Financial Sense Blog

Our past Presidents often expressed wisdom beyond their times In a rare opportunity, I was able to interview some past Presidents about things going on today that were concerns in their day as well. The interviews include George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy. What an interesting group of leaders for me to have the privilege of interviewing.

Looking back at one of my observations about the primary trend, I wanted to update one of the indicators I’ve been watching, namely volume. The basic idea is that volume expands in the direction of the main trend and contracts in the counter trend. Up until June 8th, volume had been expanding while the market climbed higher and contracted when the market fell. At this point, I see that trend has reversed.

When gold is written about as money, it means different things to different people. Money is, after all, what most people see as a means of exchange; you use money to pay for goods and services, simply that.

A New York Times columnist is calling for another depression, volume is rising on the “double-dip” recession debate, and a well-known technical analyst is predicting that a 90 percent plunge is coming for the Dow Jones average.

You are never alone with a schizophrenic. The equity markets are trying to make friends of both the bullish and bearish camps, after falling for seven straight sessions, put on a holiday shortened rally week that put the averages right back where they started two weeks ago. The economic backdrop has changed little over the past few weeks – many would argue that it looks weary, but the anticipation is building for a fabulous earnings season that gets started after the close on Monday.

You see we are all the victims of “the sizzle instead of the steak” which characterizes the bait and switch being foisted upon US/ us. The last time Uncle $ugar actually ran a true fiscal year surplus was when Nixon was President in the early 1970‘s, and that was some forty years ago.

Despite fears of a coming inflation, the evidence overwhelmingly supports the establishment of a deflationary economic trend. Recent government inaction threatens to accelerate this deflation.

With all that’s going on in the world these days, ranging from the continued politicization of the oil spill (catastrophe) in the Gulf of Mexico to the possibility of war in the Persian Gulf, it should be no wonder gold is rising and hitting new highs. And that’s exactly what gold was doing up until yesterday, hitting new highs, and is set to continue in this regard moving forward after a correction. The big question is just how significant is this correction to be the first wave of what is likely Primary Degree Wave C (minimally) needing to be corrected at some point.

The principal contention of this article is that most investors who think they "own" gold or silver bullion really don't! Most precious metals investments - including many touted as "physical" are actually nothing more than paper promises. This article delves into the details of counterparty risk in precious metals investing, and evaluates "paper" vs. "physical" bullion investments, as well as allocated vs. unallocated bullion accounts.

While many people spend time yearning for the financial markets to turn back up, a rare few have looked back in time to compare historical markets with the current situation -- and then delivered a clear-eyed view of the future informed by knowledge of the past. One who has is Robert Prechter.