Citizens of Georgia, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Kansas may soon enjoy lower taxes on precious metals if recently introduced pro-metal bills are made law in 2024.
A Major Trend Change
In 2023, the Treasury added $2.6T to the national debt. While that number alone should be enough to scare anyone, the details reveal something even more concerning. $2T of it, or 77%, was financed entirely with short-term Treasury Bills maturing in less than a year. The chart below shows the debt issuance trend over the last 20 years. As shown, the Treasury typically relies on medium-term debt (2-10 Year Notes) to fund the budget deficit. 2023 was a massive change in standard procedure as shown by the giant light blue bar on the right of the chart.
Proverbs 22:7, ‘The borrower is servant to the lender,’ has resonated in the background of my financial upbringing.
Akin to other proverbs and parables (Proverbs 1:6), there’s much more beneath the surface worth pondering.
In the realm of institutional asset management, the copper/gold ratio (blue line) has served as a key indicator for some, providing insights into the potential trajectory of 10-year Treasury yields (red line).
In the last few decades, there has been a global shift towards a “cashless world,” a trend that continues to shape financial autonomy. Physical currency is becoming increasingly rare as the majority of the world’s money supply exists in electronic form. Governments and financial institutions are actively promoting a cashless society, raising concerns about individual financial freedom.
Happy New Year from me and everybody at SchiffGold! Here’s hoping it is an absolutely fantastic year.
So, have you made any New Year’s resolutions?
We’ve reached the end of another year. A new year is always a good time for reflection. And maybe even some resolutions. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about the trajectory of gold as we enter the new year, explains an economic truth, offers some thoughts on New Year’s resolutions, and makes a big announcement.
US stocks surged with the promise of interest rate cuts. Then stocks tanked when some Fed officials tried to walk that promise back. Then they surged again when some weak economic data put rate cuts back on the table. As Friday Gold Wrap host Mike Maharrey put it, easy money is one heck of a drug! In this episode, he explains the impact of easy money on the economy and the markets, and he speculates about the future.
