Scott Bessent headline quote from cnbc appearance.

citizens free press ^ | 3/7/2025 | scott bessent

[Presbyterian Reporter]

Scott Bessent on CNBC:

“The market and the economy have become hooked, become addicted, to excessive government spending and there’s going to be a detox period.”

[Presbyterian Reporter]

When George W Bush became President in January 2001 the National Debt was $4.5 Trillion and the S&P 500 index was 1500.

Today the National Debt exceeds $36 Trillion and the S&P 500 index is 5800.

During the past 24 years the various bailouts financed by incurring $31.5 Trillion in debt have been a major reason for the almost four fold increase in the stock market.

[WeaslesRippedMyFlesh]

Did you mention the fraud?

[woweeitsme]

So, as a person who is looking to retire in about 6 years, what is a good investment?

[griswold3]

See Cantillion Effect -The closer you are to the source of money creation, the more you benefit.
Government spending is nearly 40% of GDP.
The US Treasury is the ‘Wealth Pump’ that needs to be shut down. Only essential government functions should be allowed.

[SMARTY]

Here’s some NGO types of fraud I want to see arrested and prosecuted:

file:///C:/Users/mory1/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/N07G723X/Twigg.png

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””So, as a person who is looking to retire in about 6 years, what is a good investment?”””

---

It was recently reported that Warren Buffett has been a net seller of stocks.

As a person ages, the common advice is to move away from stocks and buy bonds as the replacement.

[enumerated]

There has been no real increase in the S&P 500 over that period - adjusting for inflation it has shrunk - printing fiat currency backed by nothing has destroyed the purchasing power of the dollar.

The spot gold price has increased almost ten-fold over the same period.

[Theoria]

[enumerated]

Anything real - anything but the dollar.

And I don’t mean go invest in foreign currencies - all central banks do the same thing.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

“””The spot gold price has increased almost ten-fold over the same period.”””

---

In January 2001 gold price was about $265 per ounce. So actually there has been a more than ten fold increase over the past 24 years.

[Alberta's Child]

That’s a very misleading figure.

Much of the growth in the S&P 500 since 1970 hasn’t been “organic” growth within industries or individual companies, but through mergers and acquisitions that made large companies enormous and resulted in new companies being added to replace them.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that there have been something like 1,800 different companies in the S&P 500 since the 1950s. I suspect very few of them are out of business. In the 1970s, for example, you will see companies like Exxon, Mobil, Texaco, Chevron, Kraft and Nabisco listed as six separate constituents of the S&P 500. Now, these have consolidated into three companies.

[thinden]

So, as a person who is looking to retire in about 6 years, what is a good investment?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

get elected to congress?

[griswold3]

So, as a person who is looking to retire in about 6 years, what is a good investment?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

get elected to congress?

🤣 🤣🤣

[Owen]

Where does one put money in preparation for retirement?

It’s pretty popular to expect devastation. The debt is 36 plus trillion. There’s no sign that government’s going to do anything about that.

So try to remind yourself where money comes from. Our Fed can and has created trillions of dollars from nothingness in whimsical fashion. The word whimsical need not mean for no reason. In the case of 2009, Bernanke’s whimsy was somewhat required to save the global system of function.

With the details and motivation don’t really matter very much. All that matters is the Fed can create any amount of money that it wants out of nothingness. Does this mean there will be inflation as a result? There was none throughout the 2010s. Trillions upon trillions were created via QE and there was no inflation.

The point being, for retirement upcoming, the FED will not allow the system to cease to function. Talk of collapse (a word usually not defined) only makes sense if you think the Fed will not do anything. It’s very hard to collapse when there is a source of infinite money.

What would the FED defend first? Banks, of course.

There’s something to be said for farmland, but when France was conquered in world war II, the farmers who owned their farmland were required at gunpoint to ship their food to Germany.

Anyway, that’s my read. It is the banks that will be defended by the source of infinite money.

[enumerated]

Thanks for doing the math.. so my rough estimate was too conservative.. :-(

[Robert DeLong]

Sorry but what you provide is not a URL, that is something from your personal C drive in your computer. We cannot access that:

file:///C:/Users/mory1/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/N07G723X/Twigg.png

[SMARTY]

ooops

[Robert DeLong]

But the dollar was also worth more too. That would be about 500 dollars now. give or take. Not trying to be exact.

[Robert DeLong]

A link will start with //http:, and a secure link will be //https:, for future reference. 🙂👍

[Theoria]

Massive capital flows, outsourcing, increased immigration, manufacturing innovation, technology booms....if you 10x national debt and increase spending, capital will search for locations..domestic wages is the last of those locations.