Latest Investing News Blog Posts

September is a historically dreadful month for stocks, explains MarketWatch columnist Mark Hulbert in his article "September by the numbers." In contrast, gold traditionally enjoys its biggest gains in September. From Hulbert's column: [ Read more… ]

"I don't see gold as a defensive trade; I see it as the leading bull market on Earth," says fund manager Charles Morris, who oversees about $2.5 billion at HSBC Global Asset Management's Absolute Return fund. [ Read more… ]

Precious-metals expert David Levenstein discusses the significance of Fort Knox's gold in his article "Gold and the forex market: A look at the relationship between the yellow metal and currency markets and why it is important to know how much gold is in Fort Knox": [ Read more… ]

Jeff Mosseri, president of New York-based Greystone Asset Management and a director of Axiom Capital, and Doug Loud, the executive director of both companies, recently gave their read on the U.S. economy and gold in an interview with The Gold Report: [ Read more… ]

From economist Scott Grannis, the "Calafia Beach Pundit," posted on The Business Insider: [ Read more… ]

From The Business Insider:

The powerful stock market surge and the decent ISM manufacturing report prompted [CNBC "Squawk on the Street" co-anchor] Mark Haines to ask this morning: "Is the double-dip dead!?" [ Read more… ]

Gold rallied above $1,250 an ounce before falling back to around $1,245 as strong U.S. manufacturing data boosted investor appetite for riskier assets such as stocks. [ Read more… ]

"I've always advocated a 5 percent to 10 percent weighting in gold in a diversified portfolio, and what's really important is seasonal patterns," says U.S. Global Investors chief Frank Holmes says in an Aug. 31 CNBC interview. "The best season is this quarter, starting right now. ... For the next five to six months we have usually great seasonal demand for jewelry buying, where there's an emotional attachment to gold" in Asia and the Middle East. [ Read more… ]

The United States needs to stop printing money and take on austerity measures like the Europeans did in order for the economy to recover, said international investor Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings. [ Read more… ]

"This fall we're looking at $1,325 as a minimum goal on the December futures, which expire after Thanksgiving," Trader Tracks editor Roger Wiegand says of gold prices in an interview with The Gold Report. [ Read more… ]

Gold was set to end August at its highest for two months on Tuesday after more data highlighted the cracks in the U.S. economic recovery, pushing bullion prices up for a third day. [ Read more… ]

When are investors going to stop getting suckered by Ben Bernanke? [ Read more… ]

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said he plans to introduce legislation next year to force an audit of U.S. holdings of gold. [ Read more… ]

"We see gold starting to make its run back to the highs. We're within $20 or $25 and we're sustaining these levels. ... We can make it into new highs before the end of the year," says Frank McGhee, head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC, in an Aug. 30 interview with Bloomberg. [ Read more… ]

From Bloomberg News:

Investors are accumulating enough bullion to fill Switzerland's vaults twice over as gold's most accurate forecasters say the longest rally in at least nine decades has further to go no matter what the economy holds. [ Read more… ]

Jeff Nielson of Bullion Bulls Canada has already pointed out that Jason Toussaint, managing director for the GLD exchanged-traded fund (ETF), does not own any shares in GLD but does own physical gold and mining stocks. But it gets worse, according to the Golden Truth blogger, who pays close scrutiny to an interview Toussaint recently gave: [ Read more… ]

The number of individual investors who have a bullish outlook on the stock market for the next six months plunged to 21 percent, from 30 percent last week, according to a widely followed sentiment survey. [ Read more… ]

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday that the central bank would not sit idly and let the U.S. economy sink into a period of deflation. [ Read more… ]

From ZeroHedge:

"In this week's Big Interview, the WSJ's Simon Constable interviews Robert Shiller, who flat out says that an economic double dip may be 'imminent.' This compares to his earlier warning that he saw the chances of a double dip at over 50%. Guess that probability has now doubled. Notably, Shiller also believes that when the NBER looks back at the data, Q3 of this year will mark the beginning of the second dip of the recession. Ironically, since up to now the previous recession has never actually officially ended, very soon the NBER will merely confirm that the recession which started in December 2007 will have continued for three years, in what is possibly the longest recession on record. Furthermore, those looking to sell houses are advised not to listen to the interview, as the co-creator of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index also added that he is worried housing prices could decline for another five years. He noted that Japan saw land prices decline for 15 consecutive years up to 2006. Following up on this week's weakest new-home sales data in history, this should probably not come as a big surprise to most." [ Read more… ]

"There is an instinctive conclusion among the American public that President Obama's stimulus package has failed to create a sustained recovery," writes billionaire publisher Mortimer Zuckerman in his article "The Most Fiscally Irresponsible Government in U.S. History." [ Read more… ]

"Don't think for a moment that the U.S. will follow the path of Japan," writes Julian D.W. Phillips of The Gold Forecaster. "Deflation is not an option for the consumer-driven economy of the U.S. We believe that the path Mr. Bernanke has chosen for the U.S. has to be followed all the way. Today, he stated that he was ready to act to defeat deflation, should it arrive. Quantitative Easing will lead to inflation. Inflation is an acceptable alternative to deflation, because it is easier to cure inflation than deflation. But the government of the U.S. is likely to wait until deflation is biting before they act, then the stimuli will have to be heavy as will consequential inflation. This prospect is bringing tremendous doubts about the value of Dollar and other currencies. ... [ Read more… ]

From the Business Insider:

The latest revision for U.S. Q2 GDP came in at 1.6%, which was higher than the 1.3% reading expected by consensus, but well below the 2.4% value previously reported by the government. Thing is, the latest GDP report shows just how dependent the U.S. economy was on government spending during the second quarter. [ Read more… ]

In an Aug. 26 strategy paper titled "FX Alert: QE2 as USD end-game," Citibank currency strategist Steven Englander says a new round of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve could spell doom for the U.S. dollar. The paper's three main points are: [ Read more… ]

The national debt is the single biggest threat to national security, according to Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Tax payers will be paying around $600 billion in interest on the national debt by 2012, the chairman told students and local leaders in Detroit. [ Read more… ]

Gold demand in Vietnam, which consumes more of the precious metal per head than India and China, is set to surge as the third devaluation in the past year and a stock-market slump combine to spur sales. [ Read more… ]

From The Wall Street Journal:

September could be the month that gold prices finally move to new record highs, traders and analysts say, as the gloomy macroeconomic outlook plays into the hands of the bulls. [ Read more… ]

Gold, headed for a 10th annual gain, may reach at least $1,300 an ounce this year as investors seek a shield against financial turmoil, weak currencies and inflation, according to GFMS Ltd., a precious-metals consulting firm. [ Read more… ]

In his article "America's Debt: The Big Wave," Damien Hoffman of Wall St. Cheat Sheet presents a frightening infographic detailing the monstrous debt problem threatening the U.S.: [ Read more… ]

A number of the world's biggest banks have launched international roadshows promoting the use of the renminbi to corporate customers instead of the dollar for trade deals with China. [ Read more… ]

Ever wonder what it's like to open up a "Monster Box" of 500 Silver American Eagle coins? This short video shows one investor's excitement as he cuts the seals on his brand-new green Monster Box from the U.S. Mint in West Point, N.Y., and dons white gloves to handle the coins. [ Read more… ]

CFD market strategist David Morrison explains "Why I'm betting on silver" in his article at IBTimes: [ Read more… ]

Jeff Nielson of Bullion Bulls Canada says something's missing from the portfolio of a managing director of GLD, the gold-related exchange-traded fund, or ETF. If Nielson is correct, this GLD executive holds physical bullion, not the "paper gold" ETF he manages: [ Read more… ]

From Gains Pains & Capital editor Graham Summers of Phoenix Capital Research in his article "The 'Flight to Safety' Trade Your Broker Won't Tell You About": [ Read more… ]

A noted bearish strategist said Thursday that the S&P 500 will tumble to 450 because conditions in the U.S. are "much, much worse" than during the lost decade in Japan. [ Read more… ]

Gold expert Jeff Clark tackles this question for Casey's Gold & Research Report: "Should I buy gold now, or wait for a pullback?" [ Read more… ]

From the Business Insider:

"As the Eurozone crisis made headlines, European retail demand for gold surged in the second quarter. [ Read more… ]

From TheStreet.com:

"Gold prices have risen more than 10% in 2010, closing Wednesday at $1,241 an ounce. Rising unemployment in the U.S., import slowdown in China, weak global economic data and a struggling eurozone have triggered gold's recent surge, but those issues don't tell the whole story. [ Read more… ]

One in 10 American households with a mortgage was at risk of foreclosure this summer as the government's efforts to help have had little impact stemming the housing crisis. [ Read more… ]

The U.S. government needs to take steps to preserve its top AAA rating, a Standard & Poor's Ratings (S&P) official told Dow Jones newswire in an interview Thursday. [ Read more… ]

The Bank of Korea, which has shunned adding gold to foreign-exchange reserves, is "under pressure" to consider purchases as the global economy worsens and the price advances, Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management Co. said. [ Read more… ]

The ratio of gold to silver dropped to a three-week low after gold's rally to the highest level in eight weeks prompted some investors to buy the white metal. [ Read more… ]

Over the years, gold has only built upon its reputation as a protector of wealth against inflation, currency depreciation or broader economic turmoil. Economic growth and development of financial markets - equity, derivatives and commodities - in the last 25 years pushed gold a bit into the background, at least on the investment front. [ Read more… ]

"Are gold and silver breaking out?" asks Moses Kim of the Expected Returns precious-metals blog: [ Read more… ]

Financial analyst Gary Tanashian of http://www.biiwii.blogspot.com/ thinks inflation is the Fed's end game: [ Read more… ]

"The QE2 is pure cancer within the monetary body," writes Ph.D. statistician Jim Willie of GoldenJackass.com and The Hat Trick Newsletter, commenting on the Federal Reserve's next round of quantitative easing [QE2]. [ Read more… ]

New York University economist Nouriel Roubini, who is among several prominent forecasters dubbed "Dr. Doom" by the media, issued this grim Tweet today, slashing his outlook: "Q3 GDP growth very likely to be below 1%; and likely to be closer to 0% than to a pathetically lousy 1%. So double dip risk is now > 40%" [ Read more… ]

Gold advanced to the highest price in almost eight weeks in New York as concern that the economic recovery is stalling spurred demand. [ Read more… ]

Stocks opened lower for a fifth straight day Wednesday, following a disappointing durable-goods report. Joseph Keating, executive vice president and chief investment officer at CenterState Bank, and David Hefty, chief executive of Hefty Wealth Partners, discussed their market outlooks. [ Read more… ]

ZeroHedge describes the World Gold Council's new bullish report on gold trends: [ Read more… ]

Positive gross domestic product readings and other mildly hopeful signs are masking an ugly truth: The US economy is in a 1930s-style Depression, Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg said Tuesday. [ Read more… ]

Existing home sales for the month of July fell 27.2%, according to the National Association of Realtors. [ Read more… ]

Gold rebounded Tuesday from the biggest drop in four weeks as some investors purchased the metal as a haven from tumbling equity markets. [ Read more… ]

Gold is the only asset that can cope well through both inflation and deflation, says Morgan Stanley market strategist Gerard Minack in an Aug. 23 CNBC video interview. [ Read more… ]

Famed gold bulls Peter Schiff and Marc Faber tell CNBC that investors should ditch U.S. Treasury bonds because they are a mega-bubble that is about to burst - big time. [ Read more… ]

"The reality is that hyperinflation is first and foremost set in motion and driven by a deteriorating fiscal situation," writes Jordan Roy-Byrne of Trendsman Research in his article "Hyperinflation is a Fiscal, Not Monetary, Phenomenon." [ Read more… ]

Investors will face defaults on government bonds given the burden of aging populations and the difficulty of securing more tax revenue, according to Morgan Stanley. [ Read more… ]

The Dow Jones Industrial Average will lose about half of its value in the next two years as it follows a Nikkei-like pattern of several sharp rallies in an overall decline, according to Charles Nenner, founder and president of the Charles Nenner Research Center, in an Aug. 24 CNBC video interview. [ Read more… ]

The economic recovery appears to be stalling as companies cut back last month on their investments in equipment and machines and Americans bought new homes at the weakest pace in decades. [ Read more… ]

The U.S. economy would see a 2% annualized hit to household income, or roughly 1.3% of GDP, if the Bush tax cuts were allowed to expire as scheduled at the end of this year, according to a note published by Bank of America Merrill Lynch chief North American economist Ethan Harris. That hit could trigger a double-dip recession, he said. Democrats and Republicans are fighting over the provision, with the Obama administration wanting to permanently extend lower rates and permanently raise the two upper rates, while Republicans want the tax cuts extended. Harris says there's a 55% probability of a compromise after the mid-term election and a 35% chance of gridlock without any compromise. [ Read more… ]

"While it is true that - for now at least - we have been spared from the imminent curse of skyrocketing consumer prices, thanks to the falling money multiplier, it is blatantly untrue that the trillion-plus dollars the Fed created have been rendered inconsequential," says Euro Pacific Capital senior economist Michael Pento in his article "The Fed's Biggest Bubble." [ Read more… ]

The economic slowdown is intensifying, JPMorgan Chase economist Robert Mellman tells Bloomberg TV on Aug. 20. [ Read more… ]

Here is "Economic Collapse" blogger Michael Snyder's take on the significance of Tuesday's real-estate report showing that existing-home sales in the U.S. dropped a whopping 27.2% in the month of July: [ Read more… ]

"For the past 10 years, there has been a pronounced advance through the autumn, usually into the winter and sometimes lasting until May," notes Howard Katz of The One-Handed Economist newsletter. "Gold usually hits a bottom in July and then makes a secondary test in August. Then in late August it starts to rally and after Labor Day begins a steady advance. The up move in early August is unusual and is probably a hint that this year's autumn rally will be stronger than usual. [ Read more… ]

From Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper:
 
"As the recession and sluggish recovery have significantly reduced demand for gold in the traditional jewellery market, investor demand has offset that shortfall, says Tanya Jakusconek, an analyst with National Bank Financial Inc. She and her colleague, Tara Hassan, have just revised their forecast for the price of gold upward for the next five years, noting 'continued strength in investment demand.' [ Read more… ]

"Labor Day's around the corner," writes MarketWatch columnist Brett Arends. "Summer recess is almost over. ... The omens aren't looking good." What's an investor to do? [ Read more… ]

"The world enters the final stage of financial destruction thanks to a one-sided application of John Maynard Keynes' equation because politicians and central bankers did a terrific job in deficit spending since the USA defaulted on its gold obligations in 1971, but never followed Keynes' advice to build reserves in surplus years," writes Toni Straka of The Prudent Investor. "This is a direct result of a fiat money system that allows [the Fed] to create money at essentially no cost." [ Read more… ]

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts the U.S. budget deficit will hit $1.3 trillion this year. An astronomical figure, to be sure, but that's lower than was projected in March. It's also less than last year's record $1.41 trillion deficit, which was close to 10% of GDP. [ Read more… ]

Investors queasy over whether there's anything that can be done to boost the flagging US economy could get a trillion-dollar answer this week from the Federal Reserve. [ Read more… ]

 The Federal Reserve will probably ease monetary policy further as the U.S. economy weakens, said Jan Hatzius, chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York. [ Read more… ]

Asked what the stagnating U.S. economy means for gold, market analyst David Skarica of the Addicted to Profits newsletter tells The Gold Report: [ Read more… ]

Financial Times reporter Jonathan Ford recounts a recent lunch with "When Money Dies" author Adam Fergusson, who is "enjoying an unexpected literary revival thanks to the republication last month of a book he wrote 35 years ago - a history of the hyperinflation in 1920s Weimar Germany." [ Read more… ]

The amount of money flowing into bond funds is poised to exceed the cash that went into stock funds during the Internet bubble, stoking concern fixed-income markets are headed for a fall. [ Read more… ]

"I think we're going to have hyperinflation," writes blogger Gonzalo Lira in an article titled "How Hyperinflation Will Happen." [ Read more… ]

"There is an ongoing bull market in gold and despite the inevitable corrections, we should continue to exploit it to the fullest," writes Forbes blogger Jack Adamo in his article "Why You Need to Own Gold Now," which tracks gold's performance in an extensive chart analysis. [ Read more… ]

Housing will eventually recover from its great swoon. But many real estate experts now believe that home ownership will never again yield rewards like those enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century, when houses not only provided shelter but also a plump nest egg. [ Read more… ]

"This is no time to own any Treasury or other fixed-income securities with a maturity of more than six months," writes Robert Wenzel, editor and publisher of the EconomicPolicyJournal.com. "And, of course, any liquid fund position should be balanced with long-term holdings in gold (even though there may be a short-term dip in gold if deflationary conditions remain for the time being)." [ Read more… ]

According to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph:
 
"The cacophony of voices in Beijing questioning or mocking the credit-worthiness of the US is now deafening, from premier Wen Jiabao on down. The results are in any case manifest: US Treasury data show that China has cut its holdings of Treasury debt by roughly $100bn (#65bn) over the past year to $844bn. [ Read more… ]

"Despite silver's recent excitement-bereft sojourn, it actually has excellent potential for a big autumn rally in the coming months," writes certified public accountant Adam Hamilton of Zeal Research. [ Read more… ]

Jeff Nielson of Bullion Bulls Canada recommends buying gold bullion instead of taking the risks of shorting U.S. Treasury bonds, which are priced in dollars: [ Read more… ]

From the Prudent Investor:
 
"Including the Tehran Times into my daily reading as the saber rattling increases I stumbled across a notice that immediately reminds me one more time of one of Alan Greenspan's most rare defences of the US gold hoard. ... [ Read more… ]

Hussman Funds chief John Hussman "warns of an imminent and disorderly collapse of the U.S. dollar, courtesy of Ben Bernanke's move towards more quantitative easing," reports the Business Insider, which references Hussman's Aug. 23 Weekly Market Comment titled "Why Quantitative Easing is Likely to Trigger a Collapse of the U.S. Dollar." [ Read more… ]

Risk appetite is drying up and taking investors' capital out of stocks, according to a chart from Vincent Fernando at the Business Insider: [ Read more… ]

Renewed economic uncertainty is testing Americans' generation-long love affair with the stock market. [ Read more… ]

Gold ultimately trumps Treasury bonds, says Chris Ciovacco of Ciovacco Capital Management LLC in his article "Bonds Vs. Commodities and Precious Metals": [ Read more… ]

Gold is nowhere near bubble stage, says financial commentator Max Keiser in an interview titled "America: a walking dead-zombie country." Keiser also outlines the grim scenario of China announcing its own gold-backed currency: [ Read more… ]

The economy is not recovering for numerous reasons, and gold is the best place to be to ride out the coming storm, says precious-metals expert Louis James, senior editor of Casey's International Speculator, in his article "Black Swans Need Not Apply": [ Read more… ]

Jeff Opdyke of The Wall Street Journal argues that gold isn't a commodity that tracks inflation but rather that its price movements are negatively correlated to the value of the U.S. dollar: [ Read more… ]

It's time to "get into the storm cellar" with some gold for protection. The creator of the "Hindenburg Omen" theory says that dreaded sign of an impending stock crash occurred again on Friday, Aug. 20. According to Barron's: [ Read more… ]

Dark days ahead for the U.S. stock market, says independent investment analyst Rick Ackerman of the Rick's Picks Web site. "Preservation of capital is paramount" now, Ackerman says, and Blanchard and Company, Inc. concurs with that assessment - though we disagree that U.S. Treasurys are a good place to ride out the storm. Rather, buying gold is the way to go. From his article "Are You Ready for the Big One?": [ Read more… ]

An excerpt from Mike Whitney's Aug. 20 Counterpunch article titled "The Economy is in Big Trouble": [ Read more… ]

From Peter Brimelow's Aug. 19 MarketWatch column "Gold Gearing Up?" [ Read more… ]

How much additional sovereign debt does the world have to issue this year, just to make up the massive, growing budget deficits? [ Read more… ]

Paolo Pellegrini - the man who helped John Paulson short housing - is returning all his outside investor capital from his firm PSQR Capital in an apparent submission to the difficulties of making money in this market, according to Absolute Return + Alpha (via Zero Hedge). [ Read more… ]

 A CNN/Money.com article titled "Gold is glittering again. But why?" investigates what's driving gold in its recent, remarkable price rebound: [ Read more… ]

A new report from Hinde Capital, posted exclusively at King World News, predicts big gains for silver bullion. The report's conclusion: [ Read more… ]

"I'm just saying there's hanky panky going on in the stock market, which, I think, is being propped up by the people responsible for the American economy," says economic forecaster Ian Gordon of the Longwave Group. "This is being done to reassure American investors, and there are lots of them, that at least, that measure of their wealth is not being eroded. But it's not just the stock market that is being manipulated. Every official economic government statistic has been presented in the best possible light, in order to convince the public that things are better than they actually are. ... [ Read more… ]

"I'm looking for it to make new highs as we trend into 2011, moving through the fall of 2010," portfolio manager Joe Foster of Van Eck Global tells The Gold Report. "The high was around $1,265 in June. We've been on a steady trend higher. There's a lot of volatility in the gold market, but I would expect that trend to continue. It wouldn't surprise me if it moved through the $1,400 level sometime during 2011." [ Read more… ]

"All the current chatter these days on whether or not to reduce a portfolio's exposure to gold is, to put it bluntly, a short-term trader's conversation," writes Marvin Clark, managing principal and chief economist for Monsoon Wealth Management. [ Read more… ]

Gold is poised to break through the $1,300 level, says Roger "Traderrog" Wiegand of the Trader Tracks Newsletter and webeatthestreet.com in a new chart analysis: [ Read more… ]

Social Security's crushing obligations spell doom for the U.S. economy, according to investment consultant Neeraj Chaudhary of Euro Pacific Capital: [ Read more… ]

India's gold merchants are expecting a sustained pickup in sales for the second round of festivals, as a reviving economy and stable prices may aid sentiment, triggering a reversal of a declining trend in imports. [ Read more… ]

A record number of U.S. workers are tapping into their retirement accounts to make it through the economic downturn, Fidelity Investments found in a survey released on Friday." [ Read more… ]

Even if the costly state pension system undergoes reform, taxpayers could get stuck with a hefty bill. [ Read more… ]

The Golden Truth blogger cites the rising costs of ConAgra's dollar dinners as more proof that inflation is underreported. [ Read more… ]

Casey Research senior editor Doug Hornig lists the top-10 mistakes investors can't afford to make in the coming decade, and NOT owning gold weighs in at No. 7. Here's the list: [ Read more… ]

Hinde Capital, a London gold hedge fund, has mounted a ferocious attack on precious metals exchange traded funds and in particular the largest gold ETF, the SPDR Gold Trust run by State Street. [ Read more… ]

"Our view continues to be that the gold price will grind higher," Eldorado Gold CEO Paul Wright tells CNBC in a video interview. [ Read more… ]

Factory activity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region contracted in August to its lowest level in more than a year, a survey showed Thursday, heightening worries over the sustainability of the economic recovery. [ Read more… ]

The Federal Reserve bought $2.551 billion of Treasuries in the first outright purchase of U.S. government debt since October to prevent money from being drained from the financial system. [ Read more… ]

The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday issued its latest warning on America's fiscal outlook, saying long-term economic growth was threatened by high budget deficits and the rising debt burden. [ Read more… ]

The global gold market has been transformed over the past decade. Jewelry, for decades the backbone of gold consumption, has moved to the sidelines amid voracious demand from investors. Central banks, for years big sellers of bullion, have performed a radical U-turn and started to buy. [ Read more… ]

"Clearly, paper money has now lost its function as a store of value and a medium of exchange," says Egon von Greyerz of Goldswitzerland.com in a CNBC interview Thursday (at minute 6:55). [ Read more… ]

Gold prices rose to their highest since July 1 at $1,233.35 an ounce Thursday after data showed new U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly hit a nine-month high last week. [ Read more… ]

"People have to understand how serious this is and protect themselves," John Embry of Sprott Asset Management tells The Gold Report. "They've got to have some precious metals in their portfolio. If they don't, I think they'll rue the day they didn't. ... I used to say 5% to 10% before this mess started rolling. I'd say a minimum of 25% now." [ Read more… ]

"Now is a very bad time to have most kinds of equities; stocks in general are very overpriced, by almost every parameter," says Doug Casey, chairman of Casey Research LLC, in an interview with The Gold Report. [ Read more… ]

In a world where investors are scrambling to stem hefty losses, gold and the Japanese yen are unlikely adversaries.
[ Read more… ]

The recent stock market swoon seems to have shaken the confidence if George Soros's fund management company. [ Read more… ]

China is already the world's biggest producer of gold, having recently displaced South Africa, and it is vying with India for the title of world's largest gold consumer. Yet the simple statement made in the third paragraph below ("whatever China is short of") suggests that China is still hungry for even more gold: [ Read more… ]

"Gold is not a commodity - gold is a currency and it is the only currency without liabilities and cannot be mismanaged by its own central bank," famed investor Felix Zulauf tells Barry Ritholtz's Big Picture blog. "So gold is different. Gold, I think, can get hit here to around $200 on the downside and about a thousand or 1050 in a shakeout. There was recently too much noise in the gold market, but that was another opportunity to buy, because eventually gold is the best store for your savings over the next five years or so."
[ Read more… ]

Louise Yamada of Louise Yamada Technical Research Advisors and Richard Ilczyszyn of Lind-Waldock are both bullish on gold going forward, in this video interview with CNBC. [ Read more… ]

"In recent weeks, the price of gold has rebounded from the support level of $1160, due to three main factors," writes CNBC contributor Daryl Guppy. [ Read more… ]

"Gold is now back above it's 20-day moving average," says Sandy Jadeja, chief technical analyst at City Index, in a CNBC interview. [ Read more… ]

"Gold forced a few green shoots through concrete yesterday, setting the stage for a shot this month at June's all-time highs near $1270," writes investment analyst Rick Ackerman of the Rick's Picks Web site. [ Read more… ]

"China has very good reason to keep quiet about its gold purchases," writes Jim Trippon of Trippon Financial Research. [ Read more… ]

"In the near term, as we move into 2011, I think we'll see gold make new highs above the $1,265/oz high that we saw back in June," portfolio manager Joe Foster of Van Eck Global tells the Hard Assets Investor. "In the longer term, there's no easy way out of the mess that we have with the credit markets and the debt that the government is taking on and so on. So in certain scenarios, I could see gold trending toward $2,000/oz in the next three to five years. ...
[ Read more… ]

The Chinese march toward becoming the next global superpower passed another notable mark Monday when it replaced Japan to become the world's second-biggest economy. [ Read more… ]

U.S. bankruptcy filings have reached the highest level since 2005, government data released Tuesday show, as the economy slows and the unemployment rate hovers just below double digits. [ Read more… ]

"Gold is set to challenge the highs," says Adam Hewison, president of INO.com and co-founder of MarketClub, in a video chart analysis of gold's recent performance. "Certainly the trend right now in gold is higher." Hewison notes a head-and-shoulders pattern on the chart that places gold's next target zone between $1,250 to $1,260 - near record territory. [ Read more… ]

From Graham Summers of the Gains Pains & Capital investment newsletter: [ Read more… ]

"Gold is in a long-term primary uptrend that began around 2000," writes Henry Smyth, director and investment manager at Granville Cooper Asset Management Ltd. [ Read more… ]

"I have been speaking and writing about gold's appeal in a deflationary environment - this is a concept that opposes the conventional opinion that the gold price will not rise without inflation," writes Frank Holmes, chief of U.S. Global Investors Inc., a boutique investment advisory firm. [ Read more… ]

"One of the key technical signals we were looking for in anticipation of a new major rally in gold was a close above the 50-day moving average," writes Sam Kirtley of Skoptionstrading.com in a chart-rich article analyzing gold's link to the U.S. dollar, or USD. "Well, last week gold delivered that signal, twice. [ Read more… ]

From Michael Snyder's Economic Collapse blog: [ Read more… ]

"The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery," writes Paul Craig Roberts, former assistant Treasury secretary for President Reagan and former Wall Street Journal editor. [ Read more… ]

Gold rose to its highest level since early July on Monday, reprising its safe-haven properties, as gloomy Japanese economic data hit shares and stoked investor concern about the pace of global economic recovery. [ Read more… ]

If the dollar continues to strengthen against the euro, gold will likely tick higher in the next month or so, predicts Peter McGuire, managing director of CWA Global Markets, in a CNBC video. [ Read more… ]

"Protect yourself, or consider protecting yourself," warns best-selling author and success coach Tony Robbins in a startling, unusually somber video on the U.S. economic outlook. "Maybe it's time to protect your assets a little bit." To our ears, that means buy some gold bullion. Robbins goes on to say why he expects the stock market to take a big hit soon. [ Read more… ]

"Way too many people are way too complacent this summer," writes Brett Arends of The Wall Street Journal. "Here are 10 reasons to watch out": [ Read more… ]

You'd better buy gold if you believe Matterhorn Asset Management's article titled "There Will Be No Double Dip," which argues for the likelihood of a hyperinflationary depression in the United States: [ Read more… ]

From Greg Hunter's USA Watchdog Web site:

"A story that came out on Friday the 13th has ominous implications for the Middle East and the world. It was reported by FOX news last week, Russia is planning to supply fuel rods to Iran's Bushehr nuclear reactor by this coming weekend. (Iran would be able to make nuclear weapons through the plutonium it could reprocess out of spent fuel rods.) That effectively means if Israel is going to attack the reactor, it must do it before Saturday, August 21. If it waits until after the reactor starts producing power, it will risk a radiological disaster in the Persian Gulf. ...
[ Read more… ]

As if investors weren't feeling edgy enough about the stock market as economic fears mount again, now there's the "Hindenburg Omen" to worry about. [ Read more… ]

China, whose $2.45 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves are the world's largest, is turning bullish on Europe and Japan at the expense of the U.S. [ Read more… ]

Fiat currencies are facing "a sustained lack of confidence" in the coming years, thus buttressing the case for owning physical gold bullion as strategic insurance, according this excerpt from Waverly Advisors' Macro Report: [ Read more… ]

"When people ask, 'How high do you see gold going?' it's like saying, 'How long is a piece of string?' It depends on the time frame," Midas Letter editor James West tells The Gold Report. [ Read more… ]

From Jesse's Cafe Americain blog:

"Here is an interesting interview and slide presentation with Mr. Ben Davies, CEO of Hinde Capital. It should be noted that when he speaks about ETFs he is referring to the gold and silver ETFs only, and with a particular type of customer in mind. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices settled higher Thursday as disappointing U.S. economic data further eroded investor confidence, prompting a surge of interest in perceived safe-haven assets. [ Read more… ]

Gold may rally to a record $1,300 an ounce in six months, driven by low interest rates and the prospect of renewed quantitative easing in the U.S., according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. [ Read more… ]

"$1,300 an ounce is within reach," says Robert Cohen, manager of Goodman & Co.'s Dynamic Gold & Precious Metals Fund, in an interview with Bloomberg TV. Cohen agrees with Goldman Sachs' recent upgrade of its gold-price forecast to $1,300 in the next six months. [ Read more… ]

"The most likely scenario is an inflationary Great Depression," writes independent investor Jeff Fisher in his article "The Dollar's Third and Final Act." [ Read more… ]

Is this finally the economic collapse? That is the question explored by Keith R. [ Read more… ]

Dow Theory Letters publisher Richard Russell takes issue with the deflation prediction made by Elliot Wave theory proponent Robert Prechter, in comments posted at King World News' blog: [ Read more… ]

"The federal deficit is no longer an abstract long-term problem; it's a financially critical freight train hurtling down the track at alarming speed," writes David Stockman, former budget director for President Reagan, founding partner at The Blackstone Group and now chief of Heartland Industrial Partners, a private-equity fund. [ Read more… ]

Noted Yale University economist Robert Shiller says the U.S. economy faces a more than 50 percent chance of hitting a double-dip recession, at minute 7:00 in this audio interview with MarketWatch. The only way to avoid a double dip is to create jobs, and Shiller fears that chronic unemployment might be a persistent drag on the economy for years to come. [ Read more… ]

"This level of government spending is going to continue, and we're going to have to finance it with deficits and money-printing exercises - quantitative easing," says John C. Hathaway, senior managing director for Tocqueville Funds, in an audio interview with King World News. "Does that have an inflationary or a deflationary outcome? I don't think anybody alive knows the answer to that, but I sure as heck think that if you have liquid assets, you're going to want to have some of it in gold." [ Read more… ]

"We're in deep doo-doo," Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff tells Bloomberg TV. The U.S. is dead broke and is in fact worse off than Greece - in fact, we're becoming Argentina, Kotlikoff says. [ Read more… ]

The Obama administration is providing $3 billion to unemployed homeowners facing foreclosure in the nation's toughest job markets. [ Read more… ]

President Obama approved a final spurt of spending Tuesday to shore up the sluggish recovery, signing into law a $26 billion plan to save the jobs of thousands of teachers and other government workers. The measure brings total direct federal spending on the economy to nearly $1.2 trillion since the nation descended into recession in late 2007. [ Read more… ]

"The problem with this latest stimulus program is that it isn't seen as big enough to offset the slowdown that makes it necessary," writes John Rubino of DollarCollapse.com. "The market is just waiting for the main course. [ Read more… ]

Commodities in general are "in a long-term bull market right now," Forbes & Manhattan chief Stan Bharti tells The Gold Report. "I'm talking two, three, five years. I think we'll see gold go to over $2,000 an ounce. Iron ore prices are at an all-time high. But we see these bull markets as long-term trends, driven obviously by China and so forth, but more importantly just a secular trend in the evolution of mankind. ... [ Read more… ]

"Let's get real: The U.S. Is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills," writes Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff. [ Read more… ]

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who warned that unforeseen events can roil markets in "The Black Swan," said he is "betting on the collapse of government bonds" and that investors should avoid stocks. [ Read more… ]

Precious metals such as gold were the best performing asset class of the first half of the year, according to research by Lloyds TSB. [ Read more… ]

June's trade deficit swelled 18.8% to $49.9 billion, the highest since October 2008. That was much worse than Wall Street predicted - or what the Commerce Department estimated in the recent Q2 GDP report. The new report, along with recent inventory data, suggest Commerce will revise down Q2 economic growth from the already-sluggish 2.4% annual rate to about 1%, according to Action Economics. Action Economics is looking for stronger retail inventory figures later this week that would imply a 1.4% GDP pace. [ Read more… ]

America is a "Mickey Mouse economy" that is technically bankrupt, according to Jochen Wermuth, chief investment officer and managing partner at Wermuth Asset Management. [ Read more… ]

"Simplistically, we're monetizing the debt," Joe Terranova of Virtus Investment Partners tells CNBC in a video interview, commenting on the Federal Reserve's Tuesday meeting. "That is what we're doing right now, and the hedge against that is to own some gold. It's the first thing that came to mind in my portfolio. ... I don't have enough gold, and that's why stepped out and bought it. I think this supports the yellow metal. ... You have to have it in the portfolio." [ Read more… ]

"Listen to me. You need to own gold. Right now. It's a crazy world out there. Gold works. Fed talk, no Fed talk. Eased, quantitative - I don't care: You need some gold." Cramer says in setting the stage for his interview with Agnico-Eagle Mines CEO Sean Boyd. [ Read more… ]

"We in the U.S. are clearly in the early years of a long and difficult period," writes Eric Janszen of iTulip.com in his article "Inflation versus Deflation Tournament Game 3 - Part I: The endless saga continues." [ Read more… ]

"Hyperinflation is not the economy overheating, like regular inflation - hyperinflation is when nobody wants to be caught dead with a currency," writes ZeroHedge contributor and economic analyst Gonzalo Lira. "People will lose faith in the dollar, and try to get out of it - at all costs, all at once. [ Read more… ]

Numerous precious-metals experts weigh in on the possible effect of further quantiative easing on gold-bullion prices moving forward. In general, the Fed's Tuesday announcement of continuing debt monetization is seen as bad for the dollar and good for gold prices: [ Read more… ]

The Fed's latest quantitative-easing plan is bullish for gold - especially if the central bank continues down the path of monetizing our staggering debt, writes CNBC financial commentator Larry Kudlow i his National Review Online article "The Fed Can Print More Money, But It Can't Print Jobs": [ Read more… ]

In a move that potentially lends support for higher gold prices, Federal Reserve officials decided to reinvest principal payments on mortgage holdings into long-term Treasury securities, making their first attempt to bolster growth since March 2009 to keep the slowing U.S. economy from relapsing into recession. [ Read more… ]

"The summer doldrums are normally a weak time for gold, with July and August historically being two of the worst months for the yellow metal," writes analyst Sam Kirtley of www.SKoptionstrading.com. [ Read more… ]

"The idea that gold always rises in the autumn is not new and pretty much established in the data of the past decade," writes Peter Cooper of ArabianMoney.net. [ Read more… ]

"I have a $1,375 target on gold this year; it's a forecast I put out at the beginning of 2010. I'm still very comfortable with that forecast," Blue Phoenix chief commodity strategist John Licata tells The Gold Report. [ Read more… ]

"If history is any guide, gold is about to get even more attractive because we are heading into the fall and winter gift-giving season," writes Frank Holmes, chief executive of US Global Investors. [ Read more… ]

Hot on the heels of moves in China to expand the gold market in the country, several Indian banks have submitted a proposal to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), India's central bank, to permit them to trade in gold in the domestic market and also hedge their requirements. [ Read more… ]

The Federal Reserve is set to downgrade its assessment of U.S. economic prospects when it meets Tuesday to discuss ways to reboot the flagging recovery. [ Read more… ]

MSN Money columnist and professional investor Bill Fleckenstein is feeling a little indifferent toward stocks - but still recommends gold - in his latest article, "Stocks on the road to nowhere." [ Read more… ]

Gold may climb in New York on increased demand for a protector of wealth as the dollar weakens and on speculation that the Federal Reserve will step up buying of bonds to prop up the U.S. economy. [ Read more… ]

An Aug. 7 Wall Street Journal article titled "How to Beat Deflation" details how gold can succeed as an investment even during deflation. [ Read more… ]

It's no secret that many of the world's largest industrialized nations are somewhat eager to ease their reliance on the U.S. dollar. For months China and Russia have pushed ever subtly for a new "global reserve currency," to give governments around the world enhanced economic stability in the event of greater fluctuations in the dollar's value. [ Read more… ]

In a Houston Chronicle opinion piece, Sandy Leeds, a senior lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin's business school, re-examines the recent widely publicized gold purchase by UT's investment company. [ Read more… ]

"As we enter our ninth year of the War in Afghanistan with an escalated force, and continue to occupy Iraq indefinitely, and feed an endlessly growing Surveillance State, reports are emerging of the Deficit Commission hard at work planning how to cut Social Security, Medicare, and now even to freeze military pay," writes Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com. "But a new New York Times article today illustrates as vividly as anything else what a collapsing empire looks like, as it profiles just a few of the budget cuts which cities around the country are being forced to make. ... [ Read more… ]

Global investing pioneer Adrian Day of Adrian Day Asset Management gives his outlook for gold in an interview with HardAssetsInvestor.com: [ Read more… ]

Goldman Sachs has downgraded its outlook for the U.S. economy, reports ZeroHedge: "It's official: the double dip is here. Goldman's Jan Hatzius just lowered his GDP forecast for 2011 from 2.5% to 1.9% ... increased his unemployment forecast from 9.8% to 10.0%, boosted his inflation expectation from 0.4% to 1.0%, and said that QE lite is now on the table, as he expects that 'the FOMC to announce that they will reinvest the paydown of mortgage-backed securities in the bond market at next Tuesday's meeting.' Look for all other sell-side 'strategists' (here's looking at you Neil Dutta) to lower their economic outlook in kind, and the 2011 S&P consensus to decline accordingly." [ Read more… ]

"The news this morning that Russian Prime Minister Putin has banned the export of grain and related farm products as a result of the drought is extraordinarily important," writes KAM LP fund manager Michael Krieger, predicting a huge runup in commodities prices, including precious metals, in his article "Russia Bans Grain Exports as the End Game Trade Begins." [ Read more… ]

Gold prices rebounded last week as growing concerns about the U.S. economy sent investors turning to the metal once again and physical consumers propped up demand. [ Read more… ]

"With all of the attention given to deflation recently, I thought it would be interesting to think about how this scenario might affect gold," writes Abigail Doolittle, founder of Peak Theories Research LLC. "After all, gold is thought to be the ultimate investment in a time of inflation. Does this mean that deflation could destroy the value of gold?" [ Read more… ]

"Hold some gold, silver, precious metals," economist John Williams tells The Gold Report in detailing the hyperinflationary depression he see coming. "I'm talking physical possession. Preferably coins because coins, sovereign coins, are recognized as such. They don't have liquidity issues." [ Read more… ]

In Jesse's Cafe Americain gold blog, an interesting chart explores the performance of the 2010 gold price during President Obama's second year in office versus its average performance during the second year of all past U.S. presidents. [ Read more… ]

"When countries get grouped together for economic or political purposes, an acronym or other shorthand device is soon to follow," writes Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors. "OPEC, EU and G7 are a few of the old standards, while G20, PIIGS (European nations with dangerously large sovereign debt burdens) and, of course, BRICs are newer examples. [ Read more… ]

"As gold hovers near $1,200 an ounce and pundits speculate about a 'gold bubble,' it's important for investors to remember that a mere decade ago the picture was very different," writes Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital. "In the year 2000, gold sat at an unimpressive annual average of $279 an ounce - a two-decade low. At that time, most analysts thought gold was finished as a monetary metal. They said its price would never recover and only kooks with tin hats would invest in it. ... [ Read more… ]

Gold futures rose Friday, extending the longest rally since November, as the dollar dropped against the euro, boosting the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative asset. [ Read more… ]

"When America's empire does collapse and, like all empires, it will, chaos will reign," writes Darryl Robert Schoon, author of "How to Survive the Crisis and Prosper in the Process." "Today, the U.S. is the world's superpower, its dollar is the world's reserve currency. The collapse of the U.S. will change all this and more. [ Read more… ]

Continuing a seven-day winning streak, gold prices again were surging past the key $1,200 barrier Friday after the U.S. Labor Department released a report showing significantly weaker-than-expected job numbers. Spot gold was priced at $1,207 early Friday morning. [ Read more… ]

"Forget about June, July, August" when it comes to looking for higher gold prices, says Pierre Lassonde, chairman of the Franco-Nevada mining firm, in an audio interview with King World News. Everyone's on holiday in Europe, and the drop in gold prices is "pretty normal." Look for gold to stage its seasonal comeback in September or later in the fall, Lassonde says. [ Read more… ]

It's official: Social Security will reach its tipping point this year. [ Read more… ]

"Gold seems to have stemmed its recent summer slide - perhaps vindicating the gold bugs who watch physical demand, primarily from India," writes MarketWatch columnist Peter Brimelow. [ Read more… ]

China's moves to free up its gold market open the way for foreign players and local banks to tap growing demand for the precious metal, offering citizens a more attractive investment and promising to boost the country's clout over global prices. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices will rise between 10 percent and 20 percent in 2011, according to Randgold Resources CEO Mark Bristow, in a video interview with CNBC. [ Read more… ]

"We've had a good run on the gold price," says Nick Holland, CEO of Gold Fields in South Africa, in a CNBC video interview (at minute 1:05). [ Read more… ]

Gold rose above $1,200 an ounce Wednesday for the first time in nearly two weeks as strong physical demand lifted the metal higher for its sixth straight daily gain. [ Read more… ]

"I have a short-term target of $1,350," economist Peter Cardillo of Avalon Partners tells Mike Norman of HardAssetsInvestor.com. "I think we could probably see gold maybe reach $1,500, maybe in the first half of 2011." [ Read more… ]

"The world is going to require hard assets," says Gavin Thomas, CEO of the Australian mining firm Kingsgate Consolidated, in an interview with CNBC (at minute 2:25). [ Read more… ]

"Many prominent economists define deflation as a decline in the general price level within an economy," writes Puru Saxena of Puru Saxena Wealth Management in his article "Debunking Deflation." "To make matters worse, these academics use the establishment's highly manipulated inflation data as their yardstick. Therefore, when the heavily massaged Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) show a moderate increase, these folks celebrate the 'perfect scenario' of moderate inflation, and when the CPI and PPI contract, they worry about deflation. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people blindly follow the views of the mainstream economists. Consequently, they end up making costly mistakes with their capital. ... [ Read more… ]

Gold experts Julian Phillips and Bill Fleckenstein are interpreting recent announcements from China as good news for gold prices in the future. The nation's central bank has unveiled rules that will let more Chinese banks import and export gold bullion, and it also will be providing financial support for bullion producers' overseas investments. [ Read more… ]

China, the world's largest gold producer, will support overseas investment plans by "large- scale" bullion companies by backing them financially, the People's Bank of China said. [ Read more… ]

China will let more banks import and export gold and open trading further to foreign companies as near-record prices and falling stock markets spur demand in the world's second-largest buyer of the metal. [ Read more… ]

"June rarely inspires fond memories among the gold crowd, and the month just ended was no exception. Along with gold's usual summer doldrums, the metal took a direct hit from receding fears of a sovereign debt disaster, strengthening currencies and a renewed appetite for risk," writes Brian Milner of Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. [ Read more… ]

"Gold is still a rock-star investment," writes David Seaman, editor of the Wall Street Memo and contributor to the Business Insider. [ Read more… ]

"Talk has returned of a renewed Quantitative Easing cycle," writes statistician Jim Willie of the Golden Jackass Web site in a scathing critique of the Federal Reserve titled "Kindergarten Double Dip Economics." [ Read more… ]

Financial commentator Max Keiser tackles the inflation-deflation debate in an article at The Huffington Post [ Read more… ]

"You need to look to preserve your wealth and assets. And for that, the best hedge is physical gold and silver," says economist John Williams of the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter and Web site in an audio interview for Mining Stock Talk. [ Read more… ]

Asian investors are more likely to buy gold in the next six months than their North American and European counterparts, a global survey found. [ Read more… ]

Statistician Jim Willie of the Hat Trick Newsletter discusses the gold market and the state of the U.S. economy with financial commentator Max Keiser on Press TV's "On the Edge" show. [ Read more… ]

"The signals emanating from the global economic indicators that can be considered unbiased and leading indicate strongly that we're edging closer to another brink of some sort," Midas Letter publisher James West writes, finding major problems in his analysis of unemployment data; U.S. dollar strength; and the Baltic Dry Index, a key gauge of world economic health. [ Read more… ]

"We ... see more quantitative easing as being unavoidable within three months, if the bad news continues," writes Julian D.W. Phillips of The Gold Forecaster. "But this time, we have to ask, can it be managed without frightening side effects? ... [ Read more… ]

"We are on the cusp of a parabolic move in the price of gold underwritten by physical shortages," writes John Embry, chief investment strategist for Sprott Asset Management. "Central banks can no longer supply the amount needed to balance supply and demand while mine production continues to stagnate at best." [ Read more… ]

"The debt bubble is unwinding worldwide," says renowned economic forecaster Ian Gordon, founder of the Longwave Group. "I think the next leg down will be some big bank in trouble in the United States. Then people will start to panic and move to gold. With that, the stock market will come down quite dramatically because the economy won't be recovering. We're not going into a double dip. We're going into a depression. I'm convinced of that." [ Read more… ]

"There is no question that gold's allure as a safe-haven has taken a bit of a beating with the more confident tone coming out of European markets," writes economist David Rosenberg of the Gluskin Sheff investment firm in a research note. [ Read more… ]

Gold strengthened Friday - breaching the $1,180 level - on news that the second-quarter gross domestic product has plunged, registering at 2.4 percent, which marks huge drop from the revised first-quarter number, which was 3.7 percent. This marks the slowest growth in nearly a year and is too weak to drive down unemployment. [ Read more… ]

From the Chart of the Day Web site: [ Read more… ]

"The major trend in gold remains positive," says Adam Hewison, president of INO.com and co-founder of MarketClub, in a video analysis of gold's chart performance. [ Read more… ]

"Crashes don't occur because the fundamentals suddenly change," writes Moses Kim of the Expected Returns precious-metals blog. "They occur because the public at large recognizes the fundamentals and heads for the exit at the same time. What's crashing next is the public's confidence in governments across the Western world. You can guess how that will affect the price of gold. ... [ Read more… ]

Financial commentator Dan Dorfman says that gold - in the mainstream media's eyes - is like comedian Rodney Dangerfield: It gets no respect. [ Read more… ]

"The good news for gold investors is that July and August have been the seasonally weakest months for gold prices in the nearly four decades since President Nixon abandoned the last relics of an official gold standard and set the metal free to find its own price in the marketplace," says Jeffrey Nichols, managing director of American Precious Metals Advisors. [ Read more… ]

"Gold is suffering its typical midsummer seasonal weakness but continues to be in a long-term bull market," says James Dailey, CIO and senior portfolio manager for Team Asset Strategy Fund. [ Read more… ]

Trace Mayer of RuntoGold.com uses the 200-day moving average to conclude that gold is doing just fine. By definition, the 200-day moving average is "the sum of the close from the previous 200 trading days divided by 200." [ Read more… ]

Toby Connor of the Gold Scents blog takes on the gold bears in a July 27 post, excerpts of which follow, minus his analytical charts of gold's recent performance [ Read more… ]

"We remain convinced that gold has yet to make its high for the year, and expect an assault on $1,300 to begin in about a month from now," says Sam Kirtley of www.SKoptionstrading.com. [ Read more… ]

The Congressional Budget Office has issued a stark warning on the nation's future in a July 27 report titled "Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis." Basically, the U.S. is looking a lot like Greece and those other European nations facing sovereign-debt implosions. [ Read more… ]

"We're all of the mind that fiat paper currencies are in a state of distress, if not collapse," says precious-metals expert Ned Naylor-Leyland of Cheviot Asset Management, in an interview with financial commentator Max Keiser (at minute 13:15). [ Read more… ]

"Many of the economists who relied upon deceptive government-generated economic statistics to tout a questionable recovery are now becoming increasingly pessimistic as a consequence of mounting evidence of collapsing consumer confidence, punk retail sales, and a fierce resumption of housing's descent," says Chris Blasi, president of Neptune Global Holdings LLC. [ Read more… ]

"There is an opportunity to own value shaping up," says Gary Tanashian, owner of the Biiwii.com financial site. [ Read more… ]

Khaner Capital Management partner Lloyd Khaner thinks that gold is undervalued and could well double in price over the next 12 months. He also thinks looming inflation is more of a problem than deflation, particularly globally. [ Read more… ]

"Belief that the economic downturn is ending and August options expiry have led to gold and other precious metals being caught in a wave of short selling, with prices slipping sharply," writes analyst Lawrence Williams for MineWeb.com. [ Read more… ]

"Everyone knows the basics about investing," notes Moses Kim of the Expected Returns precious-metals blog. "We're all supposed to invest for the long run and buy based on value. We should be 'greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.' Simple, right? But how many people can execute in real-time? How many can control their emotions and buy when the time comes? Well, since 90% of non-index investors lose money, I suspect not many. [ Read more… ]

"On a long-term basis, gold is extremely undervalued, particularly relative to the proliferation of currency around the world," Hinde Capital CEO Ben Davies tells CNBC's Maria Bartiromo (at minute 00:58). Davies blames the recent outflows from gold on a false sense of security created by the weak European bank stress tests, which set the bar too low. [ Read more… ]

"I believe in two things," Franco Nevada gold-royalty company chief Pierre Lassonde tells MineWeb.com. "One is that the gold price will have three zeros after the first number - I just don't know how big the first number is going to be. We are now at $1,200 gold, and I do not believe for one second that that's the end of the bull market in gold." [ Read more… ]

Because sovereign-debt risks in Europe and the U.S. are underestimated, "every investor really needs to have gold and silver in their portfolio, and make sure it's physically backed, not just some paper trading accounts," Martin Hennecke of the Tyche Group tells CNBC in a July 26 video interview (at minute 4:30). [ Read more… ]

"Spotting the consensus buy at an event like the Agora Financial Investment Symposium in Vancouver last week is a good indicator of the way markets will move. Two years ago they got the stock market crash spot on," writes Peter John Cooper of the Arabian Money Web site. [ Read more… ]

"Inflation is defined as the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising, and, subsequently, the purchasing power is falling," writes Richard Benson, founder of the Speciality Finance Group. [ Read more… ]

Here's another good reason to invest in tangible assets such as gold and silver bullion. "Commodity ETFs make lousy buy-and-hold investments," according to a Bloomberg News expose that explores complicated trading practices such as "contango" and "pre-rolling." [ Read more… ]

Market analyst Howard Katz of The Gold Speculator places himself firmly in the inflation camp with his article "The Coming Rise in Prices," calling the notion of looming deflation a "balloon full of hot air." [ Read more… ]

"Yeah, I believe it is a secular bull market," Weldon Financial chief Greg Weldon says of gold in a King World News audio interview (about minute 9:28). [ Read more… ]

"Our fundamental view on gold hasn't changed in the last couple of weeks; we continue to be positive and expect further price increases in 2010 and 2011," says Daniel Zurbruegg, managing partner of Alpine Atlantic Global Asset Management of Switzerland. [ Read more… ]

G-Resources Group Ltd. of Hong Kong, whose development of a gold mine in Indonesia has been delayed by six months, said prices may reach $2,000 an ounce because of supply constraints and investment demand. [ Read more… ]

Though he didn't spell it out this time, "Black Swan" author and hedge-fund adviser Nassim Taleb gave a tacit endorsement to investing in tangible assets such as gold bullion in an interview with Bloomberg this month. [ Read more… ]

"Our outlook on gold is pretty bullish," says Vikas Ranjan, principal of Ubika Research, a research and analytics firm serving small-cap clients in Canada. [ Read more… ]

David Rosenberg, chief economist for the Gluskin Sheff investment firm, dismisses any positive notion of the state of the U.S. economy in his latest research note, an excerpt of which follows: [ Read more… ]

He traded for billionaire George Soros and hedge-fund star Leon Copperman during his 40 years in business, and his "Trader Vic" books are the stuff of legend. Victor Sperandeo has seen almost every kind of market, but he's now preparing for something rarely seen: hyperinflation. [ Read more… ]

"The global crisis is accelerating," notes author David Knox Barker, publisher of The Long Wave Dynamics Letter. "Gold is stepping up to its inevitable role as the de facto world reserve currency." [ Read more… ]

"The simple reality the Fed is waking up to is that the structural underpinnings of the economy are damaged beyond any quick or easy fix," writes David Galland, managing director of Casey Research LLC, in an article titled "Bring Out Your Dead." [ Read more… ]

"'Helicopter' Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress for his semiannual visit July 21," writes money manager Bill Fleckenstein in his MSN Money column, "Contrarian Chronicles." [ Read more… ]

British bankers are taking new interest in the history of inflationary periods in Germany and other nations, says U.K. Telegraph financial writer Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. [ Read more… ]

"I feel even stronger about my forecast now," Global Resource Alert publisher Peter Krauth says of his prediction of $5,000 gold prices. "There are a few catalysts I expect will bring about a major rise in the price of gold." [ Read more… ]

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

Demand for gold in the world's biggest consumer is picking up ahead of festivals that begin next month, but an earlier-than-expected buying spurt has led to a supply glitch as overseas sellers are understocked, bankers said. [ Read more… ]

Gold's "been in a bull market for 8-10 years, depending on how you want to measure it," successful investor Ron Struthers tells The Gold Report. [ Read more… ]

BMO global commodities strategist Bart Melek is forecasting new record highs for gold in 2011, speculating that U.S. dollar concerns will put bullion prices at $1,300 an ounce next year. [ Read more… ]

"With the long term-trend line of gold and silver still intact, but with current prices below their recent highs, many investors may be sensing buying opportunities," says John Browne, senior market strategist for Euro Pacific Capital. [ Read more… ]

U.S. cities and states may need more than $1 trillion of federal assistance in the next three years to stave off financial failure, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said. [ Read more… ]

A top Chinese central bank official suggested switching away from the U.S. dollar as a benchmark for the yuan's foreign-exchange rate, switching instead to a basket of currencies, according to remarks published Thursday. [ Read more… ]

"We have over 10 years of a gold bull market," Euro Pacific Capital chief Peter Schiff reminds Tech Ticker in a video interview (at 1:58), while stocks have generally been in a bear market. "I don't see anything to me that says those long-terms trends have changed." [ Read more… ]

"The U.S. dollar should have completely collapsed versus many of the better managed and fundamentally sound currencies in the last year or so," writes investment adviser Michael Krieger of KAM LP in his article "A Major Inflection Point Is Upon Us." [ Read more… ]

"Gold is the solution and an alternative to the dollar," writes John R. Ing of Maison Placements Canada, an investment firm. "Gold has outlasted governments, currency collapses, depressions and yes hyperinflation. And unlike paper assets that can become worthless, gold always and everywhere retains some value. As such, we continue to expect gold will hit near all-time highs of $1,350 an ounce and $2,000 an ounce this year." [ Read more… ]

Asked his forecast for gold prices, CPM Group managing director Jeffrey Christian tells the Hard Assets Investor: "$1,140 to $1,300 is our range for the next, really, six months or so." [ Read more… ]

"Battered by high unemployment and record home foreclosures, most Americans seem to have lost faith in another fundamental part of their personal finances: Social Security," according to a USA TODAY article by Susan Page. [ Read more… ]

Former dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar might have been remembered as Portugal's best investor had central bank rules allowed the country to benefit from his shrewdest trade: Europe's biggest gold pile. [ Read more… ]

"The U.S. is insolvent and faces bankruptcy as a pure debtor nation, but the rating agencies still give it high rankings," Guan Jianzhon, chairman of Dagong Global Credit Rating, told the Financial Times of London. "Actually, the huge military expenditure of the U.S. is not created by themselves but comes from borrowed money, which is." [ Read more… ]

"When recognized monetization destroys the last vestige of trust and confidence in the USDollar, when more official rounds of sponsored Quantitative Easing arrive, the USDollar will be on a downward spiral," writes Jim Willie of the Hat Trick Letter and the Golden Jackass Web site. "In fact, all major currencies face the same prospect of vast monetary expansion. They will all fall sharply in value, and by counter-effect, the Gold price will skyrocket. [ Read more… ]

"Faint-hearted gold investors need to remember that bull markets never move straight up," says Jeffrey Nichols, managing director of American Precious Metals Advisors. "When they do, it's called a 'bubble' ... and bubbles do burst. [ Read more… ]

Increased housing commitments swelled U.S. taxpayers' total support for the financial system by $700 billion in the past year to about $3.7 trillion, a government watchdog said Wednesday. [ Read more… ]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Wednesday the economic outlook remains "unusually uncertain," and the central bank is ready to take new steps to keep the recovery alive if the economy worsens. [ Read more… ]

"Since 2000, gold's more than quadrupled," H3 Global Advisors chief Andrew Kaleel tells CNBC in a July 20 interview. "It has very good and very bad runs. I think the critical thing when looking at gold is to get your time frame right and get your currency right." [ Read more… ]

"It looks like there still is very robust demand for gold coins," ConvergEX Group strategist Nicholas Colas says (at minute 1:20), affirming a trend that has been strong for the past several years. "Also interestingly, silver coins now far outsell - in terms of growth rates - gold coins. The real demands have been on the silver side more than the gold-coin side because of the affordability issue. ... Folks looking to hedge some inflation exposure or get some security are taking silver-coin sales to, really, levels we've never seen before. Gold coins are still in a band that are more normal." [ Read more… ]

CNBC star Jim Cramer and metals analyst Adrian Ash of Bullion Vault state the case for owning gold bullion in a July 16 interview on CNBC. [ Read more… ]

"There is historical precedent for an inflationary outcome to the current world financial crisis," write Guild Investment deflation skeptics Monty Guild and Tony Danaher in a contribution to Jim Sinclair's respected precious-metals Web site. [ Read more… ]

"When it comes to the things that really matter, most Americans are completely clueless," says Michael Snyder of the excellently sourced Economic Collapse blog. [ Read more… ]

"We should expect that this bear market will be worse than its 1929-1932 counterpart," writes Ian Gordon, president of the Canadian precious-metals research firm Longwave Analytics, in an article titled "The Perpetual War: Gold Vs. Paper." [ Read more… ]

"Can you remember back to 2004, 2005 and 2006, when your home value (and equity) was at its all time high?" asks the precious-metals analyst on the respected FOFOA blog. "Do you ever wish you had sold your house during those years? At that time did you consider the tremendous equity in your home to be your reserves? Do you sometimes wish you had consolidated those 'reserves' before they vanished into thin air? ... [ Read more… ]

"London's VM Group of metals research analysts has released its latest metals review on behalf of ABN Amro Bank," predicting that gold will trade between $1,150 to $1,260 over the next month, writes Lawrence Williams for MineWeb.com. [ Read more… ]

"We are really quite happy with where the [gold] prices are now," Beacon Rock Research founder Mike Niehuser tells The Gold Report. "Our beginning-of-the-year guess for gold in 2010 was a range of $900 to $1,200 per ounce. We saw a greater potential for gold exceeding that range and going to $1,500 than for retreating to below $800. While gold prices have been closer to the high end of our range, this has pretty much been the experience so far this year. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices are set to mark an eleventh year of gains in 2011 as investors seek refuge from an uncertain global economic outlook, with analysts revising up expectations sharply in a Reuters survey released Wednesday. [ Read more… ]

"There is no doubt that the individuals (savers) are beginning to question their faith in our current monetary system," write Hinde Capital analysts in a report titled "Gold: The Currency of First Resort." "The unquestionable belief in fiat/paper money is wavering as it looks less like a store of value. The synchronicity of problems across the world, however, mean that most currencies are being created at an accelerating rate, whether it be yen, yuan, euros, sterling or the reserve currency dollars. So in such circumstances what currency does one turn to? The universal currency - gold. What we are witnessing today is the incremental reversion of gold to monetary status, as dictated by the people, ie what is coined the 'free market.' As such, its value is increasing. It is here where the gold sceptics get themselves into a twist. Mainstream writers and TV pundits are the main culprits, by what motivation is not wholly clear to us. They say gold has gone too far, too fast, its price is stretched; in sum that is a bubble. [ Read more… ]

"This shakeout in precious metals is giving investors another opportunity to jump into this bull market without being caught up in the hysteria," writes investor and analyst Jeb Handwerger of the Gold Stock Trades newsletter (goldstocktrades.com). [ Read more… ]

Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog lays out the case for hyperinflation, drawing on the work of economist John Williams of shadowstats.com. [ Read more… ]

"While we're convinced gold and gold stocks are destined for much higher levels, buying when prices are low can mean the difference between a double or triple and a ten-bagger ... a week in Malibu vs. a week in Milan," says Jeff Clark, senior editor of Casey's Gold & Resource Report. [ Read more… ]

"The first thing to note is that gold is the only bull market existent," says Douglas Gnazzo of the Honest Money Gold & Silver Report. "Until proven otherwise, the recent correction is just that: a correction in a bull market. The intermediate and long-term trend remains up. [ Read more… ]

"I'm convinced they will implement further quantitative easing - and massively so," says economist Marc Faber of the Gloom, Boom and Doom Report in an interview with Bloomberg, referring to the Federal Reserve. "It will probably happen in September, October. The economy is not robust. We have mixed signals, but in general the conomy is still weak." [ Read more… ]

"I see the possibility of a mid-summer sell-off to be much more unlikely than when I wrote last year's commentary," writes analyst Jeff Nielson of Bullion Bulls Canada, alluding to a column he penned in 2009. "However, even if there should be some unlikely weakness in the gold market, as investors we must take a stand with regard to risk/reward, and I would argue that such an analysis clearly favors accumulating bullion now. [ Read more… ]

"I'm in an odd position," Global Resource Investments chief Rick Rule tells The Gold Report. "Separate and apart from my portfolio, I own three businesses that are leveraged to the gold price. Despite that, I have a fair bit of physical gold or physical gold proxies as constituents of my net worth. To put it bluntly, I own a lot of gold and I can honestly tell you that I hope that the price goes down."
  [ Read more… ]

"The key to the precious metals Kingdom at this stage of the game is to follow and understand what is happening in the physical market," writes "Dave in Denver" of the Golden Truth precious-metals blog. "Pay no attention to reports of IMF selling, BIS wife-swapping and Wall Street misdirection. The fact of the matter is that Asia, Russia, India, Turkey and the Middle East are buying up as much physical gold and silver as they can and the Western Central Banks are running out of gold to sell." [ Read more… ]

The long-term bull run in gold will remain intact, even if the price loses moderate steam in the medium term, says financial analyst Rick Ackerman in a July 20 post: [ Read more… ]

"Even though we may see frequent drops in the price of gold, we have to bear in mind that this is normal market function," asserts precious-metals expert David Levenstein. [ Read more… ]

The new Federal Reserve governor nominees will be serving as "Team Print More Money," says Jim Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer in a blistering assessment offered up in a Bloomberg interview. [ Read more… ]

Given this sobering analysis of the stock market by CNBC contributor Daryl Guppy, buying some gold bullion as protection might be a timely idea. After all, gold will never be worthless, but stocks have been known to lose their entire value. [ Read more… ]

"New types of money are popping up across Mid-Michigan and supporters say it's not counterfeit, but rather a competing currency," according to a video report from NBC25 in mid-Michigan. [ Read more… ]

China should cut its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities when market demand is strong, a prominent economist said in remarks published on Monday. Beijing reduced its Treasury holdings in May by $32.5 billion to $867.7 billion, but it actually bought a net $3 billion in long-term Treasuries and remained the largest single holder of U.S. government debt, the Treasury reported Friday. [ Read more… ]

Is the gold trade crowded? Not at all, says Jeff Clark, editor of Casey's Gold & Resource Report, in an article for ZeroHedge: [ Read more… ]

The "Mercenary Geologist," Michael "Mickey" Fulp, works as an analyst primarily in the mining-and-exploration sector of the precious-metals world, but bullion investors might some useful nuggets of information in his recent interview with The Gold Report (TGR), most notably, confirmation that summertime is a great time to snap up bargains: [ Read more… ]

Financial commentator Greg Hunter's latest article offers ample reason to remember gold bullion's historic role as an inflation hedge and safe, proven store of value. [ Read more… ]

Rarely before have a few coded words in the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve caused such an upheaval in the global currency system, or such a sudden flight from the dollar. [ Read more… ]

"If the investment choice is between mining stocks and physical bullion, it is essential to remember that these are different asset classes with entirely different risk/reward attributes," says Nick Barisheff, chief of the Bullion Management Group Inc. "Mining stocks and bullion perform quite differently when the global economic environment is in turmoil, as is the case today. Banking crises, trillion-dollar deficits and the accelerating depreciation of many of the world's major currencies do not create positive conditions for equity markets, which is why investors are fleeing to the safety of physical bullion. ... [ Read more… ]

"Fasten your seat belts for a very bumpy ride," says economist Nouriel Roubini. "As the optimists' delusional hopes for a rapid V-shaped recovery evaporate, the advanced world will be at best in a long U-shaped recovery, which in some cases - the eurozone and Japan - may be long enough to stretch into an L-shaped near-depression. Avoiding double-dip recession will be difficult." [ Read more… ]

Is Beijing buying gold on the sly? We don't know, but China reduced its holdings in U.S. Treasury securities in May, in a move that surprised analysts. Some had expected a gain because it was thought that, given the European debt crisis, foreign investors would seek the relative safety of U.S. Treasury securities. [ Read more… ]

"A continuation of the current Administration's policies will push America into a depression," writes John Browne, senior market strategist for Euro Pacific Capital. "An American depression would likely reshape the entire global economy. In a world where a huge number of countries, businesses, and individuals are grossly indebted, any sustained crash in asset values could be catastrophic. The dollar would be threatened severely, leaving those who have invested in gold and silver as financial survivors." [ Read more… ]

"Within the next 20 years, the most profound changes in economic history will sweep the globe," writes independent economist Chris Martenson, a Ph.D.-level scientist and MBA. "The economic chaos and turbulence that we are now experiencing are merely the opening salvos in what will prove to be a long, disruptive period of adjustment. [ Read more… ]

"We all saw between 2007 and 2008 that the mainstream is dead wrong at inflection points since the mainstream plays it safe," writes Moses Kim of the Expected Returns precious-metals blog. "They see no crashes. They see no recessions. They see no gold bull markets. ... [ Read more… ]

Harvard professor and prolific author Niall Ferguson opened the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival Monday with a stark warning about the increasing prospect of the American "empire" suddenly collapsing due to the country's rising debt level. [ Read more… ]

All is not as "hunky-dory" as the government's official economic statistics would have you believe, says Congressman Ron Paul. Independent number-crunching professionals (such as John Williams of the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter) have calculated that the real U.S. unemployment rate stands at 22% and the real inflation rate is 6%, says the Texas Republican. The gross domestic product number also has problems because it doesn't take into account the massive federal deficits, Paul says. Whether intentionally or not, the government is manipulating its official statistics by calculating them using skewed criteria, Paul says. [ Read more… ]

"I have no problems with the gold price up around $2,000 or $3,000 an ounce in the next few years, or even higher than that," says Joe Foster, a fund manager at Van Eck Associates. [ Read more… ]

According to ZeroHedge: "One of the most bullish banking analysts ever, Dick Bove, just crucified not only JP Morgan's earnings report, but also said Jamie Dimon 'missed it completely on housing,' and lastly, has turned extremely bearish on the overall economy, saying there is a 40-60% chance for a double dip." [ Read more… ]

We don't know much about Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's personal hoard of gold bullion, but we do know that the Mexican fat cat who has topped the Forbes billionaire list is mindful of the mantra of portfolio diversification - and the 10-year bull market in gold is where diversification is taking him. [ Read more… ]

Fearing unstable international financial markets and the possibility of high inflation, Texas' higher education investment managers have bought more than $500 million in gold. [ Read more… ]

The credit scores of millions more Americans are sinking to new lows. [ Read more… ]

Florida banks - already weakened by the real-estate bust and hit again by customers suffering from the BP PLC oil spill - are asking federal regulators for a reprieve from government-ordered capital raising as they struggle to stay alive. [ Read more… ]

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee has come out with their minutes, on delay, from their June meeting. [ Read more… ]

"Most people would say that gold works well in an inflationary environment," says investment expert Michael Berry, who has a Ph.D. in quantitative analysis and investment finance. [ Read more… ]

"Gold, gold, gold," writes the Mad Hedge Fund Trader. "What to do about gold? I get asked this question a dozen times a day, by some who have been long since the current move started a more than a decade ago at $260, and others who stood on the sidelines and watched in awe as it went to the moon, kicking themselves all the way. Is it too late to get in? They call the yellow metal the barbaric relic for a reason. Let's face it. We've had a great run." [ Read more… ]

Jordan Roy-Byrne of Trendsman Research explains why investors rarely see positive coverage of gold as an investment in mainstream publications like The Wall Street Journal, whose main focus is on the stock market. [ Read more… ]

More than 7 out of 10 in the U.S. say the economy is mired in recession, and the country is conflicted over how to balance concerns over joblessness and the federal budget deficit, according to a Bloomberg National Poll. Only 1 in 6 say they believe they are personally better off than they were 18 months ago, when President Barack Obama took office. They are more apt to see the economy today as deteriorating than improving. [ Read more… ]

"There is hardly a day goes by I don't hear some spin about the economy and how the so-called 'recovery' is progressing," USA Watchdog blogger Greg Hunter says, citing a recent employment story that "started with Bureau of Labor Statistics hype and ended with hope the job market is turning around." [ Read more… ]

"The enormous amount of government debt - total sovereign debt now totals $34 trillion dollars - can never be repaid," writes Darryl Robert Schoon, author of "How to Survive the Crisis and Prosper in the Process." [ Read more… ]

"Inflationary risks have seemingly fallen out of the mindset of many investors recently, with the European debt crisis causing many to reevaluate their outlook for global economic growth in concert with record low headline CPI numbers being released," writes Kieran Osborne, a portfolio manager for Merk Funds. [ Read more… ]

"Currently, the biggest trend in the world is fiscal/monetary stimulation to ward off crippling sovereign debts and economic depression," write Derek and Damien Hoffman of the Wall St. Cheat Sheet Premium Newsletter. [ Read more… ]

U.S. consumer confidence fell 3.2 percent in July from June as Americans remained unconvinced by signs of a recovery, a report found Tuesday. [ Read more… ]

"Given the state of the developed world, we are convinced that deficit-spending, quantitative easing and monetary inflation will intensify over the following years," says Puru Saxena, publisher of the monthly Money Matters economic report. "Needless to say, these endeavours will further diminish the purchasing power of each unit of money, thereby causing the general price level to escalate. ... [ Read more… ]

The 346 tons of gold swap operations conducted by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in recent months highlight gold's central role in the financial system and are unlikely to lead to dumping of the metal on the market, GFMS Chairman Philip Klapwijk said. [ Read more… ]

"I am convinced that the Bernanke Fed is on its way to devaluing (cheapening) their Federal Reserve notes (we mistakenly call them 'dollars')," writes Richard Russell of the Dow Theory Letters. "Why am I convinced of Bernanke's plans? Because it is the only painless and politically acceptable way. It's the Fed way. In effect, it's the old 'frog in a pot of slowly heating water on the stove.' The frog never notices the rising heat. By the time he does, he's frog soup. ... [ Read more… ]

"What's clear to me ... is that if we don't restore some fiscal sanity around here, as a nation we are going to go broke," said Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of President Obama's deficit commission, in a June 30 address. "I know that's not a word people like to use, but it happens to be true. We face the most predictable economic crisis in history, and if we stay on automatic pilot, the debt we are accumulating will be like a cancer. It will definitely destroy this country from within." [ Read more… ]

Gold can perform well in time of monetary inflation as well as deflation, argues Jesse of the Jesse's Cafe Americain precious-metals blog, illustrating the case with two charts. [ Read more… ]

"Who in their right mind would suggest that gold will eventually reach $2,500, let alone $5,000 or even $10,000?" writes Lorimer Wilson of MunKnee.com. "Well, I did some investigation and, believe it or not, there are almost 70 economists, academics, gold analysts and market commentators who believe gold may go as high as $10,000 an ounce before the bubble finally pops." [ Read more… ]

"The monetary genie is clearly out of the bottle and there is no way on earth it's going back in," writes John Embry of Sprott Asset Management in his article "U.S. dollar's collapse inevitable." "In fact, I believe the new normal is increasing monetization of sovereign debt because there will be no other viable alternatives. Government austerity is nothing but a pipedream. This essentially ensures unlimited investment demand for gold driven by rapidly accelerating monetary debasement. ... [ Read more… ]

"You do not own gold unless you have taken delivery of coins or bars personally," writes investor Erik Townsend in his article "So you think you own gold?: Understanding the nuances of paper vs. physical and allocated vs. unallocated metal." [ Read more… ]

Three months ago, everyone was jubilant: The economy was headed for a v-shaped recovery, job growth was kicking in, and consumers were about to start spending, spending, spending again. [ Read more… ]

"We're still very, very early in the bull market in precious metals, and despite some public awareness of gold, you don't yet see signs of the kind of market top coming over the next five to 10 years," says Porter Stansberry of Stansberry & Associates Investment Research in a Gold Report interview. [ Read more… ]

"A Chinese firm that aims to compete with Western rating agencies declared Washington a worse credit risk than Beijing in its first report on government debt Sunday amid efforts by China to boost its influence in global markets," according to the Associated Press. [ Read more… ]

"We learned yesterday that John Paulson's funds took a fairly big hit in June and saw quite a few redemptions," writes investor Lance Lewis of Lewis Capital, noting Paulson's heavy gold holdings. "Thus, if the reports of $2 billion or more in redemption requests for Paulson's funds at the end of June are correct, then the recent plunge in gold and the weakness in gold equities that has occurred (all peculiarly in the face of the dollar's recent weakness) could certainly, at least in part, be explained by this one hedge fund being forced to liquidate various gold-related investments in order to meet redemption requests." [ Read more… ]

The co-chairmen of President Obama's debt and deficit commission offered an ominous assessment of the nation's fiscal future Sunday, calling current budgetary trends a cancer "that will destroy the country from within" unless checked by tough action in Washington. [ Read more… ]

The sovereign debt crisis would seem to create worry enough for European banks, but there is another gathering threat that has not garnered as much notice: the trillions of dollars in short-term borrowing that institutions around the world must repay or roll over in the next two years. [ Read more… ]

There are those who would argue that the financial crisis was caused by over-enthusiastic worship of the Almighty Dollar. Call it brutal financial karma, but that church is looking pretty empty these days. [ Read more… ]

Goldfinger, the villain of the eponymous James Bond film, hatched a plot to increase the value of his bullion by detonating a nuclear device inside Fort Knox, making America's gold supply radioactive for 60 years. No less exciting, though rather more unsettling, is the real-life drama taking place on the world's financial markets, where investors have piled into gold on fears that capitalism is about to crumble. [ Read more… ]

Canadian investment advisors expect stock prices to continue declining over the next quarter, but are increasingly bullish on precious metals and energy, according to the Q3 2010 Advisor Sentiment Survey conducted by BetaPro Management Inc. [ Read more… ]

"Gold is more than just an inflation hedge or a tool for diversification," writes Dr. Stephen Leeb, founder of the Leeb Group. "It's also a powerful deflation hedge. ... Both inflation and deflation can lead to the debasement of currencies, and that's why gold prices rise during both phenomena." [ Read more… ]

"While I hope that my analysis of the GLD prospectus can help investors to avoid the obvious dangers of this fund, it really shouldn't be necessary," writes Jeff Nielson in a critical review of the SPDR Gold Trust (or GLD) for Bullion Bulls Canada. "This is a document which screams caveat emptor ('buyer beware') in almost every paragraph. We already know that a 'fox' has been put in charge of the 'hen-house' - and for all we know that 'hen-house' may (in fact) actually hold nothing but hens." [ Read more… ]

"Long-term investors looking to buy the dips are most likely to have success during the months of March, April, May and July," concludes Peter Hamlin, president of goldstockbull.com, in his article "Gold Seasonality Charts: Time to Buy?" "Short-term traders should look to buy during these months and sell during February of each year - a recipe that the data suggests has a high probability of success. Regardless of your investment timing, this data demonstrates the robustness of the bull market in precious metals. 10 out of 12 months produce positive gains and only one month, April, has a history of declining more than it advances." [ Read more… ]

"Demand for gold higher than ever from nervous investors who are not happy to trust their entire future on the US dollar," writes Peter J. Cooper for the Arabian Money investment news site. Cooper also is author of the book "Dubai Sabbatical: The Road to $5,000 Gold." [ Read more… ]

"The U.S. turned 234 years old yesterday, and yet over half of the nation's money supply was created since Helicopter Ben [Bernanke] took over the flight controls four years ago. No wonder gold is in a full-fledged bull market." - David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates [ Read more… ]

Gold demand in China, the world's second-largest consumer, gained in the first half as government measures to cool the property market and falling equities spurred investment demand, the Shanghai Gold Exchange said. [ Read more… ]

Gold bullion is now trading below its recent record highs, but the metal's fundamentals remain in place. "This market has surprised many people as they were expecting gold to continue up to the $2,000 level without any problems," says Adam Hewison, president of INO.com and co-founder of MarketClub. "Normally when you have such the unanimous viewpoint, the markets tend to go the other way. The reason for this is that everyone who is bullish is normally long the market. The current breakdown in the yellow metal has not changed the overall longer-term bullish trend for this market." [ Read more… ]

"Less than three weeks after gold surged to record highs, the precious metal has scaled back about 5% and is hovering once again around $1,200 an ounce," writes Annalyn Censky for CNNMoney.com. "But the two major factors behind the precious metal's recent highs around $1,260 - Europe's debt woes and volatile stock markets - are still major concerns. So what gives?" [ Read more… ]

Gold advanced, snapping two days of declines, on speculation that prices of less than $1,200 an ounce are reinvigorating demand for the precious metal as a way of preserving wealth. [ Read more… ]

Gold could touch $1,500 an ounce within 18 months as investors seek protection against further quantitative easing and rising inflation, investment fund Yorkville Advisors said Tuesday. [ Read more… ]

Remember that price dips in metals are to be expected during the summer months and are only a drop in the bucket compared with gold's performance over the past year - in fact, for the past decade. [ Read more… ]

"Federal Reserve notes are not redeemable in gold, silver or any other commodity, and receive no backing by anything. This has been the case since 1933. The notes have no value for themselves, but for what they will buy." -- From the U.S. Treasury's "frequently asked questions" about our currency. [ Read more… ]

"As long as interest rates remain near zero, which they look set to for the foreseeable future, gold is likely to remain in a bull market as the opportunity cost of owning gold remains minimal," says Goldcore managing director Mark O'Byrne. [ Read more… ]

"I believe that the gold price is going higher," Global Resource Investments chief Rick Rule tells The Daily Bell. "I believe that it is a denominator issue. Gold is denominated in US dollars. And I think the U.S. dollar and the euro are headed inexorably lower. I also believe in the near term, the gold price escalation is being exacerbated by people's fears. [ Read more… ]

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is repeating a pattern that appeared just before markets fell during the Great Depression, Daryl Guppy, CEO at Guppytraders.com, told CNBC Monday. [ Read more… ]

"Let us be honest," writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph. "The U.S. is still trapped in depression a full 18 months into zero interest rates, quantitative easing (QE), and fiscal stimulus that has pushed the budget deficit above 10pc of GDP. ... [ Read more… ]

Gold prices may lose some steam in the short term, but look for the upward trend to continue, says trader and author Daryl Guppy in an analysis of the gold charts for CNBC. [ Read more… ]

"Money, again, has often been a cause of the delusion of the multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper." The words of Charles Mackay ring true here, as quoted by university strategic planner Jim Quinn in his article "Two Decades of Greed - The Unraveling." [ Read more… ]

Gold prices slid more than $40 an ounce this week as the broader sell-off in financial markets sparked a bout of profit-taking. [ Read more… ]

"The world may be in for the 'mother of all depressions,'" writes Tom Au, author of "A Modern Approach to Graham and Dodd Investing." [ Read more… ]

"Gold's huge drop on Thursday is not the beginning of a new major leg down for the yellow metal," writes Mark Hulbert in a column for MarketWatch, in which he examines gold prices in relation to short-term gold market timers tracked by his Hulbert Financial Digest. [ Read more… ]

The Reuters news agency reported June 28 that "the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been probing major financial firms' exposure to BP Plc to ensure that if the oil giant buckles under the costs of the Gulf oil spill, it won't put Wall Street or the global financial system at risk, according to two sources familiar with the matter." [ Read more… ]

"What we are looking at is an invisible wall, which we have run into here. This essentially is a typical pause that occurs in an economic recovery. I will grant you that this is not a normal economic recovery. We have just come out of what I believe is the most extraordinary and virulent global financial crisis that the world has ever seen." - Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, appearing Thursday (July 1) on CNBC. [ Read more… ]

A weak June jobs report offered the latest evidence that the economic recovery is slowing. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices are likely to end up higher by the end of the year, said Davis Hall, head of forex and precious-metals private banking at Credit Agricole. [ Read more… ]

China's consumption of gold is soaring alongside the price as the Asian economic superpower and its citizens increasingly turn to the precious metal as a way to diversify their finances. [ Read more… ]

The gold price could well double in nominal terms over the next three years, says Global Resource Investments founder Rick Rule, but the circumstances surrounding such a move could include extreme social unrest and will definitely involve massive volatility. [ Read more… ]

"Gold continued its long-term advance to record high levels even as the U.S. dollar put in a rather sizeable five-and-a-half-month rally," writes Barron's Online columnist Michael Kahn in an article on MarketWatch. [ Read more… ]

Investors turned fearful again in the first half of this year, but they couldn't agree on where to hide. [ Read more… ]

"When I was a kid, a double dip was a special treat," writes financial editor Vahan Janjigian of Forbes.com. "It meant you got two scoops of ice cream instead of one. When it comes to the economy, however, a double dip is no treat at all. It means you recover from a recession only to go into another one. [ Read more… ]

Despite Thursday's dip, remember that gold is still having a great year. "For the second quarter, gold ended up by 12%, its seventh consecutive quarterly gain," says Goldcore managing director Mark O'Byrne. "On a year-to-date basis, gold is higher by 13.2%. [ Read more… ]

Gold is being heavily liquidated today (July 1) as European banks sell everything that they have in order to raise cash. European bank counterparties have zero confidence in one another, and up until now, the only reason the banks traded with one another was because the European Central Bank was backing the banking system. Now that the ECB has increased its potential obligation to more than $1 trillion, even their creditability is in question. In order to maintain the ability to trade with their counterparties, the banks realized that they had to raise cash (euros) in order to maintain enough liquidity so that other institutions feel they're stable enough to trade with. Because gold is one of the most liquid assets in a portfolio, it is being liquidated in order to raise money. [ Read more… ]

Nearly one out of every three U.S. home sales in the first quarter was a foreclosure property as steep price discounts boosted demand for distressed real estate, RealtyTrac said in a new report on Wednesday. [ Read more… ]

Fears that the economic recovery is fizzling grew Thursday after the government and private sector issued weak reports on a number of fronts. [ Read more… ]

They weren't here to buy Gold American Eagles, but the alleged Russian spies arrested this week apparently took an interest in the secrets of the global gold market, according to Fortune.com [ Read more… ]

It's lights out for the U.S. housing market, writes the Golden Truth blogger on news that "the number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase homes dropped in May to the lowest level on record, a sign the housing recovery can't survive without government incentives." [ Read more… ]

"Since 2007, what has happened to the perception surrounding gold and to a far lesser extent silver?" asks Julian Phillips of The Gold Forecaster. "After a relatively brief dip in the gold price, gold recovered and moved to new highs. At that time it was still tarred with the 'barbarous relic' image and considered of less quality than global currencies. Since then the broad public perception has noted how gold has provided an ability to hold its price and to rise in the face of currency's inherent weaknesses. Gold is rising in the face of stagnating and weakening Stock Exchanges, in the face of fears of recession, in the face of sovereign debt crises and a general sagging of confidence in the financial system. Gold is not simply a safe-haven. The sight of central banks turning from sellers of gold to overall buyers and at worst firm holders of gold has been a step back towards gold in the monetary system. [ Read more… ]

"Today, China and the other great Asian exporters have belatedly realized that the dollars they received as 'payment' for their mass exports are nothing more than digits in American computers," writes Huge Salinas Price, president of the Asociacion Civica Mexicana Pro Plata, in his article "The Gold Standard: Generator and Protector of Jobs." [ Read more… ]

According to the Business Insider: "If anyone has been buying gold on strength, then it's Russia. The nation just bought another 22.5 million tons of gold reserves in May, after adding 27.6 million tons in April. This continues a long streak of gold additions since 2005, as shown in the accompanying chart. [ Read more… ]

"The dollar is going to start going down in the second half of this year," says Nick Parsons of the National Australia Bank. [ Read more… ]

"Something disturbing has clearly happened to the symbolism on our coinage over the years, especially beginning in the 1930s," notes Scott Rentschler of the Awakening to Liberty blog. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices may extend this year's advance and climb to a record $1,385 an ounce, according to technical analysis by Barclays Capital. [ Read more… ]

According to Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge, the Congressional Budget Office's latest "Long-Term Budget Outlook" sounds "the most dire warnings on the US projected debt to date. In summary, the healthcare spending and the Social Security will consume an increasing portion of the budget and will push the national debt up sharply unless lawmakers act, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf warned. 'CBO projects, the aging of the population and the rising cost of health care will cause spending on the major mandatory health care programs and Social Security to grow from roughly 10 percent of GDP today to about 16 percent of GDP 25 years from now if current laws are not changed.' [ Read more… ]

Markets seem to want it both ways. The yield on 10-year Treasurys pushed below 3% Tuesday. At the same time, gold rose to $1,242 and remains near record highs. [ Read more… ]

The International Monetary Fund's gold holdings fell by 15.25 metric tons (490,286 ounces) in May, according to figures from the Washington-based lender. Russia's assets expanded by 22.46 tons. [ Read more… ]

"I have gold, silver and sugar in my pocket," legendary investor and commodities expert Jim Rogers recently told the "Vision 2015" conference in Mumbai. [ Read more… ]

"We are poised at a heart-stopping moment in economic times," writes Harry Schultz, who publishes the International Harry Schultz Letter and bills himself as the world's highest-paid financial consultant. "On one extreme side, the world is on the edge of massive deflation and depression. At the other extreme, hyperinflation." [ Read more… ]

The United States is sinking back into recession, says Jeffrey Nichols of American Precious Metals Advisers, but he disputes the notion that "a weak economy must be bad news for the yellow metal." [ Read more… ]

Apart from gold, commodities are heading for their worst quarter in more than a year on investors' concern that slower growth from China to the U.S. will sap demand. [ Read more… ]

"Holding physical gold in your own possession will convey to you a sense of security rather than that sense of fear and loathing brought on by the system," writes the blogger at the respected gold-analysis Web site, FOFOA: A Tribute to the Thoughts of Another and his Friend. "Holding gold brings calm and peace of mind. Holding gold brings the power of money creation back to the people. The old saying really is true -- he who holds the gold makes the rules. So please, in this time of great uncertainty, hold gold, and make your own rules." [ Read more… ]

"Major gold mining companies are facing a big problem," writes geologist Brent Cook, publisher of the Exploration Insights newsletter. "They are unable to find and develop enough ounces to keep up with demand, for the simple fact that economic gold deposits are extremely rare." This looming gap between supply and demand potentially bodes well for long-term investors in physical gold. [ Read more… ]

"Gold will get to $2,000+ before this great bull market ends. That time is not yet in sight," said market analyst Peter Grandich, editor of The Grandich Letter, in an interview with The Gold Report. "Our target for 2010 was $1,300 as a low end, and it could go as high as $1,500 if certain events unfold in the Middle East -- which, realistically, are closer today than ever before. So even though we haven't printed it yet, $1,300 is a 'gimme,' and there's still the potential to run as high as $1,500." [ Read more… ]

Gold has enjoyed an impressive run in 2010 as comex-traded gold futures rose from about $1,118 per ounce on January 4 to about $1,239 per ounce on June 28. On June 21, during intraday trading, gold hit an all-time high of $1,266.50. [ Read more… ]

A new United Nations report released Tuesday calls for abandoning the U.S. dollar as the main global reserve currency, saying it has been unable to safeguard value. [ Read more… ]

"In my last newsletter for Diggers & Drillers, I explored a different angle," writes Dr. Alex Cowie. "Rather than forecasting the price, I estimated gold's true value. Gold is only as valuable as investors think it is. So if gold is gathering recognition as a currency again, it makes sense to determine its intrinsic value as a currency, as per the gold standard. [ Read more… ]

The gold price could smash new records as investors pile into bullion on fears of a worsening economic outlook. The spot price Monday flirted with the all-time high of $1,264.90 (#838.93) reached last week. [ Read more… ]

"The price of gold is exhibiting classic bullish signs of higher highs and higher lows," says precious-metals expert David Levenstein. "I believe that the price of gold will soon break its previous high and move towards $1,350/oz." [ Read more… ]

Financial analyst Darryl Robert Schoon stresses the importance of physical possession of your gold and silver bullion in an article titled "Fractional gold and silver accounts: Deceit becomes fraud only when you can't deliver." [ Read more… ]

Japan's largest bullion house, Tanaka Kikinzoku, said on Tuesday that its business has not been dented by the launch of precious metals exchange-traded funds as these target different investors from its customers. ... [ Read more… ]

Consumer gold demand in China is expected to sparkle at the upper-end of the single-digit annual growth rate for the economy as wealth is being accumulated very rapidly, said a senior manager at the World Gold Council. [ Read more… ]

"I've emphasized many times the striking similarities between the U.S. today and Germany during the Weimar period (1918-1933)," writes the Golden Truth blogger, referring to Germany's notorious period of epic hyperinflation that destroyed its currency's value. [ Read more… ]

"The very fabric and the seams of the financial system are coming apart," says Eric King of King World News. "Who knows what the timetable is for the implosion of the current monetary system? We are witnessing the greatest wealth transfer in history, and the horrors of the aftermath of this tragedy will not be forgotten for decades.  Keep in mind that the stark warnings from today's annual BIS (Bank for International Settlements) report are the very reason why it is so important for all readers globally to protect themselves and their families by owning gold." [ Read more… ]

Silver, the precious metal most used in industry, is attracting investors betting on both faster and slower economic growth as prices extend the longest run of quarterly gains in three decades. [ Read more… ]

"World leaders are meeting in Toronto, Canada, this weekend and the protests have begun. They'll be discussing how they can manage to save the global economy. Gold will be a topic, but not admitted," writes Warren Bevan of Precious Metal Stock Review in an article titled "Worlds Collide," referring to the G8 summit. [ Read more… ]

"Massive, unsustainable government debt -- it's everywhere. Especially in America. At some point, will the world begin to lose confidence in America's growing debt? Will interest rates then skyrocket? Will a Greek-style crisis in U.S. Government bonds then ensue? Is there any way out?" These are some pressing questions posed by financial blogger Cliff Kule. [ Read more… ]

"The worldwide propensity to attempt to solve structural problems with monetary 'solutions' means that until the printing presses are taken away and we decide to pursue sound, long-term policies, both in the U.S. and elsewhere, money printing will remain the order of the day -- which is why we need to own gold to protect ourselves," writes investor Bill Fleckenstein of MSN Money's "Contrarian Chronicles" column. [ Read more… ]

"The trend is still upward, isn't it, and I continue to be bullish of gold," says commodities investor Dennis Gartman in an interview on CNBC on Monday (starting at minute 2:20). [ Read more… ]

"We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression," writes Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman in The New York Times. "It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost -- to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs -- will nonetheless be immense. [ Read more… ]

As recovery starts to stall in the US and Europe with echoes of mid-1931, bond experts are once again dusting off a speech by Ben Bernanke given eight years ago as a freshman governor at the Federal Reserve. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices rose to within $10 of their all-time high Friday as investors sought refuge from financial market uncertainty and currency depreciation ahead of a closely watched G20 meeting. [ Read more… ]

Californians don't see much evidence that the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression is coming to an end. ... [ Read more… ]

"We are now used to China sourcing huge volumes of metals from external sources to drive its industrial machine forwards, but the latest announcement from Coeur d'Alene Mines on its deal to have its gold concentrates purchased and processed by China's largest gold producer suggests that precious metals are on China's vast shopping list too," writes Lawrence Williams on MineWeb. [ Read more… ]

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is waging an epochal battle behind the scenes for control of U.S. monetary policy, struggling to overcome resistance from regional Fed hawks for further possible stimulus to prevent a deflationary spiral. [ Read more… ]

"There's a hidden 'quirk' in the gold market that could put you ahead of most private investors," writes Bengt Saelensminde of The Right Side newsletter. "There's a big difference between 'paper gold' and real gold. The market is now showing signs of a split between physical, like coins from its paper derivatives (that is anything other than physical possession). This is an important development." [ Read more… ]

The Business Insider has excerpted 12 charts from the Erste Group Bank's new report on gold (titled "In Gold We Trust") for your viewing pleasure.
[ Read more… ]

"Right now the United States is heading for another real estate crash," writes Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog. "The only thing that has been holding it back was the huge bribe (called a tax credit) that the U.S. government was giving people to buy houses. Now that the tax credit has expired, there is no artificial incentive to buy homes and the real estate market has fallen through the floor. Unfortunately, there is every indication that things are going to get even worse." [ Read more… ]

Is gold in a bubble? "Bubble, schmubble," says Jeff Clark, senior editor of Casey's Gold & Resource Report. "Stocks are vulnerable, bonds are toast, currencies are fiat. Other than cash, where are you going to put money right now?" [ Read more… ]

"Americans are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Barack Obama's leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House," according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. "The result of collapsing confidence will be new record highs in gold that will blow away mainstream projections," says Moses Kim of the Expected Returns blog. [ Read more… ]

Deutsche Bank has a new and improved index of U.S. financial conditions, and this index just slumped back towards the lows associated with the collapse of Lehman Bros. in 2008. [ Read more… ]

The Daily Bell debunks claims that gold is in a bubble and targets the ignorance and hypocrisy of the naysayers in the financial media who consistently serve as cheerleaders for fading paper-based investments [ Read more… ]

Shelter from today's economic storms can be found in gold, writes Chris Blasi, president of Neptune Global Holdings: "There is clear and unambiguous precedent for coping with the demise of a paper-based, and thoroughly abused, monetary system. The options for financial refuge in such an imploding economic and monetary environment are few. Historically, gold has served in this role and appears to be asserting itself for the position again. This can be witnessed playing out across the globe in all major currencies." [ Read more… ]

In an interview posted at moneycontrol.com, CWA Global Markets executive Peter McGuire predicts gold going as high as $1,400 an ounce this year in U.S. dollars (USD) [ Read more… ]

The United States is drowning in red ink as budget deficits increase, tax revenue shrinks, and spending on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare skyrocket, according to these charts from the Heritage Foundation, mounted on The Business Insider's Web site. [ Read more… ]

Arnella Sims has seen a lot in her 34 years as a Los Angeles County court reporter, but nothing like this. [ Read more… ]

Federal Reserve officials downgraded their outlook for the U.S. economy Wednesday, indicating that short-term interest rates could remain at a record low until next year to support growth. [ Read more… ]

Sales of new homes collapsed in May, sinking 33 percent to the lowest level on record as potential buyers stopped shopping for homes once they could no longer receive government tax credits. [ Read more… ]

"We expect the gold price to reach our long-term target price of USD 2,300/ounce," writes Ronald-Peter Stoeferle in a comprehensive June 2010 report by the Erste Group bank titled "In Gold We Trust." "The gold price increased by a factor of 24 during the bull market in the 1970s. In relation to the current bull market, this would mean a gold price of USD 6,000." [ Read more… ]

Despite gold's price dip in the past couple of days, "contrarian analysis still gives gold the benefit of the doubt," writes Mark Hulbert of Hulbert Financial Digest in an article for MarketWatch. [ Read more… ]

In a new article Jeff Nichols of American Precious Metals Advisors discusses the recent revelation that Saudi Arabia's central bank, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, or SAMA, had significantly increased its gold holdings in early 2008 but only recently chose to report this metal in its official central bank reserve accounts. [ Read more… ]

"A true debt hurricane may be about to emerge," writes Lawrence Williams for MineWeb, citing the budget deficits plaguing 48 states and the federal government, as well as mushrooming consumer debt and declining real-estate values. "It is little wonder that the smart money has been pouring into assets which are perceived to offer protection against a market collapse - like gold and silver." [ Read more… ]

"Gold is the best certainty during times of uncertainty. And the way the world is going, uncertainty will be with us for a long time," write Aden Forecast editors Mary Anne and Pamela Aden in predicting $1,300 gold-bullion prices this year. [ Read more… ]

In research published Monday, Merrill Lynch metals analysts Michael Widmer, Francisco Blanch, and Alex Tonks are predicting average gold price forecasts of $1,200/oz. this year, $1,350/oz. in 2011, and $1,400/oz. in 2012, up from $1,110/oz., $1,179/oz. and $1,109/oz., respectively. [ Read more… ]

"The New York Times dedicated a chunk of last Sunday's paper to gold as a mainstream investment," notes Frank Holmes, chief executive of U.S. Global Investors. "In other words, gold is now legit - no longer can it be dismissed as the asset of choice for fringe types with a cellar full of canned goods and a stash of bullion buried in the backyard. [ Read more… ]

Gold will be the best-performing asset for the rest of the year as investors seek to protect wealth from sovereign-debt risks and economic turbulence, according to about 30 percent of respondents in a UBS AG survey. [ Read more… ]

It sounds like a plot straight out of the gold bug's handbook. [ Read more… ]

Don Coxe of BMO Capital Markets analyzes gold's record-breaking run in a new report: [ Read more… ]

Gold will climb to a record $1,300 an ounce in the coming weeks as investors sell the dollar, and may advance to $1,500 by the end of 2010, according to a technical analysis by Credit Suisse Group AG. [ Read more… ]

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London's Telegraph newspaper writes: "And are we any safer now that the EU has failed to restore full confidence with its [euro]750bn (#505bn) 'shock and awe' shield, that is to say after throwing everything it can credibly muster under the political constraints of monetary union? This is the deep angst that lies behind last week's surge in gold to an all-time high of $1,258 an ounce. [ Read more… ]

"The rest of this year looks very interesting," says Brien Lundin, publisher of the Gold Newsletter and host of the New Orleans Investment Conference, in an interview with The Gold Report. "Once gold passed $1,000 again last fall, the breakout was so powerful and so similar to two previous breakouts during this bull market that Gold Newsletter began tracking the rally against them. Those breakouts occurred in 2005 and 2007, with a year of consolidation in between. [ Read more… ]

Yes, gold recently hit a new all-time record high, but June, July, and August have generally marked a lull in price action. If gold prices do dip this summer, savvy investors should seize the opportunity to cash in on bargain-priced bullion. [ Read more… ]

China, owner of the world's largest foreign currency reserves, should increase its holdings of precious metals and oil as part of a diversification strategy, a member of the National People's Congress said. [ Read more… ]

Russia seems to be shifting away from the U.S. dollar, according to two Bloomberg News stories this week. [ Read more… ]

The Reformed Broker blogger thinks China is a huge secret buyer of gold, highlighting a very interesting anecdote from CNN Money. [ Read more… ]

The gold price could reach $1,450 an ounce by the end of the year after surging to record highs Friday, an Australian economist says. [ Read more… ]

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. may soon face higher borrowing costs on its swelling debt and called for a "tectonic shift" in fiscal policy to contain borrowing. [ Read more… ]

"The currencies are the benchmark of our wealth (purchasing power) and they are being eroded quickly," notes The Groenewegen Report. "Hence why gold has been rising in positive correlation with the US Dollar. It is a clear indication of gold increasingly gaining its monetary function again and further consolidating its safe-haven status. ... [ Read more… ]

"We believe that a new Ponzi scheme is potentially growing in the gold and silver ETF market," write Hinde Capital analysts in a report titled "Gold: The Currency of First Resort." "The ETFs' purported gold and silver inventories appear to be more than the amount of available supply of the physical metals in existence, particularly silver. In fact there is great debate on the actual numbers. This certainly raises some questions. Such inconsistency is more reflective of a classic Ponzi scheme. New investors are enticed to invest based on a perceived return or in this case investment in something perceived to be real; in this case physical, allocated gold. The scheme is perpetuated by each new investor's proceeds securing the investment. Although in this case investors will only truly know the validity of their investment if all decide to take delivery into a vault, separate from the custodian banks. Then there would be no question of double accounting. The unpalatable truth is savers have not been given a clear picture of what they are purchasing when investing in GLD and SLV, and full disclosure of the issues confronting the commodity element of the investment also." [ Read more… ]

"I think consumers will continue to buy gold on dips. People are still more confident about gold than anything." - An anonymous gold dealer in Singapore

"The main driver behind gold is not the currencies; it is the underlying fundamental problems, especially here in Europe. Gold should rise further." - Daniel Briesemann, Commerzbank analyst

"We expect gold to continue to perform well given continued fiscal/debt challenges in Europe and the potential for this to spread to other regions." - Deutsche Bank [ Read more… ]

Foreign governments have been getting in on the recent gold rush, driven by continued fears about Europe's debt crisis and the pace of the global economic recovery. [ Read more… ]

Gold may climb to a record $1,300 an ounce this year as investment demand shifts from the euro and the dollar, said Bruce Ikemizu at Standard Bank Plc. [ Read more… ]

Gold futures rose to a record $1,262 an ounce on demand for a haven amid Europe's fiscal woes and dimming prospects for the U.S. economy. [ Read more… ]

"How do I know that I won't lose everything I have if the US dollar collapses overnight?" That's a question that Przemyslaw Radomski, the editor of www.SunshineProfits.com, answers in an article on Miyanville.com. [ Read more… ]

The number of people filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped last week after three straight declines, another sign that the pace of layoffs has not slowed. [ Read more… ]

Gold was set for its largest daily rise in a week Thursday as a combination of concern over the impact of the eurozone debt crisis and downbeat U.S. data encouraged a fresh sweep into safe-haven assets. [ Read more… ]

"At this level I'm not particularly interested in buying anything. I buy gold; I don't know what else to buy," says Marc Faber in a round-table interview with CNBC. "I think that governments have become like a cancer; they have expanded in the financial system. ... The biggest problem is too much intervention. Whatever the government touches is usually done worse than in the private sector. I think any government intervention has unintended consequences and is negative. Eventually the market will break the intervention and things will blow out." [ Read more… ]

"Arnold Bock recently wrote an article on this site suggesting that gold would go to $10,000 by 2012 giving a host of sound reasons why that would be the case," writes Lorimer Wilson of MunKnee.com. "It took the internet by storm with extremely high readership. My first reaction was 'Who in their right mind would even suggest that gold will eventually reach $2,500, let alone $5,000 or even $10,000?'" Well, believe it or not, Bock is not the first respected mind to come to the same conclusion. Actually, the list is rather long so in this article I will relate the reasons why just 10 such analysts hold these views." [ Read more… ]

Some of the world's biggest banks and security companies are building vaults to store gold bars and coins worth tens of billions of dollars, cashing in on resurgent demand and record prices. [ Read more… ]

"The performance of silver gives us confidence that precious metals are likely to outperform the general markets in a downturn. In a really tough deflation, the absolute price levels of the metals could weaken, even as they outperform most other sectors." So says JP Morgan in a study - cited on The Pragmatic Capitalist's Web site - exploring how precious metals might perform during deflation. Because the price of gold was fixed during the last comparable period of deflation - the Great Depression - JP Morgan used silver as a proxy for gold. [ Read more… ]

"In our opinion, owning no silver in this bull market would be a mistake," writes Jeff Clark for Casey's Gold & Resource Report. "And your first (and biggest) investment in silver should be in a physical form." [ Read more… ]

Europe faces almost inevitable recession next year and years of stagnation as policymakers' response to the euro zone crisis causes a downward spiral, billionaire investor George Soros said Tuesday. [ Read more… ]

"Given Treasury's recent report on our debt projections, the time left to take the appropriate actions is running out," writes Michael Pento, a senior market strategist at Delta Global Advisors. [ Read more… ]

Bloomberg News columnist William Pesek tackles Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke's curious comments last week to Congress that he doesn't "fully understand movements in the gold price." [ Read more… ]

Veteran gold traders are fascinated by the sea-change in bullion demand - and the strains it is putting on banks and security companies' network of cavernous vaults. [ Read more… ]

"Buying gold in this climate is like buying life insurance for a short-term capital gain: There is a transaction cost you need to think of," says Ian McAvity, the author of the "Deliberations on World Markets." [ Read more… ]

Watch as Mark Dice offers to give away a 1-ounce gold Canadian Maple Leaf coin to anyone who can tell him - within a 25 percent margin of error - the market value of the coin, then worth about $1,150. Dice fails in his mission because most of the general public is unaware of gold's true value. Gold prices have a long way to go before the mania or bubble stage hits, this video suggests. [ Read more… ]

In a video that has received almost 280,000 views on YouTube, Mark Dice wanders the streets of Southern California in vain trying to interest passers-by in a 1-ounce gold Canadian Maple Leaf worth about $1,100 at the time. He finds no takers, whether he offers to sell it for its $50 face value or for even less than that. Dice can't even trade the coin for the price of a cup of coffee. Some interviewees didn't want the coin because it was Canadian and they didn't think it had much value in the United States. This video offers more proof that gold is nowhere near the mania stage and that prices have a long way to go because the general public is not even aware of gold's true value. [ Read more… ]

China has raised its U.S. government debt holdings to the highest level this year, according to U.S. Treasury data published Tuesday. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices Tuesday rose the most in a week on demand for an alternative investment to currencies as the dollar slumped and concern mounted that Europe's sovereign-debt crisis will escalate. [ Read more… ]

In a bid to stave off a double-dip recession, the Federal Reserve will engage in money printing "that will ultimately lead to inflation," says Robert Wenzel of The Economic Policy Journal. "It is, ultimately, the only tool the Fed has at its disposal and is a very good reason to own gold, even if there is the potential for a short-term dip in the price." [ Read more… ]

Food prices are set to rise as much as 40% over the coming decade amid growing demand from emerging markets and for biofuel production, according to a United Nations report Tuesday which warns of rising hunger and food insecurity. [ Read more… ]

Although there are some signs that gold could be in a bubble, here's one that suggests it's not: Instead of clamoring to buy, a lot of average Americans are eager to sell. [ Read more… ]

It is the resurgent passion of the doomsday crowd, a bet that everything will go wrong. No matter what has you worried, they say, the answer is gold. [ Read more… ]

Democracy could "collapse" in Greece, Spain and Portugal unless urgent action is taken to tackle the debt crisis, the head of the European Commission has warned. [ Read more… ]

"I have never played gold short-term," Newedge Group senior strategist Kirby Daley tells CNBC on June 14. "Gold is a part of my portfolio that I think should be in everyone's right now. It's been going only one way. It's a Armageddon hedge. Not a massive part of the portfolio but certainly there. And short-term movements don't concern me. I would look to pick up gold on dips, not sell it on rallies." [ Read more… ]

"Our best years are behind us" as a nation if we can't solve the federal government's entrenched debt problems, says David Walker, the former comptroller general of the United States, in a June 10 interview with CNBC. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices are expected to remain broadly supported in 2010 by ongoing concerns over elevated sovereign-debt levels, with the low interest-rate environment also seen as beneficial to the precious metal, the Reuters news agency reports. [ Read more… ]

Here are 17 more big reasons why you want to own gold, writes John Embry, chief investment strategist at Sprott Asset Management [ Read more… ]

Japan's new prime minister, Naoto Kan, warned Friday that the country risked being sucked into a Greek-style debt crisis unless it quickly reined in its massive public debt. [ Read more… ]

"I always like to focus on the big trend, and the big trend for gold is up," says Adrian Day, chairman and CEO of Adrian Day Asset Management, in an interview with The Gold Report. "Every currency we look at is simply paper; there is no currency backed by gold." [ Read more… ]

Moody's Investors Service slashed Greece's credit rating to junk status Monday in a new blow to the debt-ridden country that is under intense international scrutiny after narrowly avoiding default last month. [ Read more… ]

America is running out of time to fix its huge economic and fiscal problems, warns former Fed chair Paul Volcker, who now heads a financial advisory board to President Obama.
[ Read more… ]

Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge links to Passport Capital's "exhaustive report on gold," which the San Francisco investment firm published in looking ahead to 2009. "It is time readers again refamiliarized themselves with this definitive guide not only on the pros and cons of owning the shiny metal, but the history of gold through the ages," writes Durden. "This is not a gold sales pitch: it is an analysis that everyone who is concerned about the fate of fiat currency should read." [ Read more… ]

The lifeblood of countries' economies is draining away - with grim consequences for us all, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in London's Telegraph newspaper [ Read more… ]

"By year-end, I expect we will see gold hit $1,500 an ounce - and sometime in the next few years $2,000 seems very likely ... with $3,000 or higher quite possible," says Jeffrey Nichols of American Precious Metals Advisors in a speech to the Mines and Money Conference in Beijing, China, this month. [ Read more… ]

The cost of fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage companies that last year bought or guaranteed three-quarters of all U.S. home loans, will be at least $160 billion and could grow to as much as $1 trillion after the biggest bailout in American history. [ Read more… ]

Sinfully seductive, gold almost looks good enough to eat. It shimmers in bullion. It coos like a songbird perched on her wedding finger. It inspires melodies and mayhem. [ Read more… ]

Cash and bonds will be "very dangerous" in the next 10 years as governments increase money supply to cover fiscal deficits, investor Marc Faber said. [ Read more… ]

Even though gold is finding it tough to maintain breaks through new highs, its resistance levels to which it falls back seem to be getting ever higher. [ Read more… ]

Gold prices closed below $1,225 an ounce Thursday as stocks rose and the euro climbed against the dollar. How should investors be trading the precious metal? Rich Ilczyszyn, senior market strategist at Lind-Waldock and Torsten Slok, senior economist at Deutsche Bank discussed their insights. [ Read more… ]

BP plc's oil spill may drive down the Gulf Coast's shore-area property values by 10 percent for at least three years, according to CoStar Group Inc. [ Read more… ]

The Business Insider reports on a new analysis of the global markets from a researcher at BMO Capital Markets: [ Read more… ]

"We believe gold will hit $2,000 an ounce this year but head even higher next year as investors seek shelter from continued market uncertainty. Inflation will be tomorrow's problem. This bull market is still a calf," says John Ing, chief of Maison Placements Canada, a research-based institutional investment dealer. [ Read more… ]

The idea of peak oil has helped light a fire under the price of petroleum, but now, another peak theory has emerged, this time involving gold. [ Read more… ]

"I've never seen gold this strong, this long. The profile of finances is the worst in 60, 70 years ... these are pretty good reasons why people are turning to gold." -- Wayne Atwell, a managing director with Casimir Capital in New York
 
"The strength of investment demand has offset weakness in physical supply and demand flows. ... The motives to support continued interest in gold remain intact for now, thus prices are likely to retain their recent gains barring short-term corrections amid profit-taking." -- Barclays analysts
 
"Despite the recent weakness, we continue to see pullbacks as counter trend and temporary ahead of a resumption of the larger bulltrend." -- Barclays Capital in a note [ Read more… ]

Gold bullion will hit $1,350 an ounce in the near term before making its way to $2,000 this year, says John Ing, president and CEO of the Maison Placements Canada investment bank, in an interview with the Business News Network (at minute 2:52). "There's certainty in gold," Ing says. [ Read more… ]

"It's not often I agree with Ben Bernanke, but this time, in regards to gold, I do," says Mike "Mish" Shedlock, an investment adviser for the SitkaPacific fund who runs the Global Economic Analysis blog. [ Read more… ]

According to analysts at London venture-capital firm KTC Capital Management Partners, gold is going higher in the third quarter of 20101 [ Read more… ]

According to Zero Hedge's Tyler Durden: "A report from Credit Suisse ... explains not only why the firm sees gold rising promptly to $1,360 but possibly going much higher -- and this is from a bank whose very existence is contingent on gold prices staying sufficiently low for some marginal credibility in fiat [currency] to still remain. [ Read more… ]

In case you missed it, President Obama was out and about yesterday pitching $250 rebate checks for Medicare prescription-drug coverage. At the same time, gold prices were roaring ahead, hitting a record-high $1,245 an ounce. [ Read more… ]

"You could sit out the technology bubble -- I mostly did. You cannot sit out the coming gold bubble. If you do, you could lose everything," says Harris Kupperman, who founded the hedge fund Praetorian Capital and runs the Adventures in Capitalism Web site. [ Read more… ]

"Gold bullion should be a key component of anyone's gold investment strategy. Yes, gold could outperform the gold shares," Rob McEwen, chief executive and chairman of US Gold Corp., tells The Gold Report. "Gold came down but it's only temporary. The trend is up. ... We don't need much of a move in terms of percentage of assets into gold to start seeing some very powerful moves. The pressure is building up and we're getting closer to a boiling point where we'll see gold go quite a bit higher." [ Read more… ]

Gold hit a new all-time high June 8, notes Greg Hunter at his USA Watchdog site. "For gold investors, it was a gratifying event. For everybody else, it should be considered a warning sign that all is not well in the financial world. A wicked storm is blowing our way.  What is triggering gold's record rise? I'll sum it up in just one little four letter word -- DEBT, and lots of it.  It seems you can find it everywhere these days. Debt has soured the banking system, but it is kept hidden with government sanctioned accounting fraud.  The consumer is loaded with debt and is tapped out. Entire governments are on the brink of insolvency; just take a look at Europe. The biggest ball of debt is possessed by our very own Uncle Sam. Yesterday, Reuters reported, 'The U.S. debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015, according to a Treasury Department report to Congress.'  (Click here for the complete Reuters story.) [ Read more… ]

"The economy will collapse in 2011," writes Ph.D. economist Arthur Laffer, chairman of Laffer Associates, in a June 6 opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal. [ Read more… ]

"Debt-backed paper currency is always a castle made of sand but 'eventually' corresponds with debt saturation," writes Adam Brochert of the Gold Versus Paper blog,  quoting Jimi Hendrix's song lyric "And so castles made of sand melt into the sea eventually." "Once debt can't be paid back and everyone knows it, what happens? Default or aggressive debasement. There is no 'Goldilocks' in between just as there wasn't when CNBC said there was all throughout 2007 (the big boyz needed someone to buy their stocks...). Two options. Literally default or default 'in spirit' by paying back the nominal amounts owed using a fresh pile of counterfeited monopoly money that everyone knows you just counterfeited." [ Read more… ]

"Gold is a great safety net if things go wrong," writes Fidelity International investment director Tom Stevenson in a new article in the London Telegraph newspaper. "In these uncertain times, strong cases can be made for and against most investments. Against this backdrop, my thoughts keep coming back to the one investment that has always acted as a safe haven at moments of crisis. It is hard to argue against anyone holding at least some gold in their portfolio as an insurance policy against things going badly wrong. ... [ Read more… ]

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), along with other members of Congress and leading financial experts, is warning that the United States is in danger of being in the same dire situation as Greece - national bankruptcy - in seven to 10 years unless the federal government radically curtails spending. [ Read more… ]

The risks to a robust global recovery have "risen significantly" as many governments struggle with debt, a leading official from the International Monetary Fund has warned. [ Read more… ]

"There's a good chance that gold bulls dig in their heels and drive the gold price to its next plateau, perhaps hitting our $1400 target high for 2010 as early as September -- after a pullback this month," writes Ed Bugos of GoldenBar.com in a report originally prepared for Strategic Energy and Capital LLC. [ Read more… ]

The subprime mortgage crisis was nothing compared with what is coming, says Ian Cooper of the Energy and Capital Web site, citing a recent "60 Minutes" report (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kAfuFGi7bY) that says a second wave of home defaults will strike banks in the next couple of years to the tune of more than $1.5 trillion. [ Read more… ]

Gold touched an intraday high of $1,254 in U.S. dollar terms Tuesday, but its appreciation in Europe's major currencies has been the story for the past few weeks. [ Read more… ]

Demand for gold coins is tightening supplies and boosting premiums as mounting concern over Europe’s debt crisis and a proposed increase in U.K. capital-gains tax spur purchases, according to GoldCore Ltd. [ Read more… ]

Gold has become the "ultimate currency," UBS AG said Wednesday in a report that projects prices will hit $1,500 an ounce in the next 12 months and says anything below $1,200 represents a buying opportunity. "Since 2001 the price of gold has been on a relentless ascent against all major currencies," UBS said. "With confidence in paper currency systems badly shaken in the financial crisis, gold, it seems, is reasserting its old role as the ultimate debt-free money. ... Our gold model also indicates that concerns over the future of major monetary systems are becoming visible in the price of gold." [ Read more… ]

The "real move" in gold is to come, metals expert Egon von of GoldSwitzerland.com told CNBC in an interview Monday. [ Read more… ]

Gold, which hit a new record of $1,252.11 an ounce in London today, may rally to another all-time high as investors seek a haven for their wealth, including protection from a possible double- dip recession in the global economy, according to precious-metalsconsultancy GFMS Ltd. [ Read more… ]

Gold rose to a record in London and New York as investors sought an alternative to currencies amid mounting concern over Europe's debt crisis. [ Read more… ]

"If 1+1 still equals 2, then gold will explode," writes Chris Blasi, president of Neptune Global Holdings LLC. "Once you tune out the white noise of the main stream media, recognize Keynesian economics for the claptrap it is, and come to terms with the painful reality that policymakers and financial elites navigate the ship of state to their benefit, not yours, the basic truth of this premise should resonate with you." [ Read more… ]

 MarketWatch columnist Peter Brimelow weighs in on gold's strong closing Friday (June 4) on a day when bleak U.S. job numbers dragged down stocks [ Read more… ]

"My longer-term projection, which I have had for the last two years, is that I expect gold to be at $2,000 roughly two years from today," Charles Oliver of Sprott Asset Management tells The Gold Report. "On many occasions, on TV and such, I have stated that if I'm wrong I'll shave the hair off my head; so, I firmly believe that. All the fundamentals point to a much higher gold price. The only question is, when? [ Read more… ]

"As far as the monetary metals, gold and silver, are concerned, you would be well-advised to buy some more every month routinely, regardless of the price," says Antal Fekete, professor at the Intermountain Institute of Science and Applied Mathematics, in an interview with. "You should look at your holdings as you look at your fire insurance policy. If you never need to collect, well, so much the better." [ Read more… ]

Spot gold prices shot upward Monday, rising about $20 and breaching the $1,240-per-ounce mark in a bid to test its all-time high record of $1,249 an ounce set in May. Comex gold futures pushed to a fresh three-week high above $1,230 an ounce and were back close to the all-time record high of $1,251.40, basis the August contract, scored in mid-May. [ Read more… ]

President Barack Obama is poised to increase the U.S. debt to a level that exceeds the value of the nation's annual economic output, a step toward what Bill Gross of Pimco called a "debt super cycle." [ Read more… ]

"We envision a move through $2,100 next year, but with a 15%+ correction along the way," according to a May 31 report from Bob Hoye of Institutional Advisers, with technical observations by Ross Shaw. [ Read more… ]

"Since the Bretton Woods Agreement was signed in 1944, the U.S. dollar has been viewed as the undisputed world's reserve currency. Unfortunately, however, investors the world over are now asking themselves if that should continue to be the case," says Michael Pento, senior market strategist for Delta Global Advisors. "They are instead on an ever-increasing basis seeking to rely on a more stable form of money (gold) in which to park their global savings." [ Read more… ]

Gold may advance on speculation investors will buy the precious metal as an alternative to currencies, a survey showed. [ Read more… ]

Gold sales to Europe from the Perth Mint surged in May as the Greek sovereign-debt crisis triggered a flight to haven investments, draining stockpiles at the producer of 6 percent of the world's bullion. [ Read more… ]

"We're in a good bull market for both gold and silver. They're both continuing quite nicely, so I expect higher prices for both for the next two or three years at least," says natural-resources analyst Sean Brodrick of Weiss Research in an interview with The Gold Report. [ Read more… ]

Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don't know is how truly desperate the financial situation of the United States really is," writes Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog in a contribution to The Business Insider supported by an eye-popping plethora of statistical data. "The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a 'downturn' or a 'recession.' What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. [ Read more… ]

This lesson in the power of precious metals to preserve your purchasing power comes from The Golden Truth blogger [ Read more… ]

The nation's economy added 431,000 jobs in the month of May, but 411,000 of those jobs were temporary positions with the once-a-decade U.S. census and not the kind of employment that can drive a sustained economic recovery. That meant that the overall private sector employment growth for the month was anemic - up by just 41,000. [ Read more… ]

"With the mainstream media focusing on the country's leveling unemployment rate, improving retail sales, and nascent housing recovery, one might think that the US government has successfully navigated the economy through recession and growth has returned," writes Neeraj Chaudhary, an investment consultant at EuroPacific Capital. "But I will argue that a look under the proverbial hood reveals a very different picture. I believe the data shows that the US economy is badly damaged, and a modern-day depression has begun." [ Read more… ]

Don't believe the U.S. government when it says inflation doesn't exist, investing legend Jim Rogers of Rogers Holdings tells the Hera Research Newsletter (HRN) [ Read more… ]

"The eurozone crisis is only one of the many crises yet to come," warns Darryl Robert Schoon, author of "How to Survive the Crisis and Prosper in the Process." "We are entering a period of deep change. The abrupt re-appearance of systemic risk in May is the wake-up call for the April fools who believed the financial crisis was over, that credit-driven prosperity would return with only more credit, that debt could be rolled forward ad infinitum." [ Read more… ]

"At the end of the day only physical gold and physical silver will be there as forms of wealth. The paper ETFS - GLD and SLV - will go the way of all paper assets. This is a warning." [ Read more… ]

Gold is set for record highs this year amid sovereign-risk fears, loose monetary policy and concerns over the outlook for the euro, speakers at a precious metals conference led by ETF Securities said Thursday. [ Read more… ]

Rand Refinery Ltd. of South Africa, the world's largest gold-smelting facility, raised production of Krugerrand coins to a 25-year high as Europe's sovereign-debt crisis boosted investor demand for bullion. [ Read more… ]

"When the proverbial fecal matter hit the fan during the week of May 3, one asset shined above all others. It was the humble yellow metal, gold, doing its part in times of panic and crisis," writes Chris Mayer on the Whiskey and Gunpowder Web site. "It held up. On May 7, gold closed above $1,200 for the first time in five months - up more than 2.5% during a week in which U.S. stocks endured a freefall. Just five days later, it hit an all-time high of $1,243.10. ... [ Read more… ]

BP's oil-gushing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will take a huge chunk out of the U.S. economy and likely will end up being paid for by American taxpayers, says Greg Hunter, a former correspondent for ABC and CNN, on his USA Watchdog Web site. [ Read more… ]

The Golden Truth blogger analyzes a stunning chart showing the federal government's surplus and deficit patterns since 1895 [ Read more… ]

China holds just 1.6 percent of its currency reserves in gold, compared to 70 percent by the U.S. and a 66 percent allocation by Germany, according to Credit Suisse. The Bank of Japan holds just 2.5 percent in bullion, notes the firm. [ Read more… ]

The U.S. Mint sold 190,000 1-ounce American Eagle gold coins in May, the largest number since January 1999 and the most in any month so far in 2010, according to a spokesman for the U.S. agency. [ Read more… ]

Gold futures in India, the largest consumer of the precious metal, advanced for a second day to a record, spurred by a weaker domestic currency and gains in global prices of bullion. [ Read more… ]

In a blog treatise full of links to mainstream news articles, Giordano Bruno of Neithercorp Press looks at "some of the latest and most disturbing moves by governments and financial institutions, as well as tell-tale signs in our own local cities, which signal that a full-spectrum collapse of world markets and possibly our own currency is not only in progress, but nearing completion." [ Read more… ]

As the stagnant European economy weighs heavily on the euro, forcing it into a downward spiral, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has unveiled a major plan for converting 45 billion of its euro reserves into dollar and gold ingots. [ Read more… ]

"When you convert savings to gold bullion in your physical possession you are taking your wealth out of the system. Wealth stored as physical gold cannot be accessed by bankers or by the evils and manipulation of the financial markets," writes the blogger GoldSubject. [ Read more… ]

"Conservatively, I think in the next few years that certainly $2,000 an ounce is very likely," Jeff Nichols of American Precious Metals Advisers says in an interview at Hard Assets Investor. [ Read more… ]

"All of a sudden it seems that the world is realizing that we do have a problem that is unmanageable and we cannot continue the way we used to live, and all of a sudden serious doubts about the validity and the soundness of our currencies have arisen," investing legend Felix Zulauf of Zulauf Asset Management tells King World News in a chilling new audio interview. [ Read more… ]

"We're on our way to Greece, in the hands of a confused and foolish government," billionaire Las Vegas kingpin Steve Wynn tells CNBC in a video interview. [ Read more… ]

"I think actually $3,000 is a conservative estimate" for gold in the next few years, Gluskin Sheff chief economist David Rosenberg tells Bloomberg News in a May 28 interview (around minute 4:31). [ Read more… ]

A chart from chief economist David Rosenberg of the Gluskin Sheff investment firm suggests that gold's bull run has a long way to go before its performance reaches a height comparable to investments in other sectors at their peaks, such as the Nasdaq, the Dow Jones industrial average, and the bond market. [ Read more… ]

"We know you've seen a number of pundits predict $2,000 gold, $3,000 gold and even perhaps a moon shot to $5,000 gold and beyond," writes the Contrary Investor. "Yet so much of what we see with these predictions is accompanied by little to no concrete numbers based rationales as to why any of these numbers might make sense or eventually become a reality. Well, guess what? We'll give you some numbers based reasons as to why all of these projections could indeed come true based on actual historical precedent grounded in the reality of the real economy itself." [ Read more… ]

"You need to own precious metals and gold stocks now," says Neil Charnock of the GoldOz Web site. [ Read more… ]

"People are wondering, 'Which currency do I hold my money in? The euro? The pound? U.S. dollars?' I hear this all the time. The safest bet is gold. It's the safest currency," CD Capital founder Carmel Daniele tells The Gold Report. [ Read more… ]

"The pull from the dollar's just been too strong for some today so they're selling into it, but that doesn't mean gold's had it. There's plenty of support for gold left out there." - An anonymous bullion trader in Sydney, Australia [ Read more… ]

"Whenever talk turns to gold being a bubble, regard the syndicate message as one of desperation," writes Jim Willie, a Ph.D. statistician and editor of the Hat Trick Letter. "The true bubble is USTreasurys, if not all government debt including UKGilts, the PIGS national debt, and much more. ... The phenomenon most striking in the last two to three years has been the transfer of wrecked assets from private banker balance sheets to the government balance sheets, now wrecked also. The tragedy is that the private banks remain deeply mired in insolvency, while the debt ratios and extreme leverage of the sovereign debt is coming to light. Thus gold has begun to be openly recognized as a legitimate safe haven in full competition with the USTreasurys and the major currencies. The rout of the Euro currency has opened the floodgate of criticism against ruinous governmental policies centered upon bailouts for banks and futile stimulus plans. Each and every grand error by policy makers is followed by bigger grander policy errors, working toward a climax. They double down like in a poker game with a losing hand, and double down repeatedly, stuck without alternatives." [ Read more… ]

During a devaluation of money, real assets such as gold rise, Castlestone Management chief executive Angus Murray told CNBC on Thursday. Gold also creates a type of insurance for investors during devaluation, he said. [ Read more… ]

The stock of money in the U.S. fell from $14.2 trillion to $13.9 trillion in the three months to April, amounting to an annual rate of contraction of 9.6 percent. [ Read more… ]

Gold is set to resume its upward trend over the next month as concerns over eurozone sovereign debt and wider instability in the financial markets spark demand for the metal as a refuge from risk, a Reuters poll found. [ Read more… ]

"The United States is the most indebted country on earth," says Michel Chossudovsky, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa in Canada, in a video on the Russia Today news channel (minute 1:14). "There's a fiscal crisis which is far more serious than that experienced in the European Union. If you look at deficits - the deficit of the United States of America - the federal government deficit is far greater than that of Greece. And yet the analysts as well as the speculators are telling us that the dollar is strong and the euro is weak. A few months ago ... the dollar was labeled as a weak currency in view of the difficulties experienced by the Obama administration. But that situation hasn't changed fundamentally. The U.S. economy is in a shambles. There's a crisis in the U.S. monetary system, and yet it's the euro that's collapsing and not the dollar. And the dollar is considered to be a refuge currency." [ Read more… ]

Gold demand, down 11 percent in the first quarter from the prior three months, will be "strong" this year on increased investment and higher jewelry usage, the World Gold Council said. [ Read more… ]

Gold and silver will rise this year because low U.S. interest rates are encouraging investors to buy metals as an inflation hedge, said Dave Rusate, GE Capital's managing director of foreign exchange and commodities. [ Read more… ]

The crash of 2008 primarily was the result of "excessive money creation in the United States after 1995 and worldwide after 2002," writes "Bear's Lair" financial columnist Martin Hutchinson. "This caused a massive asset bubble, initially in stocks and later in housing. Once the bubble had inflated a commensurate crash was inevitable." [ Read more… ]

America reached a new milestone - or perhaps nadir - as the U.S. Debt Clock revealed that the national debt has now topped $13 trillion. The debt-to-GDP ratio is at 90 percent. The tab for each taxpayer now runs at $117,985 and counting. Meanwhile, the country's unfunded liabilities - stemming from Social Security and Medicare - have hit almost $109 trillion. [ Read more… ]

The U.S. government's Aaa bond rating will come under pressure in the future unless additional measures are taken to reduce projected record budget deficits, according to Moody's Investors Service Inc. [ Read more… ]

The National Inflation Association, or NIA, says inflation is coming because "creating inflation is the only thing in the world Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke knows how to do." [ Read more… ]

How does gold at $36,000 an ounce sound? In an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe," Hinde Capital chief executive Ben Davies says his notion of $36,000 an ounce is "not as ridiculous as it might sound because if you took all the Fort Knox gold that's purported to be there and were to revalue gold at $36,000 an ounce, that would pay off all the debts in the U.S., which is probably 600 percent of GDP [gross domestic product] if you include all of the unlimited liabilities," such as Social Security, Medicare, etc. [ Read more… ]

Sales of gold coins by the U.S. Mint have risen to their highest levels since December 2008, with coin dealers reporting that business is booming thanks to demand from investors unnerved by Europe's sovereign-debt problems and a sharp decline in stock markets. [ Read more… ]

Nervous Greeks are snapping up British sovereigns at a frenzied pace amid their government's debt crisis, giving new meaning to the term "sovereign wealth," writes John Carr of The Times of London [ Read more… ]

A May video report from Sky News details how a gold mania is infecting China, the world's most populous nation with the fastest-growing economy and a growing appetite for bullion instead of precarious paper currencies. The buying is on big time at every level, from China's central bank to its increasingly affluent class of citizens. China's rush to gold bullion makes it a top consumer of gold in the world, alongside India, and gold's popularity there will only prop up prices in the future. [ Read more… ]

"According to Obama administration officials, the great American economic machine has roared back to life, stronger and more vibrant than ever before. But is that really the case? Of course not. You would have to be delusional to believe that," writes Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog. "What did happen was that all of the stimulus packages and government spending and new debt that Obama and the U.S. Congress pumped into the economy bought us a little bit of time. But they have also made our long-term economic problems far worse. The reality is that the U.S. cannot keep supporting an economy on an ocean of red ink forever. At some point the charade is going to come crashing down." [ Read more… ]

Dow Theory Letters publisher Richard Russell, who last week urged investors to exit the stock market because he sees a big crash coming, blames today's bear market on rampant money creation by central banks. That's why gold prices have hit new records. He also says smart investors are abandoning fiat currencies and putting their money into tangible assets, or "intrinsic wealth" such as art, diamonds and numismatic-grade coins [ Read more… ]

Troy Schwensen of The Global Speculator newsletter lists three core reasons for investing in the precious metals sector [ Read more… ]

"Look at the actual price of gold and it is hard to see real evidence of a bubble," writes Merryn Somerset Webb, editor of Money Week in a new article in London's Financial Times. "Gold may have hit new highs in nominal terms, but it hasn't come close to hitting its old highs in real terms. Adjust the 1980 high of $850 for US inflation and you get a price of around $2,400 - a level only the most bullish are predicting even now. ... [ Read more… ]

"When priced in gold, the US stock market has been in a severe bear market for the entire 21st century," the Business Insider notes, providing a chart to support its assertion. [ Read more… ]

The outlook for gold bullion remains bright, according to the Global Commodity Research team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. [ Read more… ]

"Here's the key point to understand about gold: it isn't a risk OR safe haven asset, because it doesn't move with or against risk appetite. Rather it rises with fear about the value of paper currency, regardless of overall risk appetite. That fear can occur in both bull and bear markets," says Cliff Wachtel, a certified public accountant and chief analyst for AVAFX, a leading online trading site. [ Read more… ]

"I recommend you protect yourself by holding real assets ... like energy, gold, and silver bullion," writes Porter Stansberry in The Daily Wealth. [ Read more… ]

Central banks added the most gold to their reserves since 1964 last year amid the longest rally in bullion prices in at least nine decades, data compiled by the World Gold Council show. [ Read more… ]

"The moon shot in gold is coming," portfolio manager Ken Gerbino says in his article "Gold and Greece: Not What You Think."
[ Read more… ]

The role of gold as a reserve asset is more important than ever, so don't expect central banks to be unloading their gold anytime soon, says Julian D.W. Phillips of The Gold Forecaster newsletter. Central banks in the past have sold their bullion in an effort to give their currencies greater credibility. That trend has reversed in the past couple of years, with central banks buying gold instead of selling. Major purchases in late 2009 by central banks in India and other nations helped propel gold prices to new records that year. [ Read more… ]

"I think that $2,000 is very, very reachable from here," geologist and S&A Resource Report editor Matt Badiali tells The Gold Report. "The financial turmoil over the past five years has been nothing compared to what we've seen in the last 12 to 18 months, but the fallout of the economic crisis is still coming. We can expect slow insidious inflation as more and more money gets printed. Every time there's a bump in the road, governments want to print more money. Investors are going to take it far more seriously now than they have in the past." [ Read more… ]

"Proving particularly troublesome for commodities are the recent worries about ETFs," says Dock Treece, a registered investment advisor with Treece Investment Advisory Corp. "In many cases, investors are beginning to study ETFs closer, and are finding that, in many cases, they did not own what they thought. In some cases, they own nothing at all - except the promise of some unknown counterparty. [