With hyperinflation gripping Iran and sanctions strangling the economy, Iranians are beginning to turn to gold to make everyday transactions, most notably to pay their rent.
The Iranian rial has depreciated rapidly since the US announced its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal and the reimposition of economic sanctions. After the US formally announced it was pulling out of the deal in May, the exchange rate peaked at around 45,000 rials to the dollar. But that official rate was only available to well-connected bankers, importers and businesses. Average Iranians were paying twice that. By July 29, money-exchangers in Tehran were charging around 100,000 rials for one dollar. Within 24 hours, it increased to 110,000 rials to the dollar.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bought gold for the first time in nearly a decade during its last fiscal year.
The Indian central bank added 8.46 tons of gold during the fiscal year ending June 30, according to its latest annual report. The additional yellow metal brings India’s total gold reserves to 566.23 tons.
The last time the RBI bought gold was in November 2009. The Economic Times of India called the central bank’s decision to add to its gold reserves “significant.”
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How do you turn a mundane $20 bathroom appliance into a luxury item that will set you back $500?
Put some gold on it.
That’s exactly what Dyson has done. No joke. The iconic (meaning overpriced) vacuum cleaner company has developed a hairdryer gilded with 23.75-karat gold leaf.
A Russian lawmaker has suggested his country should develop a gold-backed cryptocurrency for payment of arms exports and other goods as a way to circumvent Western sanctions and limit his country’s dependence on the dollar-based global banking system.
Vladimir Gutenev serves as first deputy head of the economic policy committee at the State Duma – the Russian Parliament’s lower chamber. He suggested Russia should develop a gold-backed cryptocurrency as he called for a suspension of treaties with the US, including the non-proliferation of missile technologies agreement.
Investment and commodities guru Jim Rogers says we’re heading toward the worst bear market in his lifetime.
Rogers recently spoke a the MoneyShow in San Francisco. He said the first thing we need to understand is that in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve “came to the rescue” and drove interest rates to the lowest level in recorded history.
Never in the history of the world have interest rates been this low. In some countries, they were actually negative. This has never, ever happened in the history of the world. Some Federal Reserve governors, when they think nobody’s listening, they acknowledge that this is an experiment. They don’t know how it’s going to wind up.”
But Rogers said he knows how it’s going to wind up.
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In this episode, I talk with Mises Institute president Jeff Deist about Austrian economics, the Fed, Trumpanomics. the biggest threats to our freedom, and of course, gold.
Indians are buying gold.
Imports of the yellow metal into India jumped for the first time in seven months in July and the trend appears to be carrying forward into August, according to a report in the Times of India. Gold sales have surged 15% by volume over last year as Indians took advantage of soft prices and kicked off the wedding and festival season early.
According to jeweler associations in India, demand could finish up as much as 20% in August compared with 2017.
Friday was an active day in the markets. The S&P 500, the Russell 2000 and the Nasdaq all hit record highs. The Dow Jones didn’t quite crack into record territory, but it was up over 100 points. Meanwhile, the dollar fell and gold was up more than $20.
In his latest podcast, Peter Schiff said he thinks the dovish speech by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell at Jackson Hole drove all of this. And it could have longer-term ramifications.
We are well into the third quarter of 2018. In our perpetual fast-forward world, analysts are already looking toward Q4. What will the last quarter of the year bring?
It’s virtually impossible to predict the short-term. Who knows what kind of political event, natural disaster or emerging trend will drive the markets over the next few months?
Of course, we can’t predict the future at all. We’re not fortune tellers or Old Testament prophets, but as Dan Kurz notes in his latest post at DK Analytics, it is a bit easier to project what will happen to the economy in the long run because we can clearly see the big-picture dynamics and fundamentals underlying it. As he put it, he’s less sure where America is headed in Q4 than ‘down the road’ in general. The whole thing (political, financial, economic) could fall apart at any time.”
