Economics & Investing For Preppers

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 look at persistent and increasing currency inflation, worldwide. (See the Inflation Watch section.)

Precious Metals:

Central banks bought 19.4 tonnes of gold in April, remain net buyers in 2022 – WGC

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Austrian Monetary Gold Transfer From London To Switzerland, Planned In 2015, Still Hasn’t Arrived.

Economy & Finance:

From Bloomberg: Black Swan Investor Is Watching for ‘Greatest Credit Bubble’ to Pop

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At The Economist: What America’s next recession will look like. JWR’s Comment: “Mild”? If Jay Powell keeps his promises on Quantitative Tightening, then the brewing recession will be anything but mild.

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I found this liked at the Whatfinger news aggregation site: Russia thinks it has found a way around Washington’s dollar bond payment blockade.

Commodities:

Diesel Users, Suppliers Warn of Shortage of DEF Additive.

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Not immune to inflation, propane prices are on the rise.

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Over at OilPrice News: What Does Europe’s Ban On Russian Oil And Gas Mean For The West?

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Report: India is Buying Up Cheap Sanctioned Russian Oil and Selling it to the U.S. and E.U. at Huge Profits.

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California faces power shortages and price hikes amid drought woes: report.

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Copper thieves strike again: Charging station crisis in California.

Inflation Watch:

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Egg prices have risen 161% – Everything Is Skyrocketing.

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USDA Raises 2022 Food Inflation Forecasts Again, Highest Grocery Food Price Hikes in 42 Years.

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Bloomberg reports on the renewed severe inflation in the recently re-named Türkiye (pronounced “tur-key-yay”, formerly Turkey), this past month: Turkish Inflation Reaches Fastest Since 1998 With Surge Past 73%. JWR’s Comment: Re-naming their country with a “yay” at the end won’t help, as long as their monetary policy experts keep acting like Turkeys. We’ll only feel like saying “yay”, when the inflation gets close to zero. By the way, I’d like to say the same thing to Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell. They’re monetary Turkeys, too.

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Gas Prices Reach Another “Record” Today — 8 States Already Over $5 per gallon.

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Rising inflation is affecting driving, grocery shopping and summer travel.

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Yellen Throws Biden Under The Bus On Runaway Inflation: She “Wanted” $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Cut By A Third.

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Biden admin may relax China tariffs in bid to ease inflation, commerce secretary says

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40,000 Factories At Risk Of Closing In Pakistan’s Commercial Capital Amid Fuel Crisis.

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From NPR: Along with the U.S., Europe is hit with extraordinarily high inflation numbers.

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How Inflation Destroys Civilization… and What You Can Do About It. (A hat tip to H.L. for the link.)

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Consumer Prices, OECD – Updated: 2 June 2022: Inflation in the OECD rises to 9.2% in April 2022 as food and services prices accelerate.

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Why the price of dairy products continues to rise as inflation slows.

Forex & Cryptos:

The euro is nearing parity with the dollar: Here’s what it could mean for investors.

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Yen weak versus dollar, euro ahead of busy central bank week.

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Reader C.B. spotted this: US sues cryptocurrency exchange run by Winklevoss twins.

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Ethereum Single-Day Liquidations Reach Three-Year High As Price Breaks $1,900.

Tangibles Investing:

Just in case the pending Federal ban on 11+ round magazines becomes law, I recently bought nearly 200 magazines in online orders from GunMagWarehouse and Palmetto State Armory — two of our affiliate advertisers. You might want to consider doing likewise. If another Federal magazine ban is enacted the price of grandfathered magazines will likely double or triple.

In particular, I recommend buying 30-round and 40-round MagPul AR-15 PMAGs, the newly-introduced 30-round SIG factory P320 9mm magazines (if you can find any!), and 33-round factory Glock 9mm magazines. I can foresee those magazines tripling or quadrupling in price, if Sniffy Joe gets his way. History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.

Oh, and PLEASE write and call your congressman and your two U.S. Senators and urge them to vote against any and all new gun or magazine restrictions, as well as any proposed Red Flag Law legislation.

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And at  Wolf Street: Suddenly Here Comes the Inventory: Homes Listed for Sale Jump amid Price Reductions and Sagging Sales.

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We are continuing our summer sale, at Elk Creek Company. We’ve reduced the prices on all of our percussion replica guns, and nearly all of our pre-1899 cartridge guns. With the recent dip in the spot price of silver, we’ve dropped our silver multiplier to just 21.65 times face value.  So this is a great time to buy. Note that we have our prices listed in both pre-1965 silver coinage and in current rapidly-inflating Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs.) The last day of the sale will be Monday, June 20th. Our small inventory is selling rapidly, so order soon!

Provisos:

SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.

News Tips:

Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail or 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 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!