Elon Musk’s Coming Gold Shock

Addison Wiggin / February 5, 2025

The maverick financial fraternity that predicted the Internet boom, the Great Recession, and the incredible rise of Bitcoin has a bold, new prediction…

Elon Musk’s Coming Gold Shock
The maverick financial fraternity that predicted the Internet boom, the Great Recession, and the incredible rise of Bitcoin has a bold, new prediction…
President Trump’s team doesn’t just want a weaker dollar — they want a dollar that’s radically devalued against every other currency on Earth. But they absolutely don’t want a dysfunctional bond market. That’s how you get 2008 again.

In January 2025, as President Trump took his second oath of office and declared a “Golden Age of America,” our Grey Swan Bulletin offered a sober counterpoint: “Financial markets love what they’ve heard. Stocks are roaring higher. But that could be a siren song…” As for today’s AI names? The “Magnificent Seven” now comprise 28% of the S&P 500.

Most people think gold is just an inflation hedge. They’re missing something bigger: Gold is becoming Tier 1 collateral again. And that changes everything. Historically, gold was money. It backed empires, settled international trade, and stabilized systems. Until 1971—when the U.S. closed the gold window. That decision turned gold into a commodity. But not for long.

BREAKING NEWS

The Pursuit of Chaos
The Pursuit of Chaos

John Robb / April 10, 2025

The red and blue networks aren’t changing incrementally. They are undergoing a rapid process of evolution; birth, death, and rebirth (in a stronger configuration). The competition between them and the relative lack of friction in forming networked organizations, is driving this process forward at a torrential pace.

The Next Empire Will Be Coded
The Next Empire Will Be Coded

Addison Wiggin / April 9, 2025

President Trump raises tariffs on China to 125%, but gives other countries who haven’t announced retaliatory tariffs a reprieve (and as markets get a much-needed oversold bounce, including an unheard-of 10% rally in the Nasdaq this afternoon).

Trump isn’t just resetting the world order, he’s doing so in a way that pits everyone against China, the poster child for getting rich off of globalization while other nations struggle.

Stephen Roach, former Morgan Stanley Asia Chair and one of the few Western economists fluent in both the language and nuance of Chinese policymaking, calls this moment a “clash of saving-impoverished populisms.”

The Tariff Chaos Is Settling In
The Tariff Chaos Is Settling In

Bill Bonner / April 8, 2025

In his first term, Trump committed one of the biggest blunders in U.S. economic history — shutting down the economy and replacing real output with an extra $4 trillion in phony, printed-up stimmy checks.

The result? The worst inflation in fifty years.

And now…here comes Big Blunder No. 2. Doubters overseas and skeptics at home — all are having a field day.

Rise of Strategic Capitalism: Focal Point, Taiwan

Addison Wiggin / April 7, 2025

Trump’s team of realists see the game for what it is. Nobody (‘cept maybe Trump himself) likes tariffs. They’re another tax. An impediment to free trade. But today, the tariff tweaks aren’t about trade – they’re national firewalls. And the blueprint for a fractional world along ideological lines.


Globalization and Its Discontents

Addison Wiggin / April 4, 2025

The question isn’t really whether tariffs are good or bad. They aren’t good. But in the immortal words of my erstwhile writing partner Bill Bonner, “We got what we deserve.” Good and hard.

For better or worse, it’s time to clear the rubble and get to what’s buildin’ next. Despite Fukuyama’s declaration in the 1990s, history didn’t end. Nor does it ever.

A new chapter is being written, heralding a shift away from the “End of History” and the resurgence of the nation-state, tariffs and all. The globalist trend of opening up markets – leading to jobs shifting to the lowest-labor-cost corner of the world – is over. The little guy may finally be able to get ahead for the first time in decades.


Twilight of an Empire Built on Post-War Credit

Addison Wiggin / April 3, 2025

Trump’s strategy — if you could call it that — was a streetwise inversion of the Pax Americana formula. Instead of lending to secure influence, he threatened to cut off trade to reassert dominance. Think of it as the Empire of Debt’s margin call.

The world is no longer organized around American generosity or credibility.

We’re entering Pax Technica Multipolaris — a fractured landscape where blocs compete over chips, cables, AI engines, and the rocks beneath Greenland’s ice. The U.S. wants to re-industrialize. China is engineering an AI autocracy. Russia, as always, bets on energy and entropy.

Tariffs and the Financial Reset
Tariffs and the Financial Reset

Addison Wiggin / April 2, 2025

We’ve seen four massive bubbles in financial assets in the last 25 years: the dot-com bubble (1999), the real estate bubble (2006), the COVID bubble (2020), and the artificial intelligence (“AI”) bubble (2024). Each of them has led to a crash within 24 months. You’ve seen this happen again and again. Why? Because our monetary system is broken. It will continue to lurch between bubbles and busts, and the volatility will get worse. You can think of the dollar-based global financial system as a child’s toy – a top that’s spinning and losing speed. As it fails, it’s going to wobble and eventually topple.

Trump and the Fate of the Dollar
Trump and the Fate of the Dollar

Addison Wiggin / April 1, 2025

The Mar-a-Lago Accord as it’s envisioned today would cause a global financial crisis. That’s because it fails to understand the importance of short-term Treasury debt as collateral for inter-bank lending and derivatives. Substituting 100-year Treasury debt for short-term Treasury bills would make those bills scarce. Treasury bills are the most liquid collateral in the world and are at the root of the Eurodollar system and the $1 quadrillion derivatives market. Scarcity of Treasury bills would implode bank balance sheets and lead to the greatest banking crisis in history.

Seven Charts That Put the Gold Bull Market in Context
Seven Charts That Put the Gold Bull Market in Context

John Rubino / March 31, 2025

The trends driving the gold bull market — de-dollarization, inflation, and a looming currency reset — accelerated in the past year and have much further to go. Combined with the apparent cluelessness of Western investors, the result should be higher gold demand and rising prices in the coming decade. Keep stacking!

The Presidential Pack, The Occupation and Why Your Grey Swan Inbox Is Going to DEFCON 1
The Presidential Pack, The Occupation and Why Your Grey Swan Inbox Is Going to DEFCON 1

Addison Wiggin / March 28, 2025

Donald J. Trump is declaring next Wednesday, April 2, “Liberation Day” — the day reciprocal tariffs go into effect against America’s trade partners, starting with Canadian auto parts.

The message is clear: this isn’t just economic policy; it’s ideological war.

And the clock’s ticking.

The real timer? July 4, 2026. That’s when the DOGE mandate — Trump’s emergency executive power coalition — expires.

That gives him and his “Band of Brothers” just 463 days (and counting) to rewrite the tax code, decapitate the regulatory state, reroute trade, and make the nationalist reboot irreversible.

It’s a race against time. 

From the creators of The Daily Reckoning, I.O.U.S.A, Empire of Debt and The Daily Missive

Market Watch
MSN Money
CNN Money
The Wall Street Journal
Business Week
Reuters
Sundance
CNBC
FOX Business
USA Today
The Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
Benzinga
Yahoo Finance
Dot Dash