A wider perspective.

Ideas and analysis on money, markets and the world around us.

Will COVID-19 lead to a gold standard?

Even before the coronavirus sprang upon an unprepared China the credit cycle was tipping the world into recession. The coronavirus makes an existing situation immeasurably worse, shutting down China and disrupting…

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Coronavirus and credit – a perfect storm

This article posits that the spread of the coronavirus coincides with the downturn in the global credit cycle, with potentially catastrophic results. At the time of writing, analysts are still trying to get to grips…

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Market Report: Coronavirus dominates news

In very quiet trade, gold and silver remained in consolidation mode this week. From last Friday’s close, by morning trade European time gold had drifted $12 lower to $1568, and silver by 25 cents to $17.78. News was…

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Independence and its consequences

Britain left the EU on the last day of January and is an independent nation once more. The new Johnson government is confident that Britain will do well outside the EU. Free trade will be embraced, and a no-deal…

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Market Report: Coronavirus – black swan?

It was another quiet week for the gold price, but silver lost out. In morning trading in Europe gold was $1579, up $7 since last Friday, while silver had lost 23 cents at $17.87. Silver’s underperformance relative to…

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Estimating the shape of the coming crisis

We don’t know what will trigger the crisis, but a likely candidate is foreign selling of US dollars combining with a collapse in the US government’s finances. Perhaps the coronavirus will turn out to be a black swan…

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Market Report: Resisting the downside

Gold and silver continued to move sideways this week in a narrow range. Monday was a public holiday in the US, which seems to have set the quiet tone. In European trade this morning, gold traded at $1561, unchanged from…

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Irrational fears of deflation

The benefits of a deflation of prices brought about by a combination of sound money and markets free from government intervention have been demonstrated to be the best economic environment, the denial of which in favour…

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Market Report: Lull between bulls and bears

Gold moved sideways this week in a tight range. The story for silver was the same, but with a little more volatility, as one would expect. By morning trading in Europe, gold had lost $7 from last Friday’s close to trade…

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