from Silver Doctors:
The US Mint just announced it has temporarily sold out of the 2019 American Silver Eagle Coineffective immediately…
February 21, 2019.
As a result of the announcement today, silver coin price premiums on Silver Eagle Coins are inching higher above the fluctuating silver spot price given that the US Mint was ambiguous about when new Silver Eagle Coin supplies will return to market.
by Alan Macleod, Ron Paul Institute:
In recent times the international media, including many who promised to “resist” the dangerous commander-in-chief Donald Trump, have been awash with stories about Nicolas Maduro blocking US “humanitarian aid” reaching Venezuela. Maduro is said to have even blocked a bridge in his desperation to starve his own people (see, for example, CNN, CBC, Associated Press, BBC, NPR, ABC, Bloomberg, The Guardian). A constant flow of stories such as this have served to establish a narrative of a dictator blocking a benevolent US government from helping its desperate people. Something must be done!
by Daniel DiMartino, The Burning Platform:
The first time I couldn’t buy food at the grocery store, I was 15 years old. It was 2014 in Caracas, Venezuela, and I had spent more than an hour in line waiting. When I got to the register, I noticed I had forgotten my ID that day. Without the ID, the government rationing system would not let the supermarket sell my family the full quota of food we needed. It was four days until the government allowed me to buy more.
by Chloe Anagnos, DC Clothesline:
When supporters of minimum wage increases argued that entry-level workers were not getting paid enough to support their families, experts warned that forcing employers to increase the wages for unskilled workers would produce unintended consequences. Now that critics of the law were proven right and workers are getting fired, proponents are doubling down.
Critics hoped that minimum wage supporters would finally understand that employers should be able to negotiate wages with workers freely, but those suffering the consequences seem blind to reality.
Will they ever realize that their push for a minimum wage hike is why they are out of a job?
by Mac Slavo, SHTF Plan:
The unemployment rate has been a perfect forecaster of a recession in the past 70 years, and it appears to be edging closer to triggering that signal. “It’s never been wrong. It’s something to watch,” said Joseph Lavorgna, chief economist for the Americas at Natixis.
As the unemployment rate hovers around 4% (the number reported in the mainstream media) a more accurate unemployment number is 8.1%. This takes into account those who have given up on finding work and those who are underemployed (workers who are part-time but want full-time employment), This more accurate unemployment number is called the U-6, while we often hear the U-3 reported on the news. But even former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen says the U-6 is a much more accurate indicator of where things are with regards to the economy.
by Nathan McDonald, Sprott Money:
On August 16th, 2018, gold bullion ended its long-suffered downtrend, closing at $1176.20 USD.
Fast forward to today and we have a much different picture, as gold has rallied—and rallied hard—from this low point, hitting as high as $1340.10 USD earlier this week.
This continues the trend I said would unfold throughout 2019, and as we highlighted recently, it is coming to fruition as Eastern Central Banks become net positive buyers of the yellow metal, buying physical gold hand over fist.
As we have stated before, this charge is being led by some key players such as Russia, China, Turkey, Poland and India, all of whom are buying gold in ever-increasing quantities.
by Avi Gilburt, Gold Seek:
There is an old Yiddish expression called a bubbe meise (pronounced my-seh). I guess the closest English interpretation of this expression would be a grandmother’s tale, or in the common vernacular, an old-wives’ tale.
Of late, I am seeing a bubbe meise about the importance of central bank buying of gold, and it is making its rounds on websites all over the internet.
We have been hearing for many years about how gold is supposed to soar because countries and central banks are buying the precious metal. Most of the fundamentalists in this market are convinced that this is a bullish signal. In fact, one article I read explained that central bank buying “is significant, as central banks are the ‘smart money’ given their influence on global economics and access to non-public information.”
by Wolf Richter, Wolf Street:
Fact is, home prices cannot outrun wages forever.
The market, if it’s allowed to, can fix the affordability problem that exists in many cities in the US by finding price levels were first-time buyers can afford to buy a home with the income they’re making. At its glacial pace, this is starting to happen in some markets, with sales volume dropping, and inventories rising, and sellers having to step down the aspirational ladder to make deals. In some of these markets, price levels have a long way to go before they make sense, where a household with a median income on the local scale can afford a median home. And there are now enough local housing markets that have turned south to where the impact is starting to creep into national averages.
