ReSolve Riffs with Cullen Roche on Decoding MMT: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Our guest this week was Cullen Roche, CIO of Disciplined Funds, founder of Orcam Financial Group and author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Know About Money and Finance. We discussed topics that included: Disciplined Funds’ macro-oriented investment approach Cullen’s rude awakening – classic economics learned in university is largely at odds with real world economics Taking a step back and learning public finances from first principles Digging into the mechanics of quantitative easing, fiscal policy and other major interventions “If you're not confused, you don't understand what's going on” The Kalecki Equation and wealth concentration Fiscal Stimulus – how much is too much An introduction to Modern Monetary Theory The role played by a “currency monopoly” From an MMT perspective, unemployment is a failure of government Why the median voter is so disappointed with the current system that they will likely swing to one of the extremes – the question is which one? The need for productivity improvement to keep up with fiscal outlays The Real Estate Conundrum – a depreciating block of wood on an ever-scarcer plot of land What percentage of homeowners can withstand rising interest rates? The demographic question, Japanification and home prices Thinking of portfolio construction in the current environment – core and satellites Cullen’s 90/10 Rule – helping investors stick with their structured portfolio allocations by “allowing” them to speculate on a small portion of their assets   This is “ReSolve’s Riffs” – live on YouTube every Friday afternoon to debate the most relevant investment topics of the day, hosted by Adam Butler, Mike Philbrick and Rodrigo Gordillo of ReSolve Global* and Richard Laterman of ReSolve Asset Management.   *ReSolve Global refers to ReSolve Asset Management SEZC (Cayman) which is registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor and commodity pool operator. This registration is administered through the National Futures Association (“NFA”). Further, ReSolve Global is a registered person with the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.