Geo-Politics
This biggest news in the world is the resignation of Canada’s Prime Minister… and the aftermath continues.
This is certainly fueled by the free-fall of confidence in that nation once Trump announced that the 25% tariffs that would also apply to imported Canadian goods.
I have family and friends in Canada, and they are shocked as to what is happening politically between our two nations.
BRICS nations are busy discussing how to handle Trump’s threats of tariffs of 100% against goods from countries that don’t trade in US dollars.
Regardless, BRICS is growing… Indonesia is now the 10th official member of BRICS.
Is it weird that most of the BRICS nations are the ones that are listed in the Bible that go against Israel, resulting in the Armageddon war?
As of now: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and United Arab Emirates.
For those of you that believe the Bible, the country count is now at TEN… and the Bible mentioned a league of 10 nations are BAD NEWS.
It appears that Greenland won’t be the 51st state anytime soon.
This news was very random… I wonder what they have in Greenland that we want so bad… I’m guessing oil. I doubt if it is ice cubes.
The Stock Market Watch
A FED official, Lisa Cook, is now going on record to warn of a ‘stock market crash’.
Stating that numerous stocks are over-valued, and we should get ready for a “large decline.”
This is why a crash is referred to as a ‘correction’
Side note: In case you need to know, the value of a company is determined by using three different methods:
- The number of total stocks owned multiplied by the stock price
- This is the Market Price
- The “Owner’s Equity” from the main financial report (there are typically 4 reports).
- Assets = Owner’s Equity minus Liabilities
- (That formula is slightly adjusted to make it understandable for you)
- This is the Net Worth
- The liquidatable value (of the Assets) in the event the company goes bankruptcy.
- This is the Liquid Value
1 and 2 should match, if not, then the company is over-valued or under-valued (in the stock market).
The general rule is: If undervalued, BUY. If overvalued, SELL.
Adding to this, the current FED chair, Powell, is stating that there may have been more to the (declining) labor market numbers than originally thought.
Plus, prior numbers continue to be revised DOWN… a lot.
International markets are shocked on the news that the Chinese central bank has stopped buying Chinese government bonds.
This is a key tool (of three) that central banks use to control the volume of currency in the marketplace, affecting inflation and interest rates.
Bond yields are painfully low, and their stock market is hit hard.
No one has ever seen this before, so no one knows how this will play out.
Other News
My next “Prepping for Normal People” seminar in just a few days away, Sunday afternoon on January 19th from 1 to 5PM.
This event is FREE. I’ll have books and raffle tickets for sale.
The event will be at Cedarhome Seventh Day Adventist Church, 28505 68th Ave NW, Stanwood.
At this event, we will specifically talk about all sorts of disasters, including the prediction of the brewing Cascadia volcano, and discuss actions we can do to reduce the impact in our lives.
The cause of the California fires is still under investigation. But a former fireman (urban and wildfires) made these comments:
“The fires have spread quickly because of the high winds… relentless for hours/days.
Access has been limited due to blocked routes (in and out).
Many want to blame the lack of water pressure. But the water doesn’t flow without electricity to the pump stations.
Many want to blame ‘lasers from the sky’. Really?
There are several citizens reporting how there is a gang of (about) 5 men in black hoodies starting fires, flashing back to the Antifa/CHOP zone mobs. This is hard to believe.
But, there may SOME weight to this: https://www.foxnews.com/us/los-angeles-wildfires-homeowners-confront-man-they-believe-arsonist-celebrities-fuel-firebug-theories
‘Some homes, those that agree with the Illuminati, are spared.’
People seem to forget that those with little to no vegetation near their homes/in their neighborhood, AND with space between homes, AND with certain roofing material had the best chance to avoid catching on fire.
Government officials are doing what they do best – blaming someone else.
The causes are likely benign, but the winds have turned this into a literal fire storm.”
Consider attending the Prepping For Normal People seminar on the 19th.
Back to my source… he says that this disaster is NOTHING compared to the economic disaster that is more likely to happen during 2025.
The Trump administration is promising to cut a huge portion of the federal budget.
This will be a political bloodbath (in the economy), and this will likely be the top story of 2025.
Biden is BUSY right now, handing out 5-year contracts to hog-tie Trump.
The problem is this:
The government must continue to borrow, just to pay its bills, but the FED’s slush fund (The Reverse Repo Market) is DRY… and to handle short-term economy issues, the FED is continuing to pull cash out of the market.
The answer is to pay down the US debt.
Well, since the FED is a privately owned corporation, this would only help them in the short-term.
But this is contrary to WHY THEY EXIST… and that is to make money from the interest of loans.
Yes, you figured it out, any Trump ‘success’ will likely be short-lived, and will revert to the USA staying in debt.
Some (non-mainstream) media outlets are publicly speculating that the crashing of three airlines in 10 days may not be coincidence.
It seems to be far-fetched and tickling the ears of a few of my usual sources.
However, video from the Korean crash does not seem to match the governmental explanation of a bird strike.
On a critical note, the Hershey company was asked for governmental permission to buy massive amounts of cocoa powder because ‘they foresee heavy inflation’.
Metals Market Watch
Silver seems to have regained some traction and is trading at about $30 and ounce again.
This may be driven by the Canadian political issues.
I’m guessing it will drop right after the inauguration, so that might be a good time to go shopping.
With Trump’s forthcoming plans, there continues to be optimism on the price of metals.
The gold to silver ratio still holds above 89 (89.64 silver ounces match the value of 1 ounce of gold).
The ‘equilibrium rate’ (based on averaging the difference since being tracked in 1994) is about 70 to 75.
This means that there is ‘pressure’ in the market to drive that 88 back to the low 70’s.
In other words, silver is either under-valued or gold is over-valued.
And with industrial demand expecting to be high over the next few years, silver seems to be the better option in the long term.
In my house, I try for a 60% silver and 40% gold.
The equilibrium point (the point where it SHOULD be – also known as the average over time) may have been reset to the upper 70’s (especially if you only consider the last 10 years) – either way, there should be a price correction in the market.
NOT giving financial advice, we continue to buy metal.
The Usual Metrics (layoff tracker, bank health, debt clock, Inversion chart, & CBDC’s gone LIVE)
The national layoff tracker continues to show that nearly all the new notices are coming from South Carolina and Washington state.
SC’s issues appear to be echoes of hurricane Helene
But Washington state, one of the bluest states in the nation, seems to be getting hit hard, too. Why?
Boeing and biotech lead the WA listings
New housing starts are way down.
Builders are discounting homes they have completed… for example, just watch/listen for the barrage of “DR Horton (homes)” advertisements.
We are now over 1/3rd of the way toward 37 trillion in national debt (from 36 trillion, just a few weeks ago).
The death spiral will have to come down somehow.
I admit, I do not have confidence in our politicians to fix this… namely because we do not have a balanced budget amendment in our constitution.
The Inversion chart (10-year minus 2-year T-bill rates) continues to climb on the positive side of zero.
Currently at 0.39.
Once this hits 0.50, this usually means we are very close to the stock market correction.
What Would I Do About All This?
(This is NOT financial advice, but it is what we did in our house…)
We are buying metals (FOR THE LONG HAUL), with nearly all of our metals vaulted by insured companies.
(Most of our metals are in my retirement fund that I cannot legally physically possess. So…)
We use the OneGold app for these funds (because they are in my ‘self-directed IRA’, and I can’t legally possess the metal).
https://www.onegold.com/join/b5321228046c464aa3d813f9f69afd6f
Be sure to ONLY BUY metal from trusted sources.
My local source is Micah Miller at www.fsmetals.us
If you want his phone number, you can reply to this email, and I’ll send it to you.
Based on lessons learned in California, I would suggest getting an insurance review.
We use Anthony at ProStar, in Washington state.
I have referred 27 people to him. His prices have come back LOWER 100% of the time than what someone was paying AND commonly for more coverage.
Just in my house (Mary, Dewan and I – with 4 properties and my retirement real estate fund) we have saved $2200 a year.
The WORST he’s done was to come up with $200 savings for a single person, newly retired.
Call him at 425-881-2400 and tell him you got the number from me.
