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 […]
Category: Self-Directed IRA and The Economy
Latest Trends With Gold And How It Affects Your Self Directed IRA
The price for gold has been moving somewhat sideways over the last several weeks. We continue to hear professional investor and Wall Street types condemn gold and precious metals in general. However, if you look at some of the trends in gold and gold demand, a very different picture emerges. The latest World Gold Council […]
Is Gold Money And How It Impacts Your Self Directed IRA
Americans feel “gold is the safest long term investment” today, a Gallup survey has found. Gold was favoured over four other types of investments perceived as the best long term choice for American investors today. 28% of the American public choose gold as their favoured investment of choice today. Real estate followed in second place, […]
The Low-Zero Yield Play And The Self Directed IRA
The Fed has continued to promote and enforce a low interest rate environment for the past several years. The purpose of such a policy is to promote and incentivize consumers and small businesses to borrow. When these groups (2/3rds of the GDP) have cash, they spend or invest it in business expansion, homes, durable goods, […]
How June Jobs Numbers Will Impact Your Self Directed IRA
Well, the June 2012 jobs numbers are out and they are terrible, as expected. There were on;y 80,000 new jobs created. May was revised upwards to 77,000 from the initial 69,000. Overall, the unemployment rate is steady at 8.2%. The numbers are starting to reinforce the a pattern that will become statistically significant. The implications […]
May Housing Starts And Self Directed IRA Considerations
Housing Starts are a key economic indicator as to how well the housing market is performing. It is a indicator of building an the level of building in relation to consumer demand for homes. The May 2012 Housing Starts numbers remain 69% below the 2006 peak. The housing numbers clearly show that home starts, and […]
Hyperinflation Around The Corner – Look At Your Self Directed IRA
We’ve recently seen the data that supports that the economy is not recovering, and in fact appears to be sinking back into recession. We’ve also seen that the Fed is going to continue to engage in operation twist, but as we’ve pointed out that’s likely to have little to no impact. There is a confluence […]
What The Latest Consumer Finances Survey Means For Self Directed IRAs
The Fed just published their survey for consumer finances which covers through the year 2010. This report provides an fairly good analysis of how the average American consumer is doing from a financial perspective. This report gives us insight in what the basic spending habits and patterns of Americans are or will be. We wanted […]
The Looming Recession And The Self Directed IRA
The Fed is meeting to discuss new policies and strategies to deal with the looming recession. Their options are few and cannot always make up for bad government policy. We need to briefly look at some of these issues to see how this may affect your self directed IRA and your overall self directed IRA […]
Gold, Hyperinflation And Your Self Directed IRA
Will or would gold hold up under a hyperinflation scenario? This may sound like some sort of scifi, Ayn Rand scenario, but that’s what the people of the Weimar Republic of post WWI Germany thought and yet lived through. The people of Germany had to withstand price increases that doubled every 28 hours or 20 […]
The US Outlook And Your Self Directed IRA
Despite the many negative macro economic factors that are negatively impacting the US and the US recovery, the US is in relatively better shape than other countries. This may sound contradictory to some of our prior blog postings, but its not when we compare the US to other countries. So, we thought we would highlight […]
The Self Directed IRA Update
We hate to continue being such a doom and gloom type with the blog, but here we are half way through June and the economic news is not getting better – its getting worse. Greece – Greece is clearly heading for a breakup and even withdrawal from the European Union. Greece can’t even borrow money. […]