Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, a link to an essay by former congressman Dr. Ron Paul. (See the Economy & Finance section.)
Precious Metals:
Von Greyerz: History Tells Us To Own Gold When Central Banks Run Out Of Control
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Gold price surges to 7.5-year high as coronavirus concerns mount
Economy & Finance:
The Wall Street Journal reports: Americans Skip Millions of Loan Payments as Coronavirus Takes Economic Toll
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Dr. Ron Paul: The Federal Reserve is Getting Desperate. The article begins:
“In a sign that the Federal Reserve is growing increasingly desperate to jump-start the economy, the Fed’s Secondary Market Credit Facility has begun purchasing individual corporate bonds. The Secondary Market Credit Facility was created by Congress as part of a coronavirus stimulus bill to purchase as much as 750 billion dollars of corporate credit. Until last week, the Secondary Market Credit Facility had limited its purchases to exchange-traded funds, which are bundled groups of stocks or bonds.”
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At Wolf Street: Plot Thickens on End of QE & Start of Shedding Assets
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And another from Wolf Street: Alitalia, Lufthansa, Condor, Norwegian, Other European Airlines Try to Survive, But it Gets Complicated
Commodities:
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OilPrice News reports: Oil Prices Will Hit $50 Before The End Of The Year
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Global Flat Steel Market to 2025 – by Manufacturers, Regions, Technology, Application & Product Type
Equities:
David Haggith: Recession Started Right on Time — Before Most Were Even Aware, So Beware! JWR’s Comment: These charts confirm that the current stock rally is artificial and unsustainable. Take this opportunity to sell any stocks that are not depression-proof!
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Over at Zack’s: Five Nasdaq Stocks That Have Returned More Than 100% YTD
Forex & Cryptos:
Former Fed Insider Says Dollar Will Lose Reserve Currency Status
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Quickly See Which Currencies are Performing Best and Worst
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Ethereum Just Saw Technical Breakout, Indicators Point To More Upsides
Tangibles Investing:
COVID refugees bring mini-boom to some Wyoming real estate markets. The article leads off with this:
“As Wyoming’s economy gets back in gear following a COVID-19 stay-at-home lull, one corner of the business world is seeing at least a mini boom — the rural refuge real estate market.
From Torrington to Cody, Jackson to Sheridan, rental and real estate agents report brisk business driven in part, they believe, by big-city customers seeking new homes they think will be farther from trouble.
Some of the surge could be called a COVID comeback. But enduring Wyoming qualities, from the state’s small population, to low taxes, rural landscape, mountains and rivers figure in a bounce-back in some communities that aren’t tied to energy production.”
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Wealthy Homeowners In ‘Mad Rush’ To Flee San Francisco. JWR’s Comment: The wise ones are not just fleeing to rural counties. Nay, they are moving much farther, to more lightly-populated states.
Provisos:
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News Tips:
Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who closely watch specific markets. If you spot any news that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers, then please send it in. News from local news outlets that is missed by the news wire services is especially appreciated. And it need not be only about commodities and precious metals. Thanks!
Yeah oil and therefore vehicle fuel is creeping back up. Thats 2 things I miss about the virus lockdown: The lack of traffic and low fuel prices
Re: Wealthy homeowners in ‘mad rush’ to flee (burning Marxist utopia they helped create)
A word of warning:
On Wednesday, I spoke to a family member who owns a large boat dealership just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. He said May of 2020 sales were the second-highest in more than 30 years of business. He expects June sales to surpass that and he said 2020 is shaping up to be their best year ever! Assuming that most informed and conservative adults are not spending $125,000 on wake-board boats while cities burn and the ‘Rona re-emerges, I wanted to know who exactly it was buying these floating money pits.
He told me most new customers were saying the same thing: “We just moved here from (deep Blue liberal city)”, “we sold our house there for (an insane amount of money)”, “can’t believe how cheap land and homes are here”, and “we’re telling all our friends and neighbors back home about it”.
Probably nothing to worry about I told him. I’m sure they’ll try to assimilate for a bit. Heck, they might even start talking with a little ‘twang in their voice just to fit in. They’ll probably start an HOA in their new neighborhood, get involved in the schools, run for public office. After all, what better way is there to teach the locals about all the neat progressive stuff from back home…
It seems that with any significant population increase, things shift left. We have had to fight off Zoning proposals and clearly state in law a “right to farm” to keep city folk from turning our state into the one they came from.
I think in the end they will relax some and we will have to suck it up and decide what we can tolerate. I remember the bumper stickers in California in the early 80s that said “Welcome to California, now go home”. We did…
So true. There were also bumper stickers in Oregon… “Don’t Californicate Oregon!” In those times, Californians were doing the same thing now seen among the boat buyers described by D.D. They would sell their California based homes for insane amounts of money, and then buy up homes in Oregon where prices were much lower. The demand drove prices higher and many locals of the time were priced out of land and homes in the state in which they had always lived because incomes (at least initially) did not adjust upward at the same rate.
When I lived in Florida the favorite bumper sticker was ” Welcome to Florida – Have fun, spend money, go home”
The more People, the more rules are necessary for the public wellbeing,
If the water someones irresponsible stupid behaviour only threatens him, you don´t Need a rule if it threatens a large Group of People with cholera ot covid the Situation is different
Love it D.D….I have seen this happening here where I live in middle Tennessee. My family has been on this farm for a century this year. The road that my farm is on, where only a couple of homes were for decades, are now being sold in smaller parcels (5 to 20 acres) and homes being built…from Florida, Connecticut, Minnesota, Maryland, Indiana, etc….However, every new neighbor I have met are very conservative politically and are moving not just because the taxes, land and building prices are cheaper, but they are also escaping form the liberal politics and a hectic lifestyle. I don’t consider it a negative. A liberal Democrat could likely never be elected here.
Good and reassuring news, Jima, about middle Tennessee!
We are in Appalachia, and there is a lot more vehicle traffic (much more like the traffic we saw at the start of the year which was truly robust for such a rural area). We believe we are seeing the same effects which flow from the need for conservatives to escape from democrat disaster areas.
Thanks Jima. I know there are patriots moving there as well, but the warning signs are ominous. I have houses in Tennessee and Virginia so I travel back and forth quite often. I’m seeing the same things happening in my area of Eastern Tennessee now that I saw happen in Virginia ten years ago. The left has shown that you only need to control the major cities. They already have Memphis, Nashville, and parts of,if not all of Chattanooga. Im afraid its only a matter of time. Prepare accordingly.
Insights much appreciated… We heard this about boat sales in the news!
I appreciate your comments TofA. After a lifetime spent in the “Motorized Toys for Adults” industry, I can say that significant moves upward in this market is normally not a good harbinger of things to come. The last one like this was in 2006. When segments of a population suddenly start acting like they’re having a collective mid-life crisis and start buying boats, motorcycles, and convertibles, the hard slap of reality is usually not far away.
An excellent observation and insight, DD!
@ DD
Well said and unfortunately, you are spot on with your conclusions.
I read with interest about the mini real estate boom in Wy and Mt and the same thing happened here in eastern SD 30 plus yrs ago. Citi Bank moved into town and a lot people came from the east coast with Citi Bank. they sold their holdings, houses, etc for insane amounts of money was surprised at the cheaper property prices and just drove the prices out of sight, didn’t care what the price was, they bought it. they bought “farms ” ( in reality, they were buying farm steads or farms yards with buildings. A few did buy farm ground and stayed here for the long term, but most left after a period of yrs, because the night life was lacking.
We would call these properties “farm lite”! Familiar with this within South Dakota.
We’ve seen a similar phenomenon in our area. People drift in and they drift out. Some stay… The one concern is the development of more “night life venues” (predominantly restaurants that heavily advertise bar service) in nearby towns. These were on the rise in our little corner of the Appalachian Redoubt before SARS-COV-2 and COVID-19. None of this is part of our family lifestyle, but folks coming in from other locations tend to bring this with them from the cultures from which they come. The good news is that these remain very limited, and do not appear to have captured the interest of most of the locals. With this in mind, these enterprises may fade yet again.
1) I think you guys misunderstand the cities.
The enemy is not your fellow Americans — the enemy is the Democrat billionaires who rule the cities. They CHOSE to rule there because (a) politics depends upon control of the urban news media and (b) only the Rich can afford to fund the constant propaganda of those news businesses and (c) that means only the voice of the Rich get heard
2) The mouthpieces of the Rich Democrats constantly spew deceit in order to divide and conquer us — turn blacks against white, whites against hispanics, women against men, men against women. Because if we are fighting each other than then we will not see who has be stabbing us in the back for 40 years.
3) It wasn’t the Ku Klux Klan that was running the White House and the Big Bailout from 2009-2016 — it was Obama and Joe Biden. Who CHOSE to shovel $Trillions from the US Treasury to bailout their billionaire donors while dumping 8 years of 15% unemployment onto black Americans and cutting the median life savings of black Americans in half.
4) The Black Lives Matters con is a propaganda campaign by the Rich Men’s news media to convince black voters that their enemy is policemen — not Joe Biden. But it was not policemen who killed thousands of black men over the past decade while Obama and Joe Biden did not lift a finger to use some of that $1 TRILLION/year “defense” budget to defend Americans living in places with some of the highest murder rates on the planet.
5) Similarly it was not white men who chose to dump 8 years of massive unemployment onto American women, steal $40-$80000 out of their Social Security, ruin their life savings and let corporations steal hundreds of billions out of their pensions. It was Obama and Joe Biden. But if you get a pack of hired prostitutes yelling #MeToo then Democrat leaders hope female voters will forget that.
6) When you let the news media turn you against your fellow countrymen you are letting the Democrat billionaires win. Whereas we should all be joining together — Democrats, Republicans, Independents — to utterly exterminate our common enemy and their news media prostitutes. With boycotts, massive tax hikes, anti-trust breakups of monopolies and throwing out longtime vicious con artists like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
We should also ask why Fox News has been taking a dive — why it has been so craven and cowardly in failing to challenge the deceit of MSNBC, NBC, the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN,etc.
Why do those news prostitutes get to attack everyone but NO institution in American judges them, holds them to account and points out their deceit, corruption and hypocrisy?
Hello Don Williams! Agreed… Division serves the purpose of the puppet masters, and helps preserve their power. …and Fox News should be doing a whole lot more to confront and challenge the Marxist deceit of the radical left. Leftists have been hijacking various causes from environmentalism to race for decades. We’re living through very dangerous times.
I think you have it about right.
I am not a John Birch Society member but I am reminded about some of their writings that I delved into a few years ago. The theme is very much about the rich, usually bankers, bankrolling the communists. This is an over simplification and I am not convinced their theories are entirely true but I think there is some truth in there. I am not critizing their theories either except that like most theories they are too neat and clean. My problem with conspiracy theories is not their plausibility. Most have already occurred and are recorded in history. My problem is that they are too neat and tidy and do not take into account the complexities of the real world.
A little tidbit I ran into in totally unrelated (to politics or conpiracies or anything in that vein) historical reading was some interesting information about the rise of Russian oil production at the turn of the 19th-20th Century. I want to do more research, but it appears to have coincided with the Russian Revolution and it did severely compete with and US oil production. Was the Russian Revolution partly about oil? Or financed by new found oil wealth in Russia? I have always been curiuous about the financing of the Russian Revolution and I wonder if this could be a a piece of that puzzle.
I disagree with you some on Fox News. I watch some of it about twice a week on average. More than that is a waste of time as I don’t get any new information if I watch every day. But they are highly critical of the other media IMO. Almost to the point where I want to say, yes I know about the lies, but would you just shut up and get on with the information I want to hear!
5 Remember the labour politic of Angela Merkel made it possible that Germany hit the Ground marching during this times
“We should also ask why Fox News has been taking a dive — why it has been so craven and cowardly in failing to challenge the deceit of MSNBC, NBC, the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN,etc.”
The primary answer is: Paul Ryan!
The former Speaker of the House is now a fixture in the background at Fox Corp., the parent company at Fox News. He now sits on the board of directors and the changes started at Fox when he started at Fox.
Paul Ryan is a neo conservative, in other words, a proud Trotskyite communist. He is what all neo cons are. Just look at the Senator from the great State of Utah, Willard (the rat) Mitt Romney. Another Trotskyist and a traitor to those who voted for him and to the country at large. Note: In 2012, they were together on the Republican presidential ticket.
I’ve said enough, the neocons are some of the most evil people on the planet. We all must learn who the neocons are and fight them tooth, fang, and claw.
Forgot this. Being nominally Republican, they are literally the “Enemy Within”.
Oh, as an aside, in my circles, the current Speaker of the House is called Nazi Pelosi.
You guys need to realize that liberal refugees from California have been subjected to severe brainwashing. If you found some American refugees from a cult or a North Korean POW camp, would you not try to help them? Don’t shun them — enlighten them.
On the other hand, Mao had his faults but I think his idea of periodically rounding up all the intellectuals in the cities and sending them out to do hard labor in the countryside had some merit. Eradicate the contempt intellectuals have for the people who produce food and other valuable products we need to survive. I think our news anchors need a few months of ditchdigging.
Some of us try, it can be frustrating trying to fill a cup which is already full. Humbleness is often the first and hardest thing to teach the facebook generations. Narcissism is a worse plague than covid-19.
Narcissism is a plague upon human culture.
A very good point, Don Williams! Although it’s good to remember that the effects of brainwashing can be complicated and difficult to resolve. Proceed with caution in any such endeavor.
I always think of the scene in the movie City Slickers where Jack Palance growls out “City Folk” after some hapless urban cowboy wannabe makes a nono.
The only show I still watch on Fox ix Tucker Carlson. He says it like he sees it even if its against left right or Trump. He will probably lose his job.
The editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer had to resign —merely for an editorial that noted violent protests and arson have a long history of inflicting decades of misery on the very people the protestors claim to be helping. Because businessmen flee and the resulting urban decay creates an impoverished ghetto with no opportunities for the residents.
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/501509-top-philadelphia-inquirer-editor-resigns-after-buildings-matter-too-headline
An editor at the New York Times had to resign merely for publishing an Oped by a Republican Senator.
This shows the deceit of Democrat billionaires and leaders proclaimed support for “free speech” — it is utter claptrap,
Anyone who has had a comment censored at the Washington Post or New York Times blogs knows what a fraud their “democratic debate” is.
The Washington Post is wrong — democracy doesn’t die in darkness. Democracy dies when billionaires can suppress any fact or opinion that annoys them or interferes with their march to greater riches.
Including any opinion that suggests they owe something to their fellow Americans and should not be throwing job applications from black Americans into the trash in favor of importing cheap foreign labor.
Somewhere in hell Adoph Hitler is crying because he never had a Internet blog that could secretly delete anyone who tried to point out the truth. All to orchestrate the appearance of a public opinion that does not exist. “Our Terms of Service”.
It’s time we turn our attention to news venues that protect the right to speech… There are some and with our support, these will grow and prosper.