Economic Crisis News 2015-09-26

Government Shutdown & Pope’s Visit

Continuing from last week’s prediction, the Congress has done diddly squat in terms of budgeting our bankrupt federal government through tax revenue from our broken economy.

The US Department of Agriculture released a statement regarding the SNAP food assistance program in which they said if Congress fails to pass appropriations by October 1st, now just 6 days away, they may not be able to keep benefits on a normal schedule. We’re paraphrasing here because two contradictory statements were discussed in major news sources. We can’t say for now how worried we should be about “food stamps” being shutoff in America. We know for sure that if benefits were shutoff for a week we’d have riots on our hands.

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the “USDA on Friday sent a letter to states asking them to hold off “until further notice” on starting the process that distributes benefits at the first of the month.

The department of Defense also warned troops that “a government-wide shutdown next week…would offer no immediate mechanism for continuing military pay.” Do we need a new World War to beef up the war funding or could cuts be used as a way to shift power to others in the world as the planned American implosion accelerates?

With the Pope in town distracting people expect many key events to go on behind the scenes. It is quite convenient that he’s in the United States and gives a historic first address to Congress at the same time a historic budget crisis is about to explode. The last papal visit was April 2008 by Pope Benedict the 16th. Various conspiracy theories were anticipating the Pope and US leaders to announce some major changes in the world during this visit.

Not entirely surprising is Speaker of the US House of Representatives John Boehner jumping ship just as the government is approaching it’s next big budget crisis. He’s been Speaker since January 2011 and he stated today he thought 2 two-year terms would be ‘plenty’ after touting his party’s paltry accomplishments in the last 5 years. He’s resigning not only from Speaker-ship but from Congress as well.

Then again, if Boehner already planned on resigning, perhaps the timing now is just a side story to shift focus away from other more important events; one such could be the joint conference between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping which is mysteriously unlisted on the official WhiteHouse YouTube channel.

Federal Reserve

Encapsulating the sheer stress from continually lying to the American public, Janet Yellen, the chair of the Federal Reserve, the US’ Central Bank, appeared to have a muffled nervous breakdown.

Many alternative economists guess is that QE is about to continue with the 4th official installment; probably why the market rallied with the dow up over 200 points Friday and closing up 113. Markets are still down for the week however. A new round of official money printing could be just what the doctor ordered to artificially prop up US equities and further solidify the death of the US Dollar as world reserve currency.

Precious Metals Physical Shortage Continued

The US Mint cut their silver eagle allocation another 20%. SRSRocco reported that Australian and Canadian silver production decline 28% year over year. He’s also reporting that a potential wholesale silver shortage occurring would be the first time in history. JM Bullion is reporting that the largest precious metals wholesaler in North America only has 3 silver products in stock; 2015 US Silver Eagles, 2015 Austrian Silver Philharmonics and 100oz Asahi bars of which all are delayed shipping. Dealers are no longer taking any orders for 2015 Silver Eagles though. Delays have put the US Mint in a bind where new purchasers may have to wait until January 2016 to get the new 2016 coins. Premiums were already up to 50% for US Silver Eagles right now.

Oil

Oil is back down a buck or two for the week. We’re sure US consumers are happy that gas prices are remaining low as excess oil inventory is being sold off.

Shoutout

Props to jsnip for reporting many of the stories we covered this week.

Correction

Correction from a previous ECN installment, it appears Tsipras is back in office as the Greek Prime Minister, we were unaware this was a potential outcome when he announced his resignation and a snap election that took place on Sunday September 20th where his party took 35.5% of the vote and won 145 seats of 300 in the parliament.

Next Week

Let us know in the comments if you’d like us to discuss the Russian army movement in Syria going on in next week’s episode.