The notion of an “everything bubble” has been floating around for approximately a decade and, though most now link the term to the period between 2020 and 2021, there certainly is a persistent feeling that the stock market has been doing a bit too well recently – especially given the impact current high interest rates are supposed to have on prices.
Indeed, 2024 already saw multiple major companies set significant milestones.
For example, the semiconductor giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) recently surged above a $2 trillion valuation, and the technology behemoth Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) became the world’s biggest company already in January.
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The major indices – the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) – have also been doing remarkably well and are riding close to their highs.
These factors combined have, on the one hand, offered investors an opportunity to achieve staggering return rates despite the supposedly tightened conditions in the context of the FED’s battle against inflation.
On the other hand, they have only deepened the fears that nearly every stock on the market is severely overvalued – the feeling that gave rise to the idea of the ‘everything bubble’ in the first place.
Robert Kiyosaki warns ‘the biggest bubble in history’ will soon burst
Robert Kiyosaki, a prominent investor and author of the best-selling personal finance book “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” is among the voices warning that the current state of the U.S. stock market is nothing short of ‘the biggest bubble in history.’
Indeed, already in January, he took a contrarian position to the forecasts of major banks and other institutions – which largely predicted stormy seas in 2024 but with a generally positive yearly outcome – and warned that the U.S. is being steered toward “war and depression.”
By March 11, Kiyosaki had identified that the baby boomer generation is likely to suffer the most from what he deems to be the coming crash. Boomers will be “wiped out,” as Kiyosaki explains, due to the fact that they are the “first generation with flimsy 401ks.”
The situation isn’t helped by the fact that many of the baby boomers – if the expanded definition is used – have either retired relatively recently or are approaching retirement age – giving their portfolios little time to properly recover should the stock market crash, as Kiyosaki is predicting it will.
Kiyosaki advises how to protect oneself from the crash
Along with being known for his gloomy predictions and the best-selling book, Kiyosaki has also, for a long time, been a strong advocate for certain commodities – gold and silver – and for the world’s foremost cryptocurrency – Bitcoin (BTC).
Indeed, Kiyosaki’s main recommendation for navigating the coming tempest is not to try to fight the FED, no matter what you may thing about its policies, but rather to invest in gold, silver, and Bitcoin.
The advice is largely in line with the historic performance of gold and silver – both known for relative stability during times of crises due to their reputation as stores of value.
Bitcoin, while yet to be tested in a major recession, is also widely regarded as “digital gold” and, indeed, as a store of value. The coin can, in fact, directly trace its roots to the disappointment in the global financial system in the wake of the 2008 crisis.
How bad can the crash be?
While hardly three months old, 2024 is already, in many ways, a year of significant dissonance.
Much of 2023 was marked by recessionary fears – mostly due to restrictively high interest rates – and yet the opposite happened despite the FED standing its ground.
Furthermore, while many experts retain a largely bullish outlook for the ongoing year, there is a significant number of voices – from across the economic spectrum – that are fearful about what the coming months will bring.
Additionally, data also presents a worrying picture, and Finbold reported back in February that there are some highly worrying correlations between the stock market of 2024 and of 1929 – and given that the Great Depression itself is considered to have started in earnest only in October, it can hardly be said that the world is out of the woods.
Another commonly highlighted pointer that things might not actually be going too well is the significant amount of consolidation with the five biggest stocks now accounting for as much as 25% of S&P 500’s total market cap.
Wall Street expert predicts a return of record inflation
The crisis might also prove even worse for the everyman should another concerning forecast – this time coming from Gordon Johnson, the founder and CEO of GLJ Research – come true.
Since the start of 2024, Johnson has repeatedly warned that despite its presented toughness, the FED is actually playing fast and loose with its anti-inflation policy and that inflation is likely to surge to new records relatively soon.
More recently, he went as far as to say that most of the official metrics are not representative and the real inflation – the inflation affecting regular Americans – is already significantly higher that the published figures would suggest.
Interestingly, Johnson, despite being far from a Bitcoin supporter, nonetheless pointed toward the cryptocurrency’s stellar 2024 performance as just another proof that the current straits are indeed more dire than is generally reported.
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Disclaimer: The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.
