The federal government isn’t alone drowning in debt. Most US states don’t have enough money to pay their bills either.
That was the conclusion of the Truth in Accounting annual State of the States 2018 report. According to the report, American states have racked up $1.5 trillion dollars in unfunded state debt. Much of the red ink is related to pension plans and retiree benefits
As expected, the Federal Reserve nudged interest rates up another 25 basis points Wednesday. The federal funds rate now stands at 2.25%.
The Fed offered up a rosy outlook for the US economy, projecting growth will continue for the next three years. The central bank also dropped the phrase, “the stance of monetary policy remains accommodative” from its statement. As an analyst told Reuters, “It does seem to potentially indicate they believe monetary policy is becoming less accommodative and getting more toward that neutral rate.”
The Indonesian stock market has plunged nearly 7% this year. The country’s currency, the rupiah, has fallen 9%, and is at its weakest level since the 1998 Asian financial crisis. Bond yield have soared. To weather the storm, Indonesians are buying gold.
In a recent podcast, Peter Schiff talked about the “Trump tariff put” – this idea that the president will be able to call off the trade war to rescue the market should it start to fall. Peter called that idea nonsense.
It is the type of wishful thinking, the type of just ignoring all of the bad news, whistling past the graveyard, the type of mentality that you have in a bull market where everything is good news and there is nothing to worry about.”
In his most recent podcast, Peter tackled another similar myth – that a divided government will be bullish for the market.
Apparently, the American consumer has bought into the notion that everything is great in the economy. Consumer confidence surged to an 18-year high this month and is close to the all-time record.
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index jumped to 138.4, up from 134.7. Analysts expected a dip.
A recent Paul Krugman New York Times column praised the success of the Keynesian macro model in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. In his view, the Federal Reserve did exactly what was necessary – pushed interest rates to zero and launched rounds of quantitative easing to jumpstart demand. As Tom Woods and Bob Murphy put it in a recent episode of the Contra Krugman podcast, “we agree that Krugman’s model did great…if we overlook all the times it blew up in his face.”
As is typical of Keynesians, Krugman ignores the side-effects of Federal Reserve policy. It works for a while, but it perpetuates the boom-bust business cycle. Sure, the economy today seems to be booming, but there is a rotten underbelly that most everybody in the mainstream seems to be ignoring. Peter Schmidt offers a succinct breakdown of Keynesian-based Fed policy and reveals why its doomed to failure.
The EU has announced it will create a special payment channel to circumvent US economic sanctions and facilitate trade with Iran.
Last month, German foreign minister Heiko Maas called for the creation of a new payments system independent of the United States. The announcement Monday sets that plan in motion.
The Dow Jones pushed into record-high territory again late last week. As Peter Schiff pointed out in his latest podcast, Pres. Trump was out there pointing out the record run on Wall Street and claiming responsibility for this bull market. Just turn on Fox News and hardly a segment will go by that somebody isn’t reminding you about how great the economy is. Peter said it reminds him how people were talking up George W. Bush before the Great Recession.
Some people out there in the mainstream are saying now is the time to buy gold.
In recent months, the mainstream investment world has by and large either ignored the yellow metal or outright spurned it. After all, stocks are soaring. The economy is doing “great.” There’s nothing to worry about — at least that’s the mantra. But we’re starting to see a little bullishness for gold out there in the mainstream.
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.
