May 4, 2024

Gold And The Dow Both At 12,000? – Here’s How It Could Happen

June 7, 2012 by 1 Comment

During his almost 20 year reign as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan’s easy money policies seemed to work like magic.  Ever lower interest rates and easy bank lending resulted in vast asset price inflation of both stocks and housing.  Flipping stocks and houses became the national past time as the asset bubbles continued to grow.  The average American envisioned a cushy retirement buoyed by ever rising housing values.

In 2004 George Bush nominated Alan Greenspan for an unprecedented fifth term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, convinced that the “maestro” would continue to ensure a permanent national prosperity.  By the time Greenspan retired in January 2006, he had attained rock star cult status.  Who would have thought that a mere two years later, the 20 year Greenspan cycle of false “prosperity”, engineered through excessive borrowing, consumption and leverage would explode, hurtling the world into financial chaos?

Even worse, who would have thought that the same failed policies would be continued by Greenspan’s successor?  Bernanke’s attempts to re-inflate the burst bubbles of a past era are being defeated as a debt choked system crashes asset values as it deleverages.  Bernanke has proven himself to be equally maladroit at recognizing both housing bubbles and liquidity traps.

Meanwhile, the debt laden sovereign nations of the Eurozone are waking up to discover that their credibility in the bond markets has been vaporized.  How will it all end?  Some see hyperinflation in our future, others an all encompassing deflationary crash.  Either way, Vin Maru at TDV Golden Trader sees the Dow/gold ratio moving towards 1:1.

The Dow/gold Ratio Will Move Towards 1:1, Are You Positioned To Profit From It?

After spending the last month consolidating (around 8:1) the Dow/gold ratio broke down on Friday to close at 7.47.  This is a major shift, as the upward trend line in favour of the Dow since September has been broken with a significant drop.  This is a significant event that should trigger the selling of the boarder equity sector as money moves out of the Dow and S&P and into gold and related equities. Gold has once again become a safe haven as uncertainties around the Euro and fiat paper currencies persist. In addition, the growing consensus of a global economic slowdown and possibly a recession in the U.S. in the coming quarters, is bullish for gold.

Gold is on the rise, especially compared to the Dow, as we move from a 7.5 ratio (Dow at 12,000 and gold at $1600) towards a 5:1 ratio and lower in the coming year.  Within a few years, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a Dow to Gold ratio of 1:1. History tells us that this ratio should be revisited again in the coming years.  If the longer term chart of the Dow/gold ratio is any indication of how quickly it will happen, it will be sooner rather than later. If you are invested in the broader stock market or mutual funds, this is the time to act and protect your wealth.  Once the final waterfall on the Dow develops and gold begins rising, it can move very quickly. By all indications on the charts and given the current market conditions, we believe it has already started.

HOW DO WE REACH THE DOW/GOLD RATIO OF 1:1?

The Inflationary Path

With the Dow now slightly above 12,000 and gold around $1620, the ratio is contracting fast as we move towards and below 5:1 in the coming years. How this will manifest itself is anyone’s guess at the moment.  If the Dow remains at 12,000, in an inflationary environment, gold will gravitate towards to the 1:1 ratio as it moves to a fair market value based on the outstanding debts and currency units floating around in the system. In the coming years, if the central bankers continue the path of papering over the financial mess that they have created, gold can easily reach $10K+. During a currency event, gold could climb to that price objective and it will take silver along with it.  If we return to the historical gold/silver ratio of 15:1, we could easily see silver at over $650 per ounce. Silver has been trading at around 55:1, and a currency event could move it towards the 15:1 ratio. At today’s price, silver has a lot of upside compared to gold.

Under this scenario, this assumes that currency inflation remains constant and that the financial markets continue to leave the Dow at 12,000.

The Deflationary Path

A deflationary spiral that unwinds debt around the world and leads to revaluations of paper currencies could also be in the cards.   The unravelling of the Euro could cause just such an environment. In this case, central bankers will not be able to stop the deflationary spiral that ensues as individuals start opting out of the paper/debt based system.  The bankers are pulling out all the stops and printing endless amounts of money to prevent this, but psychological forces can easily overwhelm this; economic law has a way of correcting imbalances created by man.   Under this scenario, the Dow will crash in a deflationary spiral towards gold’s price and possibly meet somewhere in the middle or at the lower end of gold’s trading range.

WATCH FOR 1:1

Either way, history has shown us that we are moving towards a long term cycle of low stock prices and higher gold prices; this should play out in the next few years, as it has already has started.  Trying to predict the price of gold is futile, what is most important is the Dow/gold ratio if 1:1.  Once we reach that objective or close to it, it will be time to get out of gold and move to other undervalued asset classes such as the Dow, until then stay long gold and short the Dow.

Once a trend based on fundamentals is in motion, it is very difficult to stop, as much as the masters of the paper universe would like to maintain control.  If a loss in confidence by the population of the world in purchasing power of fiat currency and  the value of the assets based on that paper price starts, (something we think has already started) then the there is no stopping this trend.  All the bankers can do is try and maintain the illusion of control, but eventually their efforts will fail.  The gold market senses this. As a result gold and gold related equities will outperform every other paper market and asset class moving forward for the next few years.  The price action on June 1, 2012 is just the beginning for the golden days ahead; just make sure your financial survival kit contains a percentage of gold, it may be the only thing that maintains its value as the paper currencies and paper assets around the world devalue compared to gold.

STRATEGY FOR HEDGING YOU PAPER ASSETS

Many of our readers already have a long position in physical gold and positions in several key mining companies and juniors.  We have kept a core position in the gold sector and will continue to add on additional weakness.  We are also evaluating potential gold producers and precious metals juniors/explorers which will have significant upside in the coming years as the nominal value of gold rises compared to other asset classes.

If you are looking for ideas and strategies for protecting your wealth and trading opportunities in the precious metals sector, please visit our site and sign up for our regular updates and blog posts.  We regularly provide technical analysis on the price of gold and the HUI index which can help you identify good entry and exit points for trading.
Filed Under: Featured, Gold, Gold Stocks, Silver Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Correction In Gold and Gold Stocks Spells Opportunity For Long Term Investors

May 16, 2012 by 3 Comments

It is no secret that the price of gold has been declining since reaching almost $2,000 per ounce last year.   After rallying in the early part of the year, gold prices have now fallen to $1,556, representing a decline of $42 per ounce or 2.6% below the closing price on the first trading day of 2012.

The devastating declines in the stock prices of major gold mining companies since early 2012 have been far out of proportion to the decline in the price of gold bullion.  Viewing the gold stocks in isolation, one would assume that the price of gold had collapsed by hundreds of dollars per ounce.

While opinions vary on where we go from here, the deeply bearish price action and bearish press articles on gold and gold stocks lead this writer to believe that we are setting the groundwork for a major rally at some point in the future.  Actions by global central banks to prevent a collapse of the financial system via the creation of oceans of newly printed paper currencies leads to the inevitable conclusion that at some point gold and gold stocks will soar far beyond the most bullish gold price forecasts.  As always, however, the question is the timing of gold’s ascent.

TDV Golden Trader has examined the current factors impacting the gold market and cautions that a return to new highs in gold, gold stocks and silver, although inevitable, may not be imminent.

Is This The Bottom For Gold and Gold Stocks? Not So Fast…

Since the speculative highs of 2011, the precious metals are continuing to correct and head lower, even in the face of Operation Twist and the ECB’s Long Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) printing.  And with the elections in France and even more socialism on its way, it looks like Euroland is ready to run the printing press again and the Fed will join the party. But I am not convinced that gold and silver will take off right away.  Everyone knows that the central banksters are running the printing presses on overtime, so in effect, we always had and always will have QE, yet the price of the metals continues to drift lower.

When comparing the 2007-2008 peak and crash to what we are dealing with now, I think we have to look beyond the chart patterns and timing.  Looking at market conditions and sentiment for clues to turning points is just as important.  Back in ’08 we had a liquidity event which caused the nose dive in the markets.  Once the system was liquefied by TARP and then QE, the precious metals came bouncing back fairly quickly and then went on to make new highs right after QE2.

We appear to be in a period where the gold price will not run away quickly anytime soon, but we are also in the midst of a long drawn out liquidation of the metals as the central banksters keep accumulating gold at lower prices. Many central banks have been net buyers and importers of gold, and that trend looks sure to continue.  So, where is the selling coming from?

FROM WHERE COMES THE SELLING?

The paper selling we are witnessing is most likely squeezing the weak hands into coughing up their gold. Hopefully it’s only paper gold that is getting liquidated.  Investors in gold and silver may get frustrated and then capitulate into selling as the paper pushers continue to force them out of their positions.  But there are two potential catalysts that could reverse this trend:

1. If the shorts are forced to cover their position and decide to jump on the long side
2. The paper traders are forced to deliver the physical, which will most likely never happen.

Black swans are always lurking in the background, but they have yet to rear their ugly heads and the gold market is not anticipating any of them at the moment.  Until they appear, the precious metals may continue to drift lower.

The metals have been in a great bull run for the last decade.  But, what we haven’t seen yet is a 1974 style peak and trough that lasts for a couple of years. That is where we could be heading with precious metals right now.  In September of 2011, the price of gold peaked over $1900 and ever since then has been correcting lower (now almost nine months later).  During 1974 the peak price was just under $200 at which point it went into a tail spin falling to just above $100 in the summer of 1976.  After the negative trend continued for almost 2 years and then a sideways base during 1977, the gold bull market raced to its 1980 high around $850.

Until we see the fundamental shift back to gold, we are more than likely to continue correcting and then build a base just like in the mid 1970s.  The one thing to note is that gold peaked in early 1974, corrected for about six months and then went on to make a high by the end of 1974 before the major correction started that lasted almost two years. If a similar scenario plays out, then the correction we are currently in may end at the support and third test of the $1550 price range.  If this is the case, we could see a strong rally which would take the price of gold right back up to $1900 or higher before starting another bear phase in the long term bull market.

THE END MAY NOT BE NEAR

This standstill could last for some time still.  Especially since all the “speculators” are getting wrung out of the system as they have been taken to the cleaners in the last year.  More than likely, the average investor will stay away from precious metals until we have a major currency crisis.  Something that is more than just the problems that we currently see in Euroland. Until then we can expect the downtrend to continue and move sideways. If this scenario plays out like it did in the mid 1970s, we could still be in a period of time where the gold price continues to correct lower. This could bring the price of gold towards $1200-$1400 in the coming year.

If gold can hold support at $1530, then this correction may be over and the price of gold will continue higher toward the end of this year or early next year.  If the broader stock market continues to sell off, the Fed may pull the trigger on more easing, which could reverse gold’s negative trend and then we are looking at a target price of around $2100.

There seems to be no consensus among investors or analysts on which way the price of gold will go from here. But if the mid 1970s bull market in gold is any guide, be mentally prepared for a lower price. Then be ready to take advantage of the coming basing period and average down on your physical holdings at these lower prices. If the correction is over and we get a strong bounce from here, expect higher prices and a much better opportunity to sell.  We are currently in the eye of the storm of The End Of The Montetary System As We Know It (TEOTMSAWKI).  The pain is not over yet and neither is this gold bull market, the looming currency and debt crisis will make sure of that.  Just remember that the hardest thing to do as a trader and investor is to stay long for the full extent of the bull market.  This rough patch is again testing the mettle of investors.

THE TDV GOLDEN TRADER STRATEGY AND OUTLOOK

We have been lucky to have played the last six months almost perfectly.  We were strong buyers of the junior gold stocks throughout December and then after they rose significantly on March 2nd we issued a dispatch to TDV Golden Trader subscribers entitled, “Trade Alert: Close Out Many Of Our Trading Positions”.  We sold most of our trading positions on that day… something that has worked out tremendously well as shown by the chart of Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ).

Will this be the bottom?  Nobody knows.  But we are remaining patient and waiting until we see the whites of their eyes before we reload and buy back in.  In the meantime we are advising subscribers to do the same and looking for stink bid opportunities to buy some of our favorite gold stocks at ludicrously low prices should a seller need to get out in an illiquid market.

Filed Under: Featured, Gold, Gold Stocks, Silver, US Debt Crisis Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Are Gold Investors Nuts?

February 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

How many of the countries best financial advisors are telling their customers to invest in gold?  Despite the fact that gold has gone up for the past eleven years, a Barron’s survey shows that gold remains distinctly out of favor by mainstream investment advisors.

Barron’s interviewed 51 of the countries most successful investment advisors from each of the fifty states plus the District of Columbia.  Although investment returns were not disclosed, Barron’s selected the best investment pros based on the amount of assets managed, revenues generated, gain in the number of clients and the quality of their practices.

The 51 pros selected by Barron’s are the best in the business, work hard, serve wealthy sophisticated clients and manage hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth.  According to the survey, the most common investment strategy of the top financial advisors was to generate income flows and potential capital gains by owing high quality blue chip stocks.  Most of the advisors were optimistic, predicting that dividend paying stocks would outperform government securities on which yields have plunged to all time lows.

Of the 51 advisors interviewed, only two specifically recommended a small portfolio allocation into gold.  The investment advisor from Iowa recommended that clients make “sure 3% to 5% of their portfolios are in gold” and the investment pro from Nebraska suggested a 10% position in gold mining stocks.

The number of investment pros recommending gold was surprising low, especially after considering the potential for another financial meltdown precipitated by sovereign debt crises, rampant money printing by central banks and towering levels of debt that threaten to crush the world economy.

Gold - courtesy kitco.com

Gold has proven to be a vehicle for wealth preservation over thousands of years and is insurance against financial disaster.  Has the increase in gold since 2000 already fully discounted the worst possible economic and financial scenarios?

Barron’s smart money pros apparently think that gold’s run is over.  Are gold investors nuts to argue with the world’s best money managers, especially after an almost 7 fold increase in the price of gold since 2000?  What do you think?

More on this topic: Gold Bull Market Could Last Another 20 Years With $12,000 Price Target

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Have Gold Investors Become Too Bullish? Ask The Same Question At $5,000

February 4, 2012 by 2 Comments

Have too many investors gotten overly bullish on gold?

After a stunning advance of almost $200 per ounce from last year’s closing price, some are asking if gold has gotten ahead of itself.  After advancing almost nonstop since the beginning of the year, gold sold off sharply, dropping by $32.50 to close in New York trading at $1725.90.

Analyst Mark Hulbert, who tracks investor sentiment as reported in the Hulbert Gold Newsletter, reports that bullish sentiment on gold has become extreme.  At the end of 2011, short term gold timers were completely out of the gold market.  The Hulbert Gold Newsletter Sentiment Index (HGNSI) registered 0.3% on December 29th compared to 51% today.  Mr. Hulbert sees the rapid return to bullishness by gold investors as a worrisome signal and notes that the HGNSI never got as high as it is today when gold previously traded at current price levels.

Mr. Hulbert notes that his indicator can be early as was the case last year.  In early December Hulbert noted that bearish sentiment was reaching extreme levels but gold subsequently plunged from $1,752 on December 1st to $1,574.50 on December 30th.

One indicator of gold sentiment that does not seem to be signaling an imminent sharp correction in gold is the CBOE Gold ETF Volatility Index (Gold VIX) which measures gold volatility based on SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) options trading.  As bearish put positions on the GLD increase, the VIX rises as it did last August prior to a sharp correction in the price of gold.  After peaking at 40 last year, the VIX is currently at 22.

CBOE Gold VIX (GVZ) - courtesy cboe.com

 

Could the price of gold correct in the short term? Yes.  Should long term investors who hold gold as a safe haven against a government that has an official policy of debasing the currency be worried?  No.

A short term correction is nothing more than a buying opportunity for long term investors.  Why would one care if gold corrects to $1,600 on its way to $5,000?  Here are a few items for consideration by those worried about a “correction” in the price of gold.

The U.S. has accumulated debt obligations and promises that are mathematically impossible to repay.  Neither future economic growth nor tax increases will be sufficient for the government to meet its obligations without debasing the value of the dollar.  The government is spending $1.60 for every $1.00 collected in revenues, half of all families receive some type of government payment and half of all wage earners pay no taxes.

The government’s “solution” for too much debt remains the same – more debt.  Here’s what Treasury Secretary Geithner said when he asked Congress to raise the debt limit in August 2009 when government debt totaled “only” $12.1 trillion.

“Congress has never failed to raise the debt limit when necessary. Because members of both parties have long recognized the need to keep politics away from this issue, these actions have traditionally received bipartisan support. This is clearly a moment in our history that calls for continuation of that tradition.”

As the debt burden approaches the day of reckoning, the proportion of the population actually working continues to decline.

Investors late to the party attempting to diversity into gold may find that it’s too late – gold may not be available at any price.

Gregor Macdonald notes that global gold production over the last decade has been below the average of the past 110 years.  Normally, higher prices will  result in higher supplies as producers rush to capitalize on higher prices.  Despite the fact that the price of gold has increased every year for the past decade, gold production has barely increased – there is simply not that much gold left which hasn’t already been mined.

 

Global gold production - courtesy gregor.us

A looming price correction in gold?  Bring it on!

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Gold Will Soar On Imminent U.S. Bailout of Europe

September 14, 2011 by 7 Comments

It is only a matter of time before the U.S. becomes deeply involved in the bailout of Europe.  Consider Geithner Takes Tougher Tone On Europe as reported by Bloomberg.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will urge European governments to step up their crisis- fighting efforts amid Obama administration concerns that the region’s woes may hurt the U.S. economy.

Geithner will press European Union finance ministers when he meets with them this week, a euro-area official said.“The U.S. has always been discretely preoccupied and discretely present, and now it’s starting to be intensely preoccupied and intensely present,” said Nicolas Veron, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based economics research group.

Geithner’s trip to Wroclaw will be his second to Europe in a week.The visit “underlines the nervousness of the administration in the U.S. about what’s happening in Europe” and the effect the region’s debt crisis is having on U.S. financial markets, Julian Jessop, chief global economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London, said in an interview yesterday.

President Barack Obama told a group of Spanish-language journalists at the White House on Sept. 12 that “we’re deeply engaged with Europeans to try to solve this crisis.”

The European crisis was “very, very damaging in the American economy last summer,” Geithner told Bloomberg Television on Sept. 9.

“The way the U.S. handled the financial crisis and the lessons learned from that could become a much more important part of the IMF message to Europe,” said Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Treasury’s Geithner is clearly laying the groundwork for a major role by the United States in bailing out the European Union.  The potential for a collapse of the European banking system is viewed as an unequivocal threat to the economic health of the United States by the U.S Treasury, the White House and the Federal Reserve.

U.S. participation in bailing out Europe will not be unilateral but rather in conjunction with the IMF and the European Central Bank.  The U.S. financial commitment, however, will be open ended.  The blueprint for saving the EU will be similar to that used by the U.S. during the financial meltdown of 2008 – virtually unlimited lending to prevent the sovereign default of insolvent European Union members.

The looming bailout of insolvent European nations, particularly Greece which is hopelessly bankrupt, will be the definitive signal that a return to sound finances has been utterly abandoned.  Rather than allowing market forces to correct the systemic imbalances in the financial system, the problem will be papered over by more debt, more printed money and massive debasement of paper currencies.

Gold, the enemy of central banks, will soar as governments frantically print and borrow to “save” Europe.

Filed Under: Featured, Gold, US Debt Crisis Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How Would Gold Perform In A Full Blown Depression?

September 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

“We need to do massive stimulus, otherwise there’s going to be another Great Depression.  Things are getting worse, and the big difference between now and a few years ago is that this time around we’re running out of policy bullets.”  – Professor Nouriel Roubini

As the global financial system lurches towards financial Armageddon, would a safe haven asset such as gold maintain its value in a severe depression?

This and other questions were addressed in a Barron’s interview with Martin Murenbeeld, chief economist for Canada’s DundeeWealth, an asset management firm.  Murenbeeld has held senior positions with various gold mining firms for 40 years and turned bullish on gold in 2001.

In response to questions from Barron’s, Mr. Murenbeeld provided the following insights on the gold market and where he thinks prices are headed.

-Murenbeeld told Barron’s that the recent surge in gold prices was related to investor worries over impaired sovereign balance sheets, monetary reflation, global financial instability and strong demand for physical gold from Asia.  In addition, global gold production has barely increased.  Murenbeeld sees an average gold price of $2,200 in 2012 and only a 10% chance that gold will pull back to the $1,500 range.

-The current gold bull market could last another 10 years due to expanded Asian demand and unprecedented adverse financial conditions in the world economy.  Murenbeeld says history “has shown that gold prices…go through very long cycles.”  The last gold bull market of the early 1980’s was one of the shortest on record.

-Regarding the current disconnect between gold bullion and gold stocks, Murenbeeld notes that during times of severe financial stress, bullion outperforms gold stocks since investors avoid equity issues in general.  Over the long term, however, gold stocks have outperformed bullion.

-If the world enters a major depression, gold prices would likely drop since “demand for everything falls off.”  Murenbeeld notes, however, that monetary response to a depression would be fast and aggressive which would quickly propel gold prices higher.

-Murenbeeld says that current demand for gold in “unprecedented” and due to Federal Reserve policies, the introduction of gold ETFs and huge demand for physical gold by billions of consumers in Asia.

-In response to how world governments will deal with the current severe financial problems, Murenbeeld said “during my working life the risk of monetary debasement – the outright printing of money supply in the developed countries has never been higher.  Thus, we see the unprecedented interest in gold…Most likely governments will meet the bulk of their debt obligations with currency devaluations and the monetizing of debt”.

-As far as the possibility that investors will lose interest in gold, Murenbeeld says that could happen if “confidence in monetary and fiscal policies is restored”.   (Not much chance of that happening any time soon in this writer’s opinion.)

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Gold Currency – An Escape From A Failing Paper Money System

August 25, 2011 by 2 Comments

Fed Chairman Bernanke’s statement that “gold is not money” seems to be an increasingly lonely position.  No less an authority than Alan Greenspan, his predecessor at the Federal Reserve, directly contradicted Bernanke by calling gold a “currency.”

In remarkably candid language, Greenspan spoke in Washington about the Euro ‘Breaking Down’, the European banking crisis and the deterioration of the fiat money system.

“The euro is breaking down and the process of its breaking down is creating very considerable difficulties in the European banking system,” Greenspan said today in Washington.

A lack of confidence in euro-denominated debt is straining the region’s banks, Greenspan said. “That stuff has always been thought of as the ideal collateral and now it’s getting highly questionable,” he said in a question-and-answer session at the Innovation Nation Forum in Washington.

Greenspan also said that he did not think gold, which reached a record above $1,900 an ounce this week, was in a bubble.

“Gold, unlike all other commodities, is a currency,” he said. “And the major thrust in the demand for gold is not for jewelry. It’s not for anything other than an escape from what is perceived to be a fiat money system, paper money, that seems to be deteriorating.”

While Bernanke contemplates additional ways to debase the US currency his counterparts at other Central Banks are retaining gold to help manage debt and adding to their gold reserves at a record pace.  Meanwhile, before providing more bailout funds to insolvent member of the European Union, the German labour minister is demanding that gold be put up as collateral.

Central banks, net buyers of gold for the first time in a generation, are likely to retain their holdings even if they need to raise cash to counter an escalating debt crisis, according to Morgan Stanley.

“Once they’ve sold, that’s it, and buying back would be extremely expensive,” Peter Richardson, chief metals economist at Morgan Stanley Australia Ltd., said in an interview. “They would rather have the backing of a rising asset within their reserve portfolios than use it to reduce debt.”

“Under conditions of austerity we’re going to see a further deterioration of debt,” said Richardson, who has studied metals markets for 20 years. “Rising risk argues in favor of holding on to their gold reserves rather than selling them because they’ve only got one shot at selling.”

“The European central banks won’t sell their gold because while it may be a means to raise cash, it definitely won’t be enough to settle their debts,” said Duan Shihua, head of corporate services at Haitong Futures Co., China’s largest brokerage by registered capital. “Besides, none of the central banks believe in the currencies of other countries.”

Bernanke can deny reality and history by saying that gold is not money while he wildly prints more paper currency, but the rest of the world isn’t buying it.

Filed Under: Bullion Sales, Featured, Gold, US Debt Crisis Tagged With: , , , , ,

Fed Lays Groundwork For Price Explosion In Gold

August 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Gold hit another all time high of $1,779.10 before pulling back to close at $1745.10, up $26.90.  Gold has advanced strongly over the past year as the Federal Reserve engaged in quantitative easing and extremely loose monetary policy.  Over the past 30 days gold has gained $198 and over the past year, a stunning $548.70 per ounce.

At the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Tuesday, the Fed announced that it would maintain its zero interest rate policy through the middle of 2013.   The Fed does not normally make commitments that limit future policy flexibility and three of the seven members of the FOMC  voted against the pledge to maintain zero interest rates.

The Fed has held interest rates at zero for 32 months now with little to show for it as debt burdened consumers continue to reduce spending.  With inflation running at 5 to 10% (depending on whose stats you believe), real interest rates are negative and savers are seeing the purchasing power of their dollars destroyed by Fed policies.

The FOMC also said that they expect “a somewhat slower pace of recovery over the coming quarters” and that future action might be taken to “promote stronger economic recovery.”  Since the Fed has already exhausted all normal policy tools, the FOMC seems to be positioning itself for another round of quantitative easing.  Some analysts speculate that the Fed will discuss further easing measures later this month at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where QE2 was launched.

Further fiscal stimulus seems improbable given the restrictions put on future spending by Congress as part of the debt limit agreement.  In a sign of how desperate the financial condition of the United States has become, all eyes are now turned towards the Fed.

Since zero interest rates and two rounds of money printing have done little to turn around the US economy, the expectation is that the Fed will need to do more of what failured before, except on a grander scale.  I expect that as the economy continues to weaken, the Fed will announce a “shock and awe” campaign of massive money printing accompanied by an explicit statement that they are committed to higher inflation.

Federal Reserve policies have been the primary factor pushing the price of gold higher.  The inevitable announcement of further quantitative easing will be trigger that pushes gold prices thousands of dollars higher.

Consider the statement of the former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan who on a “Meet the Press” interview arrogantly proclaimed that the United States could never default because “The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default.”  This is what the United States has come to under the easy money policies of the Federal Reserve and a government that believes prosperity can be created by oceans of debt.  Is it any wonder that the currency is collapsing and the purchasing power of the dollar declining precipitously?

Meanwhile, Kenneth Rogoff (of This Time It’s Different fame) who attended Harvard with Bernanke, tells Bloomberg that the Fed should explicitly set a high inflation target and engage in massive quantitative easing.

Federal Reserve policy makers are likely to embark on a third round of large-scale asset purchases, moving “more decisively” to secure the U.S. recovery, said Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff.

“They certainly should do something right away,” said Rogoff, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist who attended graduate school with Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.

“Out-of-the-box policies are called for, especially much more aggressive monetary policy, however unpopular that may be,” said Rogoff, 58, a former Fed economist who like Bernanke earned a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Fed is “going to move more decisively,” Rogoff said.

Rogoff recommended the Fed say in “very clear statements” that it’s trying to create “moderate inflation.” “In the classic classroom QE, it’s open-ended,” Rogoff said. “You say, ‘I’m trying to create inflation of, let’s say 2 or 3 percent, and I’m going to do whatever it takes.’”

The extreme policy measures recommended by Greenspan and Rogoff prove that the US has already passed the tipping point and has only one policy option left.  If the Fed does not print like crazy, the whole rotten edifice of towering debts will collapse, plunging the country into a deflationary collapse.

Gold will have price corrections as it continues to move upward but the ultimate price will be many thousands of dollars higher than today.  Gold investors should continue to accumulate positions, especially on price weakness and enjoy the unfolding of one of the greatest bull markets in history.

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$100 Up Days For Gold To Become Routine

August 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Gold is a small part of most investment portfolios despite a decades long uptrend.  Investment advisers have either routinely dismissed gold as part of an investment portfolio or recommend only a token position as a hedge.  This is likely to change as gold gains recognition as a safe haven alternate currency.  As investors rush to establish positions in gold, $100 up days are likely to become a routine event.

The reasons for investing in gold are well known to readers of this blog.

The financial crisis that began in 2008 was not resolved and is now entering the end game phase.  Governments that propped up the financial system with trillions of dollars of debt have exhausted their borrowing capacity and now need to be rescued themselves.

Crippling levels of debts and deficits have suffocated economic growth necessary to service debt.

A panic is engulfing the global financial system as investors realized that governments are no longer able to contain the debt crisis.

All eyes are now turned towards the central banks.  Will the central banks allow the world to slide into collapse or will they “come to the rescue” with a massive rescue plan using printed money?  The price movement in gold has already answered this question.

 

Filed Under: Featured, Gold, US Debt Crisis Tagged With: , ,

Gold Soars Past $1,700 As Debt Crisis Spirals Out Of Control

August 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Gold soared to a new all time high over $1,700 in Asian trading after the credit downgrade of  the United States by Standard & Poors and news that the ECB would conduct large scale purchases of Italian and Spanish bonds. These two event have escalated the debt crisis in Europe and the United States to a new dangerous level.  Investor confidence has been shattered in both equity and bond markets as events seem on the verge of spiraling out of control.

The European Central Bank has been unable to form a coherent strategy to deal with the debt crisis and the Federal Reserve seems to be running out of policy options.  The governments that “saved the world in 2008” through massive fiscal and monetary stimulus now need to be saved themselves.

The relentless rise of gold since the financial crisis began reflects the increasing risk of sovereign defaults and  the rampant debasement of paper money.  The gold market is effectively a report card on the failed policies of governments and the grade is an F.

Gold - courtesy kitco.com

The response by U.S. policy makers to the S&P downgrade reflects a dangerous disconnect from reality and political posturing.  In a shoot the messenger response, Treasury Secretary Geithner said that S&P used “terrible judgment” and have “shown a stunning lack of knowledge about the basic US fiscal budget math”.  A more realistic assessment of the US debt downgrade came from investor Jimmy Rogers who said two months ago that “America should already be downgraded. It should have been downgraded years ago. These people, the rating agencies, have got it wrong for 10-15 years now. America is bankrupt”.

The Federal Reserve, which could not recognize the housing bubble, has also been at a loss to deal effectively with the debt crisis.  Consider Bernanke Models Prove Faulty:

“We haven’t had any historical event that really would allow us to reliably statistically calibrate an event like the one we’ve had,” David Stockton, director of the Fed’s Division of Research and Statistics, who has overseen forecasting for a decade, said in an interview at the end of June. “There isn’t going to be a simple story here.”

Stockton calls the 2007-2009 period “an unprecedented financial crisis in the lives of almost every economic agent.”

“That had profound effects on people’s balance sheets, on their spending, and their impetus to deleverage,” he said in the interview. “Something beyond transitory factors are at work.”

Suite of Models

The suite of models used by Fed staff to forecast changes in consumption and investment rely to some extent on past relationships between interest rates, income, and profits. Most also assume credit will be supplied and demanded at a given price or interest rate. Without adjustments, they revert to the mean — after a period of slump they begin to point upward, in line with previous recoveries.

All of those tendencies have made the models less trusty guideposts for what is happening in the current recovery. The staff has to venture judgments and explore new analyses.

“Something new and different is going on,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist at Decision Economics Inc. in New York. “Neither monetary nor fiscal policy is giving us the kind of bang we have traditionally got. The household sector is simply not spending as it has in the past.”

Ordinarily, monetary policy works by making borrowing cheaper so households and businesses can access credit and keep their consumption stable through an economic slump. Now, that channel is less effective.

Banks have raised lending standards, and the private sector’s expectations about consumption may be shifting to a lower path, said Julia Coronado, chief economist for North America for BNP Paribas in New York, who worked for Stockton from 1997 to 2005.

“This is a standard-of-living shock,” Coronado said. “What we thought we could afford, and what we leveraged to, is much more than we can afford at present and in the future.”

In other words, the problem is too much debt, and the Fed’s response has been to encourage more debt by dropping interest rates to zero and printing money.  As long as the Fed continues its failed policies, the price of gold will continue to soar.

 

 

Filed Under: Featured, Gold, US Debt Crisis Tagged With: , , , ,