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 the recent drop in sales of cardboard boxes. (See the Economy & Finance section.)
Precious Metals:
Gold Price To Monetary Base – A Ratio to Keep An Eye On.
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Matthew Piepenberg, at Gold-Eagle.com: Keeping Your Head Amidst Debt-Blind Madness.
Economy & Finance:
Big Drop in Cardboard Box Sales Scream Recession.
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At Zero Hedge: Usage Of Fed’s Emergency Bailout Facility Hits New High; Money-Market Inflows Continue. JWR’s Comment: The U.S. banking crisis is far from the media-pronounced “recent crisis”. It is ongoing.
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Mastercard Tells Banks to Block Marijuana Purchases.
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At the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: New Earnings: Bud Light Controversy Costs Anheuser-Busch Nearly $400 Million in Lost US Sales.
Commodities:
C.H. sent us this from CNBC: How the world went from a semiconductor shortage to a major glut.
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$85 Is Just The Beginning Of The Oil Rally.
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Reuters: Copper slips on worries about China demand, mixed U.S. data. JWR’s Comment: The futures and spot copper prices have always been key indicators of recession. Prolonged copper price weakness usually and quite reliably indicates: “Recession ahead!”
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Saudi Aramco’s Q2 Earnings Drop 38% On Lower Oil Prices.
Inflation/Deflation Watch:
Deloitte: The inflation outlook — Four scenarios for 2023-2025.
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Over at Whatfinger News: A Car Market Crash Like No Other Is Coming In August As Price Collapse Intensify.
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Bank of England: When will inflation in the UK come down?
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Gas prices hit 2023 high as oil prices spur concerns of inflation uptick.
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S&P Global: Worldwide producer price deflation gathers pace in June.
Forex & Cryptos:
New Global Reserve Currency Not Required – U.S. Dollar Losing Supremacy via Side Deals.
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At Currency Thoughts: Stronger Dollar and Higher Bond Yields Ahead of U.S. Price Data to Be Released Thursday and Friday.
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No Crypto Plans For X: Elon Musk Debunks Scam Token Claims.
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Nigerian SEC: Warning Against Investing With Binance. JWR’s Comments: Yes, it is now illegal for Nigerians to do any business with Binance. This decree is ironic, given that Nigerian scammers are widely recognized as a plague on the planet. They have primarily been preying on elderly pensioners, for decades.
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Breaking: Paypal launches PYUSD stablecoin for payment.
Tangibles Investing:
Over at WND: Gun sales go stratospheric in last four years. JWR’s Comments: Only a small portion of that 48 million figure was transfers of previously-owned guns. So, I’d estimate that at least 40 million newly-manufactured or newly-imported guns were tallied as transfers. To put that in perspective, those 40 million guns that we’ve added in just four years to our existing supply (of 392+ million!) is roughly equal to the total number of civilian guns in Germany, France, and Italy, combined. Any liberals who think that they can disarm us are dreaming.
And here is some more useful data on gun owner demographics, from a Pew Research poll.
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These Are The US Cities With The Most Vacant Offices.
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!