A Staggering Number of Businesses Are Set to Collapse As COVID-19 Continues to Accelerate

Despite the chaos of the world around us, despite spiking COVID-19 cases, despite record number businesses having to shutter their doors, many never to re-open again, markets continue to remain relatively healthy.

(Chart source, google finance)

This obviously defies all common sense and rationality, but that is unfortunately the world that we now live in, an artificial world, where the markets are driven purely by wild speculation and grotesquely negligent money printing.

Although there is a "recovery" story to be had, we are far from it and the strength of the current state of affairs in the markets is nothing more than an illusion, like so many other parts of our economy. 

The stark truth of the matter is that the world is a mess at the moment, with political strife, upheaval and chaos coming from all directions, and of which we have come no where close to peak boiling temperatures.

COVID-19 Continues to Accelerate Worldwide

One such form of disruption and arguable the biggest problem that the world is immediately facing is the coronavirus pandemic, that although is far less deadly then at first predicted, continues to spike across the globe, with the world suffering from the third straight record jump in new cases of COVID-19.

(Chart Source, Bloomberg)

Although many nations have gotten a stranglehold on the pandemic for the time being, many others, who originally thought to have had the pandemic in check, are finding out that cases are beginning to re-surge once again, as restrictions have been steadily lifted over the last month to two months, depending on the location.

However, there are a few key nations that have never truly gotten COVID-19 in check and are now seeing a drastic rise in both daily deaths and daily new cases of the coronavirus, such as the United States, Hong Kong, Italy, Philippines and India to name just a few.

The United States is most heavily being affected in four big states, including Texas, Florida, California and Arizona, with other states also adding to the total number of new cases in a lesser, but still meaningful way.

This comes at a time when the campaign cycle for the 2020 U.S. elections begins to enter into full swing and as people scrutinize every action or inaction on both the political left, or right.

Businesses Continue to Collapse

The preceding lock-downs and the continued strain that COVID-19 has placed on the economic system has already taken a heavy toll on businesses and of which is only going to get much worse before this crisis fully resolves itself.

We are now beginning to see the first true COVID-19 damages being reflected in large business earning reports and as expected, they are severe.

Besides those who have already fallen victim to the economic disaster, such as Hertz and many other businesses as I previously reported on, Walgreens has indicated the damage that has been inflicted upon their earnings over the last few months, missing estimates wildly.

As reported by Zerohedge;

"Adjusted earnings for Walgreens third fiscal quarter (comprising the three months ending in May) came in at 83 cents per share, down 43.5% YoY. That was well shy of the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.18 per share. Group revenues rose 0.1% to $34.6 billion, just below analysts' projections for $34.35 billion."

Unfortunately, we should expect a tidal wave of horrendous earnings coming our way, especially when you take into consideration that Walgreens as a business is much better positioned to weather a virus pandemic than other businesses, whose goods would be deemed much less vital during the same period of uncertainty.

(Chart source, Trepp)

As Trepp's recent CMBS (Commercial mortgage-backed securities) remittance report indicates, we have a major, major problem on our hands, as the percentage of CMBS who are now considered delinquent in payment has exploded higher.

This is a level that was not last seen since 2012 and of which paints a very bleak picture of the future for businesses, of which were already under heavy pressure due to the highly competitive and rapidly accelerating online business model prior to the additional stressors of 2020.

In their latest report, Coresight Research estimates that a staggering, additional 25,000 stores may shutter in the remainder of 2020 alone.

Likely, as we head into 2021, things will only get worse, especially if the lockdowns resume come this fall, as the expected "second wave" of COVID-19 begins to accelerate across the United States and other parts of the world, placing the final nail in the coffin for those businesses who were just barely getting by.

Intervention is the Name of the Game

Governments are stuck between a rock and a hard place and many people already believe that they have no choice, other than to let COVID-19 run its course, lest the coming economic fall out result in more deaths than the virus itself. Fortunately, this is not a decision I have to make and I do not envy anyone who has to make this choice, as it is a lose lose situation.

However, all of this negative news is heading us into the direction of more intervention, more money printing, more collapses and rapidly increasing debt creation the world over.

(Chart source, goldprice.org)

These are just a few of the many reasons why we are seeing gold and silver bullion rally higher once again, as people seek safe haven assets to help whether the current storm and the future tsunami that is coming.

Future gains are likely to continue, with a "great reset" higher in prices eventually unfolding in rapid succession, as the masses begin to finally realize the situation the world economy finds itself in.

Until then, stay safe and keep stacking.

- Source, Nathan McDonald via Sprott Money Blog

How to Squash this Stealthy Attack On Your Wealth

You’re losing the war against your wealth.

In 1935, the official price of one gold ounce was $20.67. Today it’s around $1,770.

Price of gold 1935 vs. 2020

What happened?

The ounce of gold didn’t change. One troy ounce of gold still weighs one troy ounce.

One ounce in 1935 is still one ounce in 2020

What changed is the number of dollars it takes to buy one gold ounce. That stack on the left might look big compared to the paltry $20.67 on the right. It’s going to get a lot bigger.

The chart below shows the price of gold going back to early last century. The tiny blip in 1935 was a 69% increase in price at the time. It’s barely noticeable today.

Likewise, a $100 move in the price of gold will someday look like a tiny blip. Don’t let an endless stream of media panics distract you from what’s really going on. That stack of dollars can grow infinitely.

As the stack of cash grows, gold stays the same. Double the number of dollars needed to buy an ounce of gold and the ounce stays the same. It’s the dollar that’s worth less.

Consider this. $1,000 was a lot of money in the early 1900s. If an ancestor of yours had put $1,000 worth of cash away for you, today, it would barely pay for one month of rent at a downmarket apartment. Back then, it was a large sum of money.

However, if your ancestor had put $1,000 worth of gold into an envelope for you, it’s worth more than $80,000 today.

There’s a war against your wealth. The dollars you use to measure the wealth haven’t held up over time. Gold has.

With the U.S. government set to run a record deficit of $3.7 trillion in 2020, according its own CBO (Congressional Budget Office), it may soon take even more dollars to buy the one gold ounce.

- Source, Silver Bear Cafe

Our Wealth is Being Destroyed, is this War Winnable?

Wealth preservation is not just for billionaires; it’s mandatory for everybody, said E.B. Tucker, author of “Why Gold? Why Now?: The War Against Your Wealth and How to Win It.” 

“The average person works for dollars and sweats and works extra hours, and sacrifices today for a better tomorrow in dollars. All the while, dollars are becoming less valuable,” Tucker told Kitco News.

- Source, Kitco News

Production Down Significantly: Massive Silver Shortage Coming in the Near Future?

The overall market cap of the silver sector is incredibly small when compared to other segments of the economy and is thus susceptible to wild swings, manipulation and disruptions. This has always been the case, however, the remainder of 2020 may starkly highlight these problems.

Disruptions in silver supply have been severe over the last few months as the COVID-19 pandemic raged across the world, with some of the largest producers of silver suffering huge setbacks in production.

(Chart source, SRSrocco Report)

Mexico, the largest silver producer in the world saw silver mine production decline by a staggering 40% in April vs the previous years production, resulting in a decline of 199 metric tons over the previous month, which is a significant loss in its own right, but even worse when you consider that this problem occurred all over the globe.

(Chart source, SRSrocco Report)

Peru, the second largest producer of silver suffered even heavier losses than Mexico, with its Ministry of Mines and Energy reporting a stunning 74% loss in silver produced throughout the month of April vs the previous year.

As we also seen in Mexico's silver production, this was a heavy drop off from the previous month, with Peru dropping by 130 tons month over month.

(Chart source, statista.com)

Meanwhile, as seen from the chart above, the next largest producer of silver between the years 2010 to 2019 is China, followed by Poland, Chile and then Russia.

All of these countries, but most notably China, have also suffered heavy damages from the COVID-19 pandemic, with China being the most severe of these, resulting in large scale shut downs across the board within the country.

It is hard to get concrete, solid data from China, however it is without a doubt that similar declines in production, or worse occurred through the last few months as COVID-19 ravaged their economy.

What all of this means is that we have a huge, massive decline across the world of silver production, and of which is likely going to continue to suffer throughout the remainder of this year and possibly even into the early part of 2021.

This comes at a time when we are seeing strong demand for physical silver from silver ETF's, which have had a record breaking increase of 65 million ounces already throughout 2020, with many months still remaining in the year.

Additionally, demand for physical bullion among investors seeking the metal as a safe haven asset is estimated to increase by 16 percent year over year, resulting in a five year high in demand.

(Chart source, worldometers.info)

Unfortunately however, COVID-19, even though people are now beginning to realize that the mortality rate is much lower than at first estimated, is still a constant, persistent threat to the economy as a whole, including the mining sector.

This is resulting in large sectors of the economy operating at reduced capacity, as both manufacturers produce less and people purchase fewer items, meaning less demand for commodities across the board, including silver, which is used in the production of a vast array of products.

Still, it is only a matter of time before this significant reduction in supply begins to be felt by those who require silver to produce their products, especially given the fact that much of the silver produced in the world is simply a by product of base metal mining.

It would not surprise me at all to see silver spike hard in the latter part of this year, as the safe haven side of demand begins to steadily increase, given the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming 2020 Presidential elections and the almost guaranteed chaos that is going to result, regardless of who ultimately comes out as the winner, as I believe neither side is going to simply "accept" the results.

And that is only just one of the many problems, it is predicted by many medical experts that a second wave of COVID-19 is expected to roar back come this fall, resulting in more money printing, more shutdowns and more increased uncertainty in what the future holds for us.

This will result in an even greater reduction in supply, while there is a sharp increase in both physical gold and silver bullion, potentially resulting in significant gains for those who had the foresight to accumulate while prices were "on sale".

Regardless of what is to unfold, uncertainty is without a doubt coming in spades.

Stay safe and keep stacking.

- Source, Nathan McDonald via the Sprott Money Blog

Watch Gold It Is About To Do Something We Never Seen Before

Todays interview is with David Moadel, David talks about the economy, he talks about the gold price on how it is going to move up. Gold is going to move like we have never seen before.

Wolf Street Report: Pending Home Sales Bounce Off Brutal Low, Still -11% from February, -5% from May Last Year

Pending sales of existing houses, condos, and co-ops in May – these are contracts that were signed in May but didn’t close in May – bounced off the brutal pandemic low in April, but remained down 10.6% from February 2020 and down 5.1% from May 2019, according to the National Association of Realtors this morning:

The index of pending sales was set at 100 for the average contract activity in 2001. Pending sales in May are an indication of what closed sales might look like in June and July.

That sales volume collapsed in this historic manner in March and April was a sign that amid the uncertainty, the market had essentially frozen up, with sellers pulling their homes from the market or not listing them in the first place, and buyers staying away in droves.

While many potential sellers still remain reluctant to put their homes on the market, the market is functioning again. The industry has figured out how to deal with the requirements of social distancing, with sellers’ worries about having potentially infected strangers traipse through their home, and with the concerns of everyone else involved in the transaction.

And according to the NAR, “More listings are continuously appearing as the economy reopens, helping with inventory choices.”

The chart below shows the year-over-year percentage change in pending sales. The three months of year-over-year declines during the pandemic – March, April, and May – are marked in red:

In terms of US regions: Pending sales fell in May 2020 compared to May 2019 in three of the four regions:

• Northeast: -33.2% year-over-year to an index level of 61.5.
• Midwest: -1.4% year-over-year to an index level of 98.8.
• South: +1.9% year-over-year to an index level of 125.5.
• West: -2.5% year-over-year to an index level of 89.2.

This market is facing a historic mess...

- Source, The Wolf Street Report, read more here

John Rubino: Stagflation is Paradise For Gold And Silver

If we can’t stop the massive deficits and rampant currency creation, we might as well embrace the resulting stagflation and keep stacking…

The creators of Medicare, Social Security, and other long-term spending programs had a handle on demographics – or at least on the political realities of the time – so they structured those programs to initially take in more money than they needed in order to build up “trust funds” to cover the eventual retirement of the massive Baby Boomer generation.

The alternative to trust-fund entitlements is “pay as you go,” which makes such programs nice and cheap in the beginning and vastly more expensive later on. This prospect used to be considered political poison, so trust funds became the conventional wisdom.

But those days are apparently over. The most recent Congressional Budget Office projections show the Highway Trust Fund running out in 2021 and the much bigger Medicare Trust Fund emptying in 2023. Social Security is projected to run out by 2030, but since those numbers were run before the pandemic slashed payments into the system, it’s safe to assume that Social Security’s trust fund evaporates circa 2027.

What happens when the various trust funds run out? The costs of these programs morph from “accounting issue” to “cash flow issue.” Taxes and/or deficits will rise dramatically as boomers move through their 70s and 80s, racking up massive medical bills along the way.

For a sense of just how big this change will be, here are a few fun facts:
In the early days of Social Security, 42 people were paying into the system for every 1 receiving benefits. Soon the ratio will be 2:1

The average early recipient received only a few years of payments before dying in their late 60s.

As life expectancies have risen, 20 years of benefits are now to be expected for most recipients, meaning that they’ll draw far more from Social Security and Medicare than they paid in.

There’s no demographic cavalry – in the form of younger workers — riding to the rescue. Birth rates are plunging in the developed world. Minus immigration, the US is now below replacement rate, meaning that the native born population is shrinking rather than growing. (This is great for the environment and housing affordability, but a serious problem for tax revenues.)

An optimist might note that all this new entitlement spending will at least be simulative. But even that might not be true this time. The following chart, snagged from a recent Katusa Research article, shows that the velocity of money – the rate at which an existing dollar changes hands via spending – has been plunging lately (from an already historically-low level). So the past few years’ massive deficits and Federal Reserve currency printing have done nothing for spending.

The coming world of monetary inflation and sluggish growth has a name: stagflation. And based on America’s last experience with it in the 1970s, it’s a hard time to feed a family but a spectacular time to own gold and silver. This is what silver did back then.

We’re already in the early stages of a precious metals bull market. Here’s another Katusa chart showing how gold is crushing stocks so far in 2020.

So if we can’t stop the massive deficits and rampant currency creation, we might as well embrace the resulting stagflation and keep stacking.

- Source, John Rubino

Ted Butler: The True Final Chapter

All things, both good and evil, come to an end. So it will be with the great silver price manipulation, which I date as having existed, in its COMEX-orchestrated version from 1983. Before that, of course, silver prices were never truly free, mostly as a result of some type of government interference. The US Government both supported and then depressed the price of silver for a hundred years prior to 1983, first by amassing more than 5 billion ounces and then by disposing of same.

As the US Government ran out of silver at the turn of the century, the COMEX-induced price manipulation took over by means of concentrated short selling by a small number of revolving banks and financial firms. The vital role of lead short seller varied among a number of firms that saw the baton passed from Drexel Burnham Trading, to AIG Trading and to Bear Stearns (all of which failed financially), until finally it was passed to JPMorgan in 2008.

JPMorgan proved to be the most successful COMEX silver (and gold) lead short manipulator over the past 37 years, not only in terms of how much it made in COMEX trading for the past 12 years ($billions), but in that it finally solved the previously impossible problem of exiting its dominant short position profitably. Had Bear Stearns solved this problem, it would still be around today. JPMorgan’s brilliant (but criminal) solution was to use its dominance and ability to suppress silver and gold prices through aggressive short selling on the COMEX, to amass legendary quantities of physical gold and silver at depressed prices. It doesn’t matter how large a paper derivatives short position may be, if you own physical quantities in excess of your short position, you are net long.

It took JPMorgan 9 years (since 2011) to accumulate its massive physical metals stash, which I estimate at 25 million gold ounces and one billion silver ounces at prices averaging $1200 and $18 respectively. At current prices, JPMorgan is already ahead close to $15 billion on its gold stash and close to even on silver, while the other big COMEX shorts which it double crossed are holding more than $8 billion in realized and unrealized losses. Even if the game ended here, it would rank as one of the greatest double crosses of all-time. But it’s much closer to the truth to say the game is just getting underway. The last chapter of the great silver (and gold) manipulation is about to unfold.

Up front, there’s no way of knowing if the last chapter is going to drag out or conclude quickly, but that’s just the nature of the beast – like things moving gradually and then suddenly. All the signs point to a fitting conclusion, no matter how it plays out precisely. After decades of nothing but profits or, at worst, break evens after amassing large concentrated short positions in COMEX gold and silver futures, the big shorts (ex-JPM) have been trapped for the past year in short positions that have gone against them in gold in dollar amounts much greater than all the cumulative profits they achieved over more than 35 years. The losses haven’t amounted to much in silver to this point, but the short position still exists with no apparent means for an easy exit.

JPMorgan is in such a superior position that it, alone, will decide how this last chapter gets written. It has been said that he who holds the gold makes the rules, but as it turns out, that’s even more applicable to silver. Simply put, JPM’s billion ounce physical silver stash makes it the sole decider of price. Certainly, there can’t be any question that the tremendous flow of physical silver into SLV and other silver ETFs over the past three months, coupled with the fact that prices have barely budged should prove conclusively that the metal has come from JPMorgan. The only question is the method and motivation behind JPMorgan’s supplying of the physical silver to the ETFs.

Some have raised the possibility that the US Justice Department, in the course of its ongoing criminal investigation into precious metals manipulation and JPMorgan, may have ordered the bank to dispose of its vast physical silver holdings. I suppose this is possible (and would certainly confirm my allegations about how crooked an operator is JPMorgan), but raises many questions not easily answered – like why would the DOJ allow silver to be dumped at depressed prices and not do the same in gold (where JPM is ahead billions of dollars)? And how fair would it be for the Justice Department not to seek redress from JPMorgan for the damage it caused over the past 12 years by suppressing prices?

A subscriber raised a point I hadn’t thought about in my search for an alternative explanation for my take that it was JPM leasing silver from its accumulated stash that accounted for the massive inflows into SLV and other silver ETFs without any corresponding upward effect on price. Joachim suggested something having to do with the buying of the shares of SLV and other silver ETFs that at first I found even more diabolical than anything I might come up with, but after consideration, didn’t sound as extreme as I first thought.

Joachim wondered if it could be JPMorgan itself buying the shares of SLV and other silver ETFs. My immediate reaction was no way, as that would be even too much of a stretch for the bank I consider the most corrupt in the world (OK, OK, maybe there are more corrupt banks somewhere). My knee-jerk rejection to the idea had to do with JPM having to lie to the SEC about ownership reporting requirements. I have this mindset, ever since Al Capone went to jail for tax evasion and not murder and other serious crimes, that criminals behave criminally, but stick to certain boundaries. It struck me as extreme that JPMorgan would lie on stock ownership reporting requirements. But in thinking it over, Joachim’s suggestion wasn’t so farfetched at all.

Everyone has friends and family, even criminals like JPMorgan. Therefore, it dawned on me that if 5 or 10 chosen friends of JPM were quietly encouraged to buy up to 4% or so of SLV and other silver ETFs to stay below the 5% threshold of the SEC for share ownership reporting, quite a bit of silver could be bought with no one the wiser. If someone wanted to buy 20 million shares/ounces in SLV, for instance, there would be no ownership reporting requirements, since total shares outstanding for SLV are 500 million shares/ounces. Five separate friends could buy 100 million shares/ounces with no SEC reporting required. Double that if you wanted to include all silver ETFs, currently holding close to a billion oz (including SLV).

Why would JPMorgan encourage a favored few close to it to acquire big chunks of silver via the ETFs? If anyone knows that silver is bound to explode in price, it has to be JPMorgan, otherwise it would have never accumulated a billion ounces for itself. Those who were clued in by JPM to pick up silver would, undoubtedly, be indebted to it should silver perform as expected, giving the bank not only big profits on its own massive silver holdings, but in line to receive future favors from those clued in – making silver the gift that kept on giving. But wait, there’s more.

There’s still the matter of where all the silver is coming from to satisfy the documented buying and physical silver being deposited into SLV and the other silver ETFs. As you know, I claim it is coming from JPMorgan which is leasing out the silver being borrowed by other banks and then sold to the ETFs. So, if JPMorgan is quietly cluing in a few of its friends and family to partake in the investment opportunity of buying silver and then turning around and enabling those friends to buy silver at depressed prices because JPM is lending some of its own metal to unrelated and very much unfriendly banks to benefit JPM’s friends, then you are talking about one whale of a sophisticated double cross.

There are not many outfits capable of even thinking up such a sophisticated undertaking. But then again, such a thing has been pulled off by the criminal geniuses at JPMorgan previously. Who else could have conceived and then executed the most criminally genius move ever, namely, being the largest COMEX silver (and gold) short seller for years and all the while using the depressed prices caused by that excessive short selling to pick up mountains of physical metal at the very same time? Nothing, it would seem could top that feat, but this new one comes close.

Not only is JPMorgan not giving up real ownership to the silver it is lending to other banks and, therefore, keeping all the upside, it has forced the other banks into a deeper short selling hole, as previously outlined. Now I’m adding another benefit to JPM – it is also bestowing a tremendous financial favor to those friends and family it may be encouraging to buy silver. Come to think of it, JPMorgan is the only one capable of such underhanded financial alchemy. Talk about a win, win – JPM wins, as does its friends, and its borrowing and short selling competitors lose – what could be better?

Turning to today’s sudden blast to the downside, a number of things come to mind. Please remember, I am commenting on this Wednesday morning and have no idea what the price landscape will look like when I send this out later. First off, after what has had to have been hundreds of similar sudden and sharp selloffs over the years and decades, no one should be confused about this being strictly a COMEX-orchestrated affair. There’s no other possible explanation that the price takedown was anything other than a COMEX paper-generated operation – just one of a vast series of mini-price manipulations, within the master manipulation that has existed for decades.

Lately, I’ve been impressed with the great number of recent bullish commentaries on silver, concerning all manner of reasons to be bullish, ranging from sharp falloffs in mine production to surging retail and wholesale investment demand. While virtually all the articles make a convincing case for why silver should climb in price in the future and take note of its incredibly cheap price, at the same time, most seem to lack a critical feature, namely, a cogent explanation for why the price of silver is so cheap to start with,

It seems to me that if anyone is going to make the case that silver is cheap and a good investment buy based upon blatantly bullish supply/demand considerations, then there is an implicit responsibility to explain why the price is so cheap to begin with. In fact, I would go so far as to say such an explanation is required – otherwise, is the reader supposed to assume that the author of the particular article is the only one who sees the bullish claims made about silver? 

Of course, since there aren’t any legitimate reasons for silver to be as cheap as it is, any reason explaining its cheapness must then veer into the illegitimate realm, namely, price manipulation. Since there are still quite a few not prepared to even admit that the price of silver might be manipulated and artificially depressed, the reader is left hanging. That stinks.

- Source, Ted Butler

The Debt Bomb is Detonating: A Wave of Defaults Are Coming

Typically, the last bill that people stop paying when they are overcome with debt is their mortgage and rent, well, if that is the case, then Americans just rang the alarm bell, because things are about to get messy.

The reasoning for this is due to a recent survey conducted by Apartment List, which states that missed payments have begun to stabilize in the month of June, however, at very high, alarming levels.

(Source, Apartment List)

Here are a few key, very startlingly points that were indicated in their recent survey;

• In June, 30 percent of Americans missed their housing payments, down slightly from 31 percent in May but still up from 24 percent in April.

• Missed payments continue to concentrate among renters, younger and poorer Americans, and those who cannot work remotely.

• A majority of payments missed at the beginning of the month are paid by the end of the month. But those who do not pay on-time in one month are much more likely to miss a payment in the following month.

Breaking this data down further backs up their statement that renters were the most likely to skip their payments (32%), which makes sense due to the fact that they have the least to lose, however, what is truly stunning is the fact that those with mortgages only scored three percentage points lower (29%).

Carrying on with a trend that is appearing in many sectors of the economy, those most affected were under the age of 30, with approximately 40% of adults in this age bracket skipping out on payments, while the numbers decreased among older age brackets.

Additionally, and unsurprisingly those in a lower earning bracket were also much more likely to either not pay, or only partially pay their housing payments.

This tidal wave of missed payments is a trend that is likely to continue for a number of months and of which has the possibility to send countless people spiraling out of control, whether it be landlords who are sunk due to a wave of missed payments, banks who are seeing their bottom lines slashed, or the individuals who are forced eventually into default, as the payments finally come home to roost.

However, don't think for a second that this problem is isolated to the just the housing market, as I previously mentioned, housing payments are typically one of the last things to not be payed, which means that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands.

According to data from TransUnion, approximately 106 million Americans have skipped out on payments of all sorts, across all sectors, since the start of March.

Forbes reports;

• The number of accounts that requested deferred payments, forbearance or any other similar type of relief since March 1, and continue to stay in such a state, stood at 106 million at the end of May.

• The numbers at the end of May are three times larger than what they were at the end of April, signalling a steep increase in economic hardship.

• 7.3 million auto loan accounts have also sought similar relief along with 1.3 million personal loans.

As indicated above, the auto sector is another sector of the economy that has been hit hard, with many skipping out on payments, or deferring them until a later date. 

This comes in tangent with a sharp decline in both used and new auto sales, which will have rippling effects across the industry for years to come.

(Source, barchart.com)

Meanwhile, in the delusional land that is Wall Street, everything looks just peachy, as stocks continue to trade at absurdly high prices, shrugging off reality and trending higher, steadily moving back to old pre-coronavirus highs.

This is because nothing seems to matter anymore, reality doesn't matter, data doesn't matter, facts don't matter, what does matter is that the printing presses keep churning out fiat dollar bills and the stimulus keeps flowing.

We are living in a completely artificial market, that is willing to completely ignore the debt bomb that is being primed right under its feet, set to go off any day, any month now.

This has the potential to bring the system to its knees, either forcing a debt jubilee in one form or another, or forcing the Fed into a printing frenzy the likes of which will make the last few months look like child's play, which as seen from the chart below, is nothing to scoff at.

(Chart Source, Federal Reserve)

Unfortunately, I strongly believe that the "powers to be" will choose to protect their true constituents in the banking sector, just as they did in 2008, running to their rescue and choosing to bail them out once again, rather then letting them collapse due to the many mistakes that they have made.

(Chart Source, goldprice.org)

Meanwhile, both gold and silver bullion are under renewed attack today, doing the exact opposite of what they should be doing, which is moving higher, mitigating and accounting for the incredible risk within the system, the ballooning debt creation and the plethora of fiat money creation.

Seems sane right?

Keep stacking.

- Source, Nathan McDonald via the Sprott Money Blog

Golden Rule Radio: Wall Street Fiddles As Rome Burns

Fed backstop creates unreal disconnect. Statues Fall: Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, & Ulysses Grant? If you saw a Marxist revolution happening would you know?

- Source, Golden Rule Radio

You Want to Own Physical Gold to Protect Your Life

The gold market is testing the top end of its months-long trading range and according to one analyst it’s only a matter of time before prices break out and push to all-time record highs. 

In an interview with Kitco News, Jeff Clark, senior precious metals analyst at Goldsilver.com said that it is difficult not to be bullish on gold in an environment rife with uncertainty and an unlimited number of catalysts to ignite a move through the current trading range.

- Source, Kitco News

Navigating Troubled Waters, How to Survive the Coming Collapse

David McAlvany, President of the McAlvany Financial Companies, talks about why there is so much anger and unrest in the country and how we can invest in this environment.

- Source, Jay Taylor

Kevin Shipp: Soft Civil War is Happening Right Now

Where do all the riots, looting and arson happening around the country end? Former CIA Officer and counter-terrorism expert Kevin Shipp says, “They are pushing for a civil war, and we are in a soft civil war right now. It just hasn’t broken out into the streets. This will result in a civil war, and we have to remember that we are not the minority. 

Your average American who loves the Constitution and traditional values is the majority. They are making it look they are the majority because they have the media, but they are not the majority. Sadly, I think we are in a soft civil war right now, and there is going to be one.”

- Source, USA Watchdog

U.S. Debt is Growing Out of Control, Precious Metals Lagging Behind, But For How Long?

Without a doubt, gold and silver bullion have offered protection throughout the course of this crisis, they have helped people weather the storm and have stood their ground, unlike many other sectors of the economy.

However, standing your ground is not enough in this time of runaway fiat money creation, in a time period in which the stock market is rallying back to all time highs, despite the fact that businesses are going bankrupt all around us, despite the fact that social upheaval is at all time highs.

No, precious metals should be doing better and mark my words. They will do better in the coming months, in the coming years.

The world has entered into a new era, an era in which fiat money is created in such vast quantities, so frivolously, that it is becoming increasingly more obvious just how bogus our fiat based money system is, with each passing day.

Debt Creation is Out of Control

As I have pointed out in previous articles, the debt level of the entirety of the world has ballooned higher since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, however, there is one country that has outdone all others, the United States of America.

(Source, SRSrocco Report)

Looking at the chart above, you would say "hey, whats to see here", or "more par for the course!" and at first glance, you may be correct in this assumption, until you look at things just a little more closer, in just a slightly higher resolution and thus in more detail;

(Source, SRSrocco Report)

Now that does not look good...

As the chart above indicates, the average daily increase of U.S. public debt from 2007 to 2019 was $4.4 billion, which is absurd in its own right and completely unsustainable. However, this is just a drop in the bucket when compared to how much of a dumpster fire 2020 is shaping up to be.

What you have to realize from the first chart shown is that U.S. public debt has already increased by approximately $3 trillion since the end of Q4 2019, to roughly $26.1 trillion total today.

This rapid escalation in debt creation becomes even more startling when you look at the second chart and understand just how fast, how quickly things are spiraling out of control, with only 116 working days passing when the chart was created, meaning that the average increase in U.S. public debt is increasing by approximately $25 billion PER DAY in 2020!

This is five times the average of 2007-2019... to say this is not good, would be an extreme understatement.

When the Fiat Money Comes Home to Roost

At the present time, this money is flowing into the stock market and as is typical, going to those who are already fabulous wealthy, while many continue to suffer and just get by, however, there will come a day when this newly created money begins to enter back into the system, flooding the world and causing many real world assets to rocket higher in prices.

Precious metals will be one of the chief benefactors of this new era, accounting for all of this newly created money and resetting at new ever increasing highs.

"Smart money" is already hedging their bets and buying depressed hard assets, such as energy and precious metals, they have been doing this throughout the course of this crisis and will continue to do so in the coming months and years, as they can see the sun setting on the horizon, the day of fiat reckoning that is rapidly approaching.

Both gold and silver bullion have stood their ground throughout the course of this year, with gold bullion up by 28.11% year over year and silver bullion up by 16.3% year over year, significant gains, but nothing compared to what is coming.

I believe we are going to see ever increasing highs as more and more people begin to flee the paper ponzi scheme, seeking the protection of precious metals and other tangible hard assets, I believe that the lofty projections of some analyst who predict $5000 per oz gold prices are not going to seem so unreasonable in 2-3 years.

Also, I believe that silver bullion due to its dual nature of being a vital resource in many industries, plus a hard money asset, will result in its gains greatly outpacing that of gold, as the gold to silver ratio returns to a much more reasonable and historic average.

However, we live in a highly manipulated world, where up is down and down is up and in this new bizzaro world, it is anyone's best guess as to when the true takeoff is going to happen.

In the meantime, enjoy these prices, they may never be this cheap again and as always, keep stacking.

- Source, Nathan McDonald via the Sprott Money Blog

Updating the Dollar Milkshake Theory and $5000 Gold

Tom welcomes Brent Johnson of Santiago Capital back to the program to discuss his controversial "Dollar Milkshake Theory." The name for this theory comes from the concept of extracting oil from a neighboring property by "drilling" a longer straw. 

The United States has this magic straw and regularly uses it to suck up the world's capital. His theory's controversial idea is that US equities are going to go to all-time highs along with a stronger US dollar at the expense of most foreign currencies.

- Source, Palisade Radio