Although I often make reference to reports and editorials that highlight anecdotal evidence about how bad things are for a growing number of Americans, some visitors to Financial Armageddon would rather see hard data.
In that vein, I offer up the following post by Paul Kedrosky, publisher of the popular Infectious Greed blog, entitled "Modified Misery Index: Now at All-time Highs."
The Peterson Institute has brought back the “misery index”, a combination of the inflation rate and the level of unemployment, and added to it a measure of asset price declines. The upshot? The modified misery index is now at record highs:
[via PI]
MP:
I read the Rogers interview. I have advocated repealing the Federal Reserve Act for 28 years. The monetary base has increased 35.56% in the last six weeks! Deflation, we ain't got none. Got gold? Get more!
Posted by: Independent Accountant | October 29, 2008 at 11:17 PM
I'd like to see a modified misery index include participation rate instead of the much manipulated unemployment rate (not that the inflation rate isn't fiddled as well). Come to think of it - let's redo the whole thing with the shadow statistics over at shadowstats.com :-)
Posted by: Steve | October 30, 2008 at 02:55 AM
Right now the global environment is deflationary.Metals rallied mostly on borrowed money over the last few years. I see a retreat in the price for the next few months at least (you've got to have money to bid the price up). I don't think you'll see gold sub 600, but on the whole, you'll probably need an Armageddon scenario to get it to spike quickly. The burn out in Crude oil is also to blame, as gold has been used as a pseudo proxy for real value.
-As for Jim Rogers?- He's the James Cramer of Commodities. He's been chased out of his own country by angry investors. He'll probably die in a shack in Vietnam once they chase him out of Singapore.
Posted by: Winthrop | October 30, 2008 at 01:47 PM
Also, for those of you who think gold's going bonkers any time soon, look a the crack spread.
If crude declines then gold supine.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/
Posted by: Winthrop | October 30, 2008 at 01:55 PM
Also, for those of you who think gold's going bonkers any time soon, look a the crack spread.
If crude declines then gold supine.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/
Posted by: Winthrop | October 30, 2008 at 01:56 PM