Wealth Formula by Buck Joffrey

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! As we head into the last week of the year there is much to reflect upon. The last few years have been absolutely bonkers. If someone had told me in mid-2019 that a global pandemic would happen, and the world would be practically paralyzed for the next two years I would never have believed it. Oddly, during 2020-2021, the stock and real estate markets did great! Historically low interest rates made cheap money abundant for investors and, for that reason, the markets paradoxically rose as the real economy actually shrunk. Nomi Prins talked about this phenomenon on one of our past shows—“The Great Distortion” refers to the decoupling of financial markets with reality. While monetary policy made asset prices rise, fiscal policy contributed to inflation. Certainly, supply chains created problems of low supply. But helicopter money gave people extra money to spend and a huge injection of liquidity directly onto Main Street. The fact that we have been dealing with high inflation, therefore, should not be a surprise. It’s simply policy chickens coming home to roost. And when there is high inflation, rates must go up and that’s exactly what happened. What happens next is the big question. The Fed has never raised interest rates over 400 percent in 9 months. Usually, a small change in interest rates isn’t really accounted for in the economy for about six months. The economy and inflation have clearly slowed down but what happens in the next few months will be very interesting. Will we indeed have a deep recession? And if we do, does the Fed reverse course on its hawkish stance? Interest rates will probably not go back to zero anytime soon. But remember, investors have always made money regardless of absolute interest rate percentages. There were investors making a lot of money even when interest rates were double digits. We just need a stable interest rate environment to get back to business and I do believe that will happen in 2023. That’s my take on where we are now and what may happen. That said, as Yogi Berra said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future”. All we can do is to watch and wait and hopefully educate ourselves a bit. That’s what this podcast is about and that’s why this week I interviewed one of the smartest people you’ll ever meet on these topics: Jim Rickards. You won’t want to miss this show. LISTEN NOW! James Rickards is the Editor of Strategic Intelligence, a financial newsletter, and Director of The James Rickards Project, an inquiry into the complex dynamics of geopolitics + global capital. He is the author of The New Case for Gold (April 2016), and two New York Times best sellers, The Death of Money (2014), and Currency Wars (2011) from Penguin Random House. He is a portfolio manager, lawyer, and economist, and has held senior positions at Citibank, Long-Term Capital Management, and Caxton Associates. In 1998, he was the principal negotiator of the rescue of LTCM sponsored by the Federal Reserve. His clients include institutional investors and government directorates. He is an Op-Ed contributor to the Financial Times, Evening Standard, New York Times, and Washington Post, and has been interviewed on BBC, CNN, NPR, C- SPAN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox, and The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Rickards is a guest lecturer in globalization and finance at The Johns Hopkins University, The Kellogg School at Northwestern, and the School of Advanced International Studies. He has delivered papers on risk at Singularity University, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is an advisor on capital markets to the U.S. intelligence community, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and is on the Advisory Board of the Center on Sanctions & Illicit Finance in Washington DC. Mr. Rickards holds an LL.M. (Taxation) from the NYU School of Law; a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School; an M.A. in international economics from SAIS, and a B.A. (with honors) from Johns Hopkins. He lives in New Hampshire.

As you know, we have an Automatic Teller Machine offering and you can take a look at it at WFVelocity.com I’ve personally been invested for 6-7 years without issue. That’s not surprising as the use of cash continues to increase in the US. The biggest risk to investing in this type of asset is obvious—the end of cash. Is it possible? Yes of course it is. In fact, I would say that there is a high probability that we will be a cashless society. China is there already. However, we are not China. There are many differences inherent in Chinese culture and government that made it easier for a cashless society to evolve quickly. And what does a cashless society in the United States look like anyway? I keep hearing people talking about central bank distributed ledger tokens replacing cash. In my view, that doesn’t really make sense. The only thing I see here is the advantage of blockchain technology over the SWIFT system. Most US dollars are already digital. Central bank digitized dollars, in my view, would really be there to upgrade current technologies. Cash is important to our society because it allows some level of money transfer that is truly private. Imagine if every penny you spent was tracked by the government. I bet you wouldn’t like that. Of course lawmakers know that as well. Therefore, despite all of the speculation about the role of decentralized digital dollars, there is no active legislation in congress that suggests that this is going to happen anytime soon. We will probably eventually be without cash but it’s not going to happen overnight. The end of cash is, in my view, a generational change that will need to have the support of citizens. That day is not here. But don’t take my word for it, listen in to this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast to hear my discussion on this topic and more with an expert on financial technology. Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow since January 2021, joined the Peterson Institute for International Economics as a research fellow in 2017. He gained expertise in financial innovation while in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar and researcher at the Association of German Banks. He conducted research on financial liberalization in Beijing, first as a Luce Scholar at Peking University’s China Center for Economic Research and then at the China Finance 40 Forum, China’s leading independent think tank. In 2017, he graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government with a masters in public administration in international development. Chorzempa is author of The Cashless Revolution: China’s Reinvention of Money (PublicAffairs, October 2022). He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, MIT Technology Review, and Foreign Affairs. Shownotes: How did China successfully switch to a cashless system in an extremely short period of time? Government visibility on cashless transactions The role of future potential “super apps” in the US

The cryptocurrency markets have been crushed and don’t be surprised if they go even lower once the full extent of the FTX meltdown is realized. However, it’s clear to me that this in no way is the end of cryptocurrency. Believe me, I’ve been around crypto long enough to have seen it declared dead several times over. It won’t happen. The reason for this is that behind cryptocurrency is a technology. It’s not just tulips. Tulips didn’t do anything. Underlying crypto assets lies decentralized distributed ledger technology that will change our world. Ok…so you’ve heard me and others make that statement before and it might be getting old. So, I think it’s important to go into more detail and highlight examples of what this technology can do. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is a major revolution that is happening now. It is still in its infancy but it is pretty clear that this technology represents the future of banking and really all market transactions. But why is it advantageous? This is an important question. You can easily be fooled by people selling you “tokens” while they are raising money for real estate or other assets. Tokenization does not replace good operations. In reality, most of these offerings are just marketing gimmicks. Just because your shares are represented by a token doesn’t mean a lot. There are clearly advantages to tokenizing assets in the sense that they can be traded and potentially provide more individuals access to things in which they might not otherwise be able to invest. But there are a lot of kinks to be worked out. And while I believe in the technology, the current state of DeFi is still fraught with charlatans and Ponzi schemes. A major reason this is possible is that few DeFi projects are purely decentralized. When someone is in charge, that’s not decentralization.  It’s a complicated topic so I asked someone knee-deep in the DeFi world to help us understand it a bit better. You should know a thing or two on this topic as it will enter your world sooner or later. So make sure to listen to this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast! Alex Vergara is a Community Lead and Founding Member at EarthFund, the decentralized platform for a better tomorrow.

It’s cold outside…even in Santa Barbara. The real estate markets are especially frozen now and will continue to be at least for the next couple of months into the new year. Why is this happening? Real estate, more than any other investment, is highly dependent on interest rates. Right now, there is simply too much volatility for reasonable underwriting. To be clear, it’s not HIGH interest rates that are the problem. It’s moving goalposts. All markets hate uncertainty. That said, we need to keep deploying money to keep up with inflation. I know a lot of people are sitting on cash which isn’t a terrible idea. But just know that in the process you are losing 7-8 percent buying power on an annual basis. My own strategy has adjusted to this current reality. I’ve started looking at businesses as investments. In the right hands, businesses can provide streams of income that exceed cash on cash of real estate acquisitions. Indeed, if you bought your own business chances are that your return on capital would project out to about three years. Larger businesses will have smaller multiples. You see it’s all about risk and reward profile of any investment. The reason large apartment building tend to trade at cap rates slightly below the mortgage rate is because they are extremely stable assets with few moving parts. Businesses inherently have more moving parts and, therefore, you should be rewarded for taking a bit more risk. I’m different from many of the podcasters in the personal finance podcast ecosystem because I started out as an entrepreneur. In fact, I started 3 multimillion-dollar businesses before I ever got into real estate syndication. In other words, I know a thing about starting businesses. That said, evaluating and buying businesses is a different skill set altogether. Zulfe Ali who you may have met at one of our last couple of meetups used to run a sovereign wealth fund and spearheaded acquisitions of multiple billion-dollar companies. That’s a different level of expertise in business acquisition and that’s why I’m following his lead. To be clear Not everyone should be an entrepreneur. My friend Jorge Newberry and I once talked about how you are most often born an entrepreneur and it’s often a curse for people around us. So if you are not an entrepreneur but are interested in investing in businesses, what should you do? Well, you can look for private acquisitions to invest in passively. We have one of those coming up this week! But if you want to get your hands dirty, you might consider looking into franchises. Franchises often provide the guardrails for people who are not natural entrepreneurs and/or want a greater level of support. This week’s guest on Wealth Formula Podcast is an expert at matching people with franchise opportunities. Listen in. This could be something you might get interested in and end up finding your next calling! One of America’s Top Franchise Consultants, Host of Kim Daly TV on YouTube, Author, Speaker, Thought Leader, and Franchising ExpertFor the past 20 years Kim Daly has been helping entrepreneurs, investors, and stuck 9-5 professionals take control of their lives and step out of the corporate cycle by investing intelligently in the franchise businesses and become “franchisepreneurs.” She is an international best-selling co-author of Franchising Freedom and the founder and host of the Kim Daly TV YouTube channel. Before becoming a franchise consultant Kim was an entrepreneur and highly sought after consultant in the health and fitness industry working with brands such as Denise Austin, Dr.Denis Waitley, Gold’s Gym and eDiets.com. She is the creator of “The Daly Plan” – a millionaire mindset coaching program that enabled her to build the largest franchise consulting business in the history of franchise consulting in 2012. She aspires to be the most influential and motivational voice in the franchise industry. Kim is a mom of two teenage boys. She is passionate about fitness and nutrition. She lives on the beach in Southern New Hampshire where she loves to ski in the winter and workout year round. Shownotes: How is the current economy affecting businesses? Can you own a business and be completely passive? How challenging is it to own and operate franchises? What is the good thing about franchising?

Happy Holidays everyone. I’m very thankful for you Wealth Formula Nation! It is a great pleasure for me to serve you as clarifier-in-chief at Wealth Formula. Listen in to this week’s edition of Ask Buck. We talk about real estate depreciation issues, asset protection and more! Don’t miss it!

It’s been a while but this week’s episode of Wealth Formula Podcast is the latest “Ask Buck” episode. As you know, most of the time I interview other people so I don’t get a chance to talk to you directly. These episodes are great for learning. In fact, go back and listen to the last 10 “Ask Buck” shows and you will know as much as I do about personal finance! This week we have questions about multifamily investment opportunities, the Theory of Population Collapse, and bonus depreciation. Make sure to tune in!

Warren Buffet talks about being greedy when others are fearful. I think it’s fair to say that there is a great deal of fear in the financial system right now with interest rates climbing as quickly as they are. Eventually, this will lead to distress in all financial markets. The stock market is already down—especially tech stocks. The Real Estate market is frozen. There is very little trading. That’s why our investor group has not acquired anything since May. The worst part about where we are now in this cycle is uncertainty. Rates going up to more historical levels is not, in and of itself, problematic. The problem relates to the unexpected speed of rate increases and the fact that we don’t really know when it will end. Even with higher rates, we can go back to business as normal. Buyers and sellers just need to have some sort of interest rate benchmark with which to underwrite. But the Fed is moving the goalposts too quickly for anyone to use a specific interest rate to put into a spreadsheet. One thing you might be wondering is why there is no significant distress in the market. The answer is largely that most buyers on floating rates purchased rate caps. But over time those will expire and if rents are not raised quickly enough, they could see negative cash flow pretty quickly. We could start seeing opportunities early next year. And when we do, I will be buying! Over the last month, the cryptocurrency market also got hit hard. It went from beloved, even by teenagers, to red-headed stepchild status within days. In crypto, down markets mean DESTROYED. And… that’s where we are right now. Could it go lower? Maybe? But I am a buyer of bitcoin at this price. Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere over the next several years and I believe will eventually be worth a lot more than it is today. It may be controversial to say, but investments in bitcoin or bitcoin mining today might be some of the more obvious plays to make for savvy investors. But again, there is fear in the financial ecosystem. Investors, as much as they like the idea of buying low and selling high usually do the opposite in these situations. But remember, be greedy when others are fearful. Cryptocurrency is down but not dead. People just stop talking about it when there is a bear market. But that’s exactly why we should talk about it on Wealth Formula Podcast. My guest this week will tell us why blockchain and cryptocurrency are an inevitable part of the future…even for banks. And if that’s the case, should you be investing? Make sure to tune in and find out. Omid Malekan is the Explainer-in-Chief of blockchain technology. He’s the author of ReArchitecting Trust: The Curse of History and the Crypto Cure for Money, Markets, and Platforms as well as The Story of the Blockchain: A Beginner’s Guide to the Technology That Nobody Understands. He is an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School where he lectures on blockchain and crypto. An eight-year veteran of the crypto industry, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Spectator magazine, and his own blog on Medium.com. Malekan advises individuals and corporations on the intersection of the old and new. Learn more at www.omidmalekan.com Shownotes: How Omid got started working with banks on cryptocurrency policies What are the fundamental problems in the system that crypto potentially provides a solution for? How can blockchain and cryptocurrency restore trust in the system? Re-Architecting Trust: The Curse of History and the Crypto Cure for Money, Markets, and Platforms

As we get closer to the end of the year, I know a number of you are trying to figure out how to deploy capital. We will have some opportunities that are not real estate oriented.  I also believe that it is a surprisingly good time to consider various life insurance strategies that we have discussed before. I have included the email sent to me on this topic by Rod and Christian and they will be my guest on this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast. Make sure to listen in!  —————————————————————————— We frequently receive questions about how the recent increase in interest rates will impact the strategies we teach that utilize the combination of high cash-value life insurance and leverage.   Interest rate reset First, it’s important to realize that rising interest rates are great for life insurance! Cash value life insurance is designed to outperform general interest rates.  When interest rates go up, it allows life insurance companies to generate higher returns in their general account, that additional return then passes on to the policy holder. In fact, we’re already seeing cap rates on IUL’s begin to climb and adjust to the market. This increase in caps will result in a higher overall return inside the policy! In traditional whole life insurance, higher interest rates means higher dividends!  It’s also important to understand that life insurance companies primarily invest in bonds and notes, the types of investments that are sensitive to interest rates. However, there’s a significant difference between an individual investor and an institutional investor. Life insurance companies are able to make considerably larger investments and for considerably longer time frames. We’re talking about as long as 40 or 50 years. This advantage allows them to be more selective as to the types of investments they buy and for how long they will lock. In the context of our strategies, the recent increase in interest rates is actually creating a much healthier and more profitable environment for life insurance companies, which of course also means that dividends and cap rates will rise.  Interestingly, the effect on loan rates is more short-lived. In many cases, when we run the Wealth Accelerator stress tests for the 1980’s, we actually end up with a higher long-term IRR than when we run our baseline projections using a very conservative 2% spread. The impact of higher rates on Wealth Formula Banking If you’re not yet familiar with Wealth Formula Banking, check out our webinar by going to www.wealthformulabanking.com. In a nutshell, we build up our investment opportunity fund inside of an overfunded whole life policy. We then loan against our cash value to invest in real estate, business, etc., our money stays and continues to grow inside of the account. By doing this, we’re able to double dip, and create value in two places at the same time. This is the perfect time to get involved with WFB, especially if you’re one of the many people who have money sitting on the sideline waiting for the right deal. Why let it sit in a checking account or money market account earning nothing, when we can put it in a WFB policy and generate a long-term 5%+ tax-free return? By the way, that 5%+ return is going up with interest rates!  Here’s a question I’m often asked: If I’m using a loan, and interest rates are rising, what does that mean for the WFB strategy? The good news is that for most of our clients there’s a direct relationship between the interest they’re paying on their loan and the interest that’s being credited to the portion of their cash value that is collateralizing the loan. So, if interest rates keep going higher, the interest rate we earn on the collateralized cash value will keep going higher as well. The Impact of higher rates on the Wealth Accelerator For anyone who isn’t familiar with the Wealth Accelerator, check out our webinar at www.wealthformulabanking.com. Briefly explained, we’re building an asset using leverage. The individual puts the initial funds into overfunded whole life and/or IUL policies, and then we finance all future contributions to the policy. We’re taking advantage of the spread that can be generated by creating higher growth in the policies than what we’re accumulating in interest on the loan. The goal is to generate double-digit tax-free returns, which then creates massive future tax-free income and/or income-tax-free funds for estate planning. Many people assume that the rise in interest rates kills the opportunity to create a spread. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As we mentioned above, a rise in interest rates creates a huge opportunity! The fact is, with interest rates going up, we’re already seeing caps rising within IUL policies. And, although there’s a slight lag time with dividends on whole-life policies, those will rise as well.  One aspect that I think can help alleviate concern as well is the fact that we carry a healthy cushion in the form of our “Net Equity” value. This represents the amount of extra cash value we have over and above the amount of our loan amount. As mentioned above, our design is built for times like this! In other words, we know there will be times when we will get less than a 2% spread, and even times when we’ll have a negative spread. This net equity serves as our buffer for times like that, so that we’re poised to take advantage of the times when the spread is a lot bigger than 2%. For example, in 2008, we would have cut into our buffer a bit because the market dropped and our IUL wouldn’t have produced a return in that year. However, the next 10 years would have averaged a lot higher than a 2% spread, with interest rates so low and the market growing so much. As a side note, we’ve also had people express concern about getting into an IUL policy while the market is down. Before we answer that, let’s be clear that due to the long-term nature of the strategy we don’t try to time the market. However, if we can choose, getting started when the market is down makes a lot of sense! We get to start at that lower market value, and ride the wave of the recovery. Christian Allen joined the financial services industry in 2004. Over the course of his career to date, he has developed a broad-based knowledge and experience set. He began as a traditional advisor, working with local clients in his home state. In that context, he began a movement of successfully partnering with other professionals, including accountants and attorneys, to assist clients in implementing sound financial strategies. He spent more than five years in management with 2 regional planning firms, during which time he assisted new and seasoned professionals in creating efficient systems and methods to build meaningful practices. Over the last several years, he has expanded to working across the country, teaching financial principles, and working with clients across a broad spectrum, including wealth accumulation, retirement distribution planning, as well as innovative, advanced planning strategies for both high-income and high-net-worth individuals and businesses. He’s a member of AALU, and holds the designations of Accredited Asset Management SpecialistSM and Accredited Wealth Management AdvisorSM Christian is married and has two children, and is an avid sports fan. Rod Zabriskie has been in financial services since 2009. Prior to going into business for himself, he worked in marketing and finance with several small businesses. He had the opportunity to purchase an existing furniture business in 2007, just prior to the Great Recession. The experience of struggling to stay afloat amid difficult economic conditions inspires Rod every day in his efforts to educate and assist his clients in implementing sound financial strategies. He strongly advocates for establishing a firm foundation, utilizing proven strategies and financial tools to create a strong base upon which we can each build our financial house. In addition to focusing on Wealth Formula Banking and Velocity Plus, he has expertise in retirement income planning. Rod has a bachelor’s degree in Marketing Communications, and an MBA with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship. He and his wife Jodi are the proud parents of 7 wonderful children. As a family they thrive on spending time exploring nature, playing games and doing projects together. He enjoys sports, music and reading. Shownotes: What is going on with the Permanent Life Insurance Strategies space? How does the Wealth Accelerator work? What makes the Wealth Accelerator better than traditional premium financing?

What makes for a highly successful entrepreneur or investor? It is the appetite for calculated risk. As Bruce Arians, coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers famously says, “No risk it, no biscuit”. In entrepreneurship this might be more obvious. You probably know entrepreneurs who took risks by leaving their day job and pursuing a business that they KNEW was going to be successful. I’m one of those guys. In my case I got fired from a job that helped accelerate the development of my first business. But the next one was even riskier.  Why was it riskier than the first? Well, when I started the first business, I had nothing. By the time I started the next business, I had a lot to lose. But I remember playing out the business model in my head and feeling like, “This will work”. In my mind, there was no risk…only upside. I know that sounds reckless but that’s the way young entrepreneurs must think to create successful businesses. In my case I was right fortunately. That next business did extremely well and took me to another level. Of course entrepreneurship is different from investing but there are some similarities. Again, it’s not hard to hit singles and doubles. But in order to hit home runs, you have to be willing to take some calculated risks. Often there is asymmetric risk where the upside is huge but there is a possibility of losing it all as well. Some of you have already experienced that for better or worse in the world of cryptocurrency. The bottom line is, “no risk it, no biscuit”. Ordinary investing will yield ordinary results. If you strive for more, you have to train yourself and your coronary arteries to be ok with risk. No one knows that more than my guest on this week’s Wealth Formula Podcast. He has served as president and/or CEO of multiple major brands that you will recognize and is known for his unconventional approach for high performance through strategic thinking. Listen here to learn how to jump first and think fast! Frank O’Connell grew up as a farm boy in a small town of 2,000 in Ovid, New York, where he drove tractors, sold eggs, and won prizes at 4H Fairs. He learned the value of hard work from his mother, who told him that he could surpass everyone by outworking them. Because of the values instilled in him, Frank went on to live an outsized life as a corporate chieftain. For more than fifty years, Frank has helmed such companies as Reebok, Fox Video Games, HBO Video, SkyBox, Gibson Greetings, and Indian Motorcycles. Frank has led major consumer product revolutions, including Innovative food products, video games, video tapes, the Reebok Pump, collectibles, toys, greeting cards, action figures, and the iconic Indian Motorcycle. A student of hard work and business who learned his craft on the front lines of sales and marketing, Frank knew that the right thing to do was to Jump First and then Think Fast. In his book, he shares his personal stories, business strategies, and proven methods for management. Jump First, Think Fast details Frank’s many business successes – as well as some failures – in an honest and forthright way. Jump First, Think Fast is for those who want to think differently about business and learn how to find their place, trust their instincts, and enjoy the ride from a successful CEO’s stories, lessons, and life moments.

The last 15 years have been a game of chicken between the Federal Reserve and the financial markets. Think about the old movies where the kids would speed in their cars towards each other until someone decided to quickly turn out of the way and avoid collision and certain death. Similarly, the financial markets and the Federal Reserve have been trying to figure out who would chicken out first for the past several years.  Let me give you an example. Despite COVID shutting down the entire country, the asset markets (after quickly blinking) went sky high.  Why? Because investors knew that the Fed would come to the rescue and they did. Rates dropped to zero, quantitative easing controlled the bond markets and all of that helped to embolden investors and reinforce the concept that the Fed will always come to the rescue. If you were at a Casino, wouldn’t you keep playing if the house guaranteed you wouldn’t lose money at the end of the night? That’s the way investors came to see the Fed—as an insurance policy. So then we got this inflation thing because of the massive amount of helicopter money injected into the system and supply chains creating huge demand. Of course, the Fed started raising rates again. At first, the markets shrugged it off. Playing chicken again. Then the Fed showed some cajones and kept raising rates and now all of the sudden it’s not quite as clear if they will blink first. The Fed has been clear about getting inflation under control. They know it has to be done. That’s finally getting through to some investors…or is it? We also know that we can only raise rates so much because of sovereign debt issues. And what if we end up in a massive recession because of the rate increases? Many investors think that’s exactly what’s going to happen. The moral of the story is that there is now a well-established disconnect between the economy and financial markets. The question is where does this all lead us? Dr. Nomi Prins is one of the smartest financial authors out there and she’s just released a new book on this very topic.  She’s going to tell about this great distortion and what it means for us in the long term. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW! As a Wall Street insider and outspoken advocate for economic reform, Dr. Nomi Prins is a leading authority on how the widespread impact of financial systems continues to effect our daily lives. She has spent decades analyzing and investigating economic and financial events at the ground level and meeting with those that shape the world’s geo-political-economic framework. She continues to break stories by conducting independent research, writing best-selling books, and traversing the globe to share her knowledge and demystify the world of money. Before becoming a renowned journalist and public speaker, Nomi reached the upper echelons of the financial world where she worked as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, ran the international analytics group as a senior managing director at Bear Stearns in London, was a strategist at Lehman Brothers and an analyst at the Chase Manhattan Bank. During her time on Wall Street, she grew increasingly aware of and discouraged by the unethical practices that permeated the banking industry. Eventually, she decided enough was enough and became an investigative journalist to shed light on the ways that financial systems are manipulated to serve the interests of an elite few at the expense of everyone else. Nomi’s forthcoming book: Permanent Distortion will be out October 2022. Leveraging her practical expertise and academic knowledge, she coined the concept Permanent Distortion as a way to educate readers on the gap between the financial markets and the real economy, and what it means for everyone’s future. Over the course of 2022 and beyond, she will be speaking at conferences around the world on this topic, as well as providing actionable ways to deal with it through media appearances, articles, and newsletters. Nomi’s latest best-selling book, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World, explores the conditions that led to the rise of the new era of central banks’ power and the impact they have on markets and the global economy. Her last book, All the Presidents’ Bankers, is a groundbreaking narrative about the relationships of presidents to elite Wall Street bankers over the past century and how they shaped domestic and foreign policy. Nomi’s other books include Black Tuesday, a historical novel about the 1929 crash, and the hard-hitting exposé It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street. She is also the author of Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America, which accurately predicted the reasons and timing of the financial crisis of 2008, and was chosen as a Best Book of 2004 by The Economist, Barron’s and Library Journal. Nomi makes regular television appearances on BBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, CSPAN, Democracy Now, Fox and PBS. She has been a guest on hundreds of radio shows including for Marketplace, NPR, BBC, and Canadian Programming. She has also appeared in several award-winning documentaries alongside other prominent thought-leaders. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Newsday, The Guardian, The Nation, New York Daily News, La Vanguardia, and Salon.com, among other publications. She established international distinction for her presentation at the annual gathering of senior level governors and officials hosted by the Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank conference in Washington D.C. Represented by the American Program Bureau, Nomi has delivered keynote speeches at many prominent global venues including the London School of Economics, the UK Parliament, the Mexican Senate, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Google, Columbia University and the National Consumer Law Center. Prins’ insights and unparalleled observations have made her sought by politicians from all parties for advice and analysis of the financial system and the economy. She coined the term “permanent distortion” that describes how the Federal Reserve has created conditions where markets are feeding off its monetary policy decisions. Nomi served as a member of Senator (and presidential contender) Bernie Sanders’ Federal Reserve Reform Advisory Council. She is listed as one of America’s TopWonks. She is also on the advisory board of the whistle-blowing group ExposeFacts, a board member of animal welfare and wildlife conservation group The Elephant Project, and a member of the global advisory board of Ethical Markets. Nomi received her BS in Math from SUNY Purchase, and MS in Statistics from New York University. Nomi received her PhD in International Strategic Studies with a specialization in International Political Economy from The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. As a lifelong learner, she encourages others to do their own research, continue to ask big questions and think for themselves. Shownotes: At what point did we go from a short-term panacea to a permanent distortion? How much can the Fed raise interest rates? Is there any hope of getting inflation under control? PERMANENT DISTORTION: How Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever