Laws recently enacted in Florida and Indiana ban the use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as money in those states.
Was the producer price data that came out late last week really more good news on the inflation front?
That’s certainly how the mainstream media spun it. But as was the case with the April CPI data, the mainstream spin didn’t necessarily reflect reality.
In fact, there is a pro-government, pro-official narrative bias that pervades the mainstream media, including the financial media.
The US government ran a surplus in April, as it generally does in tax return month. But federal tax revenues collapsed year-on-year and the fiscal 2023 deficit is still close to $1 trillion despite the small April windfall.
Peter Schiff appeared on First TV’s I’m Right with Jesse Kelly to talk about the state of the economy, inflation, and the unfolding financial crisis. Peter warned that we’re heading straight toward Great Depression 2.0.
The CPI data for April came out this week. The mainstream spin was that it was more good news for the Fed’s inflation fight. But the actual data tells a different story. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about the CPI report and the disconnect between the mainstream narrative and reality. He also highlights some interesting Q1 gold demand numbers.
The Federal Government ran a surplus last month, as it typically does in April due to the tax deadline. The surplus was $176B which was 43% lower than the surplus last April. As the chart below shows, this was driven entirely by collapsing revenues as expenses actually fell as well.
The CPI rose in March by 0.37%, which was much larger than last month’s 0.06%. As shown below, this was driven by the energy component flipping from negative to positive.
And there’s even worse news. The math is about to turn on the CPI calculation.
For the second straight month, gold flowed into ETFs in April.
Globally, gold-backed ETFs reported net inflows of 15 tons last month, reflecting an increase of about $824 million.
Great news on the inflation front!
At least if you believe the headlines.
For example, “Consumer Prices in April Rise at the Slowest Annual Rate in Two Years.”
But if you read about one inch below the headline, you’ll discover things aren’t so great. In fact, the actual data reveals price inflation is looking pretty sticky.
Physical gold investment was up by 5% year-on-year in the first quarter.
Investors bought 302 tons of gold bars and gold coins in Q1 with a value of $18.4 billion. This was 14% above the 5-year average, according to the World Gold Council.
