Deficits Don't Matter, and Boy Are We Screwed!
The game is rigged.
We know this.
But here's a little reminder...
On Monday, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each hit fresh record highs after optimism over trade deals helped push some assets higher.
These new "record highs," which are no longer uncommon, seem to come and go based on the chess matches and pissing contests between kings and dictators, who, while drunk on power, make decisions that move markets and mountains.
And while the mainstream media gatekeepers and policy puppeteers have been celebrating absurdity, I've been thinking about the bigger picture...
Future generations of Americans are screwed.
Who Pays?
Last week, congressional negotiators announced that they had reached a deal to approve a federal spending bill for 2020 - to the tune of $1.3 trillion.
In an age of nonstop partisan bickering, it's good to know there's one issue that the elephants and jackasses can agree on: spending your money like a bunch of drunken rappers on a video shoot.
As reported by Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine, the deficit for fiscal 2019, which ended in September, was $984 billion. Total outlays clocked in at $4.447 trillion, with revenues reaching $3.462 trillion, both record amounts.
For the first two months of fiscal 2020, deficits came in at $342 billion, a 12% increase over the same period in a previous year despite revenues climbing by 3%.
Like GM before it was bailed out, America is losing money despite bringing in more cash than ever before.
The Congressional Budget Office is now projecting annual deficits in excess of $1 trillion in each of the next 10 years.
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of speaking with Nick while attending a party in New York City. We discussed this very issue, and I had an epiphany...
One way or the other, the proverbial poop is going to hit the fan. But it won't happen overnight.
It's going to happen slowly and unexpectedly.
It's going to creep up on all of us.
In some ways it already has.
Although I fear that it will be future generations of Americans that'll really feel the brunt of this.
I'm talking about kids who are being born today into an environment where their future tax dollars are already being spent frivolously.
Yours Free
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But this is of no consequence to those lawmakers in D.C., who know full well that they'll get more political clout by passing an unbelievably irresponsible spending bill than they will by attempting to do the right thing and protect those who don't yet have a voice.
And this is why it is paramount that we do everything we can to not only build our wealth now, but protect it for future generations. Because you can be damn sure that today's bipartisan spending bills will be tomorrow's crushing debt obligations that'll leave so many young people poor, tired, and hungry. And nothing flourishes better in such situations than tyrannical dictatorships and a burning desire to be "saved" by the same charismatic politicians that put us in these dire situations to begin with.
This is something I often think about when I invest: providing some financial stability for those who will soon live in a world where such a thing will be nearly impossible to achieve.
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the change that is necessary to get this country on track to fiscal health and stability is simply not going to happen.
Today's politicians don't care about deficits because deficits just don't matter anymore. If they did, there would likely be only two or three people in Congress who would still have jobs. And while I'm always eager to support any lawmaker who is serious about fiscal responsibility, I suspect that Plan B - preparing for the worst of all possible situations - is now Plan A.
This is why I maintain that you should do everything you can now to make as much money as possible in an effort to provide some kind of hedge against some very unpleasant debt collectors that will be looking to your heirs to pay for the mistakes they did not make.
An inconvenient truth, to be sure, but one that simply cannot be ignored or trivialized any longer.
To a new way of life and a new generation of wealth...
Jeff Siegel
@JeffSiegel on Twitter
Jeff is the founder and managing editor of Green Chip Stocks, a private investment community that capitalizes on opportunities in alternative energy, organic food markets, legal cannabis, and socially responsible investing. He has been a featured guest on Fox, CNBC, and Bloomberg Asia, and is the author of the best-selling book, Investing in Renewable Energy: Making Money on Green Chip Stocks. For more on Jeff, go to his editor's page.