American households lost roughly $16 trillion in net worth during the Great Recession.
Could it happen again?
Yes. In fact, we think it almost certainly will.
As gold has rallied over the last few months, silver has lagged behind. The silver-gold ratio spread to near-record levels. This tells us that silver is extremely undervalued compared to gold. But last Tuesday, that spread began to narrow ever-so-slightly and silver crossed a key price level on Thursday. Could this be the beginning of the breakout in silver we’ve been expecting? On this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down what’s going on in the silver market along with the big leg-up in gold this week. He also highlights the ever-growing levels of consumer debt and tells you the latest on China’s move to dump US bonds.
Americans are buying stuff. Retail sales were stronger than expected in June. Auto sales increased by 0.7% after a similar rise in May, helping boost total retail spending. Overall, retail sales were up 0.4% last month. The Commerce Department revised May sales down from 0.5% to 0.4%.
Increasing retail sales would seem to be a good sign for the economy, but the latest consumer credit numbers reveal an underlying problem. Americans are buying a lot of this stuff on credit. How long can consumers keep running up credit cards before the bubble bursts?
Jerome Powell took center stage last week and the Federal Reserve chair didn’t do anything to dampen expectations of a rate cut. His comments sent both stocks and gold higher.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on RT Boom Bust with University of Amherst economics professor Richard Wolff to talk about the Fed and its impact on the markets. Pete said no matter what the Fed does, a recession is coming.
Jerome Powell took center stage this week and the Federal Reserve chair didn’t do anything to dampen expectations of a rate cut. That sent both stocks and gold higher. The yellow metal pushed back above $1,400 after tanking in the wake of last Friday’s June jobs report and stocks swooned. Everybody seems to love Easy Street. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey breaks down what the Fed chair said and didn’t say. He also debunks the “there is no inflation” myth and highlights some other interesting news in the gold markets.
Gold dropped well below $1,400 on Monday. Mainstream analysts said sell-off was because hope for a resolution in the trade war interjected some optimism into the markets, pumped up risk sentiment and put a damper on safe-haven buying. But that optimism apparently faded fast. On Tuesday, gold began to rally again and pushed back above $1,400.
The fact is economic realities don’t support optimism.
In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff said he sees a lot of days with big moves up for gold in the future because the yellow metal has a lot of catching up to do.
The Dow Jones just had its best June since 1938. Overall, stocks were up around 7% last month. It was also the best first half for stocks in 22 years.
Meanwhile, gold gained about 8% on the month. As Peter pointed out in his latest podcast, while stocks had significant gains in dollar terms, they actually lost value in terms of real money.
And as Peter also pointed out, when you look at the recent stock market gains, you have to put them into context.
And just like that, gold was over $1,400. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about how gold was struggling to crack through the key $1,300 level. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about the main drivers behind the gold market right now, including the trade war and central bank mechanizations. He also covers some supply and demand fundamentals.
In a recent article, we explained how central banking wrecks the economy over and over again with its interventionist monetary policy. The Fed tinkers with interest rates and drives boom-bust cycles. But government also has a role to play in this drama. The policies pushed by politicians and bureaucrats help determine where malinvestments will show up in the economy.
The unholy alliance of central bankers, politicians and government functionaries always ends in economic chaos.
In the years leading up to the 2008 crash, the government tried to turn every American into a homeowner. Needless to say – it didn’t end well. This should serve as a warning for the current batch of politicians and bureaucrats. Sadly, it probably won’t.
When people talk about the economy, they generally focus on government policies such as taxation and regulation. For instance, Republicans credit President Trump’s tax cuts for the seemingly booming economy and surging stock markets. Meanwhile, Democrats blame “deregulation” for the 2008 financial crisis. While government policies do have an impact on the direction of the economy, this analysis completely ignores the biggest player on the stage – the Federal Reserve.
