As the coronavirus economic lockdown drags on, there seems to be a lot of delusional thinking out there. Many people seem to believe that at some point, President Trump will snap his fingers and the economy will roar back to life. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey looks at the numbers and makes the case that this is actually the early stages of an unprecedented economic meltdown. Everything is not going to be fine. He also takes on the myth of the non-essential worker.
We just wrapped up the worst first quarter in the history of the US stock market. Think about that in context. Even during the dark days of the Great Depression, there has never been a worse start to a year for the US stock market than 2020.
Nevertheless, there are still a lot of people out there who think this is going to be a short bear market. As Peter Schiff put it in his podcast, that’s because they’re still fixated on the pin.
In yet another unprecedented attempt to keep the air in the financial bubbles, the Federal Reserve announced the establishment of an international repo facility.
The repo facility will allow foreign central banks and other international monetary authorities to enter into repurchase agreements with the Federal Reserve. According to the Fed announcement, FIMA account holders can temporarily exchange their US Treasury securities held with the Federal Reserve for dollars that can then be made available to institutions in their jurisdictions.
The Federal Reserve is injecting trillions of dollars of monetary stimulus into the financial system to ‘help’ the economy through the coronavirus pandemic. This is the same kind of ‘help’ the central bank offered in 2008. But as Peter Schiff explains in his latest podcast, this kind of ‘help’ is actually hurting. In fact, the ‘help’ we got in 2008 set us up for the crisis we’re entering today.
The evil Empire has the ultimate weapon – the printing press. This diabolical machine is capable of bringing death to the dollar and destroying the entire economy. Watch the drama unfold as Peter Schiff and his rag-tag band of Austrian School economists fights the evil empire and tries to save the Republic from the Keynesian menace.
Last week, Congress passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill in an effort to offset the economic impacts of the coronavirus. Most people have focused on the $1,200 checks to Americans and bailouts for industries hard-hit by the economic shutdown. But the 883-page bill does a lot more than that, including empowering the Federal Reserve to hand out billions of dollars in complete secrecy.
On Monday, the Fed announced QE infinity and by mid-week, Congress had agreed on a $2 trillion stimulus package to battle the economic impacts of the coronavirus. That launched us into a bizarro world where a weekly record of over 3 million unemployment claims led to a huge stock market rally. As Mike Maharrey put it in this Week’s Friday Gold Wrap podcast, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been stimulated. So, what exactly did the Fed do? What are the long-term ramifications? And can it work? Maharrey talks about all this and more in this week’s Gold Wrap.
According to Owen Ullmann in an op-ed published by USA Today, there are some unsung “heroes” in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic – the brave and courageous bankers at the Federal Reserve.
I think Ulmann misspelled “villains.”
On Wednesday, Congress finally agreed on a government stimulus/bailout plan to battle the economic impacts of coronavirus to the tune of over $2 trillion. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve has committed to monetize the debt with QE to infinity. Practically speaking, we’re talking about trillions of dollars being injected into the US economy – all of those dollars created out of thin air.
So, what does all of the money creation and government spending mean for gold?
The Federal Reserve launched QE infinity this week. The Fed has committed to buy an “unlimited” amount of US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. But that’s not all. The central bank also announced it will buy some corporate bonds for the first time ever.
In effect, this is money-printing on a massive scale. And of course, pumping trillions of dollars into the economy will have ramifications. We may well be on the path to hyperinflation.
