Capitalism, Agency & Human Flourishing with Jonathan Treussard

In which JT grills me. Warning: Contains Me.

Jonathan Treussard (PhD!) runs Treussard Capital Management, and publishes wonderful nuggets on the actual job of being a (good) financial advisor (you can find his stuff at Wealth, Empowered). Jonathan’s a big idea guy, extremely smart, and one of my regular conversational sparring partners. When he asked me to be one of his first guests on his new podcast series — Treussard Talks — I jumped at the chance. But I had no idea we were gonna get this deep into the crisis of the now, and how we got here, this quickly.

As this is almost an hour, and we’re all busy, here are two tools for my hardcore readers: An AI-derived-but-me-edited summary of key assertions/points I try to make, and the complete transcript, in case you want to cut and paste it into your own LLM.

THE TL;DR

The Evolution of Capitalism and Collective Action

• Capitalism is a modern expression of humanity's ancient superpower: collective action and cognition, which began with activities like group hunting.

• The fundamental purpose of an economy should be to allocate resources effectively for "species-level flourishing." An investment is only truly meaningful if you can trace its contribution to this goal.

• Modern markets are built on two key inventions: the rule of law and the role of capital. Both of these foundational systems are currently in a state of transition and stress.

The Democratization and Evolution of Investing

• The concept of pooling risk through funds is not new, dating back to Adriaan Van Ketwich & the Dutch East India Company in the 1700s.

• Direct investment by the average person is a relatively recent phenomenon. Before the 1980s, a lack of access to information & infrastructure made it an arcane hobby for the rich or highly dedicated.

• Technology created a "phase shift," democratizing investing but also leading to today's problem of information and product overload.

Gen X, Distrust, and the Rise of the Individual Investor

• The rise of the individual investor was — at least in part — driven by Generation X, whose "latchkey kid" upbringing fostered self-reliance and a deep-seated distrust of institutions.

• This generational distrust led Gen X to embrace individual control over their finances through 401(k)s, IRAs & brokerage accounts.

• In contrast, Millennials have shown a greater tendency toward communal risk-sharing models like indexing and target-date funds (although both have broad penetration now)

From Tech Bubble to Financial Nihilism

• Gen X's institutional distrust was validated and hardened by a series of crises, including the dot-com bust, 9/11, and the GFC.

• After repeated cycles where investors felt "fleeced," the "Fed put" became a nearly universally accepted way to socialize risk—a solution Gen X remains highly skeptical of.

• This history of distrust has fueled "financial nihilism," where Gen X has become a primary source of capital for speculative outlets like crypto, day trading, and sports betting.

The Crisis of Agency and the Allure of Crypto

• When mainstream investing feels like just "betting with the house," people seek a sense of agency and the opportunity for significant wealth generation elsewhere.

• Crypto, particularly Bitcoin, functions as a "societal catastrophe hedge"—a foundational bet against the current financial and political system.

• The bull case for crypto is morally complex, as massive appreciation likely requires the collapse of the dollar, the US economy, and global stability.

Navigating the ETF Landscape: White Hats and Black Hats

• The ETF world (and market participation in general) can be viewed through a "white hat vs. black hat" lens, where trust is paramount. This trust is not about contracts, but about how a firm behaves when things go wrong.

• "White hat" firms are transparent, educational, and client-focused. "Black hat" firms often feature high fees, opaque & needlessly complex structures, and promises that are too good to be true.

• In an environment where the rule of law feels less certain, the quality of the relationship with an asset manager matters more than ever.

Feel free to disagree with me on all of this violently in the comments.

THE TRANSCRIPT

(11,000 words follows)