With regard to the sovereign debt situation and it's likely...

With regard to the sovereign debt situation and it's likely positive impact on gold and other 'real' assets, it is worth considering the amount of existing debt maturing across the world's worst ten debtor nations (ie Japan, USA, Italy, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands).

Of their total of US$31.3T of debt, 45% matures by the end of 2015 - which is not that far away!

Japan has 20% maturing this year (US$2.24T), as does the US (US$2.06T). And the 6 states of the EU combined have 12% maturing (US$854B).

It is 6% for the UK (US$102B) and 26% for Canada (US$162B).

In total, US$5.4T of sovereign debt is due to be repaid by the end of 2012 by just these 10 countries.

This begs the question 'how will it be financed'?

I would suggest that it is certainly unlikely to look attractive to foreign investors and Central Banks as buyers of last resort look the most probable with inevitable consequences with regards to even more paper 'money' creation.

Japan has already stated it is embarking on an extensive programme of quantative easing (QE), as has the ECB and the BoE. It just needs the US to join the unholy alliance and we have the full set!

But the problem does not disappear with 2012. 2013 has US$4.04T maturing. 2014 it is US$3.28T. 2015 it is 2.59T, and so on.

These are significant amounts of debt which look certain to ignite significant monetary inflation.

I don't know about you guys but as far as I am concerned the probability of higher PoG in US & GBP terms look very, very probable.
CPDLC