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.
Last Friday, I told you where you can get coffee with real gold mixed into it. It’s part of this trend of edible gold. People are mixing gold into all kinds of foods — even beer and chicken wings. Like I said last week, I think people like to eat gold because it seems indulgent and decadent. Not my thing, but I get it. But you know what? There’s a more pragmatic reason to eat gold.
Transportation.
Peter Schmidt recently wrote two article highlighting the fatal conceit of PhD central planners who populate the world’s central banks. You can read those articles here and here. But central banking is not the only place you find people suffering from fatal conceit and the delusional notion that they are smart enough to micromanage the economy. You find a lot of these people in government offices as well.
For instance, consider New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Before he moved into the governor’s mansion in Albany, Cuomo helped orchestrate the 2008 housing crash. Schmidt highlights Cuomo’s role in that horror story in the following article.
Well, the midterm elections are finally over. The Republicans managed to hold on to the U.S. Senate, but the Democrats took control of the House. The “Blue Wave” was more like a “Blue Ripple.” To me, it smells a lot like gridlock, which is generally good news if you’re a person who favors smaller government. Gridlock means very little will actually get done in Washington D.C. The government not doing anything – well, that doesn’t sound so bad.
But in his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff brought up a potential problem with a divided government. We will likely end up with even higher budget deficits.
Gold production in South Africa dropped by 19% year-on-year in September, according to a report at Fin24.
This continues a trend of monthly gold mine production drops. South African gold output fell by 15% in August and 15.5% in July.
The country once led the world in gold production. The precipitous drop in output over the last few years could signal an overall drop in global mine output.
Gold holdings in gold-backed ETFs rose globally by 16.5 tons in October. It was the first monthly net inflow of the yellow metal into ETFs in four months.
According to a report by the World Gold Council, positive gold price performance for the month (+2.3% in USD) was a key driver of inflows in North American and European funds. Global assets under management rose by 3.1% in US dollars relative to September.
The Russians have an alternative money transfer system up and running, and according to a report in RT, it has now surpassed SWIFT in popularity in that country. This is part of a broader effort by countries like Russia and China to limit their dependence on the US dollar and set up alternative financial channels outside of the global dollar system.
For centuries, gold jewelry was not only something beautiful to wear, it was also a store of wealth and value. But the 14-karat gold jewelry found in your local store isn’t the best option for investment. Now there is an alternative for people who want to own beautiful jewelry that will also serve as a store of value.
Mene is an ancient word for money. A new company by that name prices its jewelry by weight and a transparent premium. Mene also allows customers to track the value of their jewelry like an investment portfolio and sell back or exchange pieces back to the company.
In this special episode of the Schiff Report, Peter Schiff interviews Mene founder and CEO Roy Sebag. They not only talk about the company and this unique way to invest, but they also talk about the fundamental reasons you want to own gold.
A functioning bionic eye is closer to reality thanks to silver.
The Silver Institute highlighted this amazing medical breakthrough along with other technological innovations utilizing the white metal in the latest edition of Silver News.
October jobs numbers came out on Friday and everybody was all giddy about healthy growth. But in his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff said jobs are just another bubble about to burst.
