Yellen: What She Really Said About Interest Rates

Janet Yellen said that higher rates would be appropriate later this year, she did not say when, she did not say June, she just said later this year, provided that the economy continues to improve along the lines that the Federal Reserve expects. Now, exactly what those lines are, we do not know because the Federal Reserve does not want to tell us because they do not want to put themselves in a corner where they actually have to raise rates.

Peter Schiff is an American businessman, investment broker and financial commentator. Schiff is the CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc.

Federal Reserve: Higher Prices, Higher Minimum Wages

Inflation is the business the Federal Reserve is in. It creates inflation, it has been creating it for years and it manifests itself in many different ways: higher prices being one of them. Wages are simply a price of labor. But what is happening through out the country is this push for the minimum wage increase. Look at what is happening in Los Angeles, they just increased their minimum wage to 15 dollars which is going to be phased in over the next 5 years, which will delay the damage somewhat.

But while this is going to be problematic for businesses it is going to be a much bigger problem for all the workers in Los Angeles who cannot get jobs because what the law does is, it says that if you have minimum skills and if you cannot convince an employer to pay you 15 dollars an hour, it is illegal for you to work, so many people will not get jobs.

Peter Schiff is an American businessman, investment broker and financial commentator. Schiff is the CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc.

Wal-Mart (WMT): A Bad Quarter And It Probably Get Worse

One of the bigger signs that the economy is weakening came from Wal-Mart (WMT), which came out with their earnings on Tuesday and way below estimates. Not only were their profits down but their revenues were down. A really bad quarterly report. The stock was down 4 or 5 percent and it is now down 16 percent from its record high printed in January when everybody was so optimistic about this recovery and everybody thought that consumers were going to take their windfall from cheap gasoline prices and spend it on Wal-Mart (WMT).

Well, it did not happen. Wal-Mart (WMT) had a very, very bad quarter and it is probably only going to get worse for Wal-Mart (WMT) particularly now that they are raising their wages and so you are going to have rising costs as well as slowing revenues.

Peter Schiff is an American businessman, investment broker and financial commentator. Schiff is the CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc.