For “hard money” advocates, this has been a remarkable month. Gold has risen by more than $100, silver has begun to surge, and the headlines are full of news items quite capable of raising public concerns to crisis levels.

In all the years I have been writing this column (approaching 35) and in my writings elsewhere, I have to admit that I never foresaw the kind of immense changes that have been wrought during the past two months…

It appears that market softness due to a slowing Chinese economy may already have affected precious and base metals quotes.

Perhaps the first and most important is the fact that the foreign exchange value of the US Dollar has been going down steadily for several months. As the value of the Dollar goes down, the price of goods in Dollar terms tend to go up…