JKC1967

Some True Safe Havens Are Still (Surprisingly) Undervalued

Mark - I've been reading your articles for some time now and really enjoy your eclectic insights into different markets, especially palladium. As for your attachment to SWC and PAL, you may well end up very rich down the road, with your faith well rewarded (and well deserved). However, near to medium-term, I've got to agree with bod investor that in a deflationary environment everything falls and cash is king. I personally have moved a decent chunk of my portfolio into reverse index and BEAR market funds to hedge my equity funds. That move is saving me now. Then again, in 5 years Mark may be retired in the Caribbean due to his Palladium investments while I'm still schlepping my sorry butt into work every day!

ETFs, Commodities and Dubai

I have been to Dubai three times, and can confirm this issue of cheap labor being used and frequently exploited. What needs to be understood about Dubai though is that its already largely diversified its economy out of oil (the vast majority of oil in the UAE is in its sister Emirate Abu Dhabi). Dubai is unadalterated capitalism in its purest form (no income tax for expats either!), and the economic and financial framework put in place by its Government is just brilliant.

Commodity ETFs as Proxies for Private Money

Mike from ETF Securities: You guys are definitely the most innovative folks in the industry, no doubt. Index Universe has also mentioned you guys quite a bit. However, I believe us US citizens can only buy your shares on the LSE (or other Euro exchange) in a
tax-free retirement account. There are some fairly onerous US tax implications for buying certain kinds of funds - so-called "PFIC Rules" - which make it best to hold many foreign funds and securites in a tax advantaged account like an IRA. I am not 100% sure that ETFs qualify as PFICs, but if they do, its not advisable to hold them in a taxable account.

Gold Heads South for the Short Term

Good common-sense article. It does seem like some factors are stacked up tp push POG down over the next few months, but long-term devaluation of fiat currencies makes POG rise inevitable. Couple questions for the author:

1) Are you advising GLD or GDX (gold stock ETF) holders to sell now, and buy in a few months?

2) Do you, as a general rule, advise holding Gold or Silver directly, or the mining stocks? Also, any sense if the junior miners will ever pop big?

Why Gold Juniors Have Not Yet Popped

This is about the 10th article I've seen on why Juniors haven't popped yet! I think though that unless one has huge amounts of time to devote to this, picking individual junior stocks is too much of a crapshoot. I agree with the first comment from tew, are there any mutual funds or ETFs out there that capture juniors - something like the equivalent of GDX but for juniors??