Get Ready for a Recession

Larry Lindsey is a brilliant economist. He has served two presidents and was the director of the National Economic Council. He’s also a great friend of mine and the author of a new book, Conspiracies of the Ruling Class: How to Break Their Grip Forever. Here are five of Larry’s insights you’ll gain from listening to our recent conversation for the Pickens Podcast:

One month of economic expansion is like one year of life. Our current expansion is in its seventh year. Age-wise, that means it’s in its eighties. So we’re due for a recession. It may not be tomorrow or next week … but it’s going to happen.

Recessions usually don’t happen because of a mistake in the marketplace. They usually happen because of a policy mistake in Washington. Washington never likes to blame itself for anything. But our huge money-funded expansion has to come to an end. At some point, you can’t keep printing money.

Don’t forget: Washington caused a good portion of the last three crises. We’re now in our third bubble. We printed money for the dot.com bubble in the 1990s. We printed money to fund the housing bubble. And now we’re printing money to fund the credit bubble.

When the recession hangover hit, the Fed gave us $4 trillion of hair of the dog. That can’t go on. Everyone loves the party. But no one wants the hangover, right? Since the Great Recession, we’ve been printing money and interest rates are near zero. But you can only postpone the hangover for so long.

People have a right to be angry. Conspiracies of the Ruling Class explores why people are angry. The reason is a simple one: People in power are taking plenty of taxes and doing a lousy job.

Download the podcast on AudioBoom or iTunes.