A fiery viking red I trust?
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I made him a caricature as the Saint of the Middle class for all he is doing, at the beginning of the Pandemic, when he just started keeping his hair Silver 
I don’t think he’ll mind me sharing it here with you guys
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… Another caricature in the making? 
Are you ready for triple digit silver?
YES!!!
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Mike Maloney in the interview with Chris Martenson, said something to the effect, the Fed has two levers – either they can turn of the money printer by expanding the Fed’s balance sheet or they lower interest rates so that the banks then expand the money supply by increasing the amount of loans issued.
Since there doesn’t seem to be reserve requirements for banks, I think they will use this method to expand the “money printing”.
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If Chris gets Richard Werner to sit for an interview, a great question would be for him to enumerate what levers the Fed actually has. I believe he alluded to there being others than these two.
The Reverse Repo Facility is another lever. But that facility has been essentially drained. Joe Brown (YouTube) has a lot of videos explaining this “lever” that the Fed has used in the past.
According to Grok:
Federal Reserve’s Reverse Repo Facility
The Federal Reserve’s Overnight Reverse Repurchase Agreement (ON RRP) facility is a key monetary policy tool managed by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). It was established as part of the policy normalization principles announced in September 2014 and serves primarily to help control the federal funds rate, ensuring it stays within the FOMC’s target range. The facility acts as a floor for short-term interest rates by providing an alternative investment option for eligible counterparties, who are generally unwilling to lend funds overnight below the ON RRP offering rate.
In operation, the Federal Reserve conducts reverse repo transactions where it sells securities (typically from its System Open Market Account, or SOMA, portfolio) to counterparties and agrees to repurchase them the next day. This temporarily reduces reserve balances in the banking system while increasing reverse repo obligations on the Fed’s balance sheet. The offering rate, set by the FOMC, represents the maximum interest rate the Fed will pay, with the actual rate determined via an auction if demand exceeds supply. Eligible counterparties include a broad range of institutions, such as money market funds, government-sponsored enterprises, and banks (a full list is maintained by the New York Fed). The facility is intended for temporary use and will be phased out when no longer needed for rate control.
Is There a “Repo Facility”?
Yes, the Federal Reserve operates a counterpart known as the Standing Repurchase Agreement Facility (SRF), often referred to as the “Repo Facility.” Established in July 2021, it functions as a backstop in money markets to support effective monetary policy implementation and prevent disruptions in short-term funding markets from spilling over into the federal funds market.
The SRF works by allowing the Federal Reserve to conduct overnight repo operations, where it purchases securities from eligible counterparties and agrees to sell them back the next day, effectively providing liquidity. The FOMC sets a minimum bid rate (the lowest interest rate the Fed will accept), and if bids exceed the operation’s capacity, rates are auctioned. Accepted collateral includes Treasury securities, agency debt, and agency mortgage-backed securities. Currently, primary dealers are the main counterparties, with plans to expand to additional depository institutions. By capping potential spikes in overnight borrowing rates, the SRF complements the ON RRP facility in maintaining stability in interest rates and overall market functioning.
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Government subsidies and ethanol mandated to be used in gasoline dragging down the price of corn?
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I said “why would they not print…”
I think the outright printing by the Fed will lead to a massive loss of confidence in the US dollar. So, lowering interest rates will allow the Fed to say, hey we didn’t expand the balance sheet. It’s not our fault. And most people don’t realize the hit to inflation and expansion of money supply by the mechanisms of bank lending.
It deflects the direct blame from the Fed. It’s stealth printing.
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It’s the same situation for wheat, soy, and rice.
Pretty much the exact same nominal price as back in 2007 or so:
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BTW is oil price kept artificially low related to this? Even with subsidies, it makes life hard for farmers as all inputs still follow market prices and inflation and general monetary policies but subsidies tend to lag way behind these factors.
Although to some degree farmers are pretty shortsighted when it comes to money. They ask handouts and subsidies, but not think PP type topics that far, but of course could likely track weather couple decades. Although Im hesitant on latter too, as convenience, “automation”, AI type solutions have been also there and made life way too easy. Especially if farming land is “easy” to begin with. Human brain needs constant challenge to keep knowledge and skillset high level.
People who had to do things hard way forget and get deception worse: they think they know how to do it, but all added conveniences and automation (gps in tractors… self driving in essence) and forgetting is amazingly fast as brains remove stuff that is not used lately, gradually first, then all of it.
(Im referring to monoculture fields which are basicly scientist labs that remove all adversities possible… lablife is always so simple and easy, real life is not).
I don’t have the code to make the ROI chart, but simple math says:
SPX(1975-01-02) = 70.23
SPX(yesterday) = 6340.00
GC(1975-01-02) = 185.70
GC(yesterday) = 3453.70
Just the raw chart from 1975-today:
Gold started out more than twice the price of SPX in 1975, and today it is half the price of SPX.
From an ROI standpoint, SPX was a much better buy (more than 4x better), back in 1975. That said - I’m not sure “last N years of ROI” is the best analysis tool for where things are likely to go. The longer term analysis suggests to me that SPX might be really overpriced.
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Ever wonder why all the charts look the same? They are all USD comparative charts and the USD is going down.
Precious metals are a hedge but are not viable as a reserve currency as they would require a third party trust entity particularly for transactions over distance. Which have always been corrupted.
Bitcoin as a new reserve currency outside of government control is the only workable solution in the conversation today.
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The relative ROI depends on start and end dates. So rather than one being better intrinsically, it makes more sense to see the relative performance as cyclical.
1971-1980: gold
1980-2000: stocks
2000 - present: gold
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Yes that feels roughly correct.
So what methodology (what sort of chart/calculation/ratio) can we use to display “which cycle we are in” most accurately? And when/if it might be ready to change?
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Idk if there’s one metric alone that works.
Lots of possibilities and maybe they need to be used together.
Perhaps:
Dow:gold ratio
% of investment $ in gold vs S&P
Flow of funds into each
Technical analysis of prices
Technical analysis of momentum (Michael Oliver)
??
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I’m looking currently at potential sell signals for gold n silver.
Dow:gold and GSR spike are my big two.
Informal indicators: magazine cover trashes stocks and praises gold; coworkers talk about their gold (vs everyone all in on S&P 500 in their 401k); CNBC brings back Peter Schiff (ha!); Mad Money Cramer says gold is BUYBUYBUY!!!
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