Banks

Perhaps we will return to the gold standard... Will it then be necessary to bring back gold in exchange for banknotes? No, we won't be fooled twice. We'll have to keep our gold, we'll have to maintain, at least in part, its decentralized form to preserve its value, and to guarantee our freedom.

With gold and silver prices correcting, as they have been doing for several weeks, I like to reread this article by American analyst, Lyn Alden, which explains the four fundamental reasons to continue to own gold in 2020.

Egon von Greyerz and Matthew Piepenburg discuss the cold math of global debt and declining GDP. Given such facts, they address and explain the growing disconnect between a faltering global economy and central bank supported markets. Matthew and Egon then exchange thoughts on how it all ends.

Are we witnessing a movement of European bank mergers? Rumors have been circulating for several years about a merger between Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank or with BNP Paribas, between Société Générale and Unicredit, but nothing has happened so far. But lately several mergers have taken place.

With Election Day just five weeks away, investors are growing increasingly fearful of a contested presidential election—and UBS is the latest Wall Street firm to warn about increased stock market volatility telling clients to buy safe-haven assets like gold.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is poised to pay close to $1 billion to resolve market manipulation investigations by U.S. authorities into its trading of metals futures and Treasury securities, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Investments in precious metals by Russian banks increased in August, reaching almost $7.4 billion (568 billion rubles), data released by the country’s central bank (CBR) showed.

At some point when hyperinflation rules, the economy will turn down and the printed money will be totally worthless. At that point, stocks and gold will decouple and gold will continue up whilst stocks will fall or be stagnant.

In this brief discussion, Matt and Egon draw from their collective backgrounds to share ideas on the natural evolution from traditional risk (bubble) assets (i.e. stocks and bonds) toward precious metals as common-sense approaches to insuring against both currency and banking risk.

Since the end of 2006, the major central banks (Fed, ECB, BOJ & PBOC) have increased their balance sheets from $5 trillion to $25.5t today. The great majority of the extra $20t created since 2006 has gone to prop up the financial system. And even with these $20t the world economy is more rudderle...