Adam Taggart | Thoughtful Money, Released on 4/27/25

Of all the disruptive policies President Trump has made so far in his second term, his hardball strategy to reform global trade has received the most scorn. His detractors call it “non-sensical” and “hamfisted”. That it’s based on faulty logic, poor math, and has done grave injury to relations with our closest allies. They fear it’s actually driving the rest of the world into China’s — our chief competitor’s — arms. And as a result, substantially damaging America’s future prospects. Is this true? And is this the reason why bond yields are rising, the dollar is weakening, and gold is soaring? And most importantly, will China end up drinking America’s milkshake? For answers, we’re fortunate to welcome back to the program Brent Johnson, CEO & Portfolio Manager at Santiago Capital and publisher of The Macro Alchemist.

0:00 – Trump’s deliberate power strategy
4:29 – Likelihood of trade plan success for America
6:02 – Timeline & indicators for plan’s success
9:07 – Geopolitical goals: MAGA & China containment
11:06 – Trump’s communication fail on China strategy
17:37 – Rationale for rapid, heavy-handed trade approach
29:22 – China’s weakened position vs U.S. resilience
38:37 – Historical parallels to Nixon’s gold window closure.
43:46 – Long-term geopolitical cycles & Rome analogy
49:01 – Fourth Turning & non-binary thinking
53:17 – Post-settlement U.S.-China trade vision
58:24 – Dollar & gold outlook for 2025.
1:03:55 – Market forecast & 2022 analogy
1:06:23 – Investment strategy amid volatility
1:09:48 – Resources to follow Brent’s work
1:13:17 – Parting advice for retail investors

Brent Johnson is the CEO of Santiago Capital and publisher of The Macro Alchemist. Brent brings twenty five years of experience in the financial markets to his position as CEO of Santiago Capital where he manages the portfolios of high net worth individuals and families via separate accounts and private funds. Brent worked more than nine years as a Managing Director at BakerAvenue, a $2 Billion Asset Manager and Wealth Management firm. Before joining BakerAvenue, Brent spent nine years at Credit Suisse in their private client group. He joined Credit Suisse in the fall of 2000. Earlier in his career, Brent was a financial auditor for Philip Morris Management Company in New York City.

Adam Taggart is the Founder of Thoughtful Money. He is also Co-Founder and former President of Peak Prosperity. Adam is an experienced Silicon Valley internet executive and Stanford MBA. Prior to partnering with Chris Martenson (Adam was General Manager of our earlier site, ChrisMartenson.com), he was a Vice President at Yahoo!, a company he served for nine years. Before that, he did the ‘startup thing’ (mySimon.com, sold to CNET in 2001). As a fresh-faced graduate from Brown University in the early 1990s, Adam got a first-hand look at all that was broken with Wall Street as an investment banking analyst for Merrill Lynch. Most importantly, he’s a devoted husband and dad.
Luke Gromen

  brent johnson, china, dollar, gold, trade war