Blog

August 28, 2006 – Gold is one of the world’s most misunderstood assets. There are many reasons for this unfortunate situation, but one stands out. Gold exists in an environment in which there are many powerful forces fiercely hostile to it. Most notable among these are governments and the myriad of vested interests that feedRead more

August 14, 2006 – The Federal Reserve has stopped raising interest rates. Therefore, the logical question to ask ourselves is whether their decision has changed anything. I think it has. While the Fed was raising interest rates, one could reasonably argue that its aim was to fight inflation, which continues to climb. In the 12Read more

August 7, 2006 – In November 2005 the Federal Reserve announced that it would no longer compile and report M3, which is the total quantity of dollars in circulation. I derided the Fed’s decision, but my reaction to the consequences of it was mixed. On the one hand, it was an important piece of anecdotalRead more

July 24, 2006 – Many thanks to Adrian Douglas for the accompanying chart of the price of gold plotted against the Dow Jones Industrials Average. Adrian first presented this chart in a commentary he submitted on July 7th to www.lemetropolecafe.com. Adrian says in his article: “I nearly fell off my chair when I plotted this!”Read more

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