Precious metals news

"Privileged wealthy hereditary monarch bunged £76m a year, sitting in front of a golden piano in the palace she's billing taxpayers £369m to tart up, kills satire by lecturing the nation to pull together,"

"Americans' take on the job market appears to have reversed abruptly, with those expecting more jobs in the months ahead falling to 16.6% from 22.7%, with the 6.1% pt drop is the biggest in over 41 years."

At least Sloan, who received a 36% raise to $17.6M in compensation per year after Wells's utterly disastrous 2017 fraud-a-thon and unlike all those Wells defrauded out of their homes, will be able to fall back on the huge piles of fraudulent cash he continues to "earn."

"The regulator said the investment bank improperly provided ADRs, which are U.S. securities that represent foreign shares of foreign companies, to brokers even though the brokers and their clients lacked the corresponding foreign shares."

"On the heels of huge losses, Trump has beaten a hasty retreat. His economic advisers, Kevin Hassett and Larry Kudlow, publicly declared the president has no intention of taking action against Powell."

"Russian economic growth has been below the global average in the past few years, hampered by a weak and volatile currency, a drop in oil prices, and by sanctions first imposed by the European Union and the United States in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea."

"A barometer of overall demand for U.S. five-year Treasury note supply on Wednesday declined to its weakest in nearly 9-1/2 years with the note being sold at a yield at its lowest level since March, Treasury data showed."

"Where have all the buyers gone? It’s a tune sellers in many key luxury real estate markets will be singing in 2019, as political and the economic uncertainty put a damper on sales from London to Los Angeles."

"The exit from funds came as stocks have plunged on fears of a slowing global economy and President Donald Trump’s criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. The S&P 500 index lost 5.4 percent in the week ended Dec. 19."

"Rising failures add to headwinds that governments have to navigate during a politically fraught 2019, with elections in India and Indonesia. Asian dollar bond market defaults tripled to at least nine in 2018 from the previous year, according to Bloomberg-compiled data."

"New home sales data scheduled for release on Thursday will be postponed as long as the partial government shutdown continues. Other data likely to be postponed includes revised figures on U.S. building permits and a report on advance economic indicators, including the goods trade balance."

"Markets, to paraphrase Nobel prize-winning economist Thomas Schelling, often forget that they keep forgetting. That's especially true when it comes to the intractable challenges posed by global debt."

Student loan debt has grown to over $1.5 trillion. And that just accounts for loans held by Federal Student Aid. It doesn't include private loans. Meanwhile, the Department of Education says 43% of those government-backed loans are considered "in distress."
In a speech last month, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos put the current level of student debt in perspective.
One-point-five trillion dollars is almost impossible to fathom. So, let me put it this way: $1.5 trillion is more than $10,000 of someone else's student loan debt for each and every American taxpayer—145 million of them."

"The next real bottom will not be in until everyone is totally disgusted with the stocks and gives up. Demographically-speaking it will come at the worst time for boomers."

"We’ve prepared for the possibility of unusual volatility here, most likely including one or more daily moves in the range of 4-6%, potentially to the upside. Yes, that means one or more daily moves on the order of 100-150 points on the S&P 500 and 900-1300 points on the Dow. You think I’m kidding."

Between Christmas 2017 and Christmas 2018, the US government added a staggering $1,370,760,684,441.54 to the national debt, according to Treasury Department figures.
If you split that up between all American, your share of Uncle Sam's 2018 spending spree comes to about $4, 178.10.
Merry Christmas!
You're welcome.

Gold and gold mining stocks have been the one bright spot this quarter, and traders have taken a net bullish position for the first time since July...

"The Fed should be congratulated for its steadfast commitment to policy 'normalization'... It is finally confronting the beast that former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan unleashed over 30 years ago."

"Since October 1, the S&P 500 index has plunged 19.6%, to 2,351 as of Monday’s fiasco. Over the same period, the price of gold has risen 7.3% to $1,271/oz. Over this period, gold was an effective diversification."

Keith asks if this is "it" in regards to the stock market drop? Here's Keith's insight on the stock market, bubbles, interest rates, gold, and much more...