In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff hit a number of subjects including oil prices, bond prices, Bitcoin, the dollar and tariffs. Peter said he thinks we’re seeing a lot of movement in a number of markets that are counter to the long-term trends. For instance, oil dropped late last week, but he expects it’s long-term trend to continue upward. The dollar has picked up strength, but the broader trend is toward a weaker dollar. And bond yields fell, but the overall trajectory for interest rates is up.
Last week, we explained how economic sanctions on Iran could boost the price of gold as Iranians turn to the yellow metal as a way to skirt restrictions. In a recent article published by the Daily Reckoning, financial expert Jim Rickards put this in a broader context. He described an evolving “axis of gold” as a number of countries, including China, Russia, Turkey and Iran increasingly use physical metal to create an offensive counterweight to the dollar.
This gold-based payments system will dilute and ultimately eliminate the impact of US dollar-based sanctions.”
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.
OK. We know people who go around burglarizing homes and businesses probably aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. But a burglar in Grand Rapids, Mich., may take the cake for dumb criminals.
The poor soul caught on camera burglarizing a local business was criminally confused. He apparently thought the company had left a stack of gold bars out on the sales floor – in front of the window.
Earlier this week, I shared a story about my wife finding a bag of change in the attic of her grandparent’s old house that turned out to be worth over $2,000. The dimes, quarters and half-dollars in the bag were all minted before 1965. In other words, they were all made primarily of silver. The value of the metal in these so-called junk silver coins is now worth far more than their face value. This demonstrates just how much the Federal Reserve has devalued your money.
One way we measure this devaluation of money is by the inflation rate. Practically speaking, rising inflation simply means we are losing purchasing power. Our dollar buys less and less as time moves on. This puts the squeeze on all of us – even the Tooth Fairy.
The US economy is now technically in the second-longest recovery in history. If it continues another 14 months, it will eclipse the longest recovery, which took place in the 1990s.
As Peter Schiff pointed out in his latest podcast, the Federal Reserve pulled out all the stops in the 1990s to keep the recovery going. That set the stage for the dot-com crash and ultimately the Great Recession.
Now the Fed is doing it again.
The World Gold Council described overall demand for gold as “soft” in its Global Demand Trends Q1 2018 report. Global demand was down 7% year-on-year.
The WGC said the drop was primarily due to weak investment demand. Investors added to their holdings of gold coins and bars, as well as gold-backed ETFs, but at a slower pace than Q1 2017.
There were some bright spots in the report. Gold demand in the technology sector marked its sixth consecutive quarterly gain. Jewelry demand held steady. And not all investors are spurning the yellow metal.
The second richest man in Egypt has put half of his $5.7 billion net worth in gold.
During an interview with Bloomberg, Naguib Sawiris said he expects gold to rally above $1,800 per ounce as “overvalued” stock markets crash.
The US government has hit borrowing levels not seen since the peak of the financial crisis.
The US Treasury’s net borrowing totaled $488 billion from January through March, according to a statement released Monday. That was $47 billion more than the department’s estimate. It was also a record for first quarter borrowing, according to Bloomberg.
Could we be seeing a run on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York? Jim Rickards thinks we just might be. But it’s not your typical cash run. It’s a run on the bank’s gold.
The classic image of this is the scene from the Christmas-season film It’s a Wonderful Life, with Jimmy Stewart. We’ve all seen it. Now, something similar is happening at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. What’s different is that the run on the bank involves gold, not cash. The New York Fed will never run out of cash because they can print all they need. But they could run out of gold.”
