Our team had the privilege to be back on board the 16th Annual Summit at Sea (a 9-day investment conference with emphasis on all asset types, macro economics, and geopolitics sponsored by The Real Estate Guys) with our friends Robert & Kim Kiyosaki, Peter Schiff, Chris Martenson, Beth Clifford, G Edward Griffin, Robert Helms, Russell Gray and many more!
We love learning, and our team is committed to staying on top of trends to provide the best and safest real estate investments to our clients through syndications. Here are some highlight takeaways:
Russell Gray talked about how US Debt is increasing exponentially with no exit plan. Traditionally, debt comes from productivity, which does not increase exponentially. Right now, we can keep lowering interest rates to keep making payments and growing our debt...until there is nowhere left to go...
China is the largest holder of US Debt, with over $1T of US Treasuries. If the trade war triggers China to sell, bond markets would crash and interest rates would soar.
Dr. Doug Duncan shared that Japan today has no bond trades because their central bank bought them all back. Could that be where we're headed? Where would the US be with no bond trades?
Doug also shared that farm and manufacturing jobs are on the decline, and only represent 8% of all jobs. The tariffs are unlikely to increase these types of jobs. He predicts that the next recession will be in 2019. He has a highly accurate forecast record, and will be speaking at BACOMM on May 24!
Simon Black drew historical parallels to civilization declining when they transition from being producers to consumers. Big nations get entitled and see other countries lending and exporting as a privilege.
Consumption driven economies lead to debt driven economies. Today, our country has a failed economic model that incentivizes debt and consumption over investment and production. Other countries are going to catch on to them trading their physical commodities for our debt (no intrinsic value!).
Blockchain technology and decentralized transactions may be the future for transactions, but there are too many fanatics, too much fraud, and too many unsophisticated investors artificially affecting prices at this time.
David Sewell shared that commodities and hard assets ARE the currency. We live in such a currency paradigm that we see commodities valued in currency. In reality, the value of commodities remains the same, and the value of currency is always changing.
All expansions end, and nobody denies that a downturn is coming. In order to best position yourself for the inevitable, you should invest in yourself, and accumulate social capital, emotional capital, and resilience to weather any financial storm. Robert Kiyosaki says that your TEAM and relationships are more important than money. We are fortunate to have the education and access to invest in hard assets that will make us prepared and able to help our communities when a financial crisis hits.
Learn more at our Market update this Thursday at BACOMM, and on Real Estate Radio POWER Investing!
