June, 2015

June 26 Silver Flash Crash: A Forensic Analysis

On Friday morning, at around midnight (Arizona time), the price of silver had a little crash. It dropped 30 cents in 11 minutes. More importantly, it dropped more than 10 cents in a single second. Then, the price rose above its level before the event. Here is a graph of the event, with each tick […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 28 June, 2015

The price of gold sagged all week. The price of silver took a similar journey, though it was up on Monday. On the week, they were down 25 bucks and 28 cents, respectively. On Friday around midnight Arizona time, there was a flash crash. We will publish a forensic analysis of this event late on […]

Interest – Inflation = #REF

Purchasing Power

To listen to the audio version of this article click here. I have to admit that I derive some pleasure in taking on hoary old myths. For example, some economists assert that the interest rate you see on the Treasury bond is not real. You see, it’s only nominal. To calculate the real rate, they […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 21 June, 2015

The Fed made an announcement on Wednesday. Moderate consumer spending growth and improving housing sector balanced against soft business investment and exports. Prices are rising, but not as much as the Fed would like. The announcement roiled the markets. Here’s a graph of the 10-year Treasury yield and the S&P Futures up to and after […]

They’re Coming to Take Away Your Cash

The stories are all over the Internet. Governments are forcing us into a cashless society. Supposedly the pretext is terrorism, and the real reason is to take more control. No doubt more power appeals to politicians, and banning cash seems like the next step after mandatory reporting of cash transactions. However, I think there is […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 14 June, 2015

The price of gold was up $9 this week, while the price of silver dropped 16 cents. This means the gold to silver ratio (a measure of how expensive gold is in silver terms) rose 1.3 points or almost 1.8%. This is a picture of credit contraction writ small. Well, it’s small so far. Since […]

Monetary Metals Supply and Demand Report: 7 June, 2015

The world is still a mess, just as much as it was last week. Despite that, the price of gold fell $18 and the price of silver fell $0.63. What’s going on? Are the central banks putting the kibosh on the monetary metals? One view is that they don’t want to let people use cash […]