Geo-Politics:

The leader of Syria, Assad, in power for decades, has been overthrown by “religious fanatics”.

I just don’t have a lot of confidence that the replacement leaders will be more favorable toward the US and Israel (I am much more concerned about the latter).

Assad was a key ally for Russia in the Middle East, so ANY major changes in the Middle East that have to do with Russia get my full attention, as developments likely have BIBLICAL meaning for End Times prophecies.

(I have a few pages that denote the End Times in Chronological order – reply back if you want that emailed to you directly.)

Within a couple days, the USA bombed numerous ISIS camps and strongholds.

Based on Trump’s comments about Syria, revealing much more than anyone expected, it sounds like Trump will negotiate a cease fire with the Ukraine/Russia, as both countries are hurting economically.

Russia is trying to make friends with all the Muslim countries in the Middle East (except Israel).

Again, this ties to the forementioned End Times prophecies.

South Korea is in the midst of a political roller coaster.

First, their president declared martial law “to protect the citizens” (who were likely going to protest against him – specifically outlawing political and labor union gatherings).

Then, the parliament overthrew the martial law ruling and the protests resumed.

The world continues to watch the drama.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah did not last very long as both sides were blaming the other for breaking the agreement.

The war is back on, but so far it is limited.

There is now some rumor scuttle occurring, suggesting that Iran will send troops into Syria, so they can be closer to Israel.

Trump’s foreign policy is clearly coming to the forefront.

His latest comments are now considered to be threats for those BRICS nations that want to replace the USD as the global reserve currency.

His threat includes 100% tariffs on imported products into the USA by these nations.

Of course, there are indirect channels, but for the most part, this will be fairly brutal on ALL nations involved (USA and BRICS).

The Stock Market Watch:

The stock market continues to climb but is seemingly leveling off.

A correction needs to happen, but the timing is likely going to happen AFTER Trump gets voted in.

It looks like the tariffs will come into play immediately, triggering about 1.4% inflation… but this will eventually fade, as other countries and USA jobs will eventually cover the needs.

If you are not sure which stock market index to watch, the S&P 500 is, by far, the most accurate indicator of the stock market. (NOT the Dow).

My usual sources are still on hold for a stock market ‘correction’

Metals Market Watch:

The tariff battle between the USA and China continues, with China STOPPING exporting certain precious metals to the USA.

Immediately, the price of silver jumped by 1.5%, with gold lagging behind a little.

But the metals involved are substantially rarer and have key industrial applications.

China will continue to try to ‘hold hostage’ important raw materials and key products (like computer chips) while the USA will ‘tax’ incoming goods.

It will actually be the product sellers that have to pay the tariffs, but since China is a communist country, the government owns most of the major companies.

On the infamous Debt Clock webpage, we can see a new all-time high (calculation) taking the total dollars in the market (the M2 money supply) and the total troy ounces of silver… now OVER $1000 an ounce (while the market is just over $31/ozt.

This isn’t saying that silver is about to explode in price (but we are only one major event from this being true), but it IS saying that the unbacked USD is truly becoming less valuable… a LOT less valuable.

China announced they found a new gold vein in one of the mines… the largest EVER.

They already produce more than everyone, and now they can make more.

Plus, the buy more than anyone.

In other words, they continue to stockpile in an attempt to protect their economy.

Notice the USA is NOT on the list of countries trying to protect their economies (by backing their currency with gold).

Other News:

The next 2 weeks have a flurry of major economy indicators being announced.

• Inflation
• Consumer Prices, Producer Prices
• And even the next FED announcement on the 18th… most are betting that the FED will drop rates 0.25% (“a quarter percent”)

Cargill, the largest privately held food producer, has announced layoffs of 5%, about 8000 jobs across the nation.

Citing continued profit damage triggered by COVID

Many think COVID is too far in the rear-view mirror to blame.

Labor numbers came out with 14,000 NEW JOB!

Party, right?

Oh wait, the number of new unemployment claims jumped much higher than expected.

The net result is that more people are out of work now than last month.

The Usual Metrics (layoff tracker, bank health, debt clock, Inversion chart, & CBDC’s gone LIVE):

The layoff tracker is looking strange… only TWO states make up the last 10 announcements:

• South Carolina – still affected by Hurricane Helene
• Washington State – Some want to blame the Boeing strike after-effects, but this was well into play BEFORE the strike. It’s just that our state’s economy is that bad.

Sarcasm Mode: I’m sure our new governor, Bob, can fix it.

TWO new banks were added to the RISKY list (under 4 stars) for Washington State

Check out this link and enter your state if you want to see what your bank’s rating is: https://www.bauerfinancial.com/star-ratings?ref=#2-loadhere

(No changes for Credit Unions… still has just two on the list)

What Would I Do About All This?

(This is NOT financial advice, but it is what we did in our house…)

We watched our spending for Christmas.

And we stayed out of debt.

We have full funded our emergency funds ($2k + ‘3 to 6 months of expense coverage’)

Pretty much like the plan at www.daveramsey.com

We continue to save our money but putting it into precious metals (instead of the bank).

We use OneGold for a vast majority of our metals.

https://www.onegold.com/join/b5321228046c464aa3d813f9f69afd6f

If you want to buy locally, consider Micah at www.fsmetals.us

You can use the website, or if you want to call him, reply to this email and I’ll share his phone number.