Thursday, January 19, 2012

U.S. Money Supply and Inflation

Simit Patel at Seeking Alpha talks about the apparent increase in the U.S. money supply.

His take is that an inflationary money supply coupled with geopolitical pressures against the dollar will keep gold above $1520 and oil above $90, with strong upsides for commodities in general.  Another sensible point he makes is that the pain of deflation will not be allowed in an election year.  I think that is the way the Fed and the federal government probably look at it that way.

For those of us out here in flyover territory, inflation is painful.  But we are not the financiers pumping money into campaigns and smoking cigars with Bernanke so we really don't count.  With unemployment remaining high, we can probably avoid the worst of inflation for perhaps another year.  That's what the Fed is counting on.  If oil goes to $145 or higher as Patel speculates, though, there appears to be no room left in the margins and retail prices are going to catch fire. 

It's all speculation, but it's a good reminder to keep the stockpile of necessities at the max.

4 comments:

  1. We will be making our first gold purchase tomorrow. Locked in a price yesterday with a dealer. More to follow. I've declared my wife the "Silver Queen" since she wants some silver "street money" as well. She is tasked with researching a silver purchase. The whole process has been rather fun but a bit of an effort with the research and the transferring of assets. It takes some time.

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  2. It sounds like a plan. I am a silver fan myself. And I think you have time still to be careful and cautious.

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  3. I can see continuing to buy silver on a regular basis after we set up this Gold IRA. And, if you save enough silver, no reason you can't buy gold with it. I guess what I like the most is that we're able to DO SOMETHING rather than helplessly watch the stocks flop around and wait for the value to inflate away. Anyway, if, in 20 years, gold and silver are doing poorly then the economy is probably doing well and that would be good news for everyone. So, it's a win either way.

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  4. That's true. Just to clarify my comment, gold is good, I just think silver is pretty in terms of the metal itself. I actually like silver better as jewelry.

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