Featured Article

How To Play The Next Big Rally In Gold

Posted by Charles Kennedy

on Thursday, 14 May 2020 10:36

The pandemic lockdown is killing the global economy, and while stocks are rebounding on the slim hope that everything will eventually go back to normal, Wall Street knows a fear bargain when it sees one, and this could be gold’s time to shine, while some other commodities get crushed.

Gold is trading at over $1,688 an ounce right now. And it’s going to hit $3,000 an ounce in about 18 months, according to the Bank of America.

So imagine buying it in the ground for $3-$4 an ounce instead.

When Wall Street goes bargain hunting, it’s looking for discount gold.

One way it does so is by targeting junior miners with in the ground gold assets, setting short-term price targets that make these global gold assets a cheap base price for investors who are fleeing the next potential economic meltdown.

Among the well-known Wall Street bargain shoppers are Cantor Fitzgerald and GMP Research, two authorities on the street that closely follow the world’s breakthrough gold developments…CLICK for complete article

How Expensive Will Meat Get?

Posted by Virginia Fidler

on Wednesday, 13 May 2020 10:04

Since the onslaught of the COVID-19, we have seen an unprecedented spike in beef prices. The retail price of beef has increased by 60 percent in the past two months to a high of $410.05. Beef has doubled in price, making a hamburger an item of luxury almost on par with a steak.

Why is the humble hamburger making such a dent in our food budget? Because many meat processing plants have closed since the emergence of the coronavirus. That simply leaves less beef to go around, which automatically makes it more expensive.

Many grocery stores are imposing a limit on how much meat their customers can purchase to prevent a total meat shortage. Some of the larger grocery stores, such as Kroger and Costco, are close to running out of meat since the coronavirus has severely interrupted the food supply chain…CLICK for complete article

Hand Sanitizer Boom Could Save The Ethanol Industry

Posted by Alex Kimani

on Tuesday, 12 May 2020 10:24

With widespread layoffs and furloughs hitting post-World War II records and a global economy deep in the throes of a recession, the economic devastation wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic is only rivaled by the Great Depression. Yet, some businesses have been thriving during this upheaval, while others have had to reinvent themselves thanks to dramatic shifts in consumer behavior.

POET LLC, the world’s largest ethanol manufacturer producing about two billion gallons of the product per year, has made a pretty drastic business transition after retooling and pivoting into hand sanitizers instead. POET has re-engineered its systems to make pharmaceutical-grade hand sanitizers after ethanol prices cratered following weak gasoline demand.

Second Act POET runs more than two dozen ethanol plants in the U.S. but has been forced to close down three plants. It is running the remaining plants at half capacity and has laid off 10% of its workforce.

Pivoting into hand sanitizers is not as dramatic as, say, auto companies such as Ford, GM, and Tesla repurposing their car factories to make ventilators. Nevertheless, POET CEO Jeff Broin says the conversion from an ethanol manufacturer to one making hand sanitizers comes with some pretty significant costs….CLICK for complete article

Household Debt Tops $14.3 Trillion In The United States

Posted by Josh Owens

on Monday, 11 May 2020 18:29

Credit card debt is soaring, but banks aren’t attracting anyone to new deals as COVID-19 proves to be less of a boon for creditors than they might have thought.  Weaker personal income growth and rapid job losses are pushing Americans into more debt, while banks are simultaneously tightening lending standards to reduce risk.

A survey by CreditCards found that nearly half of U.S. adults are carrying debt on their credit cards, up from a month ago, while 1 in 4 of those already in debt have piled on more.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that with a total of $14.3 trillion, U.S. household debt rose by $155 billion in the first quarter from the previous three-month period, or 1.1%.

Alarmingly, that’s also $1.6 trillion higher than the previous peak of $12.7 trillion reached in 2008.

Overall, the number of people with credit card debt has increased to 47% from 43% since early March…CLICK for complete article

Mike’s Editorial – May 9th

Posted by Michael Campbell

on Saturday, 9 May 2020 11:27

During some private conversations with top economic and financial analysts I asked what they thought of the government decisions to go nuclear and lock down the whole economy. They didn’t mince words.