America was founded by rugged individuals who created government to secure their rights and leave them alone. Americans today want government to violate other people's rights, steal their stuff, and give it to them. The home of the free has become the land of the freeloader.

As the owner of a portfolio of foreign stocks and gold and silver mining stocks—plus Euro Pacific Asset Management and Schiff Gold, companies that specialize in those investments—I expect to benefit from the Big, Beautiful Bill. Yet as an American, I spoke out against that bill.

Hakeem Jeffries just quoted from the Declaration of Independence regarding our founding principle of the pursuit of happiness, as if the government is responsible for making us happy. The true meaning is for government to leave us alone to pursue our own happiness as we see fit.

92% of the 147K jobs supposedly created in June were in government, health care, or social services. Manufacturing continued to lose jobs. These non-productive jobs raise our trade deficits, and lead to more government debt and higher inflation. Investors won't be fooled forever.

I read in a chatroom that some of my bank's customers had received their money back. Those posts were inaccurate. In the more than three years since my completely solvent bank was unnecessarily shut down, the only person who has received any money from the bank is the receiver.

Almost half the June jobs created were non-productive government jobs. The 4.1% official unemployment rate is a joke. Before 1994, the BLS used a broader definition—more like today’s 7.7% U-6 rate, which better reflects reality. The labor market is weak. Don’t believe the hype.

Democratic opposition to the Big, Beautiful Bill is political grandstanding. They know the Medicaid cuts are fake, as most will never come into effect. The bill preserves their big-government priorities while expanding Biden's excessive spending. This bill is a win for Democrats.

Regardless of what other nations do, the best trade policy is zero tariffs. A competitive domestic market benefits both consumers and businesses. Reciprocating protectionism only harms the nation that does it.

Trump said that his ultimate goal was free trade — that he’d leverage high tariffs to get other countries to drop theirs to zero, with the U.S. reciprocating. Well Vietnam agreed and dropped its tariffs on our goods to zero. But Trump raised our tariffs on their goods to 20%–40%.

As a result of Trump's trade deal with Vietnam, Americans are losers and Vietnamese are winners, relative to their positions under Biden. Americans will suffer by paying higher prices for Vietnamese imports, while the Vietnamese will enjoy paying lower prices on American imports.

A few conservatives who voted for the Big, Beautiful Bill in the House are threatening to block passage of the final bill because the fake spending cuts in the Senate version are not as large as the fake spending cuts in the House version.

Trump campaigned against Biden's reckless deficit spending and the resulting inflation it helped produce. Since Trump's deficit spending will be even more reckless, so too will the ensuing inflation. If you thought Bidenflation was bad, wait until you get a load of Trumpflation!.

All the companies adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets are either Bitcoin treasury companies or crypto-related businesses. No non-crypto companies are adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets. This is concentrated crypto speculation, not broad-based adoption.

The Fed will soon be in a bind, as both unemployment and inflation are about to jump to much higher levels. My guess is that political pressure will lead the Fed to cut interest rates to fight rising unemployment. This will not only exacerbate inflation, but unemployment as well.

Metals are spiking today. Silver is up 1.4%, platinum is up 5%, palladium is up 4.7%, copper is up 2%, steel is up 2.5%, zinc is up 1.5%, and nickel and lead are up 1%. Surging commodity prices signal that inflation has heated up. That means hotter CPI numbers are coming soon.

RT @zerohedge: ADP Reports Biggest Drop In Service-Provider Jobs Since COVID Lockdown

I really appreciated receiving this reward. Now I'm under a lot of pressure to live up to the introduction. I actually missed hearing most of it live.

Because of our own tariffs and import quotas, Americans pay about 140% more for sugar and peanuts than the rest of the world. This hits the poor hard, as they consume a lot of PB&J sandwiches. Before Trump lectures Japan on their quotas and tariffs on rice, he should repeal ours!.