The Oscars are golden.
Literally.
And in keeping with the spirit, Zoe Kravitz made sure her wardrobe matched the occasion. In fact, her wardrobe far outshined good ol’ Oscar.
Right after the last Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, Peter Schiff said the “Powell Pause” won’t be enough to save the stock market and head off a recession. He said ultimately, the central bank would have to cut interest rates and launch another round of quantitative easing.
Well, it seems the mainstream is starting to catch up with Peter’s thinking. Yesterday, Bloomberg ran an article asserting that “instead of pausing, the central bank may need to start cutting interest rates to avoid a recession.”
When I was a kid, I thought people in elected offices were among the brightest and best. Then I grew up, started interacting with politicians and realized they are no smarter than anybody else. And in fact, a lot of them are downright dumb.
Well, I’ve got an Oklahoma lawmaker for you that fits neatly into the downright dumb category.
All of a sudden, former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen sounds a little bit like Peter Schiff.
During an interview on CNBC, Yellen conceded that the next Fed move could be an interest rate cut.
Of course, it’s possible. If global growth really weakens and that spills over to the United States where financial conditions tighten more and we do see a weakening in the US economy, it’s certainly possible that the next move is a cut.”
After Jerome Powell indicated that the Federal Reserve tightening cycle was on pause during last week’s FOMC meeting, Peter Schiff said, “The monetary drug pushers at the Federal Reserve gave the addicts on Wall Street exactly the fix that they had been craving.”
Peter often compares the markets to drug addicts. They are addicted to the easy money the central bank provides. Reuters used that same imagery to describe America’s business community in the wake of the “loose money era,” saying it left a “trail of US corporate debt junkies.
Would you pay $500 for a brownie?
Now, before you answer rashly, let me tell you something important about this brownie.
It’s covered in 24-karat gold.
So, budgets are tight everywhere, right? Even at the Bank of England.
Well, that’s not altogether true. It would be more accurate to say the central bank wastes a lot of money. Some government functionary got wind of it and now there’s a scramble to tighten things up over at the BoE.
Said government functionary came up with one interesting solution that would actually generate a little revenue for the bank. But there was one tiny problem with the plan.
Bayern Munich soccer star Franck Ribéry struck back at detractors who went after him on social media because he had the audacity to post a video of himself eating a steak covered in 24-karat gold.
Oh, the horror!
The Federal Reserve released minutes from the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday and it looks like the “Powell Put” might be in.
The minutes revealed a much more dovish sounding Fed as we move into 2019. Members of the FOMC indicated they could be “patient” with future rate hikes and said the future path of the central bank’s monetary policy is “less clear.”
What is clear is that Powell and company seem to be getting cold feet when it comes to continuing on an aggressive tightening policy. The question is why?
Bling isn’t really my thing. But a lot of people enjoy sporting gold jewelry. Well, a 36-year-old businessman in Vietnam takes bling to a whole new level.
Tran Ngoc Phuc wears a total of 13kg of gold wherever he goes. If you don’t have your kilograms to pounds calculator handy, that about 28.7 pounds of gold.
