Scary Charts – 07.07.23

Americans today are lacking crucial savings needed for managing short-term emergencies and building long-term wealth. According to a rolling representative online survey among U.S. adults by YouGov, 27 percent of Americans had some savings below $1,000 as of May 2023, while 12 percent said they had no savings at all.

Savings: Quarter of Americans Have Few, One in 10 Have None — https://www.statista.com/chart/20323/americans-lack-savings/

Scary Charts – 02.06.23

To the extent that the Fed knows anything, it knows this, and really, really wants to force that blue line down into negative territory if possible. But it also knows that doing so will send prices spiraling out of control – which is another way of saying the dollar will crash (not necessarily against the euro and the yen, which have similar problems, but against oil, lumber, eggs, milk, cars, and all the other things voters buy regularly). The result? Political and financial chaos.

Welcome To the Death Spiral — https://rubino.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-death-spiral

YIKES!

On a positive note I’ll likely be dead when the SHTF.

Quote for Today 12.09.22 AND Scary Charts

There is no mystery to controlling inflation. You just have to stop spending money you don’t have…stop lending out money at interest rates below inflation…and stop ‘printing’ up extra money to cover the holes in your budget. Instead, most governments continue to spend and print. Inflation is on the rise almost everywhere. And for the first time in modern history, much of the entire world’s middle class – the people who make the world work – is facing a grim period of higher inflation and lower real standards of living.

Three Strikes, You’re Out! More on the government’s middle class massacre – Bonner Private Research https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/p/three-strikes-youre-out

But wait…it’s worse in North America.

I’m just thankful I haven’t retired yet.

What Middle Class?

Hat tip to Mike Shedlock, a registered investment advisor at SitkaPacific Capital Management for highlighting the following video for his blog readers.

This is the portion of the blog post where I typically add a snarky comment.

Nope. Not going to joke about this.

We Don’t Need No Education (with apologies to Pink Floyd)

Enrollment declines continued to worsen this spring. Total post-secondary enrollment fell to 16.2 million this spring, marking a one-year decline of 4.1 percent or 685,000 students. Enrollment declined this spring at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Following a 3.5 percent drop last spring, post-secondary institutions have lost nearly 1.3 million students since spring 2020. Undergraduate enrollment accounted for most of the decline, dropping 4.7 percent this spring or over 662,000 students from spring 2021. As a result, the undergraduate student body is now 9.4 percent or nearly 1.4 million students smaller than before the pandemic.

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center — https://nscresearchcenter.org/current-term-enrollment-estimates/

I wonder why so many kids are not going to college.

Make $250K and Live Paycheck to Paycheck?

Some 36% of households taking in nearly four times the median US salary devote nearly all of their income to household expenses, according to a survey by industry publication Pymnts.com and LendingClub Corp.

One-Third of Americans Making $250,000 Live Paycheck-to-Paycheck, Survey Finds — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-01/a-third-of-americans-making-250-000-say-costs-eat-entire-salary

A billion dollars isn’t what it used to be. Nelson Bunker Hunt

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/nelson_bunker_hunt_176038