Libertarian Leanings

Divergences in Ratios Show Silver Is Undervalued

By Jon Forrest Little, Money Metals News Service

Last week, Citigroup analysts published a report calling for silver to reach $30 per ounce within 9 months.

Could Citigroup be exaggerating or on target? Today's silver spot price is about $23.50 per ounce; so a move to $30.00 would be a 28% jump.

Let's look at a few data sets that augur for higher silver prices...

Throughout human history, about 8.5 ounces of silver have been extracted from the earth for every one ounce of gold.

According to the World Gold Council, an estimated 208,874 tonnes of gold have been mined.

The distribution of gold above ground is as follows:

1. Jewelry: 46%
2. Bars and coins: 22%
3. Central banks: 17%
4. Other: 15%

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), about 1.74 million metric tons of silver have been mined.

Here are the top five uses of silver by percentage, including bullion, solar, jewelry, and electronics:

1. Jewelry: 40%
2. Electronics: 25%
3. Industrial: 15%
4. Bullion: 10%
5. Other: (art, religious objects, currency) 10%

The gold-to-silver price ratio is influenced by supply-and-demand trends, macro-economic conditions, and investor sentiment. In particular, industrial demand is an enormous tailwind for silver.

Mining production: currently, the gold-to-silver ratio is nine ounces of silver mined for every ounce of gold. Meanwhile, the gold-to-silver price ratio average for the past 250 years is 40:1.

So now we get to the GREAT NEWS... Today, the gold-to-silver ratio is about 85:1.

That number screams there is something incredibly bullish looming.

Let's look at who else is noticing and taking action to profit from this divergence.

On March 8, 2023, BlackRock Inc., the world's largest asset manager, disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had purchased 16.1 million shares of the silver exchange-traded fund (ETF) Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSLV), representing a whopping 10.9% stake in the fund.

There has been a lot of social media chatter about a silver squeeze and even social media movements trying to organize a syndicate of retail "stackers" to drain the COMEX inventory as a strategy for "sticking it to short sellers."

But when institutional investors move into silver, it's an explosive signal that significant gains are nigh.

The top 5 institutional investors are Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors, Fidelity Investments, and Capital Group. The combined assets of these five institutions are over $30 trillion.

These institutional investors manage various assets, including stocks, bonds, and real estate. They invest for multiple clients, including pension funds, insurance companies, and endowments.

In the past 20 years, these institutional investors have been on the sidelines or not really investing in gold or silver. This is mainly because the equity market has been on a massive bull run for decades.

Moreover, most fund managers are relatively young. They have not lived through a 1970s-style inflation cycle, nor did their finance schools teach classes on precious metals and investing.

Institutional investment has averaged under 0.5%, so moving to the historic mean of 3% would be a six times greater investment into silver and gold.

This is the real silver squeeze.

Getting back to the 85:1 gold-to-silver ratio; historically, when the spread gets this wide, silver can explode higher to close the gap in a short time.

Since January 2000, this has happened four times.

As stated previously, the average GSR in our modern era has been around 40:1.

Historically, the ratio has often moved sharply lower. And when it does, it does so fiercely, swiftly, and lucratively for those positioned before the move.

The ratio fell to 30:1 in 2011 and below 20:1 in 1979. Let's just say it goes to 60:1 (padding it to be conservative). A gold price of $2,000 would translate into a silver price of over $33.

If, as many analysts predict, gold rises to $3,000 per ounce in the next up cycle, and the gold-to-silver ratio reverts to 40:1, silver would more than triple to $75.

That could still be a conservative price target for a raging silver bull market. Time will tell.

Silver has underperformed gold since 1973, especially since 2011.

   

Jon Forrest Little graduated from the University of New Mexico and attended Georgetown University's Institute for Comparative Political and Economic Systems. Jon began his career in the mining industry and now publishes "The PickAxe" which covers topics surrounding precious metals, energy, history, and politics.

Debt Ceiling Deal Keeps Dollar Locked in Devaluation Spiral

By Clint Siegner, Money Metals News Service

Fiscal hawks weren't optimistic when Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the U.S. House. The California Republican's track record was dismal when it comes to spending restraint.

Nearly 5 months into his term, it is now apparent McCarthy has no intention of holding the line against government expansion.

He just announced a deal with Biden to push off all further debate on the debt ceiling until 2025 while avoiding any reduction in spending.

He is, of course, selling the deal as if it were a crushing blow to Democrats.

McCarthy said, "Right now, the Democrats are very upset… there's nothing in the bill for them. There's not one thing in the bill for Democrats."

It isn't clear what he is talking about. The IRS is going to hang onto $79 of the $80 billion in increased funding it received in last year's Orwellian "Inflation Reduction Act."

There are no reductions for the rest of the federal bureaucracy, and there is a healthy increase for defense spending, including more handouts to Ukraine.

"Discretionary" spending today represents only about a third of the total federal budget.

The rest is comprised of defense, entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, and interest payments on the federal debt.

These supposedly non-discretionary categories are ballooning, and meaningful changes are politically untenable.

It only gets harder for politicians to balance the budget as time goes by.

Sure, it isn't over yet. McCarthy's budget deal still has to pass a vote in the full House. In the end, however, the debt ceiling will indeed be raised substantially.

The key point, for gold and silver investors at least, is there will be no political solution to the inflationary problem at the heart of our monetary system. Americans can expect perpetual deficit spending and trillions per year of new debt issuance.

At this point, the budget deficits can only be supported by money printing and debt monetization from the Federal Reserve.

Federal obligations will be "paid" with ever more rapidly devaluing dollars. The nation is on a one-way road to ongoing currency debasement.

   

Clint Siegner is a Director at Money Metals Exchange, a precious metals dealer recently named "Best in the USA" by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, Siegner puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government, and honest money into the development of Money Metals' brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs.

Duh! In News that is Not News...

By Zachary Stieber, The Epoch Times:  FDA Detects Serious Safety Signal for COVID-19 Vaccination Among Children

Children of certain ages who received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine face an elevated risk of heart inflammation, according to a new federally funded study.

Vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 face a heightened risk of myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, and a related condition called pericarditis, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers found.

The number of myocarditis and pericarditis events in that age group met the threshold for a safety signal, the researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association on May 22.

The elevated risk was present within seven days of vaccination, according to the data.

Researchers identified 89 cases among 12- to 15-year-olds and 64 cases among 16- and 17-year-olds after reviewing records from commercial databases run by CVS Health, HealthCore, and Optum.

The claims were made between Dec. 11, 2020, when Pfizer’s vaccine was cleared by the FDA, and mid-2022.

Researchers looked at data to determine whether any of the 20 health problems were experienced at higher rates by the vaccinated. The problems included myocarditis or pericarditis, Bell’s palsy, appendicitis, and stroke.

Only myocarditis or pericarditis met the criteria for a safety signal, which may be related to vaccination.

U.S. officials have already concluded that the conditions are caused by the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, although the vaccines didn’t carry a warning for months after authorization. One possible mechanism is excessive immune responses triggered by lipid nanoparticles. Novavax’s vaccine, authorized in 2022, can also cause the heart conditions, authorities say.

Read the rest here.

In Sackett v. EPA, the Supreme Court Cuts Back Federal Regulatory Authority Over Wetlands

By Jonathan H. Adler, The Volokh Conspiracy

Today, in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court adopted a narrowing interpretation of the scope of federal regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The justices were unanimous in rejecting the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit's expansive interpretation of the EPA's regulatory authority and Justice Kennedy's "significant nexus" test for CWA jurisdiction. But the justices split 5-4 on how to interpret the CWA and the extent to which Congress authorized the regulation of wetlands as part of "the waters of the United States."

Justice Alito wrote the opinion for the Court, joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Barrett. Justice Thomas concurred, joined by Justice Gorsuch. Justice Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment (in what is effectively the principal dissent), joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, and Justice Kagan wrote a separate opinion concurring in the judgment joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson.

Justice Alito's opinion for the Court embraces Justice Scalia's plurality opinion from Rapanos v. United States. Writes Justice Alito:

the Act applies to "navigable waters," which had a well-established meaning at the time of the CWA's enactment. But the CWA complicates matters by proceeding to define "navigable waters" as "the waters of the United States,"§1362(7), which was decidedly not a well-known term of art.This frustrating drafting choice has led to decades of litigation, but we must try to make sense of the terms Congress chose to adopt. And for the reasons explained below, we conclude that the Rapanos plurality was correct: the CWA's use of "waters" encompasses "only those relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water' forming geographic[al] features' that are described in ordinary parlance as 'streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes.'"

According to Justice Alito, this means that wetlands that have a continuous surface water connection or are directly adjoining jurisdictional waters may be regulated as part of the waters of the United States, those wetlands that are physically "separate" from such waters may not be, even if they would satisfy a more capacious definition of "adjacent." He writes:

In sum, we hold that the CWA extends to only those wetlands that are "as a practical matter indistinguishable from waters of the United States." Rapanos, 547 U. S., at 755 (plurality opinion) (emphasis deleted). This requires the party asserting jurisdiction over adjacent wetlands to establish "first, that the adjacent [body of water constitutes] . . . 'water[s] of the United States,' (i.e., a relatively permanent body of water connected to traditional interstate navigable waters); and second, that the wetland has a continuous surface connection with that water, making it difficult to determine where the 'water' ends and the 'wetland' begins." Id., at 742.

Justice Thomas concurred separately to suggest that a fuller examination of the scope of federal regulatory authority might require more dramatic limits on the regulatory authority of the EPA (and Army Corps of Engineers). Joined by Justice Gorsuch he writes:

like the Rapanos plurality before it, the Court focuses only on the term "waters"; it does not determine the extent to which the CWA's other jurisdictional terms—"navigable" and "of the United States"—limit the reach of the statute. Ante, at 14–18; Rapanos, 547 U. S., at 731 (plurality opinion). I write separately to pick up where the court leaves off.

He then goes to explain how federal regulatory authority over navigable waters was traditionally constrained by the scope of the federal Commerce Power, and should be understood in the terms embraced by the Supreme Court in The Daniel Ball (1871).

Read the rest here.

Public Hangings Would Seem Appropriate

This is the most important video you will watch this year. Millions were killed with Covid-19 for profit.

“Covid-19 was an act of biological warfare perpetrated on the human race. It was a financial heist. Nature was hijacked. Science was hijacked.” pic.twitter.com/1sYnVMaIRN

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 25, 2023

COVID Myocarditis Explained

There Are No Debt-Based Solutions to the Debt Problem

By Stefan Gleason, Money Metals News Service

President Joe Biden will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Monday to hold high-stakes talks on the still-unresolved debt ceiling standoff.

Both sides agree that the government will need to take on more debt in order to pay its bills. Republicans are trying to leverage some concessions on discretionary spending. But even if they were to get everything they want, the budget won’t come close to balancing.

Whatever agreement is ultimately reached to raise the government’s borrowing limit, the debt problem itself won’t be solved. It will only get bigger.

At root, the debt problem is a monetary phenomenon. The currency in which debts are owed is itself a debt instrument.

U.S. Federal Reserve notes are backed by nothing but faith and credit. Since they do not represent anything tangible, such as a particular quantity of gold or silver, they can be issued in unlimited quantities.

In theory, the amount of debt the government can take on is unlimited since the debt doesn’t represent anything real. It only represents an obligation to generate a quantity of currency in the future. New currency can always be generated by borrowing more of it into existence and, if necessary, tapping the lender of last resort – the Federal Reserve.

Even as the financial media and the U.S. Treasury Secretary herself play up the threat of a potential debt default and the economic calamities it would bring, the reality is that the federal government has already defaulted. It defaulted decades ago – on August 15, 1971 to be exact – when President Richard Nixon declared the United States would no longer redeem dollars held by foreign governments for gold.

Since then, the national debt has exploded from a mere $400 billion to $32 trillion. In the process, the dollar has defaulted on its purchasing power by 87%. It takes $7.50 today to buy what $1.00 could buy in 1971.

By contrast, an ounce of gold retains much the same purchasing power today as it did 50 years ago, even centuries ago, despite nominal fluctuations in price (dramatically to the upside overall).

Unlike debt-based fiat currency, gold isn’t an IOU. It doesn’t have an issuer and cannot be issued in whatever quantity is convenient for debtors. It is honest money.

Reintroducing honesty to the nation’s monetary system is the only real solution to the debt problem.

   

Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the company recently named "Best Overall Online Precious Metals Dealer" by Investopedia. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC and in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, TheStreet, and Seeking Alpha.

More States Opposing Biden’s “Digital Dollar” Plan to Regulate All Spending

By Mike Gleason, Money Metals News Service

After knocking on the door of new record highs over the past few weeks, the gold market is pulling back. Bulls had faced a lot of overhead resistance in futures trading. It finally proved to be too much to overcome – at least for the near term.

As of this Friday recording, the monetary metal is registering a weekly decline of 1.8% to trade at $1,984 per ounce. Silver is bouncing back a little bit here today and is now down just 0.5% this week to bring spot prices to $24.12 an ounce. Platinum is actually up 1.1% to come in at $1,081. And finally, palladium is rallying pretty strongly here today and now shows a slight 0.6% gain since last Friday's close to check in at $1,568 per ounce.

Metals markets may see more choppiness until they find solid technical support levels or get a new catalyst to spark buying. Debt ceiling drama and the potential for more dominos to fall in the banking system could certainly drive price action in precious metals in the days ahead.

Longer term, the fundamentals of tight supplies and rising demand plus unrelenting currency depreciation should drive metals prices higher. Although gold has recently garnered attention for trading above $2,000 per ounce, other metals that are currently being overlooked may deliver bigger percentage gains when they get going on the upside.

One sleeper metal that has lots of potential is platinum. According to a new report from the World Platinum Investment Council, the catalytic metal faces a huge supply deficit this year. Platinum output will decline by 1% even as demand is forecast to surge by 28%.

As a consequence, estimates of platinum's shortfall have been revised upward to 983,000 ounces.

For many years platinum has been out of favor within the automotive industry as automakers opted for palladium in catalytic converters. But that is now changing as platinum benefits from substitution and sees renewed demand in car factories. Meanwhile, other promising new uses for platinum are moving forward, such as hydrogen fuel cell batteries.

Although palladium prices have been cut in half since their peak, platinum still trades at a discount to its sister metal. Platinum also continues to sell for a steep discount to gold.

Historically, platinum has often commanded a premium over both metals. Investors who anticipate that happening again in the future are taking advantage of platinum's low prices today. Although the market for investment-grade platinum bullion isn't as deep or liquid as it is for gold, pure platinum coins and bars are readily available from Money Metals Exchange.

In other news, states across the country are moving to block the implementation of a central bank digital currency. Florida governor Ron DeSantis recently signed legislation to prevent a CBDC from being mandated in commerce within the Sunshine State.

DeSantis spoke with veteran journalist John Stossel about the threats posed by a digital dollar.

John Stossel: President Biden and the media are excited that the dollar could go digital.

News Reporter #1: Central bank digital currencies.

News Reporter #2: The world is going to see a functioning CBDC very soon.

John Stossel: A CBDC, that's a national digital currency controlled by the Feds.

News Reporter #2: When you use your wallet to pay for something, the Fed would take the digital cash out of your wallet and deposit it into the merchant's.

John Stossel: I'll read from the President's executive order on responsible development of digital assets. “This will protect consumers, investors, and the environment.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis: That last one's a tell, because I think they would impose certain criteria. You're filling up too much tank of gas. Wait a minute, climate change. You can't be doing that. You bought another firearm? No, no, no.

John Stossel: And if you do buy or do the wrong thing, they can easily cut off your money.

Gov. Ron DeSantis: They want to move to a cashless society, which would basically mean the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department would have supervisory jurisdiction over all of your transactions.

State legislators and governors who want to protect their constituents from central bank digital currency can go a step further by also helping them seek refuge from the unsound monetary policies of the federal government.

State-level sound money legislation includes repealing all sales and income taxes on precious metals transactions and recognizing gold and silver as legal tender. Already this year, several states have passed some form of sound money legislation, with some also moving to establish bullion depositories that will help safeguard state assets and pensions.

With the U.S. government on the brink of default and the banking system being propped up by Fed funny money bailouts, states and individuals who establish sound money reserves of their own can become more resilient to risk.

   

Mike Gleason is a Director with Money Metals Exchange, a precious metals dealer recently named "Best in the USA" by an independent global ratings group. Gleason is a hard money advocate and a strong proponent of personal liberty, limited government and the Austrian School of Economics. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason has extensive experience in management, sales and logistics as well as precious metals investing. He also puts his longtime broadcasting background to good use, hosting a weekly precious metals podcast since 2011, a program listened to by tens of thousands each week.

 

Andrew Napolitano and Roger Stone Discuss the Durham Report

Some Reactions to The Durham Report

Last night on The Five, the liberal panelist posed the argument, if these things in Durham's report are really true why have no additional charges been brought against anyone?  As if she is not aware that this is how official Washington protects its own.  When it's been decided that nothing is going to be done, that no one is going to be held accountable, a report is commissioned, a study group is formed, or hearings are held.  That's the way it works.  After a suitable period, there will be some blustering about changes to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again, and then it all goes away.

In this case, it's been four years.  Are there unexpired statutes of limitation?  Unlikely.  All the key players have moved on to gigs on cable news outlets, employment at think tanks or foundations, or simply a fully funded retirement.  They are untouchable.

An Epoch Times article under the headline, Durham Report Reveals Massive Failures in FBI’s Investigation of Trump, states it perfectly:

The FBI didn’t interview the people connected to the information that the agency used to open a full investigation of the Trump campaign during the heat of the 2016 presidential election, according to the report by special counsel John Durham.

The bureau rushed to open the initial investigation based on unvetted intelligence from Australia, according to Durham, who has spent nearly three years investigating the origins of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign.

The FBI’s rush to open the investigation and the shoddy evidence used as the premise for the probe were a departure from how the department treated other politically sensitive investigations in 2016, the report states. That includes the inquiry into the Clinton Foundation, which was virtually frozen in the leadup to Election Day in 2016.

The much-anticipated report (pdf), a copy of which The Epoch Times obtained ahead of its public release, also delves into other controversial aspects of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI codename for the investigation of the Trump campaign.

“The objective facts show that the FBI’s handling of important aspects of the Crossfire Hurricane matter were seriously deficient,” the report states.

The special counsel further impugned the bureau’s error-ridden applications to surveil Trump campaign associate Carter Page. FBI agents applied to renew the secret-court warrants on Page despite admitting, both at the time and subsequently, that they had no probable cause to do so.

Durham concludes that the FBI failed to uphold its “important mission of strict fidelity to the law.”

The special counsel “does not recommend any wholesale changes in the guidelines and policies that the Department and the FBI now have in place.”

“The answer is not the creation of new rules but a renewed fidelity to the old,” the report reads.

There it is.  Durham's recommendation comes down to, "Nothing to be done."  How the Times can say there were "massive failures" is beyond me.  The FBI successfully prevented Trump from fulfilling his most important campaign promise, that of draining The Swamp.  Not only is The Swamp undrained, but it has become more powerful and more blatantly intrusive than ever before.  Hardly what I would call a failure.

But what specifically have we found out?

Here is some from Techno Fog, The Reactionary:

Here are some of the main findings:

• “The FBI discounted or willfully ignored material information that did not support the narrative of a collusive relationship between Trump and Russia.”

• Crossfire Hurricane “was opened as a full investigation without [the FBI] ever having spoken to the persons who provided that information.” Days after it was opened, Peter Strzok was telling a London FBI employee that “there’s nothing to this.”

• Internal FBI communications discussing the Crossfire Hurricane during its early stages: it’s “thin” and “it sucks”.

• British Intelligence pushed back on Mueller requests for assistance: “[a British Intelligence person] basically said there was no [expletive] way in hell they were going to do it.”

• Durham documents TWO investigations into Hillary Clinton - one involving the Clinton Foundation and one involving illegal foreign contributions to Clinton’s Campaign.

• In one Clinton Campaign investigation, an FBI confidential human source (CHS) had offered an illegal foreign contribution to the campaign through an intermediary. The Clinton Campaign was “okay with it” and “were fully aware”. The CHS offered the FBI a copy of the credit card charge; the FBI never got receipts. In fact, the FBI handling agent told the CHS “to stay away from all events relating to Clinton’s campaign.”

Read more from Techno Fog here.

Mark Wauck, Meaning in History:

So that’s the big news after all these years—the Russia Hoax really was a hoax. As if anyone with an IQ above room temperature ever doubted it. Here’s Zerohedge’s summary of this not-so-stunning revelation:

According to Just the News, the report concludes that the FBI had no verified intelligence or evidence when it opened up an investigation into Donald Trump and his campaign in the summer of 2016.

Durham placed blame on the FBI and DOJ for failing to follow their own standards in a probe which should have never taken place - including the agency's surveillance of an American citizen without basis.

Let’s repeat that: The investigation should never have taken place simply because there was no reasonable basis for it. None. “No verified intelligence or evidence.” And this stuff was reviewed by the best legal minds the FBI and DoJ could come up with. Do you really think they were fooled into believing there was a reasonable basis? If you do, read the next two paragraphs.

"Based on the review of Crossfire Hurricane and related intelligence activities, we concluded the Department and the FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law in connection with certain events and activities described in this report," wrote Durham.

"The FBI personnel also repeatedly disregarded important requirements when they continued to seek renewals of that FISA surveillance while acknowledging -- both then and in hindsight -- that they did not genuinely believe there was probable cause to believe that the target [Carter Page] was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activities on behalf of foreign power."

Let’s be totally clear about this. Durham’s bottom line conclusion was obvious from the very start—all the way back in the summer and fall of 2016. It almost makes me ill to think of the amount of time I spent beating this dead horse. It was always about “predication”—the requirement that investigative agencies of the federal government have some reasonable and articulable basis for believing that a criminal offense occurred before opening an investigation. That’s basic, and it’s the core issue before you even get to the probable cause requirements in FISA. I’m not going to go into this again. Anyone who wants to go over this again can just delve into past posts that I’ve pulled up by doing basic searches, like: predication, probable cause, FISA, Carter Page, Christopher Steele, and any other searches you care to come up with. How could it take years for Bull Durham to come to such an obvious conclusion? Yeah, I know …

Trust me on this—everyone involved knew it was complete bullshit from the very start, just like Durham says. Here’s a tell on that from Techno Fog. While the Deep State, led by the FBI and DoJ, was targeting Trump based on their hoax, what were they doing about known serious violations by Hillary?

Read more from Mark Wauck here.

Yes, we all knew that the Russia Hoax was truly a hoax.  What we didn't know, was that Durham's purpose in investigating and producing his report was to prevent anything from ever being done about it.  There was a time when some of us hoped and thought that somebody would be held accountable.  We thought that somebody in The Swamp might pay a price for the obvious and deliberate conspiracy to swing our presidential election to Hillary.  But that's not how Washington works.

If there are any changes coming out of this, they will be along the lines of recognizing a new reality.  What was unthinkable before is now quite thinkable.  Washington will define which government practices, weaponizations if you will, are now to be permitted.  The hand slaps for things like falsifying FISA applications, or tampering with evidence might finally be dispensed with as we adjust to our new reality.

And don't think about voting them out.  Keep in mind what Joseph Stalin is reputed to have said: “Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything.”  Didn't Mark Zuckerberg contribute $400 million-plus to "finance local elections?"

The Biden Money Laundering Operation

By Techno Fog, The Reactionary

Today, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee issued this 36-page memo evidencing developments into their investigation into President Biden’s “role in his family members’ and business associates’ foreign and domestic business practices.”

The memo is the result of a review of thousands of pages of bank records obtained via subpoena. It divulged a complicated web of over 20 shell companies created by Biden’s family and business associates – most formed during Biden’s vice presidency – which enriched them to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. It discovered “evidence indicative of influence peddling and financial deception.”

Here are the highlights (some of which add to previous findings):

• “Bank records show the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals’ companies.” The Committee identified payments to Biden family members while Biden served as vice president.

• The Biden family took part in a type of money laundering operation, where foreign companies (some with ties to Chinese intelligence) would millions of dollars to the companies of Biden business associates. Those businesses, which acted as a Biden family intermediary, would then pay the Biden family incrementally.

• Those payments to the Biden family, which in fact originated from foreign nationals/corporations, were structed in a way to “conceal the source of the funds and reduce the conspicuousness of the total amounts made into the Biden bank accounts.”

While it’s no secret that the Biden family, and especially Hunter, enriched themselves through Joe Biden, the House Oversight memo does an excellent job of laying out much that we didn’t yet know.

Read the rest here.

Central Banks Join Rank-and-File Villagers in Exiting the Dollar

By Jon Forrest Little, Money Metals News Service

Let's look around. With 99.9% certainty, I am confident that I have never witnessed a better setup for gold in my 40-plus years in business and reporting on natural resources.

First, I can show you that all fiat currencies eventually go to zero, but I will do that in another article.

As Voltaire said, "Paper money always returns to its intrinsic value – zero."

In other words, paper money is only worth something because people believe it is worth something, but when that belief erodes or disappears altogether, the money becomes worthless.

Today you can take this wisdom as a warning against the dangers of inflation, which erodes the value of paper money over time and can inflict sudden and catastrophic loss of value.

I can also show you how fractional reserve banking and our monetary policy have fueled a 70% revolt against the dollar. When I say 70%, I mean that 70% of the globe's citizens, through international transactions and now central banks, are planning various forms of exiting the U.S. reserve currency position.

Why Are Banks Hoarding Gold?

First, let's look at 2021, a record gold-buying year.

According to the World Gold Council, central banks bought 647 tonnes of gold in 2021. This was 29% higher than the previous year and the second-highest annual net purchases on record.

Several central banks increased their gold reserves significantly in 2021, with the most significant purchases made by Hungary, India, and Thailand.

The trend of central banks buying gold has been increasing in recent years as they look to diversify their reserves away from the Federal Reserve note dollar and other currencies.

In 2022, in addition to the biggies (China, Russia, India) now add Singapore, Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Iraq, Hungary, and Poland plus just too many to list.

Central banks bought 1,136 tonnes of gold in 2022 — a whopping 25% leap on top of a 29% jump the previous year.

That's the most significant gold buying jump by central banks since such records have been kept.

Why Are Central Banks in a Gold Buying Frenzy?

The U.S. government's increasing debt levels have jeopardized the dollar's status as world reserve currency.

The Federal Reserve's mismanagement of monetary policy (especially since launching Quantitative Easing in 2008) and failure to bring inflation rates down to target despite recent rate hikes signal that there is big trouble with the world's #1 superpower.

We discussed above why central banks are gobbling up gold and exiting the dollar. Now the villagers are also increasingly fleeing the dollar.

Today's banking crisis is directly related to the fact that debts are growing faster than the economy can pay.

When the Federal Reserve finally began raising the interest rates, this caused a massive problem for the banks. When interest rates increase, the market prices of bonds and mortgages fall.

Because of the Fed's frantic rate-raising pace, a significant arbitrage opportunity emerged, and people jumped all over it.

Banks only pay depositors about 0.3% on deposits.

Depositors began withdrawing their money from banks to buy U.S. Treasury bills paying as much as 5%, creating bank runs.

Bank runs have also helped spark a run into physical precious metals among savvy investors who realize that even higher-yielding paper instruments remain vulnerable to inflation and possibly even default.

Gold was trading around $300/oz. in 2000, and today it's over $2,000 (up 7x).

The global financial system is fragile and could collapse any time due to excessive debt, derivatives, and artificially low-interest rates followed by the insane pace of recent hikes in a short period of time.

Gold is becoming a sought-after store of value in a world where fiat currencies are no longer trusted.

If you don't buy gold and silver now, well... you have been warned.

   

Jon Forrest Little graduated from the University of New Mexico and attended Georgetown University's Institute for Comparative Political and Economic Systems. Jon began his career in the mining industry and now publishes "The PickAxe" which covers topics surrounding precious metals, energy, history, and politics.

Treasury Secretary Panics: 'Economic Chaos Will Ensue'

By Stefan Gleason, Money Metals News Service

On Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that "financial and economic chaos will ensue" if the U.S. government's borrowing limit isn't raised.

If that wasn't dramatic enough, she also said on ABC's “This Week” that a default would bring about an "economic calamity."

The implication is that enabling an already overindebted government to borrow more trillions will save the economy from disaster.

The reality is that authorizing the U.S. Treasury to continue ramping up its leverage against its tax base will also precipitate an economic crisis – if not suddenly, then gradually over time.

U.S. government debt surged to over 100% of GDP in 2020. Although government revenues have improved since the depths of the pandemic, the overall fiscal picture has gotten even uglier.

Veronique de Rugy writes in Reason:

Public debt since 2020 has grown by $3 trillion. According to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement, government spending in March of 2023 alone was twice the revenue collected. The deficit in the first six months of FY 2023 is about 80 percent as large as the deficit for the entire FY 2022.

Our mid-year deficit is $1.1 trillion, compared to $667 billion at the same point last year. Falling revenue collection is responsible for only 17 percent of this difference. The other 83 percent is overwhelmingly due to excessive and increased spending.

Enabling excessive debt-financed spending to continue is no strategy for averting a “calamity.” It's merely kicking the can down the road in hopes of staving it off a while longer.

Neither Janet Yellen, nor Chuck Schumer in the Senate, nor Kevin McCarthy in the House have proposed any viable path to paying down what the government owes.

Left unspoken in Official Washington is the shared assumption that inflation will be the primary tool for managing the otherwise unmanageable debt load. As long as the supply of new Federal Reserve notes keeps expanding at a sufficiently rapid pace, there will always be enough “dollars” to service previously accumulated debts.

For all of Yellen's histrionics about the threat of default, she knows as well as anyone that the Federal Reserve can always step in to monetize Treasury debt directly if needed. She was, after all, the former head of the Federal Reserve.

Does Yellen worry that current Fed Chairman Jay Powell might refuse a request for an emergency line of credit? Of course not. She just has to tell him how many trillions to digitally add to the U.S. Treasury's account.

But she probably does worry, rightly, that having the central bank bail out the government from default in such an overt manner would send a signal to the world that the U.S. is embarking on hyperinflation.

Under a fiat monetary system unconstrained by gold, a sovereign debt default can always be staved off. But what cannot be avoided is the currency crisis that follows from “solving” the debt crisis.

   

Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the company recently named "Best Overall Online Precious Metals Dealer" by Investopedia. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC and in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, TheStreet, and Seeking Alpha.

Epic Fail as Fed Chairman Powell Claims Banks "Safe & Sound"

By Mike Gleason, Money Metals Exchange

As more cracks in the foundation of the banking system appear, gold prices have once again been knocking on the door of new records, although we're seeing a pullback here on Friday.

On Thursday, gold rallied up to $2,060 an ounce – nearly reaching its former all-time high. As of this Friday recording, the monetary metal is giving back a chunk of this week's gains, but still comes in at $2,027 and is holding onto a 1.3% gain so far this week.

Turning to the white metals, silver has also pulled back here today and shows a weekly gain now of just 2.3%, bringing spot prices to $25.89 per ounce. Platinum, which was already lagging this week, is off 2.2% to trade at $1,073. And finally, palladium is down 1.7% on the week to trade at $1,537 per ounce.

Industrial metals along with most other commodities slipped this week on banking and recession fears.

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell attempted to reassure Americans that the banking system is sound even as he announced another rate hike that will add further stresses on credit markets. Powell also insisted that he thinks it's likely the economy will avoid a recession in spite of the gathering warning signs.

Jay Powell: Let me comment briefly on recent developments in the banking sector. Conditions in that sector have broadly improved since early March, and the U.S. banking system is sound and resilient. I'll just say I continue to think that it's possible that this time is really different, and the reason is there's just so much excess demand really in the labor market. The case of avoiding a recession is, in my view, more likely than that of having a recession, but it's not that the case of having a recession, I don't rule that out either. It's possible that we will have what I hope would be a mild recession.

Powell's retort that "this time is different" and the banking system could prove to be just as "sound and resilient" in 2023 as inflation was "transitory" in 2022.

In other words, the banking system is increasingly exposing itself as unsound and fragile. No amount of rosy Fedspeak should give depositors confidence that their savings are secure.

Only a few minutes after Powell floated his claim that the banking system is sound and resilient, regional bank stocks got slammed down hard on news that PacWest bank was in a panic to find a buyer or obtain a capital injection. Concerns continue to rise that many if not most medium sized banks may be insolvent as a result of losses from their foolish investments in government bonds.

Even if deposits are covered by insurance and teetering banks are rescued, bailouts won't bring soundness back to the banking system. The costs of unsound financial practices will ultimately be absorbed by taxpayers and all holders of depreciating Federal Reserve note dollars.

Unfortunately, the federal government's finances are anything but sound. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned this week that the United States could default on its debt as soon as next month.

However, many observers doubt the government would actually default even if the nation's credit card limit isn't raised by Congress. The administration is pursuing emergency work-arounds behind the scenes.

One of the bureaucratic maneuvers being discussed once again is the issuance of trillion-dollar platinum coins. One of the leading advocates of the ploy is Rohan Grey, a professor at Willamette University College of Law. In 2020, he worked with far-left Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to advocate trillion-dollar coins as a backdoor way to implement Modern Monetary Theory and enable the government to ramp up stimulus spending.

Under the scheme, the Treasury department would use its authority to mint platinum coins in any denomination and arbitrarily stamp a $1 trillion face value on them. It would then deposit the coins at the Federal Reserve and tap them for their official fiat cash value.

There are other debt financing gimmicks in the works, including having the Fed act as the government's "fiscal agent" in buying defaulted Treasury securities – essentially mopping up the mess created by any technical default and enabling the government to pay its bills.

Fed Chairman Powell has refused to say publicly whether the central bank would take on such a role. But it's difficult to imagine a scenario where it would refuse to do so if the Biden administration declared it would move forward on such a debt ceiling work-around.

In an exchange with then chairman Ben Bernanke and other Fed officials back in 2013, Powell makes it clear that he would monetize the government debt. Central bankers had specifically discussed the possibility of buying defaulted Treasuries in response to any failure by Congress to raise the debt ceiling. They came to the conclusion that, yes, they would have to do so in order to save Uncle Sam from supposed financial Armageddon.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has also said that the government will never default under our monetary system because the Fed can always print the currency needed to avert that kind of catastrophe. Of course, if Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell came out and said bluntly that the central bank will monetize the debt no matter what, that would likely trigger a steep drop in the value of the U.S. dollar – something they would obviously like to avoid.

Whether the Federal Reserve note's purchasing power crashes suddenly or continues to decline more gradually, it has nowhere to go but down. And as investors perceive risks rising in the banking system and the stock market, they may find precious metals to be increasingly attractive as safe havens.

And that, in fact, is exactly what is happening. At Money Metals, we continue to see record buying and a massive influx of first timers. The twin threats of currency debasement and bank failures are driving the situationally aware toward alternative forms of savings like physical gold and silver.

   

Mike Gleason is a Director with Money Metals Exchange, a precious metals dealer recently named "Best in the USA" by an independent global ratings group. Gleason is a hard money advocate and a strong proponent of personal liberty, limited government and the Austrian School of Economics. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason has extensive experience in management, sales and logistics as well as precious metals investing. He also puts his longtime broadcasting background to good use, hosting a weekly precious metals podcast since 2011, a program listened to by tens of thousands each week.

 

Purpose

The most profound advice on the purpose of life is from the most unlikely source as well! pic.twitter.com/eeTCpLzRhf

— Market Sentiment (@mkt_sentiment) February 11, 2023

Great Reset Real Estate Inc.

The Great Reset: How They Plan to Take Your House: The Agenda
2030 Wealth Transfer - Part of Agenda 2030 is to get rid of private ownership. Upgrade your house for the environment, or be forced to sell. - Born Andreas Bull-Hansen. pic.twitter.com/sUoE4sBAis

— Joslyn Mahr-Batuz (@JBatuz) April 29, 2023

Oklahoma governor vows to keep vetoing laws until school choice, tax cuts are passed

Kim Jarrett, Just the News

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt indicated Friday that he would continue vetoing unrelated bills until the House and Senate agree on school choice and tax cuts.

Stitt vetoed 20 unrelated Senate bills this week, all with the same message.

"Until we get tax cuts, until we get parent choice done, we are not going to do all this other stuff for lobbyists and special interest groups," Stitt said at his weekly news conference. "Let's get those things done and then we will be happy to talk about some other things in the budget."

The House and Senate have passed two versions of the school choice bill this week.

Read the rest here.

Federal Judge Enjoins Illinois’ Assault Weapon Ban

Jonathon Turley

In a major victory for gun rights owners, U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn has granted a preliminary injunction of Illinois’ ban on assault weapons and large capacity magazines. The decision comes after two other district courts ruled in favor of the law — sending this issue to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and potentially the Supreme Court.  These long-awaited challenges will test the Democratic calls for removing all AR-15s and similar weapons, including calls from President Joe Biden.

[...]

Illinois and New York have previously supplied gun rights advocates with huge victories by drafting facially unconstitutional laws. Moderate efforts at gun control are often ramped up in the legislative process to become more and more sweeping.

McGlynn recognized that gun bans are popular in states like Illinois but noted that “even legislation that may enjoy the support of a majority of its citizens must fail if it violates the constitutional rights of fellow citizens.”

Read the rest here.

Rather Than Restoring Soundness to the Dollar, Senators Seek to Debase the Nickel

By Stefan Gleason, Money Metals News Service

Fiat currencies that are undergoing inflation eventually reach the point where the smallest unit of account becomes practically worthless – more trouble to handle and account for than it's worth. That is the current state of the cent.

Few people today would bother to pick up a penny laying on the ground. Back in 2018, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) likened pennies to "litter" in a speech on the House floor:

I'm going to suggest that you simply abolish the penny. It isn't currency, it's litter. If a police officer saw me throw pennies on the ground, I'd get a ticket for littering, and if I tried to pay that ticket in pennies, the judge would be very upset.

The penny has been our lowest unit of currency since 1857, since Lincoln. Now he wouldn't throw pennies on the ground, and call it litter, because back then a penny was worth more than a dollar is today…

Of course, Sherman doesn't take responsibility for his own role in trashing the value of the currency through his support of massive deficit spending and the inflationary monetary system that enables it.

It currently costs the government more than 2.5 cents to produce a penny.

The cent simply makes no economic sense.

The nickel is also now in the red. It costs more than 10 cents to mint and distribute.

Last week, Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced legislation to formally debase the nickel. It would direct the U.S. Mint to produce nickels (which currently contain actual nickel, along with copper) out of cheaper materials.

Others, such as Art Carden of the American Institute for Economic Research, are calling for pennies and nickels to simply be retired as functionally useless. He writes:

Ditching small coins is about more than narrow financial savings. It is also a test case for effective governance. Getting rid of the penny is an absolute economic slam dunk…

Pennies and nickels are politically resilient. Why? It's a straightforward story of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs that is pretty easy to understand.

To stop minting small coins would, of course, hurt the people who mine, refine, and transport the raw materials that go into them. There are unionized government employees at the US Mint with a stake in it.

These points are well taken.

However, neither cheapening nor eliminating coins that are too costly to produce is a solution to the underlying problem of currency depreciation.

Quarters and dimes (which contained 90% silver up to 1964) have already been debased.

So have pennies. They were minted out of copper until 1982. They are now made mostly of zinc.

Nickels even included silver between 1942 and 1945, when Congress authorized a temporary removal of nickel, a critical metal used in World War II production. Most war nickels contained 35% silver.

Pre-1965 silver coins, copper pennies, and war nickels are now valued based on their intrinsic metal content.

Bullion dealers including Money Metals Exchange sell bags of silver quarters and dimes, silver nickels, as well as copper pennies to sound money hoarders who want exposure to hard money as well as to have handy, small-denomination instruments for barter transactions.

The coins that circulate today are effectively counterfeit versions of the originals. So are paper dollar bills.

The Founders defined a dollar in terms of a fixed weight of gold or silver. A modern Federal Reserve note, which cannot be redeemed for any quantity of precious metal, is a counterfeit version of a Constitutional dollar.

Real solutions to the problems with U.S. coinage and currency start with real money.

   

Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the company recently named "Best Overall Online Precious Metals Dealer" by Investopedia. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC and in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, TheStreet, and Seeking Alpha.

Was This Tucker Carlson's Last Straw for Fox

Tucker Carlson’s speech over the weekend was powerful. Too powerful apparently. pic.twitter.com/sxncP26Tda

— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) April 24, 2023