Blog

July 7, 2006 – I’ve been using the following chart of the Commodity Research Bureau Index for years as I have always viewed commodity prices to be an important measure of overall price levels and the purchasing power of the dollar. Because of its importance, I often use this chart in my presentations at investmentRead more

June 12, 2006 – My interview in the May 29th edition of Barron’s prompted the following letter from Stuart Thomas, who manages the gold exchange-traded fund sponsored by the World Gold Council (NYSE symbol: GLD). To the Editor: James Turk asserts that exchange-traded funds, streetTRACKS Gold Shares in particular, “don’t audit the gold to proveRead more

June 9, 2006 – Michael Hodges is the publisher of the Grandfather Economic Report. His very informative website http://mwhodges.home.att.net/ states somberly: “Each generation hopes their children will have more freedom and economic opportunity. Certain trends threaten their future.” One of those dangerous trends can be seen in the following chart. This chart shows the relationshipRead more

May 29, 2009 – I’ve received more than my usual share of emails over the past several weeks. Not all of them are a result of gold’s climb to $700 and its subsequent setback. Some of the questions address issues relating to money in general and the dollar in particular, and are very interesting. SoRead more

May 15, 2006 – There has been a lot of bullish hype as the Dow Jones Industrials Average has approached the record high that marked the top of the stock market bubble in 2000. Be careful because much of this hype is seriously misguided. On November 5th I advised that the stock market was over-pricedRead more

May 8, 2006 – It was only two short months after Alan Greenspan was appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve that he faced his first crisis. The October 1987 stock market crash ended his brief honeymoon. Newly appointed Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s honeymoon has already lasted nearly two months longer than that enjoyed by hisRead more

April 17, 2006 – When will the Federal Reserve stop raising interest rates? It is the question everyone is asking these days. The federal funds rate, which is the rate at which banks lend and borrow money for short-term needs, is now 4.75%. As recently as June 2004 the rate was 1%. It seems inevitableRead more

March 28, 2006 – Each week the Federal Reserve reports various measures of the US dollar money supply. One of these, M3, is the total quantity of dollars in circulation. Last week the Fed stopped reporting M3, explaining as follows the reason for their decision: “M3 does not appear to convey any additional information aboutRead more

March 27, 2006 – For more than twenty years the Fear Index has been a reliable and trustworthy guide. I invented it in the mid-1980s in order to show us the major trends in gold, and more importantly, to illustrate gold’s relative valuation in terms of a constantly inflating dollar. It has accomplished those featsRead more

March 15, 2006 – Anybody who has been lending money to the US federal government by buying T-Bills and its other debt instruments received a brutal one-two punch last week. It was hopefully a sobering experience, causing them to question why they would want to hold any US government paper. The Washington Post landed theRead more