Gold Stocks Today

As promised, Bullion Bulls Canada is pleased to announce two contests for our members, with free bullion being awarded to contest winners.

Given the decades of rampant manipulation of the precious metals markets on the “short� side of trading, it is more than ironic that as the U.S. CFTC (“Commodity Futures Trading Commission�) ponders restrictions on commodities markets, it has expressed the most public concern about “speculators� on the “long� side of investing.

In Part I, I alerted readers to the problem with using Western labels and Western analysis to analyze the gold markets of other nations – especially the two titans of the gold market: China and India. More specifically, I pointed out that breaking-down demand into the categories of “retail investment� and “jewelry� demand was both arbitrary and inaccurate.

One persistent gripe I have with media analysis of economic issues is the extremely stunted perspective on news items. What I mean by this is that a news item will come out which suggests a particular trend (to greater or lesser degrees). What we will then see is a legion of media pundits jumping on this one inference – and then framing it as if it represents the only rational conclusion for this piece of news.

Regular readers know that I have a strong appetite for famous clichés, and other time-tested “pearls of wisdom�. Among such timeless pieces of wisdom is the old adage that “actions speak louder than words�. It is in that light that I listened with great interest to a BNN interview with Jason Toussaint.

Two months ago, I wrote a commentary reporting that “the second bubble had burst� in the U.S. housing market. Roughly three weeks later, I reported that the U.S. economy had resumed its “crash�. Contrary to the reports of the mainstream media, there was absolutely no “surprise� at all to any of these developments.

In Parts I and II, I presented readers with examples of obvious asset-bubbles – but in markets which were/are extremely manipulated. Given the obvious risks associated with “shorting� rigged-markets, I postulated that using (gold or silver) bullion as a “proxy� for shorting these asset-classes offered similar correlation to shorting these assets, but minus most of the risk.

In Part I, I discussed the world’s largest and most obvious asset-bubble (excluding the derivatives market): the U.S. Treasuries market. While I pointed out that this market was an obvious target for “shorting�, I also explained to readers why there were simply too many risks associated with shorting this opaque, and highly-manipulated market.

In a recent commentary, I characterized gold and silver bullion as a “superior� asset-class, versus virtually any other investment options. In this series of commentaries, I’m going to focus upon the versatility of bullion as an investment.