Up for discussion in this episode is ‘the silver lining’ of the shocking increase in US mortality rates – reduced pension costs for corporations, increased profits for shareholders. At least this is the upside, according to the financial press. Max

– Gold hedges massive ongoing devaluation of U.S. Dollar – 46th anniversary of ‘Tricky Dicky’ ending Gold Standard (see video) – Savings destroyed by currency creation and now negative interest rates – Long-term inflation figures show gold a hedge against rising cost

– World’s largest hedge fund Bridgewater buys $68 million of gold ETF in Q2 – Investors poured $870 million into SPDR Gold in Q2 – Billionaire Paulson keeps 4.36 million shares in SPDR Gold – “Risks are now rising and do not appear

– Don’t let “traditional biases” stop you from diversifying into gold – Dalio on Linkedin – “Risks are now rising and do not appear appropriately priced in” warns founder of world’s largest hedge fund – Geo-political risk from North Korea & “risk of hellacious war” –

Insurance and FinTech have largely remained on opposite sides of the spectrum, until recently. Financial technology companies paid scant attention to the insurance industry, preferring to focus on peer to peer lending, Forex, and payments. That trend is changing. FinTech

I’ve been writing about cryptocurrencies and bitcoin for many years. For example: Could Bitcoin Become a Global Reserve Currency? (November 7, 2013) I am an interested observer, not an expert. As an observer, it seems to me that the mainstream–media, financial punditry, etc.–as

David McWilliams: Great Disaster Looms as Technology Disrupts White Collar Workers – Every era, every century, every generation has its massive technological disruption – Taxi drivers being “disrupted” by technology of Uber – History shows how “middle men” frequently made

There is perhaps no better metric of class in America than personal power–what is known as agency: the power to influence or transform one’s circumstances in a a self-directed manner. Those with agency have power, those without agency (or very limited agency)