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What Others Are Saying
Ed Reiter, Executive Director,
June 2021 - Week 2 EditionMost Commodities are Soaring as the U.S. Dollar Has Fallen Nearly 12% in the Last 15 MonthsDespite a short, sharp rally late last week, the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) is down 3.5% since March 31, 2021, and it is down almost 12% since the COVID-19 lockdown began on March 15, 2020, when the Federal Reserve and Congress began authorizing trillions of new dollars in relief and stimulus spending. The tremendous expansion of the U.S. money supply over the past year has resulted in the devaluation of the dollar and a rise in commodities. Even though other currencies are also being devalued through monetary expansion, the U.S. dollar’s over-printing is expanding faster, so the dollar is falling to other currencies. Since February 2020, the U.S. Monetary Base (basically, currency available to spend) has shot up 75% – a rise unprecedented in American history – skyrocketing from $3.454 trillion to $6.052 trillion as of May 25, 2021. Before the 2008 financial crisis, the Monetary Base was under $1 trillion ($840 billion), so it is up 620% in 13 years after rising very slowly for several decades. The Treasury and the Federal Reserve have lost all restraint when it comes to printing money, dooming the dollar to inflation and depreciating its value. On May 12, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for April was released and it came in at a shocking +0.8% monthly rate (a 9.6% annual rate). Unbelievably, the Federal Reserve is still trying to push inflation even higher because they ignore the CPI in favor of their favorite esoteric index, the “Personal Consumption Expenditure” (PCE) index within the GDP, which is a lagging indicator that doesn’t come out until late June. The PCE still indicates inflation is under 2%! Wake up, Federal Reserve Governors. Just look at the world around you. Drive a car. Shop for food. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and most energy prices are up 40% so far in 2021. Here are about a dozen commodities that are up over 30% year-to-date in 2021: The dollar has been considered the world’s “reserve currency” since 1944. Since then, most U.S. leaders have attempted to take that responsibility seriously. However, the dollar is on the road to ruin unless the Biden administration stops its reckless spending and over-printing for endless “stimulus” packages in a reasonably strong economy. This is the time for spending restraint, not more profligate deficit spending. After passing the $2 trillion “COVID relief” bill (with very little COVID relief in it), the Biden team is now working to pass a $2+ trillion “infrastructure bill” (with very little physical infrastructure spending in it). There will also be more $2 trillion spending plans to come, possibly pushing the monetary base up to $10 trillion. When inflation increases and interest rates start to rise – at a slower rate than inflation – the result will be record high “negative REAL interest rates.” The pundits will say that “gold should fall” when interest rates rise, but they are wrong historically, because the key is REAL (after inflation) interest rates. Gold will rise if you can make more from “real money that can’t be printed” than over-printed paper money. That’s one big reason why gold shot back above $1,800 last week and should rise above $2,000 in 2021. Gold Reached a 5-Month HighGold rose to a 5-month high last Tuesday, June 1, but then it slipped below $1,900 to bottom out at $1,870 on Thursday on profit-taking pressure as the U.S. dollar made a short-term rally during its long-term decline (since the pandemic and massive dollar printing began). Gold rallied on Friday after another mediocre jobs report came out, but gold remained below $1,900 over the weekend. Despite gold’s near-zero gain so far this year, most commodities have been soaring by double-digits. For instance, crude oil prices hit a 2.5-year high last week, trading above $68 per barrel, and up over 40% so far this year. Gold Bullion Sales at the U.S. Mint Sales Rose 360% in May
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