Gold and silver have been considered valuable assets for centuries, especially during economic uncertainty. In 2023, with the global economy in flux due to the pandemic and other factors, investors may wonder if gold or silver is a better investment option. This article aims to overview gold and silver as investments and analyze their potential benefits, drawbacks, and risks.

Overview of Gold and Silver as Investments

Gold and silver are precious metals used as a store of value and a medium of exchange throughout history. While gold is more expensive than silver, both metals are considered valuable and have unique characteristics that make them appealing to investors. Historically, gold has performed better than silver as an investment, but this can vary depending on market conditions and other factors.

Factors Affecting the Value of Gold and Silver

Changes in various factors can cause the price of gold and silver to fluctuate, making them potentially volatile investments. The value of gold and silver can be influenced by the following factors, including:

* SUPPLY AND DEMAND: The availability of gold and silver can affect their value, with limited supply typically leading to higher prices. Economic, political, and cultural factors can influence the demand for these metals.
* INFLATION: Gold and silver have been historically used as a hedge against inflation since their values tend to increase when the cost of living rises.
* INTEREST RATES: The value of gold and silver can be affected by changes in interest rates, with higher interest rates generally making these metals less attractive to investors since they offer little to no yield.
* GEOPOLITICAL EVENTS: Gold and silver can be influenced by geopolitical events, such as wars, trade disputes, and political instability since they are seen as safe-haven assets during times of uncertainty.
* ECONOMIC INDICATORS: Various economic indicators, such as GDP, employment rates, and consumer confidence, can also affect the value of gold and silver.
* INDUSTRIAL DEMAND: Silver has a higher industrial demand than gold due to its use in electronic devices, green energy technologies, and other industrial applications. Changes in industrial demand can impact the price of silver.

Gold as an Investment

Gold has several benefits, including its ability to hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty. However, there are also drawbacks to investing in gold, such as its relatively low yield and the potential for price volatility. Economic indicators and market trends can provide insights into the potential risks and rewards of investing in gold in 2023. So whether you’re looking to buy gold or silver, consider all the above options before doing so.

Silver as an Investment

Investing in silver can provide diversification benefits to a portfolio and has historically been less expensive than gold. However, silver is subject to price volatility like gold, and its industrial use can make it more sensitive to economic downturns. Economic indicators and market trends can also provide insights into the potential risks and rewards of investing in silver in 2023.

Comparison of Gold and Silver as Investments in 2023

In 2023, gold and silver can be appealing investment options but may have different advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of Gold over Silver in 2023

Gold has various advantages as an investment option over silver in 2023. Here are reasons why gold may be a more appealing investment option for certain investors:

* SAFE-HAVEN ASSET: Gold is often considered a safe-haven asset, and its value tends to increase during economic and political uncertainty.
* ESTABLISHED INVESTMENT: Gold has a long history as a store of value and has been used as a currency for thousands of years. It is a widely recognized investment option that is traded on global markets.
* HEDGE AGAINST INFLATION: Gold can be used as a hedge against inflation since its value tends to rise when the cost of living increases.

Advantages of Silver over Gold in 2023

In contrast to gold, silver has several advantages as an investment option in 2023. The following are advantages and reasons why silver may be a more attractive investment option for some investors:

* LOWER PRICE: Silver is less expensive than gold, making it a more accessible investment option for many investors.
* INDUSTRIAL DEMAND: Silver has a higher industrial demand than gold, making it an attractive option for investors interested in green energy and technology industries.
* POTENTIAL FOR HIGHER RETURNS: Due to its lower price, silver has the potential for higher returns than gold in certain market conditions.

Factors to Consider When Choosing Between Gold and Silver Investments in 2023

Investors should consider various factors when choosing between gold and silver investments in 2023, including their investment goals, risk tolerance, and market conditions. Some factors to consider include the following:

* MARKET TRENDS: Investors should monitor market trends and consider economic indicators and other factors that may affect the prices of gold and silver.
* INVESTMENT GOALS: Investors should consider their investment goals and whether they are looking for a safe-haven asset or a potential source of higher returns.
* RISK TOLERANCE: Gold and silver can be volatile investments, and investors should consider their risk tolerance and ability to weather market fluctuations.

Gold and silver can be valuable investments for diversifying a portfolio and hedging against economic uncertainty. While both metals have unique characteristics and potential benefits and drawbacks, investing in gold or silver in 2023 ultimately depends on individual investors’ goals and risk tolerance. Investors should consider economic indicators, market trends, and potential risks and rewards before making investment decisions and seek professional financial advice.

Insurtech is an innovative and growing industry that has the potential to transform how businesses operate. There are now five Insurtech companies with multi billion dollar valuations and others are worth hundreds of millions.

Insurtech is characterized by the use of technology, the internet, and data to provide insurance services to a wide range of people such as individuals, businesses, governments, or other organizations.

Insurance companies are now looking at new ways to use artificial intelligence, such as machine learning techniques, to tailor their offerings and offer more personalized policies for their customers.

This is a big shift in the industry because it will allow insurance providers to better predict the future. And of course, with AI, these predictions have a much higher chance of being accurate because they are based on data instead of gut instinct.

What are examples of Insurtech?

Mobile Apps

These allow people to get quotes and information on their phones, which can help them in their decision about what type of insurance they need. They are also more likely to insure themselves if they know they have the app with all of this information on it in case there is an emergency.

Chatbots

Chatbots are designed to help customers interact with their insurers. They also automate a lot of processes, like providing quotes and other information to customers, so the process is more efficient and more customer-friendly.

Insurance companies are using Chatbot AI to create personalized pricing plans for their customers based on factors such as age, location, and lifestyle choices. This allows people to find plans that fit their needs without having to search through every plan available on the market.

Using Machine Learning for Risk modelling

A good example of Insurtech is the use of machine learning for risk modelling. This technology can help insurance companies collect and assess data to see if there might be an increased risk for a particular client.

Insurance companies are using machine learning to better assess risks and insure clients more efficiently.

Using Machine Learning for Demand modelling

Insurance companies are always looking for ways to reduce costs and improve the customer experience. Insurtech can help in this area. This can be done by predictive modelling, which uses machine learning to find the most accurate demand models.

Insurtech can help insurance companies predict when customers are about to leave their coverage or when they will need certain types of medical care.

Using Machine Learning for detecting fraud

Insurance companies use AI to detect fraud to save money and time. The machines can detect false claims fast because they have access to data that humans can’t see on their own.

PROCESSING CLAIMS

Insurance is a huge industry that deals with many different types of data, and that data are becoming more and more complex. Machine learning and automation are crucial for today’s insurance agencies to stay competitive in the market.

Machine Learning can be used for processing claims and providing estimations on how much insurance companies should charge for their services. Insurance companies use it to increase the reliability of their predictions.

UNDERWRITING

Insurtech companies are developing various algorithms to improve underwriting. This includes machine learning for better decision-making, natural language processing to help with underwriting and text analytics to provide knowledge on the customer.

Drones

Insurance companies are increasingly using drones to inspect hazardous properties and provide a low-cost alternative to traditional methods.

With drones, they can collect data and take photos without risking human lives. They can also fly over areas that are hard to reach by ground vehicles. Drones are also used in aerial surveying, for example, when assessing hail damage for property insurance claims.

Insurtech companies use machine learning to collect, analyze, and process insurance data. They can provide more accurate predictions of customer behaviour than other systems. Insurtech firms also have access to vast amounts of data that insurance companies cannot afford to store themselves.

Insurtech is used in the insurance industry for many purposes. Some companies use them as a way to process claims automatically instead of relying on humans which can be time consuming and error prone. Insurtech can help an insurer determine if the person is likely going to make a claim in the near future or if they have a lot of risk factors.

The use of AI in Insurtech has been increasing over time and there are many ways AI can be used in this industry such as data mining, customer profiling, and predictive modelling risk assessment among many others.

With nearly 17 billion dollars given to Insurtech startups in 2010 alone, the future for the industry looks very bright.

Managing your finances is a key life skill we all need to learn, so here are a few comprehensive steps you can take to master the art of taking care of your finances and even make yourself more prosperous by following them.

Budget

Budgeting may sound like it’s a term only people living in poverty use but that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Budgeting is the act of spending within your means. How you do it is simple. Learn how much you earn each month and keep a record of your daily transactions, what you buy and when. The most fundamental budgets within a month are food, rent and utility bills. To budget effectively you need to put a certain amount of cash aside for these things, enough to cover the basic costs. Anything beyond basic costs is living outside your means, meaning it is not essential.

Money Management

A good way to budget is to keep a money managing account either by an app or keeping a journal. Here you can find out just how much you spend on essential and non-essential purchases. If you find you are spending more than you’d like, find the area where the most money is going and learn to downgrade. There are some good apps out there that allow you to set a budget maximum each month and displays how much you save or go over that target. This keeps you informed of your expenditures and lets you know where you are going right and wrong with your budget plan.

Downgrade

Downgrading is the act of reducing expenditure to maintain a more reasonable financial lifestyle. If you find yourself not being able to meet your rent in part or full, consider moving somewhere where the rent is cheaper or cutting out non-essential purchases such as subscription services that you don’t use regularly or eating out. Little things such as these can make a big difference to financial stability and if they are causing deficits in your financial accounts, it’s time to give them up, especially if you’re struggling to make it one month to the other.

Save

One way to exert positive control over your finances is to save something from each month’s income and put it into a separate savings account at the end of the month. This creates a rainy day fund that you can fall back on during hard times. Don’t go into your essentials budget to do this. Instead, swap out a non-essential purchase to put the money into savings. You may not want to miss out but you’ll thank yourself later when and if you become unemployed for whatever reasons. It may even help you out in an emergency such as being stranded or ill.

These small steps are the key fundamentals of maintaining control over your finances. They may sound simple but they can take a little patience and time getting a handle on, so the sooner you start the sooner your finances will recover. After that, with disciplined management, your finances will recover and then grow.

Financing is the most basic need of any business. Proper allocation the capital, budgets, and minimizing cost are very essential. To attain financial stability, people should learn to manage their money usage or disbursements. They should learn how to spend in exchange for more income to avoid bankruptcy. Other businesses, especially to larger organizations, companies or cooperatives, hire financial experts or analyst to provide the studies, solutions, or support to maintain financial stability.

Some financial analyst became famous due to their unique way of analyzing and impressive way of finding solutions with no preference to answer financial problems. Here are some of those famous financial analysts:

1. Meridith Ann Whitney

Meridith Whitney is a businesswoman founded the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group (MWAG) which aims to provide financial or equity researches to companies that will hire their professional team. Later on, it was de-registered and she started to invest in another business proposal, making her the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Kenbelle Capital LP. She is famous because of his accurate forecast on some financial instability. Two of which, are the incidents of Citigroup bankruptcy in 2007, and a hundred billion dollars financial crisis in the US around 2010. Her works are very pessimistic but accurate in terms of analyzing stock value movements in the stock market, and bank stability and capacity to handle money.

2. Abby Joseph Cohen

Abby Joseph Cohen began her work as an Economist in 1973 at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC. She is now a partner and then, later on, became a senior investment strategist at Goldman Sachs. After which, she also became the Chief Investment Strategist. She is famous in predicting the bull market in the 1990’s early decade. Her skills focus mainly on practicing a professional way of investing money or spending money on difficult and complex projects.

3. Mario Joseph Gabelli

Mario Gabelli is a stock advisor, investor, and later on became an analyst. He founded the Gabelli Asset Management Company Investors also known as GAMCO. He is very famous for performing actual investment feats that make him a billion dollar earner. His career started in investing in the stock market then, later on, became famous due to his exquisite way of analyzing stock value movement giving him an astronomical amount of income yearly. He became a mentor and analyst because of his renowned and expert decision-making practice.

4. Harry Markopolos

Harry Markopolos is a former securities industry executive and an independent fraud investigator that residing in Massachusetts. He is famous for revealing big-time frauds like the illegal schemes of Bernard Madoff’s wealth management business in which his clients provide him the capital to invest the money as he pleases. Prior to his discovery, government and relevant officials does not believe to what Markopolos accusing Madoff. Instead, they urged him to provide the illustrations and explanations on how Madoff do his schemes but he failed. This did not stop Markopolos from alerting the authorities until his own sons revealed the illegality of his business. Markopolos is one of the famous fraud determiners of all time and considered a reliable business partner to avoid fraud deals that may lead to a financial crisis.

These persons mentioned above are some of the most famous financial gurus or analyst of all time. There are a lot more financial analyst experts out there that offer their services that can help any business establishments avoid bankruptcy or financial problems now or in the future. Just to be sure, try to ask or research their achievements and qualifications first, before hiring and trusting one.

In this article we will aim to pin point various advantages and disadvantages of using trade finance in your international business.

What is trade finance?

Trade finance is the special type of loan designed to cater to the needs of international import and export companies. It is offered in times of need, and is typically offered by big banks with an international presence.

Fortunately for small business’ the last ten years has seen the emergence of financial institutions that will offer trade finance for domestic business transactions.

What are the benefits of using trade finance for my business transactions?

1. If used with caution and professionalism trade finance can be used to grow a business. The funds made available can be used to purchase larger consignments and therefore secure large returns. There are many conglomerates that have built their presence from good financing.

2. Trade finance can be used to liquidate a large consignment. This is a case where two trading partners are in need of a large sum of liquid cash to ensure continuity of their business transaction. In most instances a large private equity firm prefers to offer their liquidity in exchange for discounted commodities.

3. There have been cases where trade finance is used to save a dying company. In such a scenario a business will be granted a specific amount of money to ensure its continuity. This will enable them to pay off suppliers, employees and all other accrued debts,

4.Trade finance can also enable a business to preserve their existing cash reserves. For instance a supermarket chain can borrow in order to preserve the liquid cash contained in its tills.

I’ve heard that trade finance can sometimes have a downside, is this true?

Despite its numerous advantages there have been a few instances where trade finance cause more harm than good. Here a few.

1. Hong Kong is a city that has become very expensive for doing business. Financial institutions tend to charge exorbitant fees and interest rates for trade finance. This is the reason why most seasoned entrepreneurs advise against it. Modern banks are however trying to reverse this by offering cheaper loan term.

2. There have been scenarios where trade finance has multiplied losses. Leverage is double sided sword that cuts both ways. It will multiply your losses just as much as it will boost your profits.

3. Most small business don’t qualify for trade finance. Financial institutions such as banks tend to steer clear of any entrepreneurs who haven’t been in the game for a while. They would rather focus on established individuals than gamble on people with new untested ideas.

4. Taxes. In modern times tax consultants tend to advise against borrowing due the excessive taxation on trade finance. Most governments tend to place imports and exports above all other taxation brackets and therefore international companies would rather tread carefully.

Trade finance has been both a dream and nightmare for entrepreneurs globally. In the near future banks will have adapt to emerging technologies such as bitcoin which could further improve trade finance.

Economists in the United States of America recently aired their concern about the country’s rising federal debt. America now exceeded $21 trillion debt as of March 15, 2018, and right now, it is alarming that the country’s debt continuously rises every year.

The USA now faces a massive debt crisis. This is why top economists believe that it is now time to go back to Gold Standard.

“Gold Standard” refers to a monetary system which utilizes the nation’s money value according to its equivalent amount in gold which the country posses. The gold standard can help with self-regulating and stabilizing the economy. It is beneficial because the country’s fixed asset backs the nation’s money value. The government cannot print the exceeding amount of money, and they can only print bills which is equivalent to the corresponding amount of gold that the country has. Thus, this system can help prevent inflation, budget deficit and the rise of more debts.

America has been under the Gold standard for 180 years until it was abolished by then President Richard Nixon in 1971. Political analysts believe that during those years, America is performing well in terms of economics.

Steve Forbes, a US business tycoon, believes that returning to Gold Standard is the best and most realistic option now, as it is the best solution to the current crisis in the economy. He stated that if the country was able to continue under the gold standard, US economy would have been 50% larger by now. Forbes added that dollar measures up value, so, when the dollar value is stable, the country will definitely gain more investment. It will create more jobs and opportunity, and of course, will boost the economy.

This is the reason why many believe that it is about time to bring back the old system. Gold Standard is the only solution to the growing economic problem in the USA, and the government must start working on its implementation at the soonest time possible to save the US economy.

Studies show that the USA now has the biggest sovereign debt in the world, and this is just for a single country. This is ironic to the belief of many nations that America is wealthy. No. America is suffering economically and this is a sad fact. The truth of the matter here is that America’s debt is far greater than what the country produces whole year round! Alarming, isn’t it? America’s GDP or Gross Domestic Product is very low as compared to the nation’s overall debt. This makes investors back out, thus, adding more complication to the ongoing problem in the economy.

We can only hope for the eventual rise of the economy when the government finally bring the Gold Standard back. Gold Standard will boost investment and can help America become more productive. The gold standard will also make the foreign exchange market become stable and can contribute to the appreciation of the dollar value. With this, we can expect America to rise again politically and economically. We will definitely look forward to the day when America finally brings back its old glory.