I apologize for harping on the price of gold and how it will have a big effect on SLI, but there are different views expressed regarding the US recovery from the recession and how it impacts with the present price of gold. I am inclined to believe that the massive money printing by the USA will eventually lead to a breakthrough in gold and silver, and possibly a feeding frenzy if the US dollar ceases to be the currency of international trade and commerce. I am not alone in thinking the price of gold and silver are near the bottom, and the junior minors in particular are poised for a recovery. Devaluation of the Euro are right now causing funds to be taken out of bank or trading accounts and placed into US treasuries or gold. Eventually the US debt will impact US treasuries and the flow into gold will demonstrate the only safe haven. Once interest rates rise, the cost of government funding the money printing is already and will become more unsustainable.

The present effect of money printing has made the wealthy wealthier and has obviously made things worse for the middle and lower income groups.

The US Democratic Party is inclined to believe that recovery is just around the corner, but with the US debt to gross domestic product ratio about the same as Spain, I would welcome thoughts that would support that view. This has occurred because the present US government emphatically supports the economic theory written by Keynes that by controlling money supply and interest rates, government is able to round out the normal cyclical market (and therefore price) fluctuations. This equation IMO doesn’t factor in greed, emotion and ego into the system. These excerpts below, I think explain the mechanisms well.

Gold money Author: Chris Marcus

“When a government spends more than it collects it runs a deficit. The deficit needs to be financed and the three primary methods are taxation, borrowing, and money printing.

Money printing is arguably the worst of the three options. The most obvious problem with this is that it destroys the purchasing power of currency, discouraging saving and hurting people such as retirees who often rely on supposedly “risk free” cash and fixed-income investments. It doesn’t take many years for even supposedly modest rates of inflation to make serious dents in people’s purchasing power. 4% inflation for 17 years will cut the value of a currency in half. In the worst-case scenario, inflation spirals completely out of control, resulting in a currency collapse and widespread impoverishment.

Newly created money is never evenly distributed across an economy. Those who get to spend the new money first will have an advantage over those who receive the new money last. This is the so called “Cantillon Effect” – named after Richard Cantillon, the 18th century Irish economist. Those first receivers of the new money – typically government, big banks and the financial sector generally, as well as in some cases politically well-connected corporations – benefit at the expense of the rest of society.

Those with the smarts and financial know-how can survive and indeed thrive in such an inflationary environment, protecting their wealth by purchasing gold and other precious metals, as well as land, fine art, and other “hard” assets. But those without the knowledge or financial wherewithal see their savings and income slowly eaten away by inflation

The lower interest rate is the result of the increased supply of money (the scarcity of money is decreased and therefore the amount that someone would pay to acquire those funds also decreases) and leads entrepreneurs to take on projects that would have otherwise been unprofitable at a market interest rate. That a project can be funded at market interest rates is a sign that there is sufficient demand for it as represented by real savings. An example of this can be seen in how subprime borrowers could meet low teaser payments when interest rates were artificially low, but once the Fed tried to normalize rates many of these debtors became insolvent.

The best idea would be to avoid deficits altogether, and allow capital to be controlled by private entrepreneurs where the free market can determine what activities should and should not be pursued – rather than relying on central banks to determine an ideal interest rate. The brilliance of the market is that when it is allowed to function, supply and demand curves represent the collective preferences of all participants, and allow real supply to meet real demand.”