October 26, 2026
Bonus Content: FedEx’s Pilot Bill Is Becoming an Argument for Self-Flying Planes
Patriots’ Most Trusted Gold Company
The Debt Just Passed $40 Trillion. Nobody Asked Your Savings.
For U.S. savers age 55+ with $50,000 or more in an IRA, 401(k) or savings. Free of charge, no obligation to buy anything.
In August 2026 the national debt passed $40 trillion.1 It was not voted on. There was no ceremony. Most Americans found out from a headline, if they found out at all.
Somebody has to absorb it
A debt that size does not simply sit there. It gets serviced, refinanced, and eventually dealt with – and there are only three ways to deal with it: raise taxes, cut spending, or reduce the real value of what is owed by letting the currency weaken. The first two require Congress to do something unpopular on the record. The third requires nobody to do anything at all.
That is why the figure matters to a retirement account rather than just to a budget committee. Every dollar in your IRA is a claim denominated in the same currency the debt is denominated in. If the obligation is managed down in real terms, that happens through your savings, not around them.
The evidence is already behind us. It takes roughly $1.95 today to buy what a dollar bought in 2000.2 Nothing was confiscated. The unit was simply worth less each year, and savers holding it carried the cost quietly.
Gold is the one asset in this conversation with no issuer. No treasury can print it, no company can dilute it, no counterparty can default on it. Central banks themselves have been buying more than a thousand tons a year.3 They are not doing it for the yield.
You are allowed to hold physical gold inside an IRA. Most savers have never been told that, because the firms holding their money do not sell it. The free 2026 Gold IRA Guide walks through exactly how a rollover from an IRA, 401(k) or TSP works, which metals the IRS allows, how insured depository storage works, and the mistakes that cost retirees the most. It is free and it takes about thirty seconds to request.
Claim Your Free 2026 Gold IRA Guide →
Rock legend Ted Nugent and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer are official endorsers and clients of Bishop Gold Group. 10 years in business – 5-star rated on Trustpilot and Google – Mint Authorized Dealer
Prefer to speak to someone? U.S.–based specialists, no pressure, no jargon.
Mon-Fri – 7am-5pm PT
Sources
1 U.S. Treasury total public debt outstanding, which passed $40 trillion in August 2026 as widely reported.
2 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), 2000 to 2026. $1.00 in 2000 equates to approximately $1.95 in 2026 – cumulative inflation of roughly 95%; the inverse gives purchasing power of about 51 cents.
3 World Gold Council, Gold Demand Trends, annual central bank net purchases 2022-2024.
Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Precious metals are volatile and can decline in value. Figures here are historical and are not a prediction or a recommendation to buy or sell any asset.
FedEx’s Pilot Bill Is Becoming an Argument for Self-Flying Planes
FedEx reports earnings after the market closes Wednesday, October 28. Analysts are watching a specific line item: interim CFO Claude Russ flagged a $200 million headwind from the ratification of a new pilot agreement weighing on margins. That is not noise. It is the clearest dollar figure yet on what human cockpits cost a carrier that is simultaneously trying to build a leaner network.
The timing sharpens a debate that institutional investors have mostly treated as a long-range technology story. It is becoming a near-term cost story.
The Pressure Building Inside FedEx’s Network
FedEx has slightly fewer than 5,000 pilots, down from 5,800 two years ago, with about 20 retiring every month. The carrier reached a tentative labor deal in April 2026 after five years of talks, agreeing to hike pilot pay by about 40%. That agreement removes strike risk but locks in a cost base that compounds. Meanwhile, Oliver Wyman has projected that the biggest North America pilot supply gap peaks in 2026 at about 24,000.
The middle-mile regional routes are where the squeeze is worst. Regional cargo operators flying routes that connect mid-sized cities to smaller communities are the first to lose pilots to higher-paying major airline jobs, and the last to recover when supply tightens.
The Autonomous Bet Nearest to Certification
Six days before FedEx’s earnings date, Reliable Robotics closed a notable financing. The Mountain View startup raised $115 million in new capital, pushing its valuation over $1 billion. The target platform is not a futuristic design: the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan was not an arbitrary choice. More than 2,600 Caravan aircraft are in service; FedEx Feeder network operators, UPS affiliates, and Alaskan bush carriers fly them into exactly the short-field, thin-margin routes where the pilot shortage bites first.
The capital will go toward scaling production of its Reliable Autonomy System and moving its FAA certification work forward for uncrewed commercial cargo flights. CEO Robert Rose has said FAA certification, not capital, is the binding constraint.
Proof of what the hardware can already do arrived last month. Joby Aviation’s converted Cessna 208B Grand Caravan completed the first fully autonomous flight across the United States, covering 3,199 miles from California to North Carolina with a safety pilot on board who made zero control inputs throughout.
What Investors Are Missing
The debate around autonomous cargo aircraft has centered on whether the technology works. That question is largely settled at the demonstration level. The real question is regulatory timing, and investors are underweighting how much the FAA’s posture has shifted. Seven US operators now hold Part 135 UAS package-delivery authority. That is not a pilot program. It is an operating category.
A system that can fly a regional freighter without requiring a pilot at the controls does not just reduce operating costs; it potentially unlocks routes and schedules that are not currently viable because the economics do not support a full crew. For FedEx, that means the autonomous middle-mile corridor is less a technology bet and more a structural answer to a labor problem that October’s earnings will put a precise dollar figure on.
Stocks to Watch
FedEx (FDX): The earnings call is the near-term catalyst. Margin guidance for the full transition year will tell investors how much of the pilot-cost headwind is structural versus one-time.
Joby Aviation (JOBY): The September cross-country flight was the most public autonomy milestone of 2026. By retrofitting proven airframes like the Caravan, Joby can build a record for autonomy without waiting for a new aircraft type to clear certification, compressing the timeline to commercial freight revenue.
Reliable Robotics (private): Holds a leading FAA certification plan for full aircraft automation for a pilotless Cessna 208B in the United States. The next certification milestone is the event that moves this from venture story to industry infrastructure.
