According to the BLS, the economy added 263,000 jobs in September, which was slightly below the Dow Jones estimate of 275,000. More significantly, the trends reveal a slowing labor market.
Education and Health led the way with strong hiring along with Leisure and Hospitality.
Over the last 18 months, the Treasury has aggressively converted short-term debt to longer-term debt. This can be seen in the chart below with the turquoise bars being negative.
Last week, the Bank of England threw in the towel on its inflation fight and launched a quantitative easing program. Why? Because something broke in the UK financial system. That led to a rally in stocks and precious metals this week as many in the US realized the Fed might be closer to a pivot than previously thought. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about why he thinks something is going to eventually break in the US economy.
The August Trade Deficit fell for a fifth straight month to -$67.4B. The Deficit is now down an 37% from the high struck back in March.
As shown by the chart below, this is mainly driven by a fall in Imports as Exports have stayed relatively flat.
Gold demand in India was healthy in September and the outlook is strong moving forward.
Healthy retail demand in September drove the local price briefly into a premium of $2 to $3 per ounce early in the month. It was the first time gold had been in premium since May.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell knew fighting inflation would cause big problems in a bubble economy loaded up with debt. He put it off as long as he could, calling inflation “transitory.” But once inflation became a huge problem, the central bank had no choice but to get into the fight and start tightening monetary policy. The problem is, the Fed’s plan won’t work. And one reason it won’t work is the massive national debt.
“I can scarcely contemplate a greater calamity that could befall this country than to be loaded with a debt exceeding their ability to ever discharge.” – Brutus
Well, here we are.
On Monday, the US national debt eclipsed $31 trillion for the first time in history.
Is now the time to buy gold? Or should we be bearish on the precious metal? Peter Schiff debated TD Securities Global Head of Commodity Markets Strategy Bart Melek on the future of gold prices on CNBC Asia.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) got it half right.
The UN agency warned that there is a high risk of a global recession due to central banks tightening monetary policy to fight inflation. But the solutions offered reveal that the UNCTAD has no idea what causes inflation.
Americans have been laboring under the burden of inflation for well over a year. Mises Institute President Jeff Deist argues that inflation is an intentional policy and should be considered “state-sponsored terrorism.”
In this Metal Exchange interview, host Mike Maharrey talks with Jeff about this assertion.
