There is a high likelihood that, due to the past large decline in the yearly growth rate of the money supply, the US economy is heading towards an economic bust. Continue reading
In the shadowed annals of human striving, where fortune’s wheel turns with inexorable force, few spectacles provoke deeper unease than the concentration of unimaginable riches in a single pair of hands. A trillion dollars – more wealth than many nations command, a sum vast enough to dwarf the economies of continents – rests now, for the first time in history, within the grasp of one man. Elon Musk, that restless engineer of rockets and circuits, stands as the emblem of this milestone. Yet the achievement, while born of ingenuity and daring, stirs ancient moral qualms.
“The barbarian hopes — and that is the mark of him, that he can have his cake and eat it too. He will consume what civilization has slowly produced after generations of selection and effort, but he will not be at pains to replace such goods, nor indeed has he a comprehension of the virtue that has brought them into being. We sit by and watch the barbarian. We tolerate him in the long stretches of peace, we are not afraid. We are tickled by his irreverence; his comic inversion of our old certitudes; we laugh. But as we laugh we are watched by large and awful faces from beyond, and on these faces there are no smiles.”
There is a particular kind of financial wisdom that used to be passed down at kitchen tables. A grandparent, someone who remembered harder times, would explain that the first obligation of a responsible person was to spend less than they earned, put something away, and let patience do its quiet work. The savings account was not a sophisticated instrument. It was a vessel for deferred consumption – a way of translating present discipline into future security. The interest it paid was modest, but it moved in the same direction over time.
Social Security recipients are usually already working on a shoestring budget. However, policy shifts from the Trump administration mean those monthly funds could shrink due to a pair of new(ish) benefit offsets – one that is already taking a bite out of checks, and another looming on the horizon.
The first inflation report under new Federal Reserve chief Kevin Warsh shows consumer prices in April were at their highest level in almost three years.
The US debt surpassed $31.27 trillion, exceeding the country’s $31.22 trillion in GDP. This represents a debt-to-GDP ratio of 100.2%, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, compiled by the Committee on a Responsible Federal Budget and released in April. This level is well above the historical average. Debt-to-GDP ratios, in principle, are not a cause for concern, but other economic conditions in the US aggravate the situation. 
The price of gold has been consistently rising for so long that even savvy investors may have missed something in recent months – a considerable decline in the precious metal’s price.
Pension funds, foreign governments and central banks, giant commercial banks – they are collectively sitting on tens of trillions of dollars worth of capital that they have to invest in a safe, stable asset.
Americans, living in what is called the richest nation on earth, seem always to be short of money. Wives are working in unprecedented numbers, husbands hope for overtime hours to earn more, or take part-time jobs evenings and weekends, children look for odd jobs for spending money, the family debt climbs higher, and psychologists say one of the biggest causes of family quarrels and breakups is “arguments over money.” Much of this trouble can be traced to our present “debt-money” system.~ Search ~
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