Peter’s Blog

Energy prices have moderated and the price of some goods has dropped in recent months, but the cost of services continues to rise at a red-hot pace and is at the highest level since 1984. As a result, the core personal consumption expenditures price (PCE) index rose by  4.6% year on year. This is yet […]

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed a bill into law that creates a process for the state to buy, sell, and hold gold and silver. This sets a foundation for Tennessee to achieve more financial independence with gold and silver reserves and could help undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Central banks have been gobbling up gold. On net, central banks bought 1,136 tons of gold in 2022. It was the highest level of net purchases on record dating back to 1950 and the 13th straight year of net gold purchases. The question is will central banks continue to have an appetite for gold through […]

Jewelry production is an important driver of overall silver demand. In 2022, the amount of silver used in jewelry was up around 29% as overall silver demand hit record levels. Silver jewelry production used around 235 million ounces of silver. And according to a recent survey by the Silver Institute, silver jewelry sales are on […]

After ending 2022 on an upward trend that continued into January, Chinese gold demand surged again in February as the economy continues to rebound from government-imposed COVID policies. Gold withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) totaled 169 tons in February. This is a reflection of strong wholesale demand and signals an ongoing rebound in […]

February has historically been a big budget deficit month, but the Biden administration still managed to overachieve and run the second-largest February deficit ever. The only time the US government has run a February deficit bigger than the $262.4 billion shortfall last month was in February 2021 in the midst of the COVID stimulus. This […]

Every government policy has consequences – some intended and some unintended. There is at least one serious unintended consequence of the economic sanctions levied against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine – an erosion of the US dollar dominance.

In January, retail sales came in much hotter than expected. Now we know how consumers paid for the spending spree. They put it on credit cards. After slowing modestly in December, growth in revolving debt spiked again in January. But a slowdown in non-revolving credit moderated the overall increase in consumer debt. Overall, this signals […]

Silver demand was at record levels in 2022 and there is reason to believe it will continue to run hot over the next several decades. One reason is the rapidly increasing demand for silver in the green energy sector. In fact, an Australian study projects solar cells may use most of the world’s silver reserves […]

Note: This article has been edited with additional data reported by the World Gold Council released after publication. After charting the highest level of net gold purchases on record in 2022, central banks started out 2023 right where they left off. Central banks globally added another net 77 tons to their gold reserves in January, […]