Celsius Network, founder and CEO Alex Mashinsky calls the bond market, “the biggest bubble that hasn’t burst yet.” And when the massive bond bubble pops, that’s when the real earthquake begins.
The US Treasury Department is pumping out bonds like there’s no tomorrow. It announced this week that it plans to borrow $2.99 trillion in this quarter alone. The projected borrowing for fiscal 2020 comes in at a staggering $4.48 trillion.
It’s been a wild ride on Wall Street this week — all downhill. Stocks entered correction territory Thursday and are on track for the worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. As Peter has put it, this stock market is a bubble looking for a pin. Is the coronavirus the pin? In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey talks about this chaotic week in the stock market, the bond market and the gold market.
As turmoil continues in the markets with stocks selling off due to continued fears over coronavirus and its potential economic impact, Peter Schiff says gold is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do — serving as a safe haven and a store of value.
Peter Schiff recently appeared on Fox Business Claman Countdown along with Stephen Guilfoyle and Luke Rahbari to talk about gold, bonds and coronavirus.
Stocks have sold off two straight days as investors pile into safe-havens due to coronavirus fears. Yields on both 10-year and 30-year Treasuries fell to record lows this week. Gold has also gotten a healthy boost over the last few days. The yellow metal pushed to $1,690 per ounce on Monday, but gave up some of its gains on Tuesday in the midst of profit-taking.
As we pointed out in an article last week, the US federal government has added $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the last 12 months. As a result, the US Treasury Department is flooding the market with bonds. Meanwhile, the biggest buyers of US debt – China, Japan and the Federal Reserve – are shrinking their Treasury holdings. For the past several months, we’ve been saying this is a big problem for the US government that most people are overlooking. And we aren’t the only ones sounding warning bells.
Last week, the chair of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC) sent a letter to Steven Mnuchin containing what the Financial Times called “a bombshell.”
China and Japan dumped more US Treasuries in October, even as the federal government continued to run up its debt.
Chinese holdings of US Treasuries dropped for the fifth straight month, sinking to the lowest level since May 2017, according to data recently released by the Treasury Department. The total amount of US debt held by China fell from $1.15 trillion to 1.14 trillion. Over the past year, the Chinese have shed $50 billion in US debt.
Last week, we got data on the producer price index. It came in at o.6%, a much hotter number than expected. It was the biggest jump in the PPI in six years. Year-over-year, producer prices are up 2.8%.
Analysts expected the monthly increase to come in at half that – 0.3%. While the Fed typically looks at consumer prices to gauge inflation, producer prices are also significant. After all, the cost of production is ultimately passed on to the consumer.
As soon as that PPI number came out, the price of gold dropped about $10. As Peter Schiff pointed out in a recent podcast, this is because the markets still don’t get it. They are playing checkers instead of chess.
The US national debt increased by $1.27 trillion in fiscal 2018. If you expected the pace of borrowing to slow in fiscal 2019, you’ll be disappointed. In just the first 11 business days of the new fiscal year, the US government added another $138 billion of debt to the total. That brings the total national debt to a staggering $21.654 trillion — or as Wolf Street put it “debt out the wazoo.”
Meanwhile, the two biggest buyers of US Treasuries are in a selling mood.
Death-spiral — The downward, corkscrew-motion of a disabled aircraft which is unrecoverably headed for a crash.
The US federal government may well be in a death spiral – or perhaps we should call it a debt-spiral.
Yields have been on the rise this week in the midst of a bond market sell-off.
Two-year borrowing costs hit their highest level in a decade Wednesday. The yield on the 2-year Treasury climbed to 2.816%. Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury yield hit a four-month high of 3.07%.
What’s going on here?
