The US government is spending money and running up debt at an unfathomable rate. The US national debt increased by a staggaring $814 billion in just two months. When confronted with this reality, most people just shrug. Policymakers certainly don’t care. They continue to ramp up spending and call for even more. Paul Krugman recently tweeted that we need more government stimulus — ie spending — to stoke tepid demand.
Democrats have never cared about spending and Republicans swear tax cuts will grow the economy and fix the debt problem. But as we’ve reported many times, debt retards economic growth.
Now we have even more evidence that government stimulus doesn’t stimulate. In fact, it has the exact opposite effect, as we can see from Europe’s spending binge.
Last week, Keynesian extraordinaire Paul Krugman called for more fiscal stimulus in the form of a “government investment program.” Mike Maharrey poked fun of him in his Fun on Friday column. But while it might be amusing to crack jokes at the expense of Keynsians and their obsession with both fiscal and monetary stimulus, the policies they promote are actually quite pernicious.
In fact, the do the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to.
News of a possible “phase 1 trade deal” and movement toward a resolution of the Brexit fiasco have buoyed stocks and put a lid on silver and gold this week. But positive vibes on these two fronts overshadowed a lot of economic data that came out this week that was less than ideal. It seems the American consumer might be getting close to being maxed out. In this episode of the SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey digs into a big pile of debt and more.
It was a bumpy ride in the markets this week. Right now, volatility is the name of the game – in both stocks and precious metals. People are getting nervous out there with some pretty grim economic data this week stirring up recession fears. Meanwhile, the US government just keeps spending money it doesn’t have. Host Mike Maharrey talks about all of this and more in this week’s episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast.
During his podcast earlier this week, Peter Schiff said “the party is over” in the stock market. As if on cue, the Dow Jones is off to the worst start in a quarter since the 2008 financial crisis.
The Dow plunged 494.4 points on Wednesday, a 1.86% decline. Combined with Tuesday’s 343.7 point drop, the Dow is down more than 3% in two days. The 800-plus point slide is the worst start to a quarter since the last three months of 2008. In the fourth quarter of that year, the Dow fell 19.4%.
The Fed did exactly what markets expected during the September FOMC meeting and lowered interest rates another 25 basis points. It was the second cut of the year and pushed the interest rate down to the range of 1.75 – 2%.
And yet we’re told that this is the economy is “great.”
What gives? Economist Robert Murphy said things might not be so great. In fact, it appears the central bank has basically put the economy on life support.
Former Reagan administration OMB Director David Stockman has called this the “mother of all bond bubbles.” Has that bubble popped? That remains to be seen, but bonds got hammered last week.
Bonds have pretty much moved in tandem with gold over the last several weeks as perceived safe-haven trades. Peter Schiff talked about it in his latest podcast, saying he thinks the bond market is eventually going to decouple from gold.
Americans continue to drive the economy along spending money they don’t have. Consumer debt increased yet again in July, setting another record, according to the latest data released by the Federal Reserve.
Total consumer debt surged $23.4 billion in July, driven by a huge jump in credit card balances. The big rise in consumer indebtedness took analysts by surprise. Bloomberg said the increase “exceeded all estimates” in a survey of economists. Overall, consumer debt increased by an annual rate of 6.8% after a 4% increase the previous month.
Gold has been on a three-day skid, but as Fox Business anchor Liz Claman put it, “So what? It’s been a breakout summer for bullion.”
Over the last three months, gold is up about 12% and has hit six-and-a-half year highs in recent weeks.
Peter Schiff joined Claman, along with, Frank Holmes and Imaru Cassanova on The Claman Countdown to talk about the yellow metal.
Is the US losing its grip on the world? And could the dollar ultimately be dethroned from its spot as the world’s reserve currency?
We’ve reported extensively on countries working to undermine dollar hegemony and reduce the United States’ ability to weaponize the dollar as a foreign policy tool, along with the global gold rush on the part of central banks. Last week, Peter Schiff appeared on RT, along with former Pentagon official Michael Maloof, to talk about the world’s growing frustration with America. Peter said countries worldwide are ready to dump the US.
