Dear Friends,

This morning gold scored a new all-time high when priced in terms of Euros at the PM London Fix. The situation in Greece, as well as the smoke coming out of Italy, Spain and Portugal, has European investors rightly worried over the stability of the Euro. If you were an investor who had labored over a lifetime to secure an inheritance for your children and were witnessing the cracks appearing in the foundation underlying the Euro, would it not be eminently sensible to seek out a safe haven to protect at least a portion of that wealth? That is precisely what is occurring and why gold is soaring into new highs in Euro terms.

This is the reason that the Prechterites have been consistently wrong and hopelessly misguided since this bull market began way back in 2001. They have called for top after top after top each time pronouncing the bull market in gold dead and resurrecting their “gold is in a bear market rally thesis”. Each time they have sent their followers to the sell table at precisely the moment when gold is seeking a new bottom.

One of the reasons that they have failed is because their analysis is confined primarily to the US Dollar price of gold. By failing to routinely refer to the price of gold in other major currencies, their analysis falls victim to tunnel vision. But beyond that, it is symptomatic of their inability to understand a very basic fact of gold – namely – that gold is a currency and not a commodity during times of financial turmoil.

What we are witnessing in gold is its behavior as such. Investors in Europe, and for that matter, Britain (where gold is back above the 700 level in British Pound terms), are buying gold at a torrid pace because they are afraid. It is really that simple. One can argue that their fears are misguided, exaggerated, overblown, or whatever expression that they might choose to employ but no one can argue against the fact that there is palpable fear in Europe right now. Gold is doing what it always does at such times and always will as long as confidence in paper money evaporates.

Click chart to enlarge in PDF format