TOM LUONGO: since Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, 1781, we have never really had financial independence in the United States, and if you don't have financial independence you don't really have political independence either.

Tom Luongo and Caitlin Long explore the significant financial shifts in the US monetary system, including the transition from LIBOR to SOFR, the role of stablecoins, and the potential decoupling of the US financial system from European control. https://t.co/7aB98UUPrQ

— St. Michael, the Archangel (@aveng_angel) May 19, 2025

Find the full transcript here. 

My transcript below starts where Tom says, "Oh, wow."

2:45. Donald Trump is a tempting the first real decoupling of the American financial system, broaden that as wide as you want, from the old Colonial European system if you look over the history of the United States has it pertains to money since our conception, since Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, 1781, we have never really had financial independence in the United States, and if you don't have financial independence you don't really have political independence either.  How do you feel about the American Revolution?  Since the American Revolution was declared and we are still fighting the vestiges of that system over the course of the past few years, the advent of SOFR, secured overnight financing rate, and the true end of LIBOR [ London Inter-Bank Offered Rate] on March 31st because LIBOR ended on September 30th the 6th month synthetic Library contract that were floating around out there they didn't mature until March 31st.

4:10. LONG.  Can I pause you there and explain the difference between SOFR and LIBOR, and why that means the US is taking power back from London?

4:19.  Sure because the Libor rate is an unsecured rate, decided upon by 18 City of London Banks, only one of which represents American interests in many people's parlance.  And JP Morgan does not represent America's interest at all.  It's only that JP Morgan's London office, their subsidiary, that sat on the board of LIBOR. The secured overnight financing rate . . . LIBOR was a way to price offshore dollars without ever really having to post collateral because you could just pass LIBOR contracts, rehypothecate the maximum themselves, and we had this massive growth the shadow banking system and the euro dollar market over the last 60 or 70 year. . . 

5:03.  Okay let me pause you there.  For people who are just starting to listen to this for the first time and underscore that meant that London Banks set the most important interest rate in US dollar markets . . .

5:15.  . . . and which then would be the most important markets in the world.  So now that we have that established in the LIBOR system was codified in 1984 when LIBOR was unofficially established as the US dollar rate around the world, interestingly enough we had the G5 get together 1985 to create the Plaza Accord so now read currency markets.  That system was really in play all the way up until the global financial crisis of 2008 and that's when the system started to break, really broke, and then, since then years after that around 2011 when the central banks all got together and created swap lines amongst all the major G7 Banks, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England the Fed, the ECB, they all got together and coordinated monetary policy, and that's actually what broke the last gold bull market.  If you remember it was at that moment in time . That gold peaked and then there was the announcement the coordination of Central Bank policy we were dealing with the potential Greg's it at the time Germany leaving the euro at the time that stabilized markets by the time we got into October November of that year and then that system