Janet Yellen and company pretty much followed the script during last week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, raising interest rates another .25 percent and signaling three rate hikes in 2018.
We tend to focus primarily on Federal Reserve actions, but it’s important to remember the Fed isn’t the only central bank game in town. While it nudges interest rates slowly upward, the European Central Bank is standing pat on economic stimulus. And there’s no indication that is going to change in the near future.
The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
The University of Kentucky plans to blow up part of my youth.
Earlier this week, the UK Board of Trustees approved a plan to demolish the Kirwan Blanding dorm complex, including two 23-story residential towers. Apparently, kids aren’t willing to live two to a cell and share communal showers anymore. According to a story in the Lexington Herald-Leader, “those icons can no longer provide the housing spaces that students desire, so they are being demolished.”
Indians are buying silver.
India ranks as the second largest gold consumer in the world, behind only China, but Indians also have an appetite for the white metal. After a drop in silver demand last year, Indians are once again buying.
The last few weeks have been tough on gold. If you have a short-term mentality, you might even think the gold market has gone bearish. But as World Gold Council chief market strategist John Reade pointed out in a piece he wrote for the December issue of WGC Gold Investor, 2017 has been good for gold. And he sees some key reasons to believe 2018 will be as well.
The December Federal Open Market Committee meeting went pretty much according to scrip.
Analysts widely expected the Fed to raise rates by .25. It did. Analysts also expected the Fed to signal three more hikes in 2018. It did that too.
Gold went up, as we said it probably would, hitting a one-week high in the wake of the rate hike as investors “bought the fact.”
The US federal government is spending money like a drunken sailor.
And that’s probably unfair to drunken sailors.
In November alone, the US government reported a $139 billion deficit.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on RT Boom Bust to talk gold and silver.
Gold has struggled over the last few weeks with a looming Federal Reserve rate hike and the specter of tax cuts on the horizon weighing precious metals down. Peter said he thinks this is something of a seasonal lull and he expects the price to bounce back in the first part of 2018.
Bitcoin mania is in full force.
When I get to my desk in the morning, the first thing I do is check the latest gold news. But lately, when I google the word “gold,” I mostly get Bitcoin news. In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff even suggested CNBC should rename its network the “Crypto News Bitcoin Network.”
Many analysts have suggested Bitcoin is replacing gold. In fact, an article on CoinTelegraph reported that some investors are actually dumping their yellow metal in favor of Bitcoin. During a recent interview on CNBC. RJO Futures’ Phillip Streible declared that “Bitcoin has stolen a large market share of gold.” There is at least some anecdotal evidence backing this up.
Every year, the Federal Reserve robs you of a little bit of your wealth.
And it does so by design.
Writing for the Sovereign Man, Jeff Thomas called it a “magic trick.” But it’s not magic in a mystical way. It’s magic in the show business sense of the word. It’s an illusion, facilitated by distraction that fools the audience. As a result, we all miss what’s actually happening.
