TheInvestor

Stacker_Stocks

This €64 billion bank accepts Parmesan cheese as collateral and lends money to cheese producers.

In northern Italy, Credito Emiliano treats cheese like gold.

The bank currently holds 430,000 wheels of Parmesan in its vaults, valued at approximately $200 million.

Real Parmesan – Parmigiano-Reggiano – takes at least 12 months to mature, and can take up to 3 years.

This leaves producers with millions of dollars worth of immature product they cannot sell, while still needing to pay for feed, bills, and employees.

Using the young cheese as loan collateral, producers receive immediate cash.

The bank advances up to 80% of the value to keep these businesses running.

While the loan is active, the cheese is stored in high-tech vaults where specialists care for it.

If the producer is unable to repay, the bank simply sells the matured cheese at a profit.

![](https://m.stacker.news/128738)

The bank backed by Parmesan cheese

Contrary to what many believe, drops of over 20% in silver are NOT a "once-in-a-lifetime" black swan event.

We saw this happen in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2020, and 2026.

And the most curious thing: in all cases where leveraged short positions triggered a drop in the price of silver—physical demand subsequently increased.

However, since spot prices did not necessarily reflect this increase in demand, the shortage crisis worsened following the drop, making the delivery of the physical metal truly "complex".

![](https://m.stacker.news/128567)

Violent falls in silver reveal a paradox: price falls, demand explodes.

Memes

Silver investors today

It simply added $16 trillion in market cap in 1 year.

Central banks now hold more gold than US Treasuries.

The era of the dollar is coming to an end.

![](https://m.stacker.news/127540)

Gold hits $5,000 for the first time in history.

Chile is the world's largest copper producer, and production is declining rapidly due to aging mines, falling ore quality, water scarcity, and lengthy licensing processes.

Copper scarcity is only a matter of time.

![](https://m.stacker.news/127462)

Demand for copper is exploding, while supply is plummeting.

BooksAndArticles

![](https://m.stacker.news/127242)

It's no exaggeration.

Have you noticed that owning a house today is a distant dream?
Have you realized that your money buys less and less?
It's not just you. The global structure is cracking.

And I'm not the one saying this.

It's Ray Dalio — owner of the world's largest hedge fund:
"The collapse of the world order isn't coming. It's happening now."

Read until you understand.
Ray Dalio studied 500 years of empires.
How they are born, how they grow, and how they die.
The pattern is always the same:
→ Debt explodes → Government prints money → Currency loses value → Politics polarize → External conflicts begin → Empire falls
We are in the penultimate phase.
The last time all this happened together? 1930-1945.
Look around:
The US with $37 trillion in debt. Paying $1 trillion a year in interest alone. Invading Venezuela for oil. Threatening to take Greenland. Polarization unseen in 150 years.
Dalio explains the PROCESS.

But there's a second thesis that explains the DESTINY.

And it's worse.
Throughout history, empires have needed workers.
Capital needed labor.
Factory owners needed workers. Workers earned wages. Wages became consumption. Consumption drove the economy.
Everyone needed everyone else.
That's ending.
For the first time, capital can multiply itself.
AI does the intellectual work. Robots do the manual labor. Algorithms do the managerial work.
Those with capital continue to win. Those who only have labor to sell... sell to whom?

The Subclass thesis:
"When machines do the work, those without capital become disposable."
This phrase should be on a billboard.
Dalio explains how empires collapse.

The Subclass explains what's left afterward.
No one has brought the two together.
Until now.
Previous cycles → the new order still needed people. This time → it may not.
It's no longer a normal cycle.
It's the cycle along with technology that kills the value of human labor.
For good.
Meanwhile, billionaires are buying gold, silver, real estate, stocks, bitcoin.
All at once. As fast as possible.
Too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.
Think it's theory?

The numbers:
→ Gold: +81% in 2 years. Biggest increase since the Carter administration.

→ Silver: +210%. The vault is emptying.

→ Real estate: 5x annual income. Your grandfather bought it for 2x.

→ Seniors: 20% of the population, 52% of the wealth. The game has already been played.

→ Homeownership under 35: 36%. Entire generation becoming permanent tenants.
Capital builds up. Wages melt away.
It's not unfair. It's math.
The division isn't 2040.
You're living it.

But how much time is left to act?
Studies point to the same place:
→ Half of the jobs that exist today will radically change by 2030
→ The other half, by 2040
→ Those who don't have a capital base by then will be left out
The clock:
Now–2030: Window open. There's still time to build.

2030–2040: Window closing. Those who didn't act will feel it.

2040+: New structure. Those who were left out, were left out.

5 years. Maybe 10.
That's why billionaires are running.
They turned the clock.

And you?

What to do:
→ Create income that doesn't depend on your time. If everything stops when you stop, you have a job, not an asset. That's the problem to solve.
→ Build something that scales. It can be content, a product, software, an audience. Done > perfect.
→ Use AI as leverage. One person with AI produces what five produced.
→ Don't keep everything in the same country. Your income, your assets, and your body don't need to be in the same place. Do some research for 20 minutes.
→ Start before you're ready. Those who wait for the right moment arrive late.

The window starts closing slowly, then suddenly.
Those who have read this far have two options:
Close and forget.

Or start today.
Choose.

You have 5 years to avoid becoming disposable.

++ Poland's Central Bank approved the purchase of 150 tons of gold, increasing its reserves from 550 to 700 tons. 🚨

Gold continues to hit new all-time highs and it doesn't seem like that will change anytime soon.

And the debasement trade intensifies...

![](https://m.stacker.news/126904)

Gold rush: Poland increases reserves to 700 tons.

WOW!!!!

A Twitter account and an ENTIRE CRYPTO SECTOR went down ☠️💀

After the announcement that X will no longer allow access to its API by projects that reward activity on the platform in tokens, projects plummeted!

The problem, according to the announcement, is that these projects led to "a huge amount of AI and spam on the platform," and the goal is to improve the user experience.

Maybe this will encourage simple reward features in 

![](https://m.stacker.news/126246)

BTC, like Rumble.

X API shutdown: Tokens fall and the game changes.

This is surreal.

50 years ago, gold did exactly that before shooting up vertically.

Double top, consolidation, pump.

Today, Bitcoin is copying that move.

Millimeter. By. Millimeter.

![](https://m.stacker.news/126146)

Bitcoin repeats gold’s move from 50 years ago, millimeter by millimeter

The real life story of a famous meme

DarthCoin

What a shitty meme, you look like an idiot posting that.

Stacker_Sports

Lionel Messi's mention of drinking wine with Sprite boosted Coca-Cola's stock by 4.5%, generating a $12.9 billion increase in market value in the last 3 days. (Sprite is owned by Coca-Cola).

Look at the impact Messi caused with a simple statement...

![](https://m.stacker.news/125632)

![](https://m.stacker.news/125633)

A Messi pass straight into valuation.

ETFs continue to see strong inflows while the derivatives market tells a different story.

Futures volume on the CME has fallen by nearly 90%, and open interest in options by more than 80%.

This shows a clear shift in institutional behavior.

Instead of seeking arbitrage, the flow is now directional.

Investors no longer want to hold neutral positions; they want to be long. This makes perfect sense from a macro perspective.

With stable interest rates and the market already pricing in cuts, the cost of holding dollars has fallen. "Carry" positions have lost attractiveness, and capital is beginning to return to scarce assets.

The same pattern appears in on-chain data.

Supply in long-term portfolios continues to rise, and implied volatility has plummeted, showing a quiet but confident market.

Less speculation, more real positioning.

Derivatives have cooled down, but spot flows show where the money wants to be.

Instead of "hedged" positions, we now have directionally long positions. And it seems that few people have realized this.

![](https://m.stacker.news/125551)

![](https://m.stacker.news/125552)

The "smart money" has switched sides in Bitcoin.

Polymarket refuses to pay bettors who wagered US would ‘invade’ Venezuela

A portfolio created on December 27th made $195,000 by betting ONLY on markets related to Venezuela on Polymarket:

![](https://m.stacker.news/124441)

![](https://m.stacker.news/124442)

A portfolio created in December has earned US$195,000 from bets on Venezuela.

That's how I discovered that the Japanese stock market takes a lunch break.

If BTC closes the year below $93,400, it will be the first year following the halving to be in the red in history.
![](https://m.stacker.news/123681)


The Bitcoin 4-Year Cycle is Failing

Copper’s next shortage is structural, not hype: analyst

Japan's Central Bank to Sell $534 Billion in Local Stocks and Raise Interest Rates to Highest Level Since 1995

All this while 10-Year Bond Yields Hit Highest Level Since 2007 and Inflation Remains Above Target

You don't need to become a Japan expert.

But understanding what's happening in Tokyo helps explain the volatility we've seen in assets worldwide – including Bitcoin – and prepares you for what's to come.

Let's go:

For approximately three decades, Japan has been the world's laboratory for ultra-loose monetary policy.

While the Fed and the ECB raised and lowered rates in normal cycles, Japan was stuck at zero – or sometimes even negative – trying to combat the deflation that has plagued the economy since the 1990s.

This week (December 18-19), the Bank of Japan is expected to raise rates to 0.75%.

That seems small, but it's the highest level of Japanese interest rates since 1995.

More importantly, it signals that Japan is trying to join the rest of the world in having "normal" monetary policy.

THE YEN CARRY TRADE

This is where it gets relevant.

Imagine you could borrow money at almost 0% interest.

What would you do?

You would probably take the loan and invest in something that pays more – US Treasuries, tech stocks, bitcoin, emerging market bonds, anything.

That's exactly what hedge funds, institutions, and traders have been doing for years.

They borrow cheap yen in Japan, convert it to dollars, and buy higher-yielding assets elsewhere.

This is the "yen carry trade."

The problem? This operation only works when:

- Japanese interest rates remain low
- The yen remains weak or stable
- Your investments don't fail

When any of these conditions change, traders need to unwind their positions.

This means selling their investments (stocks, bonds, crypto) and buying yen to repay their loans.

When this happens on a large scale, it creates a cascade of selling in global markets.

THIS WEEK'S INTEREST RATE RISE COULD BE DIFFERENT

The good news: speculators already have net long exposure to the yen, making a sharp reaction to the BOJ increase unlikely.

In other words, the market has been expecting this, and many traders have already adjusted.

Furthermore, Japanese bond yields have risen throughout this year, so the next interest rate hike reflects official rates reaching the market, rather than surprising it.

But the risk hasn't disappeared – it's just been postponed. The real question is: what comes next?


THE BIGGER CONTEXT: JAPAN IS UNRAVELING EVERYTHING

The interest rate hike is just one piece. The BOJ is also:

1. Selling its equity holdings

Here’s something most Western investors don’t realize: the Bank of Japan owns about 7% of the entire Japanese stock market through ETFs. That portfolio is valued at ¥83.2 trillion ($534 billion).

They started this in 2010 to combat deflation – literally buying stocks to support prices and confidence. No other major central bank has done this.

Now they are unraveling. They are being careful because a rapid process would risk triggering a widespread sell-off, but still, it removes a guaranteed buyer from the market.

2. Reducing bond purchases

Just like the Fed’s quantitative tightening, the BOJ is also buying fewer Japanese government bonds, letting its balance sheet shrink.

THE POLITICAL QUESTION

Japan's new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, last year described the idea of ​​an interest rate hike as "stupid."

She is an advocate of "Abenomics"—the easy money and heavy stimulus approach of the late Shinzo Abe.

But here's the twist: she now faces a tightening cost of living that has eroded support for her ruling party.

Japanese inflation has been above the BOJ's 2% target for more than 40 consecutive months. Voters are angry about rising prices.

So Takaichi finds herself in a dilemma.

She wants low rates to stimulate growth, but needs the BOJ to tighten policy to strengthen the yen and reduce import-driven inflation.

Japan's first female prime minister has avoided criticizing Ueda's plans to reduce monetary easing since taking office in October, prioritizing the fight against inflation.

Meanwhile, Japan already has the highest debt-to-GDP ratio among major economies – around 240%.

And Takaichi wants to run large fiscal deficits on top of that. More than 60% of planned spending will come from government borrowing.

Higher interest rates + massive debt = increasing interest costs for the government.

This is a mathematical problem that gets harder every year.



KEY DATA TO WATCH

1. Global Liquidity

Japan has been a source of cheap money for the world. When that tap is turned on, liquidity in all markets – including US stocks and crypto – can be affected. The yen carry trade is not some obscure technicality; it has been a significant source of funding for risk assets globally.

2. Currency Movements

If the yen strengthens significantly (say, from 155 to 140 against the dollar), it can trigger forced selling across all asset classes as carry trades are unwound. A stronger yen has typically coincided with downward pressure on bitcoin, while a weaker yen has tended to support higher prices.

3. Bond Market Canary

The Japanese government bond market is showing stress. Yields on 10-year Japanese government bonds have risen to their highest levels since 2007. If Japan, with its massive debt, begins to have trouble financing itself affordably, this could reverberate through global bond markets.

4. Precedent for Other Central Banks

The BOJ is the first major central bank globally not only to buy equity ETFs but also to begin selling them, setting a precedent for other central banks. How this unfolds will inform how other central banks approach the unwinding of unconventional policies.

CONCLUSION

Japan is attempting something unprecedented: normalizing monetary policy after 30 years of emergency measures, while simultaneously grappling with massive government debt, a weak currency, persistent inflation, and a political leader who ideologically prefers easy money.

For Western investors, the key points are:

Short term: This week's interest rate hike is largely priced in and shouldn't cause major disruption on its own.

Medium term: Watch the yen. If it strengthens sharply against the dollar, new carry trade unwinds could put pressure on risk assets once again.

Long term: Japan's fiscal situation (high debt + rising interest rates + fiscal expansion) is a slow-moving structural risk that could eventually become very important.

![](https://m.stacker.news/122342)

Japan signals the end of an era – understand why.

These are the 3 books that most influenced and enriched me as an investor, and I recommend them to you!

- Competition Demystified
- Capital Returns
- The Outsiders

![](https://m.stacker.news/122219)

![](https://m.stacker.news/122220)

![](https://m.stacker.news/122221)

The books that most influenced my journey as an investor.

Michael "BLurry" said on December 2nd that TSLA was ridiculously overvalued. Since then, it's up +14%. And some people think the market has gurus who figure things out before everyone else. Burry had his glory days and is a good market reference, but each of us should ALWAYS have our own analysis and not just follow others who are saying things on social media and TV. Be your own boss when trading.

![](https://m.stacker.news/122218)

Why blindly trusting "gurus" can be costly.

Elon explains everything bluntly:

Artificial intelligence is a "supersonic tsunami" that is already eliminating all purely digital jobs—programming, emails, spreadsheets, customer support—faster than any other transformation in history.

What survives the longest? Everything that involves moving real atoms: welding, plumbing, electricity, cooking, agriculture, construction. Manual labor remains human.

Then he drops the phrase that leaves us perplexed:
"In the best-case scenario, work becomes optional. We won't have universal basic income... we'll have universal high income. Abundance so extreme that everything you want will cost almost nothing and poverty will practically disappear."

He compares this to the beginning of the 20th century, when entire skyscrapers were occupied by human "computers" doing calculations manually—then digital computers arrived and those jobs disappeared overnight... while the world exploded with new opportunities.

This is not science fiction. It's the trajectory we're already on. Watch these 7 minutes. This will change the way you view your career, your finances, and the next 20 years.

![](https://m.stacker.news/122005)