One possible effect of the “America First” approach the Trump Administration vowed to take was a weaker US dollar. Shortly after we wrote about this earlier this year, the dollar index began a steady march lower, retreating 7% in just five months, from 102 in March to its current level of 95.

Not surprisingly, gold has risen almost 10% in US dollar terms during this time.

The latest monthly motor vehicle sales report released on July 3 paints a grim picture for US car sales. Overall June sales dropped by 3% compared to June of last year—the sixth successive month of lower year-over-year sales.

General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler were among the greatest losers with declines between 4.7% and 7%. Japan’s top sellers fared a little better, with Nissan seeing 2% growth and Toyota a 2.1% gain.

Economists and Street pundits seem to be stumped as to why Americans are so reluctant to buy cars. Hypotheses that are being bounced around range from tight credit markets to costlier car loans, to negative consumer sentiment about the economy.

Sales have fallen off a cliff, compared to 2016, a record year for the auto industry. In the first six months of this year, vehicle sales hit their lowest point since 2014, and consumer traffic at dealerships fell to a five-year low.

Who’s the main culprit here? Many signs point to subprime auto loans…

As the tension between North Korea and the US continues to grow, the possibility of war is rapidly evolving into a probability. Now some military experts worry that an attack via EMP (electromagnetic pulse) on the US mainland might be a feasible option for Pyongyang.

The signs are certainly there: Having recently completed the ninth missile test of 2017, Kim Jong-un promised to send the US an even bigger “gift package.”

Adding to Kim Jong-un’s antics and inflammatory rhetoric, the recent death of American college student Otto Warmbier after his 17-month imprisonment in North Korea has certainly fanned the flames of antagonism between the US and the rogue regime.

Han Tae Song, North Korea’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, firmly rejected the accusation of misconduct and declared North Korea operates “according to our national laws and according to international standards.”

To add insult to injury, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also denies any wrongdoing or torture of Otto Warmbier—even going as far as to say North Korea is the “biggest victim” in this situation.

On November 8, 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dropped a bombshell. In a televised address at 8:00 pm, he declared that after midnight—four hours later—banknotes with face values of INR500 (US$7.50) and INR1,000 (US$15) would no longer be legal tender.

These bills comprised 86% of the monetary value of currency in circulation, so to say that panic ensued would be an understatement. The market stayed open all night as people rushed to buy gold, Rolex watches, and anything else they could get their hands on to use up their cash.

During the next two weeks, gold traded for as much as US$3,000 per ounce, a premium of almost 100% to the international price. Foreign currencies traded at similar premiums.

Soon, Indian tax authorities descended on the gold market, confiscating security camera recordings to identify any transaction that might have bypassed taxation. They were raiding people’s houses with abandon.

Despite the recent weakness, the price of gold is still up 9% year to date and may be poised for a strong second half of 2017. This is not unusual: the yellow metal also had a strong start in 2016, only to give back some gains but ended the year in an uptrend, setting up a rally as the calendar moved to 2017.

So is there a seasonal pattern to the gold price? To answer that question, we dissected gold’s performance dating back to 1975 and identified some trends investors can use to their advantage.

Gold got crushed in the post-election rally, but a little over five months into 2017, the yellow metal is up 10.5%—making it one of the best-performing assets of the year so far.

While the outlook for the US economy is more positive than it was 12 months ago, if we zoom out for a moment, the big picture “ain’t so rosy.”

Gold has historically done well in times of uncertainty and panic… and with these seven worrisome signs, there could be plenty ahead.

There’s little doubt that from the moment Kim Jong-un took power in 2011, he has been on a mission to accelerate North Korea’s nuclear program.

There’s also little doubt this is of extreme concern to the US and the Trump administration.

Daily reports of US warships and submarines moving in along the Korean Peninsula and unrelenting missile tests in North Korea have sparked worries that a strike may be imminent. Will we end up in a war with North Korea, and what would be the consequences?

Some experts think it will be the trigger for the next financial collapse. Others call it a “national crisis” of unprecedented proportions.

But what all of them agree on is that there’s no way US pension funds can keep their promises to the next wave of retirees.

Right now, millions of Americans are hard at work believing their pensions will be their saving grace for retirement. But the predicament pension funds across the United States find themselves in does not just spell trouble for the distant future.

The crisis is happening as we speak.

On Monday, George Friedman, global-intelligence expert and chairman of Geopolitical Futures, dropped a bombshell: “I’m usually the guy to tell you about the next decade, but today I’m going to tell you about the next week. It has become apparent that the US is preparing to attack North Korea.”

Friedman—who in his long career has advised the US government and military as well as Fortune 500 companies—held the keynote speech at the annual Strategic Investment Conference hosted by investment research firm Mauldin Economics.

In the speech, he asserted that the US is very close to launching a strike on the rogue Asian nation, whose leadership has escalated its grandstanding in recent weeks.

It all started pretty harmlessly: in December 2016, after about 12 months of deliberations, the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and the World Gold Council announced a new “Shari’ah Standard on Gold.”

The new standard was celebrated as a potentially big boost for global gold demand as it would give more than 2 billion Muslims in the world access to gold-based financial products that were previously forbidden to them.

That included vaulted gold, gold accumulation plans, gold certificates, gold-backed ETFs like GLD, and gold mining stocks.