Sierra Madre Precious Metals

Breadline USA: Eight million Americans earning more than $100,000-a-year are living paycheck-to-paycheck as inflation continues to decimate earnings
Almost two thirds of Americans now say they are living paycheck-to-paycheck, a new survey has found – with nearly five percent of those struggling earning more than $100,000 a year.

As inflation continues to bite – the Consumer Price Index for December showed that, over the last 12 months, the all-items index increased 6.5 percent, before seasonal adjustment – the numbers of those feeling the pinch is still rising.

Of 4,000 people surveyed by industry publication Pymnts.com and LendingClub, between December 8 and 23, a total of 64 percent said they were living paycheck-to-paycheck…. (Continue to full article)

Bill and Hen’s Egg-Cellent Adventure
Have you bought a dozen eggs lately? Egg prices skyrocketed in 2022. Prices have receded a little in 2023 but still remain high. Have they pecked, er peaked? If you can score a carton of eggs, consider yourself lucky as many stores are reporting shortages and empty shelves.

Welcome to Biden’s ‘strong economy’ where stores are out of baby formula and eggs. America’s bounty has turned into scarcity. Apparently Biden thinks we need to break some eggs to make an omelette, but his mind is already broken—his brains are scrambled eggs.

He thinks he’s hard boiled, but the yolk’s on him. He’s just a shell of a man. Meanwhile, they keep finding so many more classified documents at Joes place—like so many Easter eggs…. (Continue to full article)

A Google engineer says survivors of the mass layoffs cried in meetings the day around 12,000 of their colleagues were culled
An engineer on the West Coast who’s been with Google for more than 10 years told Insider surviving staff were “angry and sad.”

“We truly did believe that Google was something different,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his employment but his identity is known to Insider.

“This is just another big company,” he said. “Now, anything that used to feel special or like you really were a part of a mission — not just a big money-making machine — that feeling is I think gone.”… (Continue to full article)

Electric vehicles more expensive to fuel than gas-powered cars at end of 2022
Research shows that rising electricity prices and stabilizing gas prices made internal combustion engine cars more economical than their electric counterparts in late 2022

For the first time in more than a year, owners of traditional gas-powered cars saved more money at the pump than those driving their electric counterparts, according to a consulting firm.

It has always been that Higher demand causes higher prices. If Liberals have their way with EVs and gas stoves demand will go through the roof and so will the cost of electricity. Once that happens we will have no alternatives to fall back on to bring the cost down. That’s just economics 101. … (Continue to full article)

Khatia Buniatishvili – Rhapsody in Blue

U.S. Inflation and Consumer Spending Cooled in December — Prices up 5% from Last Year
Consumer spending fell 0.2% from November to December and was revised lower to show a drop of 0.1% from October to November. Last year’s holiday sales were sluggish for many retailers, and the overall spending figures for the final two months of 2022 were the weakest in two years.

The Fed has been steadily driving up borrowing rates across the economy, seeking to slow spending, growth and the surging prices that have bedeviled the nation for nearly two years. Last year, the Fed raised its benchmark rate seven times, and next week it’s set to do so again…. (Continue to full article)

Covid – The Cash Cow For Big Pharma
Is Pfizer manipulating Covid for fun and profit? Silly question – of course they are! A Pfizer executive bragged about it, with a gloating smile on his face, and Project Veritas got it on video!

However, they have changed the title of this process. They are now labeling it “Directed evolution” which is actually a much more revelatory title. Naturally Pfizer would rather the public not be aware of this. Same game different name!

When you have Big Tech, Big Pharma, and the feds all colluding together to screw the public you indeed have a situation where this regime is at war with its own people… (Continue to full article)

Staggering national debt reflects nation that lost its way
The system is broken because it is not based on American principles of ownership and personal responsibility. It is based on government dependence.

As tensions about raising the nation’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling build, the headline that should be flashing in front of every American is that our country is not working. Nothing is going to get fixed – really fixed – until we come clean about this basic, sad and distressing fact.

How can it be that our national publicly held debt is equal to our entire $25.5 trillion economy? And where were we all when this happened?

Who is on the line for these tens of trillions of debt? You and me… (Continue to full article)

If Congress fails to act, benefits will be slashed in 12 years

If you are in your 40s or 50s and looking forward to retiring in a few years and drawing Social Security, there’s something you should know. Unless Congress acts to add to the Social Security trust fund, benefits will be slashed by 25% or more as early as 2035.

Estimates vary but at its current pace, the Social Security trust fund will run short of money at some point in the early 2030s. According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Social Security Board of Trustees projects program costs to rise by 2035 to the point that taxes will be enough to pay for only 75% of projected benefits. Continue reading →

US Gasoline Prices Continue To Rise
Gasoline prices are up 11.8 cents over a week ago, and are 9.4 cents higher than they were a year ago, before Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Gasoline prices are rising along with the rise in WTI crude oil prices, which are up $3 per barrel from a week ago, and up $2 per barrel from a month ago… and given the lags of the supply chain, pump prices are set to go considerably higher…

In addition to rising crude oil prices, gasoline prices are rising as “continued refinery challenges kept supply of gasoline from rising more substantially.”… (Continue to full article)

The U.S. Congress Twiddled Its Thumbs on Crypto while 10 Countries Banned It and 42 Others Placed Heavy Restrictions
On January 31 of last year, Oliver Sullivan reported at Lawyer Monthly that the growing list of countries “that wholly banned cryptocurrencies includes China, Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Bangladesh and (as of this month) Kosovo. Forty-two others have passed restrictions to this effect, prohibiting crypto exchanges or limiting the ability of banks to engage with crypto.”

Compare that to the United States, which increasingly looks like a financial backwater, with questionable crypto deposits blowing up federally-insured banks; collapsing publicly-listed crypto mining stocks whose business model is to pump more fossil fuels into the atmosphere in order to solve complex mathematical problems that have no productive purpose; $8 billion in customer funds going missing at the FTX crypto exchange which was promoted by media darlings on television; and, of course, Big Law firms getting fat at the crypto bankruptcy… (Continue to full article)

Why Silver’s Price Has Been Lagging Gold’s
In the early weeks of 2023, the gold price has continued to rally, yet silver’s price is now down on the year. Which has left many silver investors feeling confused as to what’s going on, and why silver has not followed in tandem with gold as is often the case…. (Continue to full article)

Gold and silver boom predicted as US hits debt ceiling, dollar devalues
The U.S. hit its $31.4 trillion debt ceiling on Thursday, after the latest inflation data showed consumer prices still 6.5% higher on an annual basis.

“Anyone can see that government spending is a major problem for our country’s economic health, and now our government is at risk of defaulting on its bills,” he continued. “. If the federal government defaults on its loans, it will destroy whatever investor faith might be left in the U.S. dollar and weaken it dramatically.”

“This environment creates a strong case for allocating funds to physical precious metals.” (Continue to full article)

Medicare Advantage Is Neither Medicare Nor an Advantage
Right now, well-funded lobbyists from big health insurance companies are leading a campaign on Capitol Hill to get Members of Congress and Senators of both parties to sign on to a letter designed to put them on the record “expressing strong support” for the scam that is Medicare Advantage.

But here is the truth: Medicare Advantage is neither Medicare nor an advantage!

And I should know. I am a former health-care executive who helped develop PR and marketing schemes to sell these private insurance plans… (Continue to full article)

America has officially hit the $31 TRILLION debt ceiling
Treasury implements ‘extraordinary measures’ to avoid economic meltdown – and here’s what it means for your 401Ks

The Treasury Department is starting ‘extraordinary measures’ to avoid a U.S. default after the federal debt limit was reached on Thursday. This measure will allow the government to keep paying bills while Congress negotiates to try and avoid an economic meltdown.

American debt is now at an eye-watering $31.38 trillion – that’s 120 percent of GDP, up from 39.2 percent in 2008 and 77.6 percent in 2018.

The staggering figure is the highest since the Second World War, equals $246,876 in federal debt per taxpayer and is more than the economies of China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom combined… (Continue to full article)