Louis's Blog

Existing home sales were down 3% in 2014 and new home sales are at thirty to forty year lows. Yet, we are constantly bombarded with headlines talking about a real estate "recovery".  After years of quantitative easing and ridiculously low interest rates, home sales remain mired in a rut. There ar...

As oil plummets and gold rises, the gold to crude oil ratio has skyrocketed to levels last seen in late 2008/early 2009. It should be obvious to anyone other than the most die hard CNBC economic cheerleader that a 60% drop in the price of oil in six months is a bad sign for the economy and housin...

The Fed has been threatening to raise rates for more than half a decade. Lower rates have not really boosted existing home sales or new home sales. Raising rates would certainly put a further strain on the housing market In 2009, then Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke laid out the road map as to WHEN qua...

Debasement – How Low Can You Go? U.S. Mint Considers Steel Coins to Save Money The U.S. Mint releases its cost cutting report to congress: https://smaulgld.com/u-s-mint-examines-ways-debase-coinage/

Combine gold and dough and make bread- a very expensive loaf! A Spanish bakery is doing just that. https://smaulgld.com/gold-baked-in-bread/

Oil Drops Below $60 a Barrel – The Implications Are Lower Oil Prices the Result of a Directive from The U.S. to Saudi Arabia to Harm Russia? Or is Saudi Arabia Lowering Oil Prices to Cripple the Competing U.S. Shale Oil Industry? https://smaulgld.com/black-swan-cheap-oil/ https://www.youtube.com/...

Swiss voters rejected an initiative that would have required the Swiss National Bank to keep 20% of their reserves in gold https://smaulgld.com/switzerland-reject-save-our-swiss-gold-initiative/

As predicted, the banks would join rank around the Swiss National Bank to help defeat the Save Our Swiss Gold initiative. Citibank calls bank issued fiat digital and paper currencies "socially superior", claims no central bank should hold gold or bitcoin. https://smaulgld.com/citibank-anti-gold-r...

Currency Wars/Gold Wars Russia has been buying gold as part of its de-dollarization strategy and in reaction to western sanctions. Against a back drop of furious gold buying, the Russia economy has suffered from inflation of about 9 percent due to a decline in the value of the Rouble of about 30 ...

Some economic recovery addicts look at a half empty glass and say it’s full. Here comes Gen Z to save the housing “recovery” ! In March we asked who will buy the homes to sustain the housing recovery- we concluded it wouldn’t be millennials burdened by student loan debt and poor job prospects. We...