Blog

April 21, 1997 – A distinguishing feature of the twentieth century has been the emergence of the Nation-State, and most of these territorial entities have been characterized by an autocratic, out-of-control central government exercising unconscionable and excessive power, even while pursuing a mindless drive for more. Even in those Nation-States where the accumulation of powerRead more

April 7, 1997 – Cult TV stars Mulder and Scully never had a case as bizarre as this one. Even though aliens have not yet landed in the jungles of Kalimantan, Indonesia, the saga of Bre-X Minerals is about as strange as they come. Having looked deeply into Bre-X many times over the past twoRead more

March 24, 1997 – Like bombs from the belly of a B-52, T-Bond prices are falling around the world. It is a phenomenon not confined just to the United States. Bond markets everywhere are responding to the rapid expansion of global liquidity that has been taking place since 1992. I’ve discussed this monetary phenomenon before,Read more

February 24, 1997 – The finance ministers of the G-7 industrialized nations have spoken. ‘The Dollar stops here!’ After two years of Dollar strength relative to the other major national currencies, we are entering a new era. No more Dollar strength. No more Yen and Deutschemark weakness. So they say. We’ll see. I question whetherRead more

February 10, 1997 – The past few weeks have been rough ones for Gold. Can we expect more of the same, or is the bloodletting nearing an end? No one knows the answer, nor is it useful to try guessing what lies in the future. But it will be helpful to understand what is happeningRead more

January 27, 1997 – It has become a tradition of mine at this time of the year to share some of my thoughts about the various markets, and to make some forecasts for the year ahead. I also use this occasion to look back at the year just passed, and for the first time inRead more

January 6, 1997 – An old Chinese proverb says that wisdom begins by calling things by their right name. It is possible to create a corollary of this adage that applies to the stock market. Investment savvy begins by accurately measuring the relative value offered by any stock. To explain this notion, assume that yourRead more

December 9, 1996 – We have a problem. It is not an easy problem to solve, but it is an easy problem to understand. It has to do with money, and specifically, the US Dollar. The problem is that the Dollar is constantly changing. The name remains unchanged, but not so a Dollar’s purchasing power.Read more

November 25, 1996 – Nobody these days has anything good to say about Gold. In keeping with prevailing sentiment, I won’t say anything good about it either. However, I will make some basic observations about Gold, and hopefully these obiter dicta will provide enough common sense to enable one to make an informed judgement aboutRead more

November 4, 1996 – In the last letter I noted the possibility of “one last upward spike in T-Bond prices to provide the markets with one last piece of good news before the presidential election.” We are getting that spike in prices now. I happened to be watching CNBC this past Friday morning after theRead more