Appearance · October 13, 2026
John Tamny on False Facts Fixed with Dr. Randall Bock
John Tamny talks with Dr. Randall Bock about the national debt, why startups need room to fail, what moves the price of oil, and why Bitcoin is not money.
About the conversation
John Tamny joined Dr. Randall Bock on False Facts Fixed for an hour on the national debt, why startups need room to fail, what really moves the price of oil, and why Bitcoin is not money.
He starts the debt discussion with the market. Treasury yields, he points out, sit where they were in 2007, when the debt was $7 trillion. Lenders stay calm because the U.S. Treasury has taxable access to the richest people on earth. What worries him is the other side of that: the rich are taxed so heavily that the capital is not there for the companies, and the failures, that would otherwise be funded.
On oil, he argues that the value of the dollar, not OPEC, is the biggest driver of the price, and that energy independence is a backwards goal for the most productive country on earth. On money, he describes a currency as a measure of value, like a foot or an inch, and calls Bitcoin a revolutionary idea that can never be money, because its supply is fixed.
What John said
The debt
Watch from 4:52Markets are just as happy now as they were in 2007. And so to me, the real crisis that no one talks about is that we could be 40 trillion in debt and markets don’t care.
The debt
Watch from 5:07Because they know that the U.S. Treasury has taxable access to the richest people on Earth who are poised to become exponentially richer in the future.
The debt
Watch from 5:40Markets keep telling us the debt’s the easy part, yet no one wants to listen to markets anymore.
Innovation
Watch from 16:05It’s Silicon Valley’s business model to fail. They’re investing in the impossible.
Innovation
Watch from 27:43Politicians see the known and wanna maintain it. Entrepreneurs look at the known and say, “Oh, this is ridiculous. We’re gonna fix it.”
Innovation
Watch from 28:01And so you gotta have these crazies, but it’s expensive to fund crazies.
Oil
Watch from 31:40And so why would we want to be, quote, energy independent? What an economically backwards notion.
Oil
Watch from 35:03The biggest driver of the price of oil is the value of the U.S. dollar.
Money
Watch from 45:31A currency is a concept. It’s a measure of value.
Bitcoin
Watch from 47:31Well, Bitcoin’s not money. It can never be money precisely because its supply is fixed.
Bitcoin
Watch from 48:02It’s a cool idea. It’s revolutionary.