Dear Reader,

Today is Labor Day. Washington is celebrating. The headlines say 162,000 jobs were added in August. Stocks ticked up. Everyone applauded.

I am not celebrating.

A CNN analyst put it plainly last week: "For the better part of three years, 94% of jobs have been created within just three sectors." Healthcare. Leisure and hospitality. Government.

That is not a recovery. That is an economy being kept alive on an IV drip.

Inside today's issue:

• The Three-Sector Trap: Why a "strong" labor market built on hospitals, tips, and government payrolls is not strength at all.
• The $39.8 Trillion Weight: What happens when the government keeps borrowing to fund the jobs that make the numbers look good.
• What Rome Looked Like Right Before: The historical parallel no one in Washington wants to talk about on a holiday.
• Larry Benedict — Oil Skimming: A new briefing from Larry Benedict: "Oil Skimming: a Better Way to Play Oil." (Brownstone Research)

Here is what Bloomberg printed on Friday. I want you to read their own words.

"Taken together, the data point to a stable labor market, not an accelerating one."

"Stable." That is the word they chose.

Let me translate that for you.

THE REAL NUMBERS: Since January 2023, 94 out of every 100 net new jobs have come from three places. One: healthcare and hospitals. Two: leisure and hospitality (restaurants, hotels, bartenders). Three: state and local government. Every other sector combined accounted for 6%.

Manufacturing: losing jobs. Finance: lost 107,000 jobs compared to last year alone. Retail: shedding workers. Technology: cutting headcount.

My rich dad used to say: "The E and S quadrant workers fill jobs. The B and I quadrant owners create them." Right now, only three industries are creating: the government, the hospital, and the bar.

THE $39.8 TRILLION WEIGHT

Here is why it cannot last.

The national debt as of August 4, 2026 hit $39.83 trillion. Debt as a percentage of GDP stands at 123%. The Congressional Budget Office projects that number reaches 175% of GDP by 2056. Annual deficits are running above $1.9 trillion.

Government jobs are funded by government spending. Government spending is funded by debt. Debt is funded by borrowing from the future. Your kids' future.

Meanwhile, inflation is not going away. The Fed's own preferred measure, PCE, is running at 3.7% annually. The six-month rate is 4.1%. Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said at Jackson Hole last month that he is "more concerned with persistent inflation" than anything else. The market is pricing in a possible rate hike in September.

Rising rates. Rising debt. Government jobs masking a hollowed-out productive economy.

WHAT ROME LOOKED LIKE RIGHT BEFORE

I have been studying economic cycles for 50 years. The pattern is always the same.

In the late stages of every great empire, the productive class shrinks and the dependent class grows. Rome did not collapse overnight. It slowly moved workers from productive trades into the military, the government, and the games. The bread and circuses got bigger. The granaries got emptier.

Today we call them stimulus checks. Food stamps. Government payrolls. And 162,000 jobs a month at restaurants and hospitals.

The people celebrating this jobs report on Labor Day are the same people who told you housing never goes down. They told you the dollar was sound. They told you gold was a "barbarous relic."

There is one number I want to show you before we continue. It is the number that tells you exactly where this is heading. And it is not in the jobs report.

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WHAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY CONTROL

Here is the number I meant: the interest payments on the national debt now exceed $1 trillion per year. More than the entire defense budget. More than Medicare. The U.S. government now borrows money to pay the interest on the money it already borrowed.

That is not "stable." That is a debt spiral.

The employee mindset says: "I have a good government job. I am safe."

The investor mindset says: "When this breaks, what do I own that they cannot devalue?"

I bought my first gold coin in 1972. My rich dad told me: "Gold is God's money. Governments cannot print it. Politicians cannot vote for more of it." I have been saying the same thing for 50 years. People laugh. Then they stop laughing.

The jobs report is a lie dressed up as celebration. On this Labor Day, honor labor. Build something. Own something. Stop waiting for a government job to save you.

Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered.

To your freedom,
Robert Kiyosaki
Author, Rich Dad Poor Dad

P.S. A new briefing from Larry Benedict: "Oil Skimming: a Better Way to Play Oil." Larry Benedict built one of the most consistent trading track records in the business. His "Oil Skimming" strategy is designed for markets exactly like this one: volatile, uncertain, and full of opportunity if you know where to look. See the full briefing here.