On March 1, the national debt eclipsed $28 trillion. The mainstream media hardly gave it a mention. To put the speed of the borrowing into perspective, the US government added $5 trillion to the debt in less than 18 months.
The Federal Reserve was already intervening in the economy prior to the pandemic. Remember, the central bank cut rates three times in 2019 and relaunched quantitative easing that year as well, although it refused to call it QE. Loose monetary policy is the fuel that runs the US bubble economy.
We’ve talked extensively about the growing levels of debt in the economy. The national debt recently eclipsed $28 trillion. Corporate debt was already skyrocketing prior to the pandemic. All of this is driven by loose Federal Reserve monetary policy designed to drive borrowing. And people wonder why Peter Schiff insists the Fed can’t actually let interest rates rise to fight inflation.
As economist Doug French highlighted, there’s another segment of the economy buried in debt – the commercial real estate market. The problem is compounded by the fact that the value of commercial real estate is falling like a rock thanks to a shift toward work-at-home and the brick-and-mortar retail apocalypse. In a nutshell, the commercial real estate market is plagued by too much debt and not enough assets.
COMEX is the primary futures and options market for trading metals such as gold and silver. There have been some interesting trends for silver in the COMEX in recent months. More investors are taking delivery of silver. In other words, the short squeeze may still be on track – albeit in slow motion – and this could impact the silver price moving forward.
As Peter Schiff pointed out during a recent interview with NTD News, America has never done worse on trade. He called it a sign that we don’t have a recovering economy. In fact, we have a phony economy in danger of collapse.
The annual trade deficit for goods came in at an all-time high in January, increasing $3.4 billion to a record $221.1 billion. In another sign of the massive trade imbalance, there is a shortage of shipping containers to bring things into the US.
The federal minimum wage hike didn’t make its way into the coronavirus stimulus bill passed by the Senate last week, but it is an idea that won’t die. With Biden in the White House and Democrats controlling both houses of Congress, the issue will almost certainly come up again sooner rather than later.
Proponents of a $15 per hour minimum wage claim it will help pull people out of poverty. And it will help some people. But it will hurt others. The real minimum wage is always $0 and no law can change that reality.
The Federal Reserve has created trillions of dollars out of thin air and injected it into the economy over the last year. As a result, the money supply has grown at a record pace. This is by definition inflation. As Peter Schiff has pointed out in recent weeks, signs that this inflation is finding its way into prices are all around us. But mainstream economists tell us we really don’t have to worry about the massive increase in the money supply because the velocity of money is so low. This is simply the number of times a dollar changes hands in a given amount of time. Conventional wisdom holds that as long as the money velocity remains low, the central bank can increase the money supply without any significant corresponding increase in price inflation. But as economist Frank Shostak shows, the conventional wisdom doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called for a “society-wide” commitment to reaching full employment. As Peter Schiff put it, Powell basically handed the US government a blank check in order to achieve this “maximum employment goal.” We’re told we shouldn’t even worry about the massive deficit spending and additional debt this will incur. It’s all hands on deck and everybody needs to sacrifice. But what exactly does the Fed mean by “maximum employment?” What are we to sacrifice for?
Nobody knows. Not even the Fed.
The COVID-19 pandemic put Federal Reserve easy-money policy on hyperdrive. But make no mistake, the Fed was already forcing interest rates artificially lower and engaging in quantitative easing long before coronavirus arrived on American shores. In fact, there was no plausible exit strategy from this policy after the 2008 financial crisis and there is no exit for it today.
Millions of Americans remain out of work. The US economy continues to languish, burdened by government lockdowns and other pandemic-related factors. Retail sales have dropped precipitously over the last several months, underscoring the economic malaise. So, how is it that the housing market is booming?
The government response to the coronavirus pandemic has put extraordinary pressure on small businesses. And that pressure is about to increase thanks to yet another government action – minimum wage increases across the US.
