The Bank of International Settlements under Basel-III changed the status of gold as a reserve asset effectively on April 1, 2019. Gold used to be viewed by the banks as a risky asset and classified under “Tier-3”, which meant it was considered risky and could only be carried on the books at 50% of […]

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: A Pilipino ship was sunk in the South Chinese Sea. The Philippines sent a formal diplomatic protest to Beijing on Thursday condemning the actions of the Chinese ship and urging China to investigate the matter. The Chinese responded by calling the incident an “ordinary maritime accident.” There are currently joint Japan and […]

QUESTION: Martin, I went over three blogs this morning (both public and private); they are The FED Between a Rock & a Hard Place, Manipulating interest rates & Public vs Private Interest Rates. A common theme of the FED possibly pegging interest rates and inflation. My question is: If the FED is induced to peg […]

QUESTION: Dear Martin I have a question for the blog. There has been forecasts for a sovereign debt crisis but recently you have discussed how various governments may manipulate govt bond interest rates down as has happened in Europe and Japan. If Europe and Japan are anything to go by then this could go on […]

QUESTION: Dear Mr Armstrong, Not sure if I am understanding it correctly. Is the FED currently between a rock and a hard place? The FED is not able to cut rates (implement QE) due to the current pending/ongoing crisis of the US pensions, and they cannot raise interest rates as it’s going to cause more […]

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: News emanating out of China states big tech firms are planning to move production out of China. This comes around after Huawei just failed to launch their new laptop. This was a first time a Huawei product failed to launch since the trade war began. An Apple partner, Foxconn Technology Group, said […]

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: In Hong Kong over a million people attended a demo today to protest the recent ruling which will allow extradition to China; with those questioning the future of democracy in the region. The trade war is still escalating between the U.S. and China, with China stating they will “fight to the end.” […]

  QUESTION: Good Sir, When you say the ‘rich get rich by investments, not wages’ you fail to identify the following wealthy class. CEO’s of corporations, ‘Hollywood’ movie stars, Sports athletes, Recording artists, etc. Regards and continued success, An avid follower LB ANSWER: There are always exceptions, but those who receive big bonuses or high […]

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: President Trump has told CNBC (US) that he believes China will make a deal with the U.S. because they “will have to.” He also reiterated that putting the tariffs on countries like Mexico and China will put the U.S. at a tremendous competitive advantage. Earlier in the day, President Trump tweeted that […]

ASIA / AUSTRALIA: Chinese technology giant Huawei signed a deal with Russia’s largest telecoms operator MTS to develop 5G technologies and launch a fifth-generation network in Russia within the next year. This is another example of the close Chinese-Russian relationship. Swiss bank UBS and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Trust (who has 2.6 trillion under management) have […]