The Wiggin Sessions

We’re raised to believe that right and wrong are fixed concepts. But the truth is, ethics change over time.

And technology moves the goalposts on what we consider to be ethical behavior.

Juan Enriquez is a leading authority on the economic impact of life sciences on business and society, and as Managing Director of Excel Venture Management, he sits on the boards of innovative healthcare startups like Openwater, WellDoc and Zipongo. Juan is the bestselling author of As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth, and his latest release is called Right/Wrong: How Technology Transforms Our Ethics.

On this episode of The Wiggin Sessions, Juan joins me to share his fears around antibiotic resistance in the aftermath of COVID-19 and discuss how the pandemic exacerbated the political and societal divisions he predicted in The Untied States of America as a long-term consequence of the financial crisis.

Juan describes the synthetic genomics powering our future, explaining how factory and agricultural systems are likely to transform in what he calls the Century of Biology.

Listen in for Juan’s insight on reinventing the American Dream and learn how technology changes our perspective of right and wrong—and why we need to judge our ancestors and each other through a lens of context and grace.

Juan’s fears around antibiotic resistance in the aftermath of COVID and the possible return of diseases like dengue, tuberculosis and malaria

How the pandemic accelerated trends around debt, inequity, societal division and risk-taking in the financial markets

How Juan predicted the political and social divisions we’re experiencing now as long-term consequences of the financial crisis

How technology changes our perspective of what is right and wrong (and why we need to judge our ancestors with context and grace)

What happens when societies or religions don’t support and adapt to innovation

Juan’s take on the evolution of capitalism and the need to reinvent the American Dream in a digital age

The work Synthetic Genomics is doing to edit genes within bacteria to produce methane (and how it benefits the environment)

The race between quantum computing and the biological storage of information

How the factory system and agriculture are likely to transform in what Juan calls the Century of Biology

How Excel Ventures enables entrepreneurs to solve big problems (i.e.: healthy food systems, medical imaging, diabetes management, etc.)

What Juan looks for in a healthcare or life sciences company and the startups that are part of his portfolio

The four factors that influence healthcare costs and why prevention vaccines are one of the most effective uses of public dollars

Why it’s dangerous to short-circuit the clinical trial process for vaccines for political purposes

Excel Venture Management

Right/Wrong: How Technology Transforms Our Ethics by Juan Enriquez

Consilience Financial

Be sure to follow The Wiggin Sessions on your socials. You can find me on—

Facebook @thewigginsessions

Instagram @thewigginsessions

Twitter @WigginSessions

Evolving Ourselves: How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans

As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth by Juan Enriquez

The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing and Our Future by Juan Enriquez

Synthetic Genomics

Openwater

WellDoc

Zipongo

Orionis Biosciences

InfoBionic

Mary Lou Jepsen’s TED Talk

Moderna

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Gilead Sciences

INOVIO Pharmaceuticals

In response to the pandemic, governments around the world have been printing money to the tune of approximately $15 trillion.

But the problem with spending money into existence is that it leads to inflation. And once inflation gains traction, will our central bank be able to control it?

What can we do as investors do to survive a sustained period of hyperinflation?

Graham Summer is the Chief Strategist at investment advisory firm Strategic Impact and author of The Everything Bubble: The Endgame for Central Bank Policy. In the last 15 years, Graham has built a reputation as a highly sought-after investment strategist and expert on the Federal Reserve, and he shares his insights daily through the eNewsletter Money & Crisis.

On this episode of The Wiggin Sessions, Graham joins me to discuss the Fed leadership’s view that policymakers should steer the economy and share his take that they’re looking for politically sound reasons to keep printing money.

Graham explains how the combination of supply shock and the pandemic stimulus are already triggering inflation, describing why the stock market loves inflation (at first) and what the central bank will do when faced with the decision to either defend bonds or strengthen the dollar.

Listen in for Graham’s insight on investing in aggressive-growth companies and learn how he leverages an understanding of politics and Fed policy to help clients develop a winning investment strategy for the emerging economic environment.

Graham’s take on the government response to the pandemic and how it was influenced by politics

The Fed leadership’s view that policymakers should steer the economy and Graham’s view that they’re looking for a politically sound reason to keep printing money

Why Graham predicts a stagflation event similar to what happened in the 1970’s in our near future

What will prevent the US from experiencing an economic collapse like that of the Weimar Republic after WWI

How sending stimulus checks directly to consumers combined with supply shock is likely to trigger a nasty round of inflation in the next 12 to 18 months

What we mean by ‘velocity of money’ and Graham’s argument against the idea that velocity aligns with inflation

Why Graham sees the pandemic stimulus as an ethically contentious issue and how it differs from the bailouts in 2008

How stocks love inflation initially—and when things will start to get ugly and trigger a prolonged, multiyear bear market  

The question around when the Fed will finally cross the Rubicon and why they’re likely to choose defending bonds over raising rates to strengthen the dollar

How Graham formulates an investment strategy and why he’s looking at mining stocks, aggressive-growth companies and cloud-based technologies right now

How Strategic Impact analyzes how markets will react to policy decisions and helps clients deploy capital accordingly

Strategic Impact

Money & Crisis

Consilience Financial

Be sure to follow The Wiggin Sessions on your socials. You can find me on—

Facebook @thewigginsessions

Instagram @thewigginsessions

Twitter @WigginSessions

The Everything Bubble: The Endgame of Central Bank Policy by Graham Summers

Jervois Mining

Twilio

When there is a rotting at the center of government, people lose faith in the system and move toward radical solutions. And we don’t have to look far to find examples of this in the US today.

So, what are the potential consequences of this fundamental change in our politics? Do we need to find a safe haven outside the US? And how might we change the system so that it’s less barbaric and more honest?

Bill Bonner is the Founder of Agora Financial and the bestselling author of several books, including Empire of Debt and Financial Reckoning Day. Bill’s latest release is called A Modest Theory of Civilization, and he publishes a daily newsletter at Rogue Economics, Bill Bonner’s Diary.

On this episode of The Wiggin Sessions, I sit down with Bill to discuss his safe haven in Argentina through the Coronavirus lockdown and why it’s not a bad idea to have a ‘bolt hole’ outside the US.

Bill explains why people shift to extreme views when society is corrupt at the center, describing some of the political ideas we’re willing to entertain today that would have been laughable just a few years ago, including invoking the 25th Amendment and printing trillions of dollars for a stimulus package.

Listen in to understand the concept of win-win or lose Bill presents in A Modest Theory of Civilization and learn what he is doing right now to build and preserve generational wealth.

Bill’s experience in lockdown at his ranch in Argentina and the case for having a ‘bolt hole’ there

The political ideology of South America’s gauchos and why it’s impossible to work against these self-declared originaries

Bill’s insight on why people move to extremes when society is corrupt at the center

How the current circumstances in the US parallel Germany after World War I

Bill’s take on the comedy of a stimulus package and how there’s no evidence that printing money actually stimulates an economy

The political ideas we’re willing to entertain today that would have been laughable just a few years ago (i.e.: stacking the Supreme Court, invoking the 25th Amendment, etc.)

What Old Democrats and Old Republicans stood for and how politics has changed in a fundamental way

The justification for modern monetary theory and why it’s a fraudulent system

The concept of win-win or lose Bill presents in A Modest Theory of Civilization

Why Bill sees politics as a fundamentally barbaric institution and how a progressively bigger government impacts citizens

Bill’s projects around building generational wealth, Blackwater River Press and Woodlock House Family Capital

Bill Bonner’s Diary

Consilience Financial

Be sure to follow The Wiggin Sessions on your socials. You can find me on—

Facebook @thewigginsessions

Instagram @thewigginsessions

Twitter @WigginSessions

Agora Financial

Doug Casey

As We Go Marching: A Biting Indictment of the Coming Domestic Fascism in America by John T. Flynn

A Modest Theory of Civilization: Win-Win or Lose by William Bonner

Woodlock House Family Capital

Chris Mayer

Daniel Denning at Blackwater River Press

Between the growth of government and rampant deficit spending, we were woefully unprepared for the pandemic. And by the end of 2021, the US is likely to hit $30 trillion (with a T) in national debt.

So, what does this mean for you and me? How long will it take the economy to recover in a post-pandemic world?

What do we need to know to survive and maybe even thrive in this Empire of Debt?

On this inaugural episode of the podcast, I’m explaining how my efforts to make sense of what was happening as the pandemic unfolded inspired the creation of The Wiggin Sessions and discussing the themes we’ll explore on the show around economics, philosophy, history and politics.

I share my background in forecasting economic trends, describing how the book Empire of Debt and the film I.O.U.S.A. predicted the collapse of the financial markets in 2008—and how ongoing deficit spending (exacerbated by the pandemic) is likely to impact the average American moving forward.

Listen in to understand how the policy response to COVID will inform the economy for years to come and learn how to preserve and grow your wealth through an extended period of low or negative economic growth.

How my efforts to make sense of what was happening as the pandemic unfolded inspired The Wiggin Sessions

My collaboration with Bill Bonner to illustrate how we saw politics, the economy and financial markets unfolding

The in-depth study of booms and busts as well as demographic trends detailed in Financial Reckoning Day

How Empire of Debt predicted the collapse of the financial markets in 2008

The consequences of the rising deficit as explained in my documentary I.O.U.S.A. (and how Warren Buffet took the air out of our sails at the film’s premiere)  

James Rickards’ forecast re: the US’s growing national debt and the massive inflation the deficit is likely to trigger

The themes we’ll explore on the podcast around science, health, personal finance, communication and tech innovation

The extended period of sustained low or negative economic growth precipitated by the pandemic and what stocks will weather the storm ahead

How we can use macro ideas re: politics and the economy to pick assets that will preserve existing capital and help you grow wealth

My take on network news and how The Wiggin Sessions will be different in terms of helping you make informed decisions

Be sure to follow The Wiggin Sessions on your socials. You can find me on—

Facebook @thewigginsessions

Instagram @thewigginsessions

Twitter @WigginSessions

Consilience Financial

5 Min. Forecast

Bill Bonner

Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century by William Bonner with Addison Wiggin

The Daily Reckoning

Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis by William Bonner and Addison Wiggin

I.O.U.S.A. Documentary Film

IOUSAtheMovie on YouTube

Government Accountability Office

George Gilder on The Daily Reckoning

Ray Blanco on The Daily Reckoning

James Rickards on The Daily Reckoning

The New Great Depression: Winners and Losers in a Post-Pandemic World by James Rickards

Zach Scheidt