When Greg McCoach Picks Mining Stocks, It's Location, Location, Location

The Gold Report: When we last spoke in February, you were predicting a new round of quantitative easing (QE), which we've been seeing the last few weeks. Where do you think this is all going to end up?

Greg McCoach: The latest QE3 is open-ended, allowing the Federal Reserve to create money every month, indefinitely. QE3 was announced just a few weeks ago and already there is talk about QE4. So, in my opinion, this is the death spiral of the U.S. dollar.

The same thing is going on in Europe and Japan. It's very troubling and, in my opinion, totally unsustainable. But, trying to predict a timeline for the ultimate demise is almost impossible. This stuff could last another couple of years. Adding in the derivative problems on top of all this debt, it's just sheer insanity. So, where is gold going? It's going way higher because this is the ultimate dynamic that will guide the investment world for the coming years.

TGR: Is there any realistic solution, or are they just getting us deeper into the hole, and ultimately everything is just going to cave in on top of us?

"At some point I know gold and silver prices are going to go way higher than where they are now."

GM: The days of being able to fix this are long past. I had a chance conversation with a U.S. senator and, when I asked him about the debts and deficit spending, he admitted that everybody in Washington and New York knows that there's no possible way to pay this back. So, essentially all the politicians are hoping it doesn't blow up on their watch. Continue reading "When Greg McCoach Picks Mining Stocks, It's Location, Location, Location"

Gold Chart of the Week

Each week Longleaftrading.com will be providing us a chart of the week as analyzed by a member of their team. We hope that you enjoy and learn from this new feature.

Weekly Gold Report (October 15 through October 19)

I stand corrected and I do not mind admitting it. The past few weeks, I have been suggesting that December Gold would see short dips being bought and would likely rally through $1800 an ounce in the near future. We begin this week trading below $1750 an ounce and I am somewhat surprised. While today’s low is seen as a decent support level off of the September 26th price, I am still left questioning whether Gold’s hangover will continue.

Normally I try to fill this report with a review of last week’s fundamentals to explain the trade, but I will spare you the boredom. Here is a “Cliff’s Notes” version of the reports and action last week from the United States, Europe, and China. In the United States, the idea of QE3 (printing US Dollars and purchasing debt) has now officially faded as most markets have corrected the move up. On top of that, the huge Michigan Consumer Confidence number only resulted in a thirty second rally, followed by a selloff to finish the week. In Europe, there is one thing only to report. That is that for the sixth week straight, the market continues to worry about whether or not Spain will request a bailout and allow the ECB to buy Spanish debt and reduce borrowing costs. Thankfully, none of the traders that I know are holding their breath waiting for a final answer from Spain. And in China, the reports continue to be one question mark after the next. So what are we left with? We are left trading technicals in lighter volume that are still driven by HFT programs. I believe that if we do not hear about a formal request for a bailout from Spain soon, that we may have to wait until after the US Presidential Elections before the market environment changes. Continue reading "Gold Chart of the Week"

Casey Analyst Forecasts Explosive Biotech Growth

The Life Sciences Report: At Casey Research's "Navigating the Politicized Economy" summit, you talked about the difference between the speed of science and the speed of technology, and how quickly the time to market and cost of products in the life sciences space is decreasing. Can you provide some examples?

Alex Daley: Many technologies, like the touch-screen tablets and smartphones that now dominate the market, seem to come out of nowhere, perpetuating the myth of technology as almost magical. But you only have to look as far as the as-yet-unfulfilled promises of recent years to see the slow development curve that leads to explosive growth. This has been most noticeable in the advent of genetic medicine.

We all remember the sequencing of the human genome as a scientific milestone. Announced in 2000, just at the turn of the millennium, it was followed by much media fanfare about the dawn of genetic medicine. Every untreatable disease was going to be cured. Every person was going to receive medicine tailored to his or her unique makeup. Continue reading "Casey Analyst Forecasts Explosive Biotech Growth"

Navigating the US's Politicized Economy

By Terry Coxon, Casey Research

Absent the state's involvement in the workings of the marketplace, an investor's central task would be to evaluate companies for their ability to efficiently produce and market what customers want. Shrewdness at that one task would lead to the profits investors are looking for. And there would be other consequences.

The stocks of companies that succeeded in convincing investors that they had the right stuff (primarily through good performance) would be bid up. Stocks of companies that failed to make their case to investors would tend to drift down, and any company whose stock drifted low enough would become a takeover target. A takeover would replace underperforming management with a new team of officers and directors – individuals picked by the people who laid out their own money to buy enough shares to control the company.

That's how things work when the government isn't a player in the process. It's a marvel of efficiency and impartiality. Managers who serve investors by serving customers are rewarded. Investors who identify such managers are rewarded. Unskilled managers eventually lose the corporate positions that enable them to make wasteful, money-losing decisions. And investors who are blind to management weakness or who forgive it too willingly lose their own money. Continue reading "Navigating the US's Politicized Economy"

John Williams on Lies, Damned Lies and the 7.8% Unemployment Rate

The Gold Report: John, as Mark Twain famously quipped, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just came out with new jobs numbers that show the country added 114,000 jobs since September and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8%, down from 8.1% in August. On Shadowstats.com, you argue that the numbers are wrong and pointed to politics as a possible reason for the incorrect figures. Are unemployment statistics being manipulated and if so how?

John Williams: I normally put out a commentary on the numbers, and, in this one, I raised the possibility of politics as a factor. The problem is very serious misreporting of the numbers and the result is what appears to be a bogus unemployment rate. The BLS reported a drop in the unemployment rate from 8.1% to 7.8%, three-tenths of a percentage point, which runs counter to what is being experienced in the marketplace.

What few people realize is that the headline unemployment rate is calculated each month using a unique set of seasonal adjustments. The August unemployment rate, which was 8.1%, was calculated using what BLS calls a "concurrent seasonal factor adjustment." Each month the agency recalculates the series to adjust for regular seasonal patterns tied to the school year or holiday shopping season or whatever is considered relevant. The next month, it does the same thing using another set of seasonal factors. Rather than publish a number that's consistent with the prior month's estimate, it recalculates everything, including the previous month, but it doesn't publish the revised number from the previous month. Continue reading "John Williams on Lies, Damned Lies and the 7.8% Unemployment Rate"