The Weekend Edition is pulled from the daily Stansberry Digest.

"America is heading off a financial cliff – and it's going to happen fast"...

And that was just part of the warning our company's founder, Porter Stansberry, shared in his brand-new free presentation on Thursday.

As promised, Porter delivered a stark look at the state of the U.S. economy today. He laid out the compelling reasons why he's concerned, including how one of America's biggest institutions is about to go broke... and sooner than many might think.

This moment stems from government policies implemented since the global financial crisis, Porter says. They have inflated asset prices, crumbled the foundations of the financial system, and devalued the dollar to a degree that few Americans fully appreciate. As Porter said...

Interest rates were manipulated to zero... and then to below zero. That caused many of the world's most important financial markets to become woefully overvalued. And the reckonings have only just begun.

I believe this is the reason we've seen gold soar so high in the last two years, and it should be a huge warning sign for everyone reading this right now.

According to Porter, the tariff-related panic and volatility we've seen this year is just a taste of what's to come. As more and more people realize the perilous state of the economy, he expects things to worsen...

He also shared his view – which he expects will generate a stream of hate mail – on President Donald Trump's trade policy. "If the tariff rates originally outlined on Liberation Day ever happened," he said, it would be a "recipe for a financial disaster."

That said, no matter what the Trump administration does, the public debts in America have already reached a point of no return that will "get priced into the markets over the next four years."

As for how to navigate this scenario...

For all his warnings, Porter doesn't think you should get out of the markets.

Importantly, he shared a look at his investing road map, too.

While he believes everyone should own some gold, he's wary of long-term bonds... and stocks to a degree, too.

The U.S. stock market has rebounded from its lows after Trump's tariff announcements. But that doesn't mean stocks will remain "at these extremely high valuations for long," he said. And he detailed the reasons why...

What I want people to understand today is this... Owning America's best businesses is still the absolute No. 1 way to protect and grow the value of your wealth right now. Frankly, it might be the only way at this point.

But two important qualifiers go along with that belief. You need to invest only in good companies that you understand. And you must have a plan in place for when you are going to sell. He continued...

When the markets finally realize the U.S. government is not going to make good on its debts, the crash that follows is going to be a big one. And you do not want to be the last one to get out...

If you watched your portfolio seesaw after Liberation Day, if the volatility caused you to panic and sell stocks, and you are now trying to figure out what to do next, you need to have a plan. You can't just sit in cash anymore while you decide what to do.

If you missed the debut of Porter's free presentation, you can watch a replay here.

The Spending Bill That Broke Trump and Musk

Speaking of those tariffs...

A day after chatting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than an hour, Trump had a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping for about 90 minutes on Thursday. This one focused "almost entirely" on trade, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post afterward.

The conversation was initiated by the U.S., Chinese officials said, and Trump wrote that "there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products."

So, the rare-earth issue sounds like it was the sticking point that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had been referring to recently about why talks were stalled.

Moving ahead, Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick will meet with Chinese reps "shortly, at a location to be determined" to talk through details.

And Xi and Trump also invited each other to their respective countries, so it all sounds chummy (for now) when it comes to U.S.-China relations. But it seems this is what the market expected, because it didn't react all that much to the news of this call today.

Investors appear less focused now on tariffs than on "regular" issues like what's going to happen next with inflation, the labor market, and the Federal Reserve.

By giving in to the bond market's volatility in mid-April with the 90-day tariff pause, Trump convinced many that his import taxes wouldn't be as "bad" as they appeared on Liberation Day. The phone call with Xi is another signal of the same when it comes to tariffs and China.

So, tariff-related volatility has cooled for now... But that doesn't mean any new surprises or other issues of market interest can't happen.

For instance, this wasn't a good bet a few weeks ago: Elon Musk posting on social media his preference to "kill" the tax and spending bill sitting in the Senate... before saying that Trump would not have won the election without him.

This escalates Musk's spat with the White House. He already complained last week that the bill now sitting in Congress balloons the federal debt and "undermines" the work he just wrapped up at the Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE").

After more comments from Musk, Trump finally replied publicly on Thursday. The president contended that Musk isn't happy with his "big, beautiful bill" ending government grants for electric-vehicle makers. Tesla (TSLA) shares fell 14%.

We started seeing the first signs of a "big, beautiful breakup" between Trump and Musk last week. Now it's official. "Elon and I had a great relationship," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I don't know if we will anymore."

Another look at the job market...

This week, the latest weekly jobless-claims report (covering last week) showed 247,000 people newly filing for unemployment. That's slightly above the consensus Wall Street estimate of 236,000.

Also, consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported today that U.S.-based employers announced 93,816 job cuts in May. While that's down 12% from April, it's up 47% from the same month a year ago. Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of the consulting firm, said...

Tariffs, funding cuts, consumer spending, and overall economic pessimism are putting intense pressure on companies' workforces. Companies are spending less, slowing hiring, and sending layoff notices.

Here's one possible silver lining: While year-to-date layoff announcements are up 80% from 2024, DOGE cuts account for about half of them. And the courts are still weighing whether all those layoffs are even legal.

Last month, the services, retail, and tech sectors cut the most jobs. This paints a picture similar to this week's ADP private-payrolls report. It showed businesses adding only 37,000 new jobs last month.

These reports don't show an imminent jobs crisis in the U.S. But they do show weakness.

Good investing,

Corey McLaughlin

Editor's note: On Thursday, Porter Stansberry returned with the most important prediction of his career. He believes one of America's most trusted institutions is on the verge of collapse, threatening millions of investors. Then, he revealed the name of what he calls "America's most dangerous investment." With a track record that includes calling the 2008 market crash and 2020 COVID-19 bottom, this is one briefing you can't afford to miss... Check out the replay here.