The 2023 debt ceiling showdown is negatively impacting America‘s image (and perhaps influence) abroad. What’s more, a contraction in the money supply points to an impending recession for the country… Welcome to another Pinnacle Pod, where we venture deep into the heart of the high-stakes financial battlefield that is shaping the destiny of the global […]
For decades, the Federal Reserve got away with increasing the money supply to juice the economy. But, it was reliant on an undeniable fact: during this entire period, money velocity was in decline, excluding pauses or very brief minuscule rises. The factors responsible for the decline in money velocity are less important. Investors need to […]
For the last twenty years, deficit spending for the U.S. government has become natural and as reliable as the sun coming up. But, in the latest debt ceiling debacle, there may be more than political theater at stake. If the U.S. must continue to print money and/or run deficits just to maintain its standard of […]
The Fed’s balance sheet is the key to market liquidity and performance. When it shrinks, the market and liquidity decline; when it expands, the opposite happens. So while the pandemic ushered in the greatest experiment of quantitative easing or QE in world history, we are now in a world of quantitative tightening or QT – […]
The savings rate in the United States is just 0.1% above its all-time low going back to 1959! In yet another significant drop, the savings rate reached just 2.3% in October. While that represents the lowest rate since 2005, it is only 0.1% above the lowest rate recorded in the past 63 years! If the […]
Ghana wants to use its gold to pay for oil and other essentials the country needs to function. And it is hard to blame them. However, by converting the Ghanaian Cedi‘s local currency into U.S. Dollars and then buying what they need, the country’s foreign currency reserves are being depleted. Furthermore, U.S. dollar strength or […]
Rising inflation and interest rates are driving millions of Americans, once middle-class citizens, into the chains of poverty. The poverty rate in America and countries worldwide are soaring, and almost no one is talking about it. The signs are all around us: record high food bank usage, climbing foreclosures (lenders started foreclosures on 67,249 U.S. […]
As the global birth rate plunges lower, many in the West, particularly North Americans, are opting for friendly canines to fill the void… While no one factor is responsible for the dramatic decline in births and increase in pet ownership, Alex and Aaron believe they know some of the key drivers behind this dangerous phenomenon. […]
Just days after the Fed hiked rates another 75 basis points sending gold and most hard assets lower, metals are on fire. Silver is up nearly 7%, crude oil over 4%, and gold over 3% – a massive move for the metal. Copper was another colossal winner, up over 8% on the day. So, why […]
We know whom inflation hurts the most: the elderly, people on a fixed income, and those living paycheque to paycheque — which in Canada and the US means most of the population. So, who can inflation benefit? Experienced debtors. The richest among us often have mountains of debt. Banks practically beg them to take more […]