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Ripple Effect

The Cantillon Effect Remains in Full Force

Loading ...Addison Wiggin

June 24, 2025 • 2 minute, 12 second read


Cantillon Effectfiat moneywealth creation

The Cantillon Effect Remains in Full Force

Central banks set monetary policy – allowing them to create money out of thin air. Those who are closest or the first to access this newly-created money tend to be the biggest beneficiaries.

This is known as the Cantillon Effect.

And for all the progressive talk about “wealth inequality” in America, the shift off of the gold standard since 1971 has kicked this effect into high gear – not tax policy.

Wealth creation – from being able to access capital to buy assets or start a new business – has been the biggest driver of this inequality, as worker wages have been stagnant at best when adjusted for inflation.

Access to money, makes more money.

In the last three years alone, thanks to a soaring stock market, the top 1% of Americans has seen their wealth grow by 25%, or $10 trillion:

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The systemic wealth transfer isn’t a flaw of fiat money – it’s a feature.

Your best bet to protect yourself? Invest in non-fiat assets, such as gold and bitcoin.

Gold prices are still significantly undervalued in fiat terms. Bitcoin, even with its volatility, offers higher long-term return potential.

“Gold is for protection (and for love),” our friend Frank Holmes likes to say, “Bitcoin is for growth.”

~ Addison

50 Major Companies That Will Likely
Fail to Survive Trump’s MAGA Economy

Turn On Your Images.

Many have 5-star ratings.

Most are “buys” per Wall Street.

But they’re dead companies.

Click here to see the full list.

P.S.: Looking for small-cap companies that are driven by fundamentals and not just retail sentiment? Join our Fraternity!

Each week, we explore more interesting investment ideas, often brought by our contributors and special guests.

For instance, in last week’s Grey Swan Live! with Chris Mayer, we explored some of Chris’s top investment ideas, including some of the best value plays in countries such as Sweden and Poland.

For U.S. investors, tread lightly – these companies can only be bought on the pink sheets, where volume is light and prices can swing wildly. But if you’re looking for value now, going overseas may be just the place to do it.

Meanwhile, you can also join our Portfolio Director Andrew Packer at the Rule Investment Symposium in Boca Raton on July 7-11, 2025. Click here to attend and meet your future cutting-edge resource investments face-to-face.

As always, your reader feedback is welcome: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com (We read all emails. Thanks in advance for your contribution.)

How did we get here? Find out in these riveting reads: Demise of the Dollar, Financial Reckoning Day, and Empire of Debt — all three books are now available in their third post-pandemic editions. You might enjoy one or all three.


The Money Printer Is Coming Back—And Trump Is Taking Over the Fed

December 9, 2025 • Lau Vegys

Trump and Powell are no buddies. They’ve been fighting over rate cuts all year—Trump demanding more, Powell holding back. Even after cutting twice, Trump called him “grossly incompetent” and said he’d “love to fire” him. The tension has been building for months.

And Trump now seems ready to install someone who shares his appetite for lower rates and easier money.

Trump has been dropping hints for weeks—saying on November 18, “I think I already know my choice,” and then doubling down last Sunday aboard Air Force One with, “I know who I am going to pick… we’ll be announcing it.”

He was referring to one Kevin Hassett, who—according to a recent Bloomberg report—has emerged as the overwhelming favorite to become the next Fed chair.

The Money Printer Is Coming Back—And Trump Is Taking Over the Fed
Waiting for Jerome

December 9, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Here we sit — investors, analysts, retirees, accountants, even a few masochistic economists — gathered beneath the leafless monetary tree, rehearsing our lines as we wait for Jerome Powell to step onstage and tell us what the future means.

Spoiler: he can’t. But that does not stop us from waiting.

Tomorrow, he is expected to deliver the December rate cut. Polymarket odds sit at 96% for a dainty 25-point cut.

Trump, Navarro and Lutnick pine for 50 points.

And somewhere in the wings smiles Kevin Hassett — at 74% odds this morning,  the presumed Powell successor — watching the last few snowflakes fall before his cue arrives.

Waiting for Jerome
Deep Value Going Global in 2026

December 9, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

With U.S. stocks trading at about 24 times forward earnings, plans for capital growth have to go off without a hitch. Given the billions of dollars in commitments by AI companies, financing to the hilt on debt, the most realistic outcome is a hitch.

On a valuation basis, global markets will likely show better returns than U.S. stocks in 2026.

America leads the world in innovation. A U.S. tech stock will naturally fetch a higher price than, say, a German brewery. But value matters, too.

Deep Value Going Global in 2026
Pablo Hill: An Unmistakable Pattern in Copper

December 8, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

As copper flowed into the United States, LME inventories thinned and backwardation steepened. Higher U.S. pricing, tariff protection, and lower political risk made American warehouses the most attractive destination for metal. Each new shipment strengthened the spread.

The arbitrage, once triggered, became self-reinforcing. Traders were not participating in theory; they were responding to the physical incentives in front of them.

The United States had quietly become the marginal buyer of the world’s most important industrial metal. China, long the gravitational center of global copper demand, found itself on the outside.

Pablo Hill: An Unmistakable Pattern in Copper