Central banks

Many banks are ailing in Europe, notably in Italy, Greece and Spain, but Deutsche Bank, sitting at the core of Europe’s largest and most competitive economy, is like an atomic bomb that could spark a worldwide financial crisis, just like Lehman Brothers did in the past. Even Mario Draghi, ordinar...

In addition to the insoluble economic and financial problems in the world, the geopolitical situation is now so serious that we might not need to worry about the economy.

For many years I have warned people about the coming risks and changes that the world will experience. Very few people are aware of these risks and even fewer understand them. In this piece, I will make an attempt to summarise what I see coming.

Here’s new proof of the incompetence of French governments to manage the country’s debt. France issues 10% of its debt in inflation-indexed securities. This insane risk-taking will bring it to ruin if prices start to get into a skid.

It is certainly not a coincidence that this trade war started right before the oil trading in Yuan begun. Eventually this will lead to the demise of the dollar and a major power shift from West to East as well as much higher gold prices.

Gold bulls are finding 2018 offers plenty of reasons to be cheerful. Bullion’s wrapping up a third quarterly gain, a feat not seen since 2011.

Counterfeit gold coins have been around since the coinage of gold first started in the Greek city of Lydia around 600 BC. Fake gold bars and coins are ubiquitous and many owners of gold are not aware that they have fake gold.

Being able to get financing entirely from one’s central bank – at zero cost and without any outside constraint – is the dream of any spendthrift State... until bankruptcy (either by default or by hyperinflation).

Over the last 100 years, governments and central bankers have made the investment markets into a casino with only winners which primarily have been the bankers themselves.

In its first meeting with Jay Powell in the chair, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the United States Federal Reserve raised the nation’s benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point to a range of 1.5 to 1.75 percent, exactly one point higher than one year ago at this time.