Financial crisis

The downturn is now global and simultaneous: US consumption is running out of steam, unemployment is rising in Europe, household and business confidence is collapsing in China, while defaults are increasing and bond flows betray a growing flight for safety.

Ray Dalio: "It seems to me indisputably true that gold is a money and it is the money that is least at risk of being devalued and/or confiscated. You should think of gold as being a fundamental money that you should own at least some of."

With the US government shutdown, “fiscal QE” came to an abrupt halt. It comes at a time when the US Treasury has become the central player in providing liquidity to the system. The longer the situation drags on, the more the pipeline seizes up – and the greater the likelihood of an accident.

For two years, observers have been puzzled by a paradox: while the Fed is reducing the size of its balance sheet through quantitative tightening (QT), the M2 money supply is on the rise. The key to this mystery lies in the growing role of money market funds (MMFs).

To function, a gold standard would require a far higher price than today. Will Donald Trump, willingly or not, help China and Russia rebuild the international monetary system? The answer could come within weeks — or months at most.

France is going through a critical period in its history. The country's democratic and political crisis is now compounded by the possibility of a financial crisis.

Mitch Vexler, a real estate developer turned whistleblower, detailed what he considers to be a ticking time bomb at the heart of the US financial system: the way property taxes fuel public school funding and school bonds.

On September 8, the French government will face a decisive confidence vote. The risk is clear: if the government fails and the general strike brings the country to a standstill, France could plunge into a systemic bond and banking crisis within a matter of days, with no credible political support...

The U.S. economy is showing much deeper signs of fragility than the markets seem to comprehend. Suffocated by soaring prices, American consumers are forced to resort to credit on a massive scale. The next inevitable step will be an economic slowdown. Gold continues to play a strategic role in an...

The financial world may be on the verge of a regime change. Financial repression, thought to have been relegated to the past, is making a discreet comeback through the Japanese door. The Tokyo authorities are already trying to manipulate the yield curve by adjusting the supply of debt, hoping to...