Achilles Heel, Fiat Dollar and Gold
The fiat money system will not disappear just like that. Any expectations or hopes to that end should be tempered. Yes, the fiat money system could collapse; yet there is a significant likelihood it will persist longer than most people might think. This prolonged existence may come at a cost: a fascist state encroachment on the freedoms of citizens and entrepreneurs would be more profound than most people realize. Continue reading
Illustration: Francis Scialabba
The Fed’s war on inflation is finally trickling down to the wider economy, and the evidence is beginning to show that many Americans are feeling the pain.
Today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report came in far cooler than expected — US job openings fell in April to the lowest level in over three years, illustrating a significant slowdown in the labor market. Available positions dropped to 8.06 million, a decrease from the 8.36 million openings in March.
Even with high inflation and rising interest rates, the labor market has remained strong over the past few years, boosting discretionary spending for consumer goods. But a second straight month of declines shows that Fed policy is finally reaching jobs. Continue reading
While physical gold is a well-known safe haven asset which investors flock to in times of market turbulence as a way of protecting their wealth, gold is also the ultimate asset to own and possess in times of crisis and emergency. These crisis situations can range from episodes in which fiat currencies collapse, to times in which gold buys safe passage across international borders, and even to periods in which only gold can bail out and rescue an entire nation. Sometimes gold even ensures self-survival and can literally be the difference between life and death. Continue reading
The day of reckoning for unproductive credit is in sight. With G7 national finances spiraling out of control, debt traps are being sprung on all of them, with the sole exception of Germany.
No, No, No – not THAT kind!
Malinvestments of the last fifty years are being exposed by the rise in interest rates, increases which are driven by a combination of declining faith in the value of major currencies and contracting bank credit. The rise in interest rates is becoming unstoppable.
Do not be surprised to see a US Government deficit exceeding $3 trillion this fiscal year, half of which will be interest payments. And in the run up to a presidential election, there’s every sign of deficit spending increasing even further. Continue reading
The House of Representatives on Thursday voted along bipartisan lines to advance legislation blocking the Federal Reserve from creating its own central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Three Democrats joined all Republicans in voting for the bill — moderate Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine., Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.
The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act was led by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and backed by Republican members of the House Financial Services Committee. Continue reading
In the current economic climate, many Americans find themselves struggling to make ends meet, as the pressures of inflation bear down on everyday living expenses. Under the Biden administration, the economic policies known as “Bidenomics” have come under scrutiny as inflation rates surge, affecting the cost of essential goods and services. Continue reading
Even though inflation is a hot topic these days, it’s been around forever. Not all prices rise at the same rate, though, so it’s fun to see what prices were like generations ago.
By looking at prices from way back when, it’s easy to see how the cost of living has changed. Here’s what you could buy with a dollar in the 1920s. Continue reading
Did you know that U.S. households are 17,690,000,000,000 dollars in debt? Of course household debt is only one part of a much larger story. The federal government is 34 trillion dollars in debt, state and local governments are absolutely drowning in debt and unfunded liabilities, and corporate debt is at an all-time high. As a society, we are on the greatest debt binge in the history of the world, and it just gets worse every single year. Continue reading
The Broken Bank
Most people don’t notice or realize that the Fed, literally right this moment, is insolvent. George Soros famously “broke the Bank of England in 1992… and we might see someone “break the Federal Reserve” within the next few years.
On Tuesday, September 15, 1992, the two most powerful financial officials in the British government held an urgent meeting that night to review their plan for when the markets opened the next morning.
The tone of the meeting must have felt frantic… even desperate… because the value of the British pound had been falling for weeks. Continue reading
How long will the world keep buying U.S. bonds, notes, and bills, or use the dollar as a reserve currency, if Washington is bent on fiscal self-destruction?
“We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt,” warned Thomas Jefferson in 1816. To him, burdening ourselves and future generations with debt should be rare in frequency and minor in magnitude. It may be defensible for long-term capital projects like roads, but for little else.
Massive, uncontrollable debt to finance current consumption spending was unthinkable to Jefferson. He would undoubtedly see it as a reflection of a nation’s moral and economic decline that could ultimately destroy our liberties. Continue reading
