Let’s say you were a country or a group of very wealthy individuals and Covid hits. You see governments around the world print money like crazy. It makes you think there might be some inflation to deal with and you want to protect yourself. Gold and silver are the logical choices. So, if you decide to accumulate a whole bunch of precious metals, how would you do it?
Gold is nature’s money.
Aristotle listed four characteristics of sound money: it must be durable, portable, divisible, and have intrinsic value. Gold possesses all of these characteristics, which is why gold has served as money for thousands of years.
You’re making more money. But you can’t buy as much stuff.
Why?
Because inflation continues to eat away at your wages.
The US government is rolling in dough!
US tax receipts have surged this year. Through August, the US Treasury had collected over $4.4 trillion in revenue for fiscal 2022 with one month left to go. That was already 10% higher than receipts in 2021. The US government took in $303.73 billion in August alone. That was up 23% from August 2021.
The Federal Reserve is between a rock and a hard place, and it’s going to have to make a hard choice – inflation or economic implosion. Peter Schiff talked about it on his podcast.
Physical metal has continued to drain from COMEX vaults. This is particularly true for silver, which now has 17.4 paper ounces for every registered ounce.
This analysis focuses on gold and silver within the Comex/CME futures exchange. See the article What is the Comex? for more detail. The charts and tables below specifically analyze the physical stock/inventory data at the Comex to show the physical movement of metal into and out of Comex vaults.
Although gold has been one of the best-performing assets in 2022, it has faced significant headwinds due to rising interest rates and a strong dollar. Members of a panel discussion during the London Bullion Market Association’s (LBMA) annual precious metals conference agreed that gold and silver prices may still face headwinds in the near term as investors continue to anticipate an aggressive Federal Reserve fight against inflation. But they were bullish on the long-term potential of the precious metals market.
Social Security recipients will be getting a big raise in 2023. That’s good news if you’re receiving benefits from the program, but not so great if you’re hoping inflation will abate any time soon.
The Social Security Administration recently announced an 8.7% cost of living adjustment (COLA) for next year. That goes on top of a substantial 5.9% COLA for 2022. The 2023 increase is the largest in 40 years.
Gold is migrating from the West to the East.
As Bloomberg described it, many western investors – particularly at the institutional level – are dumping bullion. Meanwhile, Asian buyers are taking advantage of lower prices to snap up less expensive jewelry, coins, and bars.
As Peter Schiff put it in a recent podcast, the inflation insanity continues.
We got the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) data and it once again came in hotter than expected. Month-on-month, CPI was up 0.4%. That was double the 0.2% expectation. On an annual basis, the CPI was 8.2%.
