The Real Plunge Protection Team… Is You!

“The way you get wealthy and stay wealthy is not to get gutted in one crash, one Lehman market moment, one Dotcom bubble bust. Risk management is everything.”

— Matt Piepenburg, Matterhorn Asset Mgmt

Addison Wiggin Dear Reader,

Quick question today, on the back of a busy week in the markets.

“Anybody know how much of the $142Billion ‘Treasury Plunge Protection’ money remains?” asks reader “Rick” “They have been bailing out Wall Street for four months now, so what happens when the vault is empty? Just sayin’.”

Sometimes, going down a rabbit hole is fun.

In this case, “The Plunge Protection Team,” so named by the Washington Post in 1997, is a reference to the President’s Working Group on the Financial Markets, or the PWG for short.

The team is made up of the The Secretary of the Treasury, or his or her designee (as Chairperson of the Working Group); The Chairperson of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or his or her designee; The Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or his or her designee; and The Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or his or her designee.

In descending order, the current members are Janet Yellen, James Powell, Allison Lee (acting), Caroline Crenshaw and Rostin Benham.

Okay, you got me, maybe it’s not so fun.

These government websites are laborious and appear to be deliberately designed to bore you to death before you can find any useful information like: “how much money do they have and how much did they kick in a bunch on Wednesday to save their buddies on Wall Street?”

Nary a word.

The PWG was established by President Ronald Reagan following the fun times in October of 1987. The “group” is meant to advise the president on policy regarding the regulatory boards under his charge in the executive branch of government.

Yeah, definitely not fun.

Let’s move on. From the comment section under Matt Piepenburg’s Wiggin Session on YouTube this week:

The Fed is running on empty, gaslighting the global economy. They want you to play into its shenanigans in hopes that the markets won’t plunge into a recession…as we say in the Empire of Debt each empire has a logic all its own.

“Thinking like a lawyer,” Matt Piepenburg says, and he is one, ”Bankruptcy, it’s a zero sum game.” So… that’s unlikely.

But, the market has a logic of its own, too, and right now there is a lot of uncertainty. The Dow has given up all the “relief rally” gains of Wednesday – and then some. It’s down nearly 4% from the week high.

“It’s not really a question of return on investment,” the old-timers would say at a moment like this, “it’s a return of investment you should be concerned with.”

Or, put plainly, what can we do to preserve the money we do have?

“Gold is a middle finger to the Fed.” – Matt Piepenburg

“The way to make money,” Mr. Piepenburg contends, “is to not lose 50-60-70% of it in a single market swing. Think preservation not gain. The way you get wealthy and stay wealthy is not to get gutted in one crash, one Lehman market moment, one Dotcom bubble bust. Risk management is everything… and that’s not just gold and silver.”

Click here to check out the full interview on YouTube. It’s a well-articulated listen for the weekend.

Follow your bliss,

Addison Wiggin