Peter's Blog

How Turkey’s Love Affair With Gold Impacted the Global Market

Turkey’s love affair with gold has had a major impact on global gold flows, especially through the first half of 2023. Turks have historically held a lot of gold, both in jewelry and investment form. The country ranks as the fifth-largest gold market in the world. But with recent economic turmoil in the country demand […]

Biden Budget Deficits Look Like Those Normally Seen In Recessions

To hear President Joe Biden tell it, the US economy is booming. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is running monthly budget deficits that you would normally see during a deep recession. With two months left to go, the deficit for fiscal 2023 now stands at $1.61 trillion, after the federal government charted another massive shortfall in […]

After Three Months Declining Reserves Central Banks Became Net Gold Buyers Again in June

After three straight months of net sales, central banks globally became net buyers of gold again in June. On net, central banks bought 55 tons of gold in June as the Central Bank of Turkey switched from selling back to buying, according to the most recent data compiled by the World Gold Council.

Another Recession Signal: Plunge in Demand for Gold in the Electronics Sector

With much stronger-than-expected second-quarter GDP growth and continued labor market strength, a growing number of people in the mainstream now think the US has escaped the clutches of a recession despite the Fed driving interest rates to the highest level in 16 years. But there are plenty of signs that a recession is looming. For instance, a […]

Another Recession Warning: Credit Card Spending Suddenly Plunges

Flashing another recession warning sign, credit card spending suddenly fell off a cliff in June. American consumers have been using credit cards to make ends meet for months, but with credit card debt at record levels, rising interest rates appear to have slammed the door on spending. Credit card debt contracted in June for the […]

Gold and Silver No Longer Subject to State Capital Gains Taxes in Arkansas

On August 1, a law making gold and silver legal tender in Arkansas went into effect. The new law also effectively repeals the state capital gains tax on gold and silver. Enactment of this legislation will relieve some of the tax burden on investors, and take a step toward treating precious metal bullion as money instead of a […]

Fitch Slashes US Credit Rating

The debt ceiling deal was supposed to stabilize things for the US government. By suspending the debt limit for two years, Congress mitigated the fear of a US default, but the deal apparently wasn’t enough to paper over the dysfunction in Washington DC. On Tuesday, Fitch Ratings downgraded the US’s long-term credit rating from AAA […]

Central Bank Gold Demand in First Half of 2023 Was the Highest on Record

Despite significant selling by Turkey that slowed net central bank gold buying in the second quarter, central banks added a record amount of gold to their reserves through the first half of 2023.

The US Government Has Borrowed Over $1 Trillion Since the Debt Ceiling Deal

There’s a big problem that pretty much everybody is ignoring. In just two months since Congress reached a deal and suspended the debt ceiling for two years, the national debt has surged by a staggering $1.2 trillion. Within a week of the debt ceiling suspension, the national debt cracked $32 trillion and as of July 28, […]

Strong Investment Demand for Physical Gold Continued in Second Quarter

Investment demand for physical gold was up by 20% in the second quarter compared to last year, continuing a trend we’ve seen over the last 12 months. This helped push overall gold demand up 7% year on year when including over-the-counter (OTC) sales and stock flows.