| Swan Dive — June 25, 2025 Billionaires in Boats, Socialists at the Ballot Box Addison Wiggin We love a good historical absurdity with our coffee and headline news.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez have officially won the prize for Most Lavish Use of a Billion-Dollar Net Worth—kicking off a three-day wedding spectacle in Venice, Italy that would make the Medici blush.
The reported price tag? Somewhere between $15 million and $20 million, which includes housing family aboard Koru, Bezos’ $500 million tribal wood-adorned superyacht.
The rest of the guests will “make do” with rooms at the Hotel Cipriani, where a minibar Diet Coke costs more than your kid’s iPad.
The locals are, predictably, not impressed.
Protests have broken out across the canals, with angry Venetians planning to jump into the water and block the wedding flotilla. Their gripe? That a billionaire can effectively rent a city—and displace residents and tourists alike—for a private party while missiles threaten apartment buildings in Tel Aviv.
Oy. What better displays of performance politics depicting the 21st-century wealth divide can you ask for? Even libertarians know, historically, this kind of crotte doesn’t end well. 🗳️ Populism in the Streets, Champagne on the Seas Back in the New World—or at least one of its more beleaguered corners—Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, just toppled former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary.
With 92% of votes counted, Mamdani holds 43.5% of the tally. Cuomo conceded Tuesday night, issuing a relatively gracious statement before floating the possibility of an independent run.
Mamdani ran on rent control, climate justice, and shaking loose the city’s grip on real estate speculation and police budgets. And he actually won.
His win solidifies a hard pivot left for America’s biggest city—and sends a puff of vapor up the skirts of the political donor class, many of whom were likely sipping aperitifs at Bezos’ wedding reception while the results rolled in.
The symbolism writes itself. Trump’s “Golden Age” has produced asset bubbles, private credit empires, and AI-powered robotaxis that may or may not obey traffic laws.
But beneath the glitter, there’s real tension between the illusion of abundance and the reality of austerity for everyone else. Expressed in the false hope and threadbare policies from the Cold War era. 💳 A Thin Ceasefire In A Centuries Old Conflict The stock market rallied yesterday after news of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, despite both sides continuing to lob projectiles and issue denials. Trump told reporters the truce was still in place, adding that the two peoples “have been fighting so long, they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”
Gotta hand it to the President. He speaks like a New York gangster from the old days. It’s kind of refreshing.
Oil dropped and then dropped again when Trump announced that China could and would keep buying Iranian crude. Gold tumbled to a two-week low. Retail and foreign investors alike continue to believe the best-case scenario on U.S. stock exchanges… even if that scenario is based on shaky intel and Twitter diplomacy. 🏛️ Patron Saint of Waiting Rooms Fed Chair Jerome Powell testified before the House yesterday, offering his usual script: Wait. Watch. Don’t do anything rash. He declined to confirm whether July will bring a rate cut, emphasizing the need for more inflation data and a clearer view on the effects of tariffs.
Trump, also predictably, launched a tirade at Powell on Truth Social, calling him a “very dumb, hardheaded person” because he won’t give the president the third leg of his Golden Age reset: lower interest rates.
Internal Fed signals show a growing divide: nine members want one or no cuts this year, while eight want two, and two dream of three. The Fed meetings are less of a forecast for rates than a group therapy session for the board.
Addison Wiggin, one of Time’s “Armageddon” gang, says he’s uncovered a $7 trillion plot to financially RESET America from the inside out.
He calls it The GREAT RESET. And according to Addison, phase 1 is well underway.
But what comes next in phase 2 is going to blindside millions of everyday Americans and shake this country to its core.
Those who aren’t prepared, could be financially devastated. But those who see it coming will have the chance to completely transform their financial future.
Go here now to make sure you're on the right side of THE GREAT RESET.
⚙️ Tariff Tensions and Sløk’s Stagflation Warning Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Sløk sees trouble ahead. He warns, as has Grey Swan contributor John Rubino this week, that the April tariff hikes will still produce “stagflationary shocks” – simultaneously slowing growth and boosting inflation. Following our analysis yesterday, Sløk pegs the risk of a recession at 25% over the next 12 months.
His guidance? Look for companies with healthy cash flows and low tariff exposure– telecom, healthcare, and utilities. Similar to the plays we discussed with Chris Mayer on last week’s Grey Swan Live! (Paid up members can review Chris’ investment strategy for Woodlock House, here.)
Stay away from any sector relying on consistent policy, which is currently about as stable as a toddler on a trampoline. 🚕 Robotaxis Are Go… Mostly Tesla’s robotaxi service launched in Austin this week to much fanfare—and a few too many moving violations. By Tuesday, videos emerged of Model Ys swerving, hesitating, and accelerating where they shouldn’t. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is now reviewing.
Meanwhile, Waymo—Alphabet’s autonomous driving arm—launched in Atlanta with Uber and boasts 250,000 rides a week and a 4.9/5 customer rating. Uber stock jumped 7.5%. Tesla shares initially surged, then fell 2.35% as reality kicked the tires.
Everyone wants a piece of the purported $17 billion robotaxi future. But at this stage, it still looks more like Wacky Races than The Jetsons. Who knows, really. Who are late-night revellers going to complain about their boyfriends, husbands and lovers to when they see the driver’s seat of their Uber is empty? 📦 SPACs Are Back, for Better or Worse Remember SPACs? We do. They announced their arrival with some fanfare in the newsletter world with the MarketWise offering in 2021 The blank-check company that was suppose to buy up online casinos relaunched a series of investment newsletters for retail investors just like you.
Well, SPACs as an investment vehicle are making a comeback.
Goldman Sachs is underwriting again. Chamath Palihapitiya is teasing his return. And crypto evangelist Anthony Pompliano just SPAC’d a $750 million blockchain venture into the public markets.
Regulators tried to patch the holes after the last crash—$46 billion vaporized in 2023 alone—but the thirst for backdoor IPOs remains unquenched. The IPO pipeline is jammed, and SPACs are the side door everyone’s jostling to squeeze through. 📉 Private Credit, Public Friction JPMorgan keeps trying to buy loans from the top private credit shops. And those shops keep saying: “No, thanks.” The banks want to build a trading market. The credit shops want to preserve the illusion of price stability. Because once those loans start trading, everyone gets to see what they’re really worth—and it’s probably not what’s listed in the pitch deck. 🛩️ UK Buys F-35s, NATO Buys Time Britain has ordered 12 new nuclear-capable F-35A jets from the U.S.—part of a not-so-subtle effort to stay in Trump’s good graces. With the NATO summit underway in The Hague, leaders are trying to charm Trump back into supporting collective defense. So far, the smiles are forced and the coffee is strong. 🍩 A Fitting Sugary Forecast Bezos and Sanchez take heed, McDonald’s and Krispy Kreme are splitting up. The once-promising partnership—donuts in 2,400 McDonald’s stores—proved profitable for the burger giant but unsustainable for the donut maker. “Efforts to bring our costs in line with unit demand were unsuccessful,” said Krispy Kreme’s CEO.
Translation: the love faded, the margins thinned, and someone had to leave before breakfast.
All kidding aside, Jeff Bezos may have rented Venice for the week, but the winds of political revolt are picking up onshore.
Mamdani’s surprise victory in New York is more than just a local headline—it’s a signal. The divergence between asset wealth and working-class frustration is widening. The market may be floating on optimism, but the tide beneath it is shifting.
The populist backlash is here. Millennials are going to test the limits of the political system once again… history rolls on.
~ Addison 📺 p.s. On to lighter topics.
Tomorrow morning on Grey Swan Live! tech analyst and crypto-whiz, Ian King, is going to join us to unveil what we can expect for the future of money and banking following the passage of the GENIUS Act by the US Senate last Tuesday.
If you care about your retirement savings or want to get in on a revolution in “DeFi”—decentralized finance—and the future of peer-to-peer blockchain banking, Ian will help you understand what’s just ahead.
One teaser: in the 18 days before and following the passage of the GENIUS Act, Circle, a proxy play for stablecoins in the new world of DeFi, soared over 800%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said this yesterday: “A thriving stablecoin ecosystem will drive demand from the private sector for U.S. Treasurys, which back stablecoins. This newfound demand could lower government borrowing costs and help rein in the national debt.”
Stablecoins represent an area of financial innovation that ticks many of the thematic boxes we cover in Grey Swan. You’ll definitely want to join in and ask your questions. Or just listen in while we dig deep to understand how our money is going to change in the age of DeFi.
Set your timer for Thursday, June 26 at at 11am EST… that’s tomorrow.
Your thoughts? Please send them here: addison@greyswanfraternity.com
How did we get here? Find out in these riveting reads: Demise of the Dollar, Financial Reckoning Day, and Empire of Debt — all three books are now available in their third post-pandemic editions. You might enjoy one or all three. 
(Or… simply pre-order Empire of Debt: We Came, We Saw, We Borrowed, now available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble or if you prefer one of these sites: Bookshop.org, Books-A-Million or Target.)
Please send your comments, reactions, opprobrium, vitriol and praise to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar