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Earlier today, the price of silver knocked on the door of $80 an ounce. Back in May, it was in the high twenties. 

 That means something — actually a bunch of somethings.

 The S&P 500 is more like the S&P 490 — When you look at the top 10 or so S&P stocks, America is rocking. When you look at the other 490, we’re flat as a flitter. Which side of that equation predicts our future? It’s a good bet it’s not a handful of gazillionaire companies.

 Your home equity is not going to be equitable — One of the blessings of our constitutional model is that it’s self-correcting. Housing prices have reached insane levels in recent years. What goes up in a self-correcting economy will also come down. Good part – more people will be able to afford a home. Bad part – our indebted nation is poised to lose its borrowing confidence, cushion, and conscience. Our current economic model is totally dependent on debt. If that dries up, so does our economic stability.  

The generational folly trap — The children of the Baby-Boomer generation were more-or-less the last Americans to know relative hardship. You know, two pairs of shoes a year; meat two or three times a week; lousy dental care; three TV channels; Vietnam service; and the imminent possibility of a nuclear war, to name a few. There’s a problem with that. Generations who haven’t known adversity inevitably become self-absorbed, naïve and entitled. All three are a path to stupid. Stupid ensures inevitable return to hardship. 

A dysfunctional education system — Public education has lost its way to a good societal future. We’ve come to falsely believe that money assures a positive educational outcome; surrendered our classrooms to bureaucrats, bullies, damaged children, and special interest groups; and learned to ignore objective outcome measurements that demonstrate broad system failure. What we have today is a very inconsistent, expensive, pretensive, and politicized educational system that serves adults more than children. Private education is becoming an increasing necessity.

Something for nothing tops the chart — Just about everyone you and I know has been bitten by some version of the “I come first” bug. The list of the infected includes entitled minorities, illegal aliens, the unprepared elderly, politicians, professional baby-mamas, and a host of others exploiting the opportunity to get something they didn’t earn. As a personal point of shame, I find especially troubling the willingness of so many fellow veterans with marginal issues to milk the system. The bill for something for nothing will prove fascinatingly expensive. Watch your taxes for a front-row seat on how expensive.

 Post Dramatic Immaturity Disorder — Speaking of veterans, we’ve led the way in stimulating the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wave. Sure, it’s a real condition and some have assuredly earned this painful diagnosis. Many, however, are confusing traumatic exposures to a permanent get-out-of-accountability-free pass – or what I call P.D.I.D. Life is hard. And most of the time, hard experiences simply means that we have to rise up and work harder to prevail. Everyone who lives faces hardship. Don’t let anyone teach you to become ensnared by your injuries versus unleashed by your potentials.

Trump Derangement Syndrome is epidemic — Donald Trump is the “Typhoid Mary” of our era’s politics. Though he continues to do courageous and special things, his vanity and exaggerative statements distract mightily from his profoundly impactful leadership. That so many people are more concerned with charm and charisma than achievement and success equally indicts the liberal electorate’s maturity.

Conspiracy nonsense is exponential — I find it fascinating how many people are addicted to chasing the latest conspiracy theory as a form of entertainment and patriotic pretense. Heck, 60-something years later we haven’t even been able to resolve who killed Kennedy and now we’re switching over to 9-11, Epstein, and Charlie Kirk? There’s a difference between truth-seeking and conspiracy obsession. Like all forms of addiction, you can spot the latter by the way it crowds out normal living.

Rainy Day Considerations — Imagine for a moment that some of the catastrophic predictions — EMP’s, nuclear war, global weather events, plagues, famine, etc. — come true. That will mean that about ninety-percent of us will have limited ways to effectively feed, protect, and support ourselves while clawing back to normal. It will take less than ninety-days to erase that ninety-percent. That means you need ninety-days of ways to feed, protect, and support your loved ones.

AI is smart so you must be smarter —  It’s a personal bet that artificial intelligence is going to do less to change the world than rearrange it. That means you and I will need to rearrange ourselves. People who know stuff, work hard and are useful will always be ahead of the game. What the heck, you watched “The Terminator” and you’re still afraid of AI?

I’ll be back.