Ideas and analysis on money, markets and the world around us.
Doubtless, that is what this year-end rally would be called in Trumpian lingo, and the “bigliest” of squeezes is in silver, where shorts have been closing more rapidly than longs being opened, leading to a fall of…
Read the articlePredicting the future is a mug’s game, and in financial markets we simply cannot know tomorrow’s prices. All we can do is make assessments of the factors that can be expected to influence them. Economists’ forecasts…
Read the articleAt least, that’s how the bullion bank traders must be thinking. Ahead of the Fed’s quarter-point rise in the Fed funds rate, they spooked the longs out of their positions to close their shorts, profitably. Nice bonuses…
Read the articleWe approach 2018 having seen the seeds planted in recent years for a monetary revolution. They include the massive world-wide expansion of credit and debt since the last credit crisis, and the advent of potentially…
Read the articleDespite the appetite for investment gold in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, western gold jewelry demand remains in a multi-decade decline. This is mostly the result of an industry that has tended towards…
Read the articleRegular readers of these market reports will have not been surprised by the sell-off this week ahead of the FOMC’s quarter point rate increase. It took silver into a loss on the year so far in dollars, as our headline…
Read the articleEurope’s financial and systemic troubles have retreated from the headlines. This is partly due to the financial media’s attention switching to President Trump and the US budget negotiations, partly due to Brexit and the…
Read the articleConclusion: Another week of counter-seasonal draws. The draws continue to be concentrated in Crude. Cushing, the point of delivery for WTI contracts, continues to draw very fast as the arb to the USGC remained open for…
Read the articleGold and silver had a torrid week, with gold falling $31 from last Friday’s close to $1249 in early European trade this morning. Silver was worse, down 66 cents to $15.78 over the same time scale. For weeks I have been…
Read the articleThere is a general belief, and that is all it is, that state finances fare better in an inflationary environment than a deflationary one. This perception arises from the transfer of wealth from lenders to the state…
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