I'm off to Vancouver BC for Agora's annual investment conference. This year, I will only be able to take in two days, July 22nd and 23rd. If you are attending, look for my trademark pith helmet! I'd love to talk with you about gold, the economy and how life is shaping up for you. Please look me up if you get a chance! You can also follow me on Twitter, @vollumc.
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Since I published Gold101 there have been some wonderful articles giving additional details on buying and storing physical gold.
The first, called "Gold coin shortage likely to become chronic" by Michael J. Kosares, outlines the reasons why gold bullion coins have been so hard to find at reasonable premiums, and why these forces will probably keep premiums high in the future as well. BTW, Michael's book, The ABCs of Gold Investing: How to Protect and Build Your Wealth With Gold is well worth reading if you are new to buying gold.
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Gold is a type of money, just like Dollars, Euros, Pounds and Yen. Unlike these other forms of money, gold has been around for thousands of years, while many fiat systems have come and gone. Because the amount of gold in the world cannot be increased without finding and mining more of it, its value is fairly constant. This is in stark contrast to the fiat monies which can be created on command by governments and central banks.
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Yesterday the NY Times ran an article headlined, "Average U.S. Income Showed First Rise Over 2000".
The big claim is that after peaking in 2000, incomes fell, bottoming in 2003, and have now climbed back to make new highs in 2006.
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Recently I was in Vancouver, BC for the Agora Financial Symposium, which carried the tagline "A View from the Peak". There were many peaks discussed and analyzed: oil, food, water and debt, to name a few. The price of gold and silver got a lot of discussion, and forecasts abounded. Discussions and opinions were not limited to the speakers, of course – the hallways, restaurants and sidewalks were filled with animated discourse, colorful scenarios and useful information. As you can guess, I loved every minute of it!
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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.
More on Gold, Inflation and Interest Rates continued – Episode 5
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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.
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I recently came across a presentation made on May 20th to the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs by Dr. Benn Steil, a Senior Fellow and Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, entitled "Financial Speculation in Commodity Markets" (pdf). Dr. Steil also gave a speech the week before at the New York Hard Assets Investment Conference entitled "Is the Dollar Doomed?" (text and audio).
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Reader Michael Chmura posed an interesting question today:
The USPS seems to be raising prices frequently. We have another one cent postage increase coming 5/12/08. Can you post a chart for US Postage priced-in-gold?
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I've updated many charts to 4-April-2008, and added the Euro to the CAD vs. USD chart. It is worth noting that although the USD has fallen against the EUR and CAD, all three currencies have been losing value. They are just losing at different rates.
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