John Rubino's Blog

Analyses of China’s massive appetite for gold are everywhere lately. But the following chart, which appeared today in a GoldCore market update was especially striking because it compares 2013 demand with that of 2012 – which was a big year in its own right.

If history could talk, the first thing it would say is, “Enjoy the tranquil stretches because they’re always temporary.”

One of the reasons that the developed world seems relatively stable while our debt, currency creation and unfunded liabilities go crazy is that we have a safety valve.

It’s around 10:00 on a Friday night in early 2005. I’m shooting pool in a local bar with Hunter, a math professor at the local university who had just come into a big inheritance and was tossing it around like the found money that it was.

In normal times, today’s combination of record low interest rates and massive infusions of capital into the banking system would ignite the mother of all expansions. That it hasn’t has confused the economists whose textbooks clearly state that it should.

Here’s National Numismatics’ Tom Cloud with a quick dealer-level view of gold and silver.

The Consumer Metrics Institute is generally a pretty subdued bunch, as befits their job interpreting economic statistics for money managers and other economists.

Last Friday was one of those days when so many markets move so dramatically that it’s hard to know what to focus on.

Based on both recent history and mainstream economic theory the past few years should not have been possible. When you cut interest rates to near-zero, run deficits of 10% of GDP and buy up every government bond in sight with newly created currency, you get a boom, end of story. That’s just the way capitalism works.

In this week’s Q & A, National Numismatics’ Tom Cloud updates his near-term precious metals price targets and explains why silver will rise faster than gold once the bottom is in.