Yesterday’s hike still leaves U.S. monetary policy extremely loose, and Fed officials have signaled they will act cautiously from to nurture a very tenuous recovery indeed.
Money Week editor John Stepek has looked at the recent mutual fund collapse in the junk bond market and correctly warns that it is a canary in the coal mine.
- Watch video - “Monetary insanity” of ECB and Fed is “frightening” - “Absolutely nothing has been learned” since financial crisis - “Financial hypocrisy on a grand scale” - Ireland was vassal of Bank of England and now ECB - Ireland needs to get “financial and monetary independence” - Huge demand for gold and yet prices manipulated lower - Real unemployment is U.S. probably 15-20% - Dollar may rally in short term but vulnerable in long term - Russia, China may monetise gold as geopolitical weapon - Gold and silver are “hedges for you in local currency terms”
A tragic example of this was seen in Italy in recent days when a pensioner committed suicide after having his life savings wiped out in a bank bail-in. A pensioner from near Rome, hanged himself after his €100,000 (£72,000; $110,000) investment in Banca Etruria bonds were wiped out in a bail-in. A suicide note was left by the pensioner criticising the bank.
Gold is one of the few investments that every investor should have in their portfolio.
We are now at the dangerous end-game period of a very bold but very reckless & disappointing experiment with the world's fiat (unbacked) currencies. If this experiment fails -- and we observe it's in the process of failing -- gold will provide one of the best forms of wealth insurance. But like all insurance products, it only works if you buy it before you need to rely on it.
People understand nothing lasts forever. The bottom does not last forever. You want to buy low and sell high. Not only are we skipping along the lows, perhaps we can go lower but there is true value here - in all aspects - not only in the gold and silver but also in the natural resource sector. as a whole with bargains all over the place.
Sales of American Eagle gold coins at the U.S. Mint surged in November, with gold demand nearly tripling month-over-month. China's gold reserves rose by another 21 tonnes in November, the biggest bout of gold buying since China began disclosing monthly data on it's gold reserves in June
Despite these very high levels of demand, gold prices fell sharply in November - from $1,141/oz to $1,070/oz or 6.6%.
Less favourable financial market conditions, combined with a weaker macroeconomic outlook and increased sensitivity to US interest rates, heighten the risk of negative spillovers to EMEs once US rates do start to rise in the United States”
Magic ‘Super Mario’, the ECB’s monetary magician, disappointed markets yesterday as continuing and unprecedented monetary easing failed to prevent a sharp sell-off in stock and bond markets yesterday which has continued today.
She warned against a EU superstate by saying famously: "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level, with a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels."
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.” - Buddha
Smart money continues to accumulate gold and silver coins. Demand for American Eagle silver coins has also been strong, with year-to-date sales already reaching an annual record at 44.67 million ounces, breaking the full-year record of 44 million ounces in 2014
While gold prices continue to languish in the doldrums and are on course for their worst month since 2013, global demand and especially Chinese retail, investor and official demand continues to remain very robust. Indeed, China looks likely to see a new record demand for gold annually again in 2015.
In a statement, the People’s Bank of China thanked the IMF for the recommendation and said it was “an acknowledgment of the progress in China’s recent economic development, reform and opening up”.
