If you’ve seen the movie Groundhog Day, you probably remember that line from Ned Ryerson, the relentlessly obnoxious insurance salesman who keeps cornering Bill Murray’s character on the streets of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Groundhog Day happens to be my favorite comedy, and Ned’s attempts to sell Phil Connors a life insurance policy are among my favorite running gags.

“Needlenose Ned” Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) corners Phil Connors (Bill Murray) with another insurance pitch in the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day. (Image: Columbia Pictures)

No offense to insurance brokers, but I suspect most of us would rather step into that icy puddle than endure an insurance sales pitch.

Still, life insurance is supposed to provide financial security when life takes an unexpected turn.

But what happens when the insurance companies themselves take risks that policyholders know nothing about?

As it turns out, that’s becoming a trillion-dollar question.

Your Rundown for Monday, November 9, 2026...

The Hidden $1.2 Trillion Insurance Exposure

On Thursday, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) released an analysis revealing that U.S. insurers held $1.21 trillion in private-credit investments at the end of 2025.

That represents around 13% of the industry’s cash and invested assets.

Of that amount, regulators identified $544 billion in investments that deserve a closer look because they’re more complicated or involve less familiar types of assets.

So, about private credit…

Essentially, it’s lending that takes place outside traditional banks. Instead of borrowing from a bank, businesses get loans directly from investment firms, often with less public disclosure than traditional corporate bonds.

Insurance companies have become major players because they collect premiums today and invest that money to pay claims and benefits years or decades down the road.

Private credit can offer attractive returns. But many of these investments are difficult to sell quickly, and figuring out what they’re worth isn’t always straightforward.

Most recently, a November 5 analysis from the Center for American Progress warns that the risks of private credit increasingly extend beyond wealthy investors and Wall Street institutions.

Ordinary Americans can be exposed through pension funds, retirement annuities and insurance policies. And the financial ties aren’t always obvious.

Take Athene, one of the country’s largest providers of retirement annuities. These are insurance contracts that people purchase to provide income during retirement.

Athene is part of Apollo Global Management, a Wall Street investment giant that also manages much of Athene’s investment portfolio.

According to the analysis, Apollo originated 73% of Athene’s investments, while private-credit assets accounted for more than 15% of its total investments.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Athene is in financial trouble. But it illustrates how the money backing ordinary Americans’ retirement and insurance contracts can end up invested in private loans arranged by Wall Street firms.

Now consider another unsettling figure. In March, Fitch Ratings reported that defaults among U.S. corporate private-credit borrowers had reached a record 9.2%.

Still, imagine a severe recession in which borrowers stop paying, private-credit investments lose value and insurance companies suddenly need cash.

The concern isn’t necessarily one bad loan. It’s the possibility that financial trouble spreads from one institution to another because they’re holding similar investments.

Here’s what matters if you have a life insurance policy or an annuity:

First, states regulate insurance companies, requiring them to set aside enough money to pay claims and follow rules that protect policyholders.

If an insurer fails, state safety-net programs generally provide at least $300,000 in life insurance death benefits, $100,000 in cash value from life insurance policies and $250,000 in annuity benefits.

Those are minimum protection levels, not necessarily the maximum amount you could recover. But exact limits and eligibility depend on your state.

For now, the sensible approach is to check your insurer’s financial-strength ratings, understand what your policy actually guarantees and find out how much protection your state provides.

And remember that a familiar brand name isn’t necessarily the actual insurance company responsible for paying your benefits.

The NAIC points out that more than half of insurers’ private-credit investments are in familiar assets that regulators have kept an eye on for decades.

So this isn’t an epidemic of failing insurers. But some companies may be taking financial risks that aren’t obvious to the people counting on them.

Which brings me back to Needlenose Ned.

Insurance is supposed to protect us from life’s unfortunate surprises.

The question today is whether the companies providing that protection are prepared for a few surprises of their own.

Market Rundown for Monday, Nov. 9, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.90% to 7,470.

Oil’s down 3.70% to $87.50 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is up 1.40% to $4,132.80 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s down 1.25% to $74,780.

What happens when you put Jim Rickards, James Altucher and about a dozen of Paradigm’s sharpest analysts under one roof?

You get some bold predictions, a few spirited disagreements and enough investment ideas to keep a roomful of investors busy for months.

Oh, and a whiskey bar.

Yesterday, Paradigm hosted its one-day Paradigm Shift Summit for members of our Omega Wealth Circle.

These are the folks with access to the entire suite of Paradigm research. And for one day, they got to hear directly from the people behind it.

The presentations covered everything from the aftermath of the midterm elections to the AI bubble, critical metals, longevity science and the next generation of computer chips.

There were plenty of specific stock recommendations, too. Those we’ll leave to our Omega members.

But the bigger ideas? They were just too good to keep to myself.

Your Rundown for Friday, November 6, 2026...

A B-2 Bomber and an AI Bombshell

Sean Ring kicked things off with three possible market scenarios involving Iran, political gridlock and the threat of a wider Middle East war.

His most practical advice? Sometimes the smartest trade is no trade at all.

Market technician JC Parets, on the other hand, was finding opportunities in housing, a sector many investors have written off.

As for Bitcoin’s chart, JC said: “Looks like a stairstep to me!”

Greg Guenthner offered a reminder that cheap stocks aren't always bargains.

“I would rather buy an ‘expensive’ stock that’s trending higher than a ‘cheap’ stock that’s breaking down,” he said.

And in one of the morning’s biggest reveals, Omega Wealth Circle members got a live demonstration of a proprietary AI tool being developed exclusively for them.

Then Enrique Abeyta threw a bucket of cold water on the AI party.

“AI = 49% of the S&P 500,” he noted. “Do not tell me AI is not a bubble.”

And coinciding with Nvidia shares tumbling, Enrique made one of the summit’s boldest predictions:

“Nvidia will lose investors more money over the next three years than any stock in history.”

Ouch.

But science-and-technology investor Ray Blanco sees the brighter side of AI: longevity science.

Think faster drug discovery, treatments for age-related diseases and breakthroughs that could help us live longer, healthier lives.

Next, Byron King, our resident geologist and Navy veteran, produced an unusual show-and-tell item.

A section of a B-2 bomber turbine blade containing rhenium, a rare metal critical to high-performance jet engines.

Where did he find it? eBay, of course.

To Byron’s larger point: “It’s a different world now,” he said, pointing to the exotic metals powering everything from Elon Musk’s rockets to advanced military aircraft.

And we couldn’t gather just two days after the midterms without talking politics.

Jim Rickards had plenty to say about what the results revealed about American voters.

His biggest takeaway? Voter turnout.

Democratic participation approached presidential-election levels in some places, he said, something polling models struggle to anticipate.

Jim also introduced a memorable phrase: the “Trojan Horse election.”

Americans, worried about inflation and affordability, helped elect politicians whose broader cultural agenda they might not ever support.

They voted with their wallets. But they may have gotten more than they bargained for.

After lunch, Chris Cimorelli walked us through the evolution of computing, from CPUs to GPUs and now neural processing units (NPUs) — specialized chips that could make AI faster and more energy-efficient.

Then came James Altucher.

James has had a front-row seat to some of Wall Street’s darkest days.

He witnessed the first plane strike the World Trade Center on 9/11.

In the aftermath, he poured nearly every dollar he had into stocks.

Then fear got the best of him, and he sold. Immediately before the market recovered.

Later, during the Great Recession, James tried cheering up demoralized Wall Street brokers — by handing out Hershey’s Kisses!

In 2020, along came COVID and another wave of panic.

Through each event, James noticed a pattern.

“Every time there’s a bad situation, everyone takes it to the extreme.”

His message for investors: Fear can make a bad situation seem much worse than it really is.

And that set the stage for the day’s main event.

Jim Rickards versus James Altucher in a debate over America’s great divide.

Jim brought his command of geopolitics, monetary policy and financial history. James countered with the perspective of an entrepreneur who has survived market crashes and learned to find opportunity amid the wreckage.

One exchange captured their contrasting philosophies.

Asked where they’d park their money if they could choose just one investment for one year, James named a certain “fabless” semiconductor company.

Jim’s answer? Cash. A little dry powder gives investors options when opportunities arise.

The day concluded with our famous Whiskey Bar, where the conversation turned to AI-driven drug discovery, gold miners and the risks of prediction-market betting.

By the time the evening wound down, we’d covered politics, gold, oil, AI, space, crypto and more.

If there’s one thing the summit demonstrated, it’s that even the sharpest minds in finance don’t always see eye to eye.

Different opinions. Different strategies.

Nobody knows exactly what 2027 will bring, you don’t have to predict the future perfectly to prepare for it intelligently.

And if you can have a little fun, enjoy a good debate and share a whiskey along the way?

Even better.

That’s a wrap from Nashville.

Market Rundown for Friday, Nov. 6, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.20% to 7,395.

Oil is up 0.40% to $90.90 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold’s down 1% to $4,074.60 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up 0.25% to $76,235.

If the 2026 midterm campaign proved anything, it’s that political advertising has lost whatever shred of decorum it once possessed.

Consider Maine.

A Republican-aligned super PAC actually produced a country song mocking Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson for having two children with his second cousin.

The lyrics called Jackson a “freak” and a “creep.” Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whom the ad was intended to help, called for it to be pulled.

Then there was Michigan.

An outside PAC supporting Democrat Abdul El-Sayed released an online political ad depicting a couple shopping for groceries.

At one point, a woman tells her husband to put back a carton of eggs, saying they must set aside $7 “for killing Palestinians” through U.S. military aid to Israel.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt condemned the ad as a “case study in antisemitism.” El-Sayed’s campaign said it had no involvement in the advertisement.

And those were just two of the more memorable episodes.

After months of attack ads, mudslinging and political theater, I think we could all use a change of pace.

So today, we’re turning The Rundown over to you.

Your Rundown for Wednesday, November 4, 2026...

Your Unfiltered Verdicts

Our coverage of the investigation involving Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar drew some spirited responses.

One reader argued that candidates should face greater scrutiny before campaigning:

“Personally, I think everyone should be investigated before running for office, especially to make sure they are citizens, pro-American and pro-Constitution. We should know whether they’re doing anything illegal and what they’re doing with our tax dollars. If they’re not willing to be investigated, then they probably should be!”

The enormous electricity demands of artificial intelligence also struck a nerve.

One reader wasn’t interested in subsidizing Silicon Valley: “They should shoulder the full cost of everything they are now draining from the public.”

But a reader whose community rejected a proposed data center saw things differently: “If the local government does its job in setting policies, it can get a data center built that has no effect on electric bills, water usage or noise.”

He added that local officials spent $20 million to prevent a data center from being built in his community.

Another offered a more detailed proposal: “Corporations building data centers should bear the burden of the increased energy use, whether by increasing the base load capacity of the local power grid or bringing their own power. I do not believe they should be forced to ‘share the wealth.’ If it’s their power, they can do what they want with it.”

With the midterms behind us, some readers are already looking toward the 2028 presidential election. Specifically, who should succeed President Trump?

B.P. made the case for Marco Rubio: “Vance would be Trump No. 3. Rubio is a diplomat, intelligent and respected by world leaders. He would restore credibility and respect for our country.”

Another Rubio supporter was even more emphatic: “Definitely Marco Rubio! Vance is too inexperienced and has been somewhat of a disappointment as VP. Rubio is smart, experienced and quite impressive in his speeches lately.”

But one reader proposed a more ambitious succession plan: “Both are awesome — strong patriots, very intelligent, trustworthy, excellent speakers.

“But we need to take the long-term view. A ticket with both would be unbeatable.

“Rubio/Vance eight years… Vance/Gill eight years… Gill/Barron Trump eight years.”

The reader acknowledged the absurdity of it all but insisted that America would need many years to reverse decades of political corruption.

Talk about planning ahead!

Finally, Friday’s discussion of Martin Luther, religious participation and America’s renewed interest in socialism struck a chord.

Dave C. appreciated the historical perspective: “Thank you for that. I appreciate you pointing out the significance of Martin Luther and cultivating a personal religious life.”

C.C., however, wasn’t entirely convinced: “I’m going to have to disagree that people are happier with religion or when they go to church. It’s probably just about community, and neighbors can look after each other without religion.”

Jim M. took us back to his upbringing: “My mother attended Baptist, Christian and Methodist churches at one time or another. We moved out to the country, and the nearby church was Lutheran.

“I was an acolyte in my church until I grew taller than the pastor. Along the way, I went through Catechism and Confirmation. I moved around quite a bit after graduation.

“But now you have me looking for nearby churches.”

After a campaign season filled with attack ads, cheap shots and even a country song about somebody’s cousin, it’s refreshing to hear from Americans who still have something meaningful to say.

We don’t always agree, reader. But at least nobody’s written a country song about me. Yet.

Market Rundown for Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up almost 1% to 7,669.

Oil’s down 0.85% to $95.25 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is up 2.80% to $4,051.90 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up $78,470.

But buried in its IPO paperwork are hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure commitments.

That’s a lot of risk for investors to swallow.

Today, Jim Rickards’ chief analyst Dan Amoss explains why he’d skip the Anthropic IPO altogether.

Instead, he’s eyeing an unlikely energy giant that stands to profit from AI’s biggest bottleneck — no matter which chatbot wins the race.]

Wall Street bankers love a big story, especially when fees from a $1.5 trillion IPO are on the line.

Yet if you want to see what corporate desperation looks like, skip the glossy roadshow slides for the planned IPO of Claude AI parent Anthropic.

Instead, go straight to the fine print in the S-1.

Buried under the lofty promises of artificial general intelligence sits a mountain of infrastructure commitments.

Anthropic has mortgaged its future to secure computing capacity. At the core of this financial gamble are approximately $430 billion in commitments involving Broadcom, Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

Many of these arrangements require substantial payments regardless of actual usage, subject to specified contractual exceptions.

Consider the additional commitments, including agreements with AMD, Nscale, Lambda and Google that could require hundreds of billions more as computing capacity becomes available.

Anthropic is trapped in a high-stakes race against the calendar.

If its data center partners cannot [secure enough] high-voltage power, or if revenue growth slows and fails to scale fast enough to cover tens of billions in annual rent, the company’s cash hoard will shrink.

Your Rundown for Monday, November 2, 2026...

SLB’s Secret Weapon in Shreveport

Investors need to understand why buying shares of Anthropic at a valuation over $1 trillion is a bad deal.

The broader AI ecosystem faces an immediate physical crisis. All of those future compute contracts hinge on one physical commodity: energized electrical capacity.

Right now, silicon chips are piling up while data center developers wait three to seven years just to get regional electric utilities to approve grid interconnection studies.

Even when a developer secures a power purchase agreement, lead times for high-voltage step-up transformers and custom switchgear stretch past three years.

If the buildings do not get power, the entire AI capex boom would grind to a halt.

Hyperscalers and data center developers will pay almost any price to anyone who can bypass the local electric utility and drop a working, cooled power plant onto a concrete pad in months rather than years.

That urgent need brings us to SLB (NYSE: SLB), the global engineering powerhouse formerly known as Schlumberger.

SLB has applied its engineering and manufacturing prowess to help fix the biggest bottleneck limiting the pace of the AI buildout. Think of it as a side hustle that’s on track to becoming a big business.

Outside Shreveport, Louisiana, SLB took over a shuttered General Motors auto plant. It builds complete power and cooling modules on an assembly line. Switchgear, power units and piping are all tested before they leave the building. Crews truck the finished modules straight to the data center.

SLB’s approach cuts field construction timelines by up to 40% and reduces the on-site delays that so often pop up in complex projects.

The numbers confirm it. SLB’s data center revenue has grown from a rounding error in early 2025 to $230 million in the latest quarter.

By year-end, SLB expects to have delivered enough power infrastructure to support two gigawatts of data center capacity — roughly the output of two large nuclear reactors.

In July, SLB struck a deal with Liberty Energy. Liberty drops in modular, gas-fired generators and microgrid controls right on-site. SLB supplies the power and cooling modules. Together, they build a data center power system that runs independently of the local electric grid.

In August, SLB agreed to buy Kelvion, a German maker of industrial cooling gear, for $3.4 billion in cash plus about $700 million in assumed debt. SLB expects the acquisition to more than double its revenue potential per gigawatt delivered.

By 2028, SLB expects this AI construction project division to bring in $4.5 billion to $5 billion in revenue and up to $800 million in adjusted EBITDA.

And SLB gets paid out of the capital budgets Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta have already committed. When a hyperscaler signs a hundred-billion-dollar infrastructure deal, that cash flows to SLB to help get AI servers online quickly.

You don’t have to pay a lofty tech multiple for it either. And you get SLB’s fast-growing data center business bolted onto the world’s top oilfield services franchise.

It’s still highly uncertain which companies will be the ultimate winners and losers in the AI competition.

It makes much more sense to buy the company being paid big bucks to fix bottlenecks in the world’s energy supply chain.

Market Rundown for Monday, Nov. 2, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.30% to 7,635.

Oil is down 4% to $99.80 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is up 0.45% to $3,916.60 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up 0.30% to $77,935.

Maybe Americans were rediscovering God. Maybe the political circus had them praying for divine intervention. I can’t tell you which.

But I’ve been thinking about those parking lots all week, because tomorrow is Oct. 31. Halloween, sure.

It’s also the 509th anniversary of the day a German monk nailed a list of grievances to a church door and broke the established order in half.

Martin Luther’s Reformation didn’t just change how Europe worshiped.

It changed how the West thought about work. Luther told a continent that the farmer, the craftsman and the merchant served God as surely as the priest did.

Honest work was a calling. Responsibility was personal. Literacy was for everyone, not just the clergy.

Those ideas built economies. But five centuries later, they’re being challenged by a new orthodoxy.

Your Rundown for Friday, October 30, 2026...

509 Years Later: The Red Reformation

On Tuesday, 131 candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) will appear on ballots in 30 states and Washington, D.C., according to Ballotpedia.

Ten want seats in Congress. Fifty-two are running for state legislatures, and 69 for local offices. Three DSA-backed challengers have already knocked off sitting Democrats in this year’s primaries.

Their program is public ownership of major industries and much higher taxes on the wealthy. In California, DSA chapters are backing Proposition 40, a one-time 5% tax on billionaires’ net worth. A tax like that won’t be the last one.

My friend Jim Rickards has been watching the DSA, and he isn’t fooled by the branding.

Some of these self-described socialists, he warns, are “wolves in sheep’s clothing — communists who use the socialist label to hide their real intentions.”

Karl Marx wanted private ownership of the means of production replaced with collective ownership. He also called religion “the opium of the people.” Marx saw religion as a rival to the state, and he wanted it gone.

Luther believed in helping the poor, yes, and he even backed common funds to aid them.

But his rule was simple: If you can work, you work. If you can’t, your neighbors help. That’s a community looking after its own. And it’s the opposite of a government writing a check.

Yet we’re neglecting the community of faith just as the state offers to replace it.

In 1992, 44% of Americans went to church weekly or nearly weekly, according to Gallup. Last year it was 31%. Fifty-seven percent now say they seldom or never go.

The cost isn’t just spiritual.

Economists, in research published in the Journal of the European Economic Association, link falling religious participation to higher rates of suicide, overdoses and alcohol-related deaths among middle-aged white Americans.

They call them “deaths of despair.”

And as more Americans feel forgotten, along comes a movement promising what the congregation used to provide: security, belonging, someone looking out for you.

So here’s my Church Parking Lot Indicator: Watch where anxious Americans go for solace. For centuries, they filled the pews. Now they fill out a ballot.

My advice for this weekend, and you can take it or leave it, is to go to a place of worship. Because the strongest answer to a movement promising the state will take care of you is a neighbor who already does.

And on Tuesday, vote. But vote like your life doesn’t depend on it. The state can count your ballot, but it can’t make your life count.

Market Rundown for Friday, Oct. 30, 2026

S&P 500 futures are 1.10% to 7,665.

Oil is up 2% to $104.10 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is down 1.40% to $3,975 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s down 4.30% to $77,300.

“I even got to see Jim smiling!”

That was Dolores W.’s reaction to our last major Jim Rickards event in Philadelphia on June 4, 2026.

Jim Rickards at America 76/26 in Philadelphia

She also admitted she was “madly trying to write down all of the tickers and what the companies do.”

B. O’Neal said: “This was by far the best investment event I’ve seen.”

JoAnn K. called it “wonderful and informative,” although she confessed she, too, had trouble keeping up with all the stock recommendations.

And John C. offered some constructive criticism: With 53 investment ideas flying around, he wanted to know which five or seven the experts felt strongest about.

Fair enough, John.

Tomorrow, we’re getting the gang back together. And there’s a good chance you’ll get some answers.

At 11 a.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 29, Jim Rickards will host a special LIVE Strategic Intelligence Roundtable.

It’s completely free.

And if you’ve ever wondered what happens when you put Jim and his closest colleagues together without a carefully rehearsed script, this is your chance to find out.

Your Rundown for Wednesday, October 28, 2026...

The Gang’s All Here (Almost)

Jim will be joined by Dan Amoss, Zach Scheidt, Adam Sharp, Sean Ring and Matt Badiali.

That’s a remarkable concentration of investment experience, spanning stocks, income, precious metals, natural resources, geopolitics and global finance.

But one familiar face will be missing on Thursday. Byron King’s on the road, doing a little investigative legwork, and we look forward to hearing what he uncovers.

Otherwise, the rest of the crew is dialing in from across the country and across the Atlantic.

And don’t expect them to agree on everything.

“When you get this group together, you never quite know where the conversation will go,” says Paradigm’s VP of Research Aaron Gentzler, who will also host the event. “That’s what keeps me on my toes.”

“We’ve got some major announcements planned,” Aaron adds, “Jim’s election forecast and plenty of things we’d normally discuss behind the scenes.”

Remember, Election Day is just five days away.

Jim has been following the congressional races closely, and tomorrow he’ll share his latest assessment of where things stand.

There will also be investment ideas, specific stock tickers and plenty of discussion about the risks and opportunities taking shape in the markets.

But the real attraction is the conversation itself.

These are people who spend their days analyzing the financial world from very different angles.

Put them together on Zoom, turn on the cameras and let the discussion rip.

That’s when things get interesting.

“I expect some disagreement,” Jim told subscribers in his invitation.

And he’s reserving a substantial portion of the event for reader questions.

Gold? The Fed? Washington? The next market surprise?

It’s all on the table.

Jim and his colleagues can’t provide personalized investment advice, but they can explain what they’re watching, where they see pitfalls and which opportunities deserve closer attention.

And perhaps we’ll discover which five or seven tickers John C. should be watching most closely.

The Strategic Intelligence Roundtable starts tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 29, at 11 a.m. ET. Admission is 100% free.

BOOKMARK YOUR FREE ROUNDTABLE ACCESS LINK.

Bring a notebook. Bring your questions.

And Dolores, keep an eye on Jim.

You might even catch him smiling again.

Market Rundown for Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.18% to 7,770.

Oil’s up almost 2% to $101.75 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is down 0.35% to $4,060 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up 0.70% to $81,200.

Fourteen months later, Trump still hasn’t named his successor.

Last week, Vance told journalist Mark Halperin that he expects Trump’s endorsement if he runs for president. Vance also admitted that the two haven’t discussed it.

Trump has praised his vice president without committing to an endorsement. With the Nov. 3 midterms approaching, the president said it was too early to make that decision.

Vance is the sitting vice president and a close Trump ally. Rubio, however, brings nearly three decades of political experience to the conversation.

Rubio began his political career in 1998 as a city commissioner in West Miami. Two years later, he won a seat in the Florida House of Representatives, where he rose to become speaker in 2006.

In 2010, Rubio won a U.S. Senate seat in the Tea Party wave. He ran against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, endured Trump’s “Little Marco” nickname and eventually became one of Trump’s most prominent Cabinet officials.

Today, Rubio serves as secretary of state and national security adviser, a combination of responsibilities previously held by Henry Kissinger.

Rubio has publicly said he’d support Vance if the vice president seeks the Republican nomination. Neither politician has announced a 2028 campaign.

Still, Rubio has an organization in his corner. America 2100, a conservative nonprofit founded in 2023 by political allies, reportedly holds nearly $3 million in reserve.

The Washington Post described the organization as a potential political “rainy day” fund for Rubio, should he decide to pursue the presidency in 2028.

For investors, Rubio’s voting record tells us more than speculation about the 2028 presidential race.

Your Rundown for Monday, October 26, 2026...

Rubio’s 28-Year Economic Record

Rubio arrived in Washington promising fiscal discipline, smaller government and lower taxes. But his economic record begins much earlier.

As a West Miami commissioner, Rubio voted for city budgets in 1998 and 1999 that increased property tax revenue by 1.4% and 5.5%, respectively. The city kept its tax rates unchanged but collected more money as property values rose.

As Florida House speaker in 2007, Rubio proposed eliminating property taxes on primary residences and replacing the lost revenue with a higher state sales tax.

The proposal never became law. But Rubio helped negotiate a different reform package that reduced certain local property tax rates and restricted future increases.

The episode offers an early glimpse of Rubio’s willingness to consider a fundamental restructuring of the tax system, even when the changes would affect homeowners and consumers differently.

His Senate record provides a clearer picture of his positions on major federal economic legislation.

In 2017, Rubio voted for Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. He also pressed for a larger child tax credit.

In 2018, he supported legislation easing certain banking regulations imposed after the 2008 financial crisis.

Rubio also supported the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020, when Congress responded to the economic emergency created by COVID-19.

He later opposed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in 2021 — the bipartisan infrastructure legislation that year — and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

His opposition to the CHIPS Act is especially revealing.

In February 2019, as chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, Rubio released a report titled Made in China 2025 and the Future of American Industry.

He argued that China was using industrial policy to build dominance in strategically important technologies, threatening American manufacturing, innovation and national security.

Rubio called for an American response that went beyond conventional tax cuts and deregulation.

Yet three years later, he voted against the CHIPS Act, despite its billions in federal support for American semiconductor manufacturing. Rubio supported the broader objective while rejecting the legislation Congress produced.

His overall voting record combines support for tax reductions and banking deregulation with an interest in federal policies designed to strengthen strategic American industries.

For investors, Rubio’s economic philosophy puts semiconductors, defense manufacturing, critical minerals and domestic supply chains in the spotlight. His emphasis on national security and American industrial independence suggests those industries would remain important priorities.

But rebuilding America’s industrial base comes at a price.

Federal subsidies and military spending require funding, while tariffs can increase costs for American businesses and consumers. Combine those policies with tax cuts, and the consequences could extend well beyond individual industries to federal deficits, Treasury yields and corporate profits.

Rubio’s Senate votes don’t provide a complete answer to how he’d manage the national debt or approach Federal Reserve policy. Nor do they amount to a presidential economic platform.

But they establish a record against which future promises could be measured.

Eight days before the midterms, Trump has yet to settle the question of who should carry his political movement into 2028.

Rubio’s nearly three decades in public office tell us more about his economic priorities than mere speculation about his next job title.

Market Rundown for Monday, Oct. 26, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.40% to 7,690.

Oil is down 2% to $101.20 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold’s up 0.70% to $4,036.20 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s down 0.35% to $80,195.

One of the most revealing clues behind that legendary trade had nothing to do with currency charts.

It came from Britain’s housing market.

A young hedge fund executive working for Soros discovered that British homeowners were already struggling with their mortgage payments.

Britain couldn’t keep raising interest rates to defend the pound without putting even more pressure on those homeowners.

That executive was Scott Bessent.

Today, he’s the U.S. Treasury secretary. And 34 years after helping Soros profit from Britain’s currency crisis, Bessent finds himself on the other side of a potentially dangerous financial situation.

This time, trouble is brewing in Japan.

And the consequences could reach American retirement accounts, mortgage rates and the bond market — just as voters prepare to head to the polls.

Your Rundown for Friday, October 23, 2026...

“Bessent Knows the Game”

For decades, Japan offered investors a sweet deal: Borrow money at almost no interest, then invest it elsewhere.

A hedge fund, for instance, could borrow $1 million in Japanese yen, exchange it for dollars and buy American stocks or bonds. If those investments earned more than the borrowing costs, and the yen stayed weak, the fund pocketed the difference.

Multiply that trade across banks, hedge funds and corporations worldwide, and you’re talking about enormous sums of money.

It’s called the yen carry trade.

Jim Rickards puts its importance in perspective: “The yen carry trade is the engine that’s been powering global investment and sky-high stock valuations for decades.”

But Japan’s days of nearly free money are ending.

After years of fighting falling prices, known as deflation, the Bank of Japan is raising interest rates to combat inflation.

Higher borrowing costs squeeze profits from the carry trade. If the yen strengthens against the dollar, investors need more dollars to repay their yen debts.

Some can refinance their loans. Others must sell investments to raise cash.

American stocks. U.S. Treasury bonds. Hard assets.

If enough investors sell at once, the damage could spread quickly.

A retiree holding an S&P 500 index fund could watch its value fall without owning a single Japanese stock. Bond funds could take a hit, too.

Japan also holds vast reserves of U.S. Treasury securities. Japan has already spent nearly $100 billion intervening to support the yen since late July. And Bloomberg reports that Japanese authorities likely sold U.S. Treasury securities to help finance those operations.

Heavy Treasury selling can drive down bond prices, push yields higher and raise borrowing costs for Americans.

On Oct. 16, following talks with Japanese officials, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Erin Browne warned that sharp currency swings could force investors to unwind their trades which could shake financial markets.

Browne’s warning echoes the risks Jim has been outlining since August.

But Jim also sees some political calculation at work.

The Bank of Japan meets Oct. 29–30, just days before Americans vote on Nov. 3.

“Bessent may be playing for time until after the midterm elections,” Jim says. “Beyond that, all bets are off.”

Jim suspects the Treasury secretary wants to keep currency markets stable through Election Day. Political pressure to intervene could ease once the votes are counted.

“We’re not at the panic stage,” Jim cautions.

But the yen carry trade helped lift global markets for decades. Its unraveling could put those same markets under enormous pressure.

In 1992, Bessent helped George Soros bet against the British pound.

Today, as Treasury secretary, Bessent faces the possibility of another currency crisis spilling into American markets.

Market Rundown for Friday, Oct. 23, 2026

S&P 500 futures are down 0.40% to 7,670.

Oil is up 1.75% to $101.20 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold’s down 0.45% to $4,041.60 per ounce.

And Bitcoin is up 0.40% to $81,670 per ounce.

Remember the progressive Democrat who dropped out of Maine’s U.S. Senate race against Susan Collins back in July?

Platner championed restrictions on new data center construction and proposed a national electricity-rate freeze to protect consumers.

Now, with just 13 days until the midterm elections, Trump has found some common ground with Platner.

In a Truth Social post this morning, Trump declared that companies building massive new data centers must generate their own electricity. Any surplus power should go back to the surrounding community or electrical grid.

He went a step further. Companies looking to win over skeptical communities should consider paying local residents a financial “dividend.”

In other words, if Big Tech wants to build a multibillion-dollar AI facility in your backyard, it had better bring its own power supply. And perhaps a little something for the neighbors.

Trump’s announcement comes as Americans contend with soaring electricity bills.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, residential electricity prices have risen roughly 46% since early 2020.

Now Washington wants the companies driving that demand to shoulder more of the costs.

Your Rundown for Wednesday, October 21, 2026...

Cash Flow or Lights Out

Data centers accounted for approximately 4.4% of U.S. electricity consumption in 2023, according to the Department of Energy. That share could climb to as much as 12% by 2028.

The International Energy Agency estimates that data centers will account for about half of all U.S. electricity demand growth through 2030.

For years, electricity consumption in the United States barely budged. Utilities had little reason to build massive amounts of additional generating capacity.

AI has changed that equation.

Data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity around the clock. They also require expensive cooling systems, transmission infrastructure, transformers and backup generators.

Now technology companies are racing to secure power supplies, sometimes competing with households and businesses for access to the same electrical grid.

The fight now is over who pays for the additional electricity and infrastructure.

In March, the White House introduced its Ratepayer Protection Pledge, calling on major technology companies to build, bring or buy the electricity needed to operate their facilities. The pledge also calls for companies to cover infrastructure upgrades rather than passing those costs to ordinary customers.

Trump’s latest announcement goes further, suggesting new data centers must generate their own electricity. But his social media declaration isn’t a binding nationwide requirement, and the administration hasn’t explained how it would enforce one.

Technology giants like Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta have the balance sheets to build power plants, sign long-term electricity contracts and absorb additional infrastructure costs.

But the AI boom also includes specialized data center operators, cloud computing companies and privately financed ventures borrowing heavily to construct facilities whose future profitability remains uncertain.

These companies already face huge bills for advanced chips, servers, land and construction.

Add dedicated power generation, transmission upgrades and potentially payments to surrounding communities, and the economics become more demanding.

Every additional dollar spent on infrastructure puts more pressure on companies to generate enough revenue to justify the investment.

Jim Rickards has warned that the AI boom has all the makings of a financial bubble. The technology may be revolutionary, but that doesn’t guarantee an adequate return for investors.

Companies borrowing heavily against revenue they expect to earn years from now face particular risks.

Unlike software, a power plant can’t be created with a few lines of code. Construction takes time, equipment is expensive and financing costs matter.

Requiring data centers to cover their own energy costs could protect households from subsidizing Big Tech’s expansion. Additional generation could also strengthen local electricity supplies.

But those benefits won’t materialize overnight.

My view: AI doesn’t have an electricity problem that clever software can solve. It has an infrastructure problem that requires enormous amounts of capital.

Companies capable of funding that infrastructure from their own cash flow have a substantial advantage over competitors dependent on borrowed money.

Trump hasn’t pulled the plug on America’s AI boom. But he’s put investors on notice. The technology may be revolutionary. That doesn’t mean every company building it will make money.

Market Rundown for Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.25% to 7,775.

Oil is up 0.50% to $98.30 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is up 0.20% to $4,151.80 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up 1.80% to $83,430.

His real name was J.W. Edwards, and he hauled meat from the Midwest to New York. In December 1973, the Arab oil embargo had made his livelihood miserable.

Diesel was expensive and difficult to find. Washington was also considering a national 55-mph speed limit.

So Edwards stopped his rig and got on his CB radio.

Other truckers joined the protest. Within an hour, hundreds of trucks had stopped, creating a 12-mile traffic jam.

Photo credit: Bernard Gotfryd, Library of Congress

Back then, truckers called diesel “motion lotion.” Without it, America’s highways could become expensive parking lots.

Edwards had stumbled onto an economic truth that Washington still struggles with more than half a century later.

When diesel becomes scarce, everything gets more expensive.

Today, with diesel averaging more than $6 a gallon, President Trump has turned to an unlikely supplier for relief.

Your Rundown for Monday, October 19, 2026...

Diesel Diplomacy

On Oct. 9, Trump announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to supply diesel to American and global markets.

The agreement initially called for more than 300,000 metric tons of Russian diesel, with additional shipments planned. The Treasury Department subsequently authorized certain Russian diesel transactions through April 7, 2027.

Washington spent years trying to choke off Russian energy revenues. Now Washington wants Russian fuel to help ease an American energy crunch.

According to AAA, the national average retail price of diesel stood at $6.32 per gallon on Monday, Oct. 19.

That’s punishing for trucking companies, farmers, construction contractors and businesses that depend on diesel-powered equipment.

Transportation costs eventually work their way into the prices consumers pay for food, building materials and countless other goods.

Jim Rickards argues that Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, combined with disruptions to Persian Gulf fuel exports, have helped tighten global diesel supplies.

He also sees the emerging energy negotiations as part of a larger diplomatic strategy involving Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the U.S.

The catch is that Russia cannot simply flip a switch and make the world’s diesel shortage disappear.

In fact, the initial 300,000 metric tons amounts to less than a day of U.S. diesel demand, even if every gallon were delivered here. And the agreement calls for supplying both American and global markets.

For the week ending Oct. 9, American distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, stood at approximately 102.6 million barrels, down 12% from a year earlier.

A Russian fuel agreement may help. But the global energy crunch extends well beyond diesel.

On Oct. 8, Reuters reported that American and Russian officials had discussed bringing a U.S. investor into the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines.

Those pipelines once delivered Russian gas to Germany, helping power Europe’s largest manufacturing economy.

Explosions damaged three of the four Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022. The pipelines have not returned to commercial service.

Restoring Russian natural gas supplies would require far more than American investment. Repairs, sanctions, European opposition and the war itself remain substantial obstacles.

Still, the discussions reveal how much energy policy has become entangled with diplomacy.

The story took another turn over the weekend.

According to a Reuters report published this morning, Putin has proposed a November summit involving Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

No summit has been finalized. But the proposal suggests that energy negotiations could become part of a wider diplomatic settlement.

Lower energy costs could relieve some inflationary pressure, reduce expenses for manufacturers and improve household purchasing power.

But a diplomatic agreement is not the same thing as additional fuel arriving at American terminals.

Russia’s ability to supply diesel, the condition of its refineries and the response of European governments all matter. So does the question of whether new shipments would meaningfully expand global supply or merely redirect existing exports.

The Federal Reserve can raise or lower interest rates. It cannot manufacture diesel, repair a pipeline or reopen a shipping route.

Jim Rickards reminds us that those problems require physical supplies, functioning infrastructure and political agreements.

If Washington’s negotiations produce a meaningful increase in global energy supplies, inflation could get some welcome relief.

If they produce little more than diplomatic headlines, Americans will keep paying the price.

Market Rundown for Monday, Oct. 19, 2026

S&P 500 futures are up 0.40% to 7,735.

Oil’s down 0.35% to $101 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is up 0.10% to $4,185.30 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up 1.80% to $82,300.