Gold has had a pretty solid month, but silver has been going up like it’s on rocket fuel.
In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey takes a close look at the silver market and what’s going on there. He talks a little trade war, saying that maybe we shouldn’t be talking so much about the trade war. And he also touches on some economic news that came out the week.
During a recent interview on RT America, Peter Schiff said investors should stay away from the dollar, not only because of the looming recession, but because its days as a reserve currency could be numbered.
Is this just hyperbole, or could the US dollar really fall off its throne? America’s enemies would certainly like to see it happen. And increasingly, so would its friends.
Earlier this week, Spencer Schiff wrote an article noting the importance of consumer spending to the US economy and the consequences that will follow if Americans suddenly tighten up their wallets. Schiff isn’t alone in his concern. A mainstream economist sounded a similar warning during a recent CNBC interview.
There has been a lot of focus on the recent gold rally. It has even caught the attention of the mainstream. But silver has also been quietly running upward. In fact, the white metal has outperformed gold this month. While the yellow metal has gained about 8% on the month, silver is up 11%.
Yesterday (Aug. 27) gold was up $16 per ounce and closed at $1,542.50. It was the highest close in six years. But it was an even bigger day for silver. The white metal was up 53 cents and closed at $18.17. Peter Schiff has been pounding the table on silver in recent weeks, and he talked about the big silver rally in his latest podcast.
One day Trump is on Twitter ratcheting up the trade war with China and the next he is pulling back and saying a deal is close. This back-and-forth has been yo-yoing markets for months. Peter Schiff recently appeared on RT Boom Bust to talk about the trade war. He said he doesn’t think there’s much substance to promises of a big trade war win. And even if the trade war is resolved, it’s not going to fix the fundamental problems underlying the US economy.
Gold has continued to push upward. The latest catalyst was another escalation of the trade war. Gold briefly moved above $1,550 in dollar terms. But it has done even better in relation to other currencies. In fact, the yellow metal is at record highs in nearly every currency except the dollar.
Peter Schiff appeared on RT America on Aug. 26 to talk about it. He said he thinks gold is eventually going to make news highs in the dollar as well, and this time, it’s not going to stop going up.
A couple of weeks ago, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell below the yield on the 2-year for the first time in 12 years. This inversion of the yield sparked recession fears in the mainstream. But in an interview with Tom Woods on Contra Krugman, former Reagan administration Office of Budget Management Director David Stockman said this is really a sign of a different problem. He said we’re actually in the mother of all bond bubbles.
Stockman said the mainstream is looking the yield curve inversion through the lens of conventional wisdom, but there is nothing conventional about the current financial situation.
Donald Trump went on a Twitter rant Friday. In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff said the president basically “lost it.”
There was a lot of news on Friday before Trump went off on Twitter. Jerome Powell gave his speech at Jackson Hole. He was generally upbeat about the economy. Then China announced additional tariffs on $75 billion in American imports. But the real fireworks started with Trump’s tweets in response to the Chines tariff retaliation.
Mine output fell significantly in three of the world’s top silver-producing countries through the first half of the year.
Peru’s silver production fell 10%, mine output in Mexico fell 4%, and silver production in Chile was down 7%, according to data released by government agencies in those three countries.
This week has been relatively quiet in the markets. Gold has drifted up and down as traders wait to see what kind of message Fed Chair Jerome Powell will deliver during his Jackson Hole speech. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey covers some tidbits of news and speculates about what Powell will say. Then he pivots and talks a little bit about President Trump and the strange economic tightrope that he’s trying to walk.
