Dollar Collapse

What can you say about crypto-currencies that hasn't been said already. However, Kerry and I are proposing a new form of crypto backed up by Tulips, preferably the Dutch variety. After all, Tulip prices only go up, right? And what of all those ICO's (Initial Coin Offerings) that are headed to the moon and back. Just today Bancor raised $153 million. Pretty good work if you can get it.  Now Amazon is taking over Wholier Than Thou Foods. What could possibly go wrong. Just take an old fashioned business, add robots and internet ordering and make a zillion dollars. It always works out in the long run, but then again in the long run we're all dead. 

Terrorist attacks have become a regular occurrence in England. What can be done about it? Seems like there's always a reason why they didn't stop the guys from carrying out the attack, even though they were well aware of them before the deed was done. Will vacating the Middle East and leaving them to their own demise solve the problem? John believes it couldn't make it worse.  Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord is irrelevant. Cheap solar will eventually make the matter moot, if it's not already. There won't be much CO2 when everyone is driving an electric self-driving vehicle and generating their energy from the sun. 

Employment numbers came in highly negative. Full time employment down, bartenders and part-timer employment went up. This is bad news for the economy and gold/silver is going up as result. Illinois's debt was downgraded to slightly above junk. The emerging public pension crisis is just about to begin. Get ready for the new paradigm. 

Trump's first overseas trip have proved and unmitigated success. While it looks good now, we've never been able to figure out the right move in the Middle East. It won't be settled anytime soon and expect periodic flare-ups. But defense stocks are doing well now, which is good for the market.  Looks like the achilles heel of crypto-currencies has been exposed. While you can create many more Bitcoin units, you can create an infinite supply of crypt-currencies. Where will it end. ICO's (Internet Coin Offerings) are bypassing the stock market and the SEC. We'll see how long that lasts. 

It's no secret that finding the mother lode keeps getting harder and harder to do. A new generation of miners is entering the industry. They are younger, creative and don't hesitate to utilize the best new technologies that are revolutionizing the industry. In addition, the majors have effectively abandoned exploration and have subcontracted it out to the juniors. Large mining companies are very slow to move and are generally unable to take advantage of new opportunities. Thus the junior miners exist to locate and uncover new mines that will eventually be taken over by the majors. That's why a conference like the Metals Investor Forum has taken on so much more importance in recent years. 

Kerry and John discuss - News from China says that the world's largest aluminum producer, China Hongqiao Group,  is on the brink of insolvency. This is a company that's nearly twice the size of Alcoa. It's been showing amazing growth and profit numbers for year. Now it turns out that they've been relying upon Chicom accounting and the profits were fraudulent and illusory. The company is begging for a government bailout to avoid civil unrest. Have we reached the point where everything is too big to fail? Perhaps, but then eventually the party that bails everyone out will wind up failing as well. Get set and buckle your seatbelt for that day may soon be upon us.  Especially if Marine LePen triumphs in the upcoming French elections. The same people who said Brexit couldn't pass and were all in a lather about President Hillary Clinton are saying LePen's an outside long shot at best. But the communist party candidate has been rising in the polls as well, now sitting at 19%. This is shaping up to be a battle of t

Debt is still growing way faster than GDP. Therefore, we're just digging a bigger hole. For most of the past 6 months it looked like we had a real recovery going. But that was an illusion. The Atlanta Fed has lowered it's 1Q Growth Projection to less than 1 percent. That's a recessionary number that won't help the economy create new jobs or to create new industries or service new debt. The debt to gdp ratio continues to increase. Unless we radically increase worldwide growth rates, we're stuck on a treadmill and a crisis will eventually occur. 

Inflation is back, thanks to the past year's global debt and money printing binge. Meanwhile populist politicians are gaining traction in Europe, threatening both the European Union and the eurozone. The world has never seen this combination of excessive financial leverage and widespread political upheaval, so the next few years might be bad for most financial assets and great for real things like gold and silver.   

The news is slow. Not much coming out of Trump. Not much coming out of Europe. Outside of the Academy Awards debacle last night, there's not much going on. We're due for something to happen shortly. Could it be the calm before the storm? John believes that the currency crisis is just around the corner, the question is which corner? We've been waiting a long time for it. 

A new administration means new policies. But the only up to a point. Debt will continue to soar, which means financial instability will only intensify. And the business cycle will do its thing regardless of who's in office -- which means a another downturn is coming. So strap in. A return to the Great Recession or something much worse is on the horizon.

Since the presidential election, US equities have been soaring – which is reminiscent of 1999 and 2006 when investors decided that “this time it’s different” and were therefore willing to buy stocks at pretty much any price. Like those previous bubbles, today’s will end badly, probably in 2017. Gold, on the other hand should do just fine. 

It's rare for the world to worry about Italy. But Sunday's referendum has the global Establishment on the edge of its seat. The worst case scenario -- from the Establishment point of view -- is the vote going against the government, causing the Prime Minister to resign and be replaced by an anti-euro, anti-EU party that throws sends Italian banks into crisis and the European economy into chaos.   

The presidential campaign is just about over, which means the US will soon start reversing out the surprisingly good numbers it has reported lately. Gold is still looking for a bottom and could find one before year-end. And the groundwork is being laid for the next generation of experimental monetary and fiscal policies, which makes 2017 an epic year for financial instability. 

Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, the Italian banks...it's getting ugly across the pond and the worst is yet to come. Here's a brief explanation of why that's so, including derivatives, ridiculous capital rules, dumb lending practices and, of course, negative interest rates. If you're looking for short sale candidates, Europe's banks are a great place to start.  

Last week the Fed found out what will happen if it raises rates: The global financial markets will melt down. So this morning a new member of the central bank's seemingly endless army of talking heads said some soothing words, which stabilized the US stock prices. Now the question is when the Fed will finally capitulate, abandon the rate hike threats and join the global inflationary party. After last week, that's likely to come soon. Then it's off to the races for real assets. Get that gold and silver now, before it's too late. 

It's becoming clear to a growing number of people that the world's central banks, including the US Federal Reserve, have no idea what they're doing. Yet they keep on making threats, predictions and other nonsensical statements, most of which are quickly exposed as such. Is this the end off their credibility -- and the beginning of gold's new bull market? 

  Normally, when one asset class is expensive others are cheap, making it reasonably easy to use historical relationships to decide where to invest. That's not the case today. Every major asset class, including stocks, bonds and even precious metals, are looking at best temporarily overbought by past standards, and at worst (in the case of stocks and bonds), wildly overvalued. Here's a discussion with some tentative advice.   

Terrorists and other crazies have figured out that they don't need guns. Trucks, axes and machetes will do just fine. Meanwhile, political parties around the world are imploding or otherwise descending into chaos. Welcome to the new normal, where excessive debt makes the old ways of muddling through impossible. Advice on how to invest for the inevitable bust will follow shortly. 

Brexit looked like the end of the world -- until people figured out that central banks would have to ease in response. Then markets turned positively jubilant with US stocks, for example, hitting record highs. The result: A world of mounting debts, weekly terrorist attacks and even military coup attempts alongside financial assets priced for perfection. Wonder which side is right?

Italian banks are collapsing, with Germany's Deutsche Bank not far behind. Anti-euro parties now lead polling in France and Italy. Interest rates around the world are plunging. Add it all up and it's clear that the developed world is heading into a very tough patch with results ranging from slower growth all the way out to global financial crisis. Only gold is immune to what's coming.