These charts show total returns for various forms of investment real estate in index form.  Over the last 20 years, farmland has returned 70%, timberland 52%, and commercial real estate 0%.

In the period from 1992 to 2001, timberland was the best performer, with returns of 5x the original investment compared to 2.8x for commercial property and farmland.  Since 2001, however, commercial real estate has given back all of those gains, timberland 87%, and farmland only 61%.

Compare these performances with US Homes, as measured by the Case-Shiller CSXR index, which is currently 60% below it's 1992 level.

Farmland has held it's value for most of the last decade; the majority of it's losses have occurred since 2009.

National Property Index from 1978 to Present:

NCREIF Timberland Index from 1987 to Present:

NCREIF Farmland Index from 1992 to Present:

Last Week of November, 2011

The end of November saw more losses for currencies, especially the Japanese Yen, which dropped 4%.  Bonds were lower, while equities climbed.  Commodities were mixed, with copper rising 4.8%, the largest increase of the week.  Coffee and cotton were lower.  Coffee, down 4.4%, was the second biggest loser after long bonds, where TLT was down 4.9%.

One commodity not tracked in this table is Platinum, which made a new all time low this week.  As further signs of global recession appear and deepen, this industrial metal may see further weakness, but I feel that any price below parity with gold represents a good long-term buying opportunity.

What stands out to me in this table is that the only thing that is up year over year is TLT.  And it isn't just this table – I've gone through every one of the charts I track, and TLT is the only thing that is up for the last 12 months.  Of course, longer term, TLT has been a terrible investment… but the Fed keeps pushing interest rates lower, and the bond market continues to be seen as the last "safe refuge" for the large capital flows seeking to escape from a crumbling Europe.

My prediction is that as the situation in Europe adjusts to its "new normal", and the ECB and Fed continue to issue currency to paper over the rotten core of the financial system, gravity will once again assert itself, and the currencies in which bonds are issued will fall much faster than the bonds can grow in nominal value.  And if the "Bond Vigilantes" ride again, pushing interest rates up to the levels where they really should be – look out below!

And speaking of the US economy…

The Dow Jones Industrials, which closed today at 242.76, have retreated to their lowest level since March 20th, 2009, and now stand only 10% above their 2008/2009 financial crisis low of 220.22, set 10 trading days earlier on March 6th. Once that level is breached, prices will have rolled back to the level of January 1991, with the next support at about 200, and below that at 180 (which was the low for 1990 and the high just preceding the "Black Monday" crash of 1987. The S&P 500 shows almost exactly the same picture.

US Treasury bonds continue to fall, with SHY making a new all-time low in gold, and TLT just 2% above it's all-time low, even as they approach their old highs in dollar terms.

This week we've added coverage of natural gas to the site, another commodity sitting near it's all time lows. Home prices were also updated this week, and they are – surprise! – also making new lows.

Commodities were mostly lower last week, with crude oil, silver, copper, and coffee down, while cotton was up 5.4%. Commodity prices have risen significantly over the last year, however. Silver and coffee are up over 50%, cotton is up 63%, crude is 6% higher, and copper is 7.4% higher from one year ago.

The Canadian dollar is following close on its US cousin's heels, and the Euro and Yen, while they gained a bit last week, they are both down solidly over the last year. The Swiss franc is the one currency I track that seems to be holding it's own. Take a look at the currency charts for more.

Of course, if you own bonds, or large-cap stocks, real estate, or hold lots of currency (whether USD, CAD, EUR, or other), this sounds all sounds very depressing. But it is important to remember that it also means these things are ON SALE for those who do their saving in gold. They may get cheaper yet, so I'm not suggesting that you go "all in" at this point, but by following two simple rules, you will be ready to take full advantage when the time comes.

First, keep your "cash" and savings in gold, whether physical, in GoldMoney.com, in ETFs or closed-end funds (I use a combination of all of them for my own savings) and

Second, monitor your other investments' values in gold to be sure they're growing (and be ruthless about cutting your losses when they're not). If it isn't growing in gold value, you're better off just holding metal until you can find something that is growing. Don't forget that the USD and other currencies are potential speculations that make sense from time to time, but only hold them when they're appreciating in gold terms; at all other times, hold as little as possible.

Do these things, and you will find that the whole world will eventually be yours at fire-sale prices.

This is how great fortunes are made!

The Japanese Yen also made a new low of 0.265 mg. The Canadian dollar traded at 22.24 mg, off slightly for the day, but 2% higher than its all-time low set last December. The Euro, at 29.91 mg, fell for the fourth trading session in a row, but still sits 3.4% above its all-time low.

The value of US Treasury Bonds fell sharply, with the both Exchange Traded Funds SHY (tracking 1-3 Year Treasuries) and TLT (tracking 20+ Year Treasuries) hitting new all-time lows of 1.817 mg and 1.971 mg, respectively.

The Dow Jones Industrials closed at 261.46, down almost 1% for the day, but still up 3.4% for the year to date.

Crude Oil is trading at 2.18 grams/barrel, up from a recent low of 1.91 g/bbl in mid-February, but still below it's 60 year average of 2.31 g/bbl. Silver, on the other hand, continues its surge skyward, hitting 0.753 grams per ounce – up 11.5% so far this year, following a rise of 41.1% in 2010. The last time silver was this high was February of 1998, when it traded over 0.8 g/oz. Even with this recent strength though, silver is a long way from its 1980 all-time high of 2.8 g/oz.

Don't let the constant barrage of rising prices quoted in fiat currencies confuse you! Remember that these are largely caused by government and central bank shenanigans of one sort or another. Keep your eyes on the true value of things by pricing them in gold, and seek out investments that will grow when measured in gold terms. That's what you need to build a better life for yourself and your loved ones!

Currency Watch:

After revisiting its all-time low of 21.89 mg on January 3rd, the USD rallied during January, peaking at 23.58 on January 28th, up 7.7%. Since then, it has been drifting lower, and currently stands 2.7% above the all-time low. A similar pattern exists for most other major currencies, though the Yen and Canadian dollar have lost less ground in the past year than the US Dollar and Euro. [Washington's Birthday update: as of 21-Feb-2011, the USD stands at 22.17 mg, only 1.3% above it's all time low.]

Bond Watch:

US Treasuries have been a terrible investment for at least the last 8 years. Since 2002, shares of SHY, an ETF that tracks the 1-3 Year maturity T-Bonds, have lost 74% of their value, despite an apparent increase of 28% when measured using dollars – and these figures include interest paid! The long bond, as measured by the share price of TLT, is just as bad, having lost 69% of its value since 2002, despite a smoke-and-mirrors “gain” of 56% when measured in dollars. And as we'll see in a moment, these losses are not simply due to a “gold bubble”. Priced using dollars, most things you buy every day have increased in price dramatically since 2002 – gasoline has more than doubled, food prices are 2.6 times higher, cotton prices are over 4 times higher! The lion's share of these increases are caused by dollar depreciation. And keep in mind that the so-called gains are taxable… while the real-world losses are not deductible. The government takes your money at full value, repays you with currency that will buy much less, and taxes you on the difference – all part of the miracle of inflation!

Equity Watch:

Major stock indices have been falling for the last 10 years. The Dow Jones Industrials, for instance, hit its all-time high around 1,400 gold grams in 1999. It has since lost over 78% of its value. For the last two years, major indices have been pretty flat after bouncing off the lows set in March of 2009. As with bonds, nominal prices have risen as currency values have fallen, leaving investors with purchasing power losses and huge tax liabilities. One area that has bucked this trend is resource stocks – a specialty of my friends at Casey Research. Selected issues have soared, and even the broad resource indices like the HUI show real gains over the last year.

Commodity Watch:

Each of these commodities has its own story to tell… tales of weather (good and bad), of mine cave-ins, political instability and bureaucratic stupidity.

Silver is skyrocketing, not just in dollars, but in gold value as well, having closed convincingly above its long term resistance level at 0.7 grams of gold. It will be interesting to see that level retested in the weeks to come. If it holds, the 1.0 gram level, last seen in the early 1980s, could be the next stop.

While it is clear that the trend is mostly up, what is not so clear in the numbers above is the bigger picture – that most of these commodities are rebounding off their all-time lows.

Crude Oil, for example, finds its long-term support at around 1 gram per barrel, and hit 1.1 grams two years ago in February of 2009. Although it has recovered to almost 2 grams, crude traded over 4.9 grams per barrel as recently as 2008. Coffee is another example – in May of 2010, it traded under 34 mg per pound. Although it stands today at 61.1 mg, in 1997 it traded over 230 mg/lb (and at a dollar price very similar to today's, highlighting the massive depreciation of the dollar.) Cotton has really been on a tear (pardon the pun) gaining another 2.2% this week following a 12.4% rise last week, and more than doubling in the last year. But these gains are coming off record lows of less than 20 mg/lb in early 2010. Cotton's 30 year average price is 53.2 mg (20% higher) and its record high of 250 mg is more than 5 times today's levels.

Chart of the Week

This chart was inspired by the events in Egypt and elsewhere in the developing world, where concerns over food price rises are playing a major role in people's dissatisfaction with government. As one who is profoundly dissatisfied with all governments, I think this may be a good thing. But what is really going on here? When you strip away the veneer of currency depreciation, we see that food prices are actually near their 20-year lows, not making new highs!

In fact, the overall food price index would have to rise 72% from today's levels just to get back to its 20 year average. The Meat component would have to rise over 140% to get in line with its average. And even Sugar, the fastest rising component, would need to rise a further 20% just to revert to the mean.

The real problem here is that governments are destroying the purchasing power of money – your money – even while technology and intelligent employment of capital are reducing the costs of food, technology, energy, housing and transportation. Unfortunately, governments are kleptomaniacs. They corral your money with capital controls, then steal it openly by raising taxes in the form of new regulations, closed loopholes and higher rates; and stealthily, through currency destruction and the taxes collected on the resulting pseudo-gains. This has left most households with less disposable income than they had in 1950 – requiring them to work two or more jobs just to make ends meet!

But that's a story for another edition…

In the meantime, don't be fooled by bogus government currency shenanigans! Keep track of your investments' true value, using gold.

Sir Charles

Using gold pricing to get an accurate measure of your investment performance will enable you to do more than just survive the upheavals ahead – you will be able to make a fortune!

I urge you to watch the video, understand where the actions of governments and central banks are taking us, and most importantly, I urge you to look over your portfolio, to look over your life, and take action!

If you have questions or comments, send me an email, leave a comment, or call the Priced in Gold Hotline at 888-868-5656.

I think it's time we all switched to using gold as our unit of account, as the fiat currencies of the world continue to be consumed in a firestorm of inflationary "money" creation. Whether or not we hold actual physical gold (which we should, as our bedrock cash position) we should be seeking to own stuff that is rising in value in gold terms. The real problem is that the signals we get from investments priced in EUR, USD, JPY, etc. are being seriously distorted by the massive issuance of these currencies, resulting in investors continuing to hold them and even add to them, believing their value is rising when it is in fact falling.

US government bonds are a prime example – widely considered the safest investment in the world, and rising fairly steadily for years as interest rates drifted lower, they have in fact fallen to about half their 2002 value. Here are the details, using TLT, the 20 year T-Bond ETF as an example… In July of 2002, when the ETF was launched, you would have paid $82 per share for it. Over the years, you would have collected $29.71 in interest, and today you could sell each share for about $90. A nice, safe 46% return over 7.75 years, or 5% CAGR. But measured in gold grams, the picture is radically different. Each share cost 8.4 grams in 2002, and paid a total of 1.8 grams in interest over the years. Today, you could sell each share for about 2.5 grams – a 49% loss over the same 8 year period, for a -8.4% CAGR. I have created a chart of TLT in USD and gold, based on the "adjusted closing price" as calculated by Yahoo finance. Take a look at it to see what I'm talking about.

And this is just the start of the collapse… as more dollars are created, bond buyers will begin to worry about the value of the dollars that will eventually be returned to them, and the interest they demand will skyrocket. This will create a double-whammy drop in bond prices as their value in dollars falls, and the value of each dollar falls as well.

Of course, just holding gold doesn't earn any profit (as measured in gold) but it doesn't lose value, either. There are plenty of investment strategies that have risen in gold value over that same period, but buying and holding most stock indices, bonds, real estate are not among them.

I'm working on a DVD series called "The Truth About Gold" that will detail some strategies for dramatically expanding your wealth, as measured in gold. I will be making a few copies available to early adopters on a pre-order basis; if you are interested, drop me an email at truth@pricedingold.com

I've recorded an expanded commentary on this topic as a podcast. You can download it or listen to it here:

When someone talks about the price of gold in some currency like US Dollars, they are talking about the exchange rate between two currencies – gold and dollars. It makes just as much sense to talk about the price of the dollar in gold as it does to talk about the price of gold in dollars. It all depends on which currency is central to your thinking. For most of my life, I've lived in the United States, and used US Dollars to purchase groceries, keep my accounts, and so on. But when I lived in England, I used Pounds to buy my groceries, and keep my accounts. When building a boat in New Zealand, I had accounts in NZ Dollars, paid for the boat's construction in NZ Dollars and paid bills and expenses in NZ Dollars while visiting there. Same for my visits to Japan, Germany, Mexico, Tahiti, and so on. Still, as I traveled, I always related the value of the local currency back to my "home currency", the US Dollar. "How much is that in dollars?", I would ask myself. When I had the answer, I could assess the price and decide "Wow, cheese is a real bargain!" or "Sheesh! Gasoline is really expensive here!".

But to think of the US Dollar as "the center of the monetary universe" with all other currencies circling around it is silly. When friends of mine from England visit the US, they are doing just the opposite of what I did when visiting them – they are relating all the US Dollar prices they see back to their "home currency", the Pound Sterling.

I have now come to realize that we are all travelers… moving through space around the globe and through time as well. As we move to new places and new times we find people using new forms of local money. Sometimes these moneys have the same name, but very different values. Dollars in the US or New Zealand or Hong Kong or Australia or Zimbabwe do not have the same value as one another. And one US Dollar in 2008 does not have the same value that one US Dollar had in 2003.

Gold is a money that is recognized around the world, throughout all of history, and changes value very gradually over time. To my mind, this makes it the perfect money in which to value all the others. The perfect "home currency" to relate local prices back to, to determine whether things are cheap or dear.

In today's world of "floating exchange rates", the market sets the price of one currency in terms of another. Traders buying Japanese Yen with US Dollars, selling New Zealand Dollars for British Pounds, buying Swiss Francs with Euros, and so on, agree on how much they will pay for each transaction made. These transactions are posted electronically and become the bid and ask prices that guide other buyers and sellers, and are called the "spot prices" of currencies. Traders are also buying and selling currencies for delivery in the future, months or even years from now. The prices they set are based on the spot price, but also figure in estimates of future changes in value due to inflation, interest rates, expected demand and other factors.

Bonds are another form of currency exchange – you will be getting your principal back 2, 5, 10, 20 or more years in the future, and receiving a fixed "rental" (the interest) every so often until then. Although the currency lent and repaid have the same name, they are really two different currencies because of the intervening time. For example you might buy the bond with 2008 US Dollars, receive an interest payment in 2010 US Dollars and finally be repaid the principal in 2018 US Dollars. Although bonds are said to have no "exchange risk", many of the other factors that drive currency futures prices also drive bond prices… especially interest rates and inflation expectations. No one will pay $1000 for a bond earning 3% if a new bond with the same maturity and risk profile can be purchased for $1000 that will pay 12%. And if one expects the money returned at maturity to be worth less than the money being used to buy the bond (due to inflation) then one will insist on a higher interest rate… or pay less up front than will be returned at maturity. If a new issue is priced too high (by setting its interest rate too low) there will be no buyers. So traders also set the price of bonds, which is another way to say that they set interest rates.

Of course, the expected future value of a currency can be higher as well as lower. When people expect their money to buy more in the future, they tend to put off purchases because they expect a better deal to come along later. This activity is called saving. The monetary effect is called deflation, because the amount of money chasing after the goods available is declining, making each unit of money more valuable as time goes by.

As I write this, the "Credit Crisis" and recession being experienced around the world is making the US Dollar more valuable. Banks, hedge funds, traders, investors, governments, home owners (in fact, nearly everyone) have borrowed large sums of money to leverage their investments and increase their rate of return. Although this practice is very profitable in good times, it quickly reverses its effect and multiplies the magnitude of losses when the value of the underlying assets declines. When losses get large enough, they can cause individuals and firms to go bankrupt, leading to still more losses for those who were doing business with them. In attempting to reduce this leverage, and thus reduce the rate of losses, firms and individuals are scrambling to get dollars to repay those loans. They sell whatever they can to raise the money. This selling of assets and buying of dollars pushes the value of the dollar higher with respect to almost everything – stocks, real estate, oil, gasoline, steel, copper, even gold.

In investing, it is common to borrow an asset, like a shares of a stock or a large amount of a commodity like copper or silver, and then sell it, anticipating that the price of the asset will fall, and it can be bought back cheaper in the future when it needs to be returned to the original owner. This is called "short selling". It is legal, and can be quite profitable. It improves functioning of markets by making available commodities that would otherwise site idle in warehouses, and enables more accurate pricing of stocks and commodities.

When a large number of traders have short positions in an asset, and the price of the asset goes up too much, those traders are looking at large losses, and some will decide to exit their positions by buying back the asset they had sold, paying a higher price, and taking the loss. This buying pushes the price even higher, causing more traders to decide to buy back the lent asset, and this can become a vicious circle, shooting the value up much higher than is warranted on fundamentals alone. This is called a "short squeeze". Eventually, the sellers who must get out have completed their buying, and the "gravity" of fundamental value reasserts itself. The asset price that spiked higher so rapidly now falls back, often just as fast or even faster than it rose during the squeeze.

If one thinks of money as a commodity, it makes sense that buying a stock (or a house) using leverage is a form of dollar short selling. Just like the silver trader who borrows silver and sells it for US Dollars is "short silver" (he is also "long the dollar" since he lots of that in his account) a house buyer with a mortgage has borrowed US Dollars and traded them for a house; she is "short the dollar" and "long real estate". The same can be said of stocks bought on margin – the trader is short the dollar and long stocks.

And just like any other commodity, the dollar is subject to short squeezes. When, let's say, stocks begin falling in value and many players in the market are short dollars and long stocks, they will be experiencing losses, and if those losses get large enough, they will need to "cover their short" by selling other assets to buy back the borrowed dollars. Note that this has nothing to do with the fundamentals of the dollar as a currency – how sound it is, how large the trade and current account deficits are, how fast the printing presses are running, nor does it matter how sound the assets they are selling are. The dollar short sellers need to get out NOW, and they will do whatever it takes to get out. It should also be clear that lending them more dollars is not an answer to their problem… they have already borrowed too much. They need to reduce, not increase, the size of their dollar short position.

And like all short squeezes, at some point the players who need to repay their dollars have done so, or have gone bankrupt trying. Now fundamentals reassert themselves, and the "overbought" dollar falls while the "oversold" stocks and commodities rise, each according to it's underlying value. Prices oscillate around for a while until balance is restored and the next cycle can begin.

Of course in the real world, there are many other processes going on at the same time. Uncertainty about true asset values, uncertainty about the soundness of trading partners, outright fraud, changes in production and demand, government and central bank policy changes and so on all play a role in determining the evolution of the overall economy.

How can we tell a dollar short squeeze during an inflationary period from a true deflation?

In both cases, the purchasing power of dollars is increasing, but the psychology is very different. In inflationary times, people look at a falling price and think, "Wow! I better scoop up that bargain now; it probably won't last long." In deflationary times they think, "No point in buying today, I'll wait until I really need it; it will probably be cheaper then."

I just experienced this at the local gas station. US gas prices in dollars have been falling since July, and are now about one half what they were then. In gold, they peaked in September, but have also fallen sharply. As I was driving by the station I saw a new lower price at the pump. My tank was half-full. In a deflationary mind-set, I would have reasoned that as I still had half a tank, I might as well wait for a few days to fill up, since the price would probably be lower than it is now, and by hanging on to the money I would be earning interest on it and gaining value. But that was not my reasoning… my reaction was to rush in and fill up quick at this great price while I still could. That is inflationary thinking.

True deflationary thinking takes time to develop. People have to experience falling prices for so long, that future low prices become their expectation. For almost 70 years prices have generally trended up as more and more money has been created.

Will the current "crisis" keep prices falling long enough to reverse that thinking?

It is hard to say for sure, but the fundamentals do not seem to be changing; if anything, they are deteriorating. Bailouts and stimulus programs are ballooning deficits and central banks are doing everything in their power to flood the system with liquidity. Let's look at what that means: the central banks (like the Federal Reserve) are selling dollars to the traders and banking houses who are desperate to reduce their dollar short positions. They are buying all sorts of assets, much of it the "financial toxic waste" that got the investment banks and hedge funds into this bad position in the first place. So now the Fed is shorting the dollar on a massive scale, taking the other side of the de-leveraging trade. But they have a huge advantage over other traders in the marketplace: they can never run out of dollars. No matter how big their losses get, they can always stay in the game. Or can they?

Where do they get the dollars they are supplying to the market? Most of them are borrowed from foreign governments that run trade surpluses, but ultimately, they will create them out of thin air if that's what it takes. And foreign governments and other large lenders will be increasingly nervous as they look at the central bank's balance sheet and see dwindling tax receipts and mostly junk bonds, non-performing mortgages, stock of failing or failed companies, and so on, as the primary source of future repayment. Of course they will get their money back eventually, but if the central bank just prints it up, its purchasing power in 5, 10 or 30 years will be only a small fraction of the value they are lending now. When they truly realize that, the game is over. When the central banks can no longer borrow, they will begin to print money in earnest. Then, it will be like the cartoon coyote running off the cliff: everything is going fine until he looks down and sees nothing but the canyon floor, far below him, and suddenly everything is not fine, gravity reasserts itself, and he is falling out of control, to eventually disappear in a puff of dust as he hits the ground. In economics, this is known as hyper-inflation. Think of Zimbabwe. Think of million-dollar bills, printed on one side only because it's too costly to print on both sides. Think of needing a wad of these to buy a single gallon of gas, or a gallon of milk, or a burger and fries.

But it will still take about the same amount of gold to buy a gallon of gas, or a meal, as it does today. Perhaps, if there is a massive flight to the safety of gold, gold's price may be pushed up compared to most other things, and it may take even less gold to buy a gallon of gas then it has historically, at least for a time, until things settle down again.

At the moment, it is quite profitable to speculate by buying and holding dollars and other fiat currencies. No one knows how high they will go, or how long it will take before they begin to fall again. But it is a speculation in a highly volatile commodity that has terrible fundamentals and is undergoing a powerful short squeeze. It is playing with fire, and it will take both luck and skill to make a profit and keep it.

Gold on the other hand is just a sound money. Holding it will not make you rich, but will keep you from getting poor. It will not build anything, employ anyone, or pay any interest. But it will retain its value. It is true cash that can be traded for enough local currency to buy what you need any place at any time.

If you have experienced large paper losses in your securities portfolio, be sure to evaluate those losses in terms of gold. Remember that the rising dollar may make your losses look bigger than they really are. Be sure to honor your stops: exit positions to preserve your capital, don't go on hoping they will recover. Look at each position and ask, "If I had the cash, would I buy this today, knowing everything I know about the security, the economy, and my own risk preferences?" If the answer is "yes", then keep the position; otherwise close it out, whether at a loss or a profit.

Take advantage of the dollar's rise to accumulate solid assets like gold (your cash position) and stock in the world's best companies, to buy debt-free real estate and to diversify yourself internationally. Invest in yourself. Learn a new skill or a new language. Travel. Improve your health. Exercise. Meditate. Start a business that can be profitable on a small scale without needing to take on debt, one that can exploit the market gaps that will be left as large old-line companies burdened with debt and union contracts go under. Or start an information publishing business to share what you've learned with others and help them weather the storm, prosper and become happier and healthier.

The bottom line is that health and happiness come first. Spend time with your family! Time is a tricky asset… as we grow older, we have less and less of it, and each second becomes more precious. Spend it wisely. Never confuse happiness with financial success. And never confuse your dollar net worth with your true wealth as measured in gold.

The first part of this interview covered Paul van Eeden's background and laid out his views on gold, inflation and interest rates. In this final segment, we'll discuss what to do about this situation – how to translate this view of the world into investment action.

Paul has been working hard on a more accurate model for the money supply that will give investors a clearer picture of what's coming in terms of inflation and interest rates. The best way to get access to this information is to subscribe to his newsletter – something I strongly recommend.

As I write this, there are still a few seats left for the 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium, to be held in Vancouver, BC from July 22 to 25. Paul and I will be there along with the legendary Jim Rogers, Rick Rule, Bill Bonner, Doug Casey and a boatload of other excellent speakers. If you will be attending, be sure to drop me an email or leave a message on the Priced In Gold Hotline at 888-868-5656, and we'll see what we can work out for a get-together. Keep an eye out for my pith helmet!

Last year, in July of 2007, I attended the Agora Financial investment Symposium in Vancouver, BC. There were a lot of excellent speakers and sessions covering all aspects of investment, with quite a bit of emphasis on natural resources and a strong international flavor. One of the speakers who impressed me the most was Paul van Edeen. On my return home I subscribed to his newsletter – which has since become one of my favorites.

Last month I had an opportunity to interview Paul on the phone, and I picked up some great investment ideas and tidbits of investing wisdom that I am excited to pass along to you.

Because of it's length, I'm breaking the interview up into two podcasts. The first will cover Paul's background and lay out his views on gold, inflation and interest rates. In the second, we'll discuss what to do about this situation – how to translate this view of the world into profitable investment action.

I heartily recommend Paul's newsletter, and would love to see you at the upcoming 2008 Agora Financial Investment Symposium, to be held in Vancouver, BC from July 22 to 25. Paul and I will be there along with the legendary Jim Rogers, Rick Rule, Bill Bonner and a boatload of other excellent speakers. If you will be attending, be sure to drop me an email or leave a message on the Priced In Gold Hotline at 888-868-5656, and we'll see what we can work out for a get-together. Just watch for my pith helmet!