SchiffGold managing editor and host of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast Mike Maharrey joined Mises Institute President Jeff Deist on WHBO radio to talk about inflation and the Federal Reserve, Mike explains how the Fed has gotten itself stuck in a tight spot. To be sure, it has an inflation problem. But a legitimate fix would create its own set of problems.
In a nutshell, the central bank is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t.
After CPI came in hotter than expected yet again in January, Peter Schiff appeared on Fox Business along with Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager of Solutions Funds Group Larry Shover. Peter said that the inflation tsunami is just getting started and the Fed is powerless to fight it.
The Federal Reserve still seems to be hoping that inflation will just go away on its own or that it can jawbone it down by projecting a few little rate hikes. But the Consumer Price Index data keeps dashing its hopes. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about the January CPI and the Fed’s proposed “fight” against inflation. He also discusses the demand forecast for silver this year.
The latest seasonally adjusted inflation rate for January was 0.65% month over month, with a non-seasonally adjusted annual rate of 7.48%. Both of these numbers came in above expectations.
As hypothesized last month, it was very possible that Omicron temporarily restrained inflation in December and a rebound should be expected. It did not take long for the rebound to occur!
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic made an important admission during a CNBC interview. He confessed the Fed wasn’t really going all-in on the inflation fight. That raises a question: how is it going to tame the inflation monster? Peter Schiff talked about this admission during his podcast, along with a head-scratching article about the trade deficit in the Wall Street Journal.
The January jobs report came in much stronger than expected. According to the labor department, the US economy added 467,000 jobs last month. This was significantly better than the 150,000 job projection. But there was some bad inflation news buried in the Labor Department data.
The markets continue to brace for the Fed’s impending inflation fight. But as Peter explained in his podcast, they’re not bracing for the Fed to lose that fight.
And the Fed is going to lose that fight.
With little fanfare, the national debt crossed the $30 trillion threshold this week. That is an unfathomable number. And as host Mike Maharrey explains in this week’s Friday Gold Wrap podcast, it’s worse than that. Most people aren’t concerned. Maharrey argues that they should be, likening the federal government’s borrow and spend policy to a monetary Jenga game.
Peter Schiff recently spoke at the January 2022 Virtual MoneyShow. He talked about the impacts of inflation and said stagflation is going to shock the markets.
Is bitcoin an inflation hedge?
Peter Schiff recently appeared on RT Boom Bust with Natalie Brunell of Coin Stories to discuss inflation and whether bitcoin is a hedge. Peter said bitcoin is not an inflation hedge. He called it a “speculative token” with its price driven by supply and demand.
But what about gold? It didn’t perform like an inflation hedge in 2021 despite the inflation freight train. Peter said the reason gold has had some problems is because the market wrongly believes the Fed.
