Precious metals news

We recently reported that the Federal Reserve plans to launch a 12-week pilot program in partnership with several large commercial banks to test the feasibility of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The US isn't alone in experimenting with digital currency. India is working on developing a digital rupee and recently announced the second phase of testing.
After successfully running a pilot program to test its digital currency at the wholesale level, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced it will test the digital rupee in a retail setting.

China is likely quietly stockpiling gold in a bid to further minimize its dependence on the US dollar.

The world has no clue how close we are getting to reaching the ENERGY CLIFF.  While the current "Energy Crisis" is focused on Europe, this is just a mere symptom of much bigger problems stemming from the Conventional Oil Energy Cliff.  These are must-see charts the oil industry doesn't want you to see...

Economic and financial outcomes are becoming harder to predict.

Investors don’t want to overpay as prices begin to tank.

Airbnb is betting that a continued economic downturn will provide a tailwind for the travel company to expand its pool of hosts, looking to earn some extra income.

Record Losses for Mortgage Banks Presage Tough Year Ahead Whalen Global Advisors. Home prices are expected to fall by double digits in 2023 with the largest decline in prices above the 300k average loan size. High-priced assets are already experiencing price compression.

The November homebuilder sentiment index dropped to 33 from 38 in October. It was the 11th straight month of declining builder sentiment. Including the pandemic period, the future sales sub-index dropped to the lowest index reading since 2012. The traffic of prospective buyers fell off a cliff to 20.

The US economy is in “The Deep.” Deep into yield curve inversion, that is. The US Treasury 10Y-2Y yield curve swam deeper into inversion at -75 basis points. The deepest inversion since just before The Great Recession and housing market crash.

During the Covid crisis of 2020 (red box). consumer credit declined and households were saving. But following the end of US Covid economic shutdowns, we saw inflation soaring to 40-year highs as Biden declared war on fossil fuels and a Pelsoi-led Congress went on an epic spending spree. But with soaring inflation, came a decline in personal savings and soaring consumer credit outstanding in an attempt to cope with Bidenflation.

On the surface, it would appear that the US is in the catbird seat: Since Bretton Woods in 1944, the US has been able to dictate the economy to its trading partners and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the world. Those countries that got on board the Bretton Woods Choo-Choo would be the world’s leaders in commerce, and the rest would take second shrift.

Can a loss be declared to be a gain? Is it legal to declare that the worse the losses - the greater the assets that are created from the losses?

We review the various moving parts of the system, consider who benefits or not (and where and how), and then run probabilities while watching the participants’ statements and actions.

This week Mike expands on the data to show clearly, as plain as day, why it is now time to tighten your safety belt and brace for a hard landing.

Raising interest rates is a necessary but insufficient measure to combat inflation. To reduce inflation to 2 percent, central banks must significantly reduce their balance sheets, which has not yet occurred in local currency, and governments must reduce spending, which is highly unlikely.

Using the pilot, users will be able to access multiple Disclosure Scotland services with one set of login information.

Gold snapped a four-session slump to rise on Tuesday, propped up by a retreat in the dollar while investors awaited cues on the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary policy path.

The redeeming quality of a tense G20 held in Bali – otherwise managed by laudable Indonesian graciousness – was to sharply define which way the geopolitical winds are blowing. That was encapsulated in the Summit’s two highlights: the much anticipated China-US presidential meeting – representing the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century – and the final G20 statement. The 3 hour 30 minute long face-to-face meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden – requested by the White House – took place at the Chinese delegation’s residence in Bali, and not at the G20 venue … Continue reading →

How many more FDIC-insured banks are spread across the United States with significant ties to crypto-related firms and the potential to see their share prices sink and/or reputational damage? We know of four FDIC-insured banks whose share prices have already been hit: Silvergate Bank, Customers Bank, Signature Bank and Metropolitan Bank. (See chart below.)

So here we are today with another abject failure of market structure causing a week of sensational headlines around the globe that make U.S. markets look unhinged.