WTFinance

Interview recorded - 27th of September, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Matthew Piepenburg. Matthew is a Partner of Von Greyerz AG and critic of current monetary policy actions of central banks.

During this conversation we spoke about his thoughts on the economy, why there is a debt trap, no expectation of real growth in the future, private vs public debt, calculating US Dollar devaluation, precious metals and more. I hope you enjoy!

0:00 - Introduction
1:42 - Current thoughts on the economy?
7:16 - Concentration of growth
12:38 - Private vs public debt crisis
26:31 - Calculating US Dollar devaluation?
32:26 - Can they decrease the deficit?
40:16 - Why nothing about gold or silver?
50:10 - One message to takeaway?

Matt began his finance career as a transactional attorney before launching his first hedge fund during the NASDAQ bubble of 1999-2001

Thereafter, he began investing his own and other HNW family funds into alternative investment vehicles while operating as a General Counsel, CIO and later Managing Director of a single and multi-family office. Matthew worked closely as well with Morgan Stanley’s hedge fund platform in building a multi-strat/multi-manager fund to better manage risk in a market backdrop of extreme central bank intervention/support. The conviction that precious metals provides the most reliable and longer-term protection against potential systemic risk led Matt to join VON GREYERZ.

The author of the Amazon No#1 Release, Rigged to Fail, Matt is fluent in French, German and English; he is a graduate of Brown (BA), Harvard (MA) and the University of Michigan (JD). Along with Egon von Greyerz, Matthew is the co-author of Gold Matters, which offers an extensive examination of gold as an historically-confirmed wealth-preservation asset.

Matthew Piepenburg - 

LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/matthewpiepenburg
Website - https://vongreyerz.gold/

WTFinance -

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 25th of September, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Neil Howe. Neil is the co-author of the ground breaking “The Fourth Turning” and author of the updated version of the book “The Fourth Turning is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis will End” which I had the pleasure of reading. 

During our conversation we spoke about the Fourth turning, the current political shifts, the challenges with democracy, nullification of governments, impact on markets, financial repression, risk of recession and more. I hope you enjoy! 

0:00 - Introduction 
3:19 - What is the Fourth Turning?
8:24 - Where are we in the cycle?
13:29 - Cycles increasing in time?
17:19 - Political shifts driven by leaders?
22:49 - Extreme centralisation during dictatorship
28:59 - What can be learnt from pushes to dictatorship?
34:40 - The issues with democracy?
38:40 - Five outrageous predictions
41:55 - What would succession look like?
46:30 - Nullification of the federal government
49:00 - Geopolitical brinkmanship
51:02 - How do Fourth turning impact markets?
54:30 - Financial repression
56:30 - Pre-empt and create anti-fragile systems?
1:00:25 - What is happening in the economy?
1:04:20 - What is the economic lag?
1:06:26 - Passive investing impacting
1:13:35 - One message to takeaway from our conversation?

Neil Howe is an acclaimed historian, economist, and demographer and the bestselling author (with William Strauss) of The Fourth Turning, as well as over a dozen books on demographic and social change. The nation’s leading thinker on today’s generations—who they are, what motivates them, and how they will shape America’s future—Howe is Managing Director of Demography at Hedgeye Risk Management, an independent financial research firm, as well as President of LifeCourse Associates, which serves hundreds of corporate, nonprofit, and government clients. He lives with his family in Great Falls, Virginia.

Neil Howe - 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilhowe/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/HoweGeneration
Hedgeye - https://app.hedgeye.com/

WTFinance - 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 23rd of September, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming on Glenn Diesen. Glenn is a Norwegian political scientist and professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway.

During our conversation we spoke about the current geopolitical outlook, US hegemon, risk of the collapse of the US hegemon, a multipolar war, increasing geopolitical tensions, economic optionality and more. I hope you enjoy!

0:00 - Introduction
1:03 - Current outlook on geopolitics?
2:56 - US hegemony being challenged?
4:04 - US hegemony and unipolar world
10:11 - World leaders seeing US as hypocrites?
19:27 - Could US have prevent challenge of hegemon?
24:09 - What is a multipolar world?
30:04 - Economic optionality for economies
35:56 - One message to takeaway from conversation?

Professor Diesen is an academic, author, editor, and political commentator. His research focus is primarily on Russian foreign policy and the geoeconomics of Greater Eurasia and the emerging strategic partnership between Russia and China. Diesen’s latest books are The Ukraine War & the Eurasian World Order (2024); Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics (2022), Europe as the Western Peninsula of Greater Eurasia: Geoeconomic Regions in a Multipolar World (2021); Russian Conservatism: Managing Change under Permanent Revolution (2021); Great Power Politics in the Fourth Industrial Rivalry: The Geoeconomics of Technological Sovereignty (2021); The Return of Eurasia (2021); Russia in a Changing World (2020); The Decay of Western Civilisation and Resurgence of Russia: Between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (2018); Russia’s Geoeconomic Strategy for a Greater Eurasia (2017); and EU and NATO relations with Russia: After the collapse of the Soviet Union (2015).

Glenn Diesen:

X: https://twitter.com/Glenn_Diesen
Substack: https://glenndiesen.substack.com/
YouTube:  @GDiesen1

WTFinance -

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 10th of September, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Alasdair Macleod. Alasdair is the Head of Research for Goldmoney. 

We spoke about the risk of a debt trap, commodities, whether the FED can cut out of a recession, japanificarion, gold and more. I hope you enjoy! 

0:00 - Introduction
1:43 - What is happening in the economy?
3:43 - Commodity crash linked to recession?
7:42 - Impact of low interest rates?
9:40 - Politicians to cut deficit?
14:45 - Private debt market to blow up?
18:55 - Can US/UK go way of Japan?
22:06 - Why is gold unloved?
23:26 - Flooding into precious metals?
31:56 - What does a building of a gold standard take?
39:20 - Only possible with commodity producing company?
42:11 - One message to takeaway from our conversation?

Alasdair Macleod is Head of Research for GoldMoney. He is an educator and advocates for sound money through demystifying finance and economics. His background includes being a stockbroker, banker, and economist.

Alasdair Macleod started his career as a stockbroker in 1970 on the London Stock Exchange. Within nine years, he had risen to become senior partner of his firm.

Subsequently, he held positions at the director level in investment management and worked as a mutual fund manager. Mr. Macleod also worked at a bank in Guernsey as an executive director.

For most of his 40 years in the finance industry, he has been demystifying macroeconomic events for his investing clients. The accumulation of this experience has convinced him that unsound monetary policies are the most destructive weapon governments use against the common man. Accordingly, his mission is to educate and inform the public in layman's terms what governments do with money and how to protect themselves from the consequences.

Alasdair Macleod - 

GoldMoney - https://www.goldmoney.com/research
Substack - https://alasdairmacleod.substack.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/MacleodFinance
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alasdair-macleod-9494b27/

WTFinance -

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 9th of September, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming on Mel Mattison. Mel is writer and financial services veteran, with 20 years in the realm of high finance. 

During our conversation we talked about Mel's outlook for the markets, higher inflation for longer, risk of economic collapse, social security, stock melt-up, which assets will perform and more. I hope you enjoy!

0:00 - Introduction
0:49 - Outlook on the macro and markets?
5:10 - Higher inflation for longer?
11:55 - Can government thread deficit needle?
15:28 - Risk of collapse?
21:30 - Social security into stocks?
24:20 - Increased volatility in the markets
30:51 - Stock melt-up?
34:49 - Dollar pain for global countries?
40:01 - Assets to perform post crash?
43:16 - One message to takeaway from conversation?

For over twenty years, Mel has held key posts with both established asset managers such as Russell Investments and fast-growth startup firms like United Capital (acquired 2019 by Goldman Sachs).  Since 2019, Mel has focused almost exclusively on private equity and the employee stock option financing space.  He also founded the personal finance and wellness app, MoneyComb, in 2014.  Seed funded by Duke University and incubated under leading behavioral economist Dan Ariely, MoneyComb quickly gained a reputation for innovative thinking about money and happiness: MoneyComb in WSJ.

Having served as the CEO of three different FINRA and SEC registered broker-dealers, Mel has established himself as an expert in the operation of financial firms with an emphasis on broker-dealer formation, private placements, compliance, and scaling of digital operations.

Mel holds an MBA with concentrations in investment and corporate finance from Duke University.  He received his BA from Loyola University Chicago where he majored in philosophy, minored in English, and helped establish the school’s nascent men’s rugby program.  Mel is also a Certified Financial Planner™ Professional and holds the CFP® designation.

Mel Mattison:

Website - https://www.melmattison.com/
X - https://twitter.com/MelMattison1
Book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CK6WTGJV?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_ZBJCM70F8RTF8WCETGYT

WTFinance:

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-fatseas-761066103/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 2nd of September, 2024

Substack - https://rubino.substack.com/

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back John Rubino. John was the Founder of dollarcollapse.com, author/co-author of 5 books and has a great Substack.

During our conversation we spoke about John's thoughts about the economy, interest rate cutting, another real estate credit event, similar to the 90's, milkshake theory, new standard currency, gold miners and more!

0:00 - Introduction
0:57 - What is John seeing in the economy?
2:46 - Interest rate cut to help?
5:15 - Another real estate credit event?
6:40 - Banks to benefit from interest rate cuts?
9:29 - Similar to the 90’s?
12:33 - Drawn out recession or flash crash?
17:48 - Thank you!
19:08 - Milkshake theory and the dollar?
21:57 - New standard currency?
25:14 - BRICS buying gold while West sells
30:36 - Gold miners?
33:13 - One message to takeaway from our conversation?

John Rubino is a former Wall Street financial analyst and author or co-author of five books, including The Money Bubble: What To Do Before It Pops and Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green-Tech Boom. He founded the popular financial website DollarCollapse.com in 2004 and sold it in 2022.

John's newsletter provides actionable advice, based on a couple of premises:

- The financial world is spinning out of control and will get considerably worse before it gets better.

- There are things we can do to improve our odds of surviving and thriving as the chaos unfolds.

John Rubino - 

Substack - https://rubino.substack.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-rubino-a952146/

WTFinance - 

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-fatseas-761066103/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 26th of August, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Lyn Alden. Lyn is one of the foremost macro strategists, Founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy & author of the book “Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better”.

During our conversation we spoke about what is happening in the markets, rotation out of the US, which markets are investable, broadening US markets, energy, China and more. I hope you enjoy!

0:00 - Introduction
1:50 - What has happened the past few weeks in markets?
7:20 - International investors leaving US?
9:05 - International markets
11:10 - Which countries to benefit?
13:50 - Who benefits from rate cuts?
15:45 - Broadening of US market?
18:38 - Powell made right decision?
22:26 - Similarities to 90’s?
24:19 - Fiscal repression
29:50 - Interest payments impact on deficit?
32:28 - Solution for social securities?
36:03 - AI to fix outcomes?
37:58 - Energy shift
43:46 - Chinese manufacturing growth to continue?
46:13 - West less control over China?
48:32 - Chinese soft power
51:23 - One message to takeaway from our conversation?

Lyn runs an investment research service for both retail and institutional investors at LynAlden.com. Her focus is on fundamental investing with a global macro overlay, with an emphasis on equities, currencies, commodities, and digital assets. 

Lyn has also worked for over a decade in the aviation industry in a range of roles, starting as an electronics engineer and moving into project and facility management, and engineering finance. Eventually she became the head engineer and head of technical procurement for the facility, before retiring in my 30s. 

Lyn has a bachelor's in electronics engineering and a master's in engineering management, with a focus on engineering economics and financial modelling. 

Lyn Alden - 

Website - https://www.lynalden.com/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynalden/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/lynaldencontact?lang=en

WTFinance -

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 27th of August, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Michael Howell. Michael is the Founder & Managing Director of CrossBorder Capital.

During our conversation we spoke about the liquidity cycle, dollar drop, risk on, treasury actions, financial repression, Bitcoin/Gold as risk off assets and more. I hope you enjoy!

0:00 - Introduction
1:47 - Market flying?
5:04 - Anything else to pay attention to?
9:21 - Surprised by dollar drop?
11:34 - Liquidity cycle
18:15 - Majority of returns at beginning of liquidity cycle?
19:33 - Yellen fiscal dilemma?
23:17 - Treasury actions
32:11 - Bond yields to rise?
33:15 - Basel 4 financial repression
34:01 - Risk-on the current strategy?
35:35 - Industrial metals to benefit?
37:21 - Bitcoin/Gold de-correlating to markets?
40:01 - One message to takeaway from our conversation?

Michael Howell is CEO of CrossBorder Capital, a London-based FCA registered, independent research and investment company that he founded in 1996. Previously he was Head of Research for Baring Securities and Research Director of Salomon Brothers Inc, the US investment bank. The liquidity methodology he pioneered monitors cross-border flows and Central Bank behaviour across some 80 countries world-wide. Liquidity flows are a central part of CrossBorder Capital's asset allocation advice, which is currently provided to major global investors, including institutional asset managers, government agencies, Central Banks and endowment funds. Michael has been in financial markets since 1981 and is a regular conference speaker and media commentator. He graduated from Bristol and London Universities with a finance doctorate, specialising in Fixed Income.

Michael Howell -

Website - https://crossbordercapital.com/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/crossbordercap
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-howell-357b1416/?originalSubdomain=uk

WTFinance -

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/wtfinancee/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 21st of August, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming on Ed Yardeni. Dr Ed is the President of Yardeni Research.

During our conversation we spoke about his thoughts on the economy, potential for it being a new roaring twenties, productivity, normalisation of growth, interest rate decisions, impacts on markets and more. I hope you enjoy!

0:00 - Introduction
1:40 - Thoughts on global economy?
4:40 - Why rolling recessions?
11:04 - Employment data revision?
13:08 - Illegal migration impact?
15:05 - Normalisation of growth?
17:16 - Interest Rates & Monetary policy
22:38 - FED for a day?
27:08 - Higher interest rates on deficit?
30:26 - 90’s soft landing again?
32:07 - What will the FED do?
34:05 - Which industries will perform well?
38:11 - One message to takeaway from conversation?

Dr. Ed Yardeni is the President of Yardeni Research, Inc., a provider of global investment strategies and asset-allocation analyses and recommendations. He previously served as Chief Investment Strategist of Oak Associates, Prudential Equity Group, and Deutsche Bank’s US equities division in New York City. He was also the Chief Economist of CJ Lawrence, Prudential-Bache Securities, and EF Hutton. He taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business and was an economist
with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He also held positions at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the US Treasury Department in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Ed earned his PhD in economics from Yale University in 1976, having
completed his doctoral dissertation under Nobel Laureate James Tobin. Previously, he received a master’s degree in international relations from Yale. He completed his undergraduate studies magna cum laude at Cornell University.

Dr. Ed is frequently quoted in the financial press, including The Wall Street
Journal, the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Barron’s. He was dubbed “Wall Street Seer” in a Barron’s cover story. He appears frequently on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and Fox Business. See Dr. Ed’s market calls as reported in the financial press.

Dr Ed Yardeni:

Website - https://yardeni.com/
Twitter - https://x.com/yardeni
Quicktakes - https://www.yardeniquicktakes.com/
YouTube -  @YardeniResearch

WTFinance -

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-fatseas-761066103/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas

Interview recorded - 26th of July, 2024

On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of welcoming back Simon Hunt.

During our conversation we spoke about the risk of a market crash in 2024, BRIC's currency, Global Cold/Hot War, financial system crisis and more. I hope you enjoy.

0:00 - Introduction
1:52 - Market crash in 2024?
9:01 - Control over the heartland?
13:13 - BRIC’s currency
19:30 - Republicans to cut spending?
21:16 - South China Sea
27:18 - Cold vs hot world war?
31:24 - Financial system correction?
34:09 - One message to takeaway from our conversation?

Simon Hunt began his career in 1956 in Central Africa as a PA to the Chairman of Rhodesian Selection Trust, one of the two large copper companies in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia.

In 1961 he came back to London and joined Anglo American Corporation of South Africa as a PA to one of the Board Directors, followed by being part of a small sales and marketing team for copper. From there, he helped start up a new copper development organisation, CIDEC, financed by copper producers, which he then joined, focusing on conducting end-use studies of copper in Europe.

He then went into the City to gain financial experience and founded Brook Hunt in 1975. He was instrumental in setting up the company’s cost studies and end-use analyses. He appeared as material witness and consultant in two ITC anti-dumping cases in 1978 and 1984, winning both at the commission level.

He has spent 2-4 months every year in China since 1993 and until a few years ago would be visiting some 80 wire and cable and brass mill factories across the country every year. He now restricts these factory visits to a smaller number, all of which he has known for many years. He also spends many weeks each year traveling around Asia.

The focus of the company’s services is on the global economy, including the changing geopolitical and financial structures, China’s economy and its copper sector, and then the global copper industry as each part is interconnected.

Simon is the author of the “Frontline China Report Service,” which is marketed by the TIS Group. The Service provides regular reports on China’s economy, politics, and financial outlook.

Simon established this company in January 1996.

Simon Hunt -

Website - https://www.simon-hunt.com/
Email - [email protected]

WTFinance -

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG92PNBW0doLyPvfn
iTunes -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wtfinance/id1554934665?uo=4
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-fatseas-761066103/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/AnthonyFatseas