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Gold, on track for its biggest weekly drop in 2 months, has traded between $1,250 and $1,261 so far today…as of 8:15 am Pacific, bullion is down $2 an ounce at $1,253…Silver is flat at $16.46…Copper is unchanged at $2.08…Crude Oil is 19 cents lower at $47.97 while the U.S. Dollar Index is up one-tenth of a point at 95.41…

Holdings in Gold-backed exchange-traded products have kept rising, even as prices back off…assets climbed 5.9 metric tons to 1,833.1 tons yesterday, the highest since late 2013 according to data compiled by Bloomberg…Gold investors aren’t buying this week’s hawkish interest rate rhetoric from Fed officials – the talk appears to be no more than a continuation of the Fed’s countless charades…however, even if the Fed were to hike in June or July, when would the next hike be in an election year?…the market is a forward-looking machine…and keep in mind that interest rates are still well below historical norms at a time when the business cycle expansion (albeit a low-growth one under Obama) is unusually long at 7 years…the average is 56 months or 4.5 years…the next recession will hit the U.S. before the Federal Reserve has the chance to hike interest rates back to a more historically normal level…

New York Fed President William Dudley said yesterday that there was a strong sense among central bank officials that markets were underestimating the probability of policy tightening…that came a day after the minutes of the Fed’s April meeting revealed that most policymakers felt a rate increase might be appropriate as early as next month…same old hawkish rhetoric with little action to show for it…

Debt Piles Up Everywhere

According to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal, U.S. credit card balances are on track to hit $1 trillion this year as banks aggressively push their plastic and consumers grow more comfortable carrying debt…that sum would come close to the all-time peak of $1.02 trillion set in July 2008, just before the financial crisis intensified, and could signal an easing of frugal habits ingrained by the recession…consumers are taking on other forms of debt, too…auto loan balances surpassed $1 trillion in the 1st quarter, a record for the industry, according to a report yesterday from credit bureau Experian…

Climate Change Fanatics Outraged Over NEB’s Decision

The “climate change” fanatics are out in full force following the National Energy Board’s conditional approval yesterday for the $6.8 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion…Vancouver’s mayor, far-left Gregor Robertson, says he will “vigorously advocate” for the federal government to reject the expansion.  “We’re very disappointed,” he told CKNW yesterday, “that the National Energy Board did not have a fulsome process that welcomed in all voices, that looked at the impacts of climate change (our emphasis) resulting from this proposal, that looked at the impacts on Vancouver’s economy which are inevitable when there’s an Oil spill in our waters.”

Robertson is a total lunatic (he also doesn’t want the name of Donald Trump, increasingly likely to become the next U.S. President, to adorn a downtown luxury tower)…his aim is to get Vancouver, not to mention the world, completely off fossil fuels by the time he hits retirement age…this is what Robertson tweeted immediately after the climate change agreement signed in Paris late last year:  “So thankful that nations agreed to fight climate change/end the fossil fuel era (our emphasis)“…

The regulator said yesterday that Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Project must meet no less than 157 conditions, so how the mayor can complain about the lack of a “fulsome process” is difficult to understand.   “These conditions would address issues such as safety, protection of the environment and other considerations,” the NEB said in a 533-page report…the federal cabinet, however, will make the final decision…

The board said the benefits outweigh the burdens (of course), and therefore the expanded pipeline will be in the national public interest…

Will Prime Minister Trudeau make the right call here?…his father, the late Pierre Trudeau, famously gave British Columbians the “finger” decades ago…will Justin, whose “sunny ways” weren’t exactly on display in the House of Commons this week with his immature, rude behavior, give British Columbians and the West his now famous “elbow”?…Justin has crafted his own version of his father’s disastrous National Energy Program, but the mainstream media are blind to it…

In today’s Morning Musings…

1. Follow the money – Colorado Resources (CXO, TSX-V) hikes financing to $4.6 million, while Critical Elements (CRE, TSX-V) draws fresh momentum from Canaccord $5 million bought deal…

2. Powerful evidence of a turnaround in Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V)…

3. Update on Gold Bullion Development (GBB, TSX-V)…

Plus more…click here to take advantage of our Spring Sizzler Subscription Special in effect for a limited time only, or login with your username and password to view the rest of today’s Morning Musings… 

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