By: Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital - 18 December, 2015
On May 1, 2003 on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln then President George W. Bush, after becoming the first U.S. president to land on an aircraft carrier in a fixed wing aircraft (in a dashing olive drab flight suit), declared underneath an enormous "Mission Accomplished" banner that "major combat operations" in Iraq had been concluded, that regime change had been effected, and that America had prevailed in its mission to transform the Middle East. 13 years later, after years of additional combat operations in Iraq, and a Middle East that is spiraling out of control and increasingly disdainful of America's influence, we look back at the "Mission Accomplished" event as the epitome of false confidence and premature celebration. Full Story
By: Adam Hamilton, Zeal Intelligence - 18 December, 2015
The Federal Reserve finally mustered the courage to end its radical zero-interest-rate-policy experiment this week. Its quarter-point rate hike announced on the seventh anniversary of ZIRP kicks off the long road to normalization. This leaves the stock markets and gold in unprecedented uncharted territory. The Fed has never before attempted to exit ZIRP, let alone in the midst of such extremely distorted markets. Full Story
How do we know government is getting weaker? Because it is sustained by central bank counterfeiting and debt, and the lies of state sycophants. How long can massive fraud last? To say that government is corrupt is saying water is wet. The whole apparatus of government — a bandit gang writ large, in Rothbard’s famous depiction — is an affront to civilization and human dignity. Yet it’s the absence of government — anarchy — that we’re supposed to avoid at all costs. We’re avoiding it, all right, and we’re paying dearly for it. Full Story
Alongside the GDP and labor market’s strength, inflation rate is the most important macroeconomic indicator – since the Fed promotes full employment and price stability. The price stability is measured as the inflation rate, so inflation reports are closely watched by the U.S. central bank and investors. In the August Market Overview, we showed that gold is not always an inflation hedge. At that time, we focused on the Consumer Price Index, which is not the only measure of inflation. The others are the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI) and the Producer Price Index (PPI). Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks - 18 December, 2015
Gold got pummeled on Thursday, but this may have opened the door to some cautious buying Friday or Monday down around the 1035.70 Hidden Pivot support shown. Given the sexy look of the ABC pattern that produced the target, it seems most unlikely that we won’t see a tradable bounce from somewhere very near it (i.e., within about 0.60 points). To get aboard, you could bid there, or perhaps a tick or two above, with a stop-loss as tight as 1034.90. If you want to control risk even more tightly, however, I’d suggest entering on an uptrending abc pattern of three-minute degree or less after the futures have gotten within 0.40 points (i.e., 1036.10) of the target. Full Story
By: Steve St. Angelo, SRSrocco Report - 18 December, 2015
While the Federal Reserve continues to rig the financial markets by way of its insane interest rate policy, U.S. silver production took a big hit in September. How big? Well, let’s just say…. it took me by surprise. Full Story
The Fed finally acted this week – upping its benchmark Federal Funds rate by 0.25%. Now that the speculation over whether the Fed will hike has been put to rest, analysts are busily speculating about what the Fed's move means for the economy and markets. Many of these speculations are unfounded. It's time to bust some silly myths. Full Story
After months of the Federal Reserve preparing us for a Fed rate hike, it’s here, done and gone. The day after impact of the first rate hike is resulting in lower commodity prices, a strong US Dollar and little impact on stock indices. Fed Chairwoman Yellen did a fine job of delivering a much anticipated rate hike, but the hike itself leaves those who didn’t think it necessary still in a lurch. Full Story
In this data visualization of the world’s total money supply, we wanted to not only compare the different definitions of money, but to also show powerful context for this information. That’s why we’ve also added in recognizable benchmarks such as the wealth of the richest people in the world, the market capitalizations of the largest publicly-traded companies, the value of all stock markets, and the total of all global debt. Full Story
Wednesday morning before the Fed announcement, a reader sent me this: "It is Janet Yellen's turn to stoke the fire and evidently her news today of a rate increase has stoked the stock market fire to the tune of the Dow rising 138 points 10 minutes in. It has the feeling of being on the Texas coast holding a hurricane party waiting for a hurricane to hit. There are hundreds of people drinking and partying." SO TRUE ...and party they did! The rate hike was not even the biggest news of the day as you'll see...and maybe they were all connected, we'll get to that shortly. Full Story
The Fed’s rise in rates has turned my counterintuitive predictions true by resulting in a rapid rise in the stock market. Trading only had about an hour and half left after the Fed put out its word; so, the Dow only rose about 200 points. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the euphoria kick in full force today and rocket toward something remarkable like 700 points. Full Story
Yesterday, the Fed has hiked interest rates from 0.25% to 0.5%. It is the first rate hike in 10 years. And it is now clear that the Fed is not only behind the ball in terms of raising rates… but that it has now primed the financial system for another 2008-type meltdown. By way of background we need to consider the relationship between the US Dollar and the Euro. Full Story
If you want a more conventional approach, then read the propaganda from central banks, too-big-to-fail bank forecasts, and Keynesian economist papers. Also Harry Dent thinks we will see gold prices perhaps as low as $250 – $400 in a few years. He believes that gold is only a commodity and that commodities peaked in 2010 – 2011 and will not peak again until about 2038 – 2040. Hence gold, according to Harry Dent, after 4.5 years of falling prices, is still over-priced and going lower. I disagree, but I suspect his view is popular, especially among central bankers. Full Story
Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that we have an administered interest rate. This means that the bureaucrats at the Federal Reserve decide what’s good for the little people. Then they impose it on us. In trying to return to freedom, many people wonder why couldn’t we let the market set the interest rate. After all, we don’t have a Corn Control Agency or a Lumber Board (pun intended). So why do we have a Federal Open Market Committee? It’s a very good question. Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 17 December, 2015
Gilburt's basic position seems to echo the position expressed by market analyst Doug Casey at last year's New Orleans Investment Conference: that central banks are irrelevant to markets and so what they do doesn't matter, though they create infinite money and throw much of it around in secret. But Gilburt seems most interested in touting the profitability of the technical analysis of markets provided by his financial letter. If he can make money, either by trading or selling his letter, Gilburt apparently couldn't care less whether markets are free, transparent, and fair. That's his right but he has run away from his original criticism of GATA: that GATA has misconstrued the documentation of central bank intervention in the gold market. Full Story
This past week, Chris Powell, from GATA, took issue with my presenting Bill Murphy’s admission that none of the “fundamentals” in the gold market have meant anything to the price of gold. But, it is quite clear that he did not understand my point. So, please allow me to clarify my point. Full Story
That double whammy was too much for the Cando in today’s session as the currency broke down into a fresh ELEVEN YEAR LOW. Though it too did manage to bounce off the session lows as the US Dollar experienced a round of selling pressure, the Cando still ended the day lower. Currently in Asian trade, it is trading lower again. Full Story
The Chinese railway system has changed dramatically since I last visited the Asian nation. I can remember taking the high-speed train from Shanghai to Beijing during a visit in 2011; at the time it was a fresh, dedicated line covering 819 miles in a little less than five hours. In December of last year I wrote about China’s announcement for a proposed $230 billion high-speed rail system linking Beijing to Moscow. Its estimated distance was 4,350 miles and it would replace the Trans-Siberian Railway, cutting down travel time dramatically. Full Story
By the time you read this Commentary, chances are the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, will have announced its decision to raise, if only by a slim quarter-percentage point, its key Fed funds interest rate. This is the rate banks charge one another in the interbank market for short-term funds – and it influences the whole spectrum of interest rates across the economy. Full Story
D-day, December 16, 2015. It's now the dawn of that day when either the Fed Does or the Fed Doesn't. It doesn't matter. Let me share something counter-intuitive. Whether the Fed raises interest rates or not, this Wednesday is D-day for the Fed's economic recovery because the Fed is Damned if it does and Damned if it doesn't. I'll certainly show you why, but the counterintuitive part is that you can expect the market to crash upward as it leaves Wonderland and returns to reality. Full Story
As I have said on numerous occasions, there are several patterns that I find hard to rely upon in any chart, and one of those is a truncated bottom. This is the only way in which one would be able to consider that the metals have completed their 4+ year correction. Therefore, I still have no solid evidence that a long term bottom has yet been struck, especially since our ideal targets set years ago have still not been struck, even though our minimum targets have. Furthermore, the action seen off the recent lows this past week is not strongly suggestive that the final bottom has been struck. Full Story
We have noted anecdotally that there is a creeping inflation in the system. It does not show up in commodities, which are in a post-bubble (ah, the good old ‘China story’ that was so vigorously promoted to a degree that would make a gold bug promoter blush) melt down. Crashing costs like that are providing the Goldilocks-like balance to rising costs within the economy. Full Story
The very reason I became interested in gold after the financial crisis in 2008 was because of Dutch gold guru, author, journalist, entrepreneur, and fund manager Willem Middelkoop. When I started reading his books I was immediately obsessed with economics and the gold market – along with thousands of others across the world. Who would have thought that I would become a precious metals analyst a few years later? Full Story
Since 2010, several alternative systems of payment for goods and services have cropped up in Greece. One is TEM, which allows people to accrue monetary credit online and then use that credit to pay others. Another is the Athens Time Bank, which logs time units and allows individuals to pay each other with their time; the services provided can be anything from language lessons to medical consultations. And still, other systems are popping up, as Greeks, cut off from their own savings in the banks, seek out any method of payment other than the euro. As expected, barter is becoming commonplace. Full Story
By: Steve Saville, The Speculative Investor - 16 December, 2015
The decline in house prices that began in 2006 wasn’t the cause of the 2007-2009 economic bust. The cause was widespread mal-investment resulting from monetary inflation and the Fed’s interest-rate manipulation. However, the 2006 reversal in house prices set off a series of falling economic dominoes due to the fact that the housing market was where a disproportionately large amount of the mal-investment and associated debt happened to be. Full Story
Wall Street has a new hobby use good money to create the illusion that all is well; only unlike most hobbies, the intent is to distort reality and reward lazy insiders for doing next to nothing. Gone are the days of actually trying to improve the bottom line, by improving efficiency, find new markets, etc.; now the idea is simply cut the supply of outstanding shares, thereby magically boosting the EPS. Why are executives doing this with such impunity? Full Story
When will paper money stop losing its value? I submit that unbacked fiat paper money will, based on history, never stop losing value – as long as it is backed by dodgy sovereign debt issued by governments descending deeper into debt ever year. A viable alternative is currency backed by gold and silver, but even though precious metals have been used successfully as money for centuries, there is far more profit for TPTB when they use the paper stuff. Consequently paper and digital currencies will not disappear anytime soon. Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 15 December, 2015
Gilburt mistakenly perceives GATA's work as being to predict imminently higher prices for gold. While higher prices are implicit in the huge short position central banks long have been underwriting in the gold market, GATA's work is not to give investment advice, nor to predict prices. Rather GATA's work has been to document, publicize, and oppose the largely surreptitious intervention in the gold market by central banks, and to oppose their market rigging generally. Full Story
Tomorrow’s FOMC announcement is arguably the most important Fed event of the past 35 years. It’s a defining moment in Janet Yellen’s career, and so I’ve dubbed it as… “J Day”! The bottom line: Janet Yellen is going to attempt to raise interest rates without significant open market bond sales, something that has never been attempted. The Fed’s balance sheet has never been this large. The sheer size of open market sales needed to raise and sustain higher rates now, would cause a major panic in stock, bond, and real estate markets. Full Story
IN a bit of a surprise today, crude oil somehow managed to pop high after falling below $35 at one point. It seems like it was more a case of running out of sellers rather than aggressive new buying. Full Story
Everyone knows there are winners and losers in any bear market, including the recent commodity rout. Low crude oil prices have definitely hurt explorers and producers. Airlines, on the other hand, appear to be thriving. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a global airlines trade group, the industry is set to post a collective $33 billion in net profits this year—a record—on fuel cost savings and stronger passenger flight demand. Full Story
My point with all of this is that even when the bubble was both very specific AND obvious, the collapse was neither quick nor clean. There were several large 20%+ crashes, but overall, it was a roller coaster with jarring rallies than gradually wore its way down. Full Story
That’s what it’s all about for technocrats – staying ahead of the curve. It’s about managing you and your environment in every respect, from what you think to how you act – and they are winning. Wall Street, Washington, the media, and surveillance state – it’s all about getting your information and using against you in exploitive tactics designed to bolster and enrich the status quo – and to hell with everybody else. The public is viewed as a never-ending resource to be exploited, and the objective for the psychopaths is to remain ahead of everybody else in the larger exploitation game. Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 14 December, 2015
Gold researcher and GATA consultant Koos Jansen today locates a Dutch newspaper report from 1993 indicating that the People's Bank of China was buying gold in the London market long before any imbalance in its foreign-exchange reserves was perceived as a problem. As a result, Jansen writes, he suspects that China's gold buying well may be part of a longstanding plan among central banks for a resetting of the international financial system. Full Story
I couldn’t resist translating this must read from 1993 in Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad (h/t @frankknopers) about the gold sales by the Dutch central Bank (DNB). Presumably, “a part” of the 400 tonnes sold at the time through the Bank For International Settlements went to the Chinese central bank. Although we don’t know for sure what the Chinese central bank did with the gold – at the time the People’s Bank Of China was the primary dealer in the Chinese domestic gold market and in theory could have sold the gold to Chinese jewelry fabricators – we may assume it was kept for its official reserves. Full Story
It appears as if the worm has finally turned for the equity markets. The SPX 500 recorded its largest weekly decline since August, and the broader risk markets took a beating. The price of Crude fell under $35 a barrel and high yield bonds took an absolute drubbing. Friday’s big decline in equities was on extremely high volume – the highest in 6 weeks – and the volatility index (VIX) jumped 26% in its biggest one-day percentage increase of the year. Full Story
Maybe you saw the new video a few weeks back — Amazon mocked up yet another drone aircraft (they demoed the first one in 2014) and videotaped it dropping off a tiny package from its robotic pincers in someone’s backyard. Impressive, sure. To me, though, the point was that investors will see the video and think “This is the future,” so as to justify buying the overpriced stock. Full Story
I use the term “epocalypse” to name the last days of the global economy as we know it — a global economic collapse of biblical proportion. It is economic, epochal, an apocalypse that will change the world and a collapse … all in one word that sounds the right size for what I’m talking about. Call it the “Great Collapse” or the “Epocalypse.” Whatever you call it, it’s about to change the world. Full Story
Although gold was down for the week it was the best performing precious metal. Perhaps gold was underpinned by the news that China added the most to its central bank gold reserves in five months, according to Bloomberg. Gold prices saw the biggest drop in more than two years, plunging 6.8 percent in November. Data from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) this week shows the value of gold assets at $59.52 billion at the end of last month. Full Story
Today, I will speak of a completely unprecedented situation that has evolved over the past seven years. I define “unprecedented” as something that was never done or known before. The unprecedented circumstance is my seven year documented history of labeling the giant financial institution, JPMorgan Chase, as being engaged in an illegal price manipulation of the silver market. To my knowledge, never has it occurred that open allegations of serious criminal wrongdoing have ever been made about any financial institution with those allegations going unchallenged. No one would dare label any large financial institution of being crooked and expect that institution to turn the other cheek. Full Story
This week shapes up as one which could go down in the history books! Markets last week were tumultuous from weak equities, illiquid credit markets, FOREX markets in disarray and commodities hitting the skids ...yet the Federal Reserve is intent on hiking rates? Have they taken this position because the markets are strong? Or because the economy ...anywhere on the planet is overheating? Full Story
Like any fundamental calculation of value, there is no guarantee that the market price will hit the fundamental value. And of course fundamental value is changing all the time too. That said, the fundamental ratio is 7.5% over the market price. That has to be a strong pull. Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman, Rick's Picks - 14 December, 2015
Buying enthusiasm was in conspicuously short supply last week. The futures managed to hold slightly above the 1059.20 low whence the last decent rally commenced on December 4 (a Friday), but that’s surely nothing for bulls to crow about. With a new week about to begin, we’ll shun hope and guesswork and play it strictly by-the-numbers. That means the March contract will have to start demolishing Hidden Pivot resistances with the ease of a battering ram taking out some screen doors before we admit to having bullish ‘feelings’ about gold. Full Story
Chris welcomes back, friend of the show David Gurwitz, Managing Director at Nenner Research. Their technical work suggests the recent rally in gold and silver could continue; targets and turning points are included in the discussion. Chris welcomes back Louis Navellier of Navellier Growth. His work indicates its time for investors to increase their gold and silver portfolio allocation by 50%, due to profligate central banking policies. Full Story
Today we are going to review irrefutable evidence that a slow motion train wreck is already well underway across global markets, that will end with the last wagons on the train, the SPX500 index and the Dow Jones Industrials, disappearing into the abyss right after their immediate predecessors. Full Story
Withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), our measure of Chinese wholesale gold demand, accounted for 43 tonnes in week 47 (spanning from 30 November until 4 December). Year to date SGE withdrawals have reached 2,405 tonnes. Full Story
Recently, we hosted Andy Hoffman of Miles Franklin on a live call. I mean "we" literally because I polled the community before the Q and A, so that we could focus on your questions. Full Story
By: Steve St. Angelo, SRSrocco Report - 13 December, 2015
The silver market has experienced serious changes which precious metal investors need to be aware. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of information and data to provide investors with important key factors going forward. To understand the silver cost-price dynamics, investors need to see the following three charts below. Full Story
Markets were holding up for most of the week until Friday, when they finally released to the downside. While markets were holding up all week, I noted over and over again that stocks were not acting so great and were setting us up for a move lower, which came Friday. Full Story
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