The Canadian ratio of debt to income hit 163.4% in the second quarter, up from 161.7% at the end of last year, according to figures released Monday by Statistics Canada. That’s the highest ratio of debt to income ever recorded in Canada, and more inflated than the levels witnessed in the U.S. and Britain before their housing market collapses in the mid-2000s. Words: 625

Many investors are treating inflation as a certainty because the Fed has expanded its balance sheet to unheard of levels through its quantitative easing strategy. Some have even gone so far as to say that this program will utterly destroy the U.S. currency. To demystify this conclusion, I’m going to explain quantitative easing and why the Fed is using this monetary strategy. Afterward, I’ll explain why gold is still positioned to rise even if inflation continues to be low. Words: 786

There are several variations of Long Wave theory, but the most famous is based on the work of Nicolai Kondratieff, a Russian economist who gave the various stages seasonal names, with summer and autumn denoting the peak of financial speculation and winter the aftermath of the resulting crash. The conditions for a global catastrophic failure are in place. Snow (in the form of trillions of new dollars and euros) is falling. There’s no way to know which dollar (or which external event) will start the avalanche, but without doubt something will. [Let me expand on why I hold that view.] Words: 888

In order to argue that we will not see a sharp slowdown in Chinese growth, it is not enough to claim that a) some expert or institution has predicted that Chinese growth will not slowdown, b)that China has enough savings in its coffers to bail itself out of a crisis or c) that Beijing leaders cannot tolerate growth below 8%, so of course growth will not drop below 8%. As greater evidence for the bear camp surfaces, China bulls need stronger justifications for their positions or risk losing credibility. [In fact, they need precise answers to 3 questions put forth in this lengthy but extremely insightful (dare I say, absolute best, article on the China sydrome to have ever been written!) article. Words: 4130

When it comes to investing in gold, investors often see the world in black and white. Some people have a deep, almost religious conviction that gold is a useless, barbarous relic with no yield and an asset no rational investor would ever want. Others love it, seeing it as the only asset that can offer protection from the coming financial catastrophe, which is always just around the corner. Our views are more nuanced and, we believe, provide a balanced framework for assessing value. Our bottom line: given current valuations and central bank policies, we see gold as a compelling inflation hedge and store of value that is potentially superior to fiat currencies. [Here are the details of our analyses.] Words: 1316

Price is determined by demand and supply and, going forward, demand for gold may continue to rise, while supply will remain constrained as it has since the beginning of time. With this backdrop, let’s explore some specific reasons investors may consider buying gold at today’s prices. Words: 1315

The closing of the gold window back in August 1971 has led governments worldwide to create endless amounts of worthless paper money and the resulting credit bubble has created a world debt exposure of over US$ 1 quadrillion (including derivatives). It has also created perceived wealth for big parts of the world's population - a wealth which is only backed by promises to pay and by grossly inflated assets. Few people realise that this wealth is totally illusory and will implode considerably faster than the time it took to create it. [Let me explain.] Words: 890

The Fed professes that QE 3 or as I call it, QE Infinity (QEI), will create jobs but I am not sure how they can expect anybody to buy their rationale. As we know, QE 1 and QE 2 did very little in the way of creating jobs. Might the Fed realize that QE Infinity could actually be counter-productive to economic growth?

In an environment of ultra expansionary monetary policies...the long-term trend for gold is higher and as inflation surges, gold will go ballistic resulting in the Dow-Gold ratio touching one. [Let me explain why that will indeed be the case.] Words: 760

The latest round of quantitative easing (an additional $40 billion a month until conditions improve) has been dubbed as "QEternity" or "QE-Infinity" by its critics but it will end much before that. We are witnessing a massive bubble in US government debt, and we've reached the point where no one in charge believes it will ever end - an excellent contra-indicator. [Let me explain.] Words: 720