negative interest rates Archives

The Zenconomics Report August Issue

submitted by jwithrow.
Click here to get the Journal of a Wayward Philosopher by Email

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Zenconomics Report August Dispatch

August 31, 2016
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P closed out Tuesday at $2,176. Gold closed at $1,314 per ounce. Crude Oil closed at $46.42 per barrel, and the 10-year Treasury rate closed at 1.57%. Bitcoin is trading around $573 per BTC today.

Dear Journal,

The August issue of the Zenconomics Report has gone out to members of our network. In this issue:

Low trading volumes and little volatility in the financial markets this month… The state of the sovereign debt markets… Two large banks pass on negative interest rates to clients… The latest on monetary-financed fiscal programs in Japan… Global investment demand for gold the highest on record for the first half of 2016… All eyes on the Federal Reserve next month… A quiet change to IMF’s special drawing right currency… A correction hits the gold stocks sector… the Zenconomics Report Model Portfolio updates… Two new additions to our model portfolio

This month we added two new positions to our model portfolio which is constructed according to the Beta Investment Strategy. This portfolio is designed to capitalize on the prominent macro trends in the world of finance, and it is built to be fluid and flexible when trends change.

The Zenconomics Report is 100% independent, and all opinions are our own. It is also 100% free, though it is only available to members of our network. For access, simply sign-up using the form below or at https://www.zenconomics.com/report.

New members receive access to all previous monthly issues, and we will also send you two free reports as a ‘thank you’ for subscribing.

Assess, Mitigate, Implement, and Prosper is a report detailing the concept and implementation of asset allocation. Asset allocation is about strategically spreading your capital out across several different asset classes, and it is a critical part of the Beta Investment Strategy. This report also covers the ins-and-outs of managing an investment portfolio, including the risk management techniques that everyone should understand before putting a dime into the stock market.

The Zenconomics Guide to the Information Age is a 28 page report covering money, commerce, jobs, Bitcoin wallets, peer-to-peer lending, Open Bazaar, freelancing, educational resources, mutual aid societies, the Infinite Banking Concept, peer-to-peer travel, Internet privacy, and numerous other Information Age tips and tricks with an eye on the future. This guide is designed to be very practical – each section is loaded with action items – but it is also written to be entertaining as well.

To financial freedom!

The Zenconomics Report July Issue

submitted by jwithrow.
Click here to get the Journal of a Wayward Philosopher by Email

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Zenconomics Report July Dispatch

July 28, 2016
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P closed out Wednesday at $2,166. Gold closed at $1,348 per ounce. Crude Oil closed at $42.00 per barrel, and the 10-year Treasury rate closed at 1.51%. Bitcoin is trading around $657 per BTC today.

Dear Journal,

The July issue of the Zenconomics Report has gone out to members of our network. In this issue:

The state of the sovereign debt markets… Negative interest rates come to Canada… Japan’s new “stimulus” announcement… the ECB may soon expand its QE program… Capital flight into U.S. markets… Alan Greenspan publicly endorses a return to the gold standard… Brexit updates… How to build a small fortune in 3-5 years… the Zenconomics Report Model Portfolio updates

Our model portfolio is off to a good start, and we added one additional position this month. The model portfolio is constructed according to the Beta Investment Strategy, and we have several other positions on our radar currently. Frankly, we expect this portfolio to skyrocket over the coming years as debt continues to build and negative interest rates continue to spread.

The Zenconomics Report is 100% independent, and all opinions are our own. It is also 100% free, though it is only available to members of our network. For access, simply sign-up using the form below.

We will also send you two free reports as a ‘thank you’ for subscribing.

Assess, Mitigate, Implement, and Prosper is a report detailing the concept and implementation of asset allocation.

To financial freedom!

The Zenconomics Report June Issue

submitted by jwithrow.
Click here to get the Journal of a Wayward Philosopher by Email

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Zenconomics Report June Dispatch

June 28, 2016
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P closed out Monday at $2,000. Gold closed at $1,330 per ounce. Crude Oil closed at $46.71 per barrel, and the 10-year Treasury rate closed at 1.46%. Bitcoin is trading around $650 per BTC today.

Dear Journal,

There will be no official entry today. Instead, I would like to invite you to subscribe to the Zenconomics Report in time to receive our first official issue. We will be sending out the monthly dispatch on June 30 to members of the Zenconomics Report mailing list.

The Zenconomics Report will cut through all of the noise, clap-trap, hoop-la, misinformation, and propaganda circling the financial markets. The financial media typically analyzes the markets from a binary perspective of “good versus bad”, often with an underlying agenda to push. This does seekers of financial information a major disservice, and it sets them up to crash and burn when the next Black Swan makes its appearance.

The digital age has made information nearly free for everyone with an internet connection, but this created an unforeseen problem. With the flood gates of information open, how do you know what information is good and what information is not so good? Continue reading “The Zenconomics Report June Issue”

A Golden Reset?

submitted by jwithrow.
Click here to get the Journal of a Wayward Philosopher by Email

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
A Golden Reset?

April 15, 2016
Hot Springs, VA

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.” –Thomas Jefferson

The S&P closed out Thursday at $2,082. Gold closed at $1,226 per ounce. Crude Oil closed at $41.50 per barrel, and the 10-year Treasury rate closed at 1.78%. Bitcoin is trading around $430 per BTC today.

Dear Journal,

Last week we examined a potential path to the Great Reset triggered by the global adoption of negative interest rate policies (NIRP). The entry was not just speculation, however, but it was prompted by a report outlining a meeting in Manhattan between some major players in the world of finance and a source sitting at the nexus between government policy and the financial industry.

This meeting was not about the possibility of negative interest rates in the U.S., however. The unnamed source assumed NIRP was already baked into the cake. According to him it was not a matter of ‘if’, but ‘when’. Continue reading “A Golden Reset?”

The Fragility of Modernity

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
The Fragility of Modernity

June 10, 2015
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P closed out Tuesday at $2,080. Gold closed at $1,177 per ounce. Oil checked out at $60 per barrel. The 10-year Treasury rate closed at 2.42%, and bitcoin is trading around $230 per BTC.

Dear Journal,

In my last entry I brought up the concept of ‘Modernity’ and I suggested that it attempts to put life in a box by emphasizing a fear and control mindset. I felt this concept was worthy of a little more discussion this week because our society has been shaped by this fear and control paradigm.

Here’s how Nassim Taleb, author of Antifragile, views Modernity:

We are moving into a phase of modernity marked by the lobbyist, the very, very limited liability corporation, the MBA, sucker problems, secularization (or rather reinvention of new sacred values like flags to replace altars), the tax man, fear of the boss, spending the weekend in interesting places and the workweek in a putatively less interesting one, the separation of “work” and “leisure” (though the two would look identical to someone from a wiser era), the retirement plan, argumentative intellectuals who would disagree with this definition of modernity, literal thinking, inductive inference, philosophy of science, the invention of social science, smooth surfaces, and egocentric architects. Violence is transferred from individuals to states. So is financial indiscipline. At the center of all this is the denial of antifragility… Modernity starts with the state monopoly on violence, and ends with the state’s monopoly on fiscal irresponsibility.

Continue reading “The Fragility of Modernity”

Risk Update: Belief That Central Bank Methods Work

by Jeff Clark – Hard Assets Alliance :

It’s painfully clear that Swiss monetary policy failed to work as planned—they pegged their currency to the euro just three years earlier and were unable to sustain it. On top of that, the SNB now charges commercial depositors 0.75% for the privilege of holding their money! Even some retail and private banks have begun to apply the negative rates on large customer deposits.

And yet they’re not the only country with negative interest rates: Two-year government bonds are also negative in…

• Germany
• Finland
• Austria
• Denmark
• France
• Holland
• Belgium
• Slovakia
• Sweden
• Japan

According to the Financial Times, there is now $3.6 trillion of government debt around the world with negative interest rates!

Meanwhile, Japan continues to inject $700 billion a year into their financial system, which equals 12% of their GDP. Their debt now exceeds 250% of GDP, and the government uses more than 25% of tax revenue just to pay the interest on that debt!

Then the ECB unveiled an expanded program where it will increase asset purchases to €60 billion a month through at least September 2016, its biggest push yet, to fend off deflation and revive the economy. So, why are they expanding the program when the prior money-printing efforts didn’t work? What will they do if bigger isn’t better and the program continues to fail?

Central bankers are taking the easy way out, because printing money (QE) reduces the incentive for governments to make structural reforms. This tells us that the ongoing experiments by central bankers—the largest such experiments ever conducted in history—will not accomplish what they had hoped and will hand us some very unpleasant consequences.

We live in a central bank-controlled world more than ever before, yet the odds of central planners steering us out of the corner they’ve painted us all into are remote. The gold you hold will offer a measure of protection against the fallout when it becomes obvious to the mainstream that failure is likely.

Article originally posted in the February issue of Smart Metals Investor at HardAssetsAlliance.com.