Precious metals news

"I’m a precious metals guy.” First and foremost, Mike Maloney believes in what he calls “the sure thing”: That precious metals will be huge, huge winners in the next great gold and silver rush. Now join Mike for his most recent thoughts about precious metals vs. crypto and how investor psychology plays into market perception of both.

Jim says when the dollar goes up, he'll cash out his dollars to buy the lower priced gold & silver, or possibly the Chinese yuan, but only if this happens...

As we head into the month of October, it's interesting to note that two of the worst stock market crashes in history during this month. Of course, we had the 1929 Wall Street crash that kicked off the Great Depression, and there was also the Black Monday stock market crash in 1987.
As Peter Schiff noted in his latest podcast, given that stock market valuations are higher today then they were at those prior peaks, you would think there would be more concern about the possibility of another October surprise. But there seems to be very little worry out there. Nevertheless, Peter raised an interesting question, could the twin deficits in trade and the federal budget portend another October crash?

In an article we published last week, Peter Schmidt highlighted what he called the "fatal conceit" of modern Keynesian economics. These economists, central bankers and politicians think they can plan, direct and guide the economy through their great wisdom and application of their economic models. But as economist Friedrich Hayek explained, the central planners' arrogance ignores the knowledge problem. No individuals or groups of individuals, no matter how many PhDs they have among them, possesses the knowledge necessary to foresee all of the consequences of a given policy.
As financial guru Jim Grant once put it, "We are the prisoners of the very dubious set of pseudo-scientific pretentions that are part of the people who manage our monetary affairs."
In a follow up to his last article, Schmidt puts an exclamation point on this idea of fatal conceit, recounting the maneuverings of Benjamin Strong, New York Federal Reserve governor from 1914-1928.

All of our monetary problems including a government that has gone full paper go back to an executive order and a Supreme Court that upheld it...

Amidst global sovereign gold buying that has now eclipsed 10% of total demand, a new nation has entered the market. Poland purchased its first gold in 20 years, acquiring about 9 tons of the metal in July and August.

Keith says the Swiss franc will collapse, and the Swiss do not want to give up their gold for francs. Here are the details...

It’s so difficult to have the discipline to sell into mania, to do something that feels bad today even though you know it’s the right long-term decision. It’s so much easier, emotionally, to just ignore all reason and logic and let yourself be carried along with the euphoric crowd. But history proves, time and time and time again, that greed-based decision making only ends one way. With one rhetorical question...

One survey respondent succinctly summed up the current life of a corporate purchasing manager: "The market is in a state of chaos with the latest round of tariffs."

The last time valuations were this expensive and tech stocks were trading for 10x revenues, former Sun Micro CEO Scott McNealy said of the same conditions in 2002 after the bubble collapsed: "Do you realize how ridiculous those basic assumptions are? You don't need any transparency. You don't need any footnotes. What were you thinking?"

SD Outlook: Gold & silver will be put to the test all week long, and we might just find out if the bottom is in or not. Here's why...

Accounting! In a simple move from "You can pretend you only owe how much you've promised up to today" to "Let's assume you're going to do what you've promised to do into the future," the Fed just made the unfunded pension obligation morass twice as ugly.

How can anyone take a so-called "4% unemployment rate" seriously when about a third of the working-age men in the US are not even considered to be part of the workforce at all? Not employed, but not counted as unemployed either. The shadowy stat that has falsely inflated US official unemployment for decades keeps getting worse.

A major problem for the Trump administration is that China can and will directly manipulate its currency lower to negate the effects of tariffs. Now, reports that its economy is slowing give it every reason to weaken the yuan while claiming it is a simple domestic policy decision, akin to prior US stimulus measures, and not a trade war gambit.

"New York City's pricey real estate has become a 'buyers market,' new data suggests, characterized by lowball offers and a rise in the number of properties staying on the market for longer. New York City is in the throes of a 'major shift' that reflects a cooling market, the likes of which hasn't been seen in almost a decade."

"Economists, real estate agents and home builders say the core issue is the same: Home buyers are reaching a breaking point after years of breakneck price increases that far exceeded income gains. Many economists say the housing market may have turned into a drag on the gross domestic product."

Italy continues to hold the EU hostage with its debt and unrepentant, "We've learned nothing and don't care" budget. Ultimately, Italy knows that short of kicking it out of the EU altogether, there's little its member states can do except continue to bail it out.

"This single initiative means Brussels is attempting to position itself as a serious geopolitical player, openly defying the US and essentially nullifying the Iran demonization campaign launched by the White House, CIA and State Department."

"The People’s Bank of China will probably pursue a looser monetary policy to shore up growth in face of the threats to trade, and likely won’t intervene much to counter resultant downward pressure on the yuan." So much so, JPM sees the yuan trading down to 10-year lows against the USD.

There is positive technical action on the gold mining stocks. Here are the details...