In a recent interview with CNBC’s Rick Santelli, investment guru Jim Grant talked about the Fed’s sudden about-face when it comes to its balance sheet reduction program, as well as the phenomenon of negative interest rates. In short, Grant said the central banks have done us “no favors.”
Politicians promise lots of stuff. Delivering on those promises – that’s a different matter. But when it comes to pledging to do this or that, politicians are masters.
Now, most of the time they keep things pretty vague. After all, you don’t want to commit to anything quantifiable. If you did that, voters could actually hold you accountable. So they promise things like, “I’ll create jobs,” or “I’ll improve our infrastructure.” At the end of the day, you have no idea whether they actually did that or not. (Odds are, they didn’t.)
But one political party in India decided that when it comes to campaign promises, it’s “go big or go home.” So, it’s going big!
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.
In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff dug into the politics behind the Green New Deal and specifically asked a key question: who is going to pay for all this?
A record number of Americans have fallen behind on their car payments.
On Tuesday, the New York Federal Reserve released its Household Debt and Credit report covering the fourth quarter of 2018. Not only has indebtedness hit record highs, eclipsing levels seen on the eve of the Great Recession, but Americans are also having a harder time paying their bills. This is particularly apparent in the US auto market. According to the New York Fed report, more than 7 million Americans have fallen at least 90 days delinquent on their auto loans.
The national debt has pushed above the $22 trillion mark, but it’s not just Uncle Sam borrowing himself into oblivion. US household debt climbed to a record $13.54 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to a report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Total household debt (including mortgages) now stands $869 billion higher than the previous peak of $12.68 trillion in the third quarter of 2008 (right before the crash) and 21.4% above the post-financial-crisis trough reached in the second quarter of 2013.
The national debt has pushed beyond the $22 trillion mark.
According to Treasury Department data released Tuesday, the national debt now stands at $22.01 trillion. When President Trump took office in January 2017, the debt was at $19.95 trillion. That’s a $2.06 trillion increase in the debt in just over two years.
As we pointed out in an article last week, the US federal government has added $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the last 12 months. As a result, the US Treasury Department is flooding the market with bonds. Meanwhile, the biggest buyers of US debt – China, Japan and the Federal Reserve – are shrinking their Treasury holdings. For the past several months, we’ve been saying this is a big problem for the US government that most people are overlooking. And we aren’t the only ones sounding warning bells.
Last week, the chair of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC) sent a letter to Steven Mnuchin containing what the Financial Times called “a bombshell.”
Gold is on a nice little bull run. The yellow metal is up almost 3% since the first of the year and nearly 13% since touching one-and-a-half year lows last summer. But as a recent article in Barron’s pointed out, the relative strength of the dollar has disguised an even more substantive bull market for gold.
Sharps Pixley CEO Ross Norman told Barron’s that gold has seen a widespread, strong and sustained value appreciation around the globe against 72 currencies.
The Democrats led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released their “Green New Deal” last week. As Peter Schiff put it in his latest podcast, the Green New Deal is really red – as in socialist red.
The whole thing is an economic train wreck.
It’s masterful politics though.
