February 1, 2012 - Following the announcement by the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Markets Committee last week, there was a 4.3 percent gain in the gold market, making it the best week for gold in the past three months. It has already been a good year for gold in 2012 with the US Mint breaking records for precious metals sales and the gold price rebounding to over $1,600 after a correction in December brought the price to the $1,500 range. The strength of the gold market showed itself strongly with a New Year’s rally that consolidated into a bona fide return to a primary bull market after the price of gold broke through the 200 day moving average in the second week of the month and kept going.

Then, last week, the Federal Open Markets Committee publicly announced that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates low through the end of 2014, furthering its previous projections of low interest rates through mid-2013. A low interest rate policy has traditionally been very good for gold and for the gold price as it prohibits strength in fiat currencies and encourages investors to move to tangible commodities. There is little to no incentive in keeping your assets stored in dollars that are continually losing value and which earn the lowest possible interest rates. This is the current situation facing the holders of dollars in the world and the situation facing Americans who will literally watch their savings further evaporate in terms of real value.

Due to the continuation of this policy by the Federal Reserve, it is guaranteed that at least through 2014 we will see an inflationary climate in which the value of the US Dollar will, unfortunately, decline. At the same time, however, the valuation of real things, or tangible commodities in market-speak, will rise concurrently. The most popular, famous, and historical of all tangible commodities is gold, and, as the gold market is proving now, it will make the biggest and best gains during this time period.

The price of gold ended last week very comfortably in the upper $1,700 range and began the week with apparent support at that level, though some support was lost in overseas trading. The initial reaction of gold to the announcement by the Federal Open Markets Committee should be a very strong indication to any who own gold or are looking to buy gold now that the policy of the central bank in the United States will ensure gains in the gold market through 2014.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 31, 2012 - The decision by the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low has bolstered the fundamentals of the gold market, pushed the price into overdrive, and put out a huge buy gold signal to prudent and knowledgeable investors. Gold has gained 9.4 percent year to date, picking up 4.4 percent last Wednesday. The Federal Open Markets Committee released a statement Wednesday indicating that it will keep interest rates at what it terms “exceptionally low levels” until late 2014. Previously, the benchmark for persistent low interest rates had been set at mid-2013.

The immediate effect in the gold market was the skyrocketing of the price of gold above $1,700 an ounce. The $1,700 an ounce level has not been seen in the gold market since December before the start of the correction. Many analysts, during the strongest parts of the correction, wondered whether gold had actually entered a bear market. One analyst publicly sold his gold and has since very publicly admitted his error.

The fundamentals told a different story, indicating the gold market was simply in a correctional phase and would again resume its upward climb. Ironically, those fundamentals, specifically the low interest rates, are the same that were reinforced by the Federal Open Markets Committee’s statement on Wednesday. Persistently low interest rates mean gains in the inherent value of tangible commodities over time. The Federal Reserve’s policy of low interest rates has not changed since the start of the War on Terror, essentially, and the thrust of the policy has accelerated during the ensuing economic crisis. The price of gold in the same time has been a long upward curve, bringing us all time highs and ten-year bull market.

Last wednesday’s pronouncement means the bull market in gold will continue well into 2014. The Fed, by some analyses, cannot raise interest rates in their current position with seriously risking the possibility of recovery. Unfortunately for them, that puts them between a rock and hard place, as they can only keep rates low and hope the economic situation improves over the coming two years. In the meantime, however, chronically low interest rates can only benefit the price of gold and continue the gold market trends that have been guiding the market for a decade.

Just as persistently low interest rates have benefitted the price of gold since the Fed adopted the policy post-9/11, the announcement of low interest rates into 2014 signals an opportunity to buy gold now and benefit from the monetary policy the Fed will be pursuing through 2014.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 25, 2012 - Again, in a stunning example of a hedge fund manager saying one thing while doing the exact opposite, it is now emerging that the legendary financier George Soros went on a gold investing spree in late 2011. Soros, who started the Quantum Fund with Jim Rogers and made the fabled trade that broke the Bank of England in 1992, is one of the most well-known investors living in the world today. Reports are emerging that contradict what Soros has said about the way he is handling his money in his monolithic hedge fund.

In the world of gold and silver investing, Soros made headlines in January of 2010 when he declared on primetime that gold was “the ultimate bubble.” Mr. Soros said this at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, of all places. Meanwhile, his fund was buying gold, proving that Soros either did not believe what he was saying or did not know what his hedge fund was doing. A guy like George Soros keeps pretty good track of his money, so we can effectively rule one of the two out.

Of course, gold was trading at $1,225 an ounce when Mr. Soros made his prediction and had risen 40 percent in the previous year. Gold also rose over 25 percent for the remainder of 2010 and even with an end of the year correction finished out 2011 with an 11.6 percent gain. That’s a pretty good track record and it was jarring for more than a few analysts to see the man who broke the Bank of England “miss the curve,” so to speak.

It came as no surprise then to discover that Soros’ hedge fund was purchasing gold in quantity even as he was saying it was the ultimate bubble. His actions prove a little more reliable than his words. Further, the billionaire began making more headlines in the gold market, after understandably remaining quiet for a year or so, in May of 2011 when he again bashed gold and reportedly sold his positions. Gold then reached an all-time nominal high of $1,923 an ounce in August and September, proving uncooperative with Soros’ forecasts.

At the very end of 2011, it emerged that Soros cut 99 percent of his holdings in the first quarter of that year. Though there were published reports in May, it was only quantified by Securities and Exchange Commission data that came out at the end of the year. Soros Fund Management selling almost all of its share in the SPDR Gold Trust made waves throughout the market, with some taking it as an omen in itself simply because of George Soros’ reputation.

Now, it is being reported that Soros Fund Management bought gold again at the very end of 2011, during the December correction. According to reports, Soros is doing it again, now. While some analysts were wondering whether gold had entered a bear market, Soros was buying it up, proving again that the long-term fundamentals of the market, along with inflationary governmental policy, will make gold investing the best investing of the coming months.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 23, 2012 - This past week the spot price popped another $20 as more investors sought the relief of buying gold as the European problem intensifies and shows signs of maturing in the near future. The head of sovereign ratings at S&P stated he believes Greece will default shortly and the European Central Bank is preparing for a massive trillion Euro quantitative easing program to begin next month. Even the rumor of further disruption and the announcement of fiscal stimulus in Europe are propelling the price of gold even higher, so as these events in Europe actually occur the price of gold will skyrocket.

The possibility of a further bailout from another European nation to bolster Greece’s economy is fairly extinguished. A very unpopular bailout package funded by Germany, the most financially sound of the European Union countries, failed to balance the budget in Greece. China and Brazil, when European leaders came knocking with their hats in hand, both told Europe to take care of its own problems, refusing any monetary stimulus.

For a long time, analysts and economists have been predicting a quantitative easing or inflationary program in Europe, but this has been universally denied and repudiated by European leaders. It now looks to be on the schedule for next month and to entail the injection of a trillion Euros into the ailing banking system. This mirrors many of the measures taken in the American financial system as quantitative easing followed major bailout projects that essentially failed.

Despite this planned intervention in Europe, the World Bank has cut its economic outlook by the most in three years and has said Europe entered a recession in the fourth quarter of last year. Further, the World Bank urged developing economies to “prepare for the worst” as it sees the possibility of the European problem enveloping the globe in a financial crisis on the order of 2008.

Buying gold is the only bright spot in the doom and gloom. It is not particularly fun reporting on the dire news coming out of Europe, but it is important to understand the gravity of events as they happen. We all would have liked to have been more prepared for the crisis of 2008 and hopefully we learned a few lessons from it. A quantitative easing program in Europe could artificially suppress the price of gold in nominal amounts temporarily as the Euro gains and brings the dollar with it, but it would be very short- lived. The price of gold would rise following any quantitative easing in Europe.

The kind of market that is being described is one in which you want to own gold at any dollar price you can get it. With each successive round of disruption coming out of Europe, the price of gold will rise and its true value on the market will become more clear. If the market rebounds, commodities will rise, gold leading the pack. If the economy suffers, gold will rise as a real currency and safe haven asset. Being ahead of the curve and buying gold now is the best strategy for hedging this market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 17, 2012 - Gold drifted 1.6 percent lower in trading on Friday, but ended the week up 1.3 percent, highlighting the popularity of buying gold in the New Year. Gold has risen 5% so far in 2012 and is on course to rise much higher still. Many of the losses that were experienced in the December correction have already been regained and confidence in the gold market has already been satisfactorily restored, particularly last week when gold breached the 200 day moving average to settle high in the $1,640 range.

Today, as expected, news has begun to seep out of Europe once again concerning the sovereign debt crisis. We are looking at a situation that will definitely impact the gold market, though it is a question as to when this action will happen. The head of sovereign ratings at S&P said he believes Greece will default in short amount of time. There are several important deadlines in the next two to three months that indicate a window in which problems in Greece are more likely to reach a point of maturation.

Most investors have already seen the safe haven power of gold in the New Year, though it is a difficult statistic to quantify. The global geopolitical situation has been precarious at best, if not comparable to tip-toeing through a minefield. The European problem, its effect on banking institutions in America, and the continued and intensified shouting match between Iran, its allies, and the Western powers have all contributed to a particularly loaded global stage. In response, investor sentiment has been murky in most markets, with gold alone shining above the rest.

And buying gold makes sense in such an environment. Little can be counted on in the coming months and investors are all too aware of it. Putting your money in any market is a questionable act right now. Jamie Dimon himself has said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Milan Finanza that as the CEO of JP Morgan his company could lose up to $5 billion from the bank’s exposure to the PIIGS countries. This is significant as American markets are still reeling from the collapse of MF Global, which was instigated by a bad bet on European debt that was made with, of all things, customer money.

For the next weeks and months, all eyes will be on Europe and any potentiality of Greek defaulting. The shock of a default to the Euro, the shock of Germany or other Northern European countries pulling out of the Euro, and the shock of a coercive restructuring of the European banks will all weaken fiat currencies against the price of gold, creating a surge unlike anything we’ve yet seen. It will also spur the biggest rush of safe-haven gold buying in modern history.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 14, 2012 - The gold market has demonstrated its robust strength and commitment to a long-term bull market in the past two weeks as it popped with a New Year’s rally, ended the December correction, and broke through the 200 day moving average to settle in the $1,640 per ounce range. All in all, it has been a remarkable year for gold already. The news on the wire indicates that banks, including some very major banks, are anticipating a strong year for gold.

A CNBC report this week cited gold as investors’ favorite asset for 2012, which makes perfect sense as it was the best performing asset of 2011 and gained 24 percent in 2010. 164 investors took part in a poll by the Japanese investment bank Nomura and 19.5 percent said they would choose to buy gold and hold it until the end of the year.

For investors, one of the major reasons for the proclivity towards the gold market is the uncertainty of the European problem. 60 percent of the respondents to the poll said one or more countries will leave the Euro currency in 2012. There is heavy concern about the month of March, cited in the poll with about 20 percent, because the yield spreads for bonds of periphery Euro zone countries reach their peak at that time.

The gold market, however, is a win-win option. If the economies of the world turn a corner and begin to get better, commodity prices will rise and the price of gold will benefit handsomely. If the economies of the world continue at a sluggish pace or there is further significant disruption to the financial system out of the European Union, we will see a hell of a bull run to precious metals, tangibles, and safe haven assets. Gold is the epitome of all three.

While there is a possibility in the meantime of a correction in the price of gold, the long- term bull market is very much intact and big banks are calling the gold market positive territory for 2012. Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Societe General, and JP Morgan have all released reports highlighting gold as the place to be in 2012. In terms of fundamentals, the gold market has all the markers of a market ready to perform and perform well.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 12, 2012 - Investors are extending the New Year’s rally in the gold market by buying gold in such quantity as to breach the crucial 200 day moving average, a barrier that has been holding back the technical analysts from calling an end to the correction and calling much higher prices for gold in the imminent future. After yesterday’s trading, that’s all changed, and the news will be singing about gold for the rest of the week. It is a wonder what the naysayers who predicted that gold had entered a bear market in December of 2011 are saying now, including those who were foolish enough to sell their positions.

After trading commenced on Tuesday of last week, the gold market experienced significant pops in intraday trading, rising $40 an ounce in twenty minutes. Significant gains of 2 percent and over were realized on more than one day and gold ended the week in extremely positive territory. A lower threshold of $1,550 an ounce had clearly been established and it had become apparent that gold will stay above the psychologically important $1,600 an ounce level. However, the 200 day moving average was still taunting the price of gold as the next target to take out in its rise higher.

Yesterday, gold rose above the 200 day moving average at $1,639.40 an ounce in intraday trading. Though gold closed the day a little lower, about $1,630 an ounce, the necessary price level has been breached the road is clear for gold to continue its upward climb in a precious metals bull market. Today, gold is floating comfortably above the $1,640 an ounce level, far above the average.

Nouriel Roubini, who famously tweeted “Where’s the $2,000 gold?” in December may get his answer soon. Of course, he would probably have some explaining to do as well, such as how he can be so highly educated yet incorrect. Keeping in mind Roubini also bought a $5.5 million Manhattan penthouse a year ago with a $2.99 million thirty year mortgage. This, as he said forebodingly of the housing market, “Forget about subprime, look at prime.”

Dennis Gartman, on the other hand, very famously sold his gold in December, which serves him right. A month and a $100 gain in gold later, Gartman has officially reversed his position, saying he “got unlucky in not turning bullish properly. It’s still a long-term bull market.”

It always was a long-term bull market in gold. And now that the correction is over and gold is breaching all the proper levels to reestablish its rise, we are looking at good gains in the coming weeks. Buying gold is either an easy decision or an easier decision, but always in this market it is a good decision. Right now, buying gold is an easy, good decision.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 10, 2012 - The New Year thus far has proven to be the opportunity many investors have been waiting for to buy gold. The December correction brought the spot price of gold to the mid $1,500 an ounce range, a far cry from the all time high in late August and September of $1,923 an ounce. The correction had extended long enough and far enough that some analysts questioned the validity of the gold bull market. After gold popped in last week’s trading, everyone quickly realized the dip in gold was just what the wake up call for anyone worried about the stability of the paper debt markets to get into gold.

The same type of action occurred after the September correction when central banks swooped in and began buying gold at rates not seen since the end of Bretton Woods in 1971. In other words, banks chose to buy gold at forty-year highs in September following the price dip. The current action in the markets, which is expected to extend this week, is a similar dynamic.

The New Year’s rally, which pretty much sputtered to a cold stall in the Dow and other stock exchanges, may be partially the dynamic at work here. In that case, look for gains to extend through the end of this week and into next to establish a bona fide bull bounce. Because banker’s got their bonuses and, as they do, put it immediately into gold upon the first trading session, it’s possible the pop in prices can partially be accounted for by that particular set of buying until time establishes the larger dynamic.

It would not be surprising to see a slight cooling in the price of gold as the New Year’s rally, if indeed there is one, begins to even itself out. As an investor, keep calm when seeing this and remember it is in line with a long-term healthy bull market that will show gains this year. Gold was the best performing asset, bar none, of last year. It will perform well this year.

The trick now is to get into gold while the price is still on the dip. Last week’s trading is already making a lot of news and pending events coming out of Europe and other financial markets are set to affect the gold market in their own way in coming weeks. Now is an opportune time if there ever was one to buy gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 9, 2012 - After a correction in December brought the price of gold down 20 percent, the first week of trading in the New Year firmly established a floor above $1,600 as gold investing literally popped. Intraday trading sessions saw rises of $40 in twenty minutes as investors sought to take advantage of the low price of gold. Remember that after the correction in September, central banks swooped in and bought gold at highs not seen since the end of Bretton Woods in 1971.

For all intents and purposes, we can declare the correction over, though final confirmation won’t come until next week or the gold price closes for the week above the resistance in the 200 day moving average at $1,627 an ounce. If gold closes above that crucially cited level of resistance for the week, it will be set for full on bull market and much higher prices in the weeks to come.

The support under the current spot price, however, appears to be solid at this point. $1,600 is not necessarily vital technically and is partially a psychologically important support level. Market fundamentals have always dictated we are in a long-term bull market, but the signs emerging now that we have come through the correction are very encouraging for investing in gold in the New Year. Concerns of further moves downward or possible corrections to levels as low as $1,200 now appear unlikely and improbable at best. This is a good sign for those who have been waiting for the right moment to buy.

In hindsight, the technical reasons for the correction make perfect sense and should restore confidence in anyone who had heard from the erroneous analysts that gold had entered a bear market. The bankruptcy of MF Global immediately forced the liquidation of commodities futures contracts. The timing is right for those contracts to be expiring right around when the correction began. We saw similar action in 2008 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers when gold actually dropped to $681 an ounce in the month following the giant’s collapse.

Clearly, gold has been worth a lot more than $681 an ounce in the months and years following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. And those investors who took advantage of the forced liquidation to pick up as much gold as possible have realized a gain of 138 percent today. The climate for investing in gold is the same now and we will see similar gains in the future for gold bought now.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 4, 2012 - The New Year is already showing a very promising gold market as prices popped in trading this week. The price of gold was up $40 an ounce on Tuesday and $20 in intraday trading on Wednesday, placing the spot comfortably over $1,600 an ounce. This 2.5 percent increase is a very significant shift in daily trading and the price will most likely begin to level. Here is the proof in the pudding that all the doomsayers who dared speak against the gold market, or sell their positions, were wrong. Gold is still in a long-term bull market and is now showing it.

The fundamentals of the gold market never changed—gold was up 10.19 percent on the year before yesterday’s surge in the markets and gold is the best performing asset of 2011. However, following the correction of December, several pundits, economists, and analysts went out on TV or tweeted that the price of gold had finally reached its peak. We have our favorites among the pack and it would be nice to hear their thoughts now, but the good news is that the fundamental stability of the gold market is still very much intact. Following yesterday’s market action investors around will undoubtedly recognize that and we can get on with the bull market.

While a further correction to the downside in gold is always possible and prudence requires I say so, the gains that could have been made on the advice to buy thus far would make nearly any investment worthwhile. Gold is poised to be the investment of 2012, as it was the best performing investment of 2011, and this gold market may best be handled by jumping on board now.

Note that the European problem continues to worsen in the wings as we are learning through main stream media that there is in actuality a great deal more debt than previously thought and American institutions, such as the failed bank MF Global, are exposed to that debt in a direct and dangerous manner. A Princeton University economist, Hyun Song Shin, has warned that, “European banks have played a much bigger role in the U.S. economy than has been generally thought—and could a lot more damage than expected as they pull back.”

In addition to the gains that will be made, the promise of a safe haven will be bringing more and more investors to gold in the coming year. If any further crisis should befall Europe, such as the failure of a major European institution, it would directly influence the gold market as panic buying forced the price of gold up even more than yesterday’s gain of $40 an ounce. The gold market goes up, either way.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 3, 2012 - In the words of Goldman Sachs, “Few people will lament the passing of 2011,” but those of us who have been and will be buying gold are looking forward to the New Year. Even considering the multiple shocks sustained by the markets in 2011, the nearly unending parade of political crises we have witnessed, and the precious metal corrections of September and December, Gold is still the best performing asset of the year. While Bank of America stock languishes around $5 a share, down from $40 a share, gold is up 10.19 percent on the year.

The December correction, which has currently placed gold at the most affordable price we’ve seen in months, skews the data a bit. Gold gained 29.62 percent in 2010 and the gain in 2011 would be closer to that number. However, the year happens to end following the correction in December, which began on the heels of the European deal, which allowed banks to swap dollars at artificially low rates, pumping massive amounts of liquidity into the system.

This, of course, after 2011 saw the spot price of gold reach an all-time nominal high in the month of August. At $1,923 an ounce, gold had gained over 600 percent for the decade and began a cooling phase in which the price corrected over 20 percent. Some analysts were calling an end to the gold bull market then, as some have been in recent weeks. But in December it was released that during the third quarter of 2011, after the correction began, central banks around the world bought gold at record highs not seen since the end of Bretton Woods in 1971.

Clearly, the central banks of the world have a firm disbelief that the bull market in gold has ended. As the current correction shows signs of stabilization and even reversal, it will become apparent to all investors in the next few days that the gold bull market is here and here to stay for quite a while.

As the New Year in gold begins, the question you need to ask yourself is how much do you want to buy at what price? The investment will pay, just as gold has generated a 600 percent return in the decade, but you must decide to begin. Once you’ve bought gold, it’s merely a matter of allowing the investment to mature, i.e., you can relax. Buying gold is the investment of the future and the sooner you make that investment, especially at recent prices, the sooner you can get in on the investment of the year.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 30, 2011 - There are many questions right now about how the gold market will perform in 2012. As 2011 moves behind us, even Goldman Sachs is circulating a note saying, “Not many market participants will lament the passing of 2011.” This is a general truism for almost every investor. Gold, though it has taken its hits, is still the best performing asset of the entire year.

Right now, as the currency troubles in the Euro are depressing the gold price and effectively the gold market, analysts can easily lose sight of the fact that gold has had a stellar year. In comparison, Bank of America stock, at $5 a share, shows how good gold can get.

Technically, it takes a 20 percent move lower to constitute a correction. Since the beginning of the gold Bull Run in 2000-2001, we have witnessed three full corrections, one of which was a 35 percent move downward. Gold, even during the current correction, is still up 9.9 percent on the year, making it a winning investment even in the current climate. The European sovereign debt crisis will eventually even out and gold will continue its upward rise.

The current trend line began with the central bank decision to swap dollars at artificially low rates. This was announced the same day that Forbes reported a major European bank might have almost failed the night before. A liquidity crisis was averted, but now we’re beginning to see some of the costs we will be paying.

The current downward drift in gold was not immediately foreseen as the central banks’ fiscal policy is highly abstract and drawing a distinguishable effect on the market is difficult. Now, however, we’re beginning to see that it has functioned like a steroid, artificially bolstering the system. When the effects of the drug wear off, you had better already own some gold.

The effect on the gold market will eventually be a return to safe haven status as investors flee the growing European problem, political rifts in the European Union, and the instability of the Euro itself for the safety and time-honored stability of gold. This is already happening to some degree, however, a flash point crisis that will begin a new gold rush is entirely possible, though unpredictable.

It is worth keeping in mind, as we begin this new year, that three of the biggest banks in the world, three of the banks with the most notorious names, have all issued reports screaming about the importance and the strength of gold. The permanent low interest rates in the United States are a quantifiable indicator that gold is going to glow. The negative real interest rates hint that gold has a long way to go skyward. These reasons, cited by the reports, are very good technical indicators that gold will be, as they say, a major player in 2012.

Credit Suisse, Societe Generale, and Goldman Sachs have all put out the word on the gold market and political instability elsewhere in the world suggests growth in gold beyond their projections.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 28, 2011 - As 2011 winds to a close, the importance of investing in gold has never been more clear and more urgent. This year we have seen the continuation of the slow-motion crisis that has literally changed the way we live our lives. From revolutions in Northern Africa to riots in Athens to Occupy Wall Street, 2011 will go down in history as the year of the protester, as Time Magazine so aptly displayed. The primary reason for this mass discontent is economic. In Tunisia, it was a street vendor who began the revolution by lighting himself on fire. In Athens, jobless youth stood against tear gas and riot police. In America, protesters occupied Wall Street first.

While one may agree or disagree with the politics of the protesters, their general qualm with the way things are is pretty pervasive in markets, as well. The fiscal policy that we have been living under is extraordinarily dangerous and investors know it. They continue to make money, so they don’t protest, but they aren’t exactly serene.

Nor should they be considering the many problems confronting the world. Europe is still in the middle of a crisis that threatens to expand the rift between Northern Europe and Southern Europe and could possibly undermine the validity of the Euro. American banks exposed to European sovereign debt are collapsing as their investments flop. American bank depositors are losing their money as banks are legally allowed to gamble with client accounts. Central banks continue coordinated efforts to maintain a precariously balancing system with extremely low interest and nowhere to go should a major concern arise.

This all sounds like doomsday hyperbole, but in fact it is quantifiably true. Greece doesn’t have enough money to cover its debts. Britain has a debt to GDP ratio surpassing 900%. MF Global collapsed on Halloween after a $6.3 billion bet on European sovereign debt that failed. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission issued ruling 1.2.5 that allowed MF Global to use client funds in the losing bet and bank customers are currently “missing” $1.5 billion of the money they deposited in the bank.

All signs say invest in gold. And right now prices are very good for buying. We invest in gold for the present and for the future. The recent price dip in gold has made the current a particularly good time to take advantage and increase your position in precious metals. As we go forward, gold will be more valuable as both an investment and a return to safe haven assets. If, and we can hope, the global situation improves, shortages in precious metals ensure the price of gold will remain competitive. But if any of the concerns facing the world metastasize, you will be very glad that you made the choice of investing in gold when you had the chance.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 27, 2011 - Following the relative quiet of the season’s holiday, a word of warning and an urge to start buying gold is very prescient. Traders and investors are already familiar with the newest financial buzzword, rehypothecation. But you may, as yet, be unaware of its meaning and what the activity means to the greater markets and to gold holders.

It emerged after the collapse of MF Global. Depositors got phone calls one Monday morning from an unknown representative who simply said the bank had gone bankrupt and their money was with a “trustee.” We’re not talking about chump change here, either. It was first reported in the main stream media that $600 million worth of customer funds had been used to finance the $6.3 billion bad bet on European debt that brought the bank down. Later, Forbes reported the number is actually over a billion dollars, $1.5 billion, to be precise. That’s a lot of customer money.

While I’m sure Jon Corzine’s testimony before Congress and printed statements that customers “may” see their money is very comforting to those loyal depositors who gave the bank their money, it is rather disturbing to learn that the commingling of accounts undertaken by MF Global is completely legal per the CFTC rules and a lawsuit currently pending in the southern district of New York reveals that the same activity is being perpetrated with gold and silver accounts.

Rehypothecation means, as the lawsuit between MF Global and JP Morgan reveals, that banks are effectively using clandestine gold and silver accounts, owned by depositors, as collateral on increasingly risky investment bets. As in, different banks are using the same accounts on separate bets. The lawsuit is over who actually owns about 800,000 contracts, which is relatively small, but separate banks using the same accounts, belonging to customers, in order to make bets is a sign that the paper gold and silver market is now hazardous to physical markets.

The only answer in this market is buying physical gold and silver. Just as the $707 trillion dollars worth of derivatives in existence brought the financial to a precipice in 2008 and effectively decoupled markets from reality, the rehypothecation scheme will produce a schism of the same order in the gold and silver markets, given time. It is your duty to yourself and your family to remove your fiat money from the paper people by buying gold and silver; but you must now also take some form of delivery when you buy gold and silver to stop rehypothecation and its coming disastrous consequences.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 23, 2011 - There are a couple investors, analysts, and trading legends that really have an insight into the gold market and are truly worth consideration when they give an interview. One of those is Marc Faber, PhD in economics of the Austrian school. Recently, he blasted Keynesian ideology, which is refreshing to hear because the problems that began in 2008 have not been resolved on the fundamental level, though most people have ceased to talk about it. The gold market has and still does reflect those inherent problems of Keynesian economics, which is why gold has been the best performing commodity of the past decade and is set to be the performing commodity in the time to come.

The derivatives that are largely to blame for the escalation of the economy to the brink of crisis in 2008 are still being created and sold to this day. In fact, there were more derivatives created in the first six months of 2011 than at any other time in history. Faber sees the European problem as a symptom of the underlying problem. “Greece should have defaulted; it would have sent message that not all derivatives are equal because it depends on the counterparty.”

Whether Greece should have defaulted is beyond the scope of the question here, but the differing quality of derivatives should be taken into account. The counterparty in a derivative action will, necessarily, affect the quality of the financial asset. Of course, it should be remembered that all derivatives are simply paper and completely valueless, but how they are valued should be considered in the current market.

Faber, who recently told MSNBC that he had a good stock tip and the symbol is “G-O- L-D,” also talked about the Federal Reserve Chairman’s fiscal policy. “Mr. Bernanke’s monetary policy was designed to lift the housing market. The only asset that didn’t go up since 2008 is housing.” Faber is right. All the action by the Federal Reserve and central banks was specifically intended to revivify the housing sectors, which it has patently failed to do.

Gold, however, has gained in spades since the financial intervention began. After Lehman Brothers failed in 2008, gold fell to $681 an ounce. There was, overall, a 34 percent correction in gold in 2008. Gold has since hit an all-time high of $1,923.70 in August of 2011. That’s a very impressive market. One can recall, at many points along the way, several incorrect individuals who proclaimed gold had gotten too expensive. They were all wrong about the gold market. We now know from the fundamentals that gold will continue to rise in price so long as the fiscal policy of the Federal Reserve remains unchanged. The gold market is the only good market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 21, 2011 - While some analysts ponder whether the death of Kim Jong Il will affect the markets or whether gold has entered a bear market, people have their ears perked to the news coming out of the big banks about the opportunities to buy gold now. The price of gold has dipped 15 percent in the last month, bringing about buying opportunities that we have not seen since September. Generally speaking, the passing of the North Korean leader will probably not make head waves in the gold market. While gold has dipped below the 200- day moving average, the fundamentals still show a strong bull market in action. Though it does provide television gold-bashers with something to say for the time being, that’s about all the dip amounts to.

It’s far more interesting to look at the major banks predictions of the gold market performing well into 2012. Reports have surfaced about Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Societe Generale all forecasting growth in gold. Citing permanent low interest rates, the banks conservatively put gold retaining its strong position and possibly moving up to as much as $2,500 an ounce. We also learned that following the September correction the central banks of the world began buying gold at forty-year highs. While we cannot find out how much gold central banks are buying now until next quarter, one can assume, based on their performance in the third quarter of this year, they are currently buying gold as fast as they can get it.

Now a report has surfaced that Citi sees gold moving “toward $3,400 in the next 2 years or so.” Anyone who thought Societe Generale was being outrageous as it was screaming gold before central banks saved the institution from failure now knows that gold has a long way to go. Specifically, the report from Citi cites a position we reiterate, stating, “we continue to believe that the bull market remains intact.” The bull market is intact. In the mid to long-term gold is unquestionably the place to be.

In addition, the report goes on to put out a very important mile-marker: “Such a move would likely put Gold in the $2,300-2,400 area in the 2nd half of 2012.” Given low interest rates that are here to stay through 2012 at least and negative real interest rates in the US, gold at $2,300-$2,400 in a year is a very reasonable estimate. The current dip in gold is just that, a current dip. It is a buying opportunity for the keen investor to scoop up a few extra ounces that will pay off big in the coming years. A lot of banks are talking about it and a lot of central banks are buying it. It’s time to buy gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 19, 2011 - Despite all fundamental constraints, historical data, and pure common sense, there are some analysts out there calling an end to the gold bull market. True, the gold market has been on an 11-year bull run and has seen a correction in the past month that caused some head-scratching, but there is no room for such a wild conjecture that gold has entered bear territory. To say that the gold market has magically decoupled from every technical framework that has tied it to the markets and is now in a multi-year downward trend amounts to lies, sensationalism, or stupidity.

Remember, it was none other than George Soros who called gold “the ultimate bubble” in very early 2010 when it had just reached a high of $1,225 an ounce. It’s a good thing Soros was buying gold even as he spoke those words. In the last quarter of 2009, Soros Fund Management raised its stake in exchange-traded fund SPDR by 3.7 million shares at a cost of $421 million. It’s possible Mr. Soros simply wasn’t aware what the multi- billion dollar hedge fund in his name was doing, but it’s pretty unlikely. It’s more likely that Soros called gold a bubble and called a top to the market inaccurately for reasons of his own.

There are several well-known commentators who are having their fifteen minutes getting back at gold right now, Nouriel Roubini among them. But, for all his doomsday sophisms including a prediction of $1 trillion in losses in the housing market, Mr. Roubini bought a $5.5 million Manhattan condominium in late 2010, taking out a $2.99 million mortgage. Can that guy really be trusted?

If you look at real data, like unemployment for example, the true numbers indicate the problems that began in 2008, which signaled the parabolic rise of the gold market, have never been adequately addressed or resolved. Right now there are reports that unemployment has declined, but that’s not entirely true. Of course, if you know anyone between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight, you know there are a lot of unemployed people in this country. The published data, however, omits the discouraged workers who have ceased looking for work, those whose benefits have expired, the implementation of shorter work weeks, pay cuts, and the conversion of full time to part time.

The likelihood of the economy limping its way into recovery and gold entering a bear market is really out of touch with the reality we are facing. We cannot pinpoint the exact turning point for gold as it resumes its upward climb, but we can most surely and definitely state that gold is now and will be in a bull market for the foreseeable future. Any gold you have bought over today’s gold market spot or will buy will most certainly be worth more in the coming months than what you paid for it.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 16, 2011 - Ever since the Fed intervention, the gold market has been in a sell-off, which has produced some of the best opportunities to buy gold we’ve seen in two and a half months. As prices have fallen nearly 9 percent this month, some analysts and traders are actually questioning the safe haven status of the precious metal in the face of thousands of years of history as a store of wealth. Gold is linked to some markets and is linked to other commodities, but more instances of decoupling are occurring in recent years than anything else. The questioning of gold’s status or value is totally off base but certainly indicates an opportunity for smart investors.

Perhaps at the heart of this issue is the war between paper and tangible commodities. Ever since Nixon took us off the gold standard, there has been an ever-widening gap between the value of actual physical assets and the value of the dollar. One remains constant, the other changes. It costs, in gold, the same amount to buy a dozen eggs today as it did fifty years ago. The price in dollars, however, has changed a bit.

Since the 80’s, Wall Street’s love affair with paper has spun wildly out of control. Financial abstractions upon abstractions up abstractions were created and sold regardless and independent of underlying and physical value. There are $707 trillion worth of Over the Counter, independently valueless, paper derivatives currently in existence in December of 2011. That is equal to the GDP of the entire planet for 11.2 years.

Given that kind of derivative to GDP ratio, gold’s status as a safe haven and a tangible commodity is more sound than ever. In fact, to say otherwise would require a blatant disregard for the facts that currently look us in the face. When gold had a similar drop in price in September, central banks around the world started buying it at forty-year highs. We won’t know until the first quarter of 2012, but with Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Societe Generale all circulating reports that gold is set to perform through the year, we can assume the central banks are currently buying at record levels. You should buy gold as well.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 14, 2011 - The recent pull back in gold price is fundamentally tied to the decision by the Federal Reserve to partner with central banks around the world to lower the swap rate on the US dollar. This monetary intervention has been regarded with a little distance as the effect of such a move by the most fundamental banks is incredibly difficult to predict. While the action does amount to money-printing, it’s far from a direct intervention and that has confused some investors.

The best thing you could be doing in this market is investing in gold. The reason why is pretty simple: you want to be prepared for any outcome of the Fed decision. If the intervention of the central banks is successful and the markets start improving, you want to have your money where shortages will drive value. If the economy gets worse because of the Fed action, you want to own a real asset with an inherent value.

Gold is the hedge that allows you to do both simultaneously. If the economy gets better, the shortages in commodities will propel the precious metals higher. If the recent intervention fails to stem the problems in Europe, central banks will continue to print money. Printing money, at the end of the day, is their only recourse to any problems in the markets.

Central banks printing money, while it may not necessarily be good for economies, is good for gold. The price of gold is very much a reflection of the health of currencies. It is notable then, that gold has been up 600% in the decade. It is, in effect, a strong signal of the problems in currencies.

It is far more preferable that the central banks of the world work out a deal to help the situation in Europe effectively. However, if they don’t, and so far they have not been able to, it is highly advisable to be invested in gold in order to maintain your wealth and protect your family.

Finally, central banks, the very entities who have been taking these drastic monetary actions, have been buying gold at forty year highs in the third quarter of this year. If the people making the rules are buying gold, investing in gold is clearly what you should be doing now, too.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 12, 2011 - As the world raises its eyebrows at the news out of Europe, buying gold is becoming more of a clear signal here in the US. Gold in this market, of course, makes logical sense in addition to investment sense. Gold, not stock, is the best performing asset of the last twelve months. Though prices have dipped on the expectation that the European summit might yield some meaningful results, the reality of the situation is becoming clear. The European debt problem persists despite all interventions taken thus far.

Gold will rise as this becomes evident in the coming weeks. As it does, investors who have already chosen the only smart money, gold, will benefit. But this also throws a light on the physical ownership question. MF Global, the American bank that went bust due to a bad bet on European debt, is currently in a law dispute with HSBC over who owns the physical gold and silver underlying a $850,000 set of contracts. This is particularly important, not because of the given amount of the dispute. The contracts in question actually pertain to only one disputed owner.

It demonstrates, however, that underlying physical gold, which operates on a fractional reserve-lending basis, is unsafe in the vaults of banks. We know MF Global was commingling accounts. That’s how they were able to fund their $53 billion losing bet on Europe—customer money. And this was made fully legal and permissible by the governmental regulatory body in charge of overseeing those transactions, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

The concern is that banks, as demonstrated by the particular gold and silver bars at issue in the lawsuit, are commingling their customer’s gold. There are many words being thrown around the net, such as “rehypothecating,” but this is just fancy jargon to say, “other people’s money.”

There is no indication, whatsoever, that MF Global, HSBC, or JP Morgan would not, could not, or have not been using gold and silver they hold in their vaults on behalf of customers as capital or collateral in the investment speculations they make in the course of business. If that bet goes bad, what happens to the gold?

The point is simple. Gold is the best way to invest your now, but be aware of the risks the banking sector is taking with greater and greater frequency. Ask yourself if you want to trust banks that have already proved their irresponsibility multiple times. Buying gold and holding is the best way.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 9, 2011 - Many Americans are looking at retiring in the coming months and it is drawing attention to the quality and safety of a gold IRA. Given the multiple woes of the market in the past three years, some of our golden generations have diversified their portfolios with precious metals. Many Americans are unaware that you can rollover an existing IRA or 401(k) into a gold IRA, which provides all the tax benefits and shelter of a traditional IRA with the added benefit of the stability and investing power of gold.

It must be stated, given recent events in the financial markets such as the collapse of MF Global, that owning physical gold is a highly advisable strategy. However, for working Americans, investing Americans, or Americans transitioning into retirement, keeping their wealth a little closer to the institution of the market can be more comfortable financially and professionally. For those who have been looking for a way to combine traditional retirement vehicles with a smart hedge and investment strategy, a gold IRA is the ideal way to play it and play it safe.

Given gold’s performance in the past decade, any way you invest in it is clearly a winning strategy. As we watch further fiscal insanity in the forms of derivatives, which are now saturating the market at records even beyond what we saw in 2008, gold makes a lot of sense. Interestingly, the financial term derivative actually means, “valueless,” because its nominal value is derived from the totally independent, underlying product. There are now $707 trillion worth of Over The Counter derivatives in existence. This is the equivalent of the Gross Domestic Product of the entire planet for 11.2 years.

And, as Jon Corzine’s testimony before congress this week has proven, American banking institutions cannot automatically be relied upon when considering retirement. The money you have worked hard for should be available to you upon retirement, not lost like the $1.2 billion that MF Global’s customers may never see again.

As far as investment strategies go, a gold IRA is the best of both worlds. It allows you to enjoy the benefit of an historic method of holding wealth while providing all the tax shelter and market contact of an IRA. Prices are relatively low right now, and major banks including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Societe Generale are all forecasting a gain through 2012 due to continued low interest rates in the US.

Roll your retirement in gold. Initiate a gold IRA or use an existing IRA to fund a gold IRA today.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 7, 2011 - The slight dip in prices is an opportunity to buy gold. While the world waits and holds its breath watching Europe for the next development in the sovereign debt crisis, smart investors are making quiet moves now. Standard & Poor’s has effectively said it will downgrade the credit rating of all seventeen nations of the European Union, trashing Germany’s ideas for a Federalized Europe. No one yet knows how the evolution of the European crisis will affect world markets and this sentiment pervades the news.

With the ensnarement of extremely large banks like Societe Generale, UniCredit, and Dexia, most figured we would see the failure of another large European bank. Last week’s decision from the Federal Reserve, as well as the central banks of several other countries, may have effectively avoided that scenario. Forbes reported last week that a major European might have nearly failed last Tuesday.

This leaves open the question, however, of what happens next. The fundamentals of the European sovereign debt crisis have not been addressed, Germany’s bailout package has failed, and Europe cannot seem to muster, so far, a further bailout for Greece from a European country or a country abroad. Thus, the problems in Europe and in the Euro persist and continue and affect how investors buy gold.

The truth is almost any intervention or lack of intervention will probably benefit the price of gold. A further bailout in Europe will certainly raise the price of gold significantly and if there is no bailout investors will continue and increase a safe-haven flight to gold, which has in the third quarter of this year, partially, been responsible for an all time nominal high in the price of gold.

It does need to be stated that there is the possibility that the action we’re seeing now could be the beginning of a price correction. Due to the nature of the European sovereign debt crisis, it’s incredibly difficult to predict the factors that will emerge, especially from this week’s summit in Brussels. Some traders and analysts have commented that a correction, or significant move lower in price, is technically possible, but certainly not necessary.

Of course, if such a correction were to occur, investors would start buying gold as they did in September, which made the third quarter a record breaking period of time in which central banks bought gold at forty year highs. Moves lower in price are buying opportunities. Right now, every investor is looking for the right price to get in and buy gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 5, 2011 - The recent monthly reports out of Washington combined with the major announcement of the Federal Reserve last week have already led to a jump in the gold market and has all the indications that trend will continue. While few saw the Federal Reserve’s announcement last Wednesday coming at that time, everyone saw gold’s spectacular performance in November. Gold rose 1.8% in November alone and showed a 20% profit for the year.

The recent, discouraging numbers coming out of Washington hint that gold has a long way to go as the signs of a faltering economy are trickling down into the employment numbers, low housing numbers, and stalled growth. We have now seen the lowest consumer confidence since the first quarter of 2009, and we all remember where the Dow was in March of 2009. And while there is no need in this environment to theorize about exactly how ludicrous the modus operandi of Ben Bernanke and his kind can get, it is worth considering that the fiscal stimulus domestically is tied to housing prices. In other words, Bernanke, as a policy, seems to have been attempting to resurrect the housing industry through quantitative easing. Clearly, that has not been successful, but that hasn’t stopped him from throwing even more paper money in the hole to keep the industry on life support.

ConvergEx has said, “If it costs a QE II to get the 3.5% bump in real prices, or even a QE IV, then markets should not doubt that the current Federal Reserve will seriously consider it.” Of course, any quantitative easing, or wanton printing of US dollars is incredibly good for the gold market. Gold started its current rise in price about a decade ago, but really popped and went, at times, parabolic with the quantitative easing programs here in the US. We have every reason to think, based on the economics and on past history, that any future quantitative easing will benefit gold.

And every move the government is taking, including this week’s Federal Reserve decision to lower swap rates for US dollars between the major central banks of the world, is an indication that it’s business, or what passes for it, as usual in Washington and will be for some time. The president’s approval rating is sickeningly low and the unemployment numbers are getting ugly and will surely get worse after the holidays. Whatever fiscal policy the government takes in order to contend with these huge issues, it is highly unexpected that they will diverge from the course of action of the past years. In such a scenario, gold is a very clear winner and the gold market will be where the good action is.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 2, 2011 - Sometimes, in some markets, it can be a difficult question as to when you should buy gold. Life is peaceful; you have income, and simply want to maximize your investments. Then there are times when the house is burning, people are jumping out windows, and even your cat has taken off. There’s very little in between those two circumstances. This week the Federal Reserve has brokered a deal with major banks around the world for a “coordinated ease,” in the poetic words of Goldman Sachs. Effectively, this is being taken as a quantitative easing program and will debase the dollar, thereby boosting the price of gold.

Many analysts are drawing attention to the M2 money supply, which has shown a $500 billion increase since July. Whatever they’re doing, they’re printing money like mad. This most recent decision, which includes the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England, the Bank of Switzerland, and others, will apply a lower rate to dollar swaps beginning Monday, December 5, 2011. The purpose banks are doing this right now is to keep credit circulating. There was a story from Forbes that conjectured a “big European bank got close to failure last night,” which came out the same day the Fed announced the deal.

Echoes of 2008 may be sounding, but the response this time is occurring on balance sheets. The only predictable asset that has performed steadily and well, come to think of it, since 2008 has been gold. It is the best performing asset of the past twelve months. And thanks to the Federal Reserve’s new decision, whether they are attempting a back- door bailout of Europe or simply trying to save a couple European banks from failing until next week, we can be sure the price of gold will be rising again for the same reasons.

While some analysts and may be screaming Armageddon, reality is generally not quite as dire. Or cut and dry. As we’ve seen with TARP, QE, and all the other acronyms, it takes time for the system to absorb the changes. The effect on gold, however, is always the same. You cannot debase a currency without debasing it relative to gold. What the Federal Reserve and the other major banking institutions of the world have done this week is tantamount to debasing the dollar. Make no mistake about it; it is now time to buy gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 30, 2011 - The French bank Societe Generale, in a strikingly worded statement, has advised its clientele and the world that the gold market will be the beneficiary of any fiscal intervention in Europe. SocGen has made headlines around the world recently as it has been linked to Greek sovereign debt. The statement from SocGen reads in one way as a “bailout or blowout” ultimatum. A government, any government, according to the language used by SocGen, must intervene in Europe’s sovereign debt problem.

Curiously, the hedge against a systematic default and the best way to profit from a bailout that would prevent the default is gold. It’s perhaps the best recommendation Societe Generale could make in the face of a European debt problem that has prompted Moody’s to say, effectively, it will be cutting the credit rating of several European countries this week. Why a bank needs to have a noose made in Greece around its neck and a judge holding his thumb down in front of the crowd before it tells the truth is another matter.

The rather dire circumstances can add a lot of weight to what SocGen is saying. “Buy gold ahead of QE3 as money creation has a strong impact on [gold] prices.” If that is not far enough on the edge for a major European banking institution with a very long history, there’s more. Societe Generale also said, “Gold = $ 8500/Oz: to catch up with the increase in the monetary base since 1920.”

In other words, gold is grossly undervalued in the current market and prices now are a steal. So much money has been created in the past three to four years that even the amazing growth we’ve seen in gold does not fully balance out with the growth in the amount of dollars. This is pure math, which many have known for a long time.

You may remember when gold rose above $1,000 per ounce, or when it rose above $1,500, and all the while the buzz on the news was the same. Gold is a bubble, George Soros said. Of course, Soros was buying gold at the same time he was saying that on prime time, but surely at least one of those money managers actually believed it. Here, with Societe Generale, we have the exact opposite. A bank on the edge telling it straight: the gold market could go astronomical and no matter what they do in Europe, gold will win big.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 28, 2011 - The gold market reacted positively today on the International Monetary Fund’s denial of a funding package for Italy. As expected, today’s news out of Europe was not good for sentiment in the markets. For a little over a week, the crisis has continued brewing there, but on the back burner. The distraction of the holiday, other market activity in the world, and massive bank failures in the United States has been steadily redirecting our attention for a while. But now Europe is back in the headlines, and I expect it will only get worse from here.

Good news for the gold market which is finally reacting in a free market fashion to the European crisis. Gold started the week $20 up per ounce in some markets. We have been writing for the past week that the price of gold should have been significantly higher, given the depth and breadth of the problems Europe is facing and the effect it will have on American banks.

Today, the temporary boost in the US dollar as it is traded against the euro has ended. Currency traders often float pretty easily between the US dollar and its European counterpart, the euro. In this case, they were seeking to capitalize on the European debt crisis. As the crisis continued last week, so many currency speculators long the dollar and short the euro that the strength in the dollar made it appear that the price of gold was lower. A good time to buy, and we told you so.

Now, that particular condition is drawing to a close and we watch for European markets, and subsequently American markets, to react negatively. The gold market should profit from it quite well and steadily, barring any further factors. Further news indicates positive conditions for gold this week as the Bank of International Settlements has released that the creation of OTC derivatives in the first six months of the year set a record, valuing at $107 trillion. That’s right, trillion with a “t.” The total amount in existence is now valued at $707.5 trillion. This is far, far in excess of the $63 trillion global GDP.

While derivatives are dangerous debt instruments that are widely regarded as fundamental in the instigation of the crisis we now endure economically, the frenzied creation of them in the first six months of this year bodes well for gold. There is a correlative relationship between the amount of money in existence and gold. By extension, there is clearly a relationship of the amount of derivatives in existence and gold, even though a derivative has no independent value whatsoever.

Derivatives are literally flooding the system of exchange, effectively debasing the currency. While this is a truly worrisome fiscal policy, it is historically good for gold, which ultimately benefits as the exact opposite of a derivative. Gold is a tangible commodity with an inherent value and has served as the store of wealth for many civilizations. Look for gold to begin a major wave up and ride it.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 25, 2011 - As commodity prices continue a relative suppression due to the strength of the US dollar, a signal of a floor in the markets, and the pending options expiration, news breaks today that Russia has been buying gold. A lot of gold. It is generally well known that central banks have been net buyers of gold for a couple years now, but rarely do central banks disclose a change in their reserves.

Russia has taken a different tack. Beginning in 2005, Vladimir Putin very publicly endorsed a decision by the Russian Central Bank to diversify their reserves out of fiat currencies and debt instruments into gold bullion. Don’t you wish the United States made a similar decision? At that time, the tactic was seen as a political as well as economic, but in hindsight it was just plain smart. Putin’s decision to be photographed repeatedly with gold bullion in suggestive poses and publish these photographs in Russian media was a political move. Putin is extraordinarily popular in his home country, partially for his economic policy of checkmating the status quo.

It’s also generally true that if you run your country’s finances well, your people will like you. The United States is a pretty good case in point. But we can learn from the moves the Russian Central Bank has most recently made. There is actually relatively little gold in the world. Above ground gold could fit, piled a few feet high, on a football field. Central banks own a staggering amount of this gold comparatively and their moves in the market signal where prices will go, based both on their projections and their activities.

The Russian Central Bank bought 19.5 tons of Gold in October, bringing their reserves to 871.1 tons. Comparatively, US reserves are estimated and contested at about 8,134 tons. China is looking to catch up to the United States and needs about 2,500 tons to do so. Only seven countries in the world possess more than 1,000 tons of gold. Russia is not one of them.

The sky is therefore the limit when it comes to the Russian Central Bank buying gold. They have the equity. They have the political power and support. And they have the room to grow. The gold market will certainly react to this power position with even higher stronger support levels for gold. Central banks will continue to hedge against fiat currency and abstract debt instruments. The gold market will benefit from this.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 24, 2011 - Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday, but, instead of celebrating the conclusion of today’s festivities by freezing outside Wal-Mart at 3 am, mark this year as special by buying gold. The festival of gathering in the bounty of the season’s harvest is honored by time. And I appreciate the philosophy behind our ability to take our wealth, for which we have worked, and spend it according to our desires.

But there is some cause to have concern over certain trends of spending. An example would be the ludicrously easy credit that was extended to everyone a few years ago. Barely a day went by where the mail would come and not contain at least one new credit card. This may have been part of what gave some Americans an imperfect notion of wealth that extends to the quality of the goods we choose to buy.

Food is an example of a good that makes sense to buy. I am pleased to exchange my wages for high quality food. I am further pleased when I can share that food with my family and with those I love. However, I know that this Black Friday there will be masses of Americans huddling up to purchase goods which do not contribute to the health and true quality of their lives or the lives of those around them. Is another plasma screen really going to give you pleasure six months or a year from now?

No, it is not going to give you much pleasure at all. Nor will it give you pleasure to know that the moment you pay for it, that thing drops 30 percent in value. The same with new cars, campers, and most electronics. The second you pay for it, or, God forbid, sign for it, it is worth less.

Gold is the absolute opposite. It represents a philosophy of wealth that does not rely on abstraction but on intrinsic value. Gold will always be valuable. The gold market, for all its bells and whistles, is really just a gauge for how much gold is worth at any one given time. The gold market does not give gold its value—gold gives the gold market its value. I like the power in that and so should you.

This Black Friday, show yourself your own understanding and sense of worth by purchasing the asset that will still be valuable in a hundred years. Buy gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 23, 2011 - As several economic and political crises play out around the world and in the United States, Americans may be waking up to buying gold. Persisting problems from the sovereign debt in the European Union connected to banking problems in the United States itself have made it generally accepted that the time of “green shoots” has passed to the possibility of a “double-dip” and then on into “get your gold and get out of dodge.”

Of course, the last sound bite is courtesy of yours dearly and puts a little humor in the sentiment, but the adage is becoming more accepted in the minds of Americans. The bailouts are failing domestically and abroad in one form or another. The fundamental problems in the banks, businesses, and economies of nations have not been solved yet. It’s time to take proactive measures to protect yourself and your family.

Americans seem to be getting that message. Curiously, young Americans seem to be tuning in as well. An article from the LA Times this week points out a growing interest in gold not just in the baby-boomer generations, but in investors in their 20’s and 30’s. The article cites a series of booms and busts, a housing market collapse, and continued problems in the banking sector for 20 and 30-somethings. With the activity of the financial industry lately, the younger generations need a little more than the promise of paper and the abstraction of financial derivative assets.

While demand for gold is up about 6 percent on the year, we will not really know until after the New Year how many people are going into gold now. It was just recently reported that central banks broke multi-decade records in the third quarter, and they’ve been net buyers of gold for over two years at this point.

There is a gold lining in every storm cloud and it heartens investors with their ears to the ground to discover that Americans, and especially young Americans, are waking up to gold now. With a 21 percent increase year to date, gold has outperformed the S&P by 24 percent and is the best performing asset of the past twelve months. Americans are moving to safe and sound money in gold now.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 22, 2011 - It has become a disturbingly common occurrence for well-known economists, investors, and even professors to get knocking the gold market. One wonders if these powerhouse pundits actually watch the gold market or read the news at all. If they had been watching the markets, how could they not have spotted the price of gold today as a flashing beacon in the stormy sea of finance?

And, yes, these pundits sometimes include government men and financial heavyweights. Of course, last I read the government couldn’t pay its bills or even organize a Congressional Super Committee to reduce the deficit. And while George Soros may say gold is a bubble on television, his biggest buy of the last quarter last year was gold. He was buying while he was knocking it.

And that’s generally the formula these financial hit men have been following for years. Soros was talking about a bubble that was about to burst in 2010 when gold hit $1,500 per ounce. Of course, we all know there was not a bubble at $1,500 and it did not burst. If any of these acclaimed economists who knocked gold actually followed their own advice, their personal fortunes would have been traded away.

Everyone makes mistakes and the markets are fickle things indeed, but gold is as solid an investment as it gets. For a mid to long term position, it’s pretty easy for this author, at least, to say confidently whether it will increase in value or not.

Is gold in a bubble? Not according to central banks around the world who are net buyers and buying at rates not seen in forty years. Not according to reports from Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse to their customers forecasting a strong position in gold through 2012. Gold is the best performing asset of the past twelve months, it’s up 600 per cent in the last decade, and it’s outperformed the S&P 500 by 23 per cent year to date.

If you want to really know what’s going on in the gold market, take your news like you take your medicine—very carefully. Watching major network broadcasts will distinctively put you behind the curve, as has been so aptly demonstrated in these past three to four years. While the motivations, thinking, and strategies of these self- proclaimed pundits cannot be legitimately known, you can easily determine their trustworthiness by taking a note on what they said back when and determining whether they were right. The people telling the truth about the gold market and its astronomical potential in the coming years are only a handful. But they’ve been right so far. Isn’t it time to listen?

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 21, 2011 - Following a week that saw open admissions of major US banks using customer funds for losing investments, there is now a fitting report out that central banks are purchasing gold at rates not seen in multiple decades. The September correction spurred a serious buying binge as the drop in prices made the third quarter the biggest for central banks buying gold in forty years.

For banks, gold is major method of diversification and in the current market heralds the uncertainty of other investments previously considered more solid, such as real estate. As multiple economic, monetary, and political crises unfold around the globe, gold is the asset central banks are turning to.

Curiously, this level of buying has not been seen since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system 40 years ago. Bretton Woods refers to an international system of monetary regulation put into effect following World War II in order to rebuild the world’s economies. The United States effectively and unilaterally ended Bretton Woods in 1971 when the US dollar went off the gold standard and became a wholly fiat currency.

Forty years later, fiat currencies are fighting one another to stay afloat and central banks are moving back to gold. While central banks are one of the most important factors in the gold market, they rarely disclose information about changes in their reserves. A handful of countries, including Russia, Bolivia, and Thailand, have publicly announced their purchases. On the whole, however, central banks became net buyers of gold last year after two decades of selling.

For a commodity that is up 21 per cent year to date, is the best performing asset of the past year, and shows a 600 per cent gain in the decade, it seems gold is the smart place to put your money in terms of monetary sense and real sense. As central banks create a new gold rush in the third, and the coming fourth, quarters, the implication for papers currencies is clear. Central banks are buying gold now because that’s where the money is.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 18, 2011 - The recent shocking collapse of MF Global is beginning to show what will become wide-ranging repercussions this morning that prove the value and strategy in gold investing. CME Group, a futures marketplace, has been drawn into the fray via the same CFTC that issued the ruling allowing the bad trade with customer money that ultimately brought MF Global down. And, yes, the same CFTC whose Democatic Commissioner called what has occurred at MF global “nefarious.”

CME was required to communicate immediately with the CFTC following any discovery of a shortfall in segregated client accounts. There is some question as to what CME knew and when based on communications belonging to the company.

This is the first of what will be many big implications of the fall of MF Global. It is rather astonishing news, especially after learning that MF Global can’t find $600 million of its customer’s money, but there is a serious and real potential that this is just the beginning.

MF Global’s customers have learned that lesson already. Finding out your account is with a “trustee” and can’t be liquidated will really wake you up. The banks and businesses that work with MF Global are learning that lesson now. The other owners of junk European sovereign debt, which seems to be ubiquitous throughout the industry, may have to learn that lesson in the future.

This is precisely the kind of economic climate for gold investing. The doubt in the markets screams for a tangible commodity to hold on to. Gold fits the bill for any willing to check it out. And this is a proven track record. Gold is up 22% year to date and those double digit earning are here to stay.

Gold buyers will weather this storm much better than traders. The general rule of thumb is everything in the markets is exposed. As the days roll on and we see more responses to MF Global, the interlocking relationships will become clear. Gold is more than a safe haven in this market—it’s a rocket ship. I strongly suggest you get on board.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 17, 2011 - The gold market in Europe is making some interesting, yet predictable, moves. This week the Prime Ministers of both Greece and Italy stepped down amid the financial turmoil engulfing the European Union. Greece’s Papandreou made his decision to resign just days after a confidence vote promised to keep him in office, signaling the depth and width of the fiscal crisis afflicting the country. Italy, its Mediterranean cousin, has largely avoided too much bad press concerning its internal debt problems, besides one or two banks, but it is well-known that Italy’s finances are very dependent on the Greek debt problem finding an equitable solution.

The reaction in the gold market, which we have been predicting for months, is just out today. European gold investment demand has surged 135% in Q3 this year. In response to the debt crisis, Europeans are going gold. This is a mathematical demonstration of how investors regard the debt crisis and what proactive steps they take in the market.

Back in spring when the first austerity measures were being imposed on Greece and riots in Athens made headlines, gold was inevitably set on a course to sky rocket to the summer high. The fundamentals are the instability of the economic situation, the policy of bankers, and bureaucratic political institutions that have as yet been unable to find a good outcome. These made for an advisedly safe venture into gold.

Now, looking back on it, the idea of investing in gold wasn’t just safe, it was smart. With the market up 135% in demand in three months alone, the predictable consequence of the European debt crisis and Greece’s toxic debt problem are coming to pass.

People are going to gold in droves. There is no way around the debt crisis but there are methods of preserving and growing one’s wealth through the debt crisis. The best of these ways is gold. Having an intrinsic value that makes it the historical store of wealth since the times of ancient Rome makes gold the ideal place to store your money.

As the crises in Europe continue to play out, it is understandable and predictable that more investors will be moving their funds into gold as an asset isolated from the debt problems interlacing the EU. The gold market will reply in kind to this significant rise in demand. For both the crisis and what we can predict will come from it, getting in gold now is a good strategy.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 16, 2011 - MF Global, the international big bank affiliated with Jon Corzine, is giving some interesting input into gold investing these days. After a Commodity Futures Trading Commission ruling made it legal for the bank to use customer funds for investments—and to collect any earnings in profits or interest from those investments—a truly horrendous $63 billion bet on European sovereign debt has brought the institution to its knees.

MF Global should never have been gambling with its customers’ money to begin with, but if it was going to gamble anyway it probably should have been a little more conservative in its risk. The entire episode is illustrative of bankers trending towards more and more desperate acts in the chase of ever and ever diminishing returns. Why should bank customers who have had active accounts for years be wondering whether they will even recoup the full value of their accounts?

Gerald Celente, a well-known gold advocate and commentator on several network news programs, received a call last Monday explaining that his six digit account was now in the hands of a “trustee.” Celente, Director of the Trends Research Institute and Publisher of its journal, has been trading gold since 1978 and was accumulating futures contracts with intent to take delivery less than a month from now.

Bart Chilton, a Democratic commissioner at the CFTC, is now openly stating that “something nefarious” occurred at MF Global. With close to $600 million of customer money unaccounted for, one would have to agree with him.

Celente often compares the bankers to junkies, with an insatiable desire for money that only grows with each and every dollar. The tragically standard practice of bankers taking greater and greater chances in the pursuit of ever diminishing returns is accurately parallel to the behavior of junkies.

The entire story is a case in point of why purchasing gold makes the most sense now and why taking physical ownership of the gold is the best method of protecting one’s savings, one’s value, and oneself from the nefarious, sanctioned activity of bankers. The gold market is getting this message quite clearly as well. If a customer’s money was not safe with Jon Corzine’s MF Global, why should it be safe anywhere but in gold?

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 15, 2011 - Global demand for certified gold is twice as strong as it was one year ago. Adding to the already accumulating value of a commodity that inherently stores value, the global credit crisis, monetary inflation, and the European debt crisis have prompted several members of the London Bullion Market Association to report a 48 per cent rise in activity.

This is understandable given the performance of gold, which is continuing a three-week rise and capping off a year to date 25% increase in US dollars and 22% in Euro. For savers who understand that low interest rates are here for the long term, investing in precious metals is one of the only smart investments available and surely the best investment available.

With a negative real interest rate in the US, savers who have worked hard and long are watching the value of their money in banks depreciate rapidly. In Britain, where quantitative easing is not nearly as rampant, savers have lost approximately $43 billion in five years through the inflation of their currency.

Adding insult to injury, Forbes recently reported that MF Global may have used customer funds in a losing $6.3 billion dollar in risky European debt. A CFTC rule labeled 1.29 allowed for this misuse of client funds very legally and every indication would lead one to the conclusions that this is standard operating practice on Wall Street.

So, not only are savers being robbed through inflation and price changes, the banks that they have traditionally confided and trusted in are robbing them through their balance sheets by using their savings to make losing bets.

Certified gold clearly stands out as the smart alternative and the best way to protect the value of your savings. Few other investments have performed as well in the past year and fewer offer the kind of hedge against the further erosion of wealth that is implicit in gold. Historically, from at least Grecian and Roman times, gold is the store of wealth. This is more true now than ever as low interest rates, negative real interest rates, and the legal misuse of saver’s funds make certified gold the certified way to protect your worth.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 14, 2011 - Goldman Sachs is one of the most venerated investment banks in the United States and it is buying gold. Love them or hate them, Goldman rules the roost. News has just come out revealing how bullish Goldman is on Gold. The bank is not only buying gold and advising its clients to buy gold, it is projecting as much as an 11% increase in price next year and its call options are at $2,000/ounce.

This is even more significant when compared with the current spot price of $1,778, indicating Goldman’s commitment to gold for the next twelve to sixteen months. After a three week rise in the price of gold and a 1.8% gain in the last week, Goldman’s position looks to be a good one.

“We expect gold prices to continue to climb in 2011 given the current low level of US real interest rates,” Goldman Sachs told its clients. “Consequently, we recommend near-dated consumer hedges in gold through 2012.” Goldman’s recommendation for a long gold position extends through 2011 and 2012 with expectations for the price to rise the next month into December.

While Goldman cites the current low level of real US interest rates as the reason for its recommendation, it is generally acknowledged in the market that the current European debt crisis has a real time influence on the price of gold. How the crisis in Europe will pan out and in what time frame, no one knows surely, but interest rates in the US are very sure indicators of what to expect in the next months.

Goldman is not alone in its prediction, either, as Credit Suisse citing negative real interest rates as the “key driver” for gold to climb over $1,800.

Buying gold is not only a safe bet but a smart bet in this economy and the biggest banks are now advocating it to their customers. Up 25% year to date in US dollars, buying gold is the safest and sanest option available right now. And if the largest and best performing banks are right in their outlooks, it will be for a long time.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 11, 2011 - The Chinese people are known for their shrewdness when it comes to investing. In these days and times, the rest of the world pays a lot of attention to China to understand market trends and how to capitalize on the future. After all, a country with a fifty year plan has a pretty good look out into how things will shape up.

So the big news of recent is China’s first acquisition of an overseas gold mine. The Chinese government has been pushing precious metals ownership on its people for over a year now, but the purchase of a gold mine signals a braver new venture out into the market.

China only owns two gold mines on the mainland, one in Inner Mongolia and one in Tibet. Together these mines produced 55,259 ounces of bullion in the first half. The firm that owns the mines was renamed China Gold International Resources in 2008 when China National Gold bough 42 per cent stake in the company. Those who watch China from abroad, which should be everyone, are particularly interested in the megalithic country’s interest in strategic minerals. The purchase of a gold mine is red flag.

Further, Chinese investment abroad is an extraordinarily well-thought out process. Whatever the Chinese do, they do with an outlook unmatched by most industrialized economies. The reasons for this are multitude, but for our purposes we can understand it simply. It is not an easy thing to hold foreign assets due to governmental regulations and when China makes a move it tends to do so with a multi-decade outlook on global ventures. A case in point is China’s heavy involvement in Africa, but that’s the subject of another article.

Gold investing is actually a part of the centuries old Chinese culture and bears some consideration as China was also the first country to institute a paper currency. Why are the Chinese buying gold now? Good question.

The gold market will not reflect a change in price instantly based on this development, of course, but it is very reassuring to the gold investor who is thinking into the future and the gold investor who is looking to get in now.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

As of November 7, 2011, the gold market rose to its all-time six-week high – something investors and financial advisors cannot say for the rest of the world’s economy. Europe, for example, has a rising debt that continues to rise, even though the gold market appears unaffected by this economical state.

The gold market has jumped to a record high of $1923.70 per ounce, which in turn raised the demand for gold in comparison to equities and other currencies. Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi’s, for example, has been pressured by his allies to push the nation’s borrowing debt to the highest it has ever been.

Though other countries are borrowing against their dollar in order to satisfy their country’s debt, the gold market appears to hold steady – in fact appears as though it is going to start rising yet again. What are some of the indicators of this rise? In December, the gold market gains 1.5 percent, which totaled $1781.70 on the Comex in New York. As of November, that has gained 24 percent for the year. In 1989, gold futures were valued at $363, as of October 2011, those same gold futures were valued at $1651.70 – more growth than any stock share can stake claim to.

Investors looking at gold coins are turning a better investment in the gold market than those just interested in gold shares. Gold coins, especially rarities, are not only an investment in the gold market, but a collector’s item. As of today, gold investors have three options to enter the gold market: gold shares, gold coins and gold bars. The easiest to liquidate, however, are gold coins.

Overall, the gold market continues to prove its financial stability even while other countries and markets cannot bear the load of economic distress. Investors looking for a stable investment in today’s economical conditions might find better luck in the gold market – rather than traditional investment methods.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 03, 2011 – Seeing gold market prices settle down and get back to business makes it even harder to understand what the Dickens is going on in the stock market. It looks to me that investors have split into two camps – one in the real world and the other in La La Land.

Thinking about that the lyrics from an old Roger Miller tune popped into my head from heaven knows where. “Ya can't roller skate in a buffalo herd.” “Ya can't take a shower in a parakeet cage.” And “Ya can't drive around with a tiger in your car.”

To those I add, “Ya can’t fix a thing by printing more money.” Those are no more nonsensical than Roger’s words but still far too many people don’t see things that way.

The obvious question should be “Who would ever even think of doing something that absurd in the first place?” I am certain that the answer must be, “Beats me. But I know where they are camped.”

Meanwhile, over in the real world, folks have seen the light. The have heeded Miller’s qualifier, “But you can be happy if you've a mind to.”

While Wall Street wallows in decaying fiat money, people in the real world have taken action as Miller suggests: “All ya gotta do is put your mind to it. Knuckle down, buckle down do it, do it, do it.”

Really, it is that simple. Nothing anybody does is going to reverse the inevitable end to this latest attempt to build a monetary system on fiat money. It has never worked before and it cannot work now. You can run the world’s presses day and night for eternity and not create even the tiniest bit of wealth. When all that paper goes up in smoke so goes the illusion of riches it created.

Miller’s call to action applies equally to people, nations, and the world as a whole. If our leaders were to stop playing games and put their collective mind to it, we could all knuckle down, buckle down, and get the job done.

Stop the presses, say farewell to the fantasy world, and rebuild the monetary system on the enduring foundation of certified gold bullion.

Why wander aimlessly through imaginary landscapes when the gold market is showing us the way through the real world?

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 1, 2011 - An intense restructuring of the entire gold market is looming. This is a direct effect of the economic turmoil the entire world is enduring. Gold reached the $1620 status quite efficiently a number of times and its intent is to continue its mount. China is at the forefront of buying gold as has been released by the London brokers. The Chinese moved in on the market as the confusion surmounted with gold contract margins being magnified again and again throughout the price regressions. It seems they have satisfied their frenzy for the moment, though.

Quite definitely, a bullish discrepancy will occur as the daily stochastic presented optimistic indications while the price was developing a flat bottom close to the $1600 level. Repeal is in order which will reflect the change in the Euro currency from 132 up to 140. Gold dwindled alongside the Euro but is now ascending because of the consistent weakness in decision making within Europe’s financial system.

Going from $1670 to $1770 will be straightforward and the ones who will be in an uproar will be those who urged others to sell, sell, sell the only spot-on security in the financial world.

If one is blessed with objectivity then the ability to see that this whole situation is actually good for the global monetary system will be easy. The most important purpose of recessions is to do away with what does not work and bring in what will. It is at this point where buying gold will take off rather swiftly. Prepare yourself because if you sleep on it, it will occur right before your eyes and there will be nothing left to buy.

Remember that gold is not full of the phony snares that the greenback and its brothers are made of. Gold is reliable and genuine which is why, in the end, the United States will be obligated to return to the Gold Standard. But this will not endure without a fight for the survival of all paper currencies. The USD and its counterparts will be destroyed and gold will tower in value in a matching contrasting manner.

The governing class is devoid of thirst to satiate leaving the rest of the world to use wise judgment in their own state of affairs. They will not invest in a reasonable and well-constructed monetary system. To whose advantage would that be?

Just for the record: Last Tuesday, the Europeans imparted the foundation for a step up of $50 in the gold price and $1.50 move for the silver price making it beneficial for investors as well as the general public to begin buying gold because future profit will be great. It will probably be the best investment you can make overall.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 31, 2011 – Gold market prices in the western world are not immune to sovereign manipulation of the money supply because we still think of gold as merely another asset to be exchanged for currency. In the east, however, gold is still seen as money. That’s a hugely significant difference.

The Chinese and Indians buy gold because to them it is still the one true measure of wealth. Fiat money is nothing other than a convenience in conducting day-to-day transactions, a temporary substitution for real money. They instinctively understand the folly of hoarding vast sums of cash.

It is a much different story here. The super rich have become quite adept at siphoning currency out of the economy into their private coffers. They have used their dollars to gain ever more control over the source of money, enabling them to take even more. And with the power they have gained they will resist every effort to return to a more rational system.

So it is not all that surprising that they have been able to hold gold market prices in check over the short term. But it cannot go on forever. The disparity between true wealth and the total global money supply is just too great.

The day of reckoning is fast approaching. Those with the least amount of money are already reeling from the effects of its diminishing value. But still they fail to understand the cause.

The rising cry for wealth redistribution is way off base. Nothing is to be gained by shifting huge sums of cash from one account to another. It will still be worthless. There is a far more direct way to secure wealth redistribution and that is through gold investing.

Big money did not get to be big money by being stupid. The super rich are fully aware of the Ponzi scheme they have perpetrated through fiat money. When it is time for the end game they will cash out and retreat to gold while the monetary system collapses.

As things stand today, that would push gold market prices to over $10,000 per ounce. Those who had the wisdom to buy gold when the market was suppressed will reap the benefits of the greatest wealth distribution ever.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 28, 2011 – Gold market prices tell a lot clearer story than the stock indexes. Already the exuberance of the previous two days on Wall Street has waned while the gold market keeps climbing, and for plenty of good reasons.

For one, the Greek haircut constitutes default as Fitch Ratings was quick to point out in the Wall Street Journal. “Fitch recognizes the significant challenges that the Greek sovereign will continue to face following the proposed debt exchange, against a backdrop of anemic growth, austerity fatigue—possibly reducing the capacity to implement tough but necessary structural reforms—and continuing high debt levels, the service says.

China joined the chorus, backing away from previous statements about its willingness to help out with the European sovereign debt crisis. “We of course must wait until its structure is extremely clear,” says Zhu Guangyao, a vice minister finance. “And moreover, this investment must be decided on after serious, technical discussions.”

China appears to be laying the groundwork for concession contingencies. Last month China Investment Corporation’s sovereign wealth fund chairman Jin Liqun let the world know what China thinks of the efforts so far to solve the crisis. “There are some things governments have to do to deserve the sincere support of the rest of the world,” Jin said.

The governments – ours included – still refuse to do those things and the gold market knows.

OK, so the European crisis may not be over, but what about the great news with our GDP?

In the first place an annualized rate of 2.5% for Q3 is nothing to crow about. But a least it is treading water, and there have been three quarters in a row now that the GDP has grown, right?

Well, yes and no. The figures do provide a common measure, and by that measure there are positive signs of growth. But the GDP is not the bellwether it’s cracked up to be, says John Tammy in Whiskey & Gunpowder.

Economies don’t work in isolation and they don’t work in unison rendering national GDPs virtually useless. More to the point, however, the GDP can be inflated by factors that are economically destructive.

Rising prices resulting from currency devaluation raises the GDP. Government spending raises the GDP. And declining imports, which directly reflect a declining economy, raise the GDP.

In short, like the CPI the GDP is a merely mathematical slight-of-hand devised and employed by the government to make things appear better than they really are. “With so much of our economy directed towards work of little to no economic value, but which ultimately factors into the GDP calculation,” Tammy says, “we're restrained from doing what we need to do to truly advance ourselves.”

America is getting wise to the tricks. We know that Wall Street lives in a world apart from our own. And as the volatility in equities heats up we are increasingly turning to the gold market for answers.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 27, 2011 - It is quite clear that China dumps more inflation to developing nations than what was formerly predicted, according to an up-to-date International Monetary Fund (IMF) statement. When Chinese inflation raises 1 percent, it augments Asia-Pacific countries by 0.25-0.5 percent. The menace here, pursuant to the IMF report, is an ascending Chinese output compelling commodity prices to rise. Once inflation is in gear, currency values drop, gold market prices climb globally.

Global commodity prices can rise simultaneously with Chinese output by a 5 to 1 ratio, respectively. The report also stipulates that the Asian-Pacific region is particularly susceptible to commodity price growths since food and energy make up a considerable amount of normal daily expenditure.

Low wages and cheap currency are the strategies the Chinese are implementing to help construct a massive export-led growth engine. The ball park figure of the Chinese yuan’s assessment is that it has been minimized by 40%. This, in turn, causes Chinese products to be falsely inexpensive. China is also responsible for steering Western companies overseas and bringing with them their next generation technology. Goods are equally copied in China as made in China. There are quite a few Chinese who agree that the time has come to alter that arrangement but it will be arduous as long as China’s complete system represses originality by prioritizing rote learning instead of innovation.

As is expected, The United States Senate has something to say about all of this. They have currently voted for the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011, which grants the United States power to penalize any nation that manipulates its currency with special duties and tariffs. Everyone knows it is because of the Chinese although the assumption is nowhere to be found. Most likely the bill will not have its way in the House. Regardless of such, Beijing will probably not even blink if it did pass, but it could definitely spark a trade war. China has recently responded quite severely. The bill has been characterized by Beijing as trade protectionism and denounces it as a severe infringement of World Trade Organization rules. This is a very problematic situation that will eventually become dangerous if not addressed appropriately.

With these apprehensive situations lurking about, the Fed will most likely turn to monetary expansion to aid the United States, which, in turn, will help the world. And, as we know, the real beneficiaries here are gold market prices.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 26, 2011 – The gold market price has been acting very strangely of late. For the most part it remains almost flat, but then on Tuesday is jumped up $40 in just 2 hours and then leveled off again. What’s that about?

Actually, trying to make sense out of any market prices these days will serve only to make your brain hurt. All of these short-term gyrations are the result of a basis of exchange that has gone absolutely haywire. How can you fix a price when you can’t determine the value of a currency?

Thanks to the wisdom of central bankers everywhere, that situation will soon be resolved. Even Japan has its finger on the printing press once again. And “Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said a third round of large-scale securities purchases might become warranted if necessary to boost a U.S. economy challenged by unemployment and financial turmoil,” says Bloomberg.

Meanwhile CNBC reports that “the nonprofit State Budget Solutions … found that in total, states are in debt for $4.2 trillion,” adding an enormous – and insurmountable – amount to our total sovereign debt.

As for the national debt, the much heralded Deficit Commission is locked in a Mexican standoff. The Republicans have pledged not to raise taxes and the Democrats will surely use that to prevent any cuts to entitlements.

So we sink ever deeper into debt while the politicians play games and the Fed bumbles about printing more greenbacks. If you see a solution in that, please step back through the looking glass.

The free market may look like it has thrown in the towel, but don’t bet on it. Once the governments have diluted fiat money to worthlessness there will be no choice but to return to hard currency.

You will see the signs in gold market prices.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 24, 2011 – Hope for the free market is alive and well in America today and the gold market is leading the charge. It has been an uphill struggle, but as memories of the good old days begin to fade Americans are awakening to the cold hard truth: those days were but a cruel deception; an illusion designed to keeps us ignorant and happy while Wall Street siphoned off our wealth.

While Obama tells the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that government and business “can and must work together,” an overwhelming majority of Americans “believe that government and big business already work together against the interests of consumers and investors,” says Rasmussen Reports. A mere 13% disagree with that assessment.

In his book “In Search of Self-Governance,” Scott Rasmussen notes that “the gap today between Americans who want to govern themselves and politicians who want to rule over them may be as big as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century. And that’s true whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge.”

That’s one thing the Tea Party got right from the start. Thomas Paine could just as easily have writing about events today as he was the oppression of the English throne. Once in power governments will always seek to extend that power far beyond their mandate.

The AP reports that Obama believes the government’s role “is to support the economic foundation by spending public money to improve transportation, education and communications systems.” Yet today, as they did in the early 18th century, Americans perceive the role of government to be the protection of individual liberty and freedom.

The perception that the Fed lies in at the root our problems has been growing in Americans’ minds. Among likely voters just 5% have a very favorable view of the Fed according to a Rasmussen Reports survey. They know there must be a better way, and they are coming to realize that gold must be part of the solution.

You can already hear the rumblings of the mantra that Ron Paul has championed for decades: “End the Fed.” In their frantic search for a golden sword Republican hopefuls have seen the power of taking on that giant with the call for a return to the gold standard.

That’s the sort of answer American voters are so desperately seeking. And through the debate they will come to understand that it is not capitalism but the perversion of capitalism that has brought hardship down upon us.

They will find that the answer can be found in the pure simplicity and impartiality of the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 21, 2011 - The American gold market got sent a strong message when the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange (CGSE) opened its doors this week. First-day trading in the ‘Renminbi Kilobar Gold’ contract was brisk and the settlement price was $1,694 an ounce. Whatever the forces are that have been holding down the gold price here, they are in for a rude awakening.

That is precisely China’s intent. The CGSE takes China one step closer to its goal of having the renminbi become the next global reserve. They understand gold and they understand the western world’s infatuation with fiat money, so they are heavily promoting the new gold market as an ideal marriage of the two.

As a strong emerging economy the yuan is still appreciating, adding credence to China’s hype that Renminbi Kilobar Gold offers a double safe haven. In fact, at least into the foreseeable future, it should be just that.

Whenever China stubs its toe the pundits here rush to proclaim an end to China’s meteoric rise. But everything is relative, and compared to the withering western economies China still looks mighty good. Their economy may be cooling down, but it is still growing. Even stagnation would be an improvement here.

China’s domestic gold investment is growing at an astonishing rate – currently trebling every two years – which alone is sufficient to drive a healthy market. It won’t take long for American individual and institutional investors to realize the advantages of a gold market that isn’t fettered by special interests.

The CGSE, physically located in Hong Kong, was designed from the ground up to cater to international investors. Its trading day extends from 8:00 a.m. all the way to 3:30 a.m. the following day so investors everywhere on Earth can trade during normal business hours.

Of course I expect it won’t be long before Wall Street starts crying foul. At least for now the CGSE will be a relatively free market and that really upsets their apple cart. Just thinking of them getting their long overdue comeuppance puts a smile on my face.

Better get used to it. There’s a new game in town and it is going to change the rules of gold investing forever.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 19, 2011 – Moving individual investors into the gold market requires two major shifts in their thinking. The first is an understanding that their wealth is no longer safe in Wall Street’s hands.

One might say that should be patently obvious, but Americans want to believe in the hallowed tradition of the stock market. They recall the not so distant days when savvy investments were the means to wealth far beyond what they could hope to accumulate from a lifetime of wages. Wall Street embodies the American dream.

The stock market today, however, bears little resemblance to the free market of it halcyon days. Wall Street has degenerated into a casino where the tables are rigged for the benefit of a few insiders thanks to the government’s stranglehold on free market forces.

Investors, however, aren’t going to be fooled twice. The remarkable volatility of the Dow has caused individual investors to pull out of stock mutual funds to the tune of $60 billion in July and August, and they have staunchly resisted the temptation go back. Still, they have yet to move into the gold market, opting to ride the storm out holding cash instead.

The second shift requires investors to give up another cherished belief, that the dollar is infallible and eternal. That is a much greater obstacle to overcome, an almost indelible illusion kept alive by the Fed’s wanton money printing and credit expanding policies. Although it will take a seismic shock to topple that barrier, one could happen at any moment.

Actually, these two seemingly unshakeable paradigms have existed for only a few generations. They are the cornerstones of one more failed experiment in fiat money based on a belief that wealth can be created out of thin air. As children must leave behind their belief in Santa Claus and move on with their lives, so must society put aside its belief in free money.

We are rapidly approaching a watershed moment in our history, a reawakening to the fundamental tenets of capitalism: a free market and hard money. It will guide us back to a sound economic order where wealth is earned, not invented.

There is but one path to that future, and it runs straight through the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 17, 2011 – It seems impossible to me that denial remains a strong enough influence on gold market prices to make a difference. Yet some of the reaction to the Wall Street protests is beyond comprehension.

One man boasted that he was holding down three jobs to keep his family fed and ridiculed the protesters for being whiners. He honestly believed that the problem was the protesters, not the protested.

How can it be that prejudice so easily overpowers common sense? How can the distant memory of hippies somehow erase the realities of today? What can turn investors away from the gold market and into unreasonably high-risk equities? It boils down to a misguided sense of patriotism.

Patriots, quite simply, love their country and they want it to flourish. But patriots also must be vigilant against their government assuming powers not granted to it by the Constitution. Patriots know that a free market and minimalist government are necessary for continued prosperity, and that it is their duty to keep the government in check.

Above all, patriots are fiercely independent. They would rather care for themselves than hand over their wealth to politicians in hopes that the fraction they receive in return might be sufficient.

When you get right down to it, there really isn’t so much disparity in American beliefs. We just have a hard time getting on the same page with certain other people. But if we don’t get over that – and soon – we will all be in for harder times than we care to imagine.

Americans – in all of our diversity – have always come together in crisis. We could come together now, if only the crisis were truly understood. Instead we let politics turn us against each other while it protects those responsible for the mess we are in.

Wall Street is not the bastion of the American Way as many apparently believe it to be. It is the antithesis, a toxic collusion between the State, a rogue central bank, and shady high rollers intent on thwarting the free market. We have a patriotic duty to bring an end to that alliance.

Gratefully cracks are appearing in their defenses despite the denial as gold market prices continue rising against Wall Street’s best efforts to hold them back.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 14, 2011 – The gold market may well be the last bastion against the new socialism. I’m not talking about trivial entitlements but our entire monetary system.

In Whiskey & Gunpowder, Detlev Schlichter offers this profound distinction between capitalism and our economic system: “Either the market chooses what is money, or the state does.”

“The money of the free market, of capitalism, has always been commodity money that is outside of political control,” Schlichter says. “Almost all societies, throughout all cultures and civilizations, have come to use precious metals as money.” The reason is simple. The gold market is immune from politics. Gold cannot be created at will, and thus it has value that transcends political boundaries. It is money of and for the people.

Fiat money, on the other hand, is money strictly of and for the state. It puts the finances of individuals, Schlichter says, “not in the hands of the unfettered market, but in the hands of the state, of politicians and central bankers. This system is properly called a socialist one, not a capitalist one. And this system has failed.”

The system has failed for the same reasons that the Soviet experiment failed: When national wealth is placed in the hands of the state it is out of the reach of the general population. The people get poorer while the elite get richer, and productivity falls while unrest grows. And the forces of the free market strengthen until even the might of once great nations can no longer resist.

It was once unthinkable that the Soviet Union could crumble from within. Then in what seems like the blink of an eye it was no more. Ultimately that will be the fate of any socialist state. The days of economic socialism are numbered.

The fortress of dollars holding back the free market will soon be breached, and the gold market will be leading the charge.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 12, 2011 – The gold market once again has proven its resiliency. Despite what surely smells of a concerted effort by Wall Street and western central banks to drive them down, gold market prices have resumed their upward trajectory.

Twenty or thirty years ago it may have worked. In fact, it did work. Only recently has the gold market been able to overcome the downward pressure government interference. Gold’s recent extraordinary growth, which the bears point to a sure sign of a bubble, is nothing more than catching up to where it should be.

Something had to change to let that happen, and what did is fiat money. When currencies were strong, or at least perceived to be strong, governments had the power manipulate the gold market. But over the past three decades the global money supply has increased seven-fold, severely diluting the worth of currencies and the influence they once could exert.

Fiat money dies hard, especially the greenback. People find the concept of the once almighty dollar deteriorating to third world status hard to swallow. But wishful thinking cannot stand up to harsh reality forever. Humans instinctively value gold, and they will inevitably go back to it when currencies fail.

I doubt anybody can explain why that is, but not understanding the worth we have always put on gold is no reason not to accept it. It is a basic fact of human existence that we value gold and there is absolutely no cause to think that will change.

Perhaps past lessons have left an indelible impression. Humankind has witnessed the failure of every previous attempt to institute fiat money, yet wealth has endured in the form of gold. In the end the money printers will always go down for the count while those with gold investments raise their hands in victory.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 10, 2011 – Keynesians love wars and the war on deflation is right up their alley. It all hinges on the belief that if you can create sufficient destruction then you can manufacture wealth by patching things up. But the Keynesians have an unusual brother-in-arms in this war – the supposed free market advocates of Friedman’s Chicago School.

“Their basic position,” says Robert P. Murphy in Agora Financial’s Whiskey & Gunpowder, “is that we are in a severe economic slump because Ben Bernanke has been too tight with monetary policy the past three years.” Somehow the totally ludicrous concept of “having the central bank print up new money to pay the government's bills” has found substantial support well outside the Keynesian camp

Real people, however, don’t have much of a problem with deflation. If you ask the man in the street what he thinks about inflating our way out of debt he’ll think your nuts. And probably try to hit you up for a hundred bucks to boot.

When prices go down it makes real people happy. It’s the American way. Competition naturally holds down prices, so to boost profit margins companies need to continually innovate. The never ending cycle of making more, making it better, and making it for less is the backbone of a healthy economy. When people buy more stuff, factories build more stuff and stores sell more stuff – all the while hiring more people to keep pace. Heaven forbid.

Unfortunately there is nothing at all healthy about our economy. People today aren’t consuming because they are out of cash, they are maxed out on credit, and their wealth is disappearing before their eyes. They understand that the only way out is to pay as we go for what we need and save up for the things we want. They now realize that economic recovery begins with fiscal restraint and sound money.

A free market cannot function without hard money. Money that can be easily inflated makes it impossible to set a stable price that balances out supply and demand. The problem is we have been living with a perverted free market for so long that even our scholars have forgotten what the real thing looks like.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 07, 2011 – The insane and totally unfounded faith in the dollar has to come to an end, but for those holding vast sums of US debt, there is a problem. Move too fast and everything you hold goes down the drain. But move too slowly and you end up holding nothing but air.

It’s no secret that major holders of US debt – i.e. China – have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to divest of toxic US notes, but the urgency has been noticeably growing of late. Last week central bank liquidation of US Treasuries quadrupled over that of the week before, to the tune of $32 billion.

By itself that might seem like a drop in the bucket, but in light of developments in the Asian gold market, the significance is clear.

Next year the Pan Asia Gold Exchange (PAGE) will open. Unlike western markets, which trade paper 100 times more frequently than physical gold, PAGE trade will leverage the renminbi one for one with gold. The move away from paper transactions is one more sign that the Chinese intend to create a new global monetary system based on the renminbi and soundly backed with gold.

These events are extremely important to American investors. There is no question that a shift away from aging fiat monies is well under way and that major players are already buying up gold for wealth preservation. The gold price simply cannot continue to resist the upward pressure much longer.

Central banks, and the Fed in particular, are well aware of what’s going on and will do everything possible to preserve what’s left of their currencies’ worth. But as demand grows for gold’s limited supply, the market will prevail.

The current pullback is totally artificial and the extraordinary buying opportunity it has created will soon be gone. Wise investors ought not pass this one up.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 5, 2011 - In yet another eerie recollection of the fall crisis of 2008, liquidity problems in the banking system are making themselves known day by day. This time the hysteria is mainly emanating from Greece. The hook on the line is that banks exposed to bad Greek debt, notoriously including Societe Generale, UniCredit, and Dexia, threaten to debase the Euro and cause a significant rift in the European Union.

Could all of this happen? Of course. It bears consideration, however, that in our world the hype seems to hurt more than the bite ever could. How long now have the problems in Greece been adversely affecting markets? That amounts to, as far as we could possibly know, trillions lost on bad news. I’m not saying that a major failure associated with Greece would not hurt (that’s a whole other story), but I am saying we have a direct correlation between what we think can happen and the action in the markets that, at times, is less than reasonable.

A lot of investors have been put off by the losses in gold in the past month. What does this have to do with it, you ask? In actuality, the same thing is taking place on two levels. First, some gold investors, instead of taking the long view, insist on screaming at the sight of a mouse and do something stupid like sell or get paralyzed when it comes time to buy. Is it not the trait of great investors to know when these two things are occurring and to do exactly the opposite?

But if this alone doesn’t make perfect sense to you, let me give you the numbers. At the very least, it will keep your mind occupied for a while. Although we have not seen a major bank collapse like Lehman, the conditions prevalent in the market are eerily similar to the climate we were in back when Lehman did collapse. One of the effects of the, for lack of a better word, hysteria then as now was a credit crunch. Banks and investors, on fears of what may happen and in reaction to what fear has already caused in the market, are using their remaining liquidity to cover losses and hedge bets.

The second level on which the negative hype is working is the credit crunch is adversely affecting gold prices through the futures markets, because the money that was there has been siphoned off to deal with other things. Do not be one of the fooled. There may briefly be shiny investments besides buying gold in the meantime, but no investment will outdo gold in the coming months and years. Recognize the fear and paralysis and do the opposite.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 4, 2011 - While stock markets in the US languish, buying gold is looking brighter and brighter. Every time I read a headline like the S&P 500 declined to a ten month low on Tuesday, a 20% loss from its peak in April, I shake my head. The satisfaction that comes with knowing you have made the right investment while in an uncertain market, and that you’ve done it with a certified coin dealer, brings a sense of peace in the present and an ease about the future.

Everyday, I talk with American people who are watching prices go up and their 401(k)’s go down and they’re mad as hell. But some of them don’t know if it’s the right time to buy gold and silver. If the market hasn’t convinced you, pull up your chair closer and let me tell you how it feels to buy gold.

With other, riskier investments, you put all your faith in paper that you never really own and you have to watch and fret about what it’s doing on a daily basis. John Brynjolfsson, former PIMCO fund manager, has recently stated that because the European Central Bank is so exposed to the Greek crisis, the ideal way to both preserve your assets and play the crisis is buying gold.

When you purchase gold coins from a certified coin dealer, you carry a bright piece of the future around in your pocket and you know you’re safe no matter what happens overseas. Believe me, that’s a great feeling. You can check the spot price if you want to, but you know without a doubt that your future has value and you carry it with you.

Sometimes, I talk with retired Americans who just want a bit of sanity and safety in the world. Buying gold keeps your money out of the reach of the people who got us in this mess! When you receive a certified gold coin, it’s safety you can hold in the palm of your hand. The beauty of gold is such that you can hand that coin to your children or to your grandchildren one day and you know they’re getting the kind of value you want them to have in their lives always. That’s a beautiful feeling.

Speaking to working Americans who don’t yet have a Gold IRA, I say, “What are you waiting for? The market to drop another 250?” Ask Certified Gold Exchange for information on how to convert your existing IRA into a Certified Gold IRA. They work with two of the most highly regarded Gold IRA custodians in the country and their Certified Gold IRA Advisers know what they are doing. You can also initiate a Gold IRA with a direct transfer. It functions with the same protections of a traditional IRA account, but you have the added benefit of investing in gold and the distance that gold affords you from the trouble with the markets.

There’s never been a more urgent need to convert to gold than now. Why wait for the stock market to shed another three hundred points or for the price of food and gas to go up again? Gold is the best performing asset of the past twelve months! Time to get a piece of the action.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

October 3, 2011 - Markets around the world reflected worry over the Greek financial crisis. Overnight, the Hang Seng Index was down 4.4%. The Shanghai and the Nikkei Indices were also down. In the US, stocks were down more than 1% during intraday trading.

What’s the cause for worry? On Sunday, Greece released via the Associated Press that it would not be able to meet its budget reduction targets that it set out just a few months ago. This reflects negatively on the entire rescue package and, pending further developments, may signal that the actions already taken to keep the Mediterranean country solvent are not enough.

The resultant action in the markets signals how much investors are worried. The Euro lost ground in currency markets, falling to an 8½ month low against the dollar. Even Brent crude was down to $101 on worries over the Greek debt crisis.

Uncertainty overseas has revealed a strong faith and trust in gold. Following the recent correction in the gold market, the price is unusually good to get in and increasingly people are getting in. However, the current positive gains are steady, smooth, and even, reflecting the desire of investors all over the world to put their money where it will be safe in the uncertainty of the Greek situation.

Precious metals gained Monday amid the uncertainty and turmoil in other markets, with gold up by over $30 in intraday trading. In the unsafe environments that markets are now reflecting, there is a continued, steady shift into gold because it is a safe haven asset from the storm in the Mediterranean.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 27, 2011 - It is a fact that even though gold does not hold the status of a predominant currency in countries that are developed, it still has an impressive repercussion on the value of such legal tender. There is also a fervent affiliation incorporating the might of currencies trading on foreign exchanges along with gold’s worth.

Two outlooks that help identify the relationship between gold and money are:

• The value of imports and exports is very much connected to the worth of a nation’s currency. The value of its currency will decrease when a nation imports more than it exports. Although when a country is a net exporter, the worth of its money will augment. Accordingly a nation that sends gold overseas or has the rights to gold reserves will observe a boost in the potency of its currency as gold prices increase, given that this increases the value of the country’s entire exports.
  • To make this clearer, an increase in the price of gold can help counterbalance a trade deficit or create a trade surplus. On the other hand, countries that are great foreign buyers of gold will certainly end up enduring a debilitated currency when the price of gold rises.
  • Nations that focus in manufacturing items composed of gold, despite not having personal gold reserves, will be great gold importers. As a result, those nations will be very much affected by hikes in gold prices.
• The manner in which most people value a nation’s currency is by utilizing gold as the ultimate alternative. It is widely known that a connection does exist amidst the value of a fiat currency and the price of gold, except that it does not work exactly opposite one another.
  • An example of this is if there is an elevated demand from an industry that is dependent upon gold for production; this will induce gold prices to escalate. This could be going on at the same time that the local currency is also extremely valued. Consequently, while the price of gold can often be used as an indication of the U.S. dollar’s worth, conditions need to be scrutinized to establish if a contrary relationship is undeniably suitable.

The value of global currencies is greatly influenced by the yellow precious metal. Despite the abandonment of the gold standard, gold as an article of trade can perform as a replacement for fiat currencies and be utilized as an efficient hedge against inflation. It is highly likely that gold will persist in portraying an essential role in the foreign exchange markets. Hence, it is a key metal to trail and examine for its exclusive capability to symbolize the well being of both local and international financial systems.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 22, 2011 - The investment and consumer fields regard gold as highly important which is why it is one of the most widely discussed metals. Undeterred by the fact that gold is no longer bestowed as a principal type of currency in developed nations, it persists having a powerful effect on the worth of those currencies. Additionally, there is a strong association linking its value and the strength of currencies trading on foreign exchanges.

The connection between gold and money is contingent upon certain perspectives, three of them being:

• Since the 4th century, gold was used to support fiat currencies, or the different exchanges acknowledged as legal tender in their country of origin. Up until the 20th century, the precious metal was used as the world reserve currency; the United States adopted the gold standard as far as 1971 when President Nixon abandoned it.
  • Gold was utilized because it limited the quantity of money countries were permitted to print. Countries had restricted gold stockpiles available back then as we do now. Prior to the gold standard’s desertion, nations couldn’t merely print their fiat currencies as much as they wished. They could only do so if they had an equal amount of gold which kept money makers in check.

Even though the gold standard is not part of the economic philosophy in developed worlds, several economists believe we ought to go back to it on account of the unpredictability of the U.S. dollar as well as other currencies.

• When countries endure high levels of inflation, investors typically buy large quantities of gold. The claim for gold boosts throughout inflationary periods because of its intrinsic value and confined supply. Gold is capable of maintaining value much better than other forms of currency merely because it cannot be adulterated.
  • In April 2011, investors dreaded moribund values of fiat currency and the price of gold soared to a whopping $1,500 an ounce (actually it reached $1,900 this month). This denotes there was little credence in the currencies on the world market and that outlooks for future economic solidity were bleak.
• Supply and demand of the domestic currency can be disturbed and inflation might emerge when central banks buy gold. This is mostly because banks depend on printing more money to buy gold, thus generating a surplus supply of the fiat money.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

What does it mean to invest?

Very simply defined, it is the act of contributing money, time, or energy into a worthwhile entity where you feel positive that your contribution will be multiplied or advantageous to you.

In this article, I will explain the benefits of traditional monetary investments, but I will set one apart which possesses exclusive merits.

Traditional Investments

• Stocks - Shares in a company. There are two types of stocks: common and preferred. You are part- owner of a company when you invest in a company’s stock or buy its shares. Different stocks fluctuate more than others, but it is this high risk that can bring high returns in the long run. Stocks normally outperform other traditional paper investments.
• Bonds - As an economic boost, government and corporate entities can sell bonds. Purchasing a bond means lending money for the promise of reimbursement along with a stipulated annual return.
• Property  - Property investments include apartment buildings and houses and are used to produce ongoing rental income. These properties should also generate capital gains as property values accumulate over time.
• Mutual Funds - Mutual funds are an investment where a group of investors pool their money and hire a portfolio manager. The manager invests this money in stocks, bonds and/or other investment securities. The fund manager then continues to buy and sell stocks and securities according to the style set by the fund’s plan.

The Classis Investment

GOLD

Gold is admired and revered throughout the world for its value and rich history which has been entwined into cultures for hundreds of centuries. It was around 800 B.C. that coins containing gold appeared and, since then, people have continued to possess gold for many reasons.

Value consistency - Unlike paper currency or other assets, gold has maintained its value throughout the ages. People see gold as a way to pass on and safeguard their wealth for generations to come.

Devalued dollar - The U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency, but as we know this will most

likely change due to an unstable economy which has prompted people to flock to the security of gold.

Inflation/Deflation - Gold has historically been an excellent hedge against inflation because as the cost of living increases, so does the value of gold. During the 1930’s, gold’s value rocketed while businesses slowed and the economy was in tremendous debt. Today we are seeing this same pattern.

Supply/Demand – Since the 1990s the gold supply has come from sales of gold bullion from the vaults of global central banks. Global central banks showed slower buying potential in 2008 and new mines can take up to 10 years to begin producing. Normally, a reduction in the supply of gold increases gold prices.

Gold is frequently referred to as the ‘crisis commodity’ because people feel secure investing in it when tensions are high throughout the world. It is probably one of the best investments in any diversified portfolio.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 19, 2011 - Now that the 9/11 hubbub has died down, I would like to pass along a minor event that struck me as very odd that day and that I believe is strikingly relevant today. Shortly after the first tower had been hit some nervous people called security asking if they should leave the building. They were told to stay put, and they did.

I couldn’t understand why presumably rational adults would feel it necessary to get permission before taking themselves away from what they clearly sensed was a troublesome situation. How long would it have taken to go outside to see for themselves if it was safe to return? And having failed to secure permission, wouldn’t it have been prudent to at least send an emissary down to confirm your safety? Why would they risk their lives on the opinion of someone who most likely was not equipped to assess the risk of what had certainly been an extraordinarily unusual event?

I have brought this up many times in conversation and the typical response is, “It may not always work out in the best possible way, but we need authority to prevent chaos. And we have to trust authority to know what is best for us.” No, we do not. We should not. We dare not.

That’s how we got to where we are right now. We listened to authority, and we trusted it. But the problem is not with authority, per se. The danger lies in the assumption that the mere act of being in power somehow bestows one with special knowledge and wisdom.

For the past 40 years we blindly followed our economic sages to the point where it now takes four bucks of debt to produce one buck’s worth of growth. Yet the powers that be insist that leveraging debt even more is the appropriate action to take.

Americans still cling to the belief that father knows best even though their gut keeps shouting “Get out before it all comes crashing down around you!” But just as it was on that blackest of days, an irreversible chain of events has already been set in motion. All of the well intentioned efforts of the most brave and honorable men cannot prevent the inevitable.

Yet once again we’re on the edge of our seats in breathless anticipation of encouraging words from the bearded oracle. But to paraphrase an old saw, if what he says seems too nuts to be true – it probably is.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 16, 2011 - According to the more vehement gold bears everybody and his brother are poised to pull the plug on the gold market. But just what are those maniacal forces, and are they really all that powerful? First you have to understand what really drives the price of gold.

Gold is a very interesting element because virtually all there was when this planet formed is still here, either still in the ground or as part of the above ground supply. Today there exists roughly 165,000 tons of above-ground gold throughout the world, and that will be our point of reference.

In 2010 mines produced 2,869 tons of gold, adding only about 1.6% to the above-ground supply, while jewelry constituted 49% of demand and 28% went into bars and coins. Technology consumed just 11% and the big funds only 8%. When you add it all up, demand accounted for just 2.6% of the total available supplies. So where is all the gold?

Assuming that the Fed hasn’t surreptitiously disposed of any of its reserves – they are not required to disclose such things – then the US holds 30% of global sovereign reserves. What would happen if our central bank decided to alleviate the debt crisis by selling all of our gold? In the first place the current value of our reserves is only around $500 billion, and it’s a pretty good bet that China would scarf it up because they hold a meager 0.6% of sovereign gold and a whole bunch more of US debt.

In fact, central banks worldwide hold less than 17% of above-ground gold, and no bank is likely to completely divest its holdings. The most volatile of holders, the ETFs, would rank as the sixth largest nation with 1.3% of available gold, and still that’s not what you would call a major force.

Even if you factor in growing demand, existing supplies of gold could meet needs for at least 30 years. Clearly the supply of above-ground gold cannot be liquid – otherwise the price would be a fraction of what it is today and the mines would be out of business. That must mean that the current gold price is below the reserve necessary to free up the assets.

The reason for that is obvious. In the global markets gold is real money. There is no such thing as the price of gold – gold only sets the price of currency. You can’t pull the plug on that.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 15, 2011 - Action speaks louder than words, so they tell me. But so does inaction, and that is precisely what we need from the Fed next week. But gathering from all the words overflowing the blogosphere this week, Wall Street’s bearded guru is going to be hard pressed to give at least the appearance of doing something, and most of the suggestions are downright laughable.

Bernanke could, for example, announce a new 50-year IOU. You read that right – kick the old debt can a half century down the road. At least everyone involved will be dead by then – either from natural causes or at the hands of those called on to shoulder decades more of slowly mounting misery.

No, that’s not meant to be inflammatory, just an honest assessment of the outcome of continued neglect of America’s heart and soul – the middle class. It’s high time to take off the blinders and look for another lane to run in. Forget all this nonsense about jump starting the economy from the top down. It ain’t working and it ain’t gonna work.

What we the American people need is a good slap across the face to stop the hysterics and bring us back to our senses. Take a quick trip to Somalia to let those people how bad things are back here. Try drumming up some sympathy for how much you have to pay to fill the tank on your land barge just to tow your four-wheelers out to the mountains for a day of desecrating the wilderness. Tell them how hard times have forced you to eat hot dogs instead of steak one night a week. Explain to them how badly all of the wide-bodies back home are suffering at the hands of evil forces.

And before you leave, take a good look around. You just might get a glimpse into the future of our own middle class. That’s the road the good shepherd Bernanke is taking us down, but we don’t have to follow passively behind, bleating our discontentment with every step.

America was born a nation of irrepressible rebels with boundless vision and the intestinal fortitude to match. And that is still in our DNA. Work needs doing and we can’t afford to wait for Uncle Sam to get it done. Things can get only nastier the longer we delay.

It is up to us to first ensure our families’ continued well being with gold investment and then get down to the work of rebuilding America from the ground up.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 14, 2011 - As in the first part of this two-part series, the questions guiding the focus are:

• What is the expectation when investing in gold?
• What is it about the gold market that attracts people?

These questions are important because the USD is not backed by gold anymore yet is still a very important part of global economy (as well as any well thought-out portfolio).

To authenticate this fact, we only need to turn to central banks as well as the International Monetary Fund which together hold roughly one-fifth of the world’s supply above-ground gold. Looking at their reserve balance sheets, you find the importance of gold! Just as interesting is the fact that several central banks have concentrated their efforts on supplementing their present gold reserves.

Safeguarding Your Resources

For centuries, a verifiable truth is that gold has efficaciously protected wealth which is why it is still so significant within our modern economy. Can that be said about the greenback and other paper-denominated currencies? Contemplate the following before answering:

• 1970- one ounce of gold=$35
• Today, if you would have that same ounce of gold and converted it into modern prices, it is worth a whole lot more than the $35 in 1970. (I would rather have the ounce of gold rather than the $35!)

Reality: A Weakening USD = GOLD Uproar

The idea that gold preserves wealth is indeed more important in an economic setting where investors are confronted with a waning U.S. dollar and increasing inflation (because of growing commodity prices). Factually, gold has helped as a hedge with respect to both of these circumstances. When inflation rises, gold typically increases in value. When investors comprehend that their money is dropping in value, they will begin placing their investments in a hard asset that has traditionally kept its value. The 1970s demonstrate a key example of mounting gold prices in the middle of rising inflation.

The fact that gold is priced in U.S. around the globe is the reason that it profits from a weakening dollar.

Why?

1. To begin with, investors who are thinking of buying gold need to sell their U.S. dollars to complete this transaction. This eventually brings the U.S. dollar lower as global investors pursue diversifying away from the dollar.

2. An additional motive has to do with the fact that a dwindling dollar makes gold inexpensive for investors who hold other currencies. The end result is more demand from investors who are in possession of currencies that have increased in worth relative to the U.S. dollar.

The Safest Port in the Storm

Our contemporary economic situation embraces political and economic skepticism whether we are discussing controversies in the Middle East, Africa or elsewhere. It is because if this that investors normally look at gold as a safe haven throughout times of political and economic doubt.

What is truly behind the action of flocking to gold in times of political and economic uncertainty?

It’s quite simple to understand. Our history is brimming with folded empires, political overthrows, and the downfall of currencies. Throughout these times, investors who secured their gold were able to effectively safeguard their wealth and, in some cases, even take advantage of their stockpiles to retreat from the chaos. Thus, whenever there are news events that suggest some type of uncertainty, investors will often purchase gold as a safe haven.

Putting It All Together

This is precisely why owning gold is considered to be a diversifying investment. Irrespective of whether you are apprehensive about inflation, a weakening U.S. dollar, or even guarding your wealth, it is apparent that gold has historically functioned as an investment that can add a diversifying piece to your portfolio. If your reason is merely diversification, remember that gold is not linked to stocks, bonds, and real estate.

Various Approaches

These days there are different ways to invest in the precious metal as opposed to hundreds of years ago.

Physical

• Gold Coins (the safest way to invest in gold)
• Gold Bullion
• Gold Jewelry

Paper

• Gold Stocks (companies)
• Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
• Gold Mutual Funds
• Gold Futures

As with all investments, there are advantages to each type. How you invest in gold depends upon your needs and desires.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 13, 2011 - What is the expectation when investing in gold? These days, investors can entrust their money and thought into a wide variety of preferences when the decision has been made to capitalize with gold. The alternatives to buying physical gold range from exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to gold stocks. But what is it about the gold market that attracts people?

Well, the answer to the first and last question in the previous paragraph lies in opposing views:

• First of all, there is the opinion that gold is something of the past that does not possess any long-lasting monitory potential. Our contemporary setting establishes gold’s only advantage as being a metal that is used in trinkets.
• Then there are those that declare that gold is a useful resource with numerous inherent potentials that make it rare and essential enough to be part of a profitable diversified portfolio.

To be able to appreciate the very reason for gold, we must turn to the beginning. The gold market didn’t commence until 560 B.C., despite its past going as far back as 3000 B.C. when ancient Egyptians began crafting jewelry. But let’s return to 560 B.C. which is when gold began its currency undertaking.

It was precisely in this period that traders wanted to generate a homogeneous and easily exchangeable form of money that would facilitate trade. The conception of a gold coin imprinted with a seal appeared to be the solution because jewelry made from gold was already recognized and acknowledged in many important parts of the world.

With the entrance of gold as currency, it quickly became increasingly reputable. Our global history has instances of gold's effect in many empires, like the Greek and Roman empires. Great Britain industrialized its own metal-based currency in 1066. The British pound (representing a pound of sterling silver), shillings, and pence were all founded on the quantity of gold (or silver) that it symbolized. All over Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, owning gold finally became the equivalent of prosperity.

In the late 1700s, US policymakers instituted a bimetallic standard. It merely quantified that all monetary units in the United States had to be supported by either gold or silver.

• An illustration of this is when one U.S. dollar was the equivalent of 24.75 grains of gold meaning the coins that were used as money merely symbolized the gold (or silver) that was currently deposited at the bank.

Nothing in life can resume without obstacles and the gold standard was no exception. The 1900s brought several crucial happenings that ultimately headed to the conversion of gold reduced from monetary system.

• The Federal Reserve was founded in 1913 and began promulgating promissory notes. These notes guaranteed that the paper could be exchanged in gold whenever needed.
• In 1934, the Gold Reserve Act provided the U.S. government title to all the gold coins in circulation and culminated the minting of any new gold coins. This move instigated the idea that gold or gold coins were not at all compulsory in serving as money.
• Finally, in 1971, America relinquished the gold standard when the U.S. currency concluded its backing by gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 12, 2011 - On Thursday, Ben Bernanke made it clear in a speech in Minneapolis that the Fed will aid in the rebuilding of the economy particularly in reviving high growth rates and the job market. During the third week in September there will be an extended monetary policy in which Bernanke will probably acknowledge more Fed action.

Despite this, the chairman of the Federal Reserve sidestepped any talk in detail about decisions concerning what he will promote. He also recognized the complications that policymakers are dealing with. Mr. Bernanke refrained from discussing anything related to policy before the Fed’s following meeting.

His observations have not helped those in search of sweeping actions in dealing with a weakening economy, for example a current load of quantitative easing or approval of higher inflation in the short term.

Mr. Bernanke is quite optimistic about the overall prospect of growth within the economy. He “expects a moderate recovery to continue and indeed to strengthen over time.” Is the rate- setting Federal Open Market Committee alone in their opinion? Despite Bernanke’s optimism, he also stated that the Fed has cut its growth forecasts adding that inflation should drop back to a rate at or below the Fed’s 2 percent objective.

Both speeches (Jackson Hole and Minneapolis) were very similar except, in one instance, while talking about “employing tools as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery,” he also added that they will undoubtedly do everything within their power to help the economy.

The Federal Reserve’s meeting in August maintained that interest rates will be kept unusually low until mid-2013, despite a few officials who wanted to do more in August whereas some others had conflicting views.

Tough resistance from the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee about a desperate alternative is what will be dealt with if a balance sheet rejig is performed. A balance sheet rejig would shift its investments into longer-term bonds to attempt to force long-term interest rates even lower.

Mr. Bernanke stated, “Economic policymakers face a range of difficult decisions, and every household and business must cope with the stresses and uncertainties that our current situation presents. These are not easy tasks.”

He reaffirmed his long-term confidence about the economic health of the US, claiming that he does not anticipate its growth potential to be debilitated by the recession as long as policymakers, fiscal as well as monetary, take the essential steps.

Throughout the next couple of years, the Federal Reserve has reduced their estimate of the economy’s potential growth.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 07, 2011 – Forget about the recent wobble in the gold market and the brief rebounds in the decline of stocks. Gold has entered a “super-cycle” that “will end all the other major bull markets,” says Swiss asset manager Urs Gmuer. And in MarketWatch Michael Kahn warns that “a cyclical bear market has begun” in stocks.

The only thing keeping stocks afloat has been strong corporate profits, but companies have been sitting on the cash and not investing it into growth. American spending, however, is reaching its limits. Not only were there no new net jobs last month – and that is a strong contraction in a growing labor force – there was also a decline in wages.

Expectations are for a steep drop in third-quarter earnings for the S&P 500 and Credit Suisse equity strategist Douglas Cliggott predicts earnings will continue to fall throughout next year. “Even nuts and bolts chart reading is serving up bad news,” says Kahn. “The trend line that supported the bull market from its March 2009 origin has been soundly broken to the downside.”

Meanwhile real inflation is rapidly eroding what little discretionary funds Americans have left. Tom McClellan on businessinsider.com brings up an interesting twist on the CPI figures – the housing crisis is helping the government fudge its numbers.

While the government excludes necessities such as food and fuel from its reports, it conveniently includes housing in the headline CPI. Housing accounts for 42% of the index, and depressed housing prices significantly offset increases in everything else. Strip away the housing data and the government’s own slanted figures show inflation is running at 4.8%.

Lot’s of investors saw it coming late in May and frantically set out in search of shelter. The Swiss franc, the cornerstone of a stable and cautious economy, suddenly became very popular, and the price shot up nearly 17% in just two months. But the Swiss weren’t all too happy about foreign speculators having so much influence over their economy.

Sound as it was, the franc is still fiat money. The Swiss central bank had the treasury print up gobs of new bills, bringing the price escalation to a screeching halt. Now it says that it will hold the price to 1.2 euro, which should debunk the idea of currency as a safe haven once and for all.

But the crashing franc had a curious backlash – folks sold off gold to recoup the greenbacks they lost buying francs, causing gold to falter and the dollar to rise. Panicked investors do some pretty crazy things, but the effects never last.

With all of its rivals laid to waste, gold investment has once again proven to be the only safe harbor.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

September 02, 2011 – The employment data is in: No new jobs. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Now that is going to be tough to spin. But spin they must, as stocks tumble and gold leaps up.

The Fed claims that half of its mandate is to create jobs, although the logic behind that eludes me. Their money games so far have had the exact opposite effect. This whole jobs thing is becoming and enormous pain where our politicians sit – and I don’t mean on their hands. Since Congress has proven itself to be completely impotent, even more pressure will be heaped on the Fed to pull some rabbit out of the hat.

So get ready for some new cockamamie variation on the Fed’s tired old theme. It shouldn’t take very long at all to recognize the tune. But spin they will. Even today the Wall Street Journal attributes slumping stocks to “worries that the economy is headed into recession.”

That’s just the sort of language that keeps the illusion alive. “Recession is coming! Call in the cavalry and head it off at the pass!” But we are not headed for recession. We are not in recession. We are not headed for a depression. We are not in a depression. We are in what the Daily Reckoning has for a very long time called the Great Correction.

You can’t fix a correction, you have to fix the underlying system. And that system is way past the time when plain old Band Aids are of any use. The longer the government insists on fighting the correction, the bloodier the battle will get. As things stand right now, it’s going to get very ugly.

America has lost all faith in our leadership, and that makes for a very volatile and dangerous situation. As individuals we tend to be rather meek, so as long as most of us are OK with the way things are the government can maintain control. Today, however, discontent is sweeping over the nation like an Arizona dust storm. As people are drawn together by common grievance, individuality will give way to mob rule.

It won’t take much of a spark to set it off. And it could happen at any moment. But is it inevitable? Let’s just say that the possibility is very real. That should be reason enough to seek safe haven in the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 31, 2011 – If you want to understand the gold market today, you have to understand why the government abandoned the gold standard in the first place. This excerpt from an essay by a particularly influential man does an admirable job of explaining it:

The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit. They have created paper reserves in the form of government bonds which — through a complex series of steps — the banks accept in place of tangible assets and treat as if they were an actual deposit, i.e., as the equivalent of what was formerly a deposit of gold. The holder of a government bond or of a bank deposit created by paper reserves believes that he has a valid claim on a real asset. But the fact is that there are now more claims outstanding than real assets. The law of supply and demand is not to be conned. As the supply of money (of claims) increases relative to the supply of tangible assets in the economy, prices must eventually rise. Thus the earnings saved by the productive members of the society lose value in terms of goods. When the economy's books are finally balanced, one finds that this loss in value represents the goods purchased by the government for welfare or other purposes with the money proceeds of the government bonds financed by bank credit expansion.

The author? None other than Alan Greenspan, way back in 1966 – five years before Nixon severed the final ties to gold.

Sadly Greenspan’s thirst for power overcame his conscience, and he was instrumental in bringing about the very state of affairs he once warned about. But now he seems to have had a change of heart, perhaps an attempt at requital.

Greenspan, speaking at a recent conference, said in no uncertain terms that “gold, unlike all other commodities, is a currency,” a clear rebuttal of statements made by the current chair. Flatly debunking claims that gold is in a bubble Greenspan attributes rising prices to demand that is “not for anything other than an escape from what is perceived to be a fiat money system, paper money, that seems to be deteriorating.”

The link to Greenspan’s early essay is inescapable, and his conclusion is strikingly relative today: “Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.”

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 29, 2011 - Another rash of key economics indicators comes out this week, numbers sure to be spun for the government’s confidence game. But two issues, if not satisfactorily resolved, will make everything else irrelevant.

The first is the final test of our government’s viability. The budget deadline is fast approaching and what matters most to this economy is whether our government can get its act together and pass a budget in time. Doing so would give our country an enormous boost in global confidence, but I fear we are in for a debacle that will far eclipse even that of the debt ceiling debate.

The second issue is of course, Europe. The eurozone’s current superpower, Germany, is having a very tough time selling its citizens on the idea of continued charity to its irresponsible neighbors. Their policy is being hotly contested in the courts of both the legal system and popular opinion, and the outcome is no mystery. Without Germany’s continued support a eurozone meltdown becomes ever more likely, an event that would release more than enough energy to start a chain reaction in the global economy.

The American people feel it – mortgage purchase have plunged more than 7% year over year while the year-over-year increase in the M1 money supply is the highest in history. They have realized that nobody is flying the plane; we are now under remote control.

As long as the government’s economic policy stays fixed on coercing its citizens to spend beyond their means and to invest in risky assets, and as long as the government continues spinning the numbers to stoke up false confidence, the crisis will continue to get exponentially worse.

If I were to give credit to Dr. Bernanke for anything, it would be for his apparent recognition that our leadership has to grow up and get serious before we can hope to get anywhere. This economy simply cannot survive under a government that forces itself to live hand to mouth.

But still nobody has taken the pilot’s seat. Until someone does, one gold parachute will be worth more than all the cash in the world.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 26, 2011 – Why anybody actually expected that anything momentous would come out of Jackson Hole is beyond me, but as predicted the gold market has been running amok all morning. Yet the only vital message continues to go unspoken.

The Fed has failed and the reason is clear: you cannot micromanage an economy. That wasn’t intended to be the Fed’s job. The Fed is a bank and its mandate was only to protect the currency. It is not, and never has been, within the power of a central bank to create jobs – that’s the sort of stuff governments are supposed to handle. And the Fed has no duty – no, it has no right – to interfere in the markets.

But that didn’t prevent the Federal Reserve from embarking on a century of power grabbing, embedding itself ever deeper into the economy like an insatiable genetically altered tick. But still, in the wake of all the devastation the Fed has wrought, we keep turning to it for answers. How much more will it take to convince Americans that the Fed is not the cure, it is the disease?

Bernanke told us that he and his band of rogue scholars can’t do much about the long run. That may be true today, but only because the long-term effects from its past excesses have piled up so deeply that there is no longer any way out. So Bernanke tossed the hot potato to Congress.

That would have been a great idea 20-30 years ago, while there may have been some hope of averting catastrophe. Today all it can do is knot Washington even tighter. Bernanke cannot extricate himself from politics even if he wanted to. And the big money that is running the government isn’t about to let him off the hook.

All those decades of self-seeking policy have pinned the economy in a corner. And it is best to leave a cornered beast alone. There is only one rational path remaining for us to take – stand down and let the markets find the way out. The markets will be strict, even severe, but they won’t be cruel. They need us.

When the Devil scoots by on a snowmobile you will know that we have at last taken that path, and that better times are indeed not so far down the road. And at long last the gold market’s bull run will begin to wind down.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 24, 2011 - The wizards of NYMEX once again must know something that the rest of the world’s gold market does not. That would explain why on Tuesday the London fixing dropped a mere dollar and a half but when traders here took over gold took a $60 hit. And it would explain why the price bumped happily along on the global markets overnight only to start nose diving at today’s opening bell. A quick inventory seems to be in order.

Europe, to the best of my knowledge, has not experienced a miraculous turnaround. S&P has not apologized for making a mistake and restored our credit rating. We are no closer to “solvency and the increasing government debt burden will deteriorate the US sovereign debt crisis,” said China’s Dagong Global Credit Rating agency as it downgraded our rating and gave us a negative outlook. And Japan’s own extended period of zero-interest policy won them another downgrade from Moody’s.

Our economy is still in the toilet and states and municipalities are crumbling across the nation. But for some reason that enormous problem, which greatly compounds our sovereign debt crisis, fails to gather much attention. Sure the states were intended to take care of their own problems, but our founders could not possibly have foreseen this country being so stupidly reckless that there could be even the minutest possibility of a cascade failure of the states. But here we are.

When the dominoes start tumbling what are we going to do? Sell California back to Mexico? Kick New Jersey out of the Union? Turn Illinois into another great lake? Maybe sell the whole shebang to China – they might get it in bankruptcy court anyway.

The worst thing we can do is slam the door on our own people. When the infrastructure fails in one state a lot of really ticked off refugees will find their way into other states, a burden most of them will be unable to bear. Social structure will rapidly unravel.

I simply cannot fathom what the traders have seen to make them believe investor fears will soon subside, but I thank them for this superb buying opportunity.

Wait a minute, is that a foghorn I hear? Could it possibly be that the QE3 is steaming into port?

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 22, 2011 – It looks like just more of the same this morning, the early gains on the stock market have been all but erased and the gold market price is taking a poke at $1900.

It’s been over a month now that gold and the Dow have been virtual mirror images, long enough to safely state the obvious: gold is staging a comeback as the one true safe haven. It isn’t so much that investors have had a sudden change of heart, it’s just that faith in fiat money has fallen so low that they are left no other choice.

Clearly investors are making a realistic assessment of the economy and are finding precious little to be encouraged about. Yet behind the scenes some big money is buying, and one has to wonder why. Maybe they are betting that the Fed isn’t through screwing things up and Bernanke will find a way to pump just enough more air into the equities bubble for them to turn a quick and tidy profit.

Nothing radical is happening in today’s markets. Gold is only in a bit of a hurry to get back to where it should be and equities are responding to very real uncertainties – and not just a little panic. Both situations can be expected to create considerable volatility over the coming months, but the course seems clear.

Until such time that the government butts out and lets equities find their own way it will remain nearly impossible to make rhyme or reason of the market. At best it will be a crapshoot for the short term, and even holding for the long run holds no guarantees. On the other hand, gold, as always, is relatively free to seek its proper price.

Still, price movements of 100 points or so can be expected for a while, and there is always the possibility that a selloff by giant funds could create an even deeper drop, but the bottom is not about to fall out. Pressure is steadily building for retirement fund managers to preserve the value of their assets, and they too will soon turn to gold. Just a tiny percentage increase in gold holdings among global retirement funds will easily elevate investment demand to the dominant market driver, supporting strong growth and subdued volatility.

The bottom line is that regardless of the price – and I have to bite my tongue to say this – it is still time to buy. Even the wildest predictions for gold market prices aren’t looking so crazy any more.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 15, 2011 – Last week Reuters pegged consumer sentiment at the lowest level in 31 years and now the preliminary Michigan Consumer Sentiment index has also fallen to its lowest level since 1980. That is hardly a coincidence. But the truly interesting thing about the 1980 plunge was that it precipitated a 36% rally in the S&P 500 through the end of the year.

That’s the sort of thing that makes me reach for the Excedrin, especially if it were to repeat in this economic climate. Absolutely nothing real could turn things around so easily today. But reality, of course, is immaterial. We are way to accustomed to hearing only what we want to hear.

For months now Tim Pawlenty has beaten the drum to get rid of the Fed – an absolutely essential first step towards any lasting recovery – but his message fell on deaf ears. Pawlenty had to throw in the towel while the entire government has abandoned their posts and hit the campaign trail to pacify us voters with grandiose rhetoric about how they can put everything to right with their simplistic schemes.

They have done an admirable job of convincing us that problems abroad have no relevance here. But it is at our own peril that we do not learn from the recent riots in London. Those are but the first signs of societal regression brought about by the very sickness that pervades America today.

It all began with fiat money and the creation of central banks. “Fiat money helps to remove the link between production and consumption, contributing to the delusion that the ineradicable scarcity of capital has been abolished,” says Jordi Franch in the Daily Mises. “Through fiat money, the richest and most powerful countries have also become the most indebted.”

Another, more sinister effect of fiat money is “to constantly drain the wealth of the nation and to pour this stolen wealth into the corrupt, selfish hands of rotten, short-sighted politicians,” says Andy Duncan. “It appears as absolutely no coincidence to me that in the middle of this carnage, the chief instrument of this inflation policy — the hapless Bank of England — once again intertwined its own abysmal record of incompetence, predictive failure, and dismal Keynesianism in the same news programs as the hooded menace from the welfare estates of socialism.”

Riots can and will happen here. “The alternative,” says Franch, “ is a return to sound money, a restoration of the true currency, spontaneous creation of the social order, and a rejection of the meddling of governments and central banks.”

Sadly, the population here is still unwilling to hear that message. But as individuals we can choose to “return to sound money” with gold investments.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 12, 2011 – If you want a really good picture of what has been going on this week, overlay the gold market activity with that of equities. For the first time in its history the stock market saw four consecutive days of 400 + swings – a truly stunning display of investor panic. Gold, on the other hand, despite concerted efforts to reel it in – including a 22% increase in margin requirements – relentlessly surged upward.

Today the gold price confronted perhaps the strongest resistance of the week, and it was beginning to look like the opposing forces would succeed in pushing the price below $1700. But then, as it happened all this week, resistance collapsed well short of that mark. Clearly a momentous change in sentiment is under way.

The extreme volatility in equities raises an enormous red flag that investors just can’t ignore. True to form a great number were like horses running back into a burning barn, buying Treasuries because that is the only haven they have ever known. Others took cover in the Swiss franc, only to be unceremoniously ushered right back out into the tempest. But a great many had the presence of mind to pause and reevaluate their thoughts on the safest place to hide, and they had a mass epiphany.

Once the moment passes, what every epiphany reveals seems absurdly obvious. All that you seek from shelter is to be able to emerge unscathed after the storm has passed. Nothing else matters. For that even a cave on the hillside is far superior to a lavish mansion that gets swept away by the floodwaters. So what if gold just sits there, protecting your wealth. That is what gold does, and because that is all it does, it is far better at it than any other investment.

Still, things have to get pretty bad before investors head for cover en masse, and that is the real force driving up the price of gold. I believe that the world is just beginning to come out of denial and from here on awareness of the true nature and depth of the fiscal crisis will grow exponentially.

For many – especially those with the most limited resources – the realization will come to late. But gold need not be a shelter only for the rich. All that gold investment requires is a strong commitment, clear priorities, and the willingness to sacrifice today’s wants for tomorrow’s needs.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 10, 2011 - What America needs right now is a general recall election. Voter confidence in our government is hovering around a dismal 20% according to a variety of recent polls, and a Rasmussen survey reveals that only 17% of voters say the government has consent of the governed.

Most modern democracies have some means to remove such government, but in the world’s model democracy we have to wait for the next election. Shortly after the Constitution was ratified several states tried to have recall adopted for the Senate, but of course it failed to pass that illustrious body.

That’s the fatal flaw in our system of checks and balances. In simpler times it may have been sufficient to wait a couple of years to vote the bums out, but in a crisis like the one we face today, that’s a very long time. When 80% and more of the population believes their representatives are acting contrary to their consent, the fields of discontent are cultivated. When their representatives close shop and go on vacation in the midst of it all, the seeds of revolution are sown.

Let’s revisit the Declaration of Independence:

 … mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Revolution in the sense of overthrowing the government by force is of course neither prudent nor practical. Unlike our forefathers we have no design in place for a better government and we have no strong leaders to guide us through the turmoil. But we do have the power, the right, and the duty to change our government from within.

Just for once, say in 2012, I’d like to see American voters not go off half-cocked ranting and raving about things they know nothing about, but instead engage each other and the politicians in productive discourse. Come up with a vision we can all share, and then craft a strategy to get us there. Forget all the petty divisive issues that have nothing at all to do with getting America back on track and above all, let reason prevail over emotion.

I doubt we are ready. But if we are not, and we continue to let the wounds fester, a much uglier revolution may be in store.

That is America’s real problem, not the deficit, not the downgrade, not Democrats, and not Republicans. And that is why the gold market is on fire.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 08, 2011 – Misinformation abounds

Credit downgrade insignificant

Misguided attempts to avert deflation with credit

“As public sentiment has clearly grown fearful of further debt, the only “card” that our government can play would be to sway public sentiment,” says Avi Gilburt

“The main issue with this premise is that it works on the presumption that all the credit created by our government will be gladly accepted by the public.”

When a society is at a point where it is saying “no more” to credit, and it then begins to deleverage, this is simply what we call deflation.

Ben Bernanke was trying to raise the public confidence in the financial system by directing money into the equity markets. He surmised that if people see the market going up and feel as though they have more value in their pockets/accounts, they would be willing to have more confidence in the system and leverage up again, which would be inflationary.

They were trying to “trick” people into having confidence again so that they would be willing to accept more debt, thereby avoiding a deflationary spiral.

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by such credit expansion” Ludwig Von Mises

Public loses confidence in monetary system [deleverage] They will reduce the credit they have outstanding either by choice or by default.

Lack of credit, assets fall, walk away from credit leveraged assets

Demand plummets, unemployment escalates, asset sales increase – drives asset prices further down

Therefore, during inflationary periods, when our economy is engaged in credit expansion, the relative value of the greenback decreases. Alternatively, when our economy is experiencing credit contraction, the relative value of the greenback increases.

The Fed will probably attempt QE-type of infusions for several years before the public will realize that the Fed is unable to prevent deflation. Ultimately, the public will demand that the Fed be disbanded. This will clearly put a halt on any further actions by the Fed, which will allow deflation to further ravage our economic system while the government is busy managing the Fed “issues.” When it is already too late, the government, which always acts too late, will finally authorize the Treasury to print more greenbacks, which is the other manner in which a government entity under a fiat monetary system can battle deflation. However, by the time the government actually engages the Treasury to print, we will most probably be at the end of the normal course of our deflationary period.

Eventually the government will conclude that the only option left in its futile battle against deflation is to pump huge sums of newly created cash into the economy, when in fact the only sane course of action would be to let the cycle advance on its own - me

As deflation subsides, the system will now have to deal with a significant increase of “money” in the system. This will act like a sling shot in the opposite direction, the result of which will be inflation, and, most probably, hyper-inflation. Since the government will be so battered by the deflationary effects that have ravaged the system for years by this time, they will simply not stop printing until such time that their significantly lagging indicators tell them that we are already in a hyper-inflationary rise.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 05, 2011 – The gold market has spoken - so much for removing the “cloud of uncertainty over our economy.” Investors apparently are having no difficulty seeing through The Deal and they are heading for the hills. And there’s gold in them thar hills.

Let’s return to those thrilling days of yesteryear when the government intervened only with minimal measures designed to stimulate sectors and allowed individual corporations to live and die by their own competence. Now imagine our government as one such corporation. Would anybody in their right mind give that company a AAA credit rating? Would anyone even consider investing in it?

Back to today. The rest of the world is looking at us in just that way. Even a downgrade from roadside service to a 12-step program is hardly sufficient, but they don’t need a rating to tell them this investment has gone perilously sour. The problem is they awoke to the danger far too late.

Our biggest creditors did see the warning signs, however. For over a decade they have been feverishly working to quietly substitute hard assets – any assets they could lay their hands on – for their reserves of US debt. But they grievously underestimated how fast we were headed downhill. Now they are in a real pickle.

On the one hand their investments are losing value at an alarming rate. On the other, dumping their holdings too quickly could trigger an economic calamity such as the world has never seen before. It is a lose-lose conundrum of the highest order and the action they take depends solely on which will have the least damaging and shortest lived effects.

Put yourself in their shoes. What would you do? Clearly you would want to be properly compensated for the high risk of holding that debt. If the government won’t raise interest rates, then you would demand a credit downgrade to force that to happen. Barring that you would have no choice but to cut your losses and run.

Either way you would head for the nearest exit, and right now the only exit is the gold market. It would be wise to get to the exit now before you get trampled in the stampede.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 04, 2011 – Now that the debt ceiling debacle reached its climax we can finally move on to something new, or rather more of the same without the sideshow. But there is one very important thing we all must learn from this sordid affair: Uncle Sam is not our benevolent kin.

Sam might be the leech that comes to visit and forgets to leave. Or he could be the bungling idiot that keeps trying to get us to buy into his harebrained schemes. Maybe he is just a conman, always setting us up for his cronies’ scams. However you see it, it stinks.

How do you explain making it possible for 40% of all the mortgages in 2007 to be written with just 3% down payment? It is hardly plausible that the banking industry would suddenly succumb to greed, putting an end to a century of prudent mortgage practices. It is equally hard to swallow that our supposedly learned leaders could in any way believe that was a good idea. But what could they possibly hope to gain?

Putting a bunch of hard working but gullible Americans into homes they could not afford probably looked like a sure fire way to get reelected. It was bound to blow up, of course, but they would just come up with something else for the next go-round. However, they vastly underestimated the extent of the explosion, and a new bunch got put into office. The new guys wasted no time getting to work on the next election. Problem was, they forgot what got them elected in the first place. With nothing to show the people other than saving the hides of those who cashed in on their misery, a lot of them got kicked out mid term. A third bunch moved in, and set right to work on the next election.

Maybe if the politicians stopped working so hard at making the opposition look bad they could actually accomplish something worthwhile and make themselves look good. That won’t happen of course because Americans have lost their vision. The politicians are only doing what works for the short term, and for now that’s all that seems to matter.

But the day of reckoning is fast approaching. Americans can bemoan destroying their children’s future or be grateful for having the foresight to provide them with a life-saving legacy of gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

August 3, 2011 - According to Washington D.C., the debt issue has been resolved and default has been avoided. Now the country will live within its means…and we will live happily ever after. Sounds like rubbish.

Let me explain.

• President Obama signed a debt compromise that holds the president and Congress responsible together (as a team!!!) to decide on future spending and cuts. If they couldn’t do it now, what assures us this won’t happen again?

- $400 billion NOW plus $500 billion more up until February 2011.

- Oct 1st – cuts begin…over a ten year period the deficit will be reduced by $917 billion

- Nov 23rd - A bipartisan committee will decide on cuts or revenues of $1.2 trillion - $1.5 trillion.

The ‘compromise’ is superficial. Where they cut and by how much was and will continue to be the problem along with unprecedented spending. These issues could soon make headlines and shake us up once again.

• The stock market discernibly fell yesterday as a result of the controversy within the economy. But, didn’t Washington just fix the mess up? Or are some people still worried…some who have lost faith and trust…some who believe what their eyes and ears together manifest. Large companies had weak economic and poor earnings reports which together are facts before our eyes that tell us the economy is not ‘fixed up’. Investors are apprehensive, and with good reason. 

Economy growth is lethargic since the ending of the recession in 2009, so where is the new economic growth supposed to come from? At the present time, manufacturing in the US has decreased and unemployment is increasing. How are the middle class and poor supposed to consume?

• A 10 year Treasury note yields less than 3% which because of inflation is actually yielding negatively. But they’re safe-havens with the backing of the good faith and promise of the government!

Despite theses true adverse statistics, you can still abandon the negative and focus on the one positive thing in this economic chaos…gold is soaring! And if you’re a cynic, look at this:

• Gold has gained 1.4 percent to $1,645 an ounce.
• Almost everything fell on the stock market EXCEPT gold!!!

Gold works in favor of an unstable economy which is what we have and will probably continue to have for generations to come. The weakening dollar is actually causing gold to continue its

upward path and because it’s the reserve currency of many other countries money as well, they, too, will fall with the dollar.

Gold is a store of wealth and one of the LEAST volatile commodities that exist. It’s time to invest in something that carries the backing of thousands of years as opposed to good faith and promise of a rather uncertain entity. Be smart. Invest in gold, NOW.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 29, 2011 – The gold market is trying to tell us something – big change is coming and we best get prepared. Our empire is crumbling and it’s time to bring home the troops because we’re going to need them here.

It would be a wonderful surprise if reasonable minds were to prevail in Washington and we abandoned the imperial agenda in favor of restoring America’s social and economic health, but that’s a real long shot for the time being. It will eventually be forced upon us, but not before a great deal more harm has been done.

Redefining the purpose of our military is not cowardice nor does it suggest that we must sacrifice our might. To the contrary, it means only that we deploy our might where it is needed most – right here on our own shores.

For decades we have engaged in pointless debate over protecting our borders. I say pointless because nothing of merit has ever been offered in solution to the problem. There is a simple answer, and it does not require building ridiculous walls or installing a massive network of exotic electronic surveillance. It takes manpower. That’s the purpose of our military and that’s what they should be doing – protecting America.

As global food shortages worsen and vital resources become more scarce, the threat to our borders will escalate far beyond what today is in fact a mere nuisance. We must be prepared. As our economy plummets and our infrastructure crumbles, the threat of civil unrest erupting into dog-eat-dog anarchy looms larger. We must be prepared.

To Americans the idea of a police state is abhorrent, but when faced with the alternative of gang rule, we would be grateful to have our soldiers here at home maintaining order.

The irony is that if we were to restore the military to its Constitutional mandate and abandon the imperial agenda – right now - the chance of a doomsday scenario actually playing out would be drastically diminished. That being most unlikely, the best we can hope for is that it happen before the worst case scenario becomes unavoidable.

The empire as we know it is spinning out of control. American can’t be fixed, it must be restored. Regardless of what comes next, we must be prepared. Buying gold is a great way to get started.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 27, 2011 – There was a time when the world looked up to America as a benevolent big brother, teaching its siblings through example that no virtuous goal was beyond their reach. But almost everywhere you go in the world these days that image has been irrevocably tarnished.

Throughout history the end times of every great empire has been characterized by a sense of entitlement and a presumption of superiority over other nations. Driven by an insatiable lust for power they continually expand their sphere of influence, self-righteously proclaiming their conquests to be in the name of the greater good. Inevitably they expand far beyond what their economy can support and their military can defend, and the empire falls.

It is happening now in America, but we stubbornly cling to what The Daily Reckoning’s Bill Bonner calls “the imperial agenda.” We are running the economy into the ground trying “to maintain troops all over the globe, to run Homeland Security, participate in 3 wars... and all the other things that go into being an empire,” Bonner says.

With a long overdo attitude adjustment all of the hullabaloo over the debt ceiling and balanced budgets would be rendered moot. “Congress and the president could simply announce that they no longer believed the empire was a worthwhile project. Presto, the budget would be balanced. Problem solved.”

There is, of course, a hitch: America is emotionally addicted to being king of the hill. Any talk of redefining our military’s purpose runs smack into a wall of ignorance. Out come the flag waving fear mongers, decrying any cuts in defense will expose our tender underbelly to marauding terrorists and global wannabes. That’s bunk.

A huge portion of our defense budget is spent sticking our nose in other peoples’ business. Arbitrarily imposing our will abroad succeeds only in making a whole lot of people very angry with us. And that makes us much less safe. As Bonner so succinctly says, “the truth about the terrorists [is] they were over here because we were over there, not the other way around.”

The government has created a culture of fear and hatred in America, however, and uses that to pursue its imperialist agenda. Even as we teeter on the brink of ruin, the ranting drowns out reason. The choice is ours: let reason bring about the rebirth of the republic that our nation was intended to be, or let ignorance precipitate our demise. Either way, the empire must fall.The American empire must fall. How it falls is up to us.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 26, 2011 – It seems contrary to simple logic that investors who are strongly risk-off tend to shun gold. But in the markets, old ways die hard.

Cash remains the asset of choice for safe haven and even as a store of wealth. There was good enough reason for that when the major western currencies – and especially the dollar – were more or less stable. But now the steady rise in the price of gold against the dollar, euro, and pound sterling sends an unambiguous signal that cash is far from safe.

The absolute best we can hope for is that those currencies don’t become totally worthless. At the very least we should look for a better currency. But what would it be?

The Swiss franc comes to mind, because it has been moving in very close correlation to gold. But that is the precise reason it must be excluded: the franc is solid only because its supply is limited and balanced by Switzerland’s gold reserves. China cannot take over yet because its currency is only now being introduced into the foreign exchange. And almost everything else is tied to the dollar

The global economy is anxious to resolve the problem. The overwhelming abundance of dollars throughout the world means a sudden collapse of the currency would deal a death blow to the global economy. But by the same token, the world does not have the means to bail us out. The only answer, it appears, is to reconnect the monetary system to gold.

Central banks are already bracing for the crisis by stockpiling gold. They aren’t hoarding cash, and they are shedding themselves of sovereign debt as rapidly as prudence permits. Yet despite it all, cash continues to come out on top.

Let’s put that in perspective. For centuries the value of gold has proven to be remarkably consistent. The dollar has been dominant in global finances for perhaps 50 years. Which track record merits more consideration as a safe haven – gold or the greenback?

Personally, I hope the market never figures it out. Like never before these times are risk-off and the biggest risk is to cash. For as long as people keep swarming to cash, I will be happy to capitalize on the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 22, 2011 – There is but one constant in everything that got us into the mess we are in and it is all that prevents us from climbing out – somewhere along the way America got mentally lazy. We have become willing to let others to do our thinking for us, and that may be our fatal flaw.

The internet has only accelerated the decline. We accept whatever comes to the inbox as fact even though we can easily verify or disprove the information using the same technology. But we rally behind misinformation and outright lies simply because it is more convenient than making our own informed decisions.

We eagerly devour every shred of what passes for good news these days while ignoring everything going on around us. We have so thoroughly cloaked ourselves in denial that we are unwilling to accept even the possibility of economic catastrophe. Rather than take prudent precautions, we pacify ourselves with the inane utterances of “experts.”

Consider this op-ed by Paul Krugman in the New York Times: Gold is so darned expensive these days, he says, because “there’s a marketing scam in progress,” perpetrated by none other than Glen Beck. Beck, we are told, stirred up fears of hyperinflation and through his wide influence “conservative Americans were being pushed into buying gold.”

Krugman’s piece resonated with right-wing deep thinkers. “Stupid people buy gold,” says one posted comment. “The only real value gold has is for conspiracy theorists aka gold bugs,” says another, apparently missing the irony in his response to Krugman’s conspiracy theory.

Other posts underscore a profound disconnect with economic reality: “Euros have value; all currencies have value. Any value gold has is purely an illusion.” And another, accepting the possibility of a time when the “the dollar is no longer a secure store of value” dismisses gold because “it's not particularly useful for making weapons or farming equipment.”

In the Wall Street Journal Jack Hough declares that “gold, absent neurotic fear, is a lousy investment,” then points out that gold has returned 533% since 2001. He then bolsters his argument with the extraordinary claim that “no country uses gold as money today or has plans to do so.”

There are just as many wing nuts on this side of the fence, of course. That is why it is imperative for all Americans to become well informed, to open our eyes and decide for ourselves what is right before us, and then demand that our government put politics aside and do what must be done.

As for your personal wellbeing, it wouldn’t hurt to reassess gold investments with an open and critical mind.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 20, 2011 – In gold investing - or for that matter any investing - in the past it rarely paid the individual investor to be a lone gun. Being the one in a thousand to hit on some unexpected movement paid very big, but the odds against being right while everyone else – including many highly successful pros – were astronomical.

Still, on rare occasions individuals have had flashes of insight that were off mainstream radar. You never heard of the ones who regularly cashed in because they had nothing to gain by sharing what they knew. To others, however, recognition of their self-proclaimed brilliance was more important. The irony is that the former had the gift while the latter usually proved to be “one-hit wonders.”

While nothing prevented the household investor from beating the system, most of us were almost always better off not going too far out on a limb.

In all of that the past tense was intentional. Today there is a distinct advantage to being unschooled in the sacred economic paradigms that have dictated the moves of big money for over a century. The world is undergoing fundamental change and there is no mystery about where it is heading. Yet conventional wisdom maintains that investment strategies somehow need not change with the times.

Nowhere is the flaw in that logic more apparent than in the gold market. Every traditional investment is either in imminent peril or is subject to unacceptable uncertainty, while conditions are indisputably ideal for buying gold. Yet investor participation - especially in long positions - remains extremely weak.

Opportunity is not just knocking, it is beating down the door. And it favors common sense over doctorate degrees and supercomputers that analyze real time movements down to the second based on decades of historical data and obsolete algorithms and produce highly accurate predictions of how things would have been had the world not changed.

Now that gold has slipped by the $1,600 mark the computers will undoubtedly start cranking out dire forecasts for gold’s future. But common sense tells us that in the absence of an inconceivable reversion from globalization to the glory days of the mid 19th century, there is no ceiling in sight for gold market prices.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 18, 2011 – It is getting harder every day to disparage gold investing but the boys on Wall Street keep trying. Now that the price has risen straight through the $1,600 “barrier” you can be sure they’ll kick it up a notch.

But that barrier was just a number concocted from complex mathematical analysis of countless variables that have absolutely no relevance to economic conditions today. The gold bears’ arguments are based on premises devoid of validity and credibility.

Gold is simply doing what it always does, its price anchored in reality and driven by fundamentals – the way a market is supposed to work. Gold rises to dominance when man’s contrived stores of wealth begin to unravel and will remain dominant for as long as it takes to for all markets to restore equilibrium. Government attempts to counter market forces only accelerate the decline.

Record high corporate cash holdings are not a sign of a strengthening economy as equity bulls profess. Quite the opposite, they signal a strong lack of faith in the economy, a broad withdrawal from expansion to a defensive position that they hope will see them through a crisis unprecedented in our history. And their profits, which pundits tout as a sure sign of an ongoing bull market, are but a means to that end. Rather than commit profits to growth, companies are hording as much of them as possible.

The end of QE2 was not the precipitating event of total collapse as many predicted, but it has underscored the inability of the stock market to keep moving on its own. More precisely, it has facilitated the market’s response to fundamentals. QE2’s debt buybacks were a daily injection of cash into the market that let equities sail out of the doldrums. Now, with only irregular contributions from QE Lite, the market seems lost.

We have hindered the markets’ quest for equilibrium far too long. There is nothing to be gained from keeping it up. It’s high time to pack up all those charts and graphs, unplug the computers, and throw out all of the obsolete texts. It’s time to step back completely and take our lumps as the markets find their own way back to reality.

It’s also high time to get serious about buying gold to see us through until the dust settles.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 13, 2011 - The quirky behavior of the gold market these days seems only proper in the context of what could be termed global economic chaos. Investors are like squirrels in the road with reckless drivers bearing down on them from every direction. So why aren’t the markets responding to smooth things out?

I surmise it is because government meddling has the markets hogtied. I might excuse the Fed and our politicians for it if they had the slightest idea of what they are doing, but clearly that is not the case. The Fed is split on what to do next – something or go blind, if I recall the options correctly – and is struggling mightily to craft a new strategy. The government, meanwhile, is too busy with its lumberjack log rolling competition to see that it’s all about to go over the falls.

If you were an interstellar market analyst who just happened to be in the neighborhood at this time, you would instantly conclude that nobody down here has the foggiest notion about what they are doing. You would take a quick closer look then beat feet back home so you and your buddies down at the pub could have a rousing laugh over the fools so caught up in a losing game that they never realized the rules had changed.

That, I believe, is the root of the problem. The markets are evolving but we have yet to accept the fact. We are too busy coming up with convoluted explanations so we can shoehorn reality into obsolete paradigms. When new forces fail to yield to old methods, we only push harder.

Luckily, man has yet been able to invent a system so stupid that it could vanquish the markets. We may be getting close, but we are not there yet. Eventually, however, the markets will prevail and force a return to sanity.

Whether it be through a triumph of common sense or a cascade failure of global currencies or total global economic meltdown, doesn’t matter – change is on the way. And it will signal its arrival with skyrocketing gold market prices.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 08, 2011 – It’s a little too early to say for certain, but the latest jobs figures just might have finally awakened the gold market. By this time it is surprising, however, that anybody was surprised by the news.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast payrolls would rise by 125,000.” Close. The real figure was a whopping increase in non- farm payrolls of 18,000. And the jobless rate continued its upward crawl for the third straight month, now at its highest level since last December.

“Manufacturing employment remained weak, adding 6,000 jobs … employment in professional and business services, which had shown strong gains in previous months, rose by 12,000 … government employment fell by 39,000 … Americans' incomes … edged lower … the housing sector remains a big drag on the economy … policy makers have few tools left to stimulate the economy.”

And so goes the “recovery.” No surprises there, only the cold hard reality of the state of our economy. It just bears out what Irving Fisher said in “The Purchasing Power of Money” back in 1912: “Irredeemable paper money has almost invariably proved a curse to the country employing it.”

“Fiat-money injection increases consumption out of current income at the expense of savings, and, in addition, leads to higher investment, so that the economy enters an inflationary boom, living beyond its means,” says Thorsten Polleit in the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s Daily Mises.

Left to its own devices the economy would react with a recession and quickly reach equilibrium, but central banks jump in to fix the problem, lowering rates even further and fueling another round of credit expansion. Whether that is due to a grandiose self image or acquiescence to public pressure is irrelevant – the upshot is trying to douse the fire with gasoline.

The cycle repeats, with debt load expanding faster and faster relative to real income until the economy passes the point of no return. Ludwig von Mises, one of the most notable voices of the Austrian School, wrote this in “Human Action: A Treatise on Economics” in 1949:

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”

Apparently Bernanke and the government have chose the latter option, and that makes gold investing more urgent every day.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 06, 2011 – A faint cry is heard from deep within the wilderness, “Let me buy gold, for nothing is left to grow my wealth.” Michael Barone, senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner, poses the question “how will most Americans continue to accumulate wealth and enable us to maintain a robust property-holders' democracy? … Attempts to resurrect the recent past seem futile.”

Indeed they are. “Let a good old-fashioned Good Depression do the job that our hapless, happy- talking leaders refuse to do. Take our medicine. Let a new depression clean house and reawaken Americans to core values,” says Paul B. Farrell in MarketWatch. “America’s out-of-control. A debt addict. Time to detox. Deal with the collateral damage before it’s too late.”

That’s the kind of talk we need to hear, not the kid-glove Pablum we have been fed. “Our property-holders' democracy has served us well. Let's hope it leaves the way open for us to develop new forms of wealth accumulation,” says Barone.

Is it really all that hard to see? For countless generations, throughout every conceivable form of government, gold has prevailed as the singular measure of real wealth. So why is it such a stretch of the imagination to see gold investment as a form of wealth accumulation?

Frankly, it is because we have become addicted to the concept of wealth creation. There is a huge difference between the two. Wealth accumulation is a lifelong commitment to preserving a portion of what we earn. Wealth creation is just trying to get something for nothing, but in the end there is no free lunch. Life entitles us to nothing but the opportunity to do with it the best we can.

Somewhere along the way we lost sight of that most basic precept. We somehow came to see wealth as our birthright, not something we must acquire through our wits and our sweat. We tried to live today on tomorrow’s harvests, and we failed miserably.

“Wall Street and their cronies are doing such a miserable job, America needs a new strategy,” says Farrell. At the heart of that strategy will be accumulating wealth through gold investment.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 05, 2011 – What would you trust more for your retirement - Social Security, a traditional portfolio, or an IRA gold investment? According to Rasmussen Reports almost 2/3 of American voters say not Social Security, and “only 49% of investors report that their portfolio is worth more than it was a year ago … [while] 41% say the value of their investments is down.”

That would appear to leave gold IRAs – despite the limp market gold is still up some 23% year to year - but gold is still way underheld by investors across the board. There are stirrings about a new American revolution, but just as it was the first time around, indecision is ruling the day. There is a desperate need for leadership like we had back.

A Rasmussen poll on the issue of Social Security and Medicare reveals a glimmer of hope that at least America is waking up to the core issues. In a strapping vote of no confidence in our politicians, 64% said that “any proposed changes in either Social Security or Medicare should be submitted to the American people for a vote before they can become law.” Nearly 2/3 want a say as to when they can retire, and would be willing to either pay more to retire early or pay less and retire later. Those who chose the latter overwhelmingly favor using the tax savings for individual retirement accounts.

The issue is especially important to under-40 voters, the vast majority of whom have little or no faith that the current system will be there for them. It signals they have identified the problem and want to take part in the solution. It is also a promising sign that they understand there must be a fundamental change in the system if anything is ever to get done.

Whether shaping America’s future or just that of our families, it comes down to the same thing: it is up to the individual to take the initiative and rebel against false leadership. Somebody has to get the ball rolling and it is from individual actions that real leaders will emerge.

For your retirement you can choose to continue letting Wall Street lead you down the garden path, or you can break free and turn to the true independence of gold IRAs.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

July 01, 2011 – When credit was easy it was hard to stay focused on gold investing. Having everything today and paying for it somewhere down the road was a lot more enticing than putting money away where it would be safe. Before long, the nation was hooked.

Overcoming an addiction is never easy. It takes acceptance. It takes pain. It takes sacrifice. It takes courage. It takes time. And it takes the commitment of everyone within the influence of the addicted. But emerging on the other side always proves to be worth tenfold whatever it took to get there.

America’s strength is in its people, and we never before have failed to rise in her defense. Many times we have put our squabbles aside and joined in a unified effort for her preservation. Has our addiction to credit so severely altered our senses that we are incapable of even seeing the danger we are in?

Rather than wasting our energy trying to keep a long-dead dream alive, we would be better off putting our energy to use finding our way today. It’s time for some humility and for a little common sense.

Forget playing king-of-the-hill with the dollar. It cannot be saved. Forget trying to be the Global Police. The world is no longer our jurisdiction. Instead, take a good long look at us – the real Americans.

We don’t want the government to be our nanny, only our ally. We don’t want the government to proselytize our way of life, only to help us preserve it. We don’t want the government to control every minute interaction among us, only to give us remedy when we are wronged. We don’t want the government to guarantee our happiness, only to allow us to pursue it.

I love America because I love Americans. As a people we are pretty darned interesting. We are the quintessential entrepreneurial nation, unparalleled in all of history. That invaluable resource needs to get put to work.

Eventually it will have to happen, and the longer we wait the more we stand to lose. We can start by setting our priorities. We are all surrounded by stuff, but how much of that contributes to our wellbeing? What will it all be worth if the economy collapsed tomorrow?

Selling off what we can do without and buying gold is a strong first step towards a fiscally healthful mindset - and to kicking the credit habit once and for all.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 29, 2011 - The average American is becoming more aware of the true nature of the economy, yet the gold market is not showing any signs of a mass movement to the ultimate shelter. Equities have experienced unusual volatility, yet they continue on an upward trend. We may realize that the end to all we know is imminent, yet we refuse to accept it.

The world is on the fast track to resurrecting the gold standard because a truly global economy cannot survive in the chaotic atmosphere of fiat currencies. If we cannot back up the greenback with gold, then we are in trouble.

But the Fed has no intention of opening its books to the public. It refuses to provide an accounting for our gold reserves. It is, after all, above all of us. How is it that a private corporation, chartered by the US government, can declare itself above public scrutiny?

We let it happen. When things got tough we expected somebody to fix things – anybody but us. The Fed seized its opportunity and entrenched itself so deeply that it now seems impossible to dig it out. We let it assume power far beyond its charter, trusting the mighty Fed to protect our wealth against all adversaries.

Well, the Fed had other ideas. Our wealth was sapped to fatten the wallets of an elite few. When those elite brought the country to its knees the Fed acted to save not the economy but those who had brought it ruin.

So we continue to feed the beast. But how much longer can they sustain the lie?

The answer to that is clear: as long as the average citizen refuses to acknowledge that the wellbeing of our country outweighs his or her own. Chanting “USA! USA!” does not a patriot make. We need to take a bitter pill as one. We need to give as one. And we need to arise as one and earn our position once again as a true global leader.

Times have changed forever. Old paradigms no longer apply, the reign of the dollar is at an end. There is but one constant by which we can measure the future – the unrelenting upward trend of the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 27, 2011 - Gold market prices remain tentative as QE2 comes to a close, but that is just a symptom that “the effort has done little to solve the original problem: The government and individuals alike are still heavily in debt,” says the Wall Street Journal’s Tom Lauricella. “The inability of governments and households to reduce their debt continues to cast a shadow over Western economies and the financial health of individuals.”

What has worked in the past – lowering interest rates to jump start the economy on credit – is no longer possible because we allowed debt to continue piling up long after the need was over. “Central-bank efforts have boosted financial markets in the short term … but they have been unable to push people and governments to whittle down debt,” Lauricella says.

“The unwinding of debt on average takes seven years,” Peterson Institute for International Economics senior fellow Carmen Reinhart says. “You can't get rid of it quickly and you can't get rid of it nicely.” That’s a far cry from the quick fix we Americans expect, so “U.S. consumers have 37% more credit-card, auto and other nonmortgage debt than a decade ago, before adjusting for inflation,” Lauricella says.

The sole purpose served by the Fed’s insistence on holding down interest rates has been to pump up corporate margins while enabling “individuals and governments to delay taking measures to change the way they spend and save,” Lauricella says. But Jerry Webman of OppenheimerFunds warns “There's going to be a limit to margin expansion, and we may be there already in terms of productivity improvements.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Jonathan Cheng notes that “Companies offering early downbeat earnings guidance for the second quarter have outnumbered upgrades by a ratio of five to one.” The reason is clear: With their credit cards maxed out and home equity lines of credit vaporizing with the falling home market consumers have no option but to reduce spending. And that drives a vicious cycle.

Companies respond to falling consumption by freezing hiring, investment, and wages. Banks in turn hoard money to ride out the storm as inflation and stagnant wages reduce consumption even more. As a result “the ability to absorb shocks that you normally could withstand … is much more limited,” Reinhart says.

The only way out of this mess is for the Fed to step back and let nature take its course. It’s efforts to date don’t “stop the need for the private sector to heal itself,” says Dominic Wilson, chief global-markets economist at Goldman Sachs.

Absent that we can expect many more years of increasing market volatility and over time the gold market will stabilize to counter that volatility.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 23, 2011 – Anybody looking for some enlightenment from Bernanke’s press conference to help make sense of today’s gold market prices got a big – though not unexpected – disappointment. I dared hope only for a hint that the Fed was entertaining even the remotest possibility of changing course, but that hope too was lost.

The Fed did acknowledge that growth has been slower than anticipated, unemployment has not improved as planned, and core inflation has risen more than predicted. Yet according to the FOMC news release, “economic conditions - including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run” somehow calls for more of the same.

The FOMC “decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent … for an extended period,” resolutely staying the course in the face of growing global protest. Why? “A slew of discouraging economic data convinced many officials they need to stay on hold as they assess whether the bumps to growth and inflation seen in recent months are transitory,” says the Wall Street Journal.

The last thing America needs to do right now is stand still. Well, not the absolute last thing. Should the geniuses at the Fed suddenly have an epiphany and realize the conditions that have had a stranglehold on the economy for the past three years are not transitory, they might well decide it’s time for QE3.

It looked to me like Bernanke went out of his way to neither suggest or dismiss the possibility of firing up the presses one more time. While it is absolutely maddening that he has learned nothing from his failed experiment, it is not difficult to understand. By Bernanke’s own words, it’s all a little mysterious to him.

“We don't have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting,” Bernanke tells us. Things “like weakness in the financial sector, problems in the housing sector, balance sheet and deleveraging issues … may be strong or more persistent than we had thought.”

The real issue is not Bernanke’s ineptitude, however, it is our tolerance of an out of control central bank. The Fed has seized far too much power and has mushroomed its mission light years beyond its charter. Until it is reined in – or abolished altogether as Rep. Pawlenty proposes – there is little hope of economic recovery.

Nothing changes when nothing is changed. Perhaps that explains why the gold market seems more interested in Greece than it is with the deterioration of the greatest economy on Earth.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 22, 2011 - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and a number of other Republicans have taken up the cause of crushing the gold market. Well, actually they are attacking the root cause of the withering greenback that is driving up the cost of buying gold – the Federal Reserve. The movement is long overdue.

The Wall Street Journal’s Jon Hilsenrath says that the text of Gingrich’s speech today “criticizes the U.S. central bank for not staying focused on the strength of the dollar,” and he will call for a “dramatically limited Federal Reserve.”

“GOP presidential candidates are blaming the Fed's easy-money policies for creating an array of ills, including a weaker dollar and more inflation,” Hilsenrath says. Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty wants Bernanke out of there, demanding “No more quantitative easing. No more monetizing debt. No more printing money with reckless abandon.”

Representative Ron Paul has submitted a proposal that would require outside audits of the Fed, something to which Mr. Bernanke, of course, is firmly opposed. Rep. Paul takes the issue one step further in his campaign: abolish the central bank altogether.

Washington-based policy analyst Andrew LaPerriere says “a lot of Republicans and economists believe that the Fed's loose monetary policy from 2002 to 2004 was a major contributing factor to the housing bubble and bust, and there is this sense that they're doing it again.”

The Republicans are also gravely concerned about the devaluation of the dollar, which, “when measured against a broad basket of currencies among U.S. trading partners … is down 26% since 2002,” says Hilsenrath.

We may not need to get rid of the Fed altogether, but Bernanke has to cede his chair to the likes of Paul Volcker, who had the wisdom and intestinal fortitude to “jack interest rates up to the mid-teens and [tighten] the money supply to stop inflation dead in its tracks.”

Tackling the Fed is just the sort of thinking we need to fix the underlying problems plaguing our economy. It’s hardly all we need, but it’s a start. And maybe someday we can stop turning to the gold market for poverty prevention and get back to growing the economy.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 21, 2011 – Hold tight, this should be a banner week for gold newsletters. On Wednesday we will be graced with Bernanke’s second news conference in which should be unveiled the Fed’s next Great Plan. Months of speculation on where we will go from here might finally be put to rest.

It will be no easy task. To any reasonable thinking person everything the Fed has done to date has failed miserably, the only success being making the crisis even worse. But nobody is harboring the slightest hope of an admission of the Fed’s ineptitude, a change of heart that will set us on a bold new course to rectify the fundamental problems threatening to bring the greatest country on the planet to its knees.

The best we can hope for is entertainment. In one breath the Fed will try to quell the growing global sentiment that it is absolutely clueless and incapable of effecting positive change while assuaging the growing realization among American citizens that the recovery has been a hoax. I will be immensely disappointed if Bernanke resorts to the same tired rhetoric and spin doctoring that has been the hallmark of his chairmanship.

Most interesting will be the juxtaposition of what Bernanke has to say with the release of existing home sales data before the press conference and new figures for new home sales, unemployment claims, and durable goods orders that will follow. If nothing else, we will get an idea of how gullible the Fed believes global economists and the American people are.

The cherry on top will be the Commerce Department’s conjuring up of its third estimate of first- quarter GDP. I have a sneaking suspicion that new insight will reveal how we are in fact doing better than anyone imagined. Goldman Sachs, among many others who are continually scaling back their predictions for GDP “growth,” just aren’t seeing the big picture.

I desperately want to be proven wrong. Pessimism doesn’t suit me well. I would like for once to see a glimmer of hope that real progress is just beyond the horizon. But self delusion suits me even less.

Reality speaks in no uncertain terms. A sea change in our government’s philosophy is hardly imminent; gold investment is still the best protection we have against the Fed’s destructive policies.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 20, 2011 – Serious gold investment commentary tends towards gloom and doom, leaving the impression that folks like me are just terminally pessimistic. But in truth I am highly optimistic in the long run, just realistic about the near-term prospects.

I don’t buy gold to get rich, I buy gold to not get poor. Sure, there are some gold investments that are risky enough to offer potential capital gains, but for me that’s not what gold is all about. Neither is speculation, because short-term movement – especially these days – is a crapshoot. Gold to me is money, pure and simple, that will always be there through thick and thin.

Equities used to be the place to make money. A shrewd investor could pick stocks from a promising company, betting on the management to fulfill the promise through real performance. It was a level field and the rules were simple. But the game has changed.

When more money is made from failure than is from economic advancement something is seriously wrong. When the government places the economic health of the nation at risk to keep the economy’s greatest threats in business something is seriously perverse. When consumption loses its correlation to production, something is seriously unsustainable.

I keep hoping for some miracle, something of such great power that it could undo all we have done over the past century. Something that would bring America back to its senses. Something that would instill a balance between our wants and our needs. Something that would restore the ethic that once made us great. I’m just not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

The problem is that a century of growth in government control over every aspect of our lives, garnered through handouts to anyone and everyone, has robbed us of our individualism and sapped of us the spirit that defines us. We have become a nation of victims, forever seeking something outside ourselves to blame for our condition. We stand at a crossroads.

Each and every one of us has something given to us by the government that we have not earned. If we all were to take just one thing and return it, saying “I’ll take care of this myself,” we just might be able to turn things around.

When all Americans join in that refrain I’ll upgrade my outlook. For now, I’ll keep buying gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 16, 2011 - Buying gold today is the only way we will be able to buy anything in the very near future. “The old regime of general economic stability and rising standards of living fueled by excessive credit are a thing of the past,” says renowned scientist and economist Chris Martenson.

The problem goes beyond just the deficit; it stems from the abrupt end of 40 years of exponentially rising total credit market debt. Because we used credit to sustain consumption rather than to foster economic growth, our GDP has fallen far short of what we need to service the debt.

Martenson estimates that credit market debt would have had to rise to $104 trillion in 2010 just to keep us afloat. That is why Bernanke’s wanton money manufacturing had no real impact other than to fatten the wallets of select bankers and corporations.

Pimco’s Bill Gross recently underscored that statement on CNBC, saying that when you add in all of America’s unfunded liabilities we are in worse shape than Greece and the other troubled European nations. Gross pins the real debt at “nearly $100 trillion,” not coincidentally a close correlation to Martenson’s estimate of needed credit. “That's much more than Greece, that's much more than almost any other developed country,” Gross says. “We've got a problem and we have to get after it quickly.”

Even that is optimistic. From Martenson’s perspective, “no matter what policy tweaks, tax and benefit adjustments, or spending cuts are made -- individually or in combination -- nothing really pencils out to anything that remotely resembles a solution that would allow us to return to business as usual.”

The largest debt-to-GDP ratio that any nation has ever paid off is 260%. The record goes to 19th century England and it took the industrial revolution to pull it off. In real terms the US ratio today is some three times greater, and it would take a transformative event of even greater magnitude to turn things around. Unfortunately “no such catalysts are on the horizon, let alone at the ready,” Martenson says.

The transition to Zakaria’s “post-American world” is progressing far more rapidly than he ever imagined, fast enough to warrant a new revision of his book just three years after the first. It doesn’t take a PhD in economics or complex models to understand the end game for America’s economic dominance, just common sense and an open mind.

The mantra of the day for all Americans should be “deal with it.” Buying gold does just that.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 15, 2011 - Great news – the gold market rebounded nearly nine bucks! But then again, the Dow, S & P, and Nasdaq are also up. So are T-bills and T-bonds. And oil. And the euro. Last week they were all going down.

Asset classes aren’t supposed to move in unison, either up or down. When they do, something is amiss. It’s still too early to be certain, but it looks like we could be heading for what economists call a “liquidation event.”

We have been witnessing uncertainty across the board for months now with investors oscillating between risk-on and risk-off sentiment and jumping back and forth between asset classes. As conditions deteriorate the movement between classes becomes less defined. Like a massive school of sardines they zig and zag into and out of investments altogether.

All it really means is that reality is finally sinking in. The Fed is caught between a rock and a hard place – either it sits back and lets the fundamentals take charge or it jumps right back in with another stimulus program.

The quickest and surest route to real recovery is to let the markets work things out while the government redefines its purpose, to take our lumps now so we can get to the business of rebuilding. It’s the sensible thing to do, so it is also the least likely thing our government will do.

The other option has one overpowering advantage: it could postpone the inevitable until after elections. The price will be enormous, and further stimulus will undoubtedly make things much worse in the end, but politicians have their priorities.

Either way, we’re in for hard times. Mass market movements worry me – they disrupt rational balance and can instantly and unexpectedly wipe out investments. I believe equities are particularly vulnerable, and I see any upswing as an opportunity to divest.

Quite the opposite is true of gold. Regardless of how gold market prices move, the value of the gold I have stored in the bank will not change.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 13, 2011 – The gold market reflects the state of the economy, which in turn reflects the overinflated bureaucratic state of our government. “The Death of Common Sense” by Philip Howard, first published in 1994, should be required reading for citizens and policy makers alike, from Tea Partiers to Liberals.

Good intentions have mired us so deeply in a counterproductive quagmire that no amount of flag waving and no litany of past glories can extract us. But if Howard’s book had been widely read, we might have well avoided the economic crisis altogether.

The wrong-headedness and waste inherent in our hyper-regulatory system of government should have ignited public outcry the likes of which have not been seen since the American revolution. The blatant abrogation of the rights and roles of the citizenry so succinctly granted under the Constitution should have boiled the blood of every man, woman, and child in the country.

Unfortunately, we were all caught up in the great giveaway of entitlements granted to us as “rights” by an increasingly paternalistic government. But the Constitution defines our basic rights in no uncertain terms: we are to be free from government coercion so that we may pursue life’s rewards to the fullest extent possible; it does not give us the right to “have” anything. Instead, in the name of “fairness” the government has robbed us of the freedom to run our own lives.

A free market cannot exist under those conditions. Law should exist only to ensure adherence to acceptable standards of behavior by holding those who willfully violate those standards accountable for their actions. What we have today is a system that dictates not only what we must do but how we must do it, a conglomeration of code that has drained America of the spirit that made us great.

The average Joe is hopelessly mired in the morass, lawyers twist the law to serve their Wall Street masters, and the government has legislated itself into impotence.

The current crisis is more than an economic problem – it is a systemic correction to force sensibility back into our government and into its people. Such a profound change can come only at the expense of unprecedented hardship.

The government can no longer protect us, but we can find refuge from the tempest in the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 08, 2011 – The gold market is crouched in the starting blocks waiting only for the crack of the pistol. And Bernanke’s feeble pleas to call off the race are now falling on deaf ears.

The Fed’s meddling in the markets has been a classic example of the Austrian business cycle theory, resulting in a series of boom-bust cycles over several decades and creating several notable bubbles. Although each bust was worse than the last, lowering interest rates below market value always succeeded in sparking the next boom. So why isn’t it working this time?

Free Market Economics attributes the failure to the buildup of debt load encouraged by repeated cycles of artificially low interest rates. Today “the Fed cannot ignite another bubble [because] the burden of massive debt overhang is too much to overcome.” In absence of another false boom there is no money left to service the debt, leading to “massive defaults at all levels of society including individuals, corporations, municipalities, states and finally the Federal government itself.”

Unquestionably the progression is well under way, and time is quickly running out for the states. When they start defaulting, the Federal government won’t be far behind. The Fed will ultimately be forced to choose between just two means of default.

The first is the one most often chosen in the private sector – simply not paying back the debt. This direct approach is always painful, but it allows recovery to begin immediately and things gradually improve over time. If the Fed were to take that route “we get a vicious but not endless period of deflationary debt collapse where all the bad decisions of the past Fed induced business cycles are finally accounted for.”

Most likely, however, the Fed will opt to keep bailing out everyone who comes to it with hat in hand, cranking up its magic presses to pay for it all. “This would eviscerate the dollar on the foreign exchange market and send prices soaring to the moon in a hyperinflationary depression.” How long it would last is anybody’s guess.

In the end whichever path the Fed chooses is immaterial. All that will matter is whether it elects to cease meddling and let a truly free market take its course.

Fortunately we individuals need not go down with the ship. We have the option to ride out the storm buoyed by strong gold investment.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 06, 2011 – You don’t need a crystal ball to divine the future of the gold market – you just need the daily newspaper and an open mind. Follow the battle over Medicare and you get a very clear picture of where the country is headed.

Medicare exemplifies the deeply rooted sense of entitlement that has grown over the decades into the highly illogical and self-destructive sentiment it is today. “Normal humans don't relish making informed decisions about things they're not sure of, and that carry big personal implications,” say the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan. So we leave it up to the politicians to pull some rabbit out of the hat.

We have grown accustomed to telling our politicians “to go to Washington and bring home the bacon,” says former Senator and co-chairman of President Barack Obama's debt commission Alan Simpson. But “you can't bring home the bacon anymore, because the pig is dead.” Small wonder that Ms. Noonan says “It is a long time since I've seen such transparent demagoguery, such determined dodging.”

Bubbling up through all the rhetoric is “the first great buzzword of the new decade—‘unsustainable’,” Noonan says. Deficit spending is unsustainable. Quantitative easing is unsustainable. And unfunded entitlements are unsustainable. Yet somehow the American people continue failing to grasp the real implications of the concept.

It’s really quite simple: keep it up and “we are going to near our endpoint as a nation,” Noonan says. And the most bitter pill we must swallow is that “the culture of Washington will kill any serious attempts at reform.”

The message is abundantly clear. We must stop turning to Washington, expecting the government to ensure our way of life will endure. A sea change in American attitude is in the works and when it emerges people by the tens of millions will start taking back their lives.

As reason prevails individual investors will turn to gold en masse to preserve their wealth, creating a demand so powerful that it will redefine the drivers of gold market prices, sending them to once unimaginable highs.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 01, 2011 - Buying gold as insurance against economic calamity could never be more relevant than it is today. Week after week we are presented with rosy economic news only to have it refuted days later. The good news is that a growing number of Americans are able to see the truth behind the government deception.

That is easy to explain. Today the typical household is spending almost 10% of their pre-tax income on gasoline, according to an AP release, more than “they spend on cars, clothes or recreation … Economists say the gas squeeze makes people feel poorer than they actually are.”

Well, maybe it makes them feel as poor as the actually are. Those fortunate enough to have jobs have seen their wages stagnate while they shelled out $800,000 for each new job created by the stimulus. For the average Joe it is abundantly clear that the buck goes no where near as far as it did just a couple of years ago.

Of course every one of us had a part in the financial crisis. Somewhere along the way we all benefited from a burgeoning Federal government and we all stood in line for some handout. It does no good today to sit around debating what went wrong, however. Tomorrow’s winners will be those who take strong action today.

Victims of the spate of natural disasters are teaching us all a lesson – the government can no longer afford to bail out individuals who failed to prudently protect themselves. Those who had too little insurance will quickly find that their wealth has been irreparably depleted. The same will be true for those who fail to insure their wealth against economic calamity.

At the current gold market price our vastly inflated monetary supply has virtually no backing. To get to a point where government reserves of gold backed just 25% of the supply the price would have to climb to nearly $2,400 per ounce. The fed has pumped so much cash into the system that the greenback looks every bit like a bubble set to burst.

The gold market has no where to go but up relative to the US dollar. And paper assets have nowhere to go but down relative to gold. Those who do well through the coming years of economic hardship will be those who had the foresight to protect their wealth with certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 27, 2011 – Sure, buying gold bars definitely makes sense if the United States were in real trouble, but what is the worst that can happen. A couple millennia ago the Romans were asking the same question.

It seems that the excesses of the emperors was catching up to them and the government needed a way to come up with some quick cash (sound familiar?). Unlike with our fiat money today the Romans couldn’t just print more paper, but they could do something with the same effect.

At first the Romans only gradually diluted their coinage by reducing the content of their base metals. It took 175 years to cut the coins’ true value in half. But from that point forward, in just three decades their value plummeted to less than 5%, and the fall of the empire was on an irreversible course.

If the timing rings a bell it is because it is not much different than our own. It seems odd that two thousand years’ of the same folly has taught us nothing, but the same irrational thinking now has the American Empire teetering on the brink. There is absolutely no justification for believing that this time the outcome will somehow be different.

True, times change and empires don’t topple quite so easily these days. But don’t forget the Soviet Union. It can and will happen here, it’s only a matter of time. Nobody can say what the fall will look like or what it will mean for the average American, but two things are certain: The trumped up wealth built on a currency conjured up out of nothing will cease to exist, and wealth stored in gold bullion will endure.

All of the investments in the world will amount to nothing when they are tied to a worthless currency. Returns paid in worthless currency are meaningless. The only thing that will matter in the very possible eventuality of total currency collapse is having a reliable medium of exchange to provide life’s necessities.

Nothing anywhere throughout history has equaled the wealth preservation inherent in gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 23, 2011 – A lot of attention has been paid to the physical gold market of late, but little is being said about certified rare coins. While mainstream pundits are reluctantly beginning to concede the wisdom of gold investment, few are willing to take the next logical step and recommend collectibles. Yet in the midst of unprecedented global uncertainty and minute investor participation, certified gold coins present exceptional investment opportunity.

The argument, of course, is the time-worn complaint about the higher premiums exacted when buying certified rare coins. But consider the unique nature of all collectibles, for which I’ll use buttons as an example. Yes buttons.

My great aunt was a lifelong button collector and by the time of her death she had amassed one of the largest collections in America that was worth a small fortune. Button collecting had not gained much in popularity over the years, but neither had it diminished. At a minimum each collectible button retained its intrinsic value and therefore the price rose to keep pace with inflation. More often, however, age and attrition combined to drive the price even higher.

For the truly avid collector, such as my great aunt, the gains (if that were her purpose, which of course it was not) can be astronomical. She would sort through huge jars of buttons she bought for a pittance at a rummage sale, often finding some rare gem worth several hundred times what she had paid.

While collecting certified rare coins has the same potential, few investors have the inclination or the time to pursue it. But the drivers of the so-called rarity premium are almost entirely on a continual upside. Growth in interest steadily expands with the population, diminishing the finite supply of coins. Growing investor interest, fueled by fears of gold confiscation, drives up demand even further. And because collectors are distributed throughout every nation around the world, only a global calamity could disrupt the trend.

The only thing holding investors back from the extremely lucrative potential of collectibles in general is that to be truly successful requires a level of expertise that very few possess and that takes years to acquire. But that is not the case with PCGS certified coins. PCGS is an unbiased third party rating firm that puts the expertise of world renowned numismatists at the disposal of the individual investor, assuring the authenticity and quality of every coin purchased.

Someday, to the dismay of “pure” collectors, the investment community will catch on to the double growth potential of collectible gold coins, and in time they will introduce a volatility that is virtually nonexistent today. For now, however, it is hard to beat a sound investment in certified rare coins.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 18, 2011 – The gold market these days testifies to the government’s success in confusing investors. It may not be a conspiracy, but the snow job cannot be a mere accidental product of ineptitude.

For the past several decades spin doctors have been perfecting their trade, making it very difficult for the average American to understand what is really going on. But people are beginning to see through the fog.

A recent survey by Rasmussen Reports shows that 63% of adult American consumers believe we are in a recession, but more surprising, 62% of investors also believe it. Still the government keeps trying to sell us on the “recovery.”

The latest data, for instance, trumpets a 0.9% increase in retail sales in March and a 0.5% increase in April. On the surface, that seems to be encouraging since consumer spending is around 70% of the GDP. But those statistics are based on dollars spent, not quantity of goods purchased (and therefore produced).

For example, “March’s jump was helped in large part by a surge in gasoline prices,” says Irwin Kellner in MarketWatch. “While motorists were pumping fewer gallons, the dollar value of gasoline sales rose 4.1% in the month.” Likewise a 0.6% drop in actual consumption translated into a 2.7% increase in dollars spent. Obviously spending more for less does not constitute economic growth, and consumers, once content in blissful ignorance, are beginning to take notice.

David Weidner in MarketWatch believes the seemingly contrary markets today are “not unlike the economic trends we saw in 1988, 1999 and 2003: Most investors believe we’re in the early stages of a global recovery, and they’re going to bet on it whether it happens or not … [The current] rally is based more on confidence than any actual data.”

“The point is that as surely as a lack of confidence knocked over the house of cards in 2008, confidence, or overconfidence, may be building a new one in 2011,” Kellner says.

As investor awareness grows, that house of cards will also come tumbling down. The time to save yourself with gold investments may well be running out.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 16, 2011 - If gold investments are imprudent, then so must be every other form of insurance. How is it that the vast majority of Americans insure themselves against loss of home, auto, and even life, yet so few insure their wealth?

The answer – for real this time – is a strong bias in mainstream media. We so-called “gold bugs” are consistently portrayed as doomsday fanatics and wing-nut survivalists because we champion gold as a means of wealth preservation through worst-case situations. But that’s no different from life insurance, which is based on pretty much the worst case scenario I can come up with.

Losing your home to fire or natural disaster may be a remote possibility, but the potential loss makes it too great a risk not to insure. You aren’t planning to wreck the car tomorrow, but it’s not worth taking the risk pulling out of the driveway without insurance. You’re hoping a miracle will prevent the collapse of the economy, but why wouldn’t you invest in gold to insure against that possibility as well?

In real life when things go horribly awry it is usually gruesome, something we would rather not dwell on. Once we are sold on a threat we take measures to see us through the eventuality, and then put it out of our minds. But it is quite another story when it comes to our investments.

We fret over every movement in the markets and worry ourselves sick, always fearful that we will lose everything. Yet a prudent investment in gold has proven throughout history to prevent that from happening.

Big investors don’t have time to worry. They keep one eye keenly focused on the markets and the other on current events. They understand risk and they hedge accordingly.

The consequences of loss are far more grave to individual investors than to big money so it is even more important for them to protect themselves. There is no better way to do that than with strong physically held gold investments.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 13, 2011 – The 40th anniversary of an event that changed the gold market forever is drawing near. It was in August of 1971 that President Richard Nixon pulled the pin and tossed a grenade into a world monetary system. The story behind the so-called Nixon Shock has an eerily familiar ring.

In 1944 representatives from the Allied nations convened the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, NH to devise a global monetary management system to facilitate reconstruction following WWII. From that conference came the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), now part of the World Bank. The US, being the world’s largest creditor by a wide margin, used its clout to cut a pretty sweet deal.

Not only did we secure special veto powers over decision making by both the IMF and IBRD, we saw to it that foreign exchange reserves must be held in US dollars and all exchange rates be tied to the dollar. Suddenly we were free to run up debt like there was no tomorrow.

Still, it all seemed reasonable enough – the dollar was fixed to gold and was convertible on demand – and the conference put its stamp of approval on the new global reserve currency. For the next quarter century it actually worked out fine, but the kid was loose in the candy store.

For the first time that century the US began running up both balance-of-payments and trade deficits. The rest of the world watched nervously as gold coverage of the dollar plunged from 55% down to 22% by 1970. Doubt was setting in about whether our government was capable of balancing the budget or trade.

Then we started up the printing presses in earnest in 1971, shipping some $22 billion in excess liquidity overseas in just the first six months. Worried about inflationary pressures from the flood of cheap dollars, Germany was first to pull out of Bretton Woods. Switzerland followed suit just a few months later when Congress recommended devaluing the dollar. By midsummer European nations were clamoring to convert their greenbacks to gold.

Thus, on August 15th, the President slammed the door to Fort Knox in the face of all our friends and allies. Instantly gold was out of the global monetary system, leaving it pinned to a single fiat currency. Within five years all of the major currencies had followed suit, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In a jet-propelled world our economy keeps bouncing along in a 40-year-old Fiat. Fortunately Nixon also did us a favor. By removing the ban on gold investments he gave individual investors the means to keep moving forward as the old clunker wheezes to a halt.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 11, 2011 – The urgency of turning to certified gold investments got kicked up another notch last month when BRICS told the buck to hit the bricks. BRICS is the acronym for another major bloc that is ditching the dollar, short for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Together those countries account for 42 percent of the world’s population, almost 20 percent of global GDP and climbing, and more than 40 percent of the world’s currency reserves, Daniel Zurbrügg said in Personal Liberty Digest. That’s one powerful force, one that will dominate global economics within the first half of this century. It is particularly significant that their “meetings take place without any representation or influence from the U.S. or Europe.”

Concerned that the condition of the U.S. economy poses significant risk for BRICS nations, which hold vast dollar reserves and do considerable trade in dollars, they “are now calling for a new global currency system to be established with a broader range of currencies involved in order to provide the necessary stability,” Zurbrügg says. “After being the world’s main reserve currency for many decades, the game is finally changing, and it has far-reaching consequences for the world and your investment strategy.”

If your investment strategy doesn’t include an unusually strong position in certified gold, your wealth is extremely vulnerable to what has become a rapidly accelerating end to the dollar’s dominance in the global currency system. “It remains to be seen whether there is going to be a smooth transition to a new global currency regime or an outright collapse of the current system,” Zurbrügg says. The Fed’s continued arrogant disregard for the rest of the global community is an unambiguous call for the latter.

Fortunately, regardless of what emerges as the new global reserve currency, its value will still be measured by the price of gold. And it is quite likely that gold will play an important role in stabilizing the new basis of trade.

No matter how the transition plays out, dollar-based wealth will wither while investments in certified gold will seamlessly translate to the new global standard.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 10, 2011 – When big money cashes in it’s gains in the gold market, prices are bound to dip. But that doesn’t change the fundamentals driving the market or in any way change the outlook for long term investors. The economic outlook reinforces those fundamentals every day, begging for investors to take advantage of the temporary decline in prices to strengthen their positions in certified gold.

ShadowStat’s John Williams said in an interview with the Gold Report that we don’t “have until 2012 before this gets out of control and there's hyperinflation.” The housing market double dip is just a sign of “both an intensifying double-dip recession and a rapidly escalating inflation problem. Until such time as financial market expectations catch up with the underlying reality, reporting generally will continue to show higher-than-expected inflation and weaker-than- expected economic results” Williams said in his April 19 newsletter.

From my perspective, however, there is an even greater threat facing us today – looming disruption to the social order caused by the disillusionment of the American worker.

Americans are so far taking things in stride, angry but still willing to work within the system. But that is a fragile state and they are weary of supporting Wall Street fat cats while their quality of life steadily declines. The persistent unemployment problem is now pushing many to the brink of their tolerance.

Anne Kadet reports in the Wall Street Journal that “Emboldened by an unemployment crisis … businesses of all sizes have asked employees to take on extra tasks that have little to do with their primary roles and expertise.” Already the most overworked workforce on the planet, companies are leveraging their employees’ fears of losing their jobs to squeeze ever more out of them “and some believe this shift is permanent.”

A recent survey shows that “53% of workers … have taken on new roles, most of them without extra pay … Now that sales are picking up, there's even more work to do, but companies are reluctant to hire … seeing their profits increase now that their work forces are leaner.” In the late 1920s the textile mills tried similar tactics to increase productivity, a practice the workers called ‘stretch-out,’ and it led to massive strikes across the country.

Job satisfaction has already hit an all time low. Pushing workers to put in extra hours is creating performance impairing fatigue and forced multitasking is drastically reducing productivity.

Social unrest can quickly escalate to the point of making all other issues moot. Only investments in certified gold can assure survival in the event of collapse of social order.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 09, 2011 – Which is more important to the investor – a dip in the gold market or a double dip in the economy? Sorry, that was a trick question. They are both important and together they make a mighty strong argument for getting serious about certified gold investments. Right now.

The truth is that last week’s drop in commodities reflects a stronger dollar, but the stronger dollar is the result of an artifact from our glory days and cannot last in today’s global economy. Worsening domestic news is driving investors away from risk, and in one inexplicable leap of faith they are turning to the dollar – the keystone of the worsening economy.

Small business is still in recession and recent polls indicate a rapidly growing number among small business owners – already up to 57% - believe that the economy is deteriorating rather than improving. And “the evidence of a double-dipping housing market and economy are becoming undeniable,” says Michael Pento in MarketWatch.

“More evidence of an official double dip in home prices was found in a report from Clear Capital, [which] stated that its monthly index is now below the prior all-time low set in March 2009,” Pento says. From that report, “Home prices have dropped 11.5% in the last nine months, a rate of decline not seen since 2008.”

Quite plainly the only reason that we haven’t yet been hit with dip two is the Fed’s massive intervention. “Quantitative counterfeiting Part 2 hasn’t even ended yet, and this ersatz economy that is based on borrowing and printing is already starting to falter,” says Pento. “A slowing economy with rising unemployment and falling home prices will, unfortunately, keep the Fed in the shipbuilding business — as in “QEIII” — for quite some time … when the Fed, Treasury and administration finally acquiesce … the pain will be much worse.”

Probably very true, unless, of course, you happen to be strongly positioned in certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 04, 2011 – News as big as Bin Laden getting his comeuppance was bound to hit the gold market with a wave of emotion. After all, even the dollar had a brief respite from its slide. Euphoria of that long awaited news is already wearing off, however – it just can’t overpower the obvious decay of our economy. The window of opportunity to capitalize on this emotional dip will close very quickly.

Using the Billion Prices Project’s inflation figures and the near stagnant growth in our GDP adjusted for population growth, it is patently obvious that our economy is shrinking. New job figures aren’t enough to absorb the new entrants into the labor pool, let alone put people back to work. And if the Fed lets interest rates rise, any progress we have seen will grind to a halt.

Mark Johnson notes in the Wall Street Journal that “the Institute for Supply Management's nonmanufacturing index fell to 52.8 last month, much less than the 57 expected … the latest [indicator] in a recent series showing how far the U.S. economy has to recover before the Federal Reserve can resume monetary tightening.” The other option to resuming monetary tightening? You got it, QE3.

Bernanke put the Fed between a rock and a hard place. There is nothing the Fed can do at this point to turn things around. That is now up to the politicians and the American people. Either we take a bitter reality pill and get to work on the big issues or we go down. There is no other way. But surprisingly, we are still not ready to follow the example of more rational minds.

For a few days we Americans had something we could rightfully feel good about, but we should not let it cloud our thinking. Other than providing us with a little relief, nothing whatsoever has changed to make the economic outlook any better, and it can be argued that the martyrdom of the iconic leader of the world’s most extreme terrorists has made us less safe today.

The dip in gold prices is not hard to explain, nor will its rebound come unexpectedly. The wise investor looks for times like these to invest in certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 02, 2011 – It is encouraging to see the gold market getting back on track to its long-term trends. It is a sign that at least globally folks are waking up to the true state of the US economy and a glimmer of hope that our politicians might wake up before it’s too late. Just don’t hold your breath.

Martin D. Weiss of Weiss Ratings has stepped in where S&P, Moody, and Fitch have feared to tread with the introduction of The Weiss Sovereign Debt Ratings. Weiss believes “an honest rating for U.S. government debt is urgently needed to help protect investors and support the collective sacrifices the U.S. must make in order to restore its finances.”

By that scale the US earned only a C, indicating “that the current fiscal condition of the United States government is far inferior to that implied by its AAA/Aaa rating from other agencies.” Our government “ranks 44th in terms of its debt burden … 32nd for international stability, due mostly to low reserves; and 27th for economic health.” For comparison, Mexico beat us out with a C+ and Russia with a B.

Weiss gives these examples of the damage done by the leading services’ artificially high ratings:

1) It conceals the real level of risk in US sovereign debt while keeping yields “far too low to compensate for the risks.”

2) Everyone relying on interest income or dependent on treasury-keyed fixed incomes “are being severely underpaid, virtually across the board.”

3) Downgrading the outlook while maintaining the AAA rating sends a double message and is “entirely inadequate to warn or protect [investors].”

4) Our rating “is unfair to other sovereign nations that receive inferior ratings despite superior fiscal circumstances.”

5) The “debt rating has helped foster political resistance and gridlock in Washington,” whereas an early down grade might have helped “lawmakers and policymakers take earlier remedial steps.”

6) Maintaining the AAA rating has created “an environment of chronic public complacency.”

As more and more services emerge to inform us of the true nature of our economy, the disillusionment with our government will gradually spread. Eventually we will even get back on our feet and can begin the climb back to power.

But the destruction of all paper wealth almost certainly will come first, devastating everyone without the protection of investments in certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 1, 2011 – If you thought that Bernanke’s “news” was in any way uplifting, just take a look at the gold market. As the price of gold rose, the dollar sank to its lowest point in over three years, and the currencies of even third world countries continued to set records against the dollar.

No news. If anything, Bernanke defiantly told the rest of the world to take a hike.

Never mind that everybody else is tightening their policy and implementing austerity measures. Never mind that doing so has directly led to a rate of growth that leaves ours in the dust. Never mind that a sizeable chunk of the little growth we have had is due to manipulating a trade advantage with cheap dollars. And never mind that could come to a complete halt any day as nations retaliate with trade restrictions. That’s our policy and we’re sticking to it.

But how do you balance that with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s statement that “we will never embrace a strategy of trying to weaken our currency to gain economic advantage?” And Bernanke’s claim that “the Federal Reserve believes that a strong and stable dollar is both in American interests and in the interests of the global economy?” Actually you cannot, but it doesn’t matter.

The real problem, and one which must taken care of before anything real can be done to fix the economy, is as Bernanke stated, the deficit. Whether he believes nobody will notice or whether he is just too arrogant to care, Bernanke is hell bent on making the US solvent by inflating our way out.

It will be, of course, another case of the cure being worse than the disease. Much worse. The Fed has already stretched the limits of the world’s patience with its shenanigans. We no longer are waiting for the other shoe to drop – it is already falling and falling fast.

We have seen but the first tentative steps into the gold market - will soon become a stampede as the world grows weary of Bernanke’s con game.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 27, 2011 – The IMF just announced a real game changer that should have everyone charging to the gold market. Except nobody seems to be paying attention. They’re all too busy waiting for Bernanke’s next bumbling runaround and playing political football with the economy. But none of that really matters.

Regardless of who is in power, in just five year’s time the rule book is going to be tossed out the window. The Wall Street con game will come to an end as the market manipulators find themselves trying to second guess a whole new paradigm. All bets will be off on how it will play out in the end. For a while, anyway, it will get very ugly.

You see, in 2016 the global economy will be taken out of our relatively benign hands to be held in the iron fist of communism. That’s when the IMF predicts China’s economy will outgrow our own, says Brett Arends in MarketWatch.

Naturally the spin doctors are playing it down and expert consensus has the event decades down the road. But “they’re only comparing the gross domestic products of the two countries using current exchange rates,” says Arends. “That’s a largely meaningless comparison in real terms. Exchange rates change quickly. And China’s exchange rates are phony.”

The IMF, however, looks at “the true, real terms picture of the economies using ‘purchasing power parities,’ [which] compares what people earn and spend in real terms.” Not that PPP is in any way novel – that’s the measure we used to justify protectionist trade policies against China decades ago.

It’s not as if China snuck up on us out of nowhere – we’ve been closely monitoring their progress for over 40 years. And in the past 10 years we saw their economy grow from one third to nearly three quarters the size of our own.

Capitalism isn’t a way of life for the Chinese, it is just the most efficient means to an end, a self-serving vehicle for global dominance. We just can’t accept the fact that a communist country is going to beat us at our own game.

Of course China will still need capitalism and in time the markets will adjust. In the meantime, as always, gold investments will carry us through.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

However, in the wake of the S&P downgrade the world has begun to take a closer look at the true state of this union and it doesn’t like what it sees. As the ICE Dollar Index fell to its lowest level since the beginning of the financial crisis, the euro and the currencies of New Zealand and Canada reached multi-year highs against the dollar and new records were set by the Australian dollar and Swiss franc.

“The widespread perception is that the Fed's stimulus strategy is to blame … with further missteps sure to send the dollar spiraling,” global foreign-exchange strategist Andrew Busch told the Wall Street Journal’s Andrew J. Johnson. And despite the havoc wreaked by dumping hundreds of billions of liquidity into the system, it is clear “that the Fed's stimulus strategy has failed to fix the most problematic aspect of the U.S. economy - job creation,” Busch said.

That is bound to have global investors questioning everything Bernanke says. Even a cursory examination of the facts will lay waste to his claim that the federal debt is just 70% of GDP, which by most standards would not be all that unreasonable.

“But it's a con. They're not counting the debts owed to the Social Security administration,” said Brett Arends in MarketWatch. Real gross federal debt is more like 100% of GDP. And that doesn’t include Medicare. “These unfunded healthcare mandates may be off the map.” And an even more realistic figure for the true “national debt” would be the Fed’s own non-financial sector total, which is about twice the GDP.

Still, many cling to the belief that just because we’re the USA we can keep right on living beyond our means. But the “truth is, we can't get away with it … we're too big to bail,” Arends says.

Why it took so long for the world to get wise is anybody’s guess, but it won’t be much longer before big money turns to gold for safe haven. When it does, record prices in the gold market will cease to be barriers – they will just be milestones.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 21, 2011 – The gold market cannot remain tentative much longer. As weak a statement as the S&P outlook downgrade was, it none-the-less was the first public statement by an American firm that the emperor is stark naked. And that coming from the true red-white-and-blue service that upheld triple-As for the junk that caused the crisis.

The government’s arrogant dismissal of its significance does not bode well for its continued AAA rating. That is no small threat because a reduction in rating of just a single step would trigger a devastating increase in interest on our debt. George Gero, vice president with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures, told the Wall Street Journal the downgrade “is a disquieting, game-changing thought for a lot of the world.”

As the dollar slides against some of the most unlikely currencies – the Colombian peso is up 44% against it – the rest of the world is turning to gold for safe haven. In addition to stockpiling huge amounts of gold while surreptitiously converting its US debt to commodities China has stepped up its efforts to globalize the yuan. The times they are a-changing.

Anthony Mirhaydari reports in MSN Money that a team from Standard Chartered Bank projects that “gold is moving into a new ‘super-cycle’ [with] prices of $2,107 an ounce in 2014 as its base forecast.” Furthermore, “statistical modeling suggests a possible 'super-bull' scenario of gold prices rallying up to $4,869 in nominal terms by 2020.”

David Levenstein, a leading expert on investing in precious metals, says “We are currently in the midst of another monetary crisis brought on by many of the same reasons that brought on previous disasters … [that] has the potential to be the worst we have ever experienced.” He strongly advises having gold “in your investment portfolio regardless of what your adviser tells you.”

The government is in the hands of the super wealthy who are bent on sucking the last drop of blood out of the economy with complete disregard for the country’s future wellbeing, so naturally they are fighting tooth and nail to keep our money out of the one true safe haven. They regard us as no more than foolish, deluded sheep they can drive anywhere they choose.

It’s time to take our cues from the rest of the world and save ourselves from their self-destructive greed. Time is running out to find shelter in the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 18, 2011 – There is every indication that the gold market is poised to shift into high gear this week, when the price of gold climbs past $1500. And investors who hold back until gold hits its breakaway price will surely regret their hesitation.

The fact is that the Fed’s irresponsible policies are rapidly catching up with us. Today a Markets Alert from The Wall Street Journal says Standard & Poor “cut its outlook on the U.S. to negative, warning that the U.S. fiscal profile may become ‘meaningfully weaker’ than that of other major countries if policy makers can't tame the budget deficit.”

The odds are very slim that our politicians will be able to get the budget under control. Rasmussen Reports points out that even under Congressman Ryan’s alternative it would take at least a quarter century to balance the budget Both the Dow and S & P reacted with the biggest drop in almost a month while gold surged to just a few bucks short of the $1500 mark. More significant, the yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed to 3.432% and 30-year notes were down nearly a full point to yield 4.526%. That deals an immediate blow to the housing industry and will add billions to our debt. The dollar also fell, down another 0.5% against the yuan since last Friday.

Europe also took another hit last Friday as Moody’s dropped Ireland’s rating to just one notch above junk status. And In March China’s year to year growth in CPI shot up to 5.4%, 10% over February’s figure and a strong signal that the country’s tight monetary policy is unable to hold back inflation.

At some point big investors will have to face the brutal facts and turn to the gold market for shelter. In fact, the movement is already in its early stages. “Investors are frustrated with U.S. monetary policy. They're saying the heck with the dollar, the heck with currencies and they're buying metals,” Ira Epstein, director of the Ira Epstein division of the Linn Group, told the Wall Street Journal.

Once the floodgates open there will be no holding the gold market back. Individual investors who didn’t heed the warning signs and buy gold before that happens may find that they missed their best opportunity to secure their wealth.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 15, 2011 – The joke is on everyone who isn’t buying gold. We have known for a long time that the trillions in new Fed money went only to feed Wall Street greed while the government led us down the garden path, placating us with promises and pumping us up with platitudes. Still, when a Congressional order let us peek inside the Fed’s dealings during the bailout, the truth stretches the limits of imagination.

“Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?”, an article by Matt Taibbi in the Rolling Stone, reveals the extent of Wall Street’s money grab with full complicity from Bernanke & Co.

Try this one on for size. Remember all those billions in near-zero interest emergency loans to the big banks? Well, many of them used it to buy Treasuries, lending the money right back to the government at 3%. Nice deal.

Then there was the mother of all handouts, “Term Asset-backed securities Loan Facility”, or TALF. That program handed out Bernanke Bucks through “non-recourse” loans, which as the name implies, leaves taxpayers up the creek without a paddle. In essence, some big hedge fund borrows a pile of money from the Fed and uses it to scarf up toxic loans, which the Fed holds as collateral. If the investment pays off, the hedge fund cashes in and keeps the profits. In the more likely case that the insecurities tank, the government keeps the junk and lets the fund walk free and clear.

The best part about TALF is that any well-connected fool could get a slice of the pie. The wife of the chairman of Morgan Stanley (recipient of $2 trillion in bailouts) and her friend, widow of the company’s past president, put up $15 million to found Waterfall TALF. Neither has any real business experience but still the government handed $220 million over to the pair to buy up student loans and commercial mortgages. With little more than their initial capital at risk the gals can keep every bit of profit.

Then there are countless cheap loans to foreign interests. The Arab Banking Corporation of Bahrain – 59% of which is held by Libya’s central bank – got $35 billion. Don’t like the idea of the Fed lending gobs of cash to Qaddafi at interest rates as low as 0.25%? Then you’ll hate that the Treasury gave the Bahrain bank special exemption to prevent freezing its assets through economic sanctions.

Now that all of this is finally coming to light, who is going to jail? Most likely nobody. They’ll just rub our noses in it once again and go about their business of bringing our country to its knees. But those with strong gold investments will laugh last.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 13, 2011 – Without question the collapse of the dollar will be devastating to everyone, except those who have certified gold investments, of course. But that could never really happen, right? Wrong. In fact, we are heading full steam right towards that event. By all rights it should have happened already, except for a quirk in global economics.

When the dollar wrested the status of reserve currency from the British Sterling following WWII – ending the pound’s 200-year reign – it gained a unique advantage. Almost all global trade is denominated in dollars. That means other countries must somehow convert their currencies to dollars to buy on the global market, either through sales or conversion. In essence they must limit their consumption to what they are able to produce in exchange. Only the USA has been free to consume without that restriction, because only we can legally print dollars.

That was fine for a while, but our insatiable appetite for consumption meant that we had to keep printing ever greater quantities of dollars. We have been living beyond our means for so long that the time has come to pay the piper. As our irresponsible policy sends global commodity prices through the roof, the rest of the world is fighting back.

China and Russia have agreed to dump the dollar in their dealings. Arab oil producers are moving to a basket of currencies that will include their own local unified currency. And World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick has warned “the United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar's place as the world's predominant reserve currency.”

Even at home major corporations such as McDonald’s and Caterpillar are offering “dim-sum” bonds – instruments denominated in Chinese renminbi and not the dollar - as an easier means to raise capital.

Without the leverage of being the global reserve, the dollar will become virtually worthless. That is why major holders of US debt are surreptitiously unloading their holdings, using them for a global spending spree on anything and everything that looks like hard assets.

“It may be two years, you know, maybe a little less, maybe a little more,” Erskine Boyles, co- chair of President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility, told the Senate Budget Committee. “The markets will absolutely devastate us.”

That’s the plain truth. And stern warning to protect ourselves with investments in certified gold before it happens.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 11, 2011 – The resurgence in junk bonds is a stern warning to take shelter in certified gold.

As it always goes following a financial crisis, Wall Street vultures come out of the woodwork to pick over the remains of overleveraged companies teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. They buy up the companies’ debt at steep discounts then sit back and wait for the inevitable, at which time their paper gets turned into equity. They either sell off the assets or take over the company, realizing considerable profit.

While many find the practice of preying on the weak distasteful, it’s just life. In that way only the robust survive, making for a healthy economy. But Bernanke’s liquidity manufacturing machine has turned that all around.

With interest rates held near zero fund managers are getting ever harder pressed to find anything that will give them the returns their investors insist on. With little else available, they are turning in droves to junk bonds, making it possible for failing companies to stay afloat a while longer by refinancing their obligations.

Naturally that doesn’t sit well with the managers of distressed debt funds, who had been drooling over what they saw as years of carcasses to feed on in the aftermath of the crisis. While I have no sympathy at all for the vultures, the trend is very disturbing. It amounts to nothing less than a continuing program of bailouts for companies that should be allowed to fail.

As we all know, it’s only the short-term quick fix that is of concern to the government. The bailouts keep companies going a bit longer, making it appear like the economy is picking up. With the debt level fast approaching the tipping point, it is insane to channel all of Bernanke’s imaginary money into ever riskier assets, but the Fed is desperate to keep the illusion of recovery alive.

We have been there before and we know where this is leading us. The market cannot be put to rights with a correction – it must be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up with the fundamentals restored to their rightful place. It will happen, and investments in certified gold will provide wealth to get it done.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 08, 2011 – Investors today are struggling to find shelter in a market where everything seems to be on the rise, but that is to be found only in certified gold investment.

There is only one way to explain consistently rising prices across the board – the value of the currency by which they are priced is declining faster than any of the assets. When the dust settles gold bullion will be the only asset class left standing.

It is ironic that the strongest warning signs of the trouble we are in come from the Fed’s own database. For example, records on borrowing the Fed has kept since 1976 doesn’t take a whole lot of analysis to reach a very worrisome conclusion.

The records detail borrowing by the private sector and public sectors. Household credit is a strong contributor to consumption and business credit is mostly for capital expansion to meet the increased demand. Public debt in a healthy economy should be a short term reflection of business credit – a limited and temporary shot in the arm to spur capital investment.

That’s pretty much how it went up to this century. Only in the period from 1991 to 1993 did public borrowing exceed 50% of total credit expansion, peaking at 78% in 1991 when it reversed as business picked up. Throughout that time household credit remained relatively constant. By 1999, however, public debt was contracting but household debt was expanding at an alarming rate.

Over the next several years household and public credit expansion cooled while business investments were rising. Things were looking good until 2006, and in 2007 all hell broke loose. By 2009 both household and business credit had contracted by a considerable margin and government started borrowing in an ill-conceived attempt to not only boost capital investment but to compensate for lost demand as well. Since that time every dime of new credit has gone to the government.

The bottom line? A stalled economy holding the bag of burgeoning debt and equities with no supporting value. With no growth to repay debt it’s only a matter of time before the debt spiral wipes out all purchasing power in paper assets. And certified gold investments once again will prove their status as the one true store of value.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 06, 2011 – The time for buying gold is running short in the aftermath of monetization. Equities, when valued relative to gold have been in steep decline for the past ten years, losing nearly 80%. That is all the proof we need that the market is on artificial life support and not running on the fundamentals. History is repeating the last decline in the Dow/gold ratio and hyperinflation could easily send it plummeting to historic levels.

We all know by now that turning the stock market into a giant sponge to sop up a flood of liquidity that has no support can’t be sustained. And it can’t get an economy back on its feet. Sooner or later somebody is going to have to pay the piper. That somebody is us.

Foreign central banks are all downsizing their investments in treasuries and the private sector is dumping them entirely. So the Fed repatriates the debt. But with nothing but Bernanke bucks to pay for them, long-term yields have nowhere to go but up. That equals inflation, and since we’re holding the bag, that means here.

The Fed won’t like that very much and almost certainly will raise fund rates to try to stop it. Suddenly the interest on all of that debt they brought back home will spike, carving out an ever growing percentage of tax revenues. When it reaches 40% — which could happen in just a few years — history dictates that hyperinflation is inevitable.

Obama to the rescue. He appoints a committee to find a way to balance the budget by 2015 — oddly coincidental to what the National Inflation Association (NIA) has tagged the most likely timeframe for hyperinflation to strike. But knowing that the task is virtually impossible, he deftly redefined ‘balanced’ to exclude interest payments on the debt.

No surprise there — even the most optimistic of us have come to expect nothing but gimmicks from our government when what we need are real solutions. The NIA offers this very sound advice: “It is essential that all Americans begin preparing for hyperinflation immediately.”

The gold market is telling us the same thing, and there is no time like the present to start buying gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 04, 2011 - I’m not one to subscribe to conspiracy theories but something fishy keeps reining in the gold market. Let’s take a look at what we do know.

The Fed, of course, is the logical place to start. Bernanke has made it no secret that he wants the average American to stop saving money and start gambling in his Wall Street cronies’ casino. What better way to do that than hold down interest rates, which punishes "Americans who have done everything right, have worked hard, saved their money and stayed out of debt," said president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Richard Fisher to the Wall Street Journal.

Returns on savings accounts and other safe cash investments are now losing well over 5% in light of 5.6% annualized inflation over the last quarter. For retirees that represents a dangerous loss of income that has driven nearly a third of them to start tapping into their principle. For those still working it is eating away at any safety net they may once have had.

At the same time corporate profits are up — the S & P 500 gained 12% in earnings last quarter over the previous year — increasing returns and making equities a tantalizing alternative. That performance was made possible by high unemployment, which lets employers hold back wages. While real wages have been in steady decline over the past decade — down 5% over the period — the current annual rate of decline is nearly that much at 4.6%.

But there is a fly in the Fed’s ointment. The rapidly declining disposable income of American workers means less is being spent on the very things they produce. It’s like Fordism in reverse. New home sales hit their all time low since they started keeping records back in the early 1960s. Having less disposable income also means fewer Americans are likely to have sufficient resources to keep Wall Street’s machinery running, even if they fell for the scheme.

What bothers me is that this is all old hat. And yet gold investment, which would have more than compensated for Fed-induced losses, has remained weak throughout it all. Only a concerted effort to discourage Americans from buying gold seems likely to account for that.

And only Wall Street — and thus the Fed — has anything to gain from reining in the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

April 01, 2011 – It’s looking like the volatility in the gold market won’t be calming down any day soon as traders keep jumping in and out with each new financial release. But for the life of me I can’t understand all the hoopla about the non-farm payrolls report. I thought by now folks would have figured out that the underlying problem is way to big for a couple of hundred thousand jobs to make even a dent in it.

Even if you consider only those who are actively looking for work, the numbers mean that only one and a half out of every 100 job seekers will finally get a paycheck. But the real problem runs much, much deeper. When you add in all of those who are vastly underemployed and stuck forever in low paying jobs and the millions who have given up and fallen off the radar, the numbers are totally insignificant. And let’s not forget the tens of thousands that enter the labor pool each day.

Still, for the sake of argument, let’s call the job report a good thing, albeit a very tiny good thing. How’s the rest of the recovery doing these days?

Let’s see. Bernanke printed up gobs of cash, flooding the global market with excess liquidity so exports could get our economy rolling. That sent food and energy costs through the roof. Not our fault, Bernanke says. The weakened dollar threatens inflation abroad. Their problem, not mine, he says.

So nations everywhere started to implement capital controls and put up trade barriers left and right. Global trade put on the brakes, causing the sharpest decline in trade as a percentage of global GDP since the 1930s. There goes the exports responsible for what little progress we have made.

Lest we forget, the fallout (pardon the pun) from Japan’s catastrophe has yet to rain down on the rest of the world. Ireland and Portugal are fanning the flames of the eurozone’s debt crisis, and political unrest is spreading all over the Middle East and Northern Africa.

And with QE2 slated to end in just a couple of months, what’s Bernanke going to do for his second act? Word on the street is – you guessed it – QE3.

The long-term drivers of the gold market aren’t getting any better, but the long-term prospects for gold investment are.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 30, 2011 - The word ‘hyperinflation’ gets bandied about a lot these days, so diluting the seriousness of the threat that millions of Americans are missing out on the chance to protect themselves with gold investments.

America went through the Great Depression and several serious recessions, yet life went on. Americans have weathered double-digit inflation and crushing losses on Wall Street, and life went on. But hyperinflation is something far worse than anything we have ever dealt with before - and very few of us are prepared to take the hit.

There is a common misconception about hyperinflation, spread by those same people responsible for bringing it on: it’s nothing more than a higher level of inflation, which for most will be compensated for by rising wages, and it is something that the government can control with more of the same deflationary nonsense. No, no, and no.

Inflation means only that a currency is losing value relative to other currencies. Not a particularly desirable thing, but quite survivable. Hyperinflation means that the world has given up on a currency all together and no longer will accept it for trade. In other words, it has become completely worthless.

For the mathematically inclined, dividing the value of anything purchased on the global market (such as gold bullion) by the value of the dollar (zero) means you will need infinite dollars to buy anything. Even Bernanke can’t print that many bills and no employer will ever pay that salary.

Very bad news. But now consider hyperinflation on a global scale, because that is exactly where we are headed. With Japan soon to start up its presses and very strong hints that QE3 is just around the bend, not to mention all of those other major economies trying to deflate their way out of debt, the deluge of funny money is bound to bring the global monetary system to its knees.

When that happens currency tied assets won’t be worth the paper they are printed on. Yet that is where our government is urging its citizens to put their money.

We would be well advised to heed China’s advice to its citizens instead: buy gold today to preserve your wealth for tomorrow.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 28, 2011 - Wall Street pundits keep talking about a major shift in asset allocation, but naturally they never even mention the gold market. With the bond market flat and Treasuries “screaming to be shorted … stocks are the best house in a bad neighborhood,” says Leon Cooperman, chairman of Omega Advisers, in the Wall Street Journal.

But that wouldn’t suit the Fed’s grand design. The theory goes that forcing "investors to move into riskier investments, such as stocks … could eventually feed through into the broader economy,” says the Journal. That’s just what the individual investor needs right now - more risk.

It’s all symptomatic of the “broader erosion of the U.S. middle class.” Today the Commerce Department is “expected to show personal incomes, before tax and unadjusted for inflation, rising about 5% in February from a year earlier … Yet a closer look shows a troubling decline in wage-based income over the years and offers less reason for cheer.”

Income in the form of paychecks has dropped from 75% of total income in 1970 to only 64% last year and about 40% of all consumer spending comes from the top 20% of households. To put that in other terms, the percentage of total spending by those who have to work for a living has dropped 24% since 1970.

The whole economy is moving steadily towards servicing the wealthy at the expense of the working class. The average citizen is footing the bill for a recession that for them is far from over. Their wages are stagnant and QE fueled inflation in food and fuel has already eaten most of the increase in their income from tax cuts.

When a neighborhood goes bad it’s best to get out while you can. And the best place to move to is the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 25, 2011 - Waiting for the gold market to react to current conditions is like watching a boy blow up a balloon to see how big he can make it. Sooner or later the pressure has to overcome the resistance.

Throughout the recession and Bernanke’s insane attempts to stimulate the economy gold has proven its reputation as safe haven, but interest remains curiously low. As a result gold has become significantly undervalued. As the spread between current gold prices and the long-term trend widens, the pressure builds to get back on track.

Wall Street and the Fed, of course, are doing all they can to prevent that. “Stocks are in a rally,” they say, “so who needs safe haven?” Well for one thing, the rally is a ruse. Volumes are light, indicating “a lack of any desire to sell, not … any compelling reason to buy,” says market strategist Marc Pado in Market Watch. But what about all the good news from the manufacturing sector?

“The Federal Reserve this month reported that factory output grew for an eighth consecutive month in February, and the Institute for Supply Management's measure of manufacturing activity reached its highest level since 2004,” says the Wall Street Journal’s Justin Lahart. Having trudged our way back to where we were seven years ago, considering the growth in population and expected growth in the economy is hardly something to brag about.

Far more telling is the just released durable goods report, which shows capital investment, and purchases of factory machinery in particular, is still in decline. That is an indisputable sign that production is still well below capacity and confidence in economic growth is low. Thus expectations for GDP growth has fallen to new lows, now resting between 2% and 2.5%.

Things are getting worse, not better. Pressure is building in the gold market so get in now before she blows.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 23, 2011 - When it comes to stock investments I give Warren Buffet his due, but he should keep his comments about the gold market to himself. It may not be intentional, but his remarks in the latest CNBC interview gave the average individual investor the wrong impression about gold investment.

Buffet invests only in assets that produce the most income for the lowest entry price. In today’s market such assets are likely to be paying high dividends with toxic loans. Risk is mitigated by cheap prices for the underlying shares, but it is not negligible. Buffet, however, has billions to spread around and he has proven quite adept at picking more winners than losers.

Buffet’s strategy isn’t well suited to the gold market. The only way he could have the liquidity he requires to keep his money where it can get the highest returns would be in short positions. That is what he is talking about when labels gold investment as speculation. Most people equate speculation with risk, and because Buffet doesn’t differentiate between short and long positions, it is bound to make them wary.

Retail investors live in a different world than the big players, such as Buffet. They are looking for a safe place to put their money that has decent prospects for growing their wealth. That’s a far cry from investing for maximum income, but even for that purpose gold and silver leave Berkshire Hathaway shares in their tracks.

For example, compare the income generated by a yearly investment of $1,000 over the past ten years. Taking the annual returns as cash from Hathaway shares would have given you $5,700, while gold would have netted $10,900. If you had reinvested your earnings, your wealth would have grown only about $7,500 from the shares while the value of your gold increased by $18,700.

Without question, for the average individual, the gold market is the place to be.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 22, 2011 - When all reason dictates taking a strong position in the gold market, why are individual investors sliding back into risk-on/risk-off mode? The simple explanation is that they are clueless about what is driving the markets these days so they follow the mob, dodging back and forth between shelter and risk hoping the mob leaders have properly guessed the next market movement. But the leaders have no idea about what is going on either.

Wall Street insiders have retail investors right where they want them. With seemingly endless sums of free money When all reason dictates taking a strong position in the gold market, why are individual investors sliding back into risk-on/risk-off mode?to play with they are have the ability to move markets at will, regardless of trends. Giant hedge funds make it pay to fail and ETFs holding major market positions have the power to instantly initiate or counter movements. That poses little problem to insiders who are backed by super computers that continually monitor and analyze the minutest market details and have the ability to instantaneously initiate trades.

The individual investor, however, is left with “no capability whatsoever to understand the forces that are really driving the market," says Dan Genter, CEO and CIO of RNC Genter Capital Management in the Wall Street Journal. Although the market may move back towards the basics, the Wall Street Journal’s Mark Gongloff says there is professional consensus “that over the longer haul, the trend is … away from fundamentals.”

"The end of quantitative easing is going to be a pivotal event for the risk-on/risk-off mentality," said market analyst Clark Yingst in the Wall Street Journal. "The whole thing has been facilitated by QE." True, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the Fed will ensure the swing is in Wall Street’s favor.

Until our government gets out of bed with Wall Street the insiders will always have the upper hand. There is no future in following the mob, but the future of the gold market is all but assured.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 21, 2011 – Nothing please me more than to see big money go nuts and open the gold market to exceptional opportunity.

It goes without saying that the disaster in Japan will have serious and long-lasting repercussions for the global economy. After all, they are third next to the US and China. And I agree that now is a pretty good time to get out of equities and rush to safe harbor. But just look at where big money is heading.

The Swiss franc makes sense, but the Swiss economy can soak up but a tiny fraction of the demand. And the yen? Believe it or not, it is rising against the dollar. But the euro and the pound are falling? How about a rise in US Treasuries, just when the Fed is expected to pull out of the market and the Japanese are expected to do likewise to repatriate their investments?

And oil futures. Japan has no recourse but to replace lost nuclear energy with oil for the medium term, and yet oil futures are down. Stranger still, in the rush to safe harbor investors have even abandoned the one proven provider of that – gold.

That’s the way it goes when humans panic. Common sense falls prey to emotion and they become totally unpredictable. They all want the same thing – security – but they lose sight of what is secure in a desperate bid to unload everything. And there is nothing wrong at all with capitalizing on their foolhardiness.

The situation is really very simple. There is great uncertainty in the months ahead. And there is one asset that has proven throughout the centuries to preserve wealth through uncertain times: gold.

Profiting from buying certified gold today is not taking advantage of the Japanese disaster, it is profiting from the knee-jerk reaction of big money investors.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 17, 2011 – Inflation fears drive investors to the gold market and that greatly displeases Bernanke’s Wall Street cronies. So to keep the great delusion alive, he has turned to a game of semantics.

Americans have grown wise to the core inflation gimmick that Bernanke has relied upon all along, so he has changed his language to make people "believe he's now paying more attention to headline rather than core," says vice chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers and former Fed governor Laurence Meyer in the Wall Street Journal. The authors of the article, Sudeep Reddy and Michael S. Derby, attribute his motivation “in part to avert criticism that central bankers are out of touch with consumers.”

The Rasmussen Report supports their conviction, finding that nearly two-thirds of Americans are not confident in the Federal Reserve, and nearly one-quarter are not at all confident. Furthermore, two-thirds of Americans believe that we are still in a recession and 82% are concerned over inflation.

So when Bernanke testified before Congress a short while ago not once did he use the term “core inflation.” Instead he spoke of “low and stable inflation in the medium term," in what Meyer termed "a clever, politically motivated choice of words … [that] gives exactly the same message."

It will take a lot more than different words, however, to change American sentiment. That will take no less than a significant improvement in the conditions under which the average citizen is forced to live. We are all tired of the Fed’s pep rallies cheering on what is a decidedly losing team. When Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley told a Queens audience that underlying inflation was low despite rising food and energy prices, he was asked "When was the last time, sir, you went grocery shopping?"

It is time to give up on the Fed and deal with inflation in the best way available to us: invest in certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 16, 2011 – Certified gold coins are your best protection against a government racing full tilt down a dead end spur. And just what do Americans think about their government? A full “81% of mainstream voters think the country is going down the wrong track,” according to Rasmussen Reports, which accounts for their Consumer Index falling to its lowest level since last September.

Rasmussen Reports conducts more public opinion polls than any other company and their Consumer Index is a highly respected indicator of consumer economic sentiment. According to the latest figures, consumer confidence in the economy has fallen 14.5 points to 74.5 (the baseline of 100 was established for October, 2001) in just the last 30 days. Small wonder – two thirds of the population consider their financial condition to be less than good and 25% believe it to be poor.

The latest economic data only confirms their concerns. February’s much touted gain of 250,000 jobs was obliterated by 397,000 first-time jobless claims – 19,000 more than expected. In January the trade deficit swelled more than 15%, while imports outstripped exports in China by more than $7 billion. Even Wall Street has been forced to take notice, as witnessed by Thursday’s sharp drop in equity futures, and the wildcard has yet to be played.

That will come in June when the Fed is expected to withdraw from the Treasury market, where it has recently represented 70% of demand. Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund, has fully divested its holdings of US debt in expectation of plummeting prices, but others expect prices to hold as investors seek haven from a possible a double dip.

But the dollar is the problem, not the solution, and Treasuries are no haven. It looks like it will take a train wreck to bring an end to the insanity, and your best chance of surviving that is by investing in certified gold coins.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 15, 2011 - “Gold bugs”, and particularly those who advocate investing in rare gold coins, are forever chastised by mainstream investment gurus for their doom and gloom outlook on life. Doug Casey, a highly respected author, publisher and professional investor, has taken the risk to portray what he sees as the immediate future for America even though it “sounds outrageous and inflammatory and can create a credibility gap.”

“There's plenty of reason to be concerned about things financial and economic. But I personally believe we haven't been bearish enough on the eventual social and political fallout from the Greater Depression,” says Casey. “Nothing is certain, but the odds are high that the US is going into a time of troubles at least as bad as any experienced in any advanced country in the last century.”

Casey warns that within the next two years “the dollar bond market … will be devastated by much higher interest rates, a rapidly depreciating dollar, and an epidemic of defaults.” That will hit the property markets hard taking down insurance companies and pension funds with it and “the standard of living of most Americans will fall.”

Citizens of other countries that have experienced similar problems have weathered the storm by sheltering their assets where they were insulated against their failing currencies, but Americans’ blind faith in their government leaves them open to losing everything in their dollar-based assets.

Hit with shortages and disorder Americans will “look to the government to do something,” and the government “will step in massively,” which will “greatly aggravate the crisis and make it last much longer than necessary.” Far more important, turning to the very bureaucracy that created the problem “has every chance of radically, and at least semi-permanently, overturning the basic character of American life.”

Bureaucracies serve themselves first. Our best chance to beat them at their own game is to invest in an asset out of their reach – certified gold coins.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 10, 2011 – There is a surge in bets against the dollar that warns time is running out to take cover behind investments in certified gold coins.

“Hedge funds and forex dealers are betting record amounts against the dollar,” says Peter Garnham in Market Watch. In the last week of February the volume of short dollar positions surged 40% to 281,088 contracts with a value of $39 billion – three billion more than the previous record. The “growing belief that the US currency has lost its haven appeal” has investors looking elsewhere, particularly at the euro.

Until recently Europe’s sovereign debt problems tainted the euro’s appeal, but investors are doing an about face in response to the European Central Bank’s monetary tightening policies that include the distinct possibility that it will raise interest rates in April. In light of the Fed’s soft response to oil and food supply-side inflationary shocks, the euro climbed to a four-month high against the dollar.

“Dollar bears have become a marauding horde,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst David Watt, and Kit Juckes, Société Générale’s head of foreign exchange strategy, sees “a turn in the longer- term outlook for the dollar – for the worse.” Clearly the rest of the world has looked behind Wizard Bernanke’s curtain and seen the real state of our economy.

True unemployment – the Labor Department’s U-6 rate, which includes those who have given up their fruitless search for work – stands at 15.9%, says the Wall Street Journal’s Phil Izzo, despite the addition of 250,000 jobs last month. In fact, as more jobs are added more people are likely to resume their search – and that will increase the reporting labor pool and drive the unemployment rate back up.

The speculative hedge funds and forex dealers are just the frontrunners of a stampede against the dollar. The safest place to get out of its way is behind certified gold coin investments.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 05, 2011 – There seems no question that somebody or something is manipulating gold market prices, holding back the inevitable breakout while overpriced equities mysteriously rebound from obvious corrections. You can’t point the finger at the Fed because they just aren’t that clever. And Wall Street can’t claim the credit because if they could manipulate commodities that market would cease to exist.

That leaves every other nation on the planet. You know, the guys that Bernanke dismisses as totally irrelevant. In reality, it is those external forces that have the power and the incentive to control US market prices.

The vast majority of the globe’s sovereign wealth is represented by US debt securities. At one point in time that was well advised considering the unparalleled strength of our economy. Having no competition as dominant global merchant we had no trouble imposing the dollar as the standard of trade and the enormous mass of our economy made it particularly resistant to economic shock. The proliferation of derivatives offered to hedge against unfavorable movement in exchange rates sealed the deal.

But now it is clear to everyone but the Fed that those securities are becoming increasingly toxic every day, and central banks worldwide are faced with divestment of those instruments while protecting their own currencies. Since it could be decades before a viable alternative emerges to take the dollar’s place, there is but one logical option open to them.

Central banks will follow China’s lead. Despite producing more gold than any other country, China has vastly stepped up imports while slowly divesting itself of US debt. To optimize returns from the transition requires keeping a lid on the gold market while continuing to inflate American equities. China alone can exert tremendous influence on our markets, so imagine what a concerted global effort could do.

No mystery. No magic. Just one exceptional opportunity for gold investment.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 02, 2011 – Something BIG is afoot out in the States that will have profound effect on the gold market: they are taking action to shelter their economies from the Fed’s dollar-destroying policies.

A rapidly growing number of states are adopting what is typically known as the “Constitutional Tender Act,” legislation providing for the conversion from federal fiat money to gold and silver coins. While a few of the more cautious ones are only paving the way for the switch, most are calling for immediate action because “an adequate system of governmental finance and a sound and robust private economy cannot be maintained in the absence of a sound currency . . . [and] many widely recognized experts predict the inevitable destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency through hyperinflation in the foreseeable future.”

The legislation specifically cites the dollar’s “not being redeemable in gold or silver coin or the equivalent in bullion . . . as a major reason for the ever-increasing instability of the Federal Reserve System,” and states that “only through the timely adoption of an alternative sound currency” can the states “avoid or at least mitigate . . . hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System.”

Because “the United States Congress, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and the Federal Reserve System have taken and are preparing to take no action to provide the United States with an alternative to the [dollar],” the states are taking matters into their own hands backed by a Supreme Court ruling “that the States may adopt whatever currency they desire . . . while refusing to employ a currency not redeemable in gold or silver coin that Congress has designated ‘legal tender’.”

As the states start adopting an alternative hard currency they will drive the gold market to unimaginable heights, greatly rewarding certified gold investments made today.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

March 1, 2011 - The choice is clear: keep believing the lies and suffer the losses, or invest in certified gold coins and prosper.

“NATIONAL ECONOMY SLOWED BY STATE, LOCAL CUTS,” shouts a headline in the Savannah Morning News, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. And just as Bernanke regularly disavows any connection to problems in the global economy or with staggering commodity prices, we can presume the same goes for the states. I expect any day now he’ll be on TV trying to convince us that the states’ problems are beyond his control and that they have nothing at all to do with his policies. But that will be a lot harder sell.

Still, Americans want to believe in the Fed, and they want to believe in Wall Street. “It looks as though many of the retail investors now getting back into stocks are the same people who bailed from the market just before the start of a historic bull run,” says Jason Zweig in the Wall Street Journal. But such seemingly self-destructive behavior is only being human. “The memories of loss in the financial crisis already are fading, while the regrets over being out of stocks are refreshed every day the market goes up.”

As Barry Ritholtz, author of Bailout Nation, recently explained in the Washington Post, “Humans make all the same mistakes, over and over again. It’s how we are wired, the net result of evolution.” Behavioral science backs that up, says Paul B. Farrell in Market Watch. “Bankers and politicians are lying to us 93% of the time. It’s 13 times more likely Wall Street is telling you a lie than the truth. That’s why they win.”

But a great many Americans are still feeling the pain and are choosing to stop believing the lies. They are putting their money in certified gold coins, and that’s why they will win.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 28, 2011 – As the middle east heats up and oil prices soar, the need to take shelter in certified gold investments becomes ever more urgent. Bernanke, Inc., and its band of Wall Street outlaws are once again displaying their ignorance of the plight of everyday citizens and a total disregard for their wellbeing.

The dollar may be falling and stocks tumbling, but the market elite believe the Fed has strengthened the economy to a point where the oil price doesn’t matter. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Ken Fisher, chief executive of Fisher Investments, says "The fact of the matter is, when the economy's stronger, we use more gasoline and we buy more things from Tiffany at the same time." So, mister average American, keep up those purchases at Tiffany – and stop worrying about paying the mortgage and putting food on the table.

Despite the view from gilded boardrooms, “economic indicators like new home sales, jobless claims and durable goods orders, all released today, [point] to a slow, uneven recovery with little job growth,” says CNBC blogger Kelley Holland. The additional money it takes to buy gas for the car and oil for the furnace has to come from somewhere, and for most Americans that means putting off retail purchases.

“A spike in oil prices to $130 a barrel would lower U.S. industrial-production growth from roughly 5% annually to about 4%,” says Kelly Evans in the Wall Street Journal. The cost of that would eat up almost everything consumers gained from reduced income taxes.

As the Fed holds down interest based on gimmicked inflation numbers, investors are being drawn away to the currencies of more rational central banks that rely on headline inflation.

It seems there is no way to stop Bernanke’s juggernaut before it is too late, but we can prevent it from running over us with strong investments in certified gold coins.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 25, 2011 – Paper currencies never last very long, but the value of certified gold has endured for centuries. The problem is that unlike money, governments can generate currency at will, and they always do.

In Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers’ Guide to The Galaxy trilogy a band of society’s most non- productive citizens – hair dressers, telephone sanitizers, accountants and such – are dispatched on a one-way voyage across the galaxy to colonize Earth. Seeing the vast forests here they are struck by an idea to make them all unbelievably wealthy – they make leaves their currency. That is absurd, of course, but our Fed also seems to believe that money grows on trees.

The more currency Bernanke prints the less it is worth, plain and simple. After less than a century the dollar is now worth only a nickel. It might not become worthless, but it can get mighty close mighty quick.

It seems strange, then, that while the stock market just took its biggest hit since last summer, the dollar rose along with the gold market. That is what traditionally happens when investors see escalating risk in traditional assets, but it defies logic when the dollar is very risky as well.

There is a growing sentiment along those lines, however, as witnessed by strong interest in the Swiss franc and a nosedive in treasury yields. But gold remains inexplicably anathema to big investors, who are buying gold only to hedge their currency assets.

Using Shadowstat.com’s much more realistic and reliable inflation figures, gold has a lot of room to grow – a good 500% - before it tops out at its long-term trend. And the dollar’s demise as the global reserve currency is sure to push the ceiling even higher.

While big money continues holding back individuals have a very rare opportunity to cash in big with gold investments.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 21, 2011 - Top Bloomberg analysts predict that 2011 will be another banner year for gold investment and The Wall Street Journal reports that gold market prices could go up another 30% this year. Ever wonder why the preponderance of scholarly analysis paints exactly the opposite picture?

The Huffington Post thinks it’s because “the Federal Reserve . . . so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the central bank has become a career liability for members of the profession.” Academia lives by the rule of “publish or perish” and the Fed holds tremendous influence over what gets published in the top journals.

HuffPost found that “84 of the 190 editorial board members” of seven top journals “were affiliated with the Federal Reserve in one way or another.” Even more disturbing, at the Journal of Monetary Economics – the premier career maker for rising economists – “14 of the 26 board members are presently on the Fed payroll.”

So forget the academicians. If you want to know the weather, look out the window. Jerry Robinson, well-known Christian economist and author of Bankruptcy of our Nation, a book in which he predicted the current crisis in global economics, gives three solid reasons why the gold market prices will continue growing:

1) “Gold is a beneficiary of poor monetary policies.” Enough said.

 2) “In 2010, gold demand gold soared by 20% while gold production rose by 3%.” A major factor of that growth was China’s 500% increase in gold imports despite their being the world’s largest gold producer, reports Robert Lenzner, contributing Editor for Forbes magazine. Surprisingly, it was ordinary Chinese citizens driving up the demand.

3) “The total amount of retail and institutional investments held within gold comprised a microscopic .8% of total global assets.”

Nothing fancy and nothing new. Just darned good reasons to stand strong in gold investing.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 18, 2011 - Until the government tackles entitlements, strong gold investment will remain the watchword. Still, hats off to the new Representatives for putting the kibosh on the F35 engine project. That won’t put an end to the deficit, but it was refreshing deviation from business as usual. It remains to be seen, however, whether they will extend that victory into more contentious cuts.

While the House boldly struck down that unnecessary and wasteful program, state workers selfishly took to the streets, railing against their governments’ cuts to entitlements. Never mind the fact that there is simply no money to prolong the greedy nonsense that they deserve more pay and better benefits than any private sector worker. Their refusal to give up a little for the good of their neighbors says nothing was learned from the auto industry crisis.

For years Detroit was bullied into paying ever more outlandish wages and retirement benefits to the point where entry level factory workers were far better off than teachers and care providers having advanced college degrees. It was unsustainable, but rather than make concessions they drove the industry into bankruptcy.

The purpose of unions is only to ensure a safe and healthy workplace and fair wages for an honest day’s work. Benefits are a means for companies to attract and hold the best workers; they are rewards, not handouts.

The Federal Government is no different. By design it entitles us to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness –nothing more. How we conduct that pursuit is up to us, and we alone bear responsibility for the outcome.

For the sake of future generations we must all stand together and demand that government be our protector as intended, and not our benefactor. Until such time we must tend to our own needs by investing in certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 16, 2011 – Investors are getting wise to (and tired of) Wall Street’s games and are discovering the advantages of straight forward gold investment. The Greater Fool Theory of investing - buying stocks not for their perceived worth but instead on the belief that a bigger fool awaits who will buy from you at an even higher price – has run its course. And it’s about time.

John Keynes first noted back in the 1930s that traders had little concern for the fundamental value of stocks. What mattered to them was only what retail investors perceived their value to be - or what they predicted their value would become. The stock market has never had a solid foundation in real value and that is why the market was so easily perverted into what it is today.

In Market Watch, Mark Hulbert, founder of Hulbert Financial Digest and a contrarian who has been tracking more than 160 financial newsletters since 1980, says the current bullish sentiment in the stock market “is now perilously close to dangerously high levels.” And “whenever in recent years short-term bullishness has risen to as high as it has become in recent days, the stock market soon encountered rough going.”

Hulbert notes that many of the analysts whose short-term forecasts are driving this bull market are none-the-less “bearish on the stock market’s intermediate and longer-term prospects.” The insiders know the market cannot sustain the current bull sentiment, and they are relying on individual investors to be the bigger fools, allowing them to cash out before the next crash.

Investors seeking security for their long-term investments without the risk inherent in Wall Street’s games need look no further than the gold market. The value of certified gold is clear, and is a universally accepted standard that has endured throughout history.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 14, 2011 - The gold market thrives on uncertainty, and there is uncertainty everywhere you look these days.

The middle east is in an unprecedented state of rapid flux and no one can even begin to imagine what the future holds for the region. China has ascended over Japan to be the world’s second largest economy, increasing its GDP tenfold in just the last 16 years. With the greatest western economies perilously close to collapse China might well become the world’s leading superpower in the not too distant future. We in the USA better get serious fast or get left in the dust.

But in Washington, it’s business as usual. Sure, they’re paying lip service to bringing down the debt, but behind the scenes they’re busy making points with the public while the real waste goes on unchecked. And some of the proposed cuts could have rapid and devastating consequences.

One such brilliant idea is to slash funding to the states, the majority of which are already sinking fast. That poses an immediate threat to our already crumbling infrastructure, the effects of which could take decades to overcome. And the ripple effect on our counties, cities, and villages would be catastrophic. But apparently it is more important to keep funding defense projects that even the military doesn’t want than it is to keep the lights on or to hold the water behind our dams.

We need rational and responsible representation to get us back on track. We need a government that is unafraid to make unpopular decisions. We need real leadership that respects us enough to tell it like it is. Instead all we have is a bunch of self-seeking politicians that never gets off the campaign trail.

Let them fiddle while Washington burns, and head for shelter in the gold market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 11, 2011 – The one sure way to hand Wall Street its comeuppance is to invest in certified gold coins and leave them holding the bag. Bernanke and company’s latest toxic soup, brewed from Wall Street’s most risky equities, heated over a fire of trillions of fake dollars, and fanned by false promises of recovery is ready to be served up to investors starving for a little of the big money. For once I would like to see them forced to partake of their own.

This round’s rendition of the same old game is so absurdly blatant that it leaves no doubt as to who is running the show. According to an AP release some of the top performing stocks are those with the worst possible resumes: those of companies closest to default and of companies with the highest price to earnings ratios. And of course, inside traders are placing their bets on the short sale – betting that the bubble they have blown out of proportion will burst.

They are banking on average investors doing what they always have done – catching the fever and storming the market just before the equities tank. I would like to think that we all are a little wiser following the last fiasco, but human nature wants us to follow the crowd. When emotions are running high, the tendency is for us to take on the mob mentality. But maybe we have had enough and for once reason will prevail.

Imagine what would happen if investors suddenly refused to play the rigged game any more. Insiders would be left holding their grossly inflated stocks while their buddies bet that they will lose their shirts. The vision of the ensuing family feud brings a smile to my face.

While Wall Street’s wealth gets devoured from within, ours would be safe and secure in gold coin investments.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Last year “total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record of $135 billion . . . up 5.7%” over the previous year says the Wall Street Journal. Compared to the Fed’s claimed 0% inflation, that sounds pretty successful to me, and Bernanke makes no bones that that was his intention. And with all of that loot who would be bothered by the growing food and energy bubbles that the Fed’s policies are pumping up?

Of course those of us in the real world whose incomes are frozen (if we even have incomes) have a different slant on things. To us it doesn’t matter who’s to blame for skyrocketing food and energy prices – we have to pay for it and between the two our cost of living is rising at an alarming rate. But for the record, when Bernanke points the finger at emerging economies three more are pointing straight back at him.

According to monthly data from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations the price of essential foods surged up 87% from the moment Bernanke announced the stimulus plan. Nothing even remotely that dramatic happened in the emerging economies during that time so claiming that dumping $1.5 trillion into the global market has nothing to do with the food bubble is ridiculous. But that means nothing to Bernanke, who time and again has told the rest of the world that the Fed’s job is to deal only with problems here regardless of the global repercussions.

As Wall Street hums along piling up stacks of devalued dollars it is comforting to know that relative to certified gold investments there has been no inflation in the basic necessities of food and energy.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 07, 2011 – Make no mistake about it – America needs resurrection and not recovery, and investments in certified gold will help us survive the inevitable.

The global economic emergency has often been mistakenly called a crisis of capitalism, but in truth it is nothing more than a product of resisting the natural evolution of the system. “Extinction is a necessary part of that process; it clears away yesterday’s debris to make room for whatever is next to come,” says Thomas Stevens in the Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research. “Yet extinction is not inevitable; it is but a product of the choices we make and our ability to adapt to a changing environment.”

For decades protectionist trade and gimmicked monetary policies have stagnated our economy while young and vibrant emerging economies have picked up where we left off. Complacency is as fatal to nations as it is to industries, and no nation has a guaranteed future.

“Periods of transition are marked by chaos and fear,” Stevens says. Change is inevitable and is “not to be resisted but embraced and cherished.” We have let things go so far that every single American will have to make enormous sacrifices if we are to regain our place as leader in the global community. But we built this country with sweat and pain and sheer grit. It may be dormant, but that spirit is still within us and we will call upon it again.

Sadly, it seems that things are still not bad enough to awaken that spirit and the majority of Americans still believe that the government will pull us through. That won’t happen. The government will continue to serve itself and we as individual citizens will have to fend for ourselves. We can and will resurrect America and survive the transition with investments in certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 05, 2011 - We owe the success of certified gold investments to the fiscal crisis, so it pays to understand it. Nearly two years after legislation created the Federal Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), its ten members and supporting staff of 87 have issued their final report. In that 650-page morass are the majority opinion (6 of the 10 members), a dissenting opinion by 3 members and a second dissenting opinion.

The FCIC may have just blown party line smoke, but the commission itself exemplifies the root of the problem: the government overcomplicates everything to the point that nothing gets done.

So here’s my two cents on the crisis:

1) Wall Street insiders bastardized the market, rigging the game for personal gain.

2) The government got in bed with Wall Street, not only turning a blind eye but facilitating the money grab through the Fed.

3) A gullible public became addicted to credit and failed to do due diligence with its investments.

For recommendations, I’d start with these two precepts from a posting by Thomas Stevens in The Entrepreneurial Element blog:

“A market system in which billions of dollars can be generated from failure is fundamentally flawed. The stock market should be a means for individuals to share in the fortunes and misfortunes of corporations based on their contribution to the economy, not a casino where billions are siphoned off from the economy by placing side bets.

A government that owes its existence to big money and is controlled by lobbyists is likewise flawed. A representative Government by definition should be driven only by the collective will of its citizens.”

You can’t fix things that are fundamentally flawed, you have to start over. And you have to keep things simple. That is the beauty of investing in certified gold coins – you buy them, you hold them, and neither Wall Street nor the government can play tricks with them.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

February 02, 2011 – The endless gold bear diatribe has once again fallen on deaf ears in the gold market. The predicted major correction proved to be only wishful thinking on the part of Wall Street traders desperate to unload there overpriced junk on any sucker they could find. They knew that the market was simply being retested, and all they could do was hope that gold would fall below a sustainable support point. Well, it didn’t and the retest was a resounding success.

Big money has already started flowing back into the market with mega-ETF SPDR Gold Shares alone pumping in nearly $200 million. That has given Wall Street cause for great concern and technical analyst Jordan Roy-Byrne tells us why in Resource Investor. Government efforts to cover up the true state of the economy has left it with no option but to continue its doomed policy of monetization, which “will be more frequent and in larger amounts.” As the government is called on to bail out foundering states, the situation will get only worse “and this will eventually lead to default or hyperinflation.”

The state of the economy is driving a well defined phenomenon called a secular bear market, one which is dominated by large bears along with a few small bulls. That happened three times in the past century and the crash of 2008 along with the subsequent rally last year are strong indications that we are about to enter a prolonged cyclical bear market. It is also very likely that bonds will also be bear at the same time, which hasn’t happened since the late 1970s.

The gold market “performs its absolute best when the other asset classes underperform.” Bear markets for stocks and bonds and a real estate market in the toilet will drive a strong upsurge in gold investments as mainstream investors are left with nowhere else to turn.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 31, 2011 – The threat of a downgraded credit rating for America is real and the consequences for gold investment should not be minimized. Bloomberg columnist Kevin Hassett believes not only that is a downgrade inevitable but “that the U.S. rating should be cut immediately.”

Unless steps are taken at once to drastically reduce the deficit, within six years we will reach the same deficit relative GDP that caused Japan’s first downgrade. And Moody has warned that persisting with current policy could force a downgrade in as few as two years. Of greater concern to gold investors, however, is the specter of default.

There is a common belief that America could never default. That delusion stems from the perception that the dollar is invincible, but it most definitely is not. The dollar is nothing but an IOU backed only by faith in our ability to repay, and that faith will plummet with a downgrade in our credit rating. Default is possible and it has happened before – twice.

The first was ancient history – in 1790 – but the second is very pertinent today. Up until 1933 America contracted to repay its debt with either dollars or gold as the lender preferred. Then we passed a law prohibiting repayment in gold, a unilateral change of contracts constituting default with those demanding gold. At the same time FDR set about shoring up gold reserves by confiscating privately held gold.

The similarities to today’s economic situation are inescapable. Current policies are driving us straight into a repeat of the events of 1933. As the dollar declines our creditors will start demanding repayment in hard assets and the government will again face default.

In my mind, regardless of how remote the possibility of another confiscation may be, it warrants serious consideration. An investment in certified gold coins is still the best protection against that possibility.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 28, 2011 – The folks who are quick to call the slump in the gold market a correction are the same ones who have been trying to sell us on the idea that we are coming out of a recession. They have it wrong on both counts.

Bill Bonner, founder of The Daily Reckoning, distinguishes between a recession and what he terms the Great Correction: “A Great Correction is very different from a recession. It is not a pause in an otherwise healthy economy. Instead, it is a change of direction...an adjustment to new circumstances.” The idea is simple and it makes a lot of sense.

Our entire economy was in a bubble for the past decade and is now “going in a different direction...and responding to a different set of circumstances.” For more than a half century the economy ballooned on credit and now we are left to pay the tab. No matter what we do, the last thing we want is “recovery” back into the bubble.

We were told that new service positions would compensate for the loss of manufacturing jobs but they never materialized. The employment numbers just looked good because we were busy building too many houses that were too high priced. The wealth of the common household was structured around two unsustainable features of the economy.

There is no easy path through a major economic correction, and no shortcuts. Adjustment to new conditions in a huge economy is necessarily very slow and painful. The government’s attempts at recovery are pushing us in the wrong direction, “propping up the industries that need to be cut down to size – finance and housing – at a cost of over a trillion dollars.”

We small investors, however, can make our own adjustment to this new situation by getting serious about gold investing and letting the government fiddle while Wall Street burns.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 26, 2011 – We can expect the gold market to keep growing as if nothing has happened – because nothing is happening. Both President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan lavished us with poignant rhetoric but neither had much to say that we haven’t heard before. Both sides stressed the need to cease business as usual, but neither side got to the meat of the issues.

Obama is clearly intending to continue with business as usual in the recovery, printing more money to spend our way out of debt and holding down interest rates to channel even more of our dwindling assets into Wall Street. And we can expect further dollar devaluation as he moves to “double our exports over the next five years.”

Rep. Ryan at least spoke language that we can relate to. We can’t deny that “it’s no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high” and that the “federal government . . . controls too much; taxes too much; and spends too much in order to do too much.” But reducing the size of government and limiting its reach is a monumental task that will take decades to complete successfully. We need real solutions right now.

One of the simplest and most direct actions the government could take is to get the Fed out of bed with Wall Street. It has no business being there and the arrangement should be investigated by Congress. It can’t be just a paper fix – the entire board should be fired and replaced with people who know how the economy really works in Anytown and not more closeted academicians and market insiders.

I heard absolutely nothing last night to give me optimism. That means the gold market will keep growing and gold investment will remain our best chance for surviving these times.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 24, 2011 – If you live in Europe there is a ray of hope that your government has come to its senses, but here in the good old USA the sage advice is to hunker down and take shelter from the impending storm with investments in certified gold coins.

Brian Blackstone and Marcus Walker report in the Wall Street Journal that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet is calling for “budget austerity and vigilance in the face of rising energy and commodity prices” as the “best path to economic recovery.” Duh. But our beloved Fed won’t back down from its stance that the best way out of debt is to keep on spending.

Trichet has “urged central bankers everywhere to ensure that higher energy and food prices don't gain a foothold in the global economy,” but the Fed insists that those basic necessities have no part in real inflation. But when filling up my Honda costs $50 and my weekly grocery tab tops $150, you can’t convince me that the cost of living has held steady over the past two years.

Obviously Washington lives in a world apart from that of us average Americans. To us inflation means only that after paying for essentials there is less remaining to improve our quality of life and to invest in our future. Unless you are among the Wall Street elite, who have been the beneficiaries of the governments largesse, you have seen your wealth eroded at an astonishing rate.

Now professional traders on Wall Street need your money to cash in on a market they have driven to unrealistic levels with Federal cash. But this time the vast majority of investors are wise to the game and are refusing to play.

As Fed policies reduce the dollar to junk, there is no better way to protect your wealth than with an investment in certified gold coins.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 21, 2011 – Investors in certified gold coins are often branded as paranoid and obsessed with doomsday scenarios, but our day of affirmation could well be just around the corner.

Here’s one scenario: America’s cities are half burned to the ground; electricity is sporadic where it is available at all; the food supply is sparse and unreliable because only a few roads and bridges remain useable; and armed vigilantes, indistinguishable from gangs, rule the streets. That is not some apocalyptical post nuclear war world – that is where we are headed.

The power grid is in desperate need of $1.75 trillion in repairs to keep it in operation. Vast numbers of vital bridges are considered to be dangerous. And already local governments are collapsing under the weight of increased responsibility for maintaining infrastructure and slashed funding from the state.

Last year Newark, NJ cut its police force by 16%, foreshadowing even more drastic moves in Camden. That city’s layoff of nearly half of its police force, one third of its firefighters, and over 100 other municipal workers is an open invitation to anarchy, and vigilantes – the Guardian Angels – have moved in to patrol the streets.

New Jersey is not an isolated case – all but four states are in the red and at least a dozen others are in equally critical circumstances, putting countless local governments in danger of default. Meredith Whitney, a widely respected Wall Street analyst, says it will take only 50 to 100 sizeable defaults to seriously disrupt the municipal bond market. When that happens, even healthy local governments, deprived of a lending source, will be in peril.

According to Webster the paranoid suffer from systemized delusions. That more aptly applies to those who proceed as if nothing is wrong than to those who are taking an ounce of prevention with investments in certified gold coins.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 19, 2011 – Wall Street is at it again, stoking the fire of “stock-market fever” to lure investors back and away from certified gold. But Brett Arends in the Wall Street Journal issues a stern warning about falling victim to the hucksters’ pitch when Wall Street holds a “sale.”

These are the same drummers who drew in investors by the droves in 1999 and 2007. Now they are proclaiming that the market is on the move, pointing to the stellar rise in the Dow since last summer and quarterly earnings reports that are through the roof. In the first place, quarterly earnings actually have little to do with market value – it would take a full decade of profits to account for just 25% of market value.

In the second place, the fact that shares are “more expensive today than they were yesterday, does this still make you want to buy?” That buy-high-sell-low strategy would have produced an annual loss of 8.5% over the past 20 years, adjusted for inflation. Analysts that saw the last crisis coming are quite guarded about today’s stock market. Share prices are at or over true market value, and “long-term returns from these levels may well prove disappointing.”

Nothing at all has improved in the global economic climate to warrant a boom. Inflation is still necessary to get the economy moving, even if the Fed won’t publicly admit it. The US, Europe, and Japan are still playing games with their currencies trying to get a leg up on trade and sovereign debt. And eastern central banks are buying up gold in record quantities to hedge against the mess we are creating.

We can all profit from Wall Street’s “sale,” however, by investing in certified gold while the stock-market fever holds prices down.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 17, 2011 – Few Americans haven’t been burned by credit at some time, and that is what makes debt free investments in certified gold so appealing. Interest on credit is money that might just as well been flushed down the toilet. And should we falter on payments, that interest will rise as our credit rating falls, making it even harder to make the payments. It is called the debt spiral, and our government is falling into it.

The first sign came from China last November, when QE2 was announced, but it was dismissed as irrelevant, even though China holds the greatest share of US foreign debt. Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., Ltd., the first domestic rating agency in China, lowered our rating from AA to A+. Their report, however, which stated that “the credit crisis is far from over in the United States and the U.S. economy will be in a long-term recession,” is hard to argue. Will we now take heed to the warnings of both S & P and Moody’s that their ratings will also fall if we don’t do something to stop the expansion of our national debt?

Given that Washington is now voting to increase the ceiling on the deficit, that seems unlikely. The indomitable position the dollar once held is losing the necessary clout to back up its position in global economics. "The view of markets is that the U.S. will continue to benefit from the exorbitant privilege linked to the U.S. dollar. But that may change," Says Carol Sirou, head of Standard & Poor's France, according to the Wall Street Journal.

It is probably too late to prevent the downgrade in credit and the subsequent inevitable inflation, but it is not too late to take shelter in certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 13, 2011 – Things are getting to the point where frolicking like Scrooge McDuck in a vault filled with certified gold coins has its appeal. Of course that shouldn’t be taken literally, but “now that Washington has defriended investors, the would-be investing public should defriend the politicians who took away their markets.” That’s the advice given by E. Gordon Crovitz in the Europe edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Crovitz was writing about Facebook’s initial offering, which in the past would have had investors salivating. But this wasn’t a public offering; all $500 million went to Goldman Sachs for the exclusive benefit of their most elite clients. But don’t get mad at Facebook. If the shoe were on the other foot we would all do the same thing.

The purpose of initial offerings is to raise capital, and lots of it. That’s what it takes to kick a company up to a whole new level of operations. Thanks to a nifty piece of legislation called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, however, such public offerings are now prohibitively expensive for new ventures. The act, which started out as corporate and auditing reform, quickly deteriorated into a massive heap of unnecessary and ineffective regulation that would drain too much of the venture’s scarce resources to become compliant. Private equity offerings are free of that burden, so a company can get the cash it needs faster and without all the bother and expense of a public offering.

Naturally, there will still be IPOs, but only by well established firms as they level off. For returns they offer only a share in profits - after Wall Street’s M & A and other insider schemes have squeezed every dime they can out of them, of course.

By comparison, investment in certified gold beats Wall Street hands down.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 10, 2011 - When all else fails, you can count on certified gold investments to provide a long and healthy retirement. That is definitely not the case with Social Security and Medicare. It is not difficult to understand why the government is not taking drastic and immediate action to fix the problems with those programs.

In the first place, they are the ones who have caused the problems. For decades they have covered up their reckless policies and the economic damage those have caused with gimmicks and outright lies. The government’s complicity with Wall Street and the Fed’s idiotic zero interest policy have systematically stripped away the wealth of the average American and put it into the pockets of the ultra rich. In order to keep the ball rolling, the government has been bleeding Social Security recipients dry with absurdly low cost of living adjustments as compared to true price increases.

In the second place, the government has made certain to take care of its own with lavish pensions and lifelong medical benefits that far exceed that which the average man will get. Not surprisingly, overinflated government benefit programs are one of the primary causes of the current debt crisis.

Social Security eventually will reach equilibrium with the economy, if for no other reason than holding benefit increases well below real inflation. Medicare, however, is about to implode. According to Geoff Colvin of Fortune Magazine the program is now $34 trillion underfunded with nowhere to go but down as recipients live ever longer and put ever greater demands on the system.

The bottom line is that it would been foolish to count on the government to help us out in our golden years. For that we need to take charge ourselves with certified gold investments.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 06, 2011 – Hang on tightly to your certified gold investments, it looks like 2011 will be a banner year for Wall Street bull – and we’re not talking market. The slightest bit of good news is all the PR guys need to paint a rosy picture of things to come.

It boggles the mind that Wall Street and its partner in crime, the US government, think that if they toss us a bone – a phony one at that – all of a sudden we will stop seeing problems that are right in front of our eyes.

The vast majority of Americans can’t be buffaloed by the official inflation figure of 0% for two years running. A quick look at the real estate section of the newspaper will tell you how well the housing market is coming along and the jobs section of papers across the country is a joke.

So why aren’t things getting better? It’s simple: the government is busy trying to fix things that don’t need fixing while ignoring the really hard things it ought to be fixing. Current policy is has one objective only – pumping up the equities market. But the market is already overinflated and sooner or later that bubble has to burst. It is understandable, however. Without the government’s help the top five wall street banks might not have been able to lavish $90 billion in bonuses on their employees last year.

Here’s another example, unemployment. The government wants to make the rich even richer, which of course will create all kinds of jobs. But that will be of little use to the millions of Americans who are underemployed or have given up hope and are now living on assistance or sharply reduced Social Security benefits.

Until the governments gets to work on the real problems we best hang on to our certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 04, 2011 – In the event of a systemic economic failure certified gold investments might well determine who survives. Systemic failures are those that strike at the core of the economy, disrupting all activity for extended periods. Decades of government excesses and deception have brought us to a point where there is no way to fund desperately needed repairs to our infrastructure and left us vulnerable to natural disasters that could bring our economy to a screeching halt. And conditions are right for that to happen as early as this year.

The power grid in America is in critical condition. Several urban areas already experience the regular interruptions normally associated with third world countries. Much of the grid is ancient, and the equipment holding it together is obsolete and well past its expected life. But the estimated $1.75 trillion that it would take to fix it is not in any budget. As we enter the next cycle of increased solar activity this year our fragile grid could be put to the test.

Solar mass expulsions (SME) pose the single greatest threat to the grid, as was realized in Canada not too long ago. SMEs are extremely difficult to predict and with only hours to prepare the entire nation could be plunged into darkness.

It would not be just a temporary inconvenience. Existing yearly manufacturing capacity can produce but a fraction of the immense transformers required to restore power. It would take years before power is fully restored. Add in total disruption of communications a loss of GPS and other critical satellite systems and the nightmarish scenario is crystal clear.

The government seems willing to gamble away our future trusting in luck, but we have a choice. With certified gold investments we can survive systemic failure and rebuild in its wake.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

January 3, 2011 – Certified gold investing might be the only thing we have left to protect ourselves from the impending implosion of the economy. With full complicity from our government Wall Street has brazenly continued the very practices that brought us to near collapse, but crushing government debt threatens to stop the juggernaut dead in its tracks.

Wall Street needs more of our money but the hard truth is that the majority of Americans have already been bled dry. Since 1985 the inflation adjusted average net worth in America has remained fairly constant, but the median has fallen nearly 50%, a sure sign that wealth is shifting to the top at a disturbingly fast pace. That is even more dramatically illustrated by census figures for retirement income showing the average has been pushed to nearly $50,000 by those who are reaping the rewards of Wall Street manipulations while the mean has dropped to a paltry $2,000.

The average Joe has become expendable while the fat cats continue to be the government’s bedfellow. Nearly 25% of Americans are unemployed, underplayed, or forced into early retirement but the billions pumped into Wall Street helped Goldman Sachs post $3.2 billion in earnings from banking in the first three quarters of 2010 and over $20 billion from trading. Rubbing salt in the wound, Wall Street’s five biggest firms have put $90 billion in the kitty for 2010 bonuses according to the New York Times.

It is no coincidence that income inequality has grown to much what it was during the Great Depression. The average American has a bitter pill to swallow: we can’t depend on our government and we can’t trust Wall Street. We must depend on ourselves for economic survival and find investments that neither the government nor the very rich can control. That is exactly what certified gold investments have to offer.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 29, 2010 – Wall Street barons loves to argue that gold investment is risky but they carefully select and distort specific elements of risk to make their case. Investment risk comes in many forms and all must be considered together to reach any logical conclusion.

One major risk factor is illiquidity. Real estate and money market instruments are very illiquid for obvious reasons. Restrictions on transaction sizes make gold ETFs illiquid for all but the biggest investors. Even the liquidity of publicly traded stocks is dependent on there being sufficient bidders. Physically held gold, however, is extremely liquid because it can be instantly sold worldwide at the going market rate.

An investment’s relationship to currency is another source of risk. International stocks, especially in mines and real estate holdings, are tightly bound to local economies and are particularly vulnerable to currency fluctuations. Gold, however, is independent of all currencies.

Another concern is liability. Corporations can default on their bonds and stocks can become worthless virtually overnight when corporations collapse. Physical gold, however, is 100% free of liability to any corporation or government.

Market risks are most commonly used to cast aspersion on gold investment. Of those volatility is most often cited because in terms of standard deviation (the most common risk measurement) the Dow is marginally superior to gold. But considering that the annual returns for the Dow was less than zero over the past decade while gold produced 14%, the slightly higher risk is well justified. Furthermore, gold was superior to every Dow component in both risk and returns.

Market risks also include social-political upheaval and catastrophic events that initially impact all asset classes equally. But in their aftermath gold has proven to have no equal for wealth preservation.

The key to minimizing all market risks is diversification, and gold investments alone have the time tested ability to protect the entire portfolio.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 27, 2010 – For the past ten years gold investments have thoroughly pummeled stocks, but stock traders are pulling out all the stops to convince us otherwise. After all, without our money their extremely lucrative casino would have to close its doors. But it is hard to win a case that has no merit.

One of the more popular tricks used to play down gold’s performance is to pick the perfect baseline, the $850 per ounce peak in 1980. But that is statistically meaningless because gold went over $800 on only two days that year, Friday January 18, when the high was $830, and the following Monday when it hit the peak. The average high for the month was a far more conservative $678 and for the year it was $613.

It makes a lot more sense to look at what gold investments have done since the early 1970s, when the metal was disconnected from the dollar and allowed to seek its own fair market value. Since that time gold investments have turned in remarkable numbers, but that should be expected. In the truest sense gold is money with timeless and consistent intrinsic value and offers the best gauge with which to evaluate all other assets.

If we define one gold to be the value of one ounce of gold, the price of the Dow 30 has fallen from 20 golds in 1972 to eight golds today. $10,000 cost 219 golds in 1972 but today is worth a paltry 7 golds. That is an interesting exercise for sure, but is it of any practical use? Most definitely.

The global debt crisis is reaching critical mass and very soon hyperinflation will become unavoidable. Referencing asset values to gold makes that crystal clear. It is equally clear that investing in certified gold can protect us from the inevitable.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 22, 2010 – Wall street is forever trying to lure us away from gold investment and back into stocks by painting rosy pictures of the year ahead. The headline of one such Wall Street Journal article triumphantly proclaims “Stock Markets Are Poised to Steal the Show Next Year.” Let the good times roll! That is a wonderful sentiment for this time of year, but probably not one that should influence our investment strategies.

To start with, “the show” includes only stocks and bonds. Stealing that show is about as challenging as the Klitschko brothers getting into the ring with Dr. Ruth. None-the-less, Richard Barley, the article’s author, states his case, citing “cash-rich corporate balance sheets, strong earnings, and global growth looking good” as reasons for optimism.

The first two should be encouraging, but all that cash and those strong earnings are not finding their way into investors’ pockets. Instead, a big chunk of that is going into retiring equity, which Barley assumes will trickle down to favor investors. However, it can also be seen as a mechanism to funnel corporate cash into M & A and private equity schemes, which benefit only insiders and not investors.

Barley’s third point is even more curious. Global growth, on the whole, may be looking up but it is still below average and outside of Asia it is downright anemic. Since emerging Asian economies are highly susceptible to disruption, it might be a good idea to hold off optimism until western nations get back on their feet as well.

Even if we accept Mr. Barley’s argument, we can’t ignore his disclaimer: “But volatility is likely. Politics and policy are big risks . . . These hazards will likely drive periods of risk aversion.”

Amen. Stocks may steal the show, but gold investments will hold up the tent.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 20, 2010 – Among the more popular alternative gold investments lately are gold mine stocks, which are being heavily promoted as having a multiplying effect on rising gold prices. Assuming everything else remains constant, an increase in the gold price does translate to a greater percentage increase in profits, but that is a huge assumption that rarely holds true.

Gold mining is anything but certain. When prospectors seek funding for a new mine they present the mine’s potential reserves in the most favorable light, and their forecasts for profits over the mine’s life factor in anticipated increases in the price of gold. Profit gains realized by increased prices will be reduced by forecasted price increases, which is built into stock prices and there is a strong possibility that the mine’s total yield will be lower than the original estimates. Consequently, heavy investment in mines in response to rising gold prices can quickly cause the stocks to become overvalued.

Mine operations are unlike those we are most familiar with – manufacturing and retail. Besides being closed ended, which in itself makes their financials all but incomprehensible to most of us, there are several risks inherent to the industry that we rarely encounter elsewhere.

Unanticipated technical complications in ore extraction and refinement can cut deeply into profits, especially in very new and very old mines. Because mines are frequently located in underdeveloped regions they are often run by inefficient and ineffective management - a situation that might not be at all apparent to investors. Furthermore, operational expenses are apt to be tied to currencies that are unstable relative to the gold price making profits equally unstable and unpredictable. Finally, political instability in many gold producing nations presents a constant threat of nationalization.

For the long haul investor there is no need for alternative gold investments – the best bet will always be certified gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 16, 2010 – The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) August update gave plenty of reason to diversify with certified gold investments, and things have not gone according to two major assumptions of the report.

The biggest impact comes from extending the Bush tax cuts, which the report assumed would be allowed to expire. However, the report did provide this estimate should that assumption prove false: “the deficit in 2020 would equal about 8 percent of GDP, and debt held by the public would total nearly 100 percent of GDP.” Not very encouraging news as we face “the second largest shortfall in 65 years.”

As anybody with a credit card knows, the real problem is servicing the debt – money spent on interest contributes nothing to wealth or economic growth. Larger deficits caused by the tax cuts and stimulus will “result in even greater interest costs” than the CBO’s current-law projections of “a fourfold increase in net interest payments over the next 10 years, from $196 billion in 2010 to $778 billion in 2020.”

Although the CBO expects there will be some short term improvement over its baseline predictions for real GDP and unemployment as a result of the tax cuts and extended stimulus spending, “later in the coming decade, real GDP would fall below the level in CBO's baseline because the larger budget deficits would reduce investment in productive capital.”

The CBO reports that we are going nowhere fast. “Slow income growth as well as lost wealth” are the perfect recipe for runaway inflation. The Fed believes that it has everything under control, but that is of little reassurance to investors whose wealth is eroding and to countless unemployed who are no longer counted because their benefits expired long ago.

Investing in certified gold can be the panacea the government has admitted it cannot provide.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 15, 2010 - What impact does China have on gold investments? Read this lead-in to a Wall Street Journal article carefully: “Gold futures closed higher Monday after China opted not to raise interest rates, removing some concerns about an abrupt halt to global growth.”

Presumably China could singlehandedly shut down global economics - a possibility that is actually not so remote. Growth is occurring almost exclusively in emerging Asian economies, which owe their existence to China. And the Chinese economy, which many experts believe will eventually dominate the global market, is actually on shaky ground.

In China’s rush to modernization the country has invested 60% of its economy in fixed assets, and clearly that is not sustainable. As the country wrestles with inflation and lack of position in the global currency market, their stability is being severely challenged.

China knows it and world financial leaders know it. That is why China has broken with tradition and made their gold imports public, and have even announced their intent to surpass India as the world’s largest gold consumer. Infusing their economy with large stores of highly liquid physical assets will go a long way towards putting it on solid ground, and at the same time will provide them with a second currency that can readily be traded on global exchanges.

Gold is certain to be the keystone of the future global monetary system – there is no substance in an economy revived by printing mountains of cash. Our government needs to wake up and take notice of what is going on in emerging super economies, but as individual investors we don’t have sit back and wait for that to happen. We can build our wealth on the solid foundation of certified gold investments.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 14, 2010 –Paul B. Farrell’s article 10 Reasons To Shun Stocks Till Banks Crash gives us lots of reasons to invest in certified gold, but his message goes well beyond that. It is a wakeup call to America that an even greater financial meltdown is on the way.

At the heart of the problem is a rogue band of traders who feel that they are above the law and any moral constraints. Right among them is the Fed, encouraging them to “take bigger and riskier bets in the future because they will get away with it next time, too.”

The Fed recently released 21,000 documents underscoring Ben Bernanke’s disregard for taxpayer money in his $3.3 trillion giveaway, which included banks in foreign countries in addition to scores of willfully incompetent Wall Street financial institutions.

And who gained from the bailout? The very same people who caused the crisis in the first place. Top decision makers received enormous bonuses for their indiscretions while their firms prospered on taxpayer money. Worse, America’s working class came out the big loser.

Balanced against population growth the economy is retreating at 1.3%. Farrell warns “America’s new era, featuring no growth, deflation and a jobless recovery, will continue for years, resembling Japan over the past two decades . . . Wall Street is suicidal. It’s kamikaze . . . Wall Street’s self-destructive greed is driving America to the edge of total failure.”

The handwriting is on the wall. Wall Street will not change as long as they continue filling politicians’ war chests. And if Wall Street doesn’t change it will take America down with it when it once again collapses under the weight of its own greed. We may not be able to stop it, but we can take shelter in certified gold.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 13, 2010 – Gold investing gets a lot of bad press from Wall Street, so a no-holds- barred article by Paul B. Farrell in the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch - 10 Reasons To Shun Stocks Till Banks Crash - came as a welcome and refreshing surprise.

It is no secret that Wall Street insiders continued to amass fortunes while individual investors lost their shirts. In explanation, Farrell cites a conclusion from an investigation into investment fraud: “Investors, as opposed to traders, buy stocks in companies whose profits they expect to rise. The conventional wisdom says stock prices will follow profits up, but over the last two business cycles, that simply has not happened.”

Over the past dozen years profits were up 203% while stock values of the S & P 500 rose a meager 7%. Where did the money go? According to Peter Morici, the former chief economist at the International Trade Commission, it was sucked off “by hedge funds, electronic traders, private equity funds, and aggressive M&A shops . . . which have multiplied over the last two decades.”

Among the biggest players, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Bank of America are reporting enormous profits while suffering few, if any, negative trading days. Plain common sense dictates, as Morici says, that “if someone is winning all the time, then someone else is losing. That’s the ordinary investor. Stocks have become a rigged game.”

As if any proof were needed, Farrell offers this: “Wall Street has lost 20% of your money in the past decade . . . And, worse, Wall Street will do it again by 2020 . . . It will lose another 20% of your retirement money.”

That alone justifies investment in certified gold, a debt-free asset out of the reach of Wall Street manipulators – but there is more to come.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 10, 2010 – Putting gold investing in the perspective of QE2 is at best confounding. Clearly the expected results from Fed policy have failed to materialize, and more often than not they are the opposite of what the Fed had expected to achieve. At the same time the fears of those opposed to the policy have likewise not been realized. As Marcellus said, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”

Actually it is rotten in many states and it is called the global economy. Simply put, global economic events have easily overpowered Fed policy. The dollar is up, not down, so no advantage in exports has been gained. Long term interest rates have started climbing, contrary to the goals of Treasury buyback. And of course, unemployment remains stubbornly high.

All things considered, however, it is just as well that Bernanke’s policy has not achieved its basic goal – to destabilize the dollar and spark “controlled” inflation. Those who survived the 1970s probably wonder why anybody would intentionally recreate that mess, but Bernanke is firmly committed to a theory that calls for just such action.

It’s called the Phillips curve, and as Steve Forbes explains in the Wall Street Journal, it states that growth must come at the expense of inflation and lower inflation must come at the cost of higher unemployment. The notion that sustainable growth can be built on the foundation of a weak currency is ridiculous, but such are the ideas born of academia and not the real world.

The Fed’s stunning lack of results begs stronger action. Unless Bernanke has a sudden reversal in philosophy, stronger action by the Fed might well create the instability he deems necessary and bring the fears of opponents into fruition. It’s time to take cover in certified gold investments.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 09, 2010 – How well did certified gold investments do this year? Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch says it best: “Wrapping up a tumultuous year in the markets, it’s pretty clear that a chest full of metals would have made a dazzling portfolio.” Of course it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

Fear of speculation driving prices to unrealistic levels has been a recurrent problem throughout the year as big fund managers have taken increasingly stronger positions in the market. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data indicate that commercial investments tend to be short term, or speculative, and currently they account for a bit more than half of the open interest. Although that represents a strong influence on prices, it is balanced by the non- commercial and non-reportable participants, most of whom are in the market for the long run.

The threat is more pronounced in other markets, however, and the CTFC is seriously considering position limit regulations to prevent any speculative entity from controlling prices as the Hunts did with silver in 1980. For long term investors any such regulation would be welcome as it would help dampen market volatility.

Almost every week we have also heard some “expert” proclaim the gold market is topping off. While all sorts of “proof” have been offered, the most prominent has been that the gold price has reached record market highs and therefore must turn around soon. In the first place, historical market highs have no relevance in the global economy of today. In the second place, the record high adjusted for inflation is around $2,200 – we still have a long ways to go.

The bottom line is that gold’s performance has sound underpinnings and its solid growth is real. If speculative volatility is a concern, investment in certified gold coins offers the perfect solution.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 07, 2010 – Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s interview on 60 Minutes was good for gold investment, but for once wouldn’t it be nice if the government stopped trying to pull the wool over our eyes? That interview came across like a father trying to convince his children that all is well sitting atop their house as a flood sweeps it away. It is high time that the government realizes that we are not infants and we much prefer straight dealing than being handed another pair of rose colored glasses. But that of course, would likely lead to us taking back our rightful power.

Perhaps that is bit more ranting than the situation calls for, but Bernanke’s out-of-hand dismissal of the concerns of foreign leaders and domestic economists, his glossing over of serious problems, and his portrayal of the Fed as some sort of superhero adds up to one big snow job. Like it or not, the ripple effect of the Fed’s actions throughout the world must be considered. No country exists in a vacuum any more, and no one man – or agency – has the power to bring stability to global economics.

The interview seems to have been designed to calm the naïve masses, but surely they knew it would be analyzed throughout the world. Portraying the potential for another recession as a remote possibility contingent on unemployment remaining high for a protracted period is not encouraging when by all indications that will likely be the case. And claims that the Fed has the power to turn the economy on a dime, instantaneously “raising rates, tightening monetary policy, slowing the economy, reducing inflation, at the appropriate time," cannot help but undermine whatever credibility the agency may have left.

While the intent of this charade is unclear, the message is not: Head for the cover of certified gold investments.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 06, 2010 – What has terrorism have to do with gold investing? Plenty, but for some reason we hear very little about its potential for economic catastrophe.

Terrorism is not about body counts or even the destruction iconic American structures. The goal is to disrupt society through fear, to make us so paranoid that we become willing to sacrifice those very things that make us who we are. One look at airport security today and you can see that they are winning.

More than anything else the terrorists seek to destroy our freedom and wealth. Already they have us willingly giving up our freedoms, so wealth makes the next logical target. The economic disruption that followed 9-11 was a clear indication of our economy’s is vulnerability. It seems inevitable that the terrorists will eventually have their hands on a nuke or two, given North Korea’s demonstrated willingness to export them and Iran’s unrelenting efforts to produce them. One small device placed in any of a number of key economic centers would have untold repercussions.

As devastating as such an event would be in terms of loss of life and destruction of infrastructure, most Americans would not be directly effected. But the cost of recovery would be incalculable and the wealth of Americans from every walk of life would be threatened.

We cannot prevent every terrorist action. But terrorism cannot win if we respond to any future attack as a unified and resolute nation, and we take prudent precautions but go about living our normal daily lives in the interim.

It isn’t difficult to protect wealth. Investing in certified gold coins is simply a prudent precaution against any threat the terrorists might devise.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

December 02, 2010 – With all of the mixed messages coming out of Wall Street lately it’s small wonder that ever more investors are hedging their positions with gold investments.

Wednesday’s rally on the stock market was impressive – all of the Dow Stocks and all but 15 of the S & P stocks showed gains as November’s losses were all but wiped out. More significantly, the VIX, the CBOE Volatility Index, fell dramatically. The VIX is commonly called the “fear index” because it is an indicator of investors’ expectations of market volatility 30 days hence. When the VIX falls, it suggests improved optimism about the economy.

But hold on a minute. One thing noticeably lacking of late is good economic news. Today stock futures look to be taking a step backward in response to news of worse than predicted new claims for unemployment. So what is behind the “optimism”?

For one thing, among traditional investments stocks are the best thing going, with yields as compared to bonds far above the 90 year average. And little needs to be said about currency. So despite equity investments trading at 12 times projected earnings, they are still giving the most bang for the buck.

The VIX might only reflect that sentiment. A better measure of market confidence would be gold investments, which are still going strong. The true state of the economy is reflected in how heavily investors are hedging their stock portfolios with gold – and they are beefing them up more every day.

It is human nature to be optimistic when facing dire circumstances, but we still must confront the plain truth of our reality. Wise investing calls for guarded optimism, and investment in certified gold is the best possible safety net for these difficult times.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Common sense dictates that the fair market price is a product of social and economic conditions which are very slow to change – in other words, the real value of gold coins is best represented by the average trend over time. Since mid-October, however, the price of gold has been particularly volatile despite little significant change in world conditions.

At the core of the current upward trend in gold’s value is safe haven investment, a hoarding mentality that is resistant to volatility in prices. However, there are significant numbers of fence sitters whose erratic movement into and out of the market causes unpredictable peaks and valleys in the gold price.

Their relative immunity to short term variations in the price of gold is one of the strongest attributes of certified gold coin investments, making them an ideal asset for anyone seeking safe haven for their wealth. Investors concerned about long term wealth preservation are steadily driving up demand for rare gold coins creating steady growth not only in the gold content of the coins but in the rarity premium as well.

Common sense tells us that everyone who is seeking shelter from today’s global economic storms but is wary of the commodity market’s volatility should seriously consider rare gold coins. Time has proven that rare gold coins maintain their value and offer unparalleled security and stability through the most perilous economic conditions.

For peace of mind, certified gold coin investments are just common sense.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 30, 2010 – Trend analysis is a vital part of gold investing, but be wary of hard and fast “rules”. One widely used technique is to pore over the price charts looking for distinct patterns and then make assumptions based on previous occurrences of that pattern. The use of pattern recognition in predicting future movements, however, is of little value.

The reason for that is a simple logical fault – that every occurrence of situation ‘X’ has been immediately preceded by pattern ‘Y’ does not imply that every pattern ‘Y’ will be immediately followed by situation ‘X’. Typically such patterns repeat themselves numerous times throughout every cycle, and while a correlation may exist, it is useful only in explaining historical data.

A far more meaningful analysis is to compare actual performance to mathematically predicted trends. For instance, a straight line trend will predict future prices assuming they follow the current average growth. If prices are consistently above that line then we can safely conclude that returns are improving over the baseline.

The most commonly used trend lines, however, are the 20 and 40 month moving averages, which account for changes in the growth rates. Performance that is consistently above these trends indicate that a market is accelerating.

One pattern that has been detected in gold prices that you may have read about in Business Week is the so-called “head and shoulders” - a sequence of three peaks, the highest (the head) flanked on either side by two lower peaks (the shoulders). With that some have concluded that the gold market is close to topping out. But even a cursory examination of recent gold prices reveals several other occurrences of the same pattern.

On the other hand, gold is consistently outperforming its moving averages. The market is in fact accelerating, the ideal condition for gold investment.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

November 29, 2010 – Worst case analysis is a vital survival tool for investors, one that today strongly suggests diversifying with certified gold coins to preserve wealth through a very tumultuous and unpredictable future. Naysayers like to characterize those of us who examine the worst case scenarios and hedge against the threats as doomsday fanatics, but doing so is simply a logical and practical necessity. When those with their heads in the sand eventually come to that understanding it might be too late.

It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to come up with possible worst case outcomes to the current Korean crisis. The world has not faced a threat this serious since WW II. North Korea is a rogue nation with a terrorist mentality, a delusional state that has its finger on the nuclear button and no regard for the consequences of its actions. And its strongest ally is China.

China’s mission is to dominate global economics, and the country has proceeded along a calculated and controlled path to that end for over four decades. How that plays with the lunatic actions of its neighbor is hard to predict, but if China sees economic advantage in letting North Korea run amok, we can be certain they won’t interfere.

Is the sky falling? Not at the moment, but the possibility exists. The surest path to a secure financial future is to thoroughly and dispassionately analyze every potential threat and opportunity and then take action to maximize the possibility for a successful outcome. A vital part of that process is to envision the worst possible scenarios and develop a plan for when all else fails. Key to such a plan is a sound investment in certified gold coins.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

That is an enormous invasion of privacy for individual gold investors. Selling back just one half ounce of gold means the buyer must report the transaction to the IRS. Worse than the tax implications, this law gives the government the means to keep tabs on the movement of gold among its citizens. And that raises the threat of confiscation to a whole new level.

Whenever the topic of confiscation comes up pundits are quick to dismiss it as baseless paranoia. One look at the deteriorating economic crisis, however, paints a different picture. China is gravely concerned about our policy of diluting the dollar with excessive printing and sooner or later they are bound to pull the plug on loans to us. To avoid default we will need huge stores of hard assets.

The government’s gold reserves are dwindling – from 68% of the world’s holdings in 1950 to just over 28% today - but private holdings are at record level. Contrary to popular opinion, holding gold is a privilege, not a right, and the Trading With the Enemy Act, which gives the government the legal framework for confiscation, is still on the books.

But won’t the government pay for any gold it confiscates? Of course it will, probably at the official treasury rate of about $42 per ounce. This is more than a call to protect your wealth with certified gold coins – it is a call to action to stop this government plunder.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Until the various global economies become synchronized uncertainty is bound to prevail in world markets. We all got a wakeup call with the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, which taught us that old paradigms were no longer valid under globalization. Measures taken to correct domestic economies can have far reaching and often unpredictable implications throughout the global community, especially when economic conditions are as widely varied as they are today.

In China the problem is with excessive growth. Worried that their government was poised to slow down growth to combat inflation, Chinese investors began dumping stocks, igniting Tuesday's selloff in markets around the world. Inexplicably the selloff then spread into the commodities markets but the diluted dollar continued to climb.

Taking the long term perspective is essential as daily movements become ever more difficult to predict. Although gold movement has strangely been in direct correlation to the stock market since September, and with the dollar up until then, history assures us that it will not continue to be so. Most likely the rapid resurgence in stock prices in the absence of any real economic growth is the anomaly and gold is responding naturally to real economic conditions.

Small dips in the gold price are to be expected, and are inconsequential compared to this year’s gain of over 22%. For the long term, the prospects for certified gold investments continue to be exceptionally promising.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Although stated government policy is to prevent inflation, it nevertheless would help alleviate two of the most urgent problems we face today. As we saw in the midterm election, the persistent high rate of unemployment has tremendous political power and politicians are well aware that inflation could be instrumental in creating jobs. Also on top of the electorate’s collective mind is the national debt, which would be effectively reduced if inflation were to make the dollar cheaper. Inflation may be a dirty word to politicians, but the political capital to be gained from reducing the debt and lowering unemployment far outweighs that which inflation might cost.

Another important consideration when hedging against inflation is timing. While few agree on when it will occur there is little doubt that ultimately inflation is inevitable. The problem, according to the J.P. Morgan Chase asset-allocation group, is that "We can't tell where this turn comes, but history warns us it tends to happen suddenly and violently."

With interest rates hovering near zero, there is little to lose by preemptive gold investing before the turn. Holding off gold investment until inflation arrives, if the reversal is indeed sudden and violent, might well be a case of too little too late.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

For everybody concerned over the crisis in the currency exchange that is of little comfort. Although few were expecting a miracle, most were hoping for at least some resolution to the immediate threat of a global currency war. A few countries think that the G20 is taking a workable position and South Korea even predicts that the currency market will now soon stabilize. But that level of optimism is not shared by countries that, unlike South Korea, are mired in stagnant economies.

The IMF adamantly warns that unless nations start cooperating the G20 will be unable to spark the growth necessary to stabilize the global economy. The failure of the committee to even apply band aids to slow down the hemorrhaging threatens to push Europe’s sovereign debt crisis over the edge and ignite severe inflation in emerging economies.

So while Nehru fiddles, Rome burns. And investors are certain to take a cue from G20’s inaction and position themselves even more strongly in certified gold. When nations seem incapable of protecting the wealth of their citizens then the citizens will protect themselves with gold investments.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Asian markets are experiencing strong growth and basic economics dictates that capital will flow from slower economies to faster ones, regardless of stimulus measures taken to get domestic economies moving. But the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 showed us how little it takes to topple the market. The selloff of currencies that snowballed into that market collapse was triggered by Japan’s statement that it was considering adjusting the yen – even though the action was never taken.

Because fiat currencies are easily manipulated by the issuing governments the existing global currency exchange is unlikely to ever stabilize. Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, has proposed redefining the monetary system to include gold as a means of moderating uncertainties. He is not suggesting that currencies return to the gold standard, but rather that gold be treated as a currency itself, a standard against which other currencies could be weighed.

The idea is quite familiar in today’s world of gold investing. Over the past several years the growth of gold investments has steadily reshaped the nature of gold from a raw commodity to what Zoellick labels “an alternative monetary asset.”

No one expects the growing pains of globalization to be over any time soon. There are many more years of uncertainty and instability to come before global equilibrium and universal growth are attained. Until then gold investing will continue to provide protection against a failing global monetary system.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The problem, Mr. Arends says, is that the current market PE ratio is well above the long term average, a point of equilibrium that represents fair value. In a free market stock returns cycle around that point, much like room temperature cycles around the setting of the thermostat. When the temperature rises to a certain level the heat is turns off and the room cools. Once the temperature falls to some point below the setting, heat is restored and the cycle repeats. Today’s PE of around 22, compared to an average of 16, is clearly near the peak of the cycle and strongly implies a long period of decline is in store before growth can resume.

Coupled with that pessimistic indication of the growth potential of traditional assets is the continued weakening of the dollar resulting from the current round of stimulus measures. Together these create the perfect climate for strong growth in certified gold investments.

Investing in certified gold coins is particularly appealing in times such as these. Instability in global currencies has spawned wild speculation in derivatives, resulting in volatile daily prices that poorly represent the true value of commodities. However, that volatility has only a muted effect on certified gold coin prices, making them the ideal gold investment for long term stability and growth potential.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

As soon as the word was out the dollar strengthened and gold fell. But then the dollar went limp while gold surged to a record high. So what happened?

The Fed released the second round of stimulus just two days prior to the report and it would be hard to believe that the findings were unknown to them. We can reasonably conclude that the Fed found nothing in the report to justify modifying or delaying its action. In order to bolster exports the stimulus continues diluting the dollar, creating the possibility that other nations will follow suit to protect themselves from artificially low priced American imports. This very volatile situation could quickly deteriorate into a currency war, which in turn could lead to trades wars the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Great Depression.

Although record low interest rates will likely hold off inflation for the time being, that threat has far from vanished. By the time the economy finally gets going the Fed will have injected vast quantities of excess cash into the system – just the fuel inflation requires.

Finally, even ultraconservative investors are investing in certified gold, assured that gold will continue to yield better returns than their traditional interest-bearing only assets. The groundswell of investors of every ilk turning to gold investments paints a true picture of today’s economic outlook and tomorrow’s prospects for certified gold.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Other nations, particularly those with emerging market economies, were quick to see the threat and can be expected to take decisive action at the first sign that the dilution of the dollar is sparking inflation in their currencies or creating asset bubbles in their markets. Here at home the stock market also surged, maintaining its unusual inverse correlation with the dollar. With the market already perilously overvalued, something has to give.

QE2 is little different from the first round. In essence, our central bank is lending the government some $600 billion to buy Treasury bonds in the belief that expanding the money supply will spark growth in the economy. Printing that much more currency is a huge gamble weighing the considerable risk involved against the questionable benefits received from similar actions in the first round.

The simple truth is that our policy of printing vast sums of money while our debt spirals out of control is of grave concern to foreign nations, especially in Asia. With our balance sheet already some $200 trillion in the red, the time will soon come when there will be nobody left who is willing to pick up our IOUs.

As the dollar plummets, the government will be left with very few options to ward off hyperinflation. Faced with a choice between gold confiscation and total financial collapse the action it would take is clear. Investing in certified gold coins minimizes that risk while providing the well known protection of gold investments against dollar devaluation and inflation.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The global economy may be in shambles, but we’re on the road to recovery, right? Wrong. One dire situation that few are talking about threatens to ignite a global depression.

Nations around the world, including America, are initiating policies to combat faltering currencies and lethargic production, policies which have brought us to the brink of a global currency war. The IMF/World Bank takes the problem very seriously and recently convened a meeting of financial leaders to resolve the problem. However, no agreement was reached.

The root of the problem is that domestic pressures have governments looking for a quick fix, and that typically comes from devaluation of currency. In the short term weaker currency drops the price of domestic goods abroad, increasing exports and creating jobs. But it backfires when nations throughout the world opt for that approach and all hell breaks loose. The measures nations take to protect their economies from artificially low priced imports could quickly bloom into a global trade war, dragging the world down into another Great Depression.

Surging gold investments testify to the general lack of confidence in the economy and to expectations that the dollar’s decline will continue, but many believe that bullion could be at risk. In the midst of a trade war the existence of vast reserves of publicly held gold might be too big a temptation for a government on the brink of collapse. Certified gold coins offer the best protection possible against government confiscation your gold investment.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The major advantage of certified gold coins is their rarity premium, added value arising from their scarcity and desirability. Because that value is independent from that of their gold content, investments in certified gold coins have two paths to positive returns. Today we have a rare opportunity to combine the long term security of certified gold investment with the potential of great near term returns.

The price of a certified gold coin starts with the value of its gold content. Coins with a grade of MS 62 carry a modest premium, which increases exponentially through the higher grades due to diminishing supply. Nothing in the premium reflects the spot price, making the value of certified gold coins relatively immune to daily fluctuations.

Suppose, however, that the price of gold climbs threefold by 2013, as predicted by hedge fund manager, John Paulson. The market price of certified gold coins must track their melt value, a growth that would swamp the rarity premium of mid grades and produce returns close to that of bullion.

On the other hand, should the unthinkable happen and gold prices mysteriously level out, certified gold investments would lose none of their long term potential. It’s a win-win situation.

And we cannot completely ignore the doomsday scenario either. As our government scrambles to find a way out of the current economic mess, confiscation of publicly held gold remains a concern and rare coins are the most likely form to be exempt. Although the idea of melting down certified gold coins is anathema to collectors, it is investors’ option of last resort to preserve their wealth.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

For decades managers of major funds allocated only a tiny portion of their holdings to gold investment believing that traditional assets, despite short term losses, had the best prospects for long term growth. While that may have been true in the past, the emergence of a global economy has dramatically changed the rules and caused retirement funds across the country to wither, along with the dreams of those who had put their faith in them.

The success of ever growing numbers of individual investors who have turned to gold investment to preserve their wealth has not gone unnoticed by fund managers. One year ago Shayne McGuire convinced the Texas Teacher Retirement Fund to establish a $330 million gold investment fund, and it has already grown to almost $500 thousand, helping the entire fund to return nearly 16%.

Big investors are being forced to accept that currency is no longer the bedrock of wealth. Crises will continue to arise in the global economy as new economies emerge, unsettling currencies and sparking inflation. Traditional investments, which depend on stable currency, are now fraught with uncertainty. To replace the rotting foundation progressive investors are certain to take increasingly stronger gold positions. And each tiny incremental increase in gold investing by major funds represents a huge increase in demand.

That is why McGuire predicts that gold will soar as high as $10,000 if 1% of traditional investments worldwide are switched to gold. More conservative John Paulson, a highly respected hedge-fund manager, believes that gold will climb to $4,000 over the next three years.

Regardless of such predictions, the trend towards gold investment is already underway. Investing in certified gold is looking very promising indeed.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The Chinese announcement ignited activity in the currency market that briefly strengthened the dollar against other currencies, which in turn softened the price of gold. The conversion of Comex futures options purchased against a stronger dollar to futures contracts coupled with stronger than expected consumer confidence will likely dampen gold’ s resurgence, but concerns about the overall economy and the strong possibility of “ quantitative easing” of the dollar promise continued strong returns on gold investments.

None-the-less, heavy speculation in currencies increases the uncertainty of gold investing extending into the near future. For that reason certified gold coins are even more attractive for gold investment today. Unlike bullion, the value of rare gold coins is far less subject to the whims and fears of speculators, making them the ideal hedge against declining global currencies.

The long term prospects for certified gold investing remain exceptionally good into the foreseeable future. Until after our national debt is brought under control, unemployment returns to an acceptable level, global economies stabilize, and our trade deficit disappears can we expect to see today’ s feverish growth in gold investments begin to cool.

Picking the right moment to make gold investments while the market is reacting to instability in currencies can be a frustrating experience. For those seeking peace of mind in their gold investing, certified gold coins are the perfect answer. Please feel free to avail yourself of the many valuable certified gold investment resources provided here by the Certified Gold Exchange.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

After a tremendous run from $1255 to $1375 in exactly one month, technical factors reversed gold’s momentum and gold is sitting comfortably at $1338 per ounce on the COMEX. The gold spot price has risen over 20 percent in the last 365 days alone, and some say this is a bit too much. Franklin Sanders with the Money Changer believes that gold will correct further before climbing to somewhere around $1600 per ounce early in 2011.

If the gold bullion market were to rise to $1600 per ounce, it could mean a spectacular year for the rare gold coin market. The half-ounce, $10 Lady Liberty coins could be the “sleeper” coin of the year, and both the $20 Lady Liberty and the $20 Saint Gaudens one-ounce coins are expected to outperform the rest of the market in 2011 as well.

At the very least, the majority of experts agree that most certified rare coins should pace the gold bullion market. Eight of the last 10 years certified gold coins have outperformed bullion, and in each of those eight years it wasn’t even close. If one can’t afford to catch a year where certified coins lag behind bullion, then one shouldn’t consider buying that type of investment in the first place. However, those who have other assets on which to live and plan on keeping possession of their gold for a few years enjoy the privacy and better leverage of the rare coin market.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The common date (1908-1926, 1928) MS64 Saint Gaudens gold coin led the way with a 4% gain, and is now listed with a national average retail price of $2190. The gold spot price rebounded about $20 from yesterday’s profit-taking and is currently selling for $1350 per ounce on the COMEX.

Even though the gold price changes based on the strength (or weakness) of US currency, gold’s value also moves up or down in anticipation of future events. The Federal Reserve’s manipulation of interest rates has created artificial deflation, and many household investors fear that rising interest rates could set off a long-term inflationary cycle.

If this happens, it could mean a 40-60% loss in the dollar’s spending power. If that sounds familiar, it should. From 1960 to 1980 interest rates went from 4% to 14% and the dollar lost 65% of its spending power. Gold rose over 1000% during that time period, and many certified gold coin investors believe that a similar cycle is underway.

Since the gold price has risen over 27% in the last 365 days, investing on the top of a gold bubble may be a concern for you. To better understand the market and the Certified Gold Exchange, feel free to request any of our free gold investing guides below.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Historically, the certified gold market plays “catch up” when bullion prices swing high or low within a short period of time. This is due to the fact that the bullion market is largely based on futures contracts and ETFs which hardly ever involve the trade of physical gold for cash. Graded gold coins are usually privately held by household investors with longer-term goals in mind, so sharp moves in bullion may not necessarily mean an immediate change in the PCGS and NGC gold coin markets.

However, sometimes graded gold coin prices fluctuate apart from bullion values. For example, if larger investors release a high volume of their coins to the market, then graded gold coins could lay flat. When the market lands on the other side of the coin, however, bullion values might retreat while certified gold coins profit because of increased fear of government gold confiscation. Each investor views US markets and the stability of our economy slightly differently from the next, thus each of us must work with a seasoned professional to determine which type of gold, if any, is right for our financial security and growth.

Do you own graded gold coins, a gold IRA, raw bullion coins or bars, or simply paper gold like an ETF or certificate which is “stored” far from your reach in a national emergency? Contact one of the specialists at the Certified Gold Exchange for a free evaluation of your current gold portfolio and your free copy of the 2010 Insider’s Guide To Gold Investing today.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Commonly-traded, investment grade gold coins tend to trend with the gold spot price, although sudden fluctuations in the gold spot price are usually not seen in the certified coin market until several days or weeks later. For this reason, two schools of thought have emerged among gold investors and prognosticators.

Gold "day traders" are those who observe technical factors and USD movement to take advantage of "valleys" and "peaks" in the gold market. By investing in large volume and taking profits within 1-14 months, this swing trading strategy can be quite successful, even if gold price trends downard in the future. You can increase your chance of success with this strategy by purchasing COMEX-approved bullion ingets, or bars, as many large institutions have done recently.

Household investors are generally more concerned with hedging their wealth against an inflated currency and lagging mutual funds. These investors prefer the tangible safety of physical gold to paper assets or gold "funds" which don't allow physial delivery of the metal in a national emergency. Household investors who seek a prvately-held insurance plan in the form of gold tend to feel more secure with certified gold coins in their possession instead of raw bullion bars or coins.

PCGS certified gold coins have historically outshined bullion because of their government non-confiscatability and their numismatic premium that tends to grow over time. Bullion products have increased over 300% since 2001, and investors who employ a rapid-fire buy/sell strategy have seen even greater returns. On average, coins tracked in the certified gold market have seen profits between 350-480% over the same time frame.

Both bullion and certified coins have their advantages and disadvantages, as is the case with any stock, cash account, or property. If you are digging for more information on the certified gold market or you are ready to buy, sell, or trade gold, request your free copy of our Gold Insider's Tutorial or call one of our non-commissioned specialists at (800) 300-0715 today.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Today, investors in the gold market turned their heads toward the Soros Fund, managed by billionaire George Soros. The fund has been bullish on gold for years and announced today that they currently hold almost 16 tons of gold in the form of ETFs, or exchange traded funds. The dismal outlook for the US economy leads most investors to believe that the Soros Fund will not relinquish their holdings anytime soon, although Soros himself has been tight-lipped about what he expects from gold in the coming months.

While the Soros Fund controls about $25 billion, most household investors in the gold market find it easier to buy gold in either coin or bar form. Both the gold coin market and the gold bullion market have taken off today, and as a result gold futures contracts earmarked for mid-December are now trading as high as $1500 per ounce.

September has traditionally been a favorable month for gold investing, although an August gain of 5.6% means we could see some investors take profits in the coming days and weeks. Gold has risen 31.1%, or $296 per ounce, in the last 365 days, including a gain of $12.80 so far today. Visit the Certified Gold Exchange tomorrow for another gold market update, or register below for your free copy of the 2010 Gold Investor’s Guide.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Certified gold exchange is accomplished rather simply, and the costs involved with rolling over IRA assets or assets in cash accounts could be as low as 2% depending on the dealer you choose and the volume of items you purchase. For an IRA transfer, the two government-approved custodians (www.Sterling-Trust.com and www.GoldStarTrust.com) charge $200 per year for storage and account fees, which includes storage for up to $250,000 in precious metals.

For a physical delivery gold transaction, you may prefer to find a local, trustworthy dealer. Each individual gold dealer sets their own markups based on the Certified Gold Exchange discount price list. Once your funds are received at our Charles Schwab bank account on Wall Street, you will receive email and verbal confirmations every step of the way until your package arrives insured and confidentially at your door by special USPS courier.

For the best certified gold exchange advice for your specific situation, request some of our award-winning brochures below or just call one of our friendly certified gold specialists toll-free to have all your questions answered and to get some gold in your hands before it’s too late.

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Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 21, 2010 -  As the gold market took wing again Friday, June 18, analysts’ eyes began to reflect the sparkle of the precious metal. The New York spot price closed at $1,256.50 after hovering around $1,260 for most of the day. August futures closed at $1,258.30, also a record. Gold is the talk of the financial world right now, with every analyst offering a theory for its rocketing prices.

One possible reason given for gold’s surge was Spain’s successful bond sale. The western European country is in the middle of a sovereign debt crisis. Earlier this week, rumors abounded that a massive bailout was in the works from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among other institutions. This fear itself fueled gold prices at mid-week, but by the end of the week, anxieties surrounded the worry that the IMF and the European Central Bank (ECB) might have to sell off gold reserves to raise cash. The success of the bond sale alleviated some of that fear, making the specter of a gold market sell-off much less likely.

Another theory is that many emerging economies are buying gold. Iran’s recent announcement that it would sell €45 billion for U.S. dollars and gold adds to speculation that countries like China and India are abandoning their foreign currency reserves in favor of the precious metal. China’s gold holdings are much lower in proportion to its currency holdings than most major economies.

Another encouraging factor for the gold market is that the summer months are the slow season for gold, especially in countries like China, India and Vietnam, which is the world’s highest per capita consumer of gold. The festival and wedding season in India begins in the fall, and gold sales in that country skyrocket around those celebrations. Scott Redler, chief strategic officer for T3Live.com, says, “That’s when you’re going to see the shorts throw in the towel, people add on, and that’s when we’ll get that $1,400, $1,500, $1,600 an ounce.” Hang on, investors — it’s going to be a wild ride.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 14, 2010 - As gold prices dropped one percent this week with investors switching funds from gold to stocks, the rock-solid certified gold market has turned a little shaky. For the third day in a row, the euro stealthily increased in value even as industrial commodities gained. At the same time, the Dow Jones index moved up.

Jeff Pritchard, from Altavest, a California broker-dealer, expressed that the standard trend is for people to turn to the stock market when they are risk averse. However, gold seems to be in greater demand when the market is uncertain, he said. The first quarter of the year 2010 saw gold advancing ahead of the equity markets and other investments that were perceived as risky. But post mid-March, the rise of gold prices can be attributed solely to the euro’s decline and the fear of a worsening recession.

On Wednesday last week, the certified gold market saw spot gold dipping from its all-time high to $1,214.65 as U.S. gold futures for August went down $7.70 to $1222.20. Clearly, gold is under a little pressure as the euro advanced $1.21. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet remarked that he expected the European economy to bounce back slowly.

However, inflation rates in major economies around the world, including India and Brazil, are rising, leading advisers to recommend gold as a hedge. Adrian Day, of Adrian Day’s Global Analyst, when asked about a possible softening of the certified gold market, said, “I always like to focus on the big trend, and the big trend for gold is up. … I definitely think gold is going up by the end of the year.” He goes on to explain that the main reasons people have been buying gold are all still in place, and that the added uncertainty about sovereign markets will only fuel investments in gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 9, 2010 - In the certified gold market, gold prices continue to soar. The current high is $1,250 an ounce, even as the European euro’s outlook does not appear exciting. The European economy’s recovery looks bleak following UK’s plan to scale down its own government borrowing.

As spot gold prices in the certified gold market touched a high $1,251.20 an ounce, compared to $1,246.45 an ounce at 1137 GMT against $1,238.05 late on Monday, the U.S. gold futures for August delivery stood at $1,254.50. Making hay while the gold shines, this precious metal is clearly taking advantage of the prevalent fear about the euro’s sovereign debt crisis and its impact on the global economy.

Daniel Briesemann, analyst at Commerzbank, opined that the current gold prices are an outcome of the fear that another recession might be around the corner, hence the demand for gold as a safer investment option. "Gold is currently rising in dollars and in euros," he added. "There is a lack of confidence, given the uncoordinated measures against the sovereign debt crisis, which is obviously (affecting) both currencies."

Gold priced in euros also stood at a record 1,050.86 euros an ounce, while gold priced in sterling and Swiss francs also saw a new high at 869.87 pounds an ounce and 1,450.40 francs an ounce. As Hungary faces a deficit, world stocks also took a beating last Friday. The certified gold market is poised to see even more glittery times, thanks to the widespread fear about the European economy. Silver bid at $18.32 an ounce compared to $18.09, with platinum at $1,516.25 an ounce compared to $1,512, and palladium at $429.23 against $430.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

June 4, 2010 - Certified gold market prices remain relatively unchanged after weaker than expected U.S. employment data showed fewer workers were hired in May than forecast. Support in gold prices is in part due to increased fears the continuing bank and credit problems in Europe may be spreading to countries outside the European Union.

US stocks are sharply down this morning on both the employment data and rumors of more debt trouble in Europe. A corresponding firming in gold prices shows the flight to safety in gold. Analyst Wu Zheng, from China-based Soochow Futures Co. stated, “The market knows the Europe debt crisis isn’t going away anytime soon, so gold’s safe-haven status is going to keep prices supported.”

Zheng added, “After the very quick ascent to nearly $1,250, and without signs of the situation worsening, gold will probably consolidate around current levels.” If the situation in Europe worsens, the certified gold market could see significant buying pressure as its status as a safe harbor continues.

Overall, this week saw a mild drop in the certified gold market. Senior vice president, Afshin Nabavi, of MKS Finance SA in Geneva said, “Gold was pretty much on a one-way street, and it is only natural that we see a bit of a correction.” His opinion is, “In the medium to long term, this may be an opportunity to buy into dips.”

Mid-day Friday, gold prices hovered near the psychologically important 1200 level. Technically, prices remain in a solid uptrend with downside support recently seen in the 1160-80 range. Moderate upside resistance was experienced at the 1230 level earlier this week

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

In all, the gold market rose 3% in May, though it remains $28.10 (2.26%) below its all-time record high registered earlier in the month, and $11.10 (0.9%) off its first-quarter high of $1226.10. The rise in gold bucks an otherwise downward trend for other metals.

That the gold market received a boost from the gloomy news out of Spain reflects the prevailing wisdom regarding the metal: that it is an especially trustworthy safe-haven asset and hedge against inflation during periods of market turmoil and systemic economic crisis. This has also fueled the recent rush in Germany toward buying krugerrands, the most popular form of gold coin, in the wake of the massive euro-zone bailout and the inflationary possibilities many investors fear.

Even skeptics of the long-term viability of gold as an investment believe that the market will continue to rise significantly in coming years. Both Brett Arends in the Wall Street Journal and James Mackintosh of the Financial Times noted in recent columns that the “gold rush” may be far from over, and that the recent rally in the gold market could continue for years to come.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Gold finished Tuesday at $1, 203.60 an ounce, a gain of $22.50 (1.9%) from last Thursday’s low of $1,181.10.

Gold’s performance this week is a confident step forward for the metal. Just two weeks ago it made a two-day surge and reached Wednesday its all-time high of $1243.10 an ounce to eclipse the previous all-time high registered on December 3, 2009. Today’s $1,216.10 an ounce is $27.00 (2.2%) lower than the all-time high. It is higher by $112.10 (10.2%) than the decade-ending $1104 and lower by $10.00 (0.8%) than the first quarter record of $1226.10 an ounce.

Eily Ong an investment research manager at the World Gold Council said, “ There has been a recovery despite higher prices. The economic crisis in Europe isn’t going to be resolved in the next month or two. Investors have now strongly moved into gold as somewhere safe to store their money.” Spain has now come under the investor’s radar. Yet another country within the European union to threaten the already fragile financial state. This comes weeks after the Euro-IMF approved loan much awaited by nervous investors who thought it would bring stability to the European markets and currency.

The EU may need to invoke emergency treaty powers under article 122 to halt the contagion, said Julian Callow from Barclays Capital, he also added, “ If not contained, this could result in a ‘Lehman-Style’ tsunami spreading across much of the EU.”

The reality is that we are still in a de-leveraging environment and we don’t know what the full extent of wealth damage will be until the dust settles down.

For more information about alternative investments, call the Certified Gold Exchange at 1-800-300-0715 today.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 23 2010 – Gold gained $5.00 dollars an ounce to improve on Friday’s closing price of $1177.00. The rise is yet another sign on how fragile the global economy is in the minds of the investors.

There is a growing anxiety over the financial crisis in the euro-zone, for example Monday May 17, gold was still trading at $1225.00, staying very close to the all-time high of $1226.40 posted on December 3, 2009. And on the second week of May, Gold followed through with a blistering run to set a new all-time high of $1243.10.

The new record eclipsed by $16.70 (1.36%) the previous all-time high of $226.40.

Analysts are of the opinion that gold will continue to rise and are not inclined to hazard a guess when the run will come to an end. As CNN writer Katie Benner puts it: “While there’s plenty of reasons to believe that gold’s dramatic run can’t go on forever, for now it seems a bad time to bet that the rally will soon come to a screeching halt.”

Gold exerts a strong magnetic force on investors during times of economic uncertainty. It is the historical refuge of funds threatened by every sort of economic risk. At present, it is the economic difficulties in Europe that make gold upbeat. And it appears that these difficulties will take more time before they are comfortably solved. Many think that the bailout fund for troubled member-countries of the EU will cause as many problems as it will solve.

An analyst said that “despite the bailout, Greek default is possible, even likely, in the long run.” Aside from Greece, there are Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy who are saddled by huge deficit and loans.

So long as these conditions persist, gold will continue its run.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Remember the debacles of 2008 and 2009? IRA funds lost 25% of their value in 2008 and 35% in 2009. Inflation had bled IRA funds of over $3 trillion. Don’t let this happen to your IRA. Losses of this kind can easily be avoided by simply diversifying the areas of investment to include those which are invulnerable to inflation. IRA funds are traditionally invested in stocks, bonds and equities, among others. These are excellent mediums of investment when the economy is healthy. But when the health of the economy is in peril, these investments are among the first to get infected.

The Taxpayers Relief Act passed in 1997 allows certain types of investments for the IRA. Among these is gold, most preferred because of its safe-haven status during bad economic times. Gold is the kind of investment you can rely on when other types of investments in your IRA are in peril. In 2008 and 2009 when IRA funds lost their value 25% and 35% respectively, the price of gold correspondingly increased 300% and 400%. The price of gold started at about $270 an ounce in 2000, steadily rose to $865 in 2008 and $1104.00 in 2009. Funds invested in gold not only protect the IRA but also earn profit for the IRA. The TRA also guarantees tax benefits to gold investments.

Gold allowed as investment in your IRA include certain variants of bullion bars and gold coins Gold bars must have a purity of at least 0.995%. Gold coins must be legal tender with a purity of 0.999%. Only the American Gold Eagle that has a purity of 0.9167% is exempted from this requirement. Numismatic gold items and gold coins with numismatic premiums are not allowed.

Know more about keeping your IRA safe. Get in touch with Certified Gold Exchange (CGE), 1-800-300-0715. One of its experts in gold IRA will be glad to help you. CGE is the largest gold exchange in America. It has a spotless No-Complaint record since its founding in 1992. It has an A+ rating, the highest given by the Better Business Bureau. CGE can help you make your IRA safe.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

May 10, 2010 - Gold soared Friday to new record highs as the Dow dived to record lows.

Gold’s closing $1210.40 Friday was:

- the highest so far in 2010

- the highest since December 3, 2009

- the closest to its all-time high of $1226.10 posted in December 2009.

On the other hand, the Dow ended Friday at 10380.43 points, registered a drop of 139.89 points (1.3%) from the previous day. It first plunged by as much as 1,000 points Thursday below the 10,000 mark before recovering to minimize the loss at 348 points. The drop was:

- a 771.40-point decline in just four days, the lowest close since February 26

- the worst percentage decline since March 2009

- the 628.18 points drop for the week was the steepest since the week of 0ctober 6-10 in 2008

- 7.4% below its April 26 closing high

- lower than when the year began for the first time.

News about the situation in other markets was just as discouraging. Nasdaq went down 54 points (2.3%), said to be its lowest in two months. Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 17.27 points (1.5%).

Markets in Europe and Asia tumbled as well. In France, the CAC was down 4.6%, in London the FTSE was down by 2.6% and the German DAX by 4.6%. In Japan, the Nikkei lost 3.1% and in Hong Kong, Hang Seng lost 1%.

Analysts observed that investors again sought out safer investments in nervous response to the erratic stock prices movement. As usual, these investors turned to gold.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Over the past year, gold prices have been soaring higher and higher, so you’re probably wondering why the sudden stall. Analysts say traders are being cautious until the Fed announces its decision about rates. You’ll also find more and more people selling their scrap gold, and that increase is matching the slightly rising demand from investors. Right now gold investment demand hangs in the balance with these higher scrap gold scales, creating a delicate situation that could go either way the coming weeks.

In Europe, spot gold prices are down about .3 percent, while the euro is also lower due to concerns about the bank bailout package being considered by Greek officials. The dollar remains strong, however, which could mean that spot gold prices will hold steady, according to analysts.

Meanwhile, the bright spot in the gold market right now is gold miner Newmont Mining, which reported more than twice its expected first-quarter profits. Newmont is one of the gold company stocks you’ll want to keep an eye on because it looks like blue skies ahead. Since the first quarter of 2009, gold prices have increased more than 20 percent, giving Newmont $546 million in earnings for the first quarter of 2010, compared to $189 million last year. Stock prices for Newmont have risen from 40 cents per share to $1.11 per share over the past year.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The U.S. dollar's most newly found stability is largely relative due to its' comparison to the struggling euro. The euro's struggles are most largely attributed to Greece's continuing economic complications as well as a generally glum attitude among European consumers during the first quarter of 2010. Apple saw a 90% increase in net income for the most recent quarter due to their explosive smart phone sales, while the boards of organizations like the European Union and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) are meeting this week to determine possible avenues of creating wealth amidst the current worldwide recession.

While the US dollar's recent surge has hindered the growth of gold-based portfolios, the increased fear among American consumers that the greenback will wither significantly before the 2012 elections has spurred a buying frenzy of both certified gold coins and bullion-type products. Technical analysts believe the bullion spot price could experience substantial fluctuation over the course of 2010, due to the back-and-forth struggle between a crumbling dollar and opportunistic gold profit-takers. Current projections are for certified gold coins like the Saints and Liberties to increase 8-12% in 2010, so this week's price reduction could be a great indicator to start increasing holdings once again. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Also left behind were the previous day’s sales of $1156.40 an ounce by $6 and the end-quarter sales of $1126.10 by $36.30.

Certified gold made its run amidst some dramatic developments happening around the world.

There were reports that an agreement on a rescue package had been reached among high finance official of the 16-member European Union in their meeting in Brussels last week. Details of the terms were, however, not revealed.

The Greek rescue news immediately energized the Euro. The Euro gained by 0.8% last Friday on the dollar.

In China, the Commerce Ministry reported a trade deficit in the month of March, the first in six years. The deficit was $7.24 billion down from a surplus of $7.61 billion in February. This development is expected by some sectors to complicate the US-China negotiation on the devaluation of the Yuan. It had been reported that China would use the recent trade deficit as an argument against the devaluation of the Yuan.

At home in the US, stocks were on the rise. The Dow Jones average hit momentarily the 11,000 mark before settling down at 10,997.35 up 0.64%, its highest in 18 months. Nasdaq had 2,454.05, up 0.71%; and S&P 500 also increased to 1,194.37, up ).67%. Some 162,000 new jobs were added last week, but unemployment figures remained at 9.7%. A troubling report spoiled this bright scenario that the city of Los Angeles was now closer to bankruptcy. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The new figure, however, was a repeat of the $1136 posted a day earlier. I t will be recalled that the week before the $1126.10 run, gold was in the vicinity of $1134. At the moment, price fluctuation is frequent as usual and sales figures are hard to nail. It may take a few more days for growth outlines to be more defined.

Hwang Il Doo of KEB Futures Co. in Seoul observed that gold “is taking a breather after a good run” and “will bounce back, though, as an improving economy hoists overall demand for commodities.”

Another analyst attributed the increased strength of the dollar and “profit-taking following the holidays” as to have curbed the continued rise of gold prices. He voiced expectations that the “precious metals would consolidate.”

Analysts are keeping a close watch on both gold and the US dollar which is gathering strength. It had made gains against the Euro for three day, according to a report released yesterday. Gold’s rise is usually curbed by a strong dollar.

Aside from the dollar, other economic factors will come into play to influence gold’s movement. The continuing Greek crisis which has wide- and far-ranging impact. The speculation that the Federal Reserve will allow the current interest rate to remain low. The general improvement of the US economy. The crude oil price that had already risen to a 17-month high and had been predicted to reach as high as $100 a barrel within the year.

Some of these factors favor certified gold’s growth, others do not. Let’s wait and see. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The previous week’s high stayed briefly, however, slid down again closer to the $1100 psychological barrier, triggering doubts on certified gold’s performance to stay up and bringing back memories of the disappointing January slide to $1073.85.

Pronouncements coming in droves from various quarters made last week revealed expectations for gold’s performance this week to be low. Nevertheless, gold’s slight advance may have, at most, put the metal on track momentarily following weeks of pessimism and nervous movements. It was not a grand performance but at least it was positive, may give some room for optimism and draw attention to what’s in store for the week that follows. The slight upward movement may also have given a few impatient investors some slight satisfaction in gold’s performance for the time being.

Following gold’s record performance at the end of 2009, gold’s frantic struggle to get away free from the $1100 psychological barrier is a big let-down to many investors. Gold was expected to pick up where it left off and continue the run.

An industry leader called 2000-2009 as “stage one” of gold’s bull run followed by the entry of “serious investors and more serious money.” Another forecast places gold prices beyond the $1200 level by the middle of 2010. Other investors pointed that after 2009 gold hit the 2010 ground running and expected prices to taper off at $1500 by 2005.

In the meantime, let’s look short-term at next week’s performance. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The volatility in the Gold Exchange and sharp swings in value has been due to currency uncertainty. The euro has fallen due to renewed concerns about the Greek financial situation and disputes as to whether the EU or the IMF will help bail Greece, whose economy is near bankruptcy.

News that the central bank’s demand for Gold was the highest since 1964 will embolden bulls, as there seems to be no indicators that this trend will reverse in the foreseeable future due the sovereign risk. With gold near record highs, having small allocations to gold for diversification purposes are still in favor by Central Banker’s.

Frank Holmes, CEO and CIO of US Global Investors, recommends a 10% allocation in gold that would be divided evenly between bullion and stocks. "There are many compelling factors both from a supply side and then from the demand side that looks like gold will trade higher." Frank says in a recent interview with Tech Talk.

If you would like more information on adding Gold to your portfolio, contact one of our Gold Exchange experts, who will be more than happy to assist you.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The continued economic problems in a number of countries make rising prices for certified gold seem quite possible. England is struggling with rising inflation, now reaching 3.7 percent. Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal are all facing problems with sovereign debt. The United States is facing devastating jobs losses with unadjusted unemployment figures being close to 18 percent, a debt to GDP of nearly 100 percent, and the threat of inflation as the US Future Inflation Gauge has shown for nearly a year that devaluation could occur.

While national economies have struggled, the Asian market is becoming a greater potential source for certified gold due to rising incomes. India now has a per capita income of $1,032 and China stands at over $3,000. These two countries are already the largest consumers of gold, including the investment, jewelry and industrial markets. Holmes notes that China is also the largest producer of gold, but doesn’t affect over prices because they are “using it as a reserve currency for themselves.”

Finally Holmes notes that production of certified gold is not meeting worldwide demand. Production in 2008 fell by 10 percent. In addition, the cost of production continues to rise, making gold more expensive to locate and bring to the market.

Holmes is not the only expert with this view of certified gold. Jeffery Nicholls, managing director of American Precious Metals Advisers says, “We remain firm in our conviction that gold prices will touch or surpass $1,500 in 2010 and continue to move higher in subsequent years.”

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Both gold exchanges and the dollar appeared to be reacting to comments by Yi Gang, the head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China when he stated that it is unlikely that bullion will be the country’s main reserve investment. The country has increased its gold by 454 tonnes to its current 1,054 tonnes, still only a fraction of the nearly $2.4 trillion that China has in its currency reserves.

“It’s all about the dollar,” said Leonard Kaplan, the president of Prospector Asset Management. “With the dollar continuing to strengthen, gold doesn’t have a chance. There isn’t enough gold for China to make it its primary reserve. They have to hold dollars.”

Demand has struggled with the strength of the dollar. “These prices are not attractive enough for physical buying,” said Bernard Sin, the head of currency and metals trading at bullion refiner MKS Finance SA in Geneva. “People are looking for a dip to come into the market.” The decline at the gold exchange may be an opportunity to buy, with analysts such as Dennis Gartman, an economist and editor of the Gartman Letter. Gartman has previously advised holding gold in foreign currencies, and now suggests buying gold denominated in dollars as well.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Greece has announced nearly $6.5 billion of cost-cutting measures and an additional $6.8 billion in long-term bonds in an attempt to begin cutting nearly 4 percent from its 12.7 percent deficit. The government is also looking to win favor with other EU members and avoid credit devaluation by Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s with these actions.

“If the Greek situation calms down, people may not be as interested in owning hard assets,” said Matt Zeman, a metals trader at LaSalle Futures Group in Chicago. As Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services LLC in Chicago said, “Gold is just listless; it’s running into some resistance.”

Some technical buyers also sold today as prices failed to get over $1,140 at gold exchanges, suggesting strong resistance at that level. “Without forward momentum, people are very quick to jump ship,” Matt Zeman said.

While gold exchanges are seeing some people jumping out, many experts are suggesting that people jump into positions. Dennis Gartman, an economist and editor of the Gartman Letter is recommending clients to start buying gold in US dollars. With solid fundamentals, strong demand and a temporary dip in prices, there is potential profit after the current price reductions subside. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The Labor Department reported that non-farm payroll shed a less-than-expected 36,000 jobs, and the Purchasing Managers Index was released which exceeded the expected 51.0 percent to post a 53.0 percent score, indicating economic growth. As Dan Norcini reported for Mine Set, “Gold put in a decent performance today which coming on a Friday with a jobs report being released is actually encouraging.”

Gold exchanges and traders alike are watching price movements as yesterday’s close was up $1.90 to finish at $1,135.40 per ounce. Technical analysis of resistance points show the next one to be just above $1,150, the last point that stands between current prices and a rally that could retest the $1,200 level.

In addition to the resistance points, other technical indicators suggest increasing prices at the gold exchange. Gold is currently trading above all of the major moving averages, which indicates that it is bullish. In addition, the Relative Strength Index is at 60.47; numbers higher than 40 suggest that gold is oversold and likely to rise in price. With gold holding above the $1,130 mark and August and September futures near $1,200 per ounce, many investors are looking for prices to continue their climb. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The nonfarm payroll report was released by the Labor Department today, showing a lower than expected increase of 36,000 jobs lost in February. While the news was well received at the gold exchanges, the overall unemployment rate still stands at 9.7%. The unemployment rate has been linked by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to the current near-zero interest rates.

Bob Lyon, portfolio manager at Smith & Williamson's Global Gold & Resources fund says, “Higher real interest rates would dent gold investment demand, since better returns to cash – over and above growth in the cost of living, as opposed to below it as is the case across Europe and the United States right now – would cut gold's appeal as an inflation hedge.”

"I think gold is starting to march to its own drummer now," says David Morgan, founder of one Internet investment site. "It's very overbought on a short term basis ... [gold might] test the $1,080 level or so ... [But] I think that if we can get over [today's] level and stay there on big volume and stay there three days in a row, [gold exchange prices are] going higher." 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

With concern growing over potentially negative US economic data, the euro climbed to 1.3642; conversely, the US Dollar Index tumbled to 80.40, down 0.344 during the morning trading. "Gold has moved higher but only what you'd expect with movements in euro-dollar." said David Barclay, commodity strategist at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong.

While the news proved to be unreliable, many see the claim of China’s impending purchase of the remaining International Monetary Fund gold as being a significant driver of today’s gold prices. Reported by Moscow-based website Rough & Polished, the story has since been discredited for lack of official sources, but the impact may be real. Barclay notes, "You can see the impact when India bought, prices went on to rally substantially after that. China has added sensitivity over the fact that its got such large dollar holdings."

For investors in certified gold, the news of the euro and China’s potential purchase are still favorable. "The euro has rebounded a bit, so that could be the reason why gold is up now. But even if price goes up (at $1,100 per ounce), it's still not out of the range yet (at $1,130 per ounce)," said one dealer. Investors should consider continued increases in holdings in order to profit from any potential rally. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Two significant events have shaped gold news so far this week. First, the International Monetary Fund announced that efforts were unsuccessful to find a central bank to buy the 191.3 tons of gold that it has, and that it is considering public sales to move this supply. The markets were jolted, although commentator Steven Saville pointed out, “The relative insignificance of the gold sale proposed last week immediately becomes apparent once it is realized that… an average of 675 tons of physical gold changes hands via the London Bullion Market Association every day.”

The second event was a Federal Reserve announcement that it had raised rates on overnight funds that banks are loaned to maintain reserves. This is a little-used fund that little impact, but it was seen to signal upcoming rate hikes in other key rates, and had the effect of pushing gold prices down again.

These items are seen by analysts Franklin Sanders and Patrick Heller as an attempt to influence the gold options market, where 5,000 call contracts were set to expire on Tuesday, potentially impacting 30% of the COMEX inventory. Pushing gold prices below $1,100 per ounce would have left these contracts unfulfilled and worthless. Heller comments, “Such extreme measures worry me that there are some horrendous financial developments about to break. There are so many potential crises waiting to collapse that I cannot discern just which ones they might be.”

The news should be important to investors in certified gold. The COMEX went into a condition known as “backwardation” yesterday, where current spot prices are higher than futures prices. This is extremely rare and suggests that a significant price increase is coming. As Heller states, “The safest way to participate in the continuing long-term bull markets for gold and silver is to buy physical metals, not paper contracts, and avoid trading on margin.” Investors should pay close attention to how recent events are pushing gold prices and consider additional purchases of physical gold. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

After a recent rise in an inconsequential discount rate, investors are concerned that the Fed is preparing to also raise key interest rates to stem mounting inflationary pressure. The excessive stimulus spending by the federal government and the near zero percent lending has forced too much money into the economy; a move that many believe could cause rampant inflation.

In addition to Bernanke’s impending testimony, the Consumer Confidence Index is also signaling a weaker faith by many Americans in the stability of the economy. The February index stood at 46, which represented a 10-month low. With the economy still not showing substantial gains, many people have grown skeptical of recovery prospects.

This news is giving gold a chance to regroup. "I think we are still in a consolidation period right now," says David Morgan, founder of Silver-Investor.com. "I would not get long this market until we're in the $1,180 range or higher." Gold exchange prices have been moving up over the past month as technical indicators and analysts’ predictions suggest the metal is ready for another rally.

Prices may dip this week as the effects of the Bernanke testimony are felt, but a recovery in gold exchange prices is likely to follow. Gold has a reputation as a hedge against inflation, and the current economic environment suggests that inflation is indeed lurking, making gold a potentially strong investment now. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

China is buying gold, but not from the IMF. “We’re not surprised to see that China has not” purchased IMF gold, said George Milling-Stanley, managing director for government affairs of the London-based council. It is said that China’s central bank is “deeply dissatisfied with the performance of its U.S. Treasury holdings and has made clear its intention to diversify, including into gold,” according to Citigroup’s Heap. The prevailing opinion is that China will “buy local gold production” to add to its reserves.

While China is not adding from the IMF reserves, governments are looking to buy. “There has been some ill-informed comment that this move tarnished the notion that governments are adding to reserves,” Milling-Stanley said. “There are a lot of central banks out there that are buying local production in local currency. The IMF would have no interest in that local currency. The IMF is looking for dollars.”

For private investors, this talk of governments looking to buy certified gold is an indication of the larger investment climate. As the worldwide economic crisis continues to negatively impact many countries, gold becomes an increasingly desirable commodity for investors. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Worth nearly $7 billion at today’s spot price of $1,115.60, this government-certified gold could have an affect on the balance between supply and demand, and the price of gold. For this reason the IMF claims that it will be makes sales in phases, in order to eliminate disruptions in the worldwide supply. This sale would be a second phase to the IMF’s liquidation plan, with 200 tons sold to India and 12 tons combined being sold to Sri Lanka and Mauritius in the fourth quarter of 2009.

“We still need to see what happens to the gold price during the second half of the sale before we can conclude that we have additional revenues. The initiation of on-market sales does not preclude further off-market gold sales directly to interested central banks or other official holders,” said Andrew Tweedie, the IMF Fund Director

Although it shouldn’t have a significant impact on most people, investors will want to monitor this situation as it unfolds. Temporary fluctuations in price are likely to occur as sales are announced; meaning that people looking to buy or sell certified gold will want to plan around any movements by the IMF. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

"As the year progressed a rebalancing of gold market fundamentals occurred, ensuring that as investment demand came off from the exceptional levels seen in the first quarter, total demand for the year remained robust thanks to a rebound in jewelry and industrial demand," Shishmanian said in a statement.

Gold demand for jewelry suffered while the world economic crisis raged, but has been showing signs of recovery as consumer confidence returns. Industrial demand for gold has been down for several years but posted an annual gain. Growth in these sectors is important because certified gold prices are driven largely by increasing demand.

Spurred by strong demand in the western markets, in Exchange-traded Funds and in China, gold investment rose in 2009 and continues to rise in the first two months of 2010. "Gold's broad demand and supply drivers provide a unique balance in the face of economic volatility and uncertainty. This ensures gold retains its intrinsic appeal irrespective of the prevailing market conditions," Shishmanian opined.

The continued expectation for 2010 is favorable, as the WGC noted that supply-side conditions would offer price support and the dehedging which occurred late in 2009 is unlikely to continue as certified gold investors look to protect their assets in the face of currency-based problems in a number of countries. Gold has a strong forecast for the months ahead and looks to be a viable investment option for many. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

As the European Union fumbles with a solution to the problems in Athens, economists are starting to return their focus to the US economy, realizing that the American government has created a situation with its budget deficits that is eerily similar with the Greeks. The situation is serious enough that Morgan Stanley analyst Spyros Andreopoulos has said of the United States' long-term budget deficit, "While hard default is inconceivable, soft default through inflation is a clear risk."

Soft default is interpreted as a government using inflation to devalue its currency, thereby making foreign debts less costly. This brings a stark reality to both investors and economists. If the US cuts its annual fiscal deficit from 9% to 5% of the US economy each year from now until 2020, Andreopoulos writes, "Stabilizing the debt at current levels would then require an inflation rate of 9% on average over the next 10 years." Talk of inflation becomes key for certified gold investors.

Inflation has historically been a good time for certified gold investment. As the value of the dollar falls, the value of gold generally rises; this has been seen during the Greek crisis as gold has rebounded strongly against the euro. If inflation is imposed on the US economy, the same thing would likely happen here as well.

Talk of inflation fighting measures has already been started by the Federal Reserve and Congress has mentioned a possible default in the fall if budget concessions are not made. Investors should look to move into certified gold positions with prices still near their cyclic lows and before the talk of a possible soft default hits the mainstream media. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Some investors choose to purchase gold bullion directly from dealers who are authorized by the US Mint. These people get gold coins of a guaranteed weight and purity as promised by the US government. The problem with this method is that purchasing there comes with a substantial mark up on the price, sometimes 20 to 30 percent or more. At today’s price of $1,100.00 per ounce, the price for a 2010 American Eagle from the US Mint would be $1,328.00. This increase forces the investor to buy less gold or hold it longer in order to make a profit. In addition, the Mint only offers a limited range of products such as gold and silver American Eagles and other pieces.

Gold exchanges offer better options for most investors. Because exchanges buy in huge volume, they receive discounts on bullion products that they can pass on to customers. The same 2010 American Eagle coin that lists for over $1,300 on the US Mint price grid could cost only a couple of dollars over the spot gold price at an exchange; this means that buyers can potentially save hundreds of dollars per ounce by buying through an exchange. The product selection is generally higher here as well, with American bullion products being sold as well as bullion from countries like Canada, Australia, France, Austria and others. Some exchanges also sell gold bars and possibly even certified coins, providing a number of options to their clients.

Gold exchanges also store and sell bullion for their clients, something that the Mint does not do. While exchanges don’t have the strength of the US government to guarantee their products, they frequently use third-party experts to inspect the quality of their products and seek accreditation by the Better Business Bureau or other customer-related organizations. Investing with a gold exchange can offer a great number of benefits to traders and potentially help them to save money, meaning that what they spend on gold is more valuable. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

The focus of ETFs has wandered; some institutional buyers use them to hedge other positions, financial advisers can use them to create quick, custom investment portfolios for clients and some individuals can use them for a 2010 version of day trading. "We're now into the bastardization of ETFs…" says Mitch Tuchman, CEO of MarketRiders.com.

Gold exchange-traded funds have several serious problems, making them dangerous for the average trader, including over-trading, leveraged funds and specialty funds. Over-trading occurs frequently because inexperienced have unlimited access to make trades. Leveraged funds are dangerous; while they offer big gains, they can create big losses when the market goes against them. Specialty funds are also very risky since they focus on low volume commodities or trade techniques that can go wrong quickly. As Burt Greenwald, a Philadelphia-based mutual fund consultant points out about these funds, "They're slicing the baloney thinner and thinner."

While gold exchange-traded funds promise great potential, the best bet for most investors is to trade physical gold. Buying and selling bullion or certified gold coins offers a tangible asset that retains value and is instantly liquid. As Eric Janszen, the founder of itulip.com states, "If you're going to own gold, the nature of the risk you are hedging is such that owning stocks in mining companies and ETFs don't cut it, you need to own the physical stuff.” For most people, buying physical gold is the best way to go.

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Much of today’s climb by the dollar is seen as a market opinion that the EU plan for assisting Greece with its monetary crisis would fall short, and that investors will attempt to buy up large quantities of Greek bonds with favorable exchange rates, further damaging the economy. There is also concern that protests this week by Greek labor unions over government plans for cutbacks would disrupt efforts to control spending and further impact economic conditions in the struggling country.

Gold’s fall was as a reaction to both the rising dollar and the announcement from China that banks would be required to hold more money in reserve, limiting the amount of funds available for investment and effectively hindering demand for certified gold and other assets. China’s reserve requirement will increase 50 basis points effective Feb. 25, the central bank announced, as an effort to control inflation after flooding the market with additional funds in order to stimulate the economy.

“Gold is reacting to liquidity constraints implemented by the People’s Bank of China and a further strengthening of the dollar,” stated Bayram Dincer, an analyst at LGT Capital Management in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland.

A poll of 22 traders, investors and analysts taken by Bloomberg showed a largely favorable outlook for next week as 72% predicted certified gold prices would either rise or stay steady, with only 28% expecting a drop. Investors who take new positions today could stand to benefit should prices rise as generally expected. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Gold spot prices closed at $1,071.70 yesterday after profit taking pushed prices down early, only to see them climb during the day. The news played a factor in the early drop as well, as failure by the EU to reach an agreement on the Greek sovereign debt crisis left many waiting for good reports. "Obviously the anticipation is that we're going to get some good news as far as support for Greece is concerned," said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at Investec Australia in Sydney. “If we get a good result from the European Council, then you can expect that gold is going to go higher. We'll certainly be targeting $1,100 again. Once the dust settles, gold will be higher," said Heathcote.

Developments in banking policies from both China and the United States continue to play a role as well. China has already instructed several banks to begin tightening their lending practices, a move that is seen by many as an unspoken concern about impending inflation. Inflation was the topic in the US as well, when the Fed released a written transcript of testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke before the House. His comments supported earlier concerns about possible US inflation in the wake of tremendous government spending and low interest money to invigorate the economy. Bernanke’s calls to possibly end stimulus money and raise interest rates have been especially interesting for those who see a weak dollar.

A weak dollar signals increased appeal for many people in certified gold as an alternative investment. Continued confidence in gold generally creates more activity in the market and can lead to higher prices. Investors who see the continued economic concerns may want to consider taking positions in certified gold in advance of possible price increases. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange

Rumors have been circulating that the EU has been working toward a plan that will bring Greece out of its sovereign debt crisis. Analysts are speculating that the EU could offer loan guarantees or financial assistance from such countries as Germany or France, although no decisions have been reached and upcoming discussions will be critical.

Investors are also watching the US Federal Reserve as concerns over excessive currency in circulation and inflation have surfaced. Recently testifying before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, Ben Bernanke recognized this potential problem when he said, “We are quite confident that we can raise interest rates, reduce the money supply and do that all in a timely way to avoid any inflationary consequences.”

These two issues could have effects on certified gold and the US dollar as they could impact both the strength of the euro and the economic stability in the US. The dollar has made recent gains that many believe are partially the result of a weakening euro, while a return to inflation in the US could have differing effects on the dollar and gold. “Precious metals are perhaps the great beneficiaries of the dollar’s weakness,” Dennis Gartman, a Suffolk, Virginia-based economist and hedge-fund manager said recently. “Gold is, of course, benefiting from the confusion reigning in Europe.”

With current events playing an important part in deciding the strength of the dollar, certified gold investors are watching the stories unfolding in Greece and at the Federal Reserve. As gold positions gain strength, investors should look to add it to their portfolios to reap the benefits of possible gains. 

Daily Updates Archive

Stewart Lawson

Senior Staff Writer - Certified Gold Exchange