The Federal Reserve wrapped up its July meeting on Wednesday. Once again, there was a whole lot of talk and no action.
The Fed kept interest rates at zero. The Fed kept its quantitative easing program rolling. The Fed didn’t do anything. But the Fed had plenty to say.
M2 Money Supply is measured by the Federal Reserve to calculate the amount of Money in the financial system. The Fed defines M2 as: Seasonally adjusted M2 is constructed by summing savings deposits (before May 2020), small-denomination time deposits, and retail MMFs, each seasonally adjusted separately, and adding this result to seasonally adjusted M1.
Historically, the term inflation was defined as an expansion of the money supply that generally led to higher prices. Therefore increases in M2 is the measure of inflation. Increases in M2
India ranks as the second-largest gold-consuming country in the world, second only behind China, but demand has languished for the last couple of years. The pandemic crushed demand, particularly for gold jewelry, but record-high gold prices in rupee terms and government policy put a drag on the gold market even before COVID-19. There were signs of a turnaround late last year and it continued through the first quarter of 2021. The most recent wave of COVID-19 stalled the gold Indian gold market’s recovery, but it appears to be regaining steam.
For months, the markets have anticipated the Fed tightening monetary policy in order to take on rising inflation. At the June FOMC meeting, the central bank even hinted that it might start raising interest rates in 2023 instead of 2024, and the central bankers apparently talked about talking about tapering their quantitative easing bond-buying program. But with all of this talk, the loose monetary policy driving inflation continues unabated. Interest rates remain pegged at zero. The Fed balance sheet sets new records week after week. Where exactly is the exit door?
Inflation continues to run rampant, eroding our purchasing power even as policymakers continue to tell us there’s nothing to worry about. The US government continues to run up unfathomable levels of debt. We continue to endure a repeating cycle of booms and busts as Fed and US government policies blow up bubbles that inevitably pop.
It’s easy to get caught up in the news of the day and look at these issues in isolation, but there is one factor that ties them all together – fiat money. As economist Thorsten Polleit put it, “Basically everything bears their fingerprints: the economic and financial system, politics—even people’s cultural norms, values, and morals will not escape the broader consequences of fiat currencies.”
While the Federal Reserve continues to downplay inflation in the US, insisting that it is “transitory,” the Bank of Russia has gone to war with rising prices. Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina says she sees “persistent factors” to inflation, and on Friday, the Russian Central bank hiked interest rates by 100 basis points to 6.5%.
In a statement, the Bank of Russia said, “The contribution of persistent factors to inflation increased due to faster growth of demand compared to output expansion capacity.”
Mainstream pundits sometimes accuse Peter Schiff of being a “stopped clock.” They admit he’s right occasionally, but only by virtue of sticking to the same narrative, talking about the malinvestments and misallocations in the economy and warning about an impending crisis. In this clip from his podcast, Peter said it’s the mainstream regulars on financial networks like CNBC who are the real stopped clocks.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell continues to insist the surge of rising prices is “transitory. But if this is true, why are inflation projections for 2022 rapidly rising? It seems the markets aren’t buying the transitory theme.
With friends like this, who needs enemies?
Amanda Douglas, 27, stole gold and silver coins, along with other items from her friend’s home, including gold bars, 150 earrings, guns, ammunition, and a container holding a dog’s ashes. Yes. You read that correctly. Amanda stole her friend’s pet’s ashes. Nice girl.
Pop some popcorn. It’s time for some political theater. Congress is gearing up for another debt ceiling fight. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharey gives you a preview of the next big Washington DC blockbuster production, complete with some debt ceiling history and an explanation as to why we shouldn’t need one. Maharrey also covers retail sales, inflation and the latest movement in the gold market.
