Comparing the gold or silver price to another assets is a great way to create an understanding of the true value [of each]. The long term charts [below] indicate that this bull market is very strong; the fundamentals keep on strengthening by the day, week, month, year....The wise lesson you can draw from these charts: the trend is your friend.

Today, I'm dishing on the unbelievable rebound in residential real estate, pesky rumors about the dollar's demise and a resurgent U.S. stock market. So let's get to it.

Commodity prices including those of...[gold and silver] tend to go through super-cycles...[which] last for many years. [Below is a review of the history of such cycles and the length of each. Where are we now in each? When will they go "boom"? When will they go "bust"? Let's take a look.] Words: 165; Charts: 1; Tables: 3

So many headlines are saying “$5,000 Gold; $10,000 Gold; Silver, The Investment of the Decade,” etc, etc, etc. Will that happen? A history of failed fiat currencies says "yes". When will it happen? That is the question few articles address because they simply have no clue, beyond their sensationalized headlines. Who can best answer that question? It is not "who can", but "what can", and that comes from the market itself - ever the most reliable source. The answers may not always satisfy, but the market is never wrong [and this is what the market is saying]. Words: 590

The Economic Straight Talk Newsletter gives you balanced views and contextual comments that save you time. The newsletter's objective is to help you keep up to date, gain new ideas, better trade and invest, better communicate with your investment advisor if you have one, and importantly make your own ‘penny drop’. Take a look.

For those who haven’t yet grasped the uselessness of government policy, please read Charles Hugh Smith’s simple fourteen point explanation below. It details the steps government has taken, why they are failing, why the middle and poorer classes must get poorer and suggests that we are close to the end of the Ponzi scheme that has provided the myth that our economy has been strong for the last couple of decades.

The economy is heading for unprecedented volatility between rampant inflation and deflation courtesy of Ben Bernanke’s sponsorship of the $7 trillion increase in new Federal debt since 2008. Investors need to plan now while they still have time before the economic chaos begins.

If similarities between the 5 major spikes in the price of gold since 2001 were applied to the 5th price spike (August, 2011) going forward it would not be unreasonable to expect a spike to $2,600 in June or July of this year and another spike - to somewhere between $4,700 and $5,050 - in January/February of 2015.

It’s that time again. The Dow surpassed its all-time high and the S&P 500 is not that far from the tops of 1553 on March 24, 2000 and 1576 on October 9, 2007. Just as in 2000 and 2007, the economic, valuation and political background does not support the budding euphoria. [Let us explain precisely why that is the case.] Words: 680

The euphoria, New Year’s Eve at the Big Casino, continues but the price will be high when it all ends and it will end because it is not this or that asset class that is in a bubble but the entire world that is a giant soap bubble that will float until the heat of the sun pops the thing in one ugly mess. I fear that subprime loans, dot.com fantasies, and the S&L crisis will pale when we are done with this party because, my friends, the bill for the festivities must get paid.