“Resilient” American consumers are digging into their retirement funds to pay their bills.
Mainstream financial pundits, politicians, and Fed officials keep telling us the economy is strong because Americans keep spending money. They just assume this is a sign of economic strength without ever asking exactly how they’re paying for all of this “robust” spending.
The Federal Reserve has held interest rates artificially low for decades. This causes all kinds of distortions and misallocations in the economy.
And it’s creating quite a problem for the Social Security Administration.
A lot of people have a vague sense that too much inflation might be a bad thing. But in a world where central banks and governments promote and implement policies intended to increase inflation by 2% annually, most people don’t seem to really understand just how much inflation erodes their purchasing power over time. After all, 2% doesn’t sound like a lot.
But you have to remember that this decrease in the value of your money compounds over time and it ultimately devastates savers and those on fixed incomes. Looking at Social Security benefits drives this reality home.
American retirees are buried in debt.
Between 1999 and 2019, the total debt burden for Americans over age 70 increased by 543% and totaled $1.1 trillion according to data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Debt grew by 471% over the same period for those in their 60s and totaled $2.14 trillion at the end of last year.
In a recent appearance on RT Boom Bust, Peter Schiff emphasized the stock market bubble has burst and we are already in a bear market.
This is early in this bear market. It’s very young and unfortunately, it’s going to be very long-lived. I think this is going to be similar, if not worse, than the bear market that went from 1966 to 1982. It took 16 years for the Dow to make a new high, and during that time period, inflation took about 70% away from the Dow’s value. This time I think it’s going to be worse.”
This isn’t good news if you’re planning for your retirement. So, how can you protect your wealth as the stock market bears rage? One way is by adding precious metals to your retirement plan.
Are you depending on Social Security and Medicare for your retirement?
You might want to rethink that plan. These government retirement programs are going broke even faster than expected.
