Another gold recommendation

“Remember how much people loved gold back in 2011? I think it is time to love gold that much again.”  Jared Dillian 1/28/19, The Daily Dirtnap.

Dillian’s guesses as to why gold recently topped $1300:

*The Fed may back off on reducing its balance sheet, which would mean a looser monetary policy than previously anticipated;

*a call for “wealth taxes” by assumed Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren;

*no significant major gold discoveries in decades;

*and, the worst of them (in my opinion), the rise of a discussion in academic circles about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT).

In short, MMT proponents hold that the sovereign issuer of fiat currency can never become insolvent no matter how much money it issues and that deficits do not matter.  Proponents of MMT further assert that the point of taxation isn’t to raise revenue for the government, but rather to regulate demand as the people need money to pay their taxes.

Massive money printing has been tried many times throughout history and has always resulted in the destruction of the currency.  No matter, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are all over this, with Warren advocating a 2% to 3% “wealth tax” on billionaires and Ocasio-Cortez calling for a marginal tax rate of 70%.  These ideas are being well-received on the left.

Dillian concluded his post with “It is a blinding, blistering, bewildering display of positive gold catalysts. You couldn’t get more gold catalysts if you dreamed them all up. It doesn’t get any better than this.

“Gold should be a small percentage of every person’s portfolio. Think about making it a slightly larger percentage.”