Home » Posts tagged 'birch gold group'

Tag Archives: birch gold group

What are BRICS planning with the Durban Accords?

In my first explainer about the BRICS nations, you met the players and you know why their decisions affect the global economy. But why do their decisions affect us?

You need to understand that first – before the August 22nd Durban Accords will make any sense. (But once you do understand, you’ll be astonished…)

Professor Reagan’s class is now in session!

Global trade runs on U.S. dollars

Since World War II, the U.S. dollar has enjoyed the role of global reserve currency. You may have heard those words before – here’s what they mean…

Worldwide, when companies or nations transacting with one another don’t share a common currency, they use U.S. dollars. When a Chilean copper mine sells tons of raw ore to a Canadian refiner, they invoice (and get paid) in U.S. dollars.

Obviously, most nations don’t have a common currency (the exception is the Euro zone). So the use of dollars for international trade is simply huge, approximately 85% of the global total.

So the world relies on dollars to do business. That’s a great deal for us! That means, for example, that deficit spending and newly-printed money always have a home somewhere in the world. Simply because the world has to have dollars.

Like I said, that’s a great deal for the nation that exports dollars. It’s not such a great deal for everyone else…

“It’s our currency, but it’s your problem”

In 1971, President Nixon ended the convertibility of dollars to gold.

The rest of the world, to put it mildly, went nuts. The gold standard was supposed to prevent inflation – but it hadn’t (primarily because American citizens weren’t allowed to swap dollars for gold since 1933).

…click on the above link to read the rest…

World War III Has Already Started, and It’s an Economic War

March 11, 2022

World War III Has Already Started, and It’s an Economic War

In an article I published in April of 2018, World War III Will Be An Economic War, I outlined a number of factors that portend a large scale conflict between East and West and why this war would be mainly economic in nature. I investigated how this conflict would actually benefit globalists and globalist institutions seeking to bring down multiple nations’ economies while hiding the engineered crisis behind a wall of geopolitical chaos and noise.

The goal? To convince the masses that national sovereignty was a plague that only leads to mass death, and that the “solution” is a one-world system – conveniently managed by the globalists, of course.

One issue which I used to get a lot of arguments over was the idea that countries like Russia and China would end up so closely aligned. People claimed there were too many disparities and that the countries would ultimately turn on each other in the middle of a financial crisis.

Well, it’s four years later and now we’re going to see if that is true or not. So far, it looks like I was correct.

My position has long been that certain nations have been preparing for a collapse of the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency (the primary currency used in the majority of trade around the world). My belief is that America’s top economic position is actually an incredible weakness; the dollar’s hegemony is not a strength, but an Achilles heel. If the dollar was to lose reserve status, the whole of the U.S. economy and parts of the global economy would implode, leaving behind only those who prepared – those who saw the writing on the wall and planned ahead.

The dollar crash coalition

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

Russia, Ukraine Prove Gold Is Still the Best Safe Haven

March 7, 2022

Russia, Ukraine Prove Gold Is Still the Best Safe Haven

Image via Reuters/Ilya Naymushin

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the latest top stories involving gold and the overall economy. Stories include: Gold remains the best safe haven despite volatility, how geopolitical tensions are further compromising the bond market, and renowned money manager weighs in on new all-time highs for gold and silver.

Gold’s volatile week and why it matters little in the metal’s trajectory

Last week has been a volatility showcase that is rarely seen in the gold market. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent gold flying past its 2011 high and up to $1,976, the highest level in a year and a half. The very next day, gold posted considerable losses and ended Friday’s trading session around $1,890. This surge and immediate slump in prices frustrated and disappointed a lot of traders, but we should remember that, for most of us, buying gold is not a trade. It’s an investment.

Even so, there are many takeaways from these wild couple of days, and a few important reminders.

Until a few months ago, gold was rangebound between $1,750-$1,800. The difficulty of breaching the resistance was noted by many. Yet now, we are treating $1,890 as a kind of support. It reinforces the notion that gold is being pushed up by many factors, and that geopolitical tensions are just one of them (and a recent addition).

While gold can benefit from the kind of uncertainty we saw last week, it’s far from necessary. The so-called “geopolitical play” isn’t a necessary force for gold’s price to continue climbing. Wells Fargo highlighted that even central bank rate hikes probably won’t slow the metal’s move to $2,000 this year.

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

Fed One Meeting Away from Creating a Doomsday Market Sinkhole

February 13, 2022

Fed One Meeting Away from Creating a Doomsday Market Sinkhole

Photo CC-BY-2.0 courtesy of the Oregon Department of Transportation

The effective Federal Reserve funds rate (the EFFR) has been sitting at virtually zero for a long time now. It feels a little strange to think about the fact that it was 14 years ago when the central bank first helped to trigger the crash of 2008; and we are still dealing with the consequences of it today. I only started writing for the liberty movement two years before that. The amount of time that it takes for economic disasters to develop is well beyond the average person’s attention span. In fact, there are many people who are adults today that have no clue what happened in 2008 because they were in elementary school when it went down.

This is how the establishment is able to get away with the negative changes to our national standard of living – because these changes usually happen over the course of decades and almost no one notices.

That said, there comes a point in any financial collapse where the floor is as thin as it will ever get. When the next shoe drops it’s going to break right through along with all the furniture. At this stage there is no slow moving crash, everything goes all at once. We have already seen this scenario in action, and again, I don’t think very many people remember the event.

Here’s what most people have forgotten

In 2018 the Fed began hinting at the institution not only of rate hikes but also cuts to asset purchases and its balance sheet simultaneously. It’s important to understand that effective rates had been sitting near zero for almost a decade and cheap overnight loans from the central bank were feeding one of the longest running corporate stock buyback bonanzas in history…

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

Fed Chair Faces the Ultimate Lose-Lose Decision

January 17, 2022

Fed Chair Faces the Ultimate Lose-Lose Decision

Photo by Vadim Sadovski

The U.S. economy teeters between two catastrophes: wild and untamed hyperinflation that turns cash into wallpaper, or an epic crash that would make 2008 look like a day at the beach. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has led the U.S. government’s monetary policy to this point.

Now he’s attempting a nearly impossible feat…

He will need to thread the needle between the two economic disasters, between the frying pan and the fire, to return the U.S. economy to any form of sustainable prosperity.

Is that kind of miracle even possible?

The frying pan: 40-year-record-high inflation

We will start with the obvious issue: December’s inflation report of 7% year-over-year price increases. That’s at the end an entire year where inflation rose steadily for eleven of twelve months. August, the exception, saw a 0.1% decline.

Source

In addition, what Powell endlessly assured us was merely “transitory” inflation, a “blip,” caused by “supply chain snarls” and so on? It’s the highest we’ve seen in 40 years.

Most of our readers who have a little gray in their hair may remember how grim the stagflationary crisis of the late 70s and early 80s was. However, the average American is only 38 years old. They most likely have no idea what we’re facing, even while watching their personal expenses go up month after month.

And make no mistake, those expenses have gone up quite a bit for virtually everyone.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) report revealed the prices that rose the most in December 2021 :

Gasoline +49.6%
Fuel oil, and other fuels for heating +48.9% (just in time for the coldest days of winter, too)
Natural gas: +24.1%
Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs: +12.5%
Electricity: +6.3%
Housing +4.1%

If you find this list depressing, I’m afraid your solace isn’t immune to this trend… Distilled spirits (excluding whiskey) rose 3.4% in price.

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

The Fed Just Guaranteed a Stagflation Crisis in 2022 – Here’s How

January 14, 2022

The Fed Just Guaranteed a Stagflation Crisis in 2022 – Here’s How

Chair Powell leads a two day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held January 29-30th, 2019. Public domain photo courtesy of the Federal Reserve

I don’t think I can overstate the danger that the U.S. economy is in right now as we enter 2022. While most people are caught up in the ongoing drama of Covid-19, a real threat looms over the nation in the form of a stagflationary tidal wave. The mainstream media is attempting to place the blame on “supply chain disruptions,” but this is a misrepresentation of the issue.

The two factors are indeed intertwined, but the reality is that inflation is the cause of supply chain disruptions, not the result of supply chain disruptions. If we look at the underlying stats for price rises in essential products, we can get a clearer picture.

Before I get into my argument, I really want to stress that this is a truly dangerous time and I suggest that people prepare accordingly. In just the past few months I have seen personal expenses rise at least 20% overall, and I’m sure it’s the same or worse for most of you. Safe-haven investments with intrinsic value like physical precious metals are a good choice for protecting whatever buying power your dollars have left…

Higher prices everywhere

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is officially at the highest levels in 40 years. CPI measurements often diminish the scale of the problem because they do not include things like food, energy and housing which are core expenses for the public. CPI calculations have also been “adjusted” over the past few decades by the government to express a more positive view on inflation…

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

Central Banks Rush to Protect Themselves from Incoming Disaster

January 9, 2022

Central Banks Rush to Protect Themselves from Incoming Disaster

Image courtesy of European Central Bank

The times, they are a-changin’, as Bob Dylan tells us.

On the global economic stage, the U.S. isn’t the dominant economic superpower that it once was. This conclusion comes from the declining popularity of dollars among global central banks.

Around the world, national central banks stockpile “reserves” in order to back up the value of their own national currency. Here’s how Investopedia explains monetary reserves:

The currency, precious metals, and other assets held by a central bank or other monetary authority

Monetary reserves back up the value of national currencies by providing something of value that the currency can be exchanged or redeemed for by note holders and depositors

Reserves themselves can either be gold or denominated in a specific currency, such as the dollar or euro

In a sense, holding any asset as part of a nation’s monetary reserves is a vote of confidence in it (which is a big reason central banks own tons of gold bars).

Here’s the concern: according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) data, the U.S. dollar (USD) has been hobbling along at a 26-year low in terms of its share of global reserve currencies.

Wolf Richter explained the specifics: “The global share of US-dollar-denominated exchange reserves declined to 59.15% in the third quarter, from 59.23% in the second quarter.”

The world is losing faith in the dollar as a safe, stable store of value. Take a look at the history of the USD share of global reserve currencies since 1967 on the chart below.

Take special note of how high the share was in 1977 (85%) before inflation spiraled out of control. Then note how much of that share disappeared by 1991:

U.S. Dollar share of global reserve currencies

Source

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

How Inflation Could Crash The Economy In 2022

January 3, 2022

How Inflation Could Crash The Economy In 2022

Photo by Alyssa Kibiloski

It’s understandable if you’re tired of hearing about rising inflation. But it has become an economic mainstay in the Biden Administration. And each month seems to bring fresh records not experienced in decades.

For Baby Boomers who lived through the Carter years, 2021 might feel like déjà vu. That’s because inflation rose 6.8% again in November 2021, which is the highest level since June of 1982.

That’s bad enough. And that’s not the worst of it…

When we look higher up the product pipeline, inflation at the manufacturing level is even higher. U.S. producers are dealing with inflation of their own, clocking in at an incredible 9.6% in November. That means prices on all manufactured goods, from coffee mugs to SUVs, are still going up. And we haven’t even experienced the sticker shock yet. Producer prices are a forecast of rising prices just down the road.

Things have gotten so bad that Bloomberg recently published an “inflation survival guide” after interviewing a number of Argentines (who routinely struggled with 50% inflation). Those who survived Argentinian hyperinflation know paper money is worthless.

Here’s their advice, lightly edited for clarity:

Spend your paycheck immediately (particularly on big-ticket items like houses and cars in the U.S.) – In a high-inflation economy, money that sits in the bank is losing value. Each day, those dollars on deposit buy a little, or a whole lot, less.
Borrow as much money as you can – When we borrow money to finance those big purchases, we’re getting credit at a rate below That means all the debt we take out is actually being devalued month after month. Eventually, we can always pay it off with otherwise-useless paper money.

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

Analyst Reveals His Gold Prediction Secret: It’s All About Oil

December 29, 2021

Analyst Reveals His Gold Prediction Secret: It’s All About Oil

Analyst Reveals His Gold Prediction Secret: It Is All About Oil

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the latest top stories involving gold and the overall economy. Stories include: Gold to rise alongside oil, buying the platinum’s dip, and the tale of a unique 54-pound gold brick.

Gold should follow oil as the latter skyrockets in price

It’s well-known that when gold soars, silver invariably follows. This kind of close correlation could soon be established between gold and another commodity that has been soaring recently: oil. Many might not be familiar with the gold-to-oil ratio, which tracks how many barrels of oil are necessary to buy an ounce of gold.

Here’s the summary of this argument:

The gold to oil ratio is an important indicator of the global economy’s health. Because gold and crude oil are both denominated in US dollars, they are strongly linked. That is because as the US dollar rises, commodities priced in USD fall, and vice versa. As the dollar drops, commodities generally go up.

Since fuel prices play a huge rule in inflation calculations (the Consumer Price Index is about 1/3 energy prices), higher oil prices means more inflation. Inflation drives gold-buying, and additional demand drives gold prices higher. Further, Kitco contributor Rick Mills argues, spikes in oil prices stunt economic growth. And economic pessimism is usually very good for gold.

A little bit more about the gold to oil ratio… Its historical average is 16, but it has been on quite a ride as of late. It hit a high of 91 last April due to the shutdowns, and has since returned to a more reasonable 25. It’s still way off its average, and a proper return would have to come from either falling oil prices or rising gold prices.

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

3 Reasons Why 2022 Will Be Unforgettable

December 26, 2021

3 Reasons Why 2022 Will Be Unforgettable

Photo by Milan Seitler

After the crazy year we’ve just had, one good question to ponder for a moment is: What does the U.S. economy look like as we head into next year?

To answer that, this article will examine three sectors by looking at economic activity (including Wall Street), the inflation situation, and of course physical gold.

So brace yourself, because if this plays out the way we fear it might, the economic storm on the horizon is less than one week away.

Here we go…

Economists still can’t come to grips with an astronomically overvalued market

It’s amazing how long a virus can be blamed for “Economic Woes.” But that’s exactly how economists summed up 2021:

U.S. economic activity resurged in 2021 after a year marked by lockdowns and stay-in-place orders, with the rebound fueled by a combination of monetary and fiscal stimulus, as well as firm consumer spending.

However, against this backdrop, the second half of this year especially has seen an economy grappling with supply-side constraints and rising price pressures. Lingering virus concerns have compounded with still-elevated demand to push up inflation.

When the government hands out free stimulus money, and also places a moratorium on mortgage payments, it would be natural to expect increased consumer demand for products and services as a result. (Along with a little market mania for good measure.)

But thinking that these pressures and demand would ease early next year, as those same economists surmised, ended up complicated by Omicron jitters.

From the same article:

Goldman Sachs: The emergence of the Omicron variant increases the risks and uncertainty for the economy anticipates GDP will grow 3.8% on a full-year basis in 2022, or down from the 4.2% clip it saw previously.

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

The Clouds Have Cleared in 2021, and What We Are Seeing Is a Dystopian 2022

December 22, 2021

The Clouds Have Cleared in 2021, and What We Are Seeing Is a Dystopian 2022

Photo by Javier Quiroga

This year was a doozy. Right out of the gate, millionaires were sounding the alarm that the markets were looking overvalued while reducing their risk exposure.

In February we got a taste of what could be the “end game” for the U.S. dollar as we saw it lose more of its grip as global reserve currency. Of course, it won’t collapse overnight because market psychology is still propping it up (for now).

But three big major economic influences have made 2021 one to remember. This chaotic “trifecta of market turbulence” kept the media busy and retirement savers on the edge of their seats.

So without further ado, let’s dive into the first one…

The confused Fed

Back in 2019 when the repo markets started going crazy, we reported how the Fed’s “confused” response only added fuel to a fire that continued to burn into this year.

And this year, one word you might have heard coming from Powell’s mouth with nauseating frequency to describe rising inflation was “transitory.” Over and over again, Powell’s confused Fed kept downplaying inflation…

Until it was obvious to everybody that inflation wasn’t transitory any longer. When Senator Pat Toomey challenged Powell during an appearance before Congress, the Fed chairman was forced to change his tune:

Powell explained that while the word has “different meanings to different people,” the Federal Reserve “tend to use it to mean that it won’t leave a permanent mark in the form of higher inflation.

“I think it’s — it’s probably a good time to retire that word and try to explain more clearly what we mean,” Powell added.

(We’ll discuss this in greater detail in a moment.)

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

Chairman Powell Paralyzed With Fear As Inflation Takes Over

December 16, 2021

Chairman Powell Paralyzed With Fear As Inflation Takes Over

Public domain, courtesy of the Federal Reserve

One thing is certain, inflation is no longer officially “transitory.”

For months, recently reappointed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell kept telling the public that rising inflation was transitory, and would soon subside.

It hasn’t, and isn’t likely to in the near future either. So the next natural question to think about is: What now, Chairman Powell?

With four major pivots in monetary policy over a short three years, according to CNBC, both Powell and the Fed he leads seem confused about what to do next:

At its two-day meeting next week, the Fed is expected to say it will double the pace of its bond purchase taper, while also likely hinting at more aggressive interest rate hikes coming in 2022. The moves are coming in response to inflation that is stronger and longer-lasting than Fed officials had anticipated.

But [Joseph] LaVorgna worries that the Fed, after months of calling inflation “transitory,” is now making the mistake of overestimating its duration and tightening at the wrong time. That could necessitate officials again having to change back next year, if the current inflation trend runs out of steam. [emphasis added]

Powell’s remarks revealed his confusion about the economy, and why he chose the word “transitory” in the first place:

“We tend to use it to mean that it won’t leave a permanent mark in the form of higher inflation,” he told the Senate Committee. “I think it’s probably a good time to retire that word and try to explain more clearly what we mean.”

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

Mainstream Economists Struggling to Hide the Incoming Economic Collapse

December 7, 2021

Mainstream Economists Struggling to Hide the Incoming Economic Collapse

Alternative Economists Were Right, The Stagflation Crisis Is Here

Photo by Annie Spratt

For many years now there has been a contingent of alternative economists working diligently within the liberty movement to combat disinformation being spread by the mainstream media regarding America’s true economic condition. Our efforts have focused primarily on the continued devaluation of the dollar and the forced dependence on globalism that has outsourced and eliminated most U.S. manufacturing.

The problems of devaluation and stagflation have been present since 1916 when the Federal Reserve was officially formed and given power, but the true impetus for a currency collapse and the destruction of American buying power began in 2007-2008 when the Financial Crisis was used as an excuse to allow the Fed to create trillions upon trillions in stimulus dollars for well over a decade.

The mainstream media’s claim has always been that the Fed “saved” the U.S. from imminent collapse and that the central bankers are “heroes.” After all, stock markets have mostly skyrocketed since quantitative easing (QE) was introduced during the credit crash, and stock markets are a measure of economic health, right?

The devil’s bargain

Wrong.

Reality isn’t a mainstream media story. The U.S. economy isn’t the stock market.

All the Federal Reserve really accomplished was to forge a devil’s bargain: Trading one manageable deflationary crisis for at least one (possibly more) highly unmanageable inflationary crises down the road. Central banks kicked the can on the collapse, making it far worse in the process.

The U.S. economy in particular is extremely vulnerable now. Money created from thin air by the Fed was used to support failing banks and corporations, not just here in America, but around the world.

Why does it matter where those dollars came from?

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

Here’s Why Modern Unbacked Money Derives Value from Gold

October 14, 2021

Here’s Why Modern Unbacked Money Derives Value from Gold

Here Is Why Modern Unbacked Money Derives Value from Gold

Photo by Giorgio Trovato

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the latest top stories involving gold and the overall economy. Stories include: The value behind money, why gold’s price has grudgingly responded to recent market turmoil and what higher energy prices mean for gold and silver.

Money has value, but not because the government says so

In an analysis on Eurasia Review, Frank Shostak goes in-depth in an attempt to answer the question: why does money have value? Opposing the views that the value of money is there because of government reassurances or social conventions, Shostak instead takes a look at history in order to avoid circular pitfalls.

Doing so tells us that money is a byproduct of a bid for convenience, a result of people wanting greater prosperity and better market exchange. In their quest to obtain both, they would put every commodity through a form of trial, and the one that ended up being the most commonly and widely accepted became money.

We now know that that commodity is gold. Even silver or bronze coins served primarily as a form of IOU for gold, although this IOU was far more grounded and sensible than any fiat today. Shostak likewise asserts that central banks were established to prevent market manipulation and monopolization by private banks, which wouldn’t hesitate to print out more gold IOUs than they could cover. (As we’ve seen all too often.)

Yet now, long after these early makings of modern finance, we find that little has changed. Private banks are making monopolies all the same, and despite a gold standard being nowhere in sight, much of their profits come from trading gold IOUs that can’t and won’t be covered by physical gold. That is why the Basel agreement was passed, and why most agree it will only be partially implemented so as to not collapse the global economy.

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

Here’s Why the Housing Market Has Gone from Overheated to Raging Inferno

October 10, 2021

Here’s Why the Housing Market Has Gone from Overheated to Raging Inferno

Image credit: Creative Commons (CC0)

The housing market is on the verge of spinning out of control. Just about everything that could be going wrong is going wrong.

The only holdout for the moment is home prices, which are up an astonishing 22.5% just this year. For many homeowners, that’s great news. Home equity is a huge source of wealth for middle-class Americans. And when home prices are high (just like when stock prices are high), you feel wealthy.

Unfortunately, like stocks, home prices can drop like a rock at a moment’s notice. That’s one lesson we learned all too well in 2008. Another Great Recession-type plummet in home prices forces many buyers underwater, stranding them with an asset they overpaid for and can no longer afford, and can’t even sell.

Let’s start our brief examination of today’s overheated housing market by taking a glance at how the Fed has been propping it up so far.

How the Fed props up housing prices

The Fed employs various financial interventions to coax the economy in the direction they choose. We know the words: quantitative easing. Lowering interest rates. Repo and reverse repo. Obscure financial hocus-pocus that nevertheless moves markets worldwide.

When it comes to the housing market, the Fed doesn’t need to do anything fancy. They just create artificial demand for mortgage-backed securities (MBS, also known as one of the notorious “toxic assets” that poisoned the U.S. in 2008).

Mike Shedlock revealed the trick:

In a single week the Fed added $22 billion in mortgage backed securities, nearly all of which had a duration of 10 years or longer. This is an ongoing process despite major subtractions via reverse repos. In the process, the Fed gooses housing by extending the duration of the assets it does hold, effectively lowering long-term interest rates in the process.

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

Tag Archives: birch gold group

Content

Post categories

Economic Links

Energy/Resource Links

Environmental Links

Geopolitical Links

Liberty Links

News Links

Other Links

Survival Skills

Post Archives by Category

Post navigation

Latest Posts