News Story of the Day: in the first half of 2016, China bought 973 tonnes of gold, which is slightly down by seven percent compared to last year. Will China’s demand for gold decline?
The World Gold Council (WGC) forecasts that China’s craze over gold will not subside. The world’s second-largest economy will continue to raise the demand for the yellow metal as the global economic outlook remains sluggish and the stock markets continues to be volatile, the WGC predicts. China has already helped gold reach two-year highs as the nation’s domestic economic picture continues to be bleak
Gold is trading at around $1,360 per ounce, while silver is trading around $20 an ounce.
Chart of the Day: European banks are falling to 2011 levels. In 2011, the continent was experiencing a massive debt crisis. Today, Italy’s lenders are creating immense declines for the entire market. A majority of Europe’s financial institutions have lost a minimum of 40 percent of value in the last 12 months. Here is a chart from Bloomberg that shows how Italy’s banking crisis is dragging down the rest of the region:
Illustration of the Day: just how much data is uploaded every single minute of the day on the Internet? This snapshot of the Internet provides a very interesting look at what we do. One particular data point is that Amazon generates $83,000 in online sales every minute! Here is the chart courtesy of Domo (via AEI).
Quote of the Day: demagogues get a bad reputation. People on the right detest leftist demagogues. People on the left, detest right-wing demagogues. Simply put: we all hate demagogues. But should we? Not necessarily, says legendary free market economist Murray Rothbard.
Now socialism is the fashionable and respectable ideology. The old passionate arguments of the soap box have become the tired cliches of the cocktail party and the classroom. Any demagogy, any disruption of the apple cart, would almost certainly come from the individualist opposition. Furthermore, the State is now in command, and whenever this conditions prevails, the State is anxious to prevent disruption and ideological turmoil. In their wake, demagogues would bring “disunity,” and people might be stirred to think for themselves instead of falling into a universal goose-step behind their anointed leaders. Furthermore, individualist demagogues would be more dangerous than ever, because they could now be equipped with rational arguments to refute the socialist cliches. The respectable statist Left, then, fears and hates the demagogue, and more than ever before, he is the object of attack.
Video of the Day: Rebel Media has an updated version of Apple’s famous 1984 commercial, but this time it’s for Hillary Clinton. It’s a good video minus the Donald Trump support. Here you go:
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