U.S. debt could spiral out of control into a full-blown solvency crisis. A rapidly growing $36 trillion U.S. Government debt threatens markets and the global economy. In this eye-opening interview, Andrew Brill welcomes WindRock Wealth’s Chris Casey to explain why we’re already in “crisis mode,” how you can hedge this, and whether there’s truly ‘No Way Out.’
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Chris Casey 0:00
Right now we’re in a crisis mode. So the US has 36 trillion in debt. It took in just shy of 5 trillion. Last year, they spent almost seven. So they added 2 trillion to the debt. There’s no way out of this.
Andrew Brill 0:19
Welcome to wealthion. I’m Andrew brill. Two weeks into the new year, and there is some volatility. We’ll get some predictions from wealthy and partner RIA coming up right now.
Andrew Brill 0:33
I’d like to welcome back. Chris Casey. He’s a founder and managing director at wind rock wealth management. Chris, Happy New Year. Nice to see you again. Yeah, thanks for having me back on so we decided, Chris, that we would look into our crystal ball and make some predictions on what we think might happen in the coming year. It’s already volatile, and you know, there’s ups and downs, of course, as we record this, we remember Jimmy Carter, but this will air shortly after that. But talk to me about where you think we’re headed as a as an economy and a country, I guess. Yeah, well,
Chris Casey 1:13
I think there’s two different paths that are available, and I don’t know which one we’re going to go down. I think I do, but I what I do know is that in three months or so, 100 days, let’s call it, we will know which path we’re under him. And by that, I mean we’re right now. We’re in a crisis mode. So the US has 36 trillion in debt. It took in just shy of 5 trillion. Last year, they spent almost seven, so they added 2 trillion to the debt. There’s no way out of this. It’s going to continue for some time. And to put that in real terms for people, that’s no different than a household, one thing I should mention is that of the 36,000,000,000,010 of that’s being rolled over this year, meaning it’ll probably rolled over into higher interest rates. So it’s no different than a household if they took home $49,000 in after pay cash, and they had $360,000 in credit card debt. And they paid 11,000 out of that 49 in interest alone. And if they had, you know, 100,000 of the 360 was being rolled over at higher rates. I mean, it’s just, it’s really horrible predicament. The only difference is US has a printing press. So given that backdrop of this, what I call a crisis, there’s two paths that can go, either the administration, the Republican Congress can enact some, really, what I consider drastic but needed and real, beneficial reforms that can take place, and the other scenario, I call the Contract with America scenario. So the first scenario where things get better, we already know what Trump’s going to do, right? He’s cut taxes, deregulate, secure the border. We’ll probably have peace in Ukraine, and he’ll expand our energy capacity, natural gas, what have you. That’s pretty well known, but he’s hinted at some really dramatic things, and such as a gold standard, such as eliminating the income tax he has, I don’t think he’s mentioned this, but he could privatize things like, why aren’t we even using that word in our normal course of discourse? Right? It should be, privatization. Should be something we’re talking about. There’s no reason there’s a post office, right? You can even privatize Social Security. Chile did it right, instead of giving money to a government bureaucrat who then turns it over to an older American, why don’t actually just have a mandated savings account? It’d be much better. You could have your own, like Schwab account, right? So there’s some dramatic things that that Trump could do. He could he could sell assets, right? He could restructure long term debt. There’s no reason the US doesn’t have a 50 year bond at low interest rates, right? There’s some really great things he could do. And while he may be willing to do it, I don’t know if America is ready. And by that I mean, typically in a society, when they embrace radical economic reforms that result in what people call miraculous benefits, it’s only miraculous those don’t understand economics. There’s a lot of pain that has to be dealt with first. So for instance, right now, we only see it in Argentina. We said in El Salvador, historically, you see it maybe the Czech Republic in Poland breaking away from the Cold War. You see it in 19th century America, or Meiji Empire Japan, or the four tigers in Asia after World War Two. We see this time and time again. But typically, a lot of pain has to be endured before radical reforms are embraced. Now, on the other hand, by the way, whether or not Trump will do that, I don’t know. I see a lot of good signs Trump 2.0 or I should say 47.0 I’d say is a lot better than the last presidency. Meaning, I think he’s learned some lessons. He probably has some thought about what policy failures and policy wins. More importantly is the personnel. I think he knows who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. And I think that’s one of the bright spots I see. There’s some cracks already. I didn’t like his endorsement Mike Johnson, or his call for debt ceiling to be eliminated. I think he should have used it as a crisis. Move to the states institutes of real reforms. But these are two paths we could go by. It’s that one, and then there’s a Contract for America. And by that, I mean. And you, I’m sure you remember, but in 1994 Republicans swept Congress. They flipped both houses. They gained like, eight Senate seats. They gained over 50 House seats. It was largely because Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey proposed was called the Contract for America, which was a legislative agenda they promised to enact. Were they elected? And what ended up happening is really nothing. They got some minor welfare reform. But apart from that, no real structural changes took place. There’s no balanced budget amendment, there’s no term limits, etc. So that’s another path we could go down. And again, I think we’ll know which one we go down. It’s a long answer, but I know which one will go down. I think we’ll know in about 100
Andrew Brill 5:39
days. So let’s talk about credit for a bit. And, you know, bond prices you had mentioned. You know, restructuring the debt, or or having to roll over the debt is going to cost us more money. It’s going to add to the debt. It’s going to, you know, obviously, if you use you sell something at two and a half percent, and now you have to sell it at 5% or four and a half percent, it’s going to cost you more money to finance that debt. But let’s talk about credit spreads, where, you know, Treasuries are a pretty a pretty good investment. You know you’re going to get paid back. But then there’s corporate bonds, and the spreads, as you put it, your prediction, you think they’re widening and it’s going to get tough to you know, obviously something that’s giving you more interest is a little more risky. And as the spread gets wider, those that risk gets more and more. Yeah,
Chris Casey 6:35
if we’re billing this podcast, is kind of like, you know, let’s say x number of predict, eight predictions, or what have you for the upcoming year, that’s one of them. I do think credit spreads finally widen. And by that, I mean like you’re saying, there’s different bond classes. You have corporates, you have junk bonds, you have mortgage backed securities. They all tend to trade at a or transact at a premium as far as their yields. So higher interest rates than so called Risk Free rates, right for the US, by the way, we should probably stop using that term, because I think the last rating agency is about to downgrade the US, which means no one has them at risk free anymore,
Andrew Brill 7:10
right? A minute. That’s your your next prediction. Well, no one’s
Chris Casey 7:14
talking about, yeah, no one’s talking about that. So credit spreads. What the reason it’s important is because it tends to be a kind of the last sign before a full blown recession. You see spreads widening. We haven’t seen that and B it obviously you may not want to be in those other asset classes relative to treasuries, should credit spreads expand so bonds, I think, are very troublesome asset class right now is for that reason alone, let alone rising interest rates in general. And if we do see credit spreads widen, everyone should be concerned about a recession. So
Andrew Brill 7:48
if the bond, the Treasury bonds, price goes up, it’s possible those credit spreads may not be as wide. If the treasury bonds came down in price. Yes,
Chris Casey 8:01
spreads are all relative, so it just depends the price action on both the treasuries as well as the corresponding other bond asset class. That’s right.
Andrew Brill 8:09
So let’s talk about debt, Chris and you predict that there is an actual crisis coming up. We’ve talked about this before, about the US not being able to pay back their debt at some point. You don’t know. Nobody knows when that’ll be, but we just talked about it. We have to refinance some debt at a higher interest rate, causing more debt. And you predict there could be a crisis at some point.
Chris Casey 8:35
I think we’re already in a crisis that people aren’t talking about. And I I know we’ve mentioned it in the past on the show, but I think over the next 10 years, that’s all people are going to be talking about, because I think it’s that significant of an issue. I mentioned, we have 36 over 36 trillion in debt relative to 4.9 that was taken in a fiscal year last year for US government. On top of that, they paid over 1,000,000,000,001 point 1 trillion over 1.1 on interest alone. So I mean, that’s a quick way to bankruptcy and looking for insolvencies, defined not just by the liabilities exceeding assets, but also the inability to pay debts when they come due. And that’s, I think, an area we’re gonna get to. So whether or not we have a solvency, so called crisis this year, I think at the very least the mainstream financial media starts talking about it. I could very well see a headline in Barron’s. We’ll have to put it up next time on the show, when that happens, solvency crisis or something to that effect, a ticking time bomb with debt that is inevitable, and it’s coming down sooner than I think people realize.
Andrew Brill 9:37
Are you concerned about your financial future or think your investments could be doing better. I’m Andrew brill, one of the hosts here on wealthium, and I’ve been there not sure my money was in the right places. It’s why I’ve gotten help from a financial advisor. Maybe it’s time you think more about your financial future, or get a second opinion about your investments. We’ve made that process easy so. Simply go to wealthion.com/free to speak with one of wealthions, registered investment advisors for a free, no obligation portfolio review. Again, that’s wealthion.com/free I’m now less anxious and confident I can achieve the financial goals I’ve set for me and my family, if we, if the US does not we but if the US does get downgraded, as you as you say, what is the effect? What happens?
Chris Casey 10:28
Well, so far at these levels, you know, it’s a fairly minor downgrade. So far, nothing. I mean, they’re the price actions already been priced into the market. So whether or not, you know, a certain rating agency does something, probably doesn’t impact the markets all that much, as long as you don’t break certain thresholds, you drop below investment grade or something, which we’re a long way from. But I think, if anything, it’s more of a perception issue, where once the last rating agency downgrades the US investors really need to start looking differently at US Treasuries, not necessarily short term, but I would view the long term as very, very risky investment.
Andrew Brill 11:03
How hard are the bond vigilantes working to drive up those bond prices?
Chris Casey 11:09
Well, the only bond vigilante that drives up, it’s a big one that drives up prices, is the Federal Reserve, right? They’re the buyer of last resort. They’re stepping in. I think they’ll increasingly do that in the upcoming year, and years to follow as foreign demand falls off. Because at some point it doesn’t make sense, even if you’re China, at some point it doesn’t make sense to ship something over here and get paid in a security ultimately, I mean, you get cash, and then you invest cash on Treasury that ultimately you may not realize. You may get a big discount on you may be selling it 80 cents on the dollar, or what have you. So I, I think that that’s a real that’s a real possibility.
Andrew Brill 11:49
So Chris, if we run into an issue, a solvency issue, where do we go to hedge against that
Chris Casey 11:58
when he solvency issue, first of all, will disrupt everything when you, when you that’s why interest rates are so important. They permeate all financial assets. They actually permeate all investment decisions, not just investment decisions, but really, I’d say corporate actions, right? It’s always every business. Every individual is always thinking about present consumption versus future consumption. That’s reflected in interest rates to a large degree. So I do think that there’s an issue that’s coming to a head here, whether or not it’s this year or a few years down the road, I don’t know.
Andrew Brill 12:31
So what are the hedges? You know, commodities is oftentimes a hedge against, you know, this huge volatility, but the dollar is so strong and continues to be strong. And we know that Donald Trump wants to suppress the dollar a little bit, but may not be able to do that with the economic situation. But if the dollar stays strong, commodities are going to be continue to be suppressed, and that’s a hedge that’s sort of taken away.
Chris Casey 13:02
Possibly, first of all, I’m always concerned when a politician talks about the dollar or interest rates or anything of that matter, for being either high or low, right? They shouldn’t be concerned whether the dollar is high or the concern whether the dollar is low. They should be concerned solely about the dollar being what it should be. By that, I mean having a free market, less government intervention, less central bank intervention, as far as hedges outside commodities, I think there’s a number of options that people should have explored already, because we’ve had some run up in some of these, or should consider, to a degree, at least, right now. So I’m talking everything from precious metals, gold’s at, I think $2,600 it could easily be at 3000 a year. It could be a 5000 in five years. Silver, you know, it’s at $30 that could very well be $50 down the road, maybe within a year or two. These things can happen quite quickly. People should look at any exporter, because exporters do well when the home currency is being inflated. I think people should look at certain types of real estate, you got to be very careful. You need paying tenants. It sounds obvious, but you preferably, you have short term leases. If there’s inflation, preferably you have debt that’s very favorably structured to the borrower, because inflation helps borrowers, right? So you want a very low interest rate, which will only help. So these are some of the inflation hedges I think are available to people, and hopefully they’ve been already stockpiling on them. Do you
Andrew Brill 14:25
do you envision a hedge where people are sort of taking money, I wouldn’t say, taking money out of the market, but moving money from certain equities into stable equities, stuff that does well in volatile times, or gives a a, you know, a dividend religiously. But, you know, achieve constant earnings is there? You will use envision a shift where people are, you know what? I can’t stand the volatility this stock does well just over time, and I’m going to park. My money there for a little while, until things calm down. Yeah, whenever
Chris Casey 15:03
you have volatility in the financial markets, whenever you have economic uncertainty, there’s always a flight to quality and there’s always a flight to liquidity, right? So people want to be as liquid as possible. So whether or not they so called, rotate into what you’re describing is so called, safer or less risky investments, or they just sit on cash until, you know, turbulent times pass. You know, those are, those are both probably wise decisions. I absolutely see that with the next crisis. And we see that pretty much in any crisis. We saw that in 2020, after the lockdowns. I mean, everything got hurt. It wasn’t just, you know, high flying, you know, mag seven type stocks, gold got hurt. Bitcoin got hurt. Everything got everything gets hurt. The liquidity crisis, everything.
Andrew Brill 15:48
So let’s move on to, you know, our incoming administration and what they plan to do with the, you know, the whole drill, baby drill. And one of your predictions is that natural gas will become a hot commodity. And I know that, you know, probably Greenland has a bunch of natural gas, and there may be some sort of a deal where we can drill there as well. But what you know, what is your prediction for natural gas and energy in that in that realm? Yeah, I’d
Chris Casey 16:19
say natural gas is poised to have a real nice run here. And there’s, it’s a pretty simple thesis behind it. Really, there’s two of them. One is that, first of all, there’s a huge arbitrage opportunity. Most commodities are priced. There’s, like, a world commodity. Most people know that there’s, they may see a couple different prices for oil, but they tend to be fairly close between WTI and Brent. But what you see with natural gas, unlike other commodities, is real divergence based on geographics, because it’s difficult to move this stuff around. And so Europe, right now, the price of natural gas, I think, is around four times what is in us. So there’s an arbitrage opportunity immediately for exporting natural gas to Europe. On top of that, probably more importantly, natural gas is really the only way the US can meet the demands of electricity capacity and output over next couple years. And I’m talking about massively increased electricity demands, demand based on everything from electric vehicles to cryptocurrency mining, but most importantly, artificial intelligence and how it kind of permeates data centers that alone will call for a drastic increase in the capacity of the electrical grid in the US, and the only way to meet that is through natural gas. Right? Coal’s off the table. Natural gas is abundant, it’s cheap. It takes like, two years to build a plant. You know, nuclear, you’ve seen these recent nuclear deals. They’re really just bringing stuff online, and I suspect this still takes probably two to five years. So if you think of all the stuff they gotta replace, just the electronics alone and to build a new plant, you know, if you can even do it today, it’s 10 plus years. So natural gas, I think, is really poised for a nice run, based on a couple factors here. So
Andrew Brill 18:06
if you’re looking to, you know, make some money, it’s, it’s natural gas mining companies, it’s, you know, you look the peripheral of all the companies that deal with natural gas, and you probably, if your prediction comes true that you’re probably going to make a little bit of money there
Chris Casey 18:24
natural gas companies us, based, like I said, are in a good situation, because those two reasons also now they’re able to expand, right? They’re able to expand capacity. So it’s not just price action, it’s actually volume. That’s a big deal, but it probably goes beyond that. And I’m not endorsing this, and I haven’t looked at this, I should caveat all that, but you know, I would look at the feed stocks for natural gas if that becomes cheaper. You know, maybe it’s a maybe it’s a chemical plate, maybe it’s plastics, I don’t know, but there’s other repercussions. But yes, I think natural gas should have and by cheaper, I mean in Europe, not the US, per se, but I think natural gas should have a nice run here going forward, simply to meet AI demands. So
Andrew Brill 19:05
Chris, let’s take a look now at another prediction. And look, we know that stocks have been, you know, inflated. The stock market keeps creeping up, then the bill a little bit volatile. After the new year kind of goes up a lot, and a lot Tech has a lot to do with that, going up a little, up a lot, down a lot, and you sort of a roller coaster ride. I think it’ll stay that way, but you feel that the market’s due for a correction. And is it that inflated where you think that it’s is due for a correction?
Chris Casey 19:37
Yeah, I would probably phrase it as overdue number one, you know, this is one of the most expensive markets in history based on any measure I personally like looking at. If you look at the S, p5, 100, the price to sales ratio is like 3.1 right? Now, that’s off the charts high, right? Historically. You compare it to anything tech bubble, 2008 I mean, we’re at historic highs. Look. At the Schiller price to earnings ratio. Again, we’re at highs that have only been exceeded briefly, maybe in 2020, and 22,008, right? So these, these are all by any metric, the market’s expensive. Now, the reason I think we could be in due for a big correction, apart from just valuation metrics, is that I think it’s been a big misunderstanding that the Federal Reserve has been pumping money into the system. They haven’t really over last, I’d say 18 months, it’s been negative to at best, recently flat. When you have that historically, it tends to argue for lower equity prices, all things being equal, and then that. And I’m just talking about even taking a recession off the table, which I think is still very possible given, you know, we recently just uninverted the yield curve again, after being historically inverted for a long time based on magnitude and duration only exceeded by the Great Depression. So not to even apart from a recession, there’s some real things that could top this market over and have a real severe correction in the stock market.
Andrew Brill 21:02
How are we protecting ourselves against that as an individual investor? Yeah,
Chris Casey 21:08
well, I think one thing you should look at is, or know about, is, these different indices that are represented by ETFs. So one of the concerning factors for me, apart from the what I just mentioned, the variables I just mentioned, is that the market feels top Toppy, right now, right? It seems like it’s at a top. It’s it’s a little the price action’s been a little choppy, a little bit a little bit quiet. But more concerning is the breadth of the market, meaning, how many stocks are going up versus how many going down? More importantly, who’s contributing to the overall returns in different indices. So for instance, if you look at any of the major so called big cap type indices, you’ll see that the so called mag seven contributes well over 50% something like 60 some percent, to the overall returns for last year. Well, that’s the only time I think that’s ever happened was back in 1929 literally. So it’s very ominous sign. So if the mag seven turns into the malignant seven, I’m not saying it will, by the way. I think that’s a phrase I stole from David column, but I think it’s great. It’s things could get ugly very quickly. So I think it’s not really a great answer to your question, but I think people really need to think about what they own in they own and how safe really is it, given those possibilities.
Andrew Brill 22:26
So protect yourself, be vigilant. Speak to your financial advisor. Is what you’re really saying, and help. Let them help you, or let them guide you as to what could be the best course of action given where you are with your investments, so we’ll leave it at that. But you know another one of your predictions and is overseas China facing a financial crisis. It seems that they’re already facing some sort of a crisis. They’re pouring tons and tons of money into their economy to try and jump start it again. But talk to me about the Chinese financial or the China financial crisis that you see coming.
Chris Casey 23:06
Yeah, in China, all things being equal, it looks compelling right now. It’s historically. The stocks are historically nicely valued, especially on a relative basis with their counterparts in the US. But I do see some storm clouds, forgetting about the fact that it’s largely a command control economy, forgetting about the fact that the fact that their debt to GDP ratio is probably not that much different from the US. A little bit more vague, but it’s not that much different. There are some real problems I see. So historically, Chinese economy, they’d have a target, let’s say it’s seven and a half percent, and they would meet or exceed it every year, right? And then it got to the point where they couldn’t hide that anymore. A lot of times, people thought they would misreport a high GDP growth, and based on electricity output, or what have you, some other proxies, they would say it’d be lower. So then I noticed that China has now lowered it. Now it’s like they say approximately 5% is the target in 2023 to even come close to that, right? It was up like 3% so we’ve gone from lowering their targets and not allowing and also at the same time allowing official reports to be lower than the targets, which is kind of unheard of. And so my thought process is that the price action we’re seeing in equities right now, where they’ve declined and they look cheap, a lot of people would blame it on it’s because of the Trump administration’s presidency that’s doing that. I suspect it may be more concerns about the Chinese economy, and so that’s an area that at some point will be worthy of looking in and investing in. But I think it’s a little early for that right now.
Andrew Brill 24:37
So Chris, let’s turn to AI, and it was obviously the buzzword of, or the the buzz phrase artificial intelligence of 2024, and a lot of stocks did very, very well predictions on AI. And, you know, Jensen Wang just spoke and threw some cold water on the quantitative computer. Shooting part of AI, but you think that it’s continued, going to continue, as do I to do? Well,
Chris Casey 25:07
yes, I think AI, put in baseball terms, is probably the top of the second inning, right? It’s early. A lot of money’s been made in it, but I don’t think that the adoption and the efficiencies and the productivity have been fully realized, or not even close to being fully realized. That realized at this point. And I’ve said this before on this program, but it bears repeating. I really think AI will do to white collar jobs what robotics did the blue collar. And it doesn’t necessarily mean replace them, but it does mean that at the very least, they be massively increased as far as productivity and efficiency. So I do think it’s early for AI. You can borrow up a good point in that quantum computing should be also viewed as a component of that, or a complimentary feature of that. To extent that we have real viable quantum computing, that’s only going to enhance the benefits and production of AI, as far as helping people. I know that that the video CEO recently said that, I think the exact phrase was something the effect of a viable quantum computer is more than 15 years away, but less than 30 right? Well, he may be, he may be cracked. I mean, he knows about more than me. But on the other hand, you can look at quotes by none other than like Einstein in the early 30s, saying, there’s, we’re not gonna be able to break the atom. It’s impossible, right? It’s just not so even so called experts in their own field may not see radical changes coming, and we just had some breakthroughs in quantum computing. So that’s not necessarily the reason we’re excited about AI, but I think it’s, it’s something people should think about, because I think it’s a great complimentary technology. Do you feel
Andrew Brill 26:38
that there’s, there’s aspects of AI that someone hasn’t even thought of yet, that, you know, a year, two years, three years down the road, they’re like, Oh my God, never even thought about that for AI. But here it is, and it’s surpassing all those companies who have been around a while using AI. Well, I
Chris Casey 26:57
would say they’re probably thinking about them, but I could see a lot of applications that haven’t been moved off the drawing board. And so I’ll give you an example law firms. You know, obviously the biggest expense for law firm are the salaries there. Well, if you have, you know, associates, you know, first year to, let’s say, five years, they’re mainly doing research, depending on the type of law they’re practicing. And for instance, maybe they’re shepherding case law to find out, to write a good brief for something. Well, at some point in time, AI can do that, not only probably better, but instantaneously. And so that could carve out. What we may see is that you may see a very different type of structure in legal firms. Right there’s you don’t necessarily need all the support of associates that you would in the past. And so that’s just an example which I don’t think has moved off the drawing board significantly, and maybe because there’s legal or ethical reasons they haven’t done that yet, but at some point, it’s an example of something where there could be fantastic synergies and efficiencies that probably no one’s doing as of yet. So
Andrew Brill 28:00
the last prediction is cryptocurrencies, and you think that they become a little bit more mainstream, obviously, with Donald Trump coming into office, he’s talked about cryptocurrency and deregulation and letting that really take off, but you believe that that’s going to be a case. Yeah, it’s kind
Chris Casey 28:18
of unfortunate. We’re even talking about cryptocurrencies becoming mainstream, because, in my opinion, they’ve been mainstream for a while. I mean, at Winrock, we wrote our first article on Bitcoin back in 2014 right? So we’ve been, that’s over 10 years ago, right? So we’ve been, we’ve been on this trend for a while. I think, though cryptocurrencies, there’s a lot of factors. Look at what, where they go from here, but one of the biggest positives I see is whether or not central banks or sovereign funds or just governments in general, adopt cryptocurrencies. Specifically, Bitcoin is some type of reserve asset, much like they do precious metals. Right? A lot of central banks own precious metals. I can see that happening. It’s already happened in El Salvador, which sounds like a silly, rinky Dick example, but I think it’s it merits discussing. So like, for instance, in El Salvador, they have a debt situation which is not as bad as us. I think they have, let’s call it like 25 billion in debt, and their GDP is probably like in the low 30s, right? So their debt to GP ratio is better. They did start a sovereign fund for Bitcoin. They probably only have maybe 600 700 million in Bitcoin right now, and that may just be a fraction of the 25 billion debt they have, but it’s significant. It’s a lot more than US has, right? So I can see more government entities doing this. And if that happens, that’s a tremendous that that augers for some tremendous upside on cryptocurrencies. So
Andrew Brill 29:47
cryptocurrencies is here to stay. Contrary to a lot of the detractors to say, Oh, it’s a joke, or it’s a it’s a non entity, you believe it’s here to stay.
Chris Casey 29:58
I mean, what other. Side class, outside of, like, you know, some government constructed thing, like carbon credits, or what have you is, is a joke and lasts for, you know, not only, you know, I guess, 16 years, 17 years, but on top is sec approved. There’s number of funds, and Bitcoin alone is worth, you know, excess of $2 trillion I mean, I’m not, you know, comment on what you but you’re, you’re just commenting on what everyone else is saying out there. But you know, it’s something that people should accept, and not just, you know, poof, the idea of owning cryptocurrencies, legitimate asset class. So
Andrew Brill 30:32
those are your predictions for 2025 what is windrock concentrating on or looking at as a you know, not, and I don’t want to this isn’t investment advice, but is there something that you guys are saying, You know what? This is on the horizon, this might be interesting to take a look at. Well,
Chris Casey 30:50
yeah, I can’t comment on any, like, real specific asset classes that we’re looking at, but let me phrase it this way. I would say, over the next 100 days, we’ll know how we want to invest over the next four years, I think is a fair comment, because I think it’s we very telling what happens, whether or not they get the debt situation under control, or whether or not we have, effectively, some cosmetic changes, more akin to a 1994 Contract with America. Well, we’ll know that soon. So it’s a little hard to answer at this point. We’re probably in a wait and see mode and but the only thing I could urge everyone to do is be defensive. Be nimble, right? Have some dry power. Have some cash on hand. Take advantage of opportunities, and be wary of some of these areas that are fraught with risk. So are
Andrew Brill 31:33
you guys sort of in a holding pattern? You’re saying sort of, you know? Okay, let me wait and see. Let me see how these 100 days play out before we make any real commitment to anything. So you know, we have to see really where the smoke settles before we can that’s a terrible analogy, and I apologize to all the Californians out there, but you have to see where, where things are really going before, before you do anything. So is it a holding pattern for you guys right now? Well, I think you
Chris Casey 32:02
should be holding pattern, really, for everybody, not so much. That doesn’t mean you’re not doing anything. It just means that, in fact, you should be doing something. If you’re too exposed to, for instance, big gap equities or or, you know, long dated bonds or something like that, you should be doing something. But if you’re already well positioned, if you’re already concerned, if you position accordingly, then maybe that’s accurate. There’s a holding period. Having said that, there’s always opportunities that pop up. So we’re probably looking at some private things right now, or what have you. But there’s there’s odds it is a market of stocks instead of a stock market. So there’s always opportunities. However, I do think everyone should be wary.
Andrew Brill 32:38
Chris where and I know I ask you this every time, where can we find you? I know it’s windrockwealth.com you guys have all your articles up there. Twitter. You guys are on Twitter. I know that. Yeah,
Chris Casey 32:49
we use Twitter quite a bit at windrock wealth, you can find us. We post everything we do there as well, and we’ll give some commentary on markets occasionally. So please, yeah, sign up and follow us there.
Andrew Brill 33:00
Appreciate it. Chris, thanks so much for joining me, and we’ll see you know how 2025 plays out is when everybody else will thanks. Andrew, thanks so much for watching our discussion here on wealthion. If you would like help with your wealth efforts, please head over to wealthion.com/free for a free portfolio review. Before you go, please like and subscribe to the channel. Don’t forget to hit the notification bell so you hear about new videos and follow wealthium on social media. All the links are below in the description, and if you like this content. Are looking for more ways to achieve long term wealth. Watch this video next.
