Less than two weeks ago my wife was talking with a friend of hers and learned of a recent experience of theirs. The couple, early 60’s, were at a thrift store doing a bit of shopping. They had driven their truck and left the windows partially rolled down, but the doors were locked. Just as they were checking out they heard a scream from the vicinity of their truck.

Well, the reason they had left the windows down was to allow fresh air for their large part-golden retriever that was in the backseat of the truck. The scream…well, that was from the person that had reached in the window to unlock the door to steal some items in the front of the truck. The dog decided that wasn’t going to happen…bit the guy’s arm and held on. Hence, the scream.

The couple walked the 100’ to the truck, the wife pulled out her handgun and the husband told the dog to let the guy go. The wife then suggested to the man to lay on the ground face down…or the alternative would not be pleasant. He complied.

Police were called, arrest was made, the would be thief placed in the back of a patrol car to be hauled off to jail.

When my wife related the story to me I began to wonder a bit…what other serious crimes were taking place in our area. A few days before the truck incident a man had broken into a local house to commit a burglary. However, a woman was home…and of course the criminal just had to shoot her in the face. Thankfully the woman was not killed and is recovering.

Well, I had to keep digging…and found a whole series of serious crimes, most of them violent or with the threat of violence. I stopped my research with an incident at our local Walmart 3 years ago when a man broke into a Walmart store prior to the store opening. He held the store employees hostage at gunpoint while he attempted to steal money.

So…what did these violent crimes have in common? Yes, a criminal, obviously. But an interesting thing about all these criminals. But, before I get into that let me share with you an interesting statistic…the two adjoining towns where the handful of crimes took place has a combined population of 11,000 people and located about 1-1/2 hours from any city of any notable size. The combined dual-town population is about 16% of the average NFL football game attendance. Yeah, two very small towns.

So the common denominator…the criminals all had Hispanic names and appear to have come across the southern border illegally.

What was the crime rate before 2020 in those two small towns…virtually nothing.

So next time you hear the politicians in Washington, or the whole list of agency heads, talk about how secure the border is…think about the 10’s of thousands of serious violent crimes taking place each year by illegal aliens. Everything from rapes of young children, murders of teenagers, drunk drivers killing entire families, not to mention the thefts and drug industry…all at the hands of illegal aliens.

But I am not done yet…

One day last week we heard of two incidents of a slightly different nature. Incident #1, a distant neighbor had a visit from county ‘code enforcement’. The family is building a small house out in the middle of nowhere on 40acres. They had a well drilled, solar system built, septic tank system installed, and were finishing up the inside of their home. They were expecting to move in about 2 weeks from now. Oh noooooooo! The county employee posted a ‘cease and desist’ letter to stop the building and prevent them from moving into their home. Why? They hadn’t asked the county for permission to build their home.

Incident #2 was the next day. Another distant neighbor received an order to vacate his home. Yeah, he had the nerve to be living in a large, well-built, comfortable, secure, and rather nice camper. You see county employees don’t think people should be living like that…so he too is being kicked out of his home.

Two families are now becoming homeless based on a county employee whim…albeit, based on a county ordnance. In addition to two families now homeless…I would estimate that the total combined financial loss for them to be about $200,000 or so. And if they violate the county’s demands…heavily armed men will show up and will throw them in jail. Or, if there is any resistance to that action they could end up shot.

Now here is a question for you…well, maybe a couple…

1 – To hijack a biblical term…wherein lies the great sin? A criminal, at the threat of violence/death steals from people…or government stooges taking people’s homes and money from them at the threat of violence/death from heavily armed men?

2 – It is obvious that we should not tolerate criminal activity. But, why do we tolerate such behavior when the dimwits are from the government?

Let me close with a thought…in the Declaration of Independence there is the phrase:

“…all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed…”

Most of us understand the whole life and liberty thing pretty well. But, the pursuit of happiness part sometimes is not clearly understood. Most informed scholars agree that ‘happiness’ as Jefferson intended it is this… the goal of virtue and excellence in our personal and civic lives because that is the foundation of liberty which frees us from enslavement. The specific virtues, according to Jefferson, are primarily courage, moderation, and justice. And remember this…who had enslaved the colonists when Jefferson was writing this? The tyrannical British government.

The Declaration of Independence was pretty clear on what our God-given rights were…basically, to be left alone from government interference in our lives. That is the life and liberty part. But how does the happiness thing work into it? We have to treat each other with moderation, we have to understand what true justice is…and we must have courage to defend our rights…our God-given rights.

Notice that governments only have legal power when it is granted by the consent of the governed. Notice that both of these families lost…due to nothing more than an ‘ordnance’ passed by some group of county employees based on their opinions and bias.

Finally, here is a part of that Declaration of Independence that virtually ALL politicians and most people are totally ignorant of (or choose to ignore), “…That to secure these Rights…” is the mission of government. So tell me…how did our county government secure these folks rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

Hell, when was the last time ANY level of government anywhere do anything to secure these basic God-given rights for anyone?

Yeah, I thought so!

Maybe politicians need to be reminded of the whole entire purpose of the Declaration of Independence…and how that turned out.

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So here is a follow-up question from yesterday’s article…

• I read your article yesterday and it made sense to me. I have a ton of questions but one in particular. Why do so many experts say the economy is doing well, when you say it isn’t?

Ouch! A little personal there, eh?

OK, you are actually right…SPOT ON! Actually, the vast majority of economic/banking/market experts are all saying the economy is doing well. And even more interesting…the vast majority of average people define today’s economy as ‘poor’ or worse. So why the difference?

To me it is simple…viewpoints.

‘Experts’ look at lots and lots of economic metrics…in other words, statistics. They look at a long list of statistics such as unemployment, GDP, inflation, debt-to-GDP, etc. Even stuff like ‘the composition of the debt between currency, reserves, bills, notes and bonds’…if you can even begin to wrap your head around that one. There are literally hundreds of these economic metrics that experts review, compare, extrapolate, and mix with tea leaves and chicken bones. That gives them their opinions/views/forecasts.

Then there is the American public, the average Joe, you and me. What we mostly look at is what we pay for stuff. Things like food prices, car prices, mortgage rates, utility costs, rent, credit card interest, fuel, etc.

So it is the theoretical vs the realistic viewpoint conflict. And age old problem to be sure.

So yes, my opinion/viewpoint of what is happening economically in the US is very different from the vast majority of experts…and I am grateful that it is…I am not drinking the Kool-Aid.

What?

First point: almost every key economic metric is controlled by whom? Yup, produced by the US federal government. And do the people causing almost all the economic problems want to produce figures showing how poorly their economy is doing?

Next point: Virtually every economic expert has a side gig, or their primary job, giving advice to investors. If the general perception is that the economy is doing well…then investments do well. Self-serving to say the least.

There are some interesting folks out there making some really good observations.

“America is broke right now,” the personal-finance guru, Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), said in a recent Fox Business interview. “America is in serious trouble financially because of the debt load.” He went on to predict this…1) he warned America’s debt pile will fuel inflation and crush the US dollar, 2) The government will print greenbacks to cover its soaring debt costs, eroding their value, 3) raised the prospect of a severe recession and a market crash.

But it gets way more interesting…

The CEO of Walmart just said, “customers are behaving so strangely” in that they are still spending money but are far more picky about what they are buying, are moving away from popular name brands, and “customers generally speaking are really sensitive right now.”

And when asked about the Walmart statement, Amazon’s CEO said this about their customers, “they’re being careful about what they spend on, and they’re looking for bargains and deals wherever they can. Wherever they can trade down price they’re trying to do so.”

What does that mean to you?

Hold on…let’s not leave the federal government out of this! At the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday, they were talking about the upcoming changes for home lenders. Current mortgage rates are double to triple what they were before Biden took office…now approaching 8%. At the committee hearing banking experts warned that the new government mandate rule changes will raise mortgage rates at least 30%, just from those rule changes alone.

So what do you think happens to the housing market when mortgage rates are 10 – 15%???

Yeah boy, my view of the current economic condition and where it is head is WAY different than the vast majority of the so-called experts. I just wished I made their kind of salaries!!

So, good catch…good call…spot on !

Now, here are 3 metrics that all came out yesterday that might give you a little pause…

1 – Reuters reports that the total US household wealth fell by 1% in the 3rd quarter (ending October 31) of 2023. They said that the only reason it didn’t fall more substantially…increase in house prices.

2 – NYT reports that as of the end of the 3rd quarter of 2023 (ending October 31) the average US home price has been falling since since the beginning of 2023….average price now $431,000.

3 – The Fed reported that credit card debt increased $3billion in the 3rd quarter (ending October 31) to another record high of $1.3trillion. The reasons; 1) inflation, 2) high interest rates, 3) household expense rising faster than income. Part of that article, “When your expenses are growing faster than your paycheck, credit cards are not an indulgence, they’re a lifeline.” Along with that is this from Morgan Stanley, “customers are running higher balances and have weaker credit.”

My thoughts on this:

• (ref #2) Reading the full housing report shows house prices falling except in key areas of the country and the price of high-end homes are increasing in price at a very high pace, faster than the mid and lower income homes. Example: In our area our place would sell for about $300,000 or so. That is $131,000 less than the national average. How many homes would have to sell well above $431,000 to bring ours up to that average price?
• (ref #1) In regards to American wealth…Do you live in a high-end $700,000 priced home? Do you live in one of the hot home price areas? Take away those high-end homes and the hot priced areas…what does that tell you about the real fall of American household wealth if you look at the real situation of house prices?
• (ref #3) If the American economy (Biden Economics) and Americans in general are doing so well financially…then why are credit card balances going up and balances hitting new record highs? Why are the ‘experts’ talking about how good the economy is when the Fed is talking about the damning effects of inflation and high interest rates?
• (ref #3) Take a serious moment and really consider these two quotes:
  • “When your [Americans] expenses are growing faster than your paycheck, credit cards are not an indulgence, they’re a lifeline.”
  • “Customers are running higher balances and have weaker credit.”

So what do these metrics tell you?

No, wait…what does your gut tell you? Your commonsense tells you what?

Better yet…what are doing about it?

Related Articles –

• Gas Prices: Can you explain that?
• “Inflation is Falling!” Ah, what?
• GDP 4.9% : Economic Celebration ! !
• Economy Manipulated ? ?

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without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
See Content Use Policy for more information.

The US federal government runs on what is called a ‘fiscal year’ vs a calendar year. It just means that their financial year is from October of one year until September of the next year. For the US federal government the 2023 fiscal year has already ended and it is well into year 2024 financially.

Why is that important and what does it mean?

Well, well…now that is the question of the day!

Let me share some facts with you…

• In 2023 – US federal government revenue was $4.7trillion, and spent $880billion servicing the national debt.
• In 2022 – US federal government revenue was $5trillion, and spent $475billion servicing the national debt.
• In 2021 – US federal government revenue was $4.4trillion, and spent $352billion servicing the national debt.
• In 2020 – US federal government revenue was $3.8trillion, and spent $345billion servicing the national debt.

What does this mean?

In 2021 federal government revenue grew by 16%, in 2022 federal government revenue grew by 13%, in 23 federal government revenue FELL by 6%. So government revenue growth slowed dramatically from 2020 – 2022. Then in 2023 government revenue FELL!!

From 2020 – 2023 the cost of servicing the US federal government national debt skyrocketed by 155%!!

Now hear this…in 2024 the debt service on the national debt is projected to exceed $1trillion! Yeah, that amount looks like this $1,000,000,000,000.

Consider this…the cost to pay just the interest on the US debt this year (2024) is $3,300 for every US man, woman, and infant.

Then there is the national debt itself…it now stands about 35cents shy of $34trillion and climbing by trillions each year. But let me put that into terms that are more easily understood…the US national debt climbs by $192billion each month…over $6billion each day!

But here is a real key…who owns the US national debt.

Since 2021 the % amount of US debt held by every group (foreign governments, private investors, etc) has fallen. There is one exception…the Federal Reserve, their ownership % of US debt has risen. Yes, that means that our primary foreign lenders, China and Japan among others, have not just stopped buying US debt…they have been selling the US debt they already owned.

So who is buying US debt? The Federal Reserve and associated banks. And that my friend means…the same organization that is creating the loans and money to create US debt…is the same one that is buying that debt. The ultimate funny money scheme!!!

What the heck does all this mean? Use common sense…

• The US federal government is spending trillions of $’s more than it takes in, the government then has to borrow the difference and go into debt.
• The servicing cost (interest) of that debt has almost tripled in 4 years.
• In 2024 the interest costs on the debt will equal ¼ of all government revenue.
• Fewer and fewer lenders in who are willing to lend the US money to fund its operations.
• The Federal Reserve is now buying the majority of debt that it is creating. Yup, that means they are lending the money that it is borrowing.

And exactly how long do you think that can last?

Worse yet…what do you think the world looks like when the US can no longer borrow enough to fund its spending?

Worse than that…what does your life look like when that happens?

Worst of all…what are you doing now to prepare for that eventuality? Do you have a realistic plan?

Related Articles –

• Economy Manipulated ? ?
• Danger Sign – Economy
• Warning Again : US Economy Continues to Fail

 2009 - 2023 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
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