_{ECONOMIC NEWS}

Bursting at the Seams: The Federal Debt Bubble of 2025

Radical changes in finance, geopolitics, and energy are likely to define 2025, making it a critical year for investors to focus on the "Big Picture" rather than short-term trades. The deteriorating U.S. financial situation, highlighted by federal interest expenses surpassing the defense budget, signals an impending paradigm shift. Historical patterns suggest that nations with excessive debt servicing lose their global power status.

The U.S. faces tough choices: cutting defense during geopolitical instability, slashing entitlements like Social Security, or continuing on an unsustainable debt path. Political and economic realities make meaningful spending cuts unlikely, increasing reliance on currency debasement to fund obligations.

This inevitable debasement undermines confidence in traditional assets like Treasuries, driving individuals, companies, and countries toward gold as a safer store of value. With this megatrend gaining momentum, holding physical gold in secure jurisdictions remains a prudent strategy.

2025 may be the year when the debt bubble bursts, forcing a harsh reality check on unsustainable financial models and ushering in a shift toward alternative assets like precious metals. Read More.

_{FINANCIAL NEWS}

The Next Financial Crisis: Unraveling the Insurance Industry

The increasing impact of climate disasters like fires, hurricanes, and floods is destabilizing the insurance industry, with broader implications for the financial system. In California, heavily affected areas like Pacific Palisades face massive insurance exposure exceeding $20 billion, yet many insurers are pulling out, raising rates, or canceling policies. The state's insurer of last resort is underfunded, leaving gaps that the government may struggle to fill.

A key issue is the mismatch between risks and rates, driven by lenient regulation to keep insurers in disaster-prone markets. Meanwhile, unregulated, undercapitalized insurers are filling the void, resembling the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. These companies, backed by questionable rating agencies like Demotech, are prone to insolvency, risking mortgage foreclosures, bank instability, and potential taxpayer bailouts through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The parallels to 2008 are stark, with a system incentivizing short-term gains while ignoring long-term risks. This growing insurance crisis, compounded by the climate crisis, threatens to spill over into broader financial markets, potentially leading to another economic collapse. Read More.