Financial commentator Chris Irons, also known as Quoth the Raven on X and author of the popular Fringe Finance substack, warns we're in "completely off the rails, unprecedented territory" with the Fed trapped between printing money to save markets or allowing deflationary debt defaults. He predicts the Fed will ultimately implement yield curve control to bail out the bond market, pushing America down an emerging market path negative for the dollar—which gold's historic rally is already pricing in. Irons dismisses gold meme stock concerns since central banks are the primary buyers, and argues government spending is politically impossible to cut. Drawing from his background as anonymous short seller "Quoth The Raven," he explains why short sellers face unprecedented challenges as Fed liquidity creates massive distortions—$2 trillion in worthless crypto finds bids while fundamentally sound shorts get squeezed. He believes during April's Liberation Day, markets were "days away from a bond market crisis" when stocks and bonds unusually sold off together. Irons warns a sharp deleveraging event is inevitable though timing is uncertain, offering blunt advice: "Don't listen to anybody, including me" and avoid certainty, because we've never been here before and things can change profoundly overnight.
This episode is sponsored by Monetary Metals. Visit https://www.monetary-metals.com/julia/
Links:
X: https://x.com/QTRResearch
Substack: https://quoththeraven.substack.com/
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction & welcome
0:36 - Guest introduction: Chris Irons "Quoth The Raven"
1:14 - Big picture macro view: unprecedented territory
2:19 - Gold's rally & stock market highs
2:54 - The 100-year inflationary cycle
4:35 - Fed's dual mandate tension
5:34 - Upcoming Fed meeting & rate cuts
8:00 - Young generation following monetary policy
10:00 - Gold
16:00 - The debasement trade going mainstream
18:40 - Fiscal picture
23:00 - Gold, feels we are on the precipice of a big change
28:00 - Short selling
43:00 - The ultimate bubble
45:00 - Closing
