Peter's Blog

Playing Darts Wearing a Blindfold: SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap June 17, 2022

The Federal Reserve just gave us the biggest interest rate hike since 1994. A month ago, we were told a 75 basis-point hike wasn’t on the table. It almost seems like the central bankers are winging it. Or as Friday Gold Wrap podcast host Mike Maharrey puts it, it’s like they’re playing darts while wearing […]

CBO Does Not Expect Revenue Surge to Last

After running the largest monthly surplus ever in April, the Treasury was back to running deficits in May. The Federal government spent $455B in May and collected $389B in taxes, which resulted in a net deficit of $66B.

Peak Inflation Still Ahead as 97.5% of the CPI is Above the 12-Month Average

The latest seasonally adjusted inflation rate for May came in scorching hot at 0.98% MoM and 8.62% YoY, beating expectations of 0.7% and 8.3% respectively. All prices rose in May with 9 of 11 categories rising faster than the 12-month trend, representing 97.5% of the total CPI.

CPI Day! SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap June 10, 2022

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for May came out this morning. The projection was for another hot headline number but some relief in core CPI. This would seem to indicate we’ve passed peak inflation. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharey explains why “good news” in the CPI data […]

Czech Central Bank Plans to Buy A Lot of Gold

The Czech National Bank is about to go on a gold-buying spree. Incoming CNB Governor Ales Michl said he plans to increase the bank’s gold holdings nearly 10-fold during a recent magazine interview.

Yearly Trade Deficit Sets New Record Despite MoM Decrease

The April trade deficit came in at -$87B. This was the first time in 5 months that a new record had not been set (pink dot below). The Net Goods Deficit remained below -$100B for the fifth straight month. This Trade Deficit comes on the heels of an absolutely massive -$108B Deficit in March. It’s […]

Treasury Scrambles to Lock in Rates as Borrowing Cost Soars

The Treasury increased the total debt by $125B in May after a brief drop in April. This brings the total debt increase so far in 2022 to $880B. More importantly, though, the cost to service the debt is exploding. Total annualized interest has increased by $40B or 13.5% since the start of the year!

Central Bank Gold Buying Continued in April

After increasing gold holdings by 84 tons in the first quarter of this year, central banks continued to be net gold buyers in April. Globally, central banks added a net 19.4 tons of gold to their holdings in April.

CFTC: Hedge Funds Cover Brief Net Short Position in Silver

Please note: the COTs report was published 6/3/2022 for the period ending 5/31/2022. “Managed Money” and “Hedge Funds” are used interchangeably. Gold Since the peak on March 8, Managed Money has massively reduced its Net Long positions by 98k contracts or 66%. Despite massive selling, the gold price has actually held up fairly well. The […]

Hiring Slows in 5 out of 8 Sectors

The May jobs report was widely regarded as strong. The US economy added 390,000 jobs, according to the latest data. But a deeper dive into that data reveals that the labor market might not be as strong as the mainstream spin is leading you to believe. Even with all the new jobs, hiring slowed in […]