"The Fed should, and probably will change its tune by the fall and fire up the printing presses. Its current stance of watchful waiting in the face of slowing economic growth, inflation cycling below its preferred target rate of 1.7% to 2% and naggingly elevated unemployment strikes some observers as nothing short of mind-boggling. With good reason, these critics are pushing the Fed to adopt the deflation-fighting strategy that Bernanke mentioned in 2002, when he was a newly minted Fed governor. He suggested that the Fed could always buy long-term government bonds and corporate debt to mainline more liquidity into the financial system to counteract incipient deflation."....read on
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Print, Baby, Print!
Bullion As An Alternative To 'Shorting'
Experienced precious metals investors are familiar with the many "drivers" which have been identified for the precious metals market. However, this is simply another way of saying that bullion is a good proxy for many of the dynamics in markets (and the overall economy) today.
This is a concept which is especially useful with respect to investing in a "short" position (i.e. betting that a particular investment will go down rather than up). "Shorting" a market is inevitably a much more high-risk investment than going "long".
To begin with, there is the potential for infinite losses. Bet "long", and you can never lose more than 100% of your investment (assuming we avoid the insanity of "margin" in our accounts). Bet "short" however, and there is no limit to potential losses, since there is no (theoretical) limit on how high any particular investment could rise (except for bonds). Add to that the further risk of being forced-out of your short-position, and we can see that this is a particularly precarious form of investing, best left to trading experts.....read on
Silver Has Potential To Be One Of Best Performing Assets Over The Next Five Years
By David Levenstein: Much of what applies to gold also applies to silver. And, as I have mentioned in previous articles, silver is also a monetary metal whose price is influenced by similar factors that influence the gold price. Invariably, the price of silver mirrors that of gold and more often than not, its moves are greater in percentage terms than the moves in gold. So if the price of gold moves 1% silver can be expected to move between 2%-6%. With the price of silver being so undervalued at the moment, the percentage moves we can expect to see in the future are going to be quite spectacular.
According to World Silver Survey2010 released in May by The Silver Institute, silver has continued to make gains as the European sovereign debt crises continues. "Silver's status as a precious metal was unequivocally reaffirmed last year by investors who purchased it not only as a speculative commodity-play on economic recovery but also as a safe haven asset, particularly at a time when the global financial crisis was raging," the Survey noted....read on
Chinese Inflation to Boost Gold Prices?
Over the past decade Chinese manufacturing salaries have risen from $1,000 to $3,900, according to The Daily Telegraph yesterday. But a series of strikes at key factories have sent wage inflation soaring to 25-30 per cent this year.
The low cost of manufacturing in China has been the secret of low inflation in the West in the 2000s. That deflationary force is gone. This is inflation at a very basic level. Eventually manufacturers will have to pass this higher cost on with higher prices or inflation.
Now we hear the selling of gold by Chinese banks is being liberalized. The Chinese are not immune to inflation either and will want to buy protection in the form of gold, the one currency that cannot be printed...read on