MAG7 earnings, Venezuela, AI and unemployment, trouble for the ratings agencies, and First Brands goes from chapter 11 to chapter 7

Trump and Xi have a truly amazing conversation, the Fed cuts and ends QT, Argentina is bailed out and Milei wins bigly, the Supreme Court is set to hear the Tariff case and the FBI takes down insider trading in the NBA.

The US/China trade war escalates and spreadsglobally as the TACO trade becomes the dollar debasement trade, and with a surprising parallel to the dot.com boom/bust one of the first monetizable applications of AI is with .…..……P*rn!

Government shutdown, supreme court blocks fed packing, more stimi checks on the way, and another French government falls.......

The Trump Administration continues its pressure campaign on the Fed, stable coins, yield curve control, gold's reintroduction into the monetary system, a grand global economic re-ordering, impacts of a closed border on the real economy, and a looming government shutdown. 

Fed cutting rates while stocks are at all time highs, and credit spreads at all time tights – What could wrong?  Silver is now a “critically important mineral” according to the Department of the Interior which means the government is planning on stockpiling it, nationalizing it’s supply (i.e the miners) and confiscating it from the public.  The French government falls for the 5th time in 3 years, an Arab oil embargo 2.0 or a European sovereign debt crisis 2.0?  And a U.S. Ally bombs another U.S. Ally.

JC, Mitch, and Brandon discuss Trump commandeering the Fed, Lisa Cooked, Gold bugs time to shine, an American sovereign wealth fund, Modi ghosts Trump, and a National emergency in the housing market.

JC, Mitch and Brandon discuss who is winning the trade war, if Jerome Powell finishes his term, should the Fed be cutting rates, private equity for the people, the sickly housing market and the BOJ’s destruction of its own government bond market. 

JC, Mitch and Brandon discuss the upcoming August 1st Tariff deadline, which countries are likely to get extensions, which are likely to get treated harshly.  The lack of inflation (so far?), the June budget surplus, the Fed under political attack, soaring costs of homeownership, the broken housing market and Elon Musk's’ “America Party."

Mitch, JC and Brandon discuss the muted market reaction (initially at least) to the U.S. bombing of Iran, trade deals or the lack thereof 80 days after “liberation day”, the housing market rolling over, Secretary Bessent as the shadow Fed Chair, FICO scores, credit rating erosion, Yale’s project Gatsby and much more. 

Mitch, Brandon, and JC discuss the TACO trade, fiscal dominance vs financial dominance, managed currencies, the reintegration of gold into the monetary system, Canadian secession movements, escalating to de-escalate in Ukraine and much much more...

Brandon, Mitch and John discuss the Big Beautiful Tax Bill,the inverse Asian Financial Crisis, the hawkish front runners for the next Fed Chair, the managed fiat currency regime coming to an end, trade negotiations with Japan, China, the UK, Mexico and Canada and much much more.

Comparing the scale, dominance, and valuations of the MAG7 to the .com bubble of the late 1990’s and the Nifty Fifty of the late 1960’s.  Discussing the cross currents of the trade wars, the advent of generative AI and the impacts of the DeepSeek revelations on the valuations of the MAG7.     

A discussion of the perfect storm brewing in private markets, the analogies to the global financial crisis and the Yale model as (misplaced) justification for outsized allocations with Brandon Bajema, John Cassady and Brad Filips.      

Brandon Bajema, John Cassady, and Mitch Stapley discuss the aftermath of the liberation day tariffs, what comes next in the trade war, the potential for the tech and private equity bubbles to burst, capital outflows, gold, oil and bitcoin.

A discussion of the looming “Liberation Day” tariffs, how those tariffs are likely to be received and responded to by US trading partners, and how they fit into the broader theme of a new grand global economic re-ordering.  Dollar devaluation, gold, Fannie/Freddie privatization, Greenland going to the polls, a U.S. debt trap and engineering a recession are all discussed.   Brandon Bajema moderates the discussion between John Cassady, and Mitch Stapley.   

A discussion of a potential grand global economicre-ordering and how tariffs, the external revenue service, a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, NATO, gold and overvalued dollar all interact with each other.  In this episode Brandon Bajema is joined by Mitch Stapley and John Cassady of Red Cedar Investment Management.