Tag Archives: inflation

When I first got in this business oh so many years ago, my mentor told me that I shouldn’t waste my time worrying about the things everyone else was worrying about. As I’ve related in these missives before, he called those things “well worried”. His point was that once everyone was aware of something it was priced into the market and not worth your time. That has proven to be valuable advice over the years and I think still relevant today. We continue to hear, on an...

Maybe it was a sign of things to come, a warning how it wasn’t going to go as planned. Then again, when it comes to something like quantitative easing there really is no plan. Other than to make it sound like there is one, that’s really the whole idea. Not what it really is and what it actually does, to make it appear like there’s substance to it. After experimenting with NIRP for the first time and then adding a bunch of sterilized asset purchases in 2014, Europe’s...

While the world’s attention was fixated on US$ repo for once, the Bank of Japan held a policy meeting and turned in an even more “dovish” performance. Likely the global central bank plan had been to combine the Fed’s second rate cut with what amounted to a simultaneous Japanese pledge for more “stimulus” in October. Both of those followed closely an ECB which got itself back in the QE business once more. But all that likely coordinated “accommodation” was spoiled...

As we go through an important paradigm shift in politics, in the global economy, in equity markets, and of course in precious metals too, the fundamental economic principles we used to rely on seem to be increasingly under attack. Central bankers the world over are doubling down on reckless monetary policies, punishing savers and responsible, long-term investors. In Europe, we have already seen the damage that negative interest rates and protracted QE have inflicted, and will continue to...

As we go through an important paradigm shift in politics, in the global economy, in equity markets, and of course in precious metals too, the fundamental economic principles we used to rely on seem to be increasingly under attack. Central bankers the world over are doubling down on reckless monetary policies, punishing savers and responsible, long-term investors. In Europe, we have already seen the damage that negative interest rates and protracted QE have inflicted, and will continue...

It isn’t inflation which is driving gold higher, at least not the current levels of inflation. According to the latest update from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation calculation, the PCE Deflator, continues to significantly undershoot. Monetary policy explicitly calls for that rate to be consistent around 2%, an outcome policymakers keep saying they expect but one that never happens. For the month of July 2019, the index...

“Perhaps they think that they will exercise power for the generall good, but that is what all those with power have believed. Power is evil in itself, regardless of who exercises it.” – Ludwig von Mises, Nation, State, and Economy After the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy U-turn earlier this year and the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade, mainstream investors and analysts believe that holding rates lower and for longer will help keep...

“Perhaps they think that they will exercise power for the generall good, but that is what all those with power have believed. Power is evil in itself, regardless of who exercises it.” – Ludwig von Mises, Nation, State, and Economy After the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy U-turn earlier this year and the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade, mainstream investors and analysts believe that holding rates lower and for...

“Perhaps they think that they will exercise power for the general good, but that is what all those with power have believed. Power is evil in itself, regardless of who exercises it.” – Ludwig von Mises, Nation, State, and Economy After the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy U-turn earlier this year and the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade, mainstream investors and analysts believe that holding rates lower and for longer will help keep...

“The intellectual leaders of the peoples have produced and propagated the fallacies which are on the point of destroying liberty and Western civilization.” Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos It took multiple meetings and over 50 hours of official negotiations for EU leaders to reach an agreement on the appointments for the top jobs of the EU and the ECB, but in mid-July the results finally came in. The ECB was particularly in focus, as bad news keeps piling up for the...