We began this Gold Commentary in January 1996.
Due to many requests, we began to archive them in May 2000.
April 25 - "Food Goes Up - Gold Goes Down"
"But the new "purchasing power", so necessary to prevent a systemic meltdown, has to go somewhere. And it has. It has gone into REAL goods. In this case, the most basic and fundamental of all REAL goods. It has, literally, gone into FOOD. ...It has not, of course, gone into Gold. Just the opposite."
April 18 - "Another New York Friday On The Gold Markets"
"Oh ho. Spot future price down $US 27.60. Silver? Down $US 0.48. Must have been another bloodbath day on the metals. Not so. Platinum up. Palladium up. Check oil. Up another $US 1.83 to another all time high - of $US 116.69. USDX? Up, but not a lot. A gain of 0.33 points to 72.25. Still less than a point above its all time low set in March."
April 11 - "When There's No More Law - We're Left With Rules - And RULERS"
"Unfortunately, the common goal of all "rule-making" bodies, from the committee in charge of the local bake sale to the "committee" in charge of the global financial system, is to perpetuate themselves. Since they are "rule-making" bodies, their function is to make rules, and more rules, and yet more rules."
April 4 - "Damn The Economy - Full Speed Ahead"
"In fact, their weapons are so formidable that they have been able to perpetuate a financial system built on a completely fiat currency having no direct or even indirect connection to the real economy on a global basis for nearly four decades. This is a considerable feat."
March 28 - "The Gold Carry Trade Reaches Warp Speed"
"As you would have noticed if you follow our daily update on Gold lease rates (available to Privateer and GTW subscribers), the shorter term (one and two-month) rates have actually gone into negative territory this week."
March 20 - "Gold - Back In The 'Box'"
"Within minutes of the Fed's announcement, Gold was down $US 25 or so in after hours trading, back below the $US 980 level. By the close of trading on March 19, Gold had lost $US 59. By the close of trading for the week on March 20, Gold had lost another $US 25.30."
March 14 - "The Unkindest Cut Of All?"
"What a difference a number, no matter how absurd, can make. On March 14, with the release of the February CPI, the futures "betting" on a March 18 rate cut of a full ONE PERCENT had gone from ZERO to well over SIXTY PERCENT. The rest of the "betting" was for a 0.75% cut."
March 7 - "A Potential Disaster - March 18, 2008"
"So, Wall Street and the US paper markets in general have only one slim thread of hope remaining. That is that the Fed will go on cutting their official rates and that one of these cuts will do what they have always done before, it will re-ignite borrowing and spending. The universal expectation is that the Fed will cut another 0.50 percent (many want 0.75 percent) at their meeting on March 18"
February 29 - "The Last Hurdle - $US 1000.00"
"When any financial asset or investment has a long term history of trading at a certain one or two or three digit price, as long as it remains in that range, most people tend to look back at its history rather than forward at its potential. The "switch" from one outlook to the other is the crossing of the threshhold."
February 22 - "But All Those 1970s Guys Got It Wrong - Right?"
"Actually, all those 1970s guys got it right, dead right. They predicted exactly what was going to happen in the 1970s - before it happened. Better still, they told anyone who would listen to them precisely WHY it was going to happen, and how to protect against it."
February 15 - "In ___ We Trust - All Others Pay Cash"
"But our era, the great credit financed financial cornucopia of the period since 1982, has been one in which that fine old credo was sadly neglected. The world became very trusting indeed. Almost anything could be, and was, held to be an entirely predictable, trustworthy and unfailing way to riches."
February 8 - "The Emperor's Old Clothes"
"Americans don't "measure" a recession as two consecutive quarters of "negative economic growth", they measure it by their cost of living, the ease with which they can find a well-paid job, and the state of their existing finances. On all three counts, the overwhelming majority know that the US is IN recession."
February 1 - "'Tooth Fairy' Economics"
"For the month of January, Gold rose 10.1 percent. For the year of 2008? Impossible to say. What we know is that in the US, the desperate measures to "reflate" a system with a huge hole where the paper markets used to be will continue and intensify. WE know it won't work."
January 25 - "'Tooth Fairy' Economics"
"The reason that the global fiat money system has lasted as long as it has is simply that the system IS global. There are no dissenters. There are no nations whose currency IS redeemable in Gold."
January 18 - "If You Don't Fix The Leak - It Won't Hold Water"
"Mr Bernanke of the Fed and Mr Paulson of the Treasury depend on public perception above all other things. They count on what they call inflationary EXPECTATIONS remaining under control. And they count on the currency they control, the US Dollar, to continue to be seen as a viable, if not a strong, form of MONEY."
January 11 - "Now It Begins - Gold Exceeds $US 850"
"After almost exactly 28 years, Gold in US Dollar terms has this week risen to new all time highs. ...By the end of this week on January 11 spot future Gold had risen further to close at $US 897.70, having also moved above the $US 900 level in intraday trading for the first time ever."
January 4 - "Gold - On The Verge In The New Year"
"In $US terms, there are two big numbers for Gold. The first is the well known spot close of $US 850.00 reached on January 21, 1980. The second is the not so well known spot FUTURE close of $US 873.20 reached on that same day, January 21, 1980. Over this past week, Gold has already closed above that January 1980 all time high on a spot basis."