September Blog Archives 2017

Gold last traded at $1,284 an ounce. Silver at $16.67 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices ended the third quarter with a slight gain amid rising uncertainty. U.S. stocks traded mixed with tech rising and heath care falling.

The ONLY Variable That Matters To The Price Of Gold -Sprott Money
"Gold is money. Therefore the price of gold must change proportionate to changes in the supply of other forms of 'money' (i.e. currency). This is not a theory. It is a function of simple arithmetic....Suppose (in the entire world) there was a total of 10 oz’s of gold. Suppose also that there was a total of only $10,000 U.S. dollars. And in this hypothetical world, the price of gold is $1,000/oz. Let us suppose the supply of U.S. dollars increases by a factor of five, and thus there are now $50,000 USD’s. What happens to the price of gold? All other things being equal, the price of gold must increase by a factor of five (in this case, to $5,000/oz), to keep our hypothetical world in equilibrium....In five years, 2009 -2013, B.S. Bernanke quintupled the U.S. money supply . Did the price of gold quintuple? No, not even close. At the time that Bernanke began his money-printing orgy, the price of gold was roughly $800/oz....At a minimum, the Bernanke Helicopter Drop should have propelled gold to $4,000/oz (USD), concurrent with that money-printing. Arguably, the price should have gone much higher than that. In actual fact, as we all know, the price never even reached $2,000/oz: less than half of the absolute minimum price....no one in the mainstream media (and very few in the Alternative Media) has made any mention of the gigantic disconnect with U.S. money-printing and the price of gold. The reason why the mainstream media propaganda machine has ignored this fundamental is obvious. Their job is to suppress the price of gold."

The Swamp Attacks Trump Tax Plan -Maher/Daily Reckoning
"Trump’s tax plan proposes, in part: To reduce personal income tax brackets from seven to three (12%, 25% and 35%)...To cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%...To double the standard deduction for both couples and single filers (to $24,000 and $12,000, respectively)...and eliminate the estate tax. The president assured us this is a plan for every man jack... that 'the rich will not be gaining at all.' But the rich did gain yesterday...Stocks surged to record levels yesterday afternoon as the president trumpeted his plan....The plan’s promises are many...but its details few. The devil dwells in the details, of course. But so does God...Reagan’s 1986 tax reform bill ran to 450-plus pages. Trump’s runs to nine....House Speaker Paul Ryan now expects '10,000 lobbyists' to storm Capitol Hill....'You have no idea how hard this is going to be,' warns outgoing Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee. Ah, but we do, Senator. And that is why we expect it to fail..."

5 big obstacles to success on tax reform -CNBC
"Republicans have powerful incentives to produce on tax reform. Donors want a return on their investment, voters want their team to win, and leaders want to keep their majorities. Here are some major reasons for doubt: 1) Fairness: the White House and congressional leaders would raise the lowest tax rate on individuals (from 10 percent to 12 percent) but reduce the top rate on wealthy individuals (from 39.6 percent to 35 percent) and corporations (from 35 percent to 20 percent). But polls show most Americans prefer higher taxes on the rich and corporations. 2) Credibility gap: Administration officials insist their plan will not increase federal deficits...Senate Republicans have acknowledged as much by preparing a budget resolution allowing $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that would increase deficits. 3) Different circumstances: Republicans cite benefits from earlier tax cuts, most notably under President Ronald Reagan. But conditions have changed. 4) GOP discord: Tax reform requires two things that won't be easy: passing a budget and keeping at least 50 of 52 Senate Republicans united behind the tax plan. 5) Time: The tax effort is already behind schedule, which initially called for enactment by August....Looming 2018 midterm election pressures increase the degree of difficulty. That's why it's been three decades since Washington last succeeded on comprehensive tax reform."

Why millions of Americans feel left behind by the economic recovery -Business Insider
"There is a reason so many Americans feel the economy's recovery from the Great Recession has not benefited them: It hasn't. An expansion that began, believe it or not, more than seven years ago has extended a longer-run trend of wage stagnation for the average US worker....The recovery seems so lopsided, particularly given economic inequality levels not seen since before the Great Depression. Then there's the sharp inequality in the nature of income growth. 'Much of the growth in wages has been concentrated at the top,' the Hamilton report says. The richest 20% of Americans saw hourly wages grow from $38 an hour in 1979 to $48 an hour in 2016 - a 27% increase. In the bottom fifth, real wages fell slightly over the same period."

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Gold last traded at $1,288 an ounce. Silver at $16.84 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Thursday on bargain-hunting and a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks traded mixed as investors digested economic data and a highly anticipated tax reform plan.

China's 'Oil-for Yuan-for Gold' Scheme -Price/Plata
"For the first time, since August of 1971- 46 years ago - gold will once again form part of commercial international transactions. Not only is it a first in 46 years, but the Chinese are linking together both the world's real money, gold, and the world's most important commodity, oil, which is the fundamental motor of all the world's productive activity....The Chinese measure will go contrary to the American decision of 1971. It is going to raise, and keep raising the price of gold, through its 'oil - for Yuan - for gold' scheme....We can estimate that about six million barrels a day arrives in China, from oil producers in various parts of the world, who will find the Chinese offer very tempting. Some will go for the gold, others may hold off. In the final analysis, we can eliminate calculations of the Dollar price of the barrel of oil, and the Dollar price of gold. The final calculation will have to be the relationship that the world markets establish between oil and gold....Oil at $50 Dollars a barrel, and gold at $1300 or so Dollars, means that one ounce of gold at $1300 Dollars will purchase 26 barrels of oil at $50 Dollars a barrel. This is a totally unsustainable relationship, if gold is going to be paid for oil....At $13,000 Dollars per gold ounce, one barrel of oil, at $50 Dollars, will be bought with 0.1196 grams of gold; perhaps we may see $13,000/oz gold in the not distant future....Thus, the establishment of the all-important nexus between oil and gold is a first step that may lead, in due course of time, to the re-establishment of the gold standard in the world."

Small Business Tax Breaks: Good or Bad? -Fox Business
The democrats are quickly labeling the proposed new tax cut proposals by president Trump as "Wealth-Fare." Fox Business's Risk & Reward host Elizabeth MacDonald asks Swiss America Chairman Craig R. Smith his take on whether or not Trump's proposal is "tax cuts for the rich," as democratic leaders keep claiming. According to Mr. Smith at present the U.S. corporate tax rate is 10% higher than communist China's! Get Craig's thoughts on Trump's proposed cuts by watching now.

Cracks in Dollar Are Getting Larger -Rickards/Daily Reckoning
"The world is losing confidence in the dollar again. China just announced that any oil-exporter that accepts yuan for oil can convert the oil to gold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange and hedge the hard currency value of the gold on the Shanghai Futures Exchange. The deal has several parts, which together spell dollar doom. The first part is that China will buy oil from Russia and Iran in exchange for yuan. The yuan is not a major reserve currency, so it’s not an especially attractive asset for Russia or Iran to hold. China solves that problem by offering to convert yuan into gold on a spot basis on the Shanghai Gold Exchange. This straight-through processing of oil-to-yuan-to-gold eliminates the role of the dollar....Russia was the first country to agree to accept yuan...Now Venezuela has also now signed on to the plan. Russia is #2 and Venezuela is #7 on the list of the ten largest oil exporters in the world. Others will follow quickly. What can we take away from this? This marks the beginning of the end of the petrodollar system....eventually a tipping point will be reached where the dollar collapse suddenly accelerates as happened to sterling in 1931. Investors should acquire gold and other hard assets before that happens."

How Congress Governs the Federal Reserve -Bloomberg
"A widely held view of the modern Federal Reserve holds that the Fed independently crafts U.S. monetary policy, free from short-term political interference. But if you look at the political and economic catalysts that fueled the Fed’s development over its first century, and concentrate on Congress’s relationship with the central bank, it’s clear that this independence is a myth. At best, the Federal Reserve earns partial and contingent independence from Congress - and thus barely any independence at all. Instead, Congress and the Fed are interdependent....Congress relies on the Fed to both steer the economy and absorb the blame when it falters. Congressional indifference seems like Fed independence....So long as lawmakers remain risk-averse re-election seekers, blame-game dynamics will shape the Federal Reserve."

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Gold last traded at $1,287 an ounce. Silver at $16.82 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices traded mixed Wednesday as Fedspeak about rising uncertainty lifted the dollar. U.S. stocks also traded mixed on interest rate hike fears and weaker housing data.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen says economic outlook is highly uncertain-LA Times
"In a speech Tuesday marked by large doses of both statistics and humility, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen said that the economic outlook is highly uncertain, suggesting that the central bank will proceed slowly in raising interest rates and scaling back easy-money policies....'My colleagues and I may have misjudged the strength of the labor market,' she said at a conference of the National Assn. for Business Economics in Cleveland....The low rate of wage increases indicates that the labor market has more slack than economists had believed....'How should policy be formulated in the face of such significant uncertainties?' Yellen asked. 'In my view, it strengthens the case for a gradual pace of adjustments,' although she added: 'we should be wary of raising rates too gradually.' In a question-and-answer session at the conclusion of her speech, Yellen cautioned that policymakers also should be prepared for surprises and shocks."

One chart shows all the bubbles about to pop -Marketwatch
"It wasn’t always this way. We never used to get a giant, speculative bubble every seven to eight years. We really didn’t. In 2000, we had the dot-com bubble. In 2007, we had the housing bubble. In 2017, we have the everything bubble. I did not coin the term 'the everything bubble.' I do not know who did. Apologies (and much respect) to the person I stole it from. Why do we call it the everything bubble? Well, there is a bubble in a bunch of asset classes simultaneously. And the infographic below that my colleagues at Mauldin Economics created paints the picture best. I don’t usually predict downturns, but this time I bet my reputation that a downturn is coming. And soon."

Take note that precious metal prices are not included in any analyst's "bubble" warnings. Gold prices have risen nearly 12% ytd, yet the average conservative projection is for gold prices to rise another 10% - to $1,400 an ounce - by year's end. And that's if none of the major market bubbles pop. Now is the time to own gold as wealth insurance, regardless of the daily price. Gold's market fundamentals are rock solid, as we explain in our 2017 Gold Report.

Top Realtors economist warns housing market 'stalled' -CNBC
"It is no longer a blip, but a trend. Home sales are weakening, and they are not expected to improve anytime soon. A monthly index measuring signed contracts to buy existing homes fell 2.6 percent in August compared to July. That is the fifth drop in the past six months and below expectations....'August was another month of declining contract activity because of the one-two punch of limited listings and home prices rising far above incomes,' said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors in a release. 'Demand continues to overwhelm supply in most of the country, and as a result, many would-be buyers from earlier in the year are still in the market for a home, while others have perhaps decided to temporarily postpone their search.' Yun said he believes the housing market has 'essentially stalled.'"

How Big Banks Became Our Masters -New York Times
"Ten years on from the financial crisis, it’s hard not to have a sense of deju vu. Financial scandal and wrangles over financial rule-making still dominate the headlines. The cyberhacking at Equifax compromised personal records for half of the adult population of the United States....Over the last 10 years, there has been so much financial scandal, so many battles between regulators and financiers, and so much complexity that a large swath of the public has become numb to the debate about how to make our financial system safer. That’s a dangerous problem, because despite all of the wrangling and rule making, there’s a core truth about our financial system that we have yet to comprehend fully: It isn't serving us, we're serving it....Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism, envisioned financial services (and I stress the word 'service') as an industry that didn’t exist as an end in itself, but rather as a helpmeet to other types of business...Today, only about 15 percent of the money coming out of the largest financial institutions goes to that purpose...This doesn’t help growth, but it does fuel the wealth gap....Finance has become the tail that wags the dog."

Cash Is in Short Supply in Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico -Bloomberg
"'Cash only,' said Abraham Lebron, the store manager standing guard at Supermax, a supermarket in San Juan’s Plaza de las Armas. He was in a well-policed area, but admitted feeling like a sitting duck with so many bills on hand. 'The system is down, so we can’t process the cards. It’s tough, but one finds a way to make it work.' The cash economy has reigned in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria decimated much of the U.S. commonwealth last week, leveling the power grid and wireless towers and transporting the island to a time before plastic existed. The state of affairs could carry on for weeks or longer in some remote parts of the commonwealth, and that means it could be impossible to trace revenue and enforce tax rules....Most ATMs on the island still weren’t working because of the power outage or because no one had refilled them....As Banco Popular, Puerto Rico’s biggest bank, opened Monday morning in San Juan, the line stretched about 200 people deep for banking and ATM services."

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Gold last traded at $1,301 an ounce. Silver at $16.88 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices retreated Tuesday on short-term profit taking following a hawkish speech by Fed Chair Yellen. U.S. stocks traded in narrow range, struggling to break a 3-day losing streak.

It Makes Sense to Invest in Gold Now -Rediff
"Gold prices have outperformed the markets - S&P 500 - thus far in this century (since 2000), returning 86 per cent more than the market if both asset classes were indexed at 100 levels starting December 31, 1999, suggests the latest World Gold Council's Gold Investor report for September 2017. Over the past 17 years, the S&P 500 has undergone two major contractions. Gold, meanwhile, has held its value well, highlighting its appeal as a portfolio diversifier, the WGC report says. Seen as a safe haven asset, gold prices have been on an upward spiral since August-mid....Gold also looks very cheap compared to the markets that are highly overbought at the moment, reports suggest....As such, the gold-to-S&P 500 ratio is near 10-year lows, meaning the yellow metal is extremely undervalued, THE WGC says. It is worth noting too, that the stock market rally (S&P 500) has been propelled disproportionately by only a handful of tech stocks, such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet....'A small portion should get into investing in gold,' says Mayuresh Joshi, fund manager at Angel Broking, 'as it creates a hedge both against the anomalies created by a rising equity market and inflation.'"

Bubble Mindset -Hussman/Hussman Funds
"So the mindset, I think, goes something like this. Yes, market valuations are elevated, but, you know, low interest rates justify higher valuations. Besides, there’s really no alternative to stocks because you’ll get what, 1% annually in cash? Look at how the market has done in recent years....What’s notable about this mindset is its excruciating reliance on three ideas. The first is that low interest rates 'justify' rich valuations. The second is that market returns simply emerge as a kind of providence from a higher power...and that those returns have no particular relationship to valuations even in the long-term. The third is that market returns during the recent advancing half-cycle are an accurate guide to future outcomes. The problem is that this argument is the exact essence of a bubble mentality....A few insights may help to deconstruct this mindset. First, if one is going to invest one’s financial future in the stock market here, it’s worth making at least a cursory study of 5, 10 or even 20-year growth rates in population, labor force, productivity, S&P 500 revenues, earnings, real GDP, nominal GDP, and virtually every other measure of fundamentals....In order to provide the longest perspective possible, and also to offer a measure that can be easily calculated and validated should one choose to do so, the chart below shows my variant of Robert Shiller’s cyclically-adjusted P/E (CAPE).

What investors presently take as a comfortable environment of pleasant market returns and mild volatility is actually, quietly, the single most overvalued point in the history of the U.S. stock market....I fully expect the completion of the current market cycle to wipe out the entire total return of the S&P 500, in excess of Treasury bill returns, all the way back to 2000, and more likely to roughly October 1997."

Equifax executives will be held accountable, even if they resign -Fox Business
"In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton said Equifax executives would be thoroughly investigated for any wrongdoing, whether they resign from their positions or remain with the company....On Tuesday, Equifax CEO Richard Smith retired from the company. The president of Equifax’s Asia Pacific business will serve as interim CEO, while Mark Feidler was named non-executive chairman. On Sept. 15, the company’s chief information officer and chief security officer resigned. Sen. Tester indicated on Tuesday that Smith’s decision to leave Equifax may be an attempt to dodge continued fallout from the cyber event....There is also an ongoing federal investigation into whether three Equifax executives engaged in insider trading when they sold nearly $1.8 million worth of shares in the days after the hack was discovered, but before it was disclosed to the public."

U.S. consumer confidence falls; new home sales hit eight-month low -Reuters
"U.S consumer confidence fell in September and home sales dropped to an eight-month low in August due to the impact of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, supporting the view that the storms would hurt economic growth in the third quarter....The survey showed consumers' views of the labor market were less upbeat. The share of consumers saying jobs are 'plentiful' fell to 32.6 percent from 34.4 percent in August....Despite being near full employment, the labor market has struggled to generate strong wage growth, frustrating both consumers and policymakers....In a third report, the Commerce Department said new home sales decreased 3.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 units last month, which was the lowest level since December 2016....In August, new single-family homes sales fell in the Northeast, South and West. They were unchanged in the Midwest."

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Gold last traded at $1,311 an ounce. Silver at $17.14 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices shot up Monday following North Korea accusations of the U.S. declaring war. U.S. stocks fell on declining technology stocks and geopolitical angst.

Will The Fed’s Rate-Hike Plans Eventually Trigger A Recession? -Capital Spectator
"The Financial Times observes that the Federal Reserve’s forecast for higher interest rates in the next several years is accompanied by expectations of slower economic growth and rising unemployment. Given the tendency for US recessions to coincide or closely follow periods of tighter monetary policy, it’s hard to ignore the potential for trouble down the road....The question is whether the Fed is on track to once again satisfy a phenomenon that the economist Rodi Dornbusch described as macro homicide: 'none of the US expansions of the past 40 years died in bed of old age; every one was murdered by the Federal Reserve.'....This much is clear: there’s always another downturn lurking in the future, an event that’s likely to be accompanied by considerable investment risk....The solution: avoid putting all your eggs in one basket. That’s solid advice for investing and it’s equally practical for evaluating recession risk."

What really terrifies Wall Street about the SEC hack -CNBC
"The SEC disclosed on Wednesday that EDGAR, its corporate filing system, was hacked in 2016 and information was potentially used for illegal stock trades. EDGAR is where Corporate America goes to file statements on their businesses. Brad Bondi, an attorney with Cahill Gordon and Reindel and former council at the SEC, called it "the Fort Knox" of the SEC. It's where the important stuff is stored: quarterly earnings reports, market-moving news, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, it all goes into the EDGAR system, and is often filed before the news is made public....Here's an example: suppose a company was going to announce that their fourth quarter earnings were going to be well below expectations due to some outside event. They have to notify the SEC of this, and they would do it through a filing in the EDGAR system. Think about this: if a company was going to issue a warning on Friday morning that may affect its stock price, would it be helpful if someone had the news the day before? That's what we are facing, potentially....The irony: the agency in charge of telling Wall Street to get its act together on cyberattacks was the one that was attacked....One of the only good things that may come out of these recent security debacles is better legislation. There is no uniform standard for how companies should respond to a cyberattack, believe it or not."

A Swiss America Research Report reveals how and why your money is more vulnerable today than ever before following the hacking of hundreds of the biggest U.S. firms in recent years. Read this urgent Free Report: AMERICA'S CYBER-HIT LIST

Deloitte confirms hack exposed email system -ZDNet
"Tax and auditing giant Deloitte has confirmed it was targeted by a cyberattack, resulting in the theft of confidential documents and emails. The New York-headquartered company confirmed the breach in an email to sister-site CNET after news of the breach was first reported by The Guardian....Deloitte stands as one of the largest private companies in the US, which reported $38.8 billion in revenue last fiscal year. It offers tax, auditing, consulting, and cybersecurity advisory services to major governments and large Fortune 500 multinationals. But it was the company's own cybersecurity effort that was undermined, according to The Guardian's report....The company declined to say which clients or companies were affected, but The Guardian said six clients of Deloitte were told that their data was affected by the breach, including US government departments. The attackers also had access to sensitive corporate documents within those inboxes."

A German Earthquake Shakes Europe's Foundation -Pontification Blog
"The earthquake that hit Germany on Sunday could be felt throughout the European Union. Its aftershocks will continue for months, perhaps even years, and will change America’s political and economic landscape as well. In Sunday’s national elections, Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term in office, but with less than 33 percent of the vote for her Christian Union bloc, its worst showing since the end of World War II....Merkel, the head of Europe’s most powerful country, had become the anti-Donald Trump, the world leader who stood for globalist policies, an end of nationalism, and the collectivism of the European Union. Indeed, Germany created the European Union, and the Euro to replace national currencies. This was its third attempt in the 20th Century, as Craig R. Smith and I explain in our latest book Money, Morality & The Machine, to conquer and control the whole of Europe. It is no coincidence that Merkel keeps in her office a painting of Catherine the Great, the German princess who became Russian Czarina….and Merkel’s favorite historic ruler....But ruling will be difficult for Merkel now....She may be unable to keep globalist policies, the European Union, and the Euro from collapsing during the next four years."

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Gold last traded at $1,299 an ounce. Silver at $16.98 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Friday on a weaker dollar and North Korea saber-rattling. U.S. stocks slipped on tech sector disappointment and geopolitical worry.

Physical Gold - The Only Pension Fund to Survive -Egon von Greyerz/Gold Switzerland
"Most pension funds are massively underfunded and the amount they are underfunded by is absolutely astounding. We are looking at a staggering $400 trillion gap by 2050 according to the World Economic Forum. The biggest gap is of course the US with $137 trillion....The reasons are quite straightforward; an ageing population, inadequate savings and low expected returns. These calculations don't take into account the coming collapse of all the assets that pension funds invest in such as stock, bonds and property....With total debt at $240 trillion, pension liabilities at $400 trillion (by 2050), other liabilities such as medical care at say $250 trillion and derivatives at $1.5 quadrillion, we are looking at a total global debt including liabilities of around $2.5 quadrillion....Jim Rickards talks about a massive dollar devaluation...He suggests that gold would be revalued to $5,000 which is 4x from today....Although all this sounds very exciting for gold and silver holders, we must always remind ourselves why we hold precious metals. We are not holding gold for spectacular gains. No, gold is held as insurance for wealth preservation purposes."

The 300th Birthday Of The Gold Standard -Benko/Forbes
"September 21, 2017, is the 300th anniversary of Sir Isaac Newton's accidental invention of the gold standard. This really is a monumental moment. Newton, as Master of the Royal Mint of Great Britain was, at Parliament's behest, attempting to restore the silver standard. The 'pound sterling' represented one pound of sterling silver. Due to a long era of shenanigans, the quality - and value - of the British coinage had depreciated. Newton set out to restore it. What he did still matters. By inadvertently overvaluing gold to silver, Newton sowed the seed of the gold standard, which ramified into the world's dominant monetary system presaging a Golden Age. The gold standard was a system that, together with other factors, helped propel England from an unimportant small island nation to the center of the world's financial system. The true classical Newtonian gold standard also served America, and the world, very well for a long time. It could again do so....Thanks to Newton’s miscalculation, the classical gold standard became the world's fundamental monetary system for most of two centuries. The 'gold standard,' although no longer in effect monetarily, still connotes, according to the New Oxford American Dictionary, 'the best, most reliable, or most prestigious thing of its type.'"

Asset Diversification Should Include 15% Gold -Miller On The Money
"Diversification is a hedge to protect your nest egg from catastrophic risks, including desperate governments and high inflation....How does the average investor go about diversifying out of the US dollar, and safely store some wealth outside the country? I contacted a friend and international expert, Rob Vrijhof, President and Senior Partner of Weber Hartmann Vrijhof & Partners Ltd. in Zurich Switzerland....'Thank you for inviting me. You have touched a very important subject. Investors diversify in order to preserve their wealth. Spreading your wealth among asset classes protects against market fluctuation in your home country....In today’s volatile world, I feel, more than ever before, that people should not hold all their wealth in any single country or currency....With the current geopolitical tensions worldwide you should hold a certain portion of your total wealth in Gold. This should not be viewed as a trading opportunity, it should be there to stay. We believe that up to 15% of your total wealth should be held in Gold Bullion/coins as a nest egg for difficult times....If people want to invest in gold and gold stocks to sell in the future for a profit, that's fine, but that is in addition to our 15% recommendation.'"

ETF holders will get mauled by ‘the worst’ bear market ever -Jim Rogers/MarketWatch
"In a sweeping interview with RealVision TV, Jim Rogers warns another bear market is coming, and that it will be 'horrendous, the worst.' It's the level of debt across global economies that will be to blame, he says. And retail investors who have been piling into exchange-traded funds will be particularly vulnerable to that next big mauling. 'When we have the bear market, a lot of people are going to find that, ‘Oh my God, I own an ETF, and they collapsed. It went down more than anything else.’ And the reason it will go down more than anything else is because that’s what everybody owns,' he says. Like others, the chairman of Rogers Holdings is worried about bond and stock valuations right now, and about breadth in the market - that is, the number of stocks moving higher versus those heading the other way."

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Gold last traded at $1,294 an ounce. Silver at $17.01 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices eased back Thursday on Fed-induced profit taking despite a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks traded lower on rising investor expectations of an interest rate hike in December.

SEC hacked, information may have been used for illegal stock trades -Washington Post
"The Securities and Exchange Commission, the country's top Wall Street regulator, announced Wednesday that hackers breached its system for storing documents filed by publicly traded companies last year, potentially accessing data that allowed the intruders to make an illegal profit. The agency detected the breach last year, but didn’t learn until last month that it could have been used for improper trading. The incident was briefly mentioned in an unusual eight-page statement on cybersecurity released by SEC Chairman Jay Clayton late Wednesday. The statement didn't explain the delay in the announcement, the exact date the system was breached and whether information about any specific company was targeted....In 2015, fraudsters posted fake information on the SEC site about the takeover of Avon Products, driving the company's stock price up significantly before it was detected....'Effective management of internal cybersecurity risk is critical to the SEC achieving its mission and to protecting the nonpublic information that is entrusted to this agency,' SEC Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar said in a statement."

Craig R. Smith Comment: "This story says it all. First retailers, like Target, are hacked. Then banks, like JPMorgan. Then credit agencies, like Equifax. And now the watchdog of all Wall Street trading, the SEC. Some morning will we discover that a trillion is missing from the banks - and everything's frozen until they can figure it out?"

A Swiss America Research Report reveals how and why your money is more vulnerable today than ever before following the hacking of hundreds of the biggest U.S. firms in recent years. Read this urgent Free Report: AMERICA'S CYBER-HIT LIST

Exactly How Many Warnings Do You Need? -Zero Hedge
"When I was growing up my father, probably much like yours, had pearls of wisdom that he would drop along the way. It wasn't until much later in life that I learned that such knowledge did not come from books, but through experience. One of my favorite pieces of 'wisdom' was: 'Exactly how many warnings do need before you figure out that something bad is about to happen?'....With that in mind, there are currently plenty of warning signs individuals might want to consider before taking the leap into today's stock market. Here are four to consider. Warning 1: Investor Confidence...previous peaks in confidence have been generally associated with peaks in the market. Warning 2: All Hat, No Cattle...Just wearing a 'cowboy hat,' doesn’t make you a 'cowboy'...the expansion of leverage to record levels coincides with the drop in investor cash levels to record lows. Warning 3: Valuations....the global levels of over-valuation of stocks and bonds, combined with excessive optimism and leverage, has set the stage for exceedingly low returns over the next decade or longer..... No professional, or successful investor, every bought and held for the long-term without regard, or respect, for the risks that are undertaken. If the professionals are looking at 'risk,' and planning on how to protect their capital from losses when things go wrong, then why aren't you? Exactly how many warnings do you need?"

A Force Greater Than the Fed -Daily Reckoning
"Yesterday the Donald announced he's ready to reduce North Korea to dust. Today the Fed announced it's ready to reduce its balance sheet to normal. Neither is good for stocks. So how did they take the news? Exactly as you'd expect - with another record setting day....The larger question: Why are stocks setting records in the face of such uncertainty?....Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett may have the answer… The Fed is not the world's sole central bank. It shares the road with the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the Bank of England (BOE), the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) - to name some. And Hartnett notes that central banks have purchased nearly $2 trillion of financial assets year to date. That nears the amount of assets the Fed purchased under QE1… during the breathless and foot-free days of the Great Recession....Hartnett calls it the 'supernova of liquidity'… the 'flow that conquers all.' By our lights, it better explains today’s record markets than rising exports… booming sales… or the 'rolling' economy. It was Warren Buffett who said, 'You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out.' When the great liquidity tide goes out… we fear much of Wall Street will be caught in the buff…"

International Day Of Peace 2017: Famous Quotes To Celebrate World Peace -International Business Times
"The world celebrates International Day of Peace on Sept. 21, a day when everyone comes together to observe a period of non-violence and ceasefire. The day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2001....International Day of Peace is also an ideal time to learn about the importance of peace from some of the great thinkers of our time. Here are a few inspirational quotes to celebrate the occasion from Brainy Quote. 'I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.' -Martin Luther King. 'Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.' — -John F. Kennedy. 'Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.' -Benjamin Franklin."

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Gold last traded at $1,301 an ounce. Silver at $17.09 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Wednesday ahead of Fedspeak on a weaker dollar and geopolitical worry. U.S. stocks moved cautiously higher as investors hoped for fresh economic signals from the upcoming Fed statement.

Going off gold standard did the opposite of what many people think -Alphaville/Financial Times
"Imagine you can choose between living in two kinds of societies: 1) Dynamic world prone to wild swings and big crashes, but ultimately more growth in the long run. 2) Safe and stable world with greater consistency, less volatility, and much lower risk of catastrophe....Based on nearly three centuries of UK data, shows that the economy grew much less (in per person terms) under the gold standard than in the period of fiat money, but was also much less prone to extremes. The distribution of growth performance during the gold standard era was much more tightly concentrated around the average than the distribution in the epoch of fiat money....Moreover, the gold standard seems to have produced fewer catastrophes for Britain...the data suggest the standard arguments against gold, and the standard arguments in favor of the flexible and 'counter-cyclical' state we have today, need serious revision."

The U.S. Economy Is Dead in the Water -Bonner/Bonner And Partners
"Over the next 10 years, the U.S. government is on course to spend $10 trillion it doesn’t have. It has also committed to a further $80 trillion in entitlements for which it has no known source. Only growth can save it. But like a bicycle that has slipped its chain, you can pedal as hard as you like; you still won’t get anywhere. The only thing that may help the economy now is a major tax reform. But that is almost impossible.... The important decisions are made by the entrenched Deep State insiders. The president and the voters don’t have much effect on them. The military junta - Generals Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly - control foreign policy. And a sordid cabal of Democrats and Republicans, cronies and zombies, controls domestic spending. All squawk and strut shamelessly about monuments, transgender bathrooms, racism, immigration, and other symbolic issues. Fans in the cheap seats take sides. They are red. Or they are blue. They are for Trump. Or they are against him. It scarcely matters. The bicycle slows. Soon, it will fall over."

Walking Eyes-Wide-Shut Into a 2007-2008 Scenario -Hussman/Hussman Funds
"Based on a century of market evidence, the landscape of the coming years is rather clear. Over the coming 12-year period, I expect that the S&P 500 will produce an overall total return of zero, with the S&P 500 Index most likely still below current levels in 2030, but with dividend income making up the shortfall....All factors considered, I actually view a market retreat of about -62% as most likely over the completion of the current market cycle, which probably seems as preposterous as the similar yet correct market losses I projected at the 2000 and 2007 market peaks....As adamant as I remain about market risks today, I have every expectation that the opportunity to embrace a constructive or aggressive investment stance will emerge over the completion of the current market cycle, as it has over the completion of every market cycle in history."

Senate Republicans Embrace Plan for $1.5 Trillion Tax Cut -New York Times
"Senate Republicans...agreed on Tuesday to move forward on a budget that would add to the federal deficit in order to pave the way for a $1.5 trillion tax cut over the next 10 years. The Republican lawmakers, under mounting pressure to score a legislative win on taxes, say a tax cut of this magnitude will stimulate economic growth enough to offset any deficit impact. Yet critics say a deficit-financed tax cut is at odds with longstanding Republican calls for fiscal discipline, including that tax cuts not add to the ballooning federal deficit. The federal debt topped $20 trillion earlier this month and is projected to grow by another $10 trillion over the next decade....Passing a budget resolution is a crucial step for unlocking an arcane procedural tool that would allow Republicans to push a tax overhaul through the Senate with a simple majority and without the support of Democrats. Republicans have said they want a bill passed by the end of the year. Even with Tuesday’s deal, there is still a tough road ahead. The full Senate would need to vote on the budget and it would then need to align with the House version, which was voted out of committee earlier this year. That may prove a tricky task, since House lawmakers may be more reluctant to enact tax cuts that would add to the deficit."

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Gold last traded at $1,310 an ounce. Silver at $17.15 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices edged higher Tuesday as the dollar weakened ahead of Fed statement. U.S. stocks rose following President Trump's fiery speech to the U.N. regarding confronting North Korea's nuclear aggression.

Gold rises as dollar retreats ahead of Fed meeting -Reuters
"Gold rose from the previous day's two-week low on Tuesday as the dollar slipped ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting that is expected to provide more clues on the pace of U.S. monetary tightening....'Investors have a tendency to stay on the sidelines ahead of the Fed and other important events, so that trading becomes more technical,' ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said. 'If the Fed were to sound more hawkish this will likely push gold below $1,300 temporarily,' she said....The U.S. central bank is also expected to announce moves to shrink its $4.5 trillion asset portfolio, built up to spur economic growth in the wake of the financial crisis that began a decade ago....Worries over North Korea could still prompt price gains, analysts said. Its stand-off with the United States is likely to take center stage at the U.N. General Assembly meeting on Tuesday."

Fed economist: 'No evidence that QE works' as central bank starts unwinding program -CNBC
"The Federal Reserve is on the cusp of reversing the most ambitious monetary stimulus program in world history amid questions over how much impact it really delivered. There's little question that the program, known as quantitative easing or 'money printing,' boosted the stock market....The economic impacts, though, are less clear. For most of the period, GDP struggled to gain more than 2 percent. Wealth disparity grew, income gains were hard to come by and the Fed continually came up short on its inflation goal....St. Louis Fed economist Stephen D. Williamson writes, 'With respect to QE, there are good reasons to be skeptical that it works as advertised, and some economists have made a good case that QE is actually detrimental.'....History shows that central bank balance sheet reductions are often bumpy and lead to recessions. 'Clearly, there is a risk of a policy error which could trigger a sell-off in global financial markets.'"

Bitcoin’s Wild Ride Shows The Truth: It Is Probably Worth Zero -Wall Street Journal
"Behind every bubble is a good idea bursting to get out...A digital currency without borders that governments can’t control and that allows secret online transactions? I’m in. Bitcoin itself? Not so much. So is a single bitcoin worth $500,000, $5,000, $500 or $0? I’m inclined to say $0, especially if bitcoin’s value depends on it being adopted as a global digital currency to replace dollars. There is no chance whatsoever that bitcoin can displace the dollar, for the simple reason that it is badly designed. Bitcoin can handle a pathetically small number of transactions, and uses an inordinate amount of electricity to do so, making it entirely unsuitable to replace ordinary money. Even if bitcoin worked better, it is in a Catch-22 because of Gresham’s law, the nostrum that bad money drives out good. Given the choice of spending inflationary government-issued money or something which holds its value, everyone would spend the bad paper stuff and hoard the bitcoin....Gold...is useful insurance because we can be confident that if a government currency collapses the shiny metal will roughly hold its value. It helps that history holds plenty of examples of currencies losing all their value to hyperinflation while gold could still be bartered for food and shelter....Gold has had thousands of years and a history of being used to back money to support its position. Bitcoin pioneered the cryptocurrency movement, but after eight years, the virtual currency is still struggling to find mainstream acceptance."

What Is Real Wealth? -Smith/Of Two Minds
"What is real wealth? Money, right?...Money is real wealth because you can use it to buy whatever you want. I would argue money in any form is only the means to acquire real wealth, which is the agency, opportunity and time to pursue your life's work. The conventional view of wealth is money and leisure has it all wrong....If 'wealth' is only an internal state, then let's measure friendship and being needed/wanted as the metrics of 'wealth.'....What money buys that is real wealth is freedom and control of one's life. This control over one's life is called agency. Agency is defined as 'the capacity of an actor to act in a given environment.'....Agency and responsibility are two sides of the same coin: each manifests the other. Opportunity is a form of wealth - and so is the wherewithal to take opportunities that arise....Humans are designed to be needed by others, to be part of something greater than themselves, and to gain dignity and pride by doing useful work - whether they are paid 'money' for this work or not. This is why so many of those with the 'money' to have endless leisure are miserable."

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Gold last traded at $1,310 an ounce. Silver at $17.15 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices traded lower Monday on profit-taking and a firmer dollar. U.S. stocks rose following a big defense sector deal ahead of a key Federal Reserve meeting.

Deutsche Bank: "Global Asset Prices Are The Most Elevated In History" -Zero Hedge
"In an extensive report published this morning by Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid, the credit strategist looks at the 'Next Financial Crisis', and specifically what may cause it, when it may happen, and how the world could respond assuming it still has means to counteract the next economic and financial crash....According to Reid, 'we're in a period of very elevated global asset prices - possibly the most elevated in aggregate through history.'....Current valuations are certainly stretched relative to nominal GDP through history....The cyclically adjusted Price/Earning (CAPE) ratio valuations are certainly stretched relative to nominal GDP through history. We have been more expensive but we are approaching the peaks of 2000 and 2007 and are in line with the most stretched valuations from the 1930s on this metric and higher than the 1929 crash point."

America Needs a “Tax Reformation” -Pontification Blog
"In today’s struggle between globalist collectivism and nationalist individualism, we need more than tax reform. We need a Tax Reformation that again puts the individual taxpayer above the government and reasserts the ancient Roman Cicero’s motto that the good of the people is the highest law....The United States, which began as a free enterprise nation, now imposes a 35 percent tax rate on businesses, the highest among advanced countries....President Donald Trump's wish to reduce business taxes to 15 percent is 'unrealistic' according to the left-of-center magazine The Atlantic. Yet 15 percent could bring 2.5 Trillion in overseas earnings home, and is the business tax rate in prosperous Germany, Luther’s homeland. The Left deems a 25 percent rate plausible. This is the business tax rate in Communist China - 10 percentage points lower today than in the 'capitalist' United States....The purportedly pro-business Republicans run Congress but have been hesitant to make President Trump’s tax cut proposals law....But if Democrats regain power because of Republican timidity or inaction, the rules will immediately be changed to raise taxes. Americans need again to see that lower taxes and smaller government - a Tax Reformation - are the path back to greater prosperity, freedom, individuality, and enterprise."

Will gold shine brightly again as bitcoin crashes? -The National
"In June I wrote about the many forces propelling gold prices to beat the S&P 500 so far this year, most critically a weakening US dollar and unpredictable new US president. For followers of the gold price it was the final break out above $1,300 last month that was most impressive and the quick sprint up in the price to $1,350 an ounce....The US Federal Reserve has now raised interest rates three times. You might expect higher interest rates to boost the dollar but rather this is seen as a sign of slowing growth opportunities for US assets and a negative for investors. Why then is the US stock market still so sky high? Well that's now down to a concentration of speculation into a very limited number of stocks in the Nasdaq. Lesser company stocks have already fallen....One event to look out for is the collapse of the cryptocurrencies, now under assault from central banks around the world worried about losing control over the global monetary system and a speculative bubble....But why should investors in overvalued global financial markets and hot-air speculations like digital currencies retreat into precious metals at this stage in the cycle? It’s an insurance policy against disaster and a diversification that always has a residual value. Gold or silver, at least in physical form, is the oldest form of money, a real asset that cannot be spirited away by plunging global stock markets, nor lost as computer code containing supposed riches. And all it takes is a relatively small number of investors around the world to decide to allocate five to 10 per cent of their wealth to gold and silver to radically improve its valuation."

Justice Department Begins Criminal Probe Into Equifax -Zero Hedge
"The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether top officials at Equifax violated insider trading laws when they sold stock before the company disclosed that it had been hacked, according to people familiar with the investigation. Equifax disclosed earlier this month that it discovered a security breach on July 29. The three executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million in early August. The company has said the managers didn’t know of the breach at the time they sold the shares. Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, said it was 'disturbing' that it appeared executives sold their stock before disclosing material information to the public. 'If that happened, somebody needs to go to jail,' Heitkamp said at a credit union industry conference in Washington. 'It's a problem when people can act with impunity with no consequences. How is that not insider trading?'....The total value of Equifax shares sold by Gamble, Ploder and Loughran 2 days after Equifax had discovered the data breach and 37 days before the company informed the public about the breach is $1.88 million."

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Gold last traded at $1,325 an ounce. Silver at $17.70 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices eased Friday on mild profit-taking and Fed rate hike fears. U.S. stocks extended gains, despite geopolitical worries, as tech stocks rebounded.

The Golden Solution to America's Debt Crisis -Rickards/Daily Reckoning
"Right now, the United States is officially $20 trillion in debt. Over half of that $20 trillion was added over the past decade....Basically, the United States is going broke....The U.S. has a 105% debt to GDP ratio, trillion dollar deficits on the way, more spending on the way....We’re heading for a sovereign debt crisis....There’s only one solution left, inflation....The Fed could actually cause inflation in about 15 minutes if it used it. How? The Fed can call a board meeting, vote on a new policy, walk outside and announce to the world that effective immediately, the price of gold is $5,000 per ounce....Don’t think this is possible? It’s happened in the U.S. twice in the past 80 years....The first time was in 1933 when President Franklin Roosevelt ordered an increase in the gold price from $20.67 per ounce to $35.00 per ounce, nearly a 75% rise in the dollar price of gold....The second time was in the 1970s when Nixon ended the conversion of dollars into gold by U.S. trading partners. Nixon did not want inflation, but he got it. Gold went from $35 per ounce to $800 per ounce in less than nine years, a 2,200% increase....I call it the weird gold trick, and it’s never seen discussed anywhere outside of some very technical academic circles."

Investment Advice for My Children & Grandchildren -Merk/Merk Investments
"Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio likes to say he chose the first stock he ever bought because it cost less than $5 a share, given that his savings from caddying at the time were, well, five bucks. That story is a great icebreaker but also highlights with what’s wrong with our industry: when we think about investing, we immediately think about the stock market. Let’s take a step back. My oldest recently returned back to college having completed a summer job. Thanks to our 'Golden College Fund' (our kids’ college savings is in physical gold; please see this 2014 Forbes article 'The Golden College Fund' for details), our son in the fortunate position that he doesn’t have to pay off college debt with his earnings. If he did, paying off college debt - like any other debt- is a choice of whether one expects a higher rate of return with one’s investments (after tax) than if one were to pay off the debt. It’s also a choice of risk tolerance, as a debt-free person has much less to worry about."

"Talking about worrying: the advantage a college kid without debt over just about any other adult has is that he or she has no obligations, notably also no family to feed. I allege that financial stress is foremost a function of expenses, not income....In an era where central banks have elevated asset prices into what might be bubble territory, and fostered capital misallocation, investors need new tools to have a robust portfolio for what may lie ahead....Gold comes up many times in these discussions; it's not that gold is so much 'better' than many other investments, but it’s much easier to grasp the potential diversification benefits and understand the risks of gold than of a long/short equity or a long/short currency strategy."

Bitcoin is in a bubble, and here's how it's going to crash -CNBC
"Can bitcoin be a transformational, technology-based, currency and be in a bubble at the same time? Uh, yeah!....Most disruptive developments in technology and finance eventually inflate into speculative bubbles as investors and traders assume that the intrinsic value of these new vehicles will expand forever. As yet, bitcoin also fails as a currency in several ways. Money is defined by three characteristics: 1) A storehouse of value. 2) A unit of account. 3) A medium of exchange. It's hard to determine if bitcoin is a storehouse of value. Daily volatility tops 5 percent to 10 percent while its 'value' has skyrocketed. If it crashes, it will fail to meet criteria No. 1. It is a unit of account, but for whom? It may be a medium of exchange, but for now that is only for a very few users....Bitcoin is in a bubble, make no mistake. The episode, for some, will end badly while others reap the rewards of getting in on the action early and, more importantly, getting out before the bust."

Equifax used the word 'admin' for the login and password -CNBC
"Scores of accounts on Equifax's website in Argentina allegedly were protected by the same generic username and password: 'admin.' Researchers at Hold Security, a Milwaukee-based cybersecurity firm, found that after some guesswork, they were able to uncover personal employee information housed on Equifax's South American site, including names, emails, and Social Security equivalents of over 100 individuals. ....'You don't expect anything like that,' said Alex Holden, Hold Security's chief information security officer. 'An ability to lookup cases for individuals based on a single numeric ID and gender drew our attention.' The research came as Equifax sank deeper into a controversy over its handling of a data breach that could affect 143 million people. The credit reporting company is now facing multiple investigations. In a rare public acknowledgement, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that it has opened a probe into Equifax's breach in the United States. Since it announced the U.S. data breach last Thursday, Equifax shares have fallen more than 30 percent through Wednesday's close."

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Gold last traded at $1,329 an ounce. Silver at $17.78 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices traded steady Thursday on mixed economic signals and a flat dollar. U.S. stocks traded mixed as rising inflation increased odds of another Fed rate hike.

Your Social Security Number Isn't a Secret -New York Times
"The Equifax credit-reporting agency is being terribly, dangerously vague about its stunning loss of 'potentially' 143 million Social Security numbers. The data belong to roughly three-quarters of Americans with a credit report. Might as well be everyone. Whatever the company finally admits to, this much is certain: Social Security numbers are no longer a secret. These numbers were created for a single purpose: to track worker contributions to a national retirement fund. Until the 1970s, the cards even arrived printed with the warning 'Not for identification.' It's time we heeded that warning and stopped using the number for applications of any kind. For loans, for jobs, for cellphones. It’s going to be very expensive, but the jig is up....This fragile authentication arrangement based on Social Security numbers persists so that retailers and banks can offer easy credit. Walk in with a number and a name, walk out with a new TV and a credit card....Social Security numbers were never designed to be a security tool, and their usefulness for that purpose has run its course."

Your financial privacy is now officially a thing of the past. A Swiss America Research Report reveals how and why your money is more vulnerable today than ever before following the hacking of hundreds of the biggest U.S. firms in recent years. Read this urgent Free Report: AMERICA'S CYBER-HIT LIST

‘False Peace’ for Markets? A Trader Is Betting Millions on It -New York Times
"As investors celebrated yet another bounce-back from a market slip, Christopher Cole, a trader who runs a hedge fund here that makes bets on various forms of financial apocalypse, spotted something amid the sprawl of data and code that decorated the wall of screens before him. 'Optically, volatility is still very low, but fear is increasing,' Mr. Cole said....Now, just a month ahead of the 30th anniversary of Black Monday, when the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index plunged 20 percent, Mr. Cole is wagering on a similar calamity, underpinned by a vicious spike in the VIX and a steep sell-off in stocks. 'The fact that everyone has been incentivized to be short volatility has set up this reflexive stability - a false peace,' he said. 'But if we have some sort of shock to the system, all these self-reflexive elements reverse in the other direction and become destabilizing as opposed to stabilizing.'....'Volatility is an instrument of truth, and the more you deny the truth, the more the truth will find you through volatility,' Mr. Cole said. 'If central banks want to keep saving the day, that is fine. But volatility will then be transmuted through other forms like populism and identity politics and threaten the fabric of democracy."

In our free CRISIS TIMELINE report we explain why a growing number of bear-market signals and cyclical economic risk factors are all converging. Don't wait to prepare; prepare and then wait.

Venezuela Stops Accepting Dollars for Oil Payments -Fox Business
"The government of this oil-rich but struggling country, looking for ways to circumvent U.S. sanctions, is telling oil traders that it will no longer receive or send payments in dollars, people familiar with the new policy have told The Wall Street Journal. Oil traders who export Venezuelan crude or import oil products into the country have begun converting their invoices to euros....The measure is designed to bypass financial sanctions President Donald Trump's administration leveled against Venezuela's government last month for jailing political opponents and creating a super body of pro-government delegates that bypasses all institutions....The new payment policy hasn't been publicly announced, but President Nicolás Maduro's government had hinted it was moving in this direction after the U.S. Treasury Department banned any U.S. company or citizen from buying new Venezuelan debt....'To fight against the economic blockade there will be a basket of currencies to liberate us from the dollar,' Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who has been blacklisted by the U.S., said Friday."

Cyber Looms as Top National Security Threat, DNI Says -Meritalk
"Cybersecurity threats have risen to the top of the nation's national security concerns, according to U.S. Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, who spoke at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit on Sept. 13. 'What keeps me up at night now is the wide diversity of threats that we have from all across the world, including the ever-expanding list of cyber threats,' Coats said. 'It’s clear that cybersecurity has become one of the most important priorities for the director of national intelligence and the intelligence community. China continues to conduct cyber espionage against the U.S. government, our allies, and U.S. companies. Iran and North Korea are improving their capabilities to launch destructive cyberattacks to support their political objectives. And nonstate actors, notably terrorist groups like ISIS, are using the Internet to organize, to recruit, spread propaganda, raise funds, collect intelligence, inspire action, and coordinate operations.'....'The good news here is that the private sector is increasingly focusing on cyber intelligence and increasingly understanding the need for interconnectedness and the sharing of information,' said Coats."

Bitcoin Crashes After Chinese Exchange Says It Will Halt Trading -Bloomberg
"Bitcoin fell for a fifth day, the longest losing streak in more than a year, after one of China's largest online exchanges said it would stop handling trades by the end of the month amid a government crackdown on cryptocurrencies. The cryptocurrency has slumped as much as 22 percent since Sept. 7. It had risen more than four-fold this year amid greater acceptance of the blockchain technology that underpins the exchange method, global political uncertainty and increased interest in Asia....Bullish bets on the cryptocurrency are now considered the most crowded trade in financial markets, according to fund managers surveyed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch."

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9.13.17 - Equifax: Worst Cyber-Hit Ever

Gold last traded at $1,328 an ounce. Silver at $17.86 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices consolidated Wednesday on short-term profit-taking and a firmer dollar. U.S. stocks traded mixed as Apple and tech stocks fell, which capped gains in the broader market.

The hurricanes negative impact on Q3 GDP growth -CNBC
"Early estimates from Wall Street economists suggest the twin hurricanes that slammed the United States will have a sizable negative impact on third quarter growth numbers. Economists shaved their GDP estimates, with Oxford Economics paring 0.4 percentage point on the low end of the range to Goldman Sachs trimming 0.8 point on the high end. Most see the biggest hit from Hurricane Harvey, with only modest reductions or one- or two-tenths from Irma....Most economists see the fourth quarter getting a boost as rebuilding begins, but had not yet estimated the impact....Beyond the overall growth impacts from the hurricanes, individual data releases should begin soon to see storm effects. Jobless claims out Thursday are seen surging above 300,000, nearly 50,000 above trend, and September job growth could be off by 50,000 to 100,000."

Time To Drain The Fed Swamp -First Trust Outlook
"The Panic of 2008 was damaging in more ways than people think. Yes, there were dramatic losses for investors and homeowners, but these markets have recovered. What hasn't gone back to normal is the size and scope of Washington DC, especially the Federal Reserve. It's time for that to change. D.C. institutions got away with blaming the crisis on the private sector, and used this narrative to grow their influence, budgets, and size. They also created the narrative that government saved the US economy, but that is highly questionable....It wasn't government that saved the economy...Changing the insanely rigid mark-to-market accounting rules was the key to recovery, not QE, TARP or 'stress tests.' The Fed, and supporters of government intervention, ignore all these facts. Why? First, institutions protect themselves even if it's at the expense of the truth. Second, human nature doesn’t like to admit mistakes. Third, Washington DC always uses crises to grow. Admitting that their policies haven't worked would lead to a smaller government with less power...So how do you drain the Fed? By not appointing anyone that is already waiting in D.C.’s revolving door of career elites....We need a government that is willing to support the private sector and stop acting as if the 'swamp' itself creates wealth."

Equifax breach could be worst in history -Scotsman Guide
"The hack reported last week by Equifax will go down as one of the worst data breaches in history, and could prove to be the most damaging ever for American consumers, many security experts contend. Anonymous criminals committed the crime, but cybersecurity experts told Scotsman Guide News that the blame for exposing sensitive information belonging to roughly half of the U.S. population lies with Equifax, which has a history of data breaches. 'I firmly believe they could have prevented this,' said Tim Crosby, a senior security consultant with Austin, Texas-based Spohn Consulting....Equifax believes the attack occurred in mid-May and continued until it was discovered nearly two months later. 'This is a pretty scary thing,' Crosby said. 'It is going to affect the other credit reporting agencies, who are going to have to be on their toes. We know somebody has the information. We don’t know how widely it has been distributed, or who got it yet.'....'In my opinion, this is the super jackpot of cybersecurity compromise,' said Jeffrey Bernstein, the managing director of Critical Defence. Bernstein doubted that the hackers will ever be caught. They may have already sold the information on a shadowy 'dark web,' a number of small private networks that can't be accessed through traditional search engines."

AMERICA'S CYBER-HIT LIST, is a 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.

Bitcoin drops 8% after JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon calls it a fraud -CNBC
"Bitcoin fell below $4,000 on Wednesday with negative comments from a major business leader about the cryptocurrency and the threat of a regulatory crackdown, unnerving investors. The digital currency fell as low as $3,766.36 on Wednesday and traded down 8.7 percent at $3,792.43 as of 11:03 a.m. in New York, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. The move lower came a day after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called the cryptocurrency a 'fraud,' adding that 'Someone is going to get killed, It's worse than tulip bulbs. It won't end well,' Dimon said at a banking industry conference organized by Barclays. 'Currencies have legal support. It will blow up.'....Investors have also been jittery in the past few days mainly because of numerous media reports suggesting that Chinese authorities are looking to shut down some bitcoin exchanges. These are platforms where bitcoin is traded....It's not just Chinese regulators taking a closer look at bitcoin. On Wednesday, India's central bank said it had been looking into cryptocurrencies as legal tender."

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9.12.17 - Debt Ceiling: Conservatives' Last Bullet

Gold last traded at $1,332 an ounce. Silver at $17.89 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices stabilized Tuesday on a flat dollar as investors digested Hurricane Irma's aftermath. U.S. stocks rose as financials got a boost from rising yields ahead of Apple's new iPhone release.

A $150 Billion Misfire: How Disaster Modelers Got Irma So Wrong -Bloomberg
"Estimates for the damage Hurricane Irma would inflict on Florida kept mounting as it made its devastating sweep across the Caribbean. It was poised to be the costliest U.S. storm on record. Then something called the Bermuda High intervened and tripped it up. 'We got very lucky,' said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If Irma had passed 20 miles west of Marco Island instead of striking it on Sunday, 'the damage would have been astronomical.'....By one estimate, the total cost dropped to about $50 billion Monday from $200 billion over the weekend....Still, when it comes to damage, Irma may bump Andrew...The most recent estimate is for $49.5 billion in Irma costs for Florida; Andrew’s were an inflation-adjusted $47.8 billion. The price tag for Hurricane Harvey, which struck southeastern Texas on Aug. 25, could end up between $65 billion to $75 billion, according to AIR Worldwide, a Verisk Analytics risk modeler based in Boston."

Congress Exploits Hurricane to Raise Debt Ceiling -Paul/Mises
"Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel famously counseled politicians to never let a crisis go to waste. Sadly, this week President Trump and congressional leaders of both parties showed that they have taken this advice to heart when they attached a debt ceiling increase and an extension of government spending to the over 15 billion dollars Hurricane Harvey relief bill. This maneuver enabled Congress to avoid a contentious debate over whether to pass a clean debt ceiling increase or to pair it with spending cuts. After all, few members of Congress want to be accused of blocking a bipartisan deal to help those suffering from Harvey over what the media will spin as a 'right-wing anti-government' crusade....A refusal to raise the debt ceiling would not cause the government to default; it would simply force Congress to set spending priorities and make real spending cuts. In contrast, raising the debt ceiling allows Congress to continue to run up more debt in order to grow the government. The American people will pay for these deficits either directly through an increase in the income tax and other federal taxes, or indirectly through the inflation tax....At some point, probably sooner than most expect, this continued dollar devaluation will cause a global revolt against the dollar’s world reserve currency status. The result will be an economic crisis that could make the Great Depression seem like a mild downturn....New spending for legitimate emergencies must be paid for with spending cuts."

Conservatives' Last Bullet -Bonner/Bonner and Partners
"Today, we have 20 times as much national debt as we did when Reagan came into office. But we have only six times as much GDP. In other words, debt has increased three times faster than output. And today, instead of having debt equal to about 30% of GDP - as we had when Reagan took office - it now equals more than 100% of output. And there are hardly any old-time conservatives left. Year after year, spending increases. Most of it is more or less automatic - driven by aging Americans retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day. Each one costs the government $35,000 a year. Over the next 10 years, spending is scheduled to outstrip tax receipts by about $1 trillion a year. Bankruptcy is practically guaranteed. But conservatives always had one last-ditch weapon...That was the importance of the debt ceiling....The debt ceiling is the one and only thing that might prevent the bankruptcy of the U.S. government. It is the only ammunition fiscal conservatives (the few of them still in Congress) have left. When the going gets tough, Congress could use the debt limit to find its backbone and tighten its belt. That’s why the big spenders and Deep Staters wanted to get rid of it. Mr. Trump may shake things up after all - in a way almost no one expected. He has proposed to take away true conservatives’ last bullet."

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9.11.17 - Equifax Data Breach Gets Even Worse

Gold last traded at $1,335 an ounce. Silver at $17.90 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices retreated Monday on profit-taking and a firmer dollar. Stocks lifted as Hurricane Irma fears and insured damage estimates declined.

Wave Good-Bye To The Dollar’s Reserve Status -Investment Research Dynamics
"Paper Money Eventually Returns To Its Intrinsic Value -Zero" - Voltaire - "Set aside all other financial, economic and political concerns continuously shoved in our collective faces by the mainstream media. It’s a distraction - to a large degree intentional. These are the ONLY events that matter right now: this, 'China Begins To Reset The World's Currency System,' and this, 'Venezuela Is About to Ditch the Dollar in Major Blow to US: Here's Why It Matters.' Once the dollar is no longer regarded or used as the reserve currency, third-world poverty will engulf everyone in this country below the upper half percent wealth stratum…except those who possess a fair amount of physical bullion....'Money is gold and nothing else' - JP Morgan’s 1912 Congressional testimony. Trump has suggested permanently removing the Treasury debt-ceiling. The Treasury debt-ceiling is the last remaining barrier to the ability of the Fed and the Government to create an infinite amount of fiat currency....The continuous issuance of an increasing amount of credit of any type is no different that outright currency printing....Removing the debt-ceiling gives the U.S. Government, in conjunction with the Fed, the power to print an unlimited amount of Treasury notes."

The Unseen Storm: It Could Put America Underwater Forever -Pontification Blog
"We have seen the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, and this week we marked the anniversary of history-changing terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 that destroyed America's World Trade Center towers and murdered 3,000 people. But a potentially even more destructive attack has just happened, almost unnoticed because it produced no dramatic television images. This attack struck 143 million Americans (most of whom have not yet felt it) and could put our nation underwater for years to come - perhaps even drown our personal and national economy and prosperity. Call it Financial Storm Equifax. This Atlanta-based company - one of America's three giant credit reporting agencies - announced this September that hackers had penetrated its computers and stole data for at least 10 weeks before being detected on July 29....What did Equifax do when it discovered the hack of its computers? It delayed notifying its 143 million 'customer' victims for more than a month...Equifax executives did act quickly, however, to sell at least $1.8 Million of their company stock shares before the bad news became public....People claiming to be the hackers, meanwhile, sent a dark web statement that they 'are two people trying to solve our lives and those of our families. We did not expect to get as much information as we did, nor do we want to affect any citizen.' These hackers promise to destroy the data if Equifax helps them 'monetize the information' by September 15th by paying them a mere 600 Bitcoins, a cryptocurrency - 600 of which are presently worth approximately $2.6 Million."

The size and velocity of new cyber-attacks are growing quickly. This recent attack on Equifax could be followed by attacks against the U.S. banking system, power grid and/or transportation systems. 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.

The Equifax data breach is worse than you can imagine -LA Times
"Another day, another massive data breach. Except this one involves Equifax, one of the credit-monitoring companies you might expect to be ultrasensitive to the importance of safeguarding your personal information from hackers....Firms like Equifax are much more concerned about collecting personal information than protecting it....'The fact that the breached entity (Equifax) is offering to sign consumers up for its own identity protection services strikes me as pretty rich,' security expert Brian Krebs observed on his website....The most important lesson in the Equifax breach is an old one: Consumers whose information is held by Equifax are not its customers or clients - they’re the product, and their personal information merely raw material to be exploited by the firm for its own profit. Equifax and its two major competitors in the credit-monitoring game, Experian and TransUnion, make their money by compiling detailed files on individuals and selling them to credit card firms, banks and marketers. In short, they don’t care about you, except so far as you’re an entry in their databases....Security experts recommend going beyond signing up for account monitoring services, and placing a security freeze on your credit lines. This can be done through Equifax and the other agencies, though there may be a fee. The freeze prevents anyone from opening a new credit or loan account in your name."

Trump, first lady lead moment of silence on 9/11 anniversary -TheHill
"President Trump and first lady Melania Trump Monday led a moment of silence from the White House on the 16th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. It is the first anniversary of the attacks since Trump became president. The moment of silence was observed at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane struck the World Trade Center's North Tower. Trump will also take part in the observance of Sept. 11 at the Pentagon."

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9.8.17 - Cyber-attack Hits 50% of Americans

Gold last traded at $1,351 an ounce. Silver at $18.12 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices steadied near 1-year highs Friday as investors sought safe harbors from the approaching storms. U.S. stocks headed for a weekly loss as insurance stocks declined on hurricane Irma risk.

Dollar Deepens Dive as Caution on Currency Grows -Wall Street Journal
"The dollar was hit by fresh selling in Asian trading Friday, a day after notching a 2½-year low, as reasons for caution on the currency continued to mount. The Wall Street Journal Dollar Index was off 0.4% in Asia to 84.38, putting it down 9.2% for the year....A litany of factors is putting fresh pressure on the dollar. Doubts that the Federal Reserve has the firepower, or the will, to raise interest rates again this year, given soft inflation, only grew when the country’s fourth-largest city was flooded by a massive hurricane - and with the prospect of an even-stronger storm cutting through the length of Florida, the country's third-biggest state by population....Haven moves are also at play, with rallies in gold and government debt. Gold is at its highest level in a year, topping $1,350 a troy ounce, while there has been broad buying of global sovereign debt in recent days....'The dollar can't find any loving at the moment,' said Rodrigo Catril, a foreign-exchange strategist at National Australia Bank in Sydney. Given the unresolved fiscal issues in the U.S. - debt-ceiling measures 'kicked down the road again' - and political wrangling between President Trump and his own party, he adds, it isn’t hard to understand why."

Investors are bailing on insurers -CNBC
"Investors are ditching insurance stocks as Hurricane Irma pounds the Caribbean, even though industry leaders say companies will be able to handle the financial impact. 'There is an abundance of capital,' said Steve Bowen, chief meteorologist at Aon, one of the few insurers whose shares haven't taken a beating during hurricane season. 'The industry should be able to absorb the losses from not just what Irma ends up causing, but what we saw last week from Hurricane Harvey.'....Nevertheless, investors are heading for the exits....Given Irma's Category 4 status, investor jitters are to be expected. Credit Suisse already has estimated that the insured losses could hit $125 billion or more, making Irma easily the costliest hurricane in U.S. history....'Florida insurers are well-capitalized, but I think you might see more of an impact on the reinsurance world instead of the private world,' said Howard Mills, global insurance regulatory leader at Deloitte....For Mills, the situation gets scarier when realizing that the worst could be yet to come. 'This is really worrying that we're still very early in the hurricane season,' he said. 'The industry's got to be prepared and has to assume there will be more losses to come.'"

Gold Rallies to a One-Year High and Spurs Record Trading Volume -Bloomberg
"Gold has pulled in traders like never before on its way to the highest price in a year. Volume on the Comex in New York, the largest bullion futures exchange, hit a record in August as North Korean tensions and a weaker dollar boosted demand for the metal. Some 6.55 million contracts - worth almost $900 billion now - changed hands last month, more than when Donald Trump was elected U.S. president or during substantial price spikes and slumps....Inflows were back with a vengeance the first week after the summer break as investors piled into everything from gold and government bonds to equities and high-yield credit. Global funds that invest in gold, equities and bonds netted inflows of $11.6 billion for the week ended Sept. 7, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a research report, citing EPFR Global data. Precious-metal funds added the most in 30 weeks, while bond portfolios posted a 25th straight week of inflows."

Equifax Says Cyberattack May Have Affected 143 Million Customers -New York Times
"Equifax, one of the three major consumer credit reporting agencies, said on Thursday that hackers had gained access to company data that potentially compromised sensitive information for 143 million American consumers, including Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. The attack on the company represents one of the largest risks to personally sensitive information in recent years, and is the third major cybersecurity threat for the agency since 2015....'This is about as bad as it gets,' said Pamela Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit research group. 'If you have a credit report, chances are you may be in this breach. The chances are much better than 50 percent.'....Credit card numbers for 209,000 consumers were stolen, while documents with personal information used in disputes for 182,000 people were also taken....'On a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of risk to consumers, this is a 10,' said Avivah Litan, a fraud analyst at Gartner....Using the data stolen from Equifax, identity thieves can impersonate people with lenders, creditors and service providers, who rely on personal identity information from Equifax to make financial decisions regarding potential customers."

Sunday is Grandparents Day; Why We Celebrate -Refinery29
"This Sunday, September 10, you're encouraged to call up your grandfather or make a lunch date with your grandma. But, in the original spirit of Grandparents Day, you could spend the day with any elderly person who's made an impact on your life. In 1970, Marian McQuade, a mother of 15 from West Virginia, set out to raise awareness for elderly nursing home residents. Fearing that these people were missing out on important family bonding due to their need for intensive care, she petitioned the government for an official day of observance. Campaigning on a message that we have a lot to learn from the entire elderly community, McQuade first established Grandparents Day as a statewide holiday in West Virginia, with the help of local officials and community leaders. By 1978, President Jimmy Carter declared it a national holiday, urging 'each citizen to pause and to reflect on the influence his grandparents have had in shaping his own destiny.'....In keeping with McQuade's belief that the elderly mustn't be forgotten, you can 'adopt' a grandparent and spend the day with a nursing home resident who might not have grandchildren of their own."

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9.7.17 - Will Trump Reshape The Fed?

Gold last traded at $1,350 an ounce. Silver at $18.11 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rushed to one-year highs Thursday on safe-haven buying and dollar weakness. U.S. stocks slipped on rising unemployment and falling bank stocks.

Gold hits one-year peak as dollar drops on weak U.S. jobs data -Reuters
"The price of gold rose to a one-year peak on Thursday after the dollar tumbled on the back of weak U.S. jobs data and an unchanged growth and inflation outlook from the European Central Bank....The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits jumped to its highest level in more than two years last week amid a surge in applications in hurricane-ravaged Texas....'The weaker U.S. economic data pushed the odds for a rate hike to ground. Clearly the Fed cannot be comfortable with weaker job market and the fact is that worse is still yet to come,' said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets....'Geopolitical tensions remain elevated surrounding North Korea, so I'd expect that would keep gold pretty well supported in the short term and in the week ahead,' said Jonathan Butler, commodities analyst at Mitsubishi in London."

To 'Pay' For Tax Reform, Congress May Tax Retirement Savings -Real Clear Markets
"Top Administration officials are considering taxing deposits into 401(k) savings plans up front. The short-term fiscal benefit to the tax collector would be significant. But the cost to the economy could be enormous. Taxpayers have been taking advantage of 401(k)s to save for retirement since 1981. It was an unintended consequence of a law enacted three years earlier to allow taxpayers a break on taxes on deferred income, and its impact has been tremendous: As of March of this year, 401(k) plans held $5 trillion in assets on behalf of about 55 million active participants and millions of retirees. Trillions have poured into markets, providing ready access to capital, deeper, more liquid markets, and a more secure retirement for millions at a time of rising life expectancy and falling birthrates....Treasury and White House advisors may think they have discovered a potential windfall in tax revenue. But a Joint Economic Committee study determined there is a bigger pot of gold at the end of the rainbow than the beginning, concluding that deferring taxes on a mutual fund's capital gain ultimately increases federal government revenue by producing larger account balances and higher tax revenues when sold. In other words, taxing 401(k)s at the front end will result in more short-term pain for the taxpayer, and less long-term gain for the tax collector."

Another Landmine on the Path to Tax Reform -Bonner/Bonner And Partners
"Yesterday, the Dow fell 234 points - or roughly 1%. No big deal. Commentators said investors were worried about disasters - both natural and man-made....Curiously, the natural disaster may help delay the man-made kind. Congress was setting up for a bloody fight on the debt ceiling increase. Now, according to this morning's headlines, it may be able to slip the debt ceiling increase into the pocket of a bill to provide disaster relief to the Texas coast....The debt ceiling will be raised one way or another. This is an economy and a government that live on credit. Since the bottom of the 2008 financial crisis, federal debt has increased five times faster than the economy that supports it. And stock prices have been going up 10 times as fast. There is no way the Deep State would ever allow its credit to be cut off....Stocks measure not today's values… but tomorrow's. If investors pay record prices today, they must see an even brighter future tomorrow. But where? How? We squint. We put on our glasses. Try as we might, we can't see it. What we see is a polished floor, with marbles scattered all over it. And there, coming in the front door, with big feet and a small head, is Mr. Government....When the flat feet find the round marbles - watch out."

Here’s How Trump Can Reshape the Fed -Bloomberg
"Stanley Fischer's surprise early exit from the Federal Reserve makes President Donald Trump's biggest economic decision of the next few months even starker: whether to preserve continuity at the top of the nation’s central bank - or not. Chair Janet Yellen's term expires in February, and her reappointment hasn’t been seen as likely. Fischer, the vice chairman, announced Wednesday he will leave the Fed in October. Both are former economics professors and longtime central bank officials....Previous presidents have gone for continuity in Fed appointments because it usually pays a big dividend: stable financial markets. If confidence in the Fed is lost, falling stock and bond prices can exert a massive penalty on White House popularity and the economy....'Trump is obviously unpredictable. He has run his whole campaign and presidency as flying in the face of past practices,' said Mark Spindel, co-author of a new book on the Fed titled The Myth of Independence. 'But maybe he understands something about interest rates.'....Yellen is Trump’s most obvious continuity choice. However, he has also mentioned that he is considering Gary Cohn - his top White House economic adviser, and a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. president - for the job."

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9.6.17 - One Nation Under Gold

Gold last traded at $1,333 an ounce. Silver at $17.88 an ounce.

Precious metal prices steadied near one-year highs Wednesday on rising uncertainty and a falling dollar. U.S. stocks were lifted by investor hopes that a debt ceiling shutdown might be avoided.

12 Reasons Gold Is Better Than Bitcoin -Forbes
"The world has gone wild for the cryptocurrency known as Bitcoin. One Bitcoin would set you back $4,425 at the time of writing. That's up from less than $600 a year ago, according to CoinBase. But a word of caution: Gold is still a better bet for anyone who wants to own a time-tested asset. Here's why: 1) Gold has a 5,000-year history as a long-term store of wealth. 2) There is always a ready and liquid market for gold. 3) Gold can protect you from nuclear gamma radiation. 4) Gold is safer. 5) You can wear gold as jewelry. 6) Gold is a superb electrical conductor. 7) Gold has never been out of fashion. 8) You don't need a web connection to use your gold. 9) Gold never tarnishes. 10) Gold is an aphrodisiac. 11) Bitcoin is clearly in a speculative bubble. 12) 'Bitcoin is still experimental,' according to Bitcoin.org. Not so much for gold."

Book Review: James Ledbetter's 'One Nation Under Gold' -Benko/Forbes
"James Ledbetter, the editor of Inc. magazine, recently published a weird and wonderful book, One Nation Under Gold: How One Precious Metal Has Dominated the American Imagination For Four Centuries.....The book is wildly entertaining as well as informative....Ledbetter has written a delightful book, one that succeeds in capturing, among other things, much of the loopiness that has undeservedly tarnished the reputation of the true gold standard....Ledbetter: 'It is almost impossible to overstate the dislike that most of the Founding Fathers, and indeed most of the American ruling class, had for paper money in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The currencies issued by most states depreciated to the point of being worthless.' That depreciation left an indelible impression....One Nation Under Gold then takes us through deeply interesting stories of FDR's policies toward gold: the revaluation of the dollar from $20.67/oz to $35/oz, the indefensible forced expropriation of gold, and the prohibition of private ownership (outside of jewelry and coin collections). The story as he tells it is fascinating, and useful, if not always quite as 'sound as a dollar.'....Ledbetter's account of how it became legal again for Americans to own gold, under President Ford, is a treasure. This is great reporting. He properly gives credit to Senator Jesse Helms for this small but important triumph....One Nation Under Gold is a must-read book for anyone with even modest interest in the gold standard, in gold, or simply in the human comedy."

Antifa and a North Korean Nuclear Winter -Pontification Blog
"The latest North Korean blast was, by one estimate, up to 10 times bigger than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Worse, this weapon may have been not only an atomic fission device but also a hydrogen-fusion explosive, an H-bomb small enough to be carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile....We have centralized our power and population in large cities and systems, like the banks that hold our bank accounts merely as electronic blips in giant computers. A nuclear blast would emit an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that could fry our computer chips, blind military offensive and defensive systems, erase our banking records and economy, and return us to being a near-Stone Age country in a heartbeat....North Korea's technological threat of possessing an EMP weapon is clear, as Craig R. Smith and I show in our books Don't Bank On It! and The Great Debasement. But even more frightening, as we explore in Money, Morality & The Machine, is that our welfare state and deficit spending have destroyed honest money, self-reliance, and the values, morality and patriotism of millions of our government-addicted fellow Americans." Full story

People Over 60 More Content In Life Than All Other Adults -Survey Finds
"Is life in and of itself like a fine wine, that is, does it get better with age? While many of us fear what's to come in our elder years, a new survey finds that most older adults are actually more content than their younger or middle-aged counterparts. Researchers at AARP conducted a survey with over 2,600 young (i.e., aged 18 to 39), mid-aged (40 to 59), and older respondents (those 60-plus) to gauge attitudes on the phenomenon of aging. Forty-seven percent of the younger group expressed that it's 'normal to be depressed when you are old,' while only about 10 percent of those aged 60 or older said that one's elderly years are truly a 'depressing stage of life.' Overall, 67 percent of older respondents reported being 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with their life, compared to only 61 percent of those aged 18 to 39 and 60 percent of those aged 40 to 59. Perhaps 60 really is the new 30....All in all, the survey's main takeaway may be that fear of getting older is just an antiquated thought."

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Gold last traded at $1,338 an ounce. Silver at $17.87 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices hovered near one-year highs Monday on geopolitical worries and a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks fell sharply as tension between North Korea and the West sent shivers down investors' spines.

China Begins To Reset The World's Reserve Currency System -Investment Research Dynamics
"A report released by the Nikkei Asian Review indicates that China is prepared to release a yuan-denominated oil futures contract that is convertible (backed by) physical gold. The contract will enable China's largest oil suppliers to settle oil sales in yuan, rather than in dollars, and then convert the yuan into gold on exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai....Since 1973, OPEC oil has been quoted and traded using to U.S. dollars, otherwise known as 'petrodollars.' The 'recycling' of petrodollars into U.S. Treasuries has been the life-blood of the U.S. economic and political system. In addition to reducing a major source of funding for the the U.S. Government’s enormous deficit spending, the introduction of a gold-backed yuan oil futures contract is an important step toward removing the dollar as the world's reserve currency. More significantly it reintroduces gold into the global monetary system. While the new gold-backed 'petroyuan' will allow oil producers to sell oil for gold rather than Treasuries. It's a strategic step toward not only ridding the world of its dependence on dollars, but also of reducing the ability of the U.S. to exert global economic and financially tyranny. I would also argue that it’s one of the primary reasons behind the inability of the western Central Banks to drive the price of gold lower recently."

The American Spirit Is Alive in Texas -Noonan/Wall Street Journal
"Give Texas what it needs. It has endured a disaster without precedent. Washington must move quickly, generously....This is an emergency. This is no time to threaten government shutdowns. It's no time to be dilating on debt ceilings. This is the time to know as never before that everything that holds us together as a nation must be strengthened wherever possible, and whatever sinks us in rancor avoided and shunned....When the trauma is over, there'll be plenty of time for debate. Do we need to hold more in reserve for national disasters? Do local zoning laws need rethinking? All worthy questions - for later. There is such a thing as tact. It has to do with a sense of touch - an ability to apprehend another's position or circumstances, and doing or saying the right thing....Politicians, don't use this disaster to score points or rub your ideology in somebody's face or make your donors smile by being small, not big. Give Texas what it needs. Keep the government up and running. Don't even consider doing otherwise....We are a great nation. We forget. But what happened in Texas reminded us. It said: My beloved America you’re not a mirage, you're still here."

Will Cryptocurrency Crackdown Spark a Rush to Gold? -Bloomberg
"Mark Mobius is sensing danger in the explosive growth of cryptocurrencies. Governments will begin clamping down on digital currencies because of their use in illicit financing, with terrorist groups to drug dealers contributing to their rise, Mobius, executive chairman at Templeton Emerging Markets Group, said in an interview in Hong Kong Monday. 'Cryptocurrencies are beginning to get out of control and it's going to attract the attention of governments around the world,' Mobius said. 'You're going to get a reversion back to gold because people are going to wonder, can I really trust these currencies?' And the crackdown may have already started - at least in China, home to the majority of bitcoin miners. The People's Bank of China said Monday that initial coin offerings are illegal and that all related fundraising activity should be halted immediately....Bitcoin fell more than 10 percent on Monday, after news of the PBOC curbs."

The Looming Fight Over 'Tax Reform,' Explained-CNBC
"An overhaul of the tax code would, Trump promised, 'bring back Main Street by reducing the crumbling burden on our companies and on our workers.' Meanwhile, Paul Ryan's been touring the nation waiving around a vaguely postcard-shaped piece of paper that he believes Americans will be able to use to file their taxes once the simplification nirvana of tax reform is enacted. Congress is facing a crowded September full of 'must pass' bills to keep the government open, replenish FEMA's Harvey-depleted coffers, and avoid a debt ceiling crisis. But when those deadlines are in the rearview mirror, tax reform is the next Republican policy priority....This basic 'reform' process of lowering tax rates while broadening the tax base could, in theory, be applied only to corporate income taxes or only to individual income taxes or to both simultaneously."

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9.1.17 - August: Ugly Jobs & Wage Report

Gold last traded at $1,330 an ounce. Silver at $17.81 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices rose Friday on momentum buying despite a firmer dollar. U.S. stocks rose following a weaker-than-expected jobs report on the likelihood the Fed will postpone projected interest rate hikes.

Gold Is Hot: The Real Deal or Fool’s Rally? -Barrons
"Gold has been on a tear since early July, rising from roughly $1,200 per troy ounce to and through chart resistance at $1,300....Most of the time, gold and the dollar move in opposite directions because gold is priced in dollars. The weaker the greenback, the stronger the metal with all else being held constant....Last week, the dollar did not react well to Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s remarks at Jackson Hole. The market took her lack of concrete language as being dovish, and the dollar dipped below very important long-term chart support....Gold bugs also cite tensions with North Korea as reason to shift money into safe-haven assets such as gold and U.S. Treasuries. When that country fired a missile over Japan overnight Monday, it caused the dollar to drop and gold to soar....The key will be whether the dollar can maintain its new-found strength. If it gives up recent gains then I will have to admit defeat on gold and look for $1,400 as the next stop."

Macro Winds Fill Gold's Sails -Market Anthropology
"While the perennial skeptics popped their heads out earlier in the week to again profess their disbelief in gold’s performance, supportive macro conditions behind the nascent and discreet bull market in precious metals continue to advance. Although contempt for gold still remains with a deep scar from the long cyclical bear market in the face of what was perceived by many as exceedingly beneficial market conditions, i.e. massive QE, the precious metals sector has outperformed the S&P 500 since their respective cycle lows in late Q4 2015."

"Precious metals have strongly outperformed as the US dollar index made its way back down to the lows from last year. With the dollar index breaking through those lows on Monday, gold took notice and broke above its yearly range and beyond $1300/oz....All things considered, the backdrop for fresh cycle highs in gold this month looks very encouraging."

Watch Out: The Weak Dollar Gives Shareholders Money Illusion -Wall Street Journal
"The S&P 500 is up 10%, bringing happy feelings to those who peek at their 401(k) plans. At the same time, the dollar has plunged 8.4% against other major currencies. American investors might be tempted to shrug their shoulders, at least those not planning a foreign holiday, and think about the dollar only in terms of its relatively minor economic impact. That would be the wrong approach, as their cousins in London quickly learned. The dollar has been of vital importance to stock prices this year, and provides a better explanation for the S&P’s rise than other positive factors such as low interest rates, economic growth or the recovery in earnings....This should leave U.S. investors pondering two big questions: Will the dollar remain so important to company performance, and if it does, is the greenback going further down or will it recover?....History suggests the dollar will continue to matter hugely to individual company performance."

Ugly Jobs Report: August Payrolls Miss, Slide To 156K; Hourly Earnings Also Disappoint -Zero Hedge
"The BLS reported that in August just 156K jobs were created, a big miss to the 180K expected, and following a sharp downward revision to June and July, which were revised to 210K and 189K, respectively, a 41K drop combined. But don't worry, the more disappointing the economic data, the less likely the Fed will hike in September, December, or ever for that matter. And keep in mind, today's data did not include the Harvey devastation, which will assure no rate hikes from the Fed for months, if not decades to come....The unemployment rate also disappointed, rising from 4.3% to 4.4%, while the avg hourly earnings missed, increasing by 2.5% Y/Y in August, below the 2.6% estimate and the same as July....While the labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 62.9%, the number of Americans not in the labor force increased once again, growing by 128K in August to 94.785 million."

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