Another month, another report of more Chinese gold purchases. For the fourth consecutive month the Chinese government has added to its official gold reserves, with another 360,000 ounces, or 11 tonnes, of gold purchased in March. That brings the country’s official gold reserves up to 60.62 million ounces. The fact that China continues to purchase gold is an important indicator...
Judging by the behavior of politicians in Washington you would think that the United States is a country ascendant, with decades of rapid growth ahead of it and ready to take its place on the world stage as a leading nation. Instead the US is an empire in decline, living off its past glory, riven by internal divisions, and...
President Trump recently appointed former Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain to the last open slot on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. But while most people remember Cain as the former CEO of Godfather’s pizza and the developer of the 9-9-9 Plan (9% personal income tax, 9% federal sales tax, 9% corporate income tax), far fewer people remember that...
Investors have seen unprecedented behavior in stock markets over the past three years, with a massive bull run resulting in two different stock market highs and the Dow Jones getting awfully close to a third top. But the Dow can’t seem to break above the 27,000-point barrier, which indicates that we’re at a market peak. If the Dow hasn’t...
How much money has the median American workers saved up for retirement? If you answered zero, you’re correct. You may read articles saying that the average American has about $200,000 saved up in a retirement account, or that the average 55-64-year-old household has $374,000 in retirement savings, but those figures are often reporting the average, or mean. Those numbers...
The law of supply and demand is a cornerstone of economics that helps explain today’s rise in silver demand. If the supply of a good decreases, prices for that good will rise. If the supply increases, prices will fall. Conversely, if demand for a good decreases then prices will fall. If demand increases, prices will rise. When looking at gold, silver, and other precious metals, analysts often...
Stock markets have been agog with expectations about big initial public offerings (IPOs). Ride-sharing service Lyft recently offered its first public offerings of stock last Friday, offering shares at $72 apiece. The first trades on Nasdaq began at $87.25, but Lyft quickly crashed downwards, falling below $70 on Monday. That’s a worrying sign for other tech companies planning their...
White House economics adviser Larry Kudlow caused some raised eyebrows last Friday with his call for the Fed to immediately cut its target federal funds rate by 50 basis points. According to Kudlow, the Fed never should have raised interest rates above 2%. Despite protestations that the economy is fundamentally healthy, the call for an immediate interest rate belies...
Every month seems to bring conflicting data from the housing market, with occasional bits of rosy data eventually overwhelmed by negative data. It’s no secret that houses across the country are incredibly expensive. It’s not even just the large metro areas such as San Francisco, New York, and Washington, DC that are affected either. Even interior states such as...
The past week has brought something that investors everywhere had been fearing: an inversion of the yield curve. While the spread between 10-year Treasury bonds and 3-month Treasury bonds had been growing smaller and smaller every month, the yield on the 10-year remained higher. But last week the Fed’s decision to end its balance sheet tightening provided the impetus...