Last month we reminded you of the upcoming “Save Our Swiss Gold” initiative in Switzerland. This is a direct democracy vote in Switzerland that, if passed, would force the Swiss government to amend its constitution with respect to the way the Swiss National Bank (SNB) operates. These are the major points:
- SNB will repatriate and store all Swiss gold reserves in Switzerland.
- SNB will purchase gold until it makes up 20% of their reserves (currently 7.6%), and it must maintain this level of gold reserves.
- SNB can no longer sell gold reserves.
Switzerland used to be the first country that came to mind when it came to stable currencies and gold holdings. But things have really gone down hill since the turn of the millennium, as you can see in the chart below. It shows the dramatic amount of gold the SNB has sold off since 2000 – well over half of its holdings.
Rick Santelli interviewed Peter Schiff on CNBC’s Santelli Exchange yesterday. Their brief conversation got right to the heart of America’s economic problems. While Santelli seems to agree that the Federal Reserve cannot successfully unwind its quantitative easing programs, he asks Peter to focus on the seeming improvements in the economy in the past couple years. Peter helps connect the dots, showing that both the supposed recovery and the coming crash are direct results of the Fed’s cheap money. Enjoy the full transcript below.
On Friday, Fox Business spoke with Peter Schiff about the latest economic analysis from the Federal Reserve. Richard Fisher, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, believes that the US economy is improving and that interest rates will be raised beginning in 2015. Peter, on the other hand, points out that Fed officials are either incompetent or lying.
Watch the video below and scroll down for a transcript of Peter’s comments.
Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog interview Jim Rickards, author of The Death of Money. While they began by talking about the Islamic State and United States foreign policy, they moved on to discuss the possible “black swan” events that could crash the global markets. Rickards prefers the metaphor of the snowflake and the avalanche to that of the black swan, because he believes it is very easy to understand that a collapse is inevitable. The foundation of the avalanche is already there, but the snowflake that will trigger that avalanche could come unexpectedly. His number one piece of advice for investors is to buy physical gold and silver.
Enjoy the video below, and scroll down to see read some highlights from the interview.
Peter Schiff highlights the differences between the Chinese and American economies. More importantly, he explains why China doesn’t want the rest of the world to know how much gold it owns or intends to buy.
Peter Schiff appeared on Yahoo! Finance yesterday to speak with Jeff Macke about the latest meeting minutes released by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). The Fed has admitted that it does not plan on raising rates soon, officially throwing the United States and the dollar into the arena of the international “currency war.” Read some highlights from the interview below.
Former US Mint director Ed Moy appeared on Fox Business this week to talk about the popularity of gold as a safe-haven investment. Moy noted that in spite of ongoing negative sentiment toward the yellow metal, people in both the East and West continue to buy it. In fact, the US Mint’s gold bullion coin sales doubled in September versus August, showing that investors see gold’s depressed price as a buying opportunity.
Much positive economic hay has been made of the job report numbers that were released last week. The number on which everyone focuses is the unemployment rate, which touched a six-year low of 5.9% in September. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 248,000 jobs were created.
But much of the financial media ignores the other side of the picture. Most importantly, the latest data from the BLS that shows the labor force participation rate at its lowest since 1978 – a disturbing 62.7%! The labor force participation rate refers to people who are currently employed or are actively searching for work. The chart below makes it blindingly obvious that the economy is not on the steady growth track the government would like us to believe.
Jim Rickards, author of Currency Wars, appeared on Bloomberg TV yesterday to talk about the fundamental economy of the United States and the weak price of gold. Much like Peter Schiff, Rickards believes that the US economy is already in a depression and that the Federal Reserve will not be able to raise interest rates anytime soon. In fact, Rickards believes another round of quantitative easing will begin in 2015. When asked if he thought interest rates would be raised next year, he responded, “Not in my lifetime.”
Here’s the video:
Peter Schiff appeared on Fox Business yesterday to debate James Cordier about the state of the United States economy. While their conversation was friendly, Peter posed some tough questions that never got answered.
