Around 0200 ET Saturday morning, the Democratic-led House of Representatives passed the second-largest stimulus package of the pandemic that includes a $15 minimum wage hike. The bill's passage comes as COVID-19 deaths top half a million, and more than ten million people have lost their jobs and are battling food and housing insecurities.

We live in unprecedented times of governmental, bureaucratic and authoritarian overreach. It is no surprise that The Federal Reserve, with its extreme counterfeiting of money and credit has also extended itself way beyond what anyone could have imagined. The Fed has sown the wind, and will reap a whirlwind of inflation. Central planning always fails. This time will be no different.

Put another way, the United States now resembles Italy, Europe’s basket case, where the main function of commercial banks is to finance the state deficit, while the state hands out subsidies to various political constituencies.

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“Gold is struggling due to what’s going on in the bond market,” said Bob Haberkorn, senior market strategist at RJO Futures, adding ”(but) gold prices at these levels look like a great buy.”