Expert Warns: "Take Your Money Out Now"

Dear Outsider,

Take a drive down Howard Street in Baltimore’s Station North Arts District and you'll likely see something colorful out of the corner of your eye.

You might have to slow the car down to see it, or even turn it around to get a better look.

Once you realize what it is, you’ll want to park the car and see it up close.

Dubbed Graffiti Alley, it’s a small L-shaped alley where graffiti artists hone their craft.

It looks like a Hollywood movie set.

I don’t know of any place like it.

In fact, it’s one of the only places in the country where you can legally spray-paint. (In Maryland, spray painting is illegal and can land you up to three years in prison and a $2,500 fine.)

Graffiti Alley is an ever-changing, impermanent work of art, as artists constantly repaint the alley.

It’s now become a popular spot for Instagram photo shoots, dance parties, music videos, concerts, and movie scenes.

According to Baltimore Magazine, the alley used to be a hotbed for trash, used needles, and condoms until it was cleaned up and transformed by local artist Sherwin Mark.

It’s inspiring to see something transformed like this in the city we Outsiders call home.

Atlas Obscura writes, “Graffiti Alley brings communities together through the lens of creative self-expression, and is often the site of break-dance parties and even school field trips. It reminds all visitors that although graffiti may be seen as uncivil vandalism to some, it is an art filled with heart and soul for those whose lives are shaped around it.”

Personally, I think graffiti looks cool, but I understand why the city doesn’t want people haphazardly spraying paint all over city property.

However, there are worse things for the city than graffiti.

For instance, the amount of trash in many parts of the city has gotten out of control.

A friend of mine started picking up trash in his neighborhood on the weekends, and he inspired me to do the same.

So the other week, together we filled about 10 trash bags in a couple of hours and had the place looking nice. A few weeks later, as I expected, the trash was back.

So it really blew my mind when this week, I saw city officials painting over the graffiti in my neighborhood with black paint.

All the while, there was garbage strewn everywhere under their feet.

This is the finished product...

The trash continues down the road as far as the eye can see.

And it’s not an exaggeration to say it’s like this all over the city.

Meanwhile, all you can see is black spots on the concrete like a redacted top-secret document.

It doesn’t look good.

So we’ve got three things going on here.

First, it’s another example of the government creating irrational laws that don’t actually stop people from committing the crime.

Second, the government is wasting valuable resources to cover up the failures of their own laws.

And finally, the city is choosing the most complicated way of cleaning up the streets — if that’s even what they are trying to do (and if not, it’s what they should be doing).

Occam’s razor is the principle that the simplest explanation for something is most likely the correct one.

If the city's goal is to sanitize the streets, they’ve got to start by cleaning up the litter, not painting over old paint that will just get spray-painted again in a few days.

It’s just a classic example of overlooking the small details.

Take care of the little things and the rest will fall into place.

But it’s what we can expect from a bureaucracy.

Because by definition they must grow to maintain power, and when a bureaucracy gets too big, mistakes will be made.

Take Google, for example.

It’s gotten so big that the little details are slipping through the cracks.

In an all-out frenzy to maintain its dominance as a tech darling, it released “Bard,” its latest foray into the AI chatbot arena.

In the product’s first demo this week, the chatbot AI produced a factual error.

The demo shows a prompt with the question, "What new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope can I tell my 9-year-old about?"

As NPR explains, “The chatbot responds with a few bullet points, including the claim that the telescope took the very first pictures of ‘exoplanets,’ or planets outside of earth's solar system... But the James Webb Telescope didn't discover exoplanets. The European Southern Observatory's very large telescope took the first pictures of those special celestial bodies in 2004, a fact that NASA confirms.”

The article continues, “Social media users quickly pointed out that the company could've fact-checked the exoplanet claim by, well, Googling it.”

Oof.

And this product was lauded as the “future of the company.”

Shares dropped by $100 billion on the news.

Ultimately, AI creates a unique problem for those in charge.

AI has the potential to take over the internet, financial markets, and even the government itself…

Combine AI with cryptocurrency and we've got a big problem on our hands.

The government fears that it's losing the ability to control the value of the dollar.

My publisher, Brian Hicks, alerted me that something big is going down.

Specifically, for the past several years, the Federal Reserve has been secretly testing a new type of currency...

One that will allow it to control EVERY aspect of your life.

What food you eat...

What type of vehicle you drive...

Who you go out with....

Brian's predicting that the government will outlaw the use of cash and coins.

Rendering the money in your retirement account worthless.

That's why he created this emergency presentation, detailing the three simple moves you can make today to protect yourself from the government’s sinister plan.

Brian says that this is a must-watch if you have any money in the stock market, a retirement account, or even an FDIC-insured bank account...

It could all go down as soon as March 16.

Stay frosty,

Alexander Boulden
Editor, Outsider Club

After Alexander’s passion for economics and investing drew him to one of the largest financial publishers in the world, where he rubbed elbows with former Chicago Board Options Exchange floor traders, Wall Street hedge fund managers, and International Monetary Fund analysts, he decided to take up the pen and guide others through this new age of investing. Check out his editor's page here.

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