Since the advent of nineteenth century socialism, politicians and economists in the centre ground have argued for a balanced approach, where vital services are provided by the state, and capitalism is left to provide the rest. Vital services in a modern economy are taken to include pensions, unemployment and disability benefits, healthcare and education. Most states also provide communications, such as rail and road infrastructure, electrical grids and perhaps telecommunications. They often own and operate on behalf of the people utilities, such as the railways, ports, electricity and water. Full Story
Gold remains largely forgotten, off the radars of most investors. But that’s likely to change soon as this leading alternative investment is nearing a major bull breakout. Once gold climbs to decisive new bull-market highs, sentiment will turn and investors’ interest will surge. Their resulting buying will rapidly drive gold higher, attracting in more capital inflows. Gold is only a couple modest up days away from that key breakout. Full Story
Of several Threats to the Markets and Economy, there is one which is both Paramount and probable to be realized. But this Great Threat also provides an opportunity for Great Profit and Wealth Protection for those who are aware and prepare. Full Story
John Williams of Shadowstats.com, a leading online alternative economic-resource sees the potential for an explosive move in the PMs sector / commodities. According to Shadowstats, the official inflation numbers are significantly understated - consumers are being robbed as the pace of price increases exceeds wages. Full Story
This is about as underreported as it gets. A tiny, almost nonexistent report appeared in Trend.az news service on Thursday April 19 announcing that Turkey’s Central Bank had moved 220 tons of gold out of the Federal Reserve System to take possession in Turkey. Trend is also reporting that an additional 95 tons of gold is being moved out of the Federal Reserve and back to Turkey. Full Story
Erik is CEO of the instant Bitcoin and altcoin exchange, ShapeShift.io, a groundbreaking coin / token service that facilitates quick and virtually free exchange of nearly any cryptocurrency. A Bitcoin holder who wishes to convert BTC for Litecoin or any other currency, can do so online without the hassle or invasiveness of setting up a personal / business account. Full Story
Spiking home prices are a mixed bag, with current homeowners benefitting at the expense of wannabe homeowners. But spiking oil and gas are bad for almost everyone. US automakers depend on sales of monster trucks and SUVs, which will be far less attractive in a $3 gas world. And anyone who commutes gets, in effect, a tax increase. Full Story
I have one idea for all of you that is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest "short" set-ups that I have seen in over 40 years trading markets. Because I am leery of interventions and manipulations carried out constantly under the blinded eyes of regulators, I need to short something that would not be exposed to directional risk. The best example of being right about something and wrong at the same time was mid-2017 when I took one look at Bitcoin and determined that it was a bubble of the highest order. Full Story
In previous blog posts (e.g. HERE) I explained the limitations of sentiment as a market timing tool. Since the public is invariably wrong at price extremes, it certainly can be helpful to track the public’s sentiment and use it as a contrary indicator. However, whereas price extremes always coincide with sentiment extremes, sentiment extremes often don’t coincide with price extremes. This is especially the case during long-term bull markets, when sentiment is capable of staying very optimistic for years. It’s therefore best to think of a sentiment extreme as a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for a price extreme. Full Story
“Take a pill” thinking encouraged government to spend a fortune on war and social programs and face the consequences later. Foreign nations converted dollars to gold per the Bretton Woods treaty. Instead of correcting the imbalances and spending responsibly, President Nixon did his version of “take a pill” and decreed the U.S. would no longer redeem dollars from foreign nations with gold. The consequences included the huge consumer price inflation of the 1970s, interest rates spiking into the teens in 1980, a stagnant stock market from 1965 until the early 1980s, and much social anguish. Full Story
Gijsbert Groenewegen argues that, at least in silver, the EFP process is now being used as a price-setting mechanism where two parties are able to negotiate a transfer of contracts and physical liabilities. Perhaps he's correct. However, if anything, the escalating abuse of this process has brought the sham and fraud of the digital derivative pricing scheme into greater focus. Mainly, how in the world does a swapping of derivative contracts, where there's obviously zero physical metal involved, equitably determine the true price and value of underlying physical asset? Full Story
By: Gordon T Long and Charles Hugh Smith - 18 April, 2018
In these two 28 minute videos which include over 29 and 15 slides, Gordon T Long and Charles Hugh Smith discuss the escalating Trade War tensions. Full Story
When you think about it, the journey of each individual currency note is pretty incredible. After being printed or minted, each bill is then passed between people and businesses to facilitate transactions. If it’s a $1 or $5 bill, it changes hands on average about 110 times per year – and if it’s a $20 bill, it’s more like 75. The interesting part is that almost every transaction is linked to the one before it, and the series of subsequent transactions for each bill creates a unique, broad story. Full Story
Looking at the 50-day moving average, gold is currently in an uptrend and has been trading between $1,365 and $1,302 per ounce since January. Mike Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors, explains gold’s current trajectory and how investors might play the positive trend. Full Story
The precious metals sector is on a long-term buy signal. The short term is on buy signals. The cycle is up. COT data is supportive for overall higher metal prices. We are holding gold-related ETFs for long-term gain. Full Story
Gold is more vulnerable than GDX in the short term, and I’ve been an eager gold stocks buyer in the entire $23 to $18 GDX price area. I have enough stock and my focus now is call options. That’s because a three-day close above $1370 for gold now appears imminent. Holding 70% calls and 30% puts on gold stocks is probably an ideal way for gold market gamblers to get positioned. I don’t gamble a lot, but I do gamble, and this gamble appears to be a very good one! Full Story
The root causes of the crisis have never been addressed. They are metastasizing instead. Public debt levels have tripled. Private debt has also grown significantly. All the while, bankers continue rigging markets and pervasive fraud goes largely unpunished. Our unceasing military intervention overseas alienates some allies and breeds new enemies, some of whom are more than capable of fighting back. Another crisis, whether it is military or economic (or both) is inevitable. The causes, like before, will be obvious but not until after the fact for most. Full Story
Global silver scrap supply fell to its lowest level in 26 years. World silver recycling in 2017 dropped by nearly 50% since its peak in 2011. According to the 2018 World Silver Survey, global silver scrap supply declined to 138 million oz (Moz) compared to 261 Moz in 2011. While the lower silver price is partly responsible for the large drop in silver recycling, there are other market dynamics. Full Story
Want to know how big Texas really is? Let’s compare its economy with that of Russia, the world’s largest country by area. As you probably know, Russia’s been in the news a lot lately, so the timing of this comparison makes sense. The U.S. just levied fresh sanctions against the Eastern European country for its alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and early last week President Donald Trump warned Russia that the U.S. military could soon strike its ally Syria in response to its use of chemical weapons—a promise he kept Friday evening. Full Story
Why didn’t the airstrikes move gold? And why would they? You see, as we always emphasize, the markets are driven by expectations and often buy the rumor and sell the fact. Gold smells war. Indeed, the wave of strikes on Syria was priced in last week – and it is why the price of gold didn’t rally yesterday. Full Story
On 29 January 2018, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Division of Enforcement together with the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice and the FBI announced criminal and civil enforcement actions against 3 global investment banks and 5 traders for involvement in trade spoofing in precious metals futures contracts on the US-based Commodity Exchange (COMEX). COMEX is by far the largest and most active futures exchange in the world for trading precious metals futures including gold futures contracts and silver futures contracts. Full Story
A few weeks ago we wrote that it may not be Gold’s time yet but a few recent developments suggest its time could be sooner than we anticipated. Although Gold failed to breakout last week, we should note the positive action in the miners. Over the past seven trading days the miners have strongly outperformed Gold. That includes the juniors, which appear very close to breaking out of the downtrend that has been in effect for over 12 months. Full Story
The best performing metal this week was palladium, up 9.16 percent on concerns new Russian sanctions announced at the start of week could disrupt supplies. Gold traders and analysts are at their most bullish on the gold price in a year, according to the weekly Bloomberg survey. Gold ETFs saw holdings increase for seven consecutive days with total holdings at their highest levels since May 2013. This year so far there have been 2.5 million troy ounces added to holdings. According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, investors have added $7 million into funds that are linked to gold. Full Story
What happens next is also predictable: A growing number of pension plans will blow up as states and cities run out of cash, and the resulting chaos will lead the federal government to bail them out with another five-or-so trillion dollars of taxpayer money. Only this time around – with debt at every level of society twice or more as high as when the banks got their bailout — the result, especially in the currency markets, might be a lot less reassuring. Full Story
Back in the drug-soaked, if not halcyon, days known at the sexual and drug revolution—the 1960’s—many people were on a quest for the “perfect trip”, and the “perfect hit of acid” (the drug lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD). We will no doubt generate some hate mail for saying this, but we don’t believe that anyone ever attained that goal. The perfect drug-induced high does not exist. Even if it seems fun while it lasts, the problem is that the consequences spill over into the real world. Full Story
Bill Murphy of GATA.org says it's business as usual in the markets; the gold / silver price rigging continues to plague the sector. Dovish comments from the new Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, suggests a relative value in commodities relative to shares and paper assets. Peter Grandich of Peter Grandich and Company and Pete Speaks returns with commentary on the US stock market and the PMs sector. Topping the financial headlines; the trade war between Washington DC and China, as well as the new Shanghai gold backed yuan-petro futures exchange. Full Story
The markets effectively yawned. The very next day Trump issued another tweet saying “Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!” Then on Friday, April 13, 2018 after the markets were closed missile attacks were launched on Damascus. The markets did a yo-yo during the week with stocks down and gold up on April 11, 2018, then on April 12, 2018 it was stocks up and gold down. Full Story
On the 6-month chart for the Dow Jones Industrials, it looks like it is rolling over and set to drop again after arriving at the red downtrend line shown. However, the pattern that has formed over the past few weeks could be an intermediate base that might lead to a significant rally, especially as it has developed just above a still rising 200-day moving average. Full Story
For the last three months gold had been chopping out a rectangle trading range which has completed four reversal points so far. Wednesday of this week it looked like gold may breakout above the top rail but the bears stopped the advance just when it looked like the bulls were finally going to win. Full Story
My friends outside the US – and I have many – observe our ordeal with a combination of amusement and pity. They don’t like taxes either, and often pay far more than we do. But their governments, for the most part, don’t put people through such torture every year. They appear to have found better ways. Why can’t we? Full Story
Gold's safe haven status was tested this week as Donald Trump's economic war threatens to turn into a shooting war, with a number of global flash points getting hotter. At the time of this writing the precious metal moved from a close of $1325.69 an ounce on April 5 to $1337.90 on April 12, dipping on Thursday after reaching a high of $1364.50 during Wednesday morning trading – the highest it's been since Feb. 14. Full Story
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