Dear Reader,

OCTOBER 1ST. NEW FISCAL YEAR. SAME SCRIPT.

Twelve months ago, the government shut down on this exact date. Lasted 43 days. Longest in American history. Federal workers unpaid. Debt clock kept spinning.

This year? Congress passed a continuing resolution on September 2nd. Signed by Trump. Government stays open — at last year's spending levels — until December 11th.

They called it a win.

Here is what a continuing resolution actually is: Congress admitting it cannot agree on how to spend money it does not have, so it votes to keep spending the same way it already was. No cuts. No reform. No plan. Just 72 more days to avoid having a plan.

The national debt crossed $40 trillion on August 18th. The CBO projects deficits averaging 7.2% of GDP for the next 30 years. Debt hits 175% of GDP by 2056. And the response from 535 elected officials was to fund the government at last year's levels and reconvene in December.

Gold is at $4,297. Silver closed at $60 yesterday. The market is not waiting for Washington to find a plan. It already knows there isn't one.

Inside today's issue:

• The Shutdown Pattern: Two near shutdowns in 12 months. A 43-day record. And a $1.9 trillion deficit no one is talking about fixing. This is not dysfunction. This is the system working exactly as designed.
• The Real Number: $40.2 trillion. CBO says 175% of GDP by 2056. No shutdown has ever fixed debt. No continuing resolution has ever balanced a budget.
• What Gold Is Saying: $4,177 an ounce. The metal does not lie. It never has. While Washington argues over keeping the lights on, the smart money moved months ago.
• Larry Benedict, Oil Skimming: Larry Benedict just released a new presentation on a strategy called "Oil Skimming." It's worth a look. (Brownstone Research)

THE FISCAL YEAR STARTS TODAY. Washington cannot fund it.

I have been watching this happen for 50 years. The script never changes. Democrats and Republicans blame each other. Federal workers get furloughed. The media covers the drama. Nobody talks about the debt.

Here is what Bloomberg is not measuring: every shutdown is a confession. It tells you the government cannot pay its bills without borrowing more. It has been running a deficit every single year since 2001. Twenty-five consecutive years of spending more than it takes in.

"The shutdown began on October 1, the first day of the federal fiscal year, because congressional Republicans and Democrats had failed to agree on legislation to fund government services."

The CBO just told Congress that deficits will average 7.2% of GDP for the next 30 years. That is not a forecast. That is an admission. They are not projecting a fix. They are projecting more of the same.

Trump added $3.5 trillion to the debt in just 18 months of his second term. Before him, $9.8 trillion in the first. Obama. Bush. Clinton. Every administration borrows more. Every Congress approves it. Every shutdown is theater to pretend otherwise.

My poor dad worked for the government his whole life. He trusted the system. He retired with a pension he earned. Today, 800,000 federal workers are finding out what trusting the system actually means.

The cycle is older than any of us. Rome debased its currency for 300 years before the fall. It did not happen overnight. It happened one budget battle at a time. One crisis at a time. Always temporary. Always urgent. Always solved by printing or borrowing more.

Here is the number that should stop you cold: CBO projects U.S. debt at 175% of GDP by 2056. The only time we came close to that before was World War II. And that time, we had just defeated fascism. This time, we are just keeping the lights on.

Before I tell you what the smart money has already done about this...

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Back to that number. 175% of GDP. By 2056.

Gold was $255 an ounce in 2001. Today it is $4,177. That is a 1,537% gain while the dollar lost purchasing power every single year. Not because gold did something special. Because Washington did exactly what it always does.

Silver was $4 in 2001. Today it is $61. The metal does not vote. It does not have a party. It just keeps score.

The shutdown will end. It always ends. Congress will pass a continuing resolution. They will call it a victory. The debt clock will add another $5 billion that day.

I am not telling you what to buy. I am telling you what the shutdown is really saying. It is saying: the people in charge cannot agree on the speed of the spending. They agree completely on the direction.

STEP OUT OF THE SYSTEM. Real assets. B-quadrant thinking. Gold, silver, productive businesses, real estate that generates cash. Not because the world is ending. Because this movie has a well-known ending and the credits start rolling when the debt becomes unserviceable.

The new fiscal year just started. So should your plan.

To your freedom,

Robert Kiyosaki
Author, Rich Dad Poor Dad

P.S. Three days ago my research team put a document in front of me that stopped me cold. It's public, it's legal, and almost nobody reads it. It shows where Washington's own money is going before the Pentagon's drone decisions, and Washington has to act by September 30th. Watch the briefing here.