Destination TEOTWAWKI

Posted on April 26, 2024 by MN Gordon

Financing the U.S. government’s mega budget deficit – the gap between government spending and tax revenue – has become an act of madness.  Just this week, the U.S. Treasury flooded the market with $180 billion of new debt.  Did you buy some?

Washington’s spending is completely out of control.  Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is speaking up.  Its recent World Economic Outlook points to spending “that is out of line with long-term fiscal sustainability.”

Of note, are expanding U.S. budget deficits, which ballooned from $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2022 to $1.7 trillion in fiscal year 2023.  This trend is continuing.  We’re now over six months into fiscal year 2024 and Washington is on track to hit a deficit of over $2 trillion.

Each year may start fresh.  With a new deficit to accrue.  But each year’s deficit doesn’t go away when the new year starts.  These deficits, which are are racked up year after year, are stacked onto the national debt – now over $34.6 trillion.  “Something will have to give,” the IMF warned. Continue reading →

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Perpetual Motion Machine Finance

Posted on April 19, 2024 by MN Gordon

Simple answers are not always correct answers.  However, simple answers are often accepted as correct when people are too lazy or distracted to bother to know any better.

Mundis vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.  The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.

President Biden – a conniving politician – is fond of blaming corporate greed for rising prices.  This has proved to be a simple and effective answer for why consumer prices are so high.

In one simple statement he shifts the focus away from the government’s failed policies.  In doing so, he also points to a boogeyman which the broad populace can direct its anger toward.

Biden’s logic is simple.  Prices are increasing; therefore, corporations are greedy.  But if corporations are greedy because prices are rising, isn’t the government also greedy because prices are rising?

Specifically, if corporations are increasing prices because they are greedy, does that mean the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is also greedy? Continue reading →

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Gold Is Doing Its Job

Posted on April 12, 2024 by MN Gordon

On Monday, the U.S. Commerce Department announced it was awarding Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) a $6.6 billion CHIPS Act subsidy for the fabrication of computer microchips in Phoenix, Arizona.  TSMC will also receive up to $5 billion in low-cost government loans.

In return, TSMC will expand its planned investment from $40 billion to $65 billion and add a third Arizona fabrication site by 2030.  The company will be producing the world’s most advanced 2 nanometer technology at its second site starting in 2028.

The Commerce Department anticipates the development will create 6,000 long term manufacturing jobs and 20,000 shorter term construction jobs.  With the AI arms race rapidly escalating, having semiconductor fabrication on American soil may be a strategic necessity.  Nonetheless, subsidizing industry – in this case a foreign company – using American taxpayer dollars comes with lasting costs.

This is but one of countless examples of how the U.S. economy no longer functions through the free and mutual exchange of individual citizens in the marketplace.  It is subject to extreme intervention from planners in the government. Continue reading →

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Janet Goes to Guangzhou

Posted on April 5, 2024 by MN Gordon

The S&P 500 closed out Q1 2024, up over 10 percent.  But while the S&P 500 was rising day after day one former highflyer was crashing and burning.

The Boeing Company closed out the quarter down over 25 percent.  Still, it wasn’t the worst performing stock in the S&P 500.  That honor goes to Tesla Inc., which declined over 29 percent.

This amounted to $230 billion in lost market capitalization.  Moreover, according to Forbes’ estimates, it contributed to a $55.1 billion decrease to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth.  And it dropped Musk from the world’s richest person to third, behind French luxury mogul Bernard Arnault and Amazon geek Jeff Bezos.

Short sellers, on the other hand, reaped $5.77 billion as Tesla’s share price cratered.  Still, Brad Gerstner at Altimeter Capital is buying the dip.  He believes Tesla is making “massive progress at an accelerating rate” on its self-driving technology.

In 2015 Musk told shareholders that by 2018 Tesla cars would achieve “full autonomy.”  Will 2024 be the year it happens? Continue reading →

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