Michael Pento: Epic Stock Market & Fixed Income Bubble Will Not End Well (Podcast)
BY MONEY METALS
THEDAILYCOIN.ORG
DECEMBER 9, 2017
Coming up we’ll hear a truly explosive interview with Michael Pento of Pento Portfolio Strategies. Michael describes for us what may be coming in the bond and fixed income markets and the impact on the stock market and on gold prices in 2018. He also shares some of his very strong feelings about Bitcoin and the crypto-currencies. You absolutely must hear my conversation with Michael Pento, coming up after this week’s market update.
On Thursday, Congress hastily passed a short-term funding bill that averts a government shutdown – but only for two weeks. Republicans and Democrats will have to come back to the negotiating table later this month in order to reach a deal on spending and contentious issues such as “deferred action” for illegal immigrants.
There are a handful of Republicans in Congress who oppose these bipartisan budget deals on grounds that they grow government and grow the deficit. But whether fiscal conservatives have enough clout to force any meaningful concessions from leadership is doubtful. The political forces pushing for more spending and more borrowing on Capitol Hill are simply too great.
And while unsustainable spending will have ruinous long-term consequences for the U.S. dollar, those consequences aren’t being felt just yet… at least not the negative ones. The stimulus of debt spending and currency creation is helping corporations boost their profits and their share prices, at least for now.
Meanwhile, precious metals markets are having a rough go of it this week. Gold prices are down 2.5% since last Friday’s close to bring spot prices to $1,249 per ounce. Silver is off 63 cents or 3.8% for the week to trade at $15.83. Platinum is down 5.5% to $889, while palladium shows a weekly loss of 1.4% to come in at $1,010 per ounce as of this Friday morning recording.
The U.S. Dollar Index is up over 1% for the week, but that doesn’t fully explain the weakness in gold and silver prices over the past few months. The dollar remains down significantly for the year, yet metals markets haven’t put on much of a counter-dollar move, with gold up only about $100 and silver now slightly negative for the year.
The lack of investor interest in gold and silver this year may have more to do with what’s been going up. As long as the stock market keeps plowing ahead, the safe-haven appeal of hard assets will be limited mainly to those who are true contrarians, to those who are willing to go against the direction of the herd.
Even among alternative asset investors and free-market money advocates, gold and silver have been overlooked in favor of newfangled digital currencies such as Bitcoin. This week Bitcoin surged to over $18,000 amidst volatile trading and soon to be opened futures contracts for the crypto-currency.
“Bob PIsani (CNBC): The first Bitcoin futures market, that’s going to begin Sunday night. Let’s talk to the man in charge of all this. Ed Tilly is the CEO of the CBOE.
And Ed, congratulations, you’ve won this sort of arms race to get to the first Bitcoin futures. CME will be doing it a week later.
You’re familiar with Jamie Dimon’s famous comment. Mr. Dimon had said, “If you’re stupid enough to buy Bitcoin, you’re going to pay the price for it one day.” He called it a fraud. Do you think this is an opportunity for Bitcoin? Do you think this is another great investment, or is it a fraud?
Ed Tilley: There’s a suitability issue with every investment. Bitcoin should be no different. I don’t think we’re setting up Bitcoin and saying that’s for everybody, but we certainly know there’s interest out there on the long and the short side.
The Rest…HERE
