#182 - Julian Jessop - Big Government Broke the Growth Model
06/06/2026 | 1h 6 mins.
Julian Jessop joins me to discuss what has gone wrong with the British economy and whether the country can still turn things around.
Julian argues that Britain’s problems are largely self-inflicted: weak productivity, high taxes, too much regulation, poor energy policy, a bloated state and politicians choosing popular policies over evidence. We discuss why the state has become too big, why the tax system is holding back growth, and why government intervention in housing, energy and the labour market is making people poorer.
I also ask Julian about Reform, the Greens, Labour, the Conservatives, Makerfield, Liz Truss, Milei, the NHS, digital ID, Brexit, AI, free markets and whether Britain still has a path back to economic sanity.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - The State Got Too Big 00:00:57 - What Went Wrong With Britain? 00:03:16 - Productivity, Policy Mistakes and AI 00:04:43 - Did Covid Make Government Too Powerful? 00:06:25 - Is Democracy the Problem? 00:08:10 - Vibe-Based Policy 00:10:21 - Young People and the First Job Problem 00:13:06 - Can Britain Turn This Around? 00:15:36 - Protest Votes and Broken Politics 00:17:29 - Reform’s Policies Under Scrutiny 00:20:15 - The State Helps Big Business 00:21:40 - Britain’s 90 Taxes 00:23:03 - Thatcher, Liz Truss and Economic Competence 00:26:20 - Why Free Markets Are a Hard Sell 00:30:15 - Could Poland Overtake Britain? 00:30:41 - Short-Term Politics and Weak Leadership 00:39:46 - What Is Extreme Now? 00:42:00 - Do Voters Understand the Trade-Offs? 00:45:57 - Does Britain Need a Milei? 00:48:24 - How Big Should the State Be? 00:49:40 - Why People Defend the NHS 00:54:01 - Why Government Tech Fails 00:55:09 - Makerfield, Burnham and Reform 01:01:49 - Restore’s Opportunity 01:04:24 - What Gives Julian Hope?
#181 - Tom Bilyeu - AI, Bitcoin & the Rigged Economy
03/06/2026 | 1h 25 mins.
Tom Bilyeu joins me to discuss debt, money printing, broken politics, AI, Bitcoin and why the economy feels rigged against ordinary people.
Tom argues that every empire eventually faces the same test: whether it can hold the power of the money printer without printing itself into oblivion. We talk about inflation, the debt cycle, asset prices, populism, Britain’s decline, and why the working and middle class are being squeezed.
We also get into AI and the future of work. I talk through my own recent experience building a system in seven days that would once have taken a full team and hundreds of thousands of pounds, and Tom explains how AI has already changed the structure of his business.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - The Economy Is Rigged 00:01:09 - Are We Driving Off a Fiscal Cliff? 00:03:04 - Debt, Money Printing and Inflation 00:04:36 - The Final Boss of Economics 00:07:02 - America’s Founding and Wealth Extraction 00:10:19 - Can America Be Saved? 00:11:46 - Economics Has Physics 00:16:06 - Debt, Cancellation and Freedom 00:19:03 - The Thucydides Trap 00:21:42 - Politics Has Not Been Disrupted 00:25:15 - Populism and the Shrinking Pie 00:29:07 - Asset Inflation Is Vile 00:35:59 - UK Politics Is Breaking Down 00:40:36 - Is Sweden Really Socialist? 00:42:40 - Where Is the Hope? 00:50:16 - Tom’s View on Bitcoin 00:53:17 - Peter’s AI Eureka Moment 00:57:56 - How AI Changed Tom’s Business 01:03:02 - The Four Futures of AI 01:12:56 - Is Reality a Simulation? 01:24:34 - Tom’s Final Warning
#180 - Frank Wright - Reality Is Radicalising People
29/05/2026 | 2h 35 mins.
Frank Wright joins me after going viral for saying that reality, not extremism, is radicalising people.
We discuss Britain’s decline, Restore, Reform, immigration, national identity, liberal democracy, working-class dignity, debt, inflation, the failure of our institutions, and why Frank believes this is the last chance to save the nation.
I push Frank on what it actually means to restore Britain, how you build a big enough tent, why nationhood matters, and how we avoid this ending in conflict.
Whatever your politics, Frank has clearly touched a nerve - and I wanted to understand why.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - Reality Is Radicalising People 00:01:01 - Frank’s Viral Week 00:03:28 - Why People Refuse to See Reality 00:06:44 - Feminism, Childcare and Family 00:10:04 - Propaganda in the West 00:16:30 - Factists, Fascists and Utopia 00:21:09 - Liberal Rights and Reality 00:29:59 - What Does Frank Wright Want? 00:36:31 - What Radicalised Frank? 00:44:53 - Reform, Restore and Machine Politics 00:49:04 - Rupert Lowe and “I Don’t Care” 00:52:23 - The Cost of Saying Nothing 00:54:45 - Reform vs Restore 01:00:27 - Is Populism Enough? 01:14:49 - Surrogacy and the Commodification of Life 01:18:38 - Who Really Runs Britain? 01:24:03 - The Cost of Truth 01:27:23 - Are We Finished? 01:33:22 - Why Nationhood Matters 01:38:16 - Working-Class Dignity 01:47:00 - Restore in Makerfield 01:57:22 - Will Frank Wright Become an MP? 02:04:23 - Why Government Can’t Govern 02:18:21 - Debt, Inflation and the Middle Class 02:29:45 - Frank’s Final Warning
#179 - Simon Dixon - The One World Government Is Already Here
27/05/2026 | 1h 48 mins.
Simon Dixon joins me to discuss AI, Bitcoin, algorithms, media capture, central banking, programmable money, geopolitics and how to escape the system. Simon argues that the world is moving towards a more centralised architecture of artificial intelligence, social credit scores, programmable money and financial control.
Simon and I discuss why AI may be the most important opportunity of our lifetime, how small businesses can now build tools that once required entire teams, why politics may no longer be the route to change, and why the answer may be to build with AI, own assets that cannot easily be captured, and become sovereign.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - Take the Golden Pill 00:01:22 - Are We Slaves to the Algorithm? 00:02:50 - Freedom of Speech, Not Freedom of Reach 00:07:27 - Is Media Just About Power? 00:10:00 - Why Scale Gets Captured 00:13:08 - Bitcoin, Self-Custody and Sovereignty 00:17:29 - What Is at Stake? 00:18:49 - Is AI Different from the Internet? 00:20:11 - Building With AI 00:25:18 - AI and the Software Apocalypse 00:26:33 - You’re Done, You’re Cooked 00:30:49 - These Companies Can Turn You Off 00:31:37 - Is China Winning Open-Source AI? 00:36:53 - Money Printing, BlackRock and the Fed 00:40:05 - World War III or Currency War? 00:48:01 - The Petrodollar Is Breaking 01:01:20 - Before It Was Ships, Now It’s AI 01:05:26 - Politics Is Gone 01:18:54 - London Is Cooked 01:29:43 - The Golden Pill 01:44:52 - Advice to Young People
#178 - Malcolm Offord - We Forgot How to Create Wealth
25/05/2026 | 1h 6 mins.
Lord Malcolm Offord joins me to discuss why Britain and Scotland have stopped creating wealth.
They discuss state spending, political fragmentation, Scotland’s elections, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, QE, the Bank of England, first jobs, minimum wage, small businesses, quangos, the managerial class, Reform, the Greens, America, and whether Britain needs a welfare economy or a wealth economy.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - Britain Forgot How to Create Wealth 00:01:01 - Two Revolutions at Once 00:01:36 - Is Democracy Fragmenting? 00:05:36 - Is the State Too Dysfunctional to Deliver? 00:07:30 - Spending More and Getting Less 00:08:42 - Scotland’s Political Warning 00:10:06 - “I Won’t Vote for Decline” 00:11:22 - Britain Has Stopped Creating Wealth 00:13:21 - How to Think vs What to Think 00:16:50 - Why First Jobs Matter 00:23:12 - Business Prevention Officers 00:27:14 - Trickle-Up Economics 00:30:34 - QE Protected the Rich 00:37:31 - The Managerial Class 00:40:48 - Parliament vs the Public 00:44:42 - Why Voters Are Fed Up 00:50:28 - Can Reform Fix the System? 00:55:05 - Welfare Economy vs Wealth Economy 00:58:37 - Can the State Get Any Bigger? 01:04:34 - Britain Is Being Left Behind
The Peter McCormack Show - politics, macro, Bitcoin and AI, long-form interviews. Twice-weekly conversations about money, power, and the shifts reshaping the next decade.Peter McCormack interviews politicians, economists, investors, journalists, founders and Bitcoiners. Past guests include Liz Truss, Lyn Alden, Curtis Yarvin, Matt Goodwin, Mike Green, Balaji Srinivasan, Rupert Lowe, Firas Modad, Scott Horton, Jeff Booth, Connor Leahy, Andrea Miotti, Neema Parvini, Dr Tim Gregory and Simon Dixon.Recurring threads: the debt and inflation endgame, UK political collapse and what comes after, Reform and the populist wave, the Middle East and the American war machine, AI safety and the race for superintelligence, energy and net zero, Bitcoin adoption and policy, and the slow-motion decline of Western institutions.Long-form - most episodes run 60 to 120 minutes. New episodes 2 to 3 times per week. Video on YouTube and Spotify.Host: Peter McCormack, a retired rapper from Bedford, UK, trying to understand this crazy world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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