DREW BESSETTE: So my first question that I like to ask all of our guests-- it's a little
funny, but who are you, and what is The Liberty Blitzkrieg?
MICHAEL KRIEGER: Sure.
So obviously, my name is Michael Krieger.
My background is my career started at the now defunct Lehman Brothers back in 2000.
I joined there right at the top of one of our last bubbles, that tech bubble.
And I entered into the program as an oil analyst.
So I worked for the guy who covered the major oils and refining companies-- so names like
Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, Tesoro, Valero, names like that.
So I was basically in a cube for five years going through 10k's and spreadsheets.
And it wasn't exactly my idea of fun.
But I learned a lot.
The analyst that I worked under was extremely smart and talented in what he does.
So after that in 2005-ish, I joined Sanford Bernstein as a commodities desk analyst.
So this is where I really-- I like to describe this as the job that fit my personality perfectly.
I sat on the trading floor.
I was looking at all commodities as well as the energy equities utility equities, all
that stuff, plus just markets in general.
So there, I was able to learn trading and sort of how markets work and really expand
out into more macro everything.
And it was at that desk when the financial crisis hit.
And at that point, I started asking questions, as I think a lot of people started asking
questions.
And I started to discover the system wasn't actually set up the way that I had assumed
it was set up.
Prior to that point, I thought that-- I was making all this money.
I was having such a good career because I was great.
You know, I was so smart and all that.
But then I really realized with the crisis, when they started bailing out people like
me, Wall Street, people that didn't need bailouts, I realized how gross and rigged the system
was.
And I really had a problem and a difficulty sitting in that chair.
So I started writing about these things from my seat at Bernstein.
And then eventually, know I really couldn't be there anymore.
It didn't make sense.
I wasn't feeling good about the job.
And I left in early 2010.
And I really had no idea what I was going to do.
I continued to write because my job at Bernstein was to write about macro issues.
And I had a very large client list from the biggest institutional investors in the world--
hedge funds, mutual funds, everybody globally.
So I kept that going.
And then know one day, one of my articles got picked up on "Zero Hedge."
DREW BESSETTE: RIP.
MICHAEL KRIEGER: RIP from Twitter, the absolute top.
Incredible-- pretty much the absolute top.
But So they picked it up.
And then I got a bigger audience.
And then I was interviewed by Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert of "The Kaiser Report" if you're
familiar with that show.
And they're brilliant.
And so I realized, you know, at this point, you know, OK.
Well, there's an audience for this sort of thing.
I think I have stuff to share.
And so about a year, year and a half after that, in 2012, I decided to just put it in
my own blog because prior to that.
I was just emailing it out to people, emailing my thoughts out.
And I did that then.
Same year as that, I discovered Bitcoin and started getting involved in Bitcoin.
And that changed my life in a whole other different way.
But basically, for the last-- essentially, for the last 10 years now, I've been writing
about and trying to teach based on my experience and my knowledge and my macro sort of intuition
and abilities, you know, what's really going on?
You know, how do things work at the biggest picture level?
What does that mean?
And the interesting thing about today is so many of the themes that I've been writing
about for 10 years are all really coming to a head because of this pin, right, this pin
that found its way into the balloon of this giant everything bubble.
And so it's a pretty a pretty incredible time to be talking about all this stuff because
it's sort of like the culmination of my last 10 years work coming to a head right now.
DREW BESSETTE: Yeah, I mean, when I reached out to you a few weeks ago, I didn't think
that we would be sitting here today amidst an actual meltdown and this week, you know,
two trading halts.
And it's unbelievable.