Commercial real estate veteran Ben Reinberg shares how he uses hard assets and smart debt to strengthen his investing portfolio. He shares his journey from starting in his early 20s to building a national hard-asset portfolio across industrial, office, retail, multifamily, and medical real estate. We talk the importance of the "ability to hold" assets through cycles by avoiding over-leverage, maintaining reserves, and structuring smart debt. Ben outlines where commercial real estate sits in the current cycle, highlighting looming debt maturities, distressed opportunities, and the potential for attractive buying conditions over the next few years.

We discuss...

• Ben Reinberg explains how he built wealth starting in his early 20s by focusing on hard assets, particularly commercial real estate, as a long-term strategy for cash flow and financial control.
• He emphasizes the importance of becoming a true expert in a specific asset class rather than spreading focus too broadly.
• He shares lessons from his first industrial deal, including managing tenant loss, repositioning assets, and creating value through active ownership.
• A central theme was the "ability to hold," meaning structuring investments to survive any market cycle without being forced to sell.
• He stressed using smart debt, avoiding over-leverage (generally keeping loan-to-value around 65%), and maintaining ample reserves.
• The discussion highlighted why medical office real estate is recession- and pandemic-resilient, with high tenant renewal rates and stable cash flow.
• Reinberg explained how inflation, tariffs, and rising costs affect tenants and property operations across different real estate sectors.
• The episode explored how real estate acts as an inflation hedge through rent growth, escalators, and long-term asset appreciation.
• They discussed the current commercial real estate downturn, driven by higher rates, falling values, and large amounts of debt coming due.
• Reinberg argued that the next few years may present some of the best commercial real estate buying opportunities in decades.
• He warned investors to be cautious, underwrite deals conservatively, and focus on tenant quality and market fundamentals.
• We have an optimistic outlook for 2026–2028, expecting lower rates, increased liquidity, more transactions, and improving economic stability.

Today's Panelists:

• Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
• Barbara Friedberg | Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance
• Douglas Heagren | Mergent College Advisors

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/hard-assets-and-smart-debt-ben-reinberg-788

Silver crashed! Today we focus on a historic bout of volatility in precious metals following months of extreme, unhealthy gains. We figure out if the selloff was driven by the announcement of a new Fed chair or severe technical overextension, crowded positioning that triggered profit-taking, shorting, and forced de-risking. We also talked the implications of a potentially growth-leaning but inflation-conscious Fed, ongoing structural risks like debt, deficits, and sticky inflation, and why monetary policy alone can't solve them. We reviewed the January market performance, and noticed strength in energy, materials, commodities, and international equities versus lagging tech and software. Markets are rotating regimes, not ending trends, and investors should focus on risk management, diversification, and long-term planning rather than reacting emotionally to short-term chaos.

We discuss...

• We unpacked a historic spike in precious-metals volatility, with silver experiencing extreme, record-level swings after months of unsustainably rapid gains.
• The Fed chair news was described as a "match, not the bonfire," triggering a correction that was already statistically inevitable at extreme standard deviations.
• Volatility selling, options hedging, and large institutional short positioning likely amplified the downside move in silver.
• The gold-silver ratio had reached stretched levels, making a snapback or rebalancing between gold and silver unavoidable.
• Despite the violent correction, the broader precious-metals bull trend was viewed as intact rather than broken.
• Gold was described as healthier than silver due to steady institutional and central-bank buying.
• We covered how computers, systematic strategies, and risk managers now dominate market mechanics at volatility extremes.
• Rate cuts may come sooner than expected, but structural issues like debt, deficits, and sticky inflation remain unresolved.
• Markets so far reacted modestly outside of commodities, suggesting rotation rather than systemic stress.
• Energy and commodities were highlighted as key areas to watch in an inflation-sensitive environment.
• International equities significantly outperformed U.S. markets, reinforcing the case for global diversification.
• A small bank failure highlighted lingering credit and balance-sheet risks despite limited systemic impact.
• Midterm election seasonality was discussed as a potential source of higher volatility and uneven returns.

Today's Panelists:

Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
Douglas Heagren | Mergent College Advisors

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/silver-crashed-787

Jean-Baptiste Wautier is here to talk growing global debt and the impact on the economy. He draws on decades of private-equity and macro experience to discuss accelerating global change, arguing that rising debt, AI, and political polarization are reshaping the economic and geopolitical order.

We discuss Europe's recent market strength, China as an unavoidable, though risky, investment given its scale and AI ambitions, and gold and crypto as hedges rather than true currency alternatives. He also warms that global debt dynamics will force restructuring in places like Japan and parts of Europe, and concludes that AI is likely transformative but slower and more socially disruptive than markets assume, ultimately requiring a rethink of productivity, employment, and even how economic progress is measured.

We discuss...

• Jean-Baptiste Wautier argued that today's environment reflects an acceleration of long-term forces—debt accumulation, AI as a fourth industrial revolution, and rising political polarization—rather than a completely unprecedented moment.
• He suggested populism can be reversed without extreme disruption if governments deliver tangible economic fixes, citing Italy as an example of pragmatic reform restoring democratic confidence.
• Wautier emphasized that middle-class affordability, youth opportunity, and fiscal credibility are the core issues driving political instability in Western democracies.
• He criticized the lack of democratic oversight of central banks, arguing monetary policy has become too consequential to remain entirely insulated from public accountability.
• He believes there is no painless solution to global debt problems, with Europe facing unavoidable austerity while the U.S. may temporarily "get away with it" due to dollar dominance and capital inflows.
• Europe's recent market outperformance was described as a short-term valuation and diversification blip rather than a reflection of improving fundamentals.
• Wautier argued the dollar has no credible fiat challenger, reinforcing its dominance despite past U.S. policy mistakes.
• Gold and cryptocurrencies were discussed primarily as hedges against dollar risk rather than true replacements for the global reserve system.
• Bitcoin was criticized as too volatile to function as a reserve or transactional currency, regardless of its popularity as a speculative store of value.
• Stablecoins were viewed as a strategic U.S. response to crypto, potentially extending dollar dominance into digital finance.
• Demographic decline across developed economies was identified as a structural constraint that traditional growth models cannot easily resolve.
• Wautier argued AI adoption is moving faster than societies can adapt, limiting near-term productivity gains while increasing long-term disruption.
• AI's ultimate impact will be profound but slow, likely forcing a reassessment of GDP and other traditional measures of economic progress.

Today's Panelists:

• Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
• Barbara Friedberg | Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/growing-global-debt-jean-baptiste-wautier-786