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$500 Trillion in Derivatives “Remain an Important Asset Class”: Hilariously, the New York Fed

Economists at the New York Fed included this gem in their report on a two-day conference on “Derivatives and Regulatory Changes” since the Financial Crisis: 

"Though the notional amount [of derivatives] outstanding has declined in recent years, at more than $500 trillion outstanding, OTC derivatives remain an important asset class." 

An important asset class. A hilarious understatement. Let’s see… the “notional amount” of $500 trillion is 25 times the GDP of the US and about 7 times global GDP. Derivatives are not just an “important asset class,” like bonds; they’re the largest “financial weapons of mass destruction,” as Warren Buffett called them in 2003.

“The Great Narrowing” of the S&P 500

Over the past 10 weeks – so since March 1, 2017 – five stocks in the S&P 500 index have gained a total of $260 billion in market value, the infamous FAANG stocks: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google (now Alphabet). 

By any measure, $260 billion is a massive surge in valuation for just five stocks, or 1% of the S&P 500, in just 10 weeks. 

And the rest of the S&P 500? On March 1, the index closed at 2,394. Today it closed at 2,397. In those 10 weeks, it went absolutely nowhere. Which means this: the remaining 495 stocks in the index lost as much in total market capitalization as the FAANG stocks gained.

Central Bank of Russia Added 800,000 Ounces (24.882 tons) of Gold To Reserves in March.

Russia’s central bank holdings were at 1679.687 tons of gold at end of March 2017; the sixth most of any nation.

Russian Central Bank has added nearly five times more gold to reserves than the People’s Bank of China over the past 12 months.(218 tons vs 45 tons)

DYI:  Russia continues with their stock piling of gold; in the near future oil and gas and eventually all of her natural resources will be priced in gold.  How many dollars, euros, or yens are required will be of no concern to Russia when that occurs America’s global empire will come to an end along with the petro dollar based economy.  The U.S. will continue to be a powerful nation but world control will be shared between the U.S., Russia and China.

Arizona Passes Bill To End Income Taxation On Gold And Silver

Sound money advocates scored a major victory on Wednesday, when the Arizona state senate voted 16-13 to remove all income taxation of precious metals at the state level. The measure heads to Governor Doug Ducey, who is expected to sign it into law.

Under House Bill 2014, introduced by Representative Mark Finchem (R-Tucson), Arizona taxpayers will simply back out all precious metals “gains” and “losses” reported on their federal tax returns from the calculation of their Arizona adjusted gross income (AGI).

If taxpayers own gold to protect themselves against the devaluation of America’s paper currency, they frequently end up with a “gain” when exchanging those metals back into dollars. However, this is not necessarily a real gain in terms of a gain in actual purchasing power. This “gain” is often a nominal gain because of the slow but steady devaluation of the dollar.  Yet the government nevertheless assesses a tax.

Sound Money Defense League, former presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul, and Campaign for Liberty helped secure passage of HB 2014 because "it begins to dismantle the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money" according to JP Cortez, an alumnus of Mises University.

            DYI