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April 12, 2010 – On August 16, 1999, I recounted how legendary traders Jim Fisk and Jay Gould had profited handsomely from a massive short squeeze in gold 130 years earlier.  The opportunity they took advantage of arose because of the ongoing monetary turmoil of their day arising from the so-called “greenback”, the irredeemable fiatRead more

April 10, 2010 – Gold climbed $36.00 this past week, a substantial 3.2% weekly gain.  Importantly, gold has finally hurdled above resistance around $1140.  In fact, it literally blew right through it. It has been nearly a month since I wrote that we should “note how strong gold has been throughout this correction.”  Even thoughRead more

The shorts in gold – and particularly the shorts in silver – felt some pain today. Gold climbed $11.80 to close on the Comex at $1125.10, a 1.1% gain for the day. Silver did nearly twice as well, up 2.1% for the day and ending at $17.876, the highest in ten weeks. The gold/silver ratio fell to 62.9 from 63.6 the day before.

April 1, 2010 – Everything is lining up for silver, which looks ready to soar.  The catalyst to launch silver like a rocket may very well turn out to be last week’s CFTC hearing, which revealed the huge naked short position in the precious metal markets.  In my annual forecast for 2010, I said: “WeRead more

Everyone should be taking note that the yield on the 10-year Treasury note this week climbed to a 9-month high. The T-note is sending a loud and clear message: interest rates are headed higher.

March 22, 2010 – Only a few decades ago, the United States was the world’s largest creditor nation.  American capital spanned the globe financing all types of investments in virtually every country.  But that dominance began to erode in the 1960s because growth in consumption in the United States was starting to outpace new production. Read more

There is a prevailing view held by American policymakers that debt and resurgent consumer spending will lift the country from today’s financial morass. The thinking goes that the road to recovery will be reached only if consumers once again start to borrow and spend.

March 16, 2010 – Gold has been stopped time and again in its decade-long bull market by recurring hurdles that appear at an ever-higher price.  During these encounters, several things happen, most notable of which is the growing bearish sentiment in the face of a seemingly insurmountable price barrier.  We are seeing that pattern repeatRead more

March 1, 2010 – As the financial crisis has unfolded over the last two years, the Federal Reserve has been responding in a variety of unprecedented ways.  Therefore, it is logical to assume that these never-before-used actions have altered long-established ways of viewing things.  One area that has been impacted is the US dollar moneyRead more

February 26, 2010 – There have been numerous reports about the sharp decline in bank lending since the beginning of the financial crisis.  The Wall Street Journal, for example, on Wednesday reported in an article entitled “Lending Falls at Epic Pace” that last year’s decline in lending is the biggest since 1942.  It also providedRead more