A Masterclass In Absurdity

“Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff.”

― Frank Zappa

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NYC voters exercised their liberty – to vote their way into socialism.

November 6, 2025 — If you’re wondering why New Yorkers just elected Zohran Mamdani—a 34-year-old socialist who wants free buses, free childcare, city-run groceries, and rent freezes—as mayor of America’s largest city– just watch his debate with Cuomo earlier this month.

A Masterclass in Absurdity

I only caught up on the debate over the weekend, about a week after it happened. Beyond being every bit as absurd as you’d expect, it was—well—pretty eye-opening. For one, it left little doubt that instead of a triumphant Cuomo comeback, this race looks more like his political burial.

Let me be clear: there’s zero reason to like Cuomo. He’s the guy whose COVID policies led to thousands of nursing home deaths while he basked in media praise. On top of that, he used state resources to write a book about his pandemic leadership—making staff (allegedly) work on it during office hours, all while taxpayers footed the bill. With ethics probes and lawsuits all over the place, we’re only skimming the surface here. Either way, he’s not a good guy.

But Mamdani’s slam dunk didn’t come from attacking Cuomo on COVID or his (in)competence.

Oh no.

According to Mamdani, Cuomo’s main failure was that he wasn’t sufficiently pro-Islamic. When Cuomo couldn’t name a single mosque he’d visited, Mamdani said, “That’s why so many New Yorkers have lost faith in politics.”

Not the crime. Not the trash. Not the homelessness, the crumbling infrastructure, the noise—or the myriad other problems plaguing this once-great city.

No, it’s because Cuomo can’t name a mosque.

The absurdity didn’t end there. Mamdani acknowledged the urgent need to address New York’s growing crises. He even listed the city’s rat infestation as one of the top two problems—along with noise.

Yet in almost the very next breath, when asked how he’d pitch corporations on relocating to New York City—an interesting ask under a socialist platform, to put it mildly—he looked straight into the camera and said with complete conviction: “Quality of life.”

Because, you know, nothing says “quality of life” like an infestation of disease-carrying rodents.

Crime, Migrants, and Magical Thinking

When the discussion turned to crime, both Cuomo and Mamdani recognized the problem—hard not to, given the headlines.

The NYPD may tout fewer murders and shootings. But felony assaults are still near the highest since 1998. Petit larceny, harassment, and misdemeanor assault are up 23%, 21%, and 15% vs. pre-pandemic. Together they topped 250,000 in 2024—more than double all major felonies.

So while city officials celebrate declining “major crime” statistics, subway riders and pedestrians experience something very different.

Naturally, the city says it doesn’t have the resources to focus on these crimes. And how could it? The NYPD’s budget is about $6.2 billion, while the city is spending roughly $8 billion to house illegal migrants—including at the Roosevelt Hotel, which processed ~173,000 arrivals before it closed.

But to Mamdani, it’s all Trump’s fault.

His fix? An army of social workers to stop New York’s violent crime problem. And he’ll pay for all of it by raising taxes.

If you think that’s a little naïve—given the steady exodus of people and businesses over high taxes, rising crime, and collapsing services—remember: they’ll supposedly come back for that wonderful “quality of life.”

All rats be damned.

The Real Danger Ahead

If you’re from New York—or know anyone there—you’ll probably agree: most New Yorkers are fed up with crime, the outrageous cost of living, government incompetence and corruption—and, yes, the rats.

But the fact that a hard-core socialist like Mamdani is their favorite pick to solve those problems tells you that most voters have no idea why any of it is happening.

Their hatred of Donald Trump—and a steady diet of MSNBC—has made them blind to the obvious: it’s the Left’s policies creating these problems. You have rent control shrinking supply by forcing landlords to pull units from the market, union giveaways jacking up the cost of transportation, zero-bail laws putting criminals back on the streets, and so on and so forth.

And now—just to reiterate—to fix the problems their own leftist policies created, New Yorkers are about to install someone even further left. Treating poison with more poison.

Which brings me back to the debate—and what worries me most.

Mamdani has real talent. He has the kind of charisma we haven’t seen since Obama—the same command of language and ability to make radical (and stupid) ideas sound reasonable. But it’s not just his eloquence or how he dominated Cuomo. It’s also his approachability, his everyman appeal.

And that’s what makes him dangerous.

If you can sell bad economics that well, you can sell the excuses too. When his policies inevitably fail, he’ll blame Republicans, corporations, “the rich”—anyone but the policies themselves. And because he’s so convincing, people will buy it.

And if they do, my guess is Mamdani won’t stop with New York.

Will he move on to Governor? Senator? The presidency? I don’t know. But what’s clear is that the most polished, articulate, and compelling voice on the Left no longer belongs to the openly sociopathic and far less relatable Gavin Newsom.

That title now belongs to Mamdani—the “man of the people,” the charming champion of the working class… someone with the potential to cause much more damage, countrywide.

I can’t shake the feeling we’re witnessing the start of a political career that could reshape American politics for the next decade.

And that should concern anyone who values, well, sanity.
Regards,

Lau Vegys
Doug Casey’s Crisis Investing & Grey Swan Investment Fraternity

P.S. from Addison: We covered the socialist attack on free market capitalism in our Grey Swan Live! chat with Harry Dent today. Andrew and I were treated to a whirlwind of historical cycles converging on today’s AI stock market bubble.

We covered many of the topics you’ve read from Harry this week in Grey Swan’s Beneath the Surface, including: Harry’s views on immigration; demographic shifts in Japan, the US and emerging markets; why young people are prone to socialist promises at the ballot box; Trump’s economic nationalism and the AI race with China; Harry also gave us his price targets for buying gold, Bitcoin, tech stocks and India – after the stock market crashes.

The team is hard at work already buttoning up the replay and transcript. If you’re paid up member for the Grey Swan Investment Fraternity, you’ll get a link in your email inbox as soon as we’ve posted everything to the website.

Good stuff.

If you have requests for new guests you’d like to see join us for Grey Swan Live! send them here.

“Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff.”

― Frank Zappa

Turn Your Images On

NYC voters exercised their liberty – to vote their way into socialism.

A Masterclass in Absurdity

But Mamdani’s slam dunk didn’t come from attacking Cuomo on COVID or his (in)competence.

Oh no.

Not the crime. Not the trash. Not the homelessness, the crumbling infrastructure, the noise—or the myriad other problems plaguing this once-great city.

No, it’s because Cuomo can’t name a mosque.

Because, you know, nothing says “quality of life” like an infestation of disease-carrying rodents.

Crime, Migrants, and Magical Thinking

When the discussion turned to crime, both Cuomo and Mamdani recognized the problem—hard not to, given the headlines.

So while city officials celebrate declining “major crime” statistics, subway riders and pedestrians experience something very different.

But to Mamdani, it’s all Trump’s fault.

His fix? An army of social workers to stop New York’s violent crime problem. And he’ll pay for all of it by raising taxes.

All rats be damned.

The Real Danger Ahead

But the fact that a hard-core socialist like Mamdani is their favorite pick to solve those problems tells you that most voters have no idea why any of it is happening.

And now—just to reiterate—to fix the problems their own leftist policies created, New Yorkers are about to install someone even further left. Treating poison with more poison.

Which brings me back to the debate—and what worries me most.

And that’s what makes him dangerous.

And if they do, my guess is Mamdani won’t stop with New York.

That title now belongs to Mamdani—the “man of the people,” the charming champion of the working class… someone with the potential to cause much more damage, countrywide.

I can’t shake the feeling we’re witnessing the start of a political career that could reshape American politics for the next decade.

And that should concern anyone who values, well, sanity.
Regards,

Lau Vegys
Doug Casey’s Crisis Investing & Grey Swan Investment Fraternity

Good stuff.

If you have requests for new guests you’d like to see join us for Grey Swan Live! send them here.

Back in April, when we published what we called the Trump Great Reset Strategy, we described the grand realignment we believed President Trump and his acolytes were embarking on in three phases.

At the time, it read like a conceptual map. As the months passed, it began to feel like a set of operating instructions written in advance of turbulence.

As you can expect, any grandiose plan would get all kinds of blowback… but this year exhibited all manner of Trump Derangement Syndrome on top of the difficulty of steering a sclerotic empire clear of the rocky shores.

The “phases” were never about optimism or pessimism. They were about sequencing — how stress surfaces, how systems adapt, and what must hold before confidence can regenerate. And in the end, what do we do with our money?!

Relative to GDP, the net international investment claim on the U.S. economy was 20% in 2003. It had swollen to 65% by 2023. Practically every type of American company, bond, or real estate asset now has some degree of foreign ownership.

But it’s even worse than that. As the federal deficit has pumped up the GDP figures, and made a larger share of the economy dependent on government spending, the quality and sustainability of GDP have deteriorated. So, foreigners, to the extent they are paying attention, are accumulating claims on an economy that has been eroded by inefficient, government-directed spending and “investments.” Why should foreign creditors maintain confidence in the integrity of these paper claims? Only to the extent that their economies are even worse off. And in the case of China, that’s probably true.

As global government interest expense climbed, gold quietly followed it higher. The IIF estimates that interest costs on government debt now run at nearly $4.9 trillion annually. Over the same span, gold prices have tracked that burden almost one-for-one.

Silver has recently gone along for the ride, with even more enthusiasm.

Since early 2023, Japan’s 10-year government bond yield has risen roughly 150 basis points, touching levels not seen since the 1990s.

Over that same period, gold prices have surged about 135%, while silver is up roughly 175%. Zoom out two years, and the divergence becomes starker still: gold up 114%, silver up 178%, while the S&P 500 gained 44%.

According to the American Association of Individual Investors, the average retail investor has about a 70% allocation to stocks. That’s well over the traditional 60/40 split between stocks and bonds. Even a 60/40 allocation ignores real estate, gold, collectibles, and private assets.

A pullback in the 10% range – which is likely in any given year – will prompt investors to scream as if it’s the end of the world.

Our “panic now, avoid the rush” strategy is simple.

Take tech profits off the table, raise some cash, and focus on industry-leading companies that pay dividends. Roll those dividends up and use compounding to your overall portfolio’s advantage.

Back in April, when we published what we called the Trump Great Reset Strategy, we described the grand realignment we believed President Trump and his acolytes were embarking on in three phases.

At the time, it read like a conceptual map. As the months passed, it began to feel like a set of operating instructions written in advance of turbulence.

Silver has recently gone along for the ride, with even more enthusiasm.

Since early 2023, Japan’s 10-year government bond yield has risen roughly 150 basis points, touching levels not seen since the 1990s.

A pullback in the 10% range – which is likely in any given year – will prompt investors to scream as if it’s the end of the world.

Our “panic now, avoid the rush” strategy is simple.

Take tech profits off the table, raise some cash, and focus on industry-leading companies that pay dividends. Roll those dividends up and use compounding to your overall portfolio’s advantage.