Madison predicts that between 2026 and 2027, an asset bubble will crescendo followed by a major collapse, driven by the depletion of the Social Security Trust Fund forcing massive Treasury issuance that bond markets cannot absorb.

There have been two historical instances when the Dow Jones index equaled the gold price: during the Great Depression when the Dow traded to about 36 and gold was at 35, and in the 1980s when both were around 875.

The City of London (also known as the Square Mile), where the Bank of England is headquartered, is the only area in the United Kingdom not conquered by William the Conqueror in 1066 and was given special rights and privileges that continue to this day, including having corporations rather than individuals as voters.

The Soviet Union, fearing US confiscation of their dollar holdings, approached London banks in the 1950s requesting they hold dollars outside the US banking system, initiating the eurodollar market with a wink-wink deal between London banks and the Bank of England.

The British pound sterling was the global reserve currency pre-WWII, not due to superior economic strength but due to the British Empire's vast territorial control—at one point over 25% of the world's population lived under British rule.

During World War I, the United States lent massive sums to Great Britain, which then loaned money to France, Belgium, and other Allied countries, resulting in Britain being in huge debt to the US and France being indirectly indebted through Britain.

The 1920s experienced a massive technological boom with RCA (radio) and General Motors (automobiles) that led to extremely high valuations, yet it took 20 years for RCA stock to recover to 1930s highs, demonstrating that even with genuine technological progress, bubbles require decades to work off.

Madison believes that once the S&P 500 reaches 7,000, stock market valuations at 35+ times forward earnings will trigger psychological tipping points where investors say 'I want to take my gains and go home,' initiating a cascade of selling like a game of musical chairs.

Madison expects inflation in the range of 3-5% over a 5-10 year period under the best-case scenario where authorities maintain control, which would erode approximately 60-70% of purchasing power over 10 years at 5% annual inflation.

Madison distinguishes his view from a full gold standard peg, instead advocating for gold as an 'anchor' to currencies, allowing gold to hold value better and to moderate fiscal spending without returning to rigidly fixed exchange rates.

Madison views stable coins (like USDC) as a backdoor central bank digital currency mechanism, where the Stable Coin Payments Act would mandate that stable coin custodians use depository institutions under Federal Reserve oversight, allowing the Fed to access stable coin deposits without explicitly issuing a CBDC.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) sent a letter requesting regulatory relief allowing banks to hold Treasury bonds without counting them against tier-one capital requirements, enabling banks to absorb Treasury issuance without reducing lending capacity.

Powell appears to be a sincere person with Americans' interests at heart and is not a diabolical central banker, but he becomes boxed into corners by market conditions and global dynamics that force him toward accommodative policy despite his inflation-fighting rhetoric.

When the Bretton Woods system went into full effect in 1961-1962, the British Prime Minister requested that the gold peg be doubled from $35 to $70 per ounce due to excessive dollar demand and insufficient gold backing, demonstrating that Triffin's paradox manifested almost immediately upon full implementation of the system.

Madison worked for 20+ years in financial services (Russell Investments, United Capital which was sold to Goldman Sachs for $750 million in 2019), holds an MBA from Duke University in finance, has read approximately 200 books on financial history, and is an amateur financial historian and active investor, credentials he cites as foundation for his thesis.

FDR in 1933 considered multiple options for dealing with the banking crisis including straight haircuts on government debt and calling all US Treasuries to repay them at a loss, but was talked out of it by advisers, instead using a bank holiday and fireside chat approach, with the crisis only truly resolved by WWII spending rather than financial restructuring.

Regional banks in the United States are currently insolvent on a mark-to-market basis, meaning if all depositors demanded their money simultaneously, many banks could not pay them because of losses on their bond holdings from higher interest rates.

The Federal Reserve conducted yield curve control in the 1940s (the 1940s eras), establishing a precedent that will be revived; if Treasury yields spike and debt service becomes untenable, the Fed will explicitly cap long-end rates, similar to how it did post-WWII to manage war debt.

China has stopped buying US Treasuries (flat purchases in recent years after decades of accumulation) and is instead making arrangements to buy oil with yuan, establishing alternative currency arrangements that reduce its dependence on the dollar.

Japan, as the second-largest foreign holder of Treasuries, cannot allow the yen to weaken excessively (it recently hit 160 yen/dollar), so Japan will be forced to sell Treasuries to buy yen and defend its currency, which will flood more Treasuries onto the market at the exact moment when US issuance is also skyrocketing.