Most people believe the Federal Reserve stabilizes the economy and our money. In reality, the central bank incentivized debt and destroys wealth. Is there a way to sidestep the destructive forces of central banking and fiat money?
T.W. Thiltgen believes there is a freedom train we can escape on — gold.
Jerome Powell still insists the Federal Reserve can beat inflation while bringing the economy to a “soft landing.” But there are underlying issues in the economy that make it extraordinarily doubtful that the economy can avoid a major downturn – despite Powell’s claims to the contrary.
One of the biggest problems facing the Fed is the amount of debt in the global economy.
Walmart recently announced better-than-expected third-quarter sales growth. This may seem like great economic news until you realize the reason behind the retailer’s big jump in sales.
As it turns out, wealthier shoppers are flocking to Walmart to make ends meet as rising prices squeeze pocketbooks.
American consumers continue to dig deeper into debt as they try to cope with rising prices using credit cards. Americans added another $25 billion to their record levels of debt in September, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve.
Economist Nouriel Roubini says Federal Reserve is going to “wimp out” on the inflation fight and that will lead to a dollar crash.
Roubini is the Professor Emeritus at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He recently appeared on Bloomberg Markets and Finance to talk about threats to the global economy.
Roubini predicted the housing bubble would pop in an IMF position paper in 2006. When asked if we were there again, he emphatically said, “Yes.”
The Treasury added $341B of debt in August. This was the largest increase in the debt since January and is more than 10 times larger than the increase in July. Another major occurrence was the increase in short-term debt. The Treasury increased Bills by $210B, the largest increase since June 2020. This is a move that runs counter to the recent months where the Treasury has been actively decreasing short-term holdings.
The Treasury increased the total debt by $125B in May after a brief drop in April. This brings the total debt increase so far in 2022 to $880B. More importantly, though, the cost to service the debt is exploding. Total annualized interest has increased by $40B or 13.5% since the start of the year!
American consumers are in a sour mood, but they haven’t stopped spending money. The problem is they’re spending money they don’t have. And they’re getting less for it.
The US Treasury added $111 billion in debt during March. Meanwhile, rising interest rates are already creating problems for Uncle Sam. Annualized interest on the US debt has increased by over $16 billion in just six months. Following is an analysis of US debt holdings.
In January, the US Treasury realized its first surplus in 2.5 years.
The surplus was short-lived.
The Treasury went in the red by $216.6 billion in February.
