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 [1]. Today, we look at the renewed strength of the Swiss Franc. (See the Forex & Cryptos section.)
Precious Metals:
Turkey Buys All Remaining Wholesale Silver For The Year [2].
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Commerzbank see gold rising on higher inflation expectations [3].
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Gold price up as it appears inflation genie out of the bottle [4].
Economy & Finance:
Thorsten Polleit at The Von Mise Institute web site: A Global Fiat Currency: “One Ring to Rule Them All” [5].
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Republican senators slam Democrats’ proposed bank account monitoring [6].
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Big money managers hoard cash, dump bonds as inflation fears mount [7].
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At Zero Hedge: Futures Slide On Stagflation Fears As 10Y Yields Spike [8].
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Hedge funds edge towards USD4 trillion milestone as volatility surges [9].
Commodities:
Ray M. sent us this: EIA expects U.S. natural gas prices to stay high through the winter. [10]
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OilPrice News reports: The 2021 Oil Price Rally Is Far From Over [11].
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Irina Slav: Oil And Gas Stocks Are Popular Once Again [12].
Inflation Watch:
Is Hyperinflation Inevitable? Jack Dorsey Says It’ll “Change Everything” [13].
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White House thinks inflation and supply-chain woes are ‘high class problems’ [14].
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Mark Skousen: Danger Ahead: Why We Are Heading Toward Double-Digit Inflation [15]. JWR’s Comments: Once general price inflation gets solidly into double digits and then appears to be heading to triple digits there will be a psychological turning point for saving and spending. This is exactly what happened in Zimbabwe in the late 1980s and in Weimar Germany in the early 1920s. In the latter, most German citizens realized that their savings were being wiped out by inflation so they started to rush into buying tangibles, each time they received a paycheck. The Germans called this “Flucht in die Sachwerte” (Flight into items of real value.) My advice: Panic early, and beat the rush. Diversify into tangible investments, now.
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Analysis: U.S. company results in industrial, materials sectors could shed light on inflation woes [16].
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Inflation Chronicles: Even Solar Prices Are Soaring [17].
Forex & Cryptos:
Dollar edges lower after weak U.S. factory production data [18].
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USD/CHF attempts to pick up from session lows at 0.9170 [19]. JWR’s Comments: Congrats to my readers who took my advice and hedged into Swiss Francs (CHF) when the USD and CHF were near parity, late in Donald Trump’s term in office. Given the worsening inflation problems with most of the world’s fiat currencies, I anticipate that the “safe haven” CHF will continue to appreciate in the 2020s.
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Last week, Bitcoin set a new high above $66,000 [20]. But by Monday morning it and corrected and neared $59,500 in US Dollar terms [21].
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Crypto in the crosshairs: US regulators eye the cryptocurrency sector [22].
Tangibles Investing:
Our Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson [23] sent this: The Great American Ammunition Conspiracy [24]. Mike’s Comment: “I disagree with the author in one point–the consolidation isn’t due to corporations being greedy. It’s due to fewer corporations being able to wade through the mineswamp of bureaucracy and regulations to stay in business.”
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The price is ammunition is still high in the U.S.. The supply situation is improving [25] yet still profoundly short of demand. I don’t expect the “Good Old Days” of plentiful and inexpensive ammo that we saw in Trump’s first two years to return in our lifetimes. But there will be some opportunities to hedge into common-caliber ammunition in the next several years, Watch for bargains and then stack it deep. In an era of mass currency inflation, tangibles like ammunition will be your safest ways to preserve your wealth.
Provisos:
SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos [26] page for our detailed disclaimers.
News Tips:
Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR [1]. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact form [27].) 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 items from local news outlets that are missed by the news wire services are especially appreciated. And it need not be only about commodities and precious metals. Thanks!