Peter’s Blog

Producer prices continue to rise at a near-record pace, further undercutting the notion that we’ve reached “peak inflation.”

Consumer sentiment plunged to record lows in June. The plummeting consumer sentiment numbers surprised mainstream analysts but they shouldn’t have given Americans are taking a pay cut month after month thanks to red-hot inflation.

After running a budget surplus in April thanks to an influx of tax-day tax receipts, the federal government reverted back to running a deficit in May. The budget deficit was $66.22 billion last month, according to the monthly Treasury statement. That raises the current fiscal year deficit to $426.2 billion with four months left to […]

The Czech National Bank is about to go on a gold-buying spree. Incoming CNB Governor Ales Michl said he plans to increase the bank’s gold holdings nearly 10-fold during a recent magazine interview.

Consumer debt climbed to a new all-time record in April as Americans continue to cope with rapidly rising prices. Total outstanding consumer debt rose by $38 billion in April, reaching a new record of $4.57 trillion, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. Total consumer debt was up 10.1% in April. It was […]

After increasing gold holdings by 84 tons in the first quarter of this year, central banks continued to be net gold buyers in April. Globally, central banks added a net 19.4 tons of gold to their holdings in April.

Demand for American Gold Eagles exploded in May according to the latest data from the US Mint.

Consumer confidence hit a 10-year low earlier this year and continues to sag as inflation squeezes wallets. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index for May slipped to 106.4. That was down from 108.6 in April.

Last week, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill repealing the sales tax on the sale of precious metal bullion. Ending the sales tax will relieve some of the tax burdens on investors, and take a step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of as commodities.

The Fed has barely started raising interest rates but the air is already seeping out of the housing bubble. New single-family home sales plunged by 16.6% from March and were down 26.9% year on year. New home sales dropped to the lowest level since the lockdown in April 2020.