Silver is expected to play a significant role as the “green economy” evolves. The Silver Institute recently participated in a panel discussion titled “Silver’s Role in the Green Economy” at the London Bullion Market Association’s Global Precious Metals Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
This is one of several silver-related stories in the latest edition of Silver News published by the Silver Institute.
After setting a record through the first half of the year, central banks continued to gobble up gold in the third quarter.
Globally, central banks added a net 337 tons of gold in Q3, the second-highest third-quarter total on record behind 2022.
Through the first nine months of the year, central banks bought a net of 800 tons of gold. That’s 14% more than through the same period in 2022.
A Georgia couple nearly lost more than $186,000 in a gold scam. But they ended up turning the tables and scamming the scammers.
Chinese gold demand was up 7.3% year on year through the first nine months of 2023.
China ranks as the world’s biggest gold market, and Chinese demand has a significant impact on the global gold market.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is laying the groundwork to roll out its version of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
According to the ECB’s website, the “preparation phase” for the digital euro begins in November and “builds on the findings from our investigation phase.”
How in the world did the Toronto airport lose $15.3 million in gold bars along with $1.9 million in cash?
That remains unclear, but a lawsuit filed by Brink’s shed a little bit of light on the situation.
Are the Chinese selling US dollar-denominated assets to buy gold?
It sure looks that way.
The Biden administration ran a $1.695 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2023. It was the third-largest deficit in US history. The only time the US government ran bigger deficits was during the COVID years of 2020 and 2021.
The government closed out the year with a $170.98 billion deficit in September, according to the final Monthly Treasury Statement of the fiscal year. That was more than double the projection.
Problems in the commercial real estate (CRE) sector continue to bubble under the surface. This is a major stress point for US banks and could precipitate the next phase of the financial crisis.
A combination of high interest rates and declining tenancy is putting the squeeze on commercial real estate owners. As a result, banks hold a growing portfolio of delinquent CRE loans.
Global debt rose $10 trillion to a record $397 trillion in the first half of 2023, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
The big increase in debt occurred despite tightening credit conditions, and it is an increasingly worrisome problem because the “free lunch” of artificially low interest rates is over.
