Epic Real Estate Investing - $1 Trillion Black Hole: How the Fed Broke the Economy (Powell Fired?) | 1505

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

This episode explores the mounting pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell amid significant financial losses and controversies surrounding the institution. Over the past two years, the Fed has reported operating losses exceeding $130 billion, with a bond portfolio underwater by $1.1 trillion. Further scrutiny arises from a $2.5 billion luxurious headquarters renovation. Political figures and markets speculate about Powell's potential departure, with accusations flying and confidence waning. The episode also discusses the broader implications of the Fed's instability on the economy and offers practical advice for safeguarding personal finances in uncertain times. BUT BEFORE THAT, hear how NATO's new plan hits your wallet and retirement plan fear (which is now getting real!), as well as what happened in Florida! Useful links: https://myescapebook.com/escape-2?video=0KDH7rzZZWk https://epicearnwhileyoulearn.com/yfd?video=0KDH7rzZZWk https://intensive2025.com/?video=0KDH7rzZZWk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terio Media. Hey, strap in. It's time for the epic real estate investing show. We'll be your guides as we navigate the housing market, the landscape of creative financing strategies, and everything you need to swap that office chair for a beach chair. If you're looking for some one-on-one help, meet us at rei-aise.com. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Let's go. Has the real estate collapse begun? Is Florida's housing market in trouble? Is Florida heading toward a new housing crisis? Trouble in Florida's real estate paradise? Florida housing market mirroring 2008 crash. They told you Florida was finished. Too expensive, too risky, too broken to recover.

But then, overnight, something wild happens. After his socialist won New York City's mayoral primary, real estate inquiries from New York to South Florida surged 50% confirmed not just by Fox, but by Axios, the New York Post, the Times, and Newsweek. And it wasn't just hedge funds. It was family offices, entrepreneurs, and wealthy families quietly repositioning capital. Everyone else was bracing for a crash. They saw a clearance sale to run to, and something super scary to run from. And I'll get to that in just a second. But for the last year, Florida's been the punching bag of every YouTube housing channel.

Inventories exploding. Insurance is uninsurable. Migration slowing. Collapse is coming. And yeah, some of that was, there was a little truth to it. Listings doubled in some areas. Insurance premiums spiked 40 plus percent. Net migration dropped 70 percent from its peak.

But while everyone fixated on fear, Florida started fixing itself. Over 30 private insurers have returned to Florida. Citizens Insurance, the state's insurer of last resort, has shed over 600,000 policies since 2023. That's a 45% drop. That means private insurers are coming back and fast. Some high-risk zip codes are even seeing 10 to 25% rate drop. Axios confirms Tampa Bay alone saw a 30% drop in citizens' policies, about 90,000 homes moving to private coverage. And it's not just insurance. Builders are pivoting to.

$48,000 average discounts on new homes in some areas. Entire subdivisions converted to rentals. Bulk deals cut with institutional buyers. Very quietly. Meanwhile, housing permits in major metros like Orlando are down over 14% year over year, yet they are still building, meaning future supply is shrinking even as demand. quietly rebuilds. And the big one, Florida still gained 64,000 net domestic migrants in 2024.

Not the 300,000 plus we saw during the pandemic, sure, but a net gain is a net gain. That means people are still coming, just not with TikTok in hand. The public sees doom, the pros see a setup. Right after Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, won New York City's mayoral primary, web traffic from New York to South Florida. real estate listings spiked 50% in one week. Fox, New York Post, New York Times, Axios, and NDTV all confirmed the same story. Miami agents say it's serious money, not vacationers, not tire kickers. These are buyers spooked by the idea of rent control, wealth taxes, anti-landlord policy, and Florida still has no income tax. It's still pro-business and it's still warm. To them,

it's a no-brainer. Even Boca Raton's mayor publicly invited New York's capitalist to relocate, calling it a better quality of life. This isn't a crash. It's a recalibration. Prices pulled back. Builders got desperate. Sellers panicked. But fundamentals didn't break. They rebalanced. Insurance got cheaper. Permits slowed. Inventory normalized. And politics are politicking. And so that smart money is back. It's game. on because capital always flows where it's treated best. And when one state threatens to punish wealth while another quietly fixes its biggest risks, the money moves fast. If you only listen to the word collapse in the headlines, you'll sit out the market at the exact moment fortunes are

being made. Because the biggest danger right now isn't overpaying, it's missing the rebound. The average person waits for the media to say, we've hit bottom. But real investors, they look for lead indicators. Insurance costs falling. Permits declining. Capital returning. Sentiment collapsing while fundamentals stay strong. They're not reacting to headlines. They're spotting patterns. And patterns, once you see them, become playbooks. And a little nudge from the potential of socialism doesn't hurt either. But this isn't the first time that we're seeing this. 2009, Blackstone bought 40,000 homes, $7.5 billion in Florida real estate. 2020, smart buyers scooped up condos and doubled their money by 2022.

2025, New York City lost $14 billion in income to Florida from 2018 to 2022. Citadel and Apple have moved headquarters or major offices there. Now in mid-20205, institutional cash buyers are back, picking off panic sellers in bulk. Same cycle, same setup, different players. If you've been watching from the sidelines thinking Florida's too risky, I get it. But in 2009, it felt risky too. And that's when fortunes were made. Mike, one of the sharpest investors I ever met, picked up four condos in Brickle back in 2009.

Everyone thought he was crazy. Prices had collapsed. Headlines were screaming foreclosure crisis. Banks weren't lending. But he noticed two things. One, the permits for new builds had flatlined. Two, Canadian snowbirds were still showing up and paying in cash. So while others panicked, he bought.

One unit for $117,000, another for $104,000. By 2015, all four had more than doubled. But here's the wild part. He didn't use traditional loans. He tapped into a business line of credit at 0% interest for the first 12 months, rolled it into private financing, and then refinement. financed after the value popped. That one decision put him on track to retire five years early. He wasn't fearless. He was early. And early always looks risky until it doesn't. Don't let fear

headlines drown out the whisper of smart money saying buy. I'm not just saying this because I like Florida. I'm saying it because the data backs it up across insurance trends, migration patterns, institutional movement, and history itself. And when you see high net worth New Yorkers rushing south, when you see hedge funds back in bulk deals, when you see builders slashing prices behind the scenes just to move inventory, you realize this isn't random. It's a pattern. And patterns, once you spot them, become playbooks. Top-tier investors aren't waiting for a headline. They're watching migration reports, builder incentives, and quiet policy shifts. They're not asking, is the market safe yet? They're asking, where's the fear highest? And what's the upside if it fades? Because while

most people are waiting for someone to declare the all clear, the smart money is already building equity. Hope is not a financial strategy. Let's get back to work. Three weeks ago, NATO started falling apart, and it's going to cost your retirement thousands of dollars. Here's what no one's telling you. When countries can't agree on who pays for defense, they print money to cover the gas. And that money comes straight out of your retirement account. In the next 30 seconds, I'll prove it with one simple fact.

NATO just demanded 5% of their entire economies for defense by 2035. That's not 2% like before. That's 5%. And countries are already saying no. Spain opted out. others will follow, and when NATO can't collect, guess who covers the shortfall? The country that already pays 69% of everything. That's you. That's your retirement. That's your future disappearing while the financial media stays silent. I'm about to show you exactly how this wrecks your

savings. In plain English, a fifth grader could understand. And more importantly, I'll show you what my postal worker neighbor Jim did and continues to do to protect himself. But first, let me ask you something that's been bugging me. You've probably noticed this too. Every time you turn on the news, there's another crisis, another emergency, another reason why your tax dollars need to disappear overseas. But they never tell you this part. Three weeks ago, at the Hague, NATO revealed, they're in crisis. They need 5% of every country's economy for defense by 2035. Let me break that down like you're in the fifth grade. Three and a half percent for actual military stuff, tanks, plane soldiers, 1.5% for security stuff, cyber defense, energy protection. Think about it.

32 countries can't agree on the bill. Spain already said, no thanks, we'll only pay 2.1%. Others are definitely going to follow. It's like your HOA raising dues from $200 to $500 a month, except half your neighbors just said they won't pay. Well, guess who gets stuck with the bill? The U.S. already pays nearly 69% of all NATO defense spending. We spent $997 billion. We spent $9.9.9,000, million dollars last year. It's almost a trillion. When NATO can't collect from others, there's only one solution. America prints more money. And when they print money, your retirement shrinks. The financial media, silent. Your financial advisor, not warning you. The government, they're the ones doing it. But that's not even the worst part. Here's the brutal truth nobody's connecting. The U.S. already

pays $3,000 per American for NATO, including your kids. Now they want to nearly triple that. But Here's what your advisor won't tell you. When the government can't raise taxes high enough, they print the money instead. It's a direct pipeline. One, NATO demands money. Two, government can't say no. We're the leader. Three, they print dollars to cover it.

And four, your retirement dollars buy less. It's like this. Imagine your neighbor can't afford to fix his fence. So your HOA makes you pay more. And when you can't afford it either, they just print HOA money. Now, everything at the HOA store costs triple. That's what's happening to your retirement right now, while your paycheck stays flat, while groceries costs more while you can't afford a house. Feel the frustration? That's not just your wallet getting lighter. That's your retirement evaporating. And what I'm about to show you next proves it's already started.

Remember Mitch from the other days from Ohio? He's in the comments. Well, he worked 35 years as a teacher. He saved every penny, then 2008 hit, and his retirement dropped from $340,000 to $180,000. cut in half. The government's response? They printed $498 billion for banks. That's $70,000 for every American family. Mitch, he got nothing. His retirement stayed crushed. Now it's happening again, just sneakier. This NATO meltdown adds $2.7 trillion in spending over 10 years. That's $8,000 per American that has to come from somewhere. They won't raise your taxes that much, so they'll print it. And when they print, But inflation, it's like termites eating your savings. At 3% inflation, your $500,000 retirement becomes worth $371,000 in just 10 years. But here's what no one's telling you.

The real inflation rate? The one that hits your retirement? It's way higher. Since 2020, home prices jumped 45%. General inflation, only 24%. Picture opening your 401k and seeing 30% just gone. Not from a crash, from NATO's money printing. Everything you need costs more. Your retirement buys less. Oh, and remember Spain opting out.

When Allies won't pay, America prints more. More printing equals less retirement value. The media won't warn you. They're too busy with other stories. Your advisor won't warn you. They make money whether your retirement shrinks or not. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Here's what my neighbor Jim figured out. While everyone panics about politics, while NATO falls apart, smart people build income streams that benefit from money printing. Jim's a postal worker, regular guy. When he saw the writing on the wall in 2019, he bought a rental property for $89,000. Today, it's worth $127,000.

Plus, he gets $1,200 a month in rent. That's 42% growth plus $14,400 of yearly income. Here's the secret no one tells you. When government prints money, rents go up. But if you have a fixed mortgage, your payment stays the same. It's like getting a raise every year while your biggest expense stays frozen. Real estate beat inflation 3.4% annually over history. During high inflation from money printing, it averaged over 9% returns.

Jim now owns three properties generating $2,847 monthly. That's $34,164 per year. income that rises with inflation. While retirees watch their savings shrink, Jim watches his income grow. Every day you wait costs you $93.60 in potential inflation-protected income. So, if you're sitting in cash, hoping NATO fixes itself, or trusting your advisor to warn you, you're not investing. You're volunteering to be a victim.

The insiders aren't waiting. They're building monthly income that goes up when money printing accelerates. But Matt, isn't this just fear-mongering? Look, I get it. Another YouTube guy with doom and gloom. But answer this. When's the last time the government cut spending? When's the last time NATO reduced its budget?

Never. They only print more. Remember 2008? They printed $498 billion. Your retirement got crushed. Banks got rich. Some people say the dollar is still strong. Sure, it's still like the iPhone of money.

Everyone wants it for now. But every year, NATO crisis, every spending increase, every money printing session chips away at your retirement's value. This isn't about politics. It's about math. And the math says your retirement is worth less every single day. NATO can't pay its bills without printing. There's only one group that wins when governments print. People who own assets that produce income. Not stocks that crash when NATO panics, not savings that shrink from printing. Assets that pay you every month. month in inflated dollars. So here's your choice. Keep hoping NATO fixes itself and stops destroying

your retirement or start building real income protection in the next 18 months. I'm about to show you Jim's exact blueprint how a postal worker built $2,847 in monthly inflation protected income with just three rentals. This is your retirement insurance policy against NATO's money printing. But here's the thing. This window is closing. The more they print, the higher property prices. go. The protection gets more expensive every month. So, NATO's meltdown, it's accelerating. The money printing is accelerating. Your retirement destruction is accelerating. The next 18 months will determine if you're a victim or protected. No one else is warning you. I just did. Ever hear someone say, I have too much money? Me neither. Let's get used to

Some more. Back to the show. July 2nd, Microsoft sent out 9,100 layoff emails in one day. Basically, they're going to cut 9,000 workers in a second wave of major layoffs. It seems like Microsoft is really looking to reduce headcount here. But when reporters dug into the details, they found something that should terrify every working person in America. These weren't random cuts. There was a pattern, and that pattern just confirmed our worst fears about retirement.

Let me show you what they found and why it changes everything. Here's what's really happening with these tech layoffs. Microsoft 9,100 people fired. Google, thousands more, Amazon, Apple, Metup, they're all cutting deep. Over 72,000 tech jobs gone this year alone. That's 507 people losing their jobs every single day. But here's the scary part. These aren't failing companies.

Microsoft just had record. profits. Google is making billions. These companies are firing people to make more money, not because they're in trouble. And the real reason, AI just replaced 171,000 tech jobs in two years. That's 234 people every day losing their job to a computer program. The companies figured out they don't need as many humans anymore. And they're just getting started. Now, here's where it gets personal. When you lose your job, you don't just lose your paycheck. You lose something way more important, time. Think about it. If you're 40 and you get laid off, you just lost years of 401K contributions, years of company matching, years of compound growth, and you might not find another job that pays the same,

if you find one at all. Let me show you the math that's keeping people awake at night. The average American has $30,000 saved for retirement. Using the safe 4% rule, that's $1,200 per year. That's $100 per month to live on. Yikes. Even people who thought they were doing well are in trouble. Someone with $400,000 saved, which is way above average, can only safely withdraw $16,000 per year.

That's $1,300 per month. Try living on that. Try paying for medicine, food, and rent on $1,300 a month. But the layoffs just exposed an even bigger problem. The entire retirement system is broken. Here's what nobody talks about. You need $1.26 million to retire, quote-unquote, comfortably. That number just dropped from 1.46 million, and people still can't reach it. The stock market timing, it's not reliable. It crashed in 2008. People lost half the retirement savings. It crashed again in 2020, and it will crash again. Plus, people change jobs 12 times in their career now. Every time you change jobs, you lose momentum. Every layoff resets your timeline. Every market crash steals years you can't get back. And here's the worst part. Fifty-one percent of Americans are scared. They'll outlive their

money. They know the system isn't working. Let me tell you about Cindy. She worked at Google for 12 years, did everything right, saved $350,000 in her 401k. She thought she was winning at retirement. Then Google later off at age 48. Now Cindy is terrified, not just about finding a new job. She's terrified about the future because she just did the math. $350,000 equals $14,000 per year. That's $1,167 per month. Cindy can't live on that. But that's what, 12 years of doing everything right Got her. Cindy's story is happening to thousands of people right now. Good people, smart people, people who followed all the rules. The rules are broken. So what's the answer? How do normal people create real retirement security when the system is rigged against them? And it is rigged. Here's what

Cindy figured out and what the wealthy have known for decades. You need income that doesn't depend on your job or the stock market. The most viable source of this type of income for the average person is rental property. And here's why. People always need a place to live. They need shelter. Even when the stock market crashes, people pay rent. Even when companies are doing layoffs, people pay rent. Even during recessions, people pay rent. And here's the beautiful part. You don't need millions of dollars to start. You don't need to be a real estate expert. You don't need a license. You don't even need perfect credit. There are many ways to buy rental properties with almost no money down. Legal strategies that most people don't know exist. And most people think you need to

to dedicate full-time effort to make this happen, full-time effort to acquire the 10 or 20 rental properties to retire. Wrong. In both cases, the real time required an hour a day. The real number or properties, it's three. And I'll lay it all out for you in just a second, but three properties would produce more income than Cindy's $350,000 in her 401k will ever give her. And the income and value would increase every year with inflation instead of getting smaller. Now, have I just over simplified this? Yeah, you bet. There is a right way and a wrong way to do this. Pick the wrong properties and you might need 20 of them. That's the difference between freedom and failure. Right now you've got two paths in front of you. Path number one, keep doing what everyone else does.

Keep putting money in your 401k. Keep praying that the stock market doesn't crash right before you retire. And keep hoping that that $30,000 will somehow be enough. And the biggest hope of all today that AI won't replace you in the way it's replaced 21 people since you. you started watching this or path to. Learn how three rental properties can give you more retirement income than most people's entire 401 ever will. Learn the strategies that let you buy properties with little money down. There are other ways to retire, and it's not wise to put all of your eggs into one basket, but the truth is most people don't make enough to save enough for the alternatives to work. And if you're laid off later in life, it's only worse. At some point,

slow and steady waiting for compound interest to work its magic is no longer an option. The Microsoft layoffs didn't just confirm our fears about retirement. They prove that depending on your job for everything is the riskiest strategy of all today. The question isn't whether you can afford to invest in rental properties. The question is, can you afford not to? You knew that was coming, right? Hope is not a financial strategy. Let's get back to work.

You've done a hell of a lousy job. I'm sorry, you're fired. Get out of here. Is Jerome Powell about to get fired? Because behind the scenes, the pressure is boiling, and insiders are now saying he might not make it through the week. We've even seen betting markets light up with speculation of Powell's exit. This is not normal.

Something big is brewing. And no, this isn't just political theater. The Fed is bleeding money, trust, and control. And the chairman is taking the heat. Let's talk about what really happened. Over the last two years, the Fed has hemorrhaged over $130 billion, its first operating loss in over a century. And there's $6 trillion plus bond portfolio is actually underwater by $1.1 trillion. That's a trillion-dollar black hole that's quietly turned the Federal Reserve into the biggest money-losing institution in America.

This has all the earmarks of the bankruptcy of the Silicon Valley Bank. If the Fed were a private bank, it'd be shut down overnight. But because it prints the money, it gets to pretend it's fine. They've slapped the label deferred asset on the losses, essentially an IOU to themselves. Meanwhile, they're spending $2.5 billion on a luxury headquarters renovation, complete with rooftop gardens, designer marble finishes, private dining suites, and a sky bridge. You can't make this stuff up. And while the Fed burns cash, it's also paying commercial banks and money market funds

hundreds of billions in interest just to park reserves. That's taxpayer money flowing directly to Wall Street, quietly. And now the politicians are circling. Bill Pulte, a Trump-appointed housing regulator, posted that he's encouraged by reports Powell is considering resigning. Russell Vote, Trump's former budget director, publicly accused Powell of violating the law with the Fed's extravagant headquarter remodel. Even nice guy Senator Tim Scott grilled Powell in Senate hearings over the ballooning $2.5 billion cost.

This is not business as usual. It's pressure with intent. Powell promised a soft landing. Instead, inflation's still sticky. The markets are up, but shaky. And the Fed's credibility is fading. When confidence collapses at the top, everything below gets wobbly. And right now, the people who control the money are losing control of the narrative.

But this isn't about just one guy. This is about a system that only works when people believe it works. Worth $37 trillion in debt, Social Security's tapped out. Real rates are still negative. Even Powell admits the US debt is an unsustainable path. Fed speak for this is a ticking time bomb. And the institution in charge of stability, it's destabilizing everything. Because here's the part they don't want you thinking about.

What happens when the Fed itself becomes the risk? Think of the economy as a giant janga tower, built on trust, and the Fed is the base. If that base starts wobbling, the whole tower, it sways. This isn't about left versus right or Powell versus Trump. It's about confidence versus collapse. And if the Fed caves to political pressure and cuts rates just to survive, it may save itself, but it'll reignite inflation. This is the corner they've backed themselves into. In 2022, a retired engineer in Palo Alto, names not public, but his story was picked up in multiple outlets lost over 35% of his life savings. Not in crypto, not in stocks, but in bonds. The very thing

he was told would protect him. He followed every rule, contributed to his 401k, shifted to bonds as he got older, and lived below his means. But when the Fed raised rates to fight inflation, his bond portfolio tanked. He wasn't chasing yield. He wasn't speculating. He was playing defense and still got smoked. He said, I did everything they told me and I still lost 16. And that's when it hit him. The game changed, but the rulebook didn't. You don't fix this from the top down. You opt out from the bottom up. That means taking your future out of the hands of central bankers and putting it into something you control. Because when the people managing the money are losing the script, you don't want to be the one still playing by the old rules. If the Fed's house is

on fire, you don't wait around inside. You find your exit. And if the Fed's obsession is interest rates, Let me show you how the pros do it. You see, there's a 30-second hack that can give you up to $150,000 in funding at zero percent interest. No banks, no gatekeepers, no begging. If you like low interest rates, you're going to love this. I'll see you next time. Take care. And that wraps up the epic show. If you found this episode valuable, who else do you know that might too?

There's a really good chance you know someone else who would. And when their name comes to mind, please share it with them. And ask them to click the subscribe button when they get here and I'll take great care of them. God loves you and so do I. Health, peace, blessings, and success to you. I'm Matt Terrio. Living the dream. Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow.

You didn't know home boy, we got to cash flow. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. This podcast is a part of the C-suite radio network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.