Gold had a pretty good run in 2019. In fact, it was the best year for the yellow metal in nearly a decade. So what’s in the cards as we rush headlong into the 2020’s? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey looks back at 2019 and highlights some of the things that drove precious metals markets. Then he pivots and looks ahead at 2020 and beyond. Where are we going and what will get us there?
If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.
This seems self-evident, but as Jim Rickards noted in a recent article about the ever-growing levels of debt, people tend to ignore this indisputable truth.
Total global debt reached a record of over $250 trillion in the first half of 2019, according to an Institute of International Finance report published in November. Global debt surged by $7.5 trillion through the first half of the year. “With no sign of a slowdown, we expect the global debt load to exceed $255 trillion in 2019, largely driven by the US and China.”
Gold is finishing up 2019 with a bang, pushing back above the psychologically significant $1,500 per ounce this week. Although there are a few trading days left, gold appears set to end the year with a better than 17% gain. In the last Friday Gold Wrap podcast of 2019, host Mike Maharrey takes us through a quick overview of what he considers to be the five biggest stories of the year driving precious metals.
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.
Stocks closed out November on a high note with the hope of a trade deal fueling Wall Street. But is this warranted? And are consumers really doing a well as the mainstream would have us believe? Peter Schiff appeared on RT Boom Bust last week to talk about it. He said it’s all a house of cards and it’s going to come crashing down on American consumers.
Have you heard? The Democrats are going to fix the student loan mess! They’ve brought up the issue in almost every Democratic Party presidential debate. All we need is a good government program and we can easily solve this $1.64 trillion problem.
Never mind that government programs caused the problem in the first place.
Just how big is the problem? And how did we get here? And most importantly, why should you care? You can get all of the details in SchiffGold’s fully updated report “The Student Loan Bubble: Gambling with America’s Future.“
Consumer debt set another record in September, but the pace of borrowing appears to be slowing. This could signal trouble for an economy built on American consumers spending money they don’t have.
Total consumer debt grew by $9.5 billion in September, according to the most recent data released by the Federal Reserve. That represents an annualized increase of 2.8% and pushed total consumer indebtedness to a new record of $4.15 trillion (seasonally adjusted).
Consumers continued to pile on debt in August, according to the latest data released by the Federal Reserve. But credit card debt fell slightly, raising a troubling question: are consumers close to maxing out the plastic?
Total consumer credit grew by another $17.9 billion in August. That represents an annualized increase of 5.2% and pushes total consumer indebtedness to a new record of $4.14 trillion (seasonally adjusted).
The federal government continues to pile up debt at a staggering rate. In August alone, the US government added $450 billion to the national debt. But Uncle Sam isn’t the only one who doesn’t have enough money to pay his bills. Forty state governments are also drowning in red ink.
Total state government debt now stands at $1.49 trillion with 40 states lacking sufficient funds to pay their bills according to Truth in Accounting’s (TIA) Financial State of the States report.
With debt up to his eyeball, the US consumer seems to be losing confidence in the US economy.
Last month, Spencer Schiff wrote an article warning about declining consumer confidence, writing, “any shift in consumer psychology/behavior could knock a critical support out from under our economy.”
