Precious metals news

The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan have collectively expanded their balance sheets by around $8 trillion in 2020. It took them almost eight years to achieve the same growth following the seizure of global financial markets in September 2008.

A European Central Bank push to make it easier for the region’s chronically unprofitable banks to merge is facing opposition from some national regulators, with one top official warning it could backfire and damage the integration of the financial system.

Bank of Japan (BOJ) policymakers were divided on how far to go in tweaking its stimulus programme, with some calling for an overhaul of its strategy for achieving 2% inflation, a summary of views voiced at the December rate review showed.

This year was like no other for oil prices.

The state’s pursuit of these small sellers was bad enough when times were good, and hats off to state Treasurer Fiona Ma for making that argument in the flush days of 2019. It’s even harder to stomach now.

Walmart will use fully autonomous box trucks to make deliveries in Arkansas starting in 2021. The big-box retailer has been working with a startup called Gatik on a delivery pilot for 18 months. Next year, the two companies plan on taking their partnership to the next level by removing the safety driver from their autonomous box trucks.

But don’t fear for airline shareholders & creditors; they get to benefit from another $15 billion via “Taxpayer Capitalism.”

The U.S. Senate will grapple on Tuesday with whether to increase payments to Americans reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and override President Donald Trump's veto of a $740 billion defense bill, two measures set to lapse if lawmakers fail to act before a new Congress takes...

Jobs have declined at retailers and restaurants but grown at warehouses and e-commerce operators over the past year as part of an uneven labor-force recovery.

Despite headlines proclaiming there's no inflation to worry about, Case-Shiller Home Prices were expected to accelerate even stronger in October (the latest data released today) and they did. The 20-City Composite screamed 7.95% higher YoY (smashing expectations of a 6.95% rise)

While the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has hit poor Americans the hardest, minimum wage earners in 20 U.S. states will get raises at the start of the new year. Four more states, plus Washington, DC, will raise their minimum wages later in 2021.

In today's must-watch update, Jeff Clark asks Mike Maloney a very interesting viewer question - 'What would it take for you to announce that you are wrong about gold and silver and where they are heading?'

Peter Schiff has been driving home the fact that the Fed's extraordinary monetary policy isn't helping the economy. In fact, it's setting the stage to destroy it.
Peter points out that the Fed seems to think inflation is the cure for what ails us. That means the monetary and fiscal policies that resulted from COVID are here to stay.

The Federal Reserve has increased the money supply by an astounding amount. This is by definition inflation. But the mainstream insists this isn't a problem because we haven't seen a big jump in the consumer price index. CPI has been creeping up, but it hasn't reached the mythical 2% level. The Fed has signaled it will allow inflation to above that level for some time once it gets there. This should cause concern. As Peter Schiff said, the question is whether or not the Fed can keep doing this indefinitely and the answer is no.
Eventually, the dollar has to give way.”
It's debatable whether the CPI even accurately measure price levels, but assuming that it does and that price inflation remains low — for now — it doesn't tell the whole story. The incessant money printing has negative effects even if it doesn't show up immediately in consumer prices. As Ryan McMaken put it, "This doesn't mean everything is okay."
The following article by Ryan McMaken was origin...

Gold inched higher on Tuesday as a softer dollar underpinned the metal, with market participants looking forward to a U.S. Senate vote on increased pandemic aid.

Many emerging markets emulated their developed peers this year with bond-buying programmes that successfully tamped down borrowing costs, yet unease is also stirring about the possible hit to hard-won monetary policy independence.

Speculative traders are ending the year doubling down on their bets against the dollar. Net short non-commercial positions in futures linked to the ICE U.S. Dollar Index have surged to the most since March 2011...

Just as Blackstone was a “big winner from the global financial crisis,” CEO Steve Schwartzman told analysts who have recently followed private-equity groups, “It’s a moment of acceleration. I think it will be another one. “

The windfall came as lenders earned all-time high fees underwriting debt and equity offerings for clients such as aerospace group Boeing, property rental site Airbnb and telecoms group SoftBank, according to data provider Refinitiv.

U.S. stocks rallied on Monday, with each of Wall Street's main indexes closing at record levels as President Donald Trump's signing of a long-awaited $2.3 trillion pandemic aid bill increased optimism for an economic recovery.