There has been a lot of talk about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) lately. Supporters tell you they will provide a safe, secure, convenient alternative to cash. But in this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey digs deeper and explains that CBDCs are actually about more government control. He also talks about how Jerome Powell talked and tanked the markets this week.
The January Trade Deficit saw a slight increase compared to December, coming in at -$68.3B vs -$67.2B in the prior month. After peaking at -$106B in March of last year, the Trade Deficit has returned to a more stable range between -$60B and -$80B.
Looking at last month’s US Treasury activity, it’s clear that interest expenses are exploding upwards at an unsustainable pace. Annualized interest on the debt increased by $25 billion in a single month.
Silver demand was at record levels in 2022 and there is reason to believe it will continue to run hot over the next several decades. One reason is the rapidly increasing demand for silver in the green energy sector. In fact, an Australian study projects solar cells may use most of the world’s silver reserves by 2050.
Despite the hotter-than-expected CPI data for January, most people still seem confident that the Federal Reserve can win the inflation fight, drive CPI back to 2% in relatively short order, and then return to the easy monetary policy we all have come to expect. Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey does not share this optimism. In this episode, he outlines three reasons the Fed won’t win the inflation fight.
The seasonally adjusted money supply in January increased by $31 billion. This was the first increase in the money supply in five months.
This month, the conclusion is going at the top because it can be hard to read through and interpret all the data.
In a nutshell, the data is sending mixed signals. Delivery volume is slowly drifting lower, but some of the underlying data is starting to show large deviations from the mean. In particular, silver saw a lot of contracts wait until the last minute to roll, similar to what we saw with gold last month.
Why?
Silver demand in India is expected to increase with the introduction of new investment products. India already ranks as one of the world’s biggest silver consumers.
This is one of several silver-related stories in the latest edition of Silver News published by the Silver Institute.
Gold deliveries in February came in quite low for a major month, totaling only 15,055. This is the lowest month going back to February 2020 (pre-Covid). The chart below shows the big spike in deliveries seen after Covid started. While the current month is still above any pre-Covid month, it is small when compared to some of the major delivery months seen recently.
The Federal Reserve came close but still fell short of its $95 billion per month balance sheet reduction target through the last full week in February. This means the Fed has fallen short in 8 of the last 9 months.
And with rising interest rates coupled with even this modest balance sheet reduction, the Fed is also bleeding money.
