From Peter Reagan at Birch Gold Group

This week, Your News to Know rounds up the newest top stories involving gold and the general economy. Stories include: What to observe out for in the approaching financial crisis, Citi thinks $30 silver is a lowball forecast, and how you can solve the debt ceiling stand-off with a single platinum coin…

Gold is one of the best defense in a financial crisis of privacy, property and ownership

Stansberry Research’s George Gammon joined Daniela Cambone in an in-depth interview detailing the upcoming financial crisis. Certainly one of the first assertions Gammon makes is that the crisis goes to differ from previous ones. That much has already been beaten in, to the purpose of even the IMF saying it’s going to be unlike previous crises. But what’s the difference?

Gammon believes central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are going to take center stage in what’s shaping as much as be a decade-long financial tumult. It’ll have similarities to Forties, together with some moderately controversial developments. In reality, Gammon tells us we was roundly criticized in 2019 for promoting “conspiracy theories.“ Lots of these predictions have either already materialized or are within the works. The Federal Reserve is rolling out FedNow, while each the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) are having ominous meetings over some sort of global digital currency.

FedNow, says Gammon, isn’t a CBDC per se, however the groundwork to implement a digital dollar more rapidly.

Interestingly, Gammon feels that despite FedNow’s existence, the U.S. could be the nation most intolerant to a national digital currency. (For some background on this, take a look at Lance Wallnau’s recent article What, Exactly, Is the Point of a Digital Dollar?)

How would the federal government implement such an unpopular solution, then? Gammon says the crisis of regional banks is the proper excuse to roll out CBDCs, because a central bank can’t go bust even when it goes negative. Other incentives could include access to the Federal Reserve’s much higher rates of interest (currently 4.83%) in comparison with those offered by business banks (current average 0.24%, or 1/twentieth the speed offered by the Fed, on to banks). That, alone, could be enough to encourage significant and even enthusiastic adoption by residents more afraid of inflation than of the federal government.

In a scenario where a CBDC is rolled out within the U.S., every citizen’s money shall be moved to the Fed’s balance sheet. From there, the implementation of the great old social credit rating and monetary controls could be trivial – there are probably off-the-shelf software packages already on the market that will enable comprehensive financial surveillance.

And “financial surveillance“ is barely the start – just a brief step away from “economic enslavement.“ Gammon uses the instance of limiting residents’ access to their money in the event that they aren’t “environmentally friendly” enough.

While we watch the troubling saga of CBDCs unfold, we have now more overt issues in the shape of inflation and rate of interest manipulation on one other. Gammon likens the approaching decade to the Forties, where the U.S. would go to twenty% inflation, then dip into deflation, after which back. On one hand, Gammon seems like near-term inflation may need peaked. On the opposite, experts expect a pullback by as much as 100 basis points by the Fed by yr’s end. So it looks like one other CPI spiking cycle is within the books.

Gammon is forecasting $3,000 gold, joining a growing variety of pundits who’ve named this figure as of late. The explanations to purchase and hold gold will turn into more obvious by the day, and can move away from just price appreciation. As an alternative, every individual will increasingly ask themselves the query that de-dollarizing central banks are: why hold an asset that’s losing value and that could be taken from me if I can own gold as an alternative?

Citi’s analysts see silver above $30 on this bull cycle

It’s all too easy to ignore silver nowadays. If nothing else, it’s probably all those gold/silver ratio normalization predictions that we’re waiting to materialize. But, as Citi’s analysts have recently identified, silver has quietly been build up steam in gold’s shadow, posting gains that could be seen as just as impressive.

Despite its recent pullback from $25, silver gained some 29% over the past six months. Not bad for a supposedly static asset, but Citi goes on to say that silver is seeing near-perfect conditions in what’s an ongoing bull market.

Now, $30 silver feels like the sort of price goal that can shock people awake, but as Citi’s team notes, it might only represent an 18% gain from current levels. Based on the sort of price motion that the metal has seen over the past months, it’s removed from a stretch. Indeed, Citi views $30 as a moderate forecast while saying that $34 (a 36% jump from today’s price) in the following 6-12 months is a distinct possibility.

Citi’s bullish silver forecast is way from a lone example, with many other analysts sharing similar thoughts. FxEmpire’s Christopher Lewis said that clearing the $27 resistance level would put silver on a run just like those where its price hit $50/oz. MKS Pamp Group’s Nicky Shiels agrees that silver could climb above $30 this yr.

A recent Kitco survey of 1,482 retail investors showed that the average silver price goal is $38 by the top of this yr. (Most of those forecasts need to do with projections of further weakness within the dollar—and there are plenty of those.)

Paul Krugman urges minting a $3 trillion platinum coin to finish the debt ceiling stand-off

The craziest thing about Paul Krugman suggesting a $3 trillion platinum coin to resolve the debt ceiling crisis is that it isn’t a novelty idea. Actually, the craziest thing might be that it might work. U.S. law states that the federal government can issue commemorative coins, which have a face value. The face value of $3 trillion could be barely enough for the federal government to get its affairs so as in the intervening time, and would aggravate U.S. creditors the least.

Was Krugman motivated by platinum’s recent performance, where it has climbed back from historically low levels to $1,100 and seems to need to correct as quickly as possible? He lists premium bonds in its place option. Either way, Krugman’s solution comes because the U.S. faces yet one more debt ceiling issue.

If it seems like we’ve been here before, that’s because we have now. Lots of drama is created over the debt ceiling being reached, together with uncertainty over what’s going to occur if it doesn’t rise. Indeed, failing to boost the debt ceiling will make the federal government unable to pay its bills, and something worse than the Great Depression will occur.

The debt ceiling is so irrelevant that the Obama administration actually suspended it. It exists only as a type of pretense that there are some kinds of economic controls placed on the federal government. This round of debt ceiling shall be no different than the nearly 100 ones prior to that: the debt ceiling shall be raised again, with the slight difference in that whereas we used to boost it within the billions, it’s being inched up by the trillion nowadays.

If anything, the platinum suggestion would only do more harm than good to precious metals while offering only a brief solution. The best way things are straight away, within the absence of a really well-laid out gold standard, it’s best to let bullion do what it’s alleged to. The identical goes for fiat currencies, as their real goal is invariably to eventually self-destruct.