Powell’s testimony before the Congress is behind us. The ECB meeting is ahead of us. Will Draghi support the gold prices after recent declines?
Gold Falls Below $1,300
Gold bulls might be disappointed. The upward trend apparently ended. As one can see in the chart below, gold fell below $1,300 on Friday.
Chart 1: Gold prices from March 1 to March 4, 2019
By Dave Keating – Re-Blogged From Forbes
A ceremony marking the start of Nord Stream pipeline construction in 2010 (Dmitry Lovetsky, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Re-Blogged From VOA News
Germany’s phasing out of coal-fired power stations could be delayed beyond 2038 if the deadline creates problems for the security of electricity supply, a senior legislator in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said.
The phase-out, proposed last Saturday by a commission tasked with mapping out Germany’s transition to a more environmentally friendly low-carbon economy, drew criticism from some in industry who fear the impact of higher energy prices.
By Alasdair Macleod – Re-Blogged From Gold Money
In this article I draw attention to the similarities between the current economic situation and that of 1929, and the threat to today’s unbacked currencies. There is the coincidence of trade protectionism with the top of the credit cycle, and there are the inflationary events that preceded it. The principal difference today is in modern macroeconomic delusions, which hold that regulating inflation of money and credit is the solution to all ills. I conclude that economic salvation can only come from ditching today’s macroeconomic theories and by returning to monetary stability through credible gold exchange standards.
There is an assumption in economic circles that when the general level of prices changes, it is always due to changes in supply and demand for goods and services. Prices change all the time, but without a change in the public’s preference for or against holding money and with all else being equal, the general level of prices simply cannot change. Changes in the general level of prices are due to changes in the purchasing power of the money, which stems from the public’s preferences for or against it and do not emanate from goods and services.
By Mark O’Byrne – Re-Blogged From Gold Eagle
ITALEXIT: Italy to crash out of Euro and ‘rock EU to its foundations’
– Italy’s debt crisis will lead to default, exit from the euro, or both claims respected economist Bootle
– Italy has fallen back into recession with its economy shrinking by 0.2% in the last quarter
– “When Italy finally blows up, it will cause both a banking crisis that will shake the European economy and a political crisis that will rock the EU to its foundations”
by Roger Bootle of Capital Economics in the Daily Telegraph
Last week’s data showing a drop in Italian GDP in Q4 of last year confirmed what many observers had already suspected: Italy is in recession.
Or rather, in another recession, for this follows similar phases in 2008, 2011 and 2012.
Where is this going to end?
By Peter Teffer – Re-Blogged From https://euobserver.com
Germany should gradually close down its coal-fired power plants by 2038, an advisory commission has said in its final report, published at the weekend.
“We made it. … This is a historic effort,” said the commission’s chairman Ronald Pofalla on Saturday (26 January).
By Peter Schiff – Re-Blogged From Euro Pacific Capital
This week, market watchers around the world are justifiably fixated with the high-stakes, high-drama political developments unfolding in Italy. While a political crisis in the world’s 9th largest economy (International Monetary Fund figures, 4/17/18) would normally not be enough to cause an international meltdown, given how thin the global economic ice has become as a result of ever-increasing debt loads, even small disruptions can create systemic problems. But from my perspective, what makes the Italian drama so interesting is that it parallels so precisely developments in the United States. It’s amazing that more Americans do not realize, that when looking at Italy, they are looking at a fun house mirror reflection of the United States.
Italy is currently dealing with the results of an election in which populist political forces scored a big victory over the establishment, which they had judged to be both corrupt and ineffective. In other words, the Italians replayed the 2016 Presidential election in the U.S. The big difference is that here the anti-immigrant tendencies of the right and the economic populism of the left were united in one person: Donald Trump. In Italy, those positions are represented by two separate parties that normally would be rivals. But politics can make very strange bedfellows, and the absurdity of the current economic reality has made them partners.
