Harry S. Dent, Jr. has an MBA from Harvard and is the founder of Dent Research, which publishes several newsletters. In the first half, he detailed how the financial bubble began to burst in 2022 and predicted how far down he thinks stock prices will go in 2023, and the best way to position yourself for the buying opportunity of a lifetime. The printing of stimulus money by the central banks has led to high rates of inflation, he cited, followed by the major crash of stock prices (NASDAQ dropped by more than 30% in 2022). Dent believes stocks will continue to fall in value and won't hit bottom until mid-2024. He suspects the deepest downturn will come in the next few months, and will be bigger than the 2008-9 crash. What we can do as consumers and investors, he advised, is to get out of the market now (including real estate) and then buy again when prices are at their low.
Commodities have crashed, and gold will also fall in price, Dent commented, adding that 2023 will be the worst year economically since 1973 and 1930. Part of his reasoning is based on demographic cycles, with the aging and reduced spending of the Boomers happening now. Looking toward the Millennials, he said the economy will peak again as that generation comes to the forefront from 2024 through 2037. For now, he recommends moving investments to a temporary haven of treasury bonds (or an ETF like ZROZ, composed of such bonds). Then, when the market is at its low, he suggests returning to stocks and other investments like cryptocurrency.
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Pat Spain is a wildlife biologist, cryptozoologist, TV presenter, speaker, author, and cancer survivor. He is also the great nephew of the "Prophet of the Unexplained," Charles Fort. In the latter half, he talked about carrying on a family tradition of exploring things most people write off as impossible, as well as his many trips to exotic locations to investigate strange animals. Interestingly, he said he read Charles Fort's books as a teen before he even learned of the family connection. During his adventures in places like the Gobi Desert, Indonesia, and West Africa, he's been bitten or stung by a host of creatures, including a small black bear, a rattlesnake, and a rabid raccoon. In Brazil, he participated in a ritual with indigenous people that involved getting stung hundreds of times in the hand by bullet ants, which caused him to lose his mind with hallucinations that lasted 24 hours.
On a trip to Manitoba, Canada for a TV documentary, he descended into a snake pit with thousands of wriggling creatures. The musky smell was overwhelming, and as he lay three feet down in the pit, the snakes were "pouring over his hands like water." One of his favorite trips was to Sumatra to search for the mysterious and legendary Orang Pendek, which he nicknamed "Little Bigfoot." Another folkloric creature he searched for is the mapinguari, which he believes may actually be a giant ground sloth, which had been thought to go extinct about 10,000 years ago. Spain also recounted his outrageous adventure participating in traditional Mongolian wrestling, as a way to integrate with the culture of nomadic herders.
News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Steve Kates