The July 2012 ISM report just came out and the the number came in at 49.8 versus the June number of 49.7. The ISM report is a general measure of manufacturing activity and specifically how much manufacturers are planning in procuring for the business. A number below 50 indicates negative or contractionary environments. The ISM […]
Tag: Precious Metals
The FOMC Meeting And Your Self Directed IRA
The FOMC – Federal Open Market Committee just completed their most recent meeting. They decided to leave interest rates at historic lows. In prior missives we discussed the downsides and negative economic impacts of these low rate. Without re-visiting prior articles, the downsides of such a continued policy is that retirees cannot move funds into […]
Q2 2012 GDP And Your Self Directed IRA
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
What Obamacare Means To Your Self Directed IRA
As most of you probably know by now the US Supreme court ruled that Obamacare was constitutional as a TAX! Now as some of may recall, the administration portrayed this entire program as something that could and should be regulated under the commerce clause of the constitution, but it clearly, was not, definitely was not […]
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, […]
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 […]