The Meb Faber Show · Friday, September 25, 2026
David Iben notes that since his birth, the US dollar has lost over 99% of its value as money supply and debt have increased significantly. Despite this, he argues that scarcity, particularly in tangible assets like gold, still matters in investment strategies.
“Since I was born, I think the money supply has gone up 111 times and the debt's gone up 135 times. I.e. the dollar's lost more than 99% of its value.”
“And as you would expect, things that can't be printed have gone up a lot in price. So, you know, gold's gone from 35 to 4,000 something. And, uh, it's doing what it ought to do. But I think people still don't appreciate it.”
“So, uh, that's pretty good. Another thing we think is great is any other industry on earth, people assume that the dollar loses value. They do discounted cash flow at, fine, the dollar loses value over time. Only in commodities, gold, oil, copper, do they fix it to the dollar and then assume the commodity drops in price every year.”