by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money

And how we got here

There is a growing fear in financial and monetary circles that there is something deeply wrong with the global economy. Publicly, officials and practitioners alike have become confused by policy failures, and privately, occasionally even downright pessimistic, at a loss to see a statist solution. It is hardly exaggerating to say there is a growing feeling of impending doom.

The reason this has happened is that today’s macro-economists are a failure on the one subject about which they profess to be experts: economics. Their policy recommendations have become the opposite from what logic and sound economic theory shows is the true path to economic progress. Progress is not even on their list of objectives, which fortunately for us all happens despite their interventions. The adaptability of humans in their actions has allowed progress to continue, despite all attempts to discredit markets, the clearing centres for the division of labour.

Continue Reading at GoldMoney.com…

by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds

If we understand property taxes as a “lease from the local government for the right to gamble on another housing bubble arising,” we see “ownership” in a different light.

We’re constantly told ours is an ownership society in which owning a home is the foundation of household wealth. The concept of ownership may appear straightforward, but consider these questions:

1. If the house is mortgaged, what does the homeowner “own” when the bank has the senior claim to the property?

2. If the homeowner owes local government $13,000 a year in property taxes, what does the homeowner “own” once they pay $260,000 in property taxes over 20 years?

Continue Reading at OfTwoMinds.com…

from corbettreport

by Andrew P. Napolitano
LewRockwell.com

The bad legal news for Hillary Clinton continued to cascade upon her presidential hopes during the past week in what has amounted to a perfect storm of legal misery. Here is what happened.

Last week, Mrs. Clinton’s five closest advisors when she was Secretary of State, four of whom remain close to her and have significant positions in her presidential campaign, were interrogated by the FBI. These interrogations were voluntary, not under oath, and done in the presence of the same legal team which represented all five aides.

The atmosphere was confrontational, as the purpose of the interrogations is to enable federal prosecutors and investigators to determine whether these five are targets or witnesses.

Continue Reading at LewRockwell.com…

by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk

Hollowing Out of America’s Middle Class

Since 2000, the percentage of America’s middle class fell in nearly 90% of the nations 229 metropolitan areas according to PEW research.

Those metro areas account for 76% of the nation’s population in 2014.

In 160 metro areas the percentage of those with lower incomes rose. In 172 areas the percentage of people in higher income brackets rose. 108 metro areas experienced a rise in upper income and lower income households.

Continue Reading at MishTalk.com…

by Keith Weiner
Gold Seek

The popular belief is that gold is a good hedge against inflation. Owning gold will protect you from rising prices. Is that true?

Most people define inflation as rising prices. Economists will quibble and say technically it’s the increase in the quantity of money, however Milton Friedman expressed the popular belief well. He said, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.”

There you have it. The Federal Reserve increases the money supply and that, in turn, causes an increase in the price of everything, including gold. It’s as simple as that, right?

Continue Reading at GoldSeek.com…

from ReasonTV

by Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan

Every summer, Hollywood seems to release another batch of disaster and hero films full of action and end of the world scenarios.

But this film hits much closer to home.

It’s the scenario that could happen here, but Hollywood won’t dare to get behind. Nevertheless, it is coming to (select) theaters.

Director Mike Norris, son of Chuck Norris, is bringing a drama to screen ripped from the headlines of America’s real-life looming catastrophes. In AmeriGEDDON, an EMP attack brings down the grid and initiates the collapse scenario that preppers are all too familiar with: civil unrest and chaos as a result of the loss of food and services, followed by a heavy-handed attempt to impose martial law and confiscate the firearms of American patriots.

Continue Reading at SHTFPlan.com…

by Tony Sagami
Mauldin Economics

Get a load of this headline from a German newspaper, which translates into “Extreme Low Interest: Who Saves Is the Fool.”

[…] The reason for that insulting headline is simple: central bankers have been waging a war against savers.

Example #1: Former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Richard Fisher, offered this sage (sarcasm alert) advice last week: “I would be prepared when they move—and I hope they move sometime in June—there’ll be a settling in of the market place. There will be a correction. Suck it up. Deal with it. That’s reality.”

Continue Reading at MauldinEconomics.com…

from Peter Schiff

by Rich Miller
Bloomberg.com

Talk about a poisoned chalice. No matter who is elected to the White House in November, the next president will probably face a recession.

The 83-month-old expansion is already the fourth-longest in more than 150 years and starting to show some signs of aging as corporate profits peak and wage pressures build. It also remains vulnerable to a shock because growth has been so feeble, averaging just about 2 percent since the last downturn ended in June 2009.

“If the next president is not going to have a recession, it will be a U.S. record,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist for North America at the Conference Board in New York. “The longest expansion we ever had was 10 years,” beginning in 1991.

Continue Reading at Bloomberg.com…

by Jamie McGeever
Reuters.com

The European Central Bank and Bank of Japan may soon be spending as freely on shares as they already are on bonds, especially if the weapons so far deployed from their monetary policy arsenals continue to fire blanks.

Both central banks are already buying large quantities of bonds as part of an ultra-loose policy slate designed to kick-start inflation. But price pressures in both regions remain negligible and the euro and yen have risen against the dollar this year.

The BOJ already buys small amounts of stocks and, asked this week whether the ECB would contemplate buying equities, its vice president Vitor Constancio said only that no further measures would be adopted so soon after policy was eased in March.

Continue Reading at Reuters.com…

from RT

by Daily Bell Staff
The Daily Bell

Central banks are loading up on gold … This has been a great year for gold. The precious metal is up 19%, and recently crossed $1,300 per ounce for the first time in 15 months before pulling back into the $1,265 area. – Yahoo, Business Insider

Yesterday, we wrote about two simple, powerful factors boosting gold.

First, the equity “bull” market is at least seven years old now and can’t be counted on much longer.

Second, the amount of money printed by central banks around the world is reportedly approaching or exceeding $100 trillion – with no real letup predicted.

Thus the world’s liquidity is sure to continue the process of currency debasement. As currencies become worth less, savers and investors consider assets worth more.

Continue Reading at TheDailyBell.com…

Gold demand climbed by 21pc to 1,290 tonnes in the first three months of 2016 compared with a year earlier, its gold demand trends report said.

by Szu Ping Chan
Telegraph.co.uk

Investors snapped up gold at a record pace in the first three months of 2016 as global growth fears intensified and central banks slashed interest rates deeper into negative territory.

Concerns that Britain could leave the EU also triggered a spike in demand across Europe where ” investors were plagued by lingering Brexit fears,” according to the World Gold Council.

Gold demand climbed by 21pc to 1,290 tonnes in the first three months of 2016 compared with a year earlier, its gold demand trends report said.

This represents the biggest first quarter increase since records began in 2000.

Continue Reading at Telegraph.co.uk…

by Jill Ward, Scott Hamilton, and Paul Gordon
Bloomberg.com

Mark Carney said a vote to leave the European Union could cause a U.K. recession and that any monetary-policy response would take time to work, in his strongest warning yet of the risks in the June 23 referendum.

The Bank of England governor said on Thursday that Brexit — which he called the “elephant in the room” — means uncertainty over the outlook has risen to the highest since the euro-area debt crisis. The Monetary Policy Committee cut its growth forecasts, said inflation remains subdued and unanimously agreed to maintain their benchmark rate at a record-low 0.5 percent.

“A vote to leave the EU could have material effects on the exchange rate, demand and supply potential,” Carney told a press conference in London. The consequences “could possibly include a technical recession.”

Continue Reading at Bloomberg.com…

from Financial Repression Authority

by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
PaulCraigRoberts.org

Several years ago two very distinguished American scholars wrote a book, The Israel Lobby.

The book made a very understated case that the Israel Lobby has far more power over the US government and media than is good for America or Israel, as it silences constructive critics who are Israel’s friends. The two scholars were demonized by the Israel Lobby as advocating the return of the Holocaust.

The Israel Lobby presented itself as just a poor little weak thing unable to stand up to all the Nazis assailing Israel. Meanwhile the US Congress was unanimously passing outrageous resolutions handed to it by the Israel Lobby.

A number of former US Senators and Representatives, including Cynthia McKinney, have publicly stated that they were removed from office by the Israel Lobby for criticizing actions of the Israeli government, such as the Israeli government’s attempt to sink the USS Liberty, in which a majority of the American crew were killed or injured.

Continue Reading at PaulCraigRoberts.org…

Donald Trump’s Genius is His Ability to Make Facts Irrelevant

by Rex Nutting
Market Watch

Every time political experts declare that Donald Trump has finally gone too far with one of his inexplicable comments, he proves them wrong.

Trump can never go too far, because he understands something that the experts don’t: Americans hate experts.

If you’ve been paying attention to the financial media over the past few days, you’ve certainly read how Trump is threatening to default on the national debt, and how he wants to madly print money and inflate our way into prosperity, and how, as MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends wrote, “Donald Trump is now threatening the 401(k)s of ordinary Americans.”

Continue Reading at MarketWatch.com…

by Greg Guenthner
Daily Reckoning

The smart money continues to jump on the gold bandwagon.

The latest gold bull to show himself is billionaire fund manager Paul Singer. He thinks the rally we’ve seen in gold so far this year is just getting started.

“It makes a great deal of sense to own gold. Other investors may be finally starting to agree,” Singer writes in a client note. “Investors have increasingly started processing the fact that the world’s central bankers are completely focused on debasing their currencies.”

Now we can add Singer to the list of big-name investors who are getting bulled up on the Midas Metal. Just last week, Stanley Druckenmiller—billionaire investor and former George Soros protégée— advised the crowd at the Sohn Investment Conference attendees to sell stocks and buy gold.

Continue Reading at DailyReckoning.com…

from Mike Maloney

by Dr. Ron Paul
Ron Paul Institute

In a recent interview I was asked why Bernie Sanders, a self-described “democratic socialist” had seemingly attracted so much support among young people. In fact polls suggest Sanders is the most popular candidate among people aged 18-29, and 51 percent of that same age group appears fed up with “capitalism in its current form,” according to a recent Harvard study.

It was just four years ago that so many young people turned out to hear and support my message of personal liberty, non-aggression, and non-intervention at home and abroad. I was thrilled that so many young people were attracted to a candidate whose main message was “I don’t want to run your life.”

Continue Reading at RonPaulInstitute.org…

by Michael Snyder
The Economic Collapse Blog

What would America look like with absolutely no electricity? Could you survive in a world with no lights, no cell phones, no computers, no televisions, no ATMs, no cash registers and no refrigerators? Such a world is not as far away as you might think. A very powerful nuclear blast directly over the center of the continental United States could potentially fry electronic equipment from coast to coast, and it would take months or even years to fully restore power. During that time, the entire country would be plunged into chaos and experts tell us that tens of millions of Americans would die. But even if we are never attacked by a nuclear weapon in that manner, scientists assure us that it is inevitable that a massive electromagnetic blast from the sun will produce a similar result someday anyway. In fact, back in 1859 a giant solar storm that came to be known as “the Carrington Event” fried telegraph machines all across North America and Europe. If a similar event happened today, life as we know it would be brought to an abrupt halt, and chaos would ensue from coast to coast.

Continue Reading at TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com…

from Talk Digital Network

by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk

In Jobs: How Good are the Jobs the Economy is Creating? I referenced a Wall Street Journal report on jobs by Joshua Zumbrun.

I thought Zumbrun provided an excellent starting point for discussion. But I also noted what I labeled a “data error” as well as over-lapping categories that could lead to double-counting.

I received a nice email from Zumbrun in response to my email to him.

Continue Reading at MishTalk.com…

by Laurence M. Vance
Mises.org

[This article was adapted from a talk delivered at the 2016 Austrian Economics Research Conference at the Mises Institute.]

Although most economists today generally see the benefits of free trade, such is not the case in the political realm. Leftists who are beholden to labor unions, for example, support protectionist measures to keep the votes coming from their their largest constituencies. Meanwhile, Conservatives are a mixed bag, and the “best” conservatives are often the worst when it comes to free trade.

Conservative Critics of Free Trade

Paul Craig Roberts has called free trade “a no-think cult that permits a greedy few to destroy America’s economic position for their own gain.” He claims that “the known necessary conditions for free trade to be mutually beneficial do not hold in today’s environment where factors of production are as mobile, if not more so, than traded goods.”

Continue Reading at Mises.org…

from Bill Still

by Mark O’Byrne
GoldCore

Global gold demand surged a record 21% and gold investment demand a record 122% in Q1, 2016 according to the World Gold Council who released their ‘Gold Demand Trends Q1 2016’ report today.

[…] The report is a leading industry resource for data and opinion on global gold demand. The quarterly publication examines demand trends by sector as well as geography.

Key findings re global gold demand in Q1 are

– Gold was a top-performing asset in Q1 – up 17% in USD terms

– Gold demand surged to the second-highest level ever – highest since Q4, 2012

– Overall demand for Q1 2016 increased by 21% to 1,290t, up from 1,070t in Q1 2015.

Continue Reading at GoldGore.com…

by Chuck Butler
Daily Pfennig

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to you! Blues Win! Blues Win! What a great way to remove the stress from the fans by going out and scoring the first 5 goals in Game 7! And now our Blues are in the Western Conference Championship round for the first time in 15 years! The Stars threw everything they had at the Blues, but couldn’t find the back of the net until late in the game, and by then it was all over but the crying for the losing team… The Grassroots greet me this morning with their song: Let’s Live For Today… Good advice, eh? Since tomorrow is not promised to us…

Continue Reading at DailyPfennig.com…

from Talk Digital Network