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.
Remember back when Janet Yellen was heading up the Federal Reserve and she claimed there won’t be another financial crisis “in our lifetime?” You don’t have to think back too far. It was just about 18 months ago. Tuesday, June 27, 2017, to be precise. But now that Yellen has vacated the Eccles building and taken up residence at the Brookings Institute, she’s changed her tune. In fact, she’s singing an entirely different song.
During a talk at the City University New York, this week, Yellen said she fears there will be another financial crisis.
Assuming she doesn’t plan on dying any time soon, she apparently means within her lifetime.
Well, today is Black Friday.
Since 2005, the day after Thanksgiving has marked the busiest shopping day of the year. I know a lot of people who treat today like a holiday. They even have Black Friday traditions. I actually have some friends who meet at 3 a.m. on Black Friday for breakfast and then hit the sales.
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.
Video games have come a long way. Amazing graphics. Multiplayer options online. Gold controllers.
Yes. You read that right.
Gold controllers.
