Category: simonblack

Billionaire Peter Thiel has one. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has one. Actress Kirsten Dunst has one. Singer Ricky Martin has one.

Frankly the list of American celebrities, billionaires, and famous business moguls who have second passports is incredibly lengthy… and those are just the ones that we know about.

It’s not panic, and it’s not paranoia. Almost all of these people live and work in the United States, and they recognize that the US– despite overwhelming and incredibly frustrating problems, is still a good place to be.

But they also understand the worrying trends and enormous challenges ahead… and that having a second passport is a great tool to diversify those risks.

The concept is simple; when everything in your life– your nationality, your business, your residence, your savings, your investments, your retirement, etc. is all tied to the same country, then it means you’re putting all of your proverbial eggs in one basket.

If that single country has major problems, whether social, political, or economic, then everything you’ve worked for is at risk.

Diversification is key in controlling that risk.

You can diversify your finances quite easily by investing in gold, foreign currencies, international stocks, or even crypto. And you can diversify personal risk for yourself and your family by obtaining legal residency in a foreign country– which gives you the right to live, work, invest, and retire abroad in a place where you really enjoy spending time.

Becoming a dual citizen of another country takes that personal diversification to an even higher level… because it comes with a second passport, i.e. a valuable document that can be used for travel and business.

But the biggest misconception about second passports is that they’re only for the rich and famous. And that’s just completely wrong.

In fact, two weeks ago, the President of El Salvador announced that his country will be giving away 5,000 free passports “to highly skilled scientists, engineers, doctors, artists, and philosophers from abroad.”

He said that there would be no taxes or tariffs related to moving or importing any belongings, including intellectual property.

And he indicated that they intentionally chose a small number: 5,000 new citizens would represent “less than 0.1% of our population, so granting them full citizen status, including voting rights, poses no issue.”

“Despite the small number,” he added, “their contributions will have a huge impact on our society and the future of our country.”

He’s right. El Salvador will likely receive a ton of benefit from the 5,000 skilled immigrants they welcome, and very little downside.

(This is the opposite of US immigration policy, which makes it extremely difficult for talented, skilled people to obtain legal residency… yet with open arms they welcome millions of illegal migrants who cross the southern border without so much as a background check.)

The details of El Salvador’s skilled passport program haven’t been released yet. But since the whole point is to improve the country’s economy and quality of life, it’s likely to require the applicant to relocate to El Salvador to work in the country.

Most likely the program in El Salvador won’t entice too many people from North America or Europe. But I imagine a vast number of engineers from India, doctors from Africa, etc. would be willing to move.

After all, an El Salvadoran passport is a much, much better travel document than a passport from, say, India, Bangladesh, or Ghana, because it includes visa free travel to Europe, most of Latin America, and much of Asia.

Fortunately, El Salvador isn’t the only chance to get a practically free passport.

The first thing anyone pursuing second citizenship should check is if they are part of the “lucky bloodline club”. Several European countries allow people to claim citizenship through ancestry.

Italy, Ireland, Greece, Poland, and others offer citizenship to those who can trace their descent through official documentation.

Each country varies on how many generations they allow you to go back. But if you qualify, the total cost will be minor– procuring documents, getting translations, and government application fees.

Another fairly inexpensive way to acquire a second passport is to naturalize in a country by spending a certain amount of time living there.

For example, anyone who is interested in moving to Argentina can qualify to apply for naturalization and citizenship after just two years of living there as a legal resident. It takes five years in Portugal, and ten years in Spain, Italy, and Greece.

Also, certain foreign countries, such as Mexico and Brazil, grant citizenship to any children born on their soil. They also grant permanent residency to the parents, with an expedited path to citizenship.

This is a great gift to give a child, to be born with more access to the world that they can pass down to future generations. It’s one reason my wife and I chose to have both of our children in Mexico.

When it comes to El Salvador, we’ll withhold final judgment on the program until the details come out.

But if you want a second passport, there are plenty of paths that will get you there.

And again, it’s an insurance policy that makes a whole lot of sense in such an uncertain world.

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It’s barely six months into the US government’s ‘fiscal year’ (which started on October 1, 2023) and the federal budget deficit is already $1.1 trillion.

This number is utterly astonishing.

Of course, anyone paying attention to the rapidly dwindling US financial condition knows that the national debt is now hovering around $35 trillion.

That’s up $2 trillion in the last year alone, and up nearly $20 trillion over the last decade.

More importantly, the Congressional Budget Office has projected that the US national debt will increase by another $20 trillion over the next decade.

Those numbers are obviously bad. Horrendous, really.

But what’s even worse is how much NEW debt the government actually needs to sell each year just to repay its OLD debt.

Remember, whenever the government borrows money, they issue bonds in various denominations; these bonds can be as short as 28 days, all the way up to 30 years.

Whenever these bonds mature, the Treasury Department is obviously supposed to pay them back in full. Of course the federal government doesn’t actually have money to repay its debts. So instead they issue new debt to pay back the old debt.

And the amount of money they have to raise just to repay old debts is staggering.

Last year alone the Treasury Department had to raise nearly $20 trillion to repay maturing bonds. Plus they borrowed an additional $2.4 trillion in brand new debt on top of the $20 trillion.

Unbelievable.

And so far in just in the first three months of 2024, the Treasury Department has issued a record $7.2 trillion in government bonds– shattering the previous record for quarterly debt issuance that was set in 2020 during the pandemic.

Out of last quarter’s $7.2 trillion debt issuance, roughly $600 billion of that was brand new debt… meaning that a whopping $6.6 trillion was borrowed to refinance existing debt.

To put that number in context, the total combined value of all bank deposits in the United States is $17.5 trillion. So merely refinancing the federal debt that matured last quarter alone required equivalent of 37% of all US bank deposits.

Now, in theory, refinancing US government bonds shouldn’t be such a big deal. After all, most bondholders typically just roll over their maturing bonds into new bonds. And the majority of the maturing bonds are short-term anyhow.

So it’s quite common that some money market fund– which owns primarily 90-day Treasury Bills– will simply purchase more 90-day Treasury Bills whenever their existing ones mature.

No big deal, right?

Well, the problem is that bond investors are rightfully getting spooked by outrageous federal deficits, and they’re starting to demand a higher rate of return to compensate for the extra risk.

This is a major reason why interest rates have been rising– government bonds have lost a lot of appeal, and many investors no longer view them as the sacrosanct, risk-free investments they once were.

Two years ago, a 90-day T-bill paid about 0.5%. Today it’s over 5%. That’s a 10X increase in the government’s interest expense.

Another major trend is that bond investors have shifted towards the shorter duration maturities. So instead of buying 10-year notes and 30-year bonds, they’re buying 90-day bills that have to be refinanced every three months.

This makes sense; with so much risk and uncertainty, few rational investors want to loan money to the federal government for three decades. Short-term bonds are a lot safer.

But this trend towards short-term bonds means that the Treasury Department has to constantly be in the market refinancing record amounts of debt, just like last quarter’s $6.6 trillion.

It also means that the government’s annual interest bill will continue to skyrocket– because today’s interest rates are so much higher than they were in the past.

Back in 2019, for example, investors were buying 5-year notes with a yield of less than 2%.

Those 5-year notes from 2019 are about to mature. And for investors who are willing to roll over their funds and reinvest in, say, 90-day T-bills, the new yield is 5.25%.

In other words, the government’s interest expense will increase more than 2.5x.

Remember that this year’s interest expense on the national debt is already set to exceed the national defense budget. And if this trend continues, the government’s annual interest bill will surpass $2 trillion over the next few years.

This is why we believe the Federal Reserve will ultimately step in and ‘fix’ this problem by expanding the money supply and slashing interest rates.

The US government cannot afford to pay 5% interest on the national debt. Frankly they can’t even afford to pay 1%. The Fed understands this reality, and they know that the clock is ticking.

That’s why the Fed has been so vocal about cutting interest rates over the past few months, even though inflation has been rising.

Minutes from the Fed’s meeting last month showed that they still anticipate cutting rates 2-3 times this year.

And just yesterday the Fed Chairman said that while rates may stay at current levels “longer than expected”, he all but ruled out any further interest rate increases despite rising inflation numbers.

As a final piece of evidence to support our view, the Fed has already reduced its ‘quantitative tightening’ program… which is essentially the first step towards a new round of quantitative easing, i.e. money printing.

As my partner Peter Schiff says, the Fed has lost the inflation war. But I would say they’re actually deserting the battlefield by abandoning their responsibility to keep inflation low.

The Fed believes that the insolvency of the US government is a far worse outcome than inflation, i.e. inflation is the ‘lesser of the two evils’.

And it seems clear that they’re already positioning their monetary policy to bail out the federal government.

Bottom line: this means more inflation. But don’t panic. It’s something you can prepare for, and even benefit from. More on that soon.

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When the barbarian king Rugila died in the year 434 AD, Roman Emperor Theodosius II likely rejoiced that his mortal enemy was no more.

Rugila (and his father Uldin) had been invading and terrorizing Roman territory for decades; but the Empire was so weak at that point that Theodosius was powerless to stop them.

By the early 400s, Rome was an almost unrecognizable shell of its former greatness. Nearly two centuries civil war, plague, inflation, invasion, and economic malaise had sapped the empire of its strength and reputation… and foreign kingdoms didn’t hesitate to take advantage.

In the early 420s, Theodosius finally resorted to paying off King Rugila, essentially bribing him with an offer of 350 pounds of gold ANNUALLY.

Rugila took the money… probably bewildered at how easily he was able to bend the supposedly powerful Roman Empire to his will.

Theodosius subserviently made the payments year after year, and managed to pretend that the deal was a win for Rome.

The Emperor acted as if he was still powerful and in charge of the situation. He even tried to convince his subjects that the annual tribute was payment for some bogus service that the barbarians were supposedly providing, rather than the ransom money it really was.

And that’s why King Rugila’s death was probably such welcome news to the Emperor. Finally, the menace was gone.

But unfortunately for Theodosius, Rugila’s successor would prove to be a far greater threat.

His name was Attila, known to history of course as Attila the Hun. And he wasted no time picking up where his father and grandfather left off: capitalizing on the Roman leadership’s weakness and cowardice.

Attila’s first order of business was to renegotiate the peace deal and make even more demands of the Roman Empire. Theodosius caved almost immediately.

It became known as the Treaty of Margus; Attila walked away with DOUBLE the annual tribute (an increase from 350 to 700 pounds of gold). Plus, he forced the Emperor to eliminate trade sanctions against the Huns and open up Rome’s vast markets to Hun merchants.

Lastly, Attila negotiated a prisoner swap, receiving some very high value Hun nobles who had taken refuge in the Roman Empire. In exchange, Theodosius received a few low-level soldiers… and the Emperor had to pay an additional ransom for each one of them.

Like his father Rugila, Attila was probably astonished that the ruler of the supposedly most powerful empire in the world had no backbone, no confidence, no will to stand and fight.

So naturally Attila’s demands did not end with the Treaty of Margus. He knew an obvious advantage when he saw one, and he continued to exploit Roman weakness until the end of his life.

Despite promises of peace, for example, Attila constantly found new excuses to set aside the treaty and make incursions into Roman territory.

He crossed the Danube and laid waste to Rome’s provinces in the Balkans, forcing Theodosius to renegotiate the peace treaty once again. This time the annual tribute was tripled to 2,100 pounds of gold.

A few years later, Attila demanded to marry the sister of Valentinian, the ruler of the western portion of the Roman Empire. Valentinian refused the proposal (as well as Attila’s demand for half of the western lands), so Attila invaded Italy, plundering and pillaging along the way.

Attila finally died in 453 AD before he had the chance to completely destroy the empire. But other barbarian kings also saw the ineptitude and weakness of Roman leadership, and they followed in Attila’s footsteps.

That’s the thing about cowardice and weakness: adversaries tend to notice and take advantage. It’s no different today.

Iran, Russia, and China have all paid close attention to the weakness and cowardice of the Biden administration. They see the social and financial decay of the United States. The political instability. The woke priorities of the Defense Department. And they can barely believe their eyes.

They know that the guy with five decades of experience has no backbone… that he’s a corrupt, brainless stooge who bends to the most radical wing of his party. He stands for nothing, abandons his allies, and gives away the farm for absolutely nothing in return.

He traded away the most valuable Russian prisoner in US custody for a WNBA player. He freed up potentially tens of billions of dollars for Iran in exchange for little more than a phony promise that they won’t develop nuclear weapons. (But it seems the Ayatollah pinky swore, so it’s all good.)

He allows invasions and incursions of US territory… and not only does nothing but sues state governments to prevent them from securing the border.

He tries to prevent allies from defending themselves. He pathetically attempts to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to boost his sagging approval rating. And he caves anytime a belligerent nation threatens violence.

These are all signs of obvious weakness that adversaries are all too happy to exploit. Iran is just the most recent example.

After this weekend’s attack against Israel, Iran specifically warned the US against responding. Biden immediately wilted. It’s pretty clear who wears the pants in the relationship.

And just like the case of Attila, it never ends. Any treaty that is signed, any agreement that is reached, is simply a lie. They’ll never keep their word, and they’ll continue milking the obvious cowardice that is on display for the world to see.

Now, this story of weakness isn’t just about Joe Biden.  Congress is also weak and ineffective. Many courts and judges now ignore the rule of law and are simply activists in robes. The military is suffering a very public recruiting crisis, along with outdated weapons systems and critically low mission readiness.

It goes beyond government too. Big Media is a left-wing propaganda machine. Premier universities cultivate radicalism. Even Boeing can’t seem to build a quality aircraft anymore.

Optics matter, and the end result is undeniable: America appears far, far weaker from even just a few years ago. And adversaries have no intention of letting up.

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There’s no limit to how much Inspired Idiots around the world hate oil companies.

It seems like almost every day there’s a story about protestors who superglue themselves to the pavement in order to block traffic. Or deface an art museum. Or interrupt a public sporting event.

Recently they even glitter-bombed the Constitution in Washington DC… because apparently the Founding Fathers caused climate change.

Bear in mind that everything these Inspired Idiots use to ‘protest’ is derived from oil.

The adhesive they use to glue their asses to the pavement is derived from oil. The plastic bottle that the glue comes in is derived from oil. The plastic glitter they use is derived from oil. The paint they use to deface buildings and artwork is derived from oil.

They travel to their protest sites by some means of transportation that, in some way, is powered by oil. Even the food that they eat is grown from oil-based fertilizers and harvested with tractors who use oil-based fuels.

Not to mention everything they consume is transported by planes, ships, trains, and trucks, which typically run on oil-based fuels.

But in addition from their blatant ignorance, their chosen tactics are laughably hypocritical.

These idiots go into the street and stop traffic, causing hours-long delays. The result? All those cars on the road are just sitting idle and burning more fuel. It sort of defeats the purpose of making the world cleaner and greener.

And their ‘solutions’ for a greener world are even more idiotic.

They demand, for example, that there should be no more oil, including heating oil. No more natural gas. No more wood-burning stoves (because the smoke will pollute the air).

So basically everyone in northern climates should just freeze to death… or move to an equatorial climate where no heating is required. Except that you’ll have to walk with your own two feet on plant-based sandals to make sure you don’t consume any oil on your way down to the tropics.

This is the hallmark of Inspired Idiots. They have no idea just how stupid they really are. They honestly believe that the world can “just stop oil” and there won’t be catastrophic, Stone Age consequences.

But it all becomes even more remarkable when the government gets involved.

The city of Honolulu, Hawaii is currently suing Exxon Mobil, Shell, Sunoco, Chevron, and several other oil companies for causing climate change.

Now, plenty of groups have sued oil companies in the past over climate change… and generally these types of lawsuits have been thrown out by rational judges.

But the city of Honolulu is trying a new approach.

Instead of suing the companies for extracting and selling oil, they are suing for misleading the public on the dangers of their product.

And they claim the City of Honolulu has suffered direct damages, in the form of flooding, beach erosion, and damage to coral reefs.

Now, a sane judge would throw this case out. But lucky for the activists, they’re in the jurisdiction of the Hawaii courts.

Remember that, in February, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that “the spirit of Aloha” supersedes the US Constitution. So, it should be no surprise that the Hawaii Supreme Court has allowed this case against the oil companies to proceed.

The reality, of course, is that billions of people willingly choose each day to use oil in some capacity, including superglue and glitter.

And most rational people can probably understand that oil has literally fueled the innovation and growth that is responsible for our incredibly high standards of living.

So, suing the oil companies, and trying to “just stop oil” is biting the hand that feeds.

Sure, it would be great to reduce oil consumption… Geez if only there were another technology that was multiples more energy efficient than oil, but was simultaneously clean and green?

Oh wait, that technology already exists. It’s called nuclear.

But the green fanatics don’t like nuclear either… because they are Inspired Idiots. So their one-track minds are focused on stopping oil.

Just imagine if Honolulu’s lawsuit succeeds, and the city is awarded punitive damages; it would open up the floodgates for class action lawsuits around the world. Every city, state, and country in the world would be able to sue in the name of climate change.

No oil company would survive, and no investor or entrepreneur would touch the sector. The cost of energy would skyrocket… which would increase the cost of everything. Powering your home. Heating your home. Food. Medicine. EVERYTHING.

It also means that the US will become almost completely dependent on foreign adversaries for its energy… Because guess which country dominates the market for solar panels, batteries, and the essential minerals they require? China!

So all of these lawsuits, Electric Vehicle mandates, solar panel pushes, etc. ultimately weaken US national security.

In fact, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently commented that lawsuits like the Honolulu case absolutely threaten US national security by putting America’s energy independence at risk.

You’d think the guy with five decades of experience would understand this.

Yet even the President of the United States rarely misses an opportunity to demonize the oil companies and push the United States closer to depending on China for energy.

Mr. Biden has blasted the oil companies for producing too much and causing climate change, but then complained that they weren’t producing enough oil when gas prices soared.

The self-proclaimed capitalist has also threatened to “go after” the oil companies’ profits.

He passed punitive taxes deliberately to punish the industry. He breaks US federal law by refusing to auction off concessions of federal land. He requires outrageous climate regulations, including fanatical decrees from the SEC to disclose nebulous ‘climate liabilities’ to investors.

And naturally he supports these ridiculous charades, like Honolulu’s lawsuit against the oil companies.

It’s extraordinary how many Inspired Idiots have taken over some of the most important institutions in the country. The media. The education system. The White House. Some of the highest courts in the land.

The result of this cultural jihad is that we actually live in a world where extremely powerful people are deliberately trying to destroy their country’s most critical resource. It’s mind-blowing.

And it’s an obvious reason to have a Plan B.

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[Note from James: The first thing I did this morning when I saw the US government’s latest inflation numbers was to call my friend and partner Peter Schiff to enjoy a good rant about how the Fed has completely lost the war with inflation. Peter’s thoughts are below, and I agree entirely.]

Bill Martin had a pretty serious problem in 1969.

As the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (back when people had the audacity to say “chairman” instead of “chair”, as if we are pieces of furniture), Martin was one of the few people who could say that he had central banking in his blood.

His father, William McChesney Martin Sr., was actually one of the original architects of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and then later served on its Board of Governors and as President of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank.

Bill followed in his father’s footsteps, first cutting his teeth on Wall Street, then becoming President of the New York Stock Exchange at age 31.

Following a period of military service during World War II, Bill Martin was ultimately made Chairman of the Federal Reserve by President Truman in 1951. And to this day he is still the longest serving chairman in Fed history.

Martin’s problem started surfacing in the mid 1960s. Lyndon Johnson was President, and the United States was spending an unbelievable amount of money fighting a war in Vietnam, while simultaneously funding Johnson’s “Great Society” welfare programs.

With so much government spending (most of which was financed by debt), inflation started to rise. And by 1969, US inflation reached 6%.

People weren’t happy, politicians weren’t happy, and Martin was in trouble. So he did what Central Bankers are trained to do— he aggressively raised interest rates.

The Federal Funds rate, in fact, reached 10% by the summer of ‘69, right around the time Woodstock kicked off and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

High interest rates cooled the economy, and inflation soon started to fall. By 1972, inflation had come down to around 3%— and everyone was convinced that the problem was over.

But we all know the rest of the story— inflation didn’t go away; the remainder of the 1970s was the worst inflationary period in US history, and inflation didn’t come back down to the Fed’s 2% target level until 1986!

There are a lot of similarities to today.

Just like the 1960s, the US government is spending outrageous sums of money that it cannot afford, most of which is financed by more debt.

Inflation shot up to a peak of 9% during 2022— in large part due to the government’s spending binge during the pandemic. But the Fed aggressively hiked rates, and inflation fell back to around 3%.

But the government just released its latest statistics this morning showing that inflation is rising once again for the third month in a row. On an annualized basis, in fact, inflation is more than 5%.

Naturally this doesn’t come as a shock to anyone who goes grocery shopping… or shopping for just about anything else. Apparently, you lose all sense of reality when you get a PhD in economics.

For the past several months, the Fed has tried to tap-dance its way out of reality. They keep claiming that the recent spikes in inflation data have been “seasonal” aberrations.

Well, there’s no mistaking it now. Inflation is not falling to 2%. It’s not falling at all.

The Fed clearly claimed victory over inflation way too early, based on a complete fantasy that they had fixed it. And they’ve already been talking very publicly about when (and not if) they will cut rates.

They’re missing the entire point.

Americans aren’t looking for lower inflation. They don’t even want zero inflation (although that would help). People want prices to go back down to pre-pandemic levels— which is what they promised back in 2022 with all the talk of “transitory” inflation.

Well, that ship has completely sailed. But the Fed still seems to think that they’ve won the inflation war and that interest rates are going to come down soon.

Notice that no one is even talking about whether interest rates need to go up even higher.

Nor is anyone suggesting that inflation may simply be beyond the Fed’s control.

As long as the federal government continues overspending by trillions of dollars each year, there’s very little that the Fed can realistically do to tame inflation.

Sure, in theory they could keep raising rates to bring down inflation… and maybe even cause a recession. But as we’ve talked about many times before, there’s just no way they can do that: higher rates will bankrupt the federal government.

Remember that the $35 trillion worth of US government bonds have to be refinanced every six years (on average).

Back in 2021, for example, the Treasury Department issued 3-year bonds (technically they’re called notes) at close to 0%.

Now it’s 2024 and those 3-year notes need to be repaid. Well, the government never actually repays anything. They just issue new bonds to pay off the old bonds, essentially refinancing the national debt every few years.

The problem, of course, is that interest rates are much higher now. Bonds that were issued at 0% a few years ago are now costing the government 5%.

This means that the government’s annual interest bill is about to skyrocket.

Prior to the pandemic the government’s annual interest expense was about $500 billion. This year it will surpass $1 trillion. And if rates stay at these levels (or go higher) the annual interest bill will pass $2 trillion in a few years.

The Federal Reserve knows this; the risk of bankrupting the Treasury Departments with higher interest rates is a real possibility.

Higher rates also cause a lot of other problems in the US economy, including real estate, bank solvency, the stock market and more.

All of these risks exist because the Fed kept interest rates so low for so long— the better part of 15 years. They created enormous financial bubbles, and they’ve created a legacy of inflation and financial destruction.

It should be obvious by now that the Fed has lost… and that they are not in control of the situation.

Remember, just because inflation has declined from its peak, doesn’t mean that it’s going away.

Ultimately, we believe this is bullish for gold. Even though the gold price is near its all-time high, these realities will probably continue to push gold much higher in the long run.

And people are starting to figure this out.

Individuals and ETFs that have been selling gold for years are starting to reverse.

Even Costco is selling around $200 million a month in gold bars.

Remember, we’re in 1972 right now. This is likely just the beginning.

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Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, did not open his annual shareholder letter with rosy language about the state of the world, or even enthusiasm about his bank’s record profits.

Instead, he describes “yet another year of significant challenges” including the war in Ukraine, war in the Middle East, extreme tensions with China, higher food and energy prices, turmoil in the banking sector, outrageous government deficits, and even major risks with the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

Dimon writes that “America’s global leadership role is being challenged outside by other nations and inside by our polarized electorate,” and that this is a “time of great crises”.

He went on with a few charts and thoughts about the bank’s business and financial performance over the last year… and then dedicated most of the remaining 57 pages of his letter to the serious problems which face the world.

His observations are wide-reaching– from the decay of social cohesion to the prospect of war and higher inflation, to the serious potential for a reset of the Bretton Woods system (which made the US dollar the world’s reserve currency.)

Frankly the letter almost reads as a manifesto written by someone who is completely fed up with government incompetence and positioning himself to run for office. I can’t agree with everything he says, but it’s obvious that his ideas are balanced and well thought out.

There are a few points in particular worth repeating.

1.Keep it in perspective; the world is not coming to an end

“If you read he newspaper from virtually any day of any year since World War II,” Dimon writes, “there is abundant coverage on wars — hot and cold — inflation, recession, polarized politics, terrorist attacks, migration and starvation. As appalling as these events have been, the world was generally on a path to becoming stronger and safer.”

This is absolutely a true statement. It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity while missing the abundance of growth and opportunity.

In the year 1918, most people probably thought that the world was coming to an end. The Great War was at its peak, economies were faltering, inflation was surging, rationing and shortages were everywhere… and then the Spanish flu popped up and killed tens of millions of people.

Bleak times indeed. And yet the next century was the most prosperous in human history… despite a very bumpy path along the way.

This is similar to where we are today. Yes, Inspired Idiots have caused a gigantic mess. But the general trajectory of the human species is still improving.

2.That said, long-term risks should not be underestimated. Especially for the West.

Dimon finds that there is “too much emphasis on short-term, monthly data and too little on long-term trends”, and he talks about inflation as a great example.

Economists and investors tend to be almost singularly focused on monthly inflation reports in an effort to divine if and when the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates.

They’re entirely missing the point, Dimon writes. Month by month, and even year by year, inflation numbers could vary wildly. But if you look at the big picture, you’ll see substantial evidence for future inflation.

We’ve been writing about this for a long time. In fact, since inception we’ve only been focused on long-term trends… and we see these as highly inflationary.

Similar to our view, Dimon understands how “ongoing fiscal [deficit] spending, remilitarization of the world, restructuring of global trade, capital needs of the new green economy, and possibly higher energy costs in the future” are all inflationary in the long run.

The inflation might not show up next month or next quarter, but he believes (as do we) that the coming years are full of “persistent inflationary pressures”.

There are also significant risks to the current US-led global order; America’s influence is waning, and Dimon writes that the “international rules-based order established by the Western world after World War II is clearly under attack by outside forces, somewhat weakened by its own failures [and] confusing and overlapping regime of policies.”

As part of this, he talks about the distinct possibility for a reset of the post-WW2  financial system (known as Bretton Woods) that anointed the US dollar as the global reserve currency. He puts it succinctly: “we may need a new Bretton Woods.”

We’ve been writing about this for years; the dollar’s decline is a long-term trend, but for us, it’s an obvious one. You cannot run multi-trillion dollar deficits each year and still expect to be the world’s economic superpower.

It’s notable that even someone like Dimon can see this coming.

3.These problems are still solvable.

We’ve written extensively that the problems facing the US and the West are still solvable. For now. But every year that the problems continue to be ignored brings the country closer to a point of no return… where there is no way out but default.

Dimon is not shy about offering up suggestions, many of which we have written about in the past. He talks about border security, streamlining sensible regulations, and economic policies which prioritize growth.

“Unfortunately,” Dimon writes, “the message America hears is that the federal government does not value business — that business is the problem and not part of the solution.”

“There are fewer individuals in government who have any significant experience in starting or running a company, which is apparent every day in the political rhetoric that demonizes businesses and free enterprise and that damages confidence in American’s institutions.”

He says he finds it “astounding that many in Congress know what to do and want to do it but are simply unable to pass legislation because of partisan politics”.

He goes on to list a multitude of government failures and the “staggering number of policies, systems, and operations that are underperforming”, including pitiful public schools, broken healthcare, infrastructure woes (especially the energy grid), terrible immigration policy, Social Security’s looming insolvency, and more.

Dimon states very clearly that the federal government “needs to earn back trust through competence and effective policymaking.”

True statement. But I’m not holding my breath. Because in related news, the White House just announced that Joe Biden is working on yet another way to forgive student debt for 30 million Americans.

He doesn’t seem to care that the Supreme Court already rejected his previous effort to forgive student debt, saying he did not have the legal authority.

It’s pathetic that the cost of university education is so high… especially given how many degrees in an AI-world are useless. Plus many universities these days are just hotbeds of radicalization. It hardly seems worth taking on $80,000 of debt for such a dubious outcome.

But nevertheless, taxpayers have footed the bill for college and loaned out over $1 trillion to students across the country.

This is a basic tenet of capitalism (which Mr. Biden claims to embrace): debts have to be paid.

But because this guy’s poll numbers are so pathetic– especially with young people– he’s trying to score points by canceling their debts.

Well, canceling student debt means that taxpayers will lose hundreds of billions in loans that they made. So rather than taking steps to strengthen America’s balance sheet, the President is once again violating the law to make the balance sheet worse… all to improve his image among young voters.

This is hardly a way to restore trust in government. So again, I’m not holding my breath.

Dimon’s letter is worth the read if you have the time. You might not agree with everything he says, but it is rather telling that the CEO of the country’s largest bank is speaking so plainly about obvious risks.

It’s another reminder of why it makes so much sense to have a Plan B.

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Did you hear about the newest vehicle safety feature that Congress wants to mandate?

It’s not some AI sensor system, or even a newfangled airbag.

Nope. In the minds of literally several hundred lawmakers (from both parties!) the most essential safety feature that should be in your vehicle is… AM RADIO!

The “technology” behind AM radio is so old it even predates Joe Biden. In fact it almost predates the automobile itself.

But while the automobile has undergone tremendous evolution over the past 100+ years, AM radio is still essentially the same as it was back during the first broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1906: fuzzy and low quality.

Perhaps that’s why most consumers abandoned AM radio long ago, ditching it for FM, then satellite, and now streaming.

So few consumers listen to AM radio that many cars don’t even come equipped with it anymore; for manufacturers, it’s not worth spending on a part that consumers don’t want.

And for some cars— specifically electric vehicles— AM radios can cause dangerous interference with sensitive electronic components… so some EV manufacturers have removed analogue AM receivers to make their vehicles safer.

Of course, consumers who really want to listen to AM radio programs can always subscribe to digital AM streaming services.

But that’s not good enough for politicians who have a history of ignoring what US consumers want. If you’re not interested in AM Radio, well too bad. AOC and Joe Biden are going to decide for you.

The “AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act” was first introduced in Congress last May to force every vehicle manufacturer to include an analog AM radio receiver.

Their entire reasoning was captured in just a single line:

“AM broadcast stations are often used to deliver emergency alerts and news and entertainment programming; some newer vehicles do not include AM equipment”

Is it 1955? When was the last time that anyone received an emergency alert on AM radio? Totally nuts.

Fortunately the bill went absolutely nowhere at first.

But bad legislative ideas are like cockroaches. They never actually die. They linger forever and multiply until they eventually take over the House.

Fast forward nearly a year later, and it turns out that 47 Senators and 237 Representatives have signed on in support of the deal.

And Joe Biden (probably the only guy in America who still listens to AM radio) is ready to sign it. It’s almost assured to become law.

Now, this is not the most destructive legislation in US history. In fact the main consequence of the AM radio mandate is that vehicles will cost a bit more.

But it does provide hilarious insight into their short-sighted thinking… if they’re even capable of thinking at all.

Remember, about a week ago, the Biden administration decreed that 50% of all new cars sold in the US by 2030 will have to be electric vehicles (even though only 8% of consumers choose to buy them today).

But wait— AM radio produces dangerous interference for in sensitive EV components, making electrical vehicles LESS SAFE.

So this AM radio bill, which aims to make people more safe, will actually make Electric Vehicles less safe. And Mr. Biden has decreed that at least half of Americans will be driving these less safe EVs in six years.

You just can’t make up this level of stupidity.

There’s a common line of thinking these days that the people in charge are deliberately trying to destroy America.

Well, with such idiotic and conflicting mandates, it’s getting harder to ignore that conclusion.

Politicians are forging ahead with idiotic priorities as if the country isn’t barreling towards the edge of a cliff.

They’re doing nothing about the border. Nothing about the budget deficit. Nothing about Social Security. Nothing about decline of America’s military power. Nothing about the dollar’s rapid loss of credibility. Nothing about the mountain of regulations that debilitate economy productivity. Nothing about preventing World War III.

But hey, when it comes to the REALLY important issues like AM radio, these ‘leaders’ really get down to business.

And by the way, the AM mandate is a bipartisan bill.

Republicans are in favor because there are plenty of conservative talk shows on AM radio.

Democrats are in favor because they use AM radio to reach Spanish speaking voters.

Never mind what’s good for the country, or good for producers, or good for consumers. Congress has its own agenda.

This should come at no surprise; with an abysmal 12% approval rating, everyone seems to know how terrible Congress is.

Yet, quite bizarrely, 96% of incumbents were reelected to Congress in 2020. So voters seem to agree that Congress is terrible. But it’s apparently all the other Congressmen who are incompetent. Their guys is doing a great job.

This is why I have such little confidence that politicians will turn this ship around; voters keep sending the same people to Washington… who have once again proven that they are totally out of touch with America’s priorities.

This is the most critical point to understand: politicians are most likely not going to solve the problems that they themselves have created.

And yet there are solutions that each of us, as individuals, can use.

If the Inspired Idiots are bent on engineering higher energy prices and higher inflation, there are ways we can reduce those consequences and even benefit financially.

If the Inspired Idiots are going to raise taxes through the roof, there are completely legitimate ways to reduce those as well.

If the Inspired Idiots are going to bankrupt Social Security (which the program itself anticipates within a decade), there are ways to structure a robust retirement account to offset the impact.

Whatever destruction they come up with, there are ways around it. It just takes a little bit of education and the will to take action.

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Did you hear about the new streamlined tourist visa to Saudi Arabia? I’m sure you’re standing in line for it already.

No? Me neither.

I was actually stationed in Saudi Arabia for a while when I was in the Army… and, the most unique ‘tourist’ attraction, at least for non-Muslims, is a place we used to call “Chop Chop Square” where they would do the public beheadings and dismemberments of convicted criminals.

Aside from that, Saudi has virtually nothing to offer tourists. At least for now.

But over the past few years the government has set itself on a path to building massive futuristic cities and giant resorts in an effort to bring tourists and diversify its economy– including a recently streamlined visa process.

But to me, this screams of desperation… because it means that Saudi Arabia’s oil industry is in serious trouble.

As recently as just a century ago, what we know as ‘Saudi Arabia’ today was just a bunch of nomadic tribes roaming the desert who were constantly at war with one another.

Then one day a tribal leader named Abdulaziz Ibn Saud rose to power, a bit like Genghis Khan, and conquered everyone else. And in 1932, he declared himself sole ruler of the newly established Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Initially he wasn’t King of much at all; Saudi Arabia was mostly just a desert backwater in the early 1930s.

But things began to change quickly when a major oil discovery was made in early March of 1938. And over the years, Saudi Arabia’s prominence in the world grew dramatically.

By 1970, Saudi Arabia had overtaken the United States as the world’s #1 oil producer, with daily output more than tripling over the course of that decade to roughly 10 million barrels per day.

Ever since then there has been almost a Homeric mythology that Saudi Arabia has a sort of inexhaustible ocean of oil, and they could just turn on a spigot and fill up millions of barrels.

But that’s simply not true.

In fact, more than 40 years later, Saudi Arabia today produces less oil today than they did in 1980. And there has long been speculation that Saudi oil reserves might actually be running low.

Not long ago, in fact, the Saudi government announced that they would make investments in their oil infrastructure to increase their maximum production capacity to 13 million barrels per day… but nothing further.

In other words, they set a hard ceiling for how much oil they were capable of producing, essentially shattering the mythology of their infinite oil capacity.

Then, just two months ago, they reversed their plans, and announced that their maximum drilling capacity would be 12 million barrels, and not 13 million.

Both of these should have been taken as obvious indicators that Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves are well past their peak… and that they know it.

But there is perhaps no greater indicator than the Saudi government’s desperate attempt to give  its economy a gigantic sexy makeover.

For example, Saudi Arabia is building a ski resort in the desert mountains… where it occasionally dips below freezing in the winter. Then there’s Neom, the futuristic megapolis planned for the coast of the Red Sea featuring flying cabs and an artificial moon.

Then there’s The Line, a city stretching for 170 kilometers across the desert. And of course there’s the Red Sea Project, a luxurious resort the size of Belgium.

The more Saudi Arabia launches these sorts of projects, the more obvious it becomes that they are running out of oil and are desperately trying to diversify their economy while they still have time.

The fact that Saudi Arabia even started selling off small pieces of its state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, back in late 2019 is another indicator.

They could have IPO’d in 1988… or 2005… or any other time. But they didn’t. It seems like they know they’re in decline, and they’re trying to monetize the mythology of their oil reserves while they still can.

Now, Saudi Arabia isn’t going to run out of oil anytime soon; rather, the larger point is that supply and demand fundamentals will likely lead to much higher oil prices in the future.

And this is very inflationary.

Oil is the most important energy commodity in the world, and so its price influences the price of just about everything. If oil price spike, then it’s not just the price of gasoline that goes up.

The cost of operating data centers with racks of servers and GPUs will increase. Food costs will increase. Manufacturing costs will increase. Virtually everything will increase in price.

Energy prices, like just about all prices, are ultimately about supply and demand. And the demand side is pretty easy to see— it will most likely continue increasing as emerging economies and global population grow.

Yes, there may be a time off in the future where oil is no longer necessary. But that’s still a long way out. Because guess what critical commodity you need to produce solar panels and wind turbines? Oil.

Meanwhile, on the supply side, it’s clear that one of the world’s biggest oil producers is in decline. At a minimum, they won’t be able to increase production commensurate with the increase in demand. And they’ve flat out admitted to that.

Meanwhile, another of the world’s biggest oil producers, the United States, is going out of its way to obstruct oil companies.

They create special taxes to penalize them. They refuse to follow the law and auction off concessions. They never miss an opportunity to demonize them.

Even in the financial industry, bankers and investors deprive the industry of the funds necessary for exploration. Hedge funds have taken over the Boards of major oil companies and forced them into inefficient green energy projects.

The United Nations hosts entire summits about phasing out oil production.

And let’s not forget about the fanatics who vandalize art museums and glitter bomb public sporting events to demand that the world “just stop” producing oil.

So, we have rising demand coupled with policies that restrict supply. The end result, predictably, has been rising oil prices, which are now hovering around $85-$90.

This is one of the reasons why the inflation numbers remain high; again, expensive energy impacts core inflation.

I write a lot about why we think the future is inflationary, and a lot of it has to do with the tidal wave of debt and government spending.

But that’s just one source of inflation. Higher energy prices are another.

Like the debt problem, however, the energy problem is also solvable. There’s plenty of oil in the world– the issue is just misguided policy. There are also other technologies (like nuclear) which can provide abundant, cheap, clean energy.

There doesn’t seem to be much appetite among the environmental fanatics who enjoy complaining, but not actually solving any problems.

Now, one way to offset this oil cost inflation is to own shares of the oil companies themselves; and right now, several of them that are very cheap since it’s apparently not socially acceptable to own them.

In our investment research newsletter the 4th Pillar, we highlighted a highly profitable oil producer that is practically debt-free, and trading at a very attractive Price/Earnings ratio of just 3.4.

The company was able to turn a strong profit when oil prices were low, and they’re positioned to do extremely well as oil prices go higher.

Of course, no one can be happy about the prospect of future inflation.

But there are solutions. And if you understand what’s likely coming, you can take steps now to reduce the impact or even potentially benefit from inflation.

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You probably heard the news: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently finalized new vehicle emissions regulations that essentially force Americans into buying electric vehicles.

The actual published regulation is 1,181 pages long… because, that’s what the US economy needs– a thousand more pages added to the 200,000+ existing pages in the Code of Federal Regulations.

But essentially the EPA is forcing vehicle manufacturers to adhere to extremely strict emissions requirements that will be virtually impossible to meet given that over 90% of consumers currently purchase gasoline-powered vehicles.

The only solution for automakers to meet these new standards will be to simply stop producing many of their gasoline-powered models and ramp up production of electric vehicles… even though consumers clearly don’t want this to happen.

Electric vehicles are already more expensive. And deliberately reducing the supply of gasoline-powered vehicles will obviously make those more expensive as well.

So, in either scenario, consumers will have to pay a lot more money to buy a car.

But this new EPA rule is especially idiotic because the current US electrical grid cannot support 50% of cars being electric. And there is no plan to get it there.

According to the Wall Street Journal, there are currently upwards of 80 million distribution transformers— the cylindrical metal boxes— on utility poles across the US.

To reach the EPA’s goal, essentially ALL of these would need to be replaced to have a higher capacity.

Currently only about 660,000 transformers are replaced each year. So, at this rate, America should be ready for the EPA’s by the year 2145, i.e. more than a century behind schedule.

To acquire the massive amounts of copper needed for even larger transformers, public utilities will be competing for materials with electric vehicle, solar panel, and wind turbine producers.

This will drive up the cost of each transformer, which have already risen by 70% since 2018.

They will also have to source a special kind of steel that exactly one producer in the US makes; the company is called Cleveland Cliffs… remember them?

Recently, we discussed how Cleveland Cliffs appealed to the Biden administration, including to the President himself, to kill a deal in which Japanese-based Nippon Steel was going to buy US Steel.

The deal with the Japanese would have made US Steel more competitive. Cleveland Cliffs (and more specifically, the steel union) didn’t want that to happen. So, Team Biden wrecked it.

Now Cleveland Cliffs plans to buy up US Steel’s assets for pennies on the dollar. It must be nice to place a phone call to the President and have him destroy your competition.

So yeah, this is the steel company that has the monopoly on replacing the 80 million transformers required to achieve the EPA’s electric vehicle fantasy.

Moreover, virtually every home will also need some sort of electrical upgrade in order to have a charging port in their garage. So, get ready to fork over more money for that too.

And for people who don’t have garages, consider that it currently takes 195,000 gas stations to fuel up cars across the US. So, there would likely need to be at least 100,000 or more new electric charging stations built.

In total the Journal estimates a roughly $1 trillion price tag to upgrade America’s electrical infrastructure in time for the EV mandate… most of which will be debt-financed, of course.

Money aside, there is the even more pressing issue of insufficient power generation.

US electricity production is already in a precarious condition thanks to idiotic political decisions which have shut down nuclear plants and pushed producers into inefficient renewables like wind and solar.

Let’s just pretend for a minute that wind and solar are great for the environment (even though they’re not when you consider the full supply chain, like batteries and cobalt mining that are required.)

The reality is that wind and solar are very inefficient and require a lot more resources and time to build than conventional sources.

So, if a utility company shuts down a coal-fired power plant, it takes a lot more time and money to replace that capacity with wind and solar.

This is why the North American Electric Reliability Corporation is already forecasting electricity shortages by the year 2032. And that’s without including this EV mandate.

If you then add in all the new electric vehicles, power outages will become a regular thing in the US.

Either that, or electric producers will have to go back to gas and coal-fired power plants… which sort of defeats the EPA’s purpose to begin with.

In short, the EPA will force you to swap out your car that runs on oil, for a car that runs on coal.

Now, depending on what happens in the 2024 election, this EPA mandate could die later this year.

But if it doesn’t, there is at least a silver lining… not to mention copper, lithium, and cobalt linings too.

In 2023, the US sold about 2.4 million electric and hybrid vehicles, requiring substantial quantities of lithium and cobalt for their batteries.

If car sales remain steady, the EPA’s mandate will make sure that demand for these materials surges by over 300% in six years… and that’s just for electric vehicles in the US.

On top of that, however, there will likely be more demand for these resources in the US for wind and solar plants, plus increased global demand as well.

Yet simultaneously there is already a lack of investment in resource markets which produce these critical metals for batteries and electricity transfer.

Part of that lack of investment is because environmental fanatics also hate the mining industry, even though mining is essential to their green energy dreams.

But the Inspired Idiots have ensured that hardly anyone is investing in new lithium and cobalt mines– which are among the most critical resources for electric vehicles.

You can probably see the result of this folly: flat (or declining) supply coupled with surging demand suggests dramatically higher prices for these key minerals over the next several years… and record profits for the companies that produce them.

We’ve highlighted a number of these real asset producing businesses in our investment newsletter, the 4th Pillar. You can learn more about it here.

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Rejoice, America, the federal government is FINALLY going to step in and fix the biggest problem of our time.

Naturally I’m not talking about the border. Or inflation. Or the national debt. Or America’s waning geopolitical power. Or the looming insolvency of Social Security. Or rising crime. Or the broken education system. Or the country’s vast social divisions.

No, those problems are nothing compared to the horrendous crisis that has swept the nation.

But fortunately, our saviors in government are going to do something about it.

I’m talking, of course, about the iPhone crisis. Yes, I’m sure it was on the tip of your tongue.

Last week the Justice Department announced the decision to charge Apple with antitrust violations, saying it has illegally monopolized the smartphone market.

Now, all kidding aside, there are so many things that are utterly stupid about this case, it’s hard to even know where to begin.

First, should this really be the priority for the Justice Department right now? There is so much brazen lawlessness in the country being committed by, you know, actual criminals.

But apparently the Justice Department thinks that Apple’s success is the biggest problem of all.

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised given that this is the same Department that started investigating angry parents at school board meetings.

Naturally if Americans don’t like Apple products, people could simply stop using them. But the government thinks everyone is just a stupid peasant incapable of making such decisions. So, the Justice Department will decide for us. Hallelujah.

This leads me to the second point– how is it that Apple has a monopoly? Have these people never heard of a little company called GOOGLE and its Android mobile operating system?

Of course, people have a choice.

It’s really, really hard to not laugh out loud when you read the Justice Department’s legal complaint against Apple. They start by dredging up the ghost of Steve Jobs– a guy who’s been dead for more than 12 years– and accusing him of trying to “force” developers and users to use their products.

(Apparently Steve Jobs was holding a gun to your head while he was dying of cancer…)

They go on to claim that Apple unfairly created a proverbial ‘walled garden’, i.e. a closed-off iOS ecosystem where they famously control the end-to-end experience for its users.

Apple’s approach is not unique. Plenty of companies create proprietary systems that lock their users in.

Nvidia has a software system called CUDA which similarly chains users and developers. Video game consoles (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo) all have different standards, so the same game cannot be played on multiple systems. And each aggressively recruits game studios to develop content exclusively for their consoles.

Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime develop content that can only be accessed exclusively through their platform.

Printer manufacturers have developed proprietary technology to prevent their customers from using third-party ink cartridges.

The list goes on and on and on. Companies routinely create incentives to keep customers using their products… and disincentives to prevent customers from going over to the competition.

But apparently the most senior officials at the Justice Department don’t realize that this is a completely normal business practice– one that Apple happens to have mastered.

Another hilarious point is how the Justice Department aims to prove its case:

Apple’s iMessage platform isn’t designed to communicate with Android devices. And Justice cites a 2022 exchange between Apple CEO Tim Cook and a reporter, in which the reporter said,

“It’s tough. Not to make it personal, but I can’t send my mom certain videos” because of the lack of iMessage and Android integration.

Tim Cook quipped back, “Buy your mom has an iPhone.”

This is seriously considered ‘evidence’ in the Justice Department’s case against Apple. Their logic is so flimsy that it literally hinges on a joke made by the CEO two years ago. Cook said, “Buy your mom an iPhone”, therefore Apple has an illegal monopoly. Totally bizarre.

Another absurd point is that these Inspire Idiots cannot even apply their own logic evenly.

I wrote recently about how the Biden Administration is currently intervening in the steel industry in a way that will actually create a monopoly.

The President personally intervened to stop Japan-based Nippon Steel from buying the company US Steel.

On top of its acquisition bid (which would have rewarded shareholders handsomely), Nippon Steel promised to invest $1.4 billion into American factories.

But the US government rejected the deal (as if it were their business to begin with), and instead insisted that US Steel should be sold off for parts to competitor Cleveland Cliffs.

It’s obviously pathetic that the government is forcing US Steel shareholders to take an inferior bid. But even more, by forcing the sale to Cleveland Cliffs, the government is essentially creating a monopoly for that company, which will produce up to 90% of American steel used in vehicles.

But according to the government, Cleveland Cliffs’ new monopoly will be good because the union bosses are in favor of it.

Yet two weeks earlier, the government opposed merger between grocery store chains Kroger and Albertsons, because they said it would create an unfair monopoly that the unions opposed.

The lesson here is pretty obvious: if the union bosses like your deal, then it’s not an unfair monopoly. If the union bosses oppose you, then the government will sue the crap out of you.

Apparently, Apple’s biggest mistake was not groveling to union bosses.

The irony is that even if Apple does have a monopoly, it only got that way by attracting customers.

I’m personally not an Apple guy. I use Linux on my computer and a unique mobile operating system called GrapheneOS.

But Apple’s share of smartphone sales in the US is 60%. The market has spoken. It approves of the company and its products.

What’s the government’s approval rating?

Congress is at 12%. Not a single federal political leader has higher than a 48% approval rating in a recent Gallup poll.

The government sucks so much at just about everything that it does, that it often seems they are actively trying to destroy America.

There are so many things wrong in this country that need fixing, and what does the government decide is the biggest evil we face as a nation?

Not the national debt. Not the potential for World War III. Not Social Security going bankrupt, inflation, the border crisis, or soaring crime rates.

They’re going to waste taxpayer resources to save people from iPhones.

They’ve already spent years building their case… which all hinges on a joke that CEO Tim Cook made about buying your mom an iPhone.

The real joke is that these Inspired Idiots are running the show. And it’s a joke on taxpayers and voters everywhere.

Now, who wants to bet that Nancy Pelosi’s husband shorted Apple stock a day before the case was announced?

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