Fed To Launch 'Bazooka' After Crash: Why Risk-On Investor Turns Bearish | Matt Piepenburg

Watch on YouTube ↗  |  January 26, 2025 at 19:13  |  41:24  |  The David Lin Report
Speakers
Matthew Piepenburg — Partner, Von Greyerz AG

Summary

Matthew Piepenburg of Von Greyerz AG discusses why he has turned more cautious on U.S. equities while remaining bullish on gold and hard assets. He sees long-term dollar debasement, an already-weak Main Street economy, and a U.S. debt crisis that forces reliance on monetary accommodation. He also expects crypto to benefit speculatively from the new administration's pro-crypto posture, though he distinguishes that from wealth preservation.

  • Matthew Piepenburg is more defensive on U.S. equities due to extreme overvaluation, narrow leadership, and dependence on Fed dovishness.
  • He expects long-term dollar debasement but sees DXY likely range-bound between 100 and 109 rather than collapsing.
  • He criticizes 10-year Treasuries as return-free risk because real yields have been negative and inflation may run higher.
  • He is bullish gold as a long-term store of value, citing central-bank buying and broken correlations.
  • He favors hard assets, commodities, real estate, and farmland as inflation hedges bought at reasonable valuations.
  • He considers crypto a speculative long under the new administration's pro-crypto policy tailwind, not a wealth-preservation asset.
  • He believes the U.S. is already in a recession and that debt-to-GDP above 100% makes future growth difficult.
  • He warns that tariffs and BRICS de-dollarization could accelerate a multipolar currency regime.
Ideas
Matthew Piepenburg Partner, Von Greyerz AG 2:17
US equities overvalued, narrow, Fed-dependent, vulnerable.
He is cautious on US equities because the market is overvalued by Buffett-indicator and S&P/GDP measures, leadership is extremely narrow, and valuations depend on Fed dovishness; with the Fed less dovish and debt-driven distortions in place, mean reversion risk is high and a major retracement could force the Fed to QE after a crash. He is more defensive and prefers cash.
Matthew Piepenburg Partner, Von Greyerz AG 19:01
Dollar debases long term but range-bound.
He is long-term bearish on the dollar's purchasing power because of U.S. debt and deficits, but he sees DXY in a 100-109 range, not collapsing to 60 or soaring to 150, and still views the dollar as the best fiat relative to other currencies; it is a debasement/range watch rather than a clean short.
Matthew Piepenburg Partner, Von Greyerz AG 20:29
XRP is tokenization highway.
Even though he calls crypto speculation rather than wealth preservation, he would go long Bitcoin, XRP, and Tether/Ripple under the new Trump administration because pro-crypto politicization, a possible Bitcoin strategic reserve, and tokenization/digital-asset promotion create a massive tailwind and support the stablecoin/Treasury narrative.
Matthew Piepenburg Partner, Von Greyerz AG 26:08
10-year Treasuries are return-free risk.
He says the 10-year Treasury is 'return-free risk' because real yields have been negative after inflation for years, inflation is likely to run higher, and Treasuries are unloved IOUs from an indebted government; he would not park cash in them as a safe haven.
Matthew Piepenburg Partner, Von Greyerz AG 27:15
Gold is superior long-term wealth preservation.
He views gold as the best long-term store of value and wealth-preservation asset amid sovereign debt, dollar debasement, and broken macro correlations; central banks are buying much more gold and the BIS sees it as a next tier-one asset. Gold may dip in a crash but should recover and outperform highly volatile assets.
Matthew Piepenburg Partner, Von Greyerz AG 35:59
Hard assets hedge inflation, buy at valuation.
For an inflation-hedge portfolio he favors hard assets bought at the right valuation, including real estate and farmland that hold value and have real use; commodities are in a long-cycle hard-asset regime and add to inflation tailwinds, though a recession could reduce commodity demand.
Up Next

This The David Lin Report video, published January 26, 2025, features Matthew Piepenburg discussing SPY, QQQ, DXY, XRP, BTC, USDT, IEF, GLD, DBC, XLRE, Farmland. 6 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Matthew Piepenburg  · Tickers: SPY, QQQ, DXY, XRP, BTC, USDT, IEF, GLD, DBC, XLRE, Farmland