THE US CONSUMER IS SLOWLY BREAKING

OBSERVATIONS:  I’M AN IMMIGRANT & DON’T LIKE WHAT IS HAPPENING TO NEW IMMIGRANTS!

I am an immigrant to the US! I immigrated to the US over 35 years ago and I can tell you it wasn’t easy. I strongly believe that it shouldn’t be. Here is why…

I HAD TO PROVE MY WORTH

Being allowed into the US was an arduous process for me where I continually had to prove my worth. It was grueling as I went through: the Visa process (B1, H1) to be able to work, the Green Card authorizing permanent residency and planning a future, and finally the Citizenship process to vote and continue working. Each stage was a joyous occasion celebrating an achievement. Sneaking into the country in darkness of night is to completely rob your dignity and the great honor that becoming an American can eventually bestow on you!

I HAD TO PROVE MY DESIRE

During the process I could have no criminal convictions or would face immediate deportation with the humiliation and disruption. I had to study for and take an oral examination to prove that I understood what America stood for, how it was governed, what it believed in and what were the laws that bound “US” together. Our mass immigrant “paroles” are not educated on any of this and are being treated exactly as US criminal “paroles” are treated! They have been lied to about what awaits them if they simply “get in” by paying the cartels.

I HAD TO ESTABLISH MY LIFE ON MY OWN

It was certainly a challenge to get credit, banking, driver’s license, mortgage, social security, medical coverage, etc., but I did it. I did it with confidence that I was building a future on rock and not sand of false expectations of government handouts. Our hopeful new citizens are left not knowing if they will be allowed to stay without a lifetime of “hiding”. They are marooned in the hands of completely unfunded and ill equipped state and local services for handouts as they are caged in “shelters”, gymnasiums and even former condemned prisons. Forsaken at the mercy of government bureaucrats, Washington politics with no direction on how to get on with building a life. They are left feeling as useful pawns within a senseless and confusing US political game. They must feel similar to those Americans that arrived on “slaver ships”, but only with a different type of master. They must feel anything but free, instead feeling like captives of political masters versus the slave owners of old!

We are robbing and abusing them. 

There is little doubt that out of every hundred there are minimally 5% that are bad people. In fact, large numbers have been directly released from hash prison. This is the type of raft they are forced to be exposed to. Unfortunately, they are also held accountable and tarnished by the US public for any heinous crimes that the five precent commit. Many are young and are being forced into crime by the 5% to survive in America.

I ALWAYS FELT THE OPPORTUNITIES IN AMERICA WERE INFINITE

Our new guests are being left to feel helpless, ill equipped and likely over time hopeless, since they have:

• • No Skills
  • Can’t Speak the language
  • Work is only what Americans can’t live on and refuse to do!
  • Minimum labor and minimum everything
  • Seen to be an “election” party pawn by the powerful
  • Treated like second class citizens
  • Dumped in transient “compounds” and “shelters”
  • Left in limbo, “unknowing” for potentially years?
  • Forced to be a ward of the state

What are we as a nation doing about any of this? Where is the funding, the plan, the training and the process for citizenship? Even “Banana” Republics would have a publicly understood & supported plan?

WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY WOULD DO THIS???

What I see is not the America I know and came to love. None of this reflects our values. I find myself continuously wondering what the millions of new immigrants are feeling tonight??

How long will it be before they hate America …. and hate me?

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

THE FACE OF MODERN MONETARY THEORY

“The chart to the right is the face of modern monetary theory and the ease in which governments can steal your wealth while it sits in the bank from unsound money. It is the face of an unfolding currency and financial system extinction event as people WAKE UP! 

M1 is circulating supply and the fed and treasury increased it by 400% in Biden’s first year! The enormity can be seen in the timeline back to 1960. In that perspective it is a nuclear mushroom cloud. It most certainly is not prudence and good management by our banking masters. The financial system is now the face of a Potemkin village to the REAL economy which is shrinking rapidly. This is the fuel for GDP (aka government spending) which produces no wealth and is actually DEBT in Disguise. Producing nothing but a GDP print that creates endless malinvestments with no return”.

Ty Andros, Today’s Foremost Austrian Economist!

RESEARCH

• THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THE “AVERAGE” US CONSUMER
  • US consumer consumption was based on a strong & expanding middle class. That has also changed as we are now a country of “haves” and “have nots”.
  • The US Consumer is finally in trouble or more correctly has fractured. Fractured into “strata” or what could best be simplified as a “two tier economy”, which Bidenomic statistics currently hides through the “great distorter”.
  • Most people are substantially below average because the wealthy have become so wealthy that the statistics don’t reflect any reality of being mathematically average!, That is the Great Distorter of Bidenomics that the White House seems not to understand.

• INFLATION IS CRIPPLING THE GLOBALLY POWERFUL US CONSUMER
  • According to a recent independent study (which I encourage you to read), a family of four in the US now needs to make over $$177,798 annually to live comfortably.
  • Most Americans do not make enough money to “live comfortably” in the highly inflationary environment that we find ourselves in today.
  • The study reveals the incomes needed for families to live comfortably across the United States and the stark contrast in the cost of living between states.
  • The study reveals that in the most expensive states, families need nearly $300,000 to simply live ‘comfortably.’
  • The least expensive state requires about half that salary – still over $100,000.
  • Meanwhile, the average annual salary in the US is $59,428, or $28.34 per hour, as of May 2024.

• THE LOW END US CONSUMER IS NOW IN SERIOUS TROUBLE!
  • It is Inflation and the rising cost of living which is now in the forefront of Americans’ mind.
  • Though every American is feeling this, it is the low-End US Consumer who is in serious trouble.
  • You only have to go to your local Wal-Mart, Target or Dollar Store to visibly see what is happening in America.
  • Mall Shopping and big “Anchor Stores” are long ago dead because it is simply no longer affordable to most.
  • What Amazon or Temu can’t cheaply and readily deliver you must try and hopefully find at Wal-Mart, Target or Dollar Tree.
  • If you listened to these corporations recent quarterly earnings conference calls (as we did) the message is undeniable!

DEVELOPMENTS TO WATCH

EV BLUNDER – GREEN HYBRID HYDROGEN SHIFT

• • The forced EV adoption and mandated timeline for no fossil fuel vehicles on US roads was a major US Policy mistake.
  • Competitive technology advancement is what delivers cost effective choices for the consumer. It can never be mandated by the political class.
  • The market is rejecting EV for Hybrids and specifically Green Hydrogen Hybrids at the expensive tremendous amounts of wasted tax payer money.

RUSSIA RETALIATES BY SEIZING US & EU BANKS ASSETS

• • We strongly warned in our March 11th Newsletter that it was a serious policy blunder for the US Asset Seizure of Russian Funds. It was both illegal and the consequences were financial suicide for the US International Banks forced into the scheme.
  • The International court has ruled against it and thereby allowed Russia to reclaim its assets by seizure of US and EU banking assets.
  • RESULT:
    • • Russia Seizes $440 Million From JPMorgan (FT).
    • Russia Confiscates €800 Million From Deutsche Bank, Unicredit And Commerzbank (FT).
    • Putin Decree Allows Seizure Of US Property & Assets If Russian Funds Taken By West (SOURCE)

GLOBAL ECONOMIC REPORTING

1- ELECTION YEAR ECONOMICS

• • The election year assignment given to Julie Su (Acting Labor Secretary controlling the BEA) is to ensure unfolding softer US employment data to keep Fed easing bets alive and a market that is forced to price this in, even though Inflation persists.
  • The trick she must deliver is to balance the decay in a controlled and gradual fashion, like “boiling a frog” so Powell has more time to keep the expected “PIVOT” alive. … ah .. the twisted web they weave!

2- WEEKLY JOBLESS CLAIMS

• • BEA reported 215,000 Americans filed for jobless benefits for the first time last week. This was down from the prior week’s 223,000.
  • However, WARNs and job cut announcements (not provided by the government) are notably elevated?

3-  S&P GLOBAL PMI – Inflation Still A Problem!

• • Flash US Services Business Activity Index at 54.8 (April: 51.3). 12-month high
  • Flash US Manufacturing PMI at 50.9 (April: 50.0). 2-month high
  • Selling price inflation has meanwhile ticked higher and continues to signal modestly above-target inflation.
  • Factory input prices advanced at the fastest rate since November 2022.