from Grant Williams:
Your “Cash” Is Currency…. My “Cash” Is Gold And Silver.
by David Schectman, Miles Franklin:
J.P. Morgan Private Bank published an interesting investment-strategy note in July. It was titled “Is the dollar’s “exorbitant privilege” coming to an end?” It explored the US dollar’s longstanding status as the world’s dominant reserve currency, which is waning. The conclusion reached was “we believe the dollar could lose its status as the world’s dominant currency (which could see it depreciate over the medium term) due to structural reasons as well as cyclical impediments.” – Adam Hamilton
MORE PROTESTS THIS WEEKEND IN HONG KONG
by Harvey Organ, Harvey Organ Blog:
JACKSON HOLE MEETING THIS FRIDAY AND THUS A REASON TO WHACK THE PRECIOUS METALS: GOLD DOWN $11.20 TO $1502.00//SILVER DOWN 21 CENTS TO $16.96//MORE PROTESTS THIS WEEKEND IN HONG KONG//INVESTORS ARE TAKING THEIR CASH OUT OF HONG KONG//CASS FREIGHT INDEX DOWN FOR 8TH STRAIGHT MONTH//IRANIAN OIL CARGO SHIP SET FREE IN GIBRALTAR//MORE EPSTEIN STORIES FOR YOU TONIGHT AS WELL AS OTHER SWAMP STORIES
A Rothbardian Take on Negative Interest Rates
by Robert P. Murphy, Mises:
Joe Weisenthal, who made his name in financial circles while an editor at Business Insider from 2008–2014, has been wondering aloud on his popular Twitter account why so many analysts think it’s weird for the world to be experiencing negative interest rates. Since Weisenthal has collected his thoughts into a recent article at Bloomberg, it’s worthwhile to analyze them from a Rothbardian perspective.
As we’ll see, Weisenthal is fuzzy on several key distinctions, but his basic intuition does serve to illustrate a problem with the conventional understanding of (fractional reserve) banking. Specifically, Weisenthal is right to think that rich people should have to pay to warehouse their wealth, but he’s wrong to think that this phenomenon should be classified as “negative interest rates.”
The latest sign that absolutely nothing makes sense
by Simon Black, Sovereign Man:
In the latest sign that absolutely nothing makes sense anymore, WeWork filed formal regulatory paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, officially notifying the world that it will soon be going public.
If you haven’t heard of WeWork (or it’s parent– ‘The We Company’), it’s a real estate company that owns practically zero real estate.
Instead, they lease vast amounts of office space in commercial buildings on long-term contracts, and then sub-lease that space to individual tenants– often small businesses– with short-term contracts.
Is next week’s Jackson Hole meeting where the Fed will seek to create the new cashless system built on negative interest rates?
by Kenneth Schortgen, Shotgun Economics:
While the world chokes on $15 trillion of debt bound to negative interest rates, the Federal Reserve has suddenly been laying down hints that they too are in preparation for bringing bond yields down below 0.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said nothing is stopping the U.S. from getting sucked into the global trend of negative yielding debt, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
The Planned ‘Mass Roundup Of Americans’ Is No ‘Conspiracy Theory’! With Politicians Pushing ‘Red Flag Laws’, This Flashback To ‘Rex 84’ And ‘Main Core’ Helps Complete The Story
by Stefan Stanford, All News Pipeline:
In this very important August 7th story over at the website of Paul Craig Roberts, Ronald Reagan’s former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, Roberts reports that much of what we’ve been witnessing across America recently has been an open invitation to tyranny following the release of an FBI document which characterizes ‘conspiracy theories‘ as a potential form of ‘domestic terrorism‘, with Roberts warning: In effect, the FBI’s document reduces the First Amendment, that is, free speech, to the right to repeat official and prevailing explanations. Any other speech is a conspiratorial belief that can lead to the commission of a crime.
NYT’s propaganda machine: Iraq WMD, Russiagate & Trump’s ‘Racism’ (Video)
by Alex Christoforou, The Duran:
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss a recent leaked audio of a New York Times employee town hall where NYT Editor-in-Chief Dean Baquet told his staff to ditch the Russian collusion hoax that they were pushing for nearly three years and start focusing on President Trump’s “racism.”
A WOPR OF A BAD IDEA… AI AND NUCLEAR WAR
by Joseph P. Farrell, Giza Death Star:
Do you remember the line “I’d piss on a spark plug if I thought it would do any good”? It was one of many memorable statements that came out of the Reagan era. Another was, of course, Reagan’s offhand comment captured by an open mic before the mic was actually supposed to be live. The President made a comment about the Soviet Union, and that “the bombing starts in five minutes.” The first comment was made by the American general in charge of the NORAD nuclear command center at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, in the 1983 movie, War Games, as the USA’s latest super computer, specifically designed to “game out” nuclear war scenarios, decides to run its simulations for real. The computer was appropriately named WOPR, War Operations Plan Response. The whole era (and the movie) was “fun” in that grim sort of Dr. Strangelove way…
Negative Interest Rate Absurdity and How It Screws Up the Economy (Video)
by Peter Schiff, Schiff Gold:
Negative-yielding debt surged to over $15 trillion earlier this month. This pile of negatively-yielding paper includes government and corporate bonds, along with some euro junk bonds.
In a recent episode of the Wolf Street Report, Wolf Richter called this “NIRP absurdity.” And it could be coming to America.
Negative interest rates started out as a short-term emergency experiment during the Great Recession. Now it has turned into the new normal. How will this end?
