Daily Dispatches

By Archie Hunter, Alfred Cang, and Jonathan Browning
Bloomberg News
Thursday, August 24, 2023

Another trading house has been stung after buying a cargo supposedly containing nickel that turned out to be full of near-worthless rubble.

The latest example, detailed in lawsuits in London and Singapore, is separate from the $600 million alleged fraud against Trafigura Group that shocked the trading industry earlier this year, but it involves several of the same companies.

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By Alex Newman
The Epoch Times, New York
Tuesday, August 22, 2023

With inflation plaguing the economy as the U.S. dollar is increasingly being sidelined in international trade, potentially even at risk of losing its status as the global reserve currency, lawmakers in Washington and state capitals are touting gold and precious metals as the solution.

From congressional efforts that would once again back the U.S. dollar with gold to state-level initiatives to facilitate commerce in precious metals, proposals are proliferating. Some have already advanced.

From The New York Sun
Monday, August 21, 2023

Communist China's struggle to shore up its yuan as it contends with a growing meltdown in its housing markets is a reminder, as it was during America's borrowing ceiling debacle, that today's debt crises are intertwined with a monetary crisis.

 This is a "moment of reckoning," says Zhou Xin of the South China Morning Post, as the bubble caused by the "monetization" of China's real estate market looks to be popping.

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By Alasdair Macleod
GoldMoney, Toronto
Monday, August 21, 2023

Globally, further falls in consumer price inflation are now unlikely and there are yet further interest rate increases to come. Bond yields are already on the rise, and a new phase of a banking crisis will be triggered.

This article looks at the factors that have come together to drive interest rates higher, destabilising the entire global banking system. The contraction of bank credit is in its early stages, and that alone will push up interest costs for borrowers.