Precious Metals

For years, a rather pointless argument has been ongoing amongst economists - that of inflation vs. deflation.

Have you noticed that things have gotten eerily quiet in the month of October? For those that don’t want to believe that hard times are on the way, they can take comfort in the eerie period of calm that we are experiencing right now. What they don’t realize is that this truly is “the calm before the storm”, and the global economic crisis that is ahead of us is going to be far beyond what most people ever dared to imagine was possible.

Two biggest move overnight came from everyone's favorite carry pair, the USDJPY, which may have finally read what we said yesterday, namely that with the Fed and ECB both doing its job, there is little need for the Bank of Japan to repeat its Halloween massacre for the second year in a row, and as a result will keep its QQE program unchanged. It promptly tumbled from its 121 tractor level, to just above 120.25, where BOJ bids were said to be found. With the FOMC October meeting starting today, the other overnight catalyst was not surprisingly the latest Hilsenrath scribe in which he removed any uncertainty about a Wednesday hike, "leaving mid-December as the central bank’s last chance to raise rates this year."

"What do we do as a business so that we would be prepared when the next crash happens. One thing that we do that is fairly unique: we have about $10 million in gold, mostly the small button-sized coins, that we keep outside of the banking system. We expect that when there is a financial crisis there will be a banking holiday. I don't know if it will be 2 days, or 2 weeks, or 2 months. We also happen to have three months of food supply for every employee that we can live on."

Since China devalued the Yuan and surprised the world's carry traders (and central planners) by stirring up FX volatility, the demand for 'paper' gold has begun converging to the demand for physical precious metals. Gold prices are now up over $100 since August 10th, but it is another (easier to 'transport') alternative currency that has soared. Bitcoin has spike post-China-devaluation (since dipping on 'governance' concerns), accelerating from under $200 to almost $300 today, and up 25% since our September 2 explanation why China's capital account crackdown is "great news" for bitcoin.

Butler believes that since the end of the Bretton Woods monetary system, there is a strong case for having higher allocations to physical gold. He warns of the risk inherent in gold ETFs due to the levels of legal indemnifications.

Consumer debt culture has completely and utterly taken over the West.

That's not supposed to happen...

The ‘money’ in your account doesn’t even really exist. There’s just enough of a thin layer of confidence in the system (at the moment) that this is a widely accepted practice. It seems rather strange when you think about it. Though for thousands of years, early civilizations had some pretty wild ideas about money. There are examples from history of our ancestors using everything from animals skins, to salt, to giant stones, as their form of ‘money’. Though we suppose these weren’t any more ridiculous than our version of money - pieces of paper that don’t even really exist, controlled by unelected central bankers.

Gold can be useful as a hedge against inflation but it's been consistently so only in the long run.

After yesterday's dramatic late day market rout catalyzed by the tumble in the biotech sector in general, and Valeant in particular, and foreseen in its entirety by Gartman who went bullish just hours before, this morning US equity futures and European stocks have recouped some losses on the recursive, and traditional, hope that Mario Draghi will say something to push risk higher when he speaks in 2 hours at the ECB's press conference in Malta. And yet, just like Yellen a month ago, Draghi faces the paradox of reflexivity that after years of being ignored, is the "new thing" in town: how does he intervene and demonstrate he is readier than ever to set up stimulus, without panicking investors over euro area’s health.

If you’re sophisticated and have a bit of luck, you could end holding your gold exposure at zero or even make a profit.

Anecdotal evidence from press reports, survey data and positioning data all agree on one point: very few people believe that the recent rally could actually be for real. With a pullback underway, we now have a chance to judge its nature – this should soon tell us if the recent rally was just another fluke or if it retains the potential to become a more sustained advance.

The weaker US dollar, the probability of near-zero interest rates for the remainder of the year and a seasonal increase in demand is underpinning the positive potential for gold.