Gold, Silver, and Currencies

The Biden administration, led by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, and cheered on by progressives in the Senate like Liz Warren, are beginning an assault of crypto-currency freedom. The Wall Street Journal's Dave Michaels and Alexander Osipovich report: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler this week declared war on what he called the Wild West of crypto trading, promising a vigorous attack on fraud and misconduct. But progress is likely to be more piecemeal and incremental than wholesale and sudden. Mr. Gensler outlined his desire to regulate digital assets such as bitcoin and … [Read more...]

You have been telling me about the inflation you're seeing in your life. It's not good. Inflation can throw all the calculations of a well-planned retirement into chaos. Even people who are still working need to readjust in the face of higher prices. When those old dollars you saved after working hard aren't worth as much as you'd thought they'd be, life gets trickier. Now, Roger Bootle, the man who officially declared inflation dead in a 1996 book title The Death of Inflation: Surviving and Thriving in the Zero Era (no relation to my monthly Survive & Thrive newsletter, which you can … [Read more...]

Biden's backdoor student loan forgiveness is as clear as day even though headlines read otherwise. With inflation running hot, team Biden is actually thinking about forgiving student debt by destroying the dollar. When you run out seven percent inflation (not impossible) for ten years, debt is half of what it was. Coincidence? Hardly. While Biden ratchets up inflation to pacify the radical progressives and students who put him in office, the American middle class will suffer. Kristin Tate writes in The Hill: The sharpest tax President Biden is levying upon Americans is one that was … [Read more...]

You’re asking me what I think of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. I’m telling you, I love the idea of blockchain. But what about value? That’s more a function of what someone’s willing to pay. Not me, of course, but it’s somewhat irrelevant. How big can cryptocurrencies get? I don’t know. Big, I guess. But I don’t need to be the first one at the party. I certainly won’t be the last, or the last one to leave. Let this play out. Remember the Gold Rush? A lot of money was made investing in the rush itself and not just the yellow metal. I like the idea of utilizing the benefits of the new. In … [Read more...]

Cryptocurrencies took a nasty plunge yesterday after Chinese authorities cracked down on their use. That institutional response, shortly after Elon Musk revealed that Tesla would no longer be using bitcoin in transactions, was a double whammy that took the wind out of cryptocurrencies across the board. Since the drop, crypto prices have recovered some of what they lost, but nowhere near all. The Wall Street Journal reports: The recent price fall has accelerated after three Chinese entities published a statement that financial institutions shouldn’t accept virtual currencies for payment or … [Read more...]

Other than what someone's willing to pay you, where does a cryptocurrency's value come from? Because when it comes to sources of value, with dividends from stocks and interest from bonds, you know where you stand. With cryptos, you hope someone doesn’t jump the line. When a company pays you a dividend (or a bond pays you interest), it worries about meeting its obligations to you. It sees you, unlike the anonymity of cryptos, banging your tin cup on the boardroom table saying: “Show me the money.” When a company issues stock, it’s giving up ownership, and with a bond, it’s taking on debt. … [Read more...]