Matt's Publications

Have you heard the good news? The Atlanta Fed GDPNow estimates a 5.9% growth in real GDP for Q3 2023. In nominal terms, we can even boast of an 8.9% surge. What fantastic news! Growth! Productivity!...

Matthew Piepenburg / September 3, 2023

Before I got the invite to a swank prep-school out East, I used to spend my Spring afternoons on a baseball diamond not too far from the home field of Derek Jeter, who was still playing local ball in...

Matthew Piepenburg / August 20, 2023

I recently blew the dust off an old Rudyard Kipling poem, “If,” which many have castigated as a bit overly romantic, despite its high praise from Mark Twain and T.S. Eliot to India’s Khushwant Singh....

Matthew Piepenburg / August 6, 2023

Below we separate the hype from the sad reality of the USD in the face of a new “BRICS currency.” Net conclusion: The real death of the USD will be domestic not foreign.

Matthew Piepenburg / July 24, 2023

Becoming Powell’s (and the Devil’s) Advocate? I’ve been thinking, and re-thinking, Powell. It’s no secret that in numerous interviews and articles, Jerome Powell has been on my critical mind. I cal...

Matthew Piepenburg / July 9, 2023

Below we consider how modern currency policy may not be so good for, well, the people... This is why gold inevitably enters the conversation, for unlike policy makers, this old pet rock garners more...

Matthew Piepenburg / June 25, 2023

Below, we look at gold in a broke(n) world of hubris, debt, Realpolitik and a rising east. For well over a year, we’ve openly declared that the Fed is cornered. That is, Powell knows he needs higher...

Matthew Piepenburg / June 18, 2023

When Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall and took a big fall, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put Humpty-Dumpty together again.” I see a similar fate for the US debt egg, whose cr...

Matthew Piepenburg / June 11, 2023

We have hardly been the first nor the last to realize that rising rates “break things.” We’ve all seen the disastrous credit events in the repo crisis of late 2019, the UST debacle in March of 2020,...

Matthew Piepenburg / June 4, 2023

Below, we look at simple facts in the context of complex markets to underscore the dangerous direction of Fed-Speak and Fed policy. Keep It Simple, Stupid. The simple facts are clear to almost anyon...

Matthew Piepenburg / May 28, 2023