The 2025 Third Quarter Economic Reset Report
By Peter J. Merrick, TEP® and Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®, co-authors of the international bestseller It Starts With Gold™ and the forthcoming book Guns, Gold & Land™
This analysis continues a series of long-form investigations published in The Merrick Spitters Reset Report™
A Financial System Under Siege
The year 2025 has entered a decisive phase. Every major signal points to the same conclusion: the financial system that powered the last half-century is being restructured in real time. The illusion of stability is gone, replaced by a managed decline. What we are witnessing is not chaos but design.
Real estate, crypto, and trade might appear to be separate areas of concern, but they form a single ecosystem, interconnected, leveraged, and fragile. When one pillar gives way, it drags the others down. Each crisis exposes the same truth: the system no longer serves the productive economy. It serves control.
The evidence is visible in public data, institutional policy, and the behaviour of markets. The world is not drifting toward correction; it is moving through an orchestrated reset.
👉 Subscribe to The Merrick Spitters Reset Report™ and receive a digital copy of our international bestseller, It Starts With Gold™, along with our white paper, Last Asset Standing™ and early updates on our forthcoming book, Killing Crypto™.
Part I: The Coming Real Estate Crash
Watch The Coming Real Estate Crash: 3rd Quarter Economic Update, Pt. 1
The first pillar to fracture is real estate. For decades, property ownership symbolized stability. Governments encouraged it through low interest rates, tax advantages, and social pressure. Families were told home equity was the safest form of savings. But that safety was an illusion built on cheap credit.
In Canada, household debt-to-income ratios are near record highs. Mortgage balances often exceed the property’s value. As renewals arrive at 5 to 7 percent, budgets built on 2 percent assumptions are imploding. Rental yields can’t cover rising costs. Property taxes and maintenance grow faster than wages.
A generation of homeowners now finds themselves locked in. Selling means crystallizing losses. Refinancing brings penalties. Renting out means losing money monthly. Investors who bought multiple properties during the zero-rate years are facing liquidity crises. Funds promising stable income are freezing redemptions.
This is not a temporary correction. It is the unwinding of a decades-long credit expansion. Real estate became financialized, converted from a shelter to an asset class, packaged into securities, and sold globally. When prices fall, it is not only families at risk. Entire chains of derivatives and credit instruments tremble.
The weakness starts quietly on the institutional back end. Margin calls trigger before foreclosures do. Developers in Toronto and Vancouver have stopped projects mid-construction as financing evaporates. Commercial towers in major cities remain half empty. Mortgage arrears are climbing month by month.
The myth that “real estate always goes up” has collided with mathematics. Debt has a ceiling, and we’ve hit it. The next stage is repricing, homes falling toward incomes, not dreams.
The effects will ripple through pensions, municipal budgets, and bank balance sheets. The system built on perpetual appreciation cannot survive flat or falling values. For investors, this is the time to seek tangible, income-generating assets that exist outside debt dependency. That means farmland, productive private real estate, and above all, precious metals, assets immune to central bank policy or counterparty failure.
Part II: Crypto Catastrophe
Watch Crypto Catastrophe: 3rd Quarter Economic Update, Pt. 2
The second fault line lies in the digital frontier. Crypto promised freedom from banks and governments. It sold itself as the rebellion. But beneath the surface, the architecture of digital money has been absorbed by the same institutions it claimed to replace.
In a single 24-hour period this past quarter, more than 19 billion US dollars vanished from crypto markets. Nearly 1.6 million traders were liquidated. Centralized exchanges froze withdrawals. The decentralization myth collapsed.
Most stablecoins, the supposed “safe” side of crypto, are backed not by commodities but by short-term government debt. That means they’re tethered directly to central bank policy. Bitcoin’s movements increasingly mirror the same liquidity cycles as equities. The entire sector now depends on fiat credit flows to survive.
This convergence is not a coincidence. It is evolution by design. The technologies born in crypto have become the foundation for the next monetary regime. Programmable money, traceable transactions, and digital identification systems have merged into the blueprint for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
What began as private innovation has been repurposed for control. Once linked to digital identity, money ceases to be yours. It becomes permissioned access. Governments and financial institutions will soon have the ability to monitor, restrict, or deactivate transactions in real time. Privacy will not be outlawed; it will be coded out of existence.
In It Starts With Gold™, we wrote that convenience always comes with a cost. The new cost is sovereignty. Every tap, scan, and wallet connection teaches the system how you live, what you buy, and when to deny you access.
The alternative remains timeless. Physical precious metals require no code, no network, no approval. They are the only money that cannot be programmed. As digital finance evolves into surveillance finance, tangible assets reclaim their place as the anchor of freedom.
Crypto’s collapse is not the end of innovation. It is the exposure of dependency. The next stage of monetary evolution will reward those who hold value directly, not those who rent it from code.
Part III: Trade War Treachery
Watch Trade War Treachery: 3rd Quarter Economic Update, Pt. 3
The third pillar is trade. What the public sees as a dispute between the United States and China is actually the reordering of the global economy. Trade wars are not about tariffs anymore. They are about control, of commodities, technology, and manufacturing chains.
Nations are no longer competing for efficiency but for sovereignty. The globalization model that defined the last 40 years is being dismantled. Supply chains are being redrawn according to political allegiance, resource access, and energy independence.
Central banks have taken notice. Across 2024 and 2025, record quantities of gold have been added to national reserves. China, Russia, India, and several smaller states have been buying tonnes each month. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has begun revising its reporting frameworks to accommodate alternative settlement systems outside the US dollar.
The signal is clear. Physical assets, not paper promises, will define future power. Countries that control resources, energy, minerals, food, and metals will write the new rules. Those who depend on imports and credit will be forced to comply.
Canada remains at a crossroads. Despite holding some of the world’s largest reserves of oil, gas, timber, and uranium, its policies continue to prioritize compliance with global environmental frameworks over strategic autonomy. The shift toward net-zero mandates, carbon tariffs, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) obligations has weakened resource sovereignty.
Meanwhile, new alliances are forming. The BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) has expanded its trade settlements in currencies other than the US dollar, quietly establishing an alternative financial architecture. Each of these nations has increased gold reserves as a backstop against systemic risk.
This is not just geopolitics. It is economics. The post-globalization era will reward tangible assets and punish over-financialization. As trade realigns, prices will rise not because of speculation but because of scarcity engineered by geopolitics.
The takeaway is simple. Those who own real assets, productive land, metals, and infrastructure, will endure. Those whose wealth depends on financial intermediaries will find themselves at the mercy of shifting policy.
The Interlocking Crisis
Real estate, crypto, and trade may seem unrelated, but they are connected through one structure: The Financial Industrial Complex. This system has thrived on leverage, speculation, and global dependency for decades. Now, each of its pillars is fracturing.
When real estate falls, household wealth evaporates. When crypto collapses, digital trust disappears. When trade breaks down, the flow of real goods tightens. Together, they form a feedback loop of contraction. This is not the end of capitalism, but the end of the version of capitalism driven by debt and centralization.
For individuals and families, this means one thing: traditional diversification within the system no longer protects you. True diversification now lies outside it, across independent, tangible, and income-producing assets that cannot be digitally confiscated or inflated away.
The next phase of global finance will not reward paper diversification; it will reward sovereignty.
Where to Begin: New World Precious Metals
At The Merrick Spitters Reset Report™, we focus on solutions, not just problems. Precious metals remain the cornerstone of defensive wealth planning. They are not speculative bets but insurance against systemic risk.
However, protection requires structure. Keeping metals at home exposes owners to theft. Holding them in bank vaults reintroduces counterparty exposure. The ideal model is independent, insured, and audited storage that maintains full ownership title in the investor’s name.
That is why we reference New World Precious Metal, a Canadian firm offering global storage and direct ownership options. Their approach focuses on client sovereignty, ensuring that metals remain outside the banking grid, are legally owned, and are fully allocated to each client. This distinction matters.
With geopolitical and monetary uncertainty on the rise, this type of custody represents more than convenience; it represents the freedom of access.
For investors transferring registered funds, New World Precious Metals offers pathways through compliant Canadian custodians that enable physical metal exposure within RRSPs (Registered Retirement Savings Plans), RRIFs (Registered Retirement Income Funds), and TFSAs (Tax-Free Savings Accounts). For private wealth holders, metals can be vaulted internationally under jurisdictions with stronger privacy protections.
The dividing line between speculation and preservation is ownership. New World Precious Metal makes that ownership tangible.
Visit New World Precious Metal to learn more about secure, independent vaulting options that align with real-asset wealth preservation principles.
Owning Assets in the Order of Asset Security
In It Starts With Gold™, we introduced a principle built to withstand systemic change: Owning Assets in Order of Asset Security. This framework organizes wealth according to what can be truly owned, protected, and preserved. It prioritizes assets that cannot be inflated, seized, or digitally restricted.
-
-
- Safest: Physical gold and silver held personally or in private, audited vaults
- Next: Farmland and income-producing private real estate
- Then: Participating whole life insurance through mutual life companies
- After that: Discretionary portfolios managed by independent, non-bank-owned firms
- Least secure: Cryptocurrency, cash, and market securities in bank-controlled brokerage accounts
-
This is not theory. It is practical defence. Each step up the hierarchy introduces greater exposure to institutional risk. As the global financial reset accelerates, the defining line between possession and permission will determine who maintains control of their wealth and who forfeits it to the system.
At our firm, we help clients build portfolios around this hierarchy, ensuring that the most secure, least confiscatable assets form the foundation. The objective is simple: protect what cannot be replaced and insulate what remains vulnerable.
Stay informed. Stay prepared. Act while choice still exists.
These insights directly connect to the themes explored in It Starts With Gold™, co-authored by Peter J. Merrick, TEP® and Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®. In the book, we reveal how to build a foundation of tangible assets, measure security across asset classes, and safeguard against systemic shocks while maintaining control of your future.
👉Sign up today for The Merrick Spitters Reset Report™ to receive a digital copy of our international bestseller, It Starts With Gold™, our white paper, Last Asset Standing™, and early updates on our upcoming book, Killing Crypto™.
Prefer a hard copy? Order It Starts With Gold™ on Amazon today.
Final Reflection
The turbulence unfolding in 2025 is not random. It is the recalibration of a global system that exhausted its leverage. What comes next will not reward complexity. It will reward simplicity, tangibility, and direct control.
Those who adapt now will not only preserve their wealth but also maintain their autonomy. Those who wait for governments and banks to protect them will discover too late that the system protects itself first.
The reset is not an event. It is a process already underway. The time to move is before control becomes consent.
Real wealth has always been physical, productive, and principled. It does not start with speculation, policy, or digital convenience.
References
- World Gold Council: Central Bank Gold Demand, 2025 Update
- Bank for International Settlements: Quarterly Review, September 2025
- CoinGlass: Crypto Market Liquidations Report, Q3 2025
- Reuters: Global Trade Realignment Amid Tariff Escalation, 2025
- Bloomberg: Real Estate Fund Redemptions Freeze in Canada, 2025
- International Monetary Fund: Alternative Currency Settlement Systems
Disclaimer
This publication is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as financial, legal, tax, or investment advice and should not be relied upon as a recommendation to buy or sell any investment, asset, or financial product.
The views expressed are those of the authors, Peter J. Merrick, TEP®, and Adrian C. Spitters, CFP®, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any affiliated or regulated firm.
While care has been taken to ensure accuracy and reliability, no guarantee is made regarding the completeness or timeliness of the information presented. Market conditions, government policy, and economic environments may change without notice, affecting the outcomes or perspectives discussed. All investments involve risk, including potential loss of principal.
Readers are encouraged to seek independent professional advice from qualified financial, tax, or legal advisors before making decisions based on this content. The authors provide professional advisory services through independent affiliations with regulated financial firms. By reading this publication, you acknowledge that neither the authors nor their affiliates are responsible for any actions taken or outcomes resulting from the information contained herein.
