The United States is adding debt so fast that the number you see on the screen is already wrong. Right now, the US owes about $38.6 trillion and counting. With a population of roughly 342 million people, that works out to over $114,000 of debt per person. 

And this is the part that should really scare you. The growth of this debt is accelerating. At the current pace, the US adds $1 trillion of new debt every five months. 

So here is the real question. If governments cannot stop borrowing and they cannot stop printing, how can you protect the value of your money? And more importantly, how do you position yourself to benefit from this rather than get crushed by it? Let's break it down. So how did we get here? It's not complicated.

A country, just like a person, goes into debt when it spends more than it earns. And why do governments always spend more than they earn? Well, because it keeps people happy today. In democracies, politicians win by promising more benefits, lower taxes, or both. 

Raising taxes or cutting spending hurts immediately. Borrowing lets the population delay the pain and gets politicians elected. When was the last time someone got elected by saying, I'm going to raise your taxes and cut benefits? Exactly, almost never. 

Bottom line, if borrowing is available, governments are going to use it. Debt only moves in one direction, up. This is why interest-based systems always break. 

Interest-based debt encourages delay, excess, and living beyond real limits. This is also why Islam prohibits interest entirely. Removing interest removes the temptation of endless deferral and forces discipline back into the system. 

Now look at the evidence. Since 2001, the U.S. government has spent more than it earns every single year, with no exceptions. In 2025 alone, spending exceeded revenue by $1.78 trillion. 

There's only one way to cover this gap, and that is to borrow. Here's how government borrowing works. When the government needs money, it sells IOUs called treasury bonds. 

Investors buy them in exchange for a promise of repayment plus interest later. The longer investors are asked to wait, the more interest the government has to pay. And right now, lending to the U.S. government for 10 years pays about 4.15% per year. 

The average interest rate on all U.S. debt is lower, so about 3.36%, and that's because much of this debt was issued back when rates were near zero, or at least lower than where they are right now. About a quarter of U.S. debt is held by foreign governments, and another 11% is held by the U.S. Federal Reserve. And this is where the system gets especially strange. 

The Federal Reserve is not a normal investor. During crises, it buys massive amounts of government debt using new money it creates out of thin air. It does this to inject liquidity into the markets. 

This is the core flywheel. Government overspending leads to borrowing. Borrowing leads to money creation and interest costs. 

Money creation fuels inflation, and interest costs force even more borrowing. Once this cycle is in motion, it's extremely difficult to stop. And here is the key insight most people miss. 

A government with a lot of debt actually has an incentive to cause inflation. Why? Because it makes paying back debt easier. Imagine owing $100,000. 

If the value of money falls by half, suddenly that $100,000 is worth far less in real terms. Inflation allows the government to pay back debt in cheaper dollars and avoid default. Printing money and letting prices rise isn't just a side effect, it's an essential part of the system. 

But there is another force at work that changes how you should invest. And this force partially offsets the debt and inflation spiral I just described. It is productivity. 

By productivity, I mean how much output we can produce with the same amount of effort. Technology increases productivity. When productivity grows faster than the money supply, prices for those goods fall. 

That is why some products get cheaper over time even while the overall cost of living keeps rising. Televisions are a perfect example. The price of televisions has dropped by more than 99% since 1950 when adjusted for inflation and quality improvements. 

That is great for consumers but terrible for manufacturers. In 1939, you needed close to $10,000 of today's dollars to buy a black and white TV set. Today, you can buy an 85-inch 4K smart TV for less than $1,000. 

This race to the bottom is exactly why TV manufacturing has been one of the hardest industries to make any money in. Over the last 5 years, the S&P 500 is up more than 80%. Yet, many of the biggest TV manufacturers have gone nowhere or worse. 

LG is down 13% over the same time period. TCL Technology Group, one of the largest Chinese TV makers is down more than 46%. Same world, same markets, completely different outcomes. 

Why? Because technology crushed pricing. Every part of a TV can now be produced faster, cheaper, and at a massive scale using automation. When productivity becomes unlimited, prices collapse and profits disappear. 

But there are areas where technology hits a hard wall. Real estate for example. Specifically, land. 

You cannot use AI, robots, or factories to create more acres of land. The supply of land is fixed. So, when the money supply keeps expanding, land prices have only one direction to go, and that is up. 

So, from 1950 to today, TVs and land tell two completely opposite economic stories. Whereas television prices fell 99% during this period, U.S. land prices are up anywhere from 400 to 1,000% depending on location. This is the difference between having your investments exposed to infinite productivity improvements versus absolute scarcity. 

And this same principle explains why scarce assets have dominated recently. Over the last 5 years, gold is up 147%. Gold miners like Agnico Eagle Mines, which is on our PIF watchlist, are up roughly 179%. 

Bitcoin, the first digitally scarce asset, is up close to 200%. And silver is up about 250%. Every single one of these beat the S&P 500 by a wide margin. 

All of them share one trait. Scarcity. If you understood this one idea 5 years ago, it could have been the difference between watching your money get cut in half in a company like TCL or watching it triple in Bitcoin or silver. 

That's not luck. That is understanding the world around you. In that world, there are two forces you can rely on.

The money supply will keep growing. Governments cannot stop printing without breaking the system. And productivity will keep improving. 

Technology, automation, and AI make that almost inevitable. Everything else flows from this. So the real investing question is not what will grow. 

Rather, it's what cannot be made cheaper? What cannot be produced faster by software? What cannot be automated? What cannot be printed? That is where your wealth can compound. That is why capital moved into gold. Why silver followed. 

And why energy, especially electricity, is being repriced right now. And everything that is connected to electricity is getting a higher valuation. Not because these assets are exciting. 

Not because they are trendy. But because they are scarce. You're not going to beat this system by working harder. 

You beat it by owning what cannot be inflated away. Neither by irresponsible governments, nor by technological progress. And this is where we can help. 

Our PIF portfolios show exactly how we position around scarcity in a halal-conscious way. Members see what we buy, why we buy it, and when. For those who want professional management, Halal Alpha manages portfolios directly, helping clients protect and grow wealth in a system designed to erode it. 

In a world of artificial abundance, real scarcity is the ultimate edge. Invest accordingly. Like, subscribe, and until next time, Salam.