This week was the calm before the storm that will begin next week with the August CPI data and continue with the September FOMC meeting the following week. Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey takes advantage of the lull to cover some interesting topics including some more tough talk on inflation from Jerome Powell, the prospect of the Fed recording its first operating loss since 2023, and silver on sale.
What happens if the Federal Reserve loses money?
The Fed typically earns interest income from all of the bonds it holds on its balance sheet. It also collects fees for services that it provides. Most of any Fed operating profit is remitted to the US Treasury under federal law. That money becomes part of the federal government’s operating budget. In other words, the central bank serves as a revenue source for Uncle Sam.
Jerome Powell and other central bankers at the Federal Reserve are still talking tough about their inflation fight even as the economy continues to deteriorate. Peter Schiff says we’re nearing an inflection point, but the markets don’t get it yet. As he explained in his podcast, the Fed’s monetary tightening is causing a recession, but ultimately, the central bank will surrender to inflation. There is a day of reckoning ahead and we can’t avoid it much longer.
The Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank published a rather surprising paper that swerves into the truth – the Fed can’t win this inflation fight. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about the paper. He also discusses the possibility of a dollar decline and gives his first impression of the August jobs report.
It appears somebody at the Federal Reserve has figured out that the central bank can’t tame inflation, so it’s setting up a scapegoat – Uncle Sam.
A paper co-authored by Leonardo Melosi of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and John Hopkins University economist Francesco Bianchi and published by the Kansas City Federal Reserve argues that central bank monetary policy alone can’t control inflation.
This week, President Biden announced a plan to forgive $10,000 to $20,000 in student loan debt. It sounds nice and some people will certainly benefit, but as SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast host Mike Maharrey explains, we’re all going to pay for this. In this episode, Mike also talks about Jerome Powell’s upcoming Jackson Hole speech, the state of the economy and some interesting gold market news.
The tanking housing market is starting to put a strain on the mortgage industry with some lenders already going out of business. Analysts project the wave of failures coming down the pike could be the worst since the housing bubble burst and triggered the Great Recession.
The central bankers at the Federal Reserve continue to talk tough about fighting inflation. But is it a fight they can win?
The numbers say no.
The four-week win streak in stocks came to an end last week with all of the major indexes down significantly on Friday. As Peter explained in his podcast, it appears the markets are coming to terms with the fact the Powell Pivot may not come as quickly as anticipated. That means interest rates may go higher as the inflation fight continues. But Peter says the markets still don’t get the big picture. The Fed can’t win this inflation fight without wrecking the bubble economy.
It was a relatively slow news week in the financial realm. For once, the Fed didn’t do anything particularly noteworthy. So, Friday Gold Wrap Host Mike Maharrey took advantage of the lull. Along with covering some economic data and media spin, he hit on a couple of subjects he hasn’t been able to get to in recent weeks, including the fatal flaw in Keynesian economics and the prospect of manipulation in the gold and silver markets.
