We began this Gold Commentary in January 1996.
Due to many requests, we began to archive them in May 2000.
December 29 - "As 2006 Winds Down"
"For Gold, the major difference this year to the previous years in the bull market which started in 2002 is that for the first time, Gold's high price for the year was NOT set in December. This year, Gold reached its $US 721.50 2006 high way back on May 11."
December 22 - "As 2006 Winds Down"
"As the clock counts down on 2006, the situation in essence is simple. In the US, and Administration and a political establishment are in disarray. They are agreed on only one point. They want to retain POWER."
December 15 - "The Acme Of Effrontery"
"Have you ever considered the fact that almost every single economic or financial "statistic" released by government is made of "rubber". These statistics are designed firstly to put the absolute best slant on the nature of the economy possible."
December 8 - "An Inadvertent Truth"
"'In effect, the United States proves a service to the rest of the world -- a global currency -- and is repaid with imports.' (emphasis ours). This is true, its implications are monumental, and it is tossed off as if it was a triviality barely worthy of mention."
December 1 - "A Very Unmerry Christmas For The Fed"
"Every basis point that the USDX falls from here is a new 52-week low. And please note that the index now is well over a point lower than it was in mid May this year - when Gold was making its bull market highs just above the $US 720 level."
November 24 - "The First Big 'Crack' - The US Dollar"
"Here is an interesting question. If the USDX remains at these low levels or continues to fall towards the critical 80 level, how long will Gold remain below those mid May 2006 highs? The answer is, of course, simple. As long as those in charge of the global financial system can keep it there."
November 17 - "The Lame Duck Economy"
"In current economic circumstances, the only thing that would induce the Fed to raise rates would be a CRASH DIVE of the US Dollar. Even that might not do it. The Dollar could, of course, crash dive at any time. Foreigners wouldn't even have to sell it, all they would have to do is stop buying it."
November 10 - "The Most Important US Elections EVER - Aftermath"
"After six years of it, the American people finally showed that they have had enough of living in a one party state with the Republicans controlling the Executive and Legislative branches of government and potentially in a position to control the Judicial branch too via future Presidential appointments to the Supreme court."
November 3 - "The Most Important US Elections EVER - NEXT WEEK"
"Modern paper financial markets thrive on economic and monetary manipulation by the "powers that be". Political uncertainty and/or growing political chaos puts in danger the continuing ability of those powers that be to continue to manipulate money, interest rates, credit etc in the way to which the markets have become accustomed."
October 27 - "The Most Important US Elections EVER - Week Four"
"The situation is reminiscent of the 1968 Presidential elections and the 1970 mid-terms. Then, as now, the big issue was war. Then it was Vietnam, now it is Iraq/Afghanistan/"terror". Then, as now, the political rhetoric was focussed on the war and US foreign "policy" in general while economic and financial issues were put well to the back of the stove."
October 20 - "The Most Important US Elections EVER - Week Three"
"In politics, the only ultimate safeguard is a codified respect for individual rights (life, liberty, property) backed up by a respected institution whose sole purpose is to protect those rights. In economics, the only ultimate safeguard is a medium of exchange NOT subject to alteration by the whim or edict of anyone."
October 13 - "The Most Important US Elections EVER - Week Two"
"Gold has had a good week this week, gaining $US 16.00 in spite of a higher US Dollar and a great deal of pumped up ballyhoo about the Dow's new "highs". On top of that, we now have a solid support point established in the low $US 560s."
October 6 - "The Most Important US Elections EVER - Week One"
"Truly, political economy as it is practiced in a one-party state is not a pretty sight. One can only hope that enough Americans hold their noses and vote against Republicans next month to make absolutely sure that Mr Bush loses control of one or preferably both Houses of Congress."
September 29 - "How Political Is This Economy?"
"Now, given the slaughterhouse of political (not to mention ethical and moral) principle which the US Congress has become, can there be any further "surprise" at the situation in US so called "markets"? The situation is as breathtaking as it is farcical, with the mid-term election on November 7 still more than a month away"
September 22 - "Economic Orthodoxy - Or - How To 'Cure' A Recession"
"Inside the US, and in a surprisingly large number of nations outside the US, the US Dollar is complacently viewed as being utterly invulnerable and invoilate. It is an article of faith that no matter what level of interference the Fed resorts to to achieve yet another "soft landing", it will have minimal effect on US MONEY."
September 15 - "Vote For US - Or Else!"
"As we have stated many times, political power rests on the ability to control and manipulate what a nation uses as its money. Gold and Silver cannot be manipulated. Paper can, and so can the paper "valuations" of Gold and Silver. Right now, the whole world is being held hostage to a failed drive for empire based on an unsustainable monetary and financial system based on nothing more or less than promises to pay."
September 8 - "Desperate Men Weave Desperate Fantasies"
"The reason for this gartantuan "shear" between the actual fiscal and economic state of the US and the state of US "markets" is clear to see. It is, of course, the upcoming November mid term elections and the desperation of the Bush Administration and the Republicans to hold onto both Houses of Congress."
September 1 - "The 'Fascist' New World Order"
"If one does that, one frequently discovers that person to be the perpetrator of all the evils he is accusing his "enemies" of practicing. Don't listen to what Mr Bush says, look at what his Administration DOES! You will quickly find that "fascist" is a sharp term that cuts both ways."
August 25 - "The Australian Stock Market re-institutes a "Gold Index""
Effective 7 August 2006, the ASX commenced providing data fro two additional industry groups:
XGD - ALL ORDINARIES GOLD (Sub Industry)
XMM - S&P/ASX 300 Metals And Mining (Industry)
August 18 - "Gold Price Manipulation In A New Light"
"The only monetary system in which there is no "manipulation" of the Gold price is a system in which there is no "Gold price" to manipulate. Under a genuine Gold standard, Gold IS the money. As such, it forms the "denominator" in ALL prices.""
August 11 - "When Distractions Aren't Enough - Try Paranoia"
"Then came an announcement out of the United Kingdom that British Police forces working with MI5 and "others" had foiled a gigantic terrorist plot to smuggle explosives contained in drinks bottles aboard trans-Atlantic flights from the UK and the US and 'create mass murder on an unimaginable scale""
August 4 - "The Most Dangerous Financial Myth Of Them All"
""The reality is simple. Higher interest rates illustrate a rising distrust of paper currencies. As long as the rising rates compensate for the increasing perceived risk in holding the currencies, the holders will stick.""
July 28 - "Stop It Or We'll Go Broke"
"Let's first look at the stock market. When a stocks' earnings come in below expectation, that stock is usually savaged with its price dropping - quite often dramatically. But when the entire US economy fails to meet expectations - the second quarter "growth" figure being 0.5% below the consensus of Wall Street analysts - the whole stock market goes up?"
July 21 - "A Minor Manipulation - The Gold Price"
"Yes, the manipulation of the Gold "price" this week has been BLATANT in the extreme, as blatant as has been seen at any time in the last decade plus. This is abhorrent, it is true. But is it more abhorrent than what has gone on in Lebanon ...?"
July 14 - "Summer Yes - Doldrums No"
"But while the political and military chaos ramps up, the underlying cause of it all is mentioned, if at all, behind very tightly closed doors. The financial powers that be, and these are precisely the parties which have gathered for the G-8 summit in St Petersburg, would have us believe that the econonomic state of the world is "just fine"."
July 7 - "Short Week - Short Comment"
"We have recently had a couple of emails asking us just when we were "sure" that the current Gold bull was in place. For those of you who haven't read our archives, which go back to May 2000, here's a piece we wrote back in June 2001"
June 30 - "Clutching At Broken Straws"
"To worry about the insidious effects of inflation NOW is to have been asleep for at least the past decade. To harbour any hope that the Central Bank can painlessly correct the economic and financial imbalances they have been so instrumental in creating and nurturing to their present monstrous size is to clutch at the most broken and threadbare of straws."
June 23 - "The 20% A Year Expectation"
"What do you think would have been the 'consensus' from owners of Gold back in early 2001 (when Gold was languishing just above the $US 250 level) about their future expectation for Gold prices. Would ANY of them have answered 20% a year.6"
June 16 - "Out Of Paper Into Paper"
"Below is a table containing eight representative markets - three "commodities", one currency, and four major stock markets. They are arranged in order of the size of their percentage falls to date from their 2006 highs. The table also shows their performance to date in percentage terms from the level at which they began 2006"
June 9 - "Seeing Gold Through The Looking Glass"
"Sooner or later, it had to happen, and now it has. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - Gold is being pressured by "heightened inflationary fears! It must be, it says so right there in this article!!"
June 2 - "Delaying The Day Of Reckoning"
"But given the gartantuan levels of debt owed at all levels - public and private - right across the US economy, interest rates are already at a level where the servicing of debt is threatening to collapse the US economy. The US economy stood 20% rates in 1980. Today, it could not stand even 10% rates and is stretched to extremis even to stand the current 5% level of the Fed Funds rate."
May 26 - "A Quote From August 15, 1971"
"We cannot ask Herbert Stein today what if anything he would add to his analysis of the closure of the Gold window. He died at the age of 83 in 1999. But what he wrote back in the early 1970s is typical of what all politicians and most mainstream economists thought, and still think, about the role of Gold in the "modern" financial world."
May 19 - "The Second Last Resistance Point Cuts In"
"The only thing we didn't know was where it would correct and how fast it would correct. We know now - from $US 721 (as of the close on May 11) and pretty damn fast (as in $US 54.30 or about 7.6% for the week)."
May 12 - "It's Too Dangerous - It's Too Fast - It's Too High - It Can't Last"
"In fact, we would be presumptuous enough to say that the level of concern about the rapidly rising Gold price is inversely proportional to the portion of a person's exposure to Gold which is in physical form and in personal and private possession. In short, the more physical Gold is owned, the lower the anxiety."
May 5 - "The 'Unthinkable' In Action"
" When you hear something being deemed unthinkable, you may know that the person using the word does not want to think about it, and doesn't want you to think about it either. There is a vast gulf between a lack of knowledge and a refusal to know. Simple ignorance is inconsequential. WILFUL ignorance is always debilitating and frequently deadly."
April 28 - "How Far To $US 850?"
"The REAL answer to "How Far To $US 850" is - who cares? Get there we will, and even when we do, we'll have 26 years of rampant monetary inflation still to go."
April 21 - "We've Only Just Begun"
"The first step to understanding the nature of the present situation is to realise that the INFLATION (the increase in the total stock of money) of the 1970s is a mere trifle in comparison to the inflation of the 1980s, the 1990s, and the 2000s to date. The vast majority of people have yet to take that first step."
April 14 - "Desperate Measures For Desperate Times"
"Right now, the world is almost literally holding its breath. There is not a high government official anywhere who does NOT know why the US is talking up an attack on Iran. Every global financial organisation has publicly stated that the debt path which the US is on is totally unsustainable and can only end in a financial meltdown of major proportions and a plummeting US Dollar."
April 7 - "Gold's Great - But Not For 'Individuals'"
"The BIG rise in Gold this week is a signal that the struggle has just ramped up another notch. Before this Gold 'bull market' is over, it will have seen the demise of the global monetary system as it is presently constituted."
March 31 - "Another Leg On The Bull Market"
"Now this is subtle, isn't it? Should all us unwashed "individuals" who don't collect other peoples' money to invest or print it on order to lend it out get into Gold? As you can see from the story, the answer is clearly "no"."
March 24 - "A Recession Waiting To Happen"
"This week, the "market" which has sustained US consumers for most of the past five years, the US housing market, sustained what may prove to be a mortal blow. It was announced on March 24 that new home sales in the US in February had plunged by 10.5%, the biggest monthly drop in almost nine years."
March 17 - "It's A Trading Range"
"What we have right now is a resistance point at or slightly above the $US 570 level and a support point at or slightly below the $US 540 level. Economic reality says that the range should be broken through to the upside in the VERY near future. Political financial necessity says that Gold must be held inside the range if it can't be forced below the range."
March 10 - "Trading Range - Or Correction?"
"Rising interest rates in a fiat currency world are ALWAYS indicators of a growing unease with the viability of the currencies themselves. No matter how much "spin" is put on this process and no matter how much concerted selling their might be on the futures markets for paper claims to metal, Gold (and Silver) ALWAYS stage their biggest upside moves in times of increasing rates."
March 3 - "The Dangerous Month Of March"
"March has not exactly come in "like a lion" on global financial markets, but it has been interesting. First and foremost has been the decision by the European Central Bank (ECB) to raise its rates by 0.25% to 2.50%. This is only the second ECB 0.25% rate rise in the past five years. The Fed has raised rates in fourteen 0.25% increments since June 2004 from 1.00% to the present 4.50%."
February 24 - "Here We Go Again?"
"There is, of course, the caveat that the global financial powers that be have all their eggs in the fiat money basket and will go to any lengths to keep it intact. They have only one problem. It is impossible to keep a financial system based entirely on paper debt intact, and it has never been done in history."
February 17 - "Another Example Of The Gold 'Reverse Barometer'"
"So, the US Treasury has reached its debt limit - for the fourth time since 2002. This time, it has done so with an inverted Treasury yield curve and with plummeting US economic "growth" as shown this week when the 1.1% increase in fourth quarter (2005) growth was pared back to 0.3%"
February 10 - "Hanging On To The System"
"This sudden Gold sell-off was an obvious ploy to make SURE that the refunding auctions went through without any "gremlins" getting in to mess things up. Mr Greenspan pitched in too, including in his first speech as a "private citizen" the contention that the rising Gold price was merely a result of heightened fears of terrorist attacks."
February 3 - "Gilding The Very Faded Lily"
"To imagine that the US economy is "A Lot Stronger Than You Think" is to have turned off one's thinking processes altogether. It is a result of concluding that no matter how much "money" is pumped into the system, it will retain its integrity as money and, even more preposterous, will retain its purchasing power."
January 27 - "Winding Down January"
"Gold is in an uptrend - against ALL paper currencies (and there are no other kinds) - not just the US Dollar. This uptrend has accelerated since last November, pushing the Gold charts further and further above their moving averages and steepening their trajectories. All bull markets have downturns and outright corrections."
January 20 - "The Market's Getting Volatile!"
"This week, first the Japanese and then the US stock markets have faltered. The Japanese event led to a Gold sell-off followed by a huge upmove the next day. The US event has led to a Gold selloff - but we don't yet know what will happen when the markets re-open on January 23."
January 13 - "A Few Home Truths"
"If you really want to benefit in ALL ways from Gold, don't look at the rising Gold "price" and exult in all the "money" you are making. Look at it and exult in all the purchasing power you are preserving by NOT holding paper money."
January 6 - "A New Year - A New High - A Warning Bell"
"With 2006 now one week old, the $US Gold price is up 4.30% with the $US index down 2.57%. This, to put it as politely as possible, does not bode well for the great paper pyramid which is the global financial system."