Thoughts?

[mjedlin66]

Unfortunately, solid state battery technology has been around in R&D for over a decade, and nobody has brought it to scale yet. I don't know what the challenges are, but I am not holding my breath.

[Chulke]

So correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Senator Rand Paul publish a report that showed BILLIONS, yes that's with a B, Billions of dollars of duplicated spending across all federal agencies with programs that are duplicated and serve to perform the same function? Whatever happened to THAT report???? Oh that's right, it got buried and blown off as right wing conspiracy theory didn't it?!?!?

Here's my take: First off, STOP SENDING OUR MONEY TO EVERYONE ELSE AROUND THE WORLD!!! IF WE CAN'T TAKE CARE OF AMERICA FIRST, THEN WE CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE CARE OF OTHER COUNTRIES AND THEIR PROBLEMS!!!! Secondly, STOP GIVING FREE HANDOUTS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS ENTERING THIS COUNTRY ILLEGALLY!!! IF WE CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE CARE OF A HOMELESS VETERAN THAN WE CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE CARE OF AN ILLEGAL ALIEN!!! Thirdly, SOME OF THESE AGENCIES DUPLICATE WHAT THEY DO IN A LOT OF INSTANCES, FOR EXAMPLE FBI AND ATF TEND TO OVERLAP ALOT...SO WHY DO WE NEED BOTH??? GET RID OF ONE OF THEM!!! OR BOTH ALL THEY DO IS KILL PEOPLE ANYWAY, JUST ASK THE AIRPORT DIRECTOR"S FAMILY FROM LITTLE ROCK, OR THE FAMILIES FROM RUBY RIDGE!

My last position on this topic revolves on the fact that our money is FIAT....it's based on NOTHING absolutely NOTHING but the good faith of the AMERICAN PEOPLE....which essentially makes us all SLAVES to the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!!! and that's why when BRICS comes online fully, THOSE COUNTRIES ARE gonna eat our lunch and WE WILL BE A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY from that point on! Back our currency by something substantial and we MIGHT stand a chance....If you notice Gold and Silver have been on a tare here lately!?!?!? Why do you think that is?????? It's physical, it's real, it's divisible, and they are finite resources....and lastly no country can continue to exist that DOES NOT produce anything of its own....MANUFACTURING has ALL but left AMERICA for CHINA....that's got to come back...come hell or high water! put America back to work and I promise ya this country will come back from the brink! Well that's just my 2 cents! Maybe I'm way off but these all things I see.....


Cheers!

[Aitrus]

Chulke,

I appreciate your passion, and thanks for sharing your opinions. Although, the all caps barrage made my eyes hurt a bit. Can I ask you to tone it down a notch next time?

As a follow-on question: How do you foresee these things affecting our retirement and/or the nation's debt issue?

I'm also interested especially in the fiat currency angle. I know what I think of it and what the Fed's manipulation of it means for our retirements / TSP, but what's your take?

As for manufacturing, I'd recommend watching one of Peter Zeihan's long-form videos. For a while now he's advocated the return of manufacturing to the US, and a lot of that is happening. He often points out several locations - with the Texas Triangle being foremost among them - which are reshoring manufacturing. His biggest worry raw materials processing. Not that it's impossible, but companies will have to eat the sunk cost of having built overseas and have to pay for it here. Some are making strides in that direction, such as Apple and Tesla, but much more needs to be done.

For example, our need for power keeps going up like crazy, and so our need for copper is roughly double what we did in the 40s and 50s when we electrified the nation, and we have something like 20% of the capacity needed here at home to refine the ore and make simple things like coper wire. But all that manufacturing requires a lot of power and energy, which is getting ever more expensive in a lot of places due to government regulations on carbon footprints, etc.

[bloobs]

....My last position on this topic revolves on the fact that our money is FIAT....it's based on NOTHING absolutely NOTHING but the good faith of the AMERICAN PEOPLE....which essentially makes us all SLAVES to the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!!! and that's why when BRICS comes online fully, THOSE COUNTRIES ARE gonna eat our lunch and WE WILL BE A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY from that point on! ....

Two indelible things I've learned in life as a middle-aged man:

1. Letting emotions (instead of careful calm reasoning) dictate my belief clouds my objective understanding of the topic and often leads me to form the wrong conclusions. Personal experiences, trust me on this one.

2. As a child I had the great fortune of living in several countries, most of them considered "Third World". My personal anecdotes and research from that experience has convinced me that countries remain Third world or BECOME third world for the following reasons:

• The presence of a very and increasingly powerful oligarchy (top 0.1% of the wealthiest families) that dictates all the country's private sector business' actions with its government's statutes and regulations. I sometimes liken it to "corporatism" where private industry and government collude intensely for their monetary self-interests--at the expense of the greater populace.

• The marginalization of its middle class demographic (who either flee the country or are forced into the lower class economic strata) by the actions and directives of the aforementioned oligarchy.

FYI I am lifting the following descriptions that i feel perfectly describes it

• Economic Development: Third World countries typically have low per capita income levels, limited industrialization, and large sections of the population engaged in subsistence agriculture.

• Infrastructure: Insufficient infrastructure such as roads, electricity, and telecommunications networks is a common characteristic of Third World nations. This lack of infrastructure hampers economic growth and development.

• Education and Healthcare: Inadequate access to quality education and healthcare is prevalent in these countries, impacting the overall well-being and potential for progress.

• Poverty and Inequality: Third World countries often face high levels of poverty and inequality, with significant portions of the population living below the poverty line.

• Political Instability: Many Third World countries experience political instability, which can hinder economic growth and create social unrest.

Is the US a third world country per the standards listed above? Maybe, and if so, who's really at fault?

[Chulke]

Chulke,

I appreciate your passion, and thanks for sharing your opinions. Although, the all caps barrage made my eyes hurt a bit. Can I ask you to tone it down a notch next time?

As a follow-on question: How do you foresee these things affecting our retirement and/or the nation's debt issue?

I'm also interested especially in the fiat currency angle. I know what I think of it and what the Fed's manipulation of it means for our retirements / TSP, but what's your take?

As for manufacturing, I'd recommend watching one of Peter Zeihan's long-form videos. For a while now he's advocated the return of manufacturing to the US, and a lot of that is happening. He often points out several locations - with the Texas Triangle being foremost among them - which are reshoring manufacturing. His biggest worry raw materials processing. Not that it's impossible, but companies will have to eat the sunk cost of having built overseas and have to pay for it here. Some are making strides in that direction, such as Apple and Tesla, but much more needs to be done.

For example, our need for power keeps going up like crazy, and so our need for copper is roughly double what we did in the 40s and 50s when we electrified the nation, and we have something like 20% of the capacity needed here at home to refine the ore and make simple things like coper wire. But all that manufacturing requires a lot of power and energy, which is getting ever more expensive in a lot of places due to government regulations on carbon footprints, etc.

Sorry....I tend to get a bit heated on this topic when it gets brought up in conversation because I am so passionate about it and I've seen it first hand! What I mean by that is that I have been to many foreign countries when I served, (I'm retired military) if anyone didn't know, and having visited these countries while serving I've seen first hand what our money has done for these countries....

As for our retirements and the affects on them...truthfully I don't see anything happening to change what or how our current retirement system is or acts....there's no REAL political appetite to do so because messing with it would be political suicide I believe....so no one will take up that charge...they'll talk a big game but nothing will come to fruition.

As for the fiat currency angle, my thought is that there is some serious fed manipulation happening with the precious metals sector, and I don't know why or to what end...silver bugs have been pointing to numbers manipulations on the sheets for years now and JP Morgan has been stockpiling physical silver for quite some time, in fact they even got fined, a few times by the SEC for manipulation of the numbers but the fines pale in comparison to the values they are holding....so I have to ask myself what's their endgame in doing this? Is Uncle Sam already planning on backing the dollar with silver with JP Morgan as a Quasi Fed Chair or something like that to manage the roll out?

I do know there is a mining and exploration company in Nevada in the old Comstock lode district who has consolidated a large land mass out there and has explored and indicated that the original explorers left MILLIONS of ounces of silver in the ground out there....so there's that....(ticker symbol: LODE, and I DO NOT hold any shares currently) but not sure that's even being talked about by anyone at the fed level...silver is also a dual purpose metal meaning it has industrial uses as well...

I know some companies are bringing manufacturing back but not enough....and not fast enough because most companies are getting tax incentives for having manufacturing in other countries or it's just overall cheaper because American labor is expensive....So I don't know the answer right off the top of my head but I know some ideas were floated like offering a tax holiday for bringing manufacturing back and other like ideas. And oddly enough that same Comstock district also has copper in it as well but IDK if any of that was delineated in their exploration findings but I know it was mined out there....I'm not a big fan of the whole "Carbon Footprint" save the environment mindset...I don't think it holds any merit personally....The world was supposed to end like years ago by their definition like back in the 70's and here we are still moving forward and they keep moving the goal post or changing the coming calamity...so I don't put stock in it! I think it's more about finding another way to tax us and take more money from you an I then saving the planet.

Okay! I've rambled enough!


Cheers!

[Chulke]

I should also note....that I wonder if the precious metals price manipulation by the Fed is their way of combating BRICS and it's evolving and growing influence around the world? Like are they trying to keep precious metals prices down to keep those countries wanting to join BRICS from joining BRICS???

It's no secret...BRICS has been in development for several years but price manipulation of any commodity can only last so long until the top blows off...

Then it's off to the races....some people speculate gold should be around $20K and silver around $4K an ounce...IDK about that personally....but I know the price of silver has traded in a VERY TIGHT pattern (too tight to be NORMAL) for a very long time!


Cheers!

[Chulke]

Oh and I'd also like to add that I think we're going the wrong direction with the whole fossil fuel/ electric vehicle debate, blah blah blah....Right now America's infrastructure is NOT ready for charging everyone who has an electric vehicle nor will it EVER be ready for that! There's only so much rare earth metals on the planet to go around to make the batteries needed and China has already cornered the market on that....we need to stop that BEFORE we give them anymore competitive advantage on that front...

The REAL direction we should be going is hydrogen fuel cell technology...the only by product is water and the range is comparable to that of gas and other fossil fuels...then we don't have to worry about storing energy or destroying the planet through strip mining....Plus we cut the head off the dragon at the same time....just my 2 cents on this as well....


Cheers!

[Aitrus]

Thanks for your thoughts, Chulke. Good info to chew on, I think.

With regards to the silver bugs - I haven't followed the community for a while (I'm a bit of a coin bug as well), so I'm not aware of the claims of manipulation. Can you post some links so I can get caught up?

[Chulke]

I jumped into youtube and pulled a few videos I've watched in the past...I can not speak to there validity but even if you take half of what they're saying as true you can see that there is some serious issues going on! The last video features Peter Schiff which many people believe is one of the foremost experts in the precious metals commodity markets...

https://youtu.be/yEmOuiebEOw?si=y1ZjeIqu1tJz-WAJ

https://youtu.be/pdz0UDzxpS0?si=UUIi5CFlFyQb7EXN

https://youtu.be/DnVjSJ88BHM?si=kDpECcVIzShAxMwc



Cheers!

[Aitrus]

Thanks! I'll check these out tonight / this weekend when I get some time. Much appreciated.

[Bubba]

While a bit of something obvious...just a reminder to those that think one political power has more impact on the S&P 500's growth than the other:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKzthyyWIAA ... ame=medium

Seems to me that the fully invested did the best. Obviously, we can do better with some neat TSPCalc magic.

[jimcasada]

[/quote]

Oh and I'd also like to add that I think we're going the wrong direction with the whole fossil fuel/ electric vehicle debate, blah blah blah....Right now America's infrastructure is NOT ready for charging everyone who has an electric vehicle nor will it EVER be ready for that! There's only so much rare earth metals on the planet to go around to make the batteries needed and China has already cornered the market on that....we need to stop that BEFORE we give them anymore competitive advantage on that front...

The REAL direction we should be going is hydrogen fuel cell technology...the only by product is water and the range is comparable to that of gas and other fossil fuels...then we don't have to worry about storing energy or destroying the planet through strip mining....Plus we cut the head off the dragon at the same time....just my 2 cents on this as well....


Cheers!

I believe strip mining is the primary method of extracting lithium from ancient sea beds. Check it out online. Also, I heard somewhere that about 1/3 of price of a gallon of gas or diesel goes to the tax man (mainly for roads & bridges). So, I'm thinking maybe I should invest in whatever company does toll road equipment or such, because I don't think the government would be wanting to put a direct tax on EV's. That's something they are trying hard to encourage right now.

[Bubba]

A bit unrelated...but I think this thread is a mixture of everything anyway, I recently read an interesting article in regards to our MFW

https://www.fedweek.com/tsp/how-other-i ... quivalent/

Seemingly this guy writes on other websites too. He's very vocal in making comparisons with other 401k offerings...interesting to read some of the comparisons.

[Scarfinger]

A bit unrelated...but I think this thread is a mixture of everything anyway, I recently read an interesting article in regards to our MFW

https://www.fedweek.com/tsp/how-other-i ... quivalent/

Seemingly this guy writes on other websites too. He's very vocal in making comparisons with other 401k offerings...interesting to read some of the comparisons.

Basically he doesn't like it. No ETF's, only Mutual funds. Limited % amount you can invest, 25% vs up to 50% at other companies 401K plans... and high fees for frequent trades

The window’s transaction fees make it very challenging to improve returns by using an investment philosophy likely to result in frequent trades.

So the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB)—the entity responsible for administering the TSP—can and should do better in designing and administering a SDBA for TSP participants. As a TSP participant, you should write to FRTIB, attend FRTIB monthly meetings, and/or write to your local Congressional representative seeking a better solution!

[Bubba]

A bit unrelated...but I think this thread is a mixture of everything anyway, I recently read an interesting article in regards to our MFW

https://www.fedweek.com/tsp/how-other-i ... quivalent/

Seemingly this guy writes on other websites too. He's very vocal in making comparisons with other 401k offerings...interesting to read some of the comparisons.

Basically he doesn't like it. No ETF's, only Mutual funds. Limited % amount you can invest, 25% vs up to 50% at other companies 401K plans... and high fees for frequent trades

The window’s transaction fees make it very challenging to improve returns by using an investment philosophy likely to result in frequent trades.

So the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB)—the entity responsible for administering the TSP—can and should do better in designing and administering a SDBA for TSP participants. As a TSP participant, you should write to FRTIB, attend FRTIB monthly meetings, and/or write to your local Congressional representative seeking a better solution!

Honestly, the only thing I like is the fact that I can invest in leveraged funds. That makes the whole thing worth it. Even so, it's not cheap and the fact that they're only mutual funds (like the TSP itself), is shocking. They can make a ton more cash on ETFs. Anyway, no sense in speaking to the choir.