Japan inflation... It's going to get ugly

In Japan, the really heavy inflation is just beginning. Aiding in this is the appointment of a quite 'liberal' central bank governor, where we can expect Keynesian 'solutions' involving even faster inflation.

According to the 70s, the gold market is just about to get really exciting

There is a historical indication that the bull market in gold, as phenomenal as it has performed in the first decade of the 2000s, is just about to really take off. We have the 1970s, the time of Nixon policies breaking down Bretton-Woods at last, and an oil and price crisis, as a guide.

Drones and economic freedom

The subject of drones made it to the mainstream sometime last year, and today they are a source of fascination, as well as of disagreement. This 'future technology' is so new to us that we don't quite know what place it ought to have in our lives. 

US GDP in the negative, no recovery

US GDP for the fourth quarter of 2012 was at -0.1%. So much for the recovery as announced by the bureaucrats. Whatever 'solutions' the world powers used to address the crisis have not worked. Recovery, indeed, was an illusion.

Although, may I add that I do not quite agree or believe that GDP is a good indicator of a healthy economy. Where all a government has to do is spend tenfold and the country is sufficiently stimulated. Spending is treated as though it itself, and not previous saving and production, make for a country's increase in wealth.

So the GDP is not an adequate measure of economic performance. What can we make then of this news? The point is, that even with the establishment's rules, such as of the error of mistaking spending as wealth-growing, policy looks like it has been a failure.

I would hold more gold if I were you. 

Weak China Growth: No One Is Spared

China's economy is no doubt experiencing a slowdown. As much as it has been suspected that the second largest economy's official statistics are fudged to look more favorable, things are getting to the point that it could not be hidden that growth is at a 13-year low.

What does this mean? The way I see it, our problems go beyond scams perpetrated in the US and Europe. Their problems are not isolated or region-specific. And just as the West started showing signs of a slowdown about five years back, China is going through the same thing, and is going to see worse things a few years down the road. And for much the same reason: credit expanded beyond actual savings, creating booms in the short term and busts later on.

The Telegraph article sees an uptick for China this coming 2013, and indeed, there is some genuine growth going on in the country. But this has to do more with actual savings, and not loose lending. And perhaps things have not become so bad yet in China for a currency crisis and an outright depression to occur. But whether it's five years or 20 years later, nothing good can be accomplished by maintaining the status quo of below-market-cheap credit.

CombiBars - The Future of Gold Trading?

combibar.com

Have you seen the Valcambi CombiBars available in 50 grams for gold? The innovative thing about it is that each gram is separable just like paper or cardboard with perforated edges. And the grams can be removed with ease and no loss of material.

Bond King Bill Gross sees Bond Bubble

PIMCO's Bill Gross, in spite of having made a name for himself in bond trading, bet huge against US Treasuries in 2011. Unfortunately for him, Treasury yields managed to remain low and overall demand remained high, on account of massive bond buying by the US Federal Reserve. Nowadays, Gross is still of the same mind, but with the added knowledge that the Fed is going to continue doing what it's doing. The bond bubble will go on in 2013.