren Buffett, and reshaped industries on the brink of collapse. (Full podcast link below. Worth a listen.)
No less, he also gave me his take on AI, space, and the future of U.S. economic security.
Let&rsquo;s start with AI.
<h3>AI Will Touch Everything</h3>
Before Henry Kissinger&rsquo;s 100th birthday, Ross ran an experiment, testing an AI's ability to write poetry.
It was clumsy at first.
Five minutes later, it improved. Fifteen minutes later, it was composing verse in iambic pentameter.
For a guy who&rsquo;s seen the rise and fall of industries, this caught him off guard. The implications were clear: AI is self-learning, and it doesn&rsquo;t take long for it to get good&mdash;fast. 
Ross understood this wasn&rsquo;t just a parlor trick.
This was a shift in the underlying gears of the economy. The future of the economy will hinge on harnessing AI&rsquo;s potential across multiple sectors&mdash;from manufacturing to finance.
&ldquo;It was a real eye-opener,&rdquo; he said.
<h3>Space: The New Economic Battleground</h3>
If AI is the brain of the future economy, space is its infrastructure.
Ross told me about the time he watched firsthand Elon Musk&rsquo;s reusable rockets change the economics of space launches forever.
Musk cut launch costs by 70% simply by landing the rocket intact, making space accessible to private companies in a way that had never been possible before.
For Ross, space isn&rsquo;t just the final frontier&mdash;it&rsquo;s the next battleground for economic and technological dominance.
He sees the commercial potential in space&mdash;satellite launches, space tourism, manufacturing, even resource mining&mdash;but also understands the national security implications.
Whoever controls space controls communication, surveillance, and key infrastructure for the future.
Here&rsquo;s where it gets real.
<h3>Economic Security: The Hidden Threats</h3>
Ross is deeply concerned about America&rsquo;s dependence on foreign supply chains, especially when it comes to critical resources like rare earth minerals and semiconductors.
These materials are essential for everything from smartphones to military weapons, and right now, China dominates the market.
According to Ross, this dependence poses a national security risk that the U.S. can no longer ignore.
During his time as Secretary of Commerce, Ross tried to push for domestic production of these key resources.
He saw firsthand how fragile the U.S. economy is without control over its supply chains.
The U.S. must ramp up its own production of rare earth minerals and semiconductors&mdash;or risk being cut off by geopolitical tensions.
It&rsquo;s not just about economics; it&rsquo;s about survival.
<h3>Ross&rsquo; Blueprint For America </h3>
So what&rsquo;s Ross&rsquo;s vision?
It&rsquo;s not just about innovation for the sake of it. Ross&rsquo;s blueprint for America is focused on securing the future by addressing three core pillars: AI, space, and economic security.
He believes the U.S. must invest in these areas aggressively, or it will fall behind global competitors, particularly China.
<ol>
<li>AI Dominance: AI will change every industry&mdash;from manufacturing to healthcare to finance&mdash;and the U.S. needs to lead in AI innovation, ensuring that this technology is used to strengthen the economy rather than replace it.</li>
<li>Space Expansion: Space is the new economic battleground, with potential for enormous growth in industries we can&rsquo;t even fully comprehend yet. Space-based infrastructure will become as essential as roads and bridges are today.</li>
<li>Securing Supply Chains: Ross believes the government should incentivize domestic production, creating a safety net for the U.S. economy in times of crisis.</li>
</ol>
Here&rsquo;s the bottom line&hellip;
<h3>The Secret to Success </h3>
Wilbur Ross has built a career out of seeing the big picture when others couldn&rsquo;t.
Whether it was buying distressed coal mines or navigating trade wars, Ross has always had a long-term view.
Ross&rsquo;s message is clear: If the U.S. doesn&rsquo;t step up, someone else will.
We talk about a lot more - including how he outsmarted Warren Buffett and his secret to success - on my podcast.
<a href="https://link.chtbl.com/WBRS">Click here to listen to the full conversation. </a>

ALC-Issue-09-18-24(1)

The Blueprint for America

They called it &ldquo;peanut politics.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Imagine running for president with no money to afford hotels, staying in strangers&rsquo; homes on the campaign trail, making the bed in the morning, and leaving a thank-you note.
That&rsquo;s the level of grit Carter had.
He was the anti-establishment candidate before it was trendy. And yet, despite the simplicity of his methods, he won.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter was an unknown.
No one saw him coming.
By 1974, Carter was a one-term governor of Georgia, and yet two years later, he became the 39th president of the United States.
In a field of Democratic heavyweights&mdash;Ted Kennedy, Mo Udall, Jerry Brown&mdash;Carter's rise was an anomaly, the type of dark horse that defies expectation.
Here&rsquo;s the crazy part: Carter didn&rsquo;t win Iowa.
He came second to &ldquo;undecided.&rdquo;
Yet, through sheer force of will (and a little media magic), Carter spun that second-place finish into victory.
In this week&rsquo;s podcast, I sat down with David Rubenstein to discuss his book, The Highest Calling, where he dives into the lives of U.S. presidents&mdash;from George Washington to George W. Bush.
Rubenstein&rsquo;s deep dive into presidential history reveals a powerful truth: history rewrites its heroes. And nowhere is this clearer than with Jimmy Carter.
Today, when people think of Carter, they see the man who brokered peace at Camp David, the humanitarian who&rsquo;s spent decades building homes with Habitat for Humanity.
But in 1980, the general consensus was that Carter failed as a president.
The economy faltered, the Iran hostage crisis consumed headlines, and he left office with a dismal approval rating.
Yet, much like Harry Truman&mdash;who was loathed when he left office but later hailed as a hero&mdash;Carter&rsquo;s legacy is being re-examined.
As Rubenstein pointed out, if you look at Congressional Quarterly, Carter passed as much legislation as any president before him. Yet, he got crushed for what he couldn&rsquo;t do.
Here&rsquo;s the first lesson: what we think of presidents today is rarely how they&rsquo;ll be remembered tomorrow. 
Take Lincoln, for example.
Today, Abraham Lincoln is a revered figure&mdash;the great emancipator, the president who preserved the Union.
But in his time, Lincoln was a long-shot candidate, an Illinois lawyer who had lost more elections than he had won.
His 1860 nomination surprised many, especially since he wasn&rsquo;t even on the ballot in most Southern states. But it was his persistence and his ability to outmaneuver his rivals at the Republican convention in Chicago that won him the nomination.
Rubenstein shared that each president he studied was deeply flawed in some way.
Jefferson, a man who wrote the immortal words &ldquo;all men are created equal,&rdquo; was a slave owner with a complex, often contradictory legacy.
FDR, the president who led America through the Great Depression and World War II, was idolized, yet he made decisions that today are condemned&mdash;like the internment of Japanese Americans.
But here&rsquo;s another lesson: we, as a society, often fall in love with the idea of presidents. We idolize them because their biographers do. 
Rubenstein mentioned that when Doris Kearns Goodwin spent ten years writing about Lincoln, she inevitably grew fond of him. It&rsquo;s impossible to spend that much time with someone&mdash;even someone dead&mdash;and not romanticize them.
Rubenstein suggests that&rsquo;s why so many presidents are written about with such reverence. Biographers, like all of us, fall for the charisma, the power, the larger-than-life personas.
In his book, Rubenstein doesn&rsquo;t just profile presidents; he dissects the stories we tell about them.
Why do some presidents, like Lincoln, get mythologized, while others, like Hoover, are forgotten?
Hoover is fascinating because while he's often remembered for the Great Depression, Rubenstein reminded me that Hoover did work post-presidency, advising on government efficiency and helping with famine relief in Europe.
But perhaps the most interesting part of our conversation was Rubenstein&rsquo;s take on the current political landscape.
He said that while the presidency remains the highest calling, the polarization of today&rsquo;s politics has made it nearly impossible for anyone to be seen as a unifying figure.
He believes we&rsquo;re more divided than ever&mdash;something echoed by almost every president he interviewed for the book.
Yet, Rubenstein&rsquo;s book isn&rsquo;t just about presidents; it&rsquo;s about the power of history to change our perceptions.
Carter, Hoover, Truman&mdash;they were all seen as failures in their time. But history is kind. And who knows? Maybe in 50 years, the same will be said about the presidents we love to criticize today.
What&rsquo;s the lesson here?
History isn&rsquo;t a snapshot; it&rsquo;s a long, drawn-out story, constantly edited and revised by those who come after.
For better or worse.
There&rsquo;s much more ground to cover on this front&hellip;
<a href="https://link.chtbl.com/DRPS">Here&rsquo;s the full podcast</a>. Give it a listen.

Hi, I'm James.

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