If you follow the markets at all, you’ve heard about the big surge in GameStop stock driven at least in part by retail investors informed by social media. Now the Reddit investors have turned their eyes to silver. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down the GameStop phenomenon and argues that there are good reasons to be bullish on silver – not just the attention of the Reddit crowd. He also touches on this week’s Fed meeting and gold demand dynamics.
Investment demand for gold set a new record in 2020, but it was not enough to offset a big drop in consumer demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gold demand was up substantially in both ETFs, and for gold bars and coins
Overall, gold demand fell to 3,759 tons in 2020, according to the Gold Demand Trends Full Year and Q4 2020 report by the World Gold Council. That was a 14% drop in annual demand.
But despite the weak overall demand, the price of gold set a record in dollar terms last year and briefly pushed above $2,000 an ounce.
The Federal Reserve played the same tune during its first Open Market Committee meeting of the year, but the partygoers on Wall Street didn’t dance. In his podcast, Peter Schiff talked about Jerome Powell’s post-meeting press conference and said the Fed chair is “completely clueless” to the true nature of the problems facing the economy. And so is the mainstream.
Bills introduced in the Mississippi House and the Tennessee Senate would repeal state sales taxes on precious metals bullion. This would not only relieve some of the tax burdens on investors in those states; it would also take a small step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of commodities.
Millions of Americans remain out of work. The US economy continues to languish, burdened by government lockdowns and other pandemic-related factors. Retail sales have dropped precipitously over the last several months, underscoring the economic malaise. So, how is it that the housing market is booming?
This year will mark the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon severing America – and the world – from its last tie to the gold standard. The rapid devaluing of the dollar is the most obvious result. But another consequence has been an enormous national debt that continues to grow at a staggering pace. Most people don’t realize it, but this is a direct and intentional result of the current fiat money system.
For months, Peter Schiff has been warning that the stock market is a bubble. It is detached from any political or economic reality and is being driven by Federal Reserve monetary policy. During an interview on NTD Business News, Peter said a lot of investment advisors know this too, but they are advising people to stay in because the bubble has more room to grow. But he warned this isn’t good advice. When it comes to bubbles, you have to know when to leave the party.
World gold production dropped by 5.4% in 2020 according to preliminary estimates released by GlobalData last week.
Global data projects gold production came in at 108 million ounces last year. The sharp decline was largely due to mine closures during the coronavirus pandemic. But it also fits into a broader trend of declining mine output we’ve seen over the last several years.
The Joe Biden administration got underway last week. The newly inaugurated president issued a flurry of executive orders, many of them relating to the economy. In his podcast, Peter Schiff talked about the potential impact of these EOs. He said it looks like Americans voted for Joe Biden, but they ended up with Bernie Sanders.
Confession time — I couldn’t find a darn thing “fun” relating to gold this week.
Honestly, it wasn’t exactly a fun week to begin with unless you’re into political theater. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not. We certainly had all the political theater we could ever want with the inauguration and all. About the only thing I can say about that is it reminded me of the Hunger Games movies, especially Lady Gaga singing the national anthem decked out with that massive gold dove broach.
