Friday, August 24, 2017: the annual gathering of central bankers and policy makers in Jackson Hole has attracted extensive press coverage. Janet Yellen – the current Chair of the Federal Reserve – gave a speech. Not in Washington or New York, but in the quiet little town of Jackson, Wyoming. Janet Yellen was not the only one to give a speech. In fact, almost any important person in the world of central bankers joined this annual symposium organized by the Kansas Fed. Even ECB Chair Mario

Let us be blunt for a moment: interest rate hikes by central banks, especially the Fed, are generally bad news for precious metals. Or better said: a greater number of rate hikes than the market currently expects, mean bad news for precious metals prices. Whoever bases his or her expectations on what the Fed casually promises between lines, is assuming that the central bank based in New York will raise the official rate once more this year and another three times in the course of next year.

If

That the Federal Reserve would leave interest rates unchanged, was something even elementary school students could have expected. Yet the big question was: when will the central bank begin selling all those US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities (about $4 trillion) which were purchased in the past few years?... »