In the article Is Gold really a good Inflation Hedge? I said, Gold is actually a "crisis hedge." But here Jeff Clark tells us how gold can also be a store of wealth and a long term inflation hedge.~Tim McMahon, editor What Do You Have in Common with King Nebuchadnezzar? By Jeff Clark, Editor, Casey’s Gold & Resource Report “There’s no reason to invest in gold,” said the finance editor of a major newspaper interviewing me. “If gold goes up because of inflation, then so does everything else, so why buy it? It’s not really a good investment.” She was serious. Yes, she is a finance writer. And yes, it’s a newspaper you’ve heard of. I was so dumbfounded that I must have sounded … [Read more...]
Is Natural Gas Cheap?
By David Galland, Casey Research At the height of its late 2005 rally, natural gas in the U.S. was selling for just over $16/MMBtu, 350% higher than today’s price of $3.56. The oil/gas ratio, now over 18, is an all-time high… suggesting that natural gas is dirt cheap. So, it’s a buy, right? In a phrase, not exactly. According to a recent report by Natural Gas Intelligence, U.S. natural gas available for production “has jumped 58% in the past four years, driven by improved drilling techniques and the discovery of huge shale fields in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, according to a report issued Thursday by the nonprofit Potential Gas Committee (PGC).” According to the … [Read more...]
What if They Stop Buying Our Debt?
By Doug Hornig, Senior Editor, Casey Research “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” said Blanche DuBois, in the final words of the play "A Streetcar Named Desire." Well, don’t we all. Many citizens probably still cling to the old saw that public debt doesn’t matter because “we owe it to ourselves.” Wrong. Debt always matters. And as for whom we owe it to, it is a lot of kind (or, at least, not yet unkind) strangers. As recently as 1970, foreign holders of U.S. debt were essentially non-existent. But their slice of our obligation pie has steadily increased, especially over the past two decades, until now foreign governments and international investors hold about 35% … [Read more...]
Healthcare Is Killing America
by Bud Conrad, Editor, The Casey Report Healthcare is the biggest segment of our economy. In the debate over who should pay for what or, increasingly, for whom, most people don't stop to understand just how large a portion of our society's money is dedicated to healthcare. For some perspective, as a share of GDP, the U.S. spends about twice that of other advanced nations. This is an important reason why the U.S. is increasingly uncompetitive in global manufacturing. It is, for instance, the most important factor (besides poor management) that General Motors and Chrysler are going bankrupt. Going forward, the situation is guaranteed to get worse. The Obama administration is committed … [Read more...]
How do Gold Stocks Perform in a Depression?
Traditional wisdom has it that Gold performs well in times of financial distress. Also Gold is considered an inflation hedge... but what if Deflation wins? In this insightful article Jeff Clark answers exactly that question. ~ Tim McMahon, editor Gold Stocks in a Depression By Jeff Clark, Editor, BIG GOLD What if deflation wins? While we think the odds are strongly stacked against it, particularly given the government’s furious pace of money printing, the prudent investor understands – and respects – the time-tested adage, “Nothing is guaranteed.” So while our chips sit squarely on the spot marked “inflation,” what will happen to gold stocks if we’re wrong? … [Read more...]
Tax Revenues Tanking
By David Galland, Managing Editor, The Casey Report While everyone else has been focused on the banks’ stress tests and how much government is spending to bail out troubled “too big to fails,” a disturbing trend on the other side of the equation is now emerging: how much (or rather, how little) the U.S. government is receiving in tax revenues. After combing through the past 25 editions of the “Monthly Treasury Statement of Receipts and Outlays of the United States Government,” which is compiled and published by the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service, we created the following chart. … [Read more...]
Building a Gold Portfolio with Gold Stocks
Editor's Note--In the article Is Gold really a good Inflation Hedge? I said, Gold is actually a "crisis hedge." So it should be performing extremely well with all the uncertainty in the markets right now. Well the Crisis is far from over and Gold is still a prudent investment. -- Tim McMahon, editor Gold Stocks – the Best Strategy for Portfolio Building by Jeff Clark, Editor of BIG GOLD October 27, 2008 was the gold mining sector’s Black Monday, the day nearly every stock hit rock bottom. Hindsight makes it plain they got caught in the violent deleveraging that sucked down every equities market in the world. The broader markets were of course making year-to-date lows at the … [Read more...]
How High will Gold Get?
By Jeff Clark, Editor, BIG GOLD Gold isn’t going to $2,000 an ounce. Before you gag on your coffee or suffer chest pains, allow me to explain. We’re about eight years into the bull market, and gold has breached the $1,000 level twice and has spent weeks trading above the old high of $850. Some observers are now saying that gold’s pretty much had its day and that once the recession is over, it will retreat for good. However, the four-digit gold price we’ve seen so far is with no price inflation to speak of, no effects of the atrocious increase in the money supply, and despite a rising dollar. What happens to gold when each of those pictures gets turned upside down – high … [Read more...]
Why the Bailout Will Result in Hyperinflation
Editor's Note- In this article Olivier Garret, CEO of The Casey Report shows us the massive extent of the bailout compared to every major Government expenditure from the Revolutionary War and the Louisiana Purchase to the Iraq War in inflation adjusted terms and the results are pretty scary. Based on the magnitude of the bailout expenditures it appears Hyperinflation is already baked into the cake. You thought WWII and Iraq were expensive? You "ain't seen nothin' yet. The current bailout is larger than all the major government expenditures since the revolutionary war combined. And lest you think that is because the bailout is comparing inflated dollars against more valuable (and … [Read more...]
Bailout Equals HyperInflation?
Editor's Note- In this article Olivier Garret, CEO of The Casey Report shows us the massive extent of the bailout compared to every major Government expenditure from the Revolutionary War and the Louisiana Purchase to the Iraq War in inflation adjusted terms and the results are pretty scary. Based on the magnitude of the bailout expenditures it appears Hyperinflation is already baked into the cake. You thought WWII and Iraq were expensive? You "ain't seen nothin' yet. The current bailout is larger than all the major government expenditures since the revolutionary war combined.And lest you think that is because the bailout is comparing inflated dollars against more valuable (and thus smaller … [Read more...]
