Sierra Madre Precious Metals

Egg prices increased 70% over the last year—here’s why
Grocery costs increased dramatically over the last year, but nothing beats the price of eggs, which have grown by 70.1%, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“What used to be $40 for a box of 120 eggs, we now pay over $100,” says Julia Yum, who runs a 24-hour deli in New York City that’s been owned by her family for almost 30 years.

If she receives cracked eggs in shipments from wholesalers, she’ll request a credit, even if it’s just one or two: “I know it sounds a little crazy, but that’s what I do. I can’t lose any more.”

To offset inflation, the deli has added a 50-cent surcharge to credit card purchases and increased prices on many items in the store, including cartons of eggs. However, they haven’t hiked the cost of egg sandwiches just yet… (Continue to full article)

US Treasury Introduces CBDC Working Group, Discusses Potential Routes For Digital Dollar
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has released comments from Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Nellie Liang on the “Next Steps to the Future of Money and Payments,” addressing CBDCs and the approach the American government is taking to their potential implementation.

The original Treasury report released in September 2022 described the formation of a CBDC working group that would advance work on a CBDC. Liang’s remarks confirmed the formation of that group.

“One of the central tasks for the CBDC Working Group is to complement the Fed’s work by considering the implications of a U.S. CBDC for policy objectives for which a broader Administration perspective is helpful,” Liang said.

“To give you a sense of how we are pursuing this work, I will describe our approach to thinking about CBDC options, the policy questions we are attempting to answer, and the kinds of recommendations we hope to develop.”

Highlights from this description include a look at the potential forms that a CBDC could take, the potential for a separate retail and wholesale CBDC and the possible core features of the CBDC… (Continue to full article)

Senators are considering raising the retirement age to 70 and are looking at a $1.5 trillion investment fund to overhaul Social Security and stop funds running out by 2032
A group of bipartisan senators is quietly meeting to retool Social Security before funds run out in 2032.

On the table, according to Semafor, is gradually raising the retirement age to 70 and creating a $1.5 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which would invest in stocks.

That fund would be separate from the already existing Social Security Trust Fund. If it underperformed, Social Security would be shored up by increasing the maximum taxable income and payroll taxes… (Continue to full article)

Silvergate, a Federally Insured Bank, Just Blew Up from Ties to Crypto
The one thing a depositor never wants to hear from a bank that is holding his or her life savings is that it has doubts about its “ability to continue as a going concern.” Unfortunately, those very words appeared in a filing made yesterday by Silvergate Capital with the Securities and Exchange Commission – which pretty much guarantees that the ongoing run on deposits at Silvergate will continue with an added sense of urgency.

Silvergate Capital is the owner of the federally-insured and taxpayer-backstopped bank, Silvergate Bank, which decided several years back that it would be a cool idea to become the go-to depository bank for crypto companies. One of those outfits was Sam Bankman-Fried’s now collapsed house of fraud.

Accounts at Silvergate Bank included Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, FTX; his hedge fund, Alameda Research, which prosecutors say looted his FTX crypto… (Continue to full article)

Her TALENT is GREATLY missed…

The Coming Recession Will Be a Global One
Over one hundred years ago, Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises discovered what causes the boom-bust business cycle.

As Mises explained, the boom is caused by central and commercial banks creating money out of thin air. This lowers interest rates, which encourages businesses to borrow this newly created money to fund capital-intensive investment projects.

The bust is caused when the money creation process slows. It is then that businesses discover there are not enough scarce resources to complete their projects, so these projects must be liquidated to allow for labor and other resources to be allocated to where they are most desired by consumers… (Continue to full article)

Central banks continue to scoop up gold in 2023 as gold price holds the mid-$1,800 level
After a record-setting year in 2022, central banks remain very interested in gold at the start of 2023, according to the World Gold Council (WGC).

In January, central banks bought 31 tonnes of gold, a monthly increase of 16%, said WGC in a note Thursday.

“This was also comfortably within the 20-60t range of reported purchases which has been in place over the last ten consecutive months of net buying,” wrote Krishan Gopaul, senior analyst at the WGC.

Most of the buying was done by three central banks, and they are not new players… (Continue to full article)

January Saw a Surprise Surge in Core Durable-Goods Orders
A key measure of business investment saw an unexpectedly sharp rise in January, adding to the evidence that the economy began the year at a much more robust pace than forecast.

Orders for core capital goods rose 0.8 percent in January and shipments jumped 1.1 percent. Economists had expected orders would fall slightly after declining in the previous two months.

Core capital goods are non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft. Orders are thought to be a proxy for business investment… (Continue to full article)

Pending Home Sales Soared 8.1% in January
The number of houses going under contract soared in January, although the sales volume remains well below last year’s level, data showed Monday.

The National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index rose 8.1 percent in January, the largest monthly increase since the pandemic snapback in June of 2020.

Economists had forecast a much milder 0.9 percent increase… (Continue to full article)

Texas Factory Output Sees Inflationary Contraction
Prices are rising for goods sold from Texas factories even though orders and output are down.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas released the results of its February survey of Texas manufacturers on Monday. It showed that factory activity in the Lone Star state declined for the first time since May 2020.

The production index edged down from 0.2 to -2.8, indicating a modest contraction in output. Perceptions of broader business conditions worsened, with the general business activity falling to -13.5 from -8.4. The company outlook index has been negative for a full year and plunged 15 points in February to -17.5… (Continue to full article)

A GREAT and Talented Survivor of WOODSTOCK…

Oversight Committee Demands Treasury Testify About Withholding ‘Suspicious’ Bank Reports
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) on Monday demanded the Treasury Department answer for stonewalling its investigation into the Biden family for nine violations, including money laundering and wire fraud, by withholding 150 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) flagged by U.S. banks.

In January, the Treasury Department denied the committee’s request to disclose the 150 SARs flagged by U.S. banks concerning the Biden family’s foreign business bank transactions, causing the committee’s chairman to threaten a subpoena. SARs often contain evidence of potential criminal activities, such as money laundering and fraud… (Continue to full article)

Biden

Biden aims to shatter record for fastest tax increase
In 1969 while testifying to Congress, US Secretary of the Treasury Joseph Barr called out 155 Americans who were not paying their “fair share” of taxes.

Those 155 Americans had managed to reduce their federal tax liability to essentially zero by using perfectly legal deductions and credits in the tax code.

Congress was furious. Even though these taxpayers were following the law, the politicians didn’t like it. So they created a new, highly bureaucratic layer of tax complexity on the entire nation, specifically to target those 155 people.

It became known as the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

But don’t worry, Congress said, this new AMT will only affect a couple hundred people… (Continue to full article)

People Got Used to Higher Prices and Are Outspending even Raging Inflation. They Don’t Want this Thing to Land
People want to get on with their lives, it seems. Their mood has improved. They’ve gotten used to living with high inflation. They got raises or got higher-paying jobs. Gasoline prices have plunged since the peak in mid-2022, and that matters a lot because it’s the most in-your-face inflation along with food inflation.

They might still gripe about higher prices, but you live only once?

And so they spent money left and right in January, and they outspent even this raging inflation. We already saw surprising strength from new and used vehicle sales coming out of the auto industry, and from the retailers’ point of view earlier this month, which showed that consumers were in no mood for a landing.

SPEND! SPEND! SPEND!… (Continue to full article)

Recession is still coming for the U.S., but at a later date
After a solid start to the year, the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) now expects a U.S. recession to start later in the year, according to the latest survey.

Markets across the board began to take a hit in February after the latest U.S. jobs report came in better than expected. The macro data kept surprising on the upside for the rest of the month, from retail sales to PMI data, economic growth, and hotter-than-expected inflation numbers.

This triggered a re-pricing, with many economists updating their economic outlooks. But the consensus is still a U.S. recession this year… (Continue to full article)

Gold trades lower until you factor in dollar weakness
Gold would have traded lower today if it was not for the dollar’s weakness. The dollar is currently down 0.543 points or 0.52% with the dollar index fixed at 104.615. Concurrently, gold futures basis most active April contract is trading up $7.00 or 0.40% and fixed at $1824.10. This means that dollar weakness accounts for over 100% of today’s gains in gold. The resulting net change of gold is based on the dollar weakness and fractional selling pressure in gold.

The same relationship between gold and the dollar can be seen in the physical or spot market. According to the Kitco Gold Index (KGX), spot gold is currently fixed at $1818.10 after factoring in today’s net gain of $6.90. On closer inspection dollar weakness resulted in spot gold gaining $9.80 with fractional selling pressure taking back $2.90 of those gains.

The question becomes what fundamental events could explain dollar weakness today? For that we need to look at two reports released today… (Continue to full article)

Hang ’em HIGH!

What Will Happen When Banks Go Bust? Bank Runs, Bail-Ins and Systemic Risk
Financial podcasts have been featuring ominous headlines lately along the lines of “Your Bank Can Legally Seize Your Money” and “Banks Can STEAL Your Money?! Here’s How!”

The reference is to “bail-ins:” the provision under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act allowing Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs, basically the biggest banks) to bail in or expropriate their creditors’ money in the event of insolvency. The problem is that depositors are classed as “creditors.” So how big is the risk to your deposit account? Part I of this two part article will review the bail-in issue. Part II will look at the derivatives risk that could trigger the next global financial crisis.

From Bailouts to Bail-Ins… (Continue to full article)

The Economy Is Crashing Even Faster Than A Lot Of The Experts Had Anticipated
It’s happening. Throughout 2021 and 2022, a whole host of experts were warning that we were going to see another economic crisis like we witnessed in 2008 and 2009, and now it is here. In fact, it is unfolding at a pace that is even more rapid than most of the experts had anticipated.

The housing market is crashing, hordes of retail stores are closing, the commercial real estate market is headed for a colossal disaster, food prices continue to surge, and the worst wave of layoffs in more than a decade just continues to get even worse. So many of the economic trends that I have been tracking on The Economic Collapse Blog are now reaching a crescendo, but most Americans still don’t understand how bad things will eventually become… (Continue to full article)

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Call Jeffrey Bennett (Kettle Moraine, Ltd.) who has over 64 years experience in the precious metals markets – first as an investor and subsequently – with over 30 years as a respected member of the industry for guidance and assistance with your needs.

Also, he invites you to tune in to and experience his nearly 28 years of broadcasting with his daily program, The Edge of Darkness at 8:00 p.m. (Eastern Time), each Monday through Friday on Republic Broadcasting Network. – and in addition to educational commentary regarding YOUR financial health and welfare, you will be introduced to a wide variety of subject including YOUR physical well-being and health, your Education (about many topics) … and sometimes just a bit of much needed satire.

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Bidenflation Jumps Higher as Prices Rise at Fastest Pace in 6 Months
A key measure of consumer prices showed inflation accelerating in January as spending, income, and saving surged.

The personal consumption expenditure price index jumped 0.6 percent in January compared with a month earlier, the Commerce Department said Friday. The prior month’s inflation rate was revised up from 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent.

Compared with a year ago, the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index was up 5.4 percent. The 12-month gain for December was revised up from five percent to 5.3 percent.

Economists had expected a much milder increase. The median forecast was for a 0.4 percent price increase month-to-month and a 4.9 percent increase for the year.

The annual and monthly figures indicate that inflation has accelerated… (Continue to full article)

Key US inflation measure surges at fastest rate since June
The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge rose last month at its fastest pace since June, an alarming sign that price pressures remain entrenched in the U.S. economy and could lead the Fed to keep raising interest rates well into this year.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices rose 0.6% from December to January, up sharply from a 0.2% increase from November to December. On a year-over-year basis, prices rose 5.4%, up from a 5.3% annual increase in December.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 0.6% from December, up from a 0.4% rise the previous month. And compared with a year earlier, core inflation was up 4.7% in January, versus a 4.6% year-over-year uptick in December.

The report also showed that consumer spending rose 1.8% last month from December after falling the previous month… (Continue to full article)

US commits another $2 billion in drones, ammunition, for Ukraine
The Pentagon announced a new package of long-term security assistance for Ukraine on Friday, marking the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion with another $2 billion commitment to send more rounds of ammunition and a variety of small, high-tech drones into the fight.

The announcement comes just days after President Biden made an unannounced visit to Kyiv and pledged America’s continuing commitment to Ukraine. Biden told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his people that “Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.”

In a statement Friday, the Pentagon said the aid includes weapons to counter Russia’s unmanned systems and several types of drones, including the upgraded Switchblade 600 Kamikaze drone, as well as electronic warfare detection equipment.

It also includes money for additional ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, artillery rounds and munitions for laser-guided rocket systems. But, in an unusual move… (Continue to full article)

$113 BILLION on a war with no end in sight
Biden’s enormous military package for Ukraine on the first anniversary of Putin’s invasion, the Republican audits, and what the taxpayers think.

The last time the United States gave a Europe such substantial financial backing, President Harry Truman was trying to rebuild a continent ravaged by the Second World War.

“You’ll wonder where the Yellow went, when you trust this effing President!”

It was 1947, and the Democrat was trying to persuade a weary population mourning the deaths of 470,000 American troops that other countries destroyed by war needed aid to rebuild and fight off the ongoing threat from Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union.

The United States would provide support in the form of the $13 billion Marshall Plan – which was worth $160 billion in today’s money – and the Truman Doctrine.

Seventy-five years on, the Biden administration and Congress have now set aside a similarly staggering $113 billion in American taxpayer funds for Ukraine in a conflict that has no end in sight… (Continue to full article)

High-paying jobs that don’t need a college degree? Thousands of them sit empty
Like most other American high school students, Garret Morgan had it drummed into him constantly: Go to college. Get a bachelor’s degree.

“All through my life it was, ‘If you don’t go to college you’re going to end up on the streets,’ ” Morgan said back in 2018. “Everybody’s so gung-ho about going to college.”

So he tried it for a while. Then he quit and started training as an ironworker, which is what he was doing on a weekday morning in a nondescript high-ceilinged building with a concrete floor in an industrial park near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Back then, the demand for ironworkers was rising – and it still is: the sector is growing 4% annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ironworkers earn, on average, $27.48 per hour, or $57,160 per year. Morgan was already working on a job site when he wasn’t at the Pacific Northwest Ironworkers shop. At 20, he was earning $28.36 an hour, plus benefits.

Five years later, he’s on the job full time, working “six-10s” — industry lingo for 10 hours a day, six days a week. He helped build the Rainier Square Tower in Seattle and a data center for Microsoft. “I’m loving it every day,” he said. “It was absolutely the right choice.

As for his friends from high school? “Someday maybe they’ll make as much as me.”… (Continue to full article)

Average 401(k) balances dropped 20% in 2022 – despite 39% of Americans increasing their contributions
Stocks suffered one of the worst years ever and inflation soared.

The average 401(k) balance plunged by 20 percent in 2022 despite many Americans increasing their contributions as stocks suffered one of the worst years ever.

A report by Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment companies, reveals its average customer 401(k) account balance was $112,572 at the end of last year – down one fifth on 2021.

But throughout 2022, 39 percent of customers increased their deferral rate – the amount of their paycheck which is moved into their 401(k) account… (Continue to full article)

Inflation slows again to 6.4% from 6.5% a month earlier
Food and energy prices remain stubbornly high as experts say Fed ‘still has more to do’.

Annual inflation in the US slowed to 6.4% in January, down from 6.5% the month before, in a small sign of relief for families and businesses battered by soaring prices.

January marked the seventh straight month of declining annual inflation from this summer’s peak of more than 9%, according to the Labor Department’s report on the consumer price index on Tuesday… (Continue to full article)

On the trail for Nazi gold: Intrepid treasure hunter’s journey through Poland to uncover Hitler’s lost bullion
From secret tunnels to forgotten palaces, fantastical tales of Nazi gold have long gripped the nation. With intriguing yarns of mystery, mayhem and even murder, for MailOnline’s Ed Wight it was like stepping into the pages of a real life Boy’s Own adventure novel.

But despite no gold being found anywhere, after eight years of covering every twist and turn, he says the surprises along the way were worth more than their weight in gold.

I’d never considered myself an Indiana Jones type before, more a male equivalent of Bridget Jones.

But then I met a man called Mr Boczek, an affable, ruddy-cheeked gentleman who belonged to a collective of amateur detectorists called The Silesian Research Group… (Continue to full article)

Sade ~ Smooth Operator

Is the Government About to Create a Massive Debt Crisis?
No political entity can defy the laws of economics.

Even the United States government, which many experts believe is “exceptional” has limits to what it can do economically speaking.

A report by Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment companies, reveals its average customer 401(k) account balance was $112,572 at the end of last year – down one fifth on 2021.

But throughout 2022, 39 percent of customers increased their deferral rate – the amount of their paycheck which is moved into their 401(k) account… (Continue to full article)

How Government Spending Hurts the Economy
For years, writers on public finance have been searching for the “neutral tax,” i.e., for that system of taxes which would keep the free market intact. The object of this search is altogether chimerical. For example, economists have often sought uniformity of taxes, so that each person, or at least each person in the same income bracket, pays the same amount of tax.

But this is inherently impossible, as we have already seen from Calhoun’s demonstration that the community is inevitably divided into taxpayers and tax-consumers, who, of course, cannot be said to pay taxes at all. To repeat the keen analysis of Calhoun (see note 6 above): “nor can it be otherwise; unless what is collected from each individual in the shape of taxes shall be returned to him in disbursements, which would make the process nugatory and absurd.” In short, government bureaucrats do not pay taxes; they consume the tax proceeds.

If a private citizen earning $10,000 income pays $2,000 in taxes, the bureaucrat earning $10,000 does not really pay $2,000 in taxes also; that he supposedly does is simply a bookkeeping fiction. He is actually acquiring an income of $8,000 and paying no taxes at all… (Continue to full article)

Half the world to dump U.S. dollars in future, causing ‘tsunami of inflation’ and asset price ‘collapse’, paving the way for CBDCs and The Great Reset
As the world moves away from the U.S. dollar as a world reserve asset, dollars will be dumped globally, causing a “tsunami of inflation” in the United States as the currency returns to American shores. Interest rates will rise accordingly, followed by a “collapse” in asset prices, which would be used to usher in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and The Great Reset.

This dire scenario is the forecast of Andy Schectman, President and Owner of Miles Franklin and an expert on monetary and economic history. Schectman, who has three decades of experience in the precious metals sector, said that the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) coalition could lead the charge to develop their own reserve currency which would compete against the U.S. dollar.

“The BRICS are, I think, coalescing against the dollar, the perceived hypocrisy and hegemony of the dollar,” he said. “We’ve already been told that the BRICS currency would be pegged to gold or to commodities, the assumption being that gold is one of the commodities… (Continue to full article)

Crypto on Tap Today at Senate Banking Hearing: Two of Three Witnesses Will Push Nutty Ideas
To understand the deteriorating condition of American democracy, one needs to be able to spot corrupt patterns. Let’s take the Senate Banking Committee, for example.

We previously explained how the Senate Banking Committee has subpoena power to get at the truth but never uses it, relying on Senator Elizabeth Warren to send out an endless stream of letters demanding information – which typically never comes because the target of those letters knows that a failure to respond will not result in a subpoena.

The failure of the Senate Banking Committee to issue subpoenas stems from the fact that, according to the Congressional Research Service, the Senate Banking Committee has adopted a rule that requires a majority vote to issue a subpoena for documents or witnesses… (Continue to full article)

The Economic Nightmare That You Have Been Waiting For Is Here
A lot of people out there have been waiting for the next major economic crisis to arrive. If you are one of them, you don’t have to wait any longer, because it is already here. All of the numbers are telling us that we haven’t faced a downturn of this magnitude since 2008. For example, the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 10 months in a row.

According to Zero Hedge, this is the first time that has happened since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. And just like we witnessed in 2008, the housing market is crashing. In fact, the median price of a home in the San Francisco Bay Area has already fallen by a whopping 35 percent… (Continue to full article)