Over the last several years, mainstream analysts have built a wall of optimism about the US economy. “Everything looks great,” they say. “Look at the jobs numbers!” “Look at the stock market!”
A number of contrarians have said things aren’t so great and a massive crash is on the horizon. The mainstream has pretty much ignored the naysayers. But a recent report by the International Monetary Fund shows some cracks in the wall of mainstream optimism. And in the current political climate, it may not take much to cause the wall to crumble down.
Pundits and government officials keep telling us the economy is strong. Everything is great. After all, GDP is growing.
But a lot of people recognize things aren’t all that great. Some prominent economic analysts have said a major crash is looming. Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Shiller called stock market valuations “concerning” and hinted that markets could be set up for a crash. Several other notable economists have recently expressed concern about surging stock markets, particularly in the US. Marc Faber has predicted “massive” asset price deflation – possibly of a drop of as much as 40% in stock market value. Billionaire investor Paul Singer recently said the financial system is not sound. And former Ronald Reagan budget director David Stockman said we should get ready of “fiscal chaos.”
So, how is it that some see a meltdown on the horizon while most of the mainstream sees nothing but unicorns and roses? If the economy is growing, how can anybody things recession is right around the corner?
Well, what if the mainstream doesn’t understand a recession?
The war on cash may have hit a snag in Europe.
A lot of people apparently don’t want to play along.
Do you need some gold?
You could just scrap your cellphone.
America is partying like its 1928 – right before the crash the kicked off the Great Depression. Some analysts believe the next crash is looming on the horizon. What will spark it? That remains to be seen. But no matter what the catalyst turns out to be, Mark Thornton says the cause will be the same as the last several collapses – Federal Reserve policy. Therefore, we should dub it the Bernanke-Yellen Bubble-Depression This article by Thornton was originally published on the Mises Wire.
In a recent article I advocated for a new way of naming business cycles. The new approach emphasizes the cause rather than the effect. So instead of the “housing bubble” and “financial crisis,” we should refer to the Greenspan-Bernanke Crisis. Here we will turn our attention to the current situation.
Banks active in commodities have been hammered so far in 2017.
According to reporting in the Financial Times, income from commodity trading and related activities at Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorgan and nine other investment banks dropped 40% in Q1 2017, and the struggles have continued into the second quarter.
Weakness in the energy sector generally, and the price of oil in particular, drug down commodity trading. Gold and silver were the bright spot – an exception to the general commodity trend.
Researchers continue to come up with amazing new technologies utilizing gold.
We generally think of gold as an investment as well as money, but it is increasingly being used in high-tech applications. Gold’s conductivity and malleability make it suitable for a number of futuristic applications, from energy production to healthcare. Researchers are even using the metal in things that sound like they came out of a sci-fi book. In fact, the tech sector accounted for about 6% of gold demand in 2016.
Gold can literally mean the difference between life and death.
Now, that may sound like a bit of hyperbole. And in most cases, it would be. But during World War II, a tiny bit of gold became the salvation of a dying soldier.
The dollar plunged after Republicans in Congress abandoned their plan to overhaul Obamacare this week.
The plan to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act collapsed after Senators Mike Lee and Jerry Moran joined fellow Republicans Susan Collins and Rand Paul opposing it. In fact, “repeal and replace” was a misnomer. The Republican plan kept many key elements of Obamcare in place. It was more of a Republican revamp than any kind of repeal.
Nevertheless, pundits and analysts widely viewed the failure to get healthcare reform done a major stumble for Republicans, and it seems to cast doubt on the Pres. Trump’s ability to advance his ambitious economic agenda. Reuters put it this way:
We focus on India a lot. Why? Because Indians have a love affair with gold. It’s not just a luxury. Even the poor buy gold in India.
There are two main reasons to follow the Indian gold market closely. First, the country ranks second in the world in gold consumption. What happens in India can have a major impact on the world gold market. Second, the attitude of the Indian people can teach us a lot about the wisdom of buying and owning gold.
