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.
I can think of a lot of places you might not want to store $26,000 in gold.
For instance, it might not be a good idea to put your gold in a cat litter box. And you might not want to stick your gold inside an old boat. And if you did put your cat litter box filled with gold inside an old boat, you probably wouldn’t want to ask your druggie neighbor to help.
Well, a couple in Florida did a three-fer. They put their $26,000 in retirement gold in a cat litter box and asked their druggie neighbor to help them hide it on their boat.
The next part of the story won’t surprise you. The druggie neighbor apparently stole it.
In a recent interview on RT Boom Bust, Peter Schiff talked gold.
In a piece he wrote for the December issue of the World Gold Council Gold Investor, WGC chief market strategist John Reade outlined several key reasons he thinks gold will shine in 2018. He said rising global income will be the primary factor pushing demand for the yellow metal upward in the next year.
Peter put a little different spin on Reade’s analysis, saying it’s not just rising incomes in places like India and China that will help boost gold. Global inflation will play a key role.
US equities are at an all-time high. Investors are bullish about the future. A lot of people are excited about the potential for economic growth with the passage of GOP tax cuts. There’s a lot of optimism.
In a recent interview on The Street, Peter Schiff said he thinks 2018 may start out the same, but he sees clouds on the horizon, especially when it comes to the dollar.
There is a mass exodus from Illinois.
According to the US Census Bureau, the Prairie State lost a net 33,700 residents in fiscal year 2017. More people bailed out of Illinois than any other state in the US. And based on calculations the folks over at ZeroHedge worked out, the exodus was even worse than the Census Bureau numbers indicate.
Of course, the net population loss masks the true gross outflow of Illinois residents as it doesn’t account for natural births/deaths. Assuming that Illinois has the same natural population growth as the US as a whole (0.7%) implies that the state lost a staggering ~125,000 residents in aggregate, or roughly 1 man/woman/child every 4.3 minutes.”
So, why the big rush to bail out of the great state of Illinois?
The House and Senate both passed the GOP tax bill yesterday. As of Wednesday morning, it needed just one more vote in the House on some technical changes made in the Senate before it heads to Pres. Trump’s desk.
The media keeps calling the Republican bill “tax reform.” Peter Schiff called that, “fake news.”
Have you heard of the depression of 1920-21?
Unless you’re a pretty hard-core economics geek, you probably haven’t.
The most striking aspect of this depression was its duration. It lasted just 18 months. And how did the US get itself out of this sharp economic downturn?
By essentially doing nothing.
We’ve done extensive reporting on the GOP tax reform bill as it’s moved through Congress. We’ve highlighted a number of concerns about the plan, specifically the significant expansion of the national debt it will cause. Yesterday, we explained how the impact on the deficit will likely be even bigger than expected because of the incentives found in the latest incarnation of the plan. Most significantly, we’ve echoed Peter Schiff’s view that the plan isn’t really tax reform. It’s tax cuts masquerading as reform.
But all of this leaves an important question unanswered. What would actual reform look like?
Mises Institute senior fellow Mark Thonrton offers some ideas in his latest piece at the Mises Wire. In a nutshell, shrinking the size of government is a key ingredient necessary for real reform.
China wants to dethrone the dollar and it could take a step in that direction before the end of the year.
According to numerous reports, China is prepared to launch a yuan-denominated oil futures contract before Christmas. Last week, the Shanghai International Energy Exchange successfully completed a fifth round of yuan-backed oil futures testing. According to a report by RT, the organization has met all the listing requirements and is set for an official launch.
It appears increasingly likely the Republican Congress will pass tax reform this week.
As we analyze the plan, it’s important to remember – incentives matter.
Details of the House/Senate compromise bill came out Friday. It features a top rate of 37% and a bottom rate of 10%. The corporate rate would drop to 21%. The standard deductions would nearly double. Individuals with existing mortgages would still be able to deduct their interest, and the compromise restored the deductibility of state income taxes up to $10,000. The plan would also eliminate the Obamacare penalty for not buying insurance. There are certainly things to like.
But as Peter Schiff pointed out in his podcast, there are also significant problems with the plan. It is riddled with loopholes and incentives that will substantially raise the debt – even more than projected.
