National governments are fighting to squish the risk of collapse amongst their domestic savings and loans – the industry that now matters most – by pumping money into local banks and guaranteeing the security of cash savers.
October 2nd, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 8 comments | ContinuedArchive for Adrian Ash
City correspondent for The Daily Reckoning in London and formerly head of editorial at Fleet Street Publications Ltd, Adrian Ash has been studying and writing about the investment markets for the last 9 years. He is now head of research at BullionVault - giving you direct access to investment gold, vaulted in Zurich, on US$3 spreads and 0.8% dealing fees.
S&P 500 Index Total Return Was Actually Negative
What a difference a decade can make! Over the last 10 years of the 20th century, anyone buying and holding US stocks made a total return approaching 18% per year. Their initial stake, as a 2002 research paper noted, increased five times over. Now that’s real money! But roll forward ten years, and the total return on the S&P 500 was actually negative for the decade ending on 30th June 2008…
August 25th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 0 comments | Continued
Inflation and Deflation Battle is a Long Way from Won
The shooting match between inflation and deflation remains far from finished today. Which ‘flation will win - inflation and soaring prices…or deflation and a collapse in all things but cash? Richard Russell remarked way back in 2004 that a battle between inflation and deflation then lay ahead. Looks like they’re both re-arming today. Private investors fearing collateral damage might want to take cover. Gold bought near $800 an ounce might just provide some kind or armor.
August 22nd, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 1 comment | Continued
Gold Standard Doubles as the Greenspan Fed Makes Real Interest Rates Negative
“The reason there is [now] very little support for the gold standard is the consequences of those types of market adjustments are not considered to be appropriate in the 20th and 21st century. I am one of the rare people who have still some nostalgic view about the old gold standard, as you know, but I must tell you, I am in a very small minority among my colleagues on that issue.”
August 7th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 3 comments | Continued
Private Investors Can Make 230% of Emerging Asia’s Super-Soar-Away Gains
There’s no fee for investing in the bank’s new Asia ex-Japan Protected Growth Plan 5. (We guess here at BullionVault that means there are already four in issue.) And with the exception of a transfer charge of £100 plus VAT (approx. $230), “all other charges are taken into account in setting the terms offered,” says the brochure. Nor could you ask for better timing…
July 7th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 1 comment | Continued
Today’s Current Gold Price
Big institutional players in the New York futures market slashed their bullish betting on Gold in the week to June 10th. Data from the CFTC – the US regulator – shows a net reduction of 11% in the long gold positions held by what it calls “large speculators”. And this “reduction in the gross longs maybe a further sign that gold is losing its attraction,” reckon analysts at the Swiss banking and wealth management giant…
June 19th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 0 comments | Continued
Lull in Gold Price Shouldn’t Deter Bullion Buyers
A little less than 12 months ago, the world’s biggest financial players suddenly found they could not turn some $1.3 trillion of their assets into cash. These assets - bonds backed by US home-buyers with low (or no) incomes - had become utterly illiquid. No one would buy or lend against them, not at any price. And an asset you can’t sell or borrow against is worth precisely nothing. The resulting mayhem? It would have sounded frivolous two years ago.
May 13th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 1 comment | Continued
40 Years of Inflation, 80 Years of Dow/Gold
If Wall Street stocks can surge 160 points on falling earnings, an 11% drop in housing starts, and a 16-year record for consumer-price inflation, then so can everything else that doesn’t carry a picture of George Washington. Crude oil, rice, Gold, the Euro, wheat, emerging market bonds, copper…anything that’s not stamped with the all-seeing eye of the Dollar looks a great bet once again.
April 17th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 0 comments | Continued
Why Choose Gold When Real Interest Rates Sink?
You can link the historic surge in gold prices starting mid-August 2007 to many apparently disparate things. Pick the right link, and you might be able to tell whether it’s worth you buying or holding gold today. One such link is the price of money, as decided by the US Federal Reserve. Gold’s stellar 58% gain in the seven months starting 18th August began with the Fed’s first change to US interest rates in 18 months…
April 16th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 2 comments | Continued
Inflationary Losers in the Great Solvency Slump
Over in the plush hedge-fund suites a mile or two west in Mayfair, Plexus Partners lost one-third of its value since January after screwing up its arbitrage trades. Another crazy-named hedge fund – Polygon – has tried to stop its investors withdrawing their cash to defend its future. And sticking to English, rather than Latin, failed to save Russell Investments in New York from closing two of its three hedge funds this week. They dumped two-thirds of their value inside six months.
April 7th, 2008 | Adrian Ash | 0 comments | Continued