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July Blog Archives 2017

July Blog Archives


7.31.17 - The Unpayable U.S. Debt Bomb

Gold last traded at $1,268 an ounce. Silver at $16.75 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices traded mixed Monday amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainty and dollar weakness. U.S. stocks traded mixed as blue chip earnings impressed and tech valuation fears lingered.

Gold hits highest in nearly 7 weeks on struggling dollar -Reuters
"Gold hit its highest in almost seven weeks on Monday, boosted by a struggling dollar and U.S. economic data that has cast doubt on whether the Federal Reserve will raise rates again this year....'Dollar weakness is driving the gold price. It's not just against the euro, it's against most major currencies,' said Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg. 'U.S. politics is a mess and U.S. data has not been inspiring.' A U.S. currency near 13-month lows against a basket of currencies makes dollar-denominated gold cheaper for holders of other currencies, which could mean stronger demand. Analysts said decelerating wage growth and subdued inflation have weakened the case for another rate rise this year. The Fed has raised rates twice this year....'We think that there is more upside on gold,' said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir in a note. 'A combination of a weaker dollar and falling U.S. bond yields should propel the precious metal higher, with North Korea being a wild card.'"

debt bomb The Unpayable Debt Bomb -PontificationBlog
"America’s combined government and personal debt just hit $41 Trillion, equivalent to $329,961.35 per household – the greatest debt of a nation and its people in human history. But why worry? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says that by September 29th the government will run out of money and be unable to pay its bill. But by then Congress - unable to reduce its addictive spending - will raise the debt ceiling so politicians can borrow and print trillions more....Roughly 70 percent of America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from consumer spending, and most of the rest comes from government spending. With infinite credit, what could go wrong? In this human-made Eden of ever-expanding credit, some have begun to notice odd things. Why has the credit card company VISA started bribing merchants to accept only plastic, and never cash, in customer payments? Banking giant JPMorgan Chase, reports ZeroHedge, 'has banned cash payments for credit card debt, mortgages, and car loans. It has also banned the storage of "any cash or coins" in safe deposit boxes.' Your bank is now required to spy on you by the government." Full story

Next up: Fractured Republicans will face debt ceiling vote -AmericanThinker
"After failing to pass Obamacare repeal before leaving for their August recess, congressional Republicans will return after Labor Day with a deadline looming to raise the debt ceiling. There will be only 12 working days for Congress after members return to deal with the issue. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sent a letter to members warning that unless action is taken to raise the debt ceiling by September 29, the government will not be able to meet all of its financial obligations. Wall Street Journal: 'The Treasury Department has been employing cash-conservation measures since March, when borrowing hit the formal ceiling of nearly $20 trillion. Those measures are expected to run out in early to mid-October. When they do, the government won't have money to pay interest on debt, write Social Security checks or make millions of other routine payments, unless it can tap credit markets for borrowing to raise additional cash. Missing payments could send financial markets in a tailspin.'....Democrats will not bail Republicans out of this mess - and a mess it is almost certain to be. If you thought Obamacare repeal was a debacle, wait until the factions start lining up to support or oppose a debt ceiling increase."

Will Your Retirement Be At The Center Of America's Next Financial Crisis? -Forbes
"A few weeks ago United Parcel Service announced freezing its pension plans for nonunion staffers, or about 20% of its 434,000 workers worldwide. The freezing of Defined Benefit (DB) plans has become commonplace across America. According to Willis Towers Watson, in 2014 only 35% of Fortune 500 companies with DB plans still had open plans, down from a 50% open number just four years earlier in 2010....In a recent study from the Economic Policy Institute entitled 'The State of American Retirement- How 401(k)s have failed most American workers,' Morrissey writes that retirement account savings has stagnated or declined in the new millennium as traditional pension coverage has continued to decline."

Treasury Department Ending Ineffective Retirement Program -Free Beacon
"The Treasury Department is ending an ineffective Obama program that promised to help millions of Americans save for retirement, the government announced Friday. Treasury announced the myRA program would be phased out, after costing taxpayers $70 million though few Americans used the program....Former president Barack Obama used his 2014 State of the Union address to launch the myRA program, with a promise to 'help millions' to save for retirement. Two years later, only 20,000 had signed up....A review of the program by the Trump administration found that 20,000 accounts have a median balance of only $500. An additional 10,000 accounts had no money in them at all....The program has cost taxpayers $70 million since 2014, and participants have contributed $34 million to their accounts."

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7.28.17 - Markets Become Even More Absurd

Gold last traded at $1,269 an ounce. Silver at $16.74 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose to fresh 6-week highs Friday amid ongoing dollar weakness. U.S. stocks fell as Amazon dragged the tech sector lower.

Gold hits fresh 6-week high, data dampens rate hike expectations -Reuters
"Gold prices rose to a six-week high on Friday after weaker than expected U.S. inflation dampened expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will aggressively raise interest rates. Data on U.S. second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) and labor costs also pushed the dollar lower, making bullion more expensive for holders of other currencies.'It showed a big fall in annual inflation rates across the board ... so there is no urgency for the Fed to raise interest rates,' said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch. Gold is sensitive to rising rates because they push up bond yields, making non-yielding gold less attractive, and tend to boost the dollar....The dollar has weakened for five consecutive months, which together with short-covering has helped gold gain around $60 since early July, said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke."

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Obamacare Repeal Collapses as Senate GOP Blocks Health Bill -Bloomberg
"A months-long effort by Senate Republicans to pass health-care legislation collapsed early Friday after GOP Senator John McCain joined two of his colleagues to block a stripped-down Obamacare repeal bill. 'I regret that our efforts were simply not enough, this time,' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor after the vote. 'This is clearly a disappointing moment.' 'It’s time to move on,' he added after pulling the bill from the floor. The decision by McCain to vote no came after weeks of brinkmanship and after his dramatic return from cancer treatment to cast the 50th vote to start debate on the bill earlier this week....'3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down, As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!' President Trump wrote on Twitter at 2:25 am Washington time."

Q2 GDP Misses, Q3 2016 - Q1 2017 All Revised Lower, Core PCE Tumbles -Zero Hedge
"In the latest double negative whammy for the economy, not only did Q2 GDP print fractionally less than expected, at 2.6% vs consensus expectations of 2.7%, but Q1 GDP of 1.4% was also revised slightly lower, from 1.4% to 1.2%, while the Fed's favorite inflationary metric, core PCE, tumbled from a downward revised 1.8% to 0.9%. PCE rose 2.8% and was the biggest contributor to growth. Business investment, net exports and federal government spending were also positive. Inventories, residential investment and state and local government spending were drags on growth....The second-quarter increase in real GDP reflected increases in both consumer spending on goods and services as well as increases in business investment, exports, and federal government spending. The increase in consumer spending was led by increases in housing and utilities, health care, and recreational goods and vehicles."

The Markets Become Even More Absurd -MauldinEconomics
"Financial newsletters are now stuffed with bubble porn—their favorite subject is complaining about how overpriced everything is. As a financial writer, it’s tough to stay fresh when that’s all there is to talk about....As an investor, you have to decide: Am I a value investor? Am I a growth investor? Momentum? Macro? Distressed? The point is, you pick a style and you stick to it. For most people, it is when you have style drift that you get into trouble. Take distressed investors, for instance. You could go years without seeing any opportunities. When you get outside your comfort zone and start looking at stuff that is not distressed, that is when the trouble starts. Chances are you did not pick your investing style. It is a feature of your personality, and it has always been with you. My investing career started in a bubble, and I was skeptical of the bubble from the very beginning. That skepticism has served me well, for the most part. I have missed out on some opportunities, but I have avoided some big crashes. Assuming I am talking to mostly value folks here, let me ask the question: How long are you going to have to wait? Possibly a while...Sitting around and watching this every day is just agonizing. But every day things get a little sillier, and dreams get a little bigger."

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7.27.17 - Why Corrupt Bankers Avoid Jail

Gold last traded at $1,260 an ounce. Silver at $16.57 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices steadied near 6-week highs Thursday on expectation of further dollar weakness. U.S. stocks pulled back despite upbeat earning reports as tech investors decided to take profits.

Gold rises to six-week high as dollar drops after Fed statement -Reuters
"Gold rose for a second day on Thursday, hitting a six-week high as the dollar dropped to a 13-month low after the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated it would keep to a slow path of monetary tightening. The Fed's statement followed a two-day policy meeting that ended on Wednesday where the central bank kept interest rates unchanged but expected to start winding down its massive holdings of bonds 'relatively soon'. The decline in the greenback is a boon for dollar-denominated gold since it makes buying the metal less expensive for investors paying in other currencies. 'We think that gold has turned something of a corner and may now be in a position to retest its recent highs,' said INTL FCStone analyst Edward Meir. 'With the Fed now likely on hold at least till the end of the year and U.S. bond yields falling, there are some forming tailwinds that should propel prices higher over the short term,' Meir said."

dollar The Dollar's Slow Demise Continues in Plain Sight -DailyReckoning
"'The end of the world’s present monetary system is already taking place,' says one of Mexico’s leading, hard-money economists, Hugo Salinas Price. 'The U.S. is losing influence in the world… The end of the dollar as the basis of the international monetary system means the end of the U.S. as we have known it.' You may or may not know of Salinas Price, but he’s a serious player at high monetary levels....He’s a Mexican business magnate and founder of the Mexican retail chain, Elektra. He also happens to be a historian of money. According to Salinas Price, 'The present monetary system of the world, based on the dollar, is on its death-bed. A fiat currency - such as the dollar - cannot be replaced by another fiat currency,' he explains. 'Therefore, the world will necessarily have to take up (precious metals) as the world’s money.'....Gold and silver are making a monetary comeback. We’re fast approaching a new monetary tipping point. The next global trading system is already setting up, in plain sight, as long as you follow the facts and note who is buying gold bars, and where that metal is heading. What can the individual investor do? Well, if you don’t hold physical precious metal, get some."

Why Corrupt Bankers Avoid Jail -NewYorker
"Prosecution of white-collar crime is at a twenty-year low. In the summer of 2012, a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate released a report so brimming with international intrigue that it read like an airport paperback. Senate investigators had spent a year looking into the London-based banking group HSBC, and discovered that it was awash in skulduggery. According to the three-hundred-and-thirty-four-page report, the bank had laundered billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels, and violated sanctions by covertly doing business with pariah states. HSBC had helped a Saudi bank with links to Al Qaeda transfer money into the United States....In the years since the mortgage crisis of 2008, it has become common to observe that certain financial institutions and other large corporations may be 'too big to jail.'....Although fines were paid, and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission referred dozens of cases to prosecutors, there were no indictments, no trials, no jail time. Passing on one investigation is understandable; passing on every single one starts to speak to something else....Corporate deviance may have become so routine that even pleading guilty to a felony is no big deal. What had once been described as a badge of ignominy that could put a company out of business was now just a bit of unpleasantness: a passing hassle, like a parking ticket."

U.S. indicts suspected Russian 'mastermind' of $4 billion bitcoin laundering scheme -Reuters
"A U.S. jury indicted a Russian man on Wednesday as the operator of a digital currency exchange he allegedly used to launder more than $4 billion for people involved in crimes ranging from computer hacking to drug trafficking. Alexander Vinnik was arrested in a small beachside village in northern Greece on Tuesday, according to local authorities, following an investigation led by the U.S. Justice Department along with several other federal agencies and task forces....They alleged Vinnik and his firm 'received' more than $4 billion in bitcoin and did substantial business in the United States without following appropriate protocols to protect against money laundering and other crimes. U.S. authorities also linked him to the failure of Mt. Gox, a Japan-based bitcoin exchange that collapsed in 2014 after being hacked. Vinnik 'obtained' funds from the hack of Mt. Gox and laundered them through BTC-e and Tradehill, another San Francisco-based exchange he owned, they said in the statement."

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7.26.17 - Political Turmoil Weakening the US Dollar

Gold last traded at $1,260 an ounce. Silver at $16.66 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Wednesday after dovish comments by the Fed further weakened the U.S. dollar. U.S. stocks rose after Fed leaves rates unchanged.

The 'mother of all bubbles' keeps gold in focus -Holmes/BusinessInsider
"Since the start of the year, the five-year Treasury yield, adjusted for inflation, has risen about 150 percent. Normally this would put remarkable pressure on the price of gold - higher yields raise the opportunity cost of buying gold - but over the same period, the U.S. dollar has steadily weakened and is now officially in a bear market. Because gold is priced in dollars, this has been supportive for prices. Year-to-date, the yellow metal is up more than 8 percent....That gold is still holding at its current level - despite rising rates, despite a stock market that continues to rally - is encouraging....Gold’s medium- to long-term investment case, I believe, looks even brighter. Many unsettling risks loom on the horizon - not least of which is a record amount of global debt - that could potentially spell trouble for the investor who hasn’t adequately prepared with some allocation in a safe haven....Some are calling this mountain of debt 'the mother of all bubbles,' and we all remember how the last two bubbles ended, in 2000 (the tech or dotcom bubble) and 2007 (the housing bubble)."

Yellen 'Dovish' Fed Admits Inflation Weaker, Says Balance Sheet Unwind To Start "Relatively Soon" -Zero Hedge
"With 'zero' expectations for a rate-hike today, all eyes are focused on any shifts in The Fed's balance sheet normalization timeline ('balance sheet unwind to start relatively soon') and its most-recently-dovish inflation outlook (following the weak June CPI print, The Fed now says 'inflation seen rising to 2%' but is weaker). Key takeaways from FOMC: Balance sheet reinvesting to continue 'for the time being,' normalization plan to begin 'relatively soon' which most sellside desks means a September announcement, leaving December for the next rate hike. Headline and core inflation 'have declined,' and the word 'recently' after this phrase from the June statement is omitted today. This has been taken as confirmation that the Fed admits the recent dip in inflation may extend longer than the Fed expected and is the reason for the sharp drop in the USD."

Stocks are ignoring U.S. political uncertainty, but the dollar isn’t -Marketwatch
"Wondering where political uncertainty is showing up on Wall Street? Don’t look in the stock market - check the dollar. According to experts, the U.S. dollar has become a primary conduit for investors making bets on the political environment. While other asset classes like equities or fixed-income have seen some intraday volatility on the latest headlines coming out of Washington, those moves have been largely short-lived, while the buck is considered a more 'pure play' for the theme, market participants said....The dollar recently dropped to its lowest level since June 2016, and some of the biggest legs downward have followed political developments....'There’s been a direct correlation between politics and the dollar,' said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkMarkets."

Congress Must Pass Big-Bang Tax Reform -Investors
"Many of the ideas that emerge from Washington are stale, unimaginative and unworkable. Not so the latest pitch from a group of conservative congressional Republicans: Eliminate the IRS....It's time to consider the damage that the IRS does both to Americans' freedoms as individuals and to the costs it imposes on the economy as a whole, argue the 151 members of the Republican Study Group, an in-house conservative think tank, in their newest budget proposal. The proposal, an alternative to the House Budget Committee's official 2018 budget, comes as part of a much broader tax reform plan that would leave taxes flatter and fairer for both corporations and individuals than is currently the case....It would move tax collection duties to 'new, smaller and more accountable departments' within the Treasury Department. There would be a tax unit for businesses, one for individuals and families, and another for dispute resolution....Time is running out. Congress should stop kicking the can down the road and pass a sweeping, big-bang tax reform that will make taxes much flatter and fairer, and also get rid of the costly and oppressive IRS behemoth - while they still have the political clout in Congress to do so."

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7.25.17 - Elites Are Privately Warning About A Crash

Gold last traded at $1,252 an ounce. Silver at $16.54 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices traded mixed Tuesday ahead of economic clues from Wednesday's Fed statement. U.S. stocks rose on better-than-expected corporate earnings.

Gold retreats from 1-month high as Fed meets -Reuters
"Gold prices retreated from a one-month high on Tuesday as equities gained and the markets awaited clues about monetary policy from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which began its two-day meeting. The market is not expecting an interest rate increase following the Fed's two-day meeting, but it is looking for hints on the timing and extent of future moves....'The market is looking for clarity on the Fed's tightening cycle and when they are going to start with the tapering (of monetary stimulus),' said ETF Securities analyst Martin Arnold....'There is a dual-pronged attraction to gold at the moment, with low interest rates and investors looking at the metal as a hedge against U.S. political uncertainty,' Arnold said. Gold is often seen as an alternative investment during times of political and financial uncertainty."

stocks Wall Street bracing for 'significant correction' -CNBC
"When it comes to both fiscal and monetary policy these days, Wall Street looks to be expecting less. Respondents to the CNBC Fed Survey have marked down their expectations for Federal Reserve rate increases and for fiscal policy stimulus from Congress and the Trump administration. And there's growing worry that the stock market could be set up for a fall. 'Asset markets are very highly priced and investors are complacent,' said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. 'The pre-conditions for a significant correction in markets are coming into place.' The 44 respondents to the survey, including economists, fund managers and analysts, unanimously believe the Fed won't hike interest rates at its meeting this week....Respondents also are dialing back what they expect from the Trump administration and Congress....'The Trump trade has evaporated,' said Neil Dutta, head of economic research at Renaissance Macro Research."

The Elites Are Privately Warning About A Crash -Zero Hedge
"Many everyday citizens assume powerful global financial elites operate behind closed doors in secret conclaves, like the scene of a Spectre board meeting in the recent James Bond film. Actually, the opposite is true. Most of what the power elite does is hidden in plain sight in speeches, seminars, webcasts and technical papers. These are readily available from institutional websites and media channels....Mohamed A. El-Erian is a bona fide member of the global power elite...Yet he writes in a fairly accessible style on the popular Bloomberg website. When El-Erian talks, we should all listen. In a recent article he raises serious doubts about the sustainability of the bull market in stocks because of reduced liquidity resulting from simultaneous policy tightening by the Fed, European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England. He says stocks rose on a sea of liquidity and they may crash when that liquidity is removed. This is a warning to other elites, but it’s also a warning to you....what does the head of Singapore's GIC say about markets today? Lim Chow Kiat, CEO of GIC, warns that 'valuations are stretched, policy uncertainty is high' and investors are being too complacent....Meanwhile, the typical American small retail investor probably has 60% or more of her 401(k) in developed economy equities, mostly U.S....The solution to this is to allocate 10% of your investable assets to physical gold or silver. That will be your insurance when the time comes."

Student loan borrowers, herded into default, face a relentless collector: the U.S. -Reuters
"Today, 11 percent of the $1.325 trillion of federal student loans outstanding is severely delinquent or in default, higher than the mortgage default rate at the peak of the foreclosure crisis in 2010, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Some of these debtors are deadbeats, of course, unwilling to make payments they can afford. But many are borrowers of limited means who ended up in default unnecessarily, after Navient and the DOE’s other servicers steered them away from affordable repayment plans and into options that reduce the servicers’ costs, according to state and federal investigators and regulators, consumer advocates and a growing number of lawsuits and complaints filed against loan servicers....Since the summer of 2015, student loan servicers and private debt collectors have garnished about $3 billion in wages, a Reuters review of federal data shows....The number of Americans who have had their wages or Social Security benefits garnished or their tax refunds seized jumped 71 percent in the five years ended September 2015, according to the Government Accountability Office."

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7.24.17 - Credit, Cash & The Coming Crash

Gold last traded at $1,254 an ounce. Silver at $16.44 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices touched 4-week highs Monday on safe-haven buying and dollar weakness. U.S. stocks traded mixed as tech earnings failed to lift investor sentiment amid rising political and economic turmoil.

Gold hits 4-week high on weaker equities, U.S. dollar -Reuters
"Gold touched a four-week high early on Monday, supported by weaker equities and a dip in the dollar to fresh 13-month lows due to political uncertainty in the United States....The White House said on Sunday that Trump was open to signing legislation toughening sanctions on Russia after Senate and House leaders reached agreement on a bill late last week. U.S. Republican Senate leaders aim to hold a procedural vote as early as Tuesday to take up legislation to repeal or replace Obamacare, but it remained unclear which version of the bill senators would vote on....Hedge funds and money managers increased their net long position in COMEX gold for the first time in six weeks in the week to July 18, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed on Friday."

credit Credit, Cash & The Coming Crash -PontificationBlog
"Between 2003 and 2013, the inflation-adjusted net worth of the typical household plunged by 38 percent, owing largely (but not entirely) to the crisis of 2008-2009 and the huge drop in the prices of homes, which millions had used as appreciating savings and then as their own ATM machines to pay for other things....In 2017, our economy still suffers from the bursting of the housing bubble and its debasement of the homeowner American Dream. The typical American household, reported CBS News, in inflation-adjusted dollars is 'still earning 2.4 percent below what they brought home in 1999.'....As borrowing and debt increase, we also face another problem. Many analysts study recurring patterns in the economy, society, and nature to foresee what soon could be coming. Ominously, many of these theorists are giving the same dire warning – that between now and the end of year 2020, a convergence of negative patterns and the low points of several cycles will hit us all at once. This is one of the worst convergences of negative forces in centuries! It could potentially batter the United States socially and economically. As Craig R. Smith explains in a new Crisis Timeline, this can also be a disaster for the unprepared. But for those who are prepared, it could be a huge opportunity....Globalists are eager to impose a 'cashless' society where everything is credit and debt, where values are easily manipulated, and where all financial transactions are monitored and taxed by government....And if the globalists get their way, an American economic and social crash is inevitable. Full story

The Dollar's Slide Continues -RealClearMarkets
"The US dollar lost ground against all the major currencies, save sterling, over the past week, and also fell against most emerging market currencies. There is little from a technical or fundamental perspective, including next week's FOMC meeting, that suggests a reversal is at hand....What they doubt is that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in the face of price pressures that have moderated. The fiscal course of the Trump Administration is also doubted....The Dollar Index fell for a second consecutive week. It has fallen in six of the past seven sessions. The week's 1.25% decline took it blow 94.00, its lowest level since June 2016. This area is important from a technical perspective, and a convincing break could open the door to another 3-5% decline."

America 2017 = France 1789 -Kunstler/Zero Hedge
"We are looking more and more like France on the eve of its revolution in 1789. Our classes are distributed differently, but the inequity is just as sharp. America's 'aristocracy,' once based strictly on bank accounts, acts increasingly hereditary as the vapid offspring and relations of 'stars' (in politics, showbiz, business, and the arts) assert their prerogatives to fame, power, and riches - think the voters didn't grok the sinister import of Hillary's 'it’s my turn' message? What’s especially striking in similarity to the court of the Bourbons is the utter cluelessness of America’s entitled power elite to the agony of the moiling masses below them and mainly away from the coastal cities....The floundering non-elite masses have not learned the harsh lesson of our time that the virtual is not an adequate substitute for the authentic, while the elites who create all this vicious crap spend millions to consort face-to-face in the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard telling each other how wonderful they are for providing all the artificial social programming and glitzy hardware for their paying customers....The next big entertainment for them will be the financial implosion of the elites themselves as the governing forces of physics finally overcome all the ruses and stratagems of the elites who have been playing games with money. Professional observers never tires of saying that the government can’t run out of money (because they can always print more of it) but they can certainly destroy the value of that money and shred the consensual confidence that allows it to operate as money. That’s exactly what is about to commence at the end of the summer when the government runs out of cash-on-hand and congress finds itself utterly paralyzed by party animus to patch the debt ceiling problem that disables new borrowing."

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7.21.17 - US Dollar Slide Prompts Gold Spike

Gold last traded at $1,254 an ounce. Silver at $16.45 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices shot up Friday on safe-haven buying and a sharply weaker dollar. U.S. stocks fell as GE led industrial stocks lower and political uncertainty increased.

Dollar slide sets gold up for biggest weekly rise in two months -Reuters
"Gold was set for its biggest weekly gain in two months on Friday as a surging euro pushed the dollar to its weakest since June 2016, making bullion cheaper for holders of other currencies....Gold is highly sensitive to rising interest rates because they cause bond yields to rise and tend to boost the dollar. The Fed's rate-setting committee is due to meet on July 25 and 26. Gold broke through resistance at its technically important 100- and 50-day moving averages, both around $1,250. 'We look to a break through the 100- and 50-day moving averages as a pivot point for further gains,' MKS PAMP trader Sam Laughlin said in a note."

retirement Another blow for heartland workers: Slashed pensions -CBSNews
"February was a bad month for Larry Burruel and thousands of other retired Ohio iron workers. His monthly take-home pension was cut by more than half from $3,700 to $1,600. Things have been rough in the Rust Belt, but this was a particularly powerful punch in the pocketbook for Burruel, who started in the trade at 19 and worked 36 years before opting for early retirement to make way for younger workers....Burruel and the 4,000 members of his Cleveland Iron Workers Local 17 pension plan are the canaries in the coal mine as far as pension cutbacks go....This cross-section of America includes more than a million former truck drivers, office and factory employees, bricklayers and construction workers who are threatened with cutbacks that could last the rest of their lives...Some would argue that these union workers should have contributed to IRAs because these investments can't be touched. But that wasn't the way these union workers thought....Unfortunately, this is only a glimpse into the future awaiting at least a million pensioners in the Rust Belt and elsewhere."

The Upside and Downside of Liquidity-Driven Markets -Bloomberg
"Over the past few months, government bond yields have fallen, the dollar has weakened and financials have underperformed, yet the major stock indexes are at or very near record highs, as persistently supportive liquidity conditions have more than compensated for policy and growth disappointments. By boosting returns and repressing volatility, ample liquidity is a gift for investors. It makes the investment journey pleasing, comfortable and lengthy. But it is not a destination....With Fed monetary measures already stretched, there has been little policy offset to a soft patch in indicators of household and corporate economic activity. Yet none of this seems to have been reflected in the major stock indexes. All three - the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P - registered more record highs this week...So far, equity investors have experienced an unusually long and fulfilling journey - one that, absent a major accident, could last a little longer. What remains more elusive, however, is confidence that this will end up at an enjoyable destination."

The Federal Reserve May Show Trump No Love -Schiff/RealClearMarkets
"There could be no easier way to undermine the entire Trump presidency than an official bear market to erupt on Wall Street. In that sense, as I have said in a prior commentary, Janet Yellen presents a much greater threat to Trump than does Robert Mueller or Chuck Schumer. Yet despite these warning signs, investors have not yet shown much concern. They still seem to believe that if anything goes wrong, the Fed will provide the bail out. But that is not a risk Wall Street should be eager to test. My guess is that the 'Yellen Put' is still in effect, but the strike price may be much lower than most investors believe, meaning more substantial losses could be required before the Fed acts....How soon before stock market investors connect the same dots? With the Fed not only threatening more rate hikes, but also making noises that it will draw down its balance sheet, which would result in 'quantitative tightening,' U.S. stock market investors should not be getting too comfortable. Instead, the falling dollar and the more positive economic results coming from non-U.S. economies might suggest that a move into long-beaten down foreign markets may be opportune."

Bottom falling out of US dollar -CNBC
"The dollar is crumpling under pressure, and there doesn't appear to be much to stop it. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi was the latest catalyst, sending the euro higher with comments that the ECB would discuss when to start paring back its bond purchases in the fall. While some viewed the central bank president as a bit vague, his words still drove the euro to a near two-year high against the dollar....The dollar's decline Thursday is a continuation of a weakening that started last week after Fed Chair Janet Yellen voiced concerns about low inflation and talked about a lower than historic neutral rate."

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7.20.17 - Cash Blackout: Online Bank Outage

Gold last traded at $1,245 an ounce. Silver at $16.34 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Thursday on a sharply weaker dollar and safe-haven buying. U.S. stocks gyrated near flat line as traders weigh corporate earnings and political turmoil.

Gold price recovers as ECB comments lift euro -Reuters
"Gold prices recovered lost ground to edge higher on Thursday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said ECB policymakers would discuss potential changes to the bank's bond-buying scheme in the autumn, lifting the euro to session highs. Draghi said the policymakers were unanimous in choosing not to change their guidance for monetary policy, and not to set a date for discussing changes to its stimulus program. That was enough to spark a recovery in the euro after early losses, lifting gold prices....The ultra-low interest rates in place since the last decade's global financial crisis have been a key factor in supporting gold prices in recent years. With the end to that unprecedented monetary stimulus now within sight, financial investors are nervously trying to gauge how big central banks around the globe will unwind unconventional policies that have kept borrowing costs ultra low."

asset forfeiture The Feds Just Expanded Civil Asset Forfeiture 'Laws' Nationwide -Zero Hedge
"When you're a government agency, asking for a tax increase is always a hassle. As Ryan McMaken notes, for the most part, taxpayers don't like taxes, and if asked if they want to pay more, they're likely to often say 'no.'....One such 'hidden' method of seizing wealth from the taxpayers is through what is now called 'civil asset forfeiture.' This occurs when a law enforcement agency seizes the assets - including real estate, cars, cash, and other valuables - from private citizens based merely on the suspicion that the person has committed a crime with the assets in question. No due process is necessary. No conviction in a court of law need occur.... As Reuters reports, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Wednesday that the federal government will reinstate a program that helps local and state law enforcement seize cash and other assets they suspect have been earned from crimes. Local police will now be able to seize cash, often from those suspected of drug crimes, even in states that do not condone the policy....As the colonists understood, if the government can arbitrarily take away your property, you have no true rights: you’re nothing more than a serf or a slave. The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was born of this need to safeguard against any attempt by the government to unlawfully deprive a citizen of the right to life, liberty, or property, without due process of law....The time for us to take our constitutional powers back and reinstate self-government is long overdue."

Now is the time to declare financial independence from the government's Secret War on Cash, which continues to escalate daily. Now is the time to take action to protect your future!

Customers shut out of accounts for hours during Bank of America system outage -MiamiHerald
"Bank of America customers were shut out from their accounts for several hours Wednesday in a system outage....On Downdetector.com, a website that tracks reports of system outages, reports starting spiking after 11:30 a.m. and the website was inundated with comments from Bank of America customers around the country saying they couldn’t access online banking from their applications or computers, transfer money or deposit money or checks. Customers also reported that several branches’ operations were down. By 1 p.m., the website had received nearly 1,000 reports of problems. But by Wednesday evening, although some customers were still reporting problems, the number of reports had gone down considerably to about 200. Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said Wednesday the bank was aware of the issues with mobile and online banking and is working to fix the problem....When asked what caused the outage, Bauwens said she 'did not have that information.'"

Banking risks are alive and growing in 2017. In addition to the risk of insolvent banks, we have a virtual army of computer hackers who've infected computers of 140 banks in 40 countries ordering bank ATMs to spit out untold millions into the paper bags of waiting accomplices. Get the full story in our free White Paper Don’t Bank On It!

Bank Assets Are Ephemeral - Here Today, Gone Tomorrow -GoldSwitzerland
"Fake news and Fake assets are everywhere....We are now in a world where everything becomes electronic entries. Real people are no longer important. We are just all electronic entries in a register. It is the same with money. Money is today totally Fake....Nobody realizes that their money is just an electronic entry that can be turned off in a second by the government. This means that their money will be totally gone and will never reappear again....What everyone with a bank account must understand is that one day there is little or no money left in the bank. ATMs will then be closed and no money will be available. This is an elegant solution to the insolvency of the financial system. No paper money will be available nor any electronic money. Thus, there is no money to be had....Hard assets held directly by the investor reduces the risk. This can be anything from property, farmland, forest or mineral assets...The perfect asset to protect against the risks in the financial system is of course physical gold or silver stored safely outside the system and preferably outside your country of residence."

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7.19.17 - Social Security: Broke in Five Years

Gold last traded at $1,242 an ounce. Silver at $16.29 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices held steady Wednesday on a firmer dollar. U.S. stocks traded higher as investors digested housing data and more quarterly earnings.

Silver To Surge Above $20 Within A Year -Kitco
"This year’s volatile silver market could see a positive price rally within the next 12 months, surging 25% from the current value, one UK-based precious metals consultancy said. Silver prices should see a strong rebound of at least 25% from their current levels of $16.27 to trade all the way at $20.25 within a year, Metals Focus analyst George Coles told Bloomberg on Tuesday. The main reason for the upcoming rally would be disappointing U.S. economic growth, which would translate into slower rate hike pace by the Federal Reserve, explained Coles, adding that this would mean good news for silver....Another boost for silver could come from short covering by Comex speculators, Coles noted. Even though silver prices saw a lot of resistance in the past three months, many investors are putting their money into silver ETFs, said Coles, with assets reaching a record 21,211 metric tons, valued at $11 billion."

Fox Business The Economic Consequences of DC Gridlock -Fox Business
Swiss America chairman Craig R. Smith on the growing sense of frustration by prominent Americans such as businessman Jamie Dimon and economist Mohamed El-Erian as well as average citizens over the lack of progress in draining the swamp in Washington DC and making progress in boosting economic growth. Mr. Smith offers an optimistic strategy to help get America growing again - before American citizens (and the rest of the world) lose all confidence in U.S. political and economic leadership.

Tax reform becomes a must-win issue for the White House -Politico
"With President Donald Trump’s effort to undo Obamacare derailed by opposition from Republican senators, the White House has turned its attention to its next big shot at a big win: tax reform. The long-held GOP goal of re-engineering the U.S. tax system has now become a political imperative for the Trump administration, which has yet to deliver any major legislative victories despite Republican control of the White House and both houses of Congress....Donors and influential Republicans are particularly eager to see tax reform completed before the 2018 midterms - both for their own bottom lines and because it will be harder for Republicans to hold on to Congress without policy accomplishments, White House advisers and outside supporters fear. 'If Republicans fail to repeal or at least substantially roll back Obamacare, it raises the stakes dramatically to pass into law a big, bold tax-reform plan,' said Tim Phillips, who leads Americans for Prosperity, the political group backed by the Koch brothers....The senior administration official said the White House hopes to start rolling out a tax blueprint in August and then 'build on it.'"

Social Security Will Be Paying Out More Than It Receives In Just Five Years -Zero Hedge
"No matter how you slice it, it doesn’t seem possible to keep social security funded. In fact, social security is going to start paying out more money than it receives in just a few short years. It may even be insolvent before the baby boomer generation dies off....Right now Social Security continues to take in through revenue more than it pays it through benefits, which is expected to continue until 2022. Once Social Security begins to pay out more than it takes in, it will be forced to liquidate the assets held by the trust funds....There isn’t really any viable solution for paying off the future liabilities of social security, aside from cutting the benefits or increasing the retirement age. Otherwise it’s going to run out of money eventually, which is the same story with private and public pensions. We are all paying for our retirements in one form or another, but few of us living right now are going to fully benefit from it."

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7.18.17 - Why Millennials Dislike Capitalism

Gold last traded at $1,241. Silver at $16.26.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Tuesday on safe-haven buying and a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks traded mostly lower amid political gridlock on healthcare reform.

Gold price rises to two-week high as dollar slides -Reuters
"Gold prices hit a two-week high on Tuesday as the dollar fell on fading prospects of an imminent increase in U.S. interest rates and expectations of stronger demand from the physical market. 'We see gold averaging around $1,300 over the third quarter,' said ING commodities strategist Warren Patterson....Weighing on the dollar is the collapse of U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to deliver a new healthcare bill in a market deeply worried by the pace of America's economic growth....'It pushes out the rest of the agenda. It’s hard to do a tax reform in the style that it was campaigned on,' said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York. 'The healthcare hurdle pushes everything in Trump’s agenda to 2018.'"

Fox News Netflix stock rockets on strong subscriber growth - FoxNews
Swiss America chairman Craig R. Smith joined a panel discussion with Fox News host Neil Cavuto to react to Netflix's huge rise in subscribers, sending the stock price up 9% and bringing Netflix's year-over-year growth to 64%. But is this growth sustainable? Watch now.

U.S. stock market will likely top out in the next three weeks -Marketwatch
"Investors have been expecting the U.S. stock market to crash for years....At the end of the past week, I have begun to hear people talking about how the market is about to 'take off' again in a big way. However, I was looking for the market to do just that in early 2016, and we are now approaching the topping target we set for this segment of the rally we expected back in early 2016. In fact, for those viewing my charts during that time, you would know the chart had a blue box target between 2,487 and 2,564 on the S&P 500 since last year for this segment of the rally. At this point, it looks like we may only attain the lower end of that target region....Moreover, Luke Miller, who runs one of our proprietary timing models at Elliottwavetrader.net, notes that there is a potential timing target around Aug. 9 that can mark a larger-degree top in the market."

Why don’t millennials like capitalism? Blame parents. Blame schools. Blame Obama. -TheState
"As a society, we have done millennials a disservice. An entire generation of young people in America came of age during a decade of sluggish economic growth, and as a result, many are skeptical of free enterprise and capitalism. A stunning 2016 Harvard University survey of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism....President Obama told impressionable young voters if only the rich paid more taxes, everyone would be better off. But Obama’s tax and spend policies produced a predictably stagnant economy that stifled economic opportunity for young people....The Left preached that everyone has a 'right' to free child care, free health care, a free college education and a roof over their head. And that the State will provide no matter what, so there’s no need to save, no need to work hard or pay your mortgage or student loans....This is also the first generation raised by 'helicopter parents,' who did their part, however well- intentioned, to undermine personal responsibility....Then they went off to a higher educational system that produces an oversupply of the white-collar soft-science and humanities majors, many of whom have no marketable skills....But capitalism and free enterprise, not socialism and welfare, have proven to be the key to prosperity and to reducing global poverty and inequality."

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7.17.17 - America's Secret Debt Ceiling Plan

Gold last traded at $1,233 an ounce. Silver traded at $16.10 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Monday on bargain hunting and improved investor sentiment. U.S. stocks fluctuated on political uncertainty as investors await this week's earnings reports.

Gold poised for more gains on soft U.S. rate outlook -Reuters
"Gold climbed on Monday and was likely to see further gains after the dollar slumped to multi-month lows on the back of data that pointed to weak U.S. inflation and dampened prospects for rate hikes. 'The dollar continues to be on the back foot and yields have dropped back somewhat from their relatively elevated positioning lately,' said analyst Jonathan Butler at Mitsubishi in London....'If gold remains at $1,230 or goes higher, there's an elevated risk that some of those short positions might start to be reversed and that would give some further upside to gold,' Butler added....'Investor sentiment (for gold) has improved quite dramatically over the past week, especially with the weak data out of the United States last week,' said ANZ analyst Daniel Hynes. 'Gold is now primed for another rally.' On the technical front, gold is likely to significantly break above key resistance at the 200-day moving average near $1,230 per ounce and could even rise to the $1,250 level in the shorter term, Hynes said. 'The technical bounce looks fairly solid,' he said"

debt America's Secret Plan for the Debt Ceiling -PontificationBlog
"Sometime this October, the Federal Government is going to run out of money. It will be unable to borrow more until Congress agrees to raise the debt ceiling, a vote that some Republicans want to use to shrink the government. Usually this has meant that government could 'shut down' briefly if debt ceiling legislation leads to deadlock....What may happen instead is 'a harebrained scheme that is apt to backfire,' says Congressman Tom Cole (R.-Oklahoma), who sits on the House Budget Committee. It could be U.S. debt 'default by another name,' warns former Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. If lawmakers cannot resolve the debt ceiling issue, then the government may employ what Bloomberg News on July 14 called a 'once-secret plan written by the [President Barack] Obama administration that would lead to the first-ever default on U.S. debt.'....This. warns Jack Lew, could trigger a review of whether the U.S. still warrants a AAA rating on its debt paper....The government would have to pay much higher interest to borrow money by selling its debt." Full story

There is more risk than reward in today's market: Jim Grant -YahooFinance
"Jim Grant, founder and editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, said the stock market is currently overvalued and investors should be cautious when entering the marketplace. 'There is more risk than reward in this market. I say that stocks, at current levels, are worrisomely high. I would say the interest rates are worrisomely low … And I say that now is a great time not to be caught up in the crowd which has to invest as if by compulsion,' he told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo. As the Fed looks to begin unwinding its $4.5 trillion balance sheet, Grant believes attempts to normalize rates may be unsuccessful because the Fed could be forced to react to external events. You know, Janet Yellen would have us believe the Fed controls outcomes … And I’ve lived to see many episodes in the history of the Federal Reserve in which events were driving the Fed,' he said."

Senate GOP's healthcare problem is not Trump -McClatchyDC
"One big reason Senate Republicans are having trouble uniting around a plan to overhaul the nation’s health coverage is that a lot of them just don’t get along. These intra-party clashes of personality and policy stymie the bill’s progress as much as any other political force. Sure, lawmakers are reluctant to side with President Donald Trump, particularly in traditional swing states such as Ohio or Wisconsin. And waiting in the House are conservatives who are wary of the latest Senate plan, crafted to win over centrists. But what’s hurting the Senate’s effort to come together are the personal relationships. Or lack of them....The math on health care is tough for the GOP, a fact that even Trump acknowledged in a conversation with reporters on Air Force One recently....Add to all this Republican governors weighing in, too, trying to strong arm their states’ senators to vote one way or another....'Here’s the problem: You’re not going to get a bill passed in Washington that Republican governors don’t like,' said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C."

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7.14.17 - Exactly How Dumb IS the Fed?

Gold last traded at $1,227 an ounce. Silver traded at $15.93 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose sharply Friday as dovish Fed testimony further weakened the dollar. U.S. stocks rose modestly climbing a wall of worry over geopolitics, tech valuation and weak retail sales.

Gold Prices Boosted By Dollar Slide -EconomicCalender
"After narrow ranges dominated on Thursday, gold was boosted in US trading on Friday by a sharp dollar retreat and decline in bond yields....Retail sales data was also weaker than expected with a headline decline of 0.1% for the month and underlying dip of 0.3%. The dollar dipped sharply lower following the data with the dollar index at 9-month lows near 95.0 while USD/JPY retreated to below 112.50....The combination of a weaker dollar and lower yields provided robust support to gold with prices advancing to the $1,230 per ounce area. Gold was also on track for the first weekly gain of July."

Fed How Dumb Is the Fed? -BonnerandPartners
"This morning, we are wondering: How dumb is the Fed? The question was prompted by this comment by former Fed insider Chris Whalen at The Institutional Risk Analyst blog: '[O]ur message to the folks in Jackson Hole this week [at the annual central banker meeting there] is that the end of the Fed’s reckless experiment in social engineering via QE and near-zero interest rates will end in tears.'....If you believe the newspapers, the Fed has begun a 'tightening cycle.' It is on course to raise its key interest rate, little by little, in quarter-point increments. It must know that this is a perilous thing to do. After so much market manipulation over such a long period, prices all up and down the capital structure - from junk bonds to quality stocks and solid real estate - have been bent and distorted....But the feds could only work this miracle by buying bonds. And the feds didn’t have any money. What could they do? No problem! They used their fake money, the post-1971 credit dollars - trillions of them… money they could create at will....Which brings us back to our question: How dumb is the Fed?....Nothing comes from nothing. Fake money produces fake prosperity. Take away the fake money… and the fake prosperity goes 'poof,' too. Which is why the Fed will never, voluntarily, stop manipulating prices. It can’t let the markets return to 'normal' price discovery....The Fed says it is going to return its interest rate policy back to normal…No chance. It’s not that dumb."

What We Learned Yesterday When Yellen Came to the House -ArcMedia
"On Wednesday, Janet Yellen testified before the House Financial Services Committee....While little news was made, with Yellen maintaining her support for generally low interest rates, there were some points made today worth noting. 1) Republicans Continue to Push on the Fed’s Subsidy to Wall Street....This policy has drawn increasing criticism from House Republicans, and Yellen faced criticism....2) Higher Interest Rates for Wall Street, not for Main Street....All of this is simply another demonstration of how policies by the Federal Reserve are benefitting Wall Street at the direct expense of the rest of the country....3) Maxine Waters Wants to Make Poor People Poorer....The way politicians like Waters discuss inflation makes it clear that they don’t truly comprehend how it presents itself in real life....4) Yellen still hates 'Audit the Fed'....This time it was Rep. Bill Posey who tried to push Yellen away from her default defense of mythical Fed independence. Posey repeatedly asked Yellen to name a single instance in which the Fed would have been negatively impacted by a full audit. The Fed Chairwoman was unable to provide an answer."

US retail sales drop 0.2% in June vs 0.1% increase expected -CNBC
"U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell in June for a second straight month, which could temper expectations of strong acceleration in economic growth in the second quarter. The Commerce Department said on Friday retail sales fell 0.2 percent last month, weighed down by declines in receipts at service stations, clothing stores and supermarkets. Americans also cut back on spending at restaurants and bars, as well as on hobbies....Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales slipped 0.1 percent last month after being unchanged in May. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product."

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7.13.17 - 14 Million Verizon Customers Hacked

Gold last traded at $1,217 an ounce. Silver traded at $15.69 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices steadied Thursday following dovish Fed comments on the economy and rate hikes. U.S. stocks rose as Target's upbeat outlook boosted retail shares slightly.

Neil Cavuto Asks 'What's Going On With Metals?' -TFmetalsReport
"This is Neil Cavuto [host on Fox Business] discussing the 'markets' with Terry Duffy, the one and only CEO of the CME Group (Chicago Mercantile Exchange). The first five minutes are the standard boilerplate of Fed policy, etc and blahblahblah. However, at the 4:55 mark, Cavuto asks: 'But we haven't seen money move into the metals....what is going on there?'....To which Duffy answers: 'Given all that's going on the world, gold should probably be $5,000 to $6,000 per ounce.' Watch Fox Business Video Clip....WHY would the CEO of the CME state this on live TV?? Is it because he now expects much higher metals prices in the months ahead and he wants to front-run them with his "analysis"? Is he tipping off The Banks that their games are almost over?"

Fed policy Fed Is Living In A Dream World; Buy Gold On Dips -Tocqueville -Kitco
"Investors should have used gold’s month-long pullback, culminating in a four-month low as a buying opportunity, according to one major precious metals portfolio manager. John Hathaway, senior portfolio manager at Tocqueville Asset Management, was fairly critical of positive sentiment surrounding further U.S. economic growth, which has led to complacency in financial markets, resulting overvalued equity valuations. 'We believe that the Fed’s view of economic activity is not rooted in reality and that its stubborn pursuit of interest-rate hikes is likely to precipitate a bear market in equities and bonds,' said Hathaway in his recently published second quarter gold strategy investor letter....'Financial-market complacency seems (inexplicably, to us) to be based on confidence in a continuing economic expansion and a smooth transition (meaning pain-free in terms of market damage) to normalization of monetary policy and interest rates. We believe that these two expectations are incompatible and unattainable simultaneously,' he said. 'An unexpected U-turn in monetary policy would almost certainly cause precious metals prices to surge.'"

John Hathaway is a brilliant precious metals portfolio manager who consistently sees the forest for the trees. He expects metals to "surge" when the Fed reverses monetary policy. We do too. The time to prepare for a major trend reversal is now. Right now could be the best gold buying opportunity of the year. Learn more about the wisdom of owning gold and silver today by reading our free 2017 Gold and Silver Research Reports.

Verizon data breach: 14 million customers reportedly exposed -Fox News
"Millions of Verizon customer records have been exposed after an Israeli technology company left user data unprotected, the International Business Times reported. 'As many as 14 million records' of Verizon customers were found unsecured on an Amazon storage server controlled by Israeli-based Nice Systems, according to ZDNet.com. The database was found to have communication logs of Verizon customers who called customer service, as well as customer cell phone numbers and account PINS, according to the IBTimes....The security breach comes a year after Verizon said the contact information of 1.5 million business customers was for sale by hackers."

Read AMERICA'S CYBER-HIT LIST, a new Swiss America Research Report that reveals hundreds of the biggest U.S. firms that have been hacked in recent years and what you can do to protect your money.

Americans are hoarding cash in checking accounts -USAToday
"Cash - or something close to it - is king again. Enjoying a steady job market but reluctant to spend freely due to economic uncertainty, a wide swath of middle-class Americans are hoarding money in banks. Total bank deposits rose 6.6% last year to $10.7 trillion, extending steady growth seen in recent years, data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation show. And Americans love liquidity. They hold about $2 trillion in checking account now, says Mike Moebs, CEO of Moebs Services. The average U.S. checking account deposit is about $3,600, climbing from $1,000 in 2007, he says....Consumers 'are not spending,' Moebs said. 'The Great Recession isn’t over for consumers and small businesses. Small businesses feel a great deal of uncertainty and they’re being very cautious, especially with any capital plans they have.' High debt obligations also are affecting household spending decisions."

In 2017, hackers infected the computers of 140 banks in 40 countries with a program that allowed them to order bank ATMs to spit out untold millions into the paper bags of waiting accomplices ... Learn more in our free 2017 White Paper Don’t Bank On It!

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7.12.17 - Gold Rises After Fed Remarks

Gold last traded at $1,219 an ounce. Silver traded at $15.88 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Wednesday following dovish Fed comments which weakened the dollar. U.S. stocks cheered the Fed's statements about the uncertainty of future rate hikes.

Gold Jumps After Yellen's Remarks -Bloomberg
"The gold market rendered a quick dovish read on Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s prepared testimony to Congress. Yellen said Wednesday that 'considerable uncertainty always attends the economic outlook,' citing 'uncertainty about when - and how much - inflation will respond to tightening resource utilization.'....'Considerable uncertainty always attends the economic outlook,' Yellen said Wednesday in remarks prepared for delivery to the U.S House Financial Services Committee....She also mentioned that the Fed anticipates it will start reducing its balance sheet 'this year.'....U.S. stocks opened higher while Treasury yields fell with the dollar after her testimony was released....With U.S. economy growing at a steady pace, Yellen’s Fed is gradually pulling back from crisis-era stimulus. It raised interest rates in June for a second time this year and forecast another hike in 2017."

Yellen What's next for the dollar, stocks, bonds & gold? -MerkInvestments
"The Fed’s 'balance sheet reduction' may have profound implications for the dollar, gold, stocks and bonds....If reducing the Fed’s balance sheet at a rate of $50 billion a month is akin to watching paint dry, what then is the ECB’s activity of purchasing €60 billion a month (its current rate)? Either the Fed or the ECB is pulling our leg here. If printing money is quantitative easing (QE), then balance sheet reduction is quantitative tightening (QT)....I am in the camp that believes QE has been all about compressing risk premia, i.e. the spreads between risky and so-called safe assets...And equities trade at higher valuations and lower volatility? Sound familiar?....You can call the weak dollar a deflating Trump trade, but the Fed may well have initiated a far greater force by enabling other central banks to tighten....Stocks are historically correlated to junk bonds, not because they are junk, but because they are both so-called risk assets. Just as their volatility has been compressed with QE, we believe their volatility should rise with QT....Rising risk premia may be a positive for the price of gold. Because gold does not have cash flow, there’s also no greater discounting of future cash flows as risk premia rise."

Visa Takes War on Cash to Restaurants -Fox Business
"Visa Inc. has a new offer for small merchants: take thousands of dollars from the card giant to upgrade their payment technology. In return, the businesses must stop accepting cash. The company is announcing the initiative this week as part of a broader effort to steer Americans away from using old-fashioned paper money. Visa says it is planning to give $10,000 apiece to up to 50 restaurants and food vendors to pay for their technology and marketing costs, as long as the businesses pledge to start what Visa executive Jack Forestell calls a '"journey to cashless.' 'We're really viewing this as the opening salvo,' said Mr. Forestell, Visa's global head of merchant solutions, of the potential total $500,000 commitment....'The idea that merchants don't want to accept cash is a myth,' said Mallory Duncan, senior vice president and general counsel at the National Retail Federation."

The "News" Is Content-Free -Smith/OfTwoMinds
"We're 'your' trustworthy news source, even though 90% are owned by six corporations or billionaires with political agendas. In 1983, the same 90% of American media was owned by 50 companies. The 'news' has loomed large in The News - a classic self-referential loop in which the media itself becomes its own content. While the controversy over what constitutes 'fake news' and 'real news' has itself become 'the news,' the cold reality is all 'news,' 'real' or otherwise, is content-free. The 'news' is so devoid of content that a simple software program could assemble a semi-random daily selection of headlines, scrolling banners, and radio/TV 'news' reports from a pool of typical 'news' stories and insert a bit of context (local highways that are congested, rough neighborhoods where shootings occur, names of local authorities, etc.), and the consumer of 'news' would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the randomly generated 'news' and the 'real news.'"

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7.11.17 - Sell Stocks Before Storm Hits -WSJ

Gold last traded at $1,214 an ounce. Silver traded at $15.74 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Tuesday on bargain hunting amid political turmoil and a weaker dollar. U.S. stock volatility increased as traders digested emails released by Donald Trump Jr. regarding Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Saxo Bank Bullish On Gold In Q3, Sees $1,325 As Year-End Range -Kitco
"In its Q3 outlook, Danish Saxo Bank maintained a 'bullish' outlook for gold, adding that the U.S. Federal Reserve might be too optimistic on rate hikes, while the stock market could face a long-overdue correction. 'We maintain a bullish outlook for gold in the belief that the risk to the US economy is currently skewed to the downside,' said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank....'A long-overdue stock market correction could be the missing link that gold needs to break resistance at $1,300/oz. The sector will receive increased scrutiny, not least following comments about 'rich' asset prices made by the Fed chair at the recent ECB Forum on central banking,' according to Hansen. Saxo Bank added that it is maintaining its $1,325 level as the end-of-year forecast, with the risk on the upside."

annuity trap How To Rescue Your Retirement -PontificationBlog
Every day 10,000 Baby Boomers reach age 65, and this will continue until 2029. Many need to protect their life savings and prepare for retirement....The government and Federal Reserve have pressured banks to pay less to depositors in interest than the rate of inflation, a policy economists call 'financial repression.' This forces savers either to lose purchasing power or to move their money out of safe accounts and into the stock market casino, a gamble that could burst like a risky bubble. Many are now thinking of betting their futures on annuities, which, in our latest free White Paper The Annuity Trap, monetary expert Craig R. Smith and I describe as 'the oldest, trickiest and stickiest of financial snares.'....Annuities come not from banks, but from insurance companies and are not backed by any federal entity such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)....Annuities come in three basic types... Full story

'Perfect' Stock Market Says Sell Now Before Storm -Investopedia
"The current 'perfect' world of an 8th year of rising stock prices, a steady economy and unusual investor complacency provides an ideal time for investors to sell their shares before an unexpected shock spurs a major decline or move to a bear market, according to the Wall Street Journal....The U.S. in 2017 is experiencing a 'Goldilocks' economy of low inflation and stable economic growth similar to the 1990s, the Journal says, and many investors believe that only a recession can trigger a bear market. This is a badly mistaken assumption, the Journal says....Strategists have cited a growing list of signs that the bull market is aging, if not near an end, including the stock market's narrow leadership by the big tech stocks as well as investors' increasing willingness to invest in riskier securities."

Congress Returns to Battles Over Health Care, Budget -Wtop
"Congress is still trying to send President Donald Trump his first unqualified legislative triumph, nearly six months after Republicans grabbed full control of Washington. Now, lawmakers are returning from their July 4 recess with an added objective - averting some full-blown political disasters. The GOP campaign to repeal Democrat Barack Obama’s health care law is bogged down in the Senate and flirting with collapse. Efforts to pass a budget are stuck, there’s no tax code overhaul package, spending bills are in limbo and it’s unclear how leaders will find the votes to avert a federal default....Lawmakers have three weeks of work before an August recess. Some Republicans are making noise about shortening that respite, but doing so would be a step shy of sacrilege on Capitol Hill."

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7.10.17 - Why Americans Cannot Retire

Gold last traded at $1,213 an ounce. Silver traded at $15.62 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Monday on bargain hunting and a flat dollar. U.S. stocks traded higher, led by the tech sector ahead of the beginning of the latest earnings season.

Trader bets nearly $1.5 million on major gold rally in the second half -CNBC
"Gold has rallied 6 percent this year, and as investors weigh mounting geopolitical tensions, one trader is betting nearly $1.5 million on an even bigger rise for the precious metal in the second half. The yellow metal climbed last week as the dollar and stocks slumped as slowing economic data and jitters over North Korea have Wall Street hitting the panic button....In one eyebrow-raising trade, someone bought 35,000 contracts of the December 135/160 call spread paying 42 cents each. Since each options contract accounts for 100 shares, this is about a $1.5 million bet that the GLD will close above $135.42 by December expiration - which is more than 16 percent above where it was trading Thursday."

world currency Get Ready For A World Currency By 2018 -Zero Hedge
"'THIRTY years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans, and people in many other rich countries, and some relatively poor ones will probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency. Prices will be quoted not in dollars, yen or D-marks but in, let’s say, the phoenix...' -The Economist, Get Ready for the Phoenix, January 9, 1988....At the beginning of 1988 this appears an outlandish prediction. Proposals for eventual monetary union proliferated five and ten years ago, but they hardly envisaged the setbacks of 1987....The biggest change in the world economy since the early 1970’s is that flows of money have replaced trade in goods as the force that drives exchange rates....In all these ways national economic boundaries are slowly dissolving....The phoenix zone would impose tight constraints on national governments. There would be no such thing, for instance, as a national monetary policy....Pencil in the phoenix for around 2018, and welcome it when it comes."

Working Past 70: Americans Can't Seem to Retire -Bloomberg
"More and more Americans are spending their golden years on the job. Almost 19 percent of people 65 or older were working at least part-time in the second quarter of 2017, according to the U.S. jobs report released on Friday. The age group’s employment/population ratio hasn’t been higher in 55 years, before American retirees won better health care and Social Security benefits starting in the late 1960s. And the trend looks likely to continue. Millennials, prepare yourselves....Older Americans are working more even as those under 65 are working less, a trend that the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects to continue. By 2024, 36 percent of 65- to 69-year-olds will be active participants in the labor market, the BLS says. That’s up from just 22 percent in 1994....Longer lives and rising health care costs have made retirement more expensive at the same time that stagnant wages and the decline of the traditional pension have made it harder to save enough. The U.S. isn’t the only place people are planning to work longer. Around the globe, workers of all ages are moving their retirement goals later and later in life."

The Fed's Failed Policies -CATO
"Once upon a time, there were monetary velocity and a money multiplier. Since 2008, there has been neither monetary velocity nor a money multiplier, at least not at levels comparable to the status quo ante....Monetary transmission mechanisms through traditional and reasonable channels have stalled. The main choice is to attempt to bring back the former economy...That is a formula that simply will not work, as the generation-long experience of Japan has shown....I think we need to observe what the new economy (low growth/slow growth due to slowing productivity growth and increased global competition) requires us to do....1. The central bank absolutely should not lend to anyone whose books it does not examine....2. The Fed needs to give up its extraordinary methods as soon as possible if it is to be preserved in anything like its present form....3. There needs to be a bipartisan or nonpartisan study commission to review the entire monetary policy operational structure of the Fed....4. The Open Market Trading Desk should be redivided into its traditional areas of responsibility..."

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7.7.17 - Major US Banks Fail Web Security Test

Gold last traded at $1,209 an ounce. Silver traded at $15.42 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices ended the week lower Friday as upbeat jobs data boosted the buck. U.S. stocks rose on boosted investor confidence.

Government Job Growth in June Outstrips Manufacturing 35 to 1 -CNSNews
"The seasonally adjusted government employment number grew by 35,000 in the month, while seasonally adjusted manufacturing employment grew by only 1,000. Also, in 2017 so far, the United States has created 1,000 more government jobs than manufacturing jobs, according to the BLS data....The BLS noted in its release on the June employment data that health care had added 37,000 jobs during the month, social assistance employment had added 23,000, financial activities had added 17,000, mining had added 8,000, professional and business services had added 35,000 and food services and drinking places had added 29,000. Employment in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and government, showed little change over the month."

CNBC cautions investors, "'We shouldn't take a great deal of comfort in a "good" jobs number alone,' Robert Frick, chief corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a statement. 'There are many other factors that come into play which haven't moved, like wages and labor force participation.'"

The Golden Age Has Just Begun -Zero Hedge
"Many things, including bitcoin, stocks and leaves tend to fall in the aptly named fall… but some things actually start to fly…Such assets do of course exist, and one that has particularly good prospects at the moment is gold. You may well have already heard that gold prices typically exhibit strength in the second half of the year. But when exactly does gold begin to rally, and how long does its strength last?"

gold chart

"Take a look at the seasonal chart of gold. Contrary to standard charts, seasonal charts illustrate the average performance of an asset price in the course of a year. In this case the prices of the past 20 years were averaged. The seasonally strong period begins on July 6 and ends on February 24 of the following year. The average gain of the gold price in the seasonally positive time period amounted to 8.62 percent, or 13.90 percent annualized. In short, the strong seasonal period is beginning right now!"

When it comes to protecting your financial future from uncertainty, it is better to be a year early than one day late. Learn more about the wisdom of owning gold and silver today by reading our free 2017 Gold and Silver Research Reports.

Hamburg under siege for G20 -AFP/YahooNews
"Anti-capitalist protesters wreaked havoc Friday in the G20 summit's host city of Hamburg, torching cars, firing flares at police choppers and blocking US First Lady Melania Trump at her residence. Hamburg police were also forced to call in reinforcements from other parts of Germany, as Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the violence wrought by demonstrators as 'unacceptable'....On the eve of the summit of the leaders of the world's top 20 economies, a protest march in the northern port city by 12,000 people quickly got out of hand....'War, climate change, exploitation are the result of the capitalist system that the G20 stands for and which 20,000 police are here to defend,' demonstrator Georg Ismail told AFP....Local resident Benjamin Laub, 53, said his neighborhood has resembled a zone 'under a state of emergency' for days."

Nearly 7 in 10 Major US Banks Fail Web Security Testing -Merkle
"Banks and other financial institutions need to take proper security measures to protect customer funds. Worryingly, this does not appear to be the case for many banks. A new report by Online Trust Alliance paints a troubling picture. They claim nearly seven of every ten US banks failed web security testing. Such a high number is absolutely unacceptable in this day and age of theft and data breaches. Trust in banks and other financial institutions is at an all-time low right now. Consumers of all ages use banks to secure their money, but they are less eager to do so....In fact, the majority of US banks failed web security testing. Considering how the Online Trust Alliance audited over 1,000 banking websites around the world, it is disconcerting to see US banks come out as the worst....What is even more troubling is how these US banks fail in both security and privacy...Of all major US banks, only 27% made the 80% cut. That is a 28% drop compared to 2016. The US clearly needs to catch up with the rest of the world. These US banks are also more prone to data breaches. While most banks will publicly state they take security and privacy very seriously, this report tells a very different story."

Read AMERICA'S CYBER-HIT LIST, a new Swiss America Research Report that reveals hundreds of the biggest U.S. firms that have been hacked in recent years and what you can do to protect your money.

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7.6.17 - North Korea: Trump's Best Strategy?

Gold last traded at $1,223 an ounce. Silver traded at $15.98 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices held steady Thursday as weak jobs data weighed on the dollar. U.S. stocks fell on tech valuation and retail stock/consumer spending worries.

ADP Employment Disappoints - No Manufacturing Jobs Gained In June -ZeroHedge
"After jumping heroically in May, ADP reported a disappointing 158k employment gain in June (188k exp.) and revised May's exuberance notably lower (253k to 230k). While 'soft' survey data suggests employment should be resurging, the hard numbers are disappointing again. Perhaps most notable for President Trump is that all 158k of the gains came in the Service-Producing sector of the economy - Goods-Producing Sector gained zero jobs."

CRS Interview North Korea: What Is the Best Strategy? -Cavuto/Fox News
Swiss America Chairman Craig R. Smith discusses whether President Donald Trump will be able to get China's General Secretary of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping, to help stop the North Korean pursuit of ICBM's and nukes by using financial force or other incentives to gain their cooperation. Watch now to hear what Mr. Smith feels is Trump's best strategy at the upcoming G20 summit.

We are sleepwalking towards a global war – and Russia and China are enabling it -Telegraph
"This is not 'just another North Korean missile launch'. The 'successful' testing of what North Korea’s state news agency KCNA called an 'inter-continental ballistic missile' (ICBM) takes the Korean Peninsula one step closer to a conflict that could drag in the world’s great powers and cost millions of lives. This time is different, and potentially much worse than those that have gone before, because it threatens to bring a reaction from the United States. The US closely monitors North Korea’s ability to strike cities on the West Coast, and significant progress towards that goal is unlikely to go unanswered."

An Economic Crisis Is On Its Way -DailyTelegraph
"An economic crisis of possibly historic proportions is fast approaching....Worryingly, the monetization of government and corporate debt, nominal or real negative interest rates, 'helicopter money', bank bail-ins, capital controls and the eradication of cash through financial digitization are all being contemplated by American and other international central bank officials. Such measures seek to, in effect, trap citizens to keep their money in the financial system and to allocate their money into particular asset categories, thus preventing bank runs or hoarding which can occur when confidence in political, economic and ­financial systems collapse. Thus it is up to individuals to think about what they can do to mitigate their own risks. Eliminating all forms of debt, ­improving personal cash flow and maintaining cash reserves to guard against bouts of unemployment or to purchase cheap assets is best under a deflationary scenario. Alternatively, acquiring real (or physical) goods or assets such as precious metals is the best defense to offset any loss of currency purchasing power..."

The Flashpoints for World Leaders at the Hamburg G-20 -Bloomberg
"The Group of 20 summit that starts in Hamburg on Thursday is the most anticipated - and potentially turbulent - meeting of global leaders in years. An unpredictable U.S. president with a protectionist bent, a Russian leader subject to international sanctions and a Chinese president looking to assert a greater global role are just a few of the factors that might stoke tensions. Sparks could really fly over the policy agenda of free trade, climate change and migration put forward by the German host. Angela Merkel is determined to avoid a repeat of May’s G-7 meeting in Italy, where it was six against one: Donald Trump. Yet she acknowledges that 'the discord is obvious' and 'it would be dishonest to paper over the conflict.' Following are what look to be the main flashpoints at the summit and the relative positions of G-20 members with most at stake: Trade....Climate....Migration....Trump policies."

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7.5.17 - Brace Yourselves for Next Big Debt Crisis

Gold last traded at $1,221 an ounce. Silver traded at $15.89 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices steadied near 3-month lows Wednesday on a firmer dollar. U.S. stocks gyrated after the Fed minutes revealed expectations of rising inflation and balance sheet unwinding risks.

The Next Bull Market for Gold May Have Just Begun -USNews
"With stocks pricey and investors getting valuation jitters, precious metals may be just the thing to add a little luster to your portfolio. For starters, there are reasons to believe that a bull market for gold and silver might be beginning....The uptick in prices could continue because gold has a long history as the asset that investors flock to when everything else seems risky. And for some investors, the stock market is flashing a yellow warning light now. 'This is not a really good time to be buying equities,' says Don Coxe, chairman of Coxe Advisors LLC in Chicago, given their high price-earnings ratios....Coxe likes gold because it has a limited supply. Although it doesn't pay a dividend the way many stocks do, gold tends to hold its value over time. 'Recessions are a great environment for gold,' he says....Because their prices aren't correlated with stocks or bonds, precious metals can reduce a portfolio's overall volatility or risk. That's why many smart investors suggest holding 5 to 15 percent of a portfolio in gold and other precious metals, with some people believing that number should be higher."

When gold prices take a dip, smart money seizes the opportunity to buy, knowing solid fundamentals confirm true value. Learn more about the wisdom of owning gold and silver today by reading our free 2017 Gold and Silver Research Reports.

Italy Italy to nationalize bank, shed $32.5B in bad loans -ABCNews
"In a bid to end years of struggles, the Italian government is taking control of bank Monte dei Paschi under a relaunch plan agreed by European officials that includes the disposal of a massive $32.5 billion in bad loans....The Italian government will inject 5.4 billion euros into the bank, giving it a 70-percent stake, as part of a total boost of 8.1 billion euros. Under the deal, the government must exit within five years....It is the third capital injection in recent years for Siena-based Monte dei Paschi, Italy's third-largest by assets, as it struggles to recover from poor management and a heap of bad loans that compounded during Italy's long economic crisis. Under the bad loan disposal plan, $32.5 billion will be bundled and sold at 21 percent of gross book value, the vast majority to the government-organized Atlante II fund, while the bank retains 5 percent."

Banking risks are alive and growing in 2017. In addition to the risk of insolvent banks, we have a virtual army of computer hackers who've infected computers of 140 banks in 40 countries ordering bank ATMs to spit out untold millions into the paper bags of waiting accomplices. Get the full story in our free 2017 White Paper Don’t Bank On It!

Faber: There will be another 'massive' financial crisis in my lifetime -CNBC
"Marc Faber has a warning for investors - brace yourselves for another financial crisis. Just last week, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said another crisis like the one in 2008 was not likely to happen 'in our lifetime.' Faber told CNBC's 'Squawk on the Street' on Monday that 'I'm 71 and for sure in my lifetime, unless I have an accident tomorrow, I will see another financial crisis and a massive one.'....'We have a colossal credit bubble in the world. Can it expand? Yes, but it cannot expand forever. One day there will be a limit and one day there will be another huge crisis because the debt level today is higher than it was in 2007,' the editor The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report said. The noted bear also has been calling for a big drop in the U.S. stock market and believes 'we have a bubble in everything.'"

Don’t Buy the Scare Stories About the GOP’s Medicaid Reform -Batchelor/TheDailyBeast
"The charges against the Republican proposals for Medicaid reform as part of the American Health Care Act debate are grave and condemning. 'Mr. Trump and the Republicans would lower spending on the frailest and most vulnerable people in our health care system,' report three esteemed health care policy professors, David Grabowski of Harvard University, Jonathan Gruber of MIT, and Vincent Mor of Brown University. The professors declare that many will suffer if the Republican legislation is passed, but that the elderly disabled in nursing homes are bound to suffer the worst....'It's nonsense, absolute nonsense,' Charles Blahous of the Mercatus Center of George Mason University and the Hoover Institution of Stanford University told me last week....Blahous concluded about the Republican Medicaid proposal: 'It has nothing to do with seniors. It has nothing to do with the disabled. It has nothing to do with poor children. Those people were eligible for Medicaid before the Affordable Care Act. They would be eligible for Medicaid after the Affordable Care Act - if it's repealed - and they are simply not in jeopardy as a result of what’s being discussed on the Hill.'....In sum, the blunt charge that Republicans are emptying nursing homes of the elderly disabled in order to find savings in Medicaid is starkly inaccurate."

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7.3.17 - Smart Money Buys Gold in a Recession

Gold last traded at $1,219 an ounce. Silver traded at $16.12 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices slipped Monday as U.S. dollar rebounded from last week's sharp loss. U.S. stocks mixed as tech shares lagged.

Ron Paul: Not a 'total shock' if stocks plummet 25% and gold soars 50% by October - CNBC
"A painful correction is coming and there's little that can be done to prevent it, according to former Republican congressman and libertarian firebrand Ron Paul. Speaking to CNBC last week, the former GOP presidential contender argued the economy is not as strong as Wall Street consensus believes, and the situation could turn ugly as soon as October. 'If our markets are down 25 percent and gold is up 50 percent it wouldn't be a total shock to me,' said Paul recently on 'Futures Now.' That scenario would drag the S&P 500 Index as low as 1,819, and gold as high as $1,867 an ounce from current levels..... 'I think it's a very precarious market, and the Fed better be very careful. Since they are incapable of knowing what to do, I don't expect much good to come out of anything they do,' said Paul. 'There are so many mistakes made out there that the correction is almost unlimited.'"

gold Why Investors Buy Gold in a Recession - The Motley Fool
"Recessions are financially and emotionally trying events. It's fair to say that nobody likes a recession. But that doesn't stop them from happening as the so-called 'invisible hand' works to clean up excesses built up in the good times. How can you protect yourself from these downturns? Consider buying gold....when the financial world looks like it's going to end, gold starts dancing to its own tune.....for thousands of years, gold has been used as a store of wealth. It is a physical asset that has value in and of itself, and the gyrations of paper assets have little impact on it. If there were an event that led to monetary collapse, gold would likely be the primary fallback currency....This is why, when the going gets tough, investors flock to gold. Although the number changes each year, investment usually accounts for around 30% of annual demand for gold. That's a big number that includes gold coins."

Maine and New Jersey state governments shut down by budget failures - Market Watch
"Governors in New Jersey and Maine shut down state government after lawmakers in their states failed to reach budget deals before Friday’s midnight deadline. Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is in his final year of two terms running the state, called the Democratic-led legislature back to Trenton for a special session on Saturday. In Maine, Republican Gov. Paul LePage put in place a partial shutdown until Monday afternoon. 'This is embarrassing and it’s pointless,' Christie said at a Saturday news conference in Trenton. 'Our residents do not have access to a myriad of services that they deserve.' Under the New Jersey shutdown, only essential state employees such as state police, prison workers, and hospital employees will report to work, according to a statement from the governor’s office." Illinois races the clock to avoid 'junk' downgrade

Illinois races the clock to avoid 'junk' downgrade - CNN Money
"Illinois officials are racing against the clock to pass a budget before the state's credit is branded junk. The state legislature, facing a massive budget crisis, was unable to reach a spending deal before the new fiscal year began on Saturday -- marking the third year in a row that Illinois has started without a full budget....Illinois is at risk of becoming the first state to get slapped with a credit downgrade to junk, which could make its money problems even worse. Earlier this week, S&P Global Ratings warned that it would probably issue the demotion if Illinois failed to pass a budget before Saturday....After decades of fiscal mismanagement, Illinois faces $15 billion in unpaid bills and owes a whopping quarter-trillion dollars to public employees when they retire. The budget crisis has crippled social services that rely on state money, from mental health services and Meals on Wheels for homebound seniors to domestic violence support centers."

**Swiss America will be closed Tuesday, July 4 in observance of Independence Day.**

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