When the August jobs report came out earlier this month, much was made over the “solid” wage growth. Average hourly wages increased by 2.9% on an annualized basis.
Peter Schiff raised an important question when the report hit the news cycle. Is this wage growth indicative of a growing economy? Or is it simply a sign of inflation?
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
On the one hand, things in the economy look pretty good. The mainstream pundits sure seem to think so. They fill the financial news shows with daily doses of good cheer. But is everything really sunshine and roses? Or should we be holding some opposing ideas in our minds as well?
Saturday, Sept. 15, was the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Many people consider it the seminal event of the 2008 financial crisis.
In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff said as we look back at the anniversary, we should realize that the next crisis is going to be worse. In fact, the next economic hurricane is going to be a category five.
Could gold help us find space aliens?
It just might!
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled to launch into space in 2021. NASA claims the $10 billion telescope will allow scientists to “look back in time to see the very first galaxies that formed in the early Universe.” And thanks to its golden mirror and incredibly sensitive camera system, it may allow us to detect alien life out in space.
The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
I’m a pretty cynical person. And I don’t really trust people. To call me skeptical would be an understatement. I’m the guy who wastes time Googling an even slightly sketchy sounding story posted on Facebook to see if it’s really true. So, I don’t think I would be very easy to scam.
Now, I’m not arrogant enough to think it could never happen. I’m sure there are ways I could be fooled. But I still find it really difficult to understand how some of these scammers ever make a dime. I mean, who actually believes that Nigerian prince is going to send them $8 million? Who actually goes to Target to buy gift cards to send to the Indian IRS agent? (Yes. That is a thing.) And who goes to a storage facility to buy cheap gold?
That last one … It just happened.
As Peter Schiff put it in a Facebook post, Trump promised to drain the swamp, but today, “The swamp is now bigger and more expensive than ever!”
The US government spent a record $433.3 billion last month, running up a monthly deficit of $214 billion, according to data released by the US Treasury Department.
That’s $433 BILLION spent in a single month.
China will be a major player in the silver market in the years to come, according to a new report by the Silver Institute. The Chinese impact on silver comes from both the demand and supply sides of the equation.
China is by far the biggest silver consumer in the world. The Chinese account for about 18% of global fabrication demand and serves as a major destination for imported silver products fabricated in the US, Japan and other countries.
Meanwhile, China ranks as the third-largest silver-producing country in the world.
Investment guru Jim Rogers recently told RT that the dollar is just a few short years away from losing its global dominance.
In the next few years, the American dollar is going to lose its position as the world’s reserve currency and the world’s medium of exchange.”
For the last 10 years, central banks have been on a gold-buying spree. At least some of them have.
On net, central banks globally added 193.3 tons of gold during the first half of 2018, according to World Gold Council data. That represents an 8% increase over 2017. The last time we saw this kind of central bank buying was in the 1950s, but as a report published by Forbes points out, the motivations are much different now than they were then.
