WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.620 Follow the money. Just saying. It gives you that 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:05.719 feeling. Yeah, like you're wearing a trench coat 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:07.639 in a dim parking garage at two in the morning. 00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:11.039 Exactly. It is arguably the most famous three 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:13.500 -word phrase in the history of political intrigue, 00:00:13.699 --> 00:00:15.919 maybe even the history of investigative journalism. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:19.059 Oh, absolutely. It has this punchy noir quality. 00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:21.980 It sounds gritty and real, like it's the ultimate 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:25.199 insider tip to unlocking all the dark secrets 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:27.750 of the powerful. Right. It implies that if you 00:00:27.750 --> 00:00:30.190 just pull this one single thread, you know, the 00:00:30.190 --> 00:00:32.210 financial thread, the whole tapestry of lies 00:00:32.210 --> 00:00:35.130 is just gonna unravel. And honestly, it makes 00:00:35.130 --> 00:00:37.549 you feel smart just saying it. It really does. 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:40.609 But here's the thing. And this is exactly why 00:00:40.609 --> 00:00:42.829 we are doing this deep dive today. We are looking 00:00:42.829 --> 00:00:45.490 at the source material behind this phrase, the 00:00:45.490 --> 00:00:48.450 actual history. And we are going to unpack something 00:00:48.450 --> 00:00:50.929 that might genuinely surprise you. I mean, it 00:00:50.929 --> 00:00:52.270 definitely surprised me when I first looked at 00:00:52.270 --> 00:00:55.429 the notes. Because there is the movie magic version 00:00:55.429 --> 00:00:57.750 of this phrase, and then there is the historical 00:00:57.750 --> 00:00:59.789 reality. And they are not the same thing. In 00:00:59.789 --> 00:01:01.630 fact, they are, well, they are almost completely 00:01:01.630 --> 00:01:04.299 different. They are. And what is so fascinating 00:01:04.299 --> 00:01:06.640 about this deep dive is that we aren't just looking 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.519 at a catchphrase. We are looking at how a phrase 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:12.359 traveled from a screenwriter's typewriter to 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:15.379 become a literal weapon in modern political warfare. 00:01:15.579 --> 00:01:18.140 So we have got Hollywood myths. We've got the 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:20.620 2016 election Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton, 00:01:20.659 --> 00:01:23.040 and even a Latin phrase from ancient Rome, we 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:25.040 have a ton of ground to cover. We really do. 00:01:25.219 --> 00:01:27.260 Let's start with the elephant in the room, or 00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:29.680 rather the informant in the parking garage. Picture 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:34.859 the scene. It is 1976. The film is All the President's 00:01:34.859 --> 00:01:37.500 Men. Classic. You have Hal Holbrook playing deep 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:39.959 throat, the shadowy informant, he is standing 00:01:39.959 --> 00:01:41.700 in the shadows smoking a cigarette because of 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:43.739 course you have to smoke in the 70s, and he is 00:01:43.739 --> 00:01:46.099 talking to Robert Redford who is playing Bob 00:01:46.099 --> 00:01:48.939 Woodward. It is cinematic gold, the lighting, 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:51.219 the tension. And he leans in and whispers that 00:01:51.219 --> 00:01:55.180 iconic line, follow the money. It is the line 00:01:55.180 --> 00:01:57.420 that launches a thousand investigations. Yeah. 00:01:57.819 --> 00:01:59.620 Except it never actually happened. Right. This 00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:02.060 is the huge twist right off the bat. Our source 00:02:02.060 --> 00:02:04.459 material highlights this as a classic Mandela 00:02:04.459 --> 00:02:07.719 effect. Because we all collectively remember 00:02:07.719 --> 00:02:10.139 deep throat saying this in real life just because 00:02:10.139 --> 00:02:11.979 the movie was so good. But if you look at the 00:02:11.979 --> 00:02:14.139 non -fiction book All the President's Men, which 00:02:14.139 --> 00:02:15.919 Woodward and Bernstein wrote before the movie 00:02:15.919 --> 00:02:19.000 came out, that phrase is literally nowhere to 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:22.000 be found. Nowhere. It is not in the book. It 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:24.659 does not appear in any of the actual documentation 00:02:24.659 --> 00:02:27.599 or notes from the entire Watergate scandal. That 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:30.479 is just wild to me. I mean, everybody knows Deep 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:32.819 Threat said follow the money, but you are telling 00:02:32.819 --> 00:02:35.080 me this was basically just a dramatic invention? 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:37.800 It was entirely a dramatic invention. It was 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.000 created by the screenwriter William Goldman. 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:42.539 And if you think about it from a writing perspective, 00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:45.659 it makes total sense. Goldman had a massive problem 00:02:45.659 --> 00:02:47.620 on his hands. What was the problem? He had to 00:02:47.620 --> 00:02:49.740 adapt a book that was essentially about forensic 00:02:49.740 --> 00:02:52.500 accounting. Oh, right. Checking bank records 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:55.439 isn't exactly high -octane action. Exactly. The 00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:58.300 real investigation involved tracing checks through 00:02:58.300 --> 00:03:01.219 Mexican banks and slush funds in Florida. It 00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:05.379 was complicated and dry and really tedious. So 00:03:05.379 --> 00:03:08.159 Goldman needed a way to condense all that complexity 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:10.900 into a singular driving directive for the audience. 00:03:11.259 --> 00:03:14.259 Right. Follow the money, simplifies the plot. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:16.860 It tells the viewer, okay, this is the mission. 00:03:17.180 --> 00:03:20.479 This is what the heroes need to do to win. So 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:23.199 he basically put words in the mouth of the most 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:25.939 famous anonymous source in history pretty much 00:03:25.939 --> 00:03:28.960 But deep throat or mark felt as we now know he 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:31.919 was must have said something somewhat like that, 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:33.979 right? I mean they were chasing financial trails. 00:03:34.060 --> 00:03:36.020 They didn't just guess Oh, they absolutely were 00:03:36.020 --> 00:03:39.319 chasing the money, but real life is rarely as 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:42.330 snappy as a Hollywood script The source gives 00:03:42.330 --> 00:03:45.590 us the actual quote that Bob Woodward said to 00:03:45.590 --> 00:03:47.770 Senator Sam Ervin in the book. This is how they 00:03:47.770 --> 00:03:49.469 originally described the strategy. OK, I have 00:03:49.469 --> 00:03:52.069 it right here. Instead of the cool whispered 00:03:52.069 --> 00:03:54.750 follow the money, the actual line was, and I 00:03:54.750 --> 00:03:57.710 quote, the key was the secret campaign cash and 00:03:57.710 --> 00:04:00.129 it should all be traced. The key was the secret 00:04:00.129 --> 00:04:02.050 campaign cash and it should all be traced. It 00:04:02.050 --> 00:04:04.030 really does not roll off the tongue. Not even 00:04:04.030 --> 00:04:06.030 a little bit. Imagine putting that on a bumper 00:04:06.030 --> 00:04:08.710 sticker. The key was the secret campaign tash, 00:04:08.810 --> 00:04:10.629 and it should all be traced. You would need a 00:04:10.629 --> 00:04:13.669 really wide bumper. It is so clunky. It is in 00:04:13.669 --> 00:04:16.170 the passive voice. It should all be traced. It 00:04:16.170 --> 00:04:18.230 sounds like an instruction manual for a mid -level 00:04:18.230 --> 00:04:20.810 auditor. While follow the money is an imperative, 00:04:21.089 --> 00:04:23.689 it is an action verb. It puts you right in the 00:04:23.689 --> 00:04:26.170 driver's seat. Which perfectly explains why the 00:04:26.170 --> 00:04:28.410 movie version survived in our cultural memory 00:04:28.410 --> 00:04:31.490 and the reality just faded away entirely. Okay, 00:04:31.490 --> 00:04:33.769 so we have established that Hollywood made the 00:04:33.769 --> 00:04:37.600 phrase famous in 1976. But does that mean William 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:40.399 Goldman invented the concept completely out of 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:42.660 thin air? Was nobody saying follow the money 00:04:42.660 --> 00:04:44.079 before the movie? Well, this is where it gets 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:46.740 a bit nuanced. While the movie popularized it 00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:49.019 globally, the phrase was actually floating around 00:04:49.019 --> 00:04:52.560 in the ether well before 1976. Oh, really? Yeah, 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:54.660 the source points out a couple of specific citations 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:57.579 that show it was already part of the lexicon 00:04:57.579 --> 00:05:00.339 in legal and journalistic circles. OK, so who 00:05:00.339 --> 00:05:02.300 was the hipster saying follow the money before 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:04.620 it was cool? That would be Henry E. Peterson. 00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:07.399 He was an assistant attorney general. In 1974, 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:10.800 so that is two full years before the movie, he 00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:12.899 used the phrase at the Senate Judiciary Committee 00:05:12.899 --> 00:05:16.019 hearings. 1974. Okay, so that is deep in the 00:05:16.019 --> 00:05:18.639 Watergate era, but definitely pre -movie. Right. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:21.420 This was regarding the nomination of Earl J. 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:24.680 Silbert as U .S. Attorney. Peterson explicitly 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:28.019 used the phrase, follow the money. during those 00:05:28.019 --> 00:05:30.420 hearings. Which suggests that investigators and 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:32.779 prosecutors were already using this shorthand 00:05:32.779 --> 00:05:35.779 to describe their strategy behind closed doors. 00:05:36.019 --> 00:05:38.060 Exactly. It wasn't just a Hollywood invention. 00:05:38.519 --> 00:05:40.740 It was professional slang. That makes perfect 00:05:40.740 --> 00:05:43.759 sense. It is like how cops or doctors have their 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:46.279 own internal lingo. It eventually bleeds into 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:48.600 pop culture, but it starts in the field. Precisely. 00:05:48.699 --> 00:05:50.779 And it wasn't just happening in the U .S. either. 00:05:51.139 --> 00:05:54.199 The source notes a 1975 book titled Crime in 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:56.740 Britain Today. By Clive Borrell and Brian Cascinella, 00:05:56.819 --> 00:05:59.300 right? Yes. And they also use the exact phrase, 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:01.779 follow the money, in that book. Crime in Britain 00:06:01.779 --> 00:06:04.149 Today sound like a light beach read. I'm sure 00:06:04.149 --> 00:06:06.769 it was a real page -turner. Yeah. But it proves 00:06:06.769 --> 00:06:09.209 that the concept and the specific phrasing was 00:06:09.209 --> 00:06:11.250 appearing in print on both sides of the Atlantic 00:06:11.250 --> 00:06:13.509 before Robert Redford ever said it on screen. 00:06:13.750 --> 00:06:15.629 And our source also mentions that CBS reports 00:06:15.629 --> 00:06:17.810 had an entire series called Follow the Money. 00:06:18.250 --> 00:06:20.850 Yes. So investigative journalists were already 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:23.740 framing their major stories this way. So William 00:06:23.740 --> 00:06:25.779 Goldman didn't invent the phrase out of thin 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:28.860 air, but he gave it the massive platform that 00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:30.639 made it legendary. Yeah, that's a great way to 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:33.439 put it. He elevated it from basic procedure to 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:35.620 pure mythology. OK, let's fast forward a bit. 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:39.459 We have gone from the 70s through Watergate and 00:06:39.459 --> 00:06:42.379 the movie. And now the phrase is fully embedded 00:06:42.379 --> 00:06:45.199 in our brains. Follow the money means find the 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:48.139 corruption. It is the gold standard. Right. Now 00:06:48.139 --> 00:06:50.480 we jump to the modern era. And this is where 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:52.779 the deep dive gets really interesting. Because 00:06:52.779 --> 00:06:55.519 this phrase stops being just a cool movie quote 00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:58.379 and starts being deployed as a literal weapon, 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.480 specifically in the 2016 U .S. election. This 00:07:01.480 --> 00:07:03.600 is a huge pivot for the phrase. You have to remember 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:06.339 the context of 2016. The political rhetoric was 00:07:06.339 --> 00:07:08.899 incredibly sharp and follow the money was dusted 00:07:08.899 --> 00:07:11.259 off and deployed specifically by the Donald Trump 00:07:11.259 --> 00:07:13.240 campaign. Now, to be clear for you listening, 00:07:13.620 --> 00:07:15.600 we are not taking sides here or endorsing any 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:17.800 political views. We are just impartially reporting 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:19.660 on the content provided in the source to show 00:07:19.660 --> 00:07:22.939 how the phrase was utilized. Absolutely. We are 00:07:22.939 --> 00:07:24.540 strictly looking at the rhetorical strategy. 00:07:24.779 --> 00:07:26.459 And what stands out to me here is the irony. 00:07:26.910 --> 00:07:30.050 You have Trump, who is often seen as this anti 00:07:30.050 --> 00:07:33.129 -establishment figure, using a phrase associated 00:07:33.129 --> 00:07:35.750 with bringing down a Republican President Nixon 00:07:35.750 --> 00:07:38.689 to attack his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. 00:07:38.829 --> 00:07:41.269 It was a very deliberate strategic choice. In 00:07:41.269 --> 00:07:44.850 September 2016, the Trump campaign explicitly 00:07:44.850 --> 00:07:47.649 urged voters to follow the money to criticize 00:07:47.649 --> 00:07:49.660 Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. They 00:07:49.660 --> 00:07:51.920 were using the underlying implication of the 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.519 phrase that money trails always lead to corruption 00:07:54.519 --> 00:07:57.060 to frame their attacks. Exactly. And the source 00:07:57.060 --> 00:07:59.699 gives us some very specific details on what they 00:07:59.699 --> 00:08:02.160 were alleging. It wasn't just a vague claim that 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:04.100 she was corrupt. They were trying to draw very 00:08:04.100 --> 00:08:06.600 specific lines between point A and point B. So 00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:09.000 what were the specific claims? The source outlines 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:11.319 three main allegations. The first one involved 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:13.899 a highly controversial uranium deal. Right. The 00:08:13.899 --> 00:08:15.920 uranium one deal. I remember this dominating 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.759 the news cycle for quite a while. The Trump campaign. 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:22.019 allegation was that this uranium deal which involved 00:08:22.019 --> 00:08:24.720 the sale of mining rights was approved by the 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:26.879 U .S. State Department while Hillary Clinton 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:28.879 was Secretary of State. And where does the money 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:31.819 come in? The follow the money argument was that 00:08:31.819 --> 00:08:34.440 this approval happened after the Clinton Foundation 00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:37.440 received large donations from people who had 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:40.419 direct financial stakes in that uranium deal. 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:43.139 So the narrative they were building was donors 00:08:43.139 --> 00:08:45.059 give money to the foundation and then the State 00:08:45.059 --> 00:08:47.480 Department approves the deal. cause and effect. 00:08:47.860 --> 00:08:50.179 Right. Follow the money from the donors to the 00:08:50.179 --> 00:08:52.559 decision. Whether or not you accept the premise, 00:08:53.440 --> 00:08:56.039 the rhetorical structure itself is very powerful. 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:59.169 Very. And what else? The source mentions in Irish 00:08:59.169 --> 00:09:01.850 billionaire. Yeah, Dennis O 'Brien. He is an 00:09:01.850 --> 00:09:04.350 Irish telecom billionaire. The Trump campaign 00:09:04.350 --> 00:09:06.470 pointed to Clinton's relationship with him as 00:09:06.470 --> 00:09:08.429 another area where they claim financial ties 00:09:08.429 --> 00:09:11.250 were influencing access or policy. And the third 00:09:11.250 --> 00:09:13.769 major allegation. The third one involved the 00:09:13.769 --> 00:09:16.870 Swiss bank UBS. This actually goes back to 2009. 00:09:17.250 --> 00:09:20.190 There was a diplomatic deal regarding the disclosure 00:09:20.190 --> 00:09:22.389 of the identities of American account holders. 00:09:22.750 --> 00:09:25.049 The State Department under Clinton concluded 00:09:25.049 --> 00:09:28.669 this deal with UBS. The Trump campaign highlighted 00:09:28.669 --> 00:09:30.629 the fact that UBS was a donor to the Clinton 00:09:30.629 --> 00:09:33.730 Foundation. Again, heavily connecting the policy 00:09:33.730 --> 00:09:36.409 decision directly to the donation. Right. And 00:09:36.409 --> 00:09:39.009 looking at this purely as analysts of the phrase, 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:41.950 it is a highly effective use of language. Oh, 00:09:41.950 --> 00:09:45.490 absolutely. It takes incredibly complex international 00:09:45.490 --> 00:09:48.549 dealings, uranium markets and Swiss banking regulations 00:09:48.549 --> 00:09:51.529 and telecom networks, and simplifies them into 00:09:51.529 --> 00:09:54.250 that one single instruction. All of a many. It 00:09:54.250 --> 00:09:57.330 is brilliant branding. It is taking a complicated 00:09:57.330 --> 00:09:58.970 web and saying to the public, you don't need 00:09:58.970 --> 00:10:01.200 to understand the nuances of the global... uranium 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:03.799 market, you just need to watch the cash. Exactly. 00:10:04.100 --> 00:10:06.539 It empowers the voter to feel like an investigator. 00:10:06.700 --> 00:10:08.620 It tells them the truth is simple, even if the 00:10:08.620 --> 00:10:11.200 details are messy. But here is the twist that 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.740 I think makes this entire story so compelling. 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:16.419 Weapons and politics have a funny way of getting 00:10:16.419 --> 00:10:18.279 turned right back around. They almost always 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:21.519 do. So we move from the 2016 election to just 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:25.019 a few months later, February 2017. The election 00:10:25.019 --> 00:10:28.840 is over. Trump is president. And suddenly, Follow 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:31.460 the Money makes a massive reappearance. But this 00:10:31.460 --> 00:10:33.980 time, it is not coming from Trump. It is coming 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:36.259 at him. And you have to look at who is saying 00:10:36.259 --> 00:10:39.580 it. It is Carl Bernstein. Literally one half 00:10:39.580 --> 00:10:42.419 of the original Woodward and Bernstein duo, the 00:10:42.419 --> 00:10:44.440 guys who the movie was about. The very same. 00:10:44.860 --> 00:10:47.899 In February 2017, Carl Bernstein went on air 00:10:47.899 --> 00:10:51.419 and used the phrase, Follow the Money. to encourage 00:10:51.419 --> 00:10:53.779 reporters to dig into President Trump's potential 00:10:53.779 --> 00:10:55.860 conflicts of interest. So you have the man who 00:10:55.860 --> 00:10:58.700 helped make the concept famous, effectively reclaiming 00:10:58.700 --> 00:11:01.059 it to target the very person who had just used 00:11:01.059 --> 00:11:03.460 it to win a national election. It is incredibly 00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:05.600 poetic. It is like the phrase went full circle 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:08.259 in the span of six months. It really did. And 00:11:08.259 --> 00:11:10.320 the investigation that followed the literal following 00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:12.840 of the money actually yielded legal results according 00:11:12.840 --> 00:11:15.559 to the source? Yes. The source details the investigation 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:17.879 into the Trump Foundation. Now, just to distinguish 00:11:17.879 --> 00:11:19.740 this for everyone listening, this is separate 00:11:19.740 --> 00:11:21.740 from the Trump campaign, right? This is his charitable 00:11:21.740 --> 00:11:24.379 foundation. Correct. This was an investigation 00:11:24.379 --> 00:11:27.320 strictly into the charity itself, and the findings 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:29.840 were significant. The Trump Foundation was found 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:32.860 guilty of illegal campaign contributions and 00:11:32.860 --> 00:11:35.580 other financial crimes. Financial crimes. That 00:11:35.580 --> 00:11:38.179 is a pretty heavy outcome. What was the actual 00:11:38.179 --> 00:11:40.799 penalty mentioned in our source? According to 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:44.299 the source, in November 2019, Donald Trump was 00:11:44.299 --> 00:11:47.929 ordered to pay a $2 million settlement. $2 million. 00:11:48.289 --> 00:11:51.029 Yes. The court found that he had misused the 00:11:51.029 --> 00:11:53.009 foundation for his own business and political 00:11:53.009 --> 00:11:55.350 purposes. So if we just look at this timeline 00:11:55.350 --> 00:11:58.649 from a bird's eye view, in 2016, follow the money 00:11:58.649 --> 00:12:01.190 is the hammer used to attack the Clinton Foundation's 00:12:01.190 --> 00:12:04.190 donors. But by 2019, follow the money is the 00:12:04.190 --> 00:12:07.009 methodology used to expose the Trump Foundation's 00:12:07.009 --> 00:12:08.929 misuse of funds. And that really underscores 00:12:08.929 --> 00:12:11.570 the raw power of the concept. It is technically 00:12:11.570 --> 00:12:14.409 neutral. Money leaves a trail doesn't care if 00:12:14.409 --> 00:12:16.330 you are a Democrat or a Republican He doesn't 00:12:16.330 --> 00:12:18.769 care about your ideology at all exactly if you 00:12:18.769 --> 00:12:21.789 transfer funds There's a record and if someone 00:12:21.789 --> 00:12:24.549 has the patience to follow it the truth or at 00:12:24.549 --> 00:12:27.009 least the transaction comes out It is the ultimate 00:12:27.009 --> 00:12:29.669 equalizer You can spin a speech, you can spin 00:12:29.669 --> 00:12:31.789 a press release, but you can't really spin a 00:12:31.789 --> 00:12:33.929 bank transfer record. It just is what it is. 00:12:34.129 --> 00:12:36.230 Precisely. That's why the phrase endures. It 00:12:36.230 --> 00:12:38.330 cuts right through the noise. Now, speaking of 00:12:38.330 --> 00:12:41.250 enduring phrases, the source mentions that follow 00:12:41.250 --> 00:12:43.529 the money isn't the only way we talk about motive. 00:12:44.129 --> 00:12:47.149 If we zoom out a bit, does this concept exist 00:12:47.149 --> 00:12:49.570 elsewhere in history? Like, were the Romans walking 00:12:49.570 --> 00:12:52.029 around in togas saying, follow the denarius? 00:12:52.230 --> 00:12:54.389 Maybe not exactly follow the denarius, but they 00:12:54.389 --> 00:12:56.899 had something very similar. The source brings 00:12:56.899 --> 00:13:01.100 up the Latin phrase quibono. Quibono. I feel 00:13:01.100 --> 00:13:02.899 10 times smarter just hearing you say it. What 00:13:02.899 --> 00:13:05.220 does it translate to? It literally translates 00:13:05.220 --> 00:13:07.840 to to whose benefit or for whose benefit. To 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:10.019 whose benefit. OK, so how is that different from 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:12.840 following the money? It's the broader philosophical 00:13:12.840 --> 00:13:15.539 ancestor. It suggests that if you want to find 00:13:15.539 --> 00:13:17.740 the culprit, you shouldn't look for the person 00:13:17.740 --> 00:13:20.419 holding the weapon necessarily. You should look 00:13:20.419 --> 00:13:22.340 for the person who gained the most from the crime. 00:13:22.539 --> 00:13:24.870 That makes perfect sense. Because usually the 00:13:24.870 --> 00:13:27.690 biggest benefit is money. Exactly. If a building 00:13:27.690 --> 00:13:30.090 burns down, you look at who collects the insurance. 00:13:30.769 --> 00:13:34.370 Quibono. It's a concept of hidden motive. Follow 00:13:34.370 --> 00:13:36.970 the money is really just the modern capitalist 00:13:36.970 --> 00:13:39.830 version of Quibono. The source also throws in 00:13:39.830 --> 00:13:41.730 a French phrase that I have definitely heard 00:13:41.730 --> 00:13:44.350 in old black and white detective movies. Chercher 00:13:44.350 --> 00:13:47.210 la femme. Yes, Chercher la femme. It means look 00:13:47.210 --> 00:13:50.009 for the woman. Which, I mean, that feels a little 00:13:50.009 --> 00:13:52.970 dated. and probably a little sexist. It is definitely 00:13:52.970 --> 00:13:55.269 a product of its time. The phrase comes from 00:13:55.269 --> 00:13:58.269 a pulp fiction novel back in the 1800s. It assumes 00:13:58.269 --> 00:14:00.110 that if a man commits a crime, there must be 00:14:00.110 --> 00:14:03.090 a woman involved as the core motive, a lover, 00:14:03.649 --> 00:14:06.730 a mistress, a jealous wife. So Cherche La Femme 00:14:06.730 --> 00:14:09.350 assumes the motive is romance or passion, but 00:14:09.350 --> 00:14:11.710 Follow the Money assumes the motive is greed. 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:14.799 And Quibono sort of safely covers both. It just 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:17.080 asks who wins. I think follow the money is probably 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:19.120 the most reliable in modern politics, though. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:22.440 Passion fades, but greed is forever. Sad, but 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:24.539 often very true. And the source actually points 00:14:24.539 --> 00:14:27.059 to a modern digital equivalent of this concept. 00:14:27.480 --> 00:14:29.679 It lists open secrets in the see also section. 00:14:29.940 --> 00:14:32.120 Oh, open secrets. That is the website that tracks 00:14:32.120 --> 00:14:35.289 campaign finance, right? It is. Think about the 00:14:35.289 --> 00:14:37.830 crazy progression here. We went from a Latin 00:14:37.830 --> 00:14:40.889 phrase about motive to a screenwriter's fictional 00:14:40.889 --> 00:14:44.230 line about a parking garage to a massive digital 00:14:44.230 --> 00:14:47.629 database. OpenSecrets is basically follow the 00:14:47.629 --> 00:14:50.629 money automated. It tracks lobbying data campaign 00:14:50.629 --> 00:14:53.149 contributions and the net worth of politicians 00:14:53.149 --> 00:14:55.960 all in one place. It is the tool that lets you 00:14:55.960 --> 00:14:58.159 do from your laptop what Woodward and Bernstein 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:01.120 had to do by knocking on doors for months. Exactly. 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.340 But the core principle remains exactly the same. 00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:07.440 The data is there. The money moved. You just 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:09.759 have to be willing to look. It is pretty incredible 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:11.620 when you step back and look at it. We started 00:15:11.620 --> 00:15:13.460 this deep dive thinking we were just talking 00:15:13.460 --> 00:15:15.639 about a cool movie line. Right. But we found 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:18.019 out the line was fake, yet the concept was very 00:15:18.019 --> 00:15:20.120 real. It was used to attack Clinton. It was used 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:22.639 to investigate Trump. It has been used by prosecutors 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:24.820 since the early 70s. It really is a journey. 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:26.980 And I think what stands out to me the most is 00:15:26.980 --> 00:15:30.399 how a screenwriter, William Goldman, managed 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:33.440 to crystallize something so complex. He took 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:36.100 the dry, boring reality of forensic accounting. 00:15:37.100 --> 00:15:40.039 The key was the secret campaign cash, and he 00:15:40.039 --> 00:15:42.519 turned it into a literal call to adventure. He 00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:45.100 really did. Follow the money. It is an instruction. 00:15:45.240 --> 00:15:47.240 It tells you that the truth is out there. You 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:49.720 just have to have the stamina to track the transfers. 00:15:49.860 --> 00:15:51.820 And that leads to a great point. We often think 00:15:51.820 --> 00:15:55.000 of corruption as these secret smoky room deals 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:57.399 that leave no trace. We think it's totally invisible. 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:00.000 Right, the classic smoke -filled room. But the 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.399 lesson of follow the money, whether it is Watergate 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.340 or the Clinton Foundation or the Trump Foundation, 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:07.899 is that corruption almost always requires a transaction. 00:16:08.340 --> 00:16:11.360 It requires the movement of value. And in our 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:13.500 modern world, every movement leaves a footprint. 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.539 Which means? Which means the truth isn't usually 00:16:16.539 --> 00:16:18.899 invisible at all. It is just buried in data. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:21.639 The challenge for us today isn't finding a deep 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:24.299 throat to whisper secrets in a garage. It is 00:16:24.299 --> 00:16:26.360 having the patience to look at the spreadsheets, 00:16:26.580 --> 00:16:29.159 the tax returns, and the donation lists. The 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:31.480 truth is hiding in plain sight in the numbers. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:33.960 It puts the power in the hands of anyone willing 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:36.580 to look. Which brings up a final provocative 00:16:36.580 --> 00:16:39.700 thought for you listening to Chew On. We have 00:16:39.700 --> 00:16:42.960 been talking a lot about politicians and billionaires 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:45.519 today. We're the big players. But the concept 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:47.679 of following the money doesn't just apply to 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:50.460 them anymore. Think about your own life. Every 00:16:50.460 --> 00:16:53.460 time you swipe a credit card, use a digital wallet, 00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:56.299 or even click on a targeted ad, you are leaving 00:16:56.299 --> 00:16:58.820 your own personal money trail. You really are. 00:16:58.940 --> 00:17:02.000 A massive digital footprint. So if following 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.299 the money is enough to expose presidents and 00:17:04.299 --> 00:17:07.559 topple empires, just imagine what your own daily 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:10.299 transaction history exposes about you to the 00:17:10.299 --> 00:17:13.039 companies tracking it. It is not just a political 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:16.339 weapon anymore. It is the reality of our digital 00:17:16.339 --> 00:17:18.960 privacy. That is a chilling thought, but absolutely 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:20.819 true. Well, there you have it. The next time 00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:22.579 you watch all the presidents men, you can lean 00:17:22.579 --> 00:17:24.740 over to your friend and totally ruin the moment 00:17:24.740 --> 00:17:27.430 by telling them. Deep Throat never actually said 00:17:27.430 --> 00:17:29.390 that. You will definitely be the hit of the party. 00:17:30.150 --> 00:17:32.509 Exactly. Thanks for joining us for this deep 00:17:32.509 --> 00:17:35.769 dive into the currency of corruption. Stay curious 00:17:35.769 --> 00:17:37.309 and keep following those threads.