I’m starting to believe that we’re heading down a path where precious metals are once again confiscated, outlawed, or at least severely restricted in many countries. [Here's how I think such might well unfold.] Words: 783

Saving rates continue to fall. As full-time employment remains elusive, the average American continues to resort to debt, and governmental support, to fill the gap between waning real incomes and their expected standard of living....[This] will continue to impede economic growth until such time as either debt returns to levels that are conducive for higher levels of personal savings or incomes rise. [Words: 1322; Charts: 7]

Gold’s loss of momentum in the past months has predictably brought out calls to short gold. [This article offers] a brief guide to whether you should consider or ignore these [suggestions]. Words: 1184; Charts: 1

[While] the price of gold has gone up for 12 straight years, and is on pace to make it 13 when this year comes to a close, it seems that despite all of the gold bugs calling for the metal to surge to unbelievable highs, major financial institutions are calling for the gold bubble to finally burst in the coming months. [Let's examine what they and others have to say.] Words: 450

Goldman Sachs has been out with a number of reports in recent weeks highlighting their positioning for 2013. While it's important to keep in mind that these kinds of reports are no holy grail... it is always good for brain storming and, after all, it's not like Goldman Sachs is a bunch of dummies.

Although our supposed leaders are presumably highly intelligent, educated, and knowledgeable, they act largely “brain-dead” as they lead the United States down an unsustainable path that guarantees eventual catastrophic financial destruction. Do you own enough gold and silver that you would feel safe in a such a financial melt-down? If not, why not? Words: 817

Wall Street has been transformed into a gigantic casino where people are betting on just about anything that you can imagine. This works fine as long as there are not any wild swings in the economy and risk is managed with strict discipline but, as we have seen, there have been times when derivatives have caused massive problems in recent years - the government bailout because of derivatives at AIG; the failure of MF Global because of bad derivatives trades; and the 6 billion dollar loss that JPMorgan Chase recently suffered because of derivatives - [but the next] derivatives panic that comes will destroy global financial markets, and the economic fallout from the financial crash that will happen as a result will be absolutely horrific. [Let me explain my contention.] Words: 1485

Savers will not stand idly by and watch their savings get wiped out by taxes and inflation....[which] is good news for investors who buy and hold commodity assets today – and it’s also a stark reminder to not be fooled by the short-term head fakes that might make it look like the commodity bull is over. Stay the course – the biggest profits are yet to come. [Here's why.] Words: 405

At the end of the day the gold price is not a mystery – it's a proxy for dollar weakness. After spending the previous fall and winter testing new nominal highs above $1,800, future investors may come to view...2012 as the opportunity of the decade. Gold has shown its strength and retreated. While most investors will take that as a signal that the market has topped, some will take advantage of the general trepidation to add to their positions at hundreds of dollars off the highs. Words: 700

No matter how you look at it, the U.S. dollar is very weak - very close to its all-time lows. If the value of the dollar says anything about the world's confidence in the U.S. economy, the message is quite pessimistic. The only good thing to be said is that there is a lot of bad news that is priced into the dollar. It might be tough for things to get much worse. (Words: 1054; Charts: 7))