On this edition of Geopolitics and Empire, we broadcast from our new home in Central Asia on the New Silk Road.

We'll be talking about the ever-approaching economic crash with trader and analyst John Rubino, the founder of dollarcollapse.com, and author of numerous books, the latest being the money bubble, what to do before it pops.

It's been a few years since we last spoke, John.

Welcome and good to talk to you again.

Good to talk to you too, Herboye.

It's been now almost a decade since 2008.

Governments seem to have successfully been kicking the cans down the road

with no major economic downturns thus far, apart from damage caused

by natural disasters such as what happened in Fukushima and Hurricane Harvey currently,

or Washington's perpetual wars and the slow-dying economy in places such as Southern Europe.

Gold hasn't dropped the $1,000 line. It's been holding steady. Housing seems

ready to collapse in some places, such as Canada and Australian real estate is still holding its

own. Stocks are high. Bitcoin has gone to the moon. I feel that we are in the calm before a storm.

You've recently mentioned on your site the rollover of high profile

sectors and some unique indicators you pointed out, such as RV sales signaling, crashing,

or slowing economy. Can you take us on a tour of the economic wasteland starting with which

indicators you find most intriguing? Well, the thing to understand about today's world is that you can maintain an unsustainable

lifestyle for quite a while if you have access to cheap money.

And the major countries of the world are able to borrow very cheaply right now.

So they can continue to spend too much, to borrow too much, to create too much leverage without blowing up any of their local economies.

But that can't go on forever.

You know, eventually you build up so much debt that it, it becomes unmanageable and the

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