Peter's Blog

The Trade Deficit is one of the two components of the ‘twin deficits’; the other being the federal budget deficit. The trade deficit used to be a number that received a ton of attention in the 1980s and 1990s because it was determined to be a strong gauge of the strength and weakness in the […]

In his latest interview with Mario Nawfal, Peter walks through why the US economy is entering a dangerous new phase defined by both record debt and climbing interest rates. He connects this looming crisis to the housing market, inflated net worth figures, and the political theater surrounding tariffs and stimulus checks, before closing with his […]

In his latest podcast, Peter walks through a string of warning signs flashing across the American economy, from a bond market running out of patience to consumers burning through savings just to keep up with the cost of living. He connects these dots to the tariff debate, showing who really foots the bill, and closes […]

According to a recent report published by the World Gold Council, pension funds across multiple countries are adding gold to their portfolios, not as a speculative bet, but as a structural response to problems with the traditional 60/40 stock-bond model. The findings arrive as gold trades near in the low 4,000s, reaching a high of […]

The analysis below covers the Employment picture released on the first Friday of every month. While most of the attention goes to the Headline Report, it can be helpful to look at the details, revisions, and other reports to get a better gauge of what is really going on. Current Trends The jobs report showed […]

Introductory economics courses teach students that money serves three functions, a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value, but they rarely explain why money came to serve those roles in the first place. Following the Austrian School of economics, the medium of exchange function is primary and logically prior, while […]

Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson delivered remarks titled “The U.S. Economy and Monetary Policy” on October 1st at the Darden School of Business in Charlottesville, Virginia, offering the latest in a string of recent admissions from Fed officials that inflation has run hot for years without a clear resolution in sight. Jefferson acknowledged that […]

Although Aristotle lived over 2000 years ago, he had ideas about money that are extremely relevant to today. He believed that rather than having some intrinsic worth, money was a human convention that enabled coordination between people. He also believed that money was best used to satisfy needs rather than wants, which he made it […]

Last week, Peter joined the What The Finance podcast to break down the deteriorating state of the housing market, the credibility problems plaguing the Federal Reserve, and the growing parallels between today’s economy and the stagflation of the 1970s. He also explains why gold, not Bitcoin, has emerged as the real beneficiary of the dollar’s […]

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook delivered a speech titled “An Update on AI and the Economy” on September 28th at the Oakland Tech Week Opening Keynote, cohosted by the Kapor Center in Oakland, California. Cook discusses why she voted with the rest of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to raise interest rates by 25 […]