Blog

December 8, 2003 – Since the spring of 2002 the World Gold Council (WGC) has been developing an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for gold. The objective is to eliminate the hassle and inconvenience of handling physical metal by providing the ownership of gold through a listed security that can be conveniently purchased and sold through stockbrokers.Read more

December 1, 2003 – By a so-called Executive Order, President Roosevelt declared on April 5, 1933 that: “All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve Bank or a branch or agency thereof or to any member bank of the Federal Reserve System all gold coin, goldRead more

November 10, 2003 – “Predicting rain doesn’t count – building an ark does.” So says Warren Buffett. Long-time readers of these letters know that I hold Mr. Buffett in the highest possible regard. Though I have never met the man, I admire him from afar, and I continue to marvel at his exceptional track record.Read more

October 27, 2003 – Because financial statements provide a snap-shot of a company’s balance sheet for just one day, the opportunity exists for corporations to take steps before their fiscal year-end to ‘window dress’ their financial accounts. In other words, they take those actions that they believe will present the financial statements sent in theRead more

October 6, 2003 – After gold trading closed in New York on Friday $13.70 lower from the previous day, a Reuters article gave the following reason for gold’s rout: “Gold tumbled 3.5 percent in New York on Friday as the first rise in U.S. payrolls in eight months lifted anxiety about economic growth and underminedRead more

September 15, 2003 – Back in January 1993 The Economist magazine published an article entitled “Fool’s Gold”. It was so full of inaccuracies and blatant anti-gold propaganda that I felt compelled to respond, and did so in Letter #120 (“No Fool’s Gold”, published March 1, 1993). There is no need to go into details, butRead more

August 25, 2003 – Debasement is a word often used to describe money, or more precisely, the decline in the value of a currency. According to Webster’s, it means “to lower in status, esteem, [or] quality.” That definition surely applies to the dollar, and many other national currencies for that matter. But debasement also hasRead more

August 11, 2003 – Thirty-two years ago this week, President Nixon changed the course as well as the innate qualities of the dollar. The dollar, which is a money that predates the Constitution, had always been a precise weight of precious metal – silver until 1900 and gold thereafter. All that changed in 1971. ButRead more

July 27, 2003 – A lot has happened this past week, and as far as gold and silver are concerned, all the news has been positive. I decided to publish this Interim Letter to provide a quick update. And to do this, I will use the accompanying charts. Looking first at gold, we can seeRead more

July 21, 2003 – I’m no fan of John Maynard Keynes. I find most of his economic theories to be just plain wrong. But because I am a determined and outspoken advocate of truth and accuracy, I would like to correct a terrible injustice levied on Keynes, and at the same time also correct anRead more