In Far East trading on Tuesday morning, both silver and gold got sold off. The bottom was in shortly before London opened…and a spirited rally commenced until about 6:30 a.m. New York time when both metals got sold off again…with some help on the Comex open.

All of this unemployment must be impacting demand for goods and services, which may be what prompted Jim Sinclair of jsmineset.com to ask a lot of questions, including ‘Do you really believe that present inflation is demand driven?’

There is no end in sight for the housing market slump, says Alexander Green at InvestmentU.com.

The housing boom of the past few years was caused by cheap credit and tax breaks, not by sound fundamentals. Now, consumer confidence is low, credit is tight, and home inventories are piling up.

Alex says we will only reach the housing bottom when supply and demand come back into balance. And that is a long way off yet…

Editor’s Note: In Argentina, everyone knows about the rising threat from inflation. Everyone except the Argentine government. For over a year, official data has vastly underestimated the true increase in prices. The Daily Reckoning’s Mogambo Guru says that Argentina isn’t the only country meddling with inflation numbers. The US method for measuring price increases is deeply flawed, he argues, making inflation-indexed Treasury bonds (TIPS) a poor investment.

Suddenly I think, ‘Ahhh! I see! Demand is more than supply, meaning price will go up until demand equals supply!’, at which point I think, ‘Whee! Investing is easy when you know to avoid stocks and bonds and buy gold, silver and oil.