1) Gold 5,000! Yikes!

It’s the most confounding of all economic trends.  The American economy is on fire, as is the stock market.  Inflation is trending down in the U.S. and other nations. A rising gold price is usually a rush to safety. Investors are fleeing dollars and swooping up Gold.

What are they afraid of?

As the chart below shows, normally prosperity is associated with a rising Dow-gold ratio (as in the 1920s, 1980s, and 1990s) and times (1930s and 1970s) gold rises faster than the Dow.

But in the last 14 months, the price of gold has nearly doubled even with a bull market in stocks. One factor, as we explained in a previous Hotline, is that the Chinese communists are selling U.S. Treasuries and buying gold.

Talk about a risky bet: if the gold price stabilizes or begins to trend back down, China is the big loser. Fingers crossed.

2) USA Inc.

Here's another news story over the weekend that makes us cringe:

The Financial Times reports that the Commerce Department "is planning to inject $1.6bn" and "will receive a 10 per cent stake in USA Rare Earth, a publicly traded Oklahoma-based miner that controls significant US deposits of heavy rare earths, according to people familiar with the matter."

This trend of the Trump administration investing taxpayer dollars into equity shares of private companies has our hair on fire. Here's a handful of recent examples:

The Defense Department has even started an "Office of Strategic Capital Investment." President Dwight Eisenhower is rolling over in his grave.

We would be against politicians picking industry winners and losers, even if they were good at it. We have decades of evidence that what government bureaucrats are VERY GOOD at is picking losers.

Recall the nearly one-half trillion dollars the Obama and Biden administrations flushed down the toilet by "investing" in green energy debacles.  

Congress should immediately pass a law making it illegal for the U.S. government to take ownership shares in private companies.

3) Our Minnesota Solution

We're almost always against the heavy hand of the federal government intervening in states and cities. We’re hawks when it comes to the 9th and 10th Amendments.

So here’s our solution to end the mayhem in Minneapolis: pull federal ICE agents out of harm's way.

Instead, stop sending billions of tax dollars to the state until Tim Walz and the rest of the incompetents who have run that city and state into the ground end the rampant fraud and repay the estimated $9 billion of federal tax dollars stolen from American taxpayers with impunity.

4) The Pork Barrel Runneth Over

We got some pushback from readers when we highlighted only the Democratic earmarks in the omnibus spending bill.

Ok, we're guilty as charged. This is a BIPARTISAN raid on the Treasury.  

Here's the earmark tally on the "bipartisan agreement" on government funding that passed the House last week, courtesy of the National Taxpayers Union:

Here’s a partial list of Republican earmarks:

• $725M Everglades Restoration (water/environment) - Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL)

• $374.6M F-35 Engine Repair Facility (military construction) - Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL)

• $262M Multi-Aircraft Paint Facility (military construction) - Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL)

• $257M Upper Ohio Navigation (navigation/infrastructure) - Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA)

• $213M Chickamauga Lock Replacement (lock/dam) - Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)

• $183.8M Montgomery Locks and Dam (lock/dam) - Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA)

• $131.5M Morganza to Gulf Hurricane Protection (hurricane/flood) - Reps. Steve Scalise & Clay Higgins (R-LA)

• $85M Survivable Airborne Operations Center Planning & Design (military/Offutt AFB) - Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE)

5) Blue States Keep Shrinking

Red states are likely to gain NINE more electoral votes and House seats after the 2030 Census if present population trends continue.

This analysis from the demographic group ESRI shows Minnesota losing only one seat, but after the havoc of the last several months, we wouldn't be surprised if another half-million residents leave for saner environs.

6) More Voter Suppression!

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