He rich dad poor dad The author, who has spent nearly three decades warning Americans about the fragility of the financial system, delivered more “bad news” this week.
Two radical policy changes starting in 1974 that Kiyosaki believes planted the seeds of the financial crisis that he says is now unfolding in real time.
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In 1974, the U.S. dollar completed its transition from the gold standard and became what economists call the “petrodollar,” a currency backed not by gold reserves but by global oil trade agreements.
For decades, this arrangement kept the dollar dominant. But Kiyosaki maintains that dominance is crumbling.
“Today, in 2026, the world is on the brink of a global war over oil,” he wrote. “Inflation is through the roof.”
He’s not entirely wrong with the numbers.
The U.S. national debt recently surpassed $39 trillion, growing at about $8 billion a day, according to the Joint Economic Committee. Net interest payments alone are expected to exceed $1 trillion this fiscal year.
Meanwhile, gold is trading near $4,685 an ounce and silver has surpassed $73, both at levels that would have seemed absurd just a few years ago.
The second 1974 event that Kiyosaki points to is the passage of ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Before ERISA, most American workers had defined benefit pension plans—guaranteed income for life after retirement. ERISA paved the way for 401(k)s, IRAs, and other self-directed retirement accounts that shifted investment risk entirely to workers.
Kiyosaki’s point is that millions of baby boomers are about to discover that their retirement savings won’t last, especially as inflation erodes purchasing power and markets remain volatile heading into mid-2026.
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Love him or loathe him, Kiyosaki is hard to ignore. rich dad poor dadFirst published in 1997, it has sold more than 32 million copies in 51 languages.
The book’s central thesis, that financial education matters more than a salary and that assets trump savings, made Kiyosaki one of the most recognized personal finance voices in the world.
He has repeatedly called for accumulating gold, silver and Bitcoin as a hedge against what he sees as an inevitable collapse of the dollar.
His record is mixed. Kiyosaki predicted a major crisis for 2025 that did not materialize on schedule, and his company Rich Global LLC filed for bankruptcy in 2012.