“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

— Dwight Eisenhower

 

Dear Reader,

Nomi recently confessed to me she has a crush on President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower.

She spent one hot summer in Abilene, Kansas, researching her 2014 book, All the Presidents’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power.

For weeks, she says she dug through original documents at the Eisenhower Presidential Library. That’s how she got a sense of who Eisenhower was, and why his vision resonates today.

Below, you’ll read how she’s applying what she learned to America’s broken infrastructure… to the current infrastructure bill already passed by the U.S. Congress…and how thinking about that money properly can help you efficiently plan your investments for the near future. – Enjoy, Addison

The Great American Buildout Is Just Beginning

Dear Reader,

Eisenhower’s vision for America came from a lifelong love for the United States. He was born in Texas. But he moved to Abilene as a kid.

As an adult, he had a prestigious army career. He served as commander of all U.S. troops in Europe during World War II.

After the war, he became the first supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He believed that NATO was a critical component of world peace.

Then, between 1953 and 1961, Ike served as the 34th President of the United States.

As president, he negotiated a truce in the Korean War. He worked to ease tensions with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

And he galvanized bipartisan support for building in America. That’s how our highway systems got built.

In June 1956, Eisenhower signed the $25 billion Federal Aid Highway Act into law. This led to the construction of more than 40,000 miles of Interstate highways.

At the time, it was the biggest engineering project in U.S. history.

Eisenhower wanted America to have stronger infrastructure. He believed it could help the country defend itself from war on its soil.

Thankfully, war never reached America’s shores.

But Ike’s policies, from NATO to infrastructure, laid the groundwork for U.S. economic growth over the decade that followed. That period was one of low inflation and low unemployment.

Today, America faces similar challenges.

Talk of war bombards us daily. The media stokes fears of a potential World War III. At the same time, our bridges are collapsing at home. Our roads need major repairs.

Against this backdrop, inflation threatens our wallets. At 8.3%, annual inflation is higher today than at any point since 1982.

All of this has implications for your portfolio and your money.

Since I left Wall Street two decades ago, my mission has been to keep an ear to the ground of the big players in finance and government. And to help regular folks profit from where the big money is flowing.

Today, that mission is more important to me than ever.

That’s because the behavior of the markets has become permanently distorted from the real economy.

Those who understand this disconnect will have the chance at life-changing profits. But those who don’t will be left behind.

And at the center of this distortion right now is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. That invasion ignited global geopolitical turbulence.

It has led to thousands of deaths and billions of dollars’ worth of property damage in Ukraine.

Many businesses in Ukraine had to close. These closures intensified global supply chain problems and market uncertainty.

Financial and energy sanctions against Russia did the same. This was on top of prevailing price inflation.

But the war in Ukraine also did something else. It reinforced the U.S. embrace of NATO.

As President Biden said during his first State of the Union address on March 1, 2022:

The United States and our Allies will defend every inch of territory of NATO countries with the full force of our collective power.

This embrace of NATO will impact U.S. production. It will lead to increased manufacturing of defense weaponry, no matter what happens in Ukraine.

That means we’ll need more steel, iron ore, and other raw materials.

We need these ingredients for infrastructure projects, too.

Investing in infrastructure enables America to be more globally competitive with other nations. It also addresses domestic needs for upgraded and new infrastructure.

In the wake of World War II, building in America solidified the U.S. economy. The same is true now. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocates a lot more money to fixing U.S. highways than the 1956 act did.

It includes $110 billion towards repairing 65,000 miles of highway and 1,500 bridges.

President Biden recently tried to explain why this is so important:

America used to have the best roads, bridges, and airports on Earth. Now our infrastructure is ranked 13th in the world.

That’s true. We can do better… no matter who remembers they’re in the White House.

Nomi Prins,
For The Wiggin Sessions