Jeff Berwick

Mark:Hey Jeff, welcome to Free Talk Live.

Jeff Berwick:Hey Mark, good to see you. Interesting time we had in Anarchapulco and then even after. Very interesting. After, that's what we're here to talk about.

Mark:But before we do, I want to introduce you to the audience for those who may not be familiar with you for whatever reason. I think that it's probably worth saying -- The Dollar Vigilante, right? So this is a newsletter and community that you created that is, I mean, it's a phenomenon. People are really into it. So Dollar Vigilante, is that dollarvigilante.com, correct?

Jeff Berwick:Yep.

Mark:And then Anarchapulco. I think the first one was in 2015. I was there. And in fact, I stood in for you and did a little MC work there at that event.

Jeff Berwick:I needed some help that year.

Mark:I think it's wonderful that you got it done. I was so impressed by the first one. I just thought this is great. And it just kept getting better every year. And I was just at Anarchapulco and it was highly notable. I really had a good time.

Jeff Berwick:Well, I'm definitely -- I would use the word libertarian to describe myself. I would say that most libertarians aren't like me though. They're not full libertarians, which means completely anarcho-capitalist or voluntarist. But yeah.

Mark:I mean, the history of Anarchapulco is an amazing thing. And people can get a taste of it if they see the HBO special, which, like any form of journalism, isn't a perfect representation of the truth. However, it gives you an idea of what things were like. And I think that it was created in a spirit to tell the story.

Jeff Berwick:Yeah. They obviously picked the most extreme parts of everything to put in. But it was basically true. The people who actually filmed it were, they're like Anarchapulco attendees. They were filming for years beforehand. And it just so happened all these events all lined up where a few people ended up dead. And of course that's sensationalist enough to make a documentary that gets everyone's attention.

Mark:Yeah. To me you're a real anomaly, Jeff. Because basically I have always steered clear of the term anarchist. I can make my excuses, it doesn't make a difference why I steer clear of the term anarchist. I use the term libertarian.

Jeff Berwick:Yeah. When I first got into libertarianism, anarcho-capitalism, voluntarism, it just occurred to me -- the word just means without rulers. So you're basically against slavery. You're against human slavery. So I was like, what's so bad about that? Why are we so shy to say that's what we believe?

Mark:Absolutely. I know you've had a heck of a journey when it comes to health, and I want to talk about that just briefly because I consider it to be the most important thing. You can't be free unless you're healthy. A man who's bedridden is not a free man. So can you tell me just briefly some of this health journey you've had and then we'll get into the Puerto Vallarta fun last week?

Jeff Berwick:Yeah. So as you know, you actually ended up emceeing the first Anarchapulco 2015 in the Copacabana Hotel in Acapulco because I was so drunk I couldn't do anything. And I was like that way for many years actually, up until about -- when did I stop drinking? I guess 2021 I stopped, I think. But I was actually getting better around 2020 or so.

Mark:Yeah. I've seen a sign at Anarchapulco that said "Real eyes realize real lies" and I just loved it. I think you were wearing it as a T-shirt. I could be wrong on that one. But I must say I got to see you this year and you look great. And you really are acting like a different person. You're very calm and centered. There's a smile on your face all the time.

Jeff Berwick:Yeah, it's strange to me. I don't feel any different. But it does appear that way to me as well, that a lot of people just want to hear what I have to say. I don't know what's going on. I'm happy to tell them what I think. I think I'm right on most things, as everyone does.

Mark:Everybody in the asylum thinks the same thing, Jeff.

Jeff Berwick:Well, my track record is pretty good, right? Bitcoin at three dollars, I recommended it. I saw the COVID for what it was basically on the day that -- were you at the Anarchapulco in 2020, Mark, where we actually had the Corona Recovery Centers?

Mark:I remember I think it was 2018 or 2019, that event had thousands of people at it. And it was the largest liberty event in the world at that moment in time. And then of course this terrible murder occurs. And we're not sure what or why or how, but it certainly changed everything. And Anarchapulco has been on a build-back track in my opinion. And I don't know how many people came to this one but I guess somewhere around eight or nine hundred?

Jeff Berwick:It was, yeah. I mean it was as good an event as I could imagine it would be. I thought it was really great.

Mark:Yeah, me too. I thought it was so incredible this year.

Jeff Berwick:Yeah. We did have one year that was bigger in terms of attendance. And that was actually the year that Bitcoin went from one thousand to twenty thousand dollars. So that's like a 20x return in one year. And so most of the people who were there were crypto people. They weren't necessarily anarchists or voluntarists.

Mark:Yeah. So I think we should absolutely talk about that terror attack. It was really something. Now, this year Anarchapulco wasn't in Acapulco. It was in Puerto Vallarta. Which, as I understand, didn't necessarily sit well with your household. Is that right?

Jeff Berwick:Yeah, my wife's still upset about it. And actually the whole week she was trying to find any reason why it wasn't great in Puerto Vallarta and pointed out issues. And then she was totally right at the end because we had people running for their lives at the end from the terror attack. And she just looks at me and goes, "I told you you should have stayed in Acapulco." And I was like, you're right again.

Mark:So I guess the lead-up is some kind of cartel leader got killed by the United States and Mexico working in conjunction to, I don't know, stop the drug war -- that's always worked. And as a result of the killing of their leader, the cartel lashed out. I don't know if it even happened in Puerto Vallarta, but they lashed out in Puerto Vallarta. Now, they set some cars on fire. They generally leave the tourists alone.

Jeff Berwick:Yeah. On the final day there on Sunday we actually had our Crypto Vigilante Summit where we talked all about this. People can actually access that at tcvsummit.com. We have two separate newsletters. So yeah, we have a newsletter for that -- it's the Crypto Vigilante newsletter, and we have the Dollar Vigilante newsletter where we talk all about that.

Mark:I too like the privacy coins, any variety of them. I think they're a great choice. Thanks for the tips there, Jeff. I do appreciate it. I know that's what you do for a living.

Jeff Berwick:You know, I have to say, as someone who's been to them all and seen all the changes -- like you probably remember in 2015 it was a lot more angry, a lot more kind of like black T-shirts. Our artist that year was Rob Hustle -- "This Is What Happens When You Call the Cops." We were very angry about the police state. But it was a lot of anger.

Mark:So I managed to get out. I just had planned my schedule and everything was fine. The day after the event I flew out. And it was in the afternoon. We had another event scheduled back to back. So it's hard to sort of separate these things. It's a long event. Starts with a Dollar Vigilante, goes to Anarchapulco. Then what was after that?

Jeff Berwick:So it started with Anarchapulco, which is five days all week. And then on Saturday was the Dollar Vigilante Summit, so mostly financial and how to expatriate. Then on Sunday was the Crypto Vigilante, which is all about crypto. And then there's even events afterwards, like Anarchaforko, which is what Miranda started years ago as this fork event of Anarchapulco. But now she's actually with Anarchapulco.

Mark:And I mean, I've just never seen that at a liberty event ever. I don't even -- do you have any explanation? Can you make it make sense for me, Jeff?

Jeff Berwick:Yeah, I do have some explanations for it. I think a number of people who may have come in the past, they've gone on and they're building stuff now. Because I heard that from a lot of people. They're like, I can't come this year, I'm starting up this community in Nicaragua or whatever it is. So a lot of people who came in the past, they've kind of taken all this information and gone on to build the new world for themselves.

Mark:I don't see how else to describe somebody like me who's so deviated from the standard way of thinking but to describe them as crazy. I mean, now the standard way of thinking, in my opinion, is warped and molded by people who wish to rule us. You can decide those people are shape-shifting lizards. You can decide those people are just the same kind of evil men who have always grasped for power. I don't care what you do.

Jeff Berwick:Yeah, there's so much special about Acapulco. But we had a new event that we've been doing in Europe called Liberpolco, which is with Liberland. And for the first time, we actually took our show on the road. And our team did such an incredible job that they're like, you know, we could just pick up -- because they've actually had to get through five hurricanes and stuff, so they know how to get through anything. They're like, we can do this anywhere at any time at a moment's notice. That's how our systems are now.

Mark:It's absolutely true. I mean, my friends -- I was all worried about them the first morning. By the afternoon they're all like, everything's fine, don't worry about it.

Jeff Berwick:Yeah, totally. So we've got a very unique group of people. And it looks like we will have it back in Puerto Vallarta next year. But you noticed that some of the beautiful magical things of Acapulco weren't there in that convention center, which is just a big concrete building.

Mark:So what did happen in Puerto Vallarta? What happened, why did it happen, and describe to me what your experience was and the experience of your attendees.

Jeff Berwick:Sure. I should say that of all the people possibly in the world -- not to talk like Donald Trump, like I'm the best at this, I'm the best at that -- but I might be the best person and the most knowledgeable person to talk about what actually happened there for two reasons. I've tracked every psyop that's gone on for the last few decades. I know how it works. I know all the fingerprints. We saw all that in Puerto Vallarta, by the way. And I've lived in Mexico for the last 20 years. I know what the real truth is about so-called cartels and things like that.

Mark:Yeah, extortion and taxes -- I really don't know the difference.

Jeff Berwick:It's the same thing. That's the thing that people need to get their head around. And it's much cheaper in Mexico. And they're actually cooler. You can actually go have a beer with the cartel guy and you might get a good deal. You can't do that with the IRS as much, right?

Mark:Yeah. The way I see the government is a group of people who will use violence to extort you and get what they want from you, get the kind of behavior they want from you. The way I see a cartel is a group of people who will use violence and extort you and use violence to get you to do the things they want. So this is just a government and people who would be a government as far as I'm concerned, fighting over turf and business, right?

Jeff Berwick:Yeah. That's the heart of a lot of this, right? The war on drugs, which just never ends. Of course, in the last decade or so we've actually seen a kind of end when it comes to cannabis. Like, all of a sudden -- because the same people who used to control it, which is the CIA that controls most of the world drug trade -- once they got in and they could control it on the governmental regulated level, they were like, okay, we can just switch it over now. We still control it and stuff like that.

Mark:So I heard a story from one of the participants at Anarchapulco that some VIPs or something were getting driven to the airport in the morning and their taxi cab was pulled over and the car was set on fire with their belongings in it. Did you get to hear this story or is this news to you?

Jeff Berwick:No, no, I'm aware of most of these situations. That was the worst situation we had for our attendees. So I'm very thankful for that. Very grateful that none of our people were actually hurt. But they were definitely very, very scared. They ran out of the car and they actually came to the conference afterwards to kind of hide out from it all.

Mark:Jeff Berwick, The Dollar Vigilante. Thank you for telling me about Anarchapulco this year and the chaos that happened in Puerto Vallarta. Pleasure.