Tag Archives: Fed repo

Coronavirus Is Not The Cause Of Stock Market Turmoil

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , ,

“The coronavirus could be the proverbial Black Swan event. No one saw that coming. We’ve seen everything else [up to this point] that’s coming. The Fed saw something coming in September and it wasn’t coronavirus.”

All it took was a 10% sell-off in the S&P 500. On Tuesday the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to a target range between 1% and 1.25% over fears the coronavirus will have a negative impact on the U.S. economy. I am confident that the rate cut was targeting the stock market because that’s all the Fed, the White House and Wall Street have as “evidence” the economy is fine. The bond market is suggesting otherwise, the yield curve has compressed to record low yields.

David Stockman perfectly describes the scenario facing the country: “The coronavirus is now exposing a far more deadly disease: Namely, the poisonous brew of easy money, cheap debt, sweeping financialization and unbridled speculation that has been injected into the American economy by the Fed and Washington politicians.” (LINK)

Chris Marcus of Arcadia Economics and I discuss the market forces causing the stock and bond market chaos of the last few weeks:

As The Financial System Melts Down Gold And Silver Will Soar

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, , , ,

To the extent that some analysts reject the Fed/Wall St/Perma-Bull narrative that the Fed’s repo operation is needed to address “temporary” liquidity issues or was caused by the newer regulatory constraints, the only explanation offered up is that the financial system’s “plumbing” is malfunctioning.  But there has to be an underlying cause…

…The underlying cause is abject deterioration in credit instruments – largely subprime right now – is causing an ever-widening chasm between the value of these securities and the funding used to finance those asset values.  The banks have reduced their willingness to fund  the increasing demand for overnight collateralized loans because they see first-hand the degree to which some of the collateral has become radioactive (CLO bonds, for instance).  The Fed has had to plug the “gap” with its repo operations, several of which have maturities extended up to a month. This is de facto QE, which is de facto money printing.

As this slow-motion train wreck unfolds, more money printing will be required to prevent systemic collapse, which in turn will trigger an explosive move higher in gold, silver and mining stocks.  Chris Marcus of Arcadia Economics invited me onto this podcast to discuss these issues in a little more detail:

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Currently junior mining stocks are the most undervalued relative to the price of gold and silver as at any time in at least the last 20 years.  But several producing gold and silver mining stocks are extraordinarily cheap.  I featured one in my Mining Stock Journal that’s up nearly 14% since Thanksgiving.  I’ll be presenting a similar producing mining stock in the next issue released Thursday.

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