Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at some threatened tariffs on gold, and a quick reversal. (See the Precious Metals section.)
Precious Metals:
Trump says gold will not be tariffed.
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I noticed that spot silver bounced back to $38.82 USD per Troy ounce in after-hours trading on Wednesday. (Thursday morning trading, in Asia.) Let’s see if the COMEX Short Sellers attempt their usual Friday shenanigans today.
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Jesse Columbo, in an August 12th piece at Gold-Eagle.com: Tariff Confusion Sends Gold on Round Trip.
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Gold Revaluation & the “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve”.
Economy & Finance:
Average U.S. household debt reaches $152K; Here’s a breakdown of what Americans owe.
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Martin Armstrong: The Recession is Far More Complex Than Most Expect.
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Goldman Sachs: How to Know When a World Event Could Shock the Market.
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H.L. sent us this: General Motors’ Profits Drop 35 Percent as CEO Clings to EV Strategy.
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California’s $20 Fast-Food Minimum Wage Increase Linked to Whopping 18,000 Job Losses. (A hat tip to D.S.V. for the link.)
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Another from H.L.: Dave Ramsey Says, ‘You’re Not Broke Because You Don’t Make Enough. You’re Broke Because You Give Your Income To Everyone Else’.
Commodities:
As electric bills rise, evidence mounts that data centers share blame. States feel pressure to act. A pericope:
“Amid rising electric bills, states are under pressure to insulate regular household and business ratepayers from the costs of feeding Big Tech’s energy-hungry data centers.
It’s not clear that any state has a solution and the actual effect of data centers on electricity bills is difficult to pin down. Some critics question whether states have the spine to take a hard line against tech behemoths like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta.
But more than a dozen states have begun taking steps as data centers drive a rapid build-out of power plants and transmission lines.
That has meant pressuring the nation’s biggest power grid operator to clamp down on price increases, studying the effect of data centers on electricity bills or pushing data center owners to pay a larger share of local transmission costs.”
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Border States Commodity Update — August 2025.
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From OilPrice News: Uncertainty Looms for U.S. Aluminum Trade Deals.
Inflation/Deflation Watch:
From the leftist/statist Bloomberg: US Inflation to Rise as Higher Tariffs Feed Through.
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Turkey’s inflation falls to four-year low of 33.5%: What to know.
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Colombian Inflation Unexpectedly Speeds Up In Setback for Petro. JWR’s Comments: That cited 4.9% inflation figure is not an annual rate. That is the monthly rate. Annualized, that would be 58.8% if the inflation persists. Oh, and with the compounding effect, the annual rate would be 77.59%. Yikes!
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Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Inflation cools slightly in July from prior month.
Forex & Cryptos:
At Currency Thoughts: Fed Rate Hike Still Widely Expected in September Despite a Mixed U.S. CPI Report. The article begins:
“While overall U.S. CPI inflation of 2.7% last month was a tick under expectations, core inflation excluding food and energy rose 0.2 percentage points to 3.1%, crossing above the 3.0% threshold for the first time in five months. A tariff-led boost to goods prices was not discernible, but a 0.4% monthly advance in non-energy service costs was the most six months.
Juxtaposed against weaker labor market indicators, today’s CPI data did not shake overwhelming market expectations that the FOMC will cut its federal funds target in September for the first time since last December. President Trump has again ramped up pressure on “too late” Powell, threatening him with a lawsuit on a different matter.”
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At Zero Hedge: Ether ETFs See Record $1 Billion Inflows As ETH Flashes Bull Signals.
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Crypto analyst predicts XRP set to explode 400% after new update.
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Bitcoin-Money Supply Link Is A Myth, Glassnode Researcher Reveals.
Tangibles Investing:
Gun Sales Drop Below One Million a Month for the First Time in Six Years.
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Our featured Pre-1899 Gun Of The Week, at Elk Creek Company: Ruger Old Army .44 — Pre-Warning, Made in 1976. Take note that our big sale on all of our percussion gun inventory ends tonight. Order yours, 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. Thanks!