Thoughtful Money with Adam Taggart Lyn Alden: While "Nothing Stops This Train", Imminent Economic Crisis Is Unlikely
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Feb 25, 2026 
Lyn Alden, investment strategist and author of Broken Money, explores fiscal dominance and why runaway deficits shape inflation and policy. She discusses trade imbalances, reshoring limits, and proposals like taxing foreign holdings. She also covers AI’s productivity boost for white-collar work, its limits, and why energy and industrial capacity remain fundamental constraints.
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Nothing Stops This Train Fiscal Dominance
- Fiscal dominance means large deficits become the primary driver of growth and inflation.
- Lyn Alden argues this creates a long middle ground: deficits remain high but the system keeps running for years, not instant collapse.
Inflation Is Money Growth Minus Productivity
- Long-term price inflation is roughly money supply growth minus productivity growth.
- Alden uses a 7% money growth minus ~4% productivity example to explain a roughly 3% net inflation trend over time.
Use Investment Taxes Instead Of Broad Tariffs
- Address trade imbalances by changing incentives rather than only using tariffs.
- Alden suggests targeted taxes on foreign investment flows and permanent swap lines as smarter tools than broad tariffs that raise costs for American importers.
