As expected, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates another 25 basis points on Wednesday.
The mainstream read the post FOMC meeting comments to be relatively hawkish, saying Powell and Company seemed to indicate that future rate cutting is on pause.
Peter Schiff opened up his podcast reminding us that just one year ago, the Fed was raising rates and telling us it would continue to do so through 2019. It also claimed that quantitative tightening was on “autopilot.”
Last Tuesday, the S&P 500 made a record high as markets anticipated another Fed rate cut. Some analysts say the big risk is that we’re seeing a boost in asset prices but no real uptick in the actual economy. Peter Schiff appeared on RT Boom Bust to talk about it. He said investors buying onto all of this Wall Street hype are in for a painful awakening.
As I write this, the Federal Reserve is in the midst of its October FOMC meeting. The central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates another 25 basis points. If the Fed follows through, it will be the third cut in three meetings, totaling 75 basis points since July.
Although the Fed continues to call this a “mid-cycle adjustment,” Peter Schiff called the rate cut in July the first one on the road to zero. There’s nothing so far to cast any doubt on that view.
But the Fed is not alone. It joins the majority of the world’s central banks on a race to lower rates and inject more easy money into the world’s economy. As of this month, a total of 54 central banks in both developed and emerging markets have cut their policy/base interest rates.
President Trump recently took aim at the Federal Reserve once again, accusing the central bank of “holding back” America’s economy. The president was responding to a FOX Business Varney & Co. segment about negative interest rates in Europe and Japan.
Trump said the Fed should follow the lead of European and Japanese central banks into the world of negative rates.
Foreign central banks have been stocking up on gold for months. According to the World Gold Council, a dozen central banks have increased their gold reserves by at least 1 ton through the first eight months of 2019. This continues a trend we saw through 2018. In total, the world’s central banks accumulated 651.5 tons of gold last year. The World Gold Council noted that 2018 marked the highest level of annual net central bank gold purchases since the suspension of dollar convertibility into gold in 1971, and the second-highest annual total on record.
Peter Schiff has talked about central bank gold-buying. He has noted that the US went off the gold standard in 1971, but he thinks the world is going to go back on it.
According to Elizabeth Warren, we have a problem. And like every good central planner, she believes she can fix it.
In fact, Warren has made, “I have a plan for that,” a campaign slogan.
These people never learn. They try to micromanage the economy, create all kinds of unseen consequences, blame “capitalism,” and repeat the process.
Years ago, markets used to pay a lot of attention to the money supply and trade deficits. Now, these numbers barely get a passing mention. In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff said he thinks what is old will become new again and trade deficits and money printing will once again come front and center.
When is a $984 billion budget deficit good news?
When you thought you might get a $1 trillion budget deficit.
The Treasury Department released the fiscal year 2019 budget numbers on Friday. The budget shortfall came in at $984 billion right on the CBO estimate. A CNBC report said this would likely, “come as a relief to the Trump administration, which had previously forecast that the deficit would hit $1 trillion during the 2019 fiscal year.”
Fun on Friday is supposed to be, well, fun. But I also like to offer useful advice. So this week, I have a tip for you. If your boyfriend or girlfriend wants you to send them a bunch of money in order to help them sell gold, don’t do it. It’s a scam.
Seriously. Just don’t. Don’t send people you’ve never met money.
We’ve talked a lot about government debt and consumer debt. In this episode of the SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey highlights the massive corporate debt bubble. As he explains, it’s eerily similar to the mortgage debt bubble the blew up in the years prior to the 2008 crash. It’s a little like deja vu all over again. He also covers another round of gloomy economic data that came out this week.
