Romania may bring most of its gold home.
Romania’s ruling party chief has submitted a bill that would require the country’s central bank to keep 95% of its gold within the borders of the country. Currently, about 60% of Romania’s 103.7 tons of gold is stored at the Bank of England.
Peter Schiff has been saying that despite the recent stock market rally and all of the optimism about an end to the trade war, a recession is a done deal. There is plenty of economic data to back up despite the recent economic growth. In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff said that while the GDP number might look pretty good, the growth is unsustainable because it’s all built on debt.
The price of gold dropped last week and stock markets continued to rally. One of the driving factors was optimism that the trade war may be close to its end. As a CNBC report put it, “investors opted for riskier assets on hopes of a thaw in a trade dispute between the United States and China.”
But should the markets really be rallying on this trade deal? Is it going to be a great boon to the US economy? Peter Schiff doesn’t think so. He recently appeared on RT to talk it.
Jerome Powell went to Capitol Hill this week and continued to preach patience. In other words, the Powell Pause is still firmly in play. In fact, the Fed chair confirmed that balance sheet reduction is a done deal. But why this sudden patience? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, Mike Maharrey talks about it. He also covers the Q4 GDP report, reveals some more bad economic data and reviews gold’s rollercoaster February.
After weeks of hinting, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed that the central bank will end its balance sheet reduction program this year. This just five months after insisting quantitative tightening was on “autopilot.”
“We’ve worked out, I think, the framework of a plan that we hope to be able to announce soon that will light the way all the way to the end of balance sheet normalization,” Powell said during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee.
Based on the latest data, the student debt crisis in America isn’t about to end any time soon.
US household debt climbed to a record $13.54 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2018. Student loan debt makes up a sizeable chunk of that total. In fact, student loan debt now ranks as the second-largest consumer debt category, trailing only mortgages.
The US and China are reportedly getting closer to working out a trade deal. The Chinese have indicated they will import more US natural gas, semiconductors and soybeans. Peter Schiff recently appeared on RT to talk about it. He said that no matter what ultimately comes out of these trade negotiations, it’s not going to make America great again.
Russia is considering eliminating its value-added tax (VAT) on gold purchases. According to a Russian paper, this could increase gold demand in the country by 50 to 100 tons per year.
Russia currently charges a 20% tax on all gold bar purchases, and investors do not get the tax back when they sell their gold.
Even as the Federal Reserve and the financial news network pundits continue to dangle the prospect of a booming economy in front of us, we’re seeing more and more bad news that undermines this narrative and reveals the rotting foundation of the US economy. The wholesale inventory report that came out yesterday is the latest gloomy example.
Investors are gobbling up American Silver Eagle coins. Sales were so brisk last week that the US Mint temporarily suspended orders when its inventory ran out.
February sales this year have already doubled 2018 levels. As of Feb. 26. the mint had sold 2,157,500 Silver Eagles this month. That compares with 942,500 coins in February 2018. This represents a whopping 118% year-on-year sales increase.
