April 12, 2023
* currencies & metals rally on Tuesday
* Looking at the stupid CPI all wrong…
Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! This is getting serious folks… The Cardinals starting pitchers are just plain awful… This is not what I saw in Spring Training, but then, is it just Spring Training… But.. the bats came alive last night and the Cardinals rallied for a 9-6 win… Maybe this team can be like the 75 Big Red Machine, who didn’t have any great starters, but their bats could outslug any team… The day here yesterday was picture perfect… Can’t say anymore about that! I’ll be heading to City field this Saturday, for my first game in my seats… Youngest son Alex will go with me, I hope I can keep up with him! I think I’ll be able to see good friends, Frank Trotter, Ty Keough, Jack Stapleton, at the game! It’s a real barn burner at the game I’m told, so I’m excited to go! ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) greets me this morning with their great song done live: Can’t Get You Out Of Head…
Well, when I left you yesterdy morning, the dollar was getting sold, and the BBDXY was down 3 index points… and it looked as if there would be carry over to the U.S. markets, but that didn’t happen, and the rest of the day was just back and forth trading, with the BBDXY ending the day down the same 3 index points it was down that morning… Gold did have a good day though, and gained $12.20 to climb back above $2,000, at $2,004.70… And Silver gained 18-cents to climb back over $25 at $25.14… the price Oil got a bump yesterday, and gained $2 on the day to end hte day with an $81 handle… The 10-year’s yield stayed in a range at 3.43$…
Ive got to say that I think the dollar has just about had its run of the roost… It may have a day or two where it get bought becuase the Gov’t wants it be bought, but other than that, I really think that the markets have resigned themselves into thinking that the Fed Heads rate hikes are just about over, and being forward thinking.. that leaves them with no other choice but to sell dollars… A lot the economy has been like a Chinese water torture, slow… slow… and slower, but it’s arriving nonetheless, so if you’re cut from the same cloth as I am, you’ll be looking to buy a currency soon… or build your Gold & Silver chest… I’m just saying…
In regards to that thought of mine…. here’s something I pulled from Bloomberg this morning: ‘“We expect the US dollar to weaken as the US growth and interest-rate premium relative to the rest of the world erodes in the coming months,” Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management”
In the overnight markets last night… It was a big fat dud… There was no movement in the dollar overnight, and we start today with the BBDXY at 1,228… Gold is up $4 in the early trading today, and Silver is flat… I’m still of the thought that no matter what the price manipulators decide to do, Gold is ready to move upward, and that taking out $2,000 level was key… And the dollar? I think it’s hanging on by the skin of its teeth… So, do with those thoughts as you wish… I know what I’ll be doing, but you? Hmmm.. The price of Oil remained above the $81 handle last night, and the 10-year is range trading still this morning at 3.45%…
I was reading an article on Bloomberg this morning that really had me shivering with fear that the Central Banks of the world would return to zero interest rates, once this nasty inflation abates… Are you kidding me? Isn’t that stupid zero interest rate policy the cause of our nasty inflation now? I shake my head in total disgust that Central Banks would even think of doing that again… here’s a snippet of the article on Bloomberg.com that I’m referring to: “The International Monetary Fund has caused some consternation with the long-range forecasts in its April World Economic Outlook. It predicts that once the current bout of nasty global inflation abates, interest rates will return close to zero. If the IMF is on the money with this big-picture call, it will shred whatever is left of central bankers’ credibility.”
Good friend, Dennis Miller, sent me a link to an article yesterday, and was asking me quesitons about it… Here’s a snippet of the article that he sent me: “The reality is that the 25 largest domestically-chartered commercial banks in the U.S. have been bleeding deposits for most of the past 12 months, shedding more than $700 billion in deposits between April 13, 2022 and March 29, 2023. To put that in even sharper focus, all U.S. domestically-chartered commercial banks have lost a total of $970 billion during the same time period. That means that the largest 25 banks account for a whopping 72 percent of the plunge in deposits over the past year.”
His premise was that this wouldn’t be a big deal becuase the Gov’t would just bail them out if push came to shove… And I thought, well, if all of these banks had problems at the same time, there’s no way the Gov’t could bail them all out at the same time, and if they tried, we would have the biggest fiasco on earth… The financial system that we’ve all come to know would fail to exist, and the introduction of digital bank acounts would come to a theater near you!
The U.S. Data Cupboard has something for us today, besides Fed Head speakers out in the field… The stupid CPI will print for March… i don’t care much for what it will print because the Gov’t added so many hedonic adjustments to the data that it’s no recognizable any longer! So, whatever it prints, it doesn’t make a bit of matter to me… To the markets, those dolts take the CPI as if it came from the Bible… Idiots all of them… and people pay these guys to make decisions? Give me a break!
All the stock jockeys will be like a kid on rollercoaster, with their arms in the air, and screaming with delight, that inflation, per the stupid CPI, eased a bit in March… I’ve got my arms in the air, and I don’t care! Go for it you idiots… inflation is not going away that easily… And no matter what hedonic adjustments the BLS adds to the CPI to make it look like it’s going away, it’s not…
To recap… The dollar got sold on Tuesday, but there was no follow thru in the overnight markets… Gold has added $16 after Monday’s engineered takedown… So, just proves you can’t keep a good asset class down! The IMF thinks Central Banks will go back to ZIRP once inflation is tamed… And I say, you’ve got to be kidding me! Banks are bleeding deposits… This is getting very interesting, folks…
For What It’s Worth… Boy or boy, do I have a FWIW worthy article for you today… This is about secret progam run by the BIS, and how it will take over everything and only deal in CBDC’s (digital currencies)… And it can be found here: Project Icebreaker: The Beginning Of A One World Digital Currency System? (blacklistednews.com)
Or, here’s your snippet: “In my investigations of various CBDC programs and how quickly they are progressing I came across an interesting program called “Project Icebreaker” being run by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). For those not aware, the BIS is a globalist institution with a clandestine past known as the “central bank of central banks.” It is the policy making hub for most of the central banks in the world. If you ever wondered how it was possible for so many national central banks to operate in tandem with each other instead of acting in the interests of the countries they reside in, the BIS is the answer. In other words, organizations like the Federal Reserve are not necessarily loyal to Americans or to American officials, they are loyal to the dictates of the BIS.
The BIS is at the forefront of the movement towards the adoption of CBDCs. They have been funding a vast array of projects to test and refine CBDC technology and as of this year they estimate that at least 81 central banks around the world are in the midst of introducing digital currency systems.
Project Icebreaker in particular grabbed my attention for a number of reasons. The BIS describes the project as a foreign exchange clearing house for Retail CBDCs (retail CBDCs are digital currencies used by the regular public and businesses), enabling the currencies to be traded from country to country quickly and efficiently. This is accomplished using the “Icebreaker Hub”, a BIS controlled mechanism which facilitates data transfers for an array of transactions while connecting banks to other banks.
nvestigating further I realized that the Icebreaker Hub in theory functions almost exactly like the SWIFT payment system used currently by governments and international banks. More than 10,000 financial institutions in 212 different countries use the SWIFT network to transfer funds overseas for their clients; it is an incredible centralization bottleneck that gives its shareholders considerable power.
As a point of reference, after the start of the war between Ukraine and Russia, the expulsion of Russia from the SWIFT network was used as a weapon in an attempt to crash the Russian economy. Russia has found ways around using SWIFT because of their trade relationships with major economies like China and India, but some damage has still been done to their financial structure.
Consider this, however – What if all monetary transactions were centralized through CBDCs and the BIS controlled the hub in which all retail CBDCs are exchanged globally? This is what Icebreaker is.
Now imagine that you operate a business that relies on overseas transactions; say you need to pay manufacturers in Vietnam or Taiwan to produce your products. With CBDCs in place you will most likely be completely dependent on a system similar to the Icebreaker Hub to move than digital money to Vietnamese banks and into the accounts of your manufacturers. Say officials at the BIS, for whatever reason, decide they don’t like you and they initiate Russian-style sanctions denying your access to the hub. Your business is now dead.”
Chuck Again… longtime readers of the Pfennig know that I absolutely adore a clandestine theory, story, idea… And this fills the bill for me! C”mon you didn’t really think that once the U.S. introduced their digital currency that the rest of the world would just bow to them and say, ok?
Market Prices 4/12/2023: American Style: A$ .6672, kiwi .6192, C$ .7415, euro 1.0922, sterling 1.2406, Swiss $1.1086, European Style: rand 18.4333, krone 10.5025, SEK 10.3905, forint 344.42, zloty 4.2693,
koruna 21.4405, RUB 82.40, yen 133.70, sing 1.3310, HKD 7.8500, INR 82.08, China 68830, peso 18.12, BRL 5.0028, BBDXY 1,228.44, Dollar Index 102.10, Oil $81.46, 10-year 3.46%, Silver $25.15, Platinum $1,009.00, Palladium $1,449.00, Copper $3.99, and Gold… $2,008.15
That’s it for today… I received a notice from Omar Ayles from the Gold Charts R Us fame yesterday… He’s going to be at the Las Vegas Money Show later this month… That got me thinking about all the shows that I used to attend and speak at… I have a coat rack that I always hung my lanyard with the show, on it, and through the years, I’ve got quite a collection of lanyards with shows info on them… When I left EverBank, I took my coat rack with me, and it sits in my basement right next to my writing desk… My favorite trip through the years was Vancouver… But San Francisco wasn’t far behind… So, if you go to the Las Vegas Money Show, raise a glass to my long time there… Wild Cherry tqkes us to the finish line today with their song: Play That Funky Music I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!