Donald Trump was in Davos talking up the US economy in his typically hyperbolic terms. He called it “the greatest economy we’ve ever had in the history of our country.” To hear the president tell it, you would think that America is experiencing some kind of economic boom that has never been experienced by anybody in all of history. In his most recent podcast, Peter Schiff called this “nonsense.”
Are consumers getting close to the end of their road of debt?
There are some indications that they might be and that’s not good news for an economy built on consumers spending money they don’t have.
We have a trade deal! Maybe. Meanwhile, the Fed wrapped up its last FOMC meeting of the year this week and did nothing. But Powell and Company did give us some indication about what we should expect next year. The week’s news played tug-o-war with gold. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey breaks it all down and says there’s a lot to be skeptical about, both with the trade deal and the rhetoric coming out of the Fed.
The world’s rich are hoarding gold – this according to data buried in a recent Goldman Sachs note to clients.
In the note published over the weekend, Goldman recommended diversifying long-term bond holdings with gold, citing “fear-driven demand” for the yellow metal.
Friday’s employment report from the Labor Department far exceeded expectations. Mainstream analysts called the report “stellar.” Some pundits even called it the best jobs report in history. According to the Labor Department, the US economy added 266,000 jobs in November. Economists had projected an increase of around 187,000. The unemployment figure dropped to 3.5%.
Peter Schiff talked about it in his latest podcast. He called it a “Trumped-up” jobs report.
We’ve seen new records in the stock market in recent weeks. The headlines tell us it’s all because of a potential trade deal, but Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey doesn’t buy it. He says it’s really all about Fed money printing. That may juice the stock market, but there’s a downside – inflation. In this episode of the podcast, Mike talks about it along with the week’s gold news.
Where’s the inflation?
The Federal Reserve printed money for nearly a decade, and yet, inflation – as measured by the government – has been “muted.”
What gives?
Do we even need the Federal Reserve?
Whether on the political left, right, or in the middle, virtually everybody thinks we do. After all, without the Fed, we’ll have wild economic swings and crashes.
Economist Edward Stringham disagrees. In this It’s Your Dime Interview, he talks about it with host Mike Maharrey and makes the case that the economy would function just fine without a central bank pulling strings. In fact, as he explains, the Fed actually stirs up economic chaos.
Did you now skyscrapers can predict economic crashes?
And the skyscraper index is flashing red.
As economist Mark Thronton explained in his book, The Skyscraper Curse: And How Austrian Economists Predicted Every Major Economic Crisis of the Last Century, the so-called Skyscraper Index has a remarkably accurate record signaling economic downturns dating back to the late 19th century.
Stock markets hit new highs again this week. If you believe the headlines, the bullishness on Wall Street is mostly a function of trade deal optimism. But there’s another factor driving stocks higher – easy money courtesy of Federal Reserve (not) quantitative easing. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about the impact QE4 is having on the markets and some delicious irony courtesy of a paper published by the central bank that admits its own policy might just be a problem.
