On Friday, all the major stock markets finished the week at weekly highs in record territory. Positive data on personal income and spending helped push stocks higher to close out the week. Everybody keeps cheering the “strong economy,” but during his podcast Friday, Peter Schiff said the in truth, the US economy is the biggest bubble ever. And it’s being driven by the most reckless combination of monetary and fiscal policy in history.
As we approach the end of 2019, gold is on track for a healthy yearly gain. To date, the yellow metal is up over 16% on the year.
It’s always interesting talking about gains in the price of gold because when you get down to it, it all depends on when you got into the market. If you bought an ounce of gold on Jan. 1 of this year and sold it this morning, you’d have pocketed around $208 (less any taxes and fees). But if you bought your gold at the peak price this year and sold it this morning, you’d be out about $68.
So, when we say gold is up or down, you always have to ask a second question: since when? The price can be simultaneously up and down at the same moment depending on the answer to that question.
I love this season. In my never-to-be-humble opinion, Christmas really is “the most wonderful time of the year.” I love the songs. I love the decorations. I love the food. (A little too much, as the scale will confirm on Jan. 1.)
I also love the memories. And now I’m going to wreck one of yours. I apologize in advance.
It was an eventful week as far as news goes, but a rather quiet one in the gold and silver markets. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey covers impeachment and the phase 1 trade deal. He also talks about politicians and their propensity to break things and then woo us with promises to fix them. It’s a little bit like an arsonist coming to the rescue and putting out the fire. Except in the case of government, the fire never really gets put out.
Everybody knows that the 2008 financial crisis was caused by “deregulation” and “greed,” right?
Except that it wasn’t.
A film titled The Bubble offers a non-partisan, critical examination of the policies and events that led to the biggest crash since World War II. Produced by Jimmy Morrison and co-written by Tom Woods, the film features a who’s-who of economic and financial experts including Jim Rogers, Jim Grant, Marc Farber, Doug Casey, Gene Epstein, David Stockman, Robert Murphy and Peter Schiff.
After the New York premiere of the film, Fox Business’ Liz Claman moderated a discussion with Gene Epstein, Jim Grant, Peter Schiff, David Tice, and Tom Woods. They talk about how they knew the crisis was coming and how it applies to today.
The central bank gold-buying spree is expected to continue into next year as countries continue to create a hedge against geopolitical risk and diversify their reserves away from the US dollar.
Through October of this year, central bank gold purchases have totaled 562 tons, based on data compiled by the International Monetary Fund and reported by the World Gold Council. That puts the sector on pace to roughly match last year’s total of just over 650 tons.
We have a trade deal!
Or do we?
We still don’t have all of the details of the so-called phase 1 deal. From what we know, it appears to be rather limited in scope. The US offered to suspend some tariffs on Chinese goods and cut others up to 50% in exchange for Beijing buying more American farm goods and opening up to US financial firms.
During a recent podcast, Peter Schiff said one thing we know for sure: this isn’t the resolution to the trade war. He called it more of a “truce.”
Even as student loan debt soars in the US, college enrollment is actually falling.
The post-secondary student headcount during the fall semester, including both graduate and undergraduate students, dropped 1.3% year-on-year, according to data released by the Student Clearing House. Enrollment in colleges and universities dropped by over 231,000 students to a total of 17.97 million.
Peter Schiff recently recent sat down and talked to Daniela Cambone at Kitco News about the economy, politics, and gold. In part 1 of the interview, Peter said the Fed was not going to be finished cutting interest rates until it gets to zero. That will have serious ramifications for the US economy. With that in mind, Peter said now is the time to buy gold – before the masses figure out what’s going on in the economy and flock to the yellow metal.
Fiscal 2019 ended Sept. 30 with the biggest budget deficit in seven years, with the shortfall coming in just a hair under $1 trillion.
And we’re already on track to top that. Just two months into fiscal 2020, the budget deficit is already 12% bigger than it was this time last year and is hurtling toward that $1 trillion mark.
