(Kitco News) - With the U.S. presidential election slated to be one of the most significant events of 2024, the risk of a black swan event derailing it is high, warned investor and entrepreneur Gary Cardone.
Cardone believes that one of the top risks this year is a major cyber attack that may impact U.S. elections scheduled to take place on November 5, 2024.
"I'll be staggered if something substantial, what most people would refer to as a Black Swan … doesn't happen in the next six months," Cardone told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News. "And a cyberattack in the United States would be very impactful."
The timing of the attack would be set around the U.S. election, Cardone added. "A major cyber attack in October would stop our election. Let's remember, we had two major pipelines blown up by someone … we've had massive disruptions in crude oil," he said referring to the attack on the Nordstrom pipeline in September last year for which responsibility has still not been conclusively attributed.
Cardone expressed concern that some form of a catastrophic event, be it a war, a cyber attack, or some unknown disruptive incident is “probable in 2024”.
Cardone described the world in 2024 as "on the precipices of everything breaking down." Watch the video above for his take on the U.S. and the rest of the world.
Cardone’s concerns about a cyber attack are echoed by the World Economic Forum or WEF. The website details how an attack with COVID-like characteristics could happen over the next 2 years.
The WEF also worries that elections could be disrupted by AI. In its Global Risks Report 2024, it stated: "The growing concern about misinformation and disinformation is in large part driven by the potential for AI, in the hands of bad actors, to flood global information systems with false narratives.”
This risk is heightened this year as more than 3 billion people will head to the polls in 2024 and 2025, including the U.S., India, and the United Kingdom.
WEF warns that over the next two years, "foreign and domestic actors alike will leverage misinformation and disinformation to widen societal and political divides … Resulting unrest could range from violent protests and hate crimes to civil confrontation and terrorism."
The WEF's report also lists "cyber insecurity" as one of its top 5 risks for the next two years.
Expect chaos, confusion, and more money-printing
Cardone said to expect chaos, confusion, and more money printing this year. "We're going to see more flooding of heroin all across the financial industry. I call it heroin because it's the best analogy. Junkies either rehab or die. This mechanism of being able to print money, it's just too easy," he said. "I think people are grossly underestimating how long this can go on."
Another risk for 2024 is the U.S. getting itself involved in a war. "We're probably going to be at war this year. To me, this is a really important period in time," Cardone noted. "There's chaos and mayhem going on all over the world."
Cardone also sees Europe, which is already in a poor financial state, facing more trouble in the new year.
"You have 22 million people that have been displaced out of the Ukraine. They are women and children, and I don't know how Europe handles 22 million people," he said. "I could see a massive recession, a depression. But before any of that, it's just easier to claim war, a big bad boogeyman, than it is to talk about the incompetency of the politicians."
To find out why Cardone doesn't see oil prices rising to $100 ever again and how it will impact the rest of the world, watch the video above.
Bitcoin as an investment and a safe haven
Cardone said he holds Bitcoin, gold, and silver as safe-haven assets. "I like silver better than gold," he added. "[But], Bitcoin is a 21st century invention that happened just to show up at the right time, the right place."
What makes Bitcoin stand out is its decentralized nature that cannot be tainted by anyone’s agenda, Cardone explained. “It seems to me like someone's pulling the strings behind the curtain, and that's really hard for me to make investment strategy behind. That is what leads me to Bitcoin because it takes me to a safe haven place."
Bitcoin has been one of the best-performing assets in the last five years. "Gold or silver have not outperformed Bitcoin in the last five, ten years, 13 years," Cardone said.
He added that precious metals can "grossly" outperform Bitcoin, but only under very specific circumstances. To get Cardone's outlook on which scenario would see gold and silver perform better than Bitcoin, watch the video above.
This interview is brought to you by Swan Bitcoin. Swan Private - Go beyond legacy finance.
