Money & Markets

There is one last indicator that I believe may be the most important of all. That is the “Index of Leading Economic Indicators” (LEI), which is a compendium of those economic indicators that point toward future growth, and LEI has just reached historic highs, far exceeding previous peaks in 1999 and 2006.

…2017 was just the first year with a small increase after a huge drop off in exploration activity. It may take many years of future increases to get back to where the activity was in 2012, as projected increases in exploration spending are seen to be slow and steady.

Other economic commentators have joined in regarding the sounding of alarms. Retired Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul feels financial markets could drop a stunning 50%...

…we cannot ignore the fact that several of the most widely-followed and respected economic voices are now raising questions about the potential near-term development of a full-blown market panic.

One of the largest conundrums we would point out is the matter of rising interest rates starting to take place in several nations.

...the tax rate for an incorporated, small-scale mine or mining-related business will be reduced from the former 35 percent rate to 21 percent for the 2018 tax year and thereafter.

These moves were the first serious interruption to the bull market, which had not encountered a serious decline since the election of November, 2016. Since general market moves have been one of the most reliable historic indicators of precious metals market moves, we take a close look at these developments.

We’ll conclude by digging a bit more into the regulations and pitfalls, and discuss what they are used for, their relationship to gold, and what the future holds.

Putting it all together, we have indications that the petroleum price increases could continue and we believe that if that is the case, the impact on precious metals would be positive.

Some financial commentators have speculated that bitcoin and other virtual currencies have captured a portion of funds that would have been invested in gold. I find it a bit ironic that people who invest in precious metals would even consider another fiat currency.

While gold’s chart has recently confirmed its short-term negative trend, the intermediate trend remains neutral while gold’s long-term chart is beginning to show some positive indications.

Perhaps the heart of our pro-gold thesis is this consideration: governments are inherently inefficient, they attempt to provide services far beyond their genuine fiscal ability and these trends result in deficit financing, growing debt levels and ultimate “watering” down of currency values.