A functioning bionic eye is closer to reality thanks to silver.
The Silver Institute highlighted this amazing medical breakthrough along with other technological innovations utilizing the white metal in the latest edition of Silver News.
As we reported last week, China is dumping US debt. China’s holdings of US Treasuries fell for the third consecutive month in August. The Chinese shed another $6 billion in US debt, dropping its total holdings to $1.165 trillion. Over the last year, China’s holdings of Treasury bonds fell by $37 billion year-on-year.
But China has debt problems of its own. Local Chinese governments have reportedly piled up about $5.8 billion in debt. An S&P analyst called Chinese debt “an iceberg with titanic credit risks.”
Peter Schiff recently appeared on RT to talk about the US and Chinese debt.
The US national debt increased by $1.27 trillion in fiscal 2018. If you expected the pace of borrowing to slow in fiscal 2019, you’ll be disappointed. In just the first 11 business days of the new fiscal year, the US government added another $138 billion of debt to the total. That brings the total national debt to a staggering $21.654 trillion — or as Wolf Street put it “debt out the wazoo.”
Meanwhile, the two biggest buyers of US Treasuries are in a selling mood.
Yields have been on the rise this week in the midst of a bond market sell-off.
Two-year borrowing costs hit their highest level in a decade Wednesday. The yield on the 2-year Treasury climbed to 2.816%. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield hit a four-month high of 3.07%.
What’s going on here?
The trade war between the US and China escalated again this week. The US slapped an additional $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods. The tax starts at 10% and will increase to 25% by the end of the year. China retaliated by announcing another $60 billion in tariffs on US goods.
As Peter Schiff noted in his most recent podcast, people still think the US will win this trade war.
China will be a major player in the silver market in the years to come, according to a new report by the Silver Institute. The Chinese impact on silver comes from both the demand and supply sides of the equation.
China is by far the biggest silver consumer in the world. The Chinese account for about 18% of global fabrication demand and serves as a major destination for imported silver products fabricated in the US, Japan and other countries.
Meanwhile, China ranks as the third-largest silver-producing country in the world.
Investment guru Jim Rogers recently told RT that the dollar is just a few short years away from losing its global dominance.
In the next few years, the American dollar is going to lose its position as the world’s reserve currency and the world’s medium of exchange.”
For the last 10 years, central banks have been on a gold-buying spree. At least some of them have.
On net, central banks globally added 193.3 tons of gold during the first half of 2018, according to World Gold Council data. That represents an 8% increase over 2017. The last time we saw this kind of central bank buying was in the 1950s, but as a report published by Forbes points out, the motivations are much different now than they were then.
Countries like Russia, China and Iran have been looking for ways to limit their dependence on the US dollar for years. More recently, we’ve even seen American allies looking to de-dollarize the world. Last month, German foreign minister Heiko Maas called for the creation of a new payments system independent of the United States.
It’s gotten to the point people are beginning to discuss a “post-dollar” world.
RT’s Max Keiser recently talked about the issue of the US weaponizing its currency with the head of research for GoldMoney.com, Alasdair Macleod.
Indians are buying gold.
Imports of the yellow metal into India jumped for the first time in seven months in July and the trend appears to be carrying forward into August, according to a report in the Times of India. Gold sales have surged 15% by volume over last year as Indians took advantage of soft prices and kicked off the wedding and festival season early.
According to jeweler associations in India, demand could finish up as much as 20% in August compared with 2017.
