1) What If They Had a Government Shutdown and Nobody Cared

Only 6% of voters say they are greatly impacted by this shutdown (and they probably live in the swamp). More evidence we can live permanently without most "non-essential" federal employees.

2) Blue Chip Economists Got the Trump Economy All Wrong - Again

To quote the great philosopher Yogi Berra: "It's deja vu all over again."

Back in 2017, the headlines were full of predictions of an epic economic crash. Trump would deliver a second Great Depression, so best to jump off the ledge right now.

Of course, in Trump's first term the stock indices rose between 50% and 100% and incomes after inflation for median families rose by roughly $6,000.

So here we go again. At the starting of this year it was more doom and gloom:

This headline from the front page of the Wall Street Journal in April shows that the "expert" economists almost all were pessimistic. The chart below shows about half were predicting recession by the end of the year:

Even as the economy improved dramatically after a bad first quarter of 2025, pessimism was pervasive:

"In the past three months, economists have changed their outlook for the U.S. to slower growth, higher inflation and greater risk of recession."

Instead, we've had two quarters of near 4% growth and record highs on the stock market.

We believe that the tariffs have knocked off as much as one-half percent growth, but the tax cuts, the energy policies and the deregulation have added at least one to two percentage points to potential growth.

Can someone please tell Jerome Powell and the media?

First quarter GDP -0.6%

Second quarter GDP 3.8%

Third quarter GDP  3.8% (Atlanta Fed GDPNow)

Notice in the chart below from the Atlanta Fed that the economy has consistently outperformed expectations so far this year.

3) On the Other Hand: Yikes! Gold 4,000 Is Almost here!

We've been warning of this day coming and it is getting perilously close. The gold price crashed over $3,900 this weekend. In five years the gold price has doubled. Over the past year it is up almost 50%.

We admit to being flummoxed by these strange developments.

Normally, a rising gold price is associated with widespread investor fear and panic, yet the surging price of gold has corresponded with record valuations in equities. Is this the canary in the dollar-decline coal mine?

We're not sure, but we do believe that the best thing to calm global jitters right now would be a deep reduction in government spending. Meanwhile, Chucky Schumer has shut down the government to stop $1.5 trillion of spending cuts out of $80 trillion in outlays through 2035, or a measly 1.8% of expenditures.

4) Has Japan Elected An Iron Lady?

Britain was in an awful mess economically in the late 1970s until Margaret Thatcher was elected and promoted an entrepreneurial and private sector-led recovery that lasted over three decades.

Now, maybe there's hope in Japan, which has suffered its own stagnation since the 1990s, with GDP growth averaging less than 1% a year and the stock market essentially flat.

Sanae Takaichi was elected leader of the ruling party LDP party on Saturday, and will soon be confirmed as prime minister. "My goal is to become the Iron Lady," she said and described Thatcher as the inspiration for her political career.

But if she wants to be Japan's Thatcher, she should be taking a blade to government spending, instead she's called for more government "investment" and public works projects. Japan has one of the world's highest corporate tax rate of nearly 32%. Where's the tax cut?

Takaichi will meet with President Trump when he visits Japan later this month.  We hope their meeting strengthens the trade deal the two countries signed this year and moves both countries toward a more pro-growth trajectory.

5) How This Small Island Is Getting Rich on the AI Boom

The Caribbean island of Anguilla is about 35 square miles in size and has a total population of 15,000 people. But it happens to be sitting on one of the most valuable pieces of virtual real estate in the world: the country-code top-level domain dot-ai. Nearly every company wants a dot-ai website, and so nearly 50% of the island nation's total government revenues now come from selling .ai addresses.

Get ready for UnleashProsperity.ai.

6) A Reagan Oldie But Goody

We urge you to watch this classic Ronald Reagan story is from his final public speech on February 3, 1994:

"It's a story about a woman who walked into a bridal shop one day and told the sales clerk that she was looking for a wedding gown for her fourth wedding…"

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