GoldCore

In 1983 a total of 6,840 gold bars were stolen from a high security vault in Heathrow in what is still considered to be ‘the crime of the century’.
40 years on and the gold heist is still the biggest single-theft of gold in history. What’s incredible is that the perpetrators never even expected to steal any gold. They were instead expecting to find around £3 million in cash. 
After failing to get into the targeted vault the armed robbers discovered three tons of gold bullion as well as diamonds and cash. Recorded testimony of one of the security guards recalls the delight of one of the robbers when he realises some previously looked over grey boxes contain gold bars that are ‘four nines!’ the purest of gold bullion bars. 
This weekend sees the release of the six-part drama The Gold, in the UK. The series is based on the infamous 1983 Brinks Mat heist that saw six-armed men steal over £26 million of gold bullion from the security depot at Heathrow. Today that same gold would be worth over £100 million. 
Accidental Treasure Hunting
What was supposed to be a quick smash and grab involving a few bags to help carry away £3 million in cash, soon turned into a protracted, drawn out operation. The operation ended up taking over two hours and catapulted the six men into history books as the perpetrators of the ‘crime of the century’. In many ways, the crime is still ongoing. Only half of the gold has ever been recovered. 
In total 6,840 gold bars were stolen along with cash and diamonds worth £113,000. Of course, the tale doesn’t end there. It is very difficult to make gold just ‘disappear’ and convert into far more easily hidden cash.
A trail of death and violence has followed the Brinks Mat gold for the last forty years. The gang ended up roping in a number of nefarious individuals to help them smelt and disperse the gold in order to realise some of its cash value. The proceeds from the robbery are thought to have fuelled the London Docklands property boom as well as the UK cocaine market. 
Worried about the integrity of the London Gold Market, the Bank of England had to step in and rescue the gold’s owners, the banking and gold-trading arm of Johnson Matthey, when they collapsed less than a year later. 
Our Obsession with Gold
The trailers for the BBC series have prompted many viewers to recall back to the time when the robbery had just happened. It’s fixed in many peoples’ memories; it was such a significant theft. But I wonder if a standard robbery of cash would have had the same lasting effect? I suspect not. 
There is something about gold that grabs most people’s attention. Take the robbers who stole the gold, for example. There is nothing to suggest that these were men familiar with the spot price of gold, no indication that they saw those 6,000 bars of gold and knew how much it was worth. But, they did know it was worth making the extra effort to steal, instead of trying to get at the planned £3 million in cash. 
Gold is one of the few things we have in common with ancestors from long ago. We desired it 1,000 years ago, 500 years ago, 100 years ago, and (clearly) forty years ago. Just as we do today. There are few things we instinctively know about finance and investments, but the need to own gold is one of them. 
Why Gareth Soloway is “unbelievably bullish” on gold and silver
 
This has something to do with the fact that the yellow metal has stood the test of time. Some psychologists have also postulated that we are attracted to precious metals and stones because they shine and sparkle.
Much like the reflection of the sun on the water, the most necessary resource that the human brain is designed to spot and identify. This might be one of the reasons, but I think it’s because we know that the gold our multiple-great grandfather dug up and wore proudly round his neck or exchanged for livestock and land, still exists today.
Gold is timeless. As we see from the disaster that was the aftermath of the Brinks-Mat robbery, it is near-impossible to disappear. 
In fact, it is rumoured that much of the unrecovered gold has made its way back into the gold market through various ways and means. It’s still pure gold and arguably back in its rightful place. 
Small fry in today’s money
What’s really fascinating though is that the theft of over (in today’s money) £100 million of gold was the crime of the century but of the 20th century. Because there is no way that it compares in any way to the ongoing theft that we are currently experiencing in the 21st century. 
I am, of course, referring to the inflationary efforts of central banks. 
The Bank of England inflation calculator shows that £10 in 1983 (the year of Brinks Mat robbery) would now be worth £29.95. That’s not because interest rates have been so generous or because your money has been so wisely invested. It’s because the pound is now worth three times less than it would have been worth, then. Something that cost you £10 then, would now cost you nearly £30. 
For the US Dollar, an item that cost you $10 would today cost you $29.33. A similar rate of depreciation that has occurred to the GBP. 
It’s a similar story in the Eurozone, since its launch in 1999, €10 is now worth €16.40. 
That gold today might have gone up over 5 times in price (and so arguably outperformed inflation), but we’re still talking about the same amount of gold. The thieves haven’t managed to make more gold. Instead, as time passed, gold has hugely increased in price relative to the British pound, dollar, etc. But, more importantly, it has held its value. 
Whoever has been holding onto that gold since 1983 will have stolen something that was worth around £280 per ounce, and today is worth £1,560 per ounce (at the time of writing).
 
They have the same amount of gold and it has the same amount of value, just an increased price. Yet the £3 million in cash they wanted to steal would be worth significantly less, three times less. 
When we admire how much the price of gold has gone up since the Brinks Mat robbery, we’re actually grave dancing. Because what we’re celebrating is the theft of value from fiat currencies or a loss of wealth for those who have been saving in cash and cash-based assets.
That is why the central banking antics of the 21st century will be the biggest theft of the century and we’re not even a quarter of the way through it yet. 
Looking forward to watching The Gold but no access to the BBC? It’s due out in the US later in the year, but in the meantime check out our gold short for a bit more Gold drama. 
 

In 1983 a total of 6,840 gold bars were stolen from a high security vault in Heathrow in what is still considered to be ‘the crime of the century’.
40 years on and the gold heist is still the biggest single-theft of gold in history. What’s incredible is that the perpetrators never even expected to steal any gold. They were instead expecting to find around £3 million in cash. 
After failing to get into the targeted vault the armed robbers discovered three tons of gold bullion as well as diamonds and cash. Recorded testimony of one of the security guards recalls the delight of one of the robbers when he realises some previously looked over grey boxes contain gold bars that are ‘four nines!’ the purest of gold bullion bars. 
This weekend sees the release of the six-part drama The Gold, in the UK. The series is based on the infamous 1983 Brinks Mat heist that saw six-armed men steal over £26 million of gold bullion from the security depot at Heathrow. Today that same gold would be worth over £100 million. 
Accidental Treasure Hunting
What was supposed to be a quick smash and grab involving a few bags to help carry away £3 million in cash, soon turned into a protracted, drawn out operation. The operation ended up taking over two hours and catapulted the six men into history books as the perpetrators of the ‘crime of the century’. In many ways, the crime is still ongoing. Only half of the gold has ever been recovered. 
In total 6,840 gold bars were stolen along with cash and diamonds worth £113,000. Of course, the tale doesn’t end there. It is very difficult to make gold just ‘disappear’ and convert into far more easily hidden cash.
A trail of death and violence has followed the Brinks Mat gold for the last forty years. The gang ended up roping in a number of nefarious individuals to help them smelt and disperse the gold in order to realise some of its cash value. The proceeds from the robbery are thought to have fuelled the London Docklands property boom as well as the UK cocaine market. 
Worried about the integrity of the London Gold Market, the Bank of England had to step in and rescue the gold’s owners, the banking and gold-trading arm of Johnson Matthey, when they collapsed less than a year later. 
Our Obsession with Gold
The trailers for the BBC series have prompted many viewers to recall back to the time when the robbery had just happened. It’s fixed in many peoples’ memories; it was such a significant theft. But I wonder if a standard robbery of cash would have had the same lasting effect? I suspect not. 
There is something about gold that grabs most people’s attention. Take the robbers who stole the gold, for example. There is nothing to suggest that these were men familiar with the spot price of gold, no indication that they saw those 6,000 bars of gold and knew how much it was worth. But, they did know it was worth making the extra effort to steal, instead of trying to get at the planned £3 million in cash. 
Gold is one of the few things we have in common with ancestors from long ago. We desired it 1,000 years ago, 500 years ago, 100 years ago, and (clearly) forty years ago. Just as we do today. There are few things we instinctively know about finance and investments, but the need to own gold is one of them. 
Why Gareth Soloway is “unbelievably bullish” on gold and silver
 
This has something to do with the fact that the yellow metal has stood the test of time. Some psychologists have also postulated that we are attracted to precious metals and stones because they shine and sparkle.
Much like the reflection of the sun on the water, the most necessary resource that the human brain is designed to spot and identify. This might be one of the reasons, but I think it’s because we know that the gold our multiple-great grandfather dug up and wore proudly round his neck or exchanged for livestock and land, still exists today.
Gold is timeless. As we see from the disaster that was the aftermath of the Brinks-Mat robbery, it is near-impossible to disappear. 
In fact, it is rumoured that much of the unrecovered gold has made its way back into the gold market through various ways and means. It’s still pure gold and arguably back in its rightful place. 
Small fry in today’s money
What’s really fascinating though is that the theft of over (in today’s money) £100 million of gold was the crime of the century but of the 20th century. Because there is no way that it compares in any way to the ongoing theft that we are currently experiencing in the 21st century. 
I am, of course, referring to the inflationary efforts of central banks. 
The Bank of England inflation calculator shows that £10 in 1983 (the year of Brinks Mat robbery) would now be worth £29.95. That’s not because interest rates have been so generous or because your money has been so wisely invested. It’s because the pound is now worth three times less than it would have been worth, then. Something that cost you £10 then, would now cost you nearly £30. 
For the US Dollar, an item that cost you $10 would today cost you $29.33. A similar rate of depreciation that has occurred to the GBP. 
It’s a similar story in the Eurozone, since its launch in 1999, €10 is now worth €16.40. 
That gold today might have gone up over 5 times in price (and so arguably outperformed inflation), but we’re still talking about the same amount of gold. The thieves haven’t managed to make more gold. Instead, as time passed, gold has hugely increased in price relative to the British pound, dollar, etc. But, more importantly, it has held its value. 
Whoever has been holding onto that gold since 1983 will have stolen something that was worth around £280 per ounce, and today is worth £1,560 per ounce (at the time of writing).
 
They have the same amount of gold and it has the same amount of value, just an increased price. Yet the £3 million in cash they wanted to steal would be worth significantly less, three times less. 
When we admire how much the price of gold has gone up since the Brinks Mat robbery, we’re actually grave dancing. Because what we’re celebrating is the theft of value from fiat currencies or a loss of wealth for those who have been saving in cash and cash-based assets.
That is why the central banking antics of the 21st century will be the biggest theft of the century and we’re not even a quarter of the way through it yet. 
Looking forward to watching The Gold but no access to the BBC? It’s due out in the US later in the year, but in the meantime check out our gold short for a bit more Gold drama. 
 

In 1983 a total of 6,840 gold bars were stolen from a high security vault in Heathrow in what is still considered to be ‘the crime of the century’.
40 years on and the gold heist is still the biggest single-theft of gold in history. What’s incredible is that the perpetrators never even expected to steal any gold. They were instead expecting to find around £3 million in cash. 
After failing to get into the targeted vault the armed robbers discovered three tons of gold bullion as well as diamonds and cash. Recorded testimony of one of the security guards recalls the delight of one of the robbers when he realises some previously looked over grey boxes contain gold bars that are ‘four nines!’ the purest of gold bullion bars. 
This weekend sees the release of the six-part drama The Gold, in the UK. The series is based on the infamous 1983 Brinks Mat heist that saw six-armed men steal over £26 million of gold bullion from the security depot at Heathrow. Today that same gold would be worth over £100 million. 
Accidental Treasure Hunting
What was supposed to be a quick smash and grab involving a few bags to help carry away £3 million in cash, soon turned into a protracted, drawn out operation. The operation ended up taking over two hours and catapulted the six men into history books as the perpetrators of the ‘crime of the century’. In many ways, the crime is still ongoing. Only half of the gold has ever been recovered. 
In total 6,840 gold bars were stolen along with cash and diamonds worth £113,000. Of course, the tale doesn’t end there. It is very difficult to make gold just ‘disappear’ and convert into far more easily hidden cash.
A trail of death and violence has followed the Brinks Mat gold for the last forty years. The gang ended up roping in a number of nefarious individuals to help them smelt and disperse the gold in order to realise some of its cash value. The proceeds from the robbery are thought to have fuelled the London Docklands property boom as well as the UK cocaine market. 
Worried about the integrity of the London Gold Market, the Bank of England had to step in and rescue the gold’s owners, the banking and gold-trading arm of Johnson Matthey, when they collapsed less than a year later. 
Our Obsession with Gold
The trailers for the BBC series have prompted many viewers to recall back to the time when the robbery had just happened. It’s fixed in many peoples’ memories; it was such a significant theft. But I wonder if a standard robbery of cash would have had the same lasting effect? I suspect not. 
There is something about gold that grabs most people’s attention. Take the robbers who stole the gold, for example. There is nothing to suggest that these were men familiar with the spot price of gold, no indication that they saw those 6,000 bars of gold and knew how much it was worth. But, they did know it was worth making the extra effort to steal, instead of trying to get at the planned £3 million in cash. 
Gold is one of the few things we have in common with ancestors from long ago. We desired it 1,000 years ago, 500 years ago, 100 years ago, and (clearly) forty years ago. Just as we do today. There are few things we instinctively know about finance and investments, but the need to own gold is one of them. 
Why Gareth Soloway is “unbelievably bullish” on gold and silver
 
This has something to do with the fact that the yellow metal has stood the test of time. Some psychologists have also postulated that we are attracted to precious metals and stones because they shine and sparkle.
Much like the reflection of the sun on the water, the most necessary resource that the human brain is designed to spot and identify. This might be one of the reasons, but I think it’s because we know that the gold our multiple-great grandfather dug up and wore proudly round his neck or exchanged for livestock and land, still exists today.
Gold is timeless. As we see from the disaster that was the aftermath of the Brinks-Mat robbery, it is near-impossible to disappear. 
In fact, it is rumoured that much of the unrecovered gold has made its way back into the gold market through various ways and means. It’s still pure gold and arguably back in its rightful place. 
Small fry in today’s money
What’s really fascinating though is that the theft of over (in today’s money) £100 million of gold was the crime of the century but of the 20th century. Because there is no way that it compares in any way to the ongoing theft that we are currently experiencing in the 21st century. 
I am, of course, referring to the inflationary efforts of central banks. 
The Bank of England inflation calculator shows that £10 in 1983 (the year of Brinks Mat robbery) would now be worth £29.95. That’s not because interest rates have been so generous or because your money has been so wisely invested. It’s because the pound is now worth three times less than it would have been worth, then. Something that cost you £10 then, would now cost you nearly £30. 
For the US Dollar, an item that cost you $10 would today cost you $29.33. A similar rate of depreciation that has occurred to the GBP. 
It’s a similar story in the Eurozone, since its launch in 1999, €10 is now worth €16.40. 
That gold today might have gone up over 5 times in price (and so arguably outperformed inflation), but we’re still talking about the same amount of gold. The thieves haven’t managed to make more gold. Instead, as time passed, gold has hugely increased in price relative to the British pound, dollar, etc. But, more importantly, it has held its value. 
Whoever has been holding onto that gold since 1983 will have stolen something that was worth around £280 per ounce, and today is worth £1,560 per ounce (at the time of writing).
 
They have the same amount of gold and it has the same amount of value, just an increased price. Yet the £3 million in cash they wanted to steal would be worth significantly less, three times less. 
When we admire how much the price of gold has gone up since the Brinks Mat robbery, we’re actually grave dancing. Because what we’re celebrating is the theft of value from fiat currencies or a loss of wealth for those who have been saving in cash and cash-based assets.
That is why the central banking antics of the 21st century will be the biggest theft of the century and we’re not even a quarter of the way through it yet. 
Looking forward to watching The Gold but no access to the BBC? It’s due out in the US later in the year, but in the meantime check out our gold short for a bit more Gold drama. 
 

It’s that time again when the US government has to prepare itself for an internal battle to raise the debt ceiling so it can meet various obligations. This is a merry dance that has been danced before, as we mention below.
For sure, every time it happens fewer and fewer people are convinced of the trustworthiness of the US dollar. This combined with the recent announcement by Saudi Arabia of its willingness to consider trading in currencies other than the US Dollar and the Euro suggests that the era of US Dollar hegemony may be in its final act. 
Every few years the U.S. government enters a debate over raising the National Debt Ceiling. This debate has dragged on for months in the recent past and will give the Fed a reprieve from being the center of the news for the next few months.   
The Debt Ceiling
The debt ceiling was created in 1917 under the Second Liberty Bond Act also known as the debt limit or statutory debt limit. 
The debt ceiling is set by Congress and is the maximum amount that the U.S. Treasury Department can borrow by issuing bonds and when the ceiling is reached the U.S. Treasury Department must find alternative ways to pay expenses. The debt ceiling applies to most federal government debt (i.e. government bonds and Treasury bills).
It includes both debts held by the public and what the U.S. government owes as a result of “borrowing” from various accounts such as what it has “borrowed” from the Social Security and the Medicare trust funds.     
The debt ceiling has been raised 78 times since 1960, the most recent time was in December 2021 to $31.4 trillion. 
The debt ceiling went from just under $1 trillion to nearly $3 trillion in the 1980s and has roughly doubled every decade since – the 1990s saw it at $6 trillion, then by the end of the 2000s it stood at roughly $12 trillion, etc. 
When Congress raises the debt ceiling it has a good estimate of when the ceiling will be reached so it is not a surprise that it has been reached this month.  
Gold and Silver Chart Analysis January 2023 with Patrick Karim
 
U.S. Treasury secretary Yellen has told Congress that the debt ceiling will be reached on January 19 and it will have to resort to “extraordinary measures” (using cash reserves). Also, if the debt ceiling is not raised by early June the U.S. government will not be able to pay its bills as the extraordinary measures will be exhausted.   
US Government Debt Limit
US Government Debt Limit Chart In a formal letter sent to party leaders in Congress, Ms. Yellen said the government would hit the roughly $31.4 trillion borrowing limit on Jan. 19, when the Treasury Department will begin implementing so-called extraordinary measures to manage the government’s cash flow. 
Congress raising the debt ceiling does not approve or incur any new spending, but instead, it authorizes the U.S. Treasury to borrow to pay for expenses that Congress has previously approved.
With one exception the debt ceiling was raised as an ordinary course of business by Congress before 2010. The exception was in 1995 when a debate between the then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and then President Clinton clashed over spending cuts. With that, the government was shut down for 5 days (November 14-19, 1995) before an agreement was reached. 
However, with the increasingly divided Congress over the last dozen years, the process has become increasingly drawn out and very political between the Republicans and Democrats.
This time is starting out the same with the House Republicans (who are now majority in the House) insisting that the raising of the debt ceiling comes with promises of spending cuts. And the Democrats (who control the White House and the Senate) are rejecting any type of spending cuts attached to raising the debt ceiling.     
What’s next?
In a worst-case scenario, Congress’s failure to raise the debt ceiling would put the U.S. government in default on its debts, and obligations and invoke a U.S. government shutdown. 
The standoff between the Republicans and Democrats in 2011 over the debt ceiling increase resulted in declining equity markets and a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. In August 2011 S&P downgraded the U.S. government debt from a 70-year-long triple-A rating to AA+. 
In 2013 the US government was “shut down” for 16 days from October 1 to October 17 after “extraordinary measures” were exhausted after the debt ceiling was reached in January 2013.
Republicans in Congress used the debt ceiling as a political tool, to defund the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). The standoff was resolved with the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014 – which basically ‘kicked the debate down the road’.
  Governments continue to add to their debt levels – and most likely pushing the debt ceiling debate to the limit of breaking Congress. Also, the White House will come to a resolution that will again ‘kick the can down the road’ as fiscal spending continues to rise.
However, a time will come when Congress pushes that little bit too far and faith in the U.S. dollar and debt is permanently damaged, and with so many countries already looking for alternatives to the U.S. dollar this will accelerate that momentum further. 
And both individual investors and countries will turn to gold and silver as alternatives. 
 There are clearly plenty of alternatives to the US Dollar, but they are not all equal. We argue that gold and silver are by far the superior alternatives when it comes to insuring and protecting your portfolio against the mismanagement of both currencies and other investment classes. If you are interested to hear more about how to buy gold and silver, or why gold is being bought in record amounts then check out our YouTube channel. 

Throughout 2022 Goldcore has been reminding readers that physical gold and silver investment is the best way to avoid the damaged systems run by governments. We have reminded readers that precious metals have no counterparty needed to vouch for or to approve their value, a fact which keeps them outside of the ‘system’. Next week we shall return to the ‘system’ as a topic. This week to honour the Christmas period we examine some of the reasons silver and gold have their five-thousand-year histories.

People today are less religious than in past centuries for reasons well beyond the scope of our weekly writings. Yet even today religions and wealth, and silver and gold are entwined within the minds of many. Additionally, below is a historical review covering some of the reasons why.
Gold is a central feature in most religions around the world. As one of humanity’s first discovered precious metals, it has historically held great value. Its value has been in its beauty and its scarcity. As something that held great value and beauty, it’s only natural that it would be included in the most significant aspects of human life. 
Gold in the Bible
Within the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, gold historically and presently plays a prominent role in services and ceremonies. The Bible speaks extensively about ancient Israelite ceremony and liturgy, and gold was heavily featured. In terms of Israelite worship, God commanded Moses to collect gold from the people for the construction of the sanctuary—the centre of worship. 
“This is the contribution which you are to take from them: gold, silver, and bronze…Have them construct a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.” (Exodus‬ 25‬:3‬, 8‬-9‬ NASB). 
All of the furniture items in the tabernacle, including the ark of the covenant, the table of shewbread, the menorah, and the altar of incense were overlaid with pure gold. 
Clearly, gold played a central role in the practice of worship, in ancient times. Their gold was more than merely decorative. Firstly, the gold signified God’s magnificence and holiness. As the most valuable and precious metal in the ancient world, gold was chosen to adorn the Tabernacle and the items within it as a testament of God’s majesty and glory.
The gods of other nations were also made from gold and other precious metals because everybody at that time knew what these metals represented – wealth since control over metals meant control over lands and technology. 
Gold in Judaism 
As in ancient Jewish worship where the scroll of the Torah would be beautifully adorned with gold and other precious things, the Christians would adorn the book of the Gospel with gold and other valuable jewels and metals.
The use of gold in Christian worship continued with the items in the churches such as the chalices which would hold the Holy Emblems, the seven-headed candlesticks, the dishes for oblations, and the ornate golden vestments worn by the priests and bishops. All of this is a continuation of the instructions given to Moses for worship in the Hebrew Scriptures. 
Gold’s role in Islam
The last of the three major Abrahamic religions, Islam, also utilizes gold, albeit in different ways. Islam’s primary use of gold was in Qur’anic manuscripts and in the decoration of mosques. Moreover, some 9th-century Qur’anic manuscripts began to appear with golden calligraphy.
However, there was great debate within Islamic sources as to whether such ornamentation was appropriate. Some mosques around the world are decorated with gold and contain majestic ornamentation to signify the majesty of Allah. Anything made with gold or with great beauty within Islam is meant to portray the greatness of God and inculcate a sense of awe and wonder in the worshiper. 
The Eternal Strength of Gold
As can be seen, gold has played a central role in the world’s three monotheistic religions. In each case, it has been used to communicate God’s greatness and majesty and to generate a sense of holiness and wonder in the believer. Human beings have always made a connection between gold and the divine, likely because of its splendour, brightness, and value.
Perhaps the greatest human connection to gold and silver comes from the permanence of eternity. Since the metals are very stable chemically, they never rust, never lose their shine, and don’t chemically change into something else.
Those features of course are direct variants to the birth, ageing, decline and death of humans. We see in these metals a permanence we cannot possess but understand the value of permanence for safety and wealth.
Gold, Rate Hikes and The Central Bank Illusion?
 
In the centuries before this one silver and gold were ever-present as permanent and eternal objects. They served society as reminders of human generations both gone and to come. Perhaps nothing has really changed? 
Silver and gold still silently remind us that the schemes and money printing of our generation cannot sustain future generations and was rejected by prior generations.
This is why here at GoldCore we have been proud to help nearly 15,000 customers to buy gold and silver bullion so that they can insure their portfolios against systemic risks. Moreover, we are not offering anything new, just gold and silver. The two assets that have been trusted for over 5,000 years, around the globe. 

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy 2023, from the GoldCore Team. 
If Christmas movies, mince pies and presents get to be too much, why not settle down in front of GoldCore TV, our YouTube channel here to help you make sense of the precious metals markets, so you can make better investment decisions. We’ve got some great interviews and analysis. Including Central Bank gold buying in 2022 and this analysis of gold ratios in 2023. 
What Gold Ratios Suggest for 2023?
 
 

Laurence J. Peter said,
Right now we think this might be the motto that helps central bankers sleep at night. Terrifying as that may seem, investors do not have to just “wait-and-see” what impact central bank policies will have on their portfolios. Gold and silver are excellent ways to hold assets outside of the financial system and to add a level of insurance to your portfolio, that no other asset can provide. 
The Fed’s statement released this week was little changed from the November statement – and continues to say it sees additional increases into next year. However, the Fed’s updated projections show that slower growth and higher unemployment somehow equal still higher inflation and a higher fed funds rate.
Gold and silver both declined when the statement first came out but then rose to finish the day virtually flat – after rising sharply yesterday on softer U.S. Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) data.  
Gold Price Chart Moreover, data released yesterday show that both Total and Core CPI data declined from the peak earlier this year. The year-over-year increase in Total CPI came in at 7.1% in November down from a peak of 9.1% in June, Core CPI increased 6.0% year-over-year in November, down from a peak of 6.6% in September. 
US Consumer Price Inflation Chart Is inflation on a sustained downward path?
It is not only actual inflation that is showing signs of easing, but inflation expectations have also eased substantially, both market indicators and consumer survey indicators and even wage growth is rolling over. 
However, yet somehow Chair Powell says that’s not enough. Additionally, in his opening statement of the press conference, he stated that the Fed needs “substantially more evidence that inflation is on a sustained downward path”. 
He went on to say that the Fed has raised the Federal Funds Rate by 4.25% but that more tightening will likely be necessary to bring inflation down to the 2% target. Also, according to the Fed’s projections, they think that it will take more tightening than they thought at the September meeting – to the tune of .75% total increases next year vs the previously projected .25%.
It seems counterintuitive and counterproductive that the Fed now projects higher inflation and a higher Fed funds rate… than it did in September; but raised the fed funds rate by only .50% this month, vs the .75% back in September.    
Top 5 Gold Buyers’ Motives Revealed
  Chair Powell’s explanation was that the focus has changed from the speed/pace of the increases to the ultimate level of the fed funds rate, and then how long the Fed will remain restrictive. Interpretation: the Fed has no idea how fast or how high to raise rates, they will reassess at the next meeting in February.   
The Fed started raising rates later than the data suggested – behind the curve of inflation going up, and now they are slow to recognize that inflation is declining, economic growth is slowing and the labour market is not as strong as it appears from the job openings numbers. 
The Fed has reached peak hawkishness
Our view is the Fed has reached “peak hawkishness” and that the Fed will start on the lagged downward revisions in their projections. 
And this is not to say that inflation will go back to pre-covid lows – as we have stated many times before higher inflation is likely for many years to come. See our post on January 28, 2021 Gold, The Tried-and-True Inflation Hedge for What’s Coming! And as our post-Fed will collapse the economy and be forced to pivot after last month’s meeting suggested a higher inflation target could be in the future.
Powell of course denied this as a course of action but did slip and say that the Fed could look at this as a longer-run project.
What does all this central banker lingo mean for physical metals investors?  Well, today’s inconsistencies of logic prove that: one – the Fed is ‘winging it’ and always has been… two – owning physical metal remains a great way to avoid becoming trapped in these crazy banker leverage games.
Moreover, gold and silver don’t rely on anyone or anything for their validation as wealth. While central bankers constantly must seek validation from politicians and levered speculators in alternating turns. Today once again proves it best to simply avoid riding their merry-go-round.
The gold price is one thing, but have you looked at the gold price ratios? And what about central bank purchases of gold bullion? Both of these are brilliant indicators around not only future price movements, but also ongoing sentiment for physical gold. Check out our gold-price ratio and central banks buy gold videos, here. 

Which of these central banks have set records this year?
China India Turkey Iran  This is actually a trick question as the answer is all of them. That’s right they have all been part of an enormous central bank push to move away from the US Dollar and add more gold to their respective coffers. 
The not-so-surprising ‘surprise’ on that list is China, who just last week revealed themselves to be the big gold buyer so many have been wondering about, for the last few months. 
It’s long been known that China is making moves away from the dollar, but this news combined with record purchases from other central banks suggests that there is change afoot. 
Join Dave Russell as he discusses central bank gold purchases, and the motives behind them. 

Are you feeling a bit confused about how the gold price has fared this year? Below we lay it all out for you, and compare it across different currencies as well as asset classes. 
The true performance of the 2022 gold price
Gold and silver prices have been rising since early November. After setting a high for the year in early March, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, gold was on a declining trend in US dollar terms until early November. In other currencies, gold has fared better and trended sideways since May.  For the majority of the year, gold and silver prices faced stiff headwinds of tightening monetary policy, rapidly rising interest rates, and a surging US dollar.
Gold price In various currencies chart But with expectations that central banks are set to slow the pace of increases, and the resultant rollover in the US dollar, gold and silver prices have started to climb again. Other asset classes have also turned upward – notably US equity markets. The change in momentum is a good time to provide an update of gold price correlation to other asset classes. (We first introduced many of these charts in our post on July 29, 2021, How Gold Stacks up Against Stocks, Property, Commodities, and Big Macs!)
Gold and equity markets
As a reminder, the long-term correlation of the gold price to equity markets is zero, which means that there is not a clear relationship between gold and the S&P 500. In other words, there is not general rule that shows if the S&P 500 increases in a twelve month span then gold is likely to increase, or decrease.

In shorter time frames the historical experience is different. Certain specific short time frames, such as at the beginning of a recession, gold prices and the S&P 500 index both decrease. And in times of significant war or geopolitical events, the gold price generally rises, and the S&P 500 declines. 
Having said all that; we can see from the below chart a cyclical pattern to gold and the S&P 500 as a ratio. The peaks in the ratio shown below signaled a peak in the gold price and the trough (bottom) of this ratio in 1999-2000 signaled a cyclical peak in the S&P 500. The ratio appears to have formed a bottom in December 2021 when the S&P 500 set its new high and has been increasing since. This indicates that a new high for gold could be on the horizon!     
Gold to S&P 500 index chart The gold price ratio to the broader MSCI World Equity Index shows a very similar pattern as the ratio between the gold price and the S&P 500. 
Gold MSCI World Equity Index Chart However, taking a look at the gold price in sterling to the UK’s FTSE 100 Index shows a different pattern. Since 2013 the ratio has been moving higher. Two key reasons are that the FTSE had less of a run up from 2020 to the end of 2021 and gold has performed better in Pounds than the US dollar (see the first chart).   
Gold to UK FTSE Equity Index Chart Gold and commodities
Turning to the gold price ratio to two key commodities, wheat and oil, we can see from the charts below that the ratio has returned to the average. 
The ratio of the gold price to wheat is stable and trading within a rising band from 2010 through 2020. Then higher prices of wheat due to the supply shortage has this ratio back at the longer-term average, however. 
Gold to Wheat The gold price to oil ratio shows that neither commodity has had the upper hand for long. There is not a clear cyclical pattern to the ratio, which makes sense as each has an important role that the other cannot fill, the spikes in oil price are generally oil supply specific. 
Gold to Oil Chart Gold and the housing market
The last ratio is the gold price, again in sterling, to the UK house price index. House prices have been a good store of value. However, the relationship continues to be surprisingly similar to the gold price ratio with the S&P 500 and MSCI indices. 
Gold to House Price Index Chart Why should the gold to housing relationship have more in common with gold to stocks than with gold to oil?  Our answer is leverage. As we see stocks and housing are far easier to own with borrowed money [or newly printed money] than is a barrel of oil. Said another way; stocks and housing are connected by virtue of how they both benefit from lower interest rates and both do poorly in rising interest rate environments.
Invest in gold to protect yourself in 2023
Gold, like oil, is far more outside the financial leverage system which has overrun all of us since 1971. Stay away from other people’s leverage since it could drag your investments down with them. Physical metals are a great way to insulate yourself from risky bets made by other people.
If you would like to hear more gold and silver market analysis or would prefer to watch this in video format, then click here to see our YouTube channel. Here we have a great selection of interviews, analysis and commentary on the gold and silver markets. 
 

Are you feeling a bit confused about how the gold price has fared this year? Below we lay it all out for you, and compare it across different currencies as well as asset classes. 
The true performance of the 2022 gold price
Gold and silver prices have been rising since early November. After setting a high for the year in early March, soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, gold was on a declining trend in US dollar terms until early November. In other currencies, gold has fared better and trended sideways since May.  For the majority of the year, gold and silver prices faced stiff headwinds of tightening monetary policy, rapidly rising interest rates, and a surging US dollar.
Gold price In various currencies chart But with expectations that central banks are set to slow the pace of increases, and the resultant rollover in the US dollar, gold and silver prices have started to climb again. Other asset classes have also turned upward – notably US equity markets. The change in momentum is a good time to provide an update of gold price correlation to other asset classes. (We first introduced many of these charts in our post on July 29, 2021, How Gold Stacks up Against Stocks, Property, Commodities, and Big Macs!)
Gold and equity markets
As a reminder, the long-term correlation of the gold price to equity markets is zero, which means that there is not a clear relationship between gold and the S&P 500. In other words, there is not general rule that shows if the S&P 500 increases in a twelve month span then gold is likely to increase, or decrease.

In shorter time frames the historical experience is different. Certain specific short time frames, such as at the beginning of a recession, gold prices and the S&P 500 index both decrease. And in times of significant war or geopolitical events, the gold price generally rises, and the S&P 500 declines. 
Having said all that; we can see from the below chart a cyclical pattern to gold and the S&P 500 as a ratio. The peaks in the ratio shown below signaled a peak in the gold price and the trough (bottom) of this ratio in 1999-2000 signaled a cyclical peak in the S&P 500. The ratio appears to have formed a bottom in December 2021 when the S&P 500 set its new high and has been increasing since. This indicates that a new high for gold could be on the horizon!     
Gold to S&P 500 index chart The gold price ratio to the broader MSCI World Equity Index shows a very similar pattern as the ratio between the gold price and the S&P 500. 
Gold MSCI World Equity Index Chart However, taking a look at the gold price in sterling to the UK’s FTSE 100 Index shows a different pattern. Since 2013 the ratio has been moving higher. Two key reasons are that the FTSE had less of a run up from 2020 to the end of 2021 and gold has performed better in Pounds than the US dollar (see the first chart).   
Gold to UK FTSE Equity Index Chart Gold and commodities
Turning to the gold price ratio to two key commodities, wheat and oil, we can see from the charts below that the ratio has returned to the average. 
The ratio of the gold price to wheat is stable and trading within a rising band from 2010 through 2020. Then higher prices of wheat due to the supply shortage has this ratio back at the longer-term average, however. 
Gold to Wheat The gold price to oil ratio shows that neither commodity has had the upper hand for long. There is not a clear cyclical pattern to the ratio, which makes sense as each has an important role that the other cannot fill, the spikes in oil price are generally oil supply specific. 
Gold to Oil Chart Gold and the housing market
The last ratio is the gold price, again in sterling, to the UK house price index. House prices have been a good store of value. However, the relationship continues to be surprisingly similar to the gold price ratio with the S&P 500 and MSCI indices. 
Gold to House Price Index Chart Why should the gold to housing relationship have more in common with gold to stocks than with gold to oil?  Our answer is leverage. As we see stocks and housing are far easier to own with borrowed money [or newly printed money] than is a barrel of oil. Said another way; stocks and housing are connected by virtue of how they both benefit from lower interest rates and both do poorly in rising interest rate environments.
Invest in gold to protect yourself in 2023
Gold, like oil, is far more outside the financial leverage system which has overrun all of us since 1971. Stay away from other people’s leverage since it could drag your investments down with them. Physical metals are a great way to insulate yourself from risky bets made by other people.
If you would like to hear more gold and silver market analysis or would prefer to watch this in video format, then click here to see our YouTube channel. Here we have a great selection of interviews, analysis and commentary on the gold and silver markets. 
 

When you invest in gold or buy silver coins with GoldCore you are choosing to invest in an asset that has no counterparty risk.

Sadly those who have been holding their bitcoin on the crypto exchange FTX, have not experienced the same level of reassurance and service from the exchange’s management.
This event is all part of a much wider lesson about which assets really are safe havens. Also how to reduce the level of counterparty risk your investment portfolio is exposed to. 
This time last year, cryptocurrency enthusiasts were still touting “Crypto as the new gold”– crypto touted as having the same ‘safe’ attributes as gold.
The main attribute is that it is a currency that government doesn’t control. Also, it is without counterparty risk. The latest debacle has once more proved this is not always the case for cryptocurrencies.
The news that the crypto exchange FTX was filing for bankruptcy on November 5 sent Bitcoin plunging down a further 25%.
This is on top of the more than 60% Bitcoin has already declined since its November 2021 peak. This brings the total decline to more than 75%.
Bitcoin Chart The extent of the collapse and its fallout is still unfolding as more details are uncovered. The main risk goes back to one we have discussed many times before counterparty risk.
What Happens to your Bitcoin as FTX Collapses
The FTX collapse has brought to light that the CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, had authorized billions of dollars worth of customer assets to be lent to its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research to fund risky bets.
According to news reports Alameda Research owes FTX upwards of US$10 billion. This is more than half of its US$16 billion in customer assets!
The bankruptcy case is likely to take years to unravel. There could be more than one million creditors, and more than 100 other related corporate entities involved.
Everyone who thought they owned Bitcoin held by FTX became an unsecured bankruptcy creditor. These are the ones who must now rely upon some Court to confirm just how much, or any Bitcoin they will receive.
FTX is not the first crypto exchange to collapse – Mt. Gox, which accounted for over 75% of all Bitcoin transactions until it filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after being hacked. Hundreds of thousands of bitcoins were lost (removed from the network).
Some of these coins later recovered but withdrawals from the exchange were already stopped. It wasn’t until seven and a half years later, in November 2021, creditors and the court reached an agreement. 
The FTX web of deceit and ‘poor judgment’ in Mr. Bankman-Fried’s words, goes much deeper and is far more convoluted than the Mt. Gox bankruptcy.
Is the Dollar About To Go Digital?
Along the same lines of digital currency and counterparty risk, the Federal Reserve of New York announced on November 15 that it is “Facilitating Wholesale Digital Asset Settlement”.
The Federal Reserve of New York and a dozen major banks are launching a twelve-week test of a digital dollar. A news release on the Federal Reserve of New York website states that the test is to determine the feasibility experiment as a ‘proof-of-concept’ of transactions using a digital US dollar.
The twelve-week program will simulate digital money transactions between the participating bank customers. It then settles the transactions through a simulated Fed Reserve distributed ledger.
The experiment of ‘digital dollar tokens’ through the test program titled “The Regulated Liability Network” by banks through the Federal Reserve is to bring blockchain technology to the ‘real economy’ and speed up settlements between banks and the central bank. The FRBNY states: 
In a 12-week proof-of-concept project—the Regulated Liability Network U.S. Pilot—the NYIC will experiment with the concept of a regulated liability Network (RLN). RLN is a concept for a financial market infrastructure (FMI) facilitating digital asset transactions. This connects deposits held at regulated financial institutions using distributed ledger technology.
  How a Shortage of Rare Earth Metals Will Impact Us All
 
While the Regulated Liability Network could be an alternative to unregulated cryptocurrencies the potential fresh problems to arise are obvious given the transaction ledger is likely transparent for FRBNY purposes. 
Only time will tell if the timing of the test (on the heels of the FTX collapse) is simply ‘bad timing’ or an omen of a system building in even more risk. Investing in physical gold and silver are still the tried-and-true alternative!  
If you would like to hear more about the benefits to investing in gold or buying silver coins then have a look at our YouTube Channel, GoldCore TV. Here we bring you a wealth of news, commentary and analysis of the precious metals markets, as well as the wider macroeconomic situation.  

Football, love it or hate it, will dominate news outlets and Zoom small talk for the next month. Both the sport and the politics have entered the debating arenas, but there has been little mention of the whopping prize fund.
Yes, football is one of the world’s largest industries, but is the prize fund just because of the World Cup’s popularity, or is it really not so huge when you consider what has happened to the value of money? No wonder the solid gold trophy is the world’s most sought-after.
For this post, we take a break from the usual and discuss something near to many sports fans’ hearts – the FIFA World Cup!
Moreover, the World Cup will dominate sports fan attention spans over the next month. The opening match of the 2022 event was on November 20; Ecuador defeated the host country Qatar, which was the first time a host nation lost in the opening match.
It was also Qatar’s World Cup debut. It involves 32 teams at 6 different stadiums for a total of 64 matches. This will conclude with the championship game on December 18.  In addition to the pure gold trophy, the winning team will be awarded $42 million in prize money.
  Additionally, the trophy will be passed to the winning team from France, the 2018 winner. The trophy stands at 36.5 cm tall with a weight of only 6.2 kg, with approximately 2kg of that weight the malachite discs at the bottom.
The roughly 4.2 kg of gold would place the metal value (at US$235,000 at today’s price of gold. Amazingly 11 times the US$21,000 cost of that gold in 1974 when the current trophy was made.
Keep in mind this is the gold price only, the trophy’s estimate cost US$50,000 to make. Also, the estimated value has grown exponentially to more than that US$20 million making it the most valuable trophy in the world.
Correlation between The FIFA World Cup and Gold
It is not only the value of the gold in the trophy that has increased over the last 48 years, but the total prize money for the FIFA World Cup has also increased substantially. As mentioned above, the winning team will get $42 million in prize money this year.
Each of the other 31 teams that participate are also awarded prize money. A total of US$440 million is being awarded this year. In addition, each team is awarded money for preparation, a club benefit programme, and a club protection programme (i.e., player’s insurance). This all adds up to a total prize money fund of US$1 billion, compared to the 2018 total of US$791 million.
The total prize money was $20 million in 1982. This was when FIFA first officially announced how much prize money each team would receive.
The increase in the Total Prize Money of US$209 million from the 2018 World Cup to this year’s US$1 billion total amount was the largest increase in actual dollars. However, in percentage terms, it was the smallest increase between events since the official prize was announced in 1982.
The largest percentage increase was the more than doubling (108% increase) from the 1982 World Cup held in Spain to the 1986 World Cup held in Mexico.

Moreover, there are 40 years between 1982 and 2022. During this time the prize pool grew from US$20 million to US$1 billion. If we calculate the annual rate of compound growth for something. This was over 40 years growing from 20 to 1,000 million, we get a 10.27% annual rate of growth.
Maybe this 10.27% inflation rate is a better representation of cost inflation than the government produced inflation indices?  No one could ever definitively answer this question but it’s a great thing to ponder once your team exits (or wins!!) the tourney.
Correlation between The World Cup and Inflation
Come to think of this the 10.27% annual World Cup inflation rate is kind of close to the 7.96% inflation rate. If we calculate the price of gold over an even longer time frame.
Here is our math; gold was US$35 in 1971, and today gold is US$1740 in 2022 being 51 years later. 7.96% was the true inflation figure and growing broadcast rights explain the 2.31% extra growth in World Cup prize money.
Sporting prizes and salaries usually have much to do with business plans for broadcast growth. These do not directly link to official government inflation statistics. Yet to note that World Cup Total Prize packages grew at 10.27% annually. While the World Bank’s world consumer price inflation index has increased on average only half that amount at 5.32% since 1982.
How a Shortage of Rare Earth Metals Will Impact Us All
 
Those inflation rates seem very similar to us if you back out the growth in footie as the most popular human game. So, remember to go for gold by owning physical metals.
Bored of football talk? Worry not. We have a whole channel that has absolutely nothing to do with football, for you to enjoy. Check out GoldCore TV. Here we have a great selection of gold and silver market analysis, commentary and interviews. Great for those who fancy a break from football.

When you invest in gold or buy silver coins with GoldCore you are choosing to invest in an asset that has no counterparty risk.

Sadly those who have been holding their bitcoin on the crypto exchange FTX, have not experienced the same level of reassurance and service from the exchange’s management.
This event is all part of a much wider lesson about which assets really are safe havens. Also how to reduce the level of counterparty risk your investment portfolio is exposed to. 
This time last year, cryptocurrency enthusiasts were still touting “Crypto as the new gold”– crypto touted as having the same ‘safe’ attributes as gold.
The main attribute is that it is a currency that government doesn’t control. Also, it is without counterparty risk. The latest debacle has once more proved this is not always the case for cryptocurrencies.
The news that the crypto exchange FTX was filing for bankruptcy on November 5 sent Bitcoin plunging down a further 25%.
This is on top of the more than 60% Bitcoin has already declined since its November 2021 peak. This brings the total decline to more than 75%.
Bitcoin Chart The extent of the collapse and its fallout is still unfolding as more details are uncovered. The main risk goes back to one we have discussed many times before counterparty risk.
What Happens to your Bitcoin as FTX Collapses
The FTX collapse has brought to light that the CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, had authorized billions of dollars worth of customer assets to be lent to its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research to fund risky bets.
According to news reports Alameda Research owes FTX upwards of US$10 billion. This is more than half of its US$16 billion in customer assets!
The bankruptcy case is likely to take years to unravel. There could be more than one million creditors, and more than 100 other related corporate entities involved.
Everyone who thought they owned Bitcoin held by FTX became an unsecured bankruptcy creditor. These are the ones who must now rely upon some Court to confirm just how much, or any Bitcoin they will receive.
FTX is not the first crypto exchange to collapse – Mt. Gox, which accounted for over 75% of all Bitcoin transactions until it filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after being hacked. Hundreds of thousands of bitcoins were lost (removed from the network).
Some of these coins later recovered but withdrawals from the exchange were already stopped. It wasn’t until seven and a half years later, in November 2021, creditors and the court reached an agreement. 
The FTX web of deceit and ‘poor judgment’ in Mr. Bankman-Fried’s words, goes much deeper and is far more convoluted than the Mt. Gox bankruptcy.
Is the Dollar About To Go Digital?
Along the same lines of digital currency and counterparty risk, the Federal Reserve of New York announced on November 15 that it is “Facilitating Wholesale Digital Asset Settlement”.
The Federal Reserve of New York and a dozen major banks are launching a twelve-week test of a digital dollar. A news release on the Federal Reserve of New York website states that the test is to determine the feasibility experiment as a ‘proof-of-concept’ of transactions using a digital US dollar.
The twelve-week program will simulate digital money transactions between the participating bank customers. It then settles the transactions through a simulated Fed Reserve distributed ledger.
The experiment of ‘digital dollar tokens’ through the test program titled “The Regulated Liability Network” by banks through the Federal Reserve is to bring blockchain technology to the ‘real economy’ and speed up settlements between banks and the central bank. The FRBNY states: 
In a 12-week proof-of-concept project—the Regulated Liability Network U.S. Pilot—the NYIC will experiment with the concept of a regulated liability Network (RLN). RLN is a concept for a financial market infrastructure (FMI) facilitating digital asset transactions. This connects deposits held at regulated financial institutions using distributed ledger technology.
  How a Shortage of Rare Earth Metals Will Impact Us All
 
While the Regulated Liability Network could be an alternative to unregulated cryptocurrencies the potential fresh problems to arise are obvious given the transaction ledger is likely transparent for FRBNY purposes. 
Only time will tell if the timing of the test (on the heels of the FTX collapse) is simply ‘bad timing’ or an omen of a system building in even more risk. Investing in physical gold and silver are still the tried-and-true alternative!  
If you would like to hear more about the benefits to investing in gold or buying silver coins then have a look at our YouTube Channel, GoldCore TV. Here we bring you a wealth of news, commentary and analysis of the precious metals markets, as well as the wider macroeconomic situation.  

The US midterms have not produced the ‘red tsunami’ so many political commentators predicted. But the Democrats could still lose the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate, as well. The implications this could have on policy making could be dramatic.
Even if the swell of red is more of a ripple than a wave, politicians will be forced to sit up and take note of what is frustrating voters right now: the economy. Exit polls showed that the economy and inflation were voters’ biggest worries. This will have benefited Republicans and will influence not only the next couple of years in US politics, but also the next election. The swing to the right might not be here just yet but it’s likely to be on its way. Read on to see what this could mean for gold and silver prices. 
The pendulum is swinging to the right in US Politics … which potentially puts the Fed on a tighter leash.
National surveys show that the main issues on voter’s minds are soaring inflation, fear of recession, and excessive government spending.
Republicans have yet to reform their agenda but are finding victory in ranting about the high crime rates, rising prices – especially at the pump and grocery store, and excessive government spending. US voters are choosing any alternative to the incumbents.
This swing in the pendulum to the right also sets up a possible Republican Presidential victory in 2024. President Trump on November 7, the very eve of midterm elections, said that he doesn’t want to detract from midterms but that he is going to ‘make a big announcement on November 15th. Could it be that Trump will be seeking Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election? 
Implications for Gold and Silver
There are two key implications of the swing to the right, for the gold and silver market. Both revolve around the Fed and monetary policy. The first is increased central banking alongside renewed calls for the Fed to have less independence in ‘freely printing money’ and the second is renewed calls for a return to the gold standard. 
Once the election dust settles the Republicans won’t have Democrats to blame anymore for the state of the economy so their attention will surely turn to the Federal Reserve’s role in distorting the markets by holding interest rates too low on top of non-stop money printing for the last 15 years.
And remember that the drop in bond prices has made the Fed’s own balance sheet look like a loser. See our post on October 27 Is Central Banks’ License to Print Money about to Expire? 
The Republicans are, of course, not alone in criticizing the Fed when times get tough. As Democrat chances of maintaining control of Congress slipped over the last several weeks some Democrats also turned on the Fed.
 Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) sent a letter to Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell, urging the central bank to ease up on its back-to-back interest-rate hikes until it’s clear how drastically those decisions affect the economy this year and next
  And earlier this week, Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) cautioned the Fed against triggering unnecessary consequences for the labor market, which reliably weakens in a slowing or contracting economy.
Those calls, which echo earlier concerns from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), reflect growing criticism among left-leaning economists and Fed watchers who say the central bank is going too far and risks overcorrecting and pushing the economy into a recession (Msn.com, 10/27/2022).
The difference is that Republicans don’t just send letters to the Fed Chair urging them to comply with what they think is best. Instead, Republican lawmakers will put forth notions and bills to audit and/or abolish the Fed. 
The second implication for gold and silver is an increased support to reinstate the Gold Standard. On this front, US Representative Alex Mooney has already got the ball rolling. On October 9, 2022, he introduced HR9157 – the Gold Standard Restoration Act, which states (in part): 
The Federal Reserve note has lost more than 30 percent of its purchasing power since 2000, and 97 percent of its purchasing power since the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Under the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent inflation objective, the dollar loses half of its purchasing power every generation, or 35 years …
The American economy needs a stable dollar, fixed exchange rates, and money supply controlled by the market, not the government …
The gold standard puts control of the money supply with the market instead of the Federal Reserve, discourages excessive deficit spending, and encourages the balancing of Federal budgets …
Physical gold and silver continue to be good investments!
The Gold Standard Restoration Act specifically proposes to define the Federal Reserve note dollar in terms of gold.
Not later than 30 months after the date of the enactment of this Act the Secretary of the Treasury shall define the Federal Reserve note [dollar] in terms of a fixed weight of gold, based on that day’s closing market price of gold; Federal Reserve banks shall make Federal Reserve notes redeemable for and exchangeable with gold at the fixed price and create processes that facilitate such redemptions and exchanges between member banks and the public. (bolding added).
To be sure, bill HR9157 – the Gold Standard Restoration Act was, as they say, dead on arrival, however as the pendulum swings over the next two years these kinds of bills along with others limiting Fed reach are very likely to become more popular. 
Bottomline: Physical gold and silver continue to be good investments!
If you want to take a bit more time out of your day to learn about the fallout from loose monetary policy then why not look at our YouTube channel, GoldCore TV. Here we have a wealth of in depth interviews with market experts, leading commentators and best selling authors. From the energy crisis to US Debt to China’s move to a digital currency, we have plenty to keep you informed and up-to-date.
How a Shortage of Rare Earth Metals Will Impact Us All
 
 

Yesterday the Fed hiked rates. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. For gold and silver investors it was yet another great opportunity to remind ourselves why we invest in gold bars or buy silver coins - because central banks are predictable.

They do not have perfect economic knowledge, they do not create long-term value and they are always reacting to the consequences of their poor decisions. Of course gold and silver are in high demand right now - precious metals are one of the few remaining ways to keep out of the way of central banks decisions and to protect your wealth. 
 
The Federal Reserve raised the fed funds rate by a further 75 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4.00%, as expected this week. And the statement had hints of a possible pivot – or slowing of rate increases.  Citing the slowing of global activity and mentioning “the committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and financial developments”, the Fed gave faint hope to bond and equity investors. Markets took the statement as a dovish sign and rallied. Gold rallied too, for a moment. 
But then in what one Bloomberg commentator called a ’bait and switch’….  “Like a reproving parent, the Federal Reserve chairman quickly put the kibosh on any budding euphoria his comments about monitoring the lagged effect of interest rate policy might have provoked.”
 
Powell then went on to reiterate that “rates are going up” adding “probably more than people thought.”
 
After the initial surge markets sank – to finish far lower. The S&P 500 index surged 1% - then closed the day down 2.5% - its steepest drop since mid-October. 
Markets are looking for central banks to pivot to easier policy – which we think they will do next year as economic growth weakens and unemployment surges, but we also propose that there is an additional pivot on the horizon which is far more important for our readers – that the inflation target rate itself will ‘pivot’ higher.

Please take a moment to reread our primer on inflation target rates  from May 26 – Did Central Banks arrive at their Target Inflation Rate by Mere Fluke? As economic activity wanes, house prices fall, equity markets drop and mortgage rates rise - we remind readers that the 2% rate inflation target was set by a fluke.
Central bankers are, of course, denying that they are even thinking about doubling the inflation target from 2% to 4% – but central bankers change their messaging often. Remember it was last year at this time rates were still at near zero and central banks were trying to convince the world that high inflation rates were completely ‘transitory’ and we would be back to 2% levels by now.  
A higher target inflation rate could end up being the central banker ‘get out of jail free card’. It enables central banks to pause rate hikes while inflation remains high as economic activity weakens and housing prices fall – and it also benefits governments by inflating away some of the massive debt loads that have built up through years of overspending.
This pivot could play out as a ‘temporary’ increase in the inflation target rate. Again, going back to last year, central banks were also proclaiming the message that inflation could run above target for some time since it had been below the inflation target for many years.
Some inflationary pressures have abated – supply chains are being restored for example. However, others are long lasting new policies, such as ‘friend-shoring’ aka protectionist policies – no matter the name, the resulting higher prices are a new reality. Another source of higher inflation for years to come is the move to renewable and sustainable energy. New price hikes are coming as the technologies are developed but the commodities needed are in short supply.        
One might ask why governments would support central banks increasing the targeted rate of inflation – the simple answer: governments like to spend more than they have which has led to massive debt levels. One way to reduce these massive debt levels – higher inflation!

The only other way to reduce debt levels is financial repression and austerity. The problem with austerity is that governments choosing this route are quickly voted out of office. See our post from March 4 Central Banks Still Do “Whatever It Takes”! for more on government options on reducing massive debt levels.
Bottom line: The Fed Still Has No Idea What’s Coming Next, which was the headline to our March post after the Fed raised the fed funds rate for the first time this year.

Finally we remind readers that no central banker can inflate five pounds of gold into ten pounds of gold. Paper currency is inflated at a pace controlled by the government. One of the best reasons to own physical metals is storing wealth outside a system which is built on debt and government promise.
 
If you’re keen to hear more about FOMC actions, or the wider macro-economic landscape then have a look at our YouTube Channel, GoldCore TV. This week we discussed access to rare earths and how the West’s energy supply hangs in the balance. See the conversation with Dr Stephen Leeb, here. 

Yesterday the Fed hiked rates. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. For gold and silver investors it was yet another great opportunity to remind ourselves why we invest in gold bars or buy silver coins - because central banks are predictable.

They do not have perfect economic knowledge, they do not create long-term value and they are always reacting to the consequences of their poor decisions. Of course gold and silver are in high demand right now - precious metals are one of the few remaining ways to keep out of the way of central banks decisions and to protect your wealth. 
 
The Federal Reserve raised the fed funds rate by a further 75 basis points to a range of 3.75% to 4.00%, as expected this week. And the statement had hints of a possible pivot – or slowing of rate increases.  Citing the slowing of global activity and mentioning “the committee will take into account the cumulative tightening of monetary policy, the lags with which monetary policy affects economic activity and inflation, and financial developments”, the Fed gave faint hope to bond and equity investors. Markets took the statement as a dovish sign and rallied. Gold rallied too, for a moment. 
But then in what one Bloomberg commentator called a ’bait and switch’….  “Like a reproving parent, the Federal Reserve chairman quickly put the kibosh on any budding euphoria his comments about monitoring the lagged effect of interest rate policy might have provoked.”
 
Powell then went on to reiterate that “rates are going up” adding “probably more than people thought.”
 
After the initial surge markets sank – to finish far lower. The S&P 500 index surged 1% - then closed the day down 2.5% - its steepest drop since mid-October. 
Markets are looking for central banks to pivot to easier policy – which we think they will do next year as economic growth weakens and unemployment surges, but we also propose that there is an additional pivot on the horizon which is far more important for our readers – that the inflation target rate itself will ‘pivot’ higher.

Please take a moment to reread our primer on inflation target rates  from May 26 – Did Central Banks arrive at their Target Inflation Rate by Mere Fluke? As economic activity wanes, house prices fall, equity markets drop and mortgage rates rise - we remind readers that the 2% rate inflation target was set by a fluke.
Central bankers are, of course, denying that they are even thinking about doubling the inflation target from 2% to 4% – but central bankers change their messaging often. Remember it was last year at this time rates were still at near zero and central banks were trying to convince the world that high inflation rates were completely ‘transitory’ and we would be back to 2% levels by now.  
A higher target inflation rate could end up being the central banker ‘get out of jail free card’. It enables central banks to pause rate hikes while inflation remains high as economic activity weakens and housing prices fall – and it also benefits governments by inflating away some of the massive debt loads that have built up through years of overspending.
This pivot could play out as a ‘temporary’ increase in the inflation target rate. Again, going back to last year, central banks were also proclaiming the message that inflation could run above target for some time since it had been below the inflation target for many years.
Some inflationary pressures have abated – supply chains are being restored for example. However, others are long lasting new policies, such as ‘friend-shoring’ aka protectionist policies – no matter the name, the resulting higher prices are a new reality. Another source of higher inflation for years to come is the move to renewable and sustainable energy. New price hikes are coming as the technologies are developed but the commodities needed are in short supply.        
One might ask why governments would support central banks increasing the targeted rate of inflation – the simple answer: governments like to spend more than they have which has led to massive debt levels. One way to reduce these massive debt levels – higher inflation!

The only other way to reduce debt levels is financial repression and austerity. The problem with austerity is that governments choosing this route are quickly voted out of office. See our post from March 4 Central Banks Still Do “Whatever It Takes”! for more on government options on reducing massive debt levels.
Bottom line: The Fed Still Has No Idea What’s Coming Next, which was the headline to our March post after the Fed raised the fed funds rate for the first time this year.

Finally we remind readers that no central banker can inflate five pounds of gold into ten pounds of gold. Paper currency is inflated at a pace controlled by the government. One of the best reasons to own physical metals is storing wealth outside a system which is built on debt and government promise.
 
If you’re keen to hear more about FOMC actions, or the wider macro-economic landscape then have a look at our YouTube Channel, GoldCore TV. This week we discussed access to rare earths and how the West’s energy supply hangs in the balance. See the conversation with Dr Stephen Leeb, here. 

The pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war have shown just how quickly supply chains can be disrupted by geopolitical instability.
 More than ever we are beginning to appreciate how important it is to secure access to alternative energy supplies. But, paradoxically, the resources the world needs to make this happen are tied up by the very people who have restricted access to the traditional energy resources. 
Not only is it countries that are desperate to secure access to the key rare earths that will enable us to secure our energy supplies, but it is also companies with P&Ls bigger than small countries. This is making for a very interesting time when it comes to commercial deals, as well as geopolitical tensions. 
Earlier this week it was revealed that Tesla has been in talks to buy a minority stake in Glencore, the Swiss mining giant. Already the one-man show has secured a deal with the company to buy cobalt but it looks like they want even more of a direct-line to the good stuff. 
Tesla is not an outlier when it comes to worrying about its rare earth supply lines. According to Baker Steel Resources Trust, “Demand for magnet rare earth is forecast to more than double by 2030, driven by the green revolution. Outside of China there is already a real issue in securing enough material and processing to the magnet stage.”
The Trust expects to see “demand to more than double by the end of the decade for the magnet rare earths. Value-in-use estimates for [rare earths] in EVs and wind turbines are orders of magnitude above current levels.”
The report brought to mind comments Dr Stephen Leeb recently made when speaking to GoldCore’s Dave Russell. The New York Times best selling author’s depth of knowledge when it comes to geopolitical insights is nothing short of exceptional, especially when it comes to Russia and China. 
Today we bring you just a short excerpt of our interview with Dr Leeb, where he talks about how the current environment is both exciting and treacherous, and that this is all thanks to access to raw materials.
How a Shortage of Rare Earth Metals Will Impact Us All

 
 

When “whatever it takes” means confiscation of wealth
One of the reasons people decide to buy gold bullion or add silver coins to their portfolio is because they cannot be devalued. No one can suddenly decide to print more gold or silver! Sadly, this is exactly what happens with currencies around the world. And the last two decades have been prime examples of this. As governments rush to patch up past mistakes, missed warnings and election cycles they resort to creating more money which ultimately leads to higher prices but less value slewing around the system.  
The self reinforcing trends of high inflation have become visible to all. Central banks and governments continue to do “whatever it takes” but now it is “whatever it takes” to deflect blame for the rising prices and falling asset prices.
Central Banks Struggling to Contain the Surging Inflation
Eroding wealth is hitting many people on several fronts – surging inflation on goods and services, tanking equity markets, and falling housing prices to name a few.
Yet, governments and central banks claim no responsibility for the economic climate they have created blaming instead Putin for higher food and energy prices, speculators for eroding equity and housing markets, not to mention China for supply chain issues and lower economic activity due to the ongoing zero covid policy lockdowns. 
Surging inflation is more than a decade in the making.
 In our post on March 4, 2021, Central Banks Will Still Do “Whatever It Takes”!  we discussed the then ECB President Mario Draghi’s “whatever it takes” of 2012 to save the Euro – that morphed into the 2021 promise from Rishi Sunak, UK finance minister’s promise of “whatever it takes” to support the British people and businesses through Covid lockdowns. 
Governments poured more than $15 trillion of additional support through increased spending and lower taxes in less than two years. Also, central banks printed money on a grand scale to sucked up all the additional debt issued from governments. 
Now central banks have conditioned everyone into the perception that they can save and solve problems with the “whatever it takes” promise over the last decade.
Central banks have now pledged “whatever it takes” to get inflation under control. Chair Powell leads the bandwagon jumpers from old ‘transitory inflation’ onto new ‘yes we were wrong last year, but not wrong again this year’.
Central banks have good reason to keep this bandwagon going in circles and not make much progress.
Click Here to Watch The M3 Report
 
John Maynard Keynes famously said,
Remember governments have trillions in debt to deal with and the fastest way to reduce that debt is to inflate their way out of it.
The other options are to raise taxes or to severely limit spending how many governments have the political will for either of those and if they do, then they are voted out with promises from the new government to reverse the measures put in place. 
The decade long excess is at a tipping point!
Download Your Free Guide
Click Here to Download Your Copy Now The annual economic report released this week by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) warns that if inflation becomes entrenched in the global economy, then it could become the new normal and very hard to reverse. In other words higher prices lead to higher prices.
The BIS doesn’t think that central banks, including the Fed, are doing enough to bring inflation under control.
The Fed has raised the fed funds rate rates three times this year for a total increase of 1.5% – but the Fed is still “well behind the inflation curve”. The fed fund rate is in a range of 1.50%-1.75%, while the latest U.S. CPI reading for May came in at a year-over-year increase of 8.6%.  
Fed Fund Rate and Consumer Price Inflation Chart Inflation is Hitting its Tipping Point Warns BIS
From the BIS Report:
In addition to cyclical and structural factors, the level of inflation itself can influence wage- and price-setting. Hence the likelihood and intensity of wage-price spirals. In general, a high-inflation regime, if it persists, induces behavioural changes which raise the probability that it will become entrenched, not least by amplifying the impact of relative price increases.
The report explains: The level of inflation is bound to influence the importance of inflation expectations.
Once the general price level becomes a focus of attention, workers and firms will initially try to make up for the erosion of purchasing power or profit margins that they have already incurred.
This, in and of itself, could trigger wage-price spirals if background conditions are sufficiently favourable. And, once inflation becomes sufficiently high and is expected to persist, they will also try to anticipate future changes in the general price level, as these will erode purchasing power and profit margins before contracts can be renegotiated.
The report goes on to warn that once embedded inflation is very difficult and costly to bring under control and it advises central banks to avoid transitions from low- to high-inflation regimes in the first place – to nip inflation in the bud. 
Are we past that point?
The BIS answer: We may be reaching a tipping point, beyond which an inflationary psychology spreads and becomes entrenched. This would mean a major paradigm shift.
How on earth does inflationary psychology spread and become ‘entrenched’? This is something we explored recently on our new show The M3 Report.
Along with our guests Jim Rickards and Gareth Soloway, host Dave Russell explored the idea of perception and asked for how long were politicians going to string us along telling us that all is FINE? I
t seems too regular an occurrence these days to be told that inflation is either temporary or the result of covid, or Putin or someone sneezing.
All whilst we listen from our cars that cost more than ever to refill, or from the kitchen whilst we cook meals that we can barely afford to cook.
But, as Dave and Jim discussed, are perceptions starting to change? Are we now getting wise to the rhetoric?

Here is what you need to know: for commodities like oil – high prices eventually cure high prices. But once inflation sets in for everyone – high prices mean more higher prices because cash cannot be trusted.  Physical metals will benefit from inflation becoming embedded.
Bottom line: in a high inflationary environment when the cake becomes smaller, the fight over it becomes bigger!
And what does that paradigm shift look like? Sadly we still haven’t managed to get a hold of that crystal ball so we can’t be too specific.
But, we do know that the world has been through paradigm shifts before. Whether through wars, financial crises or even pandemics (yes, covid isn’t the first).
Every single time people are forced to find their own way to secure their savings and investments.
They find their way to gold and silver, because when governments do ‘whatever it takes’ we should also do ‘whatever it takes’ to reduce the impact of the secret and unobserved theft that is inflation. 
Be sure not to miss the brilliant M3 Report! With over 10,000 views in its first week the show has been grabbing everyone’s attention.
 

Fed’s message this week – higher rates, lower economic growth, higher unemployment. The Fed hiked interest rates by 75 basis points for the third straight meeting and the statement said that the committee anticipates further increases.
The Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) showed that the median projection is for a further 1.25% increase by yearend.
Another 75 basis points at the November 1-2 meeting and 50 basis points at the December 13-14 meeting. The projections then show a further 25 basis point increase next year before the Fed holds then starts to lower rates in 2024.  
Implied Fed Funds Target Rate Chart Central Banks Have Already Lost Control Over the Markets
The statement did acknowledge that Russia’s war against Ukraine is causing tremendous human and economic hardship.
The war and related events are creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are weighing on global economic activity. The Committee is highly attentive to inflation risks.
The difficulty is that central banks have zero control over supply issues and their only response is to choke demand to meet the limited supply.
Also, the approach of raising interest rates does not target sectors but is instead broad based across the entire economy.
  Although financial markets react to interest rate increases very quickly, and many times are forward looking, i.e. equity markets decline before a rate increase, it takes 6 to 12 months for the full effects of interest rate increases to reach the broad based economy.  
Lies, damned Lies, and statistics – statistics can be misleading. The U.S. unemployment rate is one of the main indicators the Fed uses for its measure of the labour market.
The caveat is that a person without a job must have actively looked for a job in the last four weeks to be counted as unemployed. Otherwise, they are not counted as a participant in the labour force.
In other words, because of the way the unemployment rate is calculated it could be ‘artificially low’.
What we can Learn from the International Gold Market
Watch Jan Niewenhuijs Only on GoldCore TV
 
People are ‘dropped out of the labour force figures’ instead of being counted as unemployed.
The percent of the population in the labour force has not recovered to pre-covid levels – i.e. there are fewer people in the labour force.
The number of employed in the U.S. as a percent of the population has also not recovered to pre-covid levels. So it may turn out that the FED believes employment markets are stronger than they actually are because of misleading statistics.
And since the FED wants to raise interest rates until the labour market breaks, maybe they are raising rates based on bad statistics.
US Labour Force Chart The Blame Game Continues…
There are many reasons quoted by individuals for not returning to the labour market. The highest job openings brackets are in health care and hospitality.
The burnout rate during/post covid of healthcare workers has many moving to different sectors or choosing to advance their education, stay home, or early retirement instead of returning to the sector.
The high burnout of healthcare workers coupled with an average salary of US$48,000 to $65,000 for a paramedic in New York City, where the monthly average rent is close to $4,000.
It is no wonder there are more job openings than applicants in this sector. Wage inequality has been a very long-standing problem in the U.S. According to Forbes the average S&P 500 CEO currently makes 299 times the average employee.
This compares to the average CEO earning 50 times more than the average employee in 1950. In the current post-covid, the high inflationary environment is ripe for U.S. employees to demand higher wages.
The Fed wants to lower demand by getting higher income households and businesses to slow their spending without pushing lower income households even further down the poverty rabbit hole.
Powell is quick to point out that it is lower income households that are the most negatively affected by inflation, but it is also lower income households that are the most negatively affected by higher interest rates. Also, lower income households are even more affected by high unemployment levels.
Jim Rogers Interview Only on GoldCore TV
 
The SEP projections also show that the Fed does expect economic growth to be weaker than its June Projection (table below) with only 0.2 growth this year and 1.2% growth next year.
With a higher unemployment rate projected at 4.4%, this implies more than 1 million additional unemployed people in America. And still, inflation is well above the Fed’s 2% target.    
High inflation, and rising unemployment have strong parallels to the early 1980s. Add to this a U.S. Administration that blames everyone but themselves for the issues at hand…we are reminded of Jimmy Carter.
The Fed was late to recognize inflation, late to raise rates, and late to start quantitative tightening (shrinking the balance sheet), are they now going to be late to recognize how much effect the higher interest rates are slowing economic growth.
And if the two quarters of negative U.S. economic growth in the first half of the year and the disastrous earnings announcement from FedEx are any indications; not only the U.S. but the global slowdown is at hand!
When economic growth does slow politicians will turn the blame on central banks.

Fed’s message this week – higher rates, lower economic growth, higher unemployment. The Fed hiked interest rates by 75 basis points for the third straight meeting and the statement said that the committee anticipates further increases.
The Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) showed that the median projection is for a further 1.25% increase by yearend.
Another 75 basis points at the November 1-2 meeting and 50 basis points at the December 13-14 meeting. The projections then show a further 25 basis point increase next year before the Fed holds then starts to lower rates in 2024.  
Implied Fed Funds Target Rate Chart Central Banks Have Already Lost Control Over the Markets
The statement did acknowledge that Russia’s war against Ukraine is causing tremendous human and economic hardship.
The war and related events are creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are weighing on global economic activity. The Committee is highly attentive to inflation risks.
The difficulty is that central banks have zero control over supply issues and their only response is to choke demand to meet the limited supply.
Also, the approach of raising interest rates does not target sectors but is instead broad based across the entire economy.
  Although financial markets react to interest rate increases very quickly, and many times are forward looking, i.e. equity markets decline before a rate increase, it takes 6 to 12 months for the full effects of interest rate increases to reach the broad based economy.  
Lies, damned Lies, and statistics – statistics can be misleading. The U.S. unemployment rate is one of the main indicators the Fed uses for its measure of the labour market.
The caveat is that a person without a job must have actively looked for a job in the last four weeks to be counted as unemployed. Otherwise, they are not counted as a participant in the labour force.
In other words, because of the way the unemployment rate is calculated it could be ‘artificially low’.
What we can Learn from the International Gold Market
Watch Jan Niewenhuijs Only on GoldCore TV
 
People are ‘dropped out of the labour force figures’ instead of being counted as unemployed.
The percent of the population in the labour force has not recovered to pre-covid levels – i.e. there are fewer people in the labour force.
The number of employed in the U.S. as a percent of the population has also not recovered to pre-covid levels. So it may turn out that the FED believes employment markets are stronger than they actually are because of misleading statistics.
And since the FED wants to raise interest rates until the labour market breaks, maybe they are raising rates based on bad statistics.
US Labour Force Chart The Blame Game Continues…
There are many reasons quoted by individuals for not returning to the labour market. The highest job openings brackets are in health care and hospitality.
The burnout rate during/post covid of healthcare workers has many moving to different sectors or choosing to advance their education, stay home, or early retirement instead of returning to the sector.
The high burnout of healthcare workers coupled with an average salary of US$48,000 to $65,000 for a paramedic in New York City, where the monthly average rent is close to $4,000.
It is no wonder there are more job openings than applicants in this sector. Wage inequality has been a very long-standing problem in the U.S. According to Forbes the average S&P 500 CEO currently makes 299 times the average employee.
This compares to the average CEO earning 50 times more than the average employee in 1950. In the current post-covid, the high inflationary environment is ripe for U.S. employees to demand higher wages.
The Fed wants to lower demand by getting higher income households and businesses to slow their spending without pushing lower income households even further down the poverty rabbit hole.
Powell is quick to point out that it is lower income households that are the most negatively affected by inflation, but it is also lower income households that are the most negatively affected by higher interest rates. Also, lower income households are even more affected by high unemployment levels.
Jim Rogers Interview Only on GoldCore TV
 
The SEP projections also show that the Fed does expect economic growth to be weaker than its June Projection (table below) with only 0.2 growth this year and 1.2% growth next year.
With a higher unemployment rate projected at 4.4%, this implies more than 1 million additional unemployed people in America. And still, inflation is well above the Fed’s 2% target.    
High inflation, and rising unemployment have strong parallels to the early 1980s. Add to this a U.S. Administration that blames everyone but themselves for the issues at hand…we are reminded of Jimmy Carter.
The Fed was late to recognize inflation, late to raise rates, and late to start quantitative tightening (shrinking the balance sheet), are they now going to be late to recognize how much effect the higher interest rates are slowing economic growth.
And if the two quarters of negative U.S. economic growth in the first half of the year and the disastrous earnings announcement from FedEx are any indications; not only the U.S. but the global slowdown is at hand!
When economic growth does slow politicians will turn the blame on central banks.

It is becoming increasingly clear that UN Nations are realising that it is very difficult to isolate a country that is already a global power. And not just a global power in terms of the military but also in terms of the world’s dependence on its energy exports.
However, Russia’s energy exports are not the only thing the West benefits from. One little known fact about Russia is that its highest non-energy export is gold, exporting around $15 billion of gold bullion last year.
Also, when the West really starts annoying Russia, how does Russia respond?
It decides it will find a new way to manage its precious assets, and ensure that it’s to a level respected by its major trading partners, well away from the influence of the US dollar.
One more step in a New World Order?
Russia announced a proposal to create a new international standard for trading in precious metals. The Moscow World Standard (MWS) with the goal of the MWS becoming an alternative to the LBMA.
This proposal is the latest in Russia’s desire to create independence from NATO countries and their associated institutions and currencies.
Moreover, the sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine continue to mount.
In March the LBMA suspended the accreditation of Russian precious metals refiners. Additionally, at the G7 meeting at the end of June the G7 countries imposed a ban against any Russia-produced gold entering the UK, Canada, US, or Japan.
Gold is Russia’s largest non-energy export estimated to have added around the US $15 billion to the Russian economy in 2021.
With LBMA at the heart of global precious metal trading being located in the UK, this shut Russia out of formal international markets for gold and silver. The additional sanctions also included an asset freeze of the Russian state-owned Sberbank.
Dinner Party with Marc Faber, David Morgan and Jim Rickards
 
Among other sanctions, Russia’s banks were cut off from the SWIFT processing system in March 2022. See our March 3 post titled SWIFT Ban: A Game Changer for Russia?
The mounting sanctions have expedited Russia’s (and other countries such as China, Saudi Arabia) desire to de-dollarize and create systems that do not rely on G7 countries’ institutions. Russia and China have both been very vocal about their desire to elevate the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency.
Moreover, the main problem with this plan is that there is not a solid alternative.
However, proposals of a multi-currency system along with actions such as Russia demanding payment in rubles are chipping away at the US dollar’s role. (For more on Russia’s de-dollarization plan, which includes increased gold reserves see our post from December 9, 2021, titled Russia: A Prominent Player in the Global Gold Market.)
The latest proposal is another of these wedges that will chip away at the institutions in place.
According to press reports, the proposed Moscow World Standard would be a specialized international brokerage headquartered in Moscow.
However, the price-fixing committee would include central banks from the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) which includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.
Membership would then be available to large gold players including China, India, Venezuela, and South American Countries such as Peru.
A new gold standard?
Under the MWS system proposal, the price of precious metals is fixed, either at the national level. In each key member countries’ currency or at an aggregate level. This is with a new currency such as the BRICS currency proposed at the BRICS conference also held at the end of June.
A New Currency proposal to rival the U.S. Dollar
The leaders of the five major emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa proposed creating an international reserve currency to rival the U.S. dollar and the IMF’s SDR (Special Drawing Rights).
Moreover, Putin is quoted as saying that
Additionally, other countries that are currently considering joining the BRICS group are Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. 
Putin is quoted as saying that
He went on to give the example that Indian retail chain stores would be housed in Russia, and Chinese cars and hardware would be imported regularly.
  The increased contracts between BRIC countries show that Janet Yellen’s ‘friend-shoring’ concept works both ways. This means the US is looking to source supplies from countries friendly to the US, wanting only “countries they can count on”.
Also, see the April 20, 2022 post titled The Friend-Shoring’ of Gold – A New World Order?  Apparently what is good for Yellen is also good for Putin since he has his own circle of friends.
Moreover, don’t let the reserve currency deceive you on the gold price.
Also, one final comment on currencies and gold. The US dollar has surged this year for reasons related to its reserve currency status. (See David Russell’s interview on August 4 with Brent Johnson – The Dollar Milkshake Theory Explained).
 
Since the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency, gold is generally quoted in US dollars. Additionally, in U.S. dollar terms gold is down slightly year-to-date. However, looking at gold in terms of other currencies paints a different picture.
The chart below shows gold’s performance in year-to-date in terms of other major currencies, which are all positive.

 

It is becoming increasingly clear that UN Nations are realising that it is very difficult to isolate a country that is already a global power. And not just a global power in terms of the military but also in terms of the world’s dependence on its energy exports.
However, Russia’s energy exports are not the only thing the West benefits from. One little known fact about Russia is that its highest non-energy export is gold, exporting around $15 billion of gold bullion last year.
Also, when the West really starts annoying Russia, how does Russia respond?
It decides it will find a new way to manage its precious assets, and ensure that it’s to a level respected by its major trading partners, well away from the influence of the US dollar.
One more step in a New World Order?
Russia announced a proposal to create a new international standard for trading in precious metals. The Moscow World Standard (MWS) with the goal of the MWS becoming an alternative to the LBMA.
This proposal is the latest in Russia’s desire to create independence from NATO countries and their associated institutions and currencies.
Moreover, the sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine continue to mount.
In March the LBMA suspended the accreditation of Russian precious metals refiners. Additionally, at the G7 meeting at the end of June the G7 countries imposed a ban against any Russia-produced gold entering the UK, Canada, US, or Japan.
Gold is Russia’s largest non-energy export estimated to have added around the US $15 billion to the Russian economy in 2021.
With LBMA at the heart of global precious metal trading being located in the UK, this shut Russia out of formal international markets for gold and silver. The additional sanctions also included an asset freeze of the Russian state-owned Sberbank.
Dinner Party with Marc Faber, David Morgan and Jim Rickards
 
Among other sanctions, Russia’s banks were cut off from the SWIFT processing system in March 2022. See our March 3 post titled SWIFT Ban: A Game Changer for Russia?
The mounting sanctions have expedited Russia’s (and other countries such as China, Saudi Arabia) desire to de-dollarize and create systems that do not rely on G7 countries’ institutions. Russia and China have both been very vocal about their desire to elevate the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency.
Moreover, the main problem with this plan is that there is not a solid alternative.
However, proposals of a multi-currency system along with actions such as Russia demanding payment in rubles are chipping away at the US dollar’s role. (For more on Russia’s de-dollarization plan, which includes increased gold reserves see our post from December 9, 2021, titled Russia: A Prominent Player in the Global Gold Market.)
The latest proposal is another of these wedges that will chip away at the institutions in place.
According to press reports, the proposed Moscow World Standard would be a specialized international brokerage headquartered in Moscow.
However, the price-fixing committee would include central banks from the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) which includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.
Membership would then be available to large gold players including China, India, Venezuela, and South American Countries such as Peru.
A new gold standard?
Under the MWS system proposal, the price of precious metals is fixed, either at the national level. In each key member countries’ currency or at an aggregate level. This is with a new currency such as the BRICS currency proposed at the BRICS conference also held at the end of June.
A New Currency proposal to rival the U.S. Dollar
The leaders of the five major emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa proposed creating an international reserve currency to rival the U.S. dollar and the IMF’s SDR (Special Drawing Rights).
Moreover, Putin is quoted as saying that
Additionally, other countries that are currently considering joining the BRICS group are Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. 
Putin is quoted as saying that
He went on to give the example that Indian retail chain stores would be housed in Russia, and Chinese cars and hardware would be imported regularly.
  The increased contracts between BRIC countries show that Janet Yellen’s ‘friend-shoring’ concept works both ways. This means the US is looking to source supplies from countries friendly to the US, wanting only “countries they can count on”.
Also, see the April 20, 2022 post titled The Friend-Shoring’ of Gold – A New World Order?  Apparently what is good for Yellen is also good for Putin since he has his own circle of friends.
Moreover, don’t let the reserve currency deceive you on the gold price.
Also, one final comment on currencies and gold. The US dollar has surged this year for reasons related to its reserve currency status. (See David Russell’s interview on August 4 with Brent Johnson – The Dollar Milkshake Theory Explained).
 
Since the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency, gold is generally quoted in US dollars. Additionally, in U.S. dollar terms gold is down slightly year-to-date. However, looking at gold in terms of other currencies paints a different picture.
The chart below shows gold’s performance in year-to-date in terms of other major currencies, which are all positive.

 

It is becoming increasingly clear that UN Nations are realising that it is very difficult to isolate a country that is already a global power. And not just a global power in terms of the military but also in terms of the world’s dependence on its energy exports.
However, Russia’s energy exports are not the only thing the West benefits from. One little known fact about Russia is that its highest non-energy export is gold, exporting around $15 billion of gold bullion last year.
Also, when the West really starts annoying Russia, how does Russia respond?
It decides it will find a new way to manage its precious assets, and ensure that it’s to a level respected by its major trading partners, well away from the influence of the US dollar.
One more step in a New World Order?
Russia announced a proposal to create a new international standard for trading in precious metals. The Moscow World Standard (MWS) with the goal of the MWS becoming an alternative to the LBMA.
This proposal is the latest in Russia’s desire to create independence from NATO countries and their associated institutions and currencies.
Moreover, the sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine continue to mount.
In March the LBMA suspended the accreditation of Russian precious metals refiners. Additionally, at the G7 meeting at the end of June the G7 countries imposed a ban against any Russia-produced gold entering the UK, Canada, US, or Japan.
Gold is Russia’s largest non-energy export estimated to have added around the US $15 billion to the Russian economy in 2021.
With LBMA at the heart of global precious metal trading being located in the UK, this shut Russia out of formal international markets for gold and silver. The additional sanctions also included an asset freeze of the Russian state-owned Sberbank.
Dinner Party with Marc Faber, David Morgan and Jim Rickards
 
Among other sanctions, Russia’s banks were cut off from the SWIFT processing system in March 2022. See our March 3 post titled SWIFT Ban: A Game Changer for Russia?
The mounting sanctions have expedited Russia’s (and other countries such as China, Saudi Arabia) desire to de-dollarize and create systems that do not rely on G7 countries’ institutions. Russia and China have both been very vocal about their desire to elevate the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency.
Moreover, the main problem with this plan is that there is not a solid alternative.
However, proposals of a multi-currency system along with actions such as Russia demanding payment in rubles are chipping away at the US dollar’s role. (For more on Russia’s de-dollarization plan, which includes increased gold reserves see our post from December 9, 2021, titled Russia: A Prominent Player in the Global Gold Market.)
The latest proposal is another of these wedges that will chip away at the institutions in place.
According to press reports, the proposed Moscow World Standard would be a specialized international brokerage headquartered in Moscow.
However, the price-fixing committee would include central banks from the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) which includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia.
Membership would then be available to large gold players including China, India, Venezuela, and South American Countries such as Peru.
A new gold standard?
Under the MWS system proposal, the price of precious metals is fixed, either at the national level. In each key member countries’ currency or at an aggregate level. This is with a new currency such as the BRICS currency proposed at the BRICS conference also held at the end of June.
A New Currency proposal to rival the U.S. Dollar
The leaders of the five major emerging economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa proposed creating an international reserve currency to rival the U.S. dollar and the IMF’s SDR (Special Drawing Rights).
Moreover, Putin is quoted as saying that
Additionally, other countries that are currently considering joining the BRICS group are Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. 
Putin is quoted as saying that
He went on to give the example that Indian retail chain stores would be housed in Russia, and Chinese cars and hardware would be imported regularly.
  The increased contracts between BRIC countries show that Janet Yellen’s ‘friend-shoring’ concept works both ways. This means the US is looking to source supplies from countries friendly to the US, wanting only “countries they can count on”.
Also, see the April 20, 2022 post titled The Friend-Shoring’ of Gold – A New World Order?  Apparently what is good for Yellen is also good for Putin since he has his own circle of friends.
Moreover, don’t let the reserve currency deceive you on the gold price.
Also, one final comment on currencies and gold. The US dollar has surged this year for reasons related to its reserve currency status. (See David Russell’s interview on August 4 with Brent Johnson – The Dollar Milkshake Theory Explained).
 
Since the U.S. dollar is the reserve currency, gold is generally quoted in US dollars. Additionally, in U.S. dollar terms gold is down slightly year-to-date. However, looking at gold in terms of other currencies paints a different picture.
The chart below shows gold’s performance in year-to-date in terms of other major currencies, which are all positive.

 

This week’s guest is so bullish on silver that he’s even written a best-selling book ‘The Great Silver Bull’ where he takes an in-depth look at why silver will outperform gold once again and even go as high as $300 an ounce.
Author and investments editor Peter Krauth joins Dave Russell on GoldCore TV to discuss the silver price, silver’s future and how industrial demand will continue to grow, outstripping supply. 
Silver’s a big theme for us at the moment, look out for our interview with the silver guru David Morgan, released just a few days ago!
If you enjoyed our chat with Peter Krauth then be sure to subscribe to GoldCore TV and watch our recently launched show The M3 Report. Featuring bonus material from guests such as Jim Rickards and Marc Faber, as well as commentary from our own team and chart analysis from Gareth Soloway. This show really is at the forefront of alternative market and economic commentary. 
Click on the Link to Watch Now
 

This week’s guest is so bullish on silver that he’s even written a best-selling book ‘The Great Silver Bull’ where he takes an in-depth look at why silver will outperform gold once again and even go as high as $300 an ounce.
Author and investments editor Peter Krauth joins Dave Russell on GoldCore TV to discuss the silver price, silver’s future and how industrial demand will continue to grow, outstripping supply. 
Silver’s a big theme for us at the moment, look out for our interview with the silver guru David Morgan, released just a few days ago!
If you enjoyed our chat with Peter Krauth then be sure to subscribe to GoldCore TV and watch our recently launched show The M3 Report. Featuring bonus material from guests such as Jim Rickards and Marc Faber, as well as commentary from our own team and chart analysis from Gareth Soloway. This show really is at the forefront of alternative market and economic commentary. 
Click on the Link to Watch Now
 

If you have decided to buy gold bullion or to buy silver coins in the last few months then you may have been delighted with how last night’s Fed press conference went.
If you’re still wondering if or how to invest in gold then it might be worth paying attention to what central banks are doing in the coming weeks. After all, how do central banks make their decisions when it comes to monetary policy? In years before it might have been quite straightforward to answer that question – they look at inflation rates, they look at market indicators, they look at data from statistical agencies and then they decide what to do with interest rates.
But, yesterday US Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed intent on adding some cloak and dagger to the situation and in doing so he just made it look like the Fed are really sure what they think or where to go now. Of course, there’s nothing gold and silver prices love more than an incompetent central banker but especially one that basically admits that they aren’t sure they’ve got any of this right in the first place.
David Morgan and Gareth Soloway on Metals, Markets and Money
 
The Federal Reserve raised the fed funds rate by the expected .75% at their two-day meeting that ended on July 27, the statement was much as expected. The opening of the statement acknowledges that economic indicators for spending and production have softened. But still, the unemployment rate remains very low while inflation remains very high. 
However, the message in the press conference message was very muddled.
The longer Chair Powell spoke during the press conference the more gold and silver rallied on his ambiguous message.
Chair Powell said that they won’t provide guidance for more than one meeting at a time. They have no idea what the rates will be next year. He added that even in the best of times the projection of rates is uncertain, but projections today are even more unreliable since these are extraordinary times.
When asked by reporters to clarify on the outlook Chair Powell kept referring to the Summary of Economic Projections that was released with the June Federal Reserve statement which points to the Fed Funds rate at 3.4% by year-end. But then he repeated that economic activity has come in weaker than anticipated; which should mean June projections are too stale now.
  So no one really knows what he is trying to say. June is now a long time ago. The economy is weakening since June. Does he want us to just trust that those June projections will be accurate … despite him stating earlier those projections are worthless? Or does he not have any more clever ideas about the way forward so his only talking point is to default to old ideas?
In regard to the weaker economic activity, Powell stated that he does not think the US is in a recession … and still thinks that he can achieve a path of rate increases that do not lead to recession.
A Conference full of Flaws
Asking about the negative GDP data in Q1 and that data and models (including the Atlanta Fed’s GDP model) are suggesting Q2 could also be negative, Chair Powell said that GDP data can’t be trusted! If the data from other U.S. government statistical agencies can’t be trusted, then what is the Fed basing its forecasts and policy decisions on? 
Maybe he decided to follow President Biden’s declaration. Which is there is no recession happening now and there won’t be one in the U.S.
If GDP data calculated and released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) can’t be trusted, then how can the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation? The PCE Index (Personal Consumption Expenditures), which is calculated by the same agency be trusted?

This press conference had so many flaws of logic that maybe, just maybe, the mainstream media will begin to doubt the Fed and its central banking friends are infallible!
Chair Powell stated several times that the Fed focuses on bringing inflation down to 2% measured by the PCE index.  The Fed has little control over the supply side of the equation. Also, the shortages are caused by supply problems from China, the Russia/Ukraine war, etc. The Fed aims to achieve lower inflation by stifling demand through tighter monetary policy.
Did he really mean to say that Russia’s war affected supply chains therefore interest rates must go up to shrink the economy? Even if he did not mean it, that is what he said. Did Russia just become the de facto controller of the US economy? (side-note: Check out episode two of The M3 Report for more on this)
Long Term Gold Price Prediction- Kevin Wadsworth
 
It seems that the Fed has lost its ability to focus on more than one specific indicator at a time. Remember last year when inflation was rising quickly, they stuck to the stance that inflation was “transitory”, and they didn’t need to react? Yet now they are raising rates at a quick clip to try and combat that inflation. Even though other indicators are already showing an economic slowdown.  
Furthermore, inflation data is a lagging indicator. The latest PCE index numbers are for May and the latest CPI data is from June. The decline in commodity prices and the already indicated slowdown in economic activity (which leads to less spending) will filter through the economy and compound the Fed’s tightening.
The Fed to Tackle Inflation with Rate Increase?
Last summer the message from the Fed was that inflation was transitory, and they did not react to any of the indicators that showed otherwise. Now the Fed is frantically trying to catch up on that error. 
This summer the message from the Fed is that the U.S. is not in a recession. Also, its focus is solely on bringing inflation down to its 2% goal. (We remind readers a 2% goal was set on a fluke. See Did Central Banks Arrive at their Target Inflation Rate by Mere Fluke?
The one glimpse of forward guidance that Chair Powell did provide was:
Now that we’re at neutral, as the process goes on, at some point, it will be appropriate to slow down. And we haven’t made a decision when that point is, but intuitively that makes sense. We’ve been front-end loading these very large rate increases. Now we’re getting closer to where we need to be.
Chair Powell was very ambiguous on the question of whether the risk of raising rates too much was the bigger risk for the economy at the current time.
Our view is that the giant risk is that the Fed will do too much tightening. This means next summer the Fed will cut rates because the economy is too weak.

The rally in gold and silver prices during the press conference, along with the declining longer-term bond yields tell us that those markets agree!