The federal government continues to pile up debt at a staggering rate. In August alone, the US government added $450 billion to the national debt. But Uncle Sam isn’t the only one who doesn’t have enough money to pay his bills. Forty state governments are also drowning in red ink.
Total state government debt now stands at $1.49 trillion with 40 states lacking sufficient funds to pay their bills according to Truth in Accounting’s (TIA) Financial State of the States report.
Did you hear about the Venezuelan nationals who got busted trying to smuggle $5 million worth of gold bars into the US through a Fort Lauderdale airport?
True story.
The duo had 230 pounds of gold stuffed into the nose of a private Cessna jet. Customs officials discovered a hidden compartment when they noticed some loose rivets on the nose and decided to take a closer look.
Gold and silver are down this week. There was some more hopeful trade war news and stronger than expected economic data that drove markets this week. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey covers it, plus some news that’s being mostly ignored. And he ponders a question: should we be looking at the economic glass as half-empty or half-full — and why?
During a recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about the student loan debacle.
In a nutshell, it’s the government’s fault.
Democratic presidential candidates have been talking about the student loan crisis. And it is indeed a crisis. The total of the outstanding student loans in the US has more than doubled since 2009 when it was $675 million. The rate of delinquency on student loan debt pushed up to 9.5% in the first quarter of 2019, even as total student loan debt climbed to $1.49 trillion. Currently American owe more than $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. That’s more than their outstanding credit card balances.
The fiscal year budget deficit surged passed $1 trillion last month. Spending deficits necessarily mean more government borrowing and we’re seeing that in the numbers as well. Uncle Sam’s outstanding public debt grew by $450 billion in August alone.
The national debt stood at $22.02 trillion on Aug. 1 and surged to $22.47 trillion as of Aug. 27.
With debt up to his eyeball, the US consumer seems to be losing confidence in the US economy.
Last month, Spencer Schiff wrote an article warning about declining consumer confidence, writing, “any shift in consumer psychology/behavior could knock a critical support out from under our economy.”
The Federal Reserve upped the ante in its efforts to hold short-term interest rates down this week, injecting longer-term cash into the financial system.
Central bankers suffer from what some might call fatal conceit. They actually believe that if they tinker enough, they can come up with a policy that will work “just right.” Maybe we should call it the Goldilocks Syndrome.
But the truth is they don’t know.
By Alex Lemaire
People have been searching for gold for centuries. Usually, it takes considerable effort to find gold, but one Australian family found a nugget literally just lying on the ground.
When you think of a gold nugget, you probably imagine a chunk of the yellow metal that you can hold in the palm of your hand, but you would probably strain to even pick up some of the largest nuggets ever unearthed.
Here are the top five largest nuggets still in existence. There are others that were significantly larger, but they have been melted down.
You have probably heard about the JP Morgan traders indicted in a gold and silver market manipulation scheme. The allegations involve “spoofing.” Traders put in buy and sell orders with the intention of canceling them before execution. By creating false impressions of demand, they could potentially move prices and cash in on their own trades. Meanwhile, JP Morgan has accumulated the most significant physical silver position of all-time.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on RT to explain exactly what’s going on.
