ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION
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 […]
June 15, 2023 | How You Store It, Part 1: Gold In Hand
Gold bugs have a saying: “If you can’t hold it, you don’t own it.” This is emphatically true. Our banks, brokers, and crypto wallets can be looted by hackers or rapacious governments, or they can simply go dark during a power outage, cyberattack, or bank holiday. So the only wealth we truly own is what […]
June 10, 2023 | Becoming Invisible: How To Choose And Use A VPN
It’s creepy but true: Most of what we do online is observed by an ecosystem of predators ranging from marketers to hackers to foreign and domestic governments, many of which are out to trick, coerce, or rob us. There’s no one silver bullet to blind and/or repel them all. But there are tools that address specific threats […]
June 6, 2023 | Art Of The Collapse, June 2023
Let’s start with the ongoing debate over who owns public spaces. In New York’s subways, is it mental patients or commuters (with their “sometimes delicious faces”)? In Australia, is it government bureaucrats or so-called “peaceful protesters”? On a less contentious note, Oxi-Clean has released a new ‘Clinton-Strength’ Formula guaranteed to get blood out of carpet: In […]
June 2, 2023 | People We Should know: Caitlin Johnstone
Sometimes you have to be outside a situation to see it clearly. And never has that been more true than with today’s late-stage, decadent, pseudo-capitalist global order. Libertarians, who are emphatically not part of the fiat currency/fractional reserve money system, understand that this financial arrangement is a recipe for disaster. What remains of the left, […]
May 27, 2023 | More “In Gold We Trust” Charts
The US just reported that core PCE, “the Fed’s favorite inflation measure,” accelerated in April. This worsens the central bank’s dilemma: Growth is clearly slowing, while inflation, already at crisis levels, is rising. Luckily, the genius chart makers at Incrementum AG are on hand with a new “In Gold We Trust” report that addresses this very issue. Here’s a short […]
May 24, 2023 | Recession Watch: 10 “Hard Landing” Charts
firmly in the rearview mirror. Most Americans still have jobs. And the debt limit pseudo crisis is in its final inning and — if history is any guide — will be resolved soon. So why does it seem like we’re tipping into a recession, or something much worse? The general answer is that behind the […]
May 22, 2023 | Becoming Invisible, Part 3: Hiding From Google
The ultimate goal, of course, is to completely dispense with Google, Facebook, and all their surveillance capitalist brethren. But for most people (including me) that’s a huge leap into the unknown. So … baby steps. For now let’s say you’re using Gmail, the Chrome browser, and/or Google Search and you’d like to minimize the amount […]
May 19, 2023 | Real Estate Icon Sam Zell: Right One Last Time
I’m old enough to have followed Sam Zell during the second half of his storied real estate career. And in that time he’s been right in a big way on the major financial turning points. At the bubble peaks of 1999 and 2007, for instance, he sold most of his commercial real estate and loaded […]
May 17, 2023 | Next Generation Money, Part 1: Texas Re-Imagines The Dollar
With all the (completely justified) angst surrounding central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), it’s easy to forget that the concept of digital money isn’t the problem. It’s just a tool like any other and can be used for good or evil, depending on who’s wielding it. Obviously, if a CBDC is managed by some combination of the Federal […]