Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: George Noi with Rich Turn. He is live in Shanghai
Speaker 2: as we talk. His book is called Cashless, China's Digital
Speaker 2: Currency Revolution, And.
Speaker 3: It's happening, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Rich?
Speaker 4: Yeah, George. You know, Look, whether we like it or not,
Speaker 4: we're going cashless in the sense that we're all using
Speaker 4: Apple pay, Google Pay, or credit cards or PayPal or
Speaker 4: PayPal great example, kids are the younger people are using
Speaker 4: Venmo right, They're all transacting digitally and our lives are
Speaker 4: more digital. So the concept that money should go more
Speaker 4: digital and be cheaper to send is something that should
Speaker 4: be welcomed by most people.
Speaker 2: There seems to be an I resistance to it, though,
Speaker 2: what are they afraid of?
Speaker 4: Them? Look? Yeah, so, and this is something I guess
Speaker 4: relevant to a couple of the last callers. You know
Speaker 4: that people do not like the Federal Reserve or the
Speaker 4: central banking system, or how much the government spends. Those
Speaker 4: are absolutely legit concerns are we know, I want to
Speaker 4: make that clear. But at the same time, you know
Speaker 4: the concept that we're going to have a war against
Speaker 4: the Fed or otherwise reject all that we have. You know,
Speaker 4: that's sort of a higher level issue. What I'm trying
Speaker 4: to get at is you use Bucks. You use them
Speaker 4: to pay for stuff, your local gas station, your local butcher,
Speaker 4: you know, butcher, baker and candle stick maker. Is sick
Speaker 4: and tired of paying Visa and MasterCard three percent plus
Speaker 4: for the privilege of taking a credit card. We got
Speaker 4: to have a better way of doing it. And as
Speaker 4: more of our goods and services go digital, we need
Speaker 4: a better way to do it. And how we do
Speaker 4: it is certainly up for debate. We should have a
Speaker 4: national discussion on that. But that national discussion should be
Speaker 4: based on what's real and what technology can actually do
Speaker 4: for us, and not on imaginary stuff. And you know,
Speaker 4: I'm not anti crypto, but there shouldn't be based on
Speaker 4: the fact that we should take the multi trillion dollar
Speaker 4: American economy and somehow revalue it to some other cryptocurrency.
Speaker 4: That's that's just not a reasonable expectation.
Speaker 2: Most thanks for going through a system called Zel. If
Speaker 2: you want to send money, what is that?
Speaker 4: Sure? ZL is I had some funny bad experience is
Speaker 4: using Zel. But look, Zel is a way to basically
Speaker 4: digitally send money using your existing bank systems, and it
Speaker 4: is available on most of the major banks. A lot
Speaker 4: of the community banks may not have it, but basically
Speaker 4: I can send you a limited amount of money. I
Speaker 4: think it's up to around one thousand bucks for any
Speaker 4: one individual transfer. And yeah, it's a you know, you
Speaker 4: know what it is, hey, George. It's a great way
Speaker 4: of thinking about it. Did you ever have a BlackBerry
Speaker 4: earlier in your career? Maybe now you've migrated to something
Speaker 4: newer and better, yep. Right, Well, look, we've got digital
Speaker 4: payment and it's no different than our cell phones.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: We started digital payment being credit cards, all right, and
Speaker 4: now we've got Apple Pay and Google Pay and they're better,
Speaker 4: and that is a way of paying stuff. But all
Speaker 4: of these are like those old sull phones that you
Speaker 4: stick in your closet somewhere and dust off and say,
Speaker 4: I remember in the nineties when I used this. You know,
Speaker 4: there are generations of electronic payment, and electronic payment is
Speaker 4: just getting better and better all the time.
Speaker 2: Let's go to jeff in North Dakota to get us
Speaker 2: going here. Hi Jeffrey, go ahead.
Speaker 5: Hi George, Thanks sand Neon, Hey, uh, thank you. I
Speaker 5: just want to remind everyone about what God says and
Speaker 5: sow many teen. It says better to put your trust
Speaker 5: in the Lord than in man, and it also says,
Speaker 5: what is it good does it do for man to
Speaker 5: gain the whole world and lose his soul? And George,
Speaker 5: you were talking about the chips. There's a commany called
Speaker 5: version ship right now waiting to put chips in human beings,
Speaker 5: and their emblem is the eye of a snake. Now
Speaker 5: in Revelation, God warns us that this times are counting.
Speaker 5: You would not be able to buy or sell unless
Speaker 5: you take the mark of the beast. Those who have
Speaker 5: given their life to Christ, they won't take that mark
Speaker 5: because you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. But those who
Speaker 5: be deceived, that's the number one thing he is that also,
Speaker 5: don't be deceived, because there's going to become a world
Speaker 5: leader coming soon, the anti Christ. The first three and
Speaker 5: a half years, everything's gonna be humpty dory. In the
Speaker 5: last three and a half years, you will be killed
Speaker 5: for your faith and you don't take their mark on
Speaker 5: your right hand and forehead. Bibles very clear about that.
Speaker 5: So there's the just, the unjust, the whatd says he
Speaker 5: lets the rain fall and adjust and the unjust, the
Speaker 5: sinner of the saint.
Speaker 2: A lot of people are concerned about that.
Speaker 3: Rich.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know. Look, he look, Higer, Jeff, Look, I
Speaker 4: hear you. And I want to make a world where
Speaker 4: you can have your belief system along with the ability
Speaker 4: to get if you ever get sick, Jeff, the latest
Speaker 4: and greatest cancer detection system which may be built, which
Speaker 4: will be built on digital and use things like artificial intelligence.
Speaker 4: So I want to close the gap and make people
Speaker 4: understand that the digital world we are living in as
Speaker 4: good things associated with it, and that those good things
Speaker 4: do not conflict with Biblical verse as best as I can.
Speaker 4: You know, they're not the tall order because the Bible
Speaker 4: says a lot and beliefs about what the Bible say
Speaker 4: are very different. But I try, I try to do
Speaker 4: my best.
Speaker 2: That's got dawn now on the international line in Alberta, Canada.
Speaker 3: Hey, Donald, go ahead, Hi George.
Speaker 5: Hi Rich.
Speaker 6: Actually, the best cancer detection system is the dog that's
Speaker 6: properly trained. They can detect cancer way a right.
Speaker 5: Anyway.
Speaker 6: My philosophy on investing is our money is if I
Speaker 6: can't see it, touch it, taste it, smell it, it
Speaker 6: doesn't exist. I know people have lost millions on digital currency,
Speaker 6: actually bitcoin. You know, it doesn't matter if the computer
Speaker 6: hard right fails, or the phone gets lost or somebody
Speaker 6: steals it while you're sleeping at night, so they just
Speaker 6: go in digitally and extract it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I probably will actually end up owning the B five
Speaker 6: currency only because it's an international currency. But the problem
Speaker 6: I have with China is that if you don't have
Speaker 6: enough social rewards points, they just close down your bank accounts.
Speaker 6: You can't travel, take a bus, the kids can't go
Speaker 6: to school, whatever the case may be. But the other
Speaker 6: part of the equation.
Speaker 4: Is is.
Speaker 6: I mean you've had these guests on your show, George,
Speaker 6: is that China is actually openly talking about taking out
Speaker 6: United States and it's a step by step process and
Speaker 6: they listed it and actually the event that occurred in Israel,
Speaker 6: and it's unfortunate because I know people on both sides
Speaker 6: of the border, and the civilians always get caught in
Speaker 6: the way. But this is just another step, this digital currency,
Speaker 6: it's just another step to take out America. That's my
Speaker 6: belief on what's happening right now. And do I trust
Speaker 6: digital currency? You know, because if I show up and
Speaker 6: it's minus thirty five minus forty of gas station and
Speaker 6: their systems down and I can't put gas in my
Speaker 6: highway track traill unit. Guess what, I freeze the truck's
Speaker 6: going to freeze up on me. So if I have
Speaker 6: cash in my pocket, I'm going again. Yeah, and Solver,
Speaker 6: I think will be the backup currency in gold. It's
Speaker 6: just I don't trust digital currency. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of people don't.
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't rich are is it appropriate
Speaker 2: to ask you if you feel is if.
Speaker 3: China wants to go to war with the United States?
Speaker 4: Boy, you know, I gotta tell you that's news to me.
Speaker 4: I read everything that I can about China every day.
Speaker 4: I can't tell you that I read the local newspapers
Speaker 4: in Mandarin, but I do read the translations that I
Speaker 4: get on you know, on the internet. And you know
Speaker 4: the concept that China wants to go to war with America.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I feel that that's misguided. And I don't
Speaker 4: know where. Don you know, it's nice to meet you,
Speaker 4: and I don't know where you read that, And I'm
Speaker 4: sure you can come up with a source for me
Speaker 4: if we were there in person, But from where I
Speaker 4: sit and from everything that I read, there is no
Speaker 4: desire for China to go to war with one of
Speaker 4: its largest trading partners and with the country whose US
Speaker 4: dollar it holds some six hundred billion of in reserves.
Speaker 4: So basically, you know, the China doesn't want to destroy
Speaker 4: America or destroy the dollar because basically it has a
Speaker 4: lot of dollars and it would impoverish itself in that process.
Speaker 4: So no, I don't buy that. But look as far
Speaker 4: as digital currencies go. Don you quoted cryptocurrency and here
Speaker 4: I'm talking about digital currencies that are Anadian dollar or
Speaker 4: US dollar, not crypto. And as far as your big
Speaker 4: rig and you know, getting digital currency frozen with minus forty,
Speaker 4: I'm more having cash. Nobody's trying to take your cash away.
Speaker 4: But when the weather is good, and also in the future,
Speaker 4: when we have these new systems which will allow transfer
Speaker 4: of currency without signal or without electricity, you'll be able
Speaker 4: to pay digitally, but keep cash. Nobody's trying to take
Speaker 4: it from you.
Speaker 2: Well, that's an important factor too. Rich you don't think
Speaker 2: it's going to be one or the other. Do you
Speaker 2: think is it possible they'll say we're going to have
Speaker 2: cash you can use cash, but we're going this way too.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. Look, you know, you know, George, we're all humans,
Speaker 4: and we like to think in terms of black and white,
Speaker 4: you know, but the reality is there's a lot of
Speaker 4: gray in the world. And the concept that we're going
Speaker 4: to give you digital currency and we're going to take
Speaker 4: away all your money, that's nuts. Not going to happen.
Speaker 4: Do you know how much? Think about it another way?
Speaker 4: Do you know how much cash has squirreled away in
Speaker 4: America right now? If the government wanted to come for it,
Speaker 4: how could they? It wouldn't It wouldn't be practical. There's
Speaker 4: zillions of dollars all sitting there in cupboards and in
Speaker 4: closets all over and hidden the middle cuffy holes all
Speaker 4: over America.
Speaker 2: And West Arsenal wipe out the drug dealers, wouldn't it.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know what to say there. Yeah, sadly,
Speaker 4: you know, there are those who make the argument, and
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna I'm not going to go there personally,
Speaker 4: but I'm going to just make it because I want
Speaker 4: people to hear it. Is that the loss of cash
Speaker 4: would be a great reduction of crime. Now, this part
Speaker 4: I can tell you I'm willing to go here. Ready.
Speaker 4: In China, where cash use is reduced, in the major cities,
Speaker 4: the local convenience stores, nobody tries to rob them because
Speaker 4: they don't have any money, And nobody tries to rob
Speaker 4: somebody's wallet or purse for the cash because nobody's got
Speaker 4: any cash in it. Now they do try to rob
Speaker 4: ursus and stuff for cell phones. I'm not arguing that,
Speaker 4: but the reality is people or societies that use less
Speaker 4: cash have less crime because people aren't walking around with
Speaker 4: wads of cash in their pocket that you can steal.
Speaker 3: There's no access to it.
Speaker 4: There's that, okay, so people choose not to use it.
Speaker 4: People have access to it. I got an ATM machine
Speaker 4: across the street from my house. I got like four
Speaker 4: of them, but I don't use them, and so people
Speaker 4: have so in China. Let's talk specifically about my life,
Speaker 4: which is hardcore concrete. I have as much access to
Speaker 4: cash here as I have in the US as I
Speaker 4: have anywhere. I can go to the bank and get
Speaker 4: wads of money.
Speaker 3: US dollars are Chinese, oh Chinese.
Speaker 4: Yes, I can also get US dollars, but I got
Speaker 4: to make conversion. And then who's going to take it right.
Speaker 4: I mean, but when I travel occasionally, I got to
Speaker 4: get some US extra US dollars, and sure, I'll go
Speaker 4: to the bank with draw R and B and then
Speaker 4: I'll have to convert that R and B. It cost
Speaker 4: me some money and I'll get a handful of dollars
Speaker 4: out of it.
Speaker 2: Rich speculate on what the next few years will be
Speaker 2: like in terms of this push to go to this
Speaker 2: kind of digital currency.
Speaker 4: Look, it's going to be a long, hard transition, and look,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have fun with this, if you don't mind me, George,
Speaker 4: because I want to put it in terms that everybody
Speaker 4: can relate to.
Speaker 3: We have a minute, minute and a half left.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, minute and a half. We all had blackberries.
Speaker 4: We now have iPhones or whatever phone we got, and
Speaker 4: we're on iPhone what is it fifteen these days? And
Speaker 4: it was incremental steps from a BlackBerry to the iPhone
Speaker 4: and from the old days when we didn't have any
Speaker 4: smartphones at all. So we're going to have an incremental
Speaker 4: change in getting better cashless systems, but you're always going
Speaker 4: to have access to cash. If you want to
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