Swiss America: Gold Standard News Daily

10.21.26 - Meta, Midterms and AI’s Threat to Social Security

Gold last traded at $4,141 an ounce. Silver at $57.97 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you're like me, you believe your personal life, private information, and financial business should be yours and yours alone. Yet, that privacy is steadily slipping away. As Meta and other tech giants expand their reach, more of our personal information, habits, and financial lives are being collected, tracked, and potentially exploited, often without our full knowledge or consent.

Meanwhile, AI isn't just threatening jobs; its impact could also jeopardize the future of Social Security and the financial security millions depend on. With our privacy, livelihoods, and retirement all potentially at stake, these are concerns worth paying attention to as the midterm elections approach.

Here are three stories that deserve a closer look.

Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion for Deceiving Users on Privacy -New York Times

by Eli Tan and Cecilia Kang

A New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $25 billion on Wednesday for deceiving users about its data privacy practices, one of the largest penalties levied against a tech giant.

New Mexico sued Meta in 2021 over a scandal involving the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, saying the social media company had misled users with its public statements about their data privacy. Last month, after a two-week trial, a jury in the State District Court in Santa Fe ruled against Meta, saying the company had committed 43 million violations of New Mexico’s consumer protection laws. Each violation carried a penalty of up to $5,000.

On Wednesday, Judge Francis J. Mathew of the State District Court in Santa Fe issued the landmark penalty.

The move was another blow to Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as it has racked up court losses over the harms that its social media platforms have caused users. States and consumers have filed thousands of lawsuits over issues such as how Facebook and Instagram endangered child safety, led to social media addiction, used people’s data without their consent and infringed on their privacy. READ MORE

3 Charts That Explain the Economy as Voters Head to the Polls -New York Times

by Ben Casselman

Last week provided a final snapshot of the state of the economy before voters head to the polls for next month’s midterm elections.

The flood of government data clarified a familiar picture — and thus a grim one for President Trump and incumbent Republicans.

True, much of the data pointed to strength, or at least stability. Retail sales rose at a healthy pace in September. Filings for unemployment benefits remained low. Industrial output hit a postpandemic high.

But there was no relief on the issue that matters most to many voters, inflation. Consumer prices rose last month at their fastest rate since May, outpacing wage growth for the sixth month in a row. Producer prices, too, came in hot, as did prices for imported goods. And gasoline — the most visible price in the economy, and one that few Americans have any choice about paying — stayed above $4 a gallon nationally, where it has been for most of the past six months.

The cost of living “is going to be the first issue on the scorecard in 2026,” said John W. Lettieri, president of the Economic Innovation Group, which last week published a survey of voter attitudes on the economy. “The results are not good on that top issue.”

Still, the state of the economy is more nuanced than the dour mood of voters might suggest. Economists point to areas of weakness and others of strength, and say the outlook — for inflation and more broadly — is highly uncertain. READ MORE

How AI Will Wipe Out Social Security -ZeroHedge

by Porter and Company

Good news, if you’re retired: Social Security just locked in its biggest raise in 40 years.

On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration announced that nearly 72 million Americans will get a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment (“COLA”) starting in January. Social Security benefits have risen 26% since 2021 – the biggest five-year increase since the end of America’s last great inflation, 1982-1986.

And these enormous increases to the government’s costs are just getting started. We are not at the end of a great inflation – we’re only at the very beginning.

This week the Labor Department reported that producer prices rose 6.3% over the past year, led by higher energy prices. Brent crude oil, the global energy benchmark, is up 73% this year. Wholesale diesel has more than doubled.

America buying diesel from Russian President Vladimir Putin is a sign. Energy costs aren’t going to come down anytime soon. These much higher input costs will flow through to higher consumer prices over the next several months. Meanwhile, September was the 67th straight month – that’s going back to early 2021 – that consumer inflation ran above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.

If energy costs were the only issue, maybe we wouldn’t be facing such a serious problem. But energy is only the beginning. Strip out energy, and producer prices still rose 4.7% over the past year. Strip out food, energy, and retail markups, and they rose 5.0%. READ MORE

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10.20.26 - National Debt Reaches $40.25 Trillion

Gold last traded at $4,125 an ounce. Silver at $58.00 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: America's national debt continues to grow at an alarming pace, but just how serious is the problem? An increase of more than $2 trillion in a year translates to over $75,000 per second and more than $6 billion per day. This trajectory raises serious questions about the long-term sustainability of our nation's finances and the risks of delaying meaningful action. While the timing and nature of any potential crisis remain uncertain, the growing debt deserves serious attention before the consequences become more difficult to manage.

National Debt Reaches $40.25 Trillion, Increased $2.39 Trillion Year over Year Increasing at an average rate of $75,863 per Second -US Congress Joint Economic Committee

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Joint Economic Committee released its latest Monthly Debt Update.

As of October 05, 2026, total gross national debt is $40.25 trillion. Relative to one year ago, total gross national debt is $2.39 trillion higher; relative to five years ago, it is $11.82 trillion higher. Over the past year, the rate of increase averaged $6.55 billion per day, $273.11 million per hour, $4.55 million per minute, or $75,863.07 per second. The increase in gross national debt over the past year amounts to $6,977.35 per person or $17,700.59 per household. Total gross national debt amounts to $117,707 per person or $298,606 per household.

Assuming the average daily rate of growth over the past three years continues, the U.S. will reach $41 trillion by approximately February 03, 2027. At that rate, an increase of another trillion dollars would be reached in approximately 162 days.

As of September 2026, the average interest rate on the total marketable national debt is 3.518 percent. One year ago, it was 3.406 percent; five years ago, it was 1.470 percent. This means that, today, the U.S. is paying more just in interest payments than it was even one year ago, and significantly more than it was five years ago.

Interest rates have a significant impact in how much the U.S. pays on debt. The total amount of interest paid to trust funds over the past 12 months was $291.48 billion, an average of $24.29 billion per month. Net interest as a share of outlays is forecast by the Congressional Budget Office to be 13.95 percent in FY2026, 14.25 percent in FY2027, and 14.94 percent in FY2028. READ MORE

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10.19.26 - U.S. budget deficit up 12% in a single year

Gold last traded at $4,139 an ounce. Silver at $57.07 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Washington has a nearly $2 trillion problem, and it's getting bigger. The federal budget deficit jumped 12% in fiscal 2026, as spending continued to outpace revenue and the government faced mounting costs to service its massive debt. With tariff revenue taking a hit from refunds and interest costs climbing, the latest numbers raise fresh questions about how the U.S. plans to get its finances under control.

U.S. budget deficit swells to almost $2 trillion for fiscal 2026, up 12% in a single year -CNBC

by Alex Harring

The U.S. finished the 2026 fiscal year with a budget deficit of nearly $2 trillion, the latest measurement to underscore the extent of the country’s financial stress.

The $1.992 trillion figure was about 12% higher than the $1.775 trillion deficit in the prior fiscal year, the Treasury Department reported Friday.

It’s the third-highest annual deficit in U.S. history, behind only 2020 and 2021, when the federal government was doling out trillions of dollars in financial stimulus amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2026 fiscal year saw record sums for both receipts and outlays, according to a Treasury Department official.

With Friday’s release, the U.S. officially recorded its 25th straight fiscal year operating at a deficit. The government last recorded a surplus — meaning its revenues were larger than debts — in 2001.

Friday’s report offers fresh evidence of how the U.S.’s fast-growing debt pile has dragged on the nation’s overall financial health. The rising debt bill has helped exacerbate angst among bond traders, who sent the 10-year and 30-year U.S. Treasury yields to 24-year highs last week. READ MORE

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10.16.26 - Was Shelton Hired to Build America’s Gold Response?

Gold last traded at $4,163 an ounce. Silver at $57.04 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's encouraging to finally see the US being discussed in the gold market for something other than the ongoing debate over whether the gold at Fort Knox is truly there. This time, the focus is on a proposed new gold-backed bond, an intriguing concept that deserves a closer look. As with any financial product, however, the devil is in the details, and concerns over liquidity and potential default risk could be significant drawbacks. Physical gold, by contrast, puts ownership directly in your hands without the added risks tied to an issuer's ability to meet its obligations.

Was Judy Shelton Hired to Build America's Gold Response? -ZeroHedge

Authored By a GoldFix Founder and Exec at a prominent Investment Firm

The recent appointment of Judy Shelton as Counsellor to the United States Treasury is intriguing. With her views on the overreach of the Fed, she’ll find herself in good company with the leadership at both the Fed and the Treasury. An agenda is taking place. Her appointment did not require Senate approval, proxies for the new economic orthodoxy, unlike the stalled gubernatorial nomination to the Fed in 2019/20. She has been specifically appointed to “advise the Secretary on currency policy, with a particular focus on evaluating financial conditions in China.”[1]

However, she is not a recognised expert on China. She is a currency expert and well known for her “unorthodox” views on monetary policy, including the Treasury Trust Bonds (TTBs), a USD Sovereign funding instrument linked to gold. Through this lens, we may speculate on the Counsellor’s likely involvement. As widely reported on Goldfix for some years and now leeching into the mainstream media[2], China appears to be building the infrastructure to allow for trade settlement within a gold envelope. China is rapidly building new export markets to minimise her dependence on the US and needs to build de-dollarised payment rails to these markets. This is entirely rational from a Chinese perspective. It is also entirely rational for an exporter of raw materials to China, and an importer of Chinese goods to prefer gold as a store of value to US Treasuries.

Enter the TTB. The idea is a long-dated bond that provides cheap funding to the US Treasury as it gives the holder the option to chose redemption in gold or USD. READ MORE

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10.15.26 - U.S. Treasury dismisses IMF debt warning

Gold last traded at $4,167 an ounce. Silver at $57.36 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We now have agencies debating whose debt problem is worse when their focus should be on finding ways to address it. America's growing debt burden is no secret, and comparing the severity of the problem does little to move us any closer to a solution. What we need is decisive action, a realistic plan to rein in the debt, and progress toward a solution; and we needed it yesterday.

U.S. Treasury dismisses IMF debt warning and ‘messy’ forecasting -CNBC

by Jenni Reid and Anniek Bao

The International Monetary Fund should check its own forecasting record before criticizing U.S. fiscal policy, David Zervos, newly appointed counselor to the Treasury Secretary, said on Thursday.

“When we see pieces on the IMF, it’s good to remember how messy their forecasts have been in the past,” Zervos said in emailed comments to CNBC.

The former Wall Street economist was responding to the IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who cautioned during the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok on Wednesday that strong U.S. economic growth would not be sufficient to put mounting federal debt on a sustainable course.

Georgieva was herself responding to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who told CNBC in August that the U.S. could “grow our way out” of a rising debt-to-GDP ratio, after government debt surpassed $40 trillion. READ MORE

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10.14.26 - Inflation and Market Bubbles

Gold last traded at $4,105 an ounce. Silver at $55.64 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Inflation and market bubbles are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, raising serious questions about the sustainability of today’s financial markets. What’s especially concerning is the growing acceptance of inflation as a “fact of life” in America, leaving households to absorb the ongoing erosion of their purchasing power while investors face growing uncertainty. No one knows exactly what lies ahead, but with persistent inflation and mounting concerns over an AI-driven market bubble, it’s worth asking how much longer these pressures can build before something finally gives.

How high inflation became a ‘fact of life’ in the U.S. -CNBC

by Alex Harring

U.S. consumers are in the midst of one of the longest stretches of elevated inflation of the past century. Some are beginning to act like it’s a new normal, raising alarm bells for members of the Federal Reserve.

Wednesday’s consumer price index release showed a 3.7% increase year over year in September. CPI has now registered around 65 months — that’s more than five years — of consecutive annual readings above 2%, a widely accepted target for inflation in the U.S.

This yearslong spell of high inflation has cast a dark cloud over everyday Americans’ view of the economy, and could shape everything from how they budget to how they vote in next month’s midterm elections. At the Fed, leaders are left questioning whether consumers’ inflationary expectations are becoming too entrenched to rein in.

“They’re starting to accept high inflation as just a fact of life,” Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack wrote in a social media post last week. “That’s concerning.” READ MORE

Dowd: "Investment Bubbles Are A Feature Of Capitalism, Not A Bug" -ZeroHedge

Authored by Ed Dowd via Ed Dowd's Beyond The Narrative Substack

On Friday October 9th Bloomberg published an article titled "Jeffries' Chris Wood Sees 'Massive Capital Destruction' in AI." His view is that the most likely long-term outcome of the AI boom is massive capital destruction in the US, with market share shifting to cheaper open-source Chinese models. Wood has mostly got it right in my opinion except for two differences. My first difference is that Chinese models are not the only open-source models available and that western open-source models are closing the gap. Secondly, while his view correctly flags the overbuild and the competitive pressure from lower-cost alternatives what it leaves out is the long history of innovative technology infrastructure bubbles and the reliable pattern that follows them which is:

excitement/mania → overinvestment → financial collapse → distressed assets → recapitalized cheap infrastructure fuels the next economic wave.

In regard to the AI bubble, I believe we are currently in the overinvestment phase with cracks emerging. Let us look at some historical examples to illustrate the pattern and see if we can glean what the future of this current bubble might look like. READ MORE

Micron Stock Dips Amid AI Bubble Worries And China Competition -Watcher.Guru

by Paigambar Mohan Raj

Micron (MU) stock price has faced a dip, closing 3.62% (35.85 points) lower on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. The stock faced another 0.76% correction in the after-market hours. Micron (MU) is no the only company facing bearish market forces. Industry leaders SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics also faced losses on Tuesday. The dip comes amid increasing worries about a potential AI bubble. Let’s discuss what’s going on.

Micron’s (MU) latest price decline comes amid increased competition from China. ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), China’s answer to Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung, has announced a new memory-cell design. The new design can reportedly pack more storage into less physical space. Investors are likely expecting more production dominance from the Chinese semiconductor giant. ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) aims to roll out its new memory chips by the end of this year. We could potentially see a new player among the “big three” in the memory market sector.

Even the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, weighed in on the development. Musk stated, “When China figures out how to manufacture a product, their ability to scale is often greater than the rest of the world combined.” Musk compared the situation to how Chinese companies dominated the lithium batteries and solar industries. Micron’s latest dip is likely a reaction to the rise in Chinese memory chip capacity. READ MORE

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10.13.26 - Is the 2027 COLA adjustment enough?

Gold last traded at $4,161 an ounce. Silver at $59.17 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Social Security recipients are expected to receive a larger-than-usual benefits increase, but many say it still won't be enough to keep up with inflation. This has become a familiar reality for retirees, working Americans, and households across the country, as millions struggle to maintain their purchasing power and standard of living.

Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 may be above average. Some say it’s not enough -CNBC

by Lorie Konish

Millions of Social Security beneficiaries may see a larger than average cost-of-living adjustment in 2027, according to experts’ estimates.

The Social Security Administration is expected to announce the COLA for 2027 on Wednesday with the release of new government inflation data. Social Security experts estimate that the COLA may raise benefits by 3.5% to 3.6% next year, which would be the largest increase in three years.

Yet, even with an above-average increase, beneficiaries may still struggle to cover everyday costs.

More than three-quarters of adults 50 years and older — 76% — said they do not think a projected 3.5% Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 would be enough, according to an AARP survey published Monday. The poll of 1,023 adults ages 50-plus was fielded between Sept. 17 and 21. The survey had a 4.25% margin of error.

“I would love it if the cost-of-living increase was more generous,” said Donna Dalrymple, a 70-year-old retiree in Manchester, New Hampshire. READ MORE

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10.12.26 - Valuations are Echoing the Dot-Com Bubble

Gold last traded at $4,173 an ounce. Silver at $60.34 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: If you're among those concerned that the stock market may be in a bubble, recent valuations offer reason to take notice. Key market ratios are now echoing levels last seen during the dot-com bubble; despite years of steady gains and record highs. While that doesn’t guarantee an imminent correction, it is a reminder to take a closer look at your portfolio and consider how prepared you are if the market's momentum begins to turn.

Stock Market Crash Warning as Valuations Echo the Dot-Com Bubble -Watcher.Guru

by Loredana Harsana

Stock market crash fears are growing right now because the S&P 500 Shiller CAPE ratio has climbed back above 40x, its highest level since the dot-com bubble, when it peaked near 44x. That stretched S&P 500 valuation, along with the Nasdaq’s slide into a stock market correction, has turned into a clear stock market crash warning for a lot of investors, and history shows just how painful a reversal can get.

The Shiller CAPE ratio works like a price-to-earnings multiple for the S&P 500, averaging inflation-adjusted earnings over 10 years. When the dot-com bubble burst, it hit an all-time high of roughly 44x. At the time of writing, it’s back above 40x, as excitement around artificial intelligence pushed the S&P 500 valuation higher.

More stocks have hit 52-week lows than highs in recent trading, even on up days. That last happened just before the dot-com bubble burst, and the stock market crash that followed cut the S&P 500 by nearly 40% and the Nasdaq by nearly 80% over roughly three years. It’s a big part of today’s stock market crash warning. READ MORE

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10.9.26 - Russia to Increase Gold Purchases Fivefold

Gold last traded at $4,199 an ounce. Silver at $60.97 an ounce.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Gold prices may have cooled a bit recently, but global demand for physical gold tells a very different story. From aggressive buying to Russia’s plans to increase its gold and foreign currency purchases fivefold, the actions of major buyers speak volumes about how they view the risks building across the global economy. While paper markets may fluctuate, the continued push toward physical gold suggests that those with the resources to prepare are taking no chances when it comes to protecting their wealth.

Russia to Increase Gold/FX Purchases Fivefold -ZeroHedge

Authored by GoldFix

GFN – MOSCOW — Russia’s Finance Ministry will increase purchases of foreign currency and gold under the country’s budget rule by more than fivefold beginning October 7, with operations totaling 279.42 billion rubles through November 6.

The ministry said the new program will amount to 12.7 billion rubles per day, up from 2.5 billion rubles per day during the September 7–October 6 period, when total purchases were 55.6 billion rubles.

The increase follows stronger oil-and-gas revenues. The Finance Ministry expects 289.46 billion rubles in additional federal oil-and-gas revenue in October. After a 10.04 billion-ruble adjustment for September revenues, the resulting purchase amount is 279.42 billion rubles.

The Bank of Russia will also increase net foreign-currency purchases tied to the mechanism. After accounting for separate operations, daily net purchases will rise to 12.12 billion rubles from 1.92 billion rubles during the previous period.

Russia resumed purchases under the budget rule in May after a two-month pause in March and April. Daily purchases restarted at 5.8 billion rubles, rose to 9.9 billion in June, fell to 5.4 billion in July, and increased to 6.5 billion in August before dropping to 2.5 billion in September. READ MORE

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