The Secret War on Cash

Gold prices have pulled back from recent highs. Silver is showing strength. Oil has eased, and markets increasingly expect the Federal Reserve to pause before potentially tightening again later.But Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos argue that focusing only on the latest daily move can obscure the much bigger monetary story.In Episode 315 of The Secret War on Cash, the Swiss America Trading hosts examine the competing forces moving precious metals.Persistent inflation and elevated interest rates can pressure gold. At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty, federal debt, concerns about long-term dollar purchasing power and...

America has a math problem.In Episode 314 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine a fiscal 2026 budget deficit approaching $2 trillion and a national debt that has now reached $40.25 trillion.The federal government brought in approximately $5.4 trillion while spending roughly $7.4 trillion.Chris translates those enormous numbers into something easier to understand: imagine a household earning $54,000 a year while spending $74,000.That gap has to be financed.The second article examined in the episode shows just how quickly the resulting debt is growing.<...

China continues buying physical gold while American consumers increasingly expect higher inflation.In Episode 313 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading connect those two developments.The episode begins with China’s latest gold purchase. The article discussed by Dean and Chris reports that the People’s Bank of China added 23 tonnes in September, its biggest monthly purchase in nearly three years, extending a buying streak that has now reached 23 consecutive months.Dean and Chris view that behavior as part of a longer strategy of reserve dive...

Americans have spent years watching prices rise. Now the Federal Reserve is worried consumers and businesses may simply begin assuming that higher inflation is permanent.In Episode 312 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack’s warning about an “inflationary mindset.”Hammack argues that smaller policy adjustments made relatively quickly can be preferable to waiting until inflation demands a much larger correction. Dean compares it to steering a ship: correct a small deviation early or face a much larger course change later.But De...

Why would the U.S. Treasury hire one of the most prominent advocates of gold-linked government debt at a moment when borrowing costs are rising and foreign central banks are accumulating physical gold?In Episode 311 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine the appointment of economist and longtime gold advocate Judy Shelton as counselor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.Shelton has spent years arguing that gold should play a larger role in the monetary system.One of her more unusual proposals involves Treasury Trust Bonds.Her 2012 concept...

A Russian laboratory worker is dead.Hospitals have been quarantined.Contacts have been monitored.And U.S. officials are asking Moscow for more information.But what actually happened remains uncertain.In Episode 310 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine the developing mystery surrounding the death of a 28-year-old worker at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East.The worker died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown origin.The institute she worked for studies plague as well as other dangerous...

A stock market can look extraordinarily strong right up until sentiment changes.In Episode 309 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading begin with a sudden decline in India’s equity markets.The hosts discuss three pressures identified in the article they examine: continued selling by foreign institutional investors, sharply elevated oil prices and government tax policy affecting market participants.Many American investors may have little direct exposure to India.Dean’s point, however, is that several of those vulnerabilities also exist in the United States.Fore...

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates, yet Treasury yields continued climbing.That creates an uncomfortable question for policymakers.Are the Fed’s traditional tools still working the way they once did?In Episode 308 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine the latest pressure in the Treasury market and what higher yields could mean for the broader economy.Dean discusses reports that markets are pricing in a more aggressive path of future interest-rate increases as central banks respond to inflation and other economic pressures.Chris fo...

Artificial intelligence could become one of the most important technologies in modern history.It could also produce one of the largest investment bubbles.In Episode 307 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine warnings from Michael Burry and Ray Dalio about the financial structure developing underneath the AI boom.Burry has raised concerns about roughly $3 trillion in commitments associated with major hyperscalers including Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Oracle.Many of those commitments involve future leases, infrastructure projects, data centers and other spending that...

The U.S. dollar remains the dominant currency in global foreign-exchange markets.So why does de-dollarization continue to attract so much attention?In Episode 306 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine China’s upcoming role as BRICS chair in 2027 and what it could mean for efforts to increase local-currency trade among member countries.The conversation then turns to a headline declaring that the U.S. dollar accounts for approximately 89% of the global forex market.That statistic sounds overwhelming, but there is an important te...

Artificial intelligence may be digital, but the infrastructure powering it is very physical.In Episode 305 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine the enormous energy requirements behind America’s rapidly expanding AI data-center industry.The article discussed in the program forecasts that U.S. data centers could eventually consume extraordinary quantities of natural gas as companies build the computing infrastructure needed to train and operate advanced AI systems.Natural gas offers advantages because it is comparatively inexpensive and can provide reliable electricity generation.Bu...

The Federal Reserve is confronting a problem with no obvious painless solution.In Episode 304 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine expectations for another Federal Reserve interest-rate increase and the conflicting economic pressures behind the decision.Higher interest rates are one of the traditional tools central banks use to slow inflation. By making borrowing more expensive, policymakers can reduce demand and potentially ease upward price pressure.But America’s current fiscal situation makes that strategy considerably more complicated.With an enormous national debt, higher rates ca...

You may never put diesel into your own vehicle, but you still depend on it for the goods and services you use every day.In Episode 303 of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos of Swiss America Trading examine rising gasoline and diesel prices and the wider economic consequences of higher energy costs.The hosts begin with fuel-price reports from Labor Day weekend and the continuing uncertainty surrounding the conflict involving Iran. They also discuss the Russia-Ukraine war, attacks on Russian refining infrastructure and the potential effects on diesel supply.Chris explains why diesel...

Why are central banks continuing to buy physical gold while reducing their reliance on the U.S. dollar?In Episode 302 of The Secret War on Cash, Swiss America Trading’s Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos examine reported central-bank gold purchases in July, including approximately 20 tons attributed to China out of 23 tons discussed in the program.The hosts connect that buying with a longer-term reserve-diversification trend. They discuss survey findings indicating that most central banks expect global gold reserves to increase, while a substantial majority expect the dollar’s share of reserves to decline.Dean and Chris also cons...

Central banks continue buying gold, but the scale of the latest increase stands out.In this episode of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos discuss figures showing roughly $47 billion in central-bank gold purchases over a three-month period, following several years of strong institutional demand.Chris notes that central banks had often been purchasing around $10 billion per quarter, making the latest increase approximately five times larger.Why the jump?One explanation discussed in the episode is price.Gold had pulled back from a previous high near $5,500 into roughly the $4,000–$4,500 range. To long-term in...

Episode 300 of The Secret War on Cash returns to the issue that has become increasingly difficult for Washington to avoid: debt.Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos begin with an article stating that annual U.S. interest expense has reached its highest share of federal revenue since 1991.According to the figures discussed in the episode, interest costs are approaching 20% of federal revenue.Chris compares the situation with an individual earning $50,000 annually and losing a substantial share simply servicing credit-card interest without reducing the underlying balance.The comparison becomes more troubling when the hosts loo...

The U.S. dollar is weakening, Treasury markets remain under pressure, and precious metals continue moving higher.In this episode of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos examine why financial reporting has increasingly focused on debt, Treasury securities, dollar weakness, and the consequences of years of deficit spending.Chris notes that silver is approaching the $70 level discussed in the program while gold is nearing roughly $4,700.Dollar weakness is one important catalyst. Continued central-bank gold purchases are another.Treasury officials may be using bond buybacks and other measures to manage long-term y...

America's national debt has reached the $40 trillion level discussed in this episode, but Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos argue that the trajectory matters even more than the headline number.In this episode of The Secret War on Cash, they examine why federal debt can become self-reinforcing.When debt levels rise, Treasury investors may demand higher yields to compensate for increasing financial risk. Those higher yields make federal borrowing more expensive.The government must then devote more revenue to servicing its existing obligations. Dean and Chris note that annual interest expense has already moved above $1 trillion i...

Silver has already experienced extraordinary price volatility, but the structural forces supporting physical demand may be getting stronger.In this episode of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos examine two dramatically different but potentially connected silver-price forecasts.The first comes from Citi analysis discussed in the program. The bank sees a short-term target around $75 and a potential move toward $90 an ounce within six to twelve months.Dean and Chris believe such a move could occur more quickly because silver demand remains strong while physical supply is increasingly constrained.Industrial consumption is a...

Rand Paul has now visited Fort Knox and seen some of America’s gold reserves firsthand.But does that constitute an audit?In this episode of The Secret War on Cash, Dean Heskin and Chris Agelastos revisit the Fort Knox debate and ask why the federal government has not simply completed a comprehensive inventory of the gold held there.The issue gained renewed attention when President Trump and Elon Musk previously discussed auditing Fort Knox. That effort never developed into the full public accounting many observers expected.Dean argues that the gold should not be...