Ideas and analysis on money, markets and the world around us.
HRH Queen Elizabeth II: “I saw all the Gold bars. Regrettably, not all of them belong to us.” George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer: “Some of them were sold, but we still have got some left.” For the first time…
Read the articleWe saw a slight return of euro jitters in the second half of last week, following comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, hinting that the strengthening euro since last summer was problematic for the…
Read the articleThe purpose of keeping accurate accounts is to quantify net worth at any given point in time – as well as the change from a prior date. It goes without saying that the measure used, money, should be constant if…
Read the articleGiven the almost exclusive media emphasis on the gold price in US dollars, it’s easy to forget the sometimes-wide divergence in performance of other national currencies versus gold. The Japanese yen and British pound…
Read the articleUS M3 ended 2012 at over $15 trillion, as we have been predicting since Operation Twist was launched. The US national debt stands at over $16.5 trillion, while the gold price ended the year at $1,660 per troy ounce. The…
Read the articleA PeakProsperity.com reader recently lamented: "I have been trying to get my head around the mechanism of QE. Not being an economist or experienced investor I don't really understand a lot of the jargon. The usual…
Read the article“The only problem with heroin is that it is so moreish.” That’s one of the comments on an FT story ($) about remarks made by the outgoing chairman of Britain’s Financial Services Authority, Lord Turner, in favour of…
Read the articleEuro strength continues to astound, especially given the absolute lack of fundamental change or political will to resolve the underlying issues of insolvency, excess debt and chronic deficits in many countries within…
Read the articleThere are key aspects of economics that neo-classical monetarists do not apparently comprehend; the most important, given their job-description, being the relationship between money and prices. They are like motorists…
Read the articleFor the twelfth year in a row, the gold price in terms of US dollars rose in 2012. Gold climbed 7.0%, so an arithmetic average of its annual rate of appreciation for the last 12 years when measured in US dollars is…
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