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As the dollar strengthens gold weakens & as the dollar falls, gold rises - .and it is my firm belief that the dollar is toast. If the dollar falls to the same magnitude which it has in previous interest rate cycles, we could see gold rally by 50%.

The Chinese government is [trying to]...transition the economy away from its reliance on manufacturing, which is shrinking, into a service economy [but is failing to accomplish this objective in spite of] a glorious debt-and-stimulus binge for the past few months. [Unfortunately,] these policies [may do nothing more than] add to the already insurmountable mountain of debt [of which] a good part is now going bad.

American balance of trade deficits will start to hurt and haunt the U.S. as the world migrates to a series of arrangements for trade beyond the USD (although the USD will continue to function as the lead foreign exchange/reserve and trade currency for sometime yet) and the introduction of an IMF-SDR basket of currencies.

If you routinely invest in gold while paying little attention to its less-expensive little brother, you might be missing out. Silver has performed very well in 2016—up about 20% and is expected to go much much higher over the short and long term for the following 3 reasons. Words: 412

It’s possible we could be on the verge of a perfect storm for gold. Supply is tight and growing tighter and, if pension funds (and other institutional investors) enter this market for any reason, demand could spike. In that scenario, Economics 101 says the price could be forced higher.

With inflation picking up but the Fed unable to hike because of the significant global volatility RBC speculates that there are now growing parallels to the 1970s when external pressures and fragile growth rates did not allow the Fed to hike. This was also notably a time of strong gold price appreciation. Could the gold price be repeating history?

The purpose of gold is to protect purchasing power and hedge against inflation but gold is not immune from speculative bubbles and overvaluation and when the price of gold is compared to the CPI index it is clearly evident that gold has become overvalued.

Before the U.S. dollar became the world's reserve currency that honor was held by Britain, then France, the Netherlands, Spain & Portugal and the U.S. dollar is no less susceptible to succumbing to the same change. In fact, many nations have been actively turning their back on the dollar over the past decade.

Then the next time you hear the word "trillion" used in relation to government debt, the financial markets or the latest corporate takeover price take a step back. Then think again about the foregoing comparators. Finally, think again about the economic, business and financial markets content you are hearing, reading or seeing and the humongous numbers that are being bandied about without context.

People are once again fleeing into gold, silver. They’re dumping the dollar and stocks, and they’re betting big on volatility and fear. The irony is, though, that there is no fear according to the “fear index” that speaks of “complacency”. This utter disregard for reality by stock and bond investors, who now no longer feel the need to be compensated for the risks they’re taking, except at the very riskiest end of the scale, is one of the greatest accomplishments of central banks, and at the same time one of the greatest risks out there.