Alasdair Macleod's Blog

Economist

Alasdair Macleod started his career as a stockbroker in 1970 on the London Stock Exchange. In those days, trainees learned everything: from making the tea, to corporate finance, to evaluating and dealing in equities and bonds. They learned rapidly through experience about things as diverse as mining shares and general economics. It was excellent training, and within nine years he had risen to become senior partner of his firm.

Subsequently, he held positions at director level in investment management, and worked as a mutual fund manager. Mr. Macleod also worked at a bank in Guernsey as an executive director.

For most of his 40 years in the finance industry, he has been de-mystifying macro-economic events for his investing clients. The accumulation of this experience has convinced him that unsound monetary policies are the most destructive weapon governments use against the common man. Accordingly, his mission is to educate and inform the public in layman’s terms what governments do with money and how to protect themselves from the consequences.

NIRP, Its Likelihood and Effect on Commodities

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In last week’s article I pointed out that negative interest rates should lead to a general shift in consumer preferences from money towards essential goods. Central bankers may wish for this outcome on a...

Greece’s Referendum

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This coming Sunday Greece will hold its referendum. The question to be asked is not, as the foreign press initially reported it, about leaving the euro. It is about accepting or rejecting the troika’s bail-out terms.

Gold, the SDR and BRICS

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Last Monday there was a meeting in Washington hosted by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) to discuss the future relationship, if any, of gold with the Special Drawing Rights (SDR).

New World Order - Is Asia’s New Bank a Threat to Western Power and the U.S. Dollar?

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China and Russia have taken the lead in establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), seen as a rival organization to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which are dominated by the United States...

Negative Bond Yields Have No Economic Justification

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Today’s obvious mispricing of sovereign bonds is a bonanza for spending politicians and allows over-leveraged banks to build up their capital. This mispricing has gone so far that negative interest rates have become...

Precious Metals: A Steady Start for 2015

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Gold and silver started the year at a muted point, with gold at $1168 and silver at $15.50, from which modest rallies have developed, with gold up 4% and silver 6%. These rises were against a background of high volatility in equity markets...

PMs Hit by Strong Dollar

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The dollar continued its upward path against the major currencies this week, and gold and silver prices suffered accordingly. The bears have maintained the upper hand, as shown in the following charts of Comex prices and Open Interest.

Strong Dollar Undermines Precious Metals

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Precious metals have had to endure a week of gathering dollar strength, which is at least partly the result of problems specific to the euro, yen and sterling. The result is gold has fallen a further $30 over the week, and silver by about $0.70c. The first chart is of gold and open interest on Comex.

Short-Sellers Driving Metal Prices

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Gold and silver had a bad week, with gold falling $25 to a low of $1262 by the Comex close yesterday, and silver by $0.50. This morning UK-time prices opened a little better on overnight physical demand, no doubt stimulated by those lower prices.

Gold and the Ghost of Bail-Ins Past

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Gold and silver had a good week after the U.S. holiday last Friday. From a low of $1312 on Tuesday, gold rose to a high point of $1345 yesterday, and silver from $20.84 to $21.60. Open interest is climbing too for both metals, as shown in the following charts.

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