Consumer debt set another record in September, but the pace of borrowing appears to be slowing. This could signal trouble for an economy built on American consumers spending money they don’t have.
Total consumer debt grew by $9.5 billion in September, according to the most recent data released by the Federal Reserve. That represents an annualized increase of 2.8% and pushed total consumer indebtedness to a new record of $4.15 trillion (seasonally adjusted).
If you’re on social media, you’ve seen the memes. They all start with some interesting string of facts and end with “…and Epstein didn’t kill himself.”
In case you’ve been under a rock, or just have better things to do than follow the news, Jeffrey Epstein was a well-connected financier and convicted pedophile. When I say “well-connected,” I mean he hung out with the rich and powerful, including Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
It’s been a tough week for gold and silver and a record week for stocks because of — you guessed it — optimism about a trade deal. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down the news of the week. Along the way, he also compares fickle investors obsessed with the latest trade war headline to a delusional sports fan who can only fixate on his team’s most recent game.
Stock markets made new highs on Wednesday, but as Peter Schiff explained in his latest podcast, there are a lot of cracks under the surface. The markets are surging forward even as they overlook bad economic data and chilly political winds.
Uncle Sam is spending money far faster than he’s taking in. The US federal government ran the biggest budget deficit in seven years in fiscal 2019, according to the Treasury Department. And the spending is even worse than advertised.
The $984 billion deficit amounts to 4.7 percent of GDP. That’s the highest percentage since 2012. It was the fourth consecutive year in which the deficit increased as a percentage of GDP. The debt-to-GDP ratio is estimated to have increased a hefty 26 percent over last year.
Gold demand was up 3% in the third quarter, coming in at 1,107. 9 tons, according to the Gold Demand Trends Q3 2019 report put out by the World Gold Council.
Record inflows of gold into ETFs overcame weakness in the jewelry, and gold bar and coin markets to push overall demand higher.
Gold mine output dropped slightly, but a surge in recycling drove a modest gain in supply.
The central bank gold-buying spree shows no sign of letting up as countries seek to diversify their reserves away from the US dollar.
Globally, central banks added another net 47.5 tons of gold to their reserves in September, according to the latest data from the World Gold Council.
There were no significant gold sales by central banks in September.
The stock market keeps hitting new highs and employment reports continue to look good. President Trump and central bankers at the Fed like to point to this and tell us that the economy is doing good. But as Peter Schiff explained in his latest podcast, the markets aren’t making highs because the economy is good. It’s making highs because of the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policies.
Despite the fact that the economic data is deteriorating. Despite the fact that corporate earnings are falling, it is the Fed that is pushing this market to new highs by cutting interest rates, by indicating to the markets that they don’t have to worry about rate hikes no matter what happens with inflation. The Fed’s not going to raise interest rates. Oh, and by the way, they’re doing quantitative easing, and they’re going to print as much money as they have to keep the markets going up and to keep the economy propped up.”
In a recent article published at the Mises Wire, Ryan McMaken adds another layer of analysis. He says that despite the Fed’s positive rhetoric, it’s actually worried about liquidity and growth. In fact, McMaken believes it is operating from a position of fear.
Silver investment in three major categories is up so far this year, according to a report highlighted in the latest edition of Silver News.
Silver held in ETFs hit an all-time high this year. Year-on-year through mid-August, 736.9 million ounces of metal were held in silver-backed ETFs. Meanwhile, global mint silver bullion coin sales rose 30% year-on-year through July.
The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed on record highs Friday after a stronger than expected jobs report. But in his podcast, Peter Schiff said that the stock markets aren’t surging because of a great economy. They’re surging because of bad monetary policy.
