The IMF, BIS & World Bank Give The Thumbs Up For Digital Currencies…

July 12, 2021

* Currencies and metals rally late last week

* But gave back those gains in the overnight trading… 

Good Day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! A rainy weekend for us here in the Mid west… And the last game before the All-Star Break between the Cardinals & Cubs was rained out…  It was a quiet weekend, for yours truly, as I must have gotten a taste of Little Evie’s GI virus, on Friday night… All I’ve had to eat since has been saltines, and lots of Gatorade Zeroes… Well, I guess I owe you an explanation of what my MRI said…  Well, the good news is that there was no sign of Cancer, or bleeding, but what they did find was this: Advanced sphenoethmoid sinusitis…  I had to Google it to find out what it was, but apparently it was the cause of the excruciating headaches… That have since subsided… I’ll have to end up going to the ENT Doc to find out more…  But no cancer was the most important thing I read in the report for sure! So… now that we’ve put that to bed… The Moody Blues greet me this morning with their song: I Know You’re Out There Somewhere…

The currencies had a good trading day on Friday of last week, after spending the week, up to Friday, drifting and weakening… When I left you on Thursday last week the BBDXY was 1,144.91, and the index ended Friday at 1,139.57… The Dollar Index also showed some weakness, at it fell from 92.52 to 92.13 to end the week…  The euro was the main beneficiary of the dollar weakness, as it ended the week pushing toward 1.19 again…  The price of Oil had a rollercoaster week, starting out the week with a $76 handle, then watching it drop to a $71 handle by mid week, only to end the week with a $74 handle… So, none of this helped the Petrol Currencies, because there was no definitive direction of the price of Oil…

After seeing the yield on the 10-year Treasury fall to 1.26% last week, calmer heads have prevailed and the yield rose back to 1.36% by week’s end… I read this weekend that a nutcase from CNBC pointed to the yield on the 10-year and said, “The bond guys are saying that the Fed is correct, that inflation is only temporary”… 

I about fell out of my chair! What a dolt! Does he not know that the Fed is doing most of the buying of Treasuries these days, so what does a lower yield on the 10-year Treasury prove? That the Fed’s buying has pushed down the yields… That’s all there is to that!  And if the Fed is still trying to push the “Transitory or Temporary” inflation lie, then this is their way to build a case for that lie…  I’m just saying… 

Gold & Silver both found ways to gain VS the dollar as the week came to and end, although it was not easy peasy… Both metals saw lots of short paper trades in their respective honor, show up at the COMEX both Thursday and Friday, but, they both prevailed at the end of the week, with Gold gaining $4.80 on Friday to close the week at $1,808.90, and Silver gained 20-cents to end the week at $26.18… I read this weekend that one year ago, Gold was trading near where it is today… Now we all know that last summer Gold found its way to over $2,000 in August… I sure would like to see that happen again, as the shiny metal has been pushed down so many times by the price manipulators that it deserves to beat them…

In the overnight markets, last night… it was as if Thursday and Friday’s action in currencies and metals didn’t happen, and the dollar buying was prevalent once again… The BBDXY has risen to 1,142.75 from the 1,139.57 it closed on Friday… The euro has given back about 1/3rd cent, and Gold has given back all its gains from Thursday and Friday in the early trading, and Silver has followed suit…  There’s nothing going on to bring about this change of direction, folks…  And the price of Oil has slipped lower again… up down, up down, the rollercoaster ride in the price of Oil continues… 

Ok, over a year ago, I wrote to you, dear reader, and told you my vision for the future of the U.S. and the dollar, etc. One point I made then, I have  continued to follow up on, is the implementation of a digital currency here in the U.S. that will replace the dollar, or folding cash if you will…  At the most recent G20 meeting digital currencies were discussed, and while the major media didn’t find the need to report on it, I found this little snippet on Yahoo Finance, “The IMF, the World Bank, and the Bank for International Settlements are advocating for the cross-border benefits of central bank-issued digital currencies, suggesting that projects like a digital dollar in the U.S. would support global development.”

Chuck again…  Yeah, the IMF, BIS and World Bank just thought that they would throw that out there and see if it sticks to the wall… Apparently, no one questioned them on this, and so , now they’ll take the next step…  And if anyone throws up a line of questioning going forward, they’ll be taken back to the G20 meeting, and they’ll say, “We discussed it then and no one had a problem with it”…

OK, onto more uplifting things…  Last Thursday I wrote about the U.S. Mint and them complaining that they didn’t have the Silver slugs to mint into coins, and that’s why they hadn’t minted any for the last two months… And then after hitting send, I sat down to read Ed Steer’s letter (www.edsteergoldsilver.com), and much to my chagrin I found that what I wrote was wrong… Then Ed sent me a note and said I needed to read his letter…  In it he said, “The U.S. Mint had a monster surprise waiting for me when I logged onto their website yesterday afternoon. They had completely revised and updated June bullion coin sales — and there were some eye-popping numbers.

For the month of June, the mint reported selling 182,000 troy ounces of gold eagles — and 2,800,000 silver eagles. Their gold buffalo sales for June remained unchanged at 27,500.

The other thing that didn’t change was silver eagles sales in May, as they still show zero.”

Chuck again… So, maybe I should hold up the Pfennig each day before I read Ed’s letter!

And regarding the Consumer Credit (read debt) report last week… I saw that consumers are using their credit cards again… There was a HUGE jump in credit card balances last month, along with personal loans and student loans…  This is good new for the economy, but bad news for the debt picture in this country… No government stimmy checks? Hey! We’ve still got our credit cards!

The U.S. Data Cupboard didn’t really have much for us last week, and this week it won’t have very much for us until Thursday, with Thursday and Friday, having a plethora of real data, it should bring a fun end of the week for the markets…

We will see the stupid CPI (consumer inflation) report for June tomorrow… This report doesn’t come anywhere close to what real inflation is, and I’ve explained the reason why so many times through the years, if I had a dollar every time I mentioned it, I could buy me cup of coffee now…  HA!  Geez, talk about inflation… I remember when I could get a cup of coffee for a shiny quarter! And now it will cost you a George Washington at Micky D’s!  

To recap… The currencies and metals ended last week on a strong note, and pushed the dollar down once again…  Consumer Credit (read debt) is moving higher each month again… I don’t see this as something that’s not going to bring about tears…  The Big 3 in terms of International Banks, the IMF, BIS and World Bank issued a statement at the G20 that most media missed… They talked about how they are behind Gov’t’s using digital currencies, and even signaled out the digital dollar… The Data cupboard won’t have much for us this week until we get to Thursday & Friday…  So… we could see the currencies go back to drifting until later in the week…

There will be a boat load of Fed Heads out speaking this week… Telling lies, and spreading untruths….

For What It’s Worth…  This article showed up in my email box from our local paper, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, which I’m certain they pulled from someone else’s newspaper, for they don’t write their own stories any longer, except in sports… But this is about Wells Fargo Bank, who have decided to shut down personal lines of credit…  Wait, What? Yes, the bank will no longer offer lines of credit to bank customers.. This article can be found here: Wells Fargo ends personal lines of credit: What it means for consumers | Personal Finance | stltoday.com

Or, here’s your snippet: “Wells Fargo customers have begun receiving notification that their personal line of credit accounts will close, and the company confirmed Thursday that it will no longer offer the product. Once the accounts are closed, customers will no longer be able to draw from them.

The company announced that it would discontinue the product last year, said Wells Fargo spokesperson Manuel Venegas in an emailed statement. But if the looming closure of your account is news to you, it may be an unwelcome surprise.

Not only will the accounts close, but Wells Fargo also indicated consumers’ credit scores may take a hit as a result.

“We realize change can be inconvenient, especially when customer credit may be impacted,” Venegas said.

Here’s what you need to know if your account will be closed, how your credit may be affected and other borrowing options to consider.

Customers will receive 60 days’ notice ahead of their account closure, Venegas said in the statement, along with reminders leading up to it. This could be a signal that it’s time to stop making withdrawals and turn your attention to repayment.

Once the account is closed and you can no longer draw from it, your annual percentage rate will be frozen and that’s the rate you’ll pay on the remaining balance, Venegas confirmed.”

Chuck again… Well, I’ll tell you my take on this…  this is just the tip of the iceberg, folks… Other banks will end up following, and if they don’t, they’ll institute high banking fees to continue the programs… The Banksters really do believe they run the world, folks…

Market prices 7/12/2021: American Style: A$ .745,  kiwi .6960,  C$ .7998, euro 1.1848, sterling 1.3854, Swiss $1.0915, European Style: rand 14.4775, krone 8.7193, SEK 8.6083,  forint 299.95,  zloty 3.8436,   koruna 21.7041, RUB 74.36, yen 110.23, sing 1.3524, HKD 7.7667, INR 74.56, China 6.4477, peso 19.96, BRL 5.2582, BBDXY 1,142.75, Dollar Index 92.35,  Oil $73.54, 10-year 1.34%, Silver $25.96, Platinum $1,096.00, Palladium $2,886.00, Copper 4.23, and Gold… $1,800.10

That’s it for today… Well, my 2 week annual summer vacation is growing nearer… This will be the last week of Pfennigs for two weeks…  You know when I had a team of folks back in the day at the old EverBank, they would fill in for me… But now it’s just little old me….  All by myself, don’t want to be all by myself, anymore…  (Eric Carmen)  I’ve tried my best to get someone to be a regular contributor to this letter, but he’s enjoying his retirement too much!  Rain, rain go away… I don’t think the rain will be gone until Wednesday this week… UGH!  I guess I’ll try to eat something this morning, as all I’ve had since Friday is saltines… But I haven’t felt hungry, not after all the gyrations my stomach went through on Friday night… UGH!  So, that was great news on the MRI results, eh?  Now I just have to learn how the finding  caused the pain, and how to keep it from coming back! The late great Leon Russell takes us to the finish line today with his song: Back To The Island…  I hope you have a marvelous Monday, and please Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler