Tag Archives: 6a) Gold & Bitcoin

Interview with Robert Mark: Claudio Grass (CG): In this surreal policy environment, how has the role and the investment process of the value investor evolved, especially over the last decade?  How can one still identify value in a world of subsidized binge borrowing, extreme indebtedness, and stock buybacks?  Robert Mark (RM): The patriarch of value investing, Ben Graham, once said, “In the short run the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it is a...

A few days ago, we wrote about a big silver crash. The price dropped around 7.5%. And the basis dropped from around 2% to 0.6%. At the end, we said: “The key question is: what is the follow-through? If the price stays down and the basis goes back up, that will be a bearish signal. If the basis stays down, that means the silver market is markedly tighter at $24.50 than it was at $26.75.” Which this brings us to yesterday’s silver dive. Here’s the graph of the day’s...

Interview with Robert Mark As we move deeper and deeper into this covid crisis, more and more people understand that there’s a lot more to fear besides the disease itself. As the economic impact and the full scale of the damage caused by the lockdowns and the shutdowns become undeniable, there are too many questions lacking any sort of convincing answer and the future for so many employees, business owners, investors and ordinary savers seems bleak and uncertain....

The blockchain sector started in Zug’s Crypto Valley (represented here with a chart of companies), but has spread to other areas of Switzerland. © Keystone / Urs Flueeler The Swiss blockchain industry appears to be in rude health despite the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The number of new companies and jobs produced by the sector increased in the first six months of the year. Is this trend set to last? The number of Crypto Nation (including...

Since it’s sell-off from it’s early August high, gold has been stuck in an ever decreasing range. Having had a remarkable rally to an intra-day high of $2,078 on the 7th of August Gold has traded sideways and consolidated. This has been viewed by many market commentators as a healthy pause in gold’s bull rally as when markets go parabolic they tend to retrace just as fast. The underlying rationale for owning gold has not change over the last month and some would say...

Simply buying bitcoin does not require a law change but legislation needs to keep up with a host of blockchain developments in finance and the way companies operate. © Keystone / Christian Beutler Bitcoin used to be something of a dirty word, associated with crime and money laundering. Switzerland has now amended its legal code to welcome cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology into the mainstream. Parliamentarians in the Senate rapidly passed a wide-ranging set...

Interview with Theodore Deden Claudio Grass (CG): Looking at the damage inflicted upon supply chains, production facilities and global trade in particular, how quickly could these operations snap back even if all COVID-related restrictions were lifted tomorrow? Do you think we’ll eventually get back to business as usual, or have we now experienced a permanent shift to a “new normal”? Theodore Deden (TD): Forget about the legal COVID-related restrictions. If it were...

A small section of La Pampa region in Peru being replanted after illegal miners deforested large swaths of the rainforest. Paula Dupraz-Dobias The boom in gold prices during the Covid-19 pandemic has kept Swiss refineries in business but has also boosted illegal mining, imperiling lives and the environment. Increased demand for the safe-haven metal has led gold prices to fluctuate in recent weeks around their highest levels since 2011. Mark Haefele, Chief...

The bet between Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich shows a fatal flaw in how most people think about inflation. Are you familiar with the bet? Ehrlich wrote a book titled The Population Bomb. He held a pessimistic view of the future, in which population growth would outstrip resources (essentially the same as Thomas Malthus). Simon disagreed. So in 1980, they made a famous bet. Ehrlich thought that the real cost of commodities would be higher in 10 years. Simon said they...

◆ Central Banks Are “Gold’s Greatest Ally” and They Will Push Gold Prices Much Higher Jim Rickards holds gold bar in Zurich vault You’re likely aware of the price action in gold lately. Gold has rallied from $1,591 per ounce on April 1 to $1,782 per ounce as of today. That’s a 12% gain in less than three months. My earlier forecast was that gold would hit $1,776 by the Fourth of July. I guess I was a bit early! Today’s price of $1,782 per ounce is the highest since...