Written by Bryan Lutz, Editor at Dollarcollapse.com:
Good to have you back.
Here’s what we do.
Every Sunday I share a few thoughts with you, and other subscribers at Dollar Collapse.
Sometimes we’ll talk about economics, sometimes recent events, and other times, life.
Here are three thoughts for this morning:
1. The S&P 500 is hitting all-time highs again. Anyone else worried about this?
Nope, they aren’t.
That’s because since the start of August the S&P 500 has been hitting new all-time highs.
It’s blown past previous highs by a few hundred dollars, walking up to nearly $7800.
In the bigger picture, the S&P could move slowly sideways and up for awhile. Look at how it’s behaved over the last year. Specifically, before the 10% drop in March 2026.
All the S&P has to do is to continue increasing in value along with its money supply a la the Cantillon Effect while the strong man at the Fed continues to hold rates.
Meanwhile, most investors aren’t worried. They just keep plugging away with super-bullish search terms on Google. Almost every investor is still confident in the old way of thinking, which is…
Using @Google Search Trends, investor interest in “risk-on” terms has significantly outpaced “risk-off” terms @DataArbor pic.twitter.com/WO7714g9nX
— Liz Ann Sonders (@LizAnnSonders) August 14, 2026
“There’s nothing wrong with debasement.”
“Whenever there’s a dip in the S&P 500 that signals, “It’s buy time”.”
And…
The classic “Number go up”… somehow still holds profitable connotations.
But we are entering different territory. One where hard assets like gold and silver will become the place where value resides. You see, as debasement increases, the Fed prints more, and the US Treasury borrows more… the numbers will continue to go up, but in real terms purchasing power is being lost day by day.
That’s why, when investors are looking more bullish than ever in the midst of several bubbles, even the great “Money Bubble, our friend, John Rubino, wrote a book about, watch out.
2. Speaking of more contrarian takes, let’s take a look at Bitcoin.
Sentiment is seriously low for Bitcoin.
This Crypto Winter is so cold that even members of the Bitcoin OG trope are losing their shit – they’re selling.
They, like many others believe that Bitcoin has entered a downward spiral, which is why I want to show you this chart, below. It looks like a spiral… not downward though. The direction is outward toward $1M per Bitcoin, and beyond.
The 4-year cycle. #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/H3iyuOmD1Q
— Root 🥕 (@therationalroot) August 14, 2026
Flatten that out on an X/Y axis chart and Bitcoin’s next all-time-high could be in 2029 at somewhere around $570,000 per coin.
BITCOIN IS ABOUT TO GO PARABOLIC SOON 🚀 pic.twitter.com/Ad4ifCPbMk
— Vivek Sen (@Vivek4real_) August 14, 2026
3. Ever seen those “Free Silver” IRA deals? Here’s where they re-coup their cost… at your expense.
The ad reads like a gift. Roll your IRA into gold, get up to $10,000 in free silver…
And, zero fees for ten years, which sounds like a win, right?
You see, nothing in that offer is free. The costs didn’t vanish. They moved… into the one number nobody audits: the premium on the metal itself.
For the 2026 Precious Metals Dealer Report, we research 12 national dealers. Fair unbundled gold runs 3% to 5% over spot.
The typical “free silver” bundle? 10% to 25%.
On a $100,000 rollover, the difference is between 23.59 ounces in your vault and 19.82.
Same savings… Same paperwork… Same vault…
Except you receive nearly 4 ounces less… due to the “deal.” Your retirement is measured in ounces, not gifts.
If you want to read more about how those deals go…
Read the full breakdown here: Gold IRA “Free Silver” Offers: How the Bundle Eats Your Retirement
Have a great Sunday!
