Can't Stop, Won't Stop, Russia Buys Another Million Ounces of Gold

As the Western media and political elites continue to be enraptured with the latest "breaking news", deciding best on how to be outraged by it and how to spin it to their advantage in favor of  their"team", the East continues to make long term, strategic plans.

As I have reported time and time again and as I will continue to report as long as the trend continues on, Russia has once again moved heavily into precious metals, acquiring an additional one million ounces, or 31.1 tons of the yellow metal throughout the month of February 2019.

This brings the Russian gold reserves to 2,149 tons, which makes them the fifth largest holder of gold bullion in the entire world and a position that I doubt they will remain for long at this steady rate of accumulation.

What is truly scary is how this news simply goes by without barely a mention.

Wall St and the majority of investors are blissfully ignorant to the rapid and steady accumulation of one of the rarest commodities in the world.

A commodity that has served as a linchpin in the financial world for over 10,000 years, including to this present day, despite their claims that it is a "barbarous relic".

Foolishly, in the age of fiat money, many have forgotten how vital of a role gold and silver bullion have played throughout our monetary history. 

Sadly, I believe this is a hard lesson that many are going to have to relearn as economic and geopolitical turmoil once again begins to rear its ugly head in the coming days.

Fortunately, even though Wall St and the vast majority of investors could care less about Russia's affinity to gold, Washington may finally be taking notice, after years of being asleep at the wheel.

Jim Rickards, one of the most prominent names in the precious metals space had the following to say in a recent tweet;

"Yesterday was the 20th of the month and you know what that means. New gold data from the Central Bank of Russia! They bought 31.1 tons in February, bringing total to 2,149 tons. Washington is finally noticing; part of the reason I was there Wednesday. This is the new Great Game."

Russia has stated that they see precious metals as a hedge against political risk and the history books confirm this statement. 

The increased risks we are now seeing in the world is exactly why they are accumulating gold bullion month after month, year after year, with seemingly no end in sight.

Proving just how serious they are, Russia is now buying the majority of their domestic gold production for the foreseeable future.

With the FED once again capitulating to the market, you can expect that not only will Russia continue to buy every ounce they can get their hands on, but other countries not previously buying bullion will begin to accumulate as well.

The risk of endless fiat money flooding the system is once again threatening our already fragile system and all it will take to ignite this monetary bonfire is a spark, setting off blazing inflation the likes we have never seen before.

The smart money are already acting, accumulating gold and silver bullion while prices remain artificially suppressed. 

The sale is still on, but for how long? The clock is ticking, it is only a matter of time. 

Are you prepared? I hope so.

- Source, as first seen on the Sprott Money Blog

Gold and Other Treasures to Store Before the Collapse

Lynette Zang, chief market analyst at ITM Trading, returns to Reluctant Preppers to answer YOUR viewer questions! Lynette tackles a range of topics including: 

- Signs & signals before the crash, 

- Silver vs Gold vs Palladium: what to consider, 

- When to buy productive land..depending on this crucial personal factor! 

- Options for raising at least some of your own food, even if you’re not a farmer, 

- When & why to network with your neighbors.. especially if they’re not into preparedness, 

- and More!!

- Source, Reluctant Preppers

Inflation Weakness Pushes Central Bankers Closer to Reversal

Central banks from the U.S. to Asia are turning dovish as they increasingly fret about getting inflation to pick up in a bruised global economy.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell effectively extended the U.S. central bank’s pause on interest-rate increases on Wednesday, even opening the possibility that the next move could be a cut. On Thursday, central banks in Indonesia and the Philippines -- among the most aggressive rate hikers last year -- kept policy on hold, as did the Swiss National Bank.

Global growth is under pressure after a sharp slowdown in 2018, and policy makers are waiting for clarity on issues from trade tariffs to Brexit. But inflation in particular is dominating concerns, with little sign that the post-crisis recovery, extreme monetary stimulus and a decline in unemployment is driving up price pressures.

Powell was “sounding optimistic on the economic outlook, but pricing power is not that much in evidence in the U.S. economy,” said Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS. “Thus the inflation imperative to raise rates quickly is not there in the view of the Fed.”

That idea was also in evidence at the SNB, which cut its inflation forecasts, but left its prediction for Swiss economic growth unchanged. The European Central Bank, which now plans to keep rates on hold at least for the rest of this year, said Thursday that underlying inflation is “muted.”

“The normalization of monetary policy has been pushed further into the future,” said SNB President Thomas Jordan. “For the foreseeable future we’ll have have low rates internationally.”

In Asia, the U.S. policy shift may have opened the door for rate cuts as inflation remains subdued and economic growth slows. That’s a stark contrast from last year, when the prospect of further Fed hikes was pummeling the region’s currencies and pressuring current account deficits.

"The Fed’s big shift will end the tightening wave for Asia’s central banks and open the door for future easing," said Hak Bin Chua, an economist at Maybank Kim Eng Research Pte in Singapore.

Elsewhere on Thursday, Taiwan’s central bank kept its benchmark rate at 1.375 percent, citing mild economic growth and a stable inflation outlook. The Bank of England also stood pat in a decision announced in London.

While the BOE is hemmed in by Brexit, even some of its most hawkish members have signaled a change in tone on inflation and policy tightening. Michael Saunders said this month that economic growth is “probably not strong enough to create excess demand and inflation.”

- Source, Bloomberg

JUSTICE IS COMING: Trump Vows "FBI & DOJ" Investgation As Leaked Email Reveals Scramble To Cover Tracks

President Trump says the FBI and Justice Department will investigate the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of 16 felony charges against Empire star Jussie Smollett, who Chicago PD accused of staging his own hate crime.

Two Nigerian-born brothers caught on surveillance camera buying ski masks and red hats were ready to testify that Smollett paid them $3,500 to stage the January 29 attack, and that the 36-year-oldactor was behind a threating letter received a week prior.

After Michelle Obama's former Chief of Staff, Tina Tchen contacted State's Attorney Kim Foxx, however, charges against Smollett were dropped. Prosecutors said that Smollett's debt to society had been paid in the form of $10,000 and 16 hours of community service he had already performed over two days at Rev. Jesse Jackson's human rights coalition.

Smollett, meanwhile, maintains his innocence.

The sudden dismissal enraged Chicago PD, while drawing a harsh rebuke from Superintendent Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emanuel - who called it a "whitewash of justice."

- Source, Zero Hedge

The Great Reckoning

The big macro wheels are turning and everybody better pay very close attention. The Reckoning is coming. Best hope for a substantive China trade deal and a last minute save on Brexit to perhaps delay the inevitable: The Coming Recession.

This week’s full frontal capitulation by the Fed has not only removed a key buying carrot, but also has brought about the inversion of the yield curve, a classic confirming warning sign that a recession is coming. The key question of course: The when and the how. Bulls will want to hope the recession is at least another year or two away to engage participants in a final game of musical chairs before the rug gets pulled. Bears will point to structural forces and factors that suggest that a recession may come a lot sooner than anyone expects.

In this edition of the Weekly Market Brief I’ll outline some key macro risk factors and dissect some key technical developments I think everyone should be aware of.

Before I do that a quick announcement: After considering all the feedback I’ve received (thanks by the way) I’ve decided to continue to provide a video component as part of the Weekly Market Briefs whenever possible. They truly help provide context and color to the charts. If you want get notifications of the videos you can subscribe via my channel here: NT YouTube Channel.

Now onto markets:

Let’s me get something straight here: Bulls continue to be wrong on the macro and bears continue to be right.

Fact: All the glorious projections made by bulls about growth and earnings continue to get overrun by the deteriorating macro reality. The same folks that didn’t forecast the 2015/2016 earnings recession also didn’t predict the 2019 earnings recession (or the 2018 20% market drubbing for that matter) and are once again clinging to dovish central banks to bail them out.

And, up until Friday, this game has worked yet again:

Let’s call a spade a spade: Without a complete policy flip flop by the Fed $SPX wouldn’t be trading anywhere near 2800 so soon in 2019. Can we all just acknowledge this?

- Source, Northman Trader

Former Fed chair Yellen says yield curve may signal need to cut rates, not a recession

Former U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said on Monday the U.S. Treasury yield curve may signal the need to cut interest rates at some point, but it does not signal a recession.

Yellen, who led the Fed between 2014 and 2018, was speaking at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong.

The yield curve inverted on Friday for the first time since mid-2007, a shift that has in the past signaled the risk of recession. The slope regained its ascendancy in European trading on Monday after stronger-than-expected German data.

Charles Evans, a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, told the same conference on Monday that it was understandable for markets to be nervous when the yield curve flattened.

- Source, Yahoo Finance

The Reckoning Finally Arrives For The Trump Resistance

“The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” That single sentence, taken from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, calls for a reckoning.

It’s a reckoning for Democrats who saw almost every development in this almost-two-year investigation as another dot connecting a conspiracy Mueller has not found. It’s a reckoning for many in the media that dutifully passed along this theory without scrutiny or context. And it’s a reckoning for many national security officials who abandoned their traditional nonpartisan role as custodians of state secrets to engage in a campaign against a president they loathed.

Their suspicions, I should note, were not unwarranted. During the 2016 election, there was strong evidence that Russia had hacked the emails of leading Democrats, a fact supported by Mueller’s indictments. The country later learned from Mueller that Moscow conducted a social media campaign to flood Twitter and Facebook with fake news and propaganda to discredit Hillary Clinton. Trump, meanwhile, once publicly invited the assistance of the Russians.

But many people who should have known better went beyond suspicion and embraced conspiracy. Remember Senator Harry Reid’s explosive letterto James Comey, released just a few days before the election, alleging that the FBI director possessed devastating information about Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia? Reid did not provide many details. We now know that many of the allegations to which Reid referred echoed an infamous dossier prepared by a former British spy at the behest of an opposition research firm paid by the Democratic Party.

Reid wasn’t the only one. Last year the House Intelligence Committee released memos that showed how this dossier was part of the underlying evidence the FBI provided in a surveillance application to a secret court to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a low-level foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. Page has not been charged with a crime, and yet his reputation has been trashed after a top-secret warrant for his surveillance was leaked to the media.

The dossier set the initial narrative for the Trump administration. After CNN reported that it was included as part of a briefing Comey himself provided to Trump and Obama, Buzzfeed published the whole thing with the helpful caveat that it was not verified and was in places incorrect. The most important takeaway so far of the Mueller probe is that this dossier is garbage.

Then there is the matter of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. He was forced from the administration and into a legal nightmareafter his monitored conversations with Russia’s ambassador to Washington leaked a few weeks before Trump’s inauguration. It’s true that Flynn failed to file as a foreign agent for Turkey, a crime that is normally punished with a slap on the wrist. At the time though, the accusation against Flynn was that he was a Russian spy, based on leaked transcripts that are never supposed to see the light of day. How silly do these hyperventilations look today in light of Mueller’s conclusions?

What’s more, it’s a scandal that no one has investigated how those transcripts were leaked in the first place. Given that the FBI’s own inspector general found that leaking with impunity is commonplace, the bureau’s agents should at least be among the suspects.

Finally, there is that handful of former officials who validated the worst fears of Americans about Trump without ever providing actual evidence. The best example is former CIA Director John Brennan. For the last two years, Brennan has been a frequent guest on cable TV to spread the innuendo that Trump is compromised by Russia. Just this month, he speculated that Mueller would be indicting members of Trump world for criminal conspiracy, even as he insisted he had no “inside knowledge” of Mueller’s deliberations. That last part, at least, turns out to have been true.

The saddest part of all of this is that there was a lot of evidence, hiding in plain sight, that could have spared many collusion proponents their embarrassment. Mueller’s indictment of Roger Stone, for example, alleged that Stone was tasked by a senior campaign official to find out what was in the emails that Russia hacked from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. If the campaign was coordinating with Russia’s influence campaign, why would Stone have needed to go to Wikileaks?

There were also the transcripts of interviews before the Senate Judiciary Committee of participants in the June 2016 Trump Tower meetings where Donald Trump Jr. and others in the campaign took a meeting with a Russian lawyer who initially promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. Under oath, those witnesses said nothing came of the offer.

And Trump, it should be noted, has appointed Russia hawks at the highest levels. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton and his predecessor H.R. McMaster, and former Secretary of Defense James Mattis all have long public records when it comes to Russia. If Trump were a Russian stooge, why would he appoint them to such posts? And despite his own baffling sycophancy toward Russian President Putin, Trump has not been weak on Russia in terms of policy.

The end of the Mueller probe is more than just a reckoning. It is also a reminder, if anyone needed another one, that the FBI and the intelligence community can be wrong. And it is a powerful illustration of the importance of keeping spies and lawmen out of politics.

- Source, Eli Lake via Bloomberg Opinion

A RIGGED SYSTEM: Jussie Smollett Charges Dropped Over Alleged Attack Hoax

If there was ever a doubt in your mind that there are laws for "them" and laws for "us", then this recent breaking news will finally shock you out of your day dream.

The Blast reports;

Jussie Smollett is in the clear after the District Attorney in Cook County dropped all charges against the “Empire” star over allegations he lied to police in faking an alleged hate crime against himself.

According to reports, the state filed the motion to dismiss the case and the judge signed off. The judge also granted a motion to seal the case, according to Charlie De Mar of CBS Chicago.

Smollett is expected to speak to the media once the hearing has concluded.

His attorneys released a statement saying, “Today, all criminal charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped and his record has been wiped clean of the filing of this tragic complaint against him. Jussie was attacked by two people he was unable to identify on January 29th. He was a victim who was vilified and made to appear as a perpetrator as a result of false and inappropriate remarks made to the public causing an inappropriate rush to judgment.”

The statement continued, “Jussie and many others were hurt by these unfair and unwarranted actions. This entire situation is a reminder that there should never be an attempt to prove a case in the court of public opinion. That is wrong. It is a reminder that a victim, in this case Jussie, deserves dignity and respect. Dismissal of charges against the victim in this case was the only just result.”

They concluded, “Jussie is relieved to have this situation behind him and is very much looking forward to getting back to focusing on his family, friends and career.”

Jussie Smollett entered a not guilty plea earlier this month to 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report.

- Source, The Blast, read more here

Hogwashed: A Sullen John Brennan Suggests He May Have Received Bad Information On Collusion

A somber looking John Brennan suggested on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Monday that "bad information" may be to blame after more than two years of being dead wrong about Trump colluding with Russia.

Brennan - the former director of the CIA - was so convinced of Trump's collusion that he penned an angry Op-Ed in the New York Times after his security clearance was revoked, titled: "President Trump’s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash."

The article starts off with a picture of the very patriotic looking Brennan swearing in before some testimony we're sure was truthful - unless he had bad information of course.

Mr. Trump’s claims of no collusion are, in a word, hogwash.

The only questions that remain are whether the collusion that took place constituted criminally liable conspiracy, whether obstruction of justice occurred to cover up any collusion or conspiracy, and how many members of “Trump Incorporated” attempted to defraud the government by laundering and concealing the movement of money into their pockets. -John O. Brennan

Last April - after President Trump called former FBI Director James Comey a "proven LEAKER & LIAR," Brennan dusted off his favorite thesaurus and tweeted "Your kakistocracy is collapsing after its lamentable journey."

And less than one year later - Trump has been vindicated of collusion by special counsel Robert Mueller, leaving Brennan mumbling on MSNBC with a stone-face; "Well, I don’t know if I received bad information but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was," adding - with a mouth full of crow "I am relieved that it’s been determined there was not a criminal conspiracy with the Russian government over our election."

- Source, Zero Hedge, read more here

It Begins: Pentagon Approves $1 Billion To Build Trump's Border Wall

What was already a bad week for Democrats just got worse.

Not only did AG Barr embarrass party leaders like Adam Schiff, as well as their allies in the cable news media, when he revealed that Robert Mueller's nearly two-year investigation into the Trump campaign had turned up zero evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, but now, despite a spate of lawsuits and bipartisan resistance in Congress, Trump has received the first tranche of Pentagon funds that will be used to build more than 230 miles of the border wall - helping to fulfill one of his most popular campaign promises.

According to CNN, the Pentagon notified Congress Monday night that it had authorized $1 billion to begin construction of a new segment of the wall along the US-Mexico border. The notification elicited a wave of outrage from Democratic lawmakers.

The approved money will help build 57 miles of border fencing, improved roads, and other measures. Construction is expected to begin immediately.

Pentagon budget reprogramming notification sent to Capitol Hill on Monday and obtained by CNN indicates that up to $1 billion will go toward building 57 miles of fencing, improving roads and other measures on the southern border.

The Department of Defense authorized the Army Corp of Engineers to begin planning and construction for the project Monday night. The department will direct the funds toward 18-foot-high fencing along the Yuma and El Paso sections of the border, according to a letter acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan sent to Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.
The money is part of about $2.5 billion from the Defense Department’s drug-interdiction program authorized by Trump's emergency order. All told, the order reappropriated (Trump's opponents would say 'raided') some $7 billion from various sources, which will instead be used for the wall.

Monday's announcement was just the first $1 billion the administration is making available for wall funding. The administration said previously it plans to shift an additional $1.5 billion at some point in the future.

These initial counterdrug funds will ultimately flow from the Department of Homeland Security to the Army Corps of Engineers to begin construction.

- Source, Zero Hedge, read more here

The Fed's In Over its Head and Chaos is Mounting

With each passing month, we’re greeted with more evidence of a fact that The Federal Reserve has no idea what it’s doing. For many of us, this is not the least bit of a surprise. 

Central planning of the economy cannot work. Yet, never ones to admit that they’re wrong, the main job ofa central planner is to find just one more way to kick the can down the road. Eventually, they must run out of schemes. 

Ron Paul discusses.

- Source, Ron Paul

Completing the Capitulation: The Entirety of the FED Turns Dovish

As previously forecast, the FED has once again taken a step back from its stance on raising interest rates, admitting that the economy as a whole appears to not be on as solid footing as they once stated.

This complete and utter capitulation by FED Chairman Jerome Powell has shocked many market participants, however, for those who have been closely following his statements since early December, it was quite predicable and you could see it coming.

The farce is over and the FED has proven that they are beholden to the markets demands, who not only desire lower rates, but need them to continue growth. 

Interest rates, at least in the short to medium term are going to remain either unchanged, or decrease, anything else and the markets will revolt, resulting in a sharp collapse in prices that will make 2008 look like an opening act.

This is a sharp change in sentiment from just a few short months ago, when the majority of FED members were predicting that two interest rate increases throughout 2019 would be appropriate and needed.

Now, the Federal Open Market Committee has voted unanimously to leave rates unchanged, proving that the committee has discarded all hawkish intents and turned incredibly dovish.

Currently the FED holds the benchmark funds rate in a range of 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent, which is used to determine the majority of adjustable rate consumer debt, like credit cards, lines of credit, etc.

As a result 10 year treasuries crashed to their lowest level in over a year, while the broader markets received the news positively, as rising rates would significantly impact consumers ability to spend.

In addition to the FED announcing that no further rate increases would be coming throughout the remainder of 2019, the FED also stated that they would not change their current stance unless something significant changed within the markets.

This change in stance came as positive news to President Trump and his administration, who have been in series of recent public disputes with the FED over its "raising rates" rhetoric.

The reasoning for this of course was the extreme volatility that the FED's hawkish talk was causing to the markets as a whole, causing sharp moves higher and lower.

Given how closely President Trump has tied himself to the rising stock markets, this of course caused him much grief, as a crashing market would not help his chances of a 2020 reelection and would look poorly on his presidency.

Unfortunately for President Trump, the reasoning that the FED has given to justify their drastic change in position is not good.

Despite one of the best job markets in decades, the FED has downgraded its economic forecast, reducing GDP growth expectations as they see a slow down in consumer and business investment spending in the first quarter of 2019.

What this means for precious metals and the markets as a whole is that at least for now, the punch bowel is going to remain full and the party is going to continue on.

Easy money is here to stay and thus real inflation is going to continue to move higher, ultimately resulting in a higher price in both gold and silver bullion when they inevitably break free from their shackles and soars higher, adjusting to the unfathomable fiat money that has been injected into the system.

- Source, as first seen on the Sprott Money Blog

War Drums: US Diplomats Ordered Home From Venezuela

Secretary of State Pompeo has ordered all US diplomats to return from Venezuela. Their presence in country is "constraining" US foreign policy, he says. 

Is this the pre-cursor to a US attack? What about the power outages in Venezuela? A US cyber-attack? Are the neocons about to pull the trigger?

- Source, Ron Paul

FED Rate Cut Rumors As Gold Near Key Levels

This week we review the price movements of gold, silver platinum, palladium, The US Dollar Index, & DOW. 

We look ahead at the possible direction and levels the gold price in 2019 could hit. 

We'll then look at the silver price in 2019 alongside platinum and palladium prices.

- Source, Golden Rule Radio

What Will You Be Holding When The Dollar Dies?