Ideas and analysis on money, markets and the world around us.
The eurozone continues to keep us in suspense in the wake of the French elections, and pending the second Greek election in as many months, the underlying financial deterioration is accelerating. Funds are being…
Read the articleLast year's disastrous collapse of MF Global has impacted financial markets around the world in many ways. Given that it was one of the largest brokers of leveraged products, it is no surprise that this area has felt…
Read the articleThere is a big shift in political sentiment among G8 leaders towards less austerity and more emphasis on economic growth, which was evident at their meeting last weekend. The triggers are the election of Francois…
Read the articleThere has been a growing shift in favour of assets relative to bank deposits. This was initially encouraged by zero interest rates, but more recently there is little doubt that Cyprus’s bail-in has accelerated the…
Read the articleThe reason we accept paper money as a store of value is habit. This habit has its origins in history, when banks took our gold as deposit and issued paper receipts for it. The gold has gone, but the paper with its…
Read the articleThe dreary picture painted by recent headlines and the tiresome repetition that gold “has entered a bear market” seems to be taking its toll on gold investors, whose confidence levels appear to be hitting bottom. As…
Read the articleIn recent weeks, while the eurozone has suffered escalating levels of systemic stress in government bond markets and its banking system, the gold price has fallen under $1,600. One would have thought that – but for the…
Read the articleIn August 2011 I wrote to the Financial Services Authority to seek confirmation that the London-based custodians of SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) and iShares Silver Trust (SLV) were being regulated as custodians, despite the…
Read the articleGold and silver continued their consolidation after the April lows, trading in narrow ranges with a firm undertone. Attention is now firmly focused on Chinese and Indian demand for gold, which between them is absorbing…
Read the article“STOCKS ROAR BACK” is this morning’s London City AM headline – reporting news that the Dow Jones “smashed through” the 15,000 mark yesterday to a record nominal high, with the FTSE 100 also marking a five-and-a-half…
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