The End of The World Is Bullish, LFG Daily - January 30th, 2026

Dream Bigger, Sleep Better

At Lloyd Financial Group, we’re constantly striving to give you more insight, more clarity, and more confidence when it comes to your money. Our Chief Investment Officer, Colin Symons, now delivers his own daily newsletter, offering deep analysis and a detailed outlook on the ever-changing investment world called Symons Says. Check it out and subscribe if you want a very detailed, daily analysis of the investment world. Colin has amazing content.

Meanwhile, the LFG Daily will continue to bring you quick, actionable summaries — blending market updates with financial planning and tax strategies to help you make smarter decisions every day. Together, they’re the perfect one-two punch: Colin brings the deep dive into Investments, we bring the daily edge.

Luke Lloyd, CEO Lloyd Financial Group

Why the “Worst Case” Is Often the Best Case for Investors

What History Teaches Us About Fear, Assets, and Wealth Creation

Every generation believes it’s living through the end of the world.

Currency collapse. Government dysfunction. Economic distress. War. Inflation. Debt. Pick the headline—there’s always a reason to believe this time is different.

And yet, when you step back and look at history, something uncomfortable becomes clear:

The worst periods for confidence are often the best periods for long-term investors—

especially those who own real assets.

A Pattern as Old as Empires

This dynamic isn’t new—and it isn’t uniquely American.

History shows a remarkably consistent pattern as dominant empires mature and eventually fade from their peak influence. The Roman Empire, the Dutch Empire, and the British Empire all experienced different versions of the same late-stage symptoms:

• Expanding government obligations

• Currency debasement or financial strain

• Rising inequality between asset owners and wage earners

• A shift from production to consumption

• Growing public anxiety about decline

  
  

What’s important is what didn’t happen.

Life didn’t suddenly stop. Commerce didn’t disappear. Assets didn’t become worthless. Instead, wealth consolidated around ownership.

In Rome’s later years, currency debasement punished savers while landowners and merchants with real assets preserved purchasing power. During the Dutch Empire’s decline, capital didn’t vanish—it migrated into global trade, real estate, and financial instruments controlled by those already positioned to own them. As British dominance waned in the 20th century, asset owners adapted as the pound weakened and the empire contracted, while those reliant solely on wages felt the pressure first.

The takeaway isn’t that collapse creates chaos for everyone equally.It rarely does.

Periods of imperial decline tend to separate society:

• Those who own productive assets adapt

• Those dependent on fixed income fall behind

  
  

The empire may lose dominance, but ownership continues to compound.

Crisis Doesn’t Destroy Wealth—It Redistributes It

Economic turmoil rarely wipes out wealth evenly.

What it tends to do instead is separate:

• Owners from non-owners

• Those with assets from those dependent on wages

• Those with liquidity and discipline from those driven by fear

  
  

Periods of distress don’t usually eliminate the wealthy class. They reshape it—and often strengthen those positioned correctly.

The middle class, unfortunately, bears the brunt. Not because they did something wrong, but because they’re often:

• Overexposed to cash

• Dependent on income that doesn’t adjust quickly

• Forced to react instead of reposition

  
  

Currency Pain Is an Asset Story

History is full of examples where currencies weakened, governments printed, and confidence eroded.

In nearly every case, the outcome followed a familiar pattern:

• Cash lost purchasing power

• Prices of real assets adjusted upward

• Ownership mattered more than income

• Time favored those who stayed invested

  
  

Currency issues don’t punish assets—they reprice them.

Real estate, businesses, productive companies, commodities, and equities don’t disappear during inflationary or distressed periods. They adjust. And owners benefit from that adjustment over time.

Why Fear Feels Rational—but Is Usually Wrong

During crisis, fear sounds responsible:

• “Wait until things calm down.”

• “Sit in cash for safety.”

• “Preserve capital.”

  
  

The problem is that fear rarely rings a bell when it’s time to re-enter.

Markets don’t recover when things feel safe. They recover when pessimism is highest and participation is lowest.

By the time confidence returns, prices have already moved.

The Myth of Collapse as a Universal Reset

There’s a popular idea that economic collapse “levels the playing field.”

It almost never does.

Instead, collapse tends to:

• Reward scale

• Reward liquidity

• Reward asset ownership

• Punish leverage without control

• Punish those without flexibility

  
  

The people who emerge stronger aren’t necessarily the smartest or bravest—they’re the ones who owned productive assets and had the discipline to hold them through discomfort.

Volatility Is the Admission Price

Every great long-term return story includes periods that felt unbearable at the time.

Volatility isn’t a flaw in the system. It’s the mechanism that transfers assets from impatient hands to patient ones.

If investing were comfortable, it wouldn’t be rewarding.

The Real Risk Isn’t the Worst Case

The real risk isn’t currency headlines or economic stress.

The real risk is:

• Being out of assets for too long

• Letting fear override structure

• Confusing temporary discomfort with permanent loss

• Waiting for clarity that never arrives

  
  

History doesn’t punish investors for living through hard times.It punishes them for sitting them out.

What This Means for Investors Today

This doesn’t mean blind optimism.It doesn’t mean ignoring risk.It doesn’t mean betting everything on one outcome.

It means understanding a simple truth:

Periods of economic stress are not the enemy of long-term wealth—they are often the engine of it.

The people who benefit most aren’t those predicting collapse. They’re the ones positioned to endure it.

The end-of-the-world narrative has always existed. And yet, assets have endured. Businesses have adapted. Markets have recovered. Wealth has compounded.

The question isn’t whether the world will feel unstable again—it will.

The question is whether you’ll own assets when it does.

Because history suggests that when fear is loudest, ownership quietly matters most.

Don’t leave your financial future up to chance. Let’s build a plan that gives you confidence today and peace of mind for tomorrow. Click here to schedule a meeting — I’m here to help you take the next step toward financial freedom.

Colin Symons, CIO Lloyd Financial Group

Jobless Claims were 209K vs. exp. 205K. More interesting, Continuing Claims fell to 1.827MM, the lowest since 2024.

Q3 Productivity was the same as earlier estimates, at 4.9%, as expected, while Unit Labor Costs also stayed the same, at -1.9%.

November Factory Orders were 2.7% m/m vs. exp. 1.6%, while Core Orders were 0.2%. Pretty good, if pretty stale.

Balance of Trade was -$56.8B vs. exp. -$40.5B. That’s more like the America we know!

Senate Democrats reached a deal with Trump to keep the government open. Still needs voted on, though.

Financial assets had quite the rollercoaster, yesterday, crashing, then bouncing back. What happened? Nobody can say for sure, but my bet is the options market positioning I’d talked about on Tuesday’s LFG video asserted itself, although the volatility cut a very wide swath. Lots of 1-800-GETMEOUT on software names.

PPI and Chicago PMI, today. Apparently Trump may also reveal the new Fed Head. The betting line is now for Warsh, which sent markets back down overnight. People really think Trump will get someone who won’t cut rates?

Warsh, if picked, has said he wants to cut rates aggressively. The market is worried because he focuses on inflation and has talked about shrinking the Fed balance sheet, something I don’t think can be done any more than it already has. In particular, this has hit precious metals, with gold -5% and silver -14%. Warsh may get the nod, or this may be another trial balloon, we’ll see.

What does it all mean? Lots of worry over the potential nomination of Warsh as Fed head.

Don’t leave your financial future up to chance. Let’s build a plan that gives you confidence today and peace of mind for tomorrow. Click here to schedule a meeting — I’m here to help you take the next step toward financial freedom.

Disclosures/Regulation:

This content is intended to provide general information about Lloyd Financial. It is not intended to offer or deliver investment advice in any way. Information regarding investment services are provided solely to gain an understanding of our investment philosophy, our strategies and to be able to contact us for further information.

All information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy is not guaranteed. There is no representation or warranty as to the current accuracy, reliability or completeness of, nor liability for, decisions based on such information and it should not be relied on as such.

The views expressed in this commentary are subject to change based on market and other conditions. These documents may contain certain statements that may be deemed forward‐looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. Any projections, market outlooks, or estimates are based upon certain assumptions and should not be construed as indicative of actual events that will occur.

Past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk. Therefore, it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy will be profitable