Ron Paul’s recent op-ed from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, reprinted in the Orange County Register, breaks down the profound damage caused by central bank money printing: it pits savers against speculators, encouraging consumers to use debt to fund basic needs since their savings are constantly evaporating due to monetary debasement.
With consumer debt reaching record levels, the Federal Reserve contemplating rate cuts in 2024, and post-Covid inflation still yet to reach its peak, a storm is indeed brewing.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released two inflation reports highlighting inflation figures for December 2023. Here’s what they showed:
The “resilient” American consumer seems to be running out of gas.
Americans are still running up credit card debt but at a much slower pace. Meanwhile, borrowing for big-ticket items has cratered.
Total consumer debt rose by $5.2 billion in October, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. That was a relatively small 1.2% increase.
Holiday shoppers plan on cutting back on spending and piling on even more debt this year, and nearly a quarter of Americans still haven’t paid off their debt from last year’s holiday spending spree.
These were just a few revelations in a recent WalletHub survey that indicates American consumers aren’t quite as “resilient” as pundits and government people would have you believe.
Mainstream pundits and government officials keep talking about the strong economy and resilient consumers while ignoring what’s driving them – borrowing. To listen to them, you would think the road to prosperity is paved with credit cards. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey breaks down the recent household debt data and explains why this isn’t the sign of a strong economy. He also highlights some interesting silver demand news.
Mainstream financial network pundits and government officials keep telling us that the economy is chugging along because Americans continue to spend money. But it’s clear that borrowing is the only thing sustaining this spending spree.
Meanwhile, the “resilient” American consumer is drowning under a surging tidal wave of debt.
Every time retail sales come in higher than expected, the mainstream media breathlessly reports this as proof that the American consumer is strong and resilient. In his podcast, Peter Schiff explained that these retail sales numbers aren’t a sign of a strong economy. They just reflect Americans paying more for less. And what’s worse, they’re burying themselves in debt to do it.
The economy is in a slow burn. You can’t even see the flames. But you can smell whiffs of smoke every now and then if you’re paying attention. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey calls attention to that smoke with a breakdown of August’s CPI and some other data that came out this week. He also busts a myth about silver.
In July, the mainstream financial media breathlessly reported that consumer spending was “holding up” based on better-than-expected retail sales. But how did consumers manage to spend all of that money?
They borrowed it.
After a pause in June, American consumers went back to charging up their credit cards in July.
