“Gold is making money, bitcoin is making money, stocks are making money, bonds are making money…. I’d rather own gold than bitcoin.” ~Jeffrey Gundlach on 2019 YTD financial market performance

By Catherine Austin Fitts

This week I present the 2nd Quarter 2019 Equity Overview with charting from Rambus Chartology. Check out the 2nd Quarter 2019 Wrap Up web presentation here for the quarterly financial charts and Rambus Chartology when posted on Thursday.

The U.S. equity market continues to outperform global equity markets. Here is a comparison of the NASDAQ and S&P with European and Chinese equity ETFs since 2009.

It is clear from comments by President Trump and members of his administration that the U.S. stock market is an essential performance indicator. Their target appears to be to raise the Dow above 30,000. I want to discuss what this means in terms of practical policies—from FASAB 56 to lower Fed interest rates to federal deregulation, privatization efforts, and the push to index capital gains taxes for inflation. I also want to review the obstacles—including increased chances of recession, explosive U.S. sovereign debt, the decline of the unipolar model, and the challenges of the U.S.-China trade war. And, oh yes, the effort to start World War III.

With new U.S. equity market highs, investors appear to be taking advantage to shift assets from equity to fixed income. As they do, the question is where they will find income in this environment. Given the rise in negative interest rate bonds, there seems to be a growing number of investors foregoing income for perceived safety.

In Let’s Go to the Movies this week, I will review the Ozark Seed Swap, which tells the story of an anthropologist living in the Ozarks who helped to organize a seed swap in Mountain View, Arkansas in 2008. Hundreds of people attended the first Swap with hundreds of seed varieties. We watch as that first Seed Swap in 2008 sprouts seven new Swaps by 2010: six in the Ozarks and one in the Arkansas Delta. The film addresses the steps necessary to establish a community seed bank and host seed swaps.

Please e-mail your questions for Ask Catherine or post them at the Money & Markets commentary here.

Talk to you Thursday!

Related Reading:

Caveat Emptor: Why Investors Need to Do Due Diligence on U.S. Treasury and Related Securities
The Real Game of Missing Money
The Missing Money

Web Presentation

You can view financial charts at the web presentation here. The Rambus Blockbuster Chartology will be posted here on Thursday. Use your Solari password to login!