by Mish Shedlock, The Maven:
I took that snapshot last night it is slightly different this morning. I will add the 6-month T-bill in the next iteration of that table.
Yield Curve 2019-02-19
The Pension Crisis is Starting to Explode
by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics:
At the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, yields an annual income of only $15,080. This is below the annual poverty line. It also reflects something that most people are unaware of — in Illinois, there are more than 19,000 retired teachers who get OVER $100,000 per year in their pension. According to the latest data, nearly 1.5 in ten federal employees are eligible to retire RIGHT NOW, and in five years the number will hit three in 10 or about 30%. The Housing and Urban Development Department in the federal government has the highest rate of employees eligible to retire right now of any major agency in government, which stands at a shocking 24%.
Here’s One Reason Gold Is Money
by Peter Schiff, Schiff Gold:
Gold is money. Gold has been money for thousands of years. And one of the reasons gold is money is because it’s immutable.
That’s just a fancy way of saying it can’t be changed or destroyed.
Aristotle listed four characteristics of sound money: it must be durable, portable, divisible, and have intrinsic value. Gold possesses all of these characteristics, which is why gold has served as money for thousands of years.
The Magic Palladium Bullet – Craig Hemke (20/02/2019)
by Craig Hemke, Sprott Money:
Over the past few months, we’ve written frequently about palladium and the threat it poses to The Banks’ Fractional Reserve and Digital Derivative Pricing Scheme. As palladium prices are continuing to rise, we thought it best to explain this dynamic again today.
A few years back, my friend Max Keiser coined the phrase “buy silver, crash JP Morgan”. Back then it was hoped that silver could be a “magic bullet”, where physical demand would expose and crash the current fraudulent pricing scheme. And it nearly worked, too, as a massive Commercial short squeeze in 2011 nearly led to a runaway price spike. Only through the direct, official intervention of the CFTC and CME was price reversed and the crisis averted.
Elon Musk’s Legacy Of Unchecked Fraud Continues
by Dave Kranzler, Investment Research Dynamics:
At 5:15 p.m. on February 19th, Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla would produce 500,000 cars on 2019. The headline hit news terminals globally. The stock jumped over $1 in after hours trading. Four hours later Musk tweeted that he meant Tesla would be producing cars at an annualized rate of 500,000 by the end of 2019. After-hours trading was closed when that “correction” hit Twitter.
The next morning the Wall Journal reports that Tesla’s General Counsel, Dane Butswinkas, is quitting Tesla to return to his law practice in DC – two months after he took the job. Butswinkas’ role at was widely regarded to be Musk’s highly compensated Twitter babysitter per the terms of Musk’s SEC settlement related to Musk’s securities fraud “420 secured” tweet.
Forced End of “Ponzi-Like Leverage” & “Fraudulent Lending” Turns Australia’s House Price Bubble into “Property Bloodbath”
by Wolf Richter, Wolf Street:
What banks & housing markets in Sydney and Melbourne are facing in 2019.
As investors are fleeing Australia’s housing bust, sales of new houses have plunged to record lows, and home prices in the Sydney and Melbourne metros have dropped 12% and 9% from their respective peaks in mid and late 2017. Combined, the two metros account for about two-thirds of residential property value in Australia. A two-decade-long housing boom, interrupted by only a few minor dips, led to two of the most magnificent housing bubbles in the world, and they’re not “plateauing” or anything.
The Coming Restoration of Silver
by Hubert Moolman, Silver Seek:
The way I see it, silver has basically two major categories of use. The first and most important use is as a monetary asset. It is only when used as a monetary asset that it could realize its true (or fair) value.
Currently, it is probably as far away (not time wise though) from being used as a monetary asset, as it has ever been. It is for this reason that silver is so under valued and such a must-buy.
The second is really all other uses that is strictly non-monetary. This is how it is currently (materially) being used. Under this scenario it is just another asset that rises in price when excessive credit (including money printing) is created.
