Washington Ran a $2 Trillion Deficit in Fiscal 2026

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Washington Ran a $2 Trillion Deficit in Fiscal 2026
A $2 trillion deficit, interest that costs more than defence, and 120,136 job cuts blamed on AI this year.͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ 
Deals Catchers
20 OCTOBER 2026
 
Mike LeeBy Mike Lee
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A.I. Wrecked World
A.I. Wrecked World
Our new report, A.I. Wrecked World, grew out of one idea. Everything else in it follows from this, so I'd ask you to sit with it for a moment.

Economies do not produce enough revenue to cover the cost of running the countries themselves. Not here, and not in most of the world.

The Congressional Budget Office reported Washington collected about $5.2 trillion in fiscal 2025 and spent about $7.0 trillion. The IMF reported global public debt reached nearly 94% of world GDP last year and is on track for 100% by 2029.

So how do the bills get paid?

Since 1971, when President Nixon ended the dollar's link to gold, the answer has been to borrow the difference and, over time, create the money to cover it. It keeps things running in the short term. But every new dollar makes the ones already in circulation worth a little less.

Prices rise. Workers need more pay just to show up and keep up. Payroll costs rise, so prices rise again. Run that loop for fifty years and you arrive at today, where nearly everything feels expensive and frustrating to deal with.

Now comes the final move. If the biggest cost of producing anything is the worker, then the solution on offer is to remove the worker.

That is what artificial intelligence does. It replaces the cost side of production. In theory, if goods cost almost nothing to make, governments no longer need to print to keep up.

Except governments get their money from production and consumption.

Income tax. Payroll tax. Sales tax. Property tax. According to the CBO, individual income and payroll taxes alone made up about 84% of federal revenue in fiscal 2025. Machines don't pay any of them.

If workers aren't earning, they aren't spending. If they aren't spending, the tax base shrinks. And a government that already spends more than it collects may find the gap far larger than anything it has faced before.

History suggests how that gap tends to get filled.

I'm not telling you this will happen on any schedule. Nobody can. But I do think it is worth knowing which of your assets depend on that system working, and which ones don't.

Physical gold is one of the few that can't be created by a vote or a keystroke. It's part of why central banks bought 863 tonnes of it in 2025, according to the World Gold Council.
A.I. Wrecked World
It takes about twenty minutes to read. There's no cost and no obligation.

Sincerely,

The team at American Sovereign Bullion

P.S. Gold was about $35 an ounce when the dollar's gold link ended in 1971. By 1980, after a decade of high inflation, it traded above $800. That's history, not a forecast, and gold has had long declines too. The guide explains what metals can and cannot protect against.
 
Three Numbers to Start
$2.0T
the federal deficit for fiscal 2026, $218 billion more than a year earlier.
$1.1T
net interest on the national debt in fiscal 2026, more than the $965 billion spent on defence.
120,136
job cuts employers blamed on AI from January to September, 21% of the total.
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Economies do not produce enough revenue to cover the cost of running the countries themselves. Read A.I. Wrecked World Free
Washington Spent $7.4 Trillion and Collected $5.4 Trillion
The federal government closed fiscal 2026 on 30 September with a deficit of $2.0 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office reported, $218 billion more than a year earlier. Receipts rose 3% to $5.4 trillion. Outlays rose 6% to $7.4 trillion, and the deficit reached 6.1% of GDP, up from 5.8%.

Interest is the bill growing fastest. Net interest on the debt rose 8% to $1.1 trillion, equal to 19% of federal revenue. It now costs more than national defence, at $965 billion, and about as much as Medicare.
Washington's fiscal 2026 in four numbers
Workers pay most of the rest. Individual income taxes brought in $2.8 trillion and payroll taxes $1.8 trillion, together about 85% of all receipts.
Employers Blamed AI for 120,136 Job Cuts This Year
Employers announced 573,195 job cuts in the first nine months of 2026, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported, 39% fewer than a year earlier. AI was the most-cited reason, behind 120,136 cuts, or 21% of the total. Technology companies cut 165,925 jobs, 54% more than in the same months of 2025.

Each of those jobs paid income and payroll tax. Software that does the same work pays neither. Central banks bought 863 tonnes of gold in 2025, the World Gold Council estimates, and gold futures traded near $4,190 an ounce on Monday.

American Sovereign Bullion’s free report, A.I. Wrecked World, follows the tax base from the worker to the machine. It is at the top of this letter.
Americans Made 323 Million Visits to National Parks
The National Park Service counted 323 million recreation visits in 2025, and 26 parks set records. Zion drew 5.0 million visitors and Yosemite 4.3 million, and the parks recorded 13 million overnight stays.

More of those nights look like hotel stays. Kampgrounds of America counted more than 52 million North American households that camped in 2025, and glamping, the furnished end of camping, made up 29% of trips.
Americans are sleeping outdoors
The hotel groups noticed. In February 2024 Hilton named AutoCamp its outdoor lodging partner, and by June every AutoCamp property could be booked, and paid for in points, through Hilton Honors, which now counts 260 million members. AutoCamp runs Airstream trailers and cabins near Yosemite, Zion, Joshua Tree and Cape Cod, and its Regulation Crowdfunding offer closes on 29 October.
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Airstreams on Hilton Points
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Scaling toward 100 planned properties across a massive $732B outdoor travel market spanning hotels, rentals, and camping.

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In 2008 Investors Pulled $200 Billion From Money Funds in Two Days
On 16 September 2008 the Reserve Primary Fund, a $65 billion money market fund, said its shares were worth 97 cents instead of a dollar. In the next two days investors pulled about $200 billion, or 10% of assets, from prime money funds, the New York Fed found. Short-term credit froze until 19 September, when the Treasury guaranteed money fund share values.
Money funds, 2008 and now
Savers keep far more in these funds now. Money market funds held $7.92 trillion in the week to 14 October, the Investment Company Institute reported. Government funds held $6.52 trillion of it, and prime funds, the kind that broke in 2008, $1.24 trillion.

Martin Weiss has rated banks since 1973. He says the next chain reaction is already hitting investment accounts, and his video lays out five steps to take first.
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The Chain Reaction
According to Wall Street legend Dr. Martin D. Weiss, there's a $3 trillion disaster in the making in the markets, and it could have a sizable impact on your wealth.

"The crisis that's emerging now is just the tip of the iceberg," says Dr. Weiss, who has made shocking and accurate predictions for 55 years, including predicting the Dot-Com collapse and the implosion of Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers in the 2000s.
The Chain Reaction
The New York Times has credited Weiss as being "the first to see the dangers." Forbes called him "Mr. Independence." His contributions have been recognized by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

"The biggest danger is not just another stock market crash," he continues. "The biggest danger is not only a major bank failure. Rather, it's a chain reaction of crashes and failures that could cause a global freeze in the financial markets," adds Weiss.

The tip of this iceberg? It's already emerging and impacting perhaps thousands of investment accounts across America.

Weiss, who has testified in front of Congress, says there are five specific steps every American must consider making with their money, before it's too late.

" When the system freezes, nothing works. Virtually everything shuts down. Companies cannot make payroll. Banks cannot meet their daily obligations. Even the Federal Reserve cannot fix it without massive, Herculean efforts."

Weiss is doing everything he can to warn the public while there's still time to prepare, including issuing press releases and reaching out to media outlets.

In fact, Dr. Weiss has urged us to post a brand-new, urgent warning on our public website …

Sincerely,

Eliza Lasky Weiss Advocate
 
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Physical gold is one of the few that can't be created by a vote or a keystroke. Read A.I. Wrecked World Free
Nineteen Cents of Every Dollar
19%
The share of federal revenue that went to interest on the debt in fiscal 2026, $1.1 trillion. The free report at the top asks what happens when machines replace the workers who pay it.
Forget the hot picks — know which of your assets need the system to keep working. Because the best trade you’ll ever make is the loss you never took.
Mike LeeMike LeeDeals Catchers
Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.
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