Investors worried about the global economic recovery pushed gold prices to fresh highs on Friday, marking the third time in a week the shiny metal set a new record. Silver also climbed to its highest price in thirty years.
Spot gold climbed above $1,282 an ounce in New York and London as a weakening dollar spurred demand from investors for wealth protection, while silver rose to $21.44 an ounce, its highest level since 1980.
Bullion, which usually moves inversely to the dollar, posted its biggest weekly gain since May as the greenback touched a five-week low against the euro.
Holdings in gold- backed exchange-traded products (ETP) reached a record this month as investors sought protection from financial turmoil and the prospect of slowing economic growth.
Peter D. Schiff
Article Index
Investors Flock to Gold and Silver on Recovery Worries
Inflating Government Bubble Can Only Lead to a Major Financial Hangover
During the 1990s, the inflationary policy of the U.S. Federal Reserve fueled a tech-stock bubble. When that bubble burst, the Fed inflated a larger one in real estate. Now that the real estate bubble has burst, the Fed is inflating the biggest bubble of them all - a bubble in government. While the earlier booms provided at […]
What Does the "Wall of Worry" Tell Us About Future Gold Prices?
There can be little doubt that 2008 was a nightmare for investors of all outlooks. In the midst of the carnage, it seemed to make little difference whether your portfolio rested on the bedrock of sound economic principles or if it was based on nothing but hot air. However, as I pointed out at the […]
Obama's Healthcare Plan: A Prescription for Disaster
By Peter D. SchiffGuest Columnist Money Morning The healthcare bill unveiled last week by the U.S. House of Representatives (with the full support of the Obama administration) is one of the worst pieces of legislation ever drafted. If passed, President Obama's healthcare plan will reduce the quality and increase the cost of healthcare in America. […]
Why Minimum Wage Represents Maximum Stupidity
[Editor's Note: The federal minimum wage increases to $7.25 an hour on July 24.] By Peter D. SchiffGuest ColumnistMoney Morning In a free market, demand is always a function of price: The higher the price, the lower the demand. What may surprise most politicians is that these rules apply equally to both prices and wages. […]
U.S. Bailout Plan Infringes Upon Basic Property Rights
By Peter D. SchiffGuest ColumnistMoney Morning "Crony capitalism" is a term often applied to foreign nations where government interference circumvents market forces. The practice is widely associated with tin-pot dictators and second-rate economies. In such a system, support for the ruling regime is the best and only path to economic success. Who you know supersedes […]
With Oversized Deficits Almost Certain to Persist, an Investment In America's Future is One Very Tough Sell
By Peter D. SchiffGuest ColumnistMoney Morning Just last week, Team Obama took its financial-crisis dog-and-pony show on the road. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner went to China. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke visited Capitol Hill. And President Barack Obama, himself, embarked on a Mideast tour that started in Saudi Arabia. This full-court press […]
History Will Show That Alan Greenspan Played a Key Role in Creating the U.S. Housing Bubble
By Peter D. SchiffGuest ColumnistMoney Morning Back during the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when the U.S. government issued its now-famous deck of playing cards featuring pictures of the 52 arch villains of the Iraqi police state, Saddam Hussein's face adorned the Ace of Spades. If the Barack Obama administration wanted to engage in a similar […]
Why Simply Changing "Mark to Market" Rules Won't Lead to a Happy Ending
By Peter D. Schiff Guest Columnist Money Morning Money Map Report When elementary school kids want to escape the confines of their circumstances, they pretend to be pirates, princesses and Jedi knights. Now, with the relaxation of "mark to market" valuation rules announced by the accounting trade's self-regulatory body, our bankrupt financial institutions can escape […]
World Turns its Back on the Dollar, as the U.S. Borrows and Spends its Way Into Bankruptcy
By Peter D. SchiffGuest ColumnistMoney Morning For a few fleeting, horrifying moments recently, the fault lines that underlie the global economic crisis erupted into plain view. With deft and quick effort, leaders in Washington, Europe and Asia papered over the fissures and fears largely subsided. But the shock of plain truths that resulted in violent […]
Will the Bailouts Transform Us from Global Superpower to Banana Republic?
By Peter D. SchiffGuest ColumnistMoney Morning There is an old Wall Street adage that no one rings a bell at major market tops or market bottoms. That may be true in normal times, but as many have noticed, we are now completely through the looking glass. In this parallel reality, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben […]
Has Credit Card Cancer Put America on Life Support?
By Peter D. SchiffGuest ColumnistMoney Morning With his recent pronouncement that "credit is the lifeblood of a healthy economy," U.S. President Barack Obama reiterated what has been one of his most common themes in diagnosing our economic problem. President Obama has relied on this bedrock belief to propose policies that place the restoration of credit […]
Why the U.S. Government Should be Cut Off Like a Subprime Borrower
By Peter Schiff Guest Columnist Money Morning With millions of homeowners now struggling to repay money that they clearly never should have borrowed, our leaders have been righteously wagging fingers at predatory lenders who allegedly enticed innocent borrowers, and the country, into a financial snake pit. While the mortgage industry clearly deserves a good share […]
Is President Obama's Banking Bailout Plan Destined to be a Dud?
By Peter D. Schiff Guest Columnist Money Morning There is nearly universal agreement that the opening salvo of the Obama administration's campaign to restore health to the financial system, delivered last week by new U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, fell with a loud and ugly thud. The most common criticism is that the announcement […]
Is the U.S. Bailout Perpetuating the Credit Bubble?
By Peter D. SchiffGuest ColumnistMoney Morning Money Map Report In a speech before the London School of Economics a week ago, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke offered a perverse economic theory in his quest to gather support for never-ending Wall Street bailouts. Said Bernanke: "This disparate treatment, unappealing as it is, appears unavoidable. […]