Random Person

Modern investing is essentially about understanding the process of and front-running the printing press. Hugo Stinnes became Germany's richest man during the Weimar hyperinflation, perfectly illustrating this process. While middle-class Germans watched their savings evaporate between 1919-1923, Stinnes borrowed heavily in marks and bought real assets—coal mines, steel mills, shipping companies, newspapers. He borrowed 50 million marks in 1920 and repaid those loans with worthless paper two years later. The Reichsbank's printing presses had turned his debts into pocket change while his hard assets retained their value. Stinnes applied the Cantillon effect ruthlessly. He understood that new money doesn't spread evenly through the economy—it flows to those closest to the money spigot first. Banks, industrialists, and government contractors spend the fresh marks at yesterday's prices before inflation ripples outward. Stinnes positioned himself at every step of this process, borrowing from banks flush with new money and investing in productive capacity that couldn't be printed away. The man owned 1,535 companies by 1924, from iron ore mines in Lorraine to hotels in Berlin. He didn't get lucky; he grasped monetary theory better than the Reichsbank officials creating the mess. While economists debated the "mystery" of rising prices, Stinnes transferred wealth from savers to himself through leverage and asset accumulation. Modern central banks run the same playbook today, just slower and more sophisticated. The Stinnes strategy works in any inflationary environment: borrow fiat currency, buy scarce assets, let the printing press pay your debts. The Federal Reserve has created more dollars since 2020 than existed before 2008, yet somehow people still think this benefits everyone equally. Modern investing comes down to successfully managing your cash flow, ensuring you can make interest payments while waiting for whatever you "invested" in to be inflated via money printing, while the fiat money you borrowed becomes worthless. This is the real reason why your parents' house, which they bought for $40k in 1989, is now worth $800k.

Happy Easter everyone 🐇🐰🌷😭

I think about this often