February, 2014

The National Debt Cannot Be Paid Off

Government spending is out of control and, while most say they want spending cuts, people oppose cuts that impact them. Among those who get government money, there’s practically an unspoken, unbreakable pact to keep the money coming. But when I say that the national debt cannot be paid off, it’s not a political forecast; it’s […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 23 Feb, 2014

The dollar dropped a little more this week. Measured conventionally, the gold price rose six bucks and the silver price almost 40 cents. The question everyone should be asking: who is driving up the prices of the metals? Are they, yet again, leveraged speculators buying futures with up to 10:1 leverage? Or has the picture […]

Guest Post: Western Bank Exposure to Mainland China Explodes Higher – Australia Vulnerable

Author Pater Tenebrarum, Acting Man We recently cited the work of Sean Darby, equity strategist at Jefferies, regarding the exposure of Hong Kong banks to the Mainland (see: “How Dangerous is China’s Credit Bubble for the World” for details). Although Hong Kong is technically part of China, it is a foreign country in terms of its […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 16 Feb, 2014

The dollar dropped a lot more this week than it has in any one week for a long time. Measured conventionally, the gold price spiked $51, and the silver price by $1.47. Gold owners have 4% more dollars, and silver owners have 7.4% more dollars. However, those dollars are worth less. How much less? To […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 9 Feb, 2014

The dollar dropped about another half a milligram this week, to 24.6mg (or, if you still believe the dollar is money, the price of gold rose $23). In silver terms, the dollar dropped 0.06g to 1.56g. Is this the big dollar breakdown (i.e. the big gold breakout)? Read on… Here is the graph of the […]

Gold Arbitrage and Backwardation Part II (the Lease Rate)

In Part I, we discussed the concept of arbitrage. We showed why defining it as a risk-free investment that earns more than the risk-free rate of interest is invalid. There is no such thing as a risk-free investment, and in any case, economics must be focused on the acting man rather than theoretical constructs. We […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 2 Feb, 2014

The dollar rose half a milligram this week, to 25mg (or, if you still believe the dollar is money, the price of gold fell from $25 to $1244). In silver terms, the dollar rose nearly 4%, to 1.62g. Is this it? The dollar’s terminal fall? Read on… Here is the graph of the metals’ prices. […]