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, we look at the breakdown in the global diamond market. (See the Economy & Finance section.)
Precious Metals:
Is it the global credit market instability, or just recession fears? Germany Increases Gold Reserves In September For The First Time In 21 Years – IMF
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Video: Gold’s entire investment thesis can be summarized by this one metric
Economy & Finance:
At Zero Hedge: “There Is A Global Crisis” – Israel Diamond Industry Collapses Amid Faltering Demand. The article start out with this:
“Macroeconomic headwinds are developing across the world. At least 90% of all countries are experiencing a slowdown in growth that has stumped central bankers and policymakers. No one at the moment can figure out how to restart the global economy. With the risk of a worldwide trade recession soaring for 2020, if not has already arrived, consumers are pulling back on spending, which has contributed to a collapse in the global diamond industry, something that we’ve been documenting this year.
The latest stress in the global diamond industry is emanating from Israel. Ynetnews is saying the country’s diamond exports have plunged 22%, a sign that consumer demand from Asia is faltering.
Trade data showed for the first three quarters of 2019, Israeli exports of diamonds were $2.62 billion, down from $3.32 billion during the same period last year.
In 3Q19, imports and exports of diamonds by Israel plunged 28% YoY. “
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Here Is The Real Reason The Fed Restarted QE
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At Wolf Street: Dual-Track Economy: Slowdown in Industrial Sectors Hits Truckers & Railroads. But Consumers Are Still Buying Stuff
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Reader C.B. was the first of several readers to send us this: Crisis could claim third of big global banks: McKinsey
Commodities:
China Returns to Market for U.S. Soybeans After Tariff Waivers Granted
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OilPrice News reports: Oilfield Services Face Crisis As Shale Slowdown Worsens
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Seattle’s new home oil tax could penalize elderly, middle-class families
Forex & Cryptos:
Over at Think:ING: FX: The pound is stuck in a delay dilemma. A quote from the article:
“Once again, a session in the UK Parliament yields more questions than answers. MPs gave initial consent to the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement Bill (with a solid 30-vote margin), but the PM’s proposed fast-track timetable was rejected. Johnson announced he will pause legislation on the deal whilst waiting for the EU27 decision on the Article 50 extension. The result was a drop in sterling as the prospect of another delay dented investor optimism for a quick resolution and likely increased the perceived risk of snap elections.
At this stage, many options remain on the table. Johnson would ideally like a short-extension (a couple of weeks) to keep pressure on the House, but the EU may be little inclined to take such risk and will likely deliver a longer extension (possibly until Jan 2020). Once the length of the delay is set, Johnson will decide whether to try and go straight to elections – although it’s not clear Parliament will let him do this right now. Alternatively, he could press ahead with the legislation, where the next step would be for MPs to put forward amendments.
Looking at the FX-impact, the current situation suggests that: (a) more uncertainty is being priced back into GBP; (b) the downside for GBP still seems quite limited given that Johnson now appears to have a majority to back his deal. In turn, the pound may drop some of the recent high volatility and get stuck in a “wait-and-see”, relatively tighter band, possibly hovering around the 1.28-1.29 area vs the USD.”
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Top 5 most-traded forex pairs in summer 2019 and beyond
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None of 20 Facebook’s Libra Partners Yet Committed Any Money: BBC
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Australian Police Seize Illegal Gun Runner’s Bitcoin to Cash 2000% Profit
Tangibles Investing:
Some of my advice on tangibles investing crossed over into our most recent Editors’ Prepping Progress column. Please take a look there.
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 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!
That is about half the Gold used annually for commemorative coins of Germany
Re. Tangibles Investing
Many folks recognize the value of food, ammo etc. and have acted accordingly. What about antibiotics? They are inexpensive, last decades when stored properly and save lives!
Time is of the essence. Ten years ago you could buy medical antibiotics without prescription. Big Brother shut that down. Next they will close the ‘fish tank loophole’. Many sites already require prescriptions for even fish antibiotics!
You can search SurvivalBlog and find excellent articles on antibiotics. Read the disclaimers as they apply to what this old coot is saying. Then act accordingly.
Do not forget about the dangers of post-dated tetracycline antibiotics. While most antibiotics do not go “bad”, taking out date tetracycline can kill you. Everyone please do the research necessary to make sure that the antibiotics that you store and use will not turn on you in your greatest time of need.
BigGreenFrog
Good reminder, Montana Guy. Uncertainty in these times demands we store these. And I am afraid the fish market will soon be regulated.
Great recommendation. I recently had to make a decision whether to buy ammo or antibiotics. I chose to fill a hole in my arsenal of antibiotics. I’ll barter programmed radios for 5.56 today. IMHO, and historically, in times of strife, there will be a huge black market for antibiotics, and other critical medicines. fishfloxfishmox.com has a good inventory.
TRY CAL VET SUPPLY. THEY ARE RELIABLE AND SHIP QUICKLY. OUR PRAYERS FOR ALL YOU DO J.W. THANKS
The Editors’ Quote of the Day:
“If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule. That was the American Dream.” – Edward Abbey
It is perilous and sad that the once Shining American Dream has morphed into this mangled maze of madness. The new modern American Dream is to not only attain that 15 minutes of fame but to do everything necessary to stretch it out to 30 minutes. The will for Liberty has been replaced with the desire for libation. The desire for Independence has been replaced with the drive for indoctrination. And happiness has utterly been confused with consumerism. Oh how the mighty have fallen oh, woe is us!
I am curious about the Israeli diamond market. Is this for industrial diamonds or diamond for the individual consumer market, ie bling? Two very different uses, only one of which is practical.
I’m grateful to be married to a woman who values me washing the dishes over buying her jewelry.
Carry on
I too believe that stocking up on antibiotics is a wise thing to do. It may be even more important than having an ample supply of food, water, guns and ammo and shelter. The reason I say that is if you ran out of the above mentioned preparations there should be a way to compensate in order to survive. For instance if you ran out of food you could probably scavenge at least something from nature just to keep from starving. And if you ran out of water you could probably find some water somewhere that could be boiled and then drank just to keep you alive. The same goes for guns and ammo. If you no longer had them in your group you could at least come up with other types of weapons to protect yourselves. And there are a whole host of ways to find shelter in a pinch. But just think, if someone in your group had an infection that required antibiotics in order for that person to survive there would be no other way to compensate for not having that antibiotic. If you need antibiotics you need antibiotics. Period. I would encourage every prepper to stock up on them now because the day may come that that would be the only thing to save your life or the life of a loved one.
Tacoma, WA city council want to add taxes to both ammunition and firearms starting January 1, 2020.
https://komonews.com/news/local/tacoma-considers-new-tax-on-guns-and-ammo
So did anyone else see the correlation between the article about Seattle banning heating oil and what their alternative is and the article about PG&E shutting off power…They want you helpless and if your not doing everything you can to counter that then you are way behind the curve…