President Teddy Roosevelt famously advised leaders to speak softly and carry a big stick.China’s Xi Jinping practices a modern variation: speak softly and carry a big wallet.President Donald Trump’s aphorism, by contrast, prefers to talk loudly and swing a big stick early—often angrily, publicly, and without apology. It offends diplomats,...
The recent, almost parabolic ascent of gold has confounded conventional analysis. For too long, the price action of this storied metal has been assayed against familiar, if increasingly frayed, metrics: the immediate pressures of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy or the immediate vigor of the U.S. Dollar. Yet, in recent...
In the half-century since the United States abandoned the gold standard, that lustrous metal has stood as a bulwark against financial tempests. Conventional wisdom ties gold’s price surges to erratic inflation or an obese money supply, yet its truest dance partner remains the inverse of the U.S. dollar’s value. Today,...
Archeological evidence hints that Gold held value with cave dwelling paleolithic humans as long 40,000 years ago. The Egyptians 4,000 years ago and later the Greeks cherished the glitter and rarity of the yellow metal, using it as a currency. Precious metals, with Gold at the vanguard, have been central...
In 2016 both political parties powerful polemic against the FBI led to one of the more controversial elections and transfers of power in history, leading to four years of investigations that continue today. Many expect 2020 to provide even more fireworks and uncertainty. In both elections there has been a...
The 2.6% rise in April food prices was the largest monthly surge in 46 years! On queue, some forecasters blamed it on the Money Supply, Government debt and the Trillions of dollars our Central Bank (Fed) created out of thin air. Soaring grocery costs pale in contrast to the broader...
On a gloomy Christmas eve one year ago the stock market had completed a 3 month correction into a panic low of more than 20%, equaling its largest decline of the past decade. After a tremendous rally in the first and a fourth quarters of 2019, the pulse of the stock market...
For almost 1600 years Hong Kong was a part of Chinese dynasties. When more advanced Western countries asserted their dominance over Chinese trade, the Opium Wars were fought. The result was a humiliating defeat of China who ceded Hong Kong to the British crown in 1842. The British allowed China to...
It’s been 10 years since cryptographically secure digital assets such as Bitcoin came into existence. After an abysmal 2018, some wonder if Bitcoin’s return to life in 2019 has been due to capital fleeing China to escape the effects of Trump tariffs. The charts are mixed, but lately as Chinese currency...
Gold first became precious as an Egyptian status symbol about 5,000 years ago and was introduced as a form of money about 2,700 years ago in a country that later became a part of Turkey. While Platinum and Palladium have at times retained a higher value, Gold remains a very...
