These are dark days for gold bugs. This week, gold futures dropped below $800 per ounce. Shares for gold producers such as Newcrest (ASK:NCM) are trading at 2006 prices. But Al Robinson at The Daily Reckoning Australia says the gold sell-off is irrational, and won’t last much longer. He says the fact that gold is scarce and Fiat money is abundant sould make it obvious which is the better investment in the long run. Al says buy now to benefit from the annual Christmas gold rush…

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has cut its benchmark rate 25 basis points to 7%. This has sent the Aussie dollar and local stocks tumbling.

Chuck Butler says only one more rate cut is likely this year. Charles Delvalle, meanwhile, expects dividends on Austrialian companies BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) to fall as the Aussie dollar weakens against the greenback.

Al Robinson at The Daily Reckoning Australia says the RBA is caught between fighting higher prices and a stagnating economy. But he says local mining stocks still a good bet…

We are seeing mob behavior in the financial markets, says Al Robinson in The Daily Reckoning Australia. The country’s main stock exchange, the ASX, is following the Dow Jones Index on its various ups and (more frequent) downs this year.

The June Quarterly Producer Price Index is in. Producer inflation was lower than expected. That doesn’t mean prices have fallen, but that they grew at a slower rate. So here’s three cheers for making stuff.