Officials in Washington who insist things are looking up in the economy just don’t get it (or, in many cases, are deliberately misleading). Ordinary Americans, however, do get it. They know they are losing out to inflation as 61% of Americans say their family incomes are falling behind their costs of living…
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The Battlecruiser Hawk is moving full steam ahead! The FOMC issued yesterday (January 26, 2022) its newest statement on monetary policy in which it strengthened its hawkish stance. First of all, the Fed admitted that it would start hiking interest rates “soon”
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It looks as though the next few years will be a bumpy ride for retirement savers. Not welcome news, considering the fact that today’s “stubbornly, persistently high” inflation looks like it will stick around. Worse yet, some projections forecast a negative annual return on stocks for the next decade.
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With the Fed printing trillions of dollars and sending it directly into the banking system, it’s no surprise that the banks are doing well. But maybe we should be surprised… wasn’t the point of printing all this money to get it to people like you and me?
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While most of us are worried about a bubble burst, labor shortages, and our portfolios keeping up with inflation, billionaires made a fortune thanks to trillions of dollars printed by the Federal Reserve. How does this happen and what does it mean for our economy?
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The Federal Reserve published Money and Payments: The U.S. Dollar in the Age of Digital Transformation, and solicits comments about its ideas for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This is our extended commentary offered in response…
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Americans who own only conventional assets, such as stocks and bonds, but now many are thinking about when to cash out and which assets will be best to hold as they hunker down. So far, the investor flight to safety has been modest, but portfolio de-risking is now set to grow and will stocks remain available?
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Inflation began soaring last April. The latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) registered at 7% –- the highest year-over-year CPI in nearly 40 years. So … higher interest rates are a given, then, right? Maybe not. The Federal Reserve is saying rate hikes are a “go,” but some economists believe the risks to equities and real estate are just too great.
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So, 2021 is over! 2022 will be better, right? Yeah, for sure! Just relax, what’s the worst that could happen? My outlook for the gold market in 2022 suffers from manic depression: I see first a period of despair and an elevated mood later. But seriously, what can we expect from this year?
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President Biden said at the beginning of last month that the U.S. economy was in “strong shape,” but it’s clear that everyday Americans aren’t anywhere near as optimistic in their outlook as the nation’s chief executive is. Economists are concerned Fed actions will lead to not only inflation, but recession.
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Gold soared as investors got scared by reports of an allegedly impending military conflict. Was it worth reacting sharply to geopolitical factors? What happened? Investors got scared of the Russian bear and inflationary hydra. The threat of Ukrainian invasion and renewal of a conflict weakened risk appetite among investors.
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There are so many ways for retirement savers to invest their hard-earned dollars it can make your head spin. There are high risk investments like options. There are lower risk investments like Treasuries. There are both long-term investments and short-term investments. No wonder retirement savers get confused.
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The Fed is going to kill the supply chain. The expectations of the Fed raising interest rates will cascade a new set of problems throughout the companies that we depend on. Don’t be shocked if eggs cost 10 dollars a carton.
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Inflation spiked 7.1% in December, and the Fed is likely to raise interest rates already in March. Still, gold remains uninterested. “Inflation is too high,” admitted Lael Brainard during her nomination hearing in the Senate for the Vice Chair of the Fed. You don’t say, Governor Obvious!
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Inflation is through the roof and Netflix isn’t the only thing that’s going up in price. In this video Augusta Precious Metals director of education Devlyn Steele breaks down what the price increase could mean about our economy as a whole.
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Last week’s Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index reports put those measures of inflation at 7.0% and 9.7%, respectively. Manufacturers had to bear the brunt of the inflation surge in 2021. The worst may be yet to come for consumers as producers pass on their costs to wholesalers and retailers.
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Fidelity International recently dove into an issue we’re grappling with every day: food, gas, rent, everything is getting more expensive. Though we’re most interested in how that affects us here in the U.S., nations around the world have been recording their highest inflation in decades. Across the board, prices have spiked in a relatively brief span of time.
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The U.S. economy teeters between two catastrophes: wild and untamed hyperinflation that turns cash into wallpaper, or an epic crash that would make 2008 look like a day at the beach. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has led the U.S. government’s monetary policy to this point.
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Powell testified before the Senate. He didn’t say anything new, but gold rallied a bit. “We are going to end asset purchases in March. We will raise rates. And at some point this year will let the balance sheet runoff,”
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In uncertain times, diversification is key to being able to survive market turbulence. Every investment advisor under the sun preaches diversification. Unfortunately, conventional asset allocation models prescribe only superficial diversification across stocks and bonds…
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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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