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Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for April came in much hotter than expected. Year-on-year, inflation is up 4.2%. The big number even prompted Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida to say, “We were surprised by higher than expected inflation data.”

Peter Schiff appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show to talk about the consequences of more printed money chasing fewer goods. Peter said inflation is going to hit the middle class harder than the pandemic.

Peter said this hot CPI print is a cause for concern and ultimately it is a tax.

It is the inflation tax. And if you look at how much the cost of living went up, measured by the CPI in the first four months of this year, it’s 2%. So, if you triple that to annualized it, we have consumer prices rising at 6% annually. But if you look at the monthly numbers, every month it accelerates. So, if you extrapolate the trend of the first four months of this year for the entire year, you’re going to get a 20% increase in consumer prices in 2021.”

VIDEO

Tucker asked a poignant question. If the value of the US dollar is falling as quickly as the CPI suggests, why would any country want to invest in US bonds? Doesn’t this threaten to cause a shake-up?

Peter said they won’t want to invest. They’ll be selling US Treasuries.

Anybody that can connect these dots is going to be selling US Treasuries. And the problem is there’s a lot of US Treasuries to be sold.”

Peter noted that a lot of people are talking about a shortage of goods.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Secret

May 17, 2021

The Secret

The secret is out. It can no longer be denied and it’s up to each and everyone of us to help bring the secret to the forefront of public awareness.

For the mainstream financial media won’t do it, indeed they allow the guardians of the secret to continue to deny its existence.

For years those of us who have been critical as to the negative consequences of easy money policies, QE in particular, were dismissed and mocked as “QE conspiracists” and even as “swashbuckling pirates of free market capitalism” by central bankers directly including yours truly:

It’s easier to mock and ignore with a Tweet and then go into hiding versus engaging in substantive debate.

But the lid just got blown off the false narratives that have been propagated by central bankers from Powell on down with his now infamous claim that “Fed policies absolutely don’t add to inequality“.

Of course QE adds to inequality. Even the Bank of Canada just sheepishly admitted it:

But the real hammer just dropped by one of the most successful investors ever, billionaire Stan Druckenmiller. Not only does QE add to inequality it is the main driver:

“I don’t think there has been a greater engine of inequality than the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States”.

Watch this clip for it lays bare not only the brutal reality of how the Fed has reshaped the country for the benefit of the rich, but also who will pay for the consequences:

The data Druckenmiller is referring to is as obvious as the light of day:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Karl Marx’s Road to Hell is Paved with Fake Money

May 15, 2021

Karl Marx’s Road to Hell is Paved with Fake Money

“The way to Hell is paved with good intentions,” remarked Karl Marx in Das Kapital.

The devious fellow was bemoaning evil capitalists for having the gall to use their own money for the express purpose of making more money.

Marx, a rambling busybody, was habitually wrong. The road to hell is paved with something much more than good intentions. Grift, graft, larceny, corruption and fake money are what primarily composes the pavement. Good intentions are merely dusted in to better the aesthetic.

If you want to understand what’s going on with exploding price inflation then you must understand this…

Right now in the United States we have a scam currency that’s controlled by central planners. Specifically, we have what Marx envisioned in Plank No. 5 of his Communist Manifesto:

“No. 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.”

The Federal Reserve System, created by the Federal Reserve Act of Congress in 1913, is indeed a ‘national bank’ and it politically manipulates interest rates and holds a monopoly on legal counterfeiting in the United States.

Without the Fed’s policies of mass credit creation the U.S. government could have never run up a national debt over $28 trillion. Without the Fed’s policies of extreme credit market intervention the U.S. trade deficit for March of $74.4 billion – a new record – would have never been possible. Without the Fed’s printing press money the U.S. government could have never run annual budget deficits over $3 trillion.

The fact is centralized credit in the hands of a central bank always leads to money supply inflation. Asset price inflation and consumer price inflation then follow in strange and unpredictable ways.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

No inflation? Even used car prices are soaring

May 15, 2021

No inflation? Even used car prices are soaring

We’ve reached a point now where anyone who can’t see inflation is clearly not paying attention.

Inflation has now become so ridiculous that, according to the Wall Street Journal, even the price of a USED car is increasing… by a lot.

Since January 2020, NEW car prices have increased 9.6%. But USED car prices are up 16.7% over the same period.

This is pretty extraordinary given that used cars are supposed to depreciate. According to one used car dealer, “What is normally a depreciable asset has been appreciating. It’s certainly surreal. . .”

It’s not just used cars, of course. Prices across the economy are rising rapidly. NielsenIQ retail price data sets show that consumer goods have been rising in excess of 10% over the last year on everything from beauty products to seafood prices (which have risen by 18.7% over the past three months).

There are lots of reasons for inflation.

For example, there’s plenty of pent-up consumer demand from people having been locked down for more than a year, at a time when many businesses are still closed or operating at below normal capacity.

This combination of high demand and tight supply is causing prices to rise. And in theory that’s a temporary phenomenon.

But there are other, more permanent factors that could continue pushing prices up for a long time.

For starters, governments around the world are proposing higher taxes– carbon taxes, Value-Added Taxes, higher corporate income taxes. This is all inflationary, because eventually these tax costs are passed on to consumers.

The more important contributor to inflation, though, is astonishing quantity of new money in the financial system, thanks in large part to massive government spending.

In the US alone, the federal government is trying to pass spending bills totaling $11+ trillion this year.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Is Billionaire Investor & Former Gold Skeptic Sam Zell Buying Gold?

May 12, 2021

Why Is Billionaire Investor & Former Gold Skeptic Sam Zell Buying Gold?

Billionaire Investor & Former Gold Skeptic Sam Zell Buys Gold

Brian Sorg for Barron’s

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the latest top stories involving gold and the overall economy. Stories include: Another billionaire turns to gold, Arkansas no longer to tax sales of gold and silver, and Minnesota as a possible source of abundant gold ore.

Billionaire investor and gold skeptic Sam Zell buys gold ‑ here’s why

There has been no shortage of stories of big-name investors touting or turning to gold over the past few years, and especially over the course of last year as the Federal Reserve sparked widespread inflation concerns with its multi-trillion-dollar stimulus. Sam Zell, chairman of Equity Group Investments and a billionaire investor whose portfolio spans across a wide range of industries, recently shared that he, too, has embraced gold primarily over inflation fears.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Zell noted that he previously counted himself among investors who viewed gold as a suboptimal investment compared to higher-yielding assets. But now?

Obviously one of the natural reactions is to buy gold. It feels very funny because I’ve spent my career talking about why would you want to own gold? It has no income, it costs to store. And yet, when you see the debasement of the currency, you say, what am I going to hold on to?

Zell now finds gold to be a safer option to hold over unbacked currencies, with governments around the world experimenting with aggressively-loose monetary policies.

Indeed, Zell said that the Fed is far from the only central bank causing commotion in the global economy, and that all sovereign fiat currencies should be met with a watchful eye…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Most Lethal Act that Kills Governments

May 12, 2021

The Most Lethal Act that Kills Governments

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong. I heard you are the best when it comes to monetary history and systems. I found your comment that it was not the printing of money that created the German hyperinflation but they first confiscated 10% of everyone’s assets. My question is this the only such example? I have listened to two interviews you have done and you used the same example. Can you point to any other such events?

ANSWER: You can buy the German bonds of December 1922 probably on eBay if you would like a piece of history. I probably have the best reference collection with respect to monetary history in the world. I do not makeup stuff, and I do not rely on modern history books. I prefer to also collect the reference materials of the era. I have bought newspapers bound in annual volumes from libraries over the years before digital. I have an extensive collection of both US and British materials. You will often see in my writings I publish articles from that period to show what they really said back then, not someone else ignoring or altering it to fit their agenda.

I have stated many times that I had to read Galbraith’s “Great Crash” in school. He was really a Socialist and never mentioned anything about a Sovereign Debt Crisis. Only when I found a rare copy of Herbert Hoover’s “Memoirs” in a London book store did I see all the evidence he put forth. My subsequent search of contemporary newspapers confirmed that the history books were all written by Socialists who supported Stalin back then. WHEN YOU DO THE RESEARCH TO DISCOVER WHAT HAPPENED, instead of trying to support a theory, you actually discover some very interesting facts. Hoover’s words applied to the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis and the collapse of Greece in 2010. Capital acted the very same way.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Jim Grant: The Fed Can’t Control Inflation

May 11, 2021

Jim Grant: The Fed Can’t Control Inflation

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell insists inflation is “transitory.” As prices have spiked throughout the economy, Powell’s messaging has essentially been, “Move along. Nothing to see here.”

Peter Schiff has been saying the central bankers at the Fed can’t actually tell the truth about inflation because even if they acknowledge it’s a problem (and it is) they can’t do anything about it.

In a recent talk, Jim Grant, investment guru and founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, echoed Peter, saying the Fed can’t control inflation.

During a webcast sponsored by State Street SPDR ETFs, Grant said he thinks “there’s a gale of inflation of all kinds in progress,” adding that he believes it will take the Fed by surprise and “overwhelm our monetary masters.” Grant said, inflation is “clear and present and will manifest itself in our everyday lives.”

That sounds like the exact opposite of Powell’s “transitory” mantra.

Peter has said that once the Fed is forced to admit that inflation isn’t transitory, it will be too late to take action. Grant made a similar prediction, saying inflation will “catch the Fed flatfooted. In response it will “prevaricate” – meaning speak or act in an evasive way. In fact, that already seems to be the central bank’s strategy.

The question is can the Fed actually control inflation. Grant doesn’t think so.

I think the Fed is under the misconception that it controls events. Sometimes, events control the Fed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of those times. The Fed thinks that not only can it control events, but it can measure them. It believes it can pinpoint the rate of inflation.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Consumers Expect Surging Inflation to Crush the Purchasing Power of their Labor: Fed’s Survey

May 11, 2021

Consumers Expect Surging Inflation to Crush the Purchasing Power of their Labor: Fed’s Survey

And there are some whoppers.

Consumers are picking up on the rise of inflation, and the Fed, which has been trying to heat up inflation, is pleased. The Fed watches “inflation expectations” carefully. The minutes from the March FOMC meeting mention “inflation expectations” 12 times.

The New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations for April, released today, showed that median inflation expectations for one year from now rose to 3.4%, matching the prior highs in 2013 (the surveys began in June 2013).

But wait… the median earnings growth expectations 12 months from now was only 2.1%, and remains near the low end of the spectrum, a sign that consumers are grappling with consumer price inflation outrunning earnings growth. The whoppers were in the major specific categories.

The whoppers.

So even as consumers expect their earnings to grow by only 2.1% over the next 12 months, and their total household income by only 2.4%, according to the survey, they expect to face these whoppers of price increases:

Home prices: +5.5%, a new high in the data series
Rent: +9.5%, fifth month in a row of increases and new high in the data series
Food prices: +5.8%
Gasoline prices: +9.2%
Healthcare costs: +9.1%
College education: +5.9%.

Sadly, the Fed doesn’t ask consumers about their expectations for new and used vehicle prices, which are now in the process of spiraling into the stratosphere. It would have been amusing to see what consumers expect those prices to do over the next 12 months.

So consumers expect to pay for these price increases with their earnings that they expect to increase at only a fraction of those price increases. In other words, consumers expect that the purchasing power of their labor will be crushed over the next 12 months.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Confronted with a Nightmare Scenario – John Rubino 5.8.2021

May 11, 2021

Financial writer John Rubino says there is no easy way out for the financial and political mess the United States has created for itself. Rubino starts with the economic problems and explains, “Now, inflation is starting to spread. . . . Look at lumber. If you are trying to build a house, it’s $35,000 more now than it was two years ago just because of lumber. Iron ore, house prices, grains, food and you name it, we’ve got inflation going on. At the same time, we have an apparent labor shortage. All these companies are coming out and saying we would love to take on all the business we are being offered to us, but we don’t have enough people. Even Uber and Lyft cannot find enough drivers. It’s weird it is happening this soon, but we should not be surprised since we dumped tens of trillions of dollars into the economy over the past year. This is what you would expect if you get the money supply going up 30% or 40%, which it did. This is what you get. The economy overheats. Now, we are confronted with the nightmare scenario in a fiat currency system. Inflation starts to pick up, which it is. That sends interest rates higher, which is happening. That threatens all the heavily indebted people out there because as rates go up, their costs rise. Then they go bankrupt in increasing numbers, and the system collapses. We are in the early stages in that kind of a process, and I don’t think anybody knows what to do about it.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Keep It Simple: Gold vs. a Mad World

May 11, 2021

Keep It Simple: Gold vs. a Mad World

Psychologists, poets and philosophers have written for centuries that many who have eyes refuse to see, and many who can think, refuse to think clearly–all for the simple reason that some truths, like the sun, are just too hard to look straight into.

Or as others have said more bluntly: “Truth is like poetry—everyone [fricking] hates it.”

When it comes to bloated markets, debt orgies and helicopter money, the rising fun of such “stimulus” is embraced, yet the template for its equally market-tanking, social-destroying and currency-debasing consequences are simply ignored.

The same is true when it comes to the “great inflation debate,” which is simply no longer a debate but a neon-screaming reality playing out in real time and growing more pernicious before eyes otherwise blinded by calming Fed-speak and bogus inflation scales.

Each passing day, the evidence of the inflationary cancer beneath the smiling surface of our still rising markets and “recovering/opening” economy increases, and thus, like it or not, the inflation topic just won’t and can’t be over-stated enough.

In short: Here I go again with the inflation thing…

From the Grocer to Buffet: Inflation is Obvious

Extreme US “stimulus,” vaccine rollouts, Europe’s eventual reopening, and rising commodity costs are accelerating the inflationary tailwinds which everyone from grocery store clerks and home builders to Warren Buffet can no longer deny or ignore.

As facts rather than theories confirm, commodity prices have surged from steel to copper, or corn to lumber while precious metals steadily rise against COMEX price fixers, CPI lies and other unsustainable boots to the neck of a coiled gold market positioned for big moves into late 2021 and beyond.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Existential Economic Threats: How U.S. States Can Survive Without Federal Money

May 8, 2021

Existential Economic Threats: How U.S. States Can Survive Without Federal Money

We all knew it was coming; the alternative economic media has been warning about it for years. Eventually, monetary intervention and bailout after bailout by central banks always leads to devaluation of the currency and inflation in prices. Helicopter money always ends in disaster and at no point in history has it ever produced positive long-term results for a society.

The federal reserve has generated trillions in fiat dollars over the course of a single year (on top of the tens of trillions created in the past decade), all in the name of offsetting deflation. This deflation was NOT caused by the pandemic, it was caused by the government response to the pandemic. On top of that, the shutdowns of “non-essential businesses” and the lockdowns in general ended up being useless in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

All the information, all the facts and all the science supports the anti-lockdown crowd. Conservative run states that removed lockdowns and mandates months ago are seeing falling infection and death numbers and local businesses are on the mend. The problem is, government authorities don’t seem to care about this. It appears that their intention is to double down and continue demanding restrictions stay in place for the long haul.

In other words, they are going to FIND an excuse to keep the mandates going. If no reason exists, they will create a reason. Consider for a moment the fact that COVID-19 is mutating constantly, and like any other virus there are new strains that pop up every year. Just as we have a seasonal flu, we will probably now have seasonal COVID.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Three reasons why inflation is rising. Two of them aren’t going away

May 6, 2021

Three reasons why inflation is rising. Two of them aren’t going away

A remarkable thing happened yesterday that tells you everything you need to know about inflation.

In the morning, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated bluntly that “interest rates will have to rise somewhat to make sure that our economy doesn’t overheat. . .”

For economists, an ‘overheating economy’ means inflation. So she was essentially saying that rates would have to rise to prevent inflation.

Yet hours later, she completely reversed herself, saying that interest rates would NOT have to rise because “I don’t think there’s going to be an inflationary problem.”

You don’t need a PhD in economics to smell the BS.

Inflation is not some potential issue down the road. Inflation is already here.

As Warren Buffett told investors only days ago, “We’re seeing very substantial inflation.”

Plenty of companies have already announced price increases to their consumers–

Proctor & Gamble, for instance, announced price hikes across the board on just about everything from diapers to beauty creams.

Hershey’s announced in February that it would be raising prices.

Food giant General Mills complained in February about a “higher inflationary environment” and “input cost pressures” due to rising commodity prices.

Clorox, Shake Shack, Kimberly-Clark, Whirlpool, Hormel, and Woka Kola Coca Cola are among the many companies that have also announced price increases.

And according to Bank of America Global Research, the number of mentions of “inflation” on corporate earnings calls has increased 800% compared to last year.

Inflation is clearly a concern of the largest companies in the world. Investors are worried. Consumers can see it.

And in a rare moment of truth yesterday morning, a politician almost admitted that she was concerned about inflation too.

This is not some wild conspiracy. Inflation is real. It’s happening. Let’s look at three key drivers:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Investors Do Not See “Transitory” Inflation

May 4, 2021

Investors Do Not See “Transitory” Inflation

The Federal Reserve and European Central Bank repeat that the recent inflationary spike is “transitory”. The problem is that investors do not buy it.

Inflation is always a monetary phenomenon, and this time is not different. What central banks call transitory effects, and the impact of supply chains are not the real drivers of inflationary pressures. No one can deny certain supply shock impacts, but the correlation and extent of the increase in prices of agricultural and industrial commodities to five-year highs as well as the abrupt rise of non-replicable goods and services to decade-highs have monetary policy to blame. Injecting trillions of liquidity makes more funds chase fewer goods and the rise in the real inflation perceived by citizens is much larger than the official CPI.

Take food prices. The United Nations Food Price Index is up 30% in the past five years and up 10% year-to-date (April 2021). The rise in food prices already caused protests all over the world in 2018 and it continues to reach new highs. The correlation in the price increase of most agricultural goods also shows that it is a monetary effect.

The same can be said about the Bloomberg Commodity Index which is also at five-year highs and up 15% year-to-date.

Yes, there have been some supply disruptions in a few commodities, but it is not widespread let alone the norm. If anything can be said is that the rise in agricultural and industrial commodities is happening despite the persistent overcapacity that many of these had already before the pandemic. We should also remember that one of the unintended consequences of massive monetary expansion is perpetuation of overcapacity. Excess capacity is refinanced and maintained even in crisis times…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Monetary Pumping and Resources

April 27, 2021

MONETARY PUMPING AND IDLE RESOURCES

As a result of the recent strong stimulatory policies employed by the US government and the Fed, most commentators are of the view that the risk of a deepening slump in the US economy on account of the COVID-19 pandemic has now receded.

Some other commentators are not so certain that the risk has declined, arguing that the economy is still heading towards difficult times ahead. These commentators are of the view that to prevent the possible economic difficulties ahead authorities should continue with easy fiscal and monetary policies until the economy safely placed on the trajectory of stable economic growth.

Most commentators are of the view that by failing to act swiftly authorities are running the risk of raising the cost of an economic slump in terms of idle or unutilized resources such as labor and capital.

This way of thinking is succinctly summarized by Ludwig von Mises,

Here, they say, are plants and farms whose capacity to produce is either not used at all or not to its full extent. Here are piles of unsalable commodities and hosts of unemployed workers. But here are also masses of people who would be lucky if they only could satisfy their wants more amply. All that is lacking is credit. Additional credit would enable the entrepreneurs to resume or to expand production. The unemployed would find jobs again and could buy the products. This reasoning seems plausible. Nonetheless it is utterly wrong.

Conventional thinking argues that boosting the overall demand for goods and services is going to strengthen the supply of these goods and services – demand creates supply.

However, why should an increase in the overall demand be followed by the increase in the production of goods and services? This requires a suitable production structure that is going to permit the increase in the production.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Producer Prices Surge. Germany, China, other Countries Are Now Exporting Inflation, Adding to US Inflation Pressures

April 26, 2021

Producer Prices Surge. Germany, China, other Countries Are Now Exporting Inflation, Adding to US Inflation Pressures

Central banks still brush it off as just “temporary.”

Producer prices of German industrial products in March rose by 0.9% from February, after having risen by 0.7% in February from January, and after having spiked by 1.4% in January from December, the biggest month-to-month jump since 2008.

Compared to March last year, producer prices jumped by 3.7%, according to the German Federal Statistics Office (Destatis), the biggest year-over-year jump since November 2011. The surge began last fall, after sharp declines earlier in the year:

Part of what caused the 3.7% increase from March last year — but not the surge over the past few months — is the “base effect“, since in February and March last year the producer price index was declining, and the latest year-over-year results are measured from those low points.

But factory prices have been rising on a month by month basis for the seventh straight months — with large increases over the past three months. And that has nothing to do with the base effect.

Prices of intermediate goods jumped by 5.7% year over year in March, the fastest since July 2011, due mainly to sharp rises in the price of secondary raw material (47%) and prepared feed for farm animals (16%). There were also increases in durable consumer goods (1.4%) and energy (8%), which in large part were driven by a sharp increase in electricity prices (9.6%).

Producer prices are now rising fast in the major manufacturing economies.

In China input costs rose 4.4% in March from a year earlier up from a 1.7% increase in February. It was the sharpest rise since July 2018. As the world’s biggest exporter, China’s rising prices stoke inflation around the world.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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