Category End of U.S. Constitution

May 5 2023

Does Anybody Know What is Going On?


Armstrong Economics Blog/Climate Re-Posted May 5, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

COMMENT #1: I have seen the covers of various times predicting ice ages to heat waves and always it has been some exaggerated forecast that never comes true. Does anybody really know what is going on with this climate change nonsense where we are being taxed and deprived of all advancement for a theory that is unproven?

GR

COMMENT #2: Hello,
I was disturbed by Kennedy’s comment on locking up climate change opponents. However, I listened to a number of things he’d do the first day – all great. I voted for Trump in 2020; but believe he’s too egotistical to admit mistakes he made during Covid. He could be forgiven for listening to wrong advice; but admit it and don’t just blame others. Also, I voted for DeSantis but with his world tour promising military support around the world; seems like he’s just sucking up to the neocons. Trump needed to be “Trumpish” to win in 2016. If he admits past mistakes and “gets real”, show some humility; he could capture some never-Trumpers. Trump may be the only person would could drain the swamp, but his echo would not allow him to do what is necessary to capture the voters. I’m afraid DeSantis is going to be absorbed by the neocons. Kennedy may be the next best thing? You would do a much better job than Biden; but sadly, that’s not a high bar.
Thanks,
Bruce

REPLY: I agree, that Trump got caught up in the bad advice. It would be impressive if he would come out and tell the truth about COVID and who was giving him the advice. This Climate Change is insane. I grew up with gas stoves and heaters. New York has now banned gas stoves. These people are risking everything and sending society back to the stone age. The once respectable Economist has become an enemy of the people pushing both Schwab’s you will own nothing and insisting it had to be Biden for the Neocons.

It seems that the press is just a cheerleader for war. They paint nothing but hatred of Putin so we should send hundreds of thousands of our young to die to kill one man? After tens of thousands of years, we are no different from ants which also wage wars.

The worse analysis is whenever someone tries to claim everything is caused by a single event. That has never proven to be correct in any field of analysis. It is always far more complex.

ABSOLUTELY nothing can be reduced to a single cause and effect – NOTHING!

When I was called in by the Presidential Commission back investigating the 1987 Crash, an academic was put in charge of some investigation and said we were going to find that giant short that forced the market down. I explained that theory has always been put forth since the first investigation into the 1907 Crash and nobody has ever been found. They subpoenaed in 1930 all the millionaires and put them on trial in the Senate with false allegations. They found that they were all long – not short. They all lost money. But the allegation was so outrageous, William Fox (Wilhelm Fried Fuchs) founder of the Fox movie empire, lost his company thanks to countless lawsuits filed against him and he was too sick to attend the hearing in Washington so they put him on trial and destroyed his reputation all because they hated anyone who had money. That was why Hoover apologized for the unethical and unconstitutional treatment of the rich during the Great Depression.

When I explained that nobody was ever discovered, the next question was why then did the market crash? I explained that when everyone is long and something causes some to begin to take profit, the people try to sell and there is NO BID! That is when the market crashes. Politicians then blame short sellers and want to pass laws outlawing short selling and the ONLY person with the courage to buy during a crash is the short seller.

Eliminate that and you end up with a dead market just as took place in Japan. Instead of the crash being over in 2 to 3 years like 1929-1932, it was prolonged for 19 years. Everyone who was long was just waiting for a rally to sell that never came and there were no fresh buyers.

Climate Change is nothing but propaganda taking a natural cycle that can be proven and tracked for millions of years and these people want to reduce it all to just CO2 no different than blaming shorts for a stock market crash. There are just people obsessed with this propaganda and it is just beyond belief. If they believe in that so much, please then show us the way and just commit suicide to reduce the population, and that will reduce the whole CO2 problem.

During the 1970s, scientists were all predicting a new ice age. That was the popular view. Then there was a totally theoretical proposition laid out in the book Under a Green Sky that has become the bible for the total destruction of our modern society and just maybe they know that and are looking to deprive energy to reduce the population.

If we take the graph from the paleontologist Peter D. Ward’s book, “Under a Green Sky” published in 2007, this is what has inspired this whole climate debate and there is no evidence that it was CO2 that created an extinction of hundreds of millions of years ago. This has been a theoretical model that appears to be as reliable as the one funded by Bill Gates to justify locking down the entire world economy for a man-made virus – COVID19.

bernhardi-erratics

In 1832, Professor A. Bernhardi argued that the North Polar ice cap had extended into the plains of Germany. To support this theory, he pointed to the existence of huge boulders that have become known as “erratics,” which he suggested were pushed by the advancing ice. This was a shocking theory, for it was certainly a nonlinear view of natural history. Bernhardi was thinking out of the box. However, in natural science, people listen and review theories, unlike in social science, where theories are ignored if they challenge what people want to believe. In 1834, Johann von Charpentier (1786-1855) argued that there were deep grooves cut into the Alpine rock concluding, as did Karl Schimper, that they were caused by an advancing Ice Age.

woolyrhino

There is a cycle to everything. The climate ALWAYS changes, and there are warming periods and cooling periods. These charlatans are no different than the Babylonian high priests pretending to block the sun with the moon on their command. Science was turned on its head after a discovery in 1772 near Vilui, Siberia, of an intact frozen woolly rhinoceros, which was followed by the more famous discovery of a frozen mammoth in 1787. You may be shocked, but these discoveries of frozen animals with grass still in their stomachs set in motion these two schools of thought since the evidence implied you could be eating lunch and suddenly find yourself frozen, only to be discovered by posterity.

baby-mammoth

The discovery of the woolly rhinoceros in 1772, and then frozen mammoths, sparked the imagination that things were not linear after all. These major discoveries truly contributed to the Age of Enlightenment, where there was a burst of knowledge erupting in every field of inquisition. Such finds of frozen mammoths in Siberia continue to this day. This has challenged theories on both sides of this debate to explain such catastrophic events. These frozen animals in Siberia suggest strange events are possible even in climates that are not that dissimilar from the casts of dead victims who were buried alive after the volcanic eruption of 79 AD at Pompeii in ancient Roman Italy. Animals can be grazing and then freeze abruptly. Climate change has been around for billions of years — long before man invented the combustion engine.

Even the field of geology began to create great debates that perhaps the earth simply burst into a catastrophic convulsion and, indeed, the planet was cyclical — not linear. This view of sequential destructive upheavals at irregular intervals or cycles emerged during the 1700s. This school of thought was perhaps best expressed by a forgotten contributor to the knowledge of mankind, George Hoggart Toulmin, in his rare 1785 book, “The Eternity of the World”:

” ••• convulsions and revolutions violent beyond our experience or conception, yet unequal to the destruction of the globe, or the whole of the human species, have both existed and will again exist ••• [terminating] ••• an astonishing succession of ages.”

Id./p3, 110

As for the overpopulation propaganda being pushed by Bill Gates, he is just part of the collapse of Western Civilization. I find it really hypocritical that they want to imprison Trump, but not people pushing to reduce the world population and mandating a vaccine that FAILED to prevent the virus and more people who died of COVID who were vaccinated than not. It would seem we are dealing with some dangerous psychopaths running around advocating global genocide. But hey! January 6th was against the political establishment so they are evil. When those in power conspire against We the People, there is nobody to defend the people because they also control all investigations and prosecutions. Only when the military wake up and realize that they TOO are We the People and their families and no longer support the political agenda history teaches us that is the only time when the people will be saved.

Apr 27 2023

Biden’s Let’s Finish the Job


Armstrong Economics Blog/Politics Re-Posted Apr 27, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Biden’s announcement that he is running was crafted like a Twitter post – not live and posted at 6AM. His message is highly questionable for all he is saying is that the Republicans are radicals and therefore vote for him and he will maintain the status quo. There is a void of any new proposal and there is undoubtedly no message about the economy or inflation that is running away and reducing the livelihood of the average American. Quite frankly, this is the most controversial campaign that naturally the media will never even discuss. How do you “finish the job” without knowing what has been accomplished and what remains “finished” in a second term? The total absence of any claim that he accomplished anything from COVID to having 7 aids that are LGBTQ leaves a huge void.

The Republicans, on the other hand, are simply rolling out the same agenda of restraining the debt ceiling which will only work to undermine the entire socialist agenda and that is way too late. The warmongers in the Republican Party would rather spend money throwing it into the Ukrainian Black Hole where we are paying the entire salaries and pensions of Ukrainian government officials with no restraint on their salaries whatsoever. So we are to cut the benefits of Americans but keep funding Ukraine? Sorry, that is not an agenda I would be voting for.

Then there is the Abortion issue so they are fighting well-organized propaganda where even Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said when she got to the Supreme for Roe v Wade, that it was all about population control and eugenics – not women’s rights.

The defense of Roe v Wade is actually hypocritical for the Democrats. The main support comes from Gates and Rockefeller Foundations and it is covertly supported by the United Nations. This is all about the Planned Parenthood agenda to provide abortions to minorities to reduce their population. Now you may think I am being a conspiracy theorist. However, back in 2009, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg bluntly told the truth, when she was for equal rights for women.

The Democrats successfully won the abortion argument and the Republicans never understood the issue. It is like asking a witness when was the last time you beat your wife. He will then try to defend himself saying never, and even say ask his wife if he ever beat her. She will say no, and then you argue of course she will deny being beaten out of fear you will beat her again when you get home. You created a no-win argument and changed the entire agenda and nobody understands how you manipulated the entire argument.

Ginsberg made it clear: “Frankly, I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.” She spoke bluntly in an interview published in the New York Times Magazine which was an article on women on the court. So it was not simply a woman’s rights agenda. That was the cover story to hide the real agenda which has always existed – eugenics and to reduce the population of minorities.

The Republicans have been diverted to argue over religion and never noticed that the Democrats flipped Eugenics into Women’s Rights. This claim it is my body so it is my choice, was entirely ignored by the Biden Administration when it came to COVID Vaccines. Suddenly nobody cared if it was your body, you were being told to take the vaccine or lose your job.

The Republicans are too caught up in their old rhetoric to notice that they have been played like a fiddle and they are the monkey dancing to the organ-grinder’s tune. I fail to see any Republican charging in on a white horse to save the day. They are too distracted to even understand what day it is.

So when Biden says let’s finish the job, he refuses to even say what the job is.

Apr 26 2023

New FHFA Rule- Middle Class to Subsidize High-Risk Borrowers


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate Re-Posted Apr 26, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Biden is ushering in new socialistic policies and there are no checks and balances. I mentioned a few weeks ago how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are changing Loan Level Price Adjustments (LLPAs) on conventional loans. To ensure “fairness,” the agencies are helping “underserved” home buyers by reducing costs for those with lower credit scores and less money for down payments. Borrowers with a credit score under 680 will be rewarded, while those who spent years maintaining a high level of creditworthiness will see higher rates. So those with good credit and savings will be subsidizing mortgages for others who are less financially responsible.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is using the race card and claiming this will help people of color secure loans. “In the short term, this may increase homeownership among the targeted group, but I’m afraid it could decrease homeownership among the middle class,” said Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. “I’m not sure that we’re not robbing Peter to pay Paul here.” People of color can also have good credit and savings for a downpayment, and it is an insult to say otherwise. As of now, lenders are solely looking at the colorblind numbers and race is not a factor. This is merely a ploy to see how this administration can slowly replace our republic with socialism.

This is completely unconstitutional and it’s telling how this measure passed with little backlash. Do not trash your credit because the rules of this rigged game always change. There will be backlash once people see the additional fees that the Biden Administration calls “minimum.” An extra $40 per month on a $400K loan amounts to over $14,400 over the course of a 30-year mortgage. Moreover, already stressed banks will be forced to provide loans at a lower rate to people who should not qualify. The law goes into effect on May 1, right in time for the busy spring season. Biden is forcing people to redistribute their wealth, and we are not talking about real wealth. Those with real wealth are buying in cash right now. This directly hurts the middle class who believed that working hard could afford them the now imaginary American dream.

Apr 24 2023

BREAKING, Thundershock – Fox News Fires Tucker Carlson, Last Show Was Last Friday. This is the End of the First Amendment and “Free” speech.


Posted originally on the CTH on April 24, 2023

In a stunning development at Fox News, it appears they have fired the #1 television news host/pundit in the industry.

In a terse statement [LINK HERE]:

NEW YORK — April 24, 2023 — FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.

Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.

Tucker Carlson had the number one rated news and broadcast show across the entire media industry.

An immediate firing with no further shows?

This is a stunning breaking development!

Then again….

….. There are Trillions at Stake!

Apr 19 2023

The Great Divide


Armstrong Economics Blog/Civil Unrest Re-Posted Apr 19, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Any company that is adopting WOKE should be out of business for what they are really doing is dividing the country and completing what our computer has forecast – the breakup of the United States. The WOKE Agenda is attacking the religious beliefs of many and that historically always leads to division, discrimination, and often outright war.

When a company endorses what they think is some political agenda, it will lose the business from the opposition. This whole thing about transgender is out of control. Instead of eliminating discrimination, they are creating it. People will then blame the transgender movement for all sorts of things as they have done to Jews, Catholics, Muslims, and Protestants. There is no solution here. By endorsing WOKE, they are undermining the religious beliefs of others. You end up creating disunity – not unity.

Companies should NEVER take sides in politics especially when they attack religious beliefs. It is one thing to lobby for your business against some regulation. But endorsing this WOKE agenda is part of the Great Divide that is clearly a major factor contributing to the demise of the United States by dividing the people between blue and red. Abortion already offends many religious beliefs. Then there is taxation and war. This WOKE Agenda will be one of the factors historians will look back on for breaking up the United States.

During the Hard Times that followed the Panic of 1837, there was discrimination against the Irish Catholics for taking jobs when they migrated to the States. That led to even gun battles on the street. Just as Germany singled out the Jews, any time you single out any group, you divide your society, undermining the state’s foundation.

We are all equal or we are not. When we are, great civilizations are formed. When Philadelphia was founded by William Penn, a Quaker, it was on the principle of religious freedom. The first Catholic Church was erected there along with the first churches of just about every denomination. The whole slavery issue and the Civil War also involved religion.

This WOKE Agenda is extremely dangerous because it attacks the religious beliefs of many. Besides the American Civil War with its roots in religion, the same was true of the English Civil War which was Protestant v Catholic. India & Pakistan separated over religion – Buddhist v Islam. The Protestant Revolution was actually funded by Catholic bankers who wanted to compete with the Jews but could not get into the trade since lending money for interest was the Sin of Usury.

Arnaud Amalric (died 1225) was a very prominent abbot in the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229), also known as the Cathar Crusade. They were persecuted because they believed in two Gods or philosophies, with the first one being good and the second being evil. It was during this religious war, which was covertly really for French political gain, that the monk Amalric is best remembered for allegedly advising a soldier who was worried about killing orthodox Catholics in the process of killing declared Cathar heretics. He said:

 “NovitenimDominusquisunteius.” (“Kill them. For the Lord knows those that are His own.”)

The historical list goes on and on. The number of wars and civil uprisings that offended religious beliefs are countless. This WOKE Agenda is NOT about discrimination, it is an agenda that undermines the state and will lead to the breakup of the United States precisely as our computer has forecast.

This WOKE Agenda has prompted more than just a boycott of BUD. It has produced Woke Free American Beer. I’m not a beer drinker, I prefer Scotch. So I cannot speak to how it compares to Bud. But you can try it yourself to make that decision at Ultrarightbeer.com.

This is what I mean. This is not really an economic right-wing thing, it has its roots in religious beliefs. A friend from Europe came and we went down to Key West which is a major hangout for the Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender crowd (LGBT/LGBQT). We saw a guy who could have been a linebacker in high heels with a black mini-skirt standing on the corner and people were taking pictures with him. He was obviously making serious cash. He was certainly not very feminine looking and with the heels, he stood over 7ft. Nobody was insulting him, they were lining up to have their photo taken with him.

This Woke Free American Beer commercial starts with Seth Weathers standing outside of a women’s bathroom and saying, “America has been drinking beer from a company that doesn’t even know which restroom to use.”

Welcome to the Great Divide

The time is quickly approaching when we will turn out the light on this American Experiment 

2034?

Apr 14 2023

Only 32% of Lenders Profited on Mortgages in 2022


Armstrong Economics Blog/Real Estate Re-Posted Apr 13, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

The talking heads have been warning of a housing crash, but that is not what Socrates indicated. The 30-year fixed rate is around 6.89% at the time of this writing. Housing costs continue to rise, causing the costs of servicing mortgage debt to rise. Housing inventory is limited, and a recent report explains why we saw mass layoffs in the banking sector. The demand is still there and it is a sellers’ market. Cash is king when it comes to real estate for those who can afford it. Mortgage lenders are in trouble. In fact, only 32% of mortgage companies were profitable in 2022 compared to 98% in 2020.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) recently announced that independent mortgage banks and subsidiaries of chartered banks lost around $301 for every mortgage they financed in 2022. This marks a 113% decline from the prior year’s average and the first-time banks are seeing losses on mortgage products. This is not 2008 when banks handed out loans to anyone who asked.

“The rapid rise in mortgage rates over a relatively short period of time, combined with extremely low housing inventory and affordability challenges, meant that both purchase and refinance volume plummeted,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis. “The stellar profits of the previous two years dissipated because of the confluence of declining volume, lower revenues, and higher costs per loan.” Production costs reached a high of $10,624 per loan last year. Productivity was 1.5 loans originations per production employee, down from 2.5 per employee the year prior, and an indicator of why we are seeing layoffs in the banking sector. No one is refinancing at these rates either and most chose a fixed rate, as we saw what happened in 2008 with adjustable costs.

First-time mortgages reached an all-time high of $323,780 last year, up from $298,324, the largest annual increase since the MBA began collecting data. The increased cost of loans increased the cost of serving mortgages. The MBA expects volume to decline further in 2023 before rallying in 2024 and 2025. The banking crisis may lead to banks and lenders selling off their mortgage debts once they cannot afford to service the debt. Again, the housing crisis today is not relative to the 2008 crash.

Apr 13 2023

The Dollar Sophistry


Armstrong Economics Blog/USD $ Re-P osted Apr 12, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION #1: Dear Martin Armstrong,
Thank you for your unwavering support of humanity and truth. The question I have is about the growing number of countries seeking to divorce themselves from the USD in favor of the alternate BRICS system. Yet when I try to make sense of the current Secured Dollar Funding Complex involving Cash Lenders, Fixed Income and Repo Clearing Banks, Commercial Paper, CD’s, Syndicated and Interbank Loans, Wholesale, Retail and Corporate Deposits, Corporate & Sovereign Bonds, etc. How likely is the world to cleanly disconnect from this entangled web and over what anticipated time frame, rapidly or a long drawn out affair?
Sincerely,

Roy

QUESTION #2: Marty, is all this sudden talk about dethroning the US dollar coming just when April was a major target for the Euro bounce?

HJ

COMMENT #3: You have always said when China starts selling dollars, it is time for war. It looks like they are right on schedule.

Pete

ANSWER: All of this talk of dethroning the dollar is right on time. Yes, April was the target and we should be very careful here for this April/May period is critical on a global basis. As for the BRICS displacing the dollar in the trade as so many are saying, this only PROVES they are just putting out biased claims being anti-dollar with pure sophistry. This reveals that they do not understand anything about the economy, trade, or international finance.

Yes, the Euro elected a Monthly Bullish Reversal (Buy Signal). However, it MUST exceed 11100 on a monthly closing basis to suggest the euro can advance further on a sustained basis. If the Euro exceeds intraday the February high, then a monthly closing below 108 would warn we may be looking at the war and the flight to the dollar would unfold. I would expect that capital controls would be introduced by the end of the year.

First of all, the very reason they created the Euro was to end FX risk and to create a single market. If the BRICS create a competitive currency, then they are introducing FX Risk and that will REDUCE trade with the United States. If the dollar declines, then they will suffer a loss of trade. What makes the US dollar the reserve currency is the fact that the US is the largest consumer-based economy that everyone wants to sell to. I find it laughable how these people pretend to understand finance but are ignorant in reality offering nothing but sophistry.

They can create whatever currency they desire, but they cannot force the FX risk on their buyers. I helped to reorganize the Japanese auto industry where they priced their cars in dollars to the States and took back the FX Risk to be managed. They beat the Germans who were pricing their cars in DMarks during the 70s and soon their sales were declining to the Japanese. I was then later called in by German companies to teach them about FX Risk. and market share. Creating some new reserve currency is pointless if they put the FX risk on their customers.

As far as China, I cannot believe how the bias has skewed the analysis. People are actually saying they are selling dollars because the dollar will be dethroned. China has been dependent on the US economy to make money. They would NEVER sell dollars to simply dethrone the reserve status of the dollar. They are selling dollars because YOU DO NOT FUND your enemy. We are headed into war. They know that. This is all geopolitical and those who just hate the dollar are going to get sucker punched because they are missing what is really going on here.

They have been buying gold NOT because they are bullish – but because they must sell US bonds for in times of war the US will just default on all bonds held by China. I think it is time to get your head out of the sand and open your eyes. This is not about dollars and gold. This is about preparing for World War III.

Apr 12 2023

When It Comes to Economics, Trust Your Instincts


Posted originally on the CTH on April 11, 2023 | Sundance 

A few days after the terror attack of 9-11-01, someone in media asked George W. Bush what Americans can do to help.  Dubya’s response drew instant criticism, because he asked people to go shopping… but in the big picture, President Bush knew what could happen if the economic freeze continued.

When it comes to politics and economic outlooks, trust your instincts.  The economics of the ‘thing’ is always the reason the ‘thing’ exists or does not exist.

When you are looking at economic news, always remind yourself… the people producing the news have a vested interest in maintaining a very specific outlook.  The motive behind what Dubya said in September of 2001, pertains every bit as much today.  Economic outcomes can topple entire governments.

Remember, this current ‘supply-side energy policy driven inflation‘, a purposeful effort to shrink the economy and yet tenuously maintain control, has never happened before.  The people behind the Build Back Better agenda are, in reality, experimenting with a theory. DATA…

(ISM) – The Institute for Supply Management’s PMI contracted for the fifth straight month in March registering 46.3, the lowest level since May 2020. Any reading below 50.0 indicates contraction.  The employment index declined by 2.2 percent to a level of 46.9.

Most of the impediments to manufacturing growth — such as shortages and lockdowns — have subsided, said Tim Fiore, chair of the ISM’s manufacturing survey committee, with the exception of pricing. ISM’s pricing index fell below 50 in March but at 49.2 remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.

“The beginning of the second half may not be the beginning of a recovery,” said Fiore. “Manufactures reduced headcounts because of uncertainty of demand and over-ordering has burned off. Demand isn’t coming back quickly enough to support current headcounts.”

All these trends were prevalent in March, he added, although the PMI has only lost 3 to 4 points since October 2022.

Back in December, ISM panelists anticipated an uptick in demand by the beginning of Q2. “We thought this recovery would be lumpy, but I think this indicates the recovery has been delayed,” Fiore said. “I think we are talking about expansion toward the end of Q3—it’s unlikely we’ll see a lot of activity in the summer.” (read more)

It’s not a recovery now, it will not be a recovery this year.

On a per unit basis, we have been in an economic contraction cycle since mid 2021.  However, because economic outcomes are measured in dollars, the shrinking unit output, and the fewer units being sold at wholesale and retail level, is being hidden.

Inflation has hidden serious drops in unit purchases…. and fewer unit purchases mean lowered production output…. and lowered production output means less production is needed.

(CNBC SURVEY) – Inflation, economic instability and a lack of savings have an increasing number of Americans feeling financially stressed. 

Some 70% of Americans admit to being stressed about their personal finances these days and a majority — 52% — of U.S. adults said their financial stress has increased since before the Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020, according to a new CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in partnership with Momentive.

Anxious and uncertain about whether they can get a better handle on their money, some may be intimidated by the prospect of creating a budget or unsure of where to stash their cash to get the highest returns. Others may be wondering how to begin saving for retirement when they’ve gotten off to a late start. 

“People are worried that the money they’ve saved won’t last and are worried they’re going to have to lean more on their credit cards and other sources of debt just to get by,” said Bruce McClary, a senior vice president at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. (read more) 

If you want to know what’s going on in the larger U.S. economy, just look around you.

Don’t turn on the television and read the newspaper to see what is happening in the U.S. economy for your purchasing or life planning.  Just look around you.

Look at restaurants and bars.  Do you see continued high-volume business or not.

Look at the grocery stores. Do you see continued optimism, or not.

Look at the malls and shopping centers. Do you see foot traffic, or not.

Look at the real estate in your neighborhood – your local view.  Do you see prices going up or going down.

That’s the reality of the economy as it impacts you….. and critically, that’s the reality of the economy nationwide.

When it comes to data and economics, do not let the media created ‘illusion of the thing‘ cloud your ability to see the reality of the thing.

Trust your instincts.