In an interview with Louis James, the inimitable Doug Casey throws cold water on those celebrating the economic recovery. Doug: Lobo, get out your mower; it's time to cut down some green shoots again, and debunk a bit of the so-called recovery. Louis: Ah. I have to say, Doug, the so-called recovery is looking more than "so-called" to a lot of smart folks. Even our own Terry Coxon says the recovery is real, albeit weak. Full Story
By: Adam Hamilton, Zeal Intelligence - 23 March, 2012
The beleaguered gold stocks have spiraled lower this month, heaping misery on poor fools like me naive enough to invest in them. Dwindling interest and capital has left this realm a desolate wasteland, I’ve rarely seen anything so deeply out of favor. In fact, relative to gold the gold stocks are now back down to levels only seen briefly during 2008’s epic stock panic! Are they dying, gasping their last breath? Full Story
It’s tough being a lone voice saying that gold prices will go up when they have tumbled and the financial press is writing obituaries for the gold bull market. It’s also encouraging being a lone voice saying that gold prices will go up precisely because it means that the general sentiment is very bearish and this is what we see at major bottoms. Full Story
The eight largest Central Banks’ Orgy of Fiat Money Printing continues. They inflated their Balance sheets by $3 Trillion in 2011 alone. This unprecedented-in-human-history Orgy of Fiat Money Creation is creating many downstream Negative Consequences and a select few Opportunities, for those aware of the implications. Full Story
Many decisions, made with the best of intentions, yet undertaken when emotions are running high might not result in the best direction for individuals or countries. A civil nuclear renaissance, because of energy security, safety and a reduction in our carbon footprint, should be on everyone’s radar screen. Is it on yours? Full Story
The above chart is a static model used to show just how undervalued the mining complex as a whole is relative to gold and/or silver. As seen in the chart above, the XAU is trading at an extreme undervaluation, nearly 50% as of the latest reading relative to the 6 year gold/XAU average. At first glance it would appear the ratio hasn’t seen these heights since the financial crisis of 2008. This, however, is a severely flawed measure of the utterly gross valuations in the XAU and the entire mining complex as a whole. Full Story
Ben Bernanke’s smiling face on the cover of the April issue of The Atlantic is a testimony to how short America’s collective memory is. While the Fed chief is feted as the savior of the global economy thanks to his monetary policy genius, it’s apparent how quickly many have forgotten how his sluggish response to the brewing credit storm in 2006-2007 brought the U.S. to the edge of the abyss. Full Story
By: Richard Daughty, The Mogambo Guru - 23 March, 2012
All I ask is that you buy gold, silver and oil so that when you are rich as a result of their prices going ballistic because the Federal Reserve is creating so many trillions of dollars, then you can say "I owe it all to the wonderful advice of The Magnificent Mogambo to buy gold, silver and oil when the Federal Reserve was creating so much money and acting so suicidally irresponsible." Full Story
Even now, with a catastrophic credit collapse still looming and housing prices only halfway to the bottom I’d forecast more than ten years ago, my daily numbers for the broad averages have been finely in-synch with each new upthrust. And although, like every permabear, I have a jones for trying to catch the Mother of All Tops with a perfectly timed short, and for playing chicken with the bullish herd, I continue to attempt these feats — most recently with a 1412.75 short recommendation in the E-Mini S&P — only in ways that would subject subscribers to minimal risk. Full Story
HERE'S the scenario: a falling currency, a widening trade deficit, and a population buying more and more gold. What's the result? Well, it tends to be an unhappy government – followed by a policy response. Full Story
At this point in time I don’t see reason for gold to rally. Yes, bounces can and will occur, but there isn’t reason in terms of chart analysis to get bullish at this time. If anything, in the short term I think the bear side of the market is the place to be. Full Story
The broad market, supported by the glorified boiler rooms on Wall Street, the glorified infomercials in the mainstream financial media and the glorified monetary clerks at the Fed, operates to its own set of rules and cycles. For instance, now we have conventional investors who used make cracks about their 401k's becoming 201k's actually becoming hopeful that they will regain all of their lost value. The wonders of inflationary monetary policy has brought this prospect tantalizingly close to becoming reality. Close, but... Full Story
Unquestionably there has been a significant change in investor sentiment since the crash of 2008. The 50% decline in stock prices in 2008-2009 combined with the financial sector bailouts, the "Flash Crash" of 2010, and the continued demonization of our leading financial institutions, has helped shatter the public's faith in Wall Street. With U.S. stock markets essentially flat over the past 13 years (despite occasional heart-stopping volatility), many investors may have decided that long term equity investments are just no longer worth the risk. Full Story
It’s that time of year again. Thirty five thousand people descended on Toronto to take part in the largest mining industry confab in the world. The PDAC has become famous for the broad range of attendees, the numerous parties and the gouging by local hotel operators. In case you only go to Toronto for PDAC, $500 a night is not the usual price for a three star hotel in Hog Town. Full Story
Gold’s been knocked down lately, but several enduring factors have conditioned the yellow metal for an inevitable comeback. Since the beginning of 2012, gold has trailed its precious metals peers, gaining only about 6 percent compared to double-digit returns for silver and platinum. At the end of February, gold was especially hard hit, following Ben Bernanke’s announcement that there would be no additional quantitative easing and the European Central Bank offering additional LTRO loans to banks. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Michael Fowler - 22 March, 2012
Michael Fowler, senior mining analyst with Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon, sees small- and mid-cap junior producers and developers as the "sweet spot" in the gold equities space. In this exclusive Gold Report interview, he also shares his views on the irresponsibility of the "new paradigm" of large-scale financings now in vogue. Full Story
Spring has sprung, the daffodils are blooming even here in Boulder, and meteorologists are saying that Punxsutawney Phil may have erred last month when he saw his shadow. If you’ve failed to notice all of this because the churlish tedium of Wall Street has occupied your days, then perhaps it’s time for a getaway. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Mike Kachanovsky - 22 March, 2012
Precious metals analyst "Mexico Mike" Kachanovsky, who opines on junior mining and exploration stocks at smartinvestment.ca, is bearish on the world economy, but bullish on mining stocks. Although he has seen a recent rise in narco-violence, in this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Kachanovsky urges sensible investors Full Story
An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He's diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions and his residence in yet another. He doesn't depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise. Full Story
By: Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster - 21 March, 2012
We have been in and around the gold markets for 53 years and conditions have certainly changed, driven mainly by market manipulation of all markets as a result of the Executive Order, which created the “President’s Working Group on Financial Markets.” Those who doubt that are either on the government payroll one way or the other, or you are just too dumb to understand what is really going on. In spite of these machinations and ignorant naysayers the bull markets in gold and silver are still alive and well. Full Story
The China Syndrome (1979) was a movie on the threat of a nuclear power plant's core meltdown. The phrase was said to refer to the core of the plant's falling all the way to China. The producers were blessed by the March 28 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant emergency, which for a time looked extremely serious. The movie was released on March 16. There is another China syndrome, also associated with a meltdown. This would be triggered by the central bank of China's doing nothing. Full Story
Do a search on manipulative scheme called "banging the close". Then take a look at this 1 minute silver chart today in the last three minutes of trading. Today is Tuesday which is the cutoff for the Commitments of Traders Report. I was wondering when the cutoff was since Ed Steer mentioned it in his Gold and Silver Daily recently. Is it at the close of the Comex, or the close of electronic trading? Full Story
It’s late Tuesday night and index futures are wafting higher, not so much propelled by buying as made temporarily weightless by the blissful absence of volume. The E-Mini S&Ps are trading 1405.00 at the moment after having failed to head-butt their way any higher than 1402.00 earlier in the day. This suggests DaBoyz are building momentum for a short-squeeze ahead of Wednesday’s opening. They’re bound to get help when existing home sales are released, since this particular datum has quite evidently been brought to heel by Team Obama 2012. Full Story
By: Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold/Silver Forecaster - Global Watch - 20 March, 2012
For nearly the last five years, we have seen events that were the first of their kind in modern history, from the credit crunch to the East emerging at the expense of the developed world. The oil price has risen to $145, fallen to $35 and then steadily moved up to the current $108. We have seen sovereign debt levels rise to the point where, if they were individual’s loans, the individual would have been bankrupted long ago. Full Story
Economic crises signal that the current system isn't working as expected and needs improvement. When it comes to monetary systems, questioning their fundamentals can lead to doubts about whether the preferred medium of exchange will continue to be preferred for long. The large-scale whirlwind of economic trouble around the globe has pushed some to rethink the role of gold in the economy – and to actually move toward bringing it back. Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 20 March, 2012
Dow Jones Newswires reports below how Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke criticized the gold standard during a lecture today at George Washington University. While GATA is not a gold standard advocacy organization, we can only wish that Bernanke would engage this subject where he risked a more informed and critical audience. Full Story
In the theoretical world, gold stocks are a fantastic bargain. In the theoretical world, gold and silver bullion are on sale at “once in a lifetime” prices. In the real world, gold investors (you) have bought the gold stock sales repeatedly. Instead of entering a world of sugarplum stock prices in the sky, you’ve been thrown into a gold stock gulag. After years in the gulag, instead of releasing you, the guards have dropped you through a trap door into a dungeon. Full Story
By: Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital - 20 March, 2012
Earlier this month the Labor Department reported that 227,000 new jobs were added to the economy in February, marking the third consecutive month of positive jobs growth. Many observers took the news as evidence that the recovery has taken hold in earnest, helping send the S&P 500 index to the highest level in nearly five years. However the very same day the Commerce Department reported that, after surging for much of the last year, the U.S. trade deficit increased to $52.6 billion for January, the largest monthly trade gap since October 2008. This second data set should dampen enthusiasm for the first. Full Story
We all have experienced that sinking feeling when in difficult times; we seem to have run out of options. Sometimes our frustration gets the better of us as we lash out at anyone or anything however innocent. But kicking the dog is no solution to our problems. Full Story
Gold and silver are very close to entering the mania phase of this bull market. In order for gold and silver to go into the mania phase, value has to be diverted from somewhere, and that “somewhere” is most likely stocks. Since 2000, there has been a correction in stock values, in real terms; however, nominally, stocks are still significantly high (close to its all-time highs). Full Story
According to a Bloomberg survey at a precious metals conference this week, gold is poised for a 21 percent gain in 2012, extending its bull market to 12 consecutive years. Bullion may rise to $1,897 an ounce in New York by Dec. 31 from $1,566.80 at the end of 2011. Full Story
What are the implications for the U.S. dollar and investors’ portfolios if bond prices continue to fall, as they have of late? Within that context, should investors care whether the U.S. retains its status as a “reserve currency”? Should it effect the way investors think about their own cash reserves? Full Story
Forget about “Give me a break”, it seems like you can’t even buy a break with precious metals this past week. The metals still trended down as I suspected they would and even went a little lower than my down side possibility with gold. The recent activity around precious metals and the quick draw down days where the metals get hit hard does reek of manipulation and intervention. Full Story
Recent price movements in silver have been less volatile than gold as the charts below illustrate. That is rather unusual. Silver is usually the volatile sister and gold is the paragon of stability. What is going on? And does this tell us anything about the likely future direction of precious metal prices? Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Mark Lackey - 20 March, 2012
Mark Lackey, chief investment strategist with Pope & Company, sees particular promise among small-cap gold equities in West Africa. Burkina Faso and Mali offer good topography and stable, democratically elected governments with little interest in economic nationalism. Given Lackey's view that gold will float between $1,600 and $1,800/ounce this year, he says in this exclusive Gold Report interview that now might be a good time for investors to look to Africa for upside potential. Full Story
Fast forward to today. Amid a swell of hubris on the announcement of a $2.65 quarterly dividend and a $10 billion stock buy-back plan, Apple shares finally cracked $600. A $5,000 investment in 1997 would be worth $750,000 today. We should have realized the company was bottoming when we were deluged with hate mail in the days after the Examiner column ran. Hell hath no fury, evidently, like a Mac user scorned. Full Story
The financial woes of Greece have been fairly well documented over the past year and a half that is for sure. The deduction many analysts, myself included, that the country would end up defaulting on the majority of its debt was a foregone conclusion. For the technocrats to pull a default, and then call it a bond swap, was an exercise in semantics that even Roget himself would have been proud of. The very idea of calling it a swap presents the idea that the bondholders got something other than an empty bag, when an empty bag is exactly what they got. Full Story
We can read all sorts of opinions about what you should do with your money and we hear the scuttlebutt from every pundit out there (including myself!) but at the end of the day, it is about what has done well and what hasn’t done well. Full Story
Dear Presidential Candidates: Democrats, Republicans, Independents, etc. Watching your debates and speeches of late, it is clear that you are all (with possibly the exception of Ron Paul) missing the point and only continuing to widen the gap between the US Government and the American people. Full Story
Normally, decoupling from the stock market is a good thing. In recent turbulent times, many have wondered if emerging markets would decouple or if gold stocks would decouple. Its surprising to see gold stocks decouple from a strong stock market. Many wondered if the sector would decouple from a weak market. Yet, the decoupling now could be positive long-term provided the decoupling continues when the stock market peaks just below the 2007-2008 highs. Full Story
At the end of a letter that took pains to clearly illustrate the state of the technical and sentiment situation for precious metals, the US stock rally, commodity and global market opportunities (outside the US and its election year Treasury yield curve manipulations) came the 'Wrap Up' to this week's NFTRH. Full Story
Late Sunday night, the Mini-S&Ps were butting up against a minor “Hidden Pivot” resistance at 1401.25 whose breach would suggest that yet another bullish surge lies immediately ahead. We’ve gotten so accustomed to seeing bears scramble for cover ahead of Monday morning’s opening that, in contrarian fashion, we’ve waxed increasingly cautious whenever it happens. In the current context, that means paying close attention to an E-Mini S&P rally target not far above that has the potential to stop bulls dead in their tracks. Full Story
The USD index has been trending upwards within the dark-green trend-channel since 2008, whereas major buy-signals were generated at the apex of the red triangles as thereafter the so-called „thrusts“ started. However, the goal of a thrust is to rise above the high of the triangle and transform this resistance into a new support – in order for a new upward-trend to commence thereafter. The first thrust started in late 2009 and went from approx. 74 to 88 points. Full Story
By: Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster - 18 March, 2012
A report by the London-based Lombard Street Research, which says the Netherlands is badly handicapped by euro membership, and as a result the Dutch Freedom Party has called for a return to the Guilder. Leader Geert Wilders has become the first political movement in the euro zone with a large popular base to opt for withdrawal from the single currency. The Freedom Party is a conservative populist party. We do not read Dutch, but the very fact that this information was only picked up by a few sources outside of the Netherlands shows you what managed news is all about. Full Story
By: John Mauldin, Millennium Wave Advisors - 18 March, 2012
This week we begin a series of letters on employment. I have been researching the topic more than usual for the book I am writing with Bill Dunkelberg (the Chief Economist of the National Federation of Independent Businesses) on the entire employment issue. We will look at why employment is so critical. How are jobs created and what policies can be adopted to help foster more jobs? Should the US try and keep jobs that are going overseas, or develop whole new industries? Who exactly is the competition globally for jobs? Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Scott Jobin-Bevans - 18 March, 2012
Amid the bustle of the 80th Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention in Toronto, The Gold Report sat down with PDAC President Scott Jobin-Bevans for his take on the challenges the mining industry faces. In this exclusive interview, he covers a wide range of topics, from skilled labor shortages to the trials of mining in remote northern Canada. Full Story
It was another strong week for US markets that is set to power many stocks higher soon. I’ve rarely seen so many great setups for swing trading in the leading stocks and we are and will be taking advantage of that in the week ahead. Full Story
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