Blog

Feb 23, 2007 – A subtle change is taking place in the gold market. In addition to all of the reasons people already have to buy physical metal, gold now has a new driver. Banks are starting to report significant loan write-offs. To understand the importance of this new development, one only has to lookRead more

February 19, 2007 – On January 15th the Financial Times published a series of questions from its readers about gold that were answered by James Burton, CEO of the World Gold Council. The article can be found at this link: www.ft.com There were two answers given with which I completely disagree. These are: “Q: HowRead more

Jan 30, 2007 – The Federal Reserve will soon be meeting to discuss whether to increase short-term interest rates. Most observers expect the benchmark federal funds rate to remain unchanged at 5.25%. There are two opposing points of view about the direction that interest rates will be taking, which is always the case when itRead more

January 29, 2007 – It seems clear to me that the US is following a monetary path that is leading to ever-growing rates of inflation that will over time culminate with exceptionally high rates of inflation, if not hyperinflation. To test this point of view, I have been reading about Weimar Germany to study itsRead more

January 8, 2007 – The above title is from a very insightful article about the international monetary system that appeared in the January 5th edition of London’s Financial Times newspaper. The full title is “Digital gold and a flawed global order”, so being the founder of GoldMoney and having been awarded three US patents forRead more

December 18. 2006 – Treasury secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke (together with 59 underlings) trekked to China to meet with one of the federal government’s largest creditors. In the Great Hall of the People, under a painting of Chairman Mao, they were lectured by Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, who gaveRead more

Dec 5, 2006 – The CRB Continuous Commodity Index closed at 408.79 on November 30th, an all-time record high. This new high means that the correction in commodities is over, and prices are resuming their long-term uptrend. Consequently, hindsight tells us that we have just finished another correction in commodities. It is just one ofRead more

December 4, 2006 – This is the time of the year that I dust-off my crystal ball in order to look at the year ahead. I will share with you what I expect to be the good and bad news for 2007. But before I do that, I would like to first revisit what IRead more

Nov 27, 2006 – While America was celebrating Thanksgiving, the US dollar swooned. Major support was broken in the process, and the US Dollar Index closed at the lowest level since April 2005. The extent of the damage can be seen on the following chart. Support at 84 had been holding, but has now givenRead more

November 13, 2006 – In 1787 Russian general Grigori Potemkin constructed facades of buildings along the banks of the Dnieper River to fool Catherine the Great during her visit to the Crimea. These facades have since been called “Potemkin villages”. I think the US Treasury with the help of the Federal Reserve is playing aRead more