During the Denver Gold Forum last September, the chairman of the World Gold Council said he thinks the world may have reached peak gold. That is the point where the amount of gold mined out of the earth will begin to shrink every year, rather than increase, as it has done pretty consistently since the 1970s.
Randall Oliphant is not the only high-profile person in the gold industry expressing concern about gold supply over the long-term. Franco-Nevada chairman Pierre Lassonde also expects a significant dip in gold production in the coming years. During a recent interview with the German financial newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft, Lassonde said we’re seeing a significant slowdown in the number of large deposits being discovered. The big question is how will the industry replace the massive gold mines that have produced large amounts of the yellow metal over the last 130 years or so?
The Chinese are buying gold again after a slump in consumer demand last year.
Meanwhile, Chinese gold production is falling.
According to data released by the China Gold Association, gold demand rose 15.5% through the first three quarters of 2017. Demand totaled 815.9 tons, pushed upward by a resurgent jewelry market.
Financial guru Jim Rickards weighed in on the Bitcoin vs. gold debate and came down firmly on the side of the yellow metal. In fact, he’s said there really shouldn’t be a debate. Bitcoin and gold are two totally different things.
Rickards responded to a recent note published by Goldman Sachs declaring that Bitcoin is not the new gold in a column published at the Daily Reckoning. He said he doesn’t really like talking about Bitcoin and doesn’t think there is any real comparison between the cryptocurrency and gold.
Americans are spending money, but it appears they are dipping into their savings to do it.
According to data released by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, savings last month fell to a level not seen since 2007. The 3.1% rate in September was the lowest since it dipped to 3.0% in December 2007.
In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff reminded us of what was going on in late 2007.
There’s a lot of optimism out there that passage of the Trump tax plan will juice the economy. Many analysts say tax cut optimism is one of the factors that continue to push stocks up, and that has created headwinds for gold and silver. But as we’ve pointed out, there are reasons to question this mainstream narrative.
Now some in the mainstream are even starting to question the mainstream narrative.
Central bank quantitative easing is a little like a zombie. It dies – but it never really dies.
There’s been a lot of focus on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates and unwinding its balance sheet. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the Fed isn’t the only game in town. While most people consider QE dead and buried in the US, it remains alive and kicking in other parts of the world.
Yesterday, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced it would extend its bond-buying program deep into 2018, continuing the flow of easy money into the European Union. ECB President Mario Draghi said the central bank would cut its bond purchases in half beginning in January, a faint hint at eventual normalization. But the central bank president left the door open to backtracking.
A bill prefiled in the Alabama House for the 2018 session would exempt the purchase of gold and silver bullion from state sales and use tax, encouraging its use and taking the first step toward breaking the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.
Rep. Ronald Johnson (R-Sylacauga) prefiled House Bill 19 (HB19). The legislation would exempt the gross proceeds from the sale of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion and coins from sales and use tax in the state.
China wants to dethrone the dollar. But of course, it’s not alone. Russia would also love to knock the US off the top of the economic mountain. Putin is also positioning his country to free itself from the dollar-dominated global financial system. Like its neighbor to the east, Russia is using gold to pave the way to economic independence.
The pawn shop is probably the last place you want to go if you find yourself strapped for cash. But an interesting article in a Filipino publication reveals a problem millennials face if they find themselves in a cash-crunch. They may have a harder time liquidating assets than their parents because they primarily spend their money on electronic gadgets and don’t tend to buy gold.
The head of one of the Philippines largest pawnshop operators told ANC’s The Boss that gold can be pawned at much higher prices than smartphones, laptops, and other electronics.
There’s nothing like buying gold and using it. It’s a great tool to use to save. Millennials today, they buy their gadgets, their Androids, their bags, but there’s still more value in buying gold jewelry than buying all those.”
Last month, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on a move by China that could take a first step toward dethroning the US dollar. The proposed launch of a gold-backed, yuan-denominated oil futures contract got a lot of attention in alt-media circles, but didn’t make much of a splash in the mainstream. But now the mainstream is sitting up and taking notice.
During an interview with Bloomberg TV Tuesday, Graticule Asset Management Asia CEO Adam Levinson said China rolling out a yuan-denominated oil contract within the next few months will be “a wake-up call” for investors who haven’t paid attention to the plans.
The move potentially creates a way for oil exporters to circumvent US dollar-denominated benchmarks by trading in yuan. The contracts will reportedly be priced in yuan, but convertible to gold.
