Financial Sense Blog

Current Federal Reserve System chairman Ben Bernanke believes a simple recession was turned into the Great Depression by the Federal Reserve of the day not doing enough while the money supply contracted 31 percent between 1929 and 1933.

Fed Chairman Bernanke is now about the only global central banker who does not acknowledge that inflation that began a year ago in China is relentlessly circling the globe, with the pressure pushing it from China increasing, not subsiding. That complacency is not likely to last much longer - or it will be too late. Meanwhile, another reminder: Gold is the historical hedge against inflation.

This morning’s data on payrolls and unemployment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was a strong report. The question is whether it is sustainable.

Last Monday the Washington Times offered us the following headline: “Financial terrorism suspected in 2008 economic crash.” The story refers to a Pentagon contractor's report, titled “Economic Warfare: Risks and Responses."

As we prepare for Friday’s employment report, it is a good time to review both the market’s outlook for the next few months and our possible investment approach.

I don't think so, Scooter. In a recent discussion I mentioned the fact that former Fed member Larry Lindsey has been talking up the idea of a potential fiscal trap for the US. To be honest, this idea has already played itself out in Japan and day by day is coming to a Euro theater near you in terms of individual country experience.

The Table below shows the figures that the WGC commissioned from GFMS, which confirms last year’s gold market activities in gold.

So today, two bits of news came out: Unemployment declined to 8.9% last February, as the U.S. economy added 192,000 jobs; and the Federal Reserve signaled that it is definitely-definitely-definitely ending Quantitative Easing 2 (QE-2) in June, as originally scheduled, on the assumption that the economy is improving, and therefore no further extension of QE-2 will be necessary.

The auto industry financing has been getting into some truly dicey lending standards of late. According to CNW Marketing Research, new cars sold to consumers with a subprime credit rating increased about 60% in 2010 from the prior year

The effect of geopolitical events on oil prices has lessened since the 1970s.