Either way, he’s getting your money.

There will be a war in the Middle East, and many are looking at this as the End Times from three different religions. The majority of Israelis of all faiths support a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has been firing rockets for almost a year now, and they have turned the majority of Israelis against them. The Lebanese government has included Hezbollah ministers, and they have surrendered the safety of their own people to Hezbollah, thereby endorsing war with Israel. The deep resentment that festers in the Middle East I do not see as ever being resolved. When that becomes the reality, then war is inevitable.

Hezbollah has assumed that Iran would rush to join the party. But Putin has been warning them that the time is not right. Putin understands the game. He may be hoping Trump is elected to shut down World War III. However, the model concerning market activity suggests that things may not pan out as many have assumed.

While October is a key near-term target, the major target will be March/April next year.

APR fees on credit cards have never been higher, reaching an average of 24.92% as of September 2024 in the United States. In fact, credit card interest rates have not been beneath 10% since the early 90s. Consumer debt has never been higher and countless households have fallen into a snowball situation where they simply accumulate more debt in a failed attempt to pay off the old. Donald Trump has offered the most extreme solution presented by a politician thus far – capping credit card interest fees at 10%.

Bernie Sanders once proposed a 15% cap to the shock of many. Biden attempted to implement an $8 cap on late fees alone but was prevented from doing so. Banks have continued raising their fees and interest rates as more households fall behind.

Prior to the pandemic, Americans paid $120 billion annually in credit card interest fees from 2018 to 2020, amounting to $1,000 annually per household. In 2022, consumers were paying $105 billion in interest as it has become the main cost behind having a credit card. Rates on credit cards have doubled in a mere decade from 12.9% in 2013 to 22.8% in 2023.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released data in August indicating that American credit card debt reached a new high of $1.14 trillion. A separate report from TransUnion has found that the average American is carrying $6,329 in personal credit card debt, a 4.8% uptick from last year. Americans have amassed over $250 billion in the past two years alone amid record inflation. Bankrate reported that 46% of cardholders cannot pay off their monthly credit card payments, up 7% from last year.

Banks are naturally against this cap. Those in disagreement believe banks will be reluctant to lend and tighten their requirements. To some extent, that may not be a negative. Living within your means has completely changed under Bidenomics and everyone is adjusting to the new cost of living. In the meantime, people need to catch up to get back on their feet before the debt vortex sucks them into a hole that becomes nearly impossible to climb out of.

Consumers have been forced to pay for basic necessities on credit due to the astounding rise in prices for basics like energy, food, and rent. “While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a temporary cap on credit-card interest rates,” Trump said at the rally in New York. “We can’t let them make 25 and 30 percent.” Now, Trump is proposing a temporary cap. We permit countless stimulus packages that never stimulate the economy and hand out funds recklessly to help those on hard times. Yet, no one has proposed temporarily capping credit card fees to give consumers time to pay off their debts. The banks are still profiting, albeit less.

No one will profit if consumers default on their personal debts and they are sent to collectors never to be paid. This solution could give households adequate time to adjust their personal finance strategies.

QUESTION: It is becoming obvious Jamie Dimon seems to be following you. Whatever you say, he says a few days later. He has come out and said that the greatest threat is “not inflation, a recession, or AI taking over humanity; rather, it’s rising geopolitical tensions that have already flared up into armed conflicts around the world.” He and you are the only people sounding that alarm. At Davos, he even said Trump was right about the border and about NATO. Do you guys have coffee together?

JG

ANSWER: I would be glad to have coffee with Jamie. No, I do not speak to him. He is a pretty smart guy who can see the events himself. Who tunes into Socrates? I am never at liberty to say. I’m not the CEO of Telegram. Confidentiality is our motto. They tried that with me. It didn’t work.

Thank you for all the emails about the storm and whether I will be alright. Don’t worry. Biden will never let me die. I pay enough taxes to keep Zelensky’s pockets full. Without my taxes, Zelensky might not be able to repair his place in Miami, or Russia might actually win. I don’t know why the IRS is playing the middleman. We should just be sending our checks to Kiev directly. And, I never dated a girl named Helene, so I don’t fear any retribution.

I took this at 7:30 AM. There was still a little blue-sky.

This one is from 12:45.  I will post another before the sun goes down.

The last time, I evacuated and went to Orlando so I could be in the middle of it. Then the FAKE News, all of them, only show the worse possible places. I finally asked a boy who came to work in the hotel if the interstate was clear. He said he had no problem driving to work. I left expecting some flooding, and there was nothing. I got home, and the power never went out. The one before that, CNN said we would have a 10ft wall of water. It turned out to be 6 inches. FAKE news has engulfed everything.

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