Kerry Lutz's--Financial Survival Network

In the swamp, six figure salaries are the norm; there are 78 agencies where the average salary is $100,000 or more. Federal bureaucrats are paid $1.1 million every minute, $65.6 million every hour, and over half a billion dollars per day. In 2016, there were more than 330,000 disclosed federal bonuses paid.

There are more than 35,000 lawyers in the administrative state. The army of lawyers in the employ of the federal government assures that no aspect of American life is untouched by the swamp’s appendages.

The VA is offering anything but care for our great vets. While veterans were suffering at the hands of a broken bureaucratic machine, the VA doled out tens of thousands of undeserved performance bonuses: $150 million per year.

From 2015 to 2016 the VA made 20,711 new hires, but just 2,091 were doctors, continuing the historical 10:1 doctor to non-doctor employee hiring ratio.

In 2016, the VA employed 3,498 police officers at a total cost of $172 million - all names and locations of these officers, however, were redacted.

The average physician at the VA makes around $205,000 a year, meaning the VA could employ 840 doctors instead of 3,498 police officers and lots more!

In America today, “the swamp” is a real thing: a permanent government within our government that will outlast this administration and the next one and the one after that. It has a massive architecture that can be measured. It is composed of tens of thousands of individuals and lobbyists - many of whom operate well outside the confines of Washington, D.C.

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Major US stock and international markets were mixed with the DJIA down .6%, NASDAQ up 1% and Russell 2000 up .6%. Emerging markets were down a serious 4.4%. TSX up 1.3% and TSX-V down another 3.0%. Bitcoin, the crashing crypto currency was down 17.7% for the month. Gold was down a large 3.5% keeping it well under its 200 moving average and Silver was off 1.8% for the month. Pt was down a major 6% and Pd was off 3.5%. Copper was off 3.5%. Energy was the month's stellar performer with WTI up nearly 11% and Brent up 2.5%. Natgas was up 10.6%. Uranium was up .3% and 7.3% for the quarter, perhaps showing a potential recovery from its dismal performance for the past several years. Currencies saw the Greenback up another .6% and the Euro flat. Rate on the 10 year T Bond was steady at 2.84%. The WTI to Brent ratio sank back to a more earthly 1.07, after hitting new highs last month. Wall Street will forget all about this measure until the next swing, but we'll keep covering it anyway. Tilll next month!