Two charts and three measures of gold’s “real” price today…

“Whether through exuberant hedgies or anxious private investors, gold just keeps pushing higher…”

So speculative betting on gold going higher now equals a record-busting 752-tonne position in Comex futures and options, yet this is not a bubble according to Michael Pento of Deltaga.

“If gold is ‘past its day’, what of toxic derivatives and today’s deluge of US Treasury bonds…?” Just like poor Pip Dickens’ Great Expectations, central banks keep inheriting unwelcome bequests.

“Just how can the Fed credibly promise to be irresponsible…?”  Here’s a thought—that tiny handful of investors and analysts warning how Fed policy risks hyper-inflation are in fact doing the central bank’s work.

Deflation and the price of Gold. Give yourself an extra point for spotting the trick question. It’s already tripping up plenty of would-be answers. Because gold must fall during deflation, since it rose so much during the inflation of the 1970s – right?

Deprecated and reduced as a financial asset, gold is fast-gaining new buyers yet remains under-invested compared to previous crises…

“FEAR, Mr. Bond, takes gold out of circulation and hoards it against the evil day,” as 007 learns from a Bank of England officer in Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger (1959).

The broad sweep in housing-gold ratios is just as broad and as sweeping as both gold bulls and bears might hope…

The rampant increase in home-ownership was government-driven and credit-enabled. Adrian Ash tells us why we shouldn’t be surprised at the results.

The 1970s didn’t just curse the world with cheap German wine and the Bay City Rollers. That decade gave us soaring inflation, too.

Now, I’m no banking analyst, but that gap on my resumé is starting to look like a very good thing indeed. For who’d want to be stuck with the title “Banking Stock Analyst” now the banks are all broke…? Unless you already wanted to work for government anyway.