The Discreet Charm of Investing
This is already the fourth (last) part of the report from the Land Investment Expo held on January 13, 2026, in Des Moines, Iowa. I was a speaker during lunch; I am reporting on what others said. The last speaker of the day was Marco Papic, a macroeconomic and geopolitical strategist. Here’s what he said:
In the next 6-12 months, I am optimistic. The year 2026 will be characterized by high prices in the United States and a readiness for deflation. As for land prices, they will not change over the next 10 years – they will neither rise nor fall.
The American economy is a consumption-based economy; consumption accounts for 68 percent of GDP, which is why the AI bubble, which is not a subject of consumption, will not drive GDP in America. The current cash-driven cycle, resulting from Trump and Pelosi's $3 trillion stimulus package and Biden's $2 trillion package, is fiscal extravagance that has driven GDP for the past five years. This fiscal engine has stopped working, and the stimulus package was 500 percent larger than the one provided by the EU. So how does Trump plan to maintain this status quo? The answer: by unlocking the value of real estate, which is currently tied up to the tune of $15 trillion.
Trump declared a nationwide housing crisis and lowered interest rates. He has already changed capital gains from real estate.1, which is why the baby boomer generation is holding onto their current homes. So, the year 2026 will be about expanding the $15 trillion related to real estate value to create another bubble that will drive his presidency; a collapse will follow after the end of the 47th term.
Strangely, we don’t need this at all; the situation is not bad; we are doing well; things are picking up speed. However, if you plan to buy a house, buy it now!
Few of us have lived in a multipolar world; the only thing today’s Americans remember is a unipolar world ruled by the American empire. Therefore, we assume that multipolarity is not possible and we cannot imagine it; we do not know what it would look like.
A school playground with one bully at the top is a relatively calm and stable place. With two bullies, it’s still not bad as long as both sides stay on their respective sides of the playground. The most dangerous playground is one without bullies, where everyone is fighting everyone. That is multipolarity.
Unipolarity has been the driving force of modern wealth because the rules and norms were clear. Multipolarity is chaotic, and that is the direction we are heading. The United States and China do NOT divide the world into two camps. Look at the concentration of military arsenals, which are diversifying across many countries. What we have observed so far regarding military arsenals in the United States, Russia, and China will now spread around the world. The United States is concentrating everything in the Western Hemisphere.
The United States is the only truly large debtor. We are also the largest buyer. In other words, we can force everyone to comply with us. However, we are witnessing the end of American exceptionalism. The world will move away from American treasury bonds, American markets, and American dollars; that’s why tariffs have been seen as a way to restore balance, and that’s why gold is rising. The only reason we pumped $5 trillion into the economy is that voters wanted it; we can only blame ourselves.
With the devaluation of the dollar, American goods will become more competitive. The funny thing about Venezuela is that presidents usually lie to us about their true intentions when they engage in military actions; however, Trump did not lie; he stated outright: "we are taking their oil." As events unfold, the value of physical things will rise, while the value of non-physical things will fall (Facebook, Netflix, etc.).
The United States will have five years of poor performance, and then everything will start working again. Everything is too expensive for us, and we are paying the price for it. When the situation normalizes, things will start to get better. Tariffs will be lifted in 2026. Trump is losing his own political capital due to tariffs, as most Americans do not want them. No one wants to pick strawberries themselves; they want cheap labor to do it.
The United States can do whatever it wants with Greenland. The diplomatic problem is that Denmark is a true friend, so we have a lot of political capital with them to avoid alienating other friends by complicating Denmark's ability to maintain Greenland. If it were France, which is an unreliable friend, we wouldn’t have to be so careful.
Cryptocurrencies are assets, but they belong to the speculative spectrum. Caution should be exercised with them.
Here is the whole story – one fascinating day spent with people who live in a different world than mine. I saw so many charts that I had wide eyes for a week, but the data is really interesting when presented in the form of pictures.
I hope everyone enjoyed these reports. What interested you the most?
Joel Salatin
The Crazy Farmer
1To a greater extent than ever before, freeing capital income earned on properties from income tax, and linking the tax to the taxpayer's income. All regulations and comments included in the texts of Joel Salatin's newsletter titled "The Crazy Farmer," unless otherwise noted, come from the editor of the site.https://joelsalatin.pl