Wednesday Miscellany
Miss the Gold Rush?
Gold was at $300 just eight years ago. Now it’s at $1,050. Silver was at $8 and now it’s at $18. You feel like you missed out on all the fun? Maybe you did, but maybe you didn’t. Bloomberg breaks down different viewpoints about gold.
Here are “gold has a long ways to go” passages:
Gold would need to rise more than sixfold to top the 1980 record, using a more accurate inflation-adjustment, said John Williams, an economist and the editor of Berkeley, California- based Shadowstats.com. He said the government has understated the cost of living over the past two decades with adjustments in the way it measures the basket of goods and services monitored by the U.S. consumer price index, or CPI.
Gold futures for December delivery closed Oct. 16 at $1,051.50 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division, gaining for a third straight week.
“If the methodologies of measuring inflation in 1980 had been kept intact, gold would have to hit $7,150 to be the equivalent of the 1980 record,” Williams said.
* * *
Gold and the Dow, which has gained 14 percent this year to 9,995.91, were at about the same level during the Great Depression and the early 1980s, he said. On Jan. 21, 1980, as gold futures surged to $873, the Dow slipped to 946.25.
“The dollar is constantly being debased and inflated,” Turk said. “By 2013, gold is going to be at $8,000 and the Dow will be at 8,000.”
Here’s the less-than-enthusiastic take:
Fed moves to cool inflation and the government’s revenue needs will stop gold, according to Jon Nadler, a senior analyst for Montreal metals dealer and refiner Kitco Inc.
“These wild calls for several-thousand-dollar gold are typical of times when gold goes into uncharted territory,” Nadler said. “The Fed will pull the interest-rate trigger and the Obama administration will, in addition, pull the tax-hike trigger before we get into any serious inflation. Once the man on the street gets in, the gold rally is likely over.”
Beats me. Both forecasts sound plausible. You can make your own call.
Survivalist Mode
Looking for food that lasts for decades and will serve you well during a crisis? Maybe you should buy some Pemmican. I’d never heard of it until last night. Anybody know how nasty it tastes? It’s lean beef, beef tallow, and sometimes berries mixed together in a one to one ratio of beef and fat. Sounds interesting, maybe even scary. I’d love to hear from somebody who has tasted it.
Received in an Email
During a recent password audit, it was found that a blonde was using the
following password:
MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofy
When asked why such a big password, she said, “I was told it had to be at least eight characters long.”
Reader Suggestions
So far, reader comments (solicited on Monday) have requested more economics, more drinking, more Catholicism, and more cartoons (interesting slant, that, but easy enough to accommodate, I suppose, as long as I’m not required to draw them myself). I’m open to more suggestions/votes.
For now, this animated cartoon, which brings back memories of singing this song with my older brother and a pair of bongos after a long night of drinking . . . to an amused audience that was equally crapulous:
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October 22nd, 2009 at 8:04 pm
LOVED Running Bear!!
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:42 am
Thanks. Nice little song.