September 15th, 2008, a day that will live in infamy. Famous words, much the same, made in 1941 by our President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the one year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse approaches, I find myself looking at the economic picture and wondering if we really dodged a bullet or if we traded in our single shot rifle pointed at our head for an semi automatic? Did we really just blow up the asteroid, on a crash collision with Earth, or just shatter it into a million more deadly pieces? Our government, Treasury and Federal Reserve all claim we have averted disaster, apparently the recession is over. I would be thrilled to believe this, I truly would, but let us look at the facts.

As I look over my notes and calculations I find some interesting issues and facts popping up. For instance, would it surprise any of you …

Gold hit the big “quadruple digits” while we were all relaxing on Labor Day. To be sure, it was just the December contract, which has since pulled back to US$997. But we haven’t seen US$1,000 since February, back when we had an insolvent financial system and a meddling government printing trillions like toilet paper.

Nowadays, we’ve got an insolvent financial system and a meddling government…but we’ve also got a questionable stock market rally too (one driven by the unprecedented volume on bailout stocks, might I add). Throw in growing Chinese demand and jewelry-buying season in India, and you just might be looking at a foothold in the US$1,000/ounce range.

“My forecast for gold in 2010 is $1,250 to $1,350 an ounce,” says our Investment Director Eric Roseman, “I think we’re long overdue for a major break-out north of $1,000 that will easily crack the March 2008 all-time