Hello all, this is a special post, and I’d really appreciate it if you read it. I’m basically a nobody who spent the last 25 years helping to grow the financial infrastructure of the United States. I’ve spent time as the CEO of three different FINRA/SEC-registered broker-dealers; I have an MBA from Duke; I’m a former CFP (my license has elapsed); and I’m a former Series 3, 7, 24, 63, 65 guy. I’ve spent time as one of the first employees at VC-funded startups like United Capital that were later sold to Goldman Sachs for $750 million. I’ve researched financial history as much as anyone I know and written a financial thriller novel called Quoz that has sold well; it is distributed by Simon & Shuster, and while written in ’22, it contains prescient themes such as AI, quantum computing, and a collapse in Treasuries/USD as gold climbs to stratospheric heights. For about a year now, I’ve been on various podcasts and trying to make a name for myself. My financial forecasts have been top notch, and a screen shot of my ’25 predictions is posted here. My X account has been followed by a lot of folks with higher reach than me, such as @LawrenceLepard, @HughNaylor, @MartyBent, @SelfMadeMastery, @leadlagreport, @Breedlove22, @freedom_rpt, @BickerinBrattle, @henryolouglin, @DavidBCollum, @davidbateman, @pahueg, @dunleavy89, @lisaabramowiczq (private), @JackFarley96, @fejau_inc, and many others with 10s if not 100s of thousands of followers. I would like to expand my reach and provide more insight to those who are interested in my thoughts, but I feel a need to grow beyond my 7K+ followers into something larger. Hence, I humbly request that those reading this re-X it. Recommend me if you feel appropriate. Secondarily, I would like to up my exposure beyond other people’s pods. As @LukeGromen does and @SantiagoAuFund does, I’d like to produce my own short, weekly pods. BTW, Brent of @SantiagoAuFund is a great guy whom I met a few months ago when vacationing in San Juan, very top notch as well, though I don’t always agree with all his takes. To sum up, please pass this post along, follow me, and lastly, ask me some questions. My plan for my weekly pod is a mix of two things: financial/economic history combined with timely feedback on markets. As such, I want to focus my first episode on the Marshall Plan and how the US State Department shaped the EU and modern-day Europe. This should shed some light on what is occurring now. It will be combined with up-to-date information on markets, including forecasts and trades. That historical context should comprise the first half of the pod, and then I'd like to answer questions for the second half. To all those who have followed me and supported my efforts. Thank you! It is not easy to come out from the comfortable shadows and expose yourself on X. I do not do this to make money. I have no sub-stack or anything. My only goal is to help people understand what is actually happening from a financial perspective. To that end, I am not a Bitcoiner, an equity hog, or a gold bug. I am someone who has researched everything ad infinitum and come to the conclusion that the only path forward is a massive devaluation of global currencies. That includes the dollar, but also the Euro, Yuan, Swiss Franc, Yen, and anything else you can name. If that is indeed the case, any assets priced in nominal terms should do good; i.e., gold, BTC, equities, etc. Duration heavy bonds should fair poorly. Best, Mel