In early 2018, in an effort to fight a collapsing economy and hyperinflationary currency Venezuela decided to jump on the BitCoin bandwagon and create its own cryptocurrency called the Petro. On December 3rd 2017, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro announced the petro in a televised address, stating that it would be backed by Venezuela's reserves of oil, gasoline, gold, and diamonds. Other reports claimed that the initial issue price would be based on the price of oil i.e. 1 Petro = 1 Barrel of Venezuelan oil. On 5 January 2018, Maduro announced that Venezuela would issue 100 million tokens of the petro, for a total value of just over $6 billion. The government stated the pre-sale raised … [Read more...]
A Guide for Business Owners: How to Prepare Your Organization for Inflation
COVID-19 has brought the global economy to its knees and in response, the governments of the world have opened the money printing spigots. The U.S. FED for instance has bought roughly 3 TRILLION in assets this year (labeled "Quantitative Easing 4" on this chart). Many fear that this much "money printing" will result in massive inflation or even hyperinflation. As you can see from the chart below, high inflation rates were the bane of the 1970s and early 1980s when the inflation rate rarely dipped below 4%. By contrast, the period beginning with the new millennium has rarely seen inflation go above 4%. Inflation in the 1970s caused much suffering and business disruption, … [Read more...]
August Inflation Rises
Annual Inflation Increases to 1.31% Annual Inflation rose from 0.12% in May to 1.31% in August. CPI Index rose to 259.918 in August. Monthly Inflation for August was 0.32%, July was 0.51%, June was 0.55%, May was 0.002%, April was -0.67%, March was -0.22%, February was 0.27%. The FED holds pretty steady on Assets and FED Funds Rates. Next release October 13th Annual inflation for the 12 months ending in August was 1.31%, up from July's 0.99%. Inflation is still moderate but may be picking up. The CPI index itself was up from 259.101 in July to 259.918 in August. Resulting in a monthly inflation rate of 0.32%. The Moore Inflation Predictor once again … [Read more...]
Gold vs. Dollar vs. BitCoin Revisited
Back in 2016, we compared the properties of three types of currency, i.e. Gold, Dollars (Cash), and Bitcoin. Today we'd like to look at how each has fared since then. Back then, we said that there are 10 factors that make up a good store of value. They are: 1. Scarcity- For something to be considered valuable it can’t be too readily available. 2. Fungibility- Things have to be equal. Rare paintings aren’t fungible a Picasso isn’t exactly the same as a Monet. As a matter of fact, one Picasso isn’t even the same as another Picasso. Artwork isn’t fungible. One dollar bill is pretty much the same as another, one ounce of 24 karat gold is the same as another, one bitcoin is the same as … [Read more...]
July’s Annual Inflation 0.99%
Annual Inflation Still Below 1% Annual Inflation rose from 0.65% in June to 0.99% in July. CPI Index rose to 259.101 in July. Monthly Inflation for July was 0.51%, June was 0.55%, May was 0.002%, April was -0.67%, March was -0.22%, February was 0.27%. The FED may be slowing its "Quantitative Easing" in an effort to prevent hyperinflation. FED Funds Rate up slightly but still remains near Zero. Next release September 11th Annual inflation for the 12 months ending in July was 0.99%, June was 0.65%, May was 0.12%, April was 0.33%, March was 1.54% down sharply from February's 2.33% and January's 2.49%. The CPI index itself was up from 257.797 in June to 259.101 in … [Read more...]
3 Factors Causing the Current Gold Rally
A variety of factors affect the price of gold. Currently, many of them are combining to drive the price of gold to all-time record highs. Let's look at a few of the factors that affect the price of gold. 1) Uncertainty- Gold is a Crisis Hedge We have said this many times over the years but it bears repeating again gold is more of a crisis hedge than an inflation hedge. When uncertainty rears its ugly head... gold does well. That uncertainty can take many forms and one of them is "monetary uncertainty". So if people don't know what the value of their money is going to be in the future (i.e. inflation) they will shift some of their assets to gold (driving up the price of gold). So as far as … [Read more...]
Inflation Quintuples… Still Below 1%
Annual Inflation Rebounds Annual Inflation rose to 0.65%. CPI Index rose from 256.394 in May to 257.797 in June. Monthly Inflation for June was 0.55%, May was 0.002%, April was -0.67%, March was -0.22%, February was 0.27%. The FED may be slowing its "Quantitative Easing" in an effort to prevent hyperinflation. FED Funds Rate up slightly but still remains near Zero. Next release August 12th The Bureau of Labor Statistics Released the Inflation Data for the 12 months ending in June on July 14th. Monthly Inflation SOARS to 0.55%. Annual inflation for the 12 months ending in June was 0.65%, May was 0.12%, April was 0.33%, March was 1.54% down sharply from February's … [Read more...]
Is the FED Tightening or Is Hyperinflation on the Horizon?
Recently a prophecy has been trending on YouTube. In it, the possibility of major upheaval in November is mentioned, combined with the possibility of hyperinflation. As I've mentioned before, beginning in March 2020, the FED created massive amounts of liquidity through Quantitative Easing in an effort to combat the monetary effects of shutting the country down due to the virus. If that is combined with a reduction in the quantity of goods and services created due to the virus or riots shutting down the means of production we could see hyperinflation. So that would play into fulfilling that prophesy. Back on April 1st, I wrote an article entitled Will the $2 Trillion Covid-19 Stimulus … [Read more...]
5 Countries Most at Risk for Deflation
People often confuse Deflation and Depression perhaps because in the 1930s the U.S. experienced a lot of both of them at the same time. This combined with the similarity in the sound of the words tends to compound the confusion. But they are not synonymous, it is quite possible to have an inflationary depression as the Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany from 1919-1923 shows. Just as inflation is more than just rising prices, deflation is more than just "falling prices". In both cases, the terms "inflation" and "deflation" actually refer to the macro "cause" while the change in prices is simply the "effect". Unfortunately, lazy speech tends to confuse the "cause" with the "effect". So when … [Read more...]
May Inflation “Astonishingly Low”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Released the Inflation Data for the 12 months ending in May on June 10th. Inflation is virtually ZERO at 0.12%. Annual Inflation Retreats Annual Inflation fell again to 0.12% in May from 0.33% in April. CPI Index rose marginally from 256.389 in April to 256.394 (virtually identical). Monthly Inflation for May was 0.002%, April was -0.67%, March was -0.22%, February was 0.27%... typically January through May are highly inflationary so this is VERY unusual. The FED continues to crank up the "printing presses" using "Quantitative Easing" in an effort to stimulate the economy in the wake of COVID-19. FED Funds Rate remains near Zero. Next … [Read more...]
