ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
August 22, 2023 | Wage Inflation Is a Thing Now, Part 1
Back when the US was a functional country, wages and corporate profits rose more or less in tandem. That is, each group tried to steal all the money but in the end had to compromise and settle for only half. It was contentious but manageable, and it allowed a broad, stable middle class to emerge, […]
August 18, 2023 | Things We Should Do: Make An Estate Plan
A big part of prepping is about our families rather than ourselves. That is, we want to set things up so our loved ones are protected from the risks they’ll face in the coming hard times. This isn’t usually a problem because buying and organizing precious metals, guns, and food-producing land is fun. But there’s […]
August 15, 2023 | The BRICS Currency: We’ll Know Soon
When a Russian spokesman announced that the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries were going to introduce a gold-backed currency at their August 22 – 24 Johannesburg meeting, that prospect — coupled with a complete absence of details — set off a frenzy of speculation about what exactly was coming. Will it […]
August 14, 2023 | The Car of the Future Runs on Hydrogen
The three crucial pieces of the world’s energy future just fell into place for me. First, I saw this graphic about the energy density of uranium, which pretty much explains where humanity is going to have to end up: Then came this graphic from Ahead of the Herd’s Rick Mills depicting nuclear power’s “capacity factor,” which means […]
August 13, 2023 | The Car of the Future Runs on Hydrogen
The three crucial pieces of the world’s energy future just fell into place for me. First, I saw this graphic about the energy density of uranium, which pretty much explains where humanity is going to have to end up: Then came this graphic from Ahead of the Herd’s Rick Mills depicting nuclear power’s “capacity factor,” which means […]
August 11, 2023 | Recession Watch: October Surprise?
One of the things that kept many Americans financially afloat these past few years is the fact that student loan payments were suspended. That bought some time but apparently didn’t solve the underlying problem of low wages in an increasingly expensive world. Because it’s now becoming common to use credit cards to cover day-to-day expenses. […]
August 9, 2023 | People We Should Know: Martin Armstrong
Martin Armstrong has led a complex and tempestuous life — see this and this. But we’re not going there. His current work is what lands him on the list of People We Should Know. Armstrong is a consultant and forecaster who uses a prediction model he calls Socrates to identify and extrapolate trends in politics, economics, and finance. […]
August 6, 2023 | The Long Wave Versus the Printing Press
This is a reprint [with a few edits] of an article I wrote way back in 2010 — when a supercycle crash was already overdue: The fascinating thing about “long wave” analysis (broadly defined to include Kondratieff waves, Elliott waves, and William Strauss and Neil Howe’s Fourth Turning) is that while each theory uses its own indicators and terminology to show […]
August 4, 2023 | Becoming Invisible, Part 7: Android Phone Privacy Settings
Google makes its (many) billions by spying on its customers, mining the resulting personal information, and using/selling the profitable bits. So it’s no surprise that phones based on Google’s Android platform have default settings that violate rather than protect customer privacy. But Android phones — especially the latest versions — do offer settings that allow […]
July 31, 2023 | Japan Takes Another Step Towards the Cliff
For a while there, the Japanese government had a sweet deal going. By pushing interest rates into negative territory — which forced bond buyers to pay for the privilege of owning said bonds — it was able to earn money on its national debt. So the more the government borrowed, the more it earned. And borrow it […]
July 30, 2023 | This Is What a Death Spiral Looks Like
Remember those scary charts of the US government’s rising interest expense? Here’s an example from a few months ago, when the annualized cost of our national debt was approaching $900 billion: Well, that wasn’t the peak. The latest reading shows interest payments approaching $1 trillion. And that’s not the end. Not even close. The current average interest […]
July 28, 2023 | Ancient Evil: Term Limits, WWIII, and Other Reasons to Clean House
As we stumble towards World War III, it’s instructive to meet the people who are fronting for the Empire these days. The president, as everyone knows by now, is the modern equivalent of a B-movie zombie, pumped full of Adderall and shuffled out for public appearances — though even these controlled environments are now […]
July 27, 2023 | Becoming Invisible, Part 6: iPhone Privacy Settings
Smartphones are indispensable because they do a virtually infinite number of things. That’s also why they’re a privacy nightmare. Each of a phone’s basic functions — and each app that’s subsequently added to the mix — generate data that can be stored, shared, and mined by people who want to rob or control us. For […]
July 21, 2023 | Public Health and the Shrinking Trust Horizon
I’m on the road this week and can’t do much research. But there’s time to cut and paste some notable pieces of news. So, along the lines of January’s Gold And The Shrinking Trust Horizon, here’s a short piece from Matt Taibbi on the fallout from the lab-leak fiasco: Covid’s Origins and the Death of Trust Public has just published […]
July 20, 2023 | Recession Watch: Real Estate And Manufacturing Seize Up
Rising interest rates don’t hit everything all at once. Some sectors feel the pinch immediately while others keep chugging along, seemingly oblivious to tightening money. But eventually, the pain spreads far enough to hurt and/or scare everyone, which brings on the cycle-ending recession and bear market. That day is getting closer, as multiple sectors report […]
July 17, 2023 | People We Should Know: Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio’s bio is not that different from the typical “hedge fund asshole”: Harvard, Bridgewater Associates, billionaire, best-selling author. And of course he predicted and profited from the last few couple of financial crises. But instead of coasting on past success, Dalio has shifted gears and become a public figure whose take on the global […]
July 14, 2023 | Silver Gets Some Mainstream Coverage
Readers of this newsletter know the silver story by now. So it might come as a surprise to hear that maybe 95% of the investing public knows virtually nothing about monetary metals in general and silver’s unique supply/demand situation in particular. In such an obscure market, mainstream exposure can have a dramatic impact by exposing generalist investors […]
July 10, 2023 | De-Dollarization Just Got Real, Part 2: BRICS To Introduce Gold-Backed Currency In August
There’s an old saying about predictions: It’s okay to forecast an event or a date, but not both. But lately, Jim Rickards has been predicting both the introduction by the BRICS coalition of gold-backed currency and the date, August 22. Here’s a short video where he lays it out. Based on subsequent headlines, it seems […]
July 9, 2023 | CBDCs Are Coming. Mark Jeftovic Explains Why You Should Worry
Most central banks have decided that 2024 is the year of the CBDC Big Bang. So…what exactly are these things and why should we find their imposition worth opposing? Mark Jeftovic, publisher of the Bitcoin Capitalist newsletter, just posted a detailed explanation. Here’s an excerpt: BIS: CBDC Roll-outs may require changing The Constitution Also: “Tiered remuneration” means no […]
June 29, 2023 | Until Something Breaks…
There’s a sense among some investors — or at least among some commenters on finance-oriented podcasts — that the current equities bull market will never end because [fill in your preferred variation on “the Powers That Be won’t let it end”]. This kind of frustration is understandable. A thing that shouldn’t happen has been happening […]
June 27, 2023 | Strategic Relocation — Why, Where, And How
A lot of people are moving these days, for a lot of reasons. But one of the biggest reasons is fear. Some badly-run cities and states are accumulating debt at a rate that guarantees massive future tax increases and cuts in essential services. Others have normalized crime to the point that city centers resemble a zombie apocalypse. […]
June 23, 2023 | Which Of These Currencies Will Collapse First?
Inflation was supposed to moderate this year. But in the UK, EU, and Japan that’s not happening. Here’s the UK… … the EU… Euro rallies after ECB raises rates and inflation forecasts European policymakers now expect core inflation to average past the 5% mark, while in March projection this forecast was only at around 4.6%. […]
June 21, 2023 | Becoming Invisible, Part 5: Your Phone Is A Surveillance Machine
This started as a post on how our phones are spying on us and what we can do about it. But it turns out that the first part — how they’re spying on us — is so big and complex that it needs its own post. So the “what we can do” part will come […]
June 19, 2023 | Easy Money Makes You Stupid, Europe Edition
The eurozone is like a big Rube Goldberg machine sitting on a slab of bedrock called Germany. As long as the German economy — and the European Central Bank that Germany controls — are okay, then the currency union is viable. But recently several things have happened: Interest rates have spiked across the eurozone in response to […]
June 18, 2023 | They’re Coming For Your Bank Account
Two trends are converging to end the era of local bank accounts: Central banks are conspiring to force us out of traditional savings and checking accounts and into central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Deposits are now fleeing local and regional banks because an inverted yield curve makes it impossible for those banks to pay competitive […]