Brexit & Monetary Policy Uncertainty Causing Gold Prices to Soar

The price of gold, gold exchange, traded funds and gold-related stocks have hit a 52-week high with the price hovering around $1,300 an ounce. The bump marks a 25 percent increase over this time last year. Joining ‘News With Ed’ to talk about why it’s occurring is former trading commissioner Bart Chilton.

BIS Report: The West Must Stop Living On The Never-never

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: There comes a point where attempts to stave off disaster do more harm than good, writes Jeremy Warner.

Are we reliving the 1930s or the 1970s? Looking at the catastrophe which has befallen Greece, it’s beginning to seem more like the former. The economic upheaval of the 1970s was pretty awful at the time, but ultimately, Western economies worked their way through the decade’s inflationary challenges to enter an unprecedented period of prosperity and economic advancement.

It’s much less easy to be optimistic about the outcome of today’s uniquely complex mix of economic conditions. Admittedly, there is as yet no comparison with the social deprivations of the 1930s, but even so, the inability of many countries to raise themselves out of their post-bubble slump makes comparisons with the pre-war era hard to avoid.

Everything up to and including the kitchen sink has been chucked at the problem, but still we are struggling to achieve escape velocity. Both in terms of fiscal and monetary measures, policymakers are all out of ammo.

The point has not been lost on the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) – often referred to as the central bankers’ bank. In its annual report this week, it draws the opposite conclusion to the one you might expect. If this were a 1930s-style slump, you might expect the BIS to support the present policy mix of ultra-loose monetary and fiscal measures. Instead, it sees this more as part of the problem than the solution. “The sooner advanced economies abandon the leverage-led growth that precipitated the great recession, the sooner they will shed the destabilising debt accumulated during the last decade and return to sustainable growth,” it says. “The time for public and private consolidation is now.”

Much the same strictures are aimed at the Bank of England, whose tolerance of relatively high inflation in pursuit of increasingly elusive growth is regarded by the BIS as dangerous and, if sustained, likely to trigger the kind of super-inflation seen in the 1970s. Continue reading and comment » | Jeremy Warner | Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Dollar Falls to New Low as Markets Await Fed's Next Move
THE GUARDIAN: Ben Bernanke, chairman of Federal Reserve, expected to maintain loose monetary policy

The US dollar has fallen to new lows against other major currencies, undermined by predictions that the US would continue to resist pressure to raise interest rates.

In early trading, the dollar dropped to its weakest level ever against the Swiss franc, having touched a record low against the Australian dollar overnight. It also hit a four-week low against the yen, while the dollar index, which measures it against a basket of rival currencies, was close to its lowest level since August 2008.

The fall came a few hours ahead of the start of the Federal Reserve's monthly two-day meeting to set monetary policy.

City experts believe that this will be a defining week for the dollar. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, will for the first time hold a press conference on Wednesday evening immediately after the Federal open market committee has voted. Traders expect no change to the Fed's current loose monetary position. » | Graeme Wearden | Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Mallory Factor: Nicole Gelinas