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Daily Missive

Why I Want My Kids to Grow Up to Become Union Bosses

Loading ...Andrew Packer

October 11, 2024 • 5 minute, 39 second read


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Why I Want My Kids to Grow Up to Become Union Bosses

Why I Want My Kids to Grow Up to Become Union Bosses

James Hickman, Schiff Sovereign

Like most kids, I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little. Then a fireman. Then a pirate. Then a movie star.

My parents were pretty traditional so they hoped I would grow up to become a doctor. This is pretty typical; after all, parents just want their kids to be financially secure.

I think about this a lot with my kids— both of whom are extremely young. I give a lot of thought to what their world will look like in 20 years given the seismic geopolitical and macroeconomic shifts taking place.

America’s status as the world’s sole superpower is dwindling before our very eyes. The dollar’s role as the dominant global reserve currency is rapidly waning. And the rise of AI and robotics promises to upend just about every occupation imaginable, including white collar professional jobs which currently require advanced, outrageously expensive university degrees.

As my kids grow and develop, my plan is to focus on developing traits that machines cannot emulate, like genuine creativity, leadership, risk tolerance, big picture thinking, and bold decisiveness.

AI is a powerful tool they should learn to harness. But it will not be their master. After all, there’s a reason Captain Kirk was in charge of the Enterprise and not Spock.

However in terms of what the landscape for jobs or business opportunities might look like in a couple of decades, that’s anyone’s guess. I have no idea what will be the lucrative industries in a world where AI is pervasive.

In fact the only occupation I can think of which will provide absolute financial security is that of a union boss.

I’m totally joking of course. But in all honesty, being a union boss certainly seems to provide a cushy lifestyle these days. And as long as there are delusional leftists in our midst, there will always be fat cat union bosses to steal from their constituents.

For example, on Friday we highlighted that the man in charge of the dockworkers union— which briefly went on strike last week— makes about a million dollar per year, lives in a mansion, and drives a Bentley.

He’s far from alone.

Stacy Davis Gates, the President of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), pulls in nearly $300,000 per year.

Despite being in charge of the teacher’s union for Chicago public schools, though, she sends her child to a $16,000 per year private school.

As head of the union, Gates understands where the most important investments are made. The CTU is the largest single contributor to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign fund.

Which is probably why Comrade Mayor Johnson routinely caves to the demands of the teachers union… including their newest demand for another massive (totally unaffordable) pay increase.

Bear in mind that the city has some of the worst performing schools in the country. It’s beyond outrageous.

And the CTU is against school choice; they want kids locked into attending the failing schools in their neighborhood, as opposed to giving parents the option to send their children to better schools elsewhere.

To add insult to injury, the school district already has a massive, bloated budget. The district’s total budget has increased over 97% since 2012. Yet over the same period, test scores in reading, math, and science have plummeted.

In other words, the more money the school district spends, the worse the outcome for the students.

The Chicago Teacher’s Union is totally oblivious to this reality, and they are now demanding more than $10 billion in new incentives and compensation… because they’ve clearly been doing such a great job.

Gates has already given the order to Comrade Mayor Johnson, so the wheels are in motion to bankrupt the city with CTU’s demands, and bankrupt the students’ future.

It’s pretty obvious that Ms. Gates is the one calling the shots in Chicago. Bear in mind, this is not an elected official. She’s a union boss. But she has the Comrade Mayor’s balls in her purse.

Not to be outdone, Gates’s counterpart at the national level is Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)— the second largest teachers union in America.

In 2022, she said that parents concerned about critical race theory and gender ideology in schools were spreading “misinformation,” and added, “This is the way in which wars start.’’

So according to Comrade Randi, being involved and concerned about what your children are being taught in schools is the moral equivalent of Pearl Harbor.

By the way, she makes about $500,000 per year, plus massive benefits and incentives. And she, too, has the ear of some of the most powerful politicians in the country, including President Jill Biden and her husband Joe.

There are so many more examples about the power of union bosses.

I wrote recently about how a steelworkers union boss was able to get Jill & Joe to kneecap a competitor— and eliminate billions of dollars being invested in the distressed American steel industry.

The head of the FTC, Lina “Ghengis” Khan, routinely cites union concerns as she goes after businesses, even though her charter is to protect consumers, not unions.

Is this how you protect democracy? By ignoring consumers, shareholders, parents, and voters, and taking orders from unions?

These types of unelected special interests are exactly what keeps the graft going, why the deficits keep rising, and why the national debt keeps increasing.

America is full of highly paid, out of touch union bosses who steal productivity, distort capitalism, and divert resources to their benefit.

Obviously they lie through their teeth and pretend that it’s all about protecting workers. But if that were true, wouldn’t ‘the workers’ already be so much better off because of all the great deals their unions have made?

Except workers are consistently worse off.

So their union bosses are either totally incompetent… or (and?) they’re totally full of shit and don’t actually care about the workers at all.

Probably both. The union bosses are in it for themselves— for the highly paid, cushy lifestyle where they’re never held accountable for their failures. They rake in absurd salaries and massive union revenue, then use the money to buy politicians.

It’s a horrendous circle where the unions keep corrupt politicians in office, then the corrupt politicians use their power to protect the union bosses.

How ironic that the so-called party of democracy is controlled by unelected, incompetent, corrupt union bosses.

And all this does is add to America’s already gigantic financial problems.

We’ll talk about those more in a couple of days when the Treasury’s annual financial report is published.


The Bond Market Intervenes In Real Time

July 17, 2025 • Andrew Packer

In real time Wednesday, as the President floated the idea of firing Powell, markets collapsed, especially the bond market.

The 30-year bond yield jumped to 5.1%. Deutsche Bank released a report that firing Powell would lead to a collapse in confidence in the U.S. bond market.

Remember, strong confidence matters. It’s a factor that keeps buyers coming and keeps yields down.

So, Trump did another TACO trade and quickly stated that there were no plans to fire Powell. Stocks levitated higher to close the day.

The Bond Market Intervenes In Real Time
Europe Just Entered Rare Earth Panic

July 16, 2025 • Lau Vegys

A European version of Trump’s March 2025 Executive Order—which used emergency powers to fast-track domestic rare earth mining and processing—isn’t coming anytime soon.

There’s no mention of boosting local mining or processing in the draft EU Commission document I mentioned.

Classic Brussels. They want the benefits, but none of the mess.

And with Europe’s layers of red tape, strong NIMBY sentiment, and only patchy refining capacity so far… good luck. Just look at the Norra Kärr project in Sweden—stalled for years over environmental protests. Or here in Spain—where I happen to be at the moment—the Matamulas deposit continues to face ferocious opposition, despite being one of the most advanced rare earth projects in Western Europe.

Trust me, Europe won’t be mining or refining rare earths in any meaningful way anytime soon.

Europe Just Entered Rare Earth Panic
One Reason to Bet on a Sideways Summer

July 16, 2025 • Andrew Packer

Given how closely that markets have followed a similar path to the dotcom boom, a few months of sideways trading appears to be in store. That also fits in with usual seasonal patterns of a market trending lower in August and September, before rallying to close the year.

Yesterday’s news that Nvidia would be allowed to sell advanced chips to China sent shares back to all-time highs. However, given the extent of the market bounce from its April lows, it may be prudent to trim back some portfolio positions now.

Doing so will allow you to take advantage of the high yields in cash – especially with 30-year bond yields back to 5%.

One Reason to Bet on a Sideways Summer
The $2.5 Billion Blunder That Could Get JPow Fired

July 16, 2025 • Andrew Packer

It’s not the trillion-dollar paper loss the Fed is currently sitting on that may get Powell out of office before his term expires next spring. That’s business as usual.

Instead, it’s a problem that’s less than 3% of the Fed’s massive losses with no real plan to address its balance sheet.

But the larger problem remains: Powell is a figurehead. He’s a voice in a chorus. An important one, yes. But you’d need to replace more than Powell to get a Federal Reserve ready to follow Trump’s suggestions. 

The $2.5 Billion Blunder That Could Get JPow Fired