Speedrunning Rome

History shows that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

But in the past, inflating the currency involved substantial work – clipping coins, or lowering and outright removing precious metal content. It’s a process that took the Roman Empire over 400 years.

In the United States, we’ve managed to devalue the dollar at a faster pace in just 110 years:

Since the inception of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. dollar has lost value faster than
the Roman Denarius (Source: @CarlBMenger via X)

That’s the power of progress — err, in this case, the technology of fiat currency, a printing press, or the ability to push buttons on computers and “add” money to a bank account.

Technology is a double-edged sword. We’re still living in the long tail of a hard money, capitalist society – and reaping new technologies out of it.

But the destruction of the purchasing power of the dollar stands to create a crisis – and drive investors back to safe havens like gold.

~ Addison

P.S. Grey Swan Live! continues this afternoon at 2 PM ET. This week’s guest is George Gilder. At the very least, Mr. Gilder’s an interesting character and makes for a great conversation.

George once handed President Reagan the first microchip, and now he says today’s tech wave dwarfs the original $6.5 trillion tech revolution of the 1980s.

Eight exponential technologies — AI, quantum computing, robotics, self-driving cars, blockchain, chips, advanced biotech, and even space — are no longer advancing in isolation.

They’re colliding, compounding, and accelerating into what could be the single greatest wealth-building event of our lifetimes – the ultimate positive Grey Swan.

The pace is staggering. George just issued new research with our colleague Ian King, which you can review here before Grey Swan Live!

If you have any questions for us about the market, send them our way now to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com.

History shows that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.

In the United States, we’ve managed to devalue the dollar at a faster pace in just 110 years:

Since the inception of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. dollar has lost value faster than
the Roman Denarius (Source: @CarlBMenger via X)

That’s the power of progress — err, in this case, the technology of fiat currency, a printing press, or the ability to push buttons on computers and “add” money to a bank account.

Technology is a double-edged sword. We’re still living in the long tail of a hard money, capitalist society – and reaping new technologies out of it.

But the destruction of the purchasing power of the dollar stands to create a crisis – and drive investors back to safe havens like gold.

~ Addison

P.S. Grey Swan Live! continues this afternoon at 2 PM ET. This week’s guest is George Gilder. At the very least, Mr. Gilder’s an interesting character and makes for a great conversation.

George once handed President Reagan the first microchip, and now he says today’s tech wave dwarfs the original $6.5 trillion tech revolution of the 1980s.

Eight exponential technologies — AI, quantum computing, robotics, self-driving cars, blockchain, chips, advanced biotech, and even space — are no longer advancing in isolation.

They’re colliding, compounding, and accelerating into what could be the single greatest wealth-building event of our lifetimes – the ultimate positive Grey Swan.

The pace is staggering. George just issued new research with our colleague Ian King, which you can review here before Grey Swan Live!

If you have any questions for us about the market, send them our way now to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com.

Through the first 41 trading days of 2026, the S&P 500 traded within a 2.7% range — the narrowest start to any year since 1928. The first 41 days of 2008 spanned roughly 35%. In 2020, the range ran near 15%. Even the placid 1950s never opened this tight…

Since the Iran attack began, global markets have been chaotic. Despite some wild intraday swings this week, the U.S. stock market has held up well. When bombs go flying, capital moves from frontier markets to safer shores. And even though the U.S. has been the one to aggressively move against Iran, capital that was going to foreign markets has shifted back to New York.

Ever since the re-election of Trump, the blue tribe has been searching for another event it could use to repeat its success with BLM. They thought they had finally found it with ICE (its enforcement actions produce numerous excesses it could exploit).

In normal times, the Chinese operate a quota system for refined product exports; this week, the throttle tightened. And even though they are Asia’s third-largest exporters of “energy,” the country still draws close to half its imported crude from the Gulf, including nearly all Iranian shipments.