Just a few weeks ago, the mainstream was worried about economic growth. Now, all of a sudden, the mainstream is bullish about economic growth. It seems like the high from the Fed’s monetary heroin has fully taken hold. And it’s not just in the US.
In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about how central bank monetary policy and government economic stimulus is impacting economies. It’s fun being high … until you’re dead. He also covers some interesting developments in the gold market.
We got more signs that the economy is slowing down this week. And yet pundits and policymakers keep insisting everything is great.
In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff says he thinks people like Donald Trump and Larry Kudlow know deep down that things aren’t that great, but they want to keep kicking the can down the road for political reasons.
In this week’s Friday Gold Wrap, Mike Maharrey covers some more bad signs in the economy, including rising oil prices, an unexpected drop in retail sales and a surge in negative-yielding government bonds. At best, it looks like the economy is slowing down. Or it could be the prelude to the next crisis. This raises an important question: who’s going to save us? Mike suggests we probably shouldn’t be counting on the politicians or the central bankers.
The Dow Jones closed out Q1 2019 with its best quarterly gain since 1998, rising 10.3% through the first three months of the year. And the Dow Jones wasn’t alone in its bang-up first quarter. The S&P 500 rose 12.3%. The Russell 2000 was up 13.8%. And the Nasdaq led the entire pack with a 15.6% gain.
As Peter Schiff said in his latest podcast, the entire rally was a gift from the Federal Reserve.
The federal government set an all-time record budget deficit in February. And this is with a Republican in the White House. The GOP is supposed to be the fiscally responsible party. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey offers some interesting analysis that reveals spending money in Washington DC is really a bipartisan sport. He also talks about Thursday’s selloff in gold and silver, explains why dollar strength is something of an illusion and illustrates how the way “the market” thinks is often pretty dumb.
Every time the folks at the Federal Reserve talk about the “Powell Pause,” they assure us that the US economy is still strong. The president assures us that the US economy is still strong. The pundits on the financial news networks assure us that the US economy is still strong. But the US consumer doesn’t seem to be buying it.
US consumer confidence declined for the fourth month out of five in February, surprising economists who expected an increase in optimism.
On Friday, the yield curve inverted, often a warning sign of an impending recession. Many mainstream pundits say we shouldn’t be concerned about the inversion and that the US economy is still healthy. They say there are other underlying reasons for the inverted yield curve. But there are plenty of other economic data points that are flashing recession warnings. For instance, inventories are piling up in warehouses.
Wholesale inventories surged again in January, according to the latest Commerce Department data.
Peter Schiff has said a recession is a done deal. Since he made that comment, we’ve seen more and more signs of a looming economic downturn. On Friday, we got another. The yield curve inverted, historically a sign of a looming recession.
The yield on 10-year Treasurys fell below the yield on 3-year bonds for the first time since 2007 – the cusp of the Great Recession.
The Fed wrapped up another FOMC meeting this week and came out even more dovish than expected. Rate hikes are off the table in 2019 and the central bank now only expects one hike in 2020. In his episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about the meeting and the dirty little secret Reuters let slip out. The goal here is to get you to spend more money and keep the bubble full of air. As Mike put it, “The Fed is trying to feed the debt monster and it wants you to pick up the tab.” He also covered the meeting’s impact on the markets and the latest in political theater.
Americans owe over $1 trillion in credit card debt and recent polling data indicates they aren’t paying off those balances anytime soon.
According to a CNBC article, nearly half of all Americans carry a balance on their credit cards. Of those, only 30% say they will be able to pay off that balance within the next year.
