Burke Koonce and John Fichthorn discuss the latest topics of interest in politics, financial markets, and the cultural forces that shape the world around us. This is the eighth episode of Season Two.

John, who regularly appears on financial news networks, and Burke, who runs the Capitalism Maven site for TheStreet.com, have a long history together discussing markets, politics and contemporary subjects. These discussions sometimes get made into films such as Betting On Zero, and just last month, Gaming Wall Street, now on HBO Max.

Gaming Wall Street is an HBO Max Original, produced by our little old Biltmore Films, Prodigium Pictures and Gunpowder & Sky. The film was directed by Tobias Deml. The two-part documentary explores the GameStop and meme stock trading frenzy and the light it cast on the dark plumbing of Wall Street. 

In this new episode, while are still basking in the warm afterglow of getting the documentary out into the world, there is still the seemingly unlimited supply of Wall Street shenanigans to discuss, starting with this week's arrest of former trading superstar Bill Huang. The enigmatic Huang, who once ran Tiger Asia, was picked up by federal authorities for a long laundry list of no-nos, including racketeering and market manipulation. Turns out when you lie to your federally-insured bankers about how much of their capital you have put at risk they don't like it very much. Huang's leverage at his family office Archegos was like nothing we've ever seen. 

Our discussion of Huang's downfall leads into a discussion of the broader Chinese market downturn, which apparently reflects the growing lockdowns in Shanghai and possibly additional Chinese cities, which of course has massive implications for the rest of the world's economy.  Unfortunately, the freedom of the Chinese people to talk about what's happening there is limited, which limits our own understanding. This censorship is the same tool used by Putin to support his terrible war in Ukraine--anywhere freedom of speech is impaired, really bad things tend to happen.

And of course, this leads us to Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter! We'll see what happens! 

Rates are up, stocks are down. Tune in to hear more about what's happening in the always exciting financial markets, and enjoy!