Gold closed at $999 on Tuesday. Then, yesterday, it closed down $2. There’s a time to buy gold; and there’s a time to sell it. Which time is it? The question rose with the gold price itself. It needs an answer.

This recovery is wonderful in every way, except the important ones. It is like a shiny new airplane. It has glossy aluminum wings. It has plush seats in the first class section. Trim stewardesses serve drinks. Movies are available on demand in all sections…

Clowns to the left of us… Jokers to the right… The Simpleton’s Analysis: Consumers cut back. The economy sank.

It is amazing how many things have NOT happened.

Yesterday might turn out to be an important day. The market should have bounced. It didn’t. Instead, it fell 29 points. It’s September, too…a dangerous month. And this rally has already run longer than the rally following the ’29 crash.

Summer is over…and the rally may be over, too.

Hey, the economy is not only recovering…it’s becoming better than ever before!

Actually, we haven’t gotten to Bedford Springs yet. We’re still sitting in the airport lounge in Paris. Summer is over. It’s back to work…12 hours a day…just like we’ve worked for the past 39 years.

Our story continues…According to the popular version, Ben Bernanke, our flawed hero, has averted a Second Great Depression. When the crisis came in ’07-’08, he calmly took out the text he had written himself: “Dummies’ Guide to Avoiding a Japan-style Deflation”… or something like that.

“They were hunters. They stayed here during the Ice Age, probably hunting reindeer,” said the archaeologist in charge of the site. “But who were they?”