March 2018
Continued Stock Market Upheaval Makes the Case for Gold
The horrendous stock market performance last week has hopefully put to rest any notions that the Dow Jones will continue pushing upward to set new highs. A market that is reliant on easy money and investor euphoria for its continued growth is a market that is destined to crash, and to crash hard. The economy is under attack on...
Deposit Insurance Leads to Moral Hazard
The fractional reserve banking system is a system that is doomed to fail, it’s just a matter of when, not if. Governments throughout history have taken steps to prop up that system, but in the long run nothing has ever worked. You just can’t loan out deposits while telling depositors they can retrieve their money at any time without...
More Tariffs Means the Economy Is in for a Rough Spell
With his recent decision to place tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, President Trump could cause some serious disruption to the economy. In an attempt to rectify what he sees as an uneven trade deficit, he could harm American industries and consumers. But with so much discussion of the trade deficit, it is surprising that no one seems to...
New Fed Chief Doesn’t Inspire Confidence
Last week saw the first Congressional testimony of new Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome “Jay” Powell. Anyone who expected anything groundbreaking from his testimony was, of course, disappointed. But Powell’s appearance did show signs of his thinking and of what we might expect from the Fed going forward. For investors, both Powell’s testimony and his answers to questions didn’t inspire...
February 2018
Rising Inflation and the Importance of Gold
The government’s official inflation figures surged in January, with the producer price index (PPI) rising by 0.4% and the consumer price index (CPI) rising by 0.5%. If those trends continue throughout the year, that could be dangerous for consumers and investors. Combined with newfound uncertainty in stock markets, it makes it all the more important for investors to keep...
Is A House Really A Retirement Asset?
Many American households have their wealth tied up in their houses. For many Americans across all different income levels, the value of their houses exceeds the value of all their other financial assets. There is also a history in the United States of home ownership being recommended as a sure way of becoming wealthy, or at least financially comfortable....
Stock Market Correction Is A Warning
The stock market correction of the past couple of weeks is a warning to investors that equities are fundamentally overvalued. The euphoria that had infested markets in recent months was reminiscent of the dotcom bubble, especially since the major stocks pushing indexes higher are tech stocks such as Amazon, Facebook, Apple, etc. While stock markets are rebounding to begin...
Don’t Ignore Alan Greenspan
One of my foils while I served in Congress was Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. For many years while I served on the House Financial Services Committee I had the opportunity to question him during his semiannual testimony before Congress, and I never could get a straight answer from him. Greenspan was notorious for speaking in such a vague...