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Money emerged from the free market as a way for strangers to cooperate, with gold and silver chosen for their durability, scarcity, and universal acceptance. When the government replaced commodity money with paper it could print at will, it turned the Federal Reserve into a counterfeiter whose new dollars enrich early recipients at the expense […]

When a $20 Gold Coin Became Worth Thousands of Dollars Imagine finding a $20 coin in your grandfather’s collection. Not a twenty-dollar bill. An actual gold coin, stamped with the words “Twenty Dollars” and issued by the United States government. You might assume it’s worth a little more than $20 because it’s old. That would […]

On his latest podcast, Peter runs through a wide range of topics, starting with the Federal Reserve’s confused approach to interest rates and inflation. He then pivots to Brazil’s election and what it reveals about the false promises of democratic socialism, before turning to domestic politics and the hollow nature of Republican tax cuts that […]

Oil above $100 is creating a new inflation problem for the Fed Oil has earned its reputation as black gold, but unlike the precious metal, this liquid gold is consumed. It fuels the trucks delivering groceries. It fuels tractors harvesting crops. It moves people around the world. But when its price rises, the effects don’t […]

Inflation rose to 3.7% in September, up from 3.4% in August and above economists’ expectations. Gasoline prices are up more than 34% over the past year, while shelter costs have risen just 3.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While that’s a big difference, there’s another difference not getting enough attention: the inflation rate […]

If you walked into a Rolex dealer in 2024 and tried on a white-gold Daytona, you’d have been looking at a watch that cost considerably less than it does today. The same watch now retails for roughly $59,100, about 33% more than it did two years ago. In June alone, Rolex raised prices on its […]

Imagine running a business where every time you sell a product for one cent, you spend four cents manufacturing. You’d probably reconsider your operating model quickly. The United States government took many years to reconsider a similar situation.  For years, the U.S. Mint produced pennies that cost more to manufacture and distribute than their face […]

Money Supply is a very important indicator. It helps show how tight or loose current monetary conditions are regardless of what the Fed is doing with interest rates. Even if the Fed is tight, if Money Supply is increasing, it has an inflationary effect. One key metric shown below is the “Wenzel” 13-week annualized money […]

A very strong start to the week for gold, as you might expect, following the US strike on Venezuela / capture of President Maduro on Sunday.  What’s perhaps a little more surprising is the blistering outperformance of copper, silver, platinum, palladium…but to be fair global stock and oil markets aren’t bothered at all, and so […]

A very poor rest of the day for gold.  It got whacked back below the October high by algos at the S&P cash open, couldn’t benefit at all from silver’s +4% rally from 10amET into the COMEX close, and overreacted to the downside with a modest US yield uptick following a mixed set of FOMC […]

More strength than I expected for the precious metals overnight; thanks to more demand at the China open, but perhaps more importantly due to the Chinese government announcing subsidies for electronic vehicles, phones, tablets, smartwatches and smart glasses…all of which consume silver.  Past rounds of similar subsidies have led to immediate sales surges, and so we’re […]

An unsurprisingly challenging rest of the day for the precious metals.  We saw modest bounces with the stock market since the COMEX closes, but neither metal came anywhere close to re-attacking its overnight range.  This hints that there’s a lot of trapped bulls out there who fell for this bogus “bank failure / forced silver […]

Some absolutely wild post-Christmas trading activity for the precious metals.  First, silver and platinum’s incredible +10% rallies on Friday, fueled by an odd rehashing of the China silver export restriction story from October and rumors that a bullion bank was blown out of its silver short position; and now scary -16% & -18% crashes off […]

Indeed an upside breakout attempt for gold above yesterday’s highs in early Asian trade last night, but this technical achievement was ruined by an obnoxious 4k contract, -1%, bashing off session highs in the final five minutes of the 9pmET hour.  There wasn’t a headline catalyst or abrupt negative shift in the broader risk mood.  […]

An impressive rebound for gold & silver to round out this Tuesday, thanks in large part to a calming down in bond markets / strong stock market rally following the much weaker-than-expected Present Situation reading in the December US Consumer Confidence report.  Silver and PGM markets naturally outperformed amid the risk-on environment, with platinum astonishingly […]

More strength for the precious metals as expected overnight, with Asian demand once again leading the way.  Europe was hesitant to chase gold higher though, despite a pronounced decline for US yields and the USD…and this turned out to be the correct move in retrospect because yields and dollar are now shooting higher following the […]