U.S. Government Spent 51% More Than It Took In Last Month

September 15, 2025 • 1 minute, 31 second read

President Trump is happy that tariff taxes reaped by the government continue to grow.

For August, the U.S. government collected $30 billion in tariffs.

That’s good news if you’re a government bean counter.

However, tariff revenue still only makes up 10% of total government revenue. Back in April, Trump flirted with the idea that tariffs could lower or eliminate income taxes.

Politically, the idea sounds great.

In reality the numbers don’t come close.

The $344 billion the government collected from all forms of taxes last month is just 49% of the $689 billion it spent:

Turn Your Images On

The U.S. continues to run massive peacetime deficits. (Source: U.S. Treasury)

In other words, the government spent more than half of the money again, as much as it earned last month. Imagine how long spending like that would last if it were your family budget.

This week, the semi-annual budget theatre returns to Washington, D.C. House Speaker Mike Johnson will be making his rounds trying to justify another continuing resolution to keep the government open. All the while, the hard math of demography will grind away at the fabric of U.S. empire.

~ Addison

P.S. Politics are exerting pressure on money market funds, too.

This week on Grey Swan Live! with Adam O’Dell – at 2 p.m. ET, Thursday, September 18, 2025 — we’ll be investigating the $10 trillion pile of cash sitting on the sidelines during the terrifying bull market on Wall Street.

Mr. O’Dell has been warning investors how impending changes to monetary policy are going to force savers out of cash and into the markets… or gold. More details to come. Sign up now to become a member and join us for this week’s call.

If you have any questions for us about the market, send them our way now to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com.

Ripple Effect

U.S. Government Spent 51% More Than It Took In Last Month

Addison Wiggin

September 15, 2025 • 1 minute, 31 second read

debt deficit

President Trump is happy that tariff taxes reaped by the government continue to grow.

For August, the U.S. government collected $30 billion in tariffs.

That’s good news if you’re a government bean counter.

However, tariff revenue still only makes up 10% of total government revenue. Back in April, Trump flirted with the idea that tariffs could lower or eliminate income taxes.

Politically, the idea sounds great.

In reality the numbers don’t come close.

The $344 billion the government collected from all forms of taxes last month is just 49% of the $689 billion it spent:

Turn Your Images On

The U.S. continues to run massive peacetime deficits. (Source: U.S. Treasury)

In other words, the government spent more than half of the money again, as much as it earned last month. Imagine how long spending like that would last if it were your family budget.

~ Addison

P.S. Politics are exerting pressure on money market funds, too.

If you have any questions for us about the market, send them our way now to: feedback@greyswanfraternity.com.

Beware: The Permanent Underclass

October 3, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Back in the Global Financial Crisis (2008), we recall mass layoffs were driving desperation.

Today, unemployment is relatively low, if climbing.

Affordability is much more of an issue. Food, rent, healthcare, and childcare are all rising faster than wages. Households aren’t jobless; they’re stretched. Job “quits” are at crisis-level lows.

In addition to the top 10% of earners, consumer spending is still strong. Not necessarily because of prosperity, but because households are taking extra shifts, hustling gigs, working late into the night, and using credit cards. The trends hold up demand but hollow out savings.

It’s the quiet form of financial repression. In an era of fiscal dominance, savers see easy returns clipped, workers stretch hours just to stay even, and wealth slips upward into assets while daily life grows harder to afford.

Is Tokenization Inevitable?

October 3, 2025 • Ian King

Last month, Nasdaq asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for approval to let tokenized stocks and ETFs trade on its main exchange.

If approved, these digital shares would sit side-by-side with traditional equities. Meaning, they would fall under the same U.S. securities laws that govern $50 trillion in annual equity trades.

And this rollout could begin as early as 2026, once the Depository Trust Company — the clearinghouse that settles every U.S. stock trade — updates its systems to handle digital tokens.

If it happens, this won’t be a small tweak to the machinery of finance. It’ll represent the first major step toward moving Wall Street onto blockchain infrastructure.

And we don’t have to imagine what it might look like…

Because it’s already happening.

The Myth of Productivity, Again

October 3, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

The launch of ChatGPT in October 2022 ended the pandemic-era bear market in stocks. The AI story has been the predominant narrative for three years now. The indexes on Wall Street are at historic highs, surpassing 2000, 1968, 1929… the last three tech-inspired bubbles.

But ChatGPT did something else. It brought the idea of “productivity gains” back into the economic conversation.

The Stablecoin Standard

October 2, 2025 • Mark Jeftovic

Stablecoins have proceeded rapidly from being a grey zone through which capital would traverse as it moved into or out of the crypto-economy, to becoming an extension, if not a nascent pillar, of the fiat money system itself.

Coinbase Head of Institutional Research David Duong sees the market cap for stables hitting $1/2 trillion by 2028 (which would be somewhere between a 4X and 5X from where we are now).

Demetri Kofinas recently interviewed Charles Calomiris, former Chief Economist at the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and it was eye-opening to hear someone of his stature speak so matter-of-factly about how the structure of the banking system is evolving in realtime.

Beware: The Permanent Underclass

October 3, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

Back in the Global Financial Crisis (2008), we recall mass layoffs were driving desperation.

Today, unemployment is relatively low, if climbing.

Is Tokenization Inevitable?

October 3, 2025 • Ian King

Last month, Nasdaq asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for approval to let tokenized stocks and ETFs trade on its main exchange.

If approved, these digital shares would sit side-by-side with traditional equities. Meaning, they would fall under the same U.S. securities laws that govern $50 trillion in annual equity trades.

And this rollout could begin as early as 2026, once the Depository Trust Company — the clearinghouse that settles every U.S. stock trade — updates its systems to handle digital tokens.

If it happens, this won’t be a small tweak to the machinery of finance. It’ll represent the first major step toward moving Wall Street onto blockchain infrastructure.

And we don’t have to imagine what it might look like…

Because it’s already happening.

The Myth of Productivity, Again

October 3, 2025 • Addison Wiggin

But ChatGPT did something else. It brought the idea of “productivity gains” back into the economic conversation.

The Stablecoin Standard

October 2, 2025 • Mark Jeftovic

Coinbase Head of Institutional Research David Duong sees the market cap for stables hitting $1/2 trillion by 2028 (which would be somewhere between a 4X and 5X from where we are now).