Periodically I have posted an article from my friend Carl:

The following article "Crisis Watch"  is one of the more scary pieces I have read in some time about the fragility
of our financial system.  If it does not give you pause for thought and possibly breaking into a financially
caused sweat---little will.
Border line Fascists now control the birthplace of fascism---Italy.  Populism is taking parts of the world by 
storm.  This has huge negative economic implications.

Interest rates are accelerating---just about everywhere.  Weaker currencies are being slaughtered against 
stronger currencies.  We seem to be in the grips of some rather strange economic behavior.  Interest rates are 
climbing, oil is climbing, natural gas for demand reasons in the U.S. should be climbing but it is trending 
sideways, lumber has hit all time highs (Trump's tariffs on Canadian lumber prices maybe a large contributor 
to this), copper which is used in construction is not going up, and inflation is picking up in many nations.  
The U.S. dollar is strong against most other currencies and yet oil is going up.   Normally a strong dollar 
means lower oil prices.  Does this mean there maybe  emerging shortages of oil production developing?

 The strong dollar  is contributing to  the cost of Brent Oil being far higher than West Texas Crude currently, 
$78.50 for Brent vs. $71.35 for WTC.   Mortgage rates in the U.S. have climbed to where they are beginning to 
slow down home purchases.  If your interested in selling I believe the line for selling will be far longer by 
year end.  The U.S. economy is chugging along as it hit full momentum because of the low interest rates created 
by the Federal Reserve made all purchases possible.  Higher interest rates will eventually slow down the 
consumer section of the economy.  Declining tax revenue will hurt government spending.  The economy could be a 
huge mess caused by consumers not spending, the government will not be able to spend, interest rates will climb 
as the government attempts to finance its debt, banks will be facing growing loan defaults, oil could go higher 
than expected if demand continues to expand more rapidly that supply around the world, and than the cost of 
transportation takes off.

 Now  auto loan defaults are approaching all time highs.  Auto loans are an economic canary in the coal mine 
of a stable economy.  Couple all of this with a tax bill in the U.S. that will eventually send our budget 
deficit far higher and climbing like a rocket---I would say the best thing to 
NOT DO IS BECOME FINANCIALLY COMPLACENT.