Savings

This week we will look at a couple ratio charts that compare precious metals to real estate to get a sense of what might be the better investment going forward.

We last looked at the Gold Silver ratio in February, and I would like to revisit the monthly chart today as the pattern has continued to morph yet is still playing out largely as expected.

With the recent rise in interest rates, demand for credit is collapsing in many sectors of the economy.

A recent NBER study shows the close link between the price of gold and the level of real interest rates. This study has attracted criticism for gold, and a Bloomberg article entitled "Gold is no longer a safe haven" has caused quite a stir. In this article, we will demonstrate that the arguments...

In addition to discussing the Fed’s total failure in controlling inflation, in this article I will also stick my neck out in the climate debate before I go on to the likely disastrous effects of debts, deficits and inflation will have on investment markets.

US fiscal policy is incompatible with current monetary policy, whose primary objective is to bring down inflation. This incompatibility between fiscal and monetary policy is also the reason for gold's resilience, despite the recent explosion in interest rates and the dollar's rise against the yen.

From being a purely economic variable, inflation will also become a geopolitical issue through the Russia/NATO war, de-dollarization and an increasingly multipolar world. It's vital to be aware of this and to act globally, otherwise things are going to end very badly, especially for Europeans.

The financial system should have been allowed to collapse 15 years ago when the problem was 1/3 of today. But governments and central bankers prefer to postpone the inevitable and thus passing the batten to their successors thereby exacerbating the problem.

The global economy is currently going through a long period of transition. This situation could prove favourable for gold, but unfavourable for equities, which are also suffering from high valuations and have never been so unattractive compared to US government bonds.

Bitcoin is often presented as "digital gold", but the question immediately arises: competition or complementarity? Gold benefits from a centuries-old history and unrivalled trust, while crypto-currencies bring the innovation of blockchain, and it is here that synergies can occur.