Precious metals news

Every morning, I get up and peruse the latest gold news. As part of that process, I just Google the word "gold." I find a lot of useful articles that way. But I also have to filter through a lot of extraneous stuff - headlines like "Australian Bicycle Team Wins Gold Medal." Anyway, I generally just scroll past that stuff. But as you can imagine, if it's a big story, I end up seeing the headline over and over again. And sometimes, I click out of morbid curiosity.
That happened today. Over the last couple of days, I kept seeing headlines about how somebody has figured out how to melt gold at room temperature. At first, I thought, eh, I don't really care. But after seeing the headline for the 894th time, I clicked. 

The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

As Peter Schiff put it in his most recent podcast, Jerome Powell blinked.
In a surprising about-face, the Federal Reserve Chair hinted that interest rates are "just below" neutral, leading to speculation that the central bank might be close to ending its tightening cycle.  Peter said the Fed has basically been playing a game of chicken with the markets.
And the way the game of chicken goes is the markets keep moving lower and the Fed keeps talking about how great the economy is and how many rate hikes are coming in the future and somebody his to flinch. Somebody has to blink. It's like you have these two automobiles driving toward each other and there's going to be a major crash unless somebody turns the wheel. And it seems like it was Jerome Powell that turned the wheel first and in fact was chicken."

"China's robust economic growth over the past two decades has gone hand-in-hand with the nations' accumulation of gold -- reserves were an estimated 1,842 tonnes in 2017, according to World Gold Council statistics."

"Typically, the guys who run the COMEX...always end up that the price is at what we call ‘Max Pain.’. Max Pain is where the..."

"In his Fed speech conclusion, Powell offered these lines: 'Eternal vigilance is the price of financial stability. We will publish these reports regularly as part of our vigilance.' I repeat my comment: Eternal vigilance my ass. These alleged wizards could not spot a flamingo in a pen full of turkeys."

"The SEC announced on Thursday it has settled charges against both celebrities for 'unlawfully touting' initial coin offerings (ICOs). Mayweather and Khaled did not disclose payments they received for promoting the ICOs on their social media accounts."

"If incentives are not enough to move those houses, prices come down. And that has been happening. These lower prices of new houses are pressuring prices of existing homes further. That’s what happened last time. And now it’s starting to happen again."

“Many of the painful lessons taught by the [global financial crisis] seem not to have had a particularly lasting effect on the U.S. corporate sector’s behavior,' said Edward Marrinan, head of North America credit strategy for HSBC"

"The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) has been rising since The Federal Reserve began raising their target rate back in late 2015 and has accelerated as The Fed began rapidly raising its target…"

"If you know anything about the crisis in Venezuela, you’ve most likely seen the work of Meridith Kohut, an independent photojournalist based in Caracas, who has taken some of the most haunting images to come out of the country as its economy has spiraled deeper into chaos."

"It's a big number, but it's actually not that concerning,' says LendingTree chief economist Tendayi Kapfidze." In other news, ice cube salesman explains to Eskimos "It's pretty cold outside, but you should still buy these from me."

What a day! Captain Ewave called it with his wave counts, and now it's really happening as the Fed may have just blinked. Here's an update...

"Reeling from a Morgan Stanley downgrade of European Banks and a second day of raids on its Frankfurt headquarters, Deutsche Bank shares declined by another 3% on Friday to a new all time low just above €8, bringing the YTD loss to 50%."

"Greek pawnbroker Richardos Mylonas also sells jewelry through a telemarketing operation aired on television, with his call to anyone who wanted to pawn any valuable item for 'the best cash price' became a standard feature on people’s TV screens."

"The U.S. and China could be in the early stages of a Cold War, veteran economist Stephen Roach told CNBC Friday, warning the global trade dispute is likely to last for a 'long, long time."

"The days when the world’s two largest economies could meet each other halfway have gone. … On most issues of consequence, there is simply no overlap between Xi’s vision for China’s rise and what the United States considers an acceptable future for Asia."

"In a process begun in October 2017, the bank is decreasing the size of its bond portfolio, which grew to more than $4.5 trillion as part of an effort to drive down mortgage rates and lift economic growth."

"When smart bankers lend money, they look at the loan in terms of how a bank auditor would grade the loan. They keep the prime loans and sell the rest to get them off their books. They package a bunch of risky loans with just enough better ones to get a good rating from the rating agencies."

With all the talk about how to avoid the next worldwide market meltdown, there's a strong argument to be made that no matter what the Fed or anyone else does now, disaster is inevitable.