Bob and Carlos discuss a recent Mercatus Policy Brief that documents how rising interest rates have caused the Fed to lose a trillion dollars in the value of its assets, and is now technically insolvent. Does it matter?

Prompted by an email, Bob and Carlos acknowledge that yes, things look pretty bleak right now, both financially and culturally. But there is still cause for hope. The worst thing to do right now would be to give up.

Bob and Carlos discuss the oddities in the official numbers, which show low unemployment but also low labor participation, and how the statistics don't match their personal observations.

Bob and Carlos discuss a recent article in The Hill, which explains that rising interest rates have rendered the Fed technically insolvent.

Bob asks Carlos to recount his own financial struggles as a young businessman in the late 1970s, when price inflation and interest rates skyrocketed. This painful episode ultimately led Carlos to discover Austrian economics.

Carlos and Bob discuss the views of some prominent economists on whether a recession is baked into the cake. Contrary to even free-market members of the Chicago School, the Austrians know it's not just a matter of money supply growth. During the boom, there were real malinvestments, and these must be liquidated in a bust.

Mentioned in this episode and other links of interest:

• The Fortune article on Steve Hanke and his views about recession.
• Bob’s journal article with Ryan Griggs on the inverted yield curve and Austrian business cycle theory.
• “The Foundations of IBC” video series.
• John Exter and his pyramid asset analysis.
• Bob and Carlos' presentation, "How to Weather the Coming Financial Storms."
• Bob and Carlos’ book with Nelson, The Case for IBC.
• Their book, How Privatized Banking Really Works.
• The IBC Practitioner Finder.

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

Carlos and Bob discuss inflation and whether it spells the doom of life insurance, and thereby ruins the case for IBC. They conclude that rising interest rates per se don't adversely impact life carriers, because of asset-liability matching. Moreover, when you practice IBC, you're not "investing in life insurance."

Carlos and Bob revisit their September 2016 video presentation in which they lay out a 3-prong strategy to protect your household from economic calamity.