International Man: Historically, financial markets have often ended in euphoric blow-offs or painful crashes. Do you think today's environment resembles past periods like the late 1920s, the 1970s, or the dot-com bubble?

Doug Casey: There's an old saying in the market: "Money makes the mare run."

The markets have tended to move much more radically since the Federal Reserve, the creator of money, was itself created. For generations, we've had a whole class of market savants, known as Fed watchers, who try to second-guess what Fed bureaucrats are going to do with interest rates, bank reserves, and money creation, because they realize that those things translate into market action.

Because of the Fed's increasing importance, you can expect more radical moves than ever in the markets. Compare it to an elevator going up and down with a lunatic at the controls—which impresses me as a good analogy.

International Man: Some argue we could see a final, euphoric rally—a "melt-up"—before any collapse. What would need to happen for that to play out?

Doug Casey: A melt-up is not unlikely. Trump is actively trying to control the Fed by replacing its governors with sycophants who see things the way he does. In other words, print lots of money and manipulate for low rates. Trump wants the Fed to do what he tells them, despite the Fed's theoretical independence. Of course, Fed independence has always been a fiction. But if he succeeds in dropping the pretense, we can count on a genuinely wild and crazy monetary policy.