Tom welcomes back Axel Merk to the show. Axel is the President and CIO of Merk Investments. Axel discusses the correlations between real rates and gold. Gold is supposed to be an inflation hedge, but people get frustrated when it doesn't immediately respond to inflation predictions. Consumers are seeing the problems in their wallet at the gas pump. Real rates are useful for predicting the markets. The Fed tells us what they want, but they don't explain how they plan to achieve their goals. Central banks often can't see the future because they rely on an idiotic backward looking framework. The Fed cares about bond markets. They aren't concerned about commodity prices. Ultimately, their goal is to keep the banks in business. The Fed is focused on demand, but doesn't know how to handle supply shocks. The political reaction to supply shocks is to provide additional stimulus or price controls, which exacerbate the problem. Instead, they should encourage additional production, and that wo...