Precious metals news

How will America pay for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal? After all, as Peter Schiff said a few weeks ago, you can't print wealth. But there is a growing number of people who seem to believe you actually can - at least indirectly. And they have an economic theory they claim backs them up. It's called Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT.

What would you do if the bank suddenly froze your account and you couldn't access any of your money?
Perhaps this sounds a little farfetched, but it certainly isn't unprecedented. In fact, Chinese customers of some Spanish banks recently faced this exact scenario.

#1? Switzerland. "There is simply too much Swiss household debt, and no one wants to see it blow up. Hence the negative interest rate that encourages more household borrowing, and the cycle will continue until it can’t."

"Nearly a third of Britain’s billionaires have already or are relocating to various tax havens."

"Berlin is so worried about the health of Deutsche Bank that it pushed for a merger with rival Commerzbank even though it could open up a huge financial shortfall."

"The expanding U.S. budget deficit is putting federal debt on course for levels last seen during the World War II era, a shift that may test the bond market’s willingness to keep funding the government at relatively low costs."

"The global economy’s sharp loss of speed through 2018 has left the pace of expansion the weakest since the global financial crisis a decade ago."

"We're like the circus net below everything that falls. That's how parenthood is in America right now."

"Even if they did, the political dynamics that enabled bipartisan deficit-cutting deals decades ago has disappeared, replaced by bitter partisanship and chronic dysfunction."

When bubbles are at their most inflated and investor behavior at its most deluded and manic, even the most wealthy can overpay by staggering amounts and still convince themselves they're making a shrewd investment.

"West African king Mansa Musa had more wealth than the Forbes' five richest billionaires combined."

"Investors dumped their bullion holdings prior to Friday, when prices got a jolt after a report showed U.S. hiring in February was the weakest in more than a year."

"If QE works, then every government on earth must take notice of the opportunity to effectively recapitalize their own banks and industries free of charge."

How is it that central banks remain convinced that their policies can guarantee perpetual Goldilocks economies, yet remain utterly unable to see it's their very past policies that have us courting disaster?

"With little room to tweak economic policy, what happens in Europe increasingly depends on political decisions in Beijing?"

Context is key.
During last week's Friday Gold Wrap podcast, Mike Maharrey emphasized the importance of understanding sound economic theory. Without a firm grasp of basic economic principles, it becomes impossible to properly evaluate any observations you make and to properly interpret economic data. As economist Frank Shostak put it in a recent article published at the Mises Wire, "In order to really make sense of the data one must have a theory, which stands on its own feet, and did not originate from the data. By means of a theory, one could scrutinize the data and could then try to make sense out of it."
Shostak goes on to explain the most fundamental economic concept and how we can use the framework of "human action" to better understand economic data.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell took his dovish message to the masses during a recent 60 Minutes interview.
Powell continued to talk about "patience" and reiterated that the Fed "does not feel any hurry" to push rates any higher. He also said the interest rate is "roughly neutral" at this point, calling the current 2.25-2.5% rate "appropriate."

A Fed interest rate policy reversal to rate cuts and QE is inevitable, as is a Gold price multiples higher from here. David explains...

As 20% of global bonds have gone into negative territory, gold is now in the early stages of a bull market. Here's more...

How will silver and gold perform if major world currencies underwent a period of high inflation, or even hyperinflation? Here's Matt's insight...