A STORY THE U.S. NAVY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO HEAR...
AND THAT TIME I WAS HUMBLED BY A FINANCE LEGEND
There was a knock at the door. I opened it and there stood billionaire Kyle Bass.
The next day another knock. This time it was Harvard historian Niall Ferguson.
Then superstar economist David Rosenberg came by.
It was May 2013, and this was my very first Strategic Investment Conference (SIC). These were some of the first people I met at John Mauldin’s legendary annual event. They were coming up to John’s suite at the swanky Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad, California to be interviewed on-camera.
I was blown away. Who WAS this John Mauldin guy I had just begun working for?! How could he be THIS connected?!
Ever since the SIC has been on my calendar each year. It is the A-list of business, economics, geopolitics, tech and science. I have had so many amazing experiences and learned so much. For example…
HUMBLED BY A FINANCE LEGEND
It was spring 2017 and I was sitting across the table from one of the biggest finance legends to emerge out of the 2008 financial crisis. Mark Hart was partners with Kyle Bass when their bet against the U.S. subprime mortgage market paid out handsomely; they sextupled their money in little more than a year. Nearly a decade later, here he was speaking at the SIC and our shared dinner table was heatedly discussing the markets.
The topic of Bitcoin came up and I flippantly shot my mouth off. In late 2014 I had been the executive producer of a mini-documentary covering the rise of Bitcoin for Mauldin Economics. The film featured some of the better-known names in the space; folks like Barry Silbert – the CEO of Digital Currency Group, futurist George Gilder and hedge fund manager Mark Yusko. At the time of the film’s production the Bitcoin price was around $600, but there was a lot of skepticism. By the time the doc launched in early 2015 the price was below $300 and dropping. Luckily - I thought at the time - I had dodged a bullet by not purchasing any.
I related that story to Hart, not realizing Bitcoin had eventually rallied (a year-and-a-half later) and was, at that point, north of $2K. Needless to say, I was put in my place. From the SIC stage Hart would go on to publicly predict that with Bitcoin, “I do think you have the seeds of the greatest mania humanity has ever seen.”
Seven years later, with Bitcoin at $63K, it turns out Hart was right. And SIC was where he said it.
A STORY THE U.S. NAVY DIDN’T WANT YOU TO HEAR
During that same SIC I moderated the geopolitical panel featuring Pippa Malmgren, Ian Bremmer, George Friedman and Ambassador Harald Malmgren. It was a good discussion that rapidly became unforgettable when Ambassador Malmgren – an advisor to U.S. Presidents JFK, LBJ, Nixon and Ford – relayed intel that seemed so sci-fi it couldn’t possibly be true. But the source - the man Nixon sent to Europe in 1971 to tell the French and Germans the U.S. was going off the gold standard - was hard to argue with.
The Ambassador described a U.S. Navy missile frigate sailing in 2014 through the Black Sea. The ship was overflown by two Russian military aircraft with slings visible underneath, carrying some sort of equipment. Suddenly the American vessel’s Aegis Combat System – the integrated naval weapons system of the ship – shut down. Then the engines turned off and the boat was adrift. In Ambassador Malmgren’s words, “The Navy has never wanted this to be published…”
But, if you were at the SIC that year you knew about it.
FORMER CIA DIRECTOR KICKS THINGS OFF MONDAY
We are about half-way through this year’s SIC. In 2020 Covid-19 relegated it to a virtual event and it remains one today, meaning you can attend.
The great part about it being virtual? The guest list is better than ever; no one has a rolodex better than John Mauldin.
Four billionaires over the first three days: Leon Cooperman, Ron Baron, Felix Zulauf and Mario Gabelli. Geopolitical experts George Friedman and Peter Turchin. The Fourth Turning’s Neil Howe. Pippa Malmgren. Louis Gave. Peter Boockvar. Lacy Hunt…the guest list goes on and on.
Tomorrow morning former CIA Director General David Petraeus will kick things off. On Wednesday tech titan Joe Lonsdale and billionaire investor Howard Marks are the headliners.
Eight hours every day for five days. It is a firehose of information designed to help you be a smarter investor and figure out where the world is going.
Me and my team have been producing the live video event and it has been a real eye-opener so far. Unfortunately I can’t tell you the specifics around what’s been shared so far, as that’s for those who pay for the privilege. But what I can tell you is you won’t regret signing up for the remaining couple of days.
Our world hasn’t been in turmoil like it is right now since 1945. You cannot find a better source of up-to-date intel on what’s happening than the SIC. Check it out: https://www.mauldineconomics.com/sic-2024.
PS – If attending the SIC doesn’t fit your schedule, I would recommend two things instead:
· Sign up for John Mauldin’s Thoughts from the Frontline newsletter. It arrives every Saturday morning and is a must for serious investors. The best part? It’s FREE. Click HERE to check it out.
· Subscribe to Ed D’Agostino’s Global Macro Update. Ed is the host of the SIC, the publisher of Mauldin Economics, and is a great friend. He has become a major league interviewer and you will learn a ton listening to him each week. Check it out on YouTube HERE.