The entire financial system's collateral base consists of financial assets (bonds and equities) whose values are declining as interest rates rise, creating a collateral crisis where the system's backing assets are evaporating.

Fiat currencies are running out of road structurally and face an inflection point, with the implication that currency collapse or fundamental restructuring is imminent.

Currency debasement awareness and education only propagates over time, making the current moment an opportunity to position ahead of the inevitable demographic and educational shift in understanding.

When credit becomes rationed, zombie corporations dependent on cheap financing desperately compete for available credit; the price of credit (interest rates) must rise, not fall, as supply becomes constrained.

Bond prices will collapse sharply as interest rates rise toward 8% (per Dimon's forecast); the duration risk of holding existing bonds becomes catastrophic as the yield curve normalizes.

The financial system faces a virtually impossible rescue situation: any intervention that prevents immediate collapse (continued rate suppression) accelerates the debt trap, making the system ultimately un-rescuable without collapsing the currency.

The exodus from mainstream media is occurring because citizens sense they are being censored, even if they cannot identify the specific mechanism, making independent media and alternative channels increasingly attractive.

Central banks and foreign holders of US treasuries including China and Japan are net sellers of dollars and net buyers of gold because they can see the debt trap and currency collapse coming

Gold is not rising in price; rather, fiat currencies are collapsing in purchasing power, and when analyzed through the lens of currency debasement rather than speculative demand, gold's strength reflects currency weakness not gold appreciation

Syria's collapse in 2024 was orchestrated by Americans and British intelligence primarily to support Israeli interests, with Americans stealing Syrian oil and cutting off Hezbollah from Iran supply, and the aftermath will be a tribalistic and religious mess similar to Libya

Milei's success in Argentina despite economic difficulty shows he has popular support that Trump lacks; Trump does not have the mandate to implement deep structural reforms like DOGE plans because he faces entrenched bureaucratic and congressional opposition that Milei did not face

BRICS under Russian leadership in 2024 created an 'associate membership' category as a waiting room for prospective members while integration happens gradually over years, rather than rapidly expanding with new members

Bond vigilante activity is simply the result of scared investors and institutions fleeing from government debt due to fear, not a coordinated conspiracy, and the fear will intensify as deficits and currency debasement accelerate

Irving Fisher identified the debt deflation process in a paper in the early 1930s that explains how collapsing collateral values trigger cascading defaults and forced liquidations in recessions, a mechanism operating in the current bubble deflation

The McLoud Finance substack mission is to educate people about what is happening to money and credit and help them understand the distinction between the two, so they can protect themselves from the deteriorating financial situation

China's economy is in better shape than Western journalists report, and with Russia and Asian hegemons through BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, there is a larger world (by purchasing power and population) that will thrive while the West falls apart.

The Russians have not yet signed formal defense agreements with Iran, but they will be signed, which will make future military actions against Iran extremely dangerous due to Russian retaliation.

We are now in the largest credit bubble in recorded history, and when this one collapses it will take out the currencies as well

Central banks themselves, particularly the ECB, are technically insolvent because their debts exceed their equity by many multiples, and the ECB cannot be recapitalized because it requires agreement across multiple sovereigns, making the Euro fragile

A gold-backed BRICS trade currency was proposed by the Russian Embassy in Nairobi for the 2023 Johannesburg summit but did not make it into the final agenda because China and India opposed it due to concerns about constraining their monetary policy