If you look up the words “currency” and “money” in a thesaurus, each word will probably be listed as a suitable linguistic substitution for the other; however, their economic function is almost completely opposite. Understanding the difference between currency and money is critical to making smart decisions about preserving your wealth.
With election day looming and the Fed seemingly in a civil war with itself, more and more financial experts are looking to buy gold in order to weather the recession. In a recent Financial Sense podcast, financial advisor Don Coxe explains how bad monetary policy, central bank overreach, and the coming economic crisis should prompt investors to consider buying gold.
The last presidential debate has finally seemed to succeed in pushing economic issues past personal attacks and into the foreground of media discourse. In a Fox interview on Thursday, casino entrepreneur Steve Wynn took the opportunity to express how deficit spending and Obamacare are adding to the sense of “frustration, anger and confusion” currently felt within American culture and politics.
As a successful casino developer for many decades, Wynn has certainly experienced his share of the economic consequences from failed monetary policies, government regulation, and over-spending for his employees. The interview starts at 1:07.
Once again, the Fed is predicting a rate hike by the end of the year. The problem is they’re notoriously bad at predicting their own rate hikes.
The Fed’s Lackluster Success at Predicting Rate Hikes
At the start of 2016, Fed members had predicted more rate hikes than we’ve experience so far. That’s not a surprise to anyone who has followed the Fed for any period of time. Recently, Business Insider posted in-depth dot graph plotting the Fed’s missed marks when predicting its own hikes over the past three years.
As one of the largest markets for gold, India’s cultural and social changes are important influences on the precious metal’s price. The nation of almost 1.3 billion people has a strong relationship with gold, which is interwoven in marriage ceremonies and cultural rites. Just last month, high prices were driving many citizens to trade in their gold jewelry while gold bazaars and markets were seeing a sharp uptick in activity. Now, according to a Business Insider article, a healthy monsoon season, abundant crops, and lower prices are sending many farmers back to the gold market to buy.
In a recent episode of Ron Paul’s Liberty Report, the former presidential candidate and Libertarian icon examines the future of digital currency. Paul and co-host Daniel McAdams talk with NYU Law Fellow and digital currency expert Max Raskin about how a future form of US digital money might give the Federal Reserve even more control over monetary policy than it enjoys today.
In his latest podcast, Peter reports on the week’s economic numbers and takes the popular media to task for helping Hillary Clinton secure the presidency. Biased reports are showing Obama as a “deficit-reducing miracle worker,” while the debt-to-GDP has never been higher under his presidency.
“The media is constantly going to try to redefine a failed presidency as a success. One of the reasons they want to do that right now is they want that ‘success’ to rub off on Hilary Clinton … The media doesn’t even want to talk about the economy any more. If this election was about the economy, Trump would win. The only chance they have is to make the election about something else.”
That “something else,” of course, is Trump’s salacious comments and the sudden sexual harassment accusations that are coming out of the woodwork.
Despite the recent slump in gold prices, many influential analysts like Raoul Pal and firms like UBS are predicting a strong showing for gold in the next 12 months. Their beliefs are based on strong indicators of a looming recession, negative interest rates, and a downshift in global trade.
Full-time work is being replaced by multiple part-time jobs for Americans, and many indicators are flashing early warning signs for an imminent recession. Learn more in this week’s Fed Up Friday.
Part-Time Jobs Soar, Indicating Most Multiple Jobholders Since 2008
In numbers not seen since the financial crisis of August 2008, the number of multiple jobholders in the U.S. increased to nearly 8 million this past month. Additionally, the number of part-time jobs added was close to 500,000.This data must be taken into account when referencing “job growth” numbers that the Fed highlights as good data to inform their decisions. When someone who used to have a single, stable job is now working two different roles just to make ends meet, that isn’t a healthy economy. Unfortunately, it doubles the amount of “jobs” we added to the workforce, but they aren’t the jobs we want to see.
Late last week the Non-Farm Payroll Report was released. Peter Schiff laid out the details of the official scorecard on U.S. job creation and unemployment in his latest podcast. The big story of the reported “employment gains” is that they lump full- and part-time jobs together. They aren’t taking into account that when someone loses a full-time position in a field like manufacturing, they often have to get two, maybe even three part-time jobs to fill the financial void left over from a layoff.
As Peter Schiff explains, the quality of jobs added is more important than the gross number of jobs added. And by all accounts, the September report is bad news. Peter goes on to discuss a recent CNBC interview with Alan Greenspan, where he talked about the current stagflationary environment of the U.S. with slow economic growth and elevated inflation. That is the best possible environment for investing in gold and silver, and it’s only a matter of time before others wake up to the fact that Greenspan is hitting the nail on the head.
