Wealthion, Released on 2/20/23

As the old saying goes: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” It’s easy for investors to fall into the traps laid by their belief systems. Whether to the bullish or bearish side, we all have our own biases that can warp the way we perceive reality. Which is why forcing ourselves to take a systemic view of the economy, markets & society can be so helpful. By understanding the way our systems work and projecting current developments through to their most logical outcomes, we can sidestep most of our biases as we develop our predictions and conclusions. Today’s guest expert, author and macro observer Charles Hugh Smith has made a career of this kind of systemic thinking. We’ll talk with him about where today’s really big trends are taking us. What kind of economy and standard of living should we expect in the unfolding future?

Charles Hugh Smith writes the Of Two Minds blog which covers an eclectic range of timely topics: finance, housing, Asia, energy, long-term trends, social issues, health/diet/fitness and sustainability. From its humble beginnings in May 2005, Of Two Minds now attracts some 200,000 visits a month. Charles also contributes to AOL’s Daily Finance site and has written eight books, most recently Money and Work Unchained.

Adam Taggart is the Founder of Wealthion. 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.