Peter's Blog

On June 17th, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) kept its federal-funds-rate target at 3.50–3.75 percent, repeating its wait-and-see stance even as headline inflation refuses to retreat to the central bank’s two-percent objective. In a unanimous 12–0 vote, policymakers argued that U.S. growth “is expanding at a solid pace” and promised, in their words, “The […]

April’s Consumer Price Index offered scant comfort to households or policymakers, with headline prices rising 0.6 percent for the month and 3.8 percent from a year earlier, according to Wednesday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics release. Though the monthly pace eased from March’s blistering 0.9 percent gain, the yearly rate accelerated, underscoring that the inflation fire […]

In his Senate confirmation hearing on April 21st, Federal Reserve Chairman–designate Kevin Warsh pledged nothing short of a philosophical reset at the world’s most influential central bank. Backed by President Trump and politely flanked by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Warsh told lawmakers that full employment and stable prices remain “mission-critical,” yet achievable only if the Fed […]

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde used the ECB’s 2026 Annual Global Risk Lecture in Bologna this week to deliver a stark message: “we are leaving a world where risk can be measured and modeled, and entering one of genuine uncertainty.” Her twin culprits are escalating geopolitical fragmentation and the break-neck spread of artificial intelligence. […]

Accessing gold, for most traditional investors, means being constrained by the hours and limitations of traditional markets. You can meet anyone at any time to trade dollars for gold in person, or order from a broker in the middle of the night, but only by expending significant energy and effort for a transaction that is […]

America’s manufacturing engine kept chugging in February, but it’s clearly running on thinner fuel. The S&P Global U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dipped to 51.6, the softest reading in seven months and down from January’s 52.4. While any mark above 50 signals expansion, survey respondents pointed to brutal winter storms and fresh tariff levies […]

The bull market in gold is being driven by many forces, and it isn’t just speculative fervor that caused the latest drop. Macro factors like monetary expansion, interest rates that are still far too low, broad global uncertainty, and de-dollarization are going to push gold higher. In the meantime, corrections will occur, but this isn’t […]

The mainstream narrative was that gold had a massive drop and revealed a fundamental weakness that was not accounted for by investors with a high risk appetite as it shot towards $6000 an ounce. Gold did experience a major downward price shift, yet its limited extent proved that gold’s price increases here to stay. Even […]

After a two-month data void caused by Washington’s funding standoff, the Bureau of Labor Statistics finally dropped December’s Consumer Price Index—and the numbers refuse to play along with the “mission-accomplished” narrative on inflation. Headline CPI rose 0.3 percent for the month, lifting the index to 324 and pushing the yearly gain to 2.7 percent—still north […]

Gold closed out 2025 in runaway mode, notching fresh all-time highs on 53 trading days and sprinting to an intraday peak of $4,514 per ounce on the year’s final Friday. The blistering rally ignited a historic rush into physically backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which absorbed a record $89 billion and more than doubled global assets […]