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The next time you spend your cash, take a moment to reflect on the history of the bill or coin in your hand as depicted in today’s infographic illustrating 33 fascinating facts about U.S. currency (notes and coins).

While the correlation between bonds and stocks tends to increase during economic turmoil, gold usually becomes negatively correlated with other asset classes in such times. This means that the diversification benefits of gold are maintained and may even increase in during severe crises. Let me explain further and provide some caveats.

Instead of obsessing over the timing of eventual interest rate hikes to contain inflation, it may be more useful observing the slope of the yield curve to see where the economy and the stock market are headed.

Here are ten basic gold-market realities that are either unknown or ignored by many gold ‘experts’.

Qatar, Luxembourg and Singapore are the three richest countries in the world. HERE's a list of the top 23 such countries.

Predictions that a crash will occur in the fall of 2015 have been gaining traction bolstered by market events of this summer which suggest that something big is indeed unfolding....The question before investors now is whether the pessimists will be right. Will the doom-and-gloom scenarios play out? Their arguments are worth considering, keeping in mind that nobody knows the future and that market forecasts are, at best, educated guesses. Read on!

The price of silver is significantly disconnected from its underlying fundamentals and, as such, is undervalued due to the actions of a handful of large speculators in the futures markets. This article identifies 3 such specific examples of such action.

Gold is in a tough situation right now. It is an enigma and it is suffering from an identity crisis. It does not know whether it wants to be a commodity or a currency...sometimes its price reflects its position as a commodity and other times as a currency. These days gold is struggling with both these roles...and when it decides what it wants to be there will be a price adjustment. I believe that adjustment is coming soon and that it will take the price lower. Here's why.

The HUI Gold Bugs index has fallen twice as much as gold’s bear market loss of 43% but, looking at the charts, both are saying the lows may already be in.

1. Is gold a safe-haven or a hedge, and what is the difference between them? 2. What is gold supposed to be a safe-haven or a hedge in relation to? 3. Does gold protect investors from a stock market crash, bond market volatility, inflation, or a systemic crisis? 4. Do the safe-haven properties of gold depend on the country and the time horizon?