Precious Metals Latest

A few weeks ago, gold sold off on news that the People’s Bank of China didn’t add any gold to its reserves in May. At the time, I called it a “kneejerk reaction,” and said the news wasn’t “a particularly good reason to sell gold.” Before the news, China had bought gold for 18 straight months. However…

Since mid-2021, we lived through the worst price inflation since the 1970s. CPI peaked in June 2022 at 9.1 percent. During this inflationary period, a lot of people sold gold as evidenced by the rangebound price through most of 2023. Was selling a good move?

Most people don’t understand the enormity of the national debt, the amount of government spending, or the size of the monthly deficits. As a result, they come up with all kinds of absurd “solutions” to the problem. Whenever I talk about the national debt and government spending, somebody says, “We just need to tax the rich more.”

We’ve reported on young Chinese investors buying gold beans and gold flying off convenience store shelves in Korea. Gold demand in India recently surged during an important festival season. And now we have a gold-buying spree in Vietnam. Banks reported long lines as customers queued up to take advantage of lower gold prices…

Gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) reported net inflows of gold for the first time in 12 months in May. Funds based in Europe and Asia led the way as total gold holdings by ETFs globally rose by 8.2 tons. ETFs globally now hold 3,087.9 tons of gold.

The Federal Reserve was sold as a way to “provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system.” That’s not what the central bank does. In fact, the Fed destabilizes the monetary system by constantly interjecting itself into it, tinkering with interest rates, and creating money out of thin air

The Reserve Bank of India recently brought a little over 100 tons of gold home from the UK. According to a Times of India report, moving 100 tons of gold over 4,000 miles was “a massive logistical exercise, requiring months of planning and precise execution.” The process required specialized aircraft and detailed security arrangements.

Last month, Zimbabwe officials introduced a gold-backed currency in an effort to stabilize the country’s economy. At the time, I warned that a gold-backed currency would be a great step, but that it wasn’t going to solve Zimbabwe’s problems unless the government changed its ways. So far, things don’t look good.

If you listen to government officials and central bankers talk about price inflation, you might think they don’t have the foggiest idea of what caused it. It might have been supply chain problems, or perhaps it was Putin’s fault. Maybe greedy corporations are jacking up prices. Or it could be that consumer expectations are driving prices higher…

Could the world REALLY be creeping closer to a monetary gold standard? Steve Forbes sees signs that it is. In a recent article published by Forbes Magazine, Steve Forbes wrote that it may seem hard to believe, but the world is “beginning to lurch toward a gold-based monetary system.”

Are the central bankers at the Federal Reserve just winging it? It sure seems that way if you step back and take a long view of their decision-making. Fed officials project this aura of authority. You might imagine them as hyper-intelligent experts in the field of economics and finance making carefully calculated monetary policy decisions… but.

All that glitters isn’t gold. Silver also has quite a shine lately. While gold has gotten the headlines, silver has had a solid bull run over the last several months. In fact, the white metal has outperformed gold in this gold bull market. Last week, silver charted an 11 percent gain, cracking $30 an ounce for the first time in over a decade.