Silver prices have been volatile ever since the debt ceiling debate started, and investors have mixed feelings about the metal. Should they move towards silver as a safe haven investment or move away from it as the U.S. economy narrowly avoids ruin?
How the U.S. Economy Affects Silver
Silver is much like gold in that it seems to do best when the dollar is at its worst. It... read more
Whenever we see another case of manipulation in the currency, energy, gold, commodities, interest rate, credit derivatives, securitization, or equity markets, management of the culprit financial institution inevitably blames it on “unauthorized” trading by one or more “rogue” traders.
Traders’ salaries are low relative to the potential for seven figure bonuses. When you offer a tra... read more
It may be in the readers mind that somehow all gold markets come together at some point and an exact representation of demand and supply is given by the gold price. The reality is that most markets are entirely separate from each other and reflect the buying and selling in that individual market only.
These markets are only joined by the arbitrage activity, usually only by the professi... read more
James Rickards is the author of the national bestseller, “Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis” and a Partner in Tangent C... read more
The Fed's mode of operation has drastically changed over the past 12 years. Prior to 2002 the Fed would tighten monetary policy in reaction to outward signs of rising "price inflation" and loosen monetary policy in reaction to outward signs of falling "price inflation", but beginning in 2002 the Fed became far more biased towards loose monetary policy. This bias is now so great that we are star... read more
Recently published an article proposing a new measure of money supply, the Fiat Money Quantity (FMQ), so that a direct comparison can be made between gold and currency, principally US dollars. This has two important functions: it allows economists to compare sound money with fiat currency for the purpose of monetary analysis, and it allows us to adjust the price of gold in dollars to allow... read more
Surely this is nothing new. China and the BRICs have been calling for a change in the US dollar reserve currency regime since at least 2009.
The problem with abusing a long standing arrangement is that it takes quite a bit of energy to fray such an arrangement, given its momentum. And the US has risen to unipolar superpower status over the past twenty years with the fall of the Soviet Union.... read more
By Keith Weiner
"Workers’ wages buy less and less. In fact, workers have lost purchasing power during the past half-century. Comparing prices to wages, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose more than six times from 1965 to 2011—while the minimum wage rose less than five times.
Professionals also suffered. According to the Engineering Workforce Commission, a senior engineer’s salary ha... read more
We use the term “reserve currency” when referring to the common use of the dollar by other countries when settling their international trade accounts. For example, if Canada buys goods from China, it may pay China in US dollars rather than Canadian dollars, and vice versa. However, the foundation from which the term originated no longer exists, and today the dollar is called a “reserve cu... read more
Gold advanced the most in a week as U.S. lawmakers struggled to reach an accord on raising the nation’s debt limit, increasing demand for the precious metal as a haven.
With the U.S.’s borrowing authority set to lapse Oct. 17, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday that he had a “productive conversation” with Minority... read more
