The Peter McCormack Show #161 - Lyn Alden - Why Everything Feels Harder - Debt, Inflation & The System
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Mar 31, 2026 
Lyn Alden, macro-investor and author of Broken Money, explains how the fiat system and rising sovereign debt make life feel harder. She breaks down money as a ledger, the global debt trap, why corporations and borrowers benefit while savers lose, and why financial repression and hidden inflation persist. The conversation also touches on wealth protection and Bitcoin as a scarce alternative.
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Money Is Just A Layered Ledger
- Modern fiat systems are a layered ledger where central banks issue base money and commercial banks create broad money via lending.
- That structure plus perpetual government deficits causes wages and savings to be slowly debased, making everything feel more expensive.
Telecom Killed The Gold Constraint
- Gold historically constrained government money creation because currency was redeemable, but telecommunication and fractional reserve banking weakened that constraint.
- Faster information flow made ledger-based money practical and increased the power of banks and central banks to expand money supply.
Wages Rarely Keep Pace With Money Growth
- Money supply typically grows faster than wages; real wages rarely match money growth, so over years workers lose purchasing power.
- Example: money supply ~7% annual growth vs typical wage raises ~2–4%, creating a long-term squeeze.
