Here are the final closing prices for 2012 on Kitco:
Here are New Year’s Day prices in the cash markets:
Gold and silver finished on a high note for the year. If the pattern in January in 2013 follows what transpired in January 2012, gold and silver should do very well indeed.
Fiat currency without a gold relationship, 2013 forward.
It was brought to my attention today that there is still a great deal of confusion over the cause of hyperinflation and its timing. I have mentioned this several times, and it is important enough to mention it again.
Inflation is a monetary event, not an economic event. Jim Sinclair puts it this way: currency induced cost-push inflation. Prices will rise as holders of the US Dollar lose faith in the currency and dump it for anything tangible. All that supports the dollar these days is “confidence.” Once the confidence disappears, and at the rate the Fed is creating new money out of thin air it will happen sooner than most of you think.
The crash of the dollar to and below 70.0 on the USDX will not be a slow and drawn-out event and the fall will not be smooth and linear. The only things holding up the dollar now are the reckless policies of the other currencies; the yen, yuan, and the euro. All of them, along with the dollar, are debasing at an accelerating rate. We have called this “competitive devaluation,” for years and that is what is still going on now, without regard to the consequences. The consequences will be hyperinflation. Bill Holter thinks so, Gerald Celente thinks so and John Williams thinks so. If you bet against these gentlemen, and you are wrong, you lose virtually everything. If you go along with their views, even if they are wrong, and we sure hope that they will be, you will prosper as a major participant of the ongoing bull market in gold and silver. You win either way.
RE: The dollar and “dump it for anything tangible…” I am of a generation that can still remember when our money was made of silver. When I was a boy one of the first things parents taught you was the value, and importance, of saving. Almost all children back in those days had a savings account. But soon after they stopped making silver coins, and we went off the Gold Standard, that all changed. Use to be you put a dollar in the bank and a year later it was worth $1.05 (yes the banks paid you 5% interest). But now, you put a dollar in the bank and next year it is only worth .95 cents. Those of us who are paying attention lost faith in the dollar a long time ago… But as they say, there’s a snowball affect with regards to inflation. It excellerates in the later stage. Inflation has been going on for years, but now I believe we are about to enter the hyper snow ball phase. I read “When Money Dies” (about Weimar Germany’s inflation). Things can get VERY ugly when inflation goes hyper..