Elections Won’t Change the Biggest Threat to Your Wealth

Andy Snyder|November 9, 2022

One million, three hundred thousand, two hundred and twenty-seven…

One million, three hundred thousand, two hundred and twenty-eight…

One million, three hundred thousand, two hundred and… damn it!

We lost track. Time to recount.

One… two… three… four…

The votes have been cast, most races have been called, and plenty of folks are still fighting over what can be counted and what must be tossed.

For many, though, November 9 comes as a relief.

The so-called election season is over. Maybe now our supposed leaders can get back to the things we pay them to do… like protecting our borders, taming inflation and fighting proxy wars that line the defense sector’s pockets.

Your man (or woman) may have won. Or maybe not. Come January, you may like the new shape Washington takes. Or perhaps you’ll fear it just as much as the old shape.

It doesn’t matter to us.

Our beat, of course, isn’t politics. We poke our finger at it only when it intrudes on what we do.

When it’s taking our money… printing more of the stuff… or pulling it from one hand and putting it in another… we care.

And we care deeply.

But the other stuff? It’s all a sham.

The Biggest Threat

We’ve long gotten ourself in trouble by believing the government is the biggest threat to our wealth.

Perhaps the idea wasn’t always true… or at least not as alarming.

But in 1971, the folks in charge unchained our money from reality. Gold, they said, no longer mattered. They printed… and printed… and then they printed $5 trillion more.

Now if we merely sit still, we’re worth 8% less than we were the year before. The same is likely to be true next year… and maybe even the one after that.

That’s not your fault or ours. It’d be true no matter who we voted for.

The system no longer has a choice.

But things are worse now. We’ve seen it over the last few months.

Our assets are being weaponized. The president forced the price of oil lower by tapping into our crude savings account. He hit up the strategic reserve not for your safety or ours… but for the safety of his party.

Prices are already rising to make up for the temporary discount.

In the heat of the campaigning, the president tried to convince us that we should be proud that Social Security recipients will get a raise this year.

“Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership,” the White House reported.

It was forced to eat its words once the real world pushed back and reminded the folks in charge that the boost comes only thanks to inflation and a decades-old law that forces payouts to rise in step with prices.

An embarrassing moment for sure… but some were surely swayed by the words from the highest and most trusted office in all the land.

That’s the rub in all of this.

For Shame

It’s why we should all be ashamed. We’ve allowed lies and manipulation to not only be acceptable from our political leaders… but also part of the everyday vernacular. They sneak into all that we do – including our financial markets.

The “Inflation Reduction Act” was little more than a package of political subsidies. It was so misnamed it should be a crime… and yet virtually nobody called the dopes out for it.

Going further, our national debt is now routinely used as a political weapon. The idea destroys the value of what we have in the bank… yet we cheer whenever our side uses this tactic to get the upper hand.

And now we rely on greedy billionaires and their technology – not our own morality or internal guiding compasses – to be the fact checkers and purveyors of truth.

Shame on us.

And shame on us for thinking things will be any better the morning after… or the one after that.

The 2024 presidential campaigns are already underway. The fighting, the lies and the manipulation are already starting.

Don’t think it flows into stocks or the financial markets? Think again.

Trump’s Digital World Acquisition (DWAC) shot up more than 65% on Monday… purely on speculation that he will run.

Oil jumped… rates rose… and the buying power of the dollars in our pockets waned a bit more.

The biggest threat to your wealth is an out-of-control government. That fact didn’t change yesterday.

It’s only going to get worse.

Prepare by filling your brain with knowledge, history and the will to do what’s right.

If we want to recount anything… we should recount how this has all played out in other lands.

Clearly, our financial well-being is on the line.