Author: admin

• The dollar sees some weakness… not a lot, but some…
• What’s going on in China and Japan?

Good Day… And Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to one and all! I don’t know where yesterday went… I was downstairs reading emails, articles, and I finally looked at the clock on the laptop, and it said 1:20 pm…  I hadn’t had lunch yet, and my stomach began to growl… The day was half over and I was still in my pjs! What the heck is going on with time? Well, my beloved Cardinals still couldn’t find their bats last night, but eked out a 2-1 victory…  My laptop tried to get me to change a sentence about what was going on with time, it thought I was being too harsh…  No thanks, I don’t need any help!   The J. Geils Band greets me this morning with their song: Give It To Me…  I always like the J. Geils Band’s sound… 

Well, the STUPID CPI disappointed the markets yesterday, and the dollar went right by to drifting at sea…  The BBDXY ended the day 1,235, down 1 index point from the start of the day… That 1-point move was not enough to get the currencies out of their respective sick beds…  Gold fought and fought yessterday to get out of the red, but only managed to move the needle so much, and Gold ended the day down $5, at $2,512.40. And that strange anomaly that existed yesterday between Gold & Silver continued throughout the day yesterday, and saw Silver rally, or gain 35-cents, to close at $28.75…   I’m not complaining about Silver gaining while Gold gets sold, I’m just pointing out that this scenario doesn’t come along very often…  

Here’s MarketWatch.com with their thoughts on the STUPID CPI print: “The consumer price index rose a mild 0.2% in August, the government said Wednesday, in line with The Wall Street forecast.

Yet a measure of prices that strips out volatile food and energy costs, known as the core rate, rose a somewhat stiffer 0.3%. That was a tick above forecast and matched the biggest increase in five months.

The Fed views the core rate as a better predictor of future inflation since food and energy prices can bounce up and down in the short run.”

Chuck again…  I’ve always asked: Why would they remove Food & Energy, since those are things, we use every freakin’ day! 

The price of Oil remained trading with a $67 handle yesterday, which was a victory for the price of Oil, which had seen daily drops of $1 for the last two weeks…   I told you last week that the pressure on the price of Oil came from what the industry feels is a glut of Oil supply and a lack of demand…   

I read an article on Ed Steer’s letter yesterday from a guy who follows Oil and he believes that the call of a Glut of supply is “completely overstated”…    So, then I read what Ed said about the article, and him and I on singing from the same song sheet here… WE both believe that this has election year politics pricing in it…. . 

The 10-year Treasury didn’t move yesterday and ended the day trading with a 3.67% yield… 

And before I go to the overnight markets, I have Ed Steer’s thoughts on the manipulation that went on yesterday, here’s Ed: “It certainly appeared that the Plunge Protection Team was out in force in most markets once that massaged-to-perfection CPI number came out at 8:30 a.m. EDT yesterday morning. Both gold and silver had their low ticks set long after the DXY hit its high — and only platinum and palladium were allowed to take off once the DXY high tick at 8:45 a.m. The rallies in both gold and silver were ‘delayed’…gold until 10:05 a.m. EDT — and silver thirty minutes after that.

And it’s obvious from their respective Kitco charts at the top of today’s column that gold would have certainly closed up on the day by a substantial amount — and silver far higher than it did, if the collusive commercial traders hadn’t show up at 12:45 p.m. EDT in both.”

Chuck again… Ed nailed it! Gold would have been the talk of the town but… It wasn’t!  you can find Ed at his website where he posts his letter each day here: www.edsteergoldsilver.com

In the overnight markets last night…  The dollar got sold a bit more, another 1 index point loss in the BBDXY, which starts today at 1.234… No great shakes in dollar selling, but there was some that had to counted, so that’s worth a cup of coffee this morning…  Speaking of coffee, I’m going to stop here and go upstairs to get me a cup o’ Joe… OK, I’m back now…  The currencies still look like they can’t get out of their respective sick beds… The dollar selling needs to get stronger before that can happen…  

Gold is up $16 to start our day today… This is a good move considering all the short paper trading yesterday. I say that because the goal (besides to booking huge profits) of the short paper traders is to get investors scared of buying Gold & Silver…  So, when you have a day of short paper trading to beat the band, and Gold & Silver rally the next day, it’s a good thing for the metals…  Of course, it could end up being a bad thing, if the short paper traders see this rally, and think: Well, we didn’t do our job, so we need to get back at it….  UHG! 

Silver is up 18-cents to start our day today… The same holds true for Silver…  I do want to point out that Platinum and Palladium also get their share of short paper trading…  Palladium has been on the rally tracks the past week, and overnight it has gone back over $1,000 to $1,037.00 Good show, boys! 

The price of Oil trades with a $68 handle this morning… So, there’s definitely some healing going on with Oil  in recent days… And the 10-year’s yield is at 3.65% this morning, so more bond buying is going on… 

Well, the Bank of Canada beat the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel to the punch, and cut rates yesterday… PM Trudeau announced the rate cut on Twitter… To which a long-time friend of mine and one of the best analysts I’ve ever me, Rick Rule had this to say on Twitter to Trudeau: “Sir, artificially low interest rates subsidize spenders over savers, is that your intention?”

Chuck again… You tell ’em Rick!  And in a world of opposites… The Canadian dollar/ loon, didn’t budge yesterday… 

Well, the dumping of U.S. Treasuries by foreign Central Banks continues… Yesterday, I was sent two reports 1. China to dump 1 Trillion of U.S. Assests, and the second said: “Japan dumps $60 Trillion of Treasuries…  These countries are dead set to de-dollarize, and rid themselves of being chained to the U.S.   And that’s something that the debaters should talk about, and not who did what, when and no they didn’t…   All that selling won’t take place at the same time, as to flood the markets with bonds… These countries will slowly sell them in bits and pieces, until they reach their goals… Of course a “bits and pieces” of $60 Trillion is still a large trade that could move the markets…  And when it is confirmed that its the Bank of Japan, long an ally of the U.S., doing the selling, the bond boys will panic and sell their own bonds….   Uh-oh!   

As I’ve explained many times in the past, the U.S. uses the sale of Treasuries to finance their deficit spending…  Well, if Central Bank attendance at the auction window begins to wane….  We’ll have a problem, Houston…  I’m ust saying… 

And if the FOMC does cut rates next week, that will make the new Treasuries that we issue less attractive…  And that opens another can of worms, in that the bond boys will begin to ratchet up the yield on the bonds, to make them attractive,  and that alone will be a nightmare on Wall Street…  

Boy, I’m full of seashells and balloons this morning, eh?  That was my favorite Al McGuire line… He would say, just saying seashells and balloons should put a smile on your face!  And now I’m in a happy mood! See how that worked?

Circling back to the Bank of Canada’s surprise rate cut yesterday… I’m so let down by the BOC… I remember many years ago, at EverBank, I created a combo CD titled: The Prudent Bank CD….  This CD held currencies from countries that had what I considered to be “prudent”….   I hope they’ve taken that CD off their offering sheet by now, because there are only a handful of prudent Central Banks and off the top of my head the Central Banks in Russia and Singapore would be the only ones to qualify… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday had the STUPID CPI print that I talked about above this morning…  Today’s Data Cupboard has the usual Thursday fare: The Weekly Initial Jobless Claims… Just a hint about the number, last week was a short week so the numbers could be skewed….  We’ll also see the August PPI (Wholesale inflation), which will give us an indication of any future consumer inflation… 

To recap…. The STUPID CPI disappointed the markets yesterday, and the Core CPI really threw a spanner in the Fed Head’s plans to cut rates… They’ll probably still go ahead with a rate cut, but certainly not a Jumbo Rate Cut! The Bank of Canada cut rates, and Chuck isn’t happy about that!  And China and Japan both announce that they are going to unload boat loads of Treasuries…. 

For What It’s Worth… Yesterday, I talked about the article by Morgan Stanley that said the euro would lose 7% if the ECB did Big Rate Cuts… Well, today I have someone that thinks like me, and he thinks the ECB shouldn’t cut rates at all, and that article can be found here: The ECB has no room to cut rates (ft.com)

Or, here’s your snippet: “      Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at: https://www.ft.com/content/74c43985-309e-4889-b5f8-5fce56fbdd8d

      The European Central Bank is in a completely different situation. Not only did it already cut rates before leaving on holiday but what matters more is that, at 3.75 per cent, its rate is already a solid 1.5 percentage points below that of its peer across the ocean. This is an inheritance of the 2014-2019 period, when the central bank experimented with negative rates and kept them there for about a year after inflation had started rising.

That course of action means that today the ECB has less room than other central banks to loosen its policy. Never forget: the monetary stance depends on interest rate levels, not changes. The latter are at most indications of possible future levels.

The last reading of headline inflation in the Eurozone, at 2.2 per cent in August, 0.4 percentage points below the July level, provides less comfort than it seems. Core inflation, at 2.8 per cent, did not change. Services inflation, a sticky component representing nearly half of the index, moved up from 4 per cent to 4.2 per cent. The August drop of headline inflation depended fully on a major, but possibly erratic, fall of energy prices. This is an encouraging signal for the future, not a conclusive prompt to act now.

The ECB needs to maintain a moderately restrictive stance to make further disinflationary progress. As its chief economist, Philip Lane, said at Jackson Hole, “the return to target is not yet secure”. The current level of real short-term rates, at some 1.5 per cent or actually lower if one uses core inflation to deflate the nominal rate, is needed for that purpose. The ECB should maintain that level in September.

Christine Lagarde has often stated that the central bank she leads does not follow the Fed but charts its own course, because the two economies are different. The ECB president is right. This September meeting is the occasion to put that statement into practice.”

Chuck Again…  When will these Central Bankers ever learn?  Probably never, because they are thick headed… And the propellers they wear prohibit any novel ideas to enter their brains! 

Market Prices 9/12/2024: American Style: A$ .6685, kiwi .6143, C$ .7362, euro 1.1026, sterling 1.3054, Swiss $1.1733, European Style: rand 17.9209, krone 10.8168, SEK 10.3067, forint 358.85, zloty 3.8801, koruna 22.3230, RUB 91.35, yen 142.06, sing 1.3045, HKD 7.8019, INR 83.97, China 7.1207, pesos 19.76, BRL 5.6447, BBDXY 1,234.30, Dollar Index 101.71, Oil $68.39, 10-year 3.65%, Silver $28.93, Platinum $965.00, Palladium $1,037.00, Copper $4.21, and Gold… $2,528.21

That’s if for today and this week…  Well, tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be meeting up with some of my fave people… My former colleagues at EverBank… I haven’t seen some of them for two years! Ever since I used to hold driveway happy hours, during Covid…   My beloved Mizzou Tigers play Boston College on Saturday… I do believe this could be a trap game for the Tigers, so they need to put that out of their heads and go out and play their game!  Maybe one day Mizzou Coach Eli Drinkwitz will have me be a guest locker room inspiration speaker!  As IF!   Go Tigers! R.E.M. Takes us to the finish line today with their song: The One I Love….  I saw R.E.M. Years ago, when they were BIG… And I have to say it was quite a show!   I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today, and a Wonderful Weekend, and please remember to Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• A net zero gain or loss for the dollar after yesterday & last night
• U.S. Debt has reached a point where it will begin to grow quickly!

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! My beloved Cardinals couldn’t find their bats again last night and got shut out again! UGH!  13 times this year! That’s 13 times too many in my book! And what made it worse was that it was against the Reds…  I’ll always hold it against the Reds, for ending Jason LaRue’s career… Cardinals fans will know what I’m talking about here… Well, nothing The announcer said last night the Big Boy trains would be in St. Louis today… And that got me thinking about a run-away train…  I’ll get to what I mean in just a minute… Humble Pie greets me this morning with their 70’s song: I Don’t Need No Doctor

Quick trivia.. Who was the guitar player and backup singer for Humble Pie?  The answer will be somewhere in the letter today, see if you can find it…  and no Googling it! 

Well, the dollar drifting as sea found an island where there were some buyers that hadn’t heard that the Fed Heads were going to debase the dollar next week…   The BBDXY gained 2 index points on the day, and finished the day at 1,236…  This small move in the dollar didn’t bring about a euro that was falling… The euro held Steady Eddie throughout the day yesterday, and the rest of the currencies all filed in behind the Big Dog. The Petrol Currencies, that include the ruble, krone, sterling, real, loon, and pesos, are all getting treated like a red-headed stepchild these days, as the price of Oil seems to slip a buck a day, which it did again yesterday and ended the day with a $66 handle…  The Mexican peso trades with a 20 handle again, after being the currency of the year previously, it has fallen on difficult times in recent times… And the ruble, which just last week trade with an 88, is back to a 90 handle, and so on for the Petrol Currencies… 

Well, I think the bond boys read that article that I highlighted the other day regarding how the bond boys had grown apprehensive and thought that the Fed Heads had waited too long to cut rates….. Why did I just say that? Because the 10-year got bought by the bushelful yesterday, and ended the day trading with a 3.66%, that is after starting the day with a 3.74%…  Now, this all makes sense to me that the bond boys are back to moving yields downward, with sells to buyers… 

In the overnight markets last night…  Well, the next island that the drifting dollar stopped at had heard the news that the dollar was about to be debased, and so they sold dollars… Not a lot of selling, but some nonetheless… The BBDXY is down 2 index points to start the day today, the currencies though all look at lot like me lately,,, tired and broken down..   Gold is down $12 to start the day today, while Silver is up 32-cents…  Tell me how that makes sense, and I’ll owe you a cup of coffee… I really like the coffee that is Jamaican rum infused…   

The price of Oil actually gained a buck overnight and trades this morning with a $67 handle… Maybe, just maybe, because you never know (Joaquin Andujar) the selling has abated?  I doubt it, probably just a correction of sorts…  And the 10-year’s yield trades this morning with a 3.67% yield…   So, in reality no change from yesterday’s close… 

The folks over at Morgan Stanley put out a report that called for the euro to lose 7% VS the dollar, because they think that the European Central Bank will come out with some BIG rate cuts…  I just have one question for these Ivy leaguers… So, does that still hold true if the FOMC has BIG rate cuts too?    I shake my head in disbelief that these guys get through school…  I’m just saying… 

Well… Did you watch the Great Debate? I didn’t… After watching my beloved Cardinals get shut out, I wished I had watched just about anything else! OK… Regarding the runaway train I mentioned above…  I’ve told you all the forecasts by the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) regarding out National Debt…  There’s this thing that says when debt reaches a point where it can’t be paid back, and the country has to borrow to pay the debt service (interest on the bond) then the debt will begin to multiply quickly…  Can you say $20 Trillion in the next 10 years?   That’s what the CBO said, but I’m of the opinion that it will be larger than that…  Our National Debt is the runaway train, folks, and there’s no stopping it now…   Eventually, we as a country, will be looking at having to cut spending, somehow, like social security, and Medicaid… So, if you’re close to the retirement age, you had better sign up for Soc. Sec. Before it’s gone with the wind…  I’m just saying… 

I’m also amazed at how the economy seems to be getting along, albeit weakening, with all the debt that is weighing it down…  All the attention of the bean counters in Gov’t is the debt, how to finance it, how to pay the interest, etc. Maybe we don’t need them?  We don’t need them to tell us that the Debt is going to multiply quicker from here on out… Anyone taking math classes in school knows about how balances can multiply quickly… It’s called Combination Calculator… It’s a real doozy of  calculation so, I wouldn’t try this at home! HA! 

But one day, the economy won’t continue to go along… And that’s when the Fed Heads will panic, again, and cut rates down to zero again… And probably start buying bonds again…  The Fed Heads are all looking at this all wrong… What else is knew?  They shouldn’t be cutting rates at this point, they should be forcing Congress to cut some deficit spending or else they won’t play along with any longer and cut rates, etc.  

I know, I know the rate cuts should shoot Gold’s price to the moon, but what if it doesn’t?  This just proves that you can’t have your cake and eat it too!  I wonder what Peter Frampton would say about this?  Do you feel like we do? That the Fed Heads will be making a HUGE mistake by cutting rates?    

The FWIW article this morning has something on the rate cuts… So be sure to stay tuned to the same Bat Channel, same Time…. 

The U.S. Data Cupboard today, has the STUPID CPI August print…  It is widely expected that The STUPID CPI grew at .2% in August, and the annual STUPI CPI would drop to 2.6% (from 2.9%)…  I don’t see how that will happen, given the money supply remaining to be fed through a huge pipeline, but then I’m not a propeller head in the Gov’t making things up as i go along….   

To recap…  The drifting at sea dollar stopped at an island that wasn’t aware that the Fed Heads were set to debase the dollar next week, and they bought dollars… Not a Huge movement in the BBDXY, just 2 index points, but buying nontheless… Then in the overnight markets those 2 index points were sold! Chuck talks about how the Petrol Currencies are being treated like a red headed step Child, and how the price of Oil seems to lose a buck a day…. Chuck goes into something else that would take too long to explain, so you better go back and read it if you skimmed over it…

For What It’s Worth… Well, since interest rate cuts are the talk of the markets these days, I thought that this article on Forbes would be helpful for those of you who are looking forward to weaker rates, and it can be found here: What To Expect On Interest Rates For The Remainder Of 2024 (forbes.com)

Or, here’s your snippet: “The Federal Open Market Committee has three scheduled meetings remaining in 2024 and markets expect interest rates to be cut at all of them. Statements from FOMC policymakers have generally become more dovish.

This is in part a response to economic conditions. Inflation has eased substantially and the labor market is weakening somewhat, albeit from a period of very low unemployment. Economic theory suggests both factors typically call for less restrictive monetary policy when compared to current levels.

FOMC Policymakers Continue To Signal Cuts Are Coming

There are 12 voting members of the FOMC. Not all members make frequent public statements, but those who do have expressed a similar theme of looking to ease restrictive monetary policy because inflation is expected to return to target levels.

Of course, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell exerts significant influence on monetary policy. In an August 23 speech, he said that: “the time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks.”

FOMC voting member and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic recently released a statement that was also more dovish than many of his recent comments. He wrote on September 4 that, “we must not maintain a restrictive policy stance for too long. I believe we cannot wait until inflation has actually fallen all the way to 2 percent to begin removing restriction because that would risk labor market disruptions that could inflict unnecessary pain and suffering.”

As such, FOMC policymakers appear to be sending a clear and relatively unified message that interest rates can be expected to move lower from current levels.

How Much Easing Is Needed?

Assuming the FOMC does ease monetary policy over the coming months as broadly expected, the question is how much. The FOMC will provide information on this in an update to the Summary of Economic Projections. This will include expectations for the federal funds rate at the end of 2024. An update here will come with the FOMC’s decision on September 18.

Fixed income markets as assessed by the CME’s FedWatch Tool are currently looking a federal funds rate reduction of 0.75% to 1.5% by December 2024. Short-term rates are expected to end the year at a little more than 4%. Should this forecast hold, rates would be cut at each of the FOMC’s remaining meetings in September, November and December. There is the possibility of larger 0.5% interest rate reductions in at least one of those meetings, and possibly two in the most dovish case.

The Remaining 2024 FOMC Meeting Schedule

The FOMC will announce interest rate decisions at its three remaining 2024 meetings on September 18, November 7 and December 18. The decisions will be announced at 2 p.m. ET and followed 30 minutes later by a press conference with Powell. The September and December meetings will also include an update to the Summary of Economic Projections. In addition, the FOMC typically release meeting minutes three weeks after each event. The FOMC also can adjust interest rates whenever it choses. It has historically adjusted interest rates outside of its typical meeting schedule during times of economic stress.”

Chuck again… You all know how I feel about rate cuts… They are basically debasing the currency… I’ve always contended that a currency was the stock of a country…  And therefore, one of the main tools investors use to value a stock is the yield it pays…  Now just move that to the currency’s yield, and you’ll see what I’m getting at…  But go ahead and lower interest rates, you dolts, and then see what happens…. Oh sure, stocks will rally even higher, home prices will rise ever higher, and inflation will come back…   Mark my words on that one, folks… 

Market prices 9/11/2024: American Style: A$.6643. kiwi .6121, C$ .7354, euro 1.1009, sterling 1.3050, Swiss 1.1756, European Style: rand 17.9772, krone 10.8687, SEK 10.4142, forint 360.17, zloty 3.8955, koruna 22.7825, RUB 91.21, yen 142.45, sing 1.3054, HKD 7.7987, INR 83.97 China 7.1178, peso 19.83, BRL 5.6378, BBDXY 1,234.78, Dollar Index 101.74, Oil $67.76, 10-year 3.68%, Silver $28.55, Platinum $936.00, Palladium $973.00, Copper $4.14, and Gold… $2,505.00

That’s it for today…  Ahh, our second day of infamy… 9/11…  That was really a sad time for our country, it was also the beginning of the end of our Empire…  I remember that morning like it happened yesterday… I had a little 9-inch B&W TV behind my desk, and the whole office surrounded it to get a glimpse of the goings on…  Gold leapt in price by 6% that day… And back then it was only $287 an ounce!  A 6% rise today, would be a moon shot!  I’m still not strong enough to walk very far…  or climb too many steps…  This blood loss thing is taking way too long to recover…  RIP James Earl Jones….  The Voice!   OK… Time to hit send… George Harrison takes us to the finish line today with his song: While My Guitar Gently Sleeps… Another quick trivia question for you, who played the lead guitar parts on that song?    Well, you don’t have to search for it, as it was Eric Clapton…  I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• Dollar buying ends, but there was no selling attached….
• Janet Yellen sees no red lights flashing…

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! Well, I didn’t tell you this yesterday, but Sunday night was just awful for me, I woke up at 2 am and started hacking, and then my mouth began to bleed, and this continued until around 4:30 am… So, yesterday, I just kept falling asleep all day, and then I fell asleep watching the 49er’s defense control the game last night… But I did stay awake long enough to smoke some very yummy pork tenderloins… Not that I had to stand over a grill… The Big Green Egg did the majority of the work! Procol Haru Tm greets me this morning with their mega hit song: Whiter Shade Than Pale…  That’s what I’ve felt like lately… 

Well, The dollar buying ended yesterday, but there wasn’t any selling either… The BBDXY lost 1 index point, so no biggie… I just didn’t get why investors, hedge funds, state Treasurers, etc. were buying dollars…  it just didn’t make any sense to me, but then not much does these days… I’m just saying…   There’s nothing on the economic data prints calendar for this week, so we go drifting out to sea… We’ll just bob along with the tide, and stay away from the coast of Africa… ( It is still hurricane season!)  And that will last until it doesn’t… Probably, this Thursday, when the STUPID CPI for August prints…  Because you never know when the Gov’t will throw out a rogue STUPID CPI, but after typing that, my mind reminded me that it is an election year… So, that stirs the “we don’t know pot” even more! 

Gold found a way to gain $9.70 yesterday… And Silver gained 36-cents, so, not having the dollar dominating traders’ minds, saw Gold & Silver get back on the rally tracks… But this is getting old, isn’t it? Up one day, down the next day, and rinse and repeat…  Did you read the Egon Von Greyerz article yesterday, about Gold?  I like the illustrations of how much $14,000 invested in Gold in 1971 would be worth today… Oh, what’s that, you didn’t read the article? Well, then I’ll make it easy for you, the $14,000 invested in a Gold 400oz bar in 1971 would be worth $1 Million today… Now then, don’t you wish you were a Gold bug in the early 70’s?  Back then, there were no short paper traders, because the Casino Banks didn’t have currency trading desks…  Yes, you, me, and the guy down the street, weren’t allowed to own Gold in 1971… It was 1974, when they finally took that off the books, and that started Gold’s first bull run… 

The Pirce of Oil slipped more yesterday, and ended the day trading with a $67 handle… There’s not stopping these Oil contract sellers because they see the Gloom and Doom that is hovering over the U.S., Europe, Asia, and well the rest of the world that loaded up on debt during the last free interest party the Fed/ Cabal / Cartel , and other central banks held…   They see it coming, I see it coming, but poor Janet Yellen sure doesn’t… I’ve got an article for you in the FWIW section today that talks about Yellen and her rose colored glasses… 

In the overnight markets last night… Dollar traders were nowhere to be found, as the BBDXY begins today’s trading at the same level it closed at yesterday: 1.235…  our boat is now bobbing along adrift in the sea… I’m just saying… Gold is flat to down a buck to start the day today… And Silver is up 10-cents… So, nothing to see here either… You know that the markets are in a “wait-n-see” mode when the overnight markets are a dud…  

I found this on Reuters.com this morning regarding bonds… Let’s listen in: “Bond traders believe the Fed has waited too long to cut interest rates, according to this indicator. The spread between the 2-year yield and Fed funds rate has fallen to its most deeply negative level in at least 50 years, another potential recession signal from the bond market.

The Fed waited too long to cut interest rates, according to this bond-market gauge.

A long-awaited shift in the relationship between the 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes wasn’t the only recession warning to emerge from the bond market on Friday.

A steep drop in the 2-year Treasury yield has also pushed the spread between the short-dated note and the Fed funds rate, the Federal Reserve’s primary tool for guiding monetary policy, to its most negative level in at least 50 years, according to Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek.

During that time, the spread between the two short-term rates has only fallen below -1 percentage point on three occasions. A recession had started within a year after each.” 

Interesting, don’t you think?  This is important stuff folks… Shrug it off if you will, but this will come back to haunt us in the near future…. I’m just saying..

Well, I received quite a few Pfennigs Replies yesterday, telling me that yesterday’s Pfennig was very thought provoking, and thanking me for reminding everyone about the coming disaster of digital currencies…  I thank all that replied with nice remarks… You know, I try my best to give you something that’s worth reading each day, but there are times when the news cupboard is dry…  But I carry on despite this lack of fodder… 

Like this morning… There’s nothing but talk about the BIG DEBATE tonight…  It’ll be a dud, I’m just telling you now, so maybe you’ll listen to me later…   There was a headline on Bloomberg.com this morning that shook me to the bone… Let’s see how it hits you: “Blinken Says Russia Has Received Ballistic Missiles From Iran”…  The reason that got to me was it reminded me of the Weapons of Mass Destruction warnings… And how it got us into a war that we couldn’t win, and lost and maimed many a soldier… This whole Middle East saber rattling is really beginning to sound familiar isn’t it? Or, is it just me?   I’ll stop here with this here, and ask just one question: Got Gold?

The U.S. Data Cupboard this morning doesn’t have anything for us…  a great big dud…  a firework that doesn’t light… A Broadway dud…  and so on… But yesterday, the Gov’t tried to sneak a report past us… Consumer Credit for August (read debt)…  this from Zerohedge.com “One month ago, when multiple discount retailers (here and here) were lamenting the sudden collapse in U.S. consumer purchasing power, we observed the reason this unexpected hit to U.S. consumption: as the U.S. personal savings rate had collapsed, the growth in consumer credit was slowing, and in July, credit card debt growth posted its first decline since the covid crash, just in time for another month of record high credit card rates.

But fast forwarding just one month later, when in a stunning reversal, July consumer credit growth unexpectedly reversed the dramatic June slowdown, and soared more than $25 billion, to a new record high of $5.093 trillion.”

Chuck again.. Uh-oh! I guess to make sure we’ve come to tapped out consumers, we’ll have to wait-n-see next months’ report here to see if there was any follow up, or the balances got paid down… 

To recap… The dollar buying ended yesterday, but there was no selling attached…  Chuck believes that the markets have gone into a let’s drift on the sea for a couple of days, until the STUPID CPI prints on Thursday… The news stories are all about the GREAT DEBATE tonight, which Chuck thinks will be a dud….  Consumers are racking up the debt on their credit cards again…   And Chuck points to a scary reminder of days past… 

For What It’s Worth… Ok, I teased you a bit above this morning about the FWIW article today…  This is an article that features Peter Boockvar and his thoughts on Janet Yellen, which just so happen to be aligned with my thoughts on Janet Yellen… And this can be found here: Yellen sees ‘no red warning lights” for U.S economy, but Fed’s rate cuts could backfire – Peter Boockvar | Kitco News

Or, here’s your snippet: ” Recent economic data has raised questions about Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s optimistic view of the U.S. economy. While Yellen recently stated at the Texas Tribune Festival that she doesn’t see any “red lights flashing,” revisions to the August jobs report showed just 142,000 new jobs, and underemployment has climbed to 7.9%. The retail and manufacturing sectors are also shedding jobs, contributing to a more mixed economic picture than Yellen’s words suggest.

In a conversation with Jeremy Szafron, Anchor at Kitco News, Peter Boockvar, Chief Investment Officer at Bleakley Financial Group, offered a more cautious perspective. “You can be in a full-blown hurricane, and the Treasury secretary will say, ‘The weather looks great,’” Boockvar said, underscoring his concern that the government may not be acknowledging all the risks. He also questioned the upcoming Federal Reserve rate cuts, saying, “The market assumes the Fed can just cut rates and everything will be fine, but I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

As the Federal Reserve’s September meeting approaches, markets are anticipating a significant decision on interest rates. While the consensus leans toward a 25 basis point cut, some speculate the Fed may opt for 50 basis points, depending on incoming data. Inflation figures, including the CPI and PPI due this week, could influence the final decision. Boockvar suggested that while inflation may be moderating, aggressive rate cuts could have unintended consequences for the broader economy.”

Chuck again… Nothing more to add here…  except on the link above you can watch an interview with Peter, that I think would behoove the astute reader to watch…  He gets into the rate cuts, and so on… 

Market Prices 9/10/2024: American Style: A$ .6664, kiwi .6155, C$ .7367, euro 1.1027, sterling 1.3087, Swiss $1.1795, European Style: rand 17.9021, krone 10.7939, SEK 10.3705, forint 360.38, zloty 3.8843, koruna 22.7253, RUB 91.16, yen 143.20, sing 1.3063, HKD 7.7968, INR 83.97, China 7.1188, peso 19.90, BRL 5.5845, BBDXY 1,235.70, Dollar Index 101.65, Oil $67.74, 10-year 3.70%, Silver $28.45, Platinum $948.00, Palladium $967.00, Copper $4.12, and Gold… $2,504.70

That’s it for today…  A much better night of sleep last night for yours truly… Thank you for putting up with my whining, and complaining about my health… I don’t mean to be a drag on your day…  But I feel like I’m aging quickly, and when I get with people the conversation immediately goes to how I’m feeling these days… I guess that’s better than talking about what I wrote about that day!  My beloved Cardinals attempt to play out the year, and get back to that job tonight… And my other beloved team, my Mizzou Tigers are the number 6 team in the country this week… That’s a lofty rating, and the highest they’ve been since the year Chase Daniel led them to # 1 in the country! That only lasted a week, but we could still shout: “We’re number 1, We’re number 1”!  Jr. Walker and the All Stars take us to the finish line today with their song: Shotgun….   I was always a big Jr. Walker and his band, fan, back in the 60’s… Seems like a very long time ago now… UGH!  I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• the dollar gets bought on Friday, and Gold gets sold…
• Chuck talks about the price of Gas…

Good Day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! I know, I know I’m later again this morning… But this time it wasn’t because I couldn’t answer the bell… I completely forgot it was Monday!  I was upstairs reading news stories, and sipping my coffee, when it occurred to me that it was not Sunday, but Monday, and I had better get to writing! UGH!  How about my beloved Mizzou Tigers! Two shutouts to start the season!  I don’t care who you’re playing, when you shut them out, that’s playing some hellish defense!  And an even tougher test will come to COMO this coming Saturday, as Boston College comes to play… Go Tigers!  Little Evie and brother Braden were here Saturday and Saturday night… She is quite the 4-year-old that’s about to turn 5 in Rocktober… Blackfoot greets me this morning with his song: Highway Song… 

Well, one of the most awaited on data prints took place on Friday… The BLS, the Gov’t agency caught lying and cheating, issued their report on Job creation in August…  The markets were anticipating a rotten report, and that would lead to the Fed Heads cutting interest rate 50 Basis Points…  But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum, and that is the BLS sprung another surprise Jobs report on the markets. The BLS said that 142,000 jobs were created in August…   Here’s where I pull the wool back from your eyes, and tell you that the BLS added 100,000 jobs to the surveys, out of thin air…  Now, didn’t the BLS have to admit that 818,000 jobs that they added to the surveys this year were false?…  So, what would make them add 100,000 jobs again in August, when they know in their heart of hearts that they will be revised downward at some point in the future? 

The only thing I can think of as to why the BLS would revert to a system that has failed them in the past is, that they are Gov’t agency… And it is an ELECTION YEAR!  I’ll say that again… It is an ELECTION YEAR!  There’s no way the BLS was going to print that the surveys said job creation was (44,000) and have that reflect on their bosses… (the Gov’t)… I had really thought that the BLS wouldn’t add jobs out of thin air any longer, after they had to eat some crow, and admit that 818,000 jobs didn’t exist that they had added…  Besides… There was no one fired over this lie, there was no one hung on a line, and therefore, they take the premise that they got away with the lie….  

So, here’s what happened after the BLS report… The dollar, which was getting sold to the tune of 3 index points in the BBDXY, turned on a dime, and was quickly up 3 index points in the BBDXY!  And Gold, which was up $9 in the early trading, lost that and more immediately following the BLS Print… I’m Imprint Certain that the short paper traders saw Gold getting ready to take off to the upside, and decided that was not going to happen today… And I’m just as certain that the PPT decided to save the dollar once more…  So, nothing’s changed… The BLS lies, and when the markets react, the Gov’t’s gun slingers come in an reverse everything…   

I know I talk about the old days a lot, but I don’t care…  In the old days, before Gold had taken off to the upside, in the 90’s… Remember? In 2002 Gold was around $265… And there was no sign of short paper traders… As Gold began to rise, it caught the short paper traders sleeping, and Gold rose to $1,300 by the end of the decade…  Ever since then Gold had had to fight for every inch of ground it has gained… 

I’m so jaded with these Gov’t reports, folks… They just rankle me in the wrong way…  I’m just saying…

In the overnight markets last night… The dollar continued to get bought, and this buying has got me really scratching my bald head in wonderment over what the dollar bugs see here?  Oh well, I guess it’s all a relief trade from the thought that there won’t be a “jumbo Rate Cut”… But this much buying? C’Mon give me a break! 

The Price of Gold is up $4 to start the day/ week this morning, and Silver is up 25-cents… It’s too early on Monday morning for the short paper traders to show up, if they are going to show up today that is…  The price of Oil this morning has a $68 handle…  And the 10-year’s yield is trading with a 3.74% yield this morning… I have some thoughts on bonds coming up, so stay tuned to the same bat channel…  

So, the question that’s on everyone’s mind this morning is: Was the BLS report bad enough to warrant a “jumbo rate cut”?  I don’t think so… In essence, it was a Goldilocks report… Not too hot… Not too cold… Just about right…. So, in my mind, the Fed Heads will cut rates on the 18th, 25 Basis Points or 1/4%… That will be enough, at this time… Not really, but in their feeble minds it will be… You know, the Fed/ Caba/. Cartel employs hundreds of Ivy league accountants, and thinkers…  I was taught many years ago, that when a group of people think they know more than everyone else, that they are NOT That SMART!  These doofuses will cut rates, and continue to increase the money supply, and the doofuses in Congress will continue to deficit spend, and we as citizens will be left holding the inflation bag… 

Don’t think for a minute that the Fed Heads and Congress don’t know what they are doing… They need inflation, they need inflation to be steady Eddie, to reduce the value of their debt…  I’ve explained this all previously, and will not go there again this morning…   So… As I’ve taught you many times in the past, Money Supply equals inflation, and higher prices are a result of inflation…     

The currencies saw selling late last week, all tied to the dollar rally. The euro, the offset currency to the dollar, fell below 1.11 again… And the rest of the currencies fell in behind the Big Dog euro…  I don’t have to tell you, since I have many times in the past, that the currencies don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, if the dollar doesn’t weaken… Yes, there will be rogue currencies that rally even in the face of a strong dollar, but those are outliers, and are not enough to bring the other currencies along…  For instance… Right now, the Chinese renminbi has been on the rally tracks, which is interesting to me, because all the reports I read on line, tell me that China is having real economic problems… But that can’t be..  Or else the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) would be directing the renminbi downward…   I wise man who started a company in China 30 years ago, once told me to believe only ½ of what the Chinese tell us, in reports, and other things…  Right now, I’m of the opinion that I should be believing ½ of what the online reports tell me!  

Speaking of reports that one should take with a grain of salt… Reports that our friends (NOT!) at OPEC are going to increase production soon…  That report has send the price of Oil spiraling, and circling the bowl…  The drawing down of our reserves continues, and here’s Zerohedge.com with their thoughts on that: “With oil trading at 2024 lows, despite a report earlier denying last week’s Reuters fake news that OPEC+ would hike output in October which sent oil prices tumbling, and despite last night’s API report that a whopping 7.4 million in crude oil were drawn in the past week with draws also in all other categories, moments ago the DOE confirmed what we warned recently, namely that as CTAs – and the Kamala/Biden oil trading desk – are aggressively shorting oil into oblivion, oil demand remains resilient and very soon we may hit tank bottoms when it reported another huge draw in the last week.”

Chuck again… You know, the younger crowd that does the majority of the trading these days, never experienced a line to get gas… Or gas rationing, or day of the week when you assigned your day to fill up…  They never experienced the price of gas rising from 29-cents in 1973, to $2.60 by the end of the year! Yes, they’ve seen gas price rise, but not like we saw them rise in the 70’s…  In the early 80’s the gas lines got worse, and the price of gas rose to $4.25…   The pundits blamed the Iran-Iraq war as the reason for the rise in the price…    But in a manner of just 10 years from 1973, to 1983, the price of gas rose from 29-cents to $4.25…   Talk about an Oil shock! 

This is when the U.S. decided President Ford, signed into law, the Strategic Petroleum Reserves law… So, now the POTUS has drawn down those reserves…  I sure hope this doesn’t lead to gas lines, rationing, and a price surge like the one we saw in 1973 to 1983…    But it appears that this is what the elites want for us… Aren’t we lucky? 

The bond boys are really pushing the envelope across the desk of a Jumo Rate Cut…  Well, I don’t know if they really believe in that or not, but what I do know is that the saying that a Jumbo Rate Cut is near, over and over, the masses that buy bonds, will flock to buy them…. And that’s what the bond boys are there for…  to facilitate your purchase of bonds…  I even read a report last week that talked about how “It was time to get back into bonds”…  Well that may be correct, if the Fed Heads are hell bent and whiskey bound, to cut rates low again, then yes… But if the Fed Heads cut rates and then see that they made a mistake, and have to hike them again, bonds will not be where you want to be… So, what road will you take? 

The U.S. Data Cupboard takes a break from the datapalooza that was last week, this week… The only pieces of data that I see is the STUPID CPI and PPI…  For August… I don’t know why the Gov’t decided to change the issue dates on these two pieces of data… But they did… The put The STUPID CPI (consumer inflation) before PPI (wholesale inflation)… The reason that PPI used to print first, is that PPI gives you an indication of where consumer inflation is heading…   So, if the STUPID CPI printed at 2.6% but PPI was strong, then you would think that the STUPD CPI would be even higher next month….   Well, that is as long as the Gov’t doesn’t employ those hedonic adjustments that they like to use every month on the STUPID CPI 

To recap… The BLS decided to issue a Goldilocks jobs report last Friday for August, and the short paper traders decided to us that like the cover of darkness, and go after the metals…  And the dollar miraculously turned around too… A real enigma, eh?  Chuck gets into the price of Oil, and gas history… Talks about what the bond boys are doing these days, and other things this morning…

For What It’s Worth… OK… Egon Von Greyerz of Gold Switzerland has been our guest here many times in the past, and he has pinned a very interesting article about the Folly of the West, after Nixon took the dollar off the Gold standard… And it can be found here: $ 1 MILLION GOLD PRICE & EXCHANGE CONTROLS – VON GREYERZ

Or, here’s your snippet: “It was always inevitable that the GOLD price would reach $ 1 million!

So, now we are there.

The price for a 400-ounce gold bar has now reached $ 1 million.

It reached $ 1 million on August 16, 2024 – 53 years and 1 day after the US (Nixon) permanently said farewell to the dollar as a store of value by closing the Gold Window.

Let’s just recap what has happened to the cost of a 400 oz gold bar since 1971:

Cost of a 400oz Gold Bar

1971    $14,000

2000    $115,000

2024    $1,000,000

Or, we can look at like this:

How Many Ounces of Gold for $14,000

1971    400oz

2000      49oz

2024       6oz

So, has the value of gold gone up 71x since 1971? (71x$14,000=$1M)

No, of course not. The dollar has collapsed by 98.5%.

Or, if we look at it differently:

That is a loss of purchasing power of 98.5% over the 53 years between 1971 and 2024.

Just think about it: If you put $14,000 in the bank in 1971 and earned, say 4% on average, that would be $116,000 today. A far cry from the $ 1 million that the same amount invested in gold – REAL MONEY – would be worth.

So, what does closing the gold window actually mean?

It simply means that after August 15, 1971, the dollar could no longer be converted to gold by any investor, private or sovereign.

First, we see the West’s  prediction of the consequences as interpreted by Nixon on 15 August 1971:

Nixon’s lies:

“Suspend Temporarily the convertibility of $ into Gold…

Strength of the currency based on the strength of the economy…

Your dollar will be worth just as much tomorrow”

WISDOM OF THE EAST

China’s leader had this to say in 1971: “Mark the collapse of capitalist monetary sysetem with the dollar as its prop… Nixon’s new economic polity cannot extricate the U.S. from financial and economic crises”

So the US (Nixon) said, “Your dollar will be worth as much tomorrow”.

And China said, “These measures mark the collapse of the capitalist monetary system with the US dollar as its prop”.

So the West is only interested in instant gratification, issuing debt and thus buying short-term prosperity and votes, leading to “decay and decline”. 

Chuck again…This is a great article and it’s long….  You’ll need to click the link above to read it in its entirety… But I would think you’ll want to read it… Egon discusses how the Federal Debt in the U.S. has multiplied by 82x, and our GPD has only multiplied by 26x…  “More and more debt is required to create growth. Consequently, since 1971, US debt to GDP has gone from 39% to 122%. 

Over 90% of Debt to GDP is considered junk, and 122% is Banana Republic territory”

Market Prices 9/9/2024: American Style: A$ .6654, kiwi .6138, C$ .7371, euro 1.1035, sterling 1.3137, Swiss $1.1856, European Style: rand 17.9211, krone 10.6339, SEK 10.2687, forint 355.90, zloty 3.8883, koruna 22.6754, RUB  87.88, yen 143.22, sing 1.3065, HKD 7.7991, INR 83.95, China 7.11.59, peso 19.92, BRL 5.5355, BBDXY 1,235.70, Dollar Index 101.59, Oil $68.35, 10-year 3.74%, Silver $28.19, Platinum $940.00, Palladium $937.00, Copper $4.13, and Gold… $2,501.83

That’s it for today…  Well, the temps here in the Midwest have cooled down, and the dog days of summer are over… Saturday was a great day for me, as both my beloved teams won… The Cardinals and Mizzou Tigers both won their games on Saturday. YAHOO! We tried a new place to have our usual Friday happy hour last Friday… We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather, and discussed the problems of the world… HA! As if! Our STL City team tied their game Saturday night, on the road, so not too bad…  And then yesterday, the NFL season began… I rarely watch an NFL game throughout these days, instead opting for the REDZONE network…  A few years ago, I boycotted watching NFL games, because of the kneeling B.S.  I’ve slowly come back…  The GREAT Dionne Warwick takes us to the finish line today with her beautifully sung song: Walk On By….  I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• Currencies & metals rally in the overnight markets last night
• China is doing the smart thing with their currency…

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to one and all!  Well, my trip to the oncologist produced a blood level that was better, but still way below the minimum level… So, there’s till concern there, but not as much as last month!  She also made me go for a chest x-ray, since I had that awful cold, and wanted to make sure my lungs were clear… They were… I’m still off the chemo for now, because chemo can lower blood levels… I’m still sleeping 3 to 4 hours each afternoon… When that stops, I’ll know that my strength, and stamina, have returned…   Paul McCartney greets me this morning with his song with the band Wings… Maybe I’m Amazed… 

When I left you on Tuesday this week, Gold was getting sold by the short paper traders, and looked to be on the ropes… But Gold did a rope-a-dope maneuver and got off the ropes, and ended the day down just $7… Silver didn’t fare as well, and lost 51-cents on Tuesday… Gold Closed at $2,492.80, and Silver at $28.01 on Tuesday… 

Yesterday, Gold came back, and gained $4, while Silver gained 34-cents… Gold closed yesterday at $2,496.50, and Silver closed at $28.35… Maybe, just maybe the short paper traders have decided that they’ve done enough damage to Gold & Silver, and that investors should shy away from buying now… These takedowns by the short paper traders were done ahead of the FOMC rate cut… 

Which by the way, the Futures Market has the chances of a 50 Basis Points Rate Cut growing by leaps and bounds… Yesterday the JOLTS (Job Openings report) showed a larger than expected drop, and that alone caused more pundits to jump on the 50 Basis Points rate cut bandwagon…  For those of you who are new to class… 50 Basis Points is 1/2%…  

The dollar which on Tuesday was still getting bought like funnel cakes at a State Fair, finally saw some selling after the ISM Manufacturing Index dropped further below 50 at 47… The BBDXY lost 2 index points on Tuesday, but in essence it lost 6 index points, from the intraday high… On Wednesday, the dollar saw more selling and the BBDXY lost 1 index point… 

The euro, which appeared ready to be taken below 1.10, after sniffing around the 1.12 level last week, recovered a bit and moved higher in the 1.10 handle. The rest of the currencies are taking their time recovering the lost ground they had suffered. 

The price of Oil continues to get hammered, and ended yesterday trading with a $69 handle… Wouldn’t you know it, I filled up my gas tank last week! Well, I don’t think the price of Oil is going to turn around soon, so there’s that… 

And the 10-year’s yield has dropped from major buying of the 10-year… The bond price is soaring, while the 10-year’s yield is dropping like a rock… It ended yesterday trading with a 3.76% yield… 

In the overnight markets last night… There was little to no movement in the BBBDXY overnight… So, the dollar selling abated for now, but with all the data that’s due to print today and tomorrow, this lack of movement in the dollar won’t last. If I were a betting man, I would bet that the data will only produce more fodder for the rate cut boys and girls… The BBDXY trades this morning at 1.232…  Gold is back on the rally tracks this morning, with the shiny metal up $26 to start the day… Silver is also on the rally tracks and is up 47-cents to start the day… There’s some pent up buying going on here, as investors, hedge funds, etc. have been waiting for the short paper traders to finish up so that they could get in there a buy Gold before we get too close to the FOMC rate meeting, which will be a two-day meeting on Sept 17 & 18, with the rate announcement on the 18th… 

The price Oil remained trading with a $69 handle overnight, and the 10-year saw some more buying of the bond, which moved its yield lower to 3.73%…  The bond boys seem to be ahead of everyone else with regards to their outlook for the FOMC meeting… 

And I can’t forget to mention that the Chinese renminbi has really been in rally mode in recent days… Hey! I would do the same thing if I ran a country that had record exports to the U.S…. I would allow the currency to get very strong and reap the benefits…. I’m just saying….

OK… Late again this morning… I tell you if I had this lack of willpower back in the day when I had a job, I would have been shown the door much sooner!  C’est la Vie…  I was getting all excited about a proposed meeting tomorrow with former colleagues, Ty & Jack!  But it fell through… Drats!   OK, I’m going a different direction today, with a discussion on Central Bank Digital Currencies… (CBDC’s) Yes, I’ve been through all this on several occasions in the past, but… There are always new readers to class, and of course there are those of you who didn’t pay attention, to the previous notes on this dastardly thing that our Gov’t is going to stick down our throats, and the time is getting closer…   So, with no further ado… 

Well, it appears now that Central Banks all over the world are on board with the call to move to digital currencies, and eliminate the use of folding cash…  The good folks at GATA sent me this long piece but I cut out a snippet; “According to the Atlantic Council’s ‘GeoEconomics Center’, which maintains, 134 countries (which represent 98% of global GDP) are involved in, or exploring, the rollout of a central bank digital currency. Four years ago in 2020, there were only 35 countries in that same position, so you can see the huge increase in numbers of central banks involved with CDBCs over the 2020 – 2024 period.

Currently, 69 countries are in the advanced phase of readying their CBDC, a figure which covers CBDCs in the development, pilot, or launch stages. Another 44 countries / central banks are in the research stage.”

Chuck again… I have a dear reader that live down under, and he tells me that Australia is very advanced in their rollout of a digital currency…   You know, I’ve explained all the privacy losses we a citizens will suffer when we no longer can pay for things with cash…. Yes, using a card will be convenient but other than that, it’s a 1984, and state of Gov’t surveillance,  and in the end, it will be like China social credit rating…   Oh, the Gov’t will tell us that they would never do stuff like that, but we all know they lie…  Wasn’t taxing supposed to only be for the Corporations? Wasn’t the removal of Gold as the backing of the dollar only supposed to Temporary?  Those are just two fo the big lies they’ve told us, thinking that by the time they move on, no one will remember… 

I know I shouldn’t go here, but, what the heck… The good folks at www.bullionstar.com gave me this list…

” With CBDCs, transactions are not anonymous, so you have no privacy. Governments and central banks can monitor every transaction and who makes it. This allows total surveillance and erases financial privacy.

• CBDCs are programmable. This allows governments and their central banks to control what goods and services a digital token can buy, to apply expiration dates on balances, and most importantly to exclude or block individuals who might criticise government policies (i.e. think Chinese type social credit score). These are all forms of social and economic manipulation and indeed economic coercion.

• For retail CBDCs to be used, they in practice require each citizen to have a Digital ID, with the CBDC account and balances linked to a digital ID. A global rollout of CBDCs will therefore a) force everyone to have a Digital ID, which b) will create a full surveillance network that tracks everyone and their financial transactions.

• Since CBDCs are issued directly by central banks, they also centralise financial power in the State and its central bank. This is highly dangerous and is the antithesis to the concepts of freedom represented by gold and silver, and the concept of decentralisation represented by private cryptocurrencies.

In summary, CBDCSs are anemia to free societies because they undermine freedom, privacy, and individual liberty and autonomy.”

I have just one question for you…. Got Gold? 

And one more thing, the Banks that you use now, will immediately lower interest rates on deposits and CD’s, and not worry about you leaving their bank, because every bank will be doing the same thing!  i don’t know how much longer that we have here in the U.S. but remember what Gandalf the White said: “Understand this. Things are now in motion that cannot be undone.”     I shake my head the sheeple that have allowed this to happen…  

The U.S. Data Cupboard on Tuesday had the ISM Manufacturing Index and like I said above, it showed that the index had dived deeper below 50 in July at 47.9… Remember what I’ve always taught you… That when this index falls to 45, it is an indication that we are in a recession…    On Wednesday, we saw the JOLTS report for July, and it showed that job openings in the U.S. were 7.7 Million… But… The expectation for the data was for 8.3 Million… So, the markets took this a warning that there was a lack of demand on Businesses…   And finally, we saw that the Gov’t had their hand in the cookie jar again, and Factory Orders for July were +5%, after recording a negative -3.3% in June… All I’ll say is that it IS AN ELECTION YEAR! 

Today’s Data Cupboard has the usual Weekly Initial Jobless Claims… The stupid productivity reports for the 2^nd QTR…  And tomorrow is the Jobs Jamboree for August employment… 

To Recap… The dollar was getting bought like funnel cakes at a State Fair, until it wasn’t, on Tuesday this week, the dollar saw some weakness… And then again on Wednesday…  Oil’s price has fallen out of bed… The 10-year’s bond price has soared…  And Chuck goes the whole 9 yards in describing digital currency…  

For What It’s Worth…This was sent to me by the good folks at GATA, and it get into the cost of mining Silver, and costs of mines, and everything else you’ve always wanted to know about metals mining and it can be found here: Miners Are Dumping Every Single Ounce They Produce (moneymetals.com)

Or, here’s your snippet: “On an annual basis, global silver supply generated by mines seems to have run into a ceiling of about 1 billion ounces. Supply has essentially flat-lined over the past several years.

At the same time, explosive growth in demand from photovoltaics (solar panels) and electric vehicles is driving widening projected supply deficits for physical silver.

Rising silver prices will, in theory, incentivize more production. But the costs of extraction are rising sharply.

Metals markets analyst Steve St. Angelo estimates that in the first half of 2024, the total weighted average of cost of production among the leading silver miners rose to at least $26 per ounce. More marginal, higher-cost operators are facing the prospect of selling their product at a loss even with silver fetching $30 per ounce.

The silver price tends to find major support at its average all-in sustaining cost of production at any given time. That figure is likely to trend higher, possibly much higher, in the future.”

Chuck again… This is just a sippet of the article so if you want to read it all simply click the link above…  But I found it very interesting that the cost to pull Silver out of the mine is $26… So, the profit margin for the mining companies is marginal whenever the short paper traders take their pound of flesh from Silver…  Interesting, very interesting… 

Market Prices 9/5/2024: American Style: A$ .6730, kiwi .6219, C$ .7394, euro 1.1108, sterling 1.3173, Swiss $1.1848, European Style: rand 17.5348, krone 10.6156, SEK 10.2553, forint 353.06, zloty 3.8413, koruna 22.5265, RUB 89.44, yen 142.91, sing 1.3003, HKD 7.7934, INR 83.99, China 7.0911, peso 20.14, BRL 5.6193, BBDXY 1,232.08, Dollar Index 101.05, Oil $69.91, 10-year 3.73%, Silver $28.82, Platinum $934.00, Palladium $943.00, Copper 4.12, and Gold… $2,522.89

That’s it for today…  Well, my beloved Cardinals found a way to take 2 of 3 from the Brewers, and have been on a roll of sorts, winning each series… Where was this earlier this season?  Too little, too late… Oh well, there’s always next year! My Mizzou Tigers get a tougher test this Saturday, when they take on Buffalo… Go Tigers!  Well, I noticed yesterday that I when I climbed the stairs, I didn’t sound like I had just run a marathon…  Still short of breath a little but not as bad… So… Progress is slow… But it’s progress! It was nice having all the kids, grandkids and the kid’s dogs, here for Labor Day…  Ambrosia takes us to the finish line today, with their song: Holdin’ On To Yesterday… I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today, and a wonderful weekend ahead, and that you’ll Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• dollar continues to get bought…
• Gold & Silver see major short paper trading…

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you!  Well, how was your Labor Day Holiday weekend? Mine was low-key, for sure… Shoot Rudy, I didn’t even fire up the Big Green Egg this past weekend… In previous years, when we hosted our BBQ on Labor Day, I would smoke two Pork butts on Friday, and 3 Turkey Breasts on Saturday, and then the Green Egg would get to rest… I really had plans to go the butcher shop and get pork butt to smoke, but, I just never made it there!  My own fault… I sit down to read and the next thing I know it’s 4 hours later, because I fell asleep while reading! That’s why it takes me so long to read a book!  But, I guess that’s a good thing, because once its read, it’s time to go to a new book… I may as well get this out of the way now… There will be no Pfennig on Wednesday, as I will be at the hospital to see my oncologist bright and early… Jefferson Starship greets me this morning with their great 70’s song: Miracles…

And that’s what it would take, a miracle, to rid the markets of the short paper traders… They were back at again on Friday, and without a brief last minute rally in Gold it would have been pushed below $2,500…  Gold lost $18 on Friday, and Silver lost 58-cents… Gold Closed at $2,504.70, and Silver closed at 28.92…  Look what the short paper traders have done to Silver in the last week… We began last Monday with Silver trading at $30, and in one week the short paper traders took Silver down over a buck… Tsk, Tsk, Tsk…  dirty deeds, done dirt cheap (AC?DC)… 

The dollar, which last week was on the verge of circling the drain, gained another 3 points in the BBDXY on Friday, and ended the week at 1,232… The BBDXY was at 1,225 last Monday morning… So, a miraculous recovery for the dollar. How did that happen? Well, I’m sure the PPT intervened, and bought dollars by the truck load, and after they were done, traders were leery to sell dollars, in the face of all that intervention…   So, we have the Gov’t sticking their hands in the cookie jar of the dollar, and metals… Shoot Rudy, the 10-year’s yield rose to 3.91% last Friday, but not to worry, because the Gov’t has had this yield capped since last Rocktober… 

So I sound a bit ticked off and really done with the short paper traders/ Gov’t to start the week this morning? Well, I am because, every time I say that the dollar is ready to go on a long weak trend, the PPT steps in, and stops that from happening, and I sit here with egg on my face once again… UGH!

The price of Oil slid back again on Friday, and ended the week trading with a $73 handle… Don’t tell me that Gov’t has their hands in this cookie jar too! It is an election year, I might add…  Well, Chuck, let me remind you that the POTUS released the Strategic Oil Reserve to lower the price of gas…  Oh, yeah, that’s right, so my question is answered!

And then yesterday, while the smell of charcoal burning was going through the neighborhoods, and the smell of freshly mowed lawns, mixed, the short paper traders made some hay… They took down Gold by $4, and Silver by 30-cents…  Yes, even though the markets in the U.S. were closed for the holiday, the short paper trader filed their dastardly trades in the overnight markets… See? We can’t escape their dirty dogs even when the markets are closed!  Oh, and the dollar got bought again overseas… This is getting ridiculous… 

In the overnight markets last night… The dollar continued to get bought… What the heck do these dollar bugs see with the dollar?  (there’s that program telling me to calm down my writing), but I’m not going to do it! There! Take that and knit a sweater! This program keeps asking me if I want to download it, and I keep telling to go fly a kite, and yet, it keeps making suggestions! UGH!  Gold is down $7 to start the day today, and Silver is down another 30-cents… It’s starting out to be a very ugly week, folks…  It’s time again to batten down the hatches, and let the boys and girls that seem to a toolbox that’s short of a tool or two, take over for now…  

I’ll let you know when the adults can dip their toes in the water again…  

Well, the price of Oil has fallen out of bed once again, and once again, the lack of Chinese demand is being blamed for the attack on the price of Oil… Ok… I’m not going to throw darts at a claim that demand is lacking, and from such a large user of Oil…  Here’s Bloomberg.com with their thoughts on this: “Oil fell as Chinese demand concerns outweighed supply disruptions in Libya.

Global benchmark Brent dropped below $76 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate traded near $72. A further contraction in factory activity in China and a deepening property crisis are continuing to drag on the country’s economy, threatening growth targets.”

Chuck again…  Well the letter is late again today… Once again, it’s a matter of me answering the bell, and how in my “retired state”, I just don’t have the OOPHM to do that…  And the letter will be shorter than usual today, because, there’s just not a lot out there in terms of markets news, that don’t have a political twang to them…  And iI refuse to get drawn into those… 

This week is a datapalooza week… Starting today with the ISM Manufacturing Index, which should show that it remained below the 50 level that is neutral between expansion and contraction… And a below 50 number isn’t a good thing for the U.S. economy…  And that’s just today’s entry… Tomorow, we’ll see Factory Orders, and other data prints, and all the data prints culminate into Friday’s Jobs Jamboree… You may recall that last month’s Jobs Jamboree got the markets all in a tizzy, and had the chicken screaming that the sky was falling…  And in between that Jobs print and this one, we had the BLS admit that they lied and cheated for the last year, adding jobs that didn’t exist to the tune 818,000… So, that leads me to believe that this month’s Jobs Jamboree will have a different look to it… I’m just saying… 

To recap…  The short paper trader have had their run of things since last Thursday… Friday they were at their best, which isn’t good for Gold & Silver… The dollar bugs are getting ridiculous with their buying of dollars in the face of an expected debasing of the dollar with a Fed Head Rate cut coming to a theater near you, soon! 

For What It’s Worth… This article is a little different, in that it talks about how Gold is doing VS the euro… And removes all the volatility of the short paper traders in the U.S. and it can be found here: Ignore U.S. dollar volatility and focus on gold in euro terms as prices test April highs – MKS’ Nicky Shiels | Kitco News

Or, here’s your snippet: “In her latest note, Nicky Shiels, Head of Research and Metals Strategy at MKS PAMP, said she is paying more attention to gold against the euro as it trades near record highs. She noted that XAUEUR is a good proxy for “gold-only” demand, as it removes the broader U.S. dollar volatility.

While the U.S. gold futures market is closed Monday for the Labor Day long weekend, spot gold against global currencies continues to trade. Gold is trading in neutral territory against the euro, at €2,259.60 an ounce, roughly unchanged on the day.

Shiels warned that gold is trading at a critical resistance level against the euro, which could set the stage for a broader trend.

“XAUEUR has been sitting comfortably in a broad ~€150 range since the large breakout in March and April this year,” Shiels said in her note. “XAUEUR is extremely toppy in the high €2200s; there have been six failed attempts in the €2270-2280 range since the April peak and all-time high in euro terms at €2287/oz.”

Although gold has been unable to break above its March/April highs, Shiels noted that the precious metal appears to be building a solid base around €2,200 an ounce. She said that even as prices consolidate, gold has maintained an upward bias against the euro. She added that in this environment, investors should look to buy the dips.

“Time is somewhat ripe for a rerating (up or down)—it’s been six months since the March breakout—but we don’t think the top is in yet.”

Chuck again… Well… I know what you’re thinking here… Why on earth would Chuck highlight this, when the majority of us our U.S. dollar / Gold Based?   I get what you’re asking here, but think of it this way…  If Gold can rally in Europe without interference, it shows us what the U.S. markets could look like without interference… I’m just saying… 

Market Prices 9/3/2024: American Style: A$ .6743, kiwi .6200, C$ .7383, euro 1.1056, sterling 1.3127, Swiss $1.1856, European Style: rand 17.9217, krone 10.6339, SEK 10.2687, forint 355.90, zloty 3.8683, koruna 22.6754, RUB 87.88, yen 145..68, sing 1.3075, HKD 7.7979, INR 83.96, China 7.1223, peso 19.88, BRL 5.5950, BBDXY 1,236.03, Dollar Index 101.67, Oil $71, 54, 10-year 3.85%, Silver $28.24, Platinum $911.00, Palladium $954.00,  Copper $4.09, and Gold… $2,492.26

That’s it for today…  Well, no Pfennig tomorrow… I have to say that I was shocked to see how many emails were in the Pfennig Replies box after it got fixed, and I was able to access it again…  I got through all of them and had to explain the tardiness of the reply on each one… UGH!  Sometimes, the simplest of things go awry… And that was the Pfennig Replies box…   My beloved Cardinals took 2 of 3 from the Yankees in the Bronx, and had momentum going to Milwaukee, and all that was lost in the 1^st inning…  Darn home plate umpire… I’m just saying… Saturday was a grand day, as both the Cardinals and the STL City team won their respective games… And My beloved Mizzou Tigers started their college season on the right foot… YAY!   The Allman Brothers take us to the finish line today with their live at the Filmore version of the song: One Way Out… I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself! 

Chuck Butler

• the dollar gets bought yesterday and last night
• Chuck thinks that the dollar buying is PPT’s doing…

Good Day… And a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday to one and all! How about that? I made it all week with no interruptions! Stranger things have happened in our lives, but this one ranks up there! HA! I actually left my house last night, and went a couple of blocks down the street to a club, that good friend, Rick B belongs to watch the Cardinals win a game in the 9^th inning…  They got some clutch hits in the game last night, which was a rarity for my Cardinals… I said, I must be feeling stronger to leave the house!  And that’s a good thing!  The Eagles greet me this morning with their mega hit song: Hotel California… 

Well, not knowing where the BBDXY was yesterday morning, kind of put me at the wheel with blinders on… But I made it work, and yesterday, the dollar gained some ground, gaining 3 index points in the BBDXY to end the day at 1,229…  Gold lost ground yesterday, as once again the short paper traders did their dirty deeds, done dirt cheap (AC/DC)… Gold lost $19 yesterday to close at $2,505, and Silver lost 38-cents to close at $29.18… 

None of that trading in the metals makes any sense… If the metals were deemed to be hot last Friday, there’s been nothing to cool them down in terms of economic data, or a Rogue Fed Head saying that it was too early to cut rates… So, that leaves the short paper traders to take their pound of flesh from Gold & Silver… When they finish, then, and only then will Gold & Silver be allowed to get back to being hot… 

The price of Oil remained trading with a $74 handle, and the 10-year’s yield ended the day with a 3.84% yield… 

In the overnight markets last night…  Well, someone or some entity (read PPT) was buying dollars overnight, as the BBDXY gained 3 index points last night… I don’t get it, but it doesn’t mean anything to the PPT, with their treasure chest of Exchange Stabilization Funds… That’s gotta be it, because no sane person would be buying dollars like that when they know what’s in store… I’m just saying…   Gold has rebounded from yesterday’s engineered takedown, and is up $18 to start the day, while Silver is up 58-cents, so no sign of the short paper traders, yet, and these two metals are back to the underlying strong trend… 

The price of Oil has bumped higher once again, and trades this morning with a $76 handle… What gives here? Well, I read this morning that traders have just come to the realization that Libya has halted production (the story I wrote about a day or two ago) …  Wait, What? They are just now figuring out that this could cause a problem with supply?  Hello, McFly, is anyone home? Give me a break!

The 10-year got sold overnight and its yield rose to 3.88% this morning…  I guess the boys at Deutsche Bank and their trade of shorting the 10-year worked out for them last night…  I doubt it will continue to work, unless the idea I brought forward yesterday comes into play, and that was that the bond rally has already taken place…   

Well, the members of the European Central Bank (ECB ) got a surprise yesterday, when inflation for July ticked higher to 2.60%, from 2.5% in June… I saw it was a surprise because the members have been out speaking and talking about how they feel inflation is beaten and it’s time to cut interest rates…  WRONG  I would tell them if any of them read the Pfennig, the same thing I’ve been saying about inflation in the U.S. and that is… It’s sticky… And until you put the kyboshes on Money Supply, it will remain sticky…   The euro received a bit of a boost after the inflation report… Not much of a boost, but a bit of a boost…  Currency traders still aren’t sure if this inflation report will be enough to stop the ECB from cutting rates, especially after the U.S. Fed/ Caba/ Cartel cuts rates…  It’s the old having to keep up with the Joneses… 

I read this morning, that Gold was held back due to the unknow of what 2^nd QTR GDP here in the U.S. is going to reveal when it prints this morning…  We all know that the Gov’t said that 2^nd QTR GPD was 2.8% in its first print, and now the revision is due this morning…  I have a question for everyone… How much credence do you put in Gov’t reports, after the BLS’s reveal that they lied and cheated last week?  And it’s an election year on top of that! So, I would take any Gov’t report with a small amount of salt…  I’m just saying… 

Here’s Ed Steer from his letter this morning that can be found www.edsteergoldsilver.com : ” suspect that the dollar index ‘rally’ we had yesterday was used as cover for the collusive commercial shorts of whatever stripe to engineer precious metal prices lower going into the final roll-over day for the large traders.

And as I stated in my DXY commentary further up…”It’s my opinion that this so-called dollar index ‘rally’ was just as manufactured as the engineered price declines in the precious metals on Wednesday — as every time ‘da boyz’ took their feet off their respective prices, they proceeded to rally with some enthusiasm. This was particularly true of silver and gold during the COMEX trading session in New York.”

Chuck again… Yes, the PPT was in again buying dollars… It makes abundance sense, for everyone and their brothers know that the Fed is going to debase the dollar with a rate cut soon, so they sure aren’t on board with buying dollars, but the PPT doesn’t care about any of that, they have one job…  Protect the dollar… 

So sorry about the tardiness of today’s letter, it was an awful night for me… Coughing and bleeding, I couldn’t catch a break or any sleep until about 5 this morning… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard has the usual Thursday fare of the Weekly Initial Jobless Claims… And the aforementioned revision to 2^nd QTR GDP…  And tomorrow’s Data Cupboard has the latest reading of the PCE, the Fed Heads’ favorite inflation calculator…  So, that will be market moving, so be ready for that tomorrow morning… 

To recap… The letter is shorter today, sorry about that… The dollar got bought yesterday and last night, and has the finger prints all over the buying of the PPT… Chuck figures they are the only ones that don’t care that the dollar is going to get debased soon…   Inflation in the Eurozone continues to be sticky, and that has to grind on the ECB members, who like the Fed here in the U.S. want to get back to cutting rates and helping the stock market… 

For What It’s Worth…  Well, I’m going to end the week with a treat for you dear reader… An except from Bill Bonner’s letter from yesterday…  It can be found here: Our Higher Purpose – by Bill Bonner (bonnerprivateresearch.com)

Or, here’s your snippet: “In a small democracy — say the size of a small town — people can see for themselves what is worthwhile and what is not. They see the mayor in a fancy new car… with a fancy new girlfriend… and they begin to ask questions.

But in a government the size of the USA, the typical voter is hopelessly adrift… blown this way and that by the winds of a gassy media… and carried along by the currents of relentless propaganda. He’s never met a defense contractor… never been to the Ukraine… and only seen politicians on TV. And thanks to the electronic media, his brain is washed clean every day.  

The elites — who control the government — pretend to have a better use for our money — a ‘higher purpose’ — to save the planet… to stimulate the economy… to succor the poor… to heal the sick … or protect the country! 

They are all mostly just ways to redistribute wealth to powerful insiders. But thanks to the credit money system, the voter never feels the hands that pick his pocket. Instead, the real costs are deferred and disguised — in higher consumer prices, a lower standard of living… occasionally, mass death…  

And the higher purpose always turns out to be an illusion, a mirage… and a swindle. “

Chuck again…  Yes, and the elites have the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel, and the Gov’t (Sen’s and Reps) to do their dirty work…  I’m just saying… 

Market Prices 8/29/2024: American Style: A$ .6742, kiwi .6254, C$ .7420, euro 1.1067, sterling 1.3154, Swiss $1.1782, European Style: rand 17.82, krone 10.5764, SEK 10.2527, forint 355.09, zloty 3.8733, koruna 22.5670, RUB 91.90, yen 145.32, sing 1.3039, HKD 7.7976, INR 83.86, China 7.0978, peso 19.89, BRL 5.6451, Dollar Index 101.47, Oil $76.36, 10-year 3.88%, Silver $29.76, Platinum $947.00, Palladium $978.00, Copper $4.21 and Gold… $2,5023.70

That’s it for today, this week, and until next Tuesday! Monday is the Labor Day Holiday, and so no Pfennig that day… I’m still bummed out that we are not having our Butler Labor Day BBQ & Pool Party this weekend…  My beloved Mizzou Tigers start their season tonight, so i need to fish out my Mizzou Black & Gold for today!  The rest of College Football gets going this weekend, with some real marque games on tap… I’ll be a couch potato all weekend, watching College Football! My beloved Cardinals play a day game today and then head to The Bronx, to play the vaunted Yankees this weekend… YIKES!   My Cardinals have been prone to give up HR balls to anyone… And now they go to play Aaron Judge and Juan Soto… You know… Real Home Run Hitters!  I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend… Chicago takes us to the finish line with my second favorite Chicago song: Beginnings… I hope you have a Tub Thumpin’ Thursday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• dollar did nothing in U.S. but got bought in the overnight markets, last night
• Has Canada not learned anything from the U.S.?

Good Day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well, another game, another loss for my beloved Cardinals last night, and after they had rallied late and took the lead, only to see it wither away by the bullpen… UGH!  The Cardinals were 1 for 10, with runners in scoring position last night… You won’t win many games with stats like that! Every day, I feel a bit stronger, but I should, as I recline in my chair with my feet up all day long…  I know I wasn’t that active before this blood loss caper, but at least I would get outside and move around… Oh, well, there’s nothing for me to do around the house, since we are not hosting our Butler Labor Day BBQ & Pool Party this year…  Golden Earring greet me this morning with a real rocking song: Twilight Zone…   

Well, it was a nothing day for the dollar and currencies again yesterday, with the BBDXY ending the day at the same level it ended it the day before: 1,225….  I had thought that maybe it would be a Turn-Around Tuesday yesterday, but nooooooo….  I guess that no mater what color of the markets bonds, stocks, currencies, energy, metals, etc., they are all waiting for the earnings report from NVIDIA that will come to light this afternoon…  I normally don’t talk about individual stocks, but this is so glaringly obvious, what’s going on here… 

Gold did use yesterday as a turn-around Tuesday, as it wiped out its early trading loss of % 9.00 to gain $6 on the day, and close at $2,525.48… Silver also turned its early trading loss 6-cents to a gain of 18-cents, and close above $30 at $30.12…  It’s time for Gold & Silver to start taking no prisoners, and start a long-winded rally upward in price…  I’m just saying… 

The price of Oil slipped again yesterday and ended the day trading with a $75 handle.. I guess the article about Libya halting production only held the Oil traders and investors attention for a day… The 10-year rebounded a bit yesterday, and ended the day trading with a 3.81% yield… 

In the overnight markets last night… Well, apparently, the overseas traders haven’t gotten the memo that the Fed Heads are preparing to cut rates next week, thus debasing the dollar, because they went head over heals to buy dollars last night… The BBDXY isn’t working today, so we have to use the old Dollar Index, which shows it approaching 101, again… After being in the low 100’s to start the week…  The euro remains above 1.11 but not as strong as it looked a couple of days ago, when it was knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door, Wait!  No, it was knocking on the door to 1.12… 

The short paper traders must have gotten an early wake-up call today, because they have already begun to engineer a takedown of Gold & Silver this morning… Gold is down $20 to start the day, and Silver is down 62-cents… These guys just can’t stand to have Gold setting new all-time record highs, and Silver trading above $30…  Again, on Kitco.com this morning they are calling this a “correction”… I say, wake up and smell the coffee buckos!  That’s the problem I have with Kitco.com, that they have never, ever talked about short paper traders causing Gold & Silver so many headaches… They refuse to acknowledge, what everyone else and their brothers know… But that’s fine, at least they are consistent with their explanations of Gold sell offs… 

The price of Oil slipped again overnight, and after seeing a brief runup to $77 earlier this week, the price of Oil trades this morning with a $74 handle… Makes no sense to me folks… Shipping Oil is becoming a turkey shoot, and our friends (NOT!) at OPEC are maintaining their production cuts… To me, these two things alone outweigh any demand issues… But apparently, not…  

The 10-year’s yield remains at 3.81% this morning…  i read an article on this bond earlier this morning, that talked about how maybe, just maybe, because you never know, the rally in bonds is over… Well, it’s about the sanest thing I’ve read about bonds, so there’s that!

Well, there’s not a lot of news from around the world that hasn’t already been hashed and rehashed by the pundits, and media… There was this that I found interesting: Canada, following the lead of the US and European Union, said it would impose a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles and announced a 25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum from China.  

Two questions i have for our friends up north…  How many electric cars do you currently import from China?  If this is similar to the U.S. sanctions on EV cars from China, of whom they didn’t import any…  And second, did you happen to see the news the other day when China reported record Trade Balance with the U.S? So much for our sanctions, eh?  And I’m sure you’ll find the same given time… 

Yes, China’s trade surplus with the United States rose to nearly $32 billion last month, up from $29 billion a year earlier, as China exported more and bought less.  Looks like to me that those sanctions and tariffs are really working, doesn’t it? NOT!

And I don’t know if you been keeping track in the currency roundup, but China’s renminbi has been on the rally tracks in recent weeks… So, as Sgt. Steve McCroskey would say…  We, as a country picked a bad time to be importing so much from China, when their currency is rallying….  Remember Sgt. Steve McCroskey in Airplane? I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue….   HA! 

And there was an article this morning about the New Zealand dollar/ kiwi… Longtime readers know that I simply adore kiwi, and so any time I see something written about kiwi, I’m all over it like a cheap suit! Here are the folks at FXSTREET.com ““Position-wise, CFTC data reported that speculators have trimmed their net short positions after aggressively dumping their six-year high net long positions during the unwinding of JPY carry trades in the past two months.”

Chuck again… They also talk about how the .6252 kiwi hit overnight is the highest kiwi has been since Jan2, 2024… The writers believe that kiwi can get to .6350 by year-end…   Hmmm…. 

You know how much I abhor taxes…. I find them to be excessive, and never fault anyone for avoiding them when they get caught…  I was reading a piece by Jeff Thomas who writes for Doug Casey’s International Man Communique, and Jeff was talking about the fall of Rome, and how taxes had gotten so large, and burdensome that, well… I’ll let him take it from there: “By the fifth century, the situation was so dire that tax riots and rebellion were the order of the day for those who had remained in Rome, but even this did not stop taxes from rising and more people being provided with largesse by the government.

It’s been written that “those who lived off the treasury were more numerous than those paying into it.” (An eerie occurrence, as we too have now reached that point.)”

I point to that last line regarding the number of people living off the treasury VS those paying into it… That’s a scenario that can’t go on forever, folks… If The Romans were still around, you could as them how it worked out for them, but instead you have to believe what you read…   And when you pull the punchbowl away from the mob, watch out!  There will be civil unrest… I’m just saying… 

Bill Bonner was pointing out the other day that prices in the U.S. are up 39% since 2012… I like to point out that prices for things have been going up for a long time now… When I was a young man, and played baseball, and would come home from practice, and would stop at the corner confectionary, and get a 16oz RC Cola and moonpie, for the shiny quarter I had in my pocket… And get some pennies back in change!  Try to buy those two things today with a shiny quarter!     The reason I talk about this stuff is that there are a lot of misconceptions about what inflation really is….   

I remember having discussions with our in-house economist from SLU, and I would point out that inflation in it base description is nothing more than money supply…   M2 Money Supply was just $5 Billion a month 10 years ago… Then it began to rise steadily until reaching $20 Billion in 2021, and setting a record in 2022 of $22 Billion…   Those are monthly numbers folks… So if you calculate them out Money Supply for the last 10 years, you’ll find that more than $1.78 Trillion has been added to Money Supply…  Now, what do you think prices would do with all that cash spreading around?    BTW… The in-house economist would argue with me that inflation was not Money Supply…  I never played my Hy Minky card on her… We would just disagree… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard doesn’t have anything for us today, but yesterday it had the Case/Shiller Home Price Index for June, and it surprised observers by gaining .5% in price after months of downward movement in home prices, it appears they are on the rebound.

To Recap… The dollar did nothing in the U.S. session yesterday, but somehow the overseas traders hadn’t received the memo about the Fed Heads cutting rates at their next meeting, and so they rushed to buy dollars last night… Strange, I know, but it is what it is…  Gold is getting whacked already this morning, the dirty dog short paper traders can’t stand to hear or see Gold hitting all-time record highs… Canada is following the U.S. down the sanctions road, thus proving they haven’t learned a thing from the U.S.   And kiwi has finally wiped out its losses for this year.

For What It’s Worth…  I saw this article on Ed Steer’s letter yesterday, and immediately thought that it was FWIW worthy! This article covers an interview with the Swiss Finance Minister Gov. And her thoughts on U.S. Debt levels, and it can be found here: Swiss Finance Minister Chides US, Europe Over ‘Time Bomb’ Debt Levels (usnews.com)

Or, here’s your snippet: “Debt levels in the United States and Europe are a risk for international financial stability and for Switzerland, Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.

In an interview with Swiss daily Blick, Keller-Sutter extolled Switzerland’s “disciplined” finances, which she said had enabled the country to deal with the economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

By contrast, other countries are “so indebted they’re hardly able to act any more”, she said, giving France as an example.

“Or take a look at America. That’s a time bomb. The mini-crash on the stock markets at the start of August was a warning shot,” the minister was quoted as saying.

“It was an expression of investors’ fear of a recession. Debt levels in the U.S. and Europe are a risk to international financial stability and a risk for Switzerland,” she added.

Keller-Sutter also discussed a government proposal to make Swiss bank UBS hold more capital in the wake of its acquisition of former rival Credit Suisse following its collapse last year.

She defended the additional capital requirements as necessary to protect Switzerland from another banking meltdown.

UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti has criticised the proposal, and she was asked whether she was in touch with him about it, saying:

“No, I haven’t been in contact with him any more. This is now a normal political process.”

Chuck again, and you got a bonus here in that she also talked about how the Swiss dealt with a bank… 

Market Prices 8/28/2024: American Style: A$ .6775, kiwi .6247, C$ .7421, euro 1.1127. Sterling 1.3223, Swiss $1.1867, European Style: rand 17.7784, krone 10.5254, SEK 10.1864, forint 353.82, zloty 3.8625, koruna 22.5192, RUB 91.90, yen 144.42, sing 1.3095, HKD 7.7999, INR 83.96, China 7.1274, peso 19.60, BRL 5.5091, Dollar Index 100.96, Oil $74.60, 10-year 3.81%, Silver $ 29.50, Platinum $940.00, Palladium $961.00, Copper $4.22, and Gold… $2,504.30

That’s it for today… Man, I woke up at 5 am this morning, and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got up and began to write… That reminded me of my days at EverBank, when I would get up at 3:30 am, get to the office at 4:30 am, and begin to write, so that it could get to the editor early, and I could have it out the door by 6:30 am… Then I would begin to work my daily job… By 11 am I was beat… In the early days of EverBank, I would be at my desk for 14 hours a day… I ate dinner at my desk many a night… I’m not whining here, just marking the times and how hard I worked back in the day… Nowadays, I get winded if I have to climb the stairs!  What a change and difference!  Oh, well, time doesn’t wait for no one, and it doesn’t wait for me, that’s for sure!  Van (the man) Morrison takes us to the finish line with one of my fave songs: Moondance… I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday today, and please, oh please with sugar on top, Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• The dollar gets bought a little overnight
• Is China hoarding Silver to control its price?

Good Day… And a Tom Terrific Tuesday to you! I told you my beloved Cardinals offense was unreliable, and last night they proved that, losing to the Padres…  I’ve just about given up on their season… Yes, there’s still 35 games left, but, I don’t feel that’s enough even if they were on a roll, of which they are not… It was a lazy day for me yesterday, I really didn’t feel strong enough to do anything worthwhile, so, I didn’t!  Mornings are the worst for me with the remnants of this cold… But no worries, I’ve already had my coughing attack this morning…. No excuses if I happen to bug out on you…  Wait, What? C’mon Chuck, you’ve never bugged out on these dear readers!  The Guess Who greets me this morning with their song: Share The Land…

Well, there was no follow up in the U.S. markets to the dollar buying that went on the night before, and so the dollar ended the day trading in the BBDXY at 1,225… The currencies didn’t budge either, and so we start our Tuesday as if yesterday didn’t happen…  in the currencies that is… Gold lost its early $10 gain yesterday, as the short paper traders went after Gold again…  Gold ended the day down $5 to close at $2,318.70… And Silver didn’t hold $30 too long yesterday, and lost 6-cents to close at $29.94…  Darn short paper traders… You know, if the Gov’t wasn’t behind all that, I would say that if a candidate said they were going to shut down the short paper trading, they would get my vote, no matter what party they were in…. I’m just saying… 

The price of Oil bumped higher by another buck and ended the day trading with a $77 handle…  There was a story behind the upward movement yesterday, here’s Bloomberg.com with their view: “Oil advanced after Libya’s eastern government said it will halt exports, building on tensions in the Middle East after Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon raised concerns of a broader conflict.”

The 10-year’s yield is just hanging out, which is surprising to me, but the yield at close yesterday was 3.82%… Again, I was a bond trader many years ago, and I used to think I had my thumb on the pulse of the Bond Boys, but not any longer…   

In the overnight markets last night…  The dollar got bought a little, as the BBDXY is up 1 index point this morning, at 1.226… Gold is seeing some selling to start the day today, and is down $9 in the early trading… The folks at Kitco, say it’s merely correction selling, a brief pullback if you will… I would think that in the end they’ll be right, but in the meantime, we have to deal with this weakness… Silver if flat to down a penny this morning, so no great shakes there…  I don’t know if you’ve been watching in the currency roundup, but Copper is back on the rally tracks… The shortage of Copper is still there, folks… The short paper traders made mincemeat of the Copper price a couple of months ago, and it has taken the Copper traders this long to dip their toes in the water once again…  

The price of Oil slipped below $77 overnight, and trades this morning with a $76 handle…  And the 10-year got sold like funnel cakes at a State Fair overnight, and trades this morning with a 3.87% yield…  Again, what the bond boys are doing, has passed me by like a parade… 

I found this on www.Marketwatch.com this morning, and it’s quite interesting on the 10-year, let’s listen in: ” the 10-year Treasury is the linchpin of global finance. It’s the discount rate used in any stock price model, and it’s the benchmark for mortgages, corporate bonds and a whole host of other assets.

So it’s noteworthy when a Treasury dealer actually recommends shorting, or betting against it. That’s what the team at Deutsche Bank has done, giving a target of 4.1% on the 10-year, with a stop at 3.65%. The 10-year yield

TMUBMUSD10Y 3.860%  was 3.84% early on Tuesday. As always with bonds: the higher the yield, the lower the price.

The Jackson Hole speech from Fed Chair Jerome Powell was notable for him drawing a line in the sand on the U.S. job market, saying any worsening of the labor market would be unwelcome. The Deutsche Bank strategists, led by Francis Yared, cast doubt on that happening.”

Chuck again… I’m not sure that shorting the Treasury market, especially the 10-year, is a prudent thing to do at this point with a rate cut coming, and who knows how many more will follow?  But the boys at Deutsche Bank have deep pockets, I guess, so let ’em at it! 

Proving once more that sanctions don’t work… Here’s the latest from Russia on their economy: “Empty promises for the sake of “ticking boxes” in national projects are unacceptable, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on economic issues.

The president noted that the country has a record-low unemployment rate, and real wage growth for January-May 2024 amounted to 10.1%.”  that info can be found here; National projects and wage growth — Vladimir Putin holds meeting on economic issues – Business & Economy – TASS

The President of Russia went on to talk about how beating inflation is of utmost importance…   Inflation in Russia is running around 7.75%, and the internal interest rate is 16%… I’d say that the Russian Central Bank has control of inflation… I’m just saying… 

The U.S. Data Cupboard has the Case/ Shiller Home Price Index for June this morning…  I would suspect that home prices continued to weaken in June, but with a rate hike on the horizon, that will be corrected soon… I’m just saying… 

he U.S. Data Cupboard yesterday has a BIG SURRISE data print… July Durable Goods grew at 9.9%, after printing negative in June at -6.9%… Now, here’s where I have to question the validity of this print… A Gov’t agency was just proven last week to have lied and cheated on jobs data, whey wouldn’t they lie and cheat on this, I mean IT IS AN ELECTION YEAR! So, take with as many grains of salt that you wish to, for I’m not going to even acknowledge the print as being valid… 

To recap… The dollar didn’t see any follow up to the overnight buying the night before, yesterday, and so it ended the day flat as a pancake (Head East)… Gold saw the short paper trader enter the markets, and there went Gold’s early gain of $10 to end the day down $5… Chuck has no idea what’s going on in bonds right now… And China is trying to hoard Silver to gain pricing of the metal… 

For What It’s Worth… This article came to me from the good folks at GATA, and it’s about China and a thought that they may be trying to corner the Silver market, and it can be found here: China’s strategic silver takeover: A calculated move to drain the west – The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)

Or, here’s your snippet: “A Hidden War for Economic Dominance

While the world has been focused on the geopolitical tensions between China and the West, a more subtle battle has been unfolding in the global financial markets. China, through a series of calculated moves, has been quietly accumulating vast quantities of gold and silver. This move has signaled a potential shift in the global economic landscape and highlights the developing countries’ need for exorbitant amounts of resources.

Silver: China’s Secret Weapon

In addition to its gold hoarding, China has also been strategically increasing its silver reserves. The Shanghai Metals Exchange has seen a significant surge in silver trading volume, with prices consistently higher than those on Western exchanges. This suggests that China may be deliberately driving up the price of silver to drain the West’s resources.

In 2023, China reportedly had a silver reserve of 71,000 metric tons, second only two the silver-producing powerhouse country of Peru, which boasted 98,000 MT in reserve. The U.S. came seventh on the list of top silver reserves, with a stockpile with 23,000 MT, behind Poland (65,000 MT), Russia (45,000 MT), Australia (27,000 MT) and Chile (26,000 MT). “

Chuck again… Well this could end up being good for you and me, Silver owners… The price of Silver yesterday in China was $32.77…. 

Market Prices 8/27/2024: American Style: A$ .6775, kiwi .6226, C$ .7423, euro 1.1152, sterling 1.3209, Swiss $1.1827, European Style: rand 17.7573, krone 10.5141, SEK 10.1946, forint 352.40, zloty 3.8362, koruna 22.4259, RUB 91.52, yen 144.33, sing 1.3038, HKD 7.8015, INR 83.91, China 7.1252, peso 19.44, BRL 5.5021, BBDXY 1,226.77, Dollar Index 100.88, Oil $76.76, 10-year 3.87%, Silver $29.93, Platinum $959.00, Palladium $976.00, Copper $4.28, and Gold…$2,509.82

That’s it for today…  a little late this morning, I had to get the bleeding in my mouth stopped… Darn blood thinners… I have to take them for another couple of months, and then no more… November is my most hated month, but I can’t wait for November this year, for that’s when I can ditch the blood thinners…  I think I need to get back to S. Florida soon… Don’t know why, just that I hear it calling me…  It was embarrassing watching my beloved Cardinals last night… They were flat as a pancake (Head East) and the Padres ran roughshod over them… Oh well, that’s baseball, tonight the Cardinals get to try again…  Nazareth takes us to the finish line today with their song: Holiday… A great 70’s song, that I’m sure you would like if you YouTube it…   I hope you have a Tom Terrific Tuesday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler

• Currencies & metals rally on Friday

• 818,000 falsely reported jobs… I told you they were crooked!

Good Day… And a Marvelous Monday to you…  Well, with the help of a a 9^th inning error by the Twinkies, my beloved Cardinals won 2 of 3 from the Twinkies… They also won 2 of 3 from the Brewers, so that’s two series in a row they have won, and against teams with better records… What’s going on here?  Do, my beloved Cardinals have a late season run in them? I doubt it, because their offense is so unpredictable… The warmer weather returned to the MidWest this past weekend, but I needed some Vitamin D, so I sat outside to read yesterday, and let the warm sun bake me…  I have no doctor appointments this week… YAHOO!  I’m still battling a cold, but I think I’m on the back side of that now… I get to hear my fave Chicago song to greet me this morning: Hard Habit To Break…

Well, the dollar got sold down the river on Friday, after Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole boondoggle. In that speech the door to rate cutting was pushed open, and that got the dollar sold to the tune of 6 index points in the BBDXY… The BBDXY ended the week ar 1,223…. And now the euro is within’ spitting’ distance of 1.12… Gold gained $27 on the day, and Silver gained 85-cents. So Friday was a good day for non-dollar investments…  Oh, and was that me that told you all to back up the truck to the dock and load up with currencies and metals last week?  By Gosh, By Bolly it was me!  Gold closed on Friday at $2,513.70, and Silver Closed at $29.88…  Don’t worry, Chuck goes all 9 yards on The Fed Heads, later in the letter today… 

The price of Oil ended the week trading with a $74 handle, which hadn’t moved now for 3 days…  Is this a level that Oil traders are comfortable with? It sure appears that way…  The 10-year Treasury ended the week with a 3.80% yield…   I would expect that the 10-year’s yield will see some downward pressure as we go forward… 

In the overnight markets last night…  The dollar got bought! Now, isn’t that a little bit suspicious? The BBDXY is up 2 index points to start the day/ week this morning… I’ve got to meet the boys and girls that bought dollars overnight, and ask them what the hell they are thinking?  Ok, the new email server that I use has implemented a new program that detects the tone of your writing, and suggests how it can be calmed down…  So, it highlighted the last line about meeting the dollar buyers, and I told it not now!  The euro, which was up to 1.1198 on Friday, has slipped back to 1.1152 to start the week today, and the rest of the currencies are all falling in line with the Big Dog, euro… 

Gold is up $10, and Silver is up 18-cents to start the day/ week this morning in the early trading…  See? The rallying dollar didn’t have anything to do with Gold’s rise today…  I just don’t think the two are correlated any longer… The price of Oil has bumped higher to trade with a $76 handle, after an oil tanker was shot by the terrorists, and exploded at sea… This just reminded the Oil boys that there are major risks in shipping Oil….  And the 10-year starts the week trading with a 3.81% yield… 

Circling back to the dollar rally overnight…  You don’t think the PPT is at it again do you?  It sure looks like that to me, as you would have thought going into last night’s trading that the dollar was on tenterhooks, the old Dollar Index was in trouble and looking like it might fall below 100, but out of the blue, came a dollar rally… Sure, it could be traders saying the dollar was oversold, but I don’t think it ever got to that level… The dollar was on tenterhooks, but certainly wasn’t oversold!   

Well, Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel, had this to say last Friday at the Jackson Hole, Wy, boondoggle… “The time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks,” he said in his remarks.”

Sounds like he has given the all clear signal to the markets that the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel will begin to cut the Fed Funds rate at their next meeting in Sept. As you can imagine, I have major problems with this call to cut rates at this time… Granted it will be good for Gold, but other than that, the re-inflating of the economy is in the cards here folks…  Shoot Rudy, his sound was so dovish the markets are now calling for a 50 Basis Point cut!  Aye, Aye, Aye…

Plus we have stocks at all-time highs… Housing and rents at all-time highs, and food at all-time highs… What in tarnation does the Fed/ Cabal/ Cartel, think is going to happen to these items?  I just don’t get it folks… Of course, I’m looking at this logically, and the Fed Heads, probably didn’t look at it all!  This is not going to work our for you or me, very well, I’m just saying… 

All they saw was the BLS announcing that they had falsely added 818,000 jobs this year… YIKES!  Ok, now, I’ve been proven to be telling you the truth each month, as the BLS adds jobs out of thin air, to the surveys… Which are taken for a reason, but often forgotten by the BLS…  So, the current administration has egg on their face, along with the BLS on this… But it did one thing, it spurred the Fed Heads to say they will cut rates soon… 

I don’t think the BLS is allowed to get off the hook so easily here… They lied, and cheated, and finally had to come clean… All for what? So, the POTUS could claim he had the best economy because of the job gains? I don’t think we’ll hear of that any longer this year… 

Wanna bet that the next Jobs Jamboree will look quite different?  

The Commerce Secretary, Raimondo, said that she wasn’t aware of the BLS report, and that it was Trump’s fault…  OK, I’m not kidding here folks, the BLS which is a division of the Commerce Dept. and the Boss, isn’t aware of them?  Talk about the new way that kids don’t accept blame and it’s always somebody else’s fault! 

I’m at a loss to explain how dumb these Gov’t people are… I know it’s not nice to call people names, and accuse them of being a tassel short on their oxfords… But this example of ineptness, is just too easy for me, a lay-up if you will… And besides, when they say things like that, they deserve to be called dumb!  

So, welcome to a new round of inflation that will most likely be stronger than the first run… Shoot Rudy, the markets are already pricing in a 50 Basis Points Rate Cut… See? Give them an inch, they’ll take a yard…  

I’ve got to get away from this right now… I’m going to go yell at the walls… 

Ok, I’m back now… Kathy yelled downstairs and asked me if I was alright? HA!  I told her no… But there was nothing she could do to make me better, with all the numbskulls in the Gov’t getting to hold their jobs! 

The U.S. Data Cupboard this week is really lacking for real economic data… We do see the Durable Goods Orders for July this morning… So, we have that going for us… And then we have to wait until Friday, when the PCE inflation calculation prints…   There are a ton of Fed Heads speaking this week, so look for more confirmations that the Fed Heads are ready to cut rates at their next meeting… 

To recap… Well, where to start?  Fed/Cabal/ Cartel Chairman Powell, set the gears in motion toward a rate cut at the next meeting at his speech at the Jackson Hole, Wy. Boondoggle… That was especially after he saw that the BLS admitted that they lied, cheated, and showed 818,000 jobs this year, that weren’t really there…  And 818,000 revision is NOT a rounding error folks!  It shows the utter disregard that the BLS has for the integrity of reporting proper numbers each month!  And the Boss of the BLS is another dolt!   So, Chuck calls out Powell, and the Fed Heads for cutting rates at this time… And the BLS… And anyone else that got in his way this morning! 

For What It’s Worth… Well, there’s not much out there today, unless you want to rehash the Powell speech, or the BLS mea culpa, and since I think I’ve done enough there already this morning, we’ll move on to a Fed Head that thinks we have kept interest rates “high” for too long, and it can be found here: Chicago Fed chief Goolsbee says ‘we are not just fighting inflation now’ – MarketWatch

Or, here’s your snippet: “Chicago Federal Reserve President Austan Goolsbee on Friday indicated he backs reductions in U.S. interest rates and said “we are not just fighting inflation now.”

With inflation slowing toward the Fed’s 2% annual goal, Goolsbee said interest rates are the most restrictive in decades in an interview with CNBC. That’s economic lingo for interest rates being well above the rate of inflation.

The high level of rates, he said, is putting stress in the economy and has created weakness in parts of the jobs market.

“There are concerned warning signs about part of the labor market,” he said, referring to a rise in unemployment to 4.3% from 3.4% a year and a half ago.

While Goolsbee would not commit to a specific level for the Fed’s benchmark short-term rate, he pointed out the Fed’s own forecasts show “multiple cuts” over the next year.

Goolsbee has been the most prominent voice among top Fed officials warning about keeping interest rates too high for too long and potentially jeopardizing the health of the economy.

Yet the economy grew at an above-average speed of 2.8% in the spring and it’s on track to expand about 2% in the soon-to-end third quarter.”

Chuck again… Well, Mr Goolsbee, I ask you this…. Do you want to promote bubbles, or protect the U.S. consumer?  You, sir, are a bag of beans, and don’t know what you’re talking about… Sure, the economy is weakening, but we need a recession… A clearing of the excesses that we haven’t had in ages! Well, since your troop of feed the bubbles team, has been in charge and won’t allow a recession…   I shake my head in disgust….  the email program just asked me again if I wanted it to calm down my writing? I said, no thanks! 

Market Prices 8/26/2024: American Style: A$ .6773, kiwi .6202, C$ .7409, euro 1.1152, sterling 1.3193, Swiss $1.1796, European Style: rand 17.7458, krone 10.5394, SEK 10.2419, forint 353.96, zloty 3.8366, koruna 22.4317, RUB 92.00, yen 144.13, sing 1.3031, HKD 7.7956, INR 83.90, China 7.1223, peso 19.20, BRL 5.4907, BBDXY 1,225.22, Dollar Index 100.80, Oil $76.67, 10-year 3.81%, Silver $30.00, Platinum $974.00, Palladium $966.00, Copper $4.27, and Gold… $2,523.33

That’s it for today…  Well, I’m finally beginning to feel a bit stronger, each day… I’m still sleeping a lot, but I’m a true believer that your body tells you when you need to sleep… I think by the end of the week, I should be good to go again! Unless I get another relapse!  UGH!  I do go back to my oncologist next week, and I’ll find out then if my blood levels are returning to normal…  I haven’t been on chemo for a month now, as chemo will lower one’s blood count, and they don’t want me on chemo, while the blood levels were so low…  that just means the tumor in my jaw is growing again… UGH!  one problem begets another one… Oh well, c’est la vie!  Tommy James and the Shondels take us to the finish line today with their great song: Crystal Blue Persuasion… I hope you have a Marvelous Monday today, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler