The reported, headline, GDP numbers just came in at 1.5% in the second quarter. This is a major revision downward from 2% in the first quarter of 2012. This brings the overall annual growth rate in at 2.2% versus the previous 2.4% in Q1 2012. Overall these numbers are not statistically significant. In fact, it […]
Month: July 2012
The Storm is Coming – Check Your Self-Directed IRA
We wanted to show you a couple of simple graphs to tell a simple, but it’s a scary story. The first chart shows the federal debt since 1965. We would like to point out a simple inflection point of 1971. It was in 1971 that we moved off of the gold standard (thanks a lot, President […]
June Housing Numbers (Corrected) and Your Self Directed IRA
Monthly changes in June home sales showed a decline of 8.4% for new homes, a decline of 5.4% for existing homes. Though large on a monthly basis, in the big scheme of things there numbers were not meaningful. Both numbers continue to show a developed and established pattern of low-level stagnation. Weakness in homes sales […]
Taxes, Spending, Politics And Your Self Directed IRA
In prior postings we touched on what is referred to as the Fiscal Cliff. That so called cliff is a perfect storm of events coming together at years end. What are these events: 1. Bush era tax cuts will be rolled back thereby increasing the effective tax rate on top earners from 36% to 39% […]
What Dr. Copper Is Telling Us About Self Directed IRAs
Background Historically, copper foreshadows what is and will be happening in our economy. It is often stated that copper is the metal with a Ph.D. in economics, and the data for the most part bears this out. When copper is down, the US economy is in recession; when the indicator is up, the US economy […]
Macroeconomic Gold Outlook And Your Self Directed IRA
In the recent World Gold Council report, they highlighted some important, forward looking, economic issues that will be in place for the second half of 2012: Deflationary trends will continue raising the increased likelihood for more fiscal stimulus. This will debase the currency and increase the risks of inflation in the long run. Despite some […]
Q2-2012 Macroeconomic Themes For Gold And Your Self Directed IRA
The World Gold Council recently published their quarterly update for gold. There are some clear macroeconomic themes that have become obvious: Gold prices declined relative to most world currencies, but gold was up 4.4% during the first half of the year. Volatility remained elevated amidst a busy event-risk period. In general, gold outperformed what would […]
Another Reason Why To Put Gold In Your Self Directed IRA
There is a movement taking place with the major countries of the world that is going completely unreported and unnoticed. Many of the major countries are entering into transactions and relationships that will remove or greatly reduce the dependence on the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Here are a few examples: China and […]
June Housing Starts And Its Impact On Your Self Directed IRA
The June 2012 housing starts are out and they show a month-to-month gain of 6.9%. We should note that although that seems a like its a significant number, one number does not make a trend. This means that even though there is an increase of in the number, there are not enough numbers, of any […]
Fed Actions And How To Position Your Self Directed IRA
Mr. Bernanke just appeared in front of congress. What was very clear from his testimony is that the economy is weakening, jobs are not coming back, consumer spending is not materializing. This is clearly comforting. However, what’s ironic is that the markets actually rebounded because the implication is that the Fed will do more of […]
Hyperinflation Watch And Self Directed IRA Portfolios
As a general statement our predictions and outlook for hyperinflation remains unchanged. As we just reported, we are seeing significant signs of economic contraction from retails sales and consumer sentiment. We believe that its a misstatement of fact that the economy actually recovered and that we are now slipping back into recession. We contend the […]
Retail Sales Contraction And The Self Directed IRA
The June 2012 retail sales numbers are out and they show a 0.5% decrease vs. May 2012. This translates into a Q2 decrease of 0.20% which extrapolates into a 0.78% annual decrease. This downturn was the first for retail sales since Q1-2009. This can be viewed in light of the consumer sentiment index which also […]