During his post-FOMC meeting press conference, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell insisted that the US banking system is resilient and sound. He said this despite the failure of First Republic Bank just days before the Fed meeting. Peter Schiff appeared on the Claman Countdown on Fox News and argued that Powell and others are wrong. He said the US economy is in a financial crisis worse than in 2008.
Is the rate hike pause in play?
That question remains up for debate after the May Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting.
But when you break it all down, the underlying economic reality is far more important than the messaging coming from Powell and Company. And the underlying economic reality is that inflation isn’t beat and the economy is heading toward a cliff.
The failure of First Republic Bank reveals that the banking system isn’t nearly as sound as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell would have us believe. But as Peter explained in a recent podcast, it’s not just the banking system that’s messed up. The Fed has screwed up everything that is a function of interest rates by keeping rates at zero for so long.
Most attention in the precious metals markets has focused on inflation and the Federal Reserve’s response. The perception that the Fed will continue to tighten monetary policy to fight inflation has created headwinds for gold and silver. But as Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey explains, there is a silver lining in all this – the fundamentals for silver. In this episode, Mike highlights silver’s supply and demand dynamics. He also covers some good news for gold and silver coming out of Arkansas.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on Real America with Dan Ball to talk about the weakening US dollar, the less-than-stellar jobs report, and the trajectory of the economy.
Peter kicked off the interview with a startling statement when Dan said whether it’s oil, de-dollarization, or President Biden’s horrible economic policies, everything is pointing toward a recession this year.
By hiking interest rates, the Federal Reserve has pulled some of the monetary stimulus out of the economy. While the Fed hasn’t done nearly enough to put the inflationary fire it lit with more than a decade of easy money, the cooling consumer price index (CPI) indicates that this has put a modest dent in price inflation — for now. But the Biden administration has opened the fiscal stimulus spigot even wider and this is mucking up the inflation fight. In fact, unless the federal government reins in spending, there is no way inflation will lose this fight.
That’s not going to happen.
With the CPI coming in slightly cooler than expected and producer prices unexpectedly falling, a lot of people think the Fed pivot is now in play and we will soon see an end to monetary tightening. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about the possibility of a pivot, market reaction, and most importantly, the possible ramifications.
The ink wasn’t even dry on the newly printed money to bail out the banking system before people came out of the woodwork to blame the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank on “deregulation.”
But is the deregulation boogeyman really to blame?
In a word, no!
Price inflation continued to cool with March headline annual CPI coming in at 5%. This was lower than expected and may give the Federal Reserve some wiggle room to slow down or even end rate hikes.
But it’s a mirage.
Despite the cooling trend, price inflation remains well above the Fed’s target and victory in the inflation fight isn’t imminent.
The dollar may be king, but its throne is getting a little tippy. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about the slow but steady erosion of the dollar’s global dominance and the possible ramifications. He also explains how Federal Reserve monetary policy is like poison.
