I just saw this fascinating video of a bunch of metronomes that begin ticking out of sync with one another, but slowly line up until they all beat in unison. I really love the title slide where it says “NONLINEAR DYNAMICAL SYSTEMS”, how apropos! Watch the video, the outcome is counterintuitive. The metronomes show some principles […]
In Part I, I made several points. First, that in the last gold bear market, miners capitulated after prices were low and falling for a long time. Then they sold massive amounts of their future production forward. Years into the subsequent bull market, they capitulated again, this time buying back the rights to their own […]
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, […]
Hedging is a controversial topic, probably as controversial as any I have written about. Nevertheless, I want to share my thoughts and hopefully add something new to the topic. It is general knowledge that the gold miners had adopted hedging during the long years when the gold price was moving sideways to downwards, culminating in […]
Gold conspiracy theorists have a new bogeyman. Inventories of gold bars held in the COMEX warehouses are falling. This fact is offered to support the stale allegations of “fractional gold” and “manipulation”. They have been predicting a “signal failure” that is coming any day now, like the Great Pumpkin in the Charlie Brown Halloween special. […]
A quick glance at the data for ounces held by each Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) shows that right after the crash of 2008, ounces began to pour into GLD. Ignoring a little jitter, there was no significant outflow until 2013. GLD has lost over 20% of its metal so far this year, dropping from about […]
Let’s take a look at a few graphs of the dollar, from Feb 1, 2013 through Friday May 17, 2013. Yes, I said graphs of the dollar. I’ve priced the dollar in gold first (of course), then silver, the euro, and even the yen. The pattern is obvious. The dollar is going up. I did […]
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 […]
I have written a number of pieces on fractional reserve banking and duration mismatch. I have argued that the former is perfectly fine, both morally and economically, but the latter is not fine. I have dissected the arguments made against fractional reserve banking, and pointed out that it is nothing more than a bank lending […]
Communicating about money and finance in today’s culture is a real challenge; you want to inform and enlighten your audience on their level of knowledge—but this makes the use of terms extremely difficult. Ayn Rand Institute President Yaron Brook’s video about deflation demonstrates why. In the video clip, Dr. Brook makes two key points. First, […]
