Just a few weeks ago, the mainstream was worried about economic growth. Now, all of a sudden, the mainstream is bullish about economic growth. It seems like the high from the Fed’s monetary heroin has fully taken hold. And it’s not just in the US.
In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about how central bank monetary policy and government economic stimulus is impacting economies. It’s fun being high … until you’re dead. He also covers some interesting developments in the gold market.
The world’s largest primary silver producer reported a plunge in production in the first quarter of the year, continuing a global trend of declining silver output.
Total silver production at Fresnillo PLC dropped by 15% in Q1. The company blamed falling mine output on lower ore grades and reduced volume of processed ore.
Gold has been rangebound for months, gyrating up and down around the $1,300 mark. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about this “wash, rinse, repeat” cycle we’re seeing in the precious metals markets and then pivots into a discussion of some more fundamental dynamics. Mike touches on the financial condition of the US federal government, surging central bank demand for gold and the positive dynamics he’s seeing in the silver market.
Silver demand was up 4% and hit a three-year high in 2018, according to the 2019 World Silver Survey released by the Silver Institute this week.
Physical demand for silver came in at over 1 billion ounces last year.
Meanwhile, silver mine production fell for the third straight year, dropping 2% in 2018 to 855.7 million ounces.
While investors often treat gold as a commodity, at its core, gold is money. Silver also has a long history as a monetary metal. But what about other rare metals? Could they serve as money as well?
In the following guest column, SchiffGold client Antony Pouros makes the case for platinum.
In this week’s Friday Gold Wrap, Mike Maharrey covers some more bad signs in the economy, including rising oil prices, an unexpected drop in retail sales and a surge in negative-yielding government bonds. At best, it looks like the economy is slowing down. Or it could be the prelude to the next crisis. This raises an important question: who’s going to save us? Mike suggests we probably shouldn’t be counting on the politicians or the central bankers.
The conventional wisdom is that demand for gold and silver has been somewhat tepid over the last couple of years. In fact, global gold demand grew by about 4% in 2018 and was in line with the five-year average. Much of that growth was due to a surged in demand through the fourth quarter as stock markets tanked, and concerns about debt and the global economy grew.
We tend to be pretty short-sighted when we look at market trends. Most investors focus on the day-to-day gyrations. As a result, we often completely miss significant long-term trends. For instance, investment demand for gold and silver has increased dramatically in the decade since the financial crisis.
The federal government set an all-time record budget deficit in February. And this is with a Republican in the White House. The GOP is supposed to be the fiscally responsible party. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey offers some interesting analysis that reveals spending money in Washington DC is really a bipartisan sport. He also talks about Thursday’s selloff in gold and silver, explains why dollar strength is something of an illusion and illustrates how the way “the market” thinks is often pretty dumb.
The Fed wrapped up another FOMC meeting this week and came out even more dovish than expected. Rate hikes are off the table in 2019 and the central bank now only expects one hike in 2020. In his episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey talks about the meeting and the dirty little secret Reuters let slip out. The goal here is to get you to spend more money and keep the bubble full of air. As Mike put it, “The Fed is trying to feed the debt monster and it wants you to pick up the tab.” He also covered the meeting’s impact on the markets and the latest in political theater.