Calls from Congress and state houses to the private sector for out-of-the-box thinking, such as repegging the currency to gold or declaring precious metals to be legal tender, are growing.
Matthew Piepenburg describes his visit to the united States and what he is seeing.
In this latest conversation with Tom Bodrovics of Palisades Gold Radio, Matterhorn Asset Management partner, Matthew Piepenburg, offers his latest assessments on the American economic and political decline.
Piepenburg opens with a sober critique of the slow-drip toward increasing but now undeniable centralization in American markets and society. The net result is an ephemeral yet tragic demise of both classic capitalism and true democracy.
Instead, what Piepenburg sees now and ahead are more signs of a dystopian form of modern feudalism in which a political and financial minority operate behind a façade of liberalism as lords over a middle-class falling deeper into politically ignored serfdom. He unpacks the open marriage between corporate and governmental powers (weaponized/corporatized media, science, justice system, markets, banking, currencies etc.) which more resemble Mussolini’s definition of fascism than the democratic ideals of America’s founding fathers.
Not surprisingly, the foregoing theme of centralization incudes the frog-boil toward more regional bank failures, the duplicity of the Davos crowd and the Trojan horse of CBDC, which Piepenburg describes as “horrifying.” Ultimately, Piepenburg sees an ironic yet undeniably cornered Fed whose alleged war against inflation will only create more inflation. Powell’s “higher-for-longer” policy to fight the CPI is only making Uncle Sam’s grotesque debt levels grow equally “higher for longer.” As a result, more mouse-click money will be needed to monetize this embarrassing bar tab, which by definition, means more inflation and hence currency debasement ahead—all of which is bad for America but good for gold.
The US government has now morphed into a spending machine. Forget the fact that no new money actually gets printed, only digits in the computer ledger, now we have out spent the entire US government since our founding.
The coming gold and silver surge is guaranteed. It is not a question of IF but only WHEN. Initially, the imminent revaluation of the precious metals will have nothing to do with an investment mania but with the total mismanagement of the world economy. A spectacular rise in the metals is just a reflection of the mess the world is in. But as the paper market fails in gold and silver, there will be panic and manic markets.
So has the Silver Rocket just started? Last week I talked about the coming silver explosion and we could be seeing the beginning of it right now. I have often talked about the Gold-Silver Ratio as the key to the turn up in the precious metals.
GOLD-SILVER RATIO – A LEADING INDICATOR
With bearish divergence on momentum indicators at the critical 80-84 level, it was always a matter of time before the Gold-Silver ratio would break down. When the ratio turns down from an important level, it signifies a turn up in the metals with silver leading the way. As the long term chart below shows, the target for the ratio is 15-30. A return to the historical level of 15 would mean that silver will move up 6x as fast as gold.
If we look at the Weekly chart of the Gold – Silver ratio below, it shows the 4% fall that has taken place in the last 10 trading days. In itself this fall might not seem significant. But the key is the reversal from a very important top area combined with bearish technical indicators. As the chart shows, this ratio can fall very fast once it starts, like the 65% fall in 2010-11 or the 23% fall in 2010.
Where is the resolve to stop spending and increasing the tax burden of Americans? We are allowing the special interests to pad their vaults with our tax money. So, in order to pass tax reform, it is necessary to increase the spending and the deficit, I say keep your tax reform. If we Americans are forced to spend within our limits, whether that be our credit limit or even our income limit, then Congress must do the same.
“Conservative leaders would have slammed this Big-Government Budget under Pres. Obama. Now, they demand Republicans in Congress vote for it,” tweeted Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.). “2011-2016: Principles! 2017: End justifies the means.”
When I see these numbers in conjunction with the “current debt” now exceeding $20 Trillion, I pause to reflect on why I started converting my FRN’s to hard assets like gold and $ilver. The most applicable reason, gold and $ilver are unencumbered. Meaning, that I own it, no one has any claim to it. Remember that FRN’s (Federal Reserve Notes) are just that, notes. Promises to pay.
“With credit card data in for Q2 2017, American households look to once again be on a collision course with the ever-elusive $1 trillion goal that narrowly escaped their clutches in 2008. With nearly $940 billion in credit card debt outstanding, 2Q 2017 marked the second highest consumer revolving debt balance since the previous peak in 2008. Per WalletHub:
All of which adds up to nearly $8,000 of credit card debt per household, up 5% YoY versus flat-ish wages. Of course, the more surprising component of the 2Q 2017 credit card data is not that banks continue to trip over one another for the ‘opportunity’ to underwrite Americans’ purchases of fidget spinners, but rather that they continue to do so despite the rather ominous recent rise in charge-offs.”
With credit card data in for Q2 2017, American households look to once again be on a collision course with the ever-elusive $1 trillion goal that narrowly escaped their clutches in 2008.
Is HUD the defining factor in New Jersey? We are in a battle with the “affordable housing” developers that see only green. Money that is. These developers with the so called Fair Housing Authority wish to pave over the open space in New Jersey. So much for the”Garden State”. Now we see from this article that the Feds are behind this movement to overpopulate and over build our state. Here in New Jersey, our tax burden has escalated to the point where folks are voting with their feet. With the advent of more affordable living spaces, which bring more children, which brings more school tax and even more services, they have just thrown in the towel and uprooted. These so called affordable spaces are nothing more than attached housing complexes.
Now HUD is rushing to enforce AFFH with a vengeance. HUD has raced to make Westchester County, New York the example for more suits. Right out of the new HUD playbook, a private civil rights group called the Anti-Discrimination Center sued the county under the Federal False Claims Act, claiming Westchester County lied when they filled out the HUD compliance form for their grant. Since there is no official definition of “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” the definition is whatever HUD declares it to be.
Well it appears we are the junction in the road where we are sure to experience a short squeeze followed by a “force majuere” on the comex market. While I do not wish for anything but “TRUE” price discovery, I also know that the shorts are very powerful. As Egon von Greyerz states in the following article, we have been lied to over and over again.
Start a war to divert attention from economic problems
The final desperate measure to divert attention from the dire financial situation of a country is war. After less than 3 months in power, Trump has now had to resort to war. Most of his attempts to exercise presidential power have failed. All his statements that the US will no longer be an aggressor changed very quickly after an alleged gas attack by Syria. The US president took the decision to bomb Syria before any independent investigation had taken place. Russia is clearly not going to accept this and is now assisting Syria in strengthening their defences. Russia is also sending warships to the Mediterranean where there are already US warships. The UK Foreign Secretary just cancelled a trip to Russia and has agreed with the US Secretary of State to spearhead the drive to get Russia out of Syria. But fortunately some of the members of the G7, Germany and Italy refused to back the UK and US plans for Syria.
Gold and silver – the ultimate insurance against a rotten world
What everyone can do, at different levels, is to protect themselves against the coming financial crisis. This crisis is virtually guaranteed to happen within the next few years. We have for over 15 years helped investors to preserve wealth primarily in the form of owning physical gold and silver outside the banking system.
There are various ways to buy and own precious metals but to be totally safe there are many rules that are sacrosanct:
by Egon von Greyerz There are lies, damned lies and news, to paraphrase British Prime Minister Disraeli who said: “There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Today we are fed with lies ubiquitousl…
