Precious metals markets can certainly be volatile from week to week, but over time they are a more reliable store of value than Federal Reserve Notes. Gold and silver remain the world’s most enduring and most widely recognized form of money. And, as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution, gold and silver coins are legal tender. Individual states thus can formally recognize gold and silver coins as legal tender alternatives to Federal Reserve Note dollars. Full Story
By: Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital - 10 March, 2017
With his widely followed, and positively reviewed, address to Congress last week, President Trump showed how easy it could be to unite Washington around a big-budget centrist agenda on health care, immigration, taxes, infrastructure and the military. But the continued accusations surrounding his campaign's alleged Russian connections, and the President's conspiratorial responses, have insured that the battle lines have only hardened. Full Story
I would like to take this chance to share a few of my thoughts on this. To me it is pretty clear that the American gold is encumbered. Not because of the usual reasons found on the web but because America defaulted on its gold under the Nixon administration. There are still, many foreign claims on that gold. If America starts to use that gold officially, the gold vultures, like the bond vulture funds, will be out en masse and with force. So it is in America’s best interest to ignore that gold – and gold in general. Full Story
Ron Paul gives testimony in bill to encourage use of Gold and silver as money. Bill passes Senate Finance committee. Moves on to final approval. This bill, honest money bill -- HB2014, could end the federal reserve's monopoly on money. Full Story
By: Adam Hamilton, Zeal Intelligence - 10 March, 2017
The gold miners’ stocks have corrected hard in recent weeks, hammered by a gold pullback driven by soaring Fed-rate-hike odds. Like any considerable selloff, this has spawned serious bearish sentiment. But the gold miners’ underlying operating fundamentals remain quite strong, proving the recent selling was purely psychological. This sector’s just-reported fourth-quarter results are impressive, very bullish. Full Story
On Thursday, we finally had a chance to catch up again with Andrew Maguire. After making waves two weeks ago with his forecast of a pending "reset" in the price of gold, this podcast allowed Andy to go into greater detail regarding the condition of the physical versus paper markets and why he is so confident that a breakdown is inevitable and coming soon. Full Story
Following a remarkable 9 week silver market rally, Bill Murphy of GATA.org says that the gold cartel is back in play in the silver market. Another likely explanation for recent volatility includes the upcoming stealth rate hike by Fed policymakers. Chairwoman Janet Yellen's comments last week startled investors. Full Story
By: Steve St. Angelo, SRSrocco Report - 10 March, 2017
The Silver Market is going to experience a big reversal when the Hedge Funds and Institutional investors rotate out of highly inflated stocks and into precious metals investments. This is not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. And the when, could be much sooner than we expect due to the huge problems with the U.S. debt ceiling deadline on March 15, 2017. Full Story
The only amusing part of what’s coming will be the disarray among the economists and politicians who have been advocating a higher inflation target, as if a modern economy is a thermostat that can be dialed up and then back down by an omniscient homeowner. As Jim Rickards likes to say, it’s not a thermostat, but a nuclear reactor that can, if allowed to get too far out of balance, go critical. Full Story
Trump has been president for more than a month. What has he done so far and how will it affect the gold market? Trump’s presidency has begun like no other – four weeks of conflict and chaos: travel ban, war with media and intelligence agencies, and the resignation of Flynn as a national security advisor. However, beneath the noise, Trump has been steadily fulfilling his campaign promises, or so it seems. Full Story
RINF is the symbol for an ETF trading vehicle that tracks inflation expectations. This is of more than passing interest to me, since I’ve been a hard-core deflationist and written on the topic for more than 30 years. RINF has yet to break out on a long-term basis (see chart above), and I am extremely skeptical that it will. Incipiently deflationary forces arising from debt, and from the substitution of machines for workers, are vastly more powerful than any catalyst one could imagine for inflation. Full Story
James Rickards believes that the EU elections “could potentially bring the future of the European Union into grave doubt” and that the “bottom line” is that “there are plenty of potential geopolitical shocks that could threaten the current system, in addition to existing concerns about a stock market collapse or debt crisis.” Full Story
With all the oil-related headlines we’re exposed to each day, you might assume that “black gold,” along with other fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, matter to humanity’s future. You’d be wrong. Like Keynesian economics and fiat currencies, fossil fuels are near the end of their run. From here on out, solar is the story. Full Story
This famous advice, according to Shakespeare, was ignored with fatal consequences for Julius Caesar. Markets may be being similarly complacent ahead of this anniversary date next week. The Fed has signalled that it will raise interest rates at the FOMC’s March meeting, timed for the same day. It so happens that this fateful date coincides with the end of the suspension of the US debt ceiling. Dare Janet Yellen raise rates at such a sensitive juncture? Full Story
Just like everything else in the western financial system, the paper trading markets are leveraged beyond redemption. The amount of paper “claims” on actual physical gold was estimated to be 100:1 in 2010. We can assure you that ratio is much higher now. On the Comex alone, for instance, if more than 9% of the April open interest in gold futures were to stand for delivery – based on the currently declared 1.4 million ounces of gold reported as being “available for delivery” (registered) – the Comex would default. The entire open interest in gold futures is 60x greater than the amount of gold available for delivery. Full Story
In my more than 35 years of investing in hard assets, precious metals and mining, I’ve learned to manage my expectations of gold’s short-term price action. Sure, there have been surprises along the way, but generally, the yellow metal has behaved relatively predictably to two macro drivers, the Fear Trade and Love Trade. Full Story
Yea, we’re getting to that moment where people realize that rates may finally matter in a highly leveraged economy. My good friend Tal, made that point over a year ago. I hope you took his warning and lightened up on interest rate sensitive assets. Let’s think of a typical REIT called Ponzi REIT (Ticker symbol PREIT). They’ve been out there for nearly a decade, buying “irreplaceable” Class A assets in “gateway cities.” Full Story
Say the wrong thing, protest for your human rights or simply have a robot determine the cost of “benefits” is too high and the next thing you know, with the push of a button, a persons financial, economic and social world comes to a grinding halt. Robotics and automation are beginning to move into areas of our lives that people just 10 years ago couldn’t or wouldn’t see. Today, we had all better be on high alert or the job we thought would never be performed with automation or a robot will be gone with the push of button. Full Story
Since “Surprise 16” when Donald Trump won the presidential election, he has made it clear that if he has his way, he will enact inflationary policies. These include increasing defense spending and infrastructure spending, while at the same time reducing government revenue via decreased income and corporate tax rates. Full Story
Although gold has a bigger reputation today as a monetary metal, it was often deemed too valuable for everyday transactions throughout history. For the most part, common people in places like Ancient Rome used silver to buy daily staples like grain or wine. As a result, silver has a strong reputation through monetary history as the “people’s money”. Even today, silver is still much more widely accessible. With one ounce of gold being 70x more expensive than an ounce of silver, it’s difficult for someone who is just starting to accumulate wealth to own gold. Full Story
The market has rallied off the 2009 lows, and most people are convinced that the Fed powered the move. In fact, most were certain that once QE ended, the market would drop. And, they currently maintain this conviction despite the fact that the market has continued significantly higher well beyond the cessation of the QE program. Full Story
Today, patient reader, we hopefully reach the end of our tax reform saga, which has grown much longer than I expected. I seriously thought at the beginning that I could fit all this into one letter. Then it became a two-parter, then a trilogy, and then … well, here we are. The length notwithstanding, I have had more feedback on this series than on anything I’ve written in a very long time. Opinions run strong. Today’s letter is pretty much guaranteed to create even stronger reactions, as the realities I present are not pretty, and the options we have to fix the system without its completely imploding on us are simply not all that palatable. Full Story
Most analysis of gold and silver markets tends to be U.S.-centric. However, the next secular trend in precious metals markets may have less to do with U.S. debt, U.S. politics, the U.S. central bank, and the U.S. dollar and more to do with a gigantic new source of demand. Full Story
Given the big down move this week in the precious metals, it would certainly follow that the activities of the Commercials would be no surprise. They matched all of the demand brought to bear on the Crimex gold pit by selling over 40,000 contracts representing over 4,000,000 ounces of synthetic gold, and then nudged the gold market off the ledge. They did it with much-revered aplomb, but nowhere more daunting than in the nearly $1.00 collapse in silver that had the blogosphere buzzing last week. Full Story
After finishing 2016 up 25 percent, commodities are getting another boost from bullish investors. Investment bank Citigroup forecasts commodity prices will increase this year on strengthening demand in China and mounting inflation inspired by President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies. Commodity assets under management globally stood at $391 billion in January, up 50 percent from the same time the previous year, according to Citigroup. Full Story
So what does this mean? For years we have seen job reports such as these coming in, only to be disheartened by the fact that the jobs added were nothing to be celebrated at all, as they were low-paying jobs replacing high-paying, skilled jobs. This report is a complete reversal of that hollowing-out trend. What is most remarkable about this massive surge in job creation is the fact that it includes a large quantity of high-quality, skilled jobs from the manufacturing, construction and mining sectors, NOT just low-paying service jobs, as we have seen in the past. Full Story
Whitney George, portfolio manager of the Sprott Focus Trust, is a career-long value investor who has described himself at times as a "Buffett groupie" reflecting his long-standing admiration of the legendary investor. Like Buffett, George seeks to capitalize on the manic depressive behavior of the aggregate stock market, a group author Benjamin Graham memorably referred to as Mr. Market —the fictitious business partner who impulsively offers to sell his share of the business or to buy the reader's share every day. Full Story
Following President Trump’s speech the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) easily broke 21,000, and closed at another all-time high – 21,115. The Dow closed up for the 12th consecutive day on Monday February 27, another three decade record. Excel calculated the Dow’s daily Relative Strength Index (RSI – 14 period), a technical timing oscillator. It reached 97.75 (maximum = 100.00) on March 1, an exceptionally “over-bought” reading that has occurred nine times since 1950. Full Story
Hey! Look! Here I am! Over here! I’m back! (Sound of thunderous applause). Thanks! Wonderful to be here! I know that you, like most people, are probably scratching your head quizzically, asking yourself “Who is this doofus who calls himself Mighty Magnificent Mogambo in the next paragraph, which doesn’t even make sense? And who cares that he is back, which is not to mention why am I reading this stupid crap in the first freaking place?” Full Story
Three weeks ago, as the GDX was consolidating just below its .764 extension, the market had a clear set up to break out. However, when it did not do so over the following week, I noted in our trading room that I was hedging my portfolio because when a market has an opportunity to break out, and chooses not to do so, the market is often signaling it wants to pullback before the actual break out. This seems to be the path the market has now taken. Full Story
This year gold’s fortunes will be influenced by the actions of the Central Bankers and the Geo-Political chaos which is simmering in various parts of the world. We are all aware that there are many factors that influence the precious metals sector; however, today we will only look at these two as I believe they are the dominant factors. Full Story
On Friday 3 March 2017, in a surprise announcement with implications for the global silver market, the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) informed its members that the current administrator and calculation agent of its recently launched LBMA Silver Price auction, Thomson Reuters and the CME Group respectively, will be pulling out of providing their services to the problematic London-based silver price benchmark within the near future. Thomson Reuters and the CME Group issued identical statements. Full Story
Of course, we all know that the benevolent and altruistic organization called The Federal Reserve is on a rate hike regimen because the US economy is "booming" and "robust". Oh, really? After just +1.6% "growth" for 2016, Mr. Donut in Atlanta today lowered his Q1 GDP projection to just +1.3%. That sure sounds robust to me! Full Story
I want to warn you to be very VERY careful with stocks right now. The common narrative is that the US is entering a golden age in its economy and that this growth will drive stocks ever higher. The reality is that GDP growth has collapsed. The third quarter of last year (3Q16) was the quarter everyone thought signaled a new beginning with growth of 3.5%. However, the very next quarter’s growth (4Q16) collapsed to 1.9%. Full Story
It’s starting to look more and more like the intermediate cycle for the precious metals has topped. During the declining phase of an intermediate cycle the RSI (5) tends to stay oversold for long periods of time, as is the case now. We should have a bounce out of a daily cycle low soon but I suspect it will roll over and price will make a lower low. Full Story
One of the biggest questions investors have is what type of environment are stocks and the economy in, deflation or inflation? Knowing the answer to that question can give you a heads up on what different sectors to invest in and what sectors to stay away from. Tonight I would like to update some of the different commodities indexes to see if they can give us any clues on which way the deflationary or inflationary pendulum is swinging. Commodities are often an under analysed asset class as compared to Stocks and Bonds. However they are the nuts and bolts , the real stuff supporting human existence. Full Story
Inflation is the most pernicious of taxes levied by our government. Officials systematically devalue the Federal Reserve Note “dollar,” then levy capital gains taxes on assets when their dollar price rises. The “gains” are largely illusory. Rising asset prices over time reflect the fact that the dollar buys less of everything. But the tax obligations triggered by this inflation are very real. Full Story
Last week I was in Vancouver attending YPO EDGE, the annual summit for business executives from more than 130 countries. YPO, which stands for Young Presidents’ Organization, has roughly 24,000 members worldwide. Together, they employ 15 million people and generate a massive $6 trillion in revenue annually. Full Story
Bulls and bears duked it out Monday with no clear winner, but I give the latter a small edge for now because buyers were able to recoup only half of the 14-point drop that began the day. We are in any event using a bigger-picture rally target that lies more than 100 points above, but it will probably have to wait for now. Of more immediate concern is whether we should place a ‘mechanical’ bid at the red line or instead wait for a more robust correction down to the green one. I’ll suggest the latter, but with the caveat that full-throated corrections that could make buying theoretically easier have been in scare supply since the Trump Rally began. Full Story
As both a competitor and peer of Miles Franklin in the retail bullion industry, Peter Schiff has, like myself, been a vocal Precious Metal advocate. We have differing views on the risk/reward profile of mining shares, but agree 100% about the fundamentals of; and reasons to own; physical gold and silver. Moreover, he is unquestionably, in my view, the most talented economic and political analyst in the financial blogosphere. Full Story
A good friend and colleague of the Shadow of Truth, John Titus, once quipped with regard to the public’s consumption and acceptance of anything reported as news, “put it on CNN and it’s true.” This statement succinctly summarizes the propaganda which supports the process by which the Government seeks to control the views and perceptions of the public at large. In today’s Shadow of Truth podcast, we toss around that fact that the United States has become a Goebellsian “playground” and George Orwell’s nightmare. Full Story
In two previous missives, I documented the record and seasonality of the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSXV) since its inception in late 2001 (Mercenary Musing, June 13, 2016; Mercenary Musing, November 7, 2016). In the first musing, we demonstrated that there is strong seasonality to the TSXV Index throughout the year. In the second musing, we showed that tax-loss season offers a profitable short-term trading opportunity from mid-December to early January. I now complete the trilogy with analysis of the TSXV Index over the five month period from January 1 to May 31. Full Story
The simplest outline for this week concerns inflation. Stocks have erupted higher in the last month based on the belief that the economy is roaring once again. However, this is all about sentiment, not reality. The Fed’s own real-time GDP tracking tools has collapsed from predicting growth of 3.5% in early February to just 1.9% last week. Full Story
It is my privilege now to welcome in Michael Pento president and founder of Pento Portfolio Strategies and author of the book The Coming Bond Market Collapse: How to Survive the Demise of the U.S. Debt Market. Michael is a money manager and who ascribes to the Austrian School of Economics and has been a regular guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business News, and also the Money Metals podcast. Full Story
Headwinds that are starting to assail deep structural flaws in the US and global economies form the basis for my 2017 economic forecast, which looks like an all-out economic crisis building throughout the world. Some of these headwinds are global; some more locally focused within the United States, but that which brings down the US economy wounds the world anyway. Ultimately, global concerns threaten the US, and US concerns threaten the globe. We’re all in this together, even as we seem to be flying apart in political whirlwinds everywhere and fracturing national alliances all over the world. Full Story
The best performing precious metal for the week was palladium up 0.39 percent. Friday’s Commitments of Traders Report showed money managers increased their bullish positions over the past week. On Thursday the European Union reported consumer prices were 2 percent higher in February than a year earlier, reports MarketWatch. This is the highest rate of inflation in four years, and a pickup from 1.8 percent in January 2017. Europeans have been significant buyers of gold in recent months. Full Story
I have been thinking about Dad all week and some of his lifetime stories. I mentioned in my last article that my Great Grandfather owned a bank and lost it in the Great Depression along with all his personal funds. He told my father to never own a bank. My father told me all this years later and said that he should have listened. Full Story
As Dr. Steve Pieczenik (former CIA) explains in this brilliant clip, the larger US bureaucracy, deep state, and shadow government, the centralized ‘super-state’ that conquered the not just America, but the world, are essentially dying. The consequences of all the corruption, fraud, and excesses are coming home to roost, where significant change is coming Trump or no Trump, as will become evident as the global decentralization process accelerates in years to come. Full Story
The dollar has been one of the biggest contrarian trades I have seen in years. Every time the market is so certain about the direction it will run, it does the exact opposite and often in extreme fashion. In my last weekend update, I noted how we called the multi-year rally off the 2011 lows when the market was expecting the dollar to crash due to all the QE. And, I also noted how the dollar has been moving down after the Fed has raised rates, despite the common expectations that the dollar should rise. Full Story
By: Steve Saville, The Speculative Investor - 6 March, 2017
If the future were 100% certain then there would be no reason to have any monetary savings. You could be fully invested all of the time and only raise cash immediately prior to cash being needed. By the same token, if the future were very uncertain then you would probably want to have a lot more cash than usual in reserve. This has critical implications for the gold market. Full Story
One of the traditional signs of market tops is individual investors finally succumbing to the lure of apparently easy money and pouring their savings into the stock market. In the past this dumb money flowed into equity mutual funds in general. But today it’s favoring exchange traded funds (ETFs) that, rather than trying to pick winners, simply offer exposure to sectors or broad market indexes. Full Story
The price of gold has been rising, but perhaps not enough to suit the hot money. Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin has shot up even faster. From $412, one year ago, to $1290 on Friday, it has gained over 200% (and, unlike gold, we can say that bitcoin went up—it’s a speculative asset that goes up and down with no particular limit). Compared to the price action in bitcoin, gold seems boring. While this is a virtue for gold to be used as money (and a vice for bitcoin), it does tend to attract those who just want to get into the hottest casino du jure. Full Story
Andrew Maguire, of Andrew Maguire Gold Trading a 40 year gold market veteran and whistleblower, returns with startling news on the precious metals. Our guest examines the minutiae of the markets noting that decades of manipulation has broken the gold / silver paper markets. As a result, the physical market is reasserting dominance over paper promises. Analysis of the options markets suggests that the 6 major bullion banks via the BOE are locked into losing short-sale positions. Full Story
It was another Trumpian week highlighted by his speech to Congress. The speech was quite toned down from his usual Trumpian style, but then we learned that he read it from a teleprompter and it was largely written by his daughter Ivanka so that hopefully he would sound more Presidential. However, the same themes prevailed. Trump stressed the increased spending for the military, describing it as one of the largest in history (equal to about half what Russia spends), although in terms of percentage increase it wasn’t even close to being the largest. Full Story
There is much more happening in the rapidly rupturing retailing industry than a shift to online buying, a collapse in US shopping mall traffic and the decline of the "Department Store" model. Over two years ago Charles Hugh Smith and I produced a number of research videos ( 02 03 14 - THE RETAIL CRE DOMINO, 11 30 13 - LOOMING US RETAIL IMPLOSION: An Urgent Re-Think Required! ) outlining the alarming changes in US retailing. We revisited the current status of that work to find the rate of decline now even faster and accelerating. Full Story
In the past, I've warned about the coming Great Wealth Transfer. But now we need to talk about it in the present tense, because it’s here. And it will only accelerate from here on out. The Rich will get richer at the expense of everybody else. This isn't personal. It's simply a feature of what happens near the end of a debt-based monetary system run by corruptible humans. Full Story
Professional investors are selling stocks and buying gold. Small investors are buying stocks and neglecting gold. While the bulk of attention has gone to the stock market thus far this year, gold is up 7.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 6.2%. What is going on? In this month's issue we explore what the professional investors might know that small investors are missing? Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 5 March, 2017
The price of gold has been heavily suppressed by the U.S. government, Wall Street financial houses, and the banking system, according to billionaire Canadian mining and movie entrepreneur Frank Giustra, a confidant and philanthropy associate of former President Bill Clinton. Giustra's remarks were made in late January at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference during an interview with Marin Katusa of Katusa Research and were publicized today by GATA Board of Directors member Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Daily newsletter. Full Story
Yesterday, my MUST LISTEN Audioblog started with a discussion of this clip of soon-to-be French President Marine LePen humiliating soon-to-be ex German Chancellor Angela Merkel and soon-to-be ex French President Francois Hollande in front of the European Parliament. As when she wins, it will be blindingly apparent that Europeans want their sovereignty back, no matter what the cost. And believe me, the “cost” will be high. Full Story
Here’s the thing. These criminal banksters do NOTHING to produce wealth. Their job is stealing. If you or I were to commit a crime, like market rigging, we would be in federal prison on several felony charges, including conspiracy, and would be treated like the criminal we are. The banksters, on the other hand, are treated like royalty for committing the same crime on a global scale. Their crimes should actually be considered crimes against humanity as these crimes impact millions upon millions of people. Full Story
John Embry, Chief Investment Strategist at Sprott Asset Management, returns to the program with his thoughts on the precious metals sector. The duo caution investors from parking too many investment portfolio eggs in paper assets, stocks / bonds given the abrupt rout in the Shanghai index. Conversely, the pullback in the precious metals sector is presenting a golden opportunity to procure value via dollar cost averaging. Full Story
Another great week for markets as this bull market continues to act great, and we should have another couple years before a major top is in place, but perhaps even longer if infrastructure, regional jobs and made in America really gets rolling. As for the metals, they looked great last weekend but I did mention the warning the miners flashed with weakness, but that it didn’t look to be playing out. Full Story
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