Research

A Free Market for Goods, Services, and Money

A thesis submitted September 3, 2012 by Keith Weiner to the Graduate Faculty of the New Austrian School of Economics, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Major Subject: Monetary Science. Abstract A free market is composed of people who produce and trade the products of their efforts in […]

Gold Arbitrage and Backwardation Part III (Gold as a Commodity)

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 […]

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 […]

Gold Arbitrage and Backwardation Part I

Professor Tom Fischer has written three papers[1][2][3] about gold backwardation and arbitrage. Across these three papers, he makes a case against the ideas of Professor Antal Fekete. I write this response solely on my own behalf. I do not speak on behalf of Fekete or his New Austrian school of Economics. I have two motivations […]

What Drives Negative GOFO and Temporary Gold Backwardation?

I coined the term temporary backwardation in March of last year. This is what I said: But in the “new normal”, post 2008, the expiring gold or silver future often flirts with or even slips into backwardation for a period before expiry.  This is anything but normal.  It’s not a sign of imminent financial Armageddon, […]

Gold, Redeemability, Bitcoin, and Backwardation

Gold, Redeemability, Bitcoin, and Backwardation

I recently released a video about the Internet-based currency, Bitcoin. I asked the question: is Bitcoin money? In brief, I said no it’s an irredeemable currency. This generated some controversy in the Bitcoin community. I took it for granted that everyone would agree that money had to be a tangible good, but it turns out […]

Permanent Gold Backwardation: The Crack Up Boom

Gold Spiral

Professor Antal Fekete has written several pieces discussing gold backwardation, and arguing that this is the red alert signal for the coming financial Armageddon, when the tower of unpayable debts collapses. In this paper, I delve deeper into this topic. My goal is to make this topic approachable by the layman and describe what I […]

When Gold Backwardation Becomes Permanent

Armageddon

Listen to the audio version of this article here. The Root of the Problem is Debt Worldwide, an incredible tower of debt has been under construction since President Nixon’s 1971 default on the gold obligations of the US government. His decree severed the redeemability of the dollar for gold and thus eliminated the extinguisher of […]

Videos of my lecture “Irredeemable Currency vs. Gold”

I gave this talk at the Chicago Objectivist Society MiniCon Sep 4, 2011.  Here is the full set of 9 videos on youtube for my presentation plus Q&A at the end, posted on this site to archive the links. Irredeemable currency vs gold – 1_9 introduction.wmv Irredeemable currency vs gold – 2_9 the origin of […]