Goodness me! That a post of mine a year old should be brought out to haunt me.... Still, one must accept responsibility for what one has released onto the ether (as the Prof once said to me when our son was born)... perhaps it was under the ether... who can remember...
As you no doubt have realised if you have perused my posts and those of my good friend Chuck (who sometimes lets his emotions rule his head) I am a bit of a gold fan. I'm a bit too old these days to go in for piercings like the young gels do but if I were a few years younger I would consider wearing gold rings through portions of my anatomy.
You pose some interesting questions:
(a) what actually was supposed to be the gist of it?
Surely the gist is clear enough. The writer was claiming an inflationary environment and making the case for a rise in POG commensurate with inflation for which there is ample historical precedent. This, against a background of a failing $US. Similar cases have been put in cut and pastes ad nauseam here on HC for yonks (to use what I regard as rather a crude expression).
(b) if there was a prediction it it, did it attain fulfillment?
Ah...now there's a question... are we having inflation, deflation, stagflation or degustation..?(Oops sorry about that last one it's getting close to lunch time). The jury is still out on that though I've seen arguments that we are having all three of these concurrently depending upon which sector of the economy you look at.
(c) does any of it still apply today?
I think the answer must be yes more so than ever and here is the greatest unknown. I'm still a gold fan and hold a number of gold stocks but I have stopped buying additional gold shares. Why? because the gold market being such a small one in relative terms is manifestly easy to manipulate. Who knows how long it will take for the clock spring of the US economy to wind down? It looks like a wounded elephant (to mix a metaphor) and such animals can sometimes take a very long time to die. I think it will happen but who knows when? Meanwhile the market presents all sorts of other opportunities for those with the free cash to play.
As Richard Russell says, gold is insurance and as the Prof used to say "Insurance is a rip off". I'm sure there's a message for us all in that...
Amory, I see you are a man who likes words. Perhaps in another life we could have written some beautiful words together...
