Show Highlights

Happy Thanksgiving Holiday!

• Head of Research at GoldMoney, Alasdair MacLeod makes his show debut on Thanksgiving Day, 2018.
• Listeners are encouraged to bookmark his weekly commentary at Goldmoney Insights.
• The Bank of England (BoE) refused to honor its custodial arrangement and return 14 tonnes of gold held on behalf of Venezuela (MacLeod, 2018).
• Standard anti-money laundering concerns were cited as the chief reason for the refusal.
• The fact that the lenders of last resort within the central bank cartel are experiencing dissent among the ranks could send reverberations.
• Actions by the BoE illustrate that the system based on transparency is flawed amid such unanticipated opacity in the financial system.
• If central banks cannot even maintain trust within their own ranks, how exposed is the typical investor to rehypothecation, confiscation.
• Alasdair MacLeod notes that sovereign gold ownership has now morphed into a geostrategic challenge within the global economic arena.
• Russia is rejecting the US dollar as the de facto reserve currency, opting instead to procure gold and silver bullion for a new sound-money currency.
• President Putin also directed the accumulation of the largest strategic silver stockpile, worldwide.
• China may have quietly accumulated the largest stockpile of gold in the world in anticipation of a gold backed Yuan, up to 25,000 metric tons.
• China's hypothesized total of 40,000 ton stockpile plus the hastily growing reserves of Russia are viewed as a hedge against sanctions.
• Our British guest wraps up the discussion with an eloquent review of the Brexit situation from ground zero.

• Arch Crawford, head of Crawford Perspectives for 41 consecutive years rejoins the show.
• Our guest advises investors to hold a core position in gold, which could develop a base near current levels.
• A close above $1,370 would indicate a sign of pent-up bullish demand.
• Arch Crawford has closed all long positions in US equities and is holding short-term index puts, in case the current consolidation breaks support.
• The host proposes a 20% correction is a most likely outcome if recent weekly lows are breached.
• If equities hold support in 2018, next year is expected to lead to new record levels and the epic selloff will be delayed until 2020.
• Key reasons for the equities downturn include quantitative tightening (QT) where Fed officials are reversing the decades-long constrictive rate policy.
• Financial history is replete with tales of failed tariffs that rarely bode well in the long-term for countries that adopt the sanctions.
• Such Fiscal policies attract rent-seeking behaviors that typically line the pockets of political allies, doing little to improve overall economic welfare.
• The host proposes that corporate officers prepared for imminent tariffs by accumulating key strategic resources.
• The resulting significant price increases, inadvertently ignited a US equities market advance.
• Now that corporate warehouses are fully stocked with requisite resources inelastic demand is yielding to more elastic conditions.
• Tariffs are de facto inflationary resulting in higher prices across the economic spectrum, to the detriment of working / middle class citizens.
• Two previous failed experiments in US trade tariff policy include, "The Tariff of Abominations of 1825," and the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Trade Tariff Act.
• Officials are advised to proceed cautiously with the current trade tariffs to avoid a crushing global economic contraction.
• Last Thursday news that United States and China increased efforts to resolve lingering trade disputes, according to a Financial Times report.
• The United States and China doubled their efforts to hammer out a reasonable solution to the eight month trade dispute.
• The potential silver lining to the entire fiasco is being spearheaded by the US President and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
• The meeting is slated for later this month at a G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Evidently China has agreed to remove several demands on the U.S. Government regarding Chinese trade practices.
• Officials in the US have also purportedly extended an olive branch by putting upcoming tariffs on Chinese goods on hold with the proviso to halt the $267 billion on China if the upcoming meeting between the two Presidents arrives at an amicable solution.

Poor Richard's $729 Solution

Abstract

This brief paper outlines an economical solution to the perennial inferno-problem plaguing California, resulting in tragic-fatalities and billions of dollars in property damages. While the valiant efforts of fire fighters improved conditions, still over 12,000 structures were lost in the Paradise CA blaze, alone. Clearly a fail-safe option is required when conventional fire fighting methods are inadequate. A practical neighborhood fire defense of last resort is presented, the inexpensive Firezat home shield.

The 2018 California infernos were the most devastating on record, registering "National Disaster, status." In Paradise CA alone, over 10,000 homes and 12,000 structures were lost, virtually the entire town. An earlier 2018 blaze in Redding CA resulted in hundreds of lost homes, many tragic fatalities and 300,000 evacuations. While some pundits blamed inadequate water resources as a key issue in combating the wild fires, local authorities countered that ample water was available. The more likely culprits cited were: arid conditions, foliage overgrowth and urban sprawl in remote fire-prone forest regions. While the valiant efforts of fire fighters saved numerous lives, over 12,000 structures were still lost. Clearly a fail-safe option is required when conventional fire fighting methods prove insufficient. At the heart of this simple proposal, the inexpensive Firezat shield represents a remarkable product that has proven its worth via decades of use by forest management and fire fighting professionals.

The impact of future infernos could be vastly lessened via fire shields that halt the advance of infernos gaining precious minutes for firefighters and aerial support time to arrive at the scene (figure 1.1.). Customizable Firezat shields are re-useable, withstand up to 1100 degrees Fahrenheit, store for at least a decade, and are available to authorities. A siren advisory would alert citizens to install the home covers, thereby averting much of the destruction, particularly in areas most remote from firestations, lower water flow areas and high risk hotspots. Shipping facilitates the distribution of heavy duty, yet lightweight, fire resistant mylar sheeting to every house in each neighborhood. The expense to cover and protect a typical cabin or home with a Firezat shield is merely $729. Therefore shielding 10,000 homes in a typical town requires an insignificant investment of only $7.29 million, a fraction of the cost compared to the billions of dollars lost in the infernos. It is further proposed this fact proves the economic feasibility of shielding every US home or structure in fire plagued regions.