Konami's President Is Right: AI Won't Kill Creators, It Will Kill Big Studios | Between The Lies 050
Rob couldn't make it this week, so Luke and I went way off the map. Konami's president, Hideki Hayakawa, says generative AI won't change the game industry much, because people and creators are still what matter. Luke agrees. I go further: AI isn't handing the big guys more control, it's lowering the barrier for everyone else. We get into a closet-hiding indie game that became two movies, the $400 million Concord flop that lasted less than a week, why Nintendo sat on cash instead of borrowing through the pandemic, an AI-built Adobe clone, Steam's $100 flat fee, and why Valve might be the most profitable company per employee on Earth. Then we land back on housing, where pending home sales just hit the lowest level since tracking began. Same lesson everywhere: everything large is crumbling, and the small and nimble are winning.
17 Oct 2026
Scott Bessent's "Treasury Twist": Can Stablecoins Really Fix $40 Trillion in Debt? | Between The Lies 049
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's "Treasury Twist" has a viral YouTube video claiming America is about to quietly reset its $40 trillion debt problem. The plan: buy back long-term bonds, flood the market with short-term T-bills, and let GENIUS Act stablecoins soak them up. Luke picked this one, and he's not buying it. Even the rosiest projection puts stablecoin demand around $1.2 trillion by 2030. That's a fortieth of the debt, and the debt isn't standing still. Rob gives the plan credit for creativity, then asks what happens if China answers with a gold-backed stablecoin. I push back on both of them about who actually wants dollars. We also revisit 1961's Operation Twist, Ben Bernanke the "maestro," and sanctions as a reason foreign buyers are walking away. The only winning move? Stop playing their game with your own capital.
9 Oct 2026
New Homes Now Cheaper Than Old Ones: How the Federal Reserve Flipped the Housing Market | Between The Lies 048
Luke Tatum and Rob Brayton of Perfect Spiral Capital join Nicky P to pick apart a housing headline that sounds like a loophole: for the first time in a long time, new homes are selling for less than existing ones. A brand-new house with no termites, cheaper than one that's been falling apart for 40 years? Something doesn't add up. We trace it back to the Federal Reserve's money printing after 2020, the bidding wars of 2021 and 2022, and the rate hikes that cooled new construction while existing prices kept climbing. Along the way: why national medians mislead, Dallas-Fort Worth sprawl versus Cleveland revitalization, recency bias and a little Marcus Aurelius, why your home is a depreciating asset, and why the equity on paper might be fake wealth. Plus how to think about owning assets that actually move you toward your goals.
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