Kerry Lutz's--Financial Survival Network

Dr. Joel Wade has written books and taught courses on finding happiness. Of course all happiness derived must come from within. But the external world has a part to play in your happiness too. All too often we focus on the things that we cannot control and this leads to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Better to concentrate on what we can influence and spend less time thinking about the things we have no impact upon. Things like politics and the news are pretty much obstacles to happiness, at least part of the time anyway. Time to focus on the things that matter. In so many areas of our lives, life has never been better and it keeps on getting better all the time. 

Joe isn’t someone I usually think of as a libertarian. But I think every American, no matter what their politics has a libertarian strain. While Joe doesn’t like the idea of hard drugs being legalized, especially because he doesn’t like the idea of having to pay for their health care or to subsidize their decline, he also sees the futility of prohibitions. In addition, he is extremely opposed to the left’s fascistic tendencies. So if it comes down to a choice between liberty and governmental control, Joe is always on the side of liberty. 

Sean Worthington has a PHD in computer science and has been working on crypto currencies before almost anyone. He believes that cloud kin solves all the problems of Bitcoin and has none of the limitations others suffer from. Sean says it can’t be hacked or stolen and used. And it can replace everything that’s out there now. Sound too good to be true? Listen and decide. 

Don Surber started out working in a factory, went to college and then became a newspaper man. After a long career, and with the dynamics of the newspaper industry in flux, he was shown the door. And his life has never been better. He writes his daily blog, www.DonSurber.BlogSpot.com and has several books to his credit, dealing with the Trump election and presidency. He sees the makings of a turnaround in his home state of West Virginia and is very hopeful. Read his work and let us know what you think.

Daniel McAdams is the executive director of the Ron Paul Institute. In that role they regularly review current news developments and comment accordingly. While many are excited by Trump's current supreme court nominee, the Institute takes a more worldly and grounded view. They're concerned about nominee Kavanaugh's ruling about mass data collection and his pro-state views. Where there's smoke...

The stock market hit its high in January of this year and doesn't seem able to budge. Millennials are near fully invested in this market and that can't be a good thing. At the same time gold is languishing, however the stocks are still performing well since February, with higher lows being made. Despite gold's current performance the GDX-J is still above its 200 day moving average. The GDX has performed similarly, but it's just below its 200 day moving average. 

I published an article about privatizing border security and enforcement. The feedback has been amazing. So here we are again. Let's put a bounty on all illegals of $500-1000, with a bonus for felons and illegal multiple crossers. Coyotes are tops at $2500 per head. In no time at all, our southern border will be secure. 

Gorsuch was a more more pivotal and important pick than Kavanaugh will ever be. He took the swing out of Kennedy's swing vote. The past 19 5-4 SCOTUS decisions saw Kennedy side with the conservative block 100% of the time, including the pivotal immigrant ban case and the groundbreaking Janus v. AFSCME case. 

A little known factoid, Gorsuch was Justice Kennedy's law clerk. The two men have a very tight bond. Evidently, the presence of Gorsuch on the court led to a stiffening of Kennedy's conservative backbone. Was there a deal? We can only speculate and hope that in return for Gorsuch's elevation to the court, Kennedy agreed to return to his conservative roots for the remainder of his tenure. 

New York City is becoming the San Francisco of the East. Broken windows policing works in reverse as well. When government allows disorder and chaos to happen on its streets, with no fear of retribution, it will inevitably get more of it, as witnessed by the demise of these two once great cities. 

Copper crashed to below $3 per pound. Is it manipulation or a sign that China and the global economy are at risk? Too early to tell, but interest rates are clearly rising and the could mean trouble ahead. Debt continues to pile up at record rates both here and abroad and no one seems concerned, until one day everyone will be. That’s the tipping point. And it’s certainly coming. 

Another year and another bank stress test. Does it matter? Have banks found new and riskier forms of lending that the regulators can’t keep up with? We all know that derivatives keep increasing and getting more risky. While progress has been made in reigning in risky real estate loans, banks are again showing a tendency to lower lending standards. But it’s what we can’t see that could be disastrous. For now the problem is isolated to Deutsche Bank, but for how long?

Things are getting challenging at Tesla Motors. However, they did manage to produce over 5k cars last week, with the help of a temporary tent-covered production line. Can they keep it up? Does anyone really care anymore? Elan Musk has 9 lives, let's see what happens next. What is prime real estate? John tells you what he thinks and beware of REIT's. And finally, there's trouble brewing in DC, but when hasn't there been? Trump may wind up appointing 4-5 Supreme Court Justices. Will it lead to revolution or civil war? 

Gerald is hopeful about Trump's overtures towards North Korea. There was never a point in going to war with the Hermit Kingdom. And the risks were huge. Gerald is concerned about Iran. Everything seems to be working against the Mullahs, hyper-inflation, a youthful population, deteriorating economics. There's no telling what will happen there. However, Trump managed to trick the war mongers on NK and he just might do the same here. Finally, Gerald is going to hold the Operation Peace Festival of Liberty Love Joy and Beauty later this year. It promises to be an amazing experience and we plan to join him there. 

40,000 sealed indictments, that's what Q anon says. I've studied these sealed cases on the Pacer database. I'm not convinced about 40k cases against the swamp. I'll settle for 2,000. That would be enough to knock the stuffing out of the Deep State/Shadow Government. One thing is for certain, there's something happening that has got the Elites running for their bolt holes. The rule of law, which for so long has been just an abstract concept, is about to make a major return on the American stage. Get ready now! I also address a number of your questions and concerns. Let's not forget that while Bitcoin is down, it's by no means out. Let's have some fun while it all lasts. 

Imagine if in the early 2000's AI based computers were responsible for reviewing all mortgage applications before final approval was given. Imagine further that they were drawing on the big data repository of mortgage information for the past 30 years. It is highly likely that the real estate bust would have never occurred or that it would have been greatly mitigated. While you didn't need AI to know what was going to happen, it certainly could have shown in great detail the inevitable damage that would be inflicted upon the global financial system. And it would have given political leaders advanced warning and a real reason to start reigning it in. Perhaps in 2020 AI will avoid the next great real estate bust. But, we'll never know. This is just one example of the projects that Globalive is working on right now. Its work will be felt in medicine, media and virtually every other aspect of our world. The company just went public and you can find out more by clicking here!

There's a whole new world in front us and it will be ushered by a convergence of new technologies, AI, Blockchain and others we haven't yet dreamed of. 

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Mexico has elected a leftist-populist. Canada would like to unelected theirs. China started to wonder and the EU is in full panic mode. Welcome to the world of Trumpian Trade Policy. No one knows where they stand until the chips have fallen where they made. No one but Trump that is and he's holding all the cards. Welcome back factory workers and the middle class. To think it was all so easy. 

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Tom Meredith is the Co-Founder & CEO of BitMinutes and is an Expert on Bitcoin and says: "In short, the problem with Bitcoin is that it is not tied to an asset and there is no practical use for it". Tom is a serial entrepreneur who has been crafting solutions in online security, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and other ventures for over a decade. He founded P2P Cash in the mid-2010s to focus on the fintech space, which led to the creation of Smart Token Chain, a breakthrough combination of block chain advances, cryptocurrency innovation and cyber security mandates. He founded BitMinutes to apply these new tools to the social mission of profitably removing the structural constraints on the expansion of financial service delivery globally. About BitMinute: BitMinute is a cryptocurrency tied to a real-world asset called a prepaid airtime minute. On the surface, the prepaid minute is just prepaid airtime on a mobile phone. However, it is fast becoming an informal currency in thousands of less developed communities where formal banking services are scarce. This opens up an enticing opportunity to apply fintech advances to build a new financial services delivery system

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!