Archives
A Currency War Battle That Europe and Japan Can’t Afford To Lose
May 5th, 2016
The dollar is tanking lately. From a high of around 100 in December, the dollar index — which measures USD against a basket of foreign currencies — is down about 8%, and the decline is steepening. In counterintuitive currency ...
This Is How They Fool Us, China Edition
April 20th, 2016
So it seems that China’s economy, caught in the grip of a credit crisis just a few months ago, is all better. And so, by extension, is everyone else. As the Wall Street Journal explains it: ...
Is Deutsche Bank’s Gold Manipulation The Main Scam Or Just A Side-Show?
April 18th, 2016
For years now, the easiest way to finesse a debate over whether precious metals markets are manipulated has been to say, “well, if they’re not manipulated they’re the only market that isn’t.” That was unsatisfying, though, because as the ...
The Pitfalls Of Buying Gold And Silver Online, And How To Avoid Them
April 4th, 2016
Back in 2014, online bullion dealer Tulving shocked its many customers by suddenly failing. See Coinweek’s story: How does $40M of Gold and Silver Disappear: The Collapse of Tulving Company Last week another one bit the dust: ...
The Rats Keep Pressing The Bar: Two Amazing Stories, One Inevitable Result
March 17th, 2016
Anyone who doubts that the global financial system has run out of (good new) ideas has only to track the recent words and deeds of central bankers and mainstream economists: Slightly-negative interest rates didn’t lead people to borrow more? ...
Is This The End? Draghi Fires His Bazooka And Markets Turn Away In Disgust
March 11th, 2016
ECB chair Mario Draghi delivered big-time this morning by announcing lower interest rates and a new round of debt monetization. Historically, this kind of thing has sent the financial markets into Pavlovian ecstasy, with stocks soaring and the local ...
China And Fracking: The Pillars Of “The Recovery” Are Crumbling
March 10th, 2016
When historians sort out this era of once-a-decade financial bubbles, they’ll marvel at how dissimilar the drivers of each boom were. The junk bonds of the 1980s were essentially leveraged tools for extracting wealth from companies. The dot-coms of ...
Japan’s Negative Interest Rates Are Even Crazier Than They Sound
March 3rd, 2016
Yesterday Japan’s government borrowed money on terms that require the lenders to pay rather than receive interest for ten years. And not only was that bond issue snapped up, it was vastly oversubscribed. This raises a lot of questions, ...
Reversal Of Fortunes: Capital Pours Out Of Banks And Into Gold
February 12th, 2016
For banks, the recent news is pretty grim. But it’s about to get much worse, based on the following: Yield Curve Flattens: Now 10-Year Yields Just 1% More than 2-Year (Barrons) – Ye olde yield ...
This Is Really Bad For Banks
February 4th, 2016
Once upon a time, falling interest rates were great for banks. A lower cost of capital gave lenders access to cheap raw material while causing borrowers to clamber for what banks were selling. Large profits usually ensued. But not ...
