“I hate gold.  It does not pay a dividend, it has no value, and you can’t work out what it should or shouldn’t be worth,” he said. “It is the last refuge of the desperate.”

— Jeremy Grantham, after admitting he just bought some last weekend

The Globe and the Mail has an interview from last summer with trading guru Dennis Gartman, and since I erroneously slammed him in an earlier post entitled, ‘Dennis Gartman: Gold On Its Way Down,’ because I thought he was just talking his portfolio, I’m posting this interview to make up for my mistake. It’s quite interesting in hindsight. If only I’d read it before jumping into UNG….

(At least, I did wait until the winter to jump in, but the contango issue was worse than I thought, as he indicates). Continue reading →

Update:

I wrote this piece before reading about the EU ban.  I have to revise my opinion in light of that. Gartman wasn’t just talking his book, as I thought initially. My apologies.

CNBC  has this from hedge fund manager and newsletter writer, Dennis Gartman:

“Investors should get out of gold immediately as the metal reaches a technical top and is due for a pullback, says Dennis Gartman, hedge fund manager and author of The Gartman Letter Continue reading →

Now it’s the turn of film producer Joel Silver to sue Goldman Sachs….leading to headlines that are probably not in the best of taste, if irresistible to logophiles.

Aside: I may be wrong but this looks like a deal that was contingent on finding financing for it, so I don’t know how good a legal case it makes. But there you have the problem with scape-goats, even one so worthy of the role as Goldman Sachs. A whole system, a whole economy, cannot be corrupted solely (and wholly) by one outfit, not unless you subscribe to a “devil theory” of history. Continue reading →

Pam Martens at Counterpunch:

“According to Mr. Duffy, there were 1.6 million (yes, million) contracts traded in the E-Mini S&P 500 in the pivotal hour of 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. New York time.  Each E-Mini trades at 50 times the level of the S&P 500 futures price.  At 1100 on the S&P, that would be $55,000 per contract or about $88 billion (yes, billion) in one hour, an astonishing amount. Continue reading →

It’s a strange world when financial writers take to mythology and prophecy….and seem no less credible than anyone else you read in the mainstream media. Thus,  trader Rick Ackerman:

“According to several prophetic sources, seismic activity is building towards an impending planetary event (worldwide) – the shifting of the axis of rotation of the Earth, which some sources indicate is forecast to occur in the 4th quarter of 2012. Continue reading →