Senior Managing Editor of The Freeport Society
I’m not usually afflicted with indecision.
Today, I’m torn.
There’s a smorgasbord of topics at my fingertips, but limited space. What to choose… what to choose?
Let’s see…
In deciding not to charge President Joe Biden for knowingly taking home classified documents when he left the vice presidency in 2017, Special Counsel Robert Hur said… some things. Ahem…
In other news, it looks like Donald Trump could soon enjoy both a big legal victory and a major defeat, possibly on the same day. The Supreme Court justices are considering rejecting a judicial decision that kicked the former president off the Colorado ballot. But in a separate appeal concerning his immunity from prosecution, they look likely to vote against Trump.
In Nevada, presidential hopeful Nikki Haley was humiliated after tens of thousands of voters favored “none of these candidates” over her. Though, hey, we get it. We can’t say we’re fans of anyone currently in the running.
Frankly, this election is a joke. Not the funny kind. Rather, the sinister kind.
Back in 1825, on February 9, the U.S. House decided the presidential election after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes. Could we be heading for a similar event this November?
Your guess is as good as ours, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Especially if the Shadow Candidate waiting in the wings throws his hat into the ring come August 19. That could produce the worst possible outcome for Americans, as our Freeport Society friend Louis Navellier explains in this special presentation.
Regardless of who claims this White House, there’s little doubt that our “leaders” will continue steadily chipping away at our freedoms. Charles spoke of the latest inanity on Wednesday – small-business owners now have an additional burden of filing FinCEN BOIR forms because it’s their “duty” to help fight against money laundering and sanctions evasion.
In response, one of your fellow Navigators wrote to Charles expressing mutual sympathy for this latest nonsense. He said:
The writers of the stupid Patriot Act I guess had no idea that many many Americans use their middle names as their names.
I’ve had to use the first name even my mother denied knowing about when called by the police about her 14 year old son being caught driving at 4 am.
Weirdly, because when I got my first job I put my middle name as my first name, the only government entity that uses my middle name exclusively is the IRS.
I wonder if the Patriot Act has discovered even one terrorist for all the problems they’ve caused middle namers like me. Love reading your stuff.
Why stop there?
There are now proposals that would give the U.S. Department of Commerce the authority to stop the sale of replacement tires that have too much rolling resistance because they decrease a car’s fuel efficiency. Of course, that “excessive” rolling resistance is what keeps the car from sliding off the road, particularly in bad weather. So, the government is proposing a legal mandate to make our cars less safe. Brilliant!
At this point, I shake my head in dismay, and “thank the Pope” (an old South African euphemism for less desirable language) that we have the likes of Charles and The Freeport Society to guide us through this Age of Chaos.
To keep our freedoms, we must grow our wealth. Already, our Freeport Investor model portfolio has more than a dozen open investments designed for this very purpose. In that presentation from Louis that I mentioned earlier, he explains what areas we’re focused on and why. Take the time to watch it.
That’s enough from me for now. Let’s recap what we covered this week in The Freeport Navigator…
Where to Invest in Light of Totalitarian Shortsightedness: China and South Korea are completely and utterly screwed. As Charles wrote last month, China’s one-child policy worked. It did exactly what it was designed to do in limiting population growth. The problem is that it worked a little too well. Read Here.
$500 Per Day in Fines and Up to Two Years in Prison…: In the name of fighting money laundering and sanctions evasion, let’s make it harder for hard working small-business owners to comply with legal requirements while continuing to run their business. Yeah! That makes so much sense, said no LLC owner, ever! Read Here.
Why You Should Stop Freaking Out Over AI and Robotics and Jobs: AI is rapidly changing the world we live and work in. Dozens upon dozens of companies are restructuring and downsizing workforces to take advantage of the efficiencies AI affords. But is that a bad thing? Freeport Society Co-Founder Brian Hunt’s answer might surprise you. Read Here.
Looking Ahead
Saturday, February 10, 2024 is Super Bowl LVIII… or for those of us not fluent in Roman numerals beyond XX, No. 58. Singer Usher is lined up to perform the halftime show.
Risking accusations of blasphemy, I couldn’t care less. I come from a country where cricket and rugby grab most of the headlines. But it is a big deal that leads to an insane amount of corporate and consumer spending. And it’s the latter that’s of greatest interest, particularly in light of what our Freeport Society friend, Rodney Johnson over at HS Dent, mentioned yesterday.
In considering that consumer debt reached a record $17.5 trillion in the fourth quarter last year, Rodney wrote,
This is where math and context take the power out of the headline. For math, we should ask about nominal versus inflation-adjusted numbers. It’s not a record once it is adjusted, and after searing inflation over the last three years, such adjustments will be important. When inflation bumped along at 1.5% or so during the 2010s, adjusting for inflation wasn’t such a big deal. Now, after clocking almost 9% in one year and nearly 4% in two others, it will make a much bigger difference.
As for context, how much does consumer credit take out of your annual budget? The Federal Reserve of St. Louis shows that household debt servicing eats up 9.77% of our disposable income, a little less than in 2019. What they didn’t mention is that, except for the pandemic, this is the lowest percentage of personal income needed to service household debt since records began in 1980. You’d think they would mention that.
The problem is that income and debts aren’t equally distributed. If younger workers are taking on more debt to live and now are working fewer hours, we could see this cohort get squeezed this year. So far, they’re still willing to burn up the credit cards.
Coincidentally, CPI numbers are due out this week. That’s what Charles is watching most closely. Stay tuned.