As if it were not strange enough! Microsoft bought a phone company with no phones for $8.5 billion. Then, the public bid up the price of another Internet company, LinkedIn, to the point where buyers were paying more than $20 for every dollar of revenue that came the company’s way. As for profits, they capitalized each one at more than 700 times. At this rate, an investor wouldn’t earn his money back until 2,711AD.
[Read more...]World Currencies React to US and Eurozone Debt Problems
May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Well, one day’s rally doesn’t make a trend, and so it was for the euro (EUR), and the rest of the currencies. Yesterday, we saw the euro trade to 1.4125, but overnight the euro’s rally was undone by the rumors that the Greek government was calling for a snap general election. Of course, if traders would have just looked “under the hood” on this rumor, they would have found it to be completely unfounded. The only way the Greek government is going to call for an election is if they are assured that their platform will pass… And since nothing in Greece is “assured” right now, traders should have seen this for what it was…an unfounded rumor.
[Read more...]From Greek Debt to Gold Money: Wishful Thinking in the World Economy
May 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Global investors rediscovered Greece yesterday, which means that they might soon rediscover gold and silver as well.
The state of Utah is ready!
Headlines about the Greek government’s desperate financial condition buffeted financial markets around the globe yesterday, as investors seemed to acknowledge, en masse, “Yes, this situation in Greece is grim.” The Parthenon may be in ruins, but it is a pristine high-rise compared to the Greek government’s balance sheet.
[Read more...]Keeping Up With Chinese Gold Demand
May 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
It’s “risk off” as a new week begins. Markets are jittery about the eurozone again…
- S&P downgraded its outlook for Italian government debt from “stable” to “negative”
- Spain’s ruling Socialists got clobbered in regional elections yesterday, casting doubt on the future of Spanish austerity measures
- Greece is scrambling to sell off unspecified assets (the Parthenon?) to stave off a “restructuring” (read: stretching out the payments) of its debt.
Gold, Gresham’s Law & the Dong
May 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment
What happens when people actively shun their official currency…?
Governments are often tempted to live beyond their means. Today, that means national debts and quantitative easing. But a few hundred years ago, it meant debasing coinage.
Silver and gold coins would be ‘clipped’ – with a tiny quantity of their metal shaved off the edge every time they passed through government hands – or they would be minted with a lower precious metal content than their face value stated. This would enable the monetary authorities to produce more coins for the same amount of bullion, increasing the government’s spending power in the marketplace.
[Read more...]Three Words That Could Help Fix the US Monetary System
April 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Choppy week in the markets, wouldn’t you say? Gap down one day, gap up the next. That’s what you get when the tub is full of Fed-faked funny-money. Bigger waves…more tumult…less predictability. And a whole lotta motion sickness along the way.
Markets are always and forever in a process of price discovery, torn between demand for lower prices from buyers on one side, and the profit motive from sellers on the other. Somewhere in the middle, the two parties will come together to exchange their goods and services. In other words, they “discover” an agreeable price at which everyone finds value. This is what the free market does naturally. Low prices invite demand…driving prices higher. High prices invite competition (supply)…driving prices lower.
[Read more...]A Few More Reasons for Gold-Backed Money
April 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Charles Kedlac here at The Daily Reckoning asks, “What, then, should we make of 13th century theologian Thomas Aquinas’ claim ‘…one man cannot over-abound in external riches without another man lacking them’?”
[Read more...]Tracking Gold’s Rise Against Faux Money and Fiat Currencies
April 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Gold $1,460…Oil $109 (Brent $123)…Dow 12,400…
Good Golly…what isn’t going up?! Commodities…equities…monies. They’re all on the march.
Yes, you read that right, Fellow Reckoner. Money is going up too. It’s going to the moon…and back. We mean real money, of course…not that flim flam fiat junk the Feds pass off as cash. We’re talking about gold. Gold and, to a lesser extent, silver. Look above at that first number again. Quite a bit higher than the $1,150 per ounce the Midas metal fetched a year ago, eh? Or the $650 it went for five years back? Or the $250 mark, where it started the new millennium.
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Moody’s Warns of a Downgrade for US Debt
Well… Big Ben Bernanke Opened Pandora’s Box of stimulus yesterday, and he had some words for our fave lawmaker, Ron Paul…
But first, front and center today we have gold heading toward $1,600, trading at a new all-time high of $1,593! WOW! Silver has followed gold’s line, and is trading above $39… So, what’s got the precious metals all lathered up? Ahhh grasshopper, it’s all about words… Words, between the lines of age, as Neil Young sang back in the ‘70s…
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