Easy money is a curse for capitalism.Wolf Richter is the founder of Wolf Street Corp and the publisher of WolfStreet.com. Wolf has over twenty years of C-level operations experience, including turnarounds and a VC-funded startup. He has a BA, MA, and MBA (UT at Austin). In his prior life, he worked in Texas and Oklahoma, including a decade as General Manager and COO of a large Ford dealership and...Read More
When we last spoke with Andy he warned of a looming precious metals shortage in the fall, due to the near global mine shutdown caused by Covid 19. "We are at roughly 8 times normal sales at Miles Franklin." Federal indictments against JP Morgan metal traders in March make Andy believe that it's changed landscape. Silver went from around $12 to nearly $30. Gold went to $2000. Bottom line is that pr...Read More
Judge: "America's founding generation... knew their fair share of unwelcome constables."Continue...Read More
In America, power and profit are the only values, and fear is used to maximize them. It seems the bulk of the population never catches on.Continue...Read More
Topics discussed:The uniqueness of the 2020 financial crisisHow the Federal Reserve has been aggressively manipulating the bond marketsThe Wealth Effect' vs free marketsThe current retail stock market 'mania'The only group who can bring bond markets down: The Bond Market VigilantesThe scale and risk of the Federal Reserve's borrowing and money printingImplications of the recent, wild price swings...Read More
The annual Jackson Hole Symposium, a gathering of central bankers, economists, and financial institutions, will see its first ever virtual conference this week, and will likely set the tone for further U.S. dollar depreciation, said Gary Wagner, editor of TheGoldForecast.com."When you've got all of the major central banks getting together, they recognize the need for a long-term plan rather than w...Read More
"We take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic. And sadly, the domestic enemies to our voting system and honoring our Constitution are right at 1600 Continue...Read More
Powell is expected to unleash more animal spirits this Thursday as he pivots the Fed towards accepting higher levels of inflation.Continue...Read More
"Rational, balanced use of this tool will help to increase the stability of our countries' economies and reduce dependence on US' policies." Continue...Read More
The US foreign policy establishment has for decades been dominated by neoconservative interventionists and falsely-named "humanitarian" interventionists. These people believe that because the United States is the one "exceptional nation," no conflict anywhere in the world could possibly be solved without our butting our noses into it.One of President Obama's few foreign policy successes was to wor...Read More
The general direction for gold and silver will be lower until it is not.Continue...Read More
The steel recycling division of Tata Steel has announced it is launching a mobile app for sourcing steel scrap in India, the company said on August 19.The app - named FerroHaat - claims to be a world first and aims to source steel scrap from traders in India. The app is a step toward organizing the currently disorganized Indian scrap supply chain,while also providing a reliable source of scrap met...Read More
Dillinger and Saarstahl have announced that operations have begun at Germany's first hydrogen-based steel production plant in Dillingen, the companies said on August 21.The new plant in Dillingen is said to be the first in Germany that uses hydrogen as a reducing agent in the blast furnace (BF), via the injection of hydrogen-rich coke gas, Fastmarkets understands.Dillinger and Saarstahl - both own...Read More
Crude steel production in Germany was down by 24.70% year on year in July due to capacity being cut to balance the drop in demand caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, German steel federation WV Stahl said on Monday August 24.Germany's crude steel production totaled 2.42 million tonnes in July 2020, down from 3.22 million tonnes in the corresponding period of 2019.The July 2020 output is close to the l...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday August 24 that are worth another look.The steel recycling division of Tata Steel has announced it is launching a mobile app for sourcing steel scrap in India, the company said on August 19.London-based metals trading firm...Read More
The three-month price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange was higher at the close of trading on Monday August 24, outperforming its peers and closing a little more than 1% higher, while the entire base-metals complex was given a boost by a rally in global equity markets.Nickel's outright price closed at $14,926 per tonne on Monday afternoon, its highest closing price since November 2019, and co...Read More
The Turkish steel producers have entered a third consecutive week with no deep-sea scrap bookings due to the still-weak finished markets for long steel products, sources said on Monday August 24.After booking some US and Baltic Sea cargoes at $285 per tonne cfr for HMS 1&2 (80:20) on August 7, the steel mills in Turkey went quiet in the deep-sea scrap import markets.In the past two weeks, the Turk...Read More
Cobalt producers Huayou and Glencore are founding members of a new body aiming to develop artisanal and small-scale miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The objectives of the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA) include supporting the professionalization of site management and instilling best practice across the artisanal mining sector to develop health and safety, and minimize the environm...Read More
Here are five Fastmarkets stories you might have missed on Monday August 24 that are worth another look.The steel recycling division of Tata Steel has announced it is launching a mobile app for sourcing steel scrap in India, the company said on August 19.London-based metals trading firm...Read More
London-based mining private-equity company Appian Capital Advisory has appointed Nelson Silva, a former director at Brazilian state-owned oil company Petrobras, to be its senior safety and social performance adviser, it said on Monday August 24.Silva will take the role of assisting with environmental, health, safety and community issues on Appian's mining portfolio, the company added.Appian operat...Read More