Job creation disappointed in December. However, it could not be enough to counterweight rising real interest rates and save gold. Luckily for the yellow metal, nonfarm payrolls disappointed in December. Last month, the US labor market rose, adding just 199,000 jobs (see the chart below), well short of consensus estimates of 400,000.
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Mints and refiners who produce bullion rounds and bars have struggled to keep up. The industry has not been immune from labor and supply shortages faced by most businesses. The result has been higher premiums and wider bid/ask spreads for silver.
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A lot of folks experienced a challenging 2021 – hopefully you were not one of them. Unfortunately there are real reasons to believe 2022 could be exceptionally difficult for retirement savers. Part of the reason, of course, is inflation. Last April, observers were stunned…
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2021 will be remembered as the year of inflation’s comeback and gold’s dissatisfying reaction to it. Will gold improve its behavior in 2022? You thought that 2020 was a terrible year, but we would be back to normal in 2021? Well, we haven’t quite returned to normal.
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2022 may be the year of Fed hawks. After tapering, they may hike rates and then start quantitative tightening. Will they tear gold apart? Now, I could exclaim that hawks are coming, but that wouldn’t necessarily give hope to anyone fighting the bearish trends in the gold market.
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There’s no question, we are living in uncertain economic times. This year is already off to a roaring start, as easily spooked Wall Street investors are “bracing for” the Fed’s first rate hike in three years. Of course, that’s just one piece of the uncertainty puzzle as 2022 starts to take shape…
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After the CPI surged last year to its highest level since 1982, politicians are feeling pressure from constituents to do something about it. Biden announced $1 billion in grants, loans, and other assistance for small meat producers. Another costly government program will, supposedly, help tame rapidly rising beef and poultry costs…
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In this video, Devlyn Steele outlines the definition of a financial bubble, the history of bubbles, and his outlook for 2022 and beyond. It’s time to get serious, the big question is, what is economically going to happen in 2020? We’ve never faced the challenges we’re facing here in 2022.
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The start of 2021 wasn’t successful for gold: after a few days of rally, the yellow metal entered a bearish trend. 2022 looks uncomfortably similar. Will the yellow metal resume its long-term bullish trend in 2022? Well, this is what a majority of investors that took part in Kitco News’ annual outlook survey believe…
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The Ship of Theseus is an old philosophical thought experiment and asks a question about identity. Suppose you replace all of the boards of a ship with new ones—is it still the same ship? We are not going to try to resolve this millennia-old paradox. Instead, we are going to add one more element, and then tie it to the monetary system.
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One of, if not the primary concerns of the stock market boom over the past two years is that it’s powered by printed money instead of a strong economy. Given that the U.S. stock market was already in its longest bull run in history prior to 2019, and that seemingly every analyst was already tapping a foot…
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Although your calendar may say otherwise, gold is in the 1960s. The question is whether we will move into the 1970s or speed-run to the mid-2010s. Did you go overboard with your time travel and lose track of time? Probably not, but just in case, I assure you that the current year is 2021.
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In this video, Devlyn Steele examines projections about this bill and its potential to harm America and American retirement accounts. It’s gratifying to see a United States senator going with his gut — using good sense instead of politics to determine whether a bill is good for the country or not.
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Will Inflation Crash the Economy in 2022? It’s understandable if you’re tired of hearing about rising inflation. But it has become an economic mainstay in the Biden Administration. And each month seems to bring fresh records not experienced in decades.
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Why Retiring In 2022 Could Be the Worst Decision of Your Life: If you were planning on retiring in 2022 or soon after that, thanks to several recent economic developments, now might be the worst time to do that…
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High inflation won’t go away in 2022. Good for gold. However, it is likely to continue to climb and reach its peak. That sounds a bit worse for gold. If 2021 was tough for you, I don’t recommend reading Nostradamus’ predictions for the next year. This famous French astrologer saw inflation, hunger, and much more coming in 2022…
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Welcome, my son. Welcome to the inflationary machine. Welcome to the new economic regime of elevated inflation. That’s official because even central bankers have finally admitted what I’ve been saying for a long time: the current high inflation is not merely a transitory one-off price shock…
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After the crazy year we’ve just had, one good question to ponder for a moment is: What does the U.S. economy look like as we head into next year? To answer that, this article will examine three sectors by looking at economic activity (including Wall Street), the inflation situation, and of course physical gold. So brace yourself…
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Santa Claus is coming to town! What will he give gold: a gift or a rod? Like most of 2021, gold has been rubbing against $1,800 this week but did not have the strength to permanently rise above this level thus, we could say that gold was rather naughty this year and doesn’t deserve gifts from Santa.
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Finally, Powell admitted higher inflation risks and gold jumped above $1,800. Before anyone noticed, however, it plummeted below the key level again. Who are you Mr Powell? A reptilian or a human? A dove or a hawk?
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The Producer Price Index (PPI) is a measure of inflation expectations by industry producers. Most investors keep an eye on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). However, the CPI gauge is not only incomplete, it is, as U.S. Global’s Frank Holmes likes to say, “backward looking”
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The Different Theories on What Moves Gold and Silver Prices: In the last Supply and Demand update, we discussed some different theories which attempt to explain what causes the gold and silver prices to move. We mentioned the:
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In this brief video, Devlyn Steele, Augusta’s on-staff Harvard-trained economist crunches some of the numbers relating to inflation. Last week, new inflation numbers came out and there’s a lot of discussion about whether the numbers are reliable…
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First a pandemic, then inflation, and now an energy crisis. Should you buy gold when preparing for the winter? Brace yourselves, winter is coming! Not only does gold lack energy to fuel its rally right now, but people from all over the world lack it to fuel their operations and to heat their houses…
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Through the Build Back Better Act (BBB), President Biden suggests he’s decided to close out his political career by trying to create a legacy of governmental progressivism the likes of which we’ve not seen up to this point in America.
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The Fed begins to get up steam and has finally turned its hawkish mode on. Was it something the gold bulls wanted to hear? The Fed’s full capitulation and unconditional surrender of the doves!
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The inflation beast is growing stronger. Unfortunately for gold bulls, we cannot say the same about the yellow metal. Is sacrifice going on tomorrow? November readings clearly falsify central banks’ narrative about transitory inflation (which was already partially abandoned) and confirm my claim that inflation will stay longer
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DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach, who is perhaps best known as the “Bond King” for his legendary forays into the bond market, recently spoke about the current state of the markets and a preview of the new year. Gundlach’s primary forecast for gold is that it’s set to become a long-term hold despite a relatively quiet year.
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