Peter's Blog

Fed Runs Repo Operations; Is It Baby-Stepping Toward QE?

In a move “Bond King” Jeffrey Gundlach said could be a prelude to the next round of quantitative easing, the New York Fed conducted a repurchase operation involving about $53 billion in debt instruments on Tuesday. The move to designed to unplug the financial system’s “plumbing” with an injection of cash was the first such […]

Another Month, Another Record for Consumer Debt

Americans continue to drive the economy along spending money they don’t have. Consumer debt increased yet again in July, setting another record, according to the latest data released by the Federal Reserve. Total consumer debt surged $23.4 billion in July, driven by a huge jump in credit card balances. The big rise in consumer indebtedness […]

Budget Deficit Shoots Past $1 Trillion for Fiscal 2019

The federal government continues to spend money at an insane rate and is running up budget deficits reminiscent of the Great Recession era. With one month left to go, the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2019 eclipsed $1 trillion in August, according to Treasury Department data released last Thursday.

Corporations Piling Up Debt at Record Pace

Corporations are piling on the debt. Last week, companies borrowed $74 billion in the US investment-grade bond market. It was the largest corporate debt increase for any comparable period since they started tracking such things in 1972.

Russia’s Gold Bet Paying Off; Reserves Top $100 Billion

As Bloomberg put it, Russia’s bet on gold looks better every month. The Russian Central Bank’s gold reserves have topped $100 billion thanks to continued buying and surging prices.

Indian Silver Market Sees Massive Expansion and Other Silver News

The silver market in India has enjoyed massive growth over the last several years. Demand for the white metal has increased from around 3,000 to 6,000 tons over the last five years, according to Chirag Thakkar, CEO of the Indian bullion company Amrapali Gujarat. The Silver Institute interviewed Thakkar for the latest edition of Silver […]

China Buys More Gold; Reserves Up Nearly 100 Tons on the Year

China added another 5.91 tons of gold to its reserves in August, bringing its total official gold purchases on the year to almost 100 tons, according to data released by the People’s Bank of China over the weekend. It was the ninth straight month of gold purchases for China as it continues efforts to diversify […]

Greenspan: Rising Gold Price Shows Investors Want Hard Assets That Will Increase in Value

During a CNBC interview, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said gold prices are surging because investors are looking for hard assets that they know will have value in 20 or 30 years.

ETF Gold Holdings Approaching All-Time Highs

Gold-backed ETFs added another 122 tons of gold globally in August and total holdings are nearing all-time highs. Total ETF gold holdings have reached 2, 733 tons. That’s just 52 tons away from the all-time high reached in 2012 when the price of gold was 9% higher, according to the most recent data released by […]

Central Banks Keep on Buying Gold

Central banks continue to gobble up gold.  Globally, the world’s central banks added another net 13.9 tons of gold to their reserves in July. While this was the lowest net increase in global central bank reserves since August 2017, the number was skewed downward by a significant gold sell-off by Uzbekistan. Gross purchases by the […]