Gold

Maybe that pesky "Global Warming " is a good thing.

"One culprit in December's disappointing jobs report was the unusually cold weather during the week that the Bureau of Labor Statistics did its counting." Phil Izzo, WSJ 1/9/09 

The next one is sort of new. The comment up until now has been that the Chinese are fed up and are looking at replacing the dollar as the world's reserve currency with a basket of currencies that includes Gold.

The fact that this quote comes out of the editorial section of the Wall Street Journal is pretty big.

Indeed, gold is viewed by central banks the world over as a unique reserve asset. Contrary to monetary assets denominated in national currencies, its status cannot be undermined by inflation in the issuing country, nor is it subject to repudiation or default.

Which suggests that perhaps it is time to make available to the American public the sort of insurance against dollar depreciation that monetary authorities have long sought for their own portfolios. For those citizens who've become skeptical of the Fed's ability to guarantee price stability in terms more meaningful than elementary CPI statistics—or who believe the bigger threat to their personal financial security lies in a potential repeat of the last debacle — why not provide a new class of Treasury obligations that would guarantee purchasing power of the dollar in terms of Gold?  Judy Shelton, WSJ 1/8/09

Two Thousand Billion?

That's Two Trillion

A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

In the last decade gold has gained 292% against the US$, 181% against the Euro, 249% against the JY, 298% against the BP, 179% against the C$, and 182% against the A$

An ounce of gold today buys 62 ounces of silver.  Historically, it is 1:15.

The first two charts are from articles written in 2008.

Click the chart, go to the article. 

This one is pretty simple, if the dow is at 10400 and gold is at 1120, the ratio is 10,400/1120= 9.2875

We've had highs around 42, and lows near 1.

This one is short and sweet, if you're short on time, click below.

There are quite a few sites referencing this chart with everything from embedded interviews with Professor Shiller who developed the chart to third party analyses.

I link my favorite here because the writer uses the phrase "Congressional Moron" repeatedly

I've been reading Adam Hamilton's Zeal Essays almost from the beginning of this fine site.

The charts can be a struggle in the beginning for anyone not using mathematics, or charting on a daily basis.

But, Zeal consistently offers clear language in explaining both their ideas and their charts.

Clicking on the chart will take you to the essay from which it was taken.

Clicking on this here set of gears  will take you to Zeal's index.

Highly recommended.

Were the US Dollar on the gold standard,

Gold would be priced at $7,648 an ounce in order to fully back all US dollars in circulation.

$ 2 trillion US monetary base divided by 261.5 million ounces official US gold holdings.