Read Part I In my last post I painted a dystopian future for the NFL as as a metaphor for our current banking system. You might take a look at it before proceeding. It can’t really be THAT bad. The stars of today’s too-big-to-fail (TBTF) banks are the elite financial...
Gold, TBTF Banks and the NFL- Part I
A reader recently asked why I have an axe to grind for the big banks and how it has anything to do with gold. I’ll explain with a sports metaphor. Imagine the NFL in a dystopian future The major stars are in an unrestrained PED (performance-enhancing drug) arms...
Would Those Nice Bankers Really Manipulate Gold Prices?
In my last post, I described how Goldman Sachs used its position in aluminum warehousing to manipulate prices, and I posed the question, What can we learn about the gold market from Goldman’s actions in aluminum? Let’s look at SPDR Gold, the largest gold ETF in the...
Gold and the Aluminum Price Manipulation Scandal
Two weeks ago I wrote about why gold is making a rally. In that post I discuss Goldman Sachs's manipulation of prices in the aluminum market and what it tells us about how gold ETFs might be influencing the gold market in a similar way. The Goldman story is developing...
Why Unemployment Matters for Gold
The U.S. Department of Labor released the latest unemployment numbers on Friday, as it does the first Friday of every month. I’ll be writing a short post after each of these releases to explain what they mean for gold prices. Why? Because monthly unemployment rates...
Five Reasons the Fed Is Wrong About the Economy… Again
I'm still boggled by the Fed's June economic forecast, the one that led analysts to conclude the Fed would begin winding down QE3 this fall. Markets around the world, including the gold market, reacted so negatively to this news that Chairman Bernanke was forced to...
Why Is Gold Rallying?
This weekend's NY Times article about Goldman Sachs cornering the aluminum warehousing market has generated heated speculation about the lending practices of big banks that warehouse gold. This matter draws great interest because such lending practices could lead to...
Why Does Ben Bernanke Hate Gold?
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke dissed gold in a Senate Banking Committee hearing yesterday. There’s nothing surprising in that — he’s stated his views on gold before. But it’s still interesting to take a look at what he said. “No one really understands gold prices,” said...
Doom, Gloom and Gold
I was in New York last week to meet with reporters who cover the gold market. Twice I was asked about the “doom and gloom” messages commonly used to sell physical gold. I have two thoughts on that question. Gold sellers know that many of their most reliable buyers...
Six Reasons Gold Is Set for a New Bull Run
I've promised to explain why I think gold is on the verge of another bull run. As I've said in my post On Gold and Precious Metals, I’m not in the business of making short-term predictions of gold prices. I consider making short-term price predictions to be a fool’s...
The Case for Buying Gold, Despite Market Conditions- Part III
Read Part I Read Part II I’ll start by summarizing my last post about gold’s mid-April loss of $200+, then address the cause of another $200 an ounce loss in mid-June. What new information did the market learn that warranted a $200+ hit in April? Did the market...
The Case for Buying Gold, Despite Market Conditions- Part II
Read Part I I concluded my last post by describing how the world’s largest purveyor of paper gold, SPDR Gold, sold more paper gold between December 2012 and June 2013 than it had accumulated over the previous four years. In fact, SPDR Gold sold more paper gold in...