Ed Note: Michael Berry has written some gripping copy in the last few days.
This Time it’s Different
1. “This time it’s different” is a phrase, more than any other, which is found amongst the smoking wreckage of past investment bubbles. The dot-com and housing bubbles are only the most recent examples. However, it’s worth examining this phrase again in light of the storm that global financial markets are currently weathering. Many of us in the commodity space got caught short by the severity of the downturn in 2008. We can remember more than a few junior mining company CEOs who told us horror stories of flirting with bankruptcy.
We’re of the opinion that the correction we’re witnessing in gold now is a temporary correction in an otherwise secular bull market. We base this on the thinking that the underlying forces perpetuating this gold bull market are still intact. Read more HERE …
World Markets Down in Lockstep
2. The 3rd Quarter of 2011 ended on Friday, September 30. The world’s markets were down – lockstep. Of the world’s 38 major equity markets 35 fell, some more, some less with an average decline of almost 1%. US equity market declines averaged a heady 2.53%. North and South American markets declined 1.65% on average. Russia was off almost 3%. Only markets in Israel, New Zealand, Bangkok and Taiwan, of the 38, achieved positive returns. 82% of the 3rd quarter’s decline occurred in August and September. Read more HERE …
The New Credit Cycle
2. 1. The bottom line is, has always been, that the end of a credit crisis and the beginning of a new credit cycle cannot occur until all the debts have been repaid or forgiven. 1.
The Edge Of Chaos, is an out of print book but worth a read. In it author Bernice Cohen holds the simple prescription for the solution. She says “all debts must be settled.” Such a process can be drawn out and painful or quick and painful.
But our leaders, on both sides of the aisle, have abrogated the duty to solve the world’s massive debt problem. I am not claiming this will be an easy task. Because politics is involved in the decision of debt resolution and as a society we our addicted to debt, any painless solution is unlikely. Read more HERE …