Malcolm Out Loud is the Host of Malcolm Out Loud TV. He and Jason talk about the ban on over-sized drinks and whether they will do anything to help with the obesity epidemic? Malcolm is not a fan of the government still feeling the need to regulate private business’ decisions on the products they sell… but remember, it was the banks who were selling risky products that ended up bringing down the economy.
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Malcolm shares other bans being considered to limit our right to choose how we consume. He also analyzes why North Korea feels threatened by the US?
Malcolm is a published author, speaker and the talent behind a daily radio feature, the Out Loud Minute. Every day Malcolm leads an assault on mediocrity, constantly inspiring others to get Out Loud in every aspect of their lives.
Visit Malcolm Out Loud TV by visiting http://www.malcolmoutloud.tv/.
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Jason Hartman: Welcome to the Holistic Survival Show. This is your host Jason Hartman, where we talk about protecting the people places and profits you care about in these uncertain times. We have a great interview for you today. And we will be back with that in less than 60 seconds on the Holistic Survival Show. And by the way, be sure to visit our website at HolisticSurvival.com. You can subscribe to our blog, which is totally free, has loads of great information, and there’s just a lot of good content for you on the site, so make sure you take advantage of that at HolisticSurvival.com. We’ll be right back.
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Start of Interview with Malcom
Jason Hartman: It’s my pleasure to welcome Malcolm, from Malcom Out Loud TV. He has got a lot of interesting views on a lot of interesting topics. So we are glad to have him today coming to us from Florida. Are you doing?
Malcolm: I’m doing great. And they are all the right views, I just want you to know that up front.
Jason Hartman: Well, I’m sure you have all the right views. No question about it.
Malcolm: Well, what I mean is we’re not used to the left at least, you see.
Jason Hartman: There you go. Exactly. So, let’s start with Mayor Bloomberg. How’s that sound? And these oversized drinks, and get your thoughts on that. And if it will make any difference with the obesity epidemic.
Malcolm: Right. Well Mayor Bloomberg is just out of control these days. It seems like every other week or every week, he’s got some sort of a new program, or a new tax, or a new concept or idea, or a new way to sort of [0:02:35.8] somebody’s liberties. And this latest one was just a complete joke; do you remember when you’ve seen that on Newswire when he had this great idea that he was going to sort of help obesity out in New York City by banning anything over a 16 ounce drink, right?
Jason Hartman: Yeah and all the businesses, the restaurants were outraged because they had to go change all their cups sizes, and they were very concerned about that. It is literally insane what he’s doing.
Malcolm: He was off the charts. I just couldn’t believe it. I thought, obviously this mayor is either, A, bored, B, needs a part-time job to help him keep himself busy or, C, he’s really out of control. And talk about creating a manic state. He certainly is right up there. And he continues to do that. Just a while back he wanted to ban certain substances like Styrofoam and certain other types of materials that things made. He’s now come up with another thing this past week.
Again, I think he’s just got too much time on his hands, so he is thinking of ways to invent and ways to control people’s lives. Listen, the soda thing didn’t do so well. Obviously the court came out against this, and they said hey wait a, thing is a constitutional. So now what’s happened is, I don’t know if you know this, but the city is going to appeal this. They are already appealing.
Jason Hartman: Unbelievable. The fact that they even have the guts to appeal it is kind of mind-boggling. I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a minute with you on this, although I agree with you, but go ahead with what you are saying.
Malcolm: Well clearly, I’m saying when you take a look at things and you see that they are wasting taxpayer money again to go ahead and appeal this, there is something unsettling to me about that. Yet this is what seems to be where a lot of people are today. They want to have their hands held, they want to be told what to do and what not to do, and I think this one certainly qualifies. By the way, Supreme Court Justice Milton Tingling is the one that made the ruling. And his words were that the loopholes in this rule effectively defeat the stated purpose of this rule.
Jason Hartman: What does that mean?
Malcolm: It means that the challenge to 16 ounce limit on sodas and any of these high calorie drinks actually, at the loopholes in this rule, that there were loopholes in the way that you can find a drinks, where you could buy them, and other words it was only certain places, there were a lot of rules that were built into the law, if you will. And that is like a hospitality industry was fuming over it. And so obviously he stated that it defeated the purpose of the rule, that they had no really legal standpoint to make this thing fly.
Now the city Counsel, Michael Cardozo came out and said we are confident that the board of health’s decision will ultimately be upheld. He says,” but clearly I don’t expect them to win this thing.” This whole thing came from the fact by the way, that they are saying 24% of the adults in New York City are overweight. And like that the big surprise, you know? But then again, these are decisions that people make. And at the end of the day one has to make their own decisions, and they may not be the right decisions, but who are we to judge?
Jason Hartman: You are certainly right about that, and you are we to judge is certainly right. However, when you live in a climate of big government and socialized Obamacare, doesn’t the collective get to say you don’t get to be that because the cost me money? That’s an argument.
Malcolm: While there are a lot of things that would be an argument that would fall under that clause very carefully. And right now we’re just getting to see the early signs of Obamacare, and the unraveling of this amended healthcare program is just starting to fall apart. And you’re going to see an awful lot being said about this in the months ahead. Especially as we ramp up for 2014, with the taxes, fees and laws coming down the pipes here. There are a few things that are going to be impacted here. The level of healthcare is going to deteriorate, the quality of doctors and the amount of doctors are going to be a hell of a lot less, you’re waiting for times and certainly your hospital and doctor’s offices will be much longer. These will all be products of Obamacare.
And then you can get into the economic standpoint of what happens with jobs. Already we are seeing companies are moving from full-time to part-time employees to avoid healthcare because they cannot afford it.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, a whole bunch of companies have done that. It’s obvious. This is what government never seems to get, is the law of unintended consequences. The entrepreneurs always figure out a way to make their business more efficient. They figure out a way around the stupid rules. A genuine example Malcolm, and I’d like to hear your take on this because I’ve never heard it expressed this way: I was doing a trade show with one of my employees recently and there was something going on in the city, it was Nashville, so we got a couple of rooms in this sort of cheap, crappy Red Roof Inn hotel, and it was a dump. Believe me, I do not like staying in hotels like that. I would much rather stay in a Hilton or something.
But anyway, that is all we could get that weekend, and the Wi-Fi was free. And one morning we got up, and I was walking over to breakfast with him, I knocked on his door, got him, we walked over to breakfast and as we were walking over to breakfast we were both complaining about the Wi-Fi. And he says, if they only make people pay for the Wi-Fi then people would not be using it ridiculously. They wouldn’t be just wasting time on it and sucking up the bandwidth. If it was just five dollars, then people would use it with some amount of care and conservatism. But because it’s free, everybody just jumps on there and downloads everything, and no one can use it. And that was kind of a good point about the tyranny of the collective, if you will.
Malcolm: I think it’s a stupid idea. If you ask me, Wi-Fi should be free everywhere. And I don’t agree with that at all, and I think nothing is more disturbing than to walk into any place where they are charging for Wi-Fi. I think it should be free. I always thought it should of been free.
Jason Hartman: Well, as something that the UN could do, which would be one of the few good things that they can really do, is they could create a global Wi-Fi system and give everybody access. But the point he was making is a sensible point. And it really relates to socialized healthcare. When it free, everybody just does not care about it.
Malcolm: Well that is not going to change with that program, my friends. Let me just say this, the last time that anybody, if you are in a hospital, you stay in a hospital for a week or two and I’ve seen this time and time again, and the bill comes in. Who in their right mind, A, even looks that the bill, you don’t go through itemized lines. You don’t look at anything. And God knows what they’re charging for all kinds of drugs, generic drugs and everything else. But they are saving money by charging the insurance companies. It happens every day, Jason. And it will continue to happen, always going to happen.
Jason Hartman: You are completely right. And that’s the problem with our system. They can make leaps and bounds fixing the system if the patients were just engaged with the prices. When I take my dog to the vet, when I go to the dentist, at times I haven’t had dental insurance and why go to the dentist our bargain with them. I’ll say hey, can you do this for this price? I’ll actually care about the care I’m getting. I’ll be engaged. But when I go to the doctor, it’s like I don’t care. Run any test you want. I’m not paying for it. There is no engagement from the patient.
Malcolm: Yeah nobody cares, this is a fact. It’s a busy lifestyle. Everybody’s doing their thing. And that’s what happens. And you’re exactly right. We talked about this for years. It’s not a new event. But clearly, people are into their own deal and they are not paying attention to these kinds of things. It does not seem to be their problem. Everybody pays for these things. We are all paying. And then we go further with that point of view. Today there is a lot of talk about an entitlement society, correct?
Jason Hartman: Oh, absolutely. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
Malcolm: So we talk about this entitlement society, we talk about the expansion of government, we talk about the government and what exactly is going on and our liberties being jeopardized and so on and so forth. However, there’s a whole sector of the population that is been convinced that government is the answer. There is a whole sector of the population that believes the government has the answers, And that they will solve all of the problems somehow. They also believe that if it comes from government, it’s free. And they believe that the government has an endless supply of money.
Now let me tell you, they really, really believe that. With their hearts they believe that. And there are no fine lines for the people. And there are a lot of them. And they all voted and 2012 for Barack Obama, as they did in ’08. And the point of that is, we are creating a many states sort of environment. There’s no doubt about it. But if these people would just think a moment, if they would just stop and look at the reality and looked beyond all of this, they would then know that we are all paying for this environment we create. We are all paying. For instance, anything you go and buy today that you are getting for free, someone is paying for those things. They are not free. And you are paying on the flip side somewhere else because every company has to make a profit at the end of the day. The only one that does not have to make a profit is the federal government.
Jason Hartman: Malcolm, you are absolutely right. People to realize, what these politicians love to talk about is corporate welfare. And they love to talk about how, all the big corporations are just not paying their fair share. While the point is, corporations are just passed through entities. Go ahead and regulate them more; the big corporations love that because it keeps competition away. And they can monopolize the market and when a monopolies created the prices always go up. Wall Street is a huge fan of regulation, even though they may act like they are not. The fact is, that keeps the competition out of the business.
Malcolm: Yeah, that’s another thing with these big corporations that people do not understand. We are seeing what’s going on in Cyprus right now with the collapse of the government and the banking industry, and the fact that they just had that big news the other day in Brussels, and they just resolve the fact that okay, we got this bailout, we got is like 13-14 billion we need, but what is going to have been as everybody’s going to take us/because the money with only protected to €100,000. And anybody that is any more than that has lost it. They’ve lost a ton of money. Russian citizens are often armed, the Russian government has invested all kinds of money legally and illegally.
Jason Hartman: And the Russian mafia.
Malcolm: They are all upset. And it’s tantamount of theft, they are saying. So people ask, Ok could this happen here in America? Is this what we are headed to? And you’ll have to start looking at the big bank mentality, you have to look at where government is, and this mentality that there is a bailout for every problem, and everything that ails it. And then you can start to draw some conclusions. I’ve done a couple of fascinating shows recently, Jason, with a world economist called Harry Dent. And he shed some pretty good light on world economics, and facts and numbers.
And you will find them right on our site, on our newsmagazine. We’re all connected. When Cyprus got that money that morning, Jason, what happened, our stock market was positive, not that it will be all the time, but it was. How are we connected? It would have plummeted and we would have had major losses here because they would have seen the risk in Europe. And there’s still a lot of risk in Europe. Europe right now is built on a bunch of cinder blocks that are about to explode.
Jason Hartman: Oh, no question about it. You’re absolutely right. The other way people pay for it is not just in the fact that the corporations are passed through entities, if you will, but also they pay for it in inflation. If you think there is something free from the government, you’re out of your mind. The value of your wages is declining, the value of your savings is declining, and someone has to pay. Stuff does not get created out of thin air. This is not magic. It’s just the way it works.
Malcolm: They don’t understand. No one’s really explaining this. Which is quite frankly why I’m in this business. And it’s the sort of topics and things we take on in the production. And these reasons we’re talking about right now, most people don’t understand and they’re not explained to them in a very logical way. And Jason, the problem right now today in this country, the media sound bites, the things that people are hearing every day, the conversation that is being had on the streets, I’m telling you now that conversation has been high jacked by the extremists, both from the left and the right. That is who owns the sound bites right now and that’s why you’re seeing this. Everything is dramatic.
Jason Hartman: It’s a corporatized media and there’s just a few big moles that run the whole deal. It’s amazing. But speaking of media, Malcolm, I want to ask you about, I mean this is more than saber rattling now that’s going on with North Korea. It looks like things are really, really heating up over there. Certainly in Iran too. Let’s talk about why are they so threatened by the US? What’s your take on it?
Malcolm: Well North Korea, it’s a very unusual environment because it’s not only a communist country but it is also a family dynasty. A lot of people don’t realize that Kim Jong and his wife just recently had a baby. And it’s been kind of kept as a state secret. Nobody knows and in fact, nobody even knew. I found out incidentally just recently and reported on it. And they believe they’ve had a girl, because when it’s not a girl they brag. If it was a boy they would have had the child rolled out and it would have been a big deal. Everything is sort of become a state secret there.
Here’s what happens. We have had sanctions against North Korea now for years. And obviously it has not worked. They continue to bully, they continue to threaten South Korea, they continue to threaten obviously the US at the latest. They’ve threatened to do a nuclear attack against Washington DC if you can believe that. The other day they said they have missiles in play and they’re ready to fire them off. And they’re making some pretty strong statements. I think there’s an interesting point to this.
I did a show about a week and a half ago with a gentleman called Robert Patrick Lewis – interesting man – an expert in this particular area of the world. And as he stated to me, Jason, more or less there are people that believe this. With Kim Jung Un it’s sort of a cry for help, I think is the best way I can put it there. We’ve sort of isolated him at this point, and that’s the problem with sanctions. Although we don’t really have a choice, but when we kick people out of the world’s community, and they certainly deserve to be kicked out, but the point is that it’s still isolationism. And he’s on his own, he’s doing his thing. And the only one who has really seen this man and seen his inner workings is Dennis Rodman, god forbid.
Jason Hartman: Yeah. Our new ambassador.
Malcolm: Well, I think he would actually be a very effective ambassador to North Korea. As much of a clown as he is, he surely can’t do any worse than the politicians.
Jason Hartman: Well I’ve got to agree with you there. North Korea is like the hermit regime. It’s mind boggling how isolated that country is. I’m fascinated with it. Did you know Malcolm, that if you look at a satellite image of the world at night, and you’ll see South Korea is lit up and blazing and high carbon footprint, (I’m just doing that for Al Gore’s sake). Everything around it is advanced and modern, but North Korea is almost totally dark.
Malcolm: Because what happens with these dictators, like in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez, like in a lot of these countries, what happens is the dictatorships that control the inflation, that control the influence, they also control the dollars. When Hugo Chavez died just recently they found billions and billions of dollars he had stashed for his own privacy. In the meantime, the citizens of the country are in the worst possible filth and as poor as could possibly be, as these clowns hoard all the money. And that is exactly what happens in the case of North Korea with Kim Jong Un. They live in luxury, they feed off the people, and then they act like they’re doing their people some sort of favor. They’re not doing any favors. It’s a disservice to society, it’s a disservice to these people, but obviously these people are being held in captivity in these countries like it or not. And that really is a fact, and they’re not free. And that’s the way the world is made up right now.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, no question about it. The thing that concerns me about Kim Jong Un is that he really wants to prove himself. I’m afraid of that guy more than Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Il just was a rotten dictator but Kim Jong Un seems like he just really wants to make a statement.
Malcolm: Well and here’s the reason. He’s a 29 year old. When you’re 29 years old and you’re trying to make a big point, you’ve got to remember something else now. When we talk about that cry for help and we talk about North Korea, he when his dad passed away, there was a great deal of talk in North Korea about who would succeed and who the next dictator and chief would be. And you have to remember the military – there are some strong heart landers out there that run the program.
Now where Kim Jong Un is, he’s in a very difficult position. Because he has to appease the heart landers and the military and he has to prove to them that he carries a big stick and certainly he carries a big mouth. And so if they can carry that big stick, in other words, many of the heart landers right now thrilled to see this confrontation. They want a confrontation with the United States and they very much like it. It puts them on the world stage, they can talk about all these kinds of things. Obviously they’re not going to get a lot done. These people haven’t been very successful with getting missiles and rockets up in the sky, let alone attaching nuclear weapons to them and sending them over the ocean. But you still have to take the threat seriously, which we are.
We’ve just explained that our military defense shield is at 30 and it’s supposed to stand at 44 under the Bush administration. President Obama had stopped it to try to, whatever, he was not a big defense guy. Now he recognizes over the past couple of weeks that we need that shield up and it’ll take a couple years to get up there. Fort Greely, Alaska which is home now to some of our missiles. We’ll be adding some more here on the western east coast to protect this country. So the point is we have to take Kim Jong Uns threats for real. And we have to protect with these defense shields. Which is sort of the same thing, by the way, that protects Israel.
Jason Hartman: Yeah it’s really an amazing time, what’s going on. And amazingly scary in a lot of ways.
Malcolm: Oh, the world itself is crazy right now. Everything you see in Iran and the president just coming back from Israel, again we’ve done a show just recently where we’ve talked about the real possibility of nuclear war in the middle east and what that means to people, and what that means to the states here. And I want to say Jason, there are a lot of Americans who run around who believe it’s really not our business in the middle east and we need to stay the hell out of there and not worry about it.
Let me assure you that if we ignore Israel and if we ignore the Middle East, if that was really an option, we would pay a very high price. Because don’t think for a minute that the problems out there will stay on those borders. They are definitely going to impact America. Make no mistake about it. So to isolate our country is not an answer as Rand Paul would have us do, or even Ron Paul did, isolating America is not the answer, you understand?
Jason Hartman: Well, I think I take a little bit more of a middle ground on it. Thinking, we don’t need to be as interventionist as we are. The Ron Paul point that we have a 170 military bases, I’m sorry more than that, but in 170 countries we have bases. I mean, that’s insane.
Malcolm: Without a doubt, we are policing the world. We have been, we continue to do it today. Between nation building and policing the world, the price for all of this is tremendous both in blood, in dollars, in time, in productivity and economic benefit back here. It is a huge blow to our country, yet the consequences are dire if we’re not in the right place at the right time. So yeah, it is a fine line. It’s a fine line with our leadership Jason…
Jason Hartman: There’s one more cost that you didn’t mention. And that is the cost that throwing our weight around a lot, you make people mad at you and there’s blow back. And I’m not saying that’s a giant factor, maybe not as big as Ron Paul makes it out to be, but it is a factor. It’s another factor. That’s all I’m saying. I take kind of a middle ground on it.
Malcolm: The other factor is we could do what Ron Paul says and just stay home and shut the doors and windows and hope no one comes in.
Jason Hartman: You can’t do that in today’s world. You can’t.
Malcolm: That’s why he didn’t win the election. He had very good economic policies, he had some real good ideas to get Washington in shape and actually I like a lot of his ideas and thoughts there. Many conservatives did. But quite frankly, from an international standpoint, his foreign policy, it’s like the Mickey Mouse Club. It’s beyond words. And that’s where he failed.
Jason Hartman: It’s too extreme.
Malcolm: You can’t have that. Nor should we be policing every second of every moment in the world. We can’t. which is why we haven’t stepped into Syria. Look what happening in Syria. People are dying by the tens of thousands. This man is slaughtering his citizens. The latest report is that maybe he’s used chemical weapons. Well, we still don’t know whether he has or has not, but again president Obama had to draw a red line on that and say, Listen. That’s a game changer. If he does, we’re going to do something. Well, that’s a threat the president is going to have to deal with now, because you have to put your money where your mouth is. You can’t be talking out there and not follow through with the actions. We’re losing credibility around the world real fast right now, let me tell you.
Jason Hartman: Yeah, we are. Well, tell me what else is going on at Malcolm Out Loud and what else you’re covering.
Malcolm: Some very exciting things. There’s some huge development. There’s a lot happening with our network in our world Jason. We are right now in a wonderfully expansion mode, and what’s coming down the pipe for us is an Out Loud network. Which is much more fascinating and with a great assortment of shows, and activity of content. And it really is. More people have turned to the web and have turned to what I call Talk Radio and National Blogs, is where you get any truth in this country. You’re certainly not going to get it from network or cable television. And that’s where the conversation has changed up a bit.
And so our expansion by having other offerings and other hosts and other possibilities while the Out Loud network is upon us. And over the next 60 days we will have a transformation, which is very exciting. We just celebrated our third year in our national news magazine which is historical by any standards here in this business. And so this is very exciting times for us. The Out Loud Minute plays on hundreds of radio stations around the country, as you know. The nationally syndicated Out Loud Minutes have been very successful for us as well. so a lot of things happening here as we continue moving forward with the conversation and get people involved.
Jason Hartman: One more question for you before you go, Malcolm. How did you start?
Malcolm: For me it was about change. I spent over 25 years in corporate boardrooms around the world. I was the CEO and creative director of a worldwide advertising agency. And I spent more times in corporate boardrooms and with very interesting people, and it was that movement that made my mission, is to really bring the leaders to the mic. How do we get the real conversation, bridge the gap between the powerful people in the business community, and the corruptness of the political world? That’s kind of where it started for me.
The transition for me happened about four years ago. I wrote my first book and it started the movement as a public speaker into the radio/television circuit. Now we’re just getting ready to launch our own daily show as well, so we’ll be on every day. So we’ve got a lot of things happening here, Jason. We’re moving pretty quick. And it’s just good to get people involved with the conversation and get others involved in how we can improve the quality of life for our families, our friends, our businesses, our associates, and that really is the bottom line. I encourage people to get involved. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, catch up.
Jason Hartman: Fantastic.
Malcolm: That’s the place to catch up, and put an opinion in there, right?
Jason Hartman: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, Malcolm, thanks for much for joining us today. We appreciate your insights and keep up the good work on your show. It’s not only informative, but it’s also entertaining. Thanks so much.
Malcolm: Thank you.
Narrator: Thank you for joining us today for the Holistic Survival Show. Protecting the people, places and profits you care about in uncertain times. Be sure to listen to our Creating Wealth Show, which focuses on exploiting the financial and wealth creation opportunities in today’s economy. Learn more at www.JasonHartman.com or search “Jason Hartman” on iTunes. This show is produced by the Hartman Media Company, offering very general guidelines and information. Opinions of guests are their own, and none of the content should be considered individual advice. If you require personalized advice, please consult an appropriate professional. Information deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.
Transcribed by Ralph
The Holistic Survival Team
