Hi David Szeki here with FinTech TV at Money 2020.
I've got the privilege today to be with David Brat, who is a former senator.
Uh, he is the, uh, one of the lead people here at Liberty University shaping the minds of the future, and, uh, he is also on many podcasts but works closely with Steve Bannon in the war room.
Excited to have you here, Dave.
Thanks for having me.
Love it, love the energy here.
Unreal.
Yeah, so he, we're.
We're talking about fintech.
We're talking about the world.
What's your opinion as someone who's an educator of the next generation on what's going on in Fintech blockchain AI?
Well, I was the dean of the business school and I'm sorry to say the kids knew more than I did about this realm, right?
So I'm old school Milton Friedman, economics, laissez-faire, Adam Smith, and so I'm intuitively, you know, in love with this whole idea.
Uh, but the kids know technically and, and they, they get the linkage between the technology and the banking and the and the and the DI and all this stuff, which I'm also attracted to.
Uh, and so I'm, I'm just here to learn and uh I was told this is the best one, and I'm sure it is.
Now I, I, I've never seen anything like this.
Right?
No, absolutely.
So, uh, as far as like, you know, the future goes, curriculums, different things, is Liberty offering anything specific as it relates to some of these AI jobs and tech jobs of the future?
Yeah, we're, we're integrating AI into everything we can, we also integrate the Bible into everything we can so that there's a little push and pull there, but that's good.
That's a healthy thing.
Uh, but yeah, we've, we've got, you know, everything.
I've been talking to a lot of people here that do, you know, uh, kind of cross border stuff, regulatory stuff, balancing the book stuff, regulatory stuff, so we have all that between the government schools, the business school, and then we've crypto, we got a strong crypto we got engineering and then everything underneath the computer science, IT IS information security and so those are the main buckets.
Uh, but everybody's trying to catch up to speed with, with the speed of this room, and so, you know, we're not there but we're getting there.
So what excites you about blockchain technology right now and how you're seeing the world changes sort of the old system is on its way out right now and we're seeing a new system come forward.
Well, my whole life, and I was in Congress back in 14 to 18, and, uh, you know, I was voting against $1 trillion deficits.
And now there are $2 trillion deficits we're $37 trillion in debt by the end of the decade, according to CBO, we're $60 trillion in debt, right?
And so that is forcing this issue.
People do not think we can credibly pay off that debt, and that's gold's going through the roof, crypto is going through all these alternatives are going through the roof because of the lack of credibility in the US Treasury and so that's the scary part.
I don't like that.
I did my PhD in economic growth and even the I got a lot of growth buddies as smart I could say their names, but I'm gonna differ with them right here and uh they're cheerleading a little too much and they have shown no evidence to get us to those growth rates and there's a leading guy in the country at Northwestern University.
Uh, Bob Gordon and he's got the most devastating chart and ever go look him up.
He's probably a Democrat it's I'm not, it's not ideological, but he's got productivity going straight down for the past 70 years long run trend productivity.
It used to be 5 or 64 or 32, now it's 2.
CBO has a.
At 1.7% right now for the next 30 years, 1.7% productivity growth, and that's the best mirror for wage growth and for GDP growth and so you know thank God for this room and everybody's making a lot of AI bets.
I've been reading, you know, the valuation stuff.
I'm, I'm hoping that it's thumbs up but we'll see that's uh there's, there's some froth out there.
And I hope this thing kicks in.
MIT had a paper a month or two ago that said only 5 or 10% of firms had implemented AI, uh, but a lot of smart people are making major, you know, 20-30 billion dollar bets and investments in.
In AI, so and that's, I think that's kind of leading the, the economic growth story.
So we'll see about that.
I, I'm really encouraged by Liberty University, your curriculum, the way that you, you, you encourage faith in, in, in the education process, you know, as we look at AI in the future, we've got to really have the right ethics you could see this. go the wrong way I confuse the masses very easily.
So I'm excited to hear just some of how you, you, you've got this implemented.
Yeah, no, well, thank you for saying that and it and it's hugely important and, and a lot of people don't know, right?
I'm, I'm Protestant.
I went to Princeton Seminary 30 years ago.
But the Catholics, we hope the human rights language emerged in about 1300, right?
And to give people a little hook, right, it's not in the Bible.
Human rights language is not, but it evolved through the Catholic Church, the just war came through Augustine and all that.
It's hugely important and on the left right now, you know, Harvard's motto at 1640 was Truth for Christ in church for 200 years, not anymore.
And so when you start losing your foundations you can see in the country right now, right, the, the, the hostilities and we don't, I don't like that, but we, we I think we do need to get back to the fundamentals and I, I'm roughly from James Madison, he's, he also went to Princeton Seminary roughly speaking, he wrote, you know, the Constitution.
And framed the separation of powers right in the federal, state, local, and then at the federal, the three branches that's some heavy lifting based on serious thinking right and human nature ain't perfect.
You probably want to divide powers and so at liberty that's built into our curriculum, but a lot of schools, they're, they're missing the boat on on that much less, a lot of people can't even name what system of ethics they do follow.
Right, so if, if you're not religious, OK, it's a free country, we set it up that way, right?
The Constitution is set up for freedom of religion and the protection of minority rights.
The, the Christian community came up with that, right?
We want to protect our, but that doesn't mean the minority gets to rule the country.
And it seems incumbent and if you're gonna oppose the system, you need to name a better system of ethics and so I'm waiting to hear that from, you know, I, I, I think that'd be healthy like I love that dialogue, right?
The, the, the, the Jewish and the, the, the Muslims and the Christians used to have a healthy debate back in 1300 Mamanides and Avaros and the Islamic and the Christians who was all based on Aristotle and philosophy and reason.
And we need to get back to that.
And uh, so yeah, thanks for bringing liberty's uh we're we're fairly unique on that in universities around the country.
Well, no question, and of course with Charlie Kirk being, you know, a big counter heart here and now the, the, the terrible things that have happened, um, I think that we're seeing.
Like a national revival and uh and I'm so encouraged by the young people and all the things that are being shared out there.
And so, um, as somebody that is that would maybe speak to young people right now, what are some of the things that you would say are most important for them to to understand at this moment in history?
Well, you teed it up, right?
Uh, the, the key thing is what Charlie said.
He said the most important thing in my life, and he evolved over the past 5-6 years, the last couple years really strong on the faith, but he said his, his quote that everyone sharing is the most important thing in my life is the courage to have faith.
It's the courage for my faith.
And you saw there was no hatred in that guy.
No, he liked everybody.
You could see the leftists are jabbing and he's like, I love you.
He says it's all right, you know, and so, but that that took extreme courage.
And And you know, the young men, you couldn't have a better example right there, right?
You don't need to hate or hit back or get pithy.
And the most important thing is to, to grow in your education and in the faith that'll give you the confidence that uh you can handle anything head off like Charlie did and so yeah I there's a lot bubbling and it's not just young men, the young women now and Erica and all this kind of thing and so we'll see what emerges.
Uh, but, but that, that tragedy is turning into hope.
So something, something big is coming out of this.
You can feel it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that the memorial was like.
The most watched thing in the last 100 years, right, more than the Super Bowl, etc. and so it's, it's very exciting to consider that young people today have an aspiration to live for something, not just be against something.
It's so beautiful how Charlie would just give a microphone and allow somebody to come in with the best that they had, and he would have these just beautiful ways to just lay and dance with these ideas because real ideas hold real water.
That's it.
That's right, and you know, and.
It wasn't just kind of pie in the sky state for him.
It, it, it was concerned with the structure of government, the rest of the world.
He was friends with the rest of the world.
He was business, what you do, yeah, yeah, church is just, you know, on Sunday, and then you go out 6 days and what are you doing with your life, right?
So he's pushing everybody to their best level during the week.
And asking kids to make, you know, rational, you know, smart, faithful choices, what, what does God want me to do with my life?
And that's probably the number one question after the faith decision.
But that's probably the, the, the next most important what, what am I here to do?
So what's, what's my purpose?
That's right.
And so at Liberty University, people are finding themselves in their calling, finding themselves equipped with great ideas that are actually gonna hold water and ultimately lead into the next generation.
Yeah, no, that's right across the spectrum.
I'm believing for 10.
1000 more Charlie to be raised up.
They're coming.
Absolutely they're coming.
I think Liberty University is gonna be a recipient of a lot of those, uh, people coming that direction.
Yeah, no, I appreciate it, brother.
Thanks for saying it.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, man.
Thank you.
You bet.
Appreciate you.
