My last blog was ultimately about trust and that maybe the basis is telling us that there is still trust in the system. After writing it I remembered the presentation I made to the 2009 Gold Standard Institute seminar in Canberra. Below is the conclusion from that presentation, where I proposed four phases, or degrees [...]

My answers to FOFOA’s response.
I think an accurate definition of “paper” and “physical” is important to the accuracy of your statement: “I am reasonably confident that paper and physical are bound together.”
“Physical” to me means real physical gold that has been delivered in settlement. Anything else I deem “paper”. Note that my definition of physical [...]

FOFOA has hit me with a lot of questions in this comment. It is 11pm in Perth, so this will be brief, but they are interesting questions and I will cover off on them over the next few days.

When it comes to COMEX FOFOA, I also am a “conceptual thinker and a fundamental analyst-blogger”. This [...]

FOFOA started a little excitement with his post on backwardation. Professor Fekete responded and Zero Hedge weighed in as well.
I would not be surprised that for many this backwardation thing makes their head hurt and perceive it as all very theoretical and of no practical use. But this is not true and backwardation is a [...]

When allocating capital a successful method for increasing wealth is to buy cheap valuable assets and if you ever sell them then do so when the assets are expensive or very expensive. But how can one accurately perform mental calculations of value? I recommend using gold as the numeraire. This allows one to get a [...]

There are a lot of “why you should buy silver instead of gold” advocates out there, but this blog Why Investing In Gold Is An Illuminati Trap is, well, in a league of its own:
Welcome to The Patriots Cave, I am Joel the K. And yes, that is correct, the Illuminati wants you to waste [...]

Below is a doc with actual (approximate) sizes of the Perth Mint’s coins and bars. Consider that these coins and bars, which fit on an A3 page, are worth over $200,000. A great example of the “value density” of gold.
Perth Mint coin/bar sizes

I bookmarked this Seeking Alpha article from March this year Rare “Cardinal Climax” Planetary Alignment This Summer Puts Stocks at Risk, says Veteran Sky Watcher. To quote:
On August 1, give or take a week, we’ll have the most five-planet alignments in perhaps thousands of years. Known as the “Cardinal Climax,” this is the meanest, nastiest, [...]

Many of you will remember last year when we ask Dr. Doom, Nouriel Roubini to take a seat already!  As most of you know Dr. Doom is just that — a Doomster — a perma-pessimist.  Sadly (and mistakenly), because he is always calling for the worst, he is credited with correctly calling the credit crisis and the [...]

It is always good to get different perspectives on the markets. Bruce Edwards has worked in the refining game for many years, currently with Sabin Metal Corp. As a way of keeping in touch with his former and current clients he has a web site where he posts his Chart Mysticism on the markets.
He has [...]