| Ripple Effect — January 13, 2026
Consumers, the backbone of the U.S. economy, are exhibiting crisis-level stress.  The odds of consumers missing minimum debt payments are on the rise (Source: Augur Infinity) This week begins bank earnings season. Estimates now indicate that the average consumer will default on a minimum payment at about a 15% rate – the highest level since a spike during the pandemic lockdown of the economy.
President Trump’s proposal over the weekend to cap credit card interest at 10% for a year won’t arrive in time to help consumers who are already missing minimum payments.
Not to fret, the other 85% of borrowers continue to spend on borrowed time. Total U.S. household debt, including mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and credit cards, reached record highs in late 2025, exceeding $18.5 trillion. This surge was driven partly by rising credit card balances, which neared their own all-time peaks due to inflation and higher interest rates.
~ Addison | 
Inside, scientists aren’t studying weapons or viruses—they’re exploring a far more alien technology that could change how wars are fought.
This new technology could be unleashed as soon as today, January 13.
Once you see it for yourself, you'll understand the urgency. | P.S. Gold, on the other hand, hit another all-time high of its own yesterday at $4,631. After decades of neglect, gold, silver, and critical minerals are moving back to the center of the global monetary and economic chessboard.
While we’ve been well ahead of this trend, investors are only just beginning to connect the dots.
Grey Swan Investment Fraternity contributor Shad Marquitz is joining us this week on Grey Swan Live! to walk us through why the next phase of the metals cycle won’t be driven by speculation alone — but by hard constraints, federal policy, and domestic scarcity.
In fact, for more than 20 years, one company was penalized for producing antimony and copper, strategic metals that smelters treated as contaminants rather than assets.
As of January 1, 2026, that’s just changed.
If you care about domestic supply chains, strategic metals, the next growth phase for precious metals, or how federal policy is quietly reshaping resource winners…
Join us live on Thursday at 2 p.m. ET for Grey Swan Live! with Shad Marquitz.
If you have requests for new guests you’d like to see join us for Grey Swan Live!, or have any questions for our guests, send them here.
How did we get here? Find out in these riveting reads: Demise of the Dollar, Financial Reckoning Day, and Empire of Debt — all three books are now available in their third post-pandemic editions. You might enjoy one or all three. 
(Or… simply pre-order Empire of Debt: We Came, We Saw, We Borrowed, now available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble or if you prefer one of these sites: Bookshop.org, Books-A-Million or Target.)
Please send your comments, reactions, opprobrium, vitriol and praise to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com |
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