'Everything Bubble' at Risk of Bursting? with Lawrence Lepard

Interview recorded - 17th of November, 2023
On this episode of the WTFinance podcast I had the pleasure of speaking with Lawrence Lepard - Founder of Equity Management Associates and a sound money advocate.
During our conversation we spoke about Lawrence's current thoughts on the market, risk of everything bubble bursting, whether the FED can land the plane, geopolitical shifts, why something is going to break, Bitcoin and more! I hope you enjoy.
0:00 - Introduction
1:16 - What is happening in the markets?
6:17 - Has the FED landed the plane?
9:30 - Monetary inflation vs real inflation?
14:24 - Geopolitical shifts
14:58 - Commodity super cycle to crash
16:17 - Stock market doesn’t always go up
17:38 - Higher yields for longer?
21:03 - Dollar is better than other currencies
24:03 - Something is going to break soon
30:48 - Any other assets that will protect wealth during monetary debasement?
33:08 - Concern about Bitcoin correlation with the NASDAQ?
35:38 - Spot ETF a bad thing for Bitcoin?
38:08 - One message to takeaway from our conversation?
Larry founded Equity Management Associates, LLC (EMA) in 2006. EMA is an equity investment management firm that invests in growing private and public companies located around the world.
Since 2008, EMA has focused on investing in companies which mine the monetary metals, gold and silver. Larry presently serves on the Board of Directors of two development-stage gold mining companies: Lavras Gold Corp. (Toronto/Brazil) and Rise Gold Corp. (California). He has been a frequent guest of many media outlets including Bloomberg Television for his expertise on the monetary metals market. Prior to founding EMA, he spent 13 years at Geocapital Partners (Geo) in Fort Lee, NJ. There, he was one of two Managing General Partners and was responsible for four venture capital funds, aggregating ~$500 million. At Geo, he invested and/or served on the boards of many successful deals including Autoweb, Jackson Hewitt, Netcom, and Realtor.com.
Prior to Geo, Larry spent seven years at Summit Partners in Boston, MA and Newport Beach, CA, where he established Summit’s West Coast office. Larry was a General Partner in Summit I and Summit II and invested and/or served on the boards of Chips & Technologies and Software Spectrum, among other investments. Earlier in his career, Larry worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group of Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co.
Lawrence Lepard -
Website - www.ema2.com/
Twitter - / lawrencelepard
WTFinance -
Instagram - / wtfinancee
Spotify - open.spotify.com/show/67rpmjG...
iTunes - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Twitter - / anthonyfatseas
Thumbnail picture from - www.marketwatch.com/story/rob...

[@WTFinancepodcast]

Do you agree with Lawrence's thoughts about the 'Everything Bubble' Bursting? Todays price actions seems to suggest differently so far.

[@yongsukmccarthy8571]

Yes, he is absolutely right! He is pretty sharp at looking at the market!

[@latrogeniwile58]

Only a matter of when.

[@heatherholdings]

The recession is here, mortgage rates still on the rise with higher imports and lower exports, yet the Fed is to lessen cost. Where do investors look at now for wealth gains? something will eventually break if they keep raising interests and quantitative tightening.

[@M.Morgan]

IMO, when we go into recession, tech and defense will do good as a sector considering what's going on in the world but always do your own research, or speak to a valid advisor before investing your money

[@valentinaarrelaro]

@@M.Morgan Agreed, I've always delegated my excesses to a professional, ever since suffering major portfolio steep-down amid rona-outbreak in late 2019. As of today, I'm semi-retired with barely 25% short of my $1m retirement goal after subsequent investments, and only work 7.5 hours a week.

[@M.Morgan]

@Johnny-se8hk > My investment advisor is Katherine Nance Dietz, she's verifiable and I'm very sure you can find info about her on the internet, her qualifications speak for itself.

[@jackgoldman1]

Inflationary in what? A new house was 235 ounces of gold in 1933 and was 235 ounces of gold in 2022, zero inflation. On the other hand new house was $4,700 in 1933 and $470,000 in 2022. Massive inflation. Seems what rulers we use matter a lot. Holding gold, zero inflation. Holding dollar IOUs massive inflation.

[@theonlyconstantischange123]

That's what he was saying over and over. Monetary debasement

[@paulginsberg6942]

Lawrence is one of the best. Tells it like it is and is probably mostly right.

[@paulginsberg6942]

Right right and right. When the ratio between gold and RE is skewered and we can buy houses for 10 ounces of gold I am buying RE.

[@cuzmariosaidso]

Rates will go higher

[@BuildMontage]

Great interview. Well done on getting a wide variety of guests.

[@jod5834]

Great guest, very knowledgeable, pleasure to listen!

[@gringadoor5385]

He's right. Recession far longer than expected. FED keep higher for far higher than longer

[@soundsnags2001]

This comment 4 weeks later is funny. Higher for longer? They just don't have the nuts for it.

[@detectiveofmoneypolitics]

Economic investigator Frank G Melbourne Australia is still watching this very informative content cheers Frank as subscriber 😊

[@LUIS-633BANK]

✅👍🏽

[@timferguson593]

Inflation has always been with us. It’s just more apparent now.😢

[@mickygarcia4251]

Hard landing, then a wing comes off, the landing gear snaps like a twig, the cargo-hold gets scraped open, plane catches fire and the emergency doors jam shut... and that's the optimistic view.

[@SunofYork]

Will my cat die this year ?

[@JohnnyULives-lz1ml]

Hard landing = Crash landing.

[@dwaynecarroll7985]

Germany is starting to stop fiscal spending....maybe

[@valerieprice1745]

Where will they find a ton of new oil. Even at $150, the energy return on investment isn't there. Too much energy to extract too few barrels.

[@AndyWallWasWeak]

this is what happens when instead of structural reforms (after 2008) government tries to solve using monetary tools

[@jackgoldman1]

Bit coins are worth $2,000,000 each but the $2,000,000 buys a cup of coffee. Why are bit coins measured in dollars when gold is measured in ounces? How many ounces is one bit coin? Zero. What is bitcoin really worth? Zero.

[@DrywallingHODLr]

What’s the fundamental difference in gold vs btc?

[@theonlyconstantischange123]

Lmao this wins worst BTC analysis of all time and this is coming from a BTC bear

[@theonlyconstantischange123]

This has to be a troll post right? Lol

[@Notme36912]

😂

[@stephenpack2202]

The price of 1 bitcoin is nearly 20 oz of gold

[@JohnPong-ly2zg]

I say inflation will still continue to go up with food, medicine, utlities, emergy.... whereas other things that are less important will come down. This time isn't different and we will eventually get a recession but the CB is probably okay with keeping rates higher unless some blackswan event or some systemic risks happen

[@philfortner1805]

Nope. Energy costs permanently rise due to inflation which infers those costs on everything. Cheap overseas products have seen 40-50% increases since 2020. In tech products this is masked somewhat by increasing efficiencies. But it's still a real loss because that new TV shouldn't be 15% more, it should be 40% less since 2020.

[@philfortner1805]

Additionally there is a systemic event in that government is paying $900 billion annually in printing to just pay the regular $2 trillion in debt spending. Inverted yield curve with 3 month notes demanding higher returns than a 10 year indicate buyers are about to demand premiums the government literally cannot afford. Within 3-6 months they will begin printing to buy their own debt. Plus massive stimulus will be injected into consumers because a crash would slash tax receipts and double or triple required debt spending. Buckle up, this is going to be epic.

[@rohitkothari3890]

Extend n pretend. Zirp to infinity. Too big to fail. Too fat to fall. All these policies coming back to bite us now.

[@wimvanaerde6249]

I bet on uranium

[@philfortner1805]

The stock market will dip 20-30% but recover to grow to beyond record levels due to exponentially larger stimulus. In nominal terms it will be higher but in real terms it's a big loss because CPI is underreported. Unfortunately society at large needs to learn by losing alot.

[@SunofYork]

Are you Gypsy Rose Lee ?

[@fairwaycaddy18]

still waiting ... Fed all powerful

[@stevemar8027]

Could the stock market be holding up because of the massive inflation that has been created by government over the last few years? Underlying the stocks market to the point that there is no where else to go? Not only that they will print more but that it’s already there?

[@SpooksMcGoose]

Apparently only 2.7% of the world's population has Bitcoin, plenty of runway!

[@vincentmurphy9252]

Rates go to 12% then slowly lower to 6-7 Or we need a depression like 29 And that’s Coming 2029 Plus minus 3 years each way so 2026-2032

[@saltydog1196]

Gold is our financial Alamo 🤑 Bitcoin is financial ruin!

[@davebrewer7170]

Love it that there are folks like you that are too lazy to put in 10k hours to understand and become an expert on BTC. Enjoy your ignorance = lack of study and knowledge

[@vitalsigns6403]

😂how long has Lawrence been calling for a crash?🤡🤦🏻

[@stevenpuck4073]

Yes indeed- he will be correct one day but wow, how much could someone miss out on heeding his advice

[@theonlyconstantischange123]

Maybe BTC becomes like gold BUT for now, it's not as controlled and with the upcoming etf it seems it's the better choice for this debasement cycle

[@coldflu]

Bitcoin monetary system protects and preserves the laws and principles of Austrian Economics. Much like how the US government should protect and preserve its constitution. Gold unfortunately failed at it.

[@therealscot2491]

Exact same as bitcoin would due to energy constraints

[@davebrewer7170]

Gold was manipulated by Jamie Dimon and J.P. Morgan with paper gold market. Manipulated futures. Gary gensler sat on his hands while Jamie became a billionaire in rigged crooked corrupt markets

[@veritas23888]

Bitcoin 2 layers of sha256 encryption, which is an NSA patented encryption, which by the way is also found in Windows OS. Anyone who's studied cryptography knows that the creator of an encryption always builds a backdoor, which is why Windows isn't allowed to be used in any Government institution in China. Now what are the probabilities that Bitcoin is actually an NSA project, masquerading as the answer to the failing fiat USD? Its plainly obvious to me

[@theonlydoug]

Doge coin is gonna rip

[@AndyWallWasWeak]

banks especially regional don't play as much of a role in US economy and major global banks aren't as important for world's economy. debt is unimportant as shown by Japan, as long as there are functioning institutions

[@mikewayne4966]

Lol bitcorn ethereum, they're all garbage 🤣

[@theonlydoug]

The market is gonna rip upwards. Inflation is dead for the next 1-2 years.

[@dazedhavoc]

I will never own Bitcoin

[@davebrewer7170]

Yes you will. In 12 years it will be a pet of every portfolio. What you meant is you will never but BTC when it is below $50K. You will wait to buy until it it is higher than $500k. Good for you

[@MahbubJRajab-gn2ug]

First he talks about the risks of owning financial assets and then goes on to promote the fool's gold i.e. Bitcoin))

[@Chuck-H]

Just another gold infomercial and fearmonger

[@markdownton3185]

On yer way then

[@wayne4768]

Endless bitching about interest rates being too high although low interest rates caused the problem. Interest rates should never go below 5%.