The Not-So-Great Economy, and Will Private Credit Be the Spark That Kicks Off GFC 2.0?

Originally published at: https://peakprosperity.com/finance-u-the-not-so-great-economy-and-will-private-credit-be-the-spark-that-kicks-off-gfc-2-0/

Trump keeps saying we’re living in the greatest economy ever, but that’s not supported by the underlying statistics. At all.

Here’s the claim, repeated also in the recent State of the Union speech:

Trump: "I'm popular and I've done well. I think we have the greatest economy, actually, ever in history. We have to get the word out." pic.twitter.com/g4xv06sIhZ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 10, 2026
He also talked about how people should be happy because the stock market is doing great. Which means he’s really only talking to 10% of the country.
This could easily translate into a miserable midterm election cycle for Trump and republicans, meaning we should prepare ourselves for gridlock and market volatility.
By the numbers, a main reason that the headline GDP number is doing as well as it is (which isn’t all that great), is because the government is deficit spending like drunken sailors.Take away that support and the economy is in a deep recession.Next houses are really wildly unaffordable, making residential real estate one of the largest real estate bubbles in history – larger even than during the GFC.It looks like gravity has finally caught up to home sales:

GFC 2.0

Meanwhile, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan is suggesting that the same sorts of excesses that led to the GFC 1.0 are now in place for a GFC 2.0 repeat:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, asked about fierce competition across the financial industry, said he’s starting to see parallels to the era before the 2008 financial crisis, when a rush to make loans ended disastrously.

“Unfortunately, we did see this in ’05, ’06 and ’07, almost the same thing — the rising tide was lifting all boats, everyone was making a lot of money,” Dimon told investors on Monday. While JPMorgan isn’t willing to make riskier loans to boost net interest income, he said, “I see a couple people doing some dumb things. They’re just doing dumb things to create NII.”

(Source)

Because history rhymes, this time it looks like the epicenter will be something called ‘private credit.’

Remember, Trump put out an EO last year allowing private credit to be sold into 401k’s and 401k eligible funds. What great timing!

And, just like last time, Wall Street shoveled these defective products out the door as fast as they could once the easy money was stripped out and all that remained was risk.

How it started:

How it’s going:

It’s all just more of the same that brought us the GFC, where no lessons were learned because none of the painful consequences landed on the perpetrators who were bailed out.

All of which is to say, things are looking increasingly dicey out there in the financial world. It’s time to manage risk actively.


Timestamps
00:00 The State of the Economy: A Critical Examination
13:08 Consumer Credit and Economic Pressures
27:20 The Looming Threat of Financial Crisis 2.0

 


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14 Likes

Look at the positives Mister Debbie Downer. Maybe Doctor Housing Bubble will come back with current Real Homes of Genius.

So, I should stay away from derivatives based on German hookers who bought houses and shrimp farms?

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I’d answer but I am unable to give out specific investment advice.

Meanwhile, here’s the current state of 5D chess:

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Shoot, then Doctor Housing Bubble won’t be making a come back. You just like harshing mellows don’t you.

-8% GDP in US economic scale and considering how much printing abuse world reserve trade currency allows is gigantic… Did it all go to buy nice overpriced chips from Taiwan?
If it did shouldnt domestic prices be way lower (some theory that can print money but spend it elsewhere to avoid domestic price inflation; or sell lots of oil but store all that in asset funds)…

Germany continues to destroy itself:

https://x.com/Reuters/status/2027087517716021744

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Absolutely!

It’s the Swedish hookers who know what they’re doing.

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Throwing out a spit ball here but I’m going to guess none of the preferred pronouns in the crowd are he/him or she/her and not even er/ihn or sie/ihr. Just guessing.

Because Sweden is the home of IKEA?

Is that where their bikini team hang out these days?

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Near the Swedish meatballs.

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I don’t understand where “retail” is getting all this money to suddenly throw into the market. It’s supposed to be retail that is struggling the most, right? Are there ways for institutions/big money to masquerade as retail or funnel retail money? Maybe some scheme to help keep things elevated while their official accounts exit out the back door?

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The top 10% of households are doing well and therefore have money to invest.

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I dunno, something feels off about it. They should already be invested. It’s why they’re doing well in the first place. I find it hard to believe that well-off households have kept a ton of money on the side to just dump into an already elevated market.

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401k’s are basically biweekly tithes to Wall St ETFs. Most engineers I know are still “just buy and hold the S&P500 forever.”

Even in the k-shaped economy there are folks piling in to stocks with some savings from their W-2 paychecks.

It isn’t money in the sidelines necessarily. It also includes new money from paychecks.

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It all just feels so 2007, with the real crash 8 to 14 months out. Except more weirdly synthetic this time around.

  • PM’s making a big break-out, then going chaotic a year ahead of time, first in mid-2006 and now it’s just happened again last fall.
  • Money printing under various names – QE, whatever now.
  • Or just capital controls, that is, setting interest rates by fiat. Patch now, inflation later. After the mid-terms they hope.
  • Protected ‘too big to fail’ institutions.
  • Blind faith in rigged markets.
  • Working class getting squeezed – again.
  • A frozen housing market.
  • No real new hiring of entry-level workers.

I don’t think they can paper it over and not have it blow up this time. We see it coming, and in a form way too similar to 2008. Just don’t dance.

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I agree with everything said here. Though, I’m too young to personally remember 2008.

However, I go back to the same question that everyone seems to elude to: What the hell do I(we) do? Out of stocks entirely? Piles of physical cash? Precious metals? Mixture of everything and hope that diversification works?

I’ve seen, believed, had feelings, and read about this stuff for the past 6 years. I just wonder if the “can” will be kicked down the road for another 5 years.

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Do exactly the opposite of what I do and you’ll be fine :slight_smile:

Stock market should have crashed hard decades ago, and reset
Metals are still being manipulated
Housing prices are at record highs due to corporations buying houses and renting them out
Autos have become unaffordable
Looks like we’re heading to a war we can’t afford, and shouldn’t be involved in
We’re literally at peak oil… but drill baby drill

I worry a lot for our kids

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George Costanza brought to life.

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It’s great to have this level of detail. I am so far behind with this kind of analysis that is really good for me to read the article and try to understand what is happening. However I am a bit dismayed as a paying subscriber to be shown ads within content I thought I had already paid for specifically to not see ads.

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