THEY are also entering agriculture!
In the third episode of the report from the Land Investment Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, I discuss two more speakers. The fourth and final part of this series will be after the weekend.
Ron Diamond is the founder and president of Diamond Wealth, a consulting firm serving about 150 "family investment offices." A family investment office is a euphemistic way of saying "we're disgustingly rich, so we want to invest our money somewhere." Once, this group included only the Rockefellers, Carnegies, and a few other famous names, but today, with the growing wealth disparity, the group of disgustingly rich individuals is rapidly expanding.
About 68 percent of family offices have been established only since 2020. To qualify as such an office, one must have assets worth at least $1 billion. Currently, all American family offices collectively hold equity capital of $10 trillion. This figure is expected to rise to $124 trillion over the next 10 years.
What’s most interesting about this enormous money is that it is patient. It is completely different from aggressive hedge funds, venture capital, or other such institutions. Big money typically comes from wealthy multi-generational families that want to use their money for good causes. They are already rich and do not need to achieve high returns. Hence, this calmness and patience. Families enter and exit this category. Only 5 percent of family offices – the speaker said – will survive four generations. About 70 percent will not survive two. People constantly enter and exit this category, but its significance is growing as the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
Ron said that until recently, he never thought he would meet a farmer. He grew up in the environment of New York investment banks and hedge funds. Meanwhile, recently, farmland, which is one of the best hedges against inflation, has suddenly appeared on the radars of family offices as a good investment place. This will fundamentally change the structure of farmland ownership in the future, as more and more properties will be taken over by family offices instead of going to other farmers or individual buyers.
More farmers will lease and manage land that has no individual owner.
Joel Salatin's Note: About 35 years ago, my mentor Allan Nation, founder of Stockman Grass Farmer, told me that the United States is transitioning to a European model of agriculture, where the rich own land as a mechanism of economic protection, and farmers manage it as an offensive mechanism for wealth accumulation. Therefore, farmers who know how to make money from the land will soon be in high demand.
OK, the next speaker was Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research Inc., commonly referred to as "the Oracle of Wall Street." "I don’t think we are going to have a recession," he said in his opening.
"I predict that by the end of the decade, the S&P index will reach 10,000 points.1" Don’t let your political views affect your investments. If you were depressed about World War I and the Spanish flu in 1920, you would have missed the roaring 20s. "I’ve been married three times and have five children, so I guess I’m an optimist."
The baby boomer generation is the wealthiest generation of retirees in history, holding assets worth $85 trillion, most of which are already paid-off properties. That’s why President Trump is trying to stimulate real estate sales so that this money starts circulating again.
In the 1960s, technology accounted for only 10 percent of national spending; now it is 60 percent and will drive the economy in the future. Productivity is making a big comeback. There is a shortage in professions that cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence. Trump’s campaign against Fed Chair Jerome Powell will have the opposite effect of what he intended. It’s a foolish move.
The tariffs imposed following the Smoot-Hawley Act triggered a great depression. The fact that we have not yet fallen into a crisis despite what we have gone through in the last five years is a testament to the resilience of our economy. These are still good times. Since the 1980s, people have been shouting about an economic collapse due to the deficit, but it won’t happen – predicts the oracle.
The Japanese bond market is growing: they are the ones in trouble. Foreigners continue to buy American securities at normal rates; the dollar is stable, and the United States is still considered a safe haven for wealth. A little gold in the portfolio is a very good thing. College is absurdly expensive. There’s no reason to lower interest rates as long as consumer spending is rising.
Let the good times roll. Are we really happy?
Your reporter:
Joel Salatin
January 16, 2026
1As we write these words, the S&P 500 index greets the level of $7000.