Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Question of the Day: Why Does the Fed Value Its Gold at $35 Per Ounce?

by Mish Shedlock, Mish Talk:

At $35 per ounce the Fed values its gold at $11.037 billion. What’s the gold really worth and why the low valuation?

The Fed has no oil to revalue but it does have gold. How much?

Fed’s Balance Sheet in Millions of Dollars

Your Credit Card Company Might Be Bankrolling Left-Wing Activism

by Robert Schmad, The Daily Caller:

Charitable foundations funded by credit card companies and managed by their executives are pouring millions of dollars into liberal advocacy organizations, tax filings show.

The American Express Foundation and the Visa Foundation, philanthropic arms of two of the largest credit card companies in the world, gave grants to several major left-wing groups between 2019 and 2021. Executives from Visa and American Express sit on the boards of their respective foundations, both of which have taken millions from the corporations that established them.

Anti-Woke Central Bank Nemesis Javier Milei Wins Argentina’s Presidential Election

from ZeroHedge:

Javier Milei, the outsider libertarian candidate with radical solutions to Argentina’s economic crisis, has just won Sunday’s presidential runoff against Economy Minister Sergio Massa.

In a surprise outcome, Massa conceded in a speech to supporters in Buenos Aires on Sunday even before the official results were released, saying he called Milei to congratulate him on his victory.

The Great Taking: Part 1

from Peak Prosperity:

TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

U.S. Financial Death Spiral – John Rubino

by Greg Hunter, USA Watchdog:

Analyst and financial writer John Rubino has a new warning about being fooled into thinking the economy is improving because inflation and interest rates have fallen some recently.  Rubino says, “If the U.S. government is running crisis level deficits, which it is right now, borrowing money and paying interest on it means we are in a financial death spiral.  The debt goes up, the interest on the debt goes up and that raises the debt even further, and you just spiral out of control.  We are there right now.  The official U.S. debt is $33.5 trillion.  It’s growing by $1.7 trillion a year, and $1 trillion of that is interest costs.  Interest costs are rising as the overall debt goes up.  Then throw in this incredibly reckless military spending in the guise of foreign aid, and you get a society that has completely lost control. That’s where we are now.  We are in the blowoff stage of a 70-year credit super-cycle.  Those things do not end with a whimper, and they certainly do not end with a soft landing.  They end with a bang, and the bang is going to be centered on the currency.  People are going to look at this and say, ‘Do I really want to hold the currency or bonds of a country that is destroying its finances at this trajectory and this scale?’  The answer will be ‘No.’  At that point, it is game over for a deeply indebted economy.  We are headed that way fast, and these wars are taking us that way even faster.”

The Bottom 80% Has Gotten Significantly Poorer Since The Pandemic Began, And This Is Creating A “Robin Hood Mentality” All Over America

by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

The rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer, and this is causing all sorts of societal problems.  Thanks to social media, the poor can see the incredible affluence that the wealthy are enjoying, and they are deeply envious.  Of course it certainly doesn’t help that flaunting wealth has become one of the favorite pastimes of the wealthy.  Many of them love to post photos and videos of their luxury lifestyles on their social media accounts, and that is not a good thing.  Because times have not been good for most of the country.  In fact, a brand new study from the Federal Reserve has discovered that the bottom 80 percent have “lower bank deposits and other liquid assets compared to their status in March 2020”

GoldSeek Radio Nugget — David Morgan

from GoldSeek Radio:

TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/

An Answer Long-Overdue

by Ted Butler, Silver Seek:

One of the key data points in silver is the level and change in recorded bullion inventories, primarily in the COMEX warehouses and the silver ETFs. Particularly over the past few years, any number of daily commentaries have sprung up, slicing and dicing the inventory data, with special emphasis on the COMEX warehouse data, as total inventories there have fallen from roughly 400 million oz (the all-time high) at the start of 2021, to 266 million oz today, a decline of a third and supportive of a physical shortage.

Major Hedge Fund Turns to Gold

by Michael Maharrey, Schiff Gold:

Greenlight Capital reported a major increase in its exposure to gold as the hedge fund’s founder worries about the direction of the markets. In a Q3 letter to investors, David Einhorn expressed concern about geopolitical uncertainty, the rising price of oil, and inflation.

Greenlight famously shorted Lehman Brothers before its 2008 failure.

According to third-quarter 13-F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Greenlight plunged $34.9 million into SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed ETF. That increased the fund’s stake in the ETF by 89.2%, a record exposure to gold for Greenlight.

Dollar Weakness May Send Gold Surging to This Staggering Figure

from Birch Gold Group:

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the latest top stories involving precious metals and the overall economy. Stories include: Gold forecasts ahead of the election, Powell feints as U.S. economy crumbles, and Kuwait bolsters its place on the list of gold consumers.

Experts forecast a shaky dollar will send gold to $2,500 next year

For all the bearishness we’ve seen this year regarding gold in the headlines, it seems gloomy forecasts for a 12-month period are hard to come by. British research firm Capital Economics, for example, expects gold to end next year around $2,100, with rate cuts as the primary driver.

Moody’s Lowers US Credit Outlook to “Negative”

by Michael Maharrey, Schiff Gold:

Mainstream media pundits and politicians generally act unconcerned about the skyrocketing national debt and ever-growing budget deficits, but somebody has taken notice.

On Friday, Moody’s Investor Service lowered its outlook on US government credit from “stable” to “negative.” This could be a prelude to a downgrade in the country’s AAA credit rating. The agency typically resolves an outlook by either revising it back to stable or executing an actual downgrade within 18 to 24 months.

Sovereign Debt is Eating the World

by Peter St. Onge, Activist Post:

Sovereign debt is eating the world. Lining up a financial crash that could make 2008 look like a picnic.

How did we get here?

In short, governments and central banks deluded themselves into thinking that unlimited deficit spending financed by unlimited money printing won’t do what they’ve done for literally millennia — plunge the economy into stagflation.

They are, of course, wrong. And we’re seeing the catastrophe unfold before our eyes.

How Central Banks Can Use Gold Revaluation Accounts in Times of Financial Stress

by Jan Nieuwenhuijs, Gold Seek:

Because central banks are the root of the modern money tree, they can use entries in their gold revaluation accounts to turn into capital, pay for expenses, or transfer it to their respective Treasuries. In addition, gold revaluation accounts can be used to cancel government bonds held on central bank balance sheets to lower the public debt.

Multiple large central banks are currently operating at a loss while public debt levels are elevated. In this article we will examine how central banks’ gold revaluation accounts can offer solace in these challenging financial environments. Central banks’ accounting rules are but fictional obstacles, as these are self-imposed and can be discarded.

AND SO IT BEGINS

by Jim Quinn, The Burning Platform:

What fool would buy 30 Year US Treasuries when the US is adding $2 trillion per year to the national debt? The US has to issue debt to pay the $1 trillion in annual interest on the existing debt. It is like you running a $50,000 balance on your credit card and adding $10,000 to your balance in order to pay the $10,000 in annual interest on the credit card. This is unsustainable. That which is not sustainable will not be sustained. When they pull back the curtain, will you be ready?