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The Vise Continues to Tighten

Christopher Galakoutis — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:51:00 -0400

We continue to read daily of the budget struggles not only at the US federal government level, but all the way down the line from the state and local governments to the essential service providers.

Tax revenues are the crucial variable in any budget formula, and they have been falling for...

Deflation is now the Primary Trend

Christopher Galakoutis — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:49:00 -0400

I find it very interesting to see advertisements all over the radio and on late night television about gold. This has been happening for a few months now.

We have even seen conservative talk show hosts on American prime-time cable television recommending this or that gold dealer, while le...

Standing Clear of Today�s Crowd

Christopher Galakoutis — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:30:00 -0400

I was asked the other day what I thought about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and whether it would impact the markets in a negative fashion.

We see such questions posed every day. Looking for the edge, today’s market participants of every stripe, from the professional to the casual in...

Are Corporate and Muni Bonds a Safe Haven?

Christopher Galakoutis — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:17:00 -0400

With the stock markets seesawing their way out of the public’s comfort zone since the dramatic declines of 2008-2009, many investors have turned to the “safety” and “security” of bonds for piece of mind.

Is that piece of mind warranted?

We don’t...

China move on currency largely misinterpreted

Christopher Galakoutis — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:26:00 -0400

Both the stock markets and news reports have largely overstated, in my opinion, the Chinese central bank’s announcement on June 19 that it would further reform its exchange rate regime and increase the flexibility of the RMB exchange rate.

The knee-jerk interpretation -- rarely corr...

Gold: Where to from here?

Christopher Galakoutis — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:17:00 -0400

The focus of this month’s post will be about gold and the gold shares. Will the price of gold record 10 straight years of gains, or might it be in for a correction? A good starting point might be to understand what happened to gold and the gold stocks in the 1920’s & 1...

Is Gold Going Vertical?

Christopher Galakoutis — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:17:00 -0400

An article in the Wall Street Journal on 25 May, titled “Is Gold the Next Bubble” has gold investors frothing at the mouth.

It compared the rise in gold since 2001 to the rise of the NASDAQ in the 1990’s and the Dow Jones index of home-building stocks in the 10 years lea...

Protection of Capital Key in Decade Ahead

Christopher Galakoutis — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 15:22:00 -0400

It is becoming increasingly obvious to us that the stock market bounce from the economic disaster of 2008 has not been fuelled by real economic growth, but rather an inventory restocking cycle gone wild and government reflation efforts.

Like the movie “Weekend at Bernie’s&rdq...

The US Dollar Strikes Back

Christopher Galakoutis — Sat, 22 May 2010 08:11:00 -0400

Since 1913 and the creation of the US Federal Reserve, the US dollar has lost over 90 per cent of its value, in lockstep for the most part with the ballooning of the US money supply the majority of which is comprised of credit.

It hasn’t been much of a reach therefore for inflation...

Is Inflation Really Inevitable?

Christopher Galakoutis — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:59:00 -0400

Type the word "inflation" into Google News search and you get over 20,000 hits. Type the word "deflation" and you get barely over 2,000, and many of them in relation to Japan.

Apparently the laws of cause and effect and the repercussions of that effect are confined st...

Why Today�s US Money Supply Growth is not Inflationary

Christopher Galakoutis — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:29:00 -0400

Since the 1940’s the US and the dollar have enjoyed a long run of prestige and privilege that comes with the title of world’s reserve currency.

The US’s financial markets grew to become the largest and most liquid, where a multi-dimensional demand for US dollar denomina...

Inflation not the cause of every price increase

Christopher Galakoutis — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:49:00 -0500

Costs continue to go up for the goods and services that Americans consume on a daily basis. While today we can all buy stocks, real estate and fill up our gas tanks with fewer dollars than in 2007 and early 2008, the costs of other items continue to go up. For instance, I just receive...

Beware the Hin-DEBT-burg

Christopher Galakoutis — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:27:00 -0500

The following contains excerpts from a commentary made available to MurkyMarkets.com subscribers on December 6, 2009.

A blinding affliction can be seen with the gold bugs. Make reference to a strong dollar and falling gold, and you mus...

Only a new credit bubble (that isn�t coming) staves off deflation

Christopher Galakoutis — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:52:00 -0500

The following is an excerpt from a commentary made available to MurkyMarkets.com subscribers on November 6, 2009

The next issue I wanted to write about in this post is this whole notion of ballooning reserves at the Fed, and how we get to hyperinflation if this money were to ever...

Curtain call for Inflationary run

Christopher Galakoutis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:32:00 -0400

The collapse of 2008 occurred because the US was clearly on an unsustainable path of excessive consumption and speculation, financed by credit. Debts are IOU’s with repayment terms, which means debtors must pay interest to creditors; borrowers therefore are on the hook for the princip...

Gold understands that liquidity rallies do not create jobs

Christopher Galakoutis — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:22:00 -0400

Outside of minimum wage jobs and Wal-Mart poverty line work, today’s US economy appears unable to create good jobs. If the US economy cannot create new jobs, Americans will be in no position to save and invest for their futures, nor will they have any purchasing power that would boost...

US Economy: Reeling Yes, Collapse No

Christopher Galakoutis — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:44:00 -0400

Tens of millions of Americans had to be integrated back into a peacetime economy following World War II. America and its finest companies understood the importance of investing for their collective futures, and by the 1950’s, that social contract and the investment it provided helped...

Gold -- Keeping it Simple

Christopher Galakoutis — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:51:00 -0400

There can be little doubt that the US economy is in uncharted waters. The crash of 2008 and the US government’s response -- and the world’s response, for that matter -- were unprecedented, which means that many of the old rulebooks get thrown out the window.

With...

A Difficult but not Impossible Transition

Christopher Galakoutis — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:38:00 -0500

There can be no denying the long history of greatness for America. Whether it be the election to its highest office of a leader who not only flung a long-shut door wide open, but ripped it off its hinges, or an American jetliner crew who safely crash lands a plane onto a frigid New York riv...

Countries must un-peg before they decouple

Christopher Galakoutis — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:48:00 -0500

The Wall Street Journal ran a piece today titled: “Right Forecast by Schiff, Wrong Plan?”

Peter Schiff is the pr...