Peter's Blog

Americans Are Using Plastic to Make Ends Meet as Prices Continue to Rise

Americans are feeling the pinch of inflation. Wages are up but consumers are worse off. Average hourly earnings have risen by 5.5% over the last year. But factoring in rising costs, real earnings are down 2.6%. So, how are Americans making ends meet? They’re charging it.

Peak Inflation? Not So Fast!

The March Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 8.5% annually, the highest since December 1981. But the mainstream narrative was that inflation had probably peaked because core inflation, stripping out more volatile food and energy, “only” rose by 0.3%.  Mainstream pundits reasoned that the oil shock in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine primarily drove […]

We May Not Have Hit Peak Inflation Yet…

The latest seasonally adjusted inflation rate for April came in higher than expectations at 0.34% MoM and 8.28% YoY. The main driver for the MoM slowdown was a fall in Energy prices.

A Deeply Flawed Monetary Policy Is the Root of This Inflation

We’ve been told inflation is caused by greedy corporations. We’ve been told that inflation is Putin’s fault. Other people just want to blame COVID-19. But are any of these really the root cause of inflation? Economist Dr. Antony P. Mueller says none of these excuses really account for the rash of rising prices we’ve seen […]

Alabama and Virginia Extend Sales Tax Exemptions on Gold and Silver Bullion

Virginia and Alabama both extended their sales tax exemptions on precious metal bullion this year, relieving some of the tax burdens on investors, and taking a step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of as commodities.

Student Loans: Another Government-Created Crisis

There is more talk of student loan forgiveness. Supporters of these schemes argue that the whole system is inherently unfair, although they rarely talk about who would pay for student loan forgiveness. They also seem oblivious to the fact that the federal government created this problem to begin with.

Industrial Demand for Gold Continued to Rebound in Q1

Back in 2019, CNBC commentator Jim Leventhal said he had no interest in gold because it has no uses as a metal. This comment was a real head-scratcher because, besides its extensive use in jewelry, gold is an increasingly important industrial input, particularly in the technology sector.

Is There a Case for a Classical Gold Standard?

With the impact of sanctions tanking the ruble, the Russian central bank announced it would buy gold from local banks at a fixed rate. The move had the desired effect. The ruble quickly recovered. But the Central Bank of Russia abandoned the de facto gold standard almost as fast as it implemented it. Why?

Peter Schiff: The Fed Has Already Lost the Inflation Fight

Last week, the Fed raised interest rates by 0.5%. It was the biggest rate increase since the year 2000. But it was hardly aggressive in light of the current bout of inflation. Not only that, Jerome Powell took a future 75 basis point hike off the table. In his podcast, Peter Schiff argued that no […]

A Very Average Jobs Report

According to the BLS, the economy added 428k jobs in April. This exactly matched the March number after it was revised down by 3k. The unemployment rate stayed flat at 3.6%. The Labor Force Participation rate dropped from 62.4% to 62.2%. YoY, this April is up 165k jobs compared to last April.