It’s a frustrating time for Americans right now.
First, there’s this ongoing debate about whether we’re actually in a recession or not. With many economists seeming to agree that if we’re not in one now, we will be by mid-2023. Then, there’s inflation, which seems to be, quite frankly, untamable despite how hard the Fed tries to reel it in. Plus, there’s the possibility of more aggressive Fed interest rate hikes.
That’s a lot to swallow. Furthermore, with the downward trends in all of the markets, it’s unclear what the best investment is. And if you invest in precious metals, the decision can be even more confusing.
We spoke with Craig Hemke, an expert in financial services and founder of TF Metals Report, about what investors like you should be doing and watching. He has this piece of advice.
“…Continue to take advantage of these prices and buy some physical metal and stack it, and it’s your hedge against this madness.”
He added that even central banks are diversifying out of dollars and into gold.
“Even with price going down this year, Central Bank demand, this year and the last couple of years, has never been stronger.”
In a recent interview, Craig also gave us his thoughts about the recession debate, interest rate hikes, and the Jackson Hill Symposium and how it will impact the Fed’s policy-making decisions for September.
You can read the partial transcript below:
Kaylee: “I know there’s been this ongoing debate about whether or not we’re in a recession. What do you think? Are we technically in a recession?
Craig: “Well, technically, yes…When I got my degree in economics in the late 80s, it was accepted then that, you know, the technical definition of a recession was two straight contracting quarters of GPD. Economists and political economists, which there are people out there that are economists but they come from a political bent, so they always kind of try to skew their analysis to some political goal, they can argue what they want. They can try to be a little more nuanced, as they say, in measuring a recession. You can certainly come up with some of the government data or Fed data that makes the case that maybe it’s not a classical recession, but by no means should anybody consider the economy robust or strong based off of the jobs report or something like that.”
Kaylee: “I know a lot of economists, strategists, and analysts have been saying we have a couple more months of these aggressive rate hikes.”
Craig: “Well, that’s what they’re saying. The next Fed meeting isn’t until another five weeks from now. It’s at the end of September, and Powell, the chairman of the Fed, said, the last time that we heard from him three weeks ago, that they were now going to have to be data dependent and see if the economy really is kind of swirling the drain a little bit. That maybe they can’t hike as aggressively as he’d like. I don’t know, we’ll see…The markets can only take so much. The economy can only take so much. If the stock market starts rolling over again and starts making new lows versus the lows back in early June, that will pressure them as well, so it’s going to probably take more economic pain before they switch gears again, but what we know for certain is that they will.”
Kaylee: “It’s been a frustrating time for precious metals investors, to say the least. Gold’s been down, silver’s been sideways…We have this added fear of “are we in a recession, aren’t we in a recession,” and then you throw in the possibility of more aggressive Fed rate hikes…So, what’s your advice for precious metals investors now and as they wait for prices to rise?
Craig: “Well, it’s really the same advice that we’ve been talking about on TF Metals Report for over a decade. I’ve got a friend of mine that I’ve known for about as long as I’ve been doing my report; his name is Brent Johnson; he’s a hedge fund manager, and he likes to say, ‘If you believe in magic then go ahead and own whatever, but if you believe in math, you got to own some gold,’ because the math and the exponential end of all of this that’s coming, this exponential growth of this debt and the servicing of it, just means more and more fiat, paper money being printed. You just gotta own gold. So, long term, we all just continue to take advantage of these prices and buy some physical metal and stack it, and it’s your hedge against this madness where you’re basically printing your global currencies, whether they’re the yen or the euro or the dollar, or whatever, you’re basically printing them into infinity. So, you own this because eventually, as these paper currencies trend toward basically very little value, they may appear to have value relative to each other, but in terms of what you can buy with them, is less and less on a yearly basis. As you lose confidence in that paper money, eventually the pendulum swings all the way back over to the other side and you rebuild confidence by backing it with something real again, like gold. That’s how it’s always worked in history, and it will work again.”
If you’re interested in investing in precious metals, let us provide you with a free one-on-one consultation.
The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Red Rock Secured LLC or the official policies of Red Rock Secured LLC. Red Rock Secured LLC is not a financial advisor, is not licensed to provide investment advice and neither provides investment nor financial advice. Red Rock is a product specialist that can help evaluate your precious metals purchase options.
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