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America’s Worst Economic Era Is Just Beginning | Peter Grandich

The Deep Dive Jun 18, 2026

Summary

The guest argues the stock market has become the administration's last pillar of support, while the wider economy has not recovered as promised.

Passive funds now hold 60% of stock market money, and he believes index flows plus algorithmic trading will make the next downturn fast and prolonged.

He says gold and silver are in a healthy corrective consolidation, not a top, and the metals story is only entering its second leg.

Copper may need six to 11 new Tier 1 mines (top-tier, large, low-cost operations) every year through 2050, while majors avoid risky jurisdictions.

He advises betting against parabolic moves and buying when nobody wants an asset, treating the recent sentiment collapse as a buying signal.

Steve Hyland's takeaways

  • Top takeaway The host raises the risk that the SpaceX IPO, with roughly 4% of shares freely tradable and a large lockup expiring in August, resembles the penny-stock promotes familiar from the junior mining space.
  • The host frames the political moment as voters across the spectrum seeking a candidate to throw a hand grenade at the economic system, citing Donald Trump and Mamdani as symptoms of the same frustration.

Peter Grandich's takeaways

  • Top takeaway As of the June 2026 conversation, Grandich argues the US is only at the beginning of the worst economic, social, and political era in American history, and believes it must get much worse before any recovery, which he does not expect within his lifetime.
  • Grandich, a Republican who voted for Trump three times, says he has made a 180-degree turn and is now deeply disappointed with the administration, citing the tariffs, the handling of the Iran conflict, and members of Congress including the president profiting from trades on inside information.
  • He believes the stock market is the administration's last bastion of support, and argues that roughly 60% of stock market money now sits in passive funds plus algorithmic trading programs, which means when flows reverse the market will turn hard and fast and stay down longer than normal.
  • On metals, he took chips off the table after gold topped $5,500 and silver passed $100 as sentiment went parabolic, then bought back in when bullish sentiment on gold stocks hit zero, viewing the pullback as a corrective consolidation before what he calls only the second leg of the metals story.
  • He argues copper has no real above-ground excess supply anymore, saying the market needs six to eleven new Tier 1 copper mines per year through 2050 just to meet expected growth, while majors avoid risky jurisdictions like Chile where grades are falling and costs rising.