Tag Archives: Interest rates

Inflation* in the US is falling rapidly with the CPI rising just 0.9% in the second half of 2022 versus 5.4% in the first six months. Existing home sales are down 14.6% in the last 3 months and 34% over the last year. Housing starts are down 22% and permits are down 30% year-over-year. Orders for durable goods are down 1.2%, exports are down 3.8%, and imports are down 4.3% over the last 3 months. Real disposable income is up 0.8% in the last six months but was down...

When we think about the challenges facing an investor today, the big problems, the things we worry about that could cause a lot more harm than some interest rate hikes, are mostly outside the United States. China is prominent this weekend because of demonstrations against their zero COVID policies. The Chinese people appear to be pretty well fed up with the endless lockdowns and have finally decided to try and do something about it. Unfortunately, I’m not sure...

CEO of Monetary Metals Keith Weiner gave a talk at the New Orleans Investment Conference on how to build and destroy a pension fund system in 22 easy steps. If you’d like to see an excellent case study of these steps in action, see the United Kingdom. This is a summary of Keith’s talk published with his permission. Our interest rate system is like a wrecking ball. It swings to one side of the street and destroys one side of town (the falling interest rate). Then when...

The Federal Reserve has been on a mission lately to make sure everyone knows they are serious about killing the inflation they created. Over the last two weeks, Federal Reserve officials delivered 37 speeches, all of the speakers competing to see who could be the most hawkish. Interest rates are going up they said, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how many people have to be put on the unemployment line, because that’s the only way to kill this inflation, to...

Our guest this week is Ed Steer, expert gold and market analyst and author of the Gold & Silver Digest. We invited Ed onto GoldCore TV to get his take on what is concerning him most in financial markets, movements in SLV and sanctions against Russia. He also draws our attention to central bank purchases of gold. Ed’s interview serves as a reminder that those who currently do own gold and silver are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the number of people...

This morning the UK pound slumped as one of the world’s oldest central banks pressed hard on the panic button. The Bank of England was seen to be shouting ‘Pivot! Pivot! Pivaat!’ as they announced they would temporarily suspend their programme to sell gilts and will instead buy long-dated bonds. In a statement, the bank said that they would be embarking on a “temporary and targeted” bond buying operation. Although we expect it to be about as temporary and as...

Nothing happened last week. Stocks and bonds and commodities continued to trade and move around in price but there was no news to which those movements could be attributed. The economic news was a trifle and what there was told us exactly nothing new about the economy. A report that wholesale inventories rose 0.6% cannot be turned into market moving news no matter how hard the newsletter sellers try. Jobless claims fell 8,000? Yawn. Exports rose $500 million? In a...

Tavi Costa of Crescat Capital joins Keith and Dickson on the Gold Exchange Podcast to talk about the current state of the market, investing in good times and bad, and what future indicators to watch. Connect with Tavi on Twitter: @TaviCosta Connect with Keith Weiner and Monetary Metals on Twitter: @RealKeithWeiner@Monetary_Metals [embedded content] Additional Resources Fed Zugzwang Germany Announcement Jerome Powell Nose Tweet Bloomberg Misery Index Zombie Company...

History never repeats itself. Man always does. Voltaire Mark Twain is credited with a similar saying, that history doesn’t repeat but it rhymes. Of course, there is scant evidence that Clemens said anything of the sort just as Voltaire may or may not have penned the quote above. But both men were much wittier than I – than most – so I’ll take them both as being representative if not genuine. I have been a professional investor for now over 30 years and I have seen...

It all became very clear to me sitting out there today, that every decision I’ve ever made, in my entire life, has been wrong. My life is the complete opposite of everything I want it to be. Every instinct I have, in every aspect of life, be it something to wear, something to eat… It’s all been wrong. Every one. – George Constanza If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right. – Jerry Seinfeld From the Seinfeld episode “The Opposite” I...