Jack the Pipper

It looks as though Europe will be somewhat relieved after this week. Crude oil prices have fallen about 8 percent in one week’s time. The high prices contributed to an April trade deficit in the eurozone as the value of imports outpaced exports.

I poked a bit at James Turk yesterday, asking whether he was right to think gold will benefit from a flight-to-safety bid in the wake of a sovereign default. I think he could be wrong. But he is right about something.

A saw a prediction today stating that gold will reach $5000 an ounce because of a global supply deficit. Sure there are some industrial applications for gold, but will gold be consumed (and hoarded) to an extent that future mine supply and production won’t be able to sate?

You may know already, but if you don’t: I don’t like Larry Summers. To me he is the poster child for the smarmy Northeastern liberal who thinks he is the Master of the Universe (there are so many of these clowns out there it’s hard to count them all).

I watched European Central Bank chief Jean Claude Trichet on Reuters TV yesterday during his press conference; all I could think was Kabuki.

I think we need only look at one chart to understand the vulnerability of risk assets fully-priced for future growth; it is the global purchasing managers’ index and it shows all the major countries turning over that the same time.

Quotable “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”                                     Ralph Waldo Emerson Commentary & Analysis Smokin’ … Or Smoke & Mirrors? There’s something peculiar about crude oil … Last week’s crude oil inventory drawdown is not bullish. From Reuters yesterday: U.S. crude oil stocks showed …

No, this quote is not referring to the USA … or it would have read “the land of right-wing extremists.” This quote refers to the gold market.

Hmmmm. Interesting to see how US inflation lags outside inflation. But that last bit of research (perceived perhaps based on expectations built from past inflationary periods) seems somewhat at odds with the interpretation of US manufacturing I included earlier.

I am going to start off today with something I have shared here before–the China Treadmill: Virtuous to Vicious? I want you concentrate on that highlighted in red, where it says “Investment Dependence.”