Peter's Blog

Budget Deficit Represents More Than 35% of Total Federal Expenditures

The federal budget deficit in October came in at $165 billion. That represents a staggering 36.8% of total expenditures for the month. This is slightly below the 12-month average where the deficit represented 39.3% of total expenditures. Over the twelve-month period, the total deficit was $2.65 trillion driven by total expenditures that reached $6.7 trillion. […]

Analysis: CPI Blasts Past Expectations; Price Increases Widespread

The October CPI data came in even hotter than expected, and we saw widespread price increases across multiple categories. The following provides an in-depth analysis of the most recent CPI data.

Treasury Binges in October, Adding Almost Half a Trillion in Debt

After all the drama, Congress finally did what everyone knew it would do.  It raised the debt ceiling by $480 billion in October. The Treasury wasted no time and quickly added $480 billion to the national debt in the second half of the month. With this new debt tagged on, if the Fed has to […]

Strong Jobs Creates Buying in Gold? Is All the Bad News Priced In?

October jobs came in at 531k, finally beating expectations with strength shown across the board. Furthermore, August and September were both revised upwards by over 100k. ‘ Perhaps even more surprising is the early reaction in the gold/silver market. More on this below.

September Trade Deficit Smashes June Record by 10.5%

The September trade deficit smashed the record set just last June. September 2021 charted a total trade deficit of -$80.9 billion. That was up a massive 11.2% over the August trade deficit of -$72.8 billion and crushed the previous June record of -$73.2 billion by over 10.5%.

Hedge Funds Increase Net Longs 180% in Gold and 726% in Silver During October

Hedge funds closed shorts and went long in both gold and silver in October. Please note: the COTs report was published 10/29/2021 for the period ending 10/26/2021. “Managed Money” and “Hedge Funds” are used interchangeably. The Commitment of Traders analysis last month highlighted the potential over-extension of the shorts leading to a rebound. This proved to […]

November Comex Delivery Analysis

I reported last week that Comex delivery activity was looking very quiet in both gold and silver. The results for November are very weak. That being said, October and November are historically slow months, so the real test will come in December. This analysis focuses on gold and silver physical delivery on the Comex. See the […]

Did the Fed Experiment With a Mini-Taper and Fail?

The Federal Reserve has slightly slowed its asset purchases over the last few months. Was this a trial mini-taper? If so, the results are not good news for the central bankers over at the Fed. The Fed balance sheet stands at $8.56 trillion. That’s up by $108 billion from the prior month-end, but down over […]

Money Supply Grows Almost 10% Annualized and Nears $21 Trillion

In the latest period, M2 increased by $163 billion and sits just shy of $21 trillion. This represents a 0.78% MoM increase which annualizes to 9.8%. This is below last month’s rise of $254B and last September’s rise of $223B.

Fiscal Spending Up 18.7% MoM and 4.1% YoY

The federal budget deficit for September 2021 was $61.5 billion, down from the $171 billion in August. Even though the deficit fell 64% MoM, it was driven primarily by receipts. Spending was up 18.7% MoM but receipts were up 71.2% driven by a surge in corporate and individual taxes.