Precious metals news

It's a time of extremes for gold; valuation relative to stocks at a multi-generation low, and now non-commercials shorts at a new since-1993 high. As the investor sentiment pendulum overreaches in one direction and then overcorrects in the other, gold's strongest attributes, durability and resiliency, move to the fore.

In light of what is essentially "beating around the bush" by the Fed and the Treasury, Mooney is pressing them even harder this time around...

But as long as risk markets continue to boldly go to valuations where no risk markets have gone before, nobody really cares. Only after the fact, when fortunes are lost, will there be the same recycled outrage that rose, grandstanded, and affected nearly no change a decade ago.

The Purchasing Managers' Index is a keen insight into what is taking place in the analytical minds of economic decision-makers as they examine the health of their businesses and plan for the future. The message from this data set? "Present isn't great, future will be worse."

There's potential for a reversal of recent trends, including a short squeeze which could launch gold like a beach ball that was held underwater. Here's why...

SD Midweek: The summer doldrums are still in effect, but it might not be the Fed that took center stage today anyway. Here's what's next...

As we wish a fond farewell to Chris Hamilton's "Economica" blog, we reiterate its important (and severely underreported) message: Global productive population levels in developed nations are falling fast and will continue to do so. This most basic of demographic shifts highlights a huge problem: In the future, who will drive all the economic consumption we've already banked on by spending debt today?

Welcome back to the heyday of zero-earnings companies with billion-dollar valuations...'Present Situation' sentiment is again wildly out of line with fundamentals and intrinsically wrong. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence hit its highest level since March 2001, as short-term junk-policy Kool-Aid drinkers rejoice en masse.

The latest international gold find to hit the headlines comes to you from the remote Tarbagatai mountains of Kazakhstan. Bury it, melt it, freeze it, sink it to the bottom of the ocean for a thousand years: gold is indestructible and relentless in its ability to protect value over any amount of time.

A short-term, Independence Day-driven patriotic blip on the radar or an indicator that gold's recent price decline is starting to spur bargain-hunting physical demand?

Until pensions and their retiree participants alike face the reality that they're not going to get nearly what they were initially promised, this garish carnival of broken math will only grow more warped and absurd over time. And the days of being able to default to head-in-sand as coping strategy, on both sides of the table, are drawing to a close.

The stock market looks like it's topping here, and with it begins a joyous era for gold investors as Stewart explains in this timely update...

Does gold still matter?
A lot of people dismiss gold and precious metals as irrelevant to the world monetary system. But how can money be irrelevant?
Liechtenstein-based Incrementum AG managing partner Ronald-Peter Stöferle joined Mises Institute president Jeff Deist to talk about all things gold, including why it is still money and an important part of the global financial system. 

Gold has had a tough few months. A dollar rally and rising interest rates have weighed on the yellow metal, driving the price down nearly 8% over the last three months. But as Mike Maharrey pointed out on last week's Friday Gold Wrap podcast, gold is on sale right now and that means a buying opportunity. Smart shoppers shop sales. Now may the be the perfect time to buy gold.
Mike isn't the only one who sees opportunity in the gold market right now.  Some people in the mainstream see it too. In fact, a CNBC Trading Nations headline yesterday declared that even though gold is having an "ugly year," it has led investors to a buying opportunity.

It's news events like these typically seen at major bottoms that are exactly what we want to see if gold is to start a major rally. Here's the details...

UK outsourcing giant Carillion, which once employed over 43,000 people, collapsed when it was revealed to have hidden debt via an obscure loophole known as "reverse factoring", which allowed the now-bankrupt behemoth to disguise bank-owed debt as far-more-benign-looking accounts payable.

Read all about why the day may be coming where the price of real estate is measured in ounces of gold or ounces of silver. Our own analyst Jeff Clark explains.

Access to cash, both in the US and worldwide, is more limited than it was a decade ago. A decade from now, cash itself may be viewed as a strange, dirty, expensive anachronism of another age. So what? Who cares? If you value one of the last bastions of privacy over which you can exercise a fair amount of meaningful control, you should.

Yet another real-world data point that flies in the face of the ongoing government narrative that everyone is just doing so great, thank you very much.

Steve explains how production costs are up, free cash flow is down, and so is gold production. Here's what it means for the industry...