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Gold Price Drop of 6 Nov: Drilling Down

The price of gold dropped abruptly Friday morning (Arizona time). How much of a drop? $10.30, as measured by the bid on the December future. How abruptly? That move happened in under a second. At first, the price of gold in the spot market did not react. This caused what looks like a massive backwardation […]

Hedging in the Gold Miners

There are two ways to run a gold mining company. One respects the simple fact that it is producing money. It is not eager to trade its the money it produces for government paper, legal tender laws be damned. It keeps its books in gold, and produces and trades to earn more money (i.e. gold). […]

Pure Gold and Soggy Dollars

We’re going to be introducing some new formats. One of them is quick article links, with the good ones labelled Pure Gold and the bad ones labelled Soggy Dollars. Pure Gold When a Fed-induced boom turns to bust: “In the lynch-mob atmosphere that inevitably follows the bust cycle of Fed-induced business cycles, it was not […]

Invitation: Event in London Oct 2

You are cordially invited to a discussion of the economy, markets, interest rates, commodities, speculation, investment, and of course the monetary metals and our unique approach to valuing them. This seminar was successful in New York on Sep 11, and all the seats filled up. Here is the agenda.   1pm to 2:30pm You cannot […]

Invitation: Event in NYC Sep 11

You are cordially invited to a discussion of the economy, markets, interest rates, commodities, speculation, investment, and of course the monetary metals and our unique approach to valuing them. Here is the agenda.   1pm to 2:30pm You cannot understand what’s happening in the markets with the conventional view. This view says that central banks […]

Please Join Us on Sep 11 in NY City

We don’t have a normal economy, or normal markets. We are six years into a so called recovery based on zero interest rates, and it’s obvious that the Fed’s interventions aren’t working. The Fed’s critics, however, are also wrong. The price of crude oil is now at a low not seen since the height of […]

Why Are We Here?

I don’t mean the meaning of life, the universe and everything. I mean why are we in the gold market? This week and especially today, I have seen so many emails, messages, and articles with the same theme. “Woe is me.” Seriously? The price of gold dropped $100 in a couple of months, and it’s like […]

Lions, Tigers, and Gold Bears, Oh My!

We can’t count how many articles we saw today, bemoaning gold going down. The price action is bad for gold (whatever that means). China underreported their gold holdings. No, China doesn’t care about gold. No they want the price to go down so they can buy it cheap. No, they want to convince the IMF […]

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 […]

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 […]