ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
February 23, 2024 | Strategic Relocation, Part 3: Whales Fleeing Weaponized Courts
In January, a Delaware judge forbade Tesla from paying its CEO, Elon Musk, an amount to which the board and shareholders had previously agreed. Musk responded by moving the corporate registration of SpaceX from Delaware to Texas and threatening to do the same with Tesla. “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” Musk posted on X following […]
February 21, 2024 | Inequality In 9 Charts And One Amusing Image
Graphs and charts showing America’s fatal case of financial inequality have become almost a separate art form: What Happens Now? Is railing against inequality just envy on the part of the less successful? Or is there a fundamental, functional reason that a society can’t be comprised of a handful of super-rich and a vast herd […]
February 17, 2024 | People We Should Know: Mike Benz
Sorry to deluge you with new people to check out, but this video just dropped, and I’m going to go out on a limb and call it the single most important thing currently available online. The source is Mike Benz, a former State Department diplomat “responsible for formulating and negotiating US foreign policy on international communications […]
February 17, 2024 | Mainstream Money Tiptoes Into Gold Miners
The appeal of mining stocks is that they’re “leveraged bets on the underlying commodity.” So you’d think that with gold not far from an all-time high, the big gold miners like Newmont and Barrick would be crushing it. But the opposite has been true lately, as these stocks have become almost ridiculously unloved. Two possible conclusions can be […]
February 16, 2024 | People We Should Know: Elon and RFK Jr
These two need no introduction. Just kidding. You’ve heard their names, but if you’re mostly consuming legacy media, you only know them as caricatures. So here’s a video where one interviews the other. Two quick spoilers: They trash both the pharmaceutical companies and the military/industrial complex in the first 15 minutes. And their understanding of […]
February 14, 2024 | Recession Watch: Inflation Won’t Die Until The Economy Kills It
A previously obscure inflation metric called Core Services CPI shocked the world this week by rising at an annual rate of 8%. This pretty much rules out a Fed rate cut in the near term. Responding to the prospect of “higher for longer,” the 10-year Treasury yield spiked back up to 4.3%, guaranteeing 7%+ mortgages and 10%+ […]
February 11, 2024 | Good News For A Change, Part 1: Independent Media Is Replacing the MSM
Sports Illustrated recently shut down. The Los Angeles Times laid off a fourth of its staff, including its entire Washington bureau. CNN’s viewership has fallen to that of a modest YouTube channel. From media tracker Deadline: In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 219,000, down 8%, compared to CNN with 124,000, down 14%, and MSNBC with 106,000, off by 3%. In […]
February 9, 2024 | Becoming Invisible, Part 12: Even Your Car Is Spying On You
Say you want to organize an anti-war rally or buy some controversial medicine. You’re reluctant to do this from home, where Google and Amazon are listening and (possibly) forwarding your plans to all the acronym agencies. So you round up your co-conspirators and hop in your car for a ride, during which you plan your […]
February 7, 2024 | What’s Cheap — And What’s Cheaper — In 8 Charts
Incrementum, creator of the epic annual In Gold We Trust chart-fest, just posted its monthly Gold Compass update. As usual, the charts tell an interesting story: Let’s start with the fact that no “strong” fiat currencies are left out there. All are evaporating when measured against real money, just at different rates (though the yen is clearly one to watch […]
February 1, 2024 | Time For A Trust? If So, What Kind?
Let’s say you own a bunch of uranium stocks and your nest egg is becoming an “estate.” Well done! Now it’s time to avoid excessive taxes and make the eventual transfer to your kids and grandkids seamless and stress-free. One way to do this is via a trust, a legal entity that holds and disburses money while […]
January 31, 2024 | Art of the Collapse, February 2024
Civil War?… So the US opens its borders and millions of people stream across. Border states are inundated, and Texas blocks one of the more popular illegal entryways with razor wire. The Supreme Court rules that the Feds can take the wire down, Texas says “try it and see,” and a bunch of other states […]
January 30, 2024 | Gold, When All Else Fails, Part 1: China’s Last Resort
Since the beginning of recorded history, people have viewed gold as 1) money and 2) something to be replaced by sexier financial instruments whenever possible. Today’s fiat currencies, for instance, exist because governments find creating “wealth” out of thin air much more fun than living with a fixed money supply. And as financial markets have […]
January 29, 2024 | Gold, When All Else Fails, Part 1: China’s Last Resort
Since the beginning of recorded history, people have viewed gold as 1) money and 2) something to be replaced by sexier financial instruments whenever possible. Today’s fiat currencies, for instance, exist because governments find creating “wealth” out of thin air much more fun than living with a fixed money supply. And as financial markets have […]
January 23, 2024 | Recession Watch: Doom Spending and Frozen Real Estate
Stocks are melting up while government officials claim credit for a soft landing. And yet… The US Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) continues to predict a slowdown while GDP, which normally tracks the LEI, remains strong. Which one is right? The December index of business conditions in the New York Fed’s territory plunged to -43, the […]
January 22, 2024 | Health Prepping, Part 4: Vitamin D Seems To Prevent Dementia
Vitamin D pops up in pretty much every general discussion of health maintenance and disease prevention. Having enough of it seems to help while having too little seems to cause — or at least associate with — everything from cancer to heart disease. So keeping lots of vitamin D in one’s bloodstream is kind of […]
January 16, 2024 | The Great Taking, Part 2: More Heavyweights Chime In – Lots of Smart People Seem to Think it’s Legit
The Great Taking remains a fringe subject, mostly ignored by the mainstream media. But in the sound money community, a growing list of heavyweights have concluded that it’s legit. Here’s a video from GoldSilver’s Mike Maloney: Mark Jeftovic of The Bitcoin Capitalist recently posted an in-depth analysis, part of which is here: The Great Taking: the latest anti-mainstream conspiracy […]
January 13, 2024 | Recession Watch: Spiking Layoffs – Citigroup, Twitch, and Pixar, oh my…
Healthy economies have a natural background rate of hiring and firing, as employers adjust to changes in their environment. But when the firing part of the process starts to dominate, trouble frequently follows. This might be one of those times, based on the surge in layoff announcements by brand-name companies. Here’s a list that just […]
January 12, 2024 | So… About Bitcoin
Everyone on Earth wishes they’d loaded up on Bitcoin back when it was, like, $10. The fact that most investors have chosen not to ride that particular rollercoaster can be attributed to two things. First, cryptocurrencies were complicated to buy and store safely, which put them beyond the reach of most non-techies (myself included). Second, […]
January 8, 2024 | Poetic Justice, Part 1: The Corporate Profit Squeeze
The past few years were — we were told — an emergency in which all had to sacrifice for the greater good. So how did corporate profits rise by $1 trillion during that same time? Charles Hugh Smith, whose excellent substack recently launched, just posted an explanation for this seemingly impossible (or at least counterintuitive) event. I’m […]
January 3, 2024 | Recession Watch: Slightly Lower Interest Rates Will Make Zero Difference
GDP is still growing, home prices are still high, and the unemployment rate is still low. But under the surface, the bad numbers just keep coming: U.S. manufacturing sector shrinks for 14th straight month in December (MarketWatch) – The new-orders index fell 1.2 percentage points to 47.1 in December (below 50 indicates contraction). Prices fell […]
January 2, 2024 | Art of the Collapse, January 2024
In December, some prestigious universities made the (in retrospect) horrendous mistake of letting their presidents testify before Congress. The result was not pretty — except for meme creators, who had a field day: But the Ivy League’s public humiliation wasn’t the only novel thing to happen in a federal government building last month, as staffers were […]
December 30, 2023 | Thanks For a Great First Year
Hi everybody, On January 3, this newsletter will be one year old. Amazing how fast the time went by! Thanks for a great experience. Being part of this growing community and hearing your thoughts about the crazy world we’ve inherited has been both fun and educational. Going forward, there are several things I’d like to […]
December 29, 2023 | Gold Is Now Definitely An Impulse Buy
Recently, Costo began selling gold bars on its website (see Did Gold Just Become An Impulse Buy?). The bars were a big hit, generating revenues of $100 million in the most recent quarter. Now Walmart has opened its own Precious Metals Shop: Who’s next? If gold works for the biggest-box retailers, expect Target and other similar chains […]
December 26, 2023 | People We Should Know: Vivek Ramaswamy
The US presidential campaign is like a boxing match where the undercard is way more interesting than the main event. On the Democrat side, RFK Jr. is stomping all over Establishment verities like open borders and vaccine mandates while stealing a big chunk of what was once seen as Joe Biden’s base. On the Republican side, Donald […]
December 24, 2023 | Skill Stacking, Part 1: Handymen Will Inherit the Earth
There’s a debate over the best way to achieve career success: Should you become great at one thing or good at multiple things? The first strategy is obvious — get a Ph.D. in a useful subject and do that one thing better than almost anyone else. But the second strategy — known as “skill stacking” […]