munKNEE.com Your Key to Making Money
“Follow the munKNEE” via twitter & Facebook or Register to receive our daily Intelligence Report
[We read over and over again that] because of the massive amounts of
money the Feds are injecting into the USA economy through quantitative easing, inflation is going to spike any day now, and the dollar is going to crash and, with that, gold will go to the moon – but it is not happening. It must be frustrating for gold investors. It is likely also puzzling to them. In this article I will try to explain why the U.S. dollar is not likely to crash anytime soon, and hopes of a gold spike in dollar-denominated terms are just that, hopes. Words: 730
This article is presented compliments of www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com (A site for sore eyes and inquisitive minds) and www.munKNEE.com (Your Key to Making Money!) and may have been edited ([ ]), abridged (…) and/or reformatted (some sub-titles and bold/italics emphases) for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. Please note that this paragraph must be included in any article re-posting to avoid copyright infringement.
There is little inflation in the USA because, [while]…the money supply is indeed growing from QEternity, the money is not exactly changing hands in transactions and chasing goods and services. Increased transactions is what drives inflation, so lower velocity of money leading to lower transactions is suppressing inflation, even in the face of rising money supply. For more details on the velocity of money and its impact on inflation, please read my article on why hyper-inflation is a myth.
Inflation is not the only thing that drives currencies, however. The U.S. dollar may still crash against other major currencies if the exchange rates are not aligned with the core value of the two currencies in question. One way to measure it is using Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) which is an economic theory and technique used to determine the relative value of currencies, estimating the amount of adjustment needed on the exchange rate between countries in order for the exchange to be equivalent to (or on par with) each currency’s purchasing power. It asks how much money would be needed to purchase the same goods and services in two countries, and uses that to calculate an implicit foreign exchange rate. One whimsical, but popular way to measure PPP is the Big Mac Index…. [Read: The Big Mac Index Reveals the REAL Facts On U.S. Inflation!]
For the U.S. dollar to crash against another currency, the currency has to be undervalued with respect to the dollar. It would also help if the currency that the dollar would crash against is a major world currency, so that it can actually absorb all the dollar outflows. The natural candidates are the euro and the yen – any other currency is simply not in the same league as the dollar when it comes to market size and liquidity. Yet, as the Big Mac Index shows, the euro is already overvalued against the dollar, and while the yen is still a bit undervalued, it is unlikely that the Bank of Japan will let the yen rise, given that the country is betting on a weak yen to recover from its own recession.
The Big Mac Index is not exactly what solid economic analysis is based on… [but a look at] the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) numbers [below show that] a basket of goods and services costing $100 in the USA would cost about 15% more in France and 8% more in Germany, which means the euro needs to come down by 8-15% for Purchasing Power Parity to be reached. According to the table below, France, Germany, and Japan, have currencies that are overvalued with respect to the U.S. dollar [suggesting that] the euro and the yen should weaken against the dollar instead of the dollar crashing against either of the two.
| Country | Price Level |
| France | 115 |
| Germany | 108 |
| Japan | 141 |
| United States | 100 |
Also, there is a real quantitative easing going on out there in all the major countries. All these countries are trying to work their way out of the global recession by increasing money supply. Rumor is that the G-7 nations are soon going to come out with a coordinated statement stating that all of the G-7 nations will start to pump money into their respective economies, and not cause respective currencies to crash against each other [thereby averting any suggestion of a so-called currency war. Read: Is the First of Many Currency Crises Just Now Unfolding? Are Gold & Silver About to Take Off As a Result?]
Bottom line, chances are bleak that the dollar is going to crash anytime soon. This is not good news for gold bulls, of course, as inflation is not in the horizon either.
What does this mean for your investment thesis for the rest of 2013, dear reader? Well, my projection for gold prices in 2013 remains unchanged, that shorting gold — especially via the miners…remains the play for 2013. I think the miners are really setting up to be perma shorts with falling gold prices and rising mining costs.
Editor’s Note: The author’s views and conclusions are unaltered and no personal comments have been included to maintain the integrity of the original article. Furthermore, the views, conclusions and any recommendations offered in this article are not to be construed as an endorsement of such by the editor.
*http://seekingalpha.com/article/1175981-the-rumors-of-a-dollar-crash-and-gold-spike-have-been-greatly-exaggerated
Register HERE for Your Daily Intelligence Report Newsletter
It’s FREE
The “best of the best” financial, economic and investment articles
An “edited excerpts” format to provide brevity & clarity for a fast & easy read
Don’t waste time searching for informative articles. We do it for you!
Register HERE and automatically receive every article posted
“Follow Us” on twitter & “Like Us” on Facebook
Related Articles:
1. The Big Mac Index Reveals the REAL Facts On U.S. Inflation!
A look at the trend in prices of the Big Mac clearly shows that investors are being penalized with higher inflation, lower income from bonds and certificates of deposit and being led to believe that the economy is growing better than it really is. [Let me explain.] Words: 1012; Charts: 2
I expect the eventual endgame to this whole Keynesian monetary experiment that has been going on ever since World War II [will] finally terminate in a global currency crisis. [That being said,] I’m starting to wonder if we aren’t seeing the first domino – the Japanese yen – start to topple…[It has] cut through not only the 2012 yearly cycle low, but also the 2011 yearly cycle low and never even blinked [and should it continue its steep decline] and break through the 2010 yearly cycle low [of 105.66] I think we have a serious currency crisis on our hands. Needless to say, if the world sees a major currency collapse… it’s going to spark a panic for protection – to gold and silver. Wouldn’t it be fitting that at a time when they are completely loathed by the market they are about to become most cherished? [This article analyzes the situation supported by 3 charts to make for a very interesting read.] Words: 620; Charts: 3