The Rich Dad Poor Dad author, who has spent nearly three decades warning Americans about the fragility of the financial system, gave some more ‘bad news’ this week.
Two seismic policy shifts from 1974 that, according to Kiyosaki, planted the seeds for the financial crisis he believes is now unfolding in real time.
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In 1974, the U.S. dollar completed its transition away 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 argues that dominance is crumbling.
“Today, in 2026, the world stands on the edge of world war over oil,” he wrote. “Inflation is going through the roof.”
He’s not entirely wrong on the numbers.
The U.S. national debt recently crossed $39 trillion, growing at roughly $8 billion per day according to the Joint Economic Committee. Net interest payments alone are projected to exceed $1 trillion this fiscal year.
Meanwhile, gold is trading near $4,685 per ounce and silver has surged past $73 both at levels that would have seemed absurd just a few years ago.
The second 1974 event Kiyosaki flags 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 the investment risk entirely onto workers.
Kiyosaki’s point is that millions of baby boomers are about to discover that their retirement savings won’t last, especially as inflation eats into purchasing power and markets remain volatile heading into mid-2026.
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Love him or dismiss him, Kiyosaki is hard to ignore. Rich Dad Poor Dad, first published in 1997, has sold over 32 million copies in 51 languages.
The book’s core thesis, that financial literacy matters more than a paycheck, and that assets beat savings, turned Kiyosaki into one of the most recognized personal finance voices in the world.
He has repeatedly called for accumulating gold, silver, and Bitcoin as hedges against what he sees as an inevitable dollar collapse.
His track record is mixed. Kiyosaki predicted a major crash for 2025 that didn’t quite materialize on schedule, and his company Rich Global LLC filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
