Crypto's Crazy

Talking Real Money - Investing Talk

Don McDonald

Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.5 • 811 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Don and Tom kick off by joking about their “record-breaking” call drought before diving headlong into the week’s biggest speculative loser: crypto. The duo dismantle the mythology around Bitcoin and its countless imitators, comparing the excitement of trading coins to sports betting and reminding listeners that portfolios are for investing, not gambling. They tie the current crypto crash to leverage, insider-like trades, and the same fraud patterns seen in history’s great financial cons—from Jay Gould’s gold-cornering to Elizabeth Holmes’ blood-testing farce. Later, they field listener questions on asset location, liquidity management, emerging-market exposure, and the danger of leverage via MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin bet. Through it all, they emphasize fiduciary discipline, skepticism toward hype, and the basic rule: excitement and good investing rarely mix. 0:04 Pretending last Saturday’s show didn’t happen; Tom’s pun about “Pacific” questions. 1:41 Crypto crash carnage—Bitcoin off 16%, Ethereum down 25%, “Trump Coin” collapsing. 2:30 Comparing crypto’s thrill-seeking crowd to sports betting mania. 3:55 Why your financial advisor should not be your gambling coach. 4:48 The leveraged, insider-ish side of crypto speculation. 5:06 The absurdity of 10,000+ coins that serve no purpose but gambling. 7:40 Calling crypto “speculative” and comparing it to a casino roller coaster. 8:10 Binance payout trouble—proof many players don’t know how to run big-money businesses. 10:32 MicroStrategy’s leveraged Bitcoin plunge and the perils of margin. 11:37 The illusion of “value” in digital tokens versus productive assets. 12:55 Historical echo: borrowed money, bubbles, and 1929-style leverage warnings. 15:25 Listener questions segment opens; lighthearted banter about philately and call volume. 17:02 “ChatGPT beats bad advisors” — asset location done right (bonds in IRA, stocks in Roth). 18:30 Why most “advisors” ignore tax planning in favor of commissions. 20:23 Jay Gould, robber barons, and the Wall Street Journal’s bizarre defense of con artists. 22:12 From Nikola to Theranos—lying as business strategy and why “gray areas” hurt investors. 24:53 The moral cost of tolerating fraud disguised as innovation. 26:36 Why trust is the real foundation of capitalism, not creative deception. 27:00 How to protect yourself: fee-only fiduciary advice and due diligence. 27:36 Mariners hangover theory for low call volume; nostalgic TV banter (“Bewitched”). 29:06 Caller Tom (Seattle): $4 M portfolio, $1 M in money market—how much liquidity is too much? 30:34 The hidden risk of waiting too long to react when rates fall. 33:08 Building a CD ladder to lock yield without betting on one-day rates. 34:25 Quick take: Why they’d avoid owning Boeing stock individually. 36:18 Caller Justin (Florida): emerging-market allocation for high-risk investors. 37:29 Case for small-cap and value tilts, including emerging markets. 38:34 Should you exclude China? Why it’s still essential in global portfolios. 39:29 Closing reminders—use the website for questions, and find fiduciary help at TalkingRealMoney.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Reality Radio for a really great future.
0:07.8	We're talking real money.
0:10.2	We're going to forget last Saturday.
0:11.8	It's just an aberration.
0:13.1	We're going to pretend like it didn't exist.
0:15.2	Like, you know, you guys, we're going to pretend you actually called our show at 855-935 Talk.
0:21.7	What is our show?
0:23.1	Our show is, well, it basically is in one way-shaped form or another.
0:30.9	It's a, it's the long, probably the longest running money talk show in America right now, basically.
0:37.6	Probably is.
0:38.5	Yeah.
0:38.7	In one.
0:39.4	Right up there for sure.
0:40.5	One form or another.
0:43.0	So we're talking about something really important, right?
0:46.9	Money's important to you.
0:49.1	And if you have some questions about it, well, we give you the opportunity every Saturday to give us a call at 855-9358255.
0:58.7	And let me add one thing to the calling part because maybe people, you can call about anything
1:03.5	money-related. It doesn't have to be investments. It could be about spending it. And it could be
1:07.6	specific. I think that's the other thing people are surprised. If you call us and say, what about this? We'll give you an answer, straight up answer about funds you could be in, people you could work with, all that kind of stuff. Straight up. Or if you want to ask a question that's Pacific, we'll talk about the ocean. Oh, you are. That's my job. I know. I know. I thought I got to get a pun in. I got to get one in.
1:30.6	You got it, man. That's it. That's all I'm doing for the whole episode.
1:35.2	855-935-talk is our phone number 855-9358255. So we're already in trouble with you for excoriating you about not calling.
	...

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