Tom welcomes back a man who should need no introduction, Doug Casey, libertarian philosopher, speculator, and author.
Since 2008, Doug has continued to be shocked by the Fed’s reactions. They’ve printed trillions in new currency along with most other governments in the world. The little guys on the bottom are now seeing the full effects of inflation which is turning into a social time bomb. Bonds are now negative in real terms. Negative interest rates encourage borrowing and if we don’t borrow the system will collapse. We’re getting near the end game. What we have in the west today is not capitalism but a form of corporate fascism where the government controls things fairly tightly. Doug believes that gold is fairly well priced currently when compared with other assets. Gold for him is a savings vehicle and occasionally useful as a speculative asset. Gold equities on the other hand are currently quite cheap. Doug discusses how Cypress confiscated a lot of money directly from the population’s bank accounts and since then many other countries have passed laws to permit similar actions. Therefore, it may be foolish to have more than the insurable amount in your bank account. The largest export of the United States is the dollar itself and we see this reflected in the trade deficit. There are many trillions of dollars floating around outside of the United States. Eventually, foreigners will decide they no longer want dollars and then that money will flow back in exchange for any goods left in the United States. This is a timebomb ready to go off. Doug discusses how digital currencies issued by governments and central banks could function. He has serious concerns about social credit scores. Your biggest risks today are political so it makes sense to have some bullion on hand. Diversifying politically is also important so keeping some bullion outside your home country can be a good idea. Doug has always had an interest in commodities and we are entering a bullish period for them. He has placed a sizable investment into the carbon market but it’s definitely speculative. He notes that bonds are the biggest disaster waiting to happen. Talking Points From This Episode – The Fed is running out of options. – Why your biggest risks are political. – Gold and diversifying your assets against jurisdictional risk. – Commodities and the beginnings of the bull market.
