Preparing for the Impending CBDC Crisis

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Throughout the pandemic, the federal government’s ongoing dictation of seemingly bad policies was an intentional effort to upend the normal everyday lives of millions of people.

As has been pointed out, it is not a conspiracy theory to believe that the central bank intends to control the spending behavior of people using central bank programmable software tokens instead of currency.

The general manager of the banking cartel explicitly announced it to an audience of other central bank leaders during their annual meeting in 2020.

The Bank of International Settlements is an organization owned by its members, the Central Banks of 63 member countries, and acts as a self regulator.

The BIS is creator and establisher of the rules for banks to operate in the global ecosystem of international trade. They also have control over the SWIFT banking network, foreign currency exchange and other major parts of the global economy.

During the group’s annual meeting in 2020, the General Manager of the organization explained to the audience how CBDC will give the central bank absolute control over the rules, regulations and policies that will dictate how money is used down to the transaction level.

During the recorded videoconference he discusses how CDBC technology will be used to force changes in spending behavior amongst consumers and enforce consumer spending policies on behalf of the government.

Last year, Biden signed Executive Order 14067 in order to advance development of CBDCs to skirt push forward without Congressional approval. As usually, there has been a total lack of accountability or transparency.

So far, Federal Reserve and US Treasury have been working in relative secrecy, publishing only a small amount of vague and high-level papers and studies with several quietly announced project trials in conjunction with notable large global banks. Most of the press releases have come during times when other stories were the major focus of the mainstream media, such as the collapse of FTX.

At least one bill has been drafted by Congress in an attempt to prevent the Federal Reserve from weaponizing CBDC against US citizens. However, the rollout of central bank digital currencies is likely to happen soon if and when the Biden administration can attach it to a banking crisis like the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

More recent announcements show that the Fed and Biden Admin intend to roll out a CBDC even without the authority of Congress.

In a speech to the Atlantic Council, Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance told the attendees that a CBDC Working Group consisting of policy makers from a variety of agencies is developing an initial set of findings and recommendations to support the Biden administrations agenda.

Make no mistake, the central banks have made it crystal clear that they are coming for your money and will tell you how you can spend it. The move into CBDC in lieu of traditional currency is a political power grab with the goal of having further control of your life.

Nigeria’s Failed Experiment

Initially, the Nigerian government tried several soft approaches to encourage the adoption of CBDC. These included financial incentives such as offering discounts to taxi drivers and passengers to encourage use and adoption. All of which failed.

The government quickly turned to coercive measures once it became clear that the people weren’t interested.

The largest measures include the introduction of a new currency and devaluing the old currency along with adding restriction on cash withdrawals throughout the country. The plan included the issuance of new currency notes, but only enough to cover 85% of the current naira while promoting cashless transactions by limiting the use of cash for businesses.

Beyond banknote swap, the banking regulators placed policy restrictions limiting cash withdrawals from banks and ATMs to reduce the amount of cash in circulation. With limits of $225 on individuals and $1,110 on businesses to force CBDC adoption.

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele said, “The destination, as far as I am concerned, is to achieve a 100% cashless economy in Nigeria.”

The central bank began devaluing in the months before the switch while removing old notes from circulation leaving millions of Nigerians with no money or food.

Nigerians have violently rejected the new digital currency and cash restrictions as protests and riots have broken out outside of banks and spread throughout the country.

The war on cash and some form of crisis will bring on the introduction of CBDCs.

Precious Metals Stacking for CBDC Insurance

Gold and silver are the oldest and most trusted form of money. With all of the uncertainty in the economy, gold is safe haven from fiat and digital currency tokens.

Investing some of your cash in buying physical gold and silver bullion can help keep you in control of your financial future.

Central Bank Gold Buying Spree Sets Records

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Demand for gold at central banks was driven mainly by China swapping dollars for gold.

Switzerland is home to some of the largest and most advanced refineries in the world. According to Swiss customs data, last year more than 524 tons of gold was bought by China.

China is the largest market for gold with a focus on jewelry and retail investment such as gold coins and bars. India is a close second.

Central banks buy gold for a variety of reasons. One is to offset inflation and act as a hedge when global financial markets are unstable. Having a sizable store of gold bullion in a central bank also provides stability for a nation’s fiat currency.

Another reason is to help offset sovereign debt accrued from government spending. Having large gold reserves provides stability in the international bond market.

Last year, central banks buying up large amounts of gold at rates not seen in decades.

China’s central bank reported significant gold purchases throughout the last year. In December, 30 tons of gold following a similarly large purchase of 32 tons in November. China’s gold reserves now reportedly to total more than 2,010 tons.

The Central Bank of Türkiye reported large increases in holdings as it struggles to reduce inflation.

Other countries around the Middle East significantly increased their gold holdings.

With Egypt adding 47 tons, Qatar with 35 tons, Iraq with 34 tons, the United Arab Emirates with 25 tons and Oman adding 2 tons.

Some see this as a push towards de-dollarization and is a signal that some countries see the political sanctions imposed by the US against Russia as weaponization of the dollar.

US Mint Struggles while Perth & the Royal Mint Shine

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Both the Perth Mint and the Royal Mint have announced huge increases in year over year sales of precious metals.

According to the Royal Mint, gold sales increased 25% above 2021, silver demand was up by 29%.

Earlier this month, the Perth Mint reported that gold sales were up 10% for the year, noting that there was a drop in demand during December.

The Perth Mint is owned by the government of Western Australia and it is reported to be the largest refiner of newly mined gold in the world.

Meanwhile, the US Mint has been struggling to keep up with demand from domestic silver investors.

Sales of Silver Eagles slumped in 2022 as demand continues to soar. This led investors to buy silver coins from Australia and England.

Why is the US Mint struggling to keep up with the demand from investors?

The US Mint outsources the production of blank silver planchets to private mints.

The Mint cancelled the commemorative 2022 Morgan & Peace silver $1 coin series due to issues with acquisition of raw materials.

The planchet manufacturers need to adhere to all legal definitions. The main one being that coins be minted from domestically mined sources.

The pandemic exposed a lot of problems with America’s supply chain. Many in the mining industry continue to worsen with inflation and looming recession.

Many of the top silver and gold mining operations in the United States all reported encountering various production delays throughout the last year.

Many of the top miners have reported delays and higher fuel costs associated with the transport of slurry concentrates from remote mine locations to refiners for further upstream processing and smelting.

The US Mint began outsourcing the production of planchets that are used to produce coins.

While the current list of suppliers is not readily available, Sunshine Minting and LeachGarner are two of the private mints that have had previous contracts with the Mint.

Most of the world’s largest and most capable precious metals processing companies are located outside the US, making it more difficult for the Mint supply chain.

Some of the ore extracted from domestic mines is handled by multinational corporations.

Many of the world’s leading refineries such as PAMP Suisse, Metalor, and Valcambi are based in Switzerland.

The Perth Mint and Royal Canadian Mint operate the largest and most advanced refineries in the world.

Why is the US Mint continuing to outsource mining and smelting operations to foreign companies?

The five largest mines in the US:

Greens Creek Mine, Alaska

The Greens Creek Mine is owned by Hecla Mining Company. The mine is located on Admiralty Island in the Alexander Archipelagos Islands, roughly 40 miles south of Juneau.

In 2021, Greens Creek produced 9.2 million ounces of silver and 48,088 ounces of gold.

Projected production outlook for 2022 is expected to be slightly higher, between 9.3 and 9.6 million ounces of silver and from 44,000 to 48,000 ounces of gold.

However, issues with the quality of the base metals, primarily zinc and lead, Hecla had postponed shipments of silver concentrates to upstream refineries.

Red Dog Mine, Alaska

Located 105 miles north of the Arctic Circle near Kotzebue, Alaska. It is one of the largest zinc mines in the world and is operated by Teck Resources (TECK).

The Red Dog Mine is believed to be the largest deposit of zinc in the world. Roughly 4% of all of the zinc is produced from this mine.

Ore concentrates of the mine are trucked over 50 miles where they are stored in port.

Due to the extreme location, the silver slurry can only be transported by ship from the arctic during the months from June through October.

The mine has been operating since 1989. With current production levels, the mine is expected to continue operating only until 2031.

The Red Dog Mine is one of the largest domestic sources of critical minerals.

Zinc has a variety of industrial uses. It is also an essential part of the green economy, component manufacturing for electric vehicle, windmills and solar panels.

Silver, germanium and lead and other minerals are byproducts of the primary operations.

Over 7.7 million ounces of silver was dug out of Red Dog mine in 2017.

Continental Mine, Montana

The Continental Mine is located near Butte, Montana. Also where the World Museum of Mining is located.

The main commodities of the Continental Mine are copper and molybdenum. Molybdenum and copper are also critical metals and minerals needed in the domestic manufacturing of electrical devices, motors for EVs and other electrical components.

Silver and gold are extracted from the copper-molybdenite ore. Recent mine output data is not  publicly available.

Marigold Mine, Nevada

The Marigold Mine is located in northern Nevada. The primary deposit is mineralized gold. The gold is extracted from sedimentary rocks including limestone, siltstone, breccias, meta-basalts and quartzite.

The mine is owned and operated by SSR Mining. The Marigold Mine began operation in 1989. The mine is expected to continue to sustain current production levels through 2032. Exploration and development of other nearby properties is expected to extend operations beyond.

Marigold is an open pit operations where blasted rocks is dumped onto heap leaching pages. A chemical process extracts precious metals and minerals from the ore and stored in carbon columns for later extraction through electrowinning.

Reports from SSR earlier in the year showed signs of delays in production with expectations of producing between 215,000 and 245,000 ounces of gold in 2022.

Rochester Mine, Nevada

The Rochester mine is an open pit, heap leach silver-gold operation in northwestern Nevada.

The silver-gold ore is extracted from sulfide deposits layered during Permian-Triassic period volcanic lava flows.

In 2021, the mining operations produced 3.2 million ounces of silver, while gold output was roughly 27,000 ounces.

Saudi Arabia experimenting with CBDC and alternative currencies to the PetroDollar

During the last year there has been a lot of media speculation regarding trade relations between Saudi Arabia and BRICS countries.

The Chinese central bank has been identified as buying roughly 300 tons of gold bullion in 2022. With Central Banks of other countries doing the same.

China has been wooing Saudi Arabia and making significant investments throughout the Middle East as part of the Belt & Road Initiative.

Saudi Arabia becoming part of BRICS and selling oil in a new basket currency would compete with both the Euro and the Dollar.

It seems pretty logical that China would intend for BRICS launch a CBDC digital currency that is backed by gold resources of the basket currency. Given that many central banks are experimenting with CBDC there will need to be interoperability between local currencies.

Gold Price Jumps on CPI Report

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The December 2022 CPI numbers were released by the Labor Department this morning.

The latest report shows that the rate of inflation slowed slightly in December, with the index showing that overall prices increased roughly 6.5%.

The largest gains in prices were the basics of housing, food, gas and utilities.

Grocery prices continue to skyrocket with the December food numbers showing an overall increase in prices of 11.8%.

While the CPI report confirms what many analysts had expected, others are skeptical that the underlying data may not be completely accurate.

Gold futures prices rose above $1,900 before the news.

Egg prices continue to soar. The price of a dozen eggs is up by more than 64% with California leading the list with an average of $6.72 per carton.

We have also seen the premiums for silver bars and rounds dropping significantly.

Layoffs continue to hit Wall Street Banks and hedge funds. Goldman Sachs announced that they will be cutting 3,200 jobs, citing a downturn in investment and bleak economic outlook for the year.

Leading hedgefund Blackrock Advisors is cutting 500 positions with the markets facing a recession.

The tech industry lost over 150,000 jobs in 2022. This year has begun with more layoffs announced by Amazon and Salesforce, with up to 18,000 more workers facing unemployment.

Central banks are buying gold at the fastest pace in over 55 years. China’s central bank has continued its gold buying spree into December.

After record breaking sales in 2021, the US Mint face supply chain issues early in 2022.

In March 2022, the Mint announced that they would be cancelling the commemorative $1 Morgan and $1 Peace silver dollar coins. The release was anticipating by collectors and investors.

According to sales and mintage data for American Silver Eagle coins, year-over-year, the 2022 mintage was the lowest since 2019 with only 15,963,500 coins.

By comparison, more than 25 million Type 1 silver eagle coins were sold in 2021, along with almost 3 million of the Type 2.

While demand remained strong throughout the year, the US Mint struggled to keep up with order demand driving premiums to record highs.

This led to new sales records for some sovereign government mints.

The Perth Mint announced record breaking sales for 2022. Reports from the mint show that more than 23 million ounces of silver were sold, along with 1.14 million ounces of gold.

Some experts in the industry say is a better gauge of global bullion demand.

The Perth Mint produces a variety of native animal themed bullion investment coins.

The flagship is the Australia Red Kangaroo 1 oz Silver coin is typically at a much lower premium than the ASE.

Gold Price Spikes to 6 Month High at Start of Year

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The spot gold price futures hit a six month high at the start of the year.

Rising expectations of a recession and a general decline in stocks and crypto have led to growing demand from central banks and investors.

Analysts from CNBC are anticipating precious metals price will rise, calling this year the “new secular bull market.”

Central banks bought record numbers of gold in the final quarter of 2022. Led by China reporting purchases of more than 300 tons of gold bars.

CNBC analyst Juerg Kiener, managing director and chief investment officer at Swiss Asia Capital, said last month that the current market conditions mirror those of 2001 and 2008.

“It is not going to be just 10 or 20%, I think I’m looking at a move which will really make new highs”.

Using data available from CME Group, analysts from FX Street see rising interest in the futures markets. The number of open interests in gold futures rose by more than 8k contracts for the third day in a row.

Miners are expecting bullish returns in 2023 as they expect the gold prices to catch up with inflation.

The Fed’s decision to hike interest rates higher and more frequently and in such reactionary manner despite experts predicting dire consequences.

Long time gold bug, Robert Kiyosaki is predicting that gold prices can reach $3,800 an ounce this year.

He’s also bullish on other metals, predicting that we will see silver prices will rise to $75 per ounce this year in a recent Tweet.

Dealer premiums on 1 oz gold bars have drop to as low as 2% in recent weeks.

Now is a great time for retail precious metals investors. Premiums on 100 oz silver bars have recently dropped as low as $1.49 per ounce over spot. This is similar to the premiums when shopping from online bullion dealers prior to the pandemic.

The FOMC committee is meeting. Powell’s remarks following the meeting in December indicate that the Fed is going to continue rate hikes this year, albeit at a slower pace. Today’s announcement is expected after 2:00.

Update:

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) is responsible for managing the key interest rates that drive the economy.

In December the Fed announced their decision to continue the aggressive rate hikes.

The meeting minutes that were released today provide some guidance on the Fed’s plans for 2023.

The Fed is expected to continue to raise interest rates this year as it attempt to reduce the rate of inflation towards a target of 2%. Albeit with smaller incremental increases.

Recent CPI data shows that prices suggests that inflation has slows to around 7.1%, down slightly from 7.7%.

Yet, egg prices have climbed more than 49% in recent months. Some videos circulating on social media show egg prices in some NYC stores approaching $10 per dozen.

It’s expected that prices of basic essentials are expected to continue to rise as the impact of the rate hikes start to ripple across the economy.

Spot gold price held onto some earlier gains, silver prices are down slightly on the news.

Top CEOs Issue Warning to Prepare to a Recession

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Top CEO’s of major global companies including JP Morgan, FedEx and others are sounding alarm bells as a warning to investors and shareholders of the tsunami of financial woes ahead.

Shares of FedEx sunk more than 20% following an announcement to expect lower earnings combined with a bleak forecast of a softening of global shipping volume.

During a recent CNBC appearance, FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam warned that the global economy may be entering into a worldwide recession.

A similar message came this week from the World Bank discussing some of the risks of a global recession occurring in 2023 with suggestions for policy changes to assist Central Banks.

CEOs, economists and bankers continue focusing on infinitesimal changes to key interest rates and macro-level KPIs to determine the direction of the economy while many have already been facing economic hardship brought on by the pandemic lockdowns, job losses and the failed economic policies of the myriad of career politicians in Washington, D.C.

Many hardworking Americans already live paycheck to paycheck. And many are already struggling with with inflation and huge increases in the price of groceries and gas.

With more than 42% of Americans having less than $1,000 in savings and another 10% with no savings at all, more than half of all households are at serious risk of facing significant financial hardship in the event of a job loss.

Across many metropolitan areas have risen drastically in recent years and recent reports from the Fed show the level of total household debt has reached more than $16 trillion, with sharp increases in mortgage, auto loans, and credit card balances.

Prepare For Financial Hardship with Silver Bars

In 1929, the key interest rate from the Federal Reserve was lowered to 6% in a failed attempt to boost the economy.

While the recent decade is in some ways reflective of what occurred leading up to the Great Depression, today’s circumstances have even the illustrious leader of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, making starker suggestions that there’s potential for something worse than a recession coming, leading some media to suggest consumers prepare for very difficult economic times ahead.

Growing up during the Great Depression ingrained a generation with being frugal, the value of hard work, advancing through determination, and putting away savings in the form of hard money like gold and silver coins.
Roosevelts Executive Order 6102 that seized the gold from the economy was one of the efforts that helped recoup some of the debt brought on by the rampant spending and consumer debt that led to the Wall Street crash that began in September of 1929.

The themes of money, capitalism and corporate greed that caused the Joad’s tragedy and hardship in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, have analogous comparisons for many families that are already struggling in the aftermath of pandemic.

The rampant spending from long-term career politicians in Washington has been another contributing factors leading to more than 1 million people exiting the Democratic Party and registering to vote Republican this year as voters have lost faith in the long-term bureaucratic swamp in Washington.

Lessons taught by the generations that lived through the great depression are valuable today. Using precious metals as a alternative to a savings account at a bank has become a popular way for many people to have some extra financial security.

Having even a small stack of silver or gold stored at home can provide a financial cushion to soften the blow when unexpected expenses pop up.

Prior to the pandemic there were a variety of low premium and offers from various online bullion dealers to buy silver and spot price.

With supply chain issues continuing to keep premiums higher than they had been in the past, it is still possible to find deals to buy both gold and silver at low premiums.

Some of the best values are typically found in larger sized generic silver bars such as 100 oz silver bars, 10 oz silver bars and silver kilos for those looking to maximize lower premiums.

Other sizes of silver bars, such as those weighing 1 troy ounce or 5 ounce silver bars will have higher per ounce premiums because the cost to manufacturer bars is similar regardless of the size of the bar.

Zimbabwe debuts gold coins to fight inflation as local currency tumbles

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The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) announced that it will begin selling gold coins this month as a store of value to tame runaway inflation, which has considerably weakened the local currency.

The announcement comes after the country’s banking regulators raised a key interest rate to 200%, the highest in the world.

Inflation in the country has been rising at such a high pace that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) “resolved to introduce gold coins into the market as an instrument that will enable investors to store value.”

Fidelity Gold Refineries (Private) Limited, which is owned by the central bank, operates as the only gold-buying and refining entity in the southern African country.

US dollars are in high demand in the struggling country which recently saw the central bank involved in negotiations with bakers and other food producers to reduce the cost of basic items like bread.

The central bank’s monetary policy committee’s announcement comes at a time of “great concern on the recent rise in inflation”, which increased by 30.7% on a month-on-month basis for June 2022.

The availability of gold coins will likely ease pressure on the US dollar in the country. After all, gold is a better long-term store of value than another fiat currency. It has no counter-party risk and it cannot be created out of thin air by central banks.

The economy in Zimbabwe continues to toil with as the crisis is characterized a rapidly devaluing currency, 90 percent unemployment, declining manufacturing output and by sky-rocketing inflation.

In order for the gold coins to be effective, government officials are encouraging those seeking to buy the gold coins should pay with Zimbabwe dollars and not US dollars to help the central bank remove some of the excess local currency in circulation.

The coins are expected to be minted in an alloy of 22k, which is the same composition as other government backed coins such as the British Sovereign Gold Coin.

“These gold coins will be usable both locally and internationally because we have engaged with international banking partners. What I must emphasise is that gold is gold and it has an international value,” RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya said in an interview.

He continued to say that those who will purchase the coins will also get bearer certificates.

“Since these coins are essentially meant to store value they can be used for the purpose of trading and also can be used as collateral. The purchaser can also convert them to cash if need be.”

He said the coins will be purchased in “all currencies in circulation in Zimbabwe including the Zimdollar.”

“Basically the gold coins will be an instrument for storing value and they will be purchasable in both foreign and local currency. Once minted they will be distributed by Fidelity Printers and Refiners, local banks and international banking partners that we will announce in due course.

“These gold coins will be usable both locally and internationally because we have engaged with international banking partners. What I must emphasize is that gold is gold and it has an international value.”

The official designs for the coin have yet to be released and officials have stated that images currently circulating on social media and fake and should be disregarded.

The coins are set to be released and available for sale sometime in mid-July 2022.

Federal Open Market Committee 2023 Agenda

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The Federal Open Market Committee is the part of the Federal Reserve that is responsible for managing open market operations.

The FOMC uses the three primary tools to influence the direction of the economy.

The Federal Reserve influences the demand for, and supply of, balances that depository institutions hold at Federal Reserve Banks.

This gives them control of the federal funds rate. The federal funds rate is the interest rate at which depository institutions (banks) lend balances at the Federal Reserve to other depository institutions (banks) overnight.

Changes in the federal funds rate trigger a chain of events that affect many other market factors. Those factors include short-term interest rates, foreign exchange rates, long-term interest rates, the amount of money and credit, and, ultimately, a range of economic variables, including employment, output, and prices of goods and services.

The FOMC holds eight regularly scheduled meetings per year.

At these meetings, the Committee reviews economic and financial conditions, determines the appropriate stance of monetary policy, and assesses the risks to its long-run goals of price stability and sustainable economic growth.

2023 FOMC Scheduled Meetings

These are the scheduled meeting dates for the FOMC in 2023.

  • January 31-February 1
  • March 21-22*
  • May 2-3
  • June 13-14*
  • July 25-26
  • September 19-20*
  • October 31-November 1
  • December 12-13*


* Meeting associated with a Summary of Economic Projections.