Tag Archive: inflation
Gold’s flashing warning: The end is nigh for fiat
Gold’s spectacular performance has drawn a lot of attention and invited endless analyses and commentaries. There are many theories out there as to why the yellow metal is surging like never before in modern memory, however most of them are shortsighted, or tend to miss the forest for the trees. The metal’s meteoric rise is not merely sending message about inflation expectations or rate policy. It’s flashing a clear warning sign about the...
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A conversation with Catherine Austin Fitts
I recently had the great pleasure of (virtually) sitting down with Catherine Austin Fitts, investment banker, President of Solari, and former US Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Housing, and having an extremely interesting conversation about the outlook for gold and silver. It was a fascinating discussion, especially given our current economic, monetary and geopolitical context: there so many risks and challenges ahead, that...
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Weekly Market Pulse: Big Rate Cuts? Not Right Now
“I think we could go into a series of rate cuts here, starting with a 50 basis-point rate cut in September”. “If you look at any model” it suggests that “we should probably be 150, 175 basis points lower.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a Bloomberg interview, 8/13/25
President Trump and others in his administration have been pushing for lower interest rates for months – one wonders what they’re worried about – and are doing and saying...
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Geopolitical theater and implications for investors (or lack thereof)
The last month has been truly remarkable for modern human history – at least if one was paying attention to mainstream news headlines and TV anchors. Apparently, we came extremely close to World War III and we very likely had a very tight escape from an all-out nuclear holocaust that could have forever changed the our species’ trajectory and annihilated millions.
It all started with Israel’s surprise bombardment of Iran (which wasn’t really a...
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Weekly Market Pulse: The Turkey Leg
Note: I wrote most of this commentary prior to the US strike on Iran and I decided to go ahead with it anyway. I don’t know any more than you do about what is going on in the Middle East and trying to predict what will happen in the coming days and weeks is a fool’s errand. We have a strategic allocation to commodities in our portfolios exactly because we can’t predict things like this.
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Silver: A rare buying opportunity
The gold price recently surged to unprecedented levels, surpassing the $3,000 per ounce milestone. This remarkable surge has been attributed to escalating geopolitical tensions, the revival of the trade wars, mounting inflation concerns, and of course, a very uncertain and very worrying outlook for the global economy and for the markets. As they always do, investors have once again flocked to the safe haven that gold unmistakably provides, pushing...
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Yen Jumps on Rate Hike Speculation
Overview: The US dollar has a softer profile today. All the G10 currencies are higher, led by 1%+ surge in the yen amid heightened speculation of a rate hike next month, while the US 10-year yield is near 4.25% today, the lowest since the election. Although the Reserve Bank of New Zealand allows for another half-point cut after delivering the second one this year earlier today, the New Zealand dollar has popped up amid sell the rumor buy the fact...
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Gold climbing from record high to record high: why buy now?
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Part I of II
There is no question that gold owners have been finally and spectacularly vindicated over the last months: the “barbarous relic”, the “worthless shiny rock”, as many have called the yellow metal, once again proved its value as a true safe haven. In the face of inflation, intense geopolitical turmoil and widespread uncertainty, investors fled to safety “en masse”, as they consistently, repeatedly and predictably...
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FX Becalmed Ahead of the Weekend and Next Week’s Big Events
Overview: The dollar is trading quietly, with a slightly firmer today. There has been little follow-through selling after yesterday's setback. The Canadian dollar and sterling are faring best. The yen is a little softer after Tokyo's CPI came in lower as expected due to the government's energy subsidy. The election for the lower house of the Diet is held Sunday. Emerging market currencies are also mostly softer. The JP Morgan Emerging Market...
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Weekly Market Pulse: Questions
As we enter the final quarter of 2024, there are a lot of questions facing investors. There are, of course, always a lot of questions because investors are always dealing with the future, but today’s environment does seems to have more than usual.
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US Dollar Returns Bid on the Back of Firmer Rates
Overview: After falling following the US jobs report before the weekend, US interest rates have come back firmer, helping the give the dollar a boost. A downward revision to Japan's Q2 GDP, reflecting weaker consumption, business investment, and a little more inflation, have heled the greenback retrace the pre-weekend losses against the yen. Softer than expected price gauges, the setback of the yen, and the rise in US rates has seen the offshore...
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Is the US CPI Anti-Climactic?
Overview: Today's US CPI is the focus but the bar to a Fed cut next month is low, and it could prove anti-climactic. The more moderate inflation reading creates more space for the central bank to respond to signs of a continued slowing of the US labor market and adopt less restrictive policy. The dollar is mixed as the North American session gets under way. The rate cut by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, not a total surprise, but has seen fall 1%....
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Yen Slumps, Germany Contracts, and the Week’s Key Events Still Lie Ahead
Overview: An unexpected decline in Japan's unemployment did not prevent a retreat in the yen to a four-day low ahead of tomorrow's data and conclusion of the BOJ meeting. The dollar has probed the JPY155 area where nearly $3.5 bln options expire today. An unexpected contraction Germany's Q2 GDP was offset in the aggregate by better French, and especially Spanish figures, leaving the euro consolidating in a narrow range (~$1.0815-$1.0835). The...
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Market Takes JPY Lower Despite Intervention Speculation, While Sterling Shines
Overview: The dollar is mostly consolidating yesterday's CPI-inspired decline. The main features include the market bidding the US dollar back above JPY159 despite more speculation that the BOJ did in fact intervene yesterday and checked on the euro-yen cross in the local session today, and unexpectedly soft Swedish inflation, which the swaps market says could spur three rate cuts here in second half. A record trade surplus and strong aggregate...
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Economic Freedom: The Cornerstone of Western Civilization
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Part I of II, by Claudio Grass
Western civilization – with all its scientific and technological progress, artistic prowess, philosophical and sociopolitical evolution, moral values, ethical principles and rich culture – took millennia to reach its famed “Enlightenment” point. It has been a rollercoaster, violently swinging from highs to lows and from darkness to light, from autocracy, tyranny and despotism to humanism and...
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Nervous Calm Hangs over the Markets
Overview: San Francisco Federal Reserve President Daly spoke aloud what many are thinking. The US labor market may be at an inflection point. The four-week moving average of weekly jobless claims is at the highest since last September and the early call for July nonfarm payrolls is about 185k, which if true, would be a sub-200k reading for the second time in three months. The high-flying Nvidia has fallen 13% in the past three sessions coming into...
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Self-Inflicted Wounds in Europe and Japan Help the Greenback Shrug Off the Drag of Lower Rates
Overview: The dollar is bid. What makes its
performance standout is that it is taking place as US rates have fallen. The US
10-year yield is near 4.20%, the lowest in more than two months. The two-year
yield is near 4.67%. It has fallen every session this week for a cumulative
decline of more than 20 bp. It is not so much that constructive developments
took week, but that Europe and Japan are suffering from self-inflicted injury. Macron's
call for...
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Interview with Executive Global: “The Return of Marxism in the West”
Our special interview on Swiss Wealth Advisor with CLAUDIO GRASS, CEO and Independent Precious Metals Consultant, explores the manner in which astute investors may preserve wealth against the backdrop of debilitating central economic planning and monetary inflation.
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Japan Confirms Intervention, China’s PMI Disappoints, EMU CPI Firms, Ahead of US PCE Deflator
Overview: The dollar is mostly consolidating
yesterday's losses ahead of month-end and the US income and consumption data. The
PCE core deflator may have risen by 0.2%, the least this, year, but the
year-over-year rate is expected to be steady at 2.8%. The dollar is recovering
from a five-day low against the yen recorded yesterday near JPY156.40 and is
near JPY157.30 in the late European morning turnover. The yen's retreat and a
disappointing...
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