Category Archive: 6a) Gold & Bitcoin

Why Are Wages So Low, Report 23 Sep 2018

2018-09-25

Income Inequality Infographic Workers Middle Class and CEOS get Compared

Last week, we talked about the capital consumed by Netflix—$8 billion to produce 700 shows. They’re spending more than two thirds of their gross revenue generating content. And this content has so little value, that a quarter of their audience would stop watching if Netflix adds ads (sorry, we couldn’t resist a little fun with the English language).

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Trump’s Backdoor Power Play to Rein In the Fed

2018-09-21

by Stefan Gleason

2018-09-21

“Just run the presses – print money.” That’s what President Donald Trump supposedly instructed his former chief economic adviser Gary Cohn to do in response to the budget deficit. The quote appears in Bob Woodward’s controversial book Fear: Trump in the White House.

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Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Avocado Toast, Report 16 Sep 2018

2018-09-17

by Keith Weiner

2018-09-17

For about ten bucks a month, Netflix will give you all the movies you can watch, plus tons of TV show series and other programs, such as one-off science documentaries. They don’t offer all movies, merely more than you can watch. Oh, and there are no commercials. They don’t just give you old BBC reruns, which you know they can get for a pittance.

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Why the Fed Denied the Narrow Bank, Report 9 Sep 2018

2018-09-11

by Keith Weiner

2018-09-11

It’s not every day that a clear example showing the horrors of central planning comes along—the doublethink, the distortions, and the perverse incentives. It’s not every year that such an example occurs for monetary central planning. One came to the national attention this week. A company called TNB applied for a Master Account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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Illicit Arbitrage Cut by Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Report 3 Sep 2018

2018-09-04

by Keith Weiner

2018-09-04

This week, we are back to our ongoing series on capital destruction. Let’s consider the simple transaction of issuing a bond. Party X sells a bond to Party Y. We will first offer something entirely uncontroversial. If the interest rate rises after Y buys the bond, then Y takes a loss. Or if the interest rate falls, then Y makes a capital gain. This is simply saying that the bond price moves inverse to the interest rate.

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Why Am I Fighting for the Gold Standard?

2018-08-31

by Keith Weiner

2018-08-31

Life is good. They could not have imagined what we have now, back in the dark ages. So I have never understood why people prep for a return to the dark ages. The only thing I can think of is that they don’t really picture what life is like. 14 hours a day of back-breaking labor to eke out a subsistence living. Subject to the risks of rain, sun, and insects.

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Another Gold Bearish Factor, Report 26 August 2018

2018-08-27

by Keith Weiner

2018-08-27

Last week, we said that the consensus is that gold must go down (as measured in terms of the unstable dollar) and then will rocket higher. We suggested that if everyone expects an outcome in the market, the outcome is likely not to turn out that way. We also said that this time, there is likely less leverage employed to buy gold and that gold is less leveraged as well.

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Annual Mine Supply of Gold: Does it Matter?

2018-08-21

by Ronan Manly

2018-08-21

Cumulative Global Gold Production: 1835 to present day.

The topic of how much extractable gold is left in the world has become increasingly discussed within the last few years. This is because of increased focus on ‘peak gold’ and also a concern about remaining levels of unextracted gold reserves. Peak gold is a term referring to the phenomenon of annual gold mining supply peaking (i.e. the rate of gold extraction increases until it peaks at maximum gold output and subsequently diminishes).

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In Next Crisis, Gold Won’t Drop Like 2008, Report 19 August 2018

2018-08-20

by Keith Weiner

2018-08-20

Last week, we discussed the tension between forces pushing the dollar up and down (measured in gold—you cannot measure the dollar in terms of its derivatives such as euro, pound, yen, and yuan). And we gave short shrift to the forces pushing the dollar down. We said only that to own a dollar is to be a creditor. And if the debtors seem in imminent danger of default, then creditors should want to escape this risk.

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Fundamental Price of Gold Decouples Slightly – Precious Metals Supply and Demand

2018-08-18

by Keith Weiner

2018-08-18

Keith Weiner’s weekly look on Gold. Gold and silver prices, Gold-Silver Price Ratio, Gold basis and co-basis and the dollar price, Silver basis and co-basis and the dollar price.

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Who Would Invest in a Gold Bond?

2018-08-17

by Keith Weiner

2018-08-17

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet famously dismissed gold. “Gold has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor procreative.” I have recently written about how a government with gold mining tax revenues can use gold. The benefits of issuing gold bonds include reducing risk, and getting out of debt at a discount. Pretty useful, eh?

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Monetary Consequence of Tariffs, Report 12 August 2018

2018-08-13

by Keith Weiner

2018-08-13

Last week in Monetary Paradigm Reset, we talked about the challenge of explaining a new paradigm. We said: “The hard part of accepting this paradigm shift, was that people had to rethink their entire view of cosmology, theology, and philosophy. In the best case, people take time to grapple with these challenges to their idea of man’s place in the universe. Some never accept the new idea.” We were talking about the fact that money is the unit of...

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Gold—Even at its Lowest Levels in 2018—is Behaving Just as Prescribed

2018-08-08

by Mark O'Byrne

2018-08-08

Gold’s sharp decline over the past month serves as little surprise to the investors who want the asset to perform in just this fashion—that is, as an alternative to assets perceived as risky, like stocks. They’re betting that the opposite will be true as well, that gold will resume its role as protector and diversifier, even inflation hedge, when what they see as bloated price-to-earnings ratios, heavy debt-to-GDP ratios among major economies and...

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Monetary Paradigm Reset, Report 5 August 2018

2018-08-07

by Keith Weiner

2018-08-07

Keith Weiner’s weekly look on Gold. Gold and silver prices, Gold-Silver Price Ratio, Gold basis and co-basis and the dollar price, Silver basis and co-basis and the dollar price.

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Gold to Enter New Bull Market – Charles Nenner

2018-08-04

by Mark O'Byrne

2018-08-04

Gold to Enter New Bull Market – Charles Nenner. “Gold is going to enter a new bull market”. “The first cycle will bottom after the summer”. “$1,212 per ounce is our downside target”. “It’s going to top $2,500 per ounce . . . in about two years or so”. “Gold is in a bull market even though it came down from $1,900 per ounce”

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A Dire Warning, Report 29 July 2018

2018-07-31

by Keith Weiner

2018-07-31

Let’s return to our ongoing series on the destruction of capital, and how to identify the signs. Steve Saville posted a thoughtful article this week entitled The “Productivity of Debt” Myth. His article provides a good opportunity to add some additional thoughts. We have written quite a lot on this topic. Indeed, we have a landing page for marginal productivity of debt (MPoD) with four articles so far.

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Physical Gold Is The “Best Defence” Against “Escalating Currency Wars”

2018-07-25

by Mark O'Byrne

2018-07-25

Physical Gold Is The “Best Defence” Against “Escalating Currency Wars”. As governments around the world debase their currencies, you need an asset that can ride out the hard times. And nothing fits the bill like gold writes John Stepek of Money Week

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Crying Wolf, Report 22 July 2018

2018-07-23

by Keith Weiner

2018-07-23

Keith Weiner’s weekly look on Gold. Gold and silver prices, Gold-Silver Price Ratio, Gold basis and co-basis and the dollar price, Silver basis and co-basis and the dollar price.

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