043: Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream-Christopher Whalen

In the 1980s, you could get double digit returns on your savings. Interest rates were that high.  That said, inflation was out of control as well so the real value of earnings might not be as attractive as it is at first glance but certainly better than today. Today’s economy punishes savers be eroding there wealth through inflation while not providing and significant interest. That’s why Robert Kiyosaki says, “savers are losers.”

In the last few decades, we have become an economy of low interest rates and debt. At first, we used these tools to fuel our economy and to create better lives for ourselves but, eventually, like most drug users, we became addicted. Now, we can’t live without debt and inflation! We need to create more debt so that we can pay off our old debt and we need inflation to devalue and erode the debt we have. What do you do in this kind of economy? As they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” If we must have inflation to pay for our fiscal sins, ride the wave. Invest in Real assets…real estate, raw land, precious metals and art. Why? When inflation happens, it does not leave real assets behind–we inflate together.

There are few people who understand this and explain this better than this week’s guest on Wealth Formula Podcast, investment banker and author, Christopher Whalen.