A weekly newsletter for people who want to understand money without needing therapy afterward. I cover accounting, tax, and finance the way they should be taught. Simple, sharp, and with a sense of humor. If knowledge is power, this one’s your caffeine shot.
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Metals Melt, Trumps new Fed Pick, Housing Flat
Published 3 months ago • 5 min read
Romeo Razi, CPA
Feb 2nd
If you blinked, you missed the biggest metals meltdown in decades.
Friday was not just another day at the market. As the finance-bros like to say, "it was a bloodbath."
Especially, for the precious metals that spent the last few months whispering sweet nothings in our ears. Turns out that they are as "precious" as a Tinder situationship.
All in a single day. Biggest one-day drop since parachute pants (think "Studio 54", think the '80s).
So, what happened?
Looks like there are two culprits:
💴 The Yen-Carry Trade Unwinding 💼 Trump picked his new Fed chair (Kevin Warsh)
What is the Yen-Carry Trade?
Yen-Carry Trade (which sounds like a ⚡Pokémon character your kid would be excited about) is Wall Street's favorite way to say, “Let’s borrow free money from Japan and YOLO it into US assets.”
In finance-bro-speak, it's called an "arbitrage"strategy. In plain English: it’s an interest rate hack.
Here's how it works:
🪙 Step 1: You borrow $$$ in Yen ↳ Japan’s interest rates are near 0% ↳ It’s basically free money
💵 Step 2: Convert to USD ↳ Flip those Yen into dollars
📈 Step 3: Buy higher-yield assets ↳ US Treasuries ↳ Gold, Silver (my precious) ↳ Anything paying more than the Bank of Japan (BOJ)
💰 Step 4: Pocket the difference ↳ Earn 4–5% on your US assets ↳ Pay nothing on the Yen loan ↳ Live the finance-bro dream
⚠️ But here's the catch…
💥 If the Yen gets strong ↳ Your debt from Japan becomes more expensive ↳ You start bleeding money ↳ You get margin-called faster than you can say “Shōgun” ↳ Finance-bros move back into mom's basement.
That’s why the carry trade cracked. BOJ’s rate hikes caught traders with their pants down, and the selling started.
But this has been going on for a little while, the main thing which freaked everyone out on Friday was Trump's Fed pick.
😬 Why did Kevin Warsh Freak Out Traders
Trump said he’d pick a Fed chair who’d cut rates. But the market took one look at Walsh and said: "Hell no. This guy ain't cutting nothing. No way. No how."
🧠 Warsh has a hawkish past ↳ He's very critical of the Fed, and its balance sheet ↳ Known for being tough on inflation (no cuts for you). ↳ Not the guy you’d call 👨🏻✈️"Captain Stimulus"
💥 So markets got confused ↳ Is Warsh going to cave to Trump? ↳ Or tighten policy like Tall Paul (Volker)?
📉 That uncertainty crushed metals ↳ The dollar spiked ↳ The world thinks Warsh is J Pow v2.0 ↳ 🧈🥈Gold and Silver sold out. Like lifeboats on the Titanic
Well, in markets there’s an old saying: “When the music stops, you don’t want to be holding the glitter.”
Unfortunately, too much precious metal "glitter" went around at the end of 2025.
🏠 Housing Corner
Housing is still stagnant. The number of mortgages with sub-3% rates are approximately ~12 million. That's 22% of all outstanding mortgage loans (that number is down from 33% in 2021). Which means if you're sitting on one of those, you will be very reluctant to give it away.
💹
Interest Rates
6.40%
🏡 🏡 🏡 Inventory
743,006
🧊
Days on Market
56 days
Here's a quick list of the housing stats over the last 1 weeks: 🏠 Mortgage rates: 6.40% (gone down a little) 📈 Inventory: 743,006 homes (up sellers, less buyers) 📉 Price reductions? 34.65% (overall pricing adjustments still going down) 💰 Median list price? $445,000 (but median prices going up) 🕰️ Median days on market? 56 (down a bit, so things are moving).
Market Highlights
Commodities are still killing it
~ S&P 500 $7,116 (+3.95%)
~ Nasdaq $24,542 (+5.59%)
~ Silver $78.43 (+11.08%)
~ Gold $4,750 (+9.43%)
BTC, a hedge against when the stock market goes up
~ BTC $78,823 (-9.83%)
🚨Upcoming Tax Deadlines you should be aware of: 🗓May
🏢May 15th - Non-profit tax returns due.
🗓June
🏢June 15th - 2026 Q2 Estimated Tax Payment due
🗓July
🏢July 31st - 5500 Pension Tax Returns Due
Your 401k company handles that, unless you have a solo 401k
What's been going on with your Favorite CPA
I'm in the thick of it but I still find time to listen to podcasts (especially financially related ones.)
Here's a really good one I recommend:
I heard of most financial gurus and speakers, but I had never heard of David Bach, but I had heard of his bestselling books, "Smart women finish rich" & "the automatic millionaire".
He had really great money advice, I hope find time you listen to it.
A weekly newsletter for people who want to understand money without needing therapy afterward. I cover accounting, tax, and finance the way they should be taught. Simple, sharp, and with a sense of humor. If knowledge is power, this one’s your caffeine shot.
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