In this special in-person interview, Jim Rickards breaks down why the Trump administration is far more strategic than the media portrays, explaining the "flood the zone" tactic and Scott Bessent's "Three Arrows" approach to bringing down the debt-to-GDP ratio. Jim dismantles the popular "debasement trade" narrative, revealing that foreign central banks are not dumping Treasuries and that the real risk lies in the Eurodollar market and the $1 quadrillion derivatives system underpinning global finance. He warns that stablecoins are quietly hoarding Treasury bills needed for collateral — and the risk of fraud waiting to blow up. On gold, Jim explains why $5,000 is just the beginning, making the case for $10,000 to $25,000 based on historical precedent from the 1970s when the dollar lost 94% of its value measured in gold. He also offers a bold prediction: the potential breakup of NATO as geopolitical alliances fracture under pressure.
More about Rickards:
Rickards is a New York Times bestselling author of Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis and several other best-sellers, including The New Great Depression, Aftermath, The Road to Ruin, Death of Money, The New Case for Gold, Sold Out: How Broken Supply Chains, Surging Inflation, and Political Instability Will Sink the Global Economy, and his newest book MoneyGPT: AI and the Threat to the Global Economy. An investment advisor, lawyer, inventor, and economist, Rickards has held senior positions at Citibank, Long-Term Capital Management, and Caxton Associates. He is also the Editor of Strategic Intelligence, a widely-read financial newsletter.
Links:
http://www.jamesrickardsproject.com/
https://x.com/RealJimRickards
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:33 Why the second Trump term is different from the first
5:25 The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025
6:45 Executive orders and legislative wins
8:20 Federal courts and the Supreme Court battles
9:49 The economy: Is it really chaos?
11:32 The national debt: Why $39 trillion isn't the number to watch
13:45 The debt-to-GDP ratio explained
15:30 The Keynesian multiplier and diminishing returns
17:38 How we fixed the debt ratio after WWII (1945-1980)
18:36 Scott Bessent's "Three Arrows" strategy
19:19 The debasement trade: Why it's a false narrative
21:15 Are foreign central banks dumping Treasuries? (No)
23:15 What triggers a financial panic
24:45 How the Fed actually "prints money"
26:30 The Eurodollar market: Where real money comes from
28:00 The $1 quadrillion derivatives market
30:15 Stablecoins: The hidden risk in crypto
33:24 Tether's commercial paper problem
35:37 Gold: Why it's really moving
37:45 The Russian asset freeze and its unintended consequences
42:26 Gold does well in deflation too
45:48 The first Pentagon financial war game (2009)
49:54 Gold's trajectory: $10,000 to $25,000 or higher
51:45 The 1970s: When gold went up 2,700%
55:30 Anchoring bias and why $1,000 jumps get easier
56:33 Jim Rogers on the 50% retracement rule
58:49 Silver: Precious metal meets industrial input
63:21 Bold prediction: The potential breakup of NATO
67:34 Parting thoughts: True diversification
The Julia La Roche Show 
