Executive Insights

Coin Week has invited me to write articles about the Mint from an insider’s point of view, and I have some stories to tell that give a flavor for what it’s like to work in Washington, DC. Coin Week has also encouraged me to make what I call a Main Street case for investing in…

So, nothing seems to have changed as a result of the budget and debt crisis. We simply kicked the can into next year. While the GOP took a good deal of self-inflicted damage in the standoff, this was not a victory for Democrats in terms of achieving any of their budget objectives. The deep budget…

In the weeks leading up to the debt crisis in 2011, gold rose $400 an ounce to hit its nominal all-time peak of $1,895. The 2011 debt crisis was the one in which we came so close to defaulting on our debts that rating agencies downgraded the nation’s credit score. But it was good for…

An edited version of this post appeared on Institutional Investor's Unconventional Wisdom blog.  Three questions pending in Washington are poised to roil markets: When will the Federal Reserve taper quantitative easing? When will the government shutdown end? and Will Congress fail to raise the debt limit? How these issues play out is likely to have lasting…

An edited version of this post appeared in the print version of The Wall Street Journal Asia and the U.S. edition of WSJ.com.

Misconceptions about inflation, the falling dollar, and the relentless rise in federal budget deficits are skewing gold advocates' arguments; however, a strong case can be made for the metal without resorting to these misconceptions.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of physical gold in a balanced financial portfolio. The bull market of the 2000s has led many to think of gold as another way to increase wealth through price appreciation. This is mistaken. First and foremost, physical gold is insurance. When you think about buying insurance, you…

As I write this morning, gold has given up two-thirds of its gains following the Fed’s decision last Wednesday to continue its $85 billion-a-month in bond purchases under QE3. One reason for this retreat is that markets overreacted to the news, just as they did back in June when Ben Bernanke’s statement about QE3 was…

In the wake of the FOMC's decision, some analysts are lurching to the extreme, speculating that a majority of the FOMC sees the economy as weakening. We won't know what individual members think about the state of the recovery until the minutes of this week's meeting are released. But the Fed's announcement makes it clear…

The FOMC meeting convened today with two big questions casting shadows over the Fed's policy: what are the unintended effects of QE and what will be the consequences of unwinding the $3 trillion (and counting) in assets the Fed has added to its books under QE?

What’ll the Fed do about QE3 when it meets next week? I've said before the numbers to watch are those related to employment and the two forces that have driven our anemic recovery—housing and consumer spending. If those numbers indicate the economy is gaining steam, the Fed will start tapering this month. If the numbers…

The story lines I've seen in the last 48 hours in articles and opinion pieces about the recent rise in gold prices all support the notion that gold prices are being driven by a variety of short-term circumstances. This point-of-view reflects our failure to see the forest for the trees. While the specific events are…