The technical position for gold is looking very positive for higher prices. But technical analysis should be backed by fundamentals.
To a large extent, fundamentals are in the eye of the beholder, whose opinions in any situation can vary from positive to negative and everything in between. But even for the economic optimists, there are gathering clouds on the horizon likely to continue undermining the global economic outlook, the dollar, and all financial asset values. Fiat currencies are being downgraded relative to real money, which is gold.
After running the third-largest budget deficit in US history in fiscal 2023, the Biden administration kicked off fiscal 2024 with another big budget shortfall.
Mainstream media pundits and politicians generally act unconcerned about the skyrocketing national debt and ever-growing budget deficits, but somebody has taken notice.
On Friday, Moody’s Investor Service lowered its outlook on US government credit from “stable” to “negative.” This could be a prelude to a downgrade in the country’s AAA credit rating. The agency typically resolves an outlook by either revising it back to stable or executing an actual downgrade within 18 to 24 months.
President Joe Biden is selling the latest proposal to send military aid to Israel and Ukraine as an economic stimulus plan. But this notion that spending money for somebody else’s war somehow boosts the American economy is rooted in a pervasive economic fallacy.
When you boil it all down, Biden is basically saying that the spending isn’t really foreign aid. It’s corporate welfare.
Ron Paul asks the operative question: should that make us feel better?
There is a $33.7 trillion elephant in the living room.
I’m referring to the massive national debt.
It’s pretty amazing that we have this massive animal sitting right in the middle of everything and most people are just walking around it as if it isn’t there.
The Biden administration ran a $1.695 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2023. It was the third-largest deficit in US history. The only time the US government ran bigger deficits was during the COVID years of 2020 and 2021.
The government closed out the year with a $170.98 billion deficit in September, according to the final Monthly Treasury Statement of the fiscal year. That was more than double the projection.
The House recently ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the wake of the continuing resolution to keep spending money and avoid a government shutdown. Dissatisfied Republicans frustrated with the GOP’s unwillingness to address the federal spending problem banded together with Democrats to send McCarthy packing.
While the outcome might be politically satisfying to some, it’s not going to solve the underlying problem.
Global debt rose $10 trillion to a record $397 trillion in the first half of 2023, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
The big increase in debt occurred despite tightening credit conditions, and it is an increasingly worrisome problem because the “free lunch” of artificially low interest rates is over.
I write a lot about the national debt.
And most people don’t care.
That’s because there’s a widespread belief that the dollar is invincible.
It isn’t.
Twenty days.
That’s how long it took the Biden administration to add another half-trillion dollars to the national debt.
Bidenomics certainly requires a lot of borrowing and spending.
