Caveat Emptor

JC, Mitch, and Brandon discuss Trump commandeering the Fed, Lisa Cooked, Gold bugs time to shine, an American sovereign wealth fund, Modi ghosts Trump, and a National emergency in the housing market.

JC, Mitch and Brandon discuss who is winning the trade war, if Jerome Powell finishes his term, should the Fed be cutting rates, private equity for the people, the sickly housing market and the BOJ’s destruction of its own government bond market. 

JC, Mitch and Brandon discuss who is winning the trade war, if Jerome Powell will finish his term, should the Fed be cutting rates, private equity for the people, the sickly housing market and the BOJ’s destruction of its own government bond market. 

JC, Mitch and Brandon discuss the upcoming August 1st Tariff deadline, which countries are likely to get extensions, which are likely to get treated harshly.  The lack of inflation (so far?), the June budget surplus, the Fed under political attack, soaring costs of homeownership, the broken housing market and Elon Musk's’ “America Party."

Mitch, JC and Brandon discuss the muted market reaction (initially at least) to the U.S. bombing of Iran, trade deals or the lack thereof 80 days after “liberation day”, the housing market rolling over, Secretary Bessent as the shadow Fed Chair, FICO scores, credit rating erosion, Yale’s project Gatsby and much more. 

Mitch, Brandon, and JC discuss the TACO trade, fiscal dominance vs financial dominance, managed currencies, the reintegration of gold into the monetary system, Canadian secession movements, escalating to de-escalate in Ukraine and much much more...

Brandon, Mitch and John discuss the Big Beautiful Tax Bill,the inverse Asian Financial Crisis, the hawkish front runners for the next Fed Chair, the managed fiat currency regime coming to an end, trade negotiations with Japan, China, the UK, Mexico and Canada and much much more.

Comparing the scale, dominance, and valuations of the MAG7 to the .com bubble of the late 1990’s and the Nifty Fifty of the late 1960’s.  Discussing the cross currents of the trade wars, the advent of generative AI and the impacts of the DeepSeek revelations on the valuations of the MAG7.     

A discussion of the perfect storm brewing in private markets, the analogies to the global financial crisis and the Yale model as (misplaced) justification for outsized allocations with Brandon Bajema, John Cassady and Brad Filips.      

Brandon Bajema, John Cassady, and Mitch Stapley discuss the aftermath of the liberation day tariffs, what comes next in the trade war, the potential for the tech and private equity bubbles to burst, capital outflows, gold, oil and bitcoin.