Foreign wars are only made possible by endless money printing.

If you want to end the wars, END THE FED.

Last week, a massive fire broke out at a warehouse in Ontario, California, the latest in a disturbing trend of arson attacks on commercial infrastructure. From Starlink dishes destined for Ukraine to suspected ICE facilities, warehouses are becoming targets. The arrested suspect, reportedly a worker, gave a statement about being denied a 'living wage.' In my view, while that anguish is real, it tragically misdiagnoses the disease. We are not witnessing mere criminal acts or labor disputes; we are seeing the visible sparks of a system-wide collapse. The real arsonist isn't a desperate individual -- it's a government that has spent decades systematically burning the value of our money through endless printing. The theft isn't from a warehouse shelf; it's from your paycheck, your savings, and your future.

Just a quick reminder to everyone that EVERY form of insurance you buy is, by definition, a rip-off. Why? Because the insurance is priced higher than the value of the risk it claims to cover. By definition. Otherwise, insurance companies could not financially survive.

One of the least understood secrets of wealth is that wealthy people simply self-insure everything they can. This means they don't buy insurance, except as legally required. Instead, they save the premiums and build up their own in-house insurance fund. VERY smart wealthy people convert those premiums into gold and silver and build a massive precious metals nest egg to cover any "insurable" events. Then they liquidate some metal if they need to cover costs for an unforeseen event.

It's said that the lottery is a tax on people who can't do math. Consumer-level insurance policies (home, health, auto, etc.) are quite similar. They are a kind of lottery that drains your wealth and keeps you impoverished.

I'm not saying you should cut off all your insurance policies tomorrow, by the way. You need your own reserves in place before you do that, but once you have enough reserves to self-insure, then continuing to buy consumer-level insurance policies is a waste of money that drains your wealth. The game is rigged against you, by definition. The house always wins, and YOU always lose in the insurance game.

People who can't do math think insurance is a great deal. They also tend to buy low-deductible policies that are especially expensive and wasteful. But people who manage real wealth know that insurance is usually a rip-off.

One more final point: For medical expenses, only clueless mainstream consumers rely on insurance. Smart people negotiate CASH prices for medical procedures, either in advance or after the fact (such as for emergency room visits), and they pay about 20 cents on the dollar compared to what insurance pays.

Medical insurance is a racket, as you probably well know. You can largely opt out of that system and save yourself a literal fortune at the same time.*

* Not financial advice. Do your own research and talk to your own experts before making financial decisions. I am not your financial advisor.