Axel Merk
Merk Hard Currency Fund
To print or not to print? Odds are that Fed Chairman Bernanke has been contemplating this question while drafting his upcoming Jackson Hole speech. The one good thing about policy makers worldwide is that they may be fairly predictable. As such, we present our crystal ball as to what the Fed might be up to next, and what the implications may be for the U.S. dollar and gold.
A friend tells me that the soft-money advocates will always argue something along the lines of: “What if the financial crisis of 2008 had happened and we were on a gold standard?” They imply that a gold standard system would have made the crisis much worse.
Times are now so tough that Valerio Novelli, a ticket inspector on Rome’s buses, is planning to sell his old gold teeth. “I can’t get to the end of the month without running up debts,” said Mr. Novelli, 56, who has to support an ex-wife and daughter. “I know I won’t get much, but I need the money.”
What would it take to break the gold price out of the $1,600 to $1,700 an ounce range in which it has been trading for the past year? Another massive blast of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve? A final breakdown of the euro? A war between Israel and Iran? They are all possibilities, of course. But the most likely candidate is a serious debate about a return to some form of the gold standard.
Gold is poised to climb the most in two years as prospects for additional economic stimulus by governments from the U.S. to China stoke demand for the precious metal as a bet against inflation, a survey showed.
On August 2, at the invitation of chairman Ron Paul, I spoke on a panel before the House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy. The topic was “Sound Money: Parallel Currencies and the Roadmap to Monetary Freedom.
The gold standard has returned to mainstream U.S. politics for the first time in 30 years, with a “gold commission” set to become part of official Republican party policy.
Vice President Joe Biden was accused of racism when suggesting a Romney administration would “unchain banks” that in turn might put the black audience he was talking to back into “shackles.” The political uproar overshadows a reality that knows no racial boundaries: a person in debt is not a free person; a nation in debt is not a free nation. Does it mean those with large bank accounts are free? Not so fast…
There's good reason to be both optimistic and cautious as we ring in the New Year. Four economic indicators, eight opinions: Are you a bull or a bear?
