What a difference a decade and a bull market in gold make

"The decade of the 1990s is America's modern-day equivalent of the Roaring 20s," notes Greg Hunter of the USA Watchdog site.

"The future looked so bright in December of 1996 that Fed Chief Alan Greenspan warned investors not to get carried away with the good times," Hunter says. "Greenspan asked this rhetorical question, 'But how do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values, which then become subject to unexpected and prolonged contractions as they have in Japan over the past decade?' ...

"Oh, what a difference a decade or so makes. Just this past week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testified in front of the Senate banking panel. In opening remarks, Bernanke said, 'The economic outlook remains unusually uncertain.' ...

"The Fed Chairman told Congress he is not sure where the economy is going? This doesn't sound like 'green shoots' or a 'recovery' to me. It sounds like a warning things may take a turn for the worse. The only consolation is the Fed will 'take further policy actions as needed.' That, to me, sounds like more money printing and bailouts if the economy rolls over, or maybe I should say when the economy rolls over.

"I guess I should not be surprised with Bernanke's 'unusually uncertain' comment. After all, just last month, he said, 'I don't fully understand movements in the gold price.' How can someone in charge of the world's biggest gold reserve (more than 8,000 tons) be clueless about the rising price of gold?"

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