Peter's Blog

Budget Deficit YoY: Revenues Fall as Expenses Rise

The Federal Government ran a deficit of -$39B in January. While that may not seem like much, it looks worse when compared to the average January.

History Rhymes: SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap Feb. 10, 2023

You’ve probably heard the saying that history might not repeat, but it often rhymes. If that’s true, looking back at the runup to the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession should cause concern. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey looks at some of the parallels between then and now. […]

Bill Introduced in Wisconsin House Would Repeal Sales Tax on Gold and Silver Bullion

A bill introduced in the Wisconsin Senate would create a state sales tax exemption on the sale of gold and silver bullion. By effectively repealing the sales tax, the bill would relieve some of the tax burden on investors, and take a step toward treating precious metal bullion as money instead of a commodity.

The Treasury Begins Extraordinary Measures (again)

Despite hitting the debt ceiling, the US Treasury managed to add $35 billion in new debt during January. The Treasury has employed extraordinary measures, including exchanging Non-Marketable (e.g., Government employee retirement funds) and other forms of debt for short-term Bills. The balance on Bills grew by $241 billion which was the largest single-month growth since […]

2022 Trade Deficit Signals Inflation Closer to 15%

The December Trade Deficit increased after a major drop in November. The total came in at $67B which was 10% greater than November’s $61B, but still well below the 6-month high from October of $77B. It is also below the $79B Trade Deficit from December 2021.

Is It Time to Drop the “L” in the BLS?

By all measures, the latest job report absolutely blasted past expectations with one of the biggest upside surprises in recent memory. The current month came in at 517,000 jobs created. But even that massive figure was beaten by the latest Household Survey which showed 894k jobs created in January.

Do You Believe Your Eyes or Your Ears? SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap Feb. 3, 2023

Do you believe your eyes? Or do you believe your ears? That’s the dilemma you face as you try to make sense of the latest Federal Reserve meeting and Jerome Powell’s messaging. It’s also a question to ask yourself if you’re evaluating the performance of gold over the last year. In this episode of the […]

Comex Results: Gold Sees Massive One-Day Roll While Silver Adjustments Break Records

Strange activity continues at the Comex! Delivery volume for February was a little less than half the contracts open at first notice. 6,005 contracts were delivered with 7,370 remaining in open interest. This was a much larger relative delivery than December which saw less than a third of contracts delivered on the first day. Things seemed suspicious […]

QT Falls Short Again and the Fed Lost Almost $100B in January

The Fed has a targeted balance sheet reduction of $95B a month. The Fed has failed to meet its target in 7 of the last 8 months with only an $81B reduction in January. The Fed fell woefully short of meeting their $35B MBS target, seeing only $16.7B (less than 50% of the target). The Treasury […]

A Teaching Opportunity: SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap Jan. 27, 2023

With a debt ceiling debate now underway, a dumb idea has once again raised its ugly head – the trillion-dollar coin. This week on the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey uses this so-called “solution” to the debt ceiling problem as an opportunity to teach some economics. In this episode, he also touches on […]