This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Jim Jubak (MSN Money): 3-step strategy for a twitchy market, November 19, 2009. Many investors are deeply suspicious of the 60% run-up in stocks this year and are itching to sell. But then what? Here’s how to take some gains now while setting up a profitable 2010.

• Randall Forsyth (Barron’s): Treasury yield plunge sends warning, November 20, 2009. Collapse in note yields suggests economic distress will keep Fed on hold well into 2010 or beyond.

• Gordon Chang (Forbes): When in doubt, blame Bernanke, November 19, 2009. According to Liu Mingkang, China’s chief bank regulator, low American interest rates and the falling dollar have “seriously affected global asset prices, fueled speculation in stock and property markets

Chuck Butler, regular analyst at The Daily Reckoning, offers an analysis of why the ‘Audit the Fed’ amendment to a $200 billion deficit plan spooked the currencies markets this week.

Chuck Butler (The Daily Reckoning): As I checked the currencies throughout the day yesterday, I noticed that as the day went on, the non-dollar currencies were stronger, led by the Big Dog, euro (EUR)… But then late last night, and I mean late last night, I checked them, and those gains had been wiped out.

So, when I arrived here this morning, I had one thing on the top of my list of things to do, and that was to find out what happened… Come on, I said to myself, it had to be more than the “risk on, risk off” stuff that’s been hanging over the markets like the Sword of Damocles! But, when you

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): Is $6,300 fair value for gold? November 19, 2009. The last parabolic spike in gold took off when central banks joined the fray in the 1970s, hoarding bullion with the same enthusiasm as gold bugs. Dylan Grice from Société Générale says it smells much the same today. He sees an eerie similarity between the decision of India’s central bank to buy half the IMF’s entire sale of gold, and the move by France’s central bank to start converting dollars into gold in 1965.

• Gregory Zuckerman (The Wall Street Journal): John Paulson making big new bet on gold, November 19, 2009. John Paulson, who scored about $20 billion of profits between 2007 and early

Ron Paul talks with Larry King about Michael Moore’s view of capitalism, foreign policy, and health care.

Source: CNN (via YouTube), October 29, 2009.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, click here to subscribe to updates to Investment Postcards from Cape Town by e-mail.

Currencies rebound VS the dollar…Aussie and kiwi lead the currencies higher…Data and Central Bank speeches today…Gold rebounds back to $1,000! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you… Instead of a “turn around Tuesday”, we’re seeing a whiplash Wednesday! And for once in a month of Sundays, the Big Dog, euro didn’t lead the other little dogs (currencies) off the porch to chase the dollar down the street!

No… This time it was the currencies of Australia and New Zealand that led the charge VS the dollar… The euro has taken up the charge since opening the doors to a new day of trading in Europe, so… It looks like it’s a “take the dollar to the woodshed day”…

OK… Let’s start first with the goings on yesterday and then build to a big crescendo! Yeah, right, like I can do that! HA! Any way…

As a reminder, yesterday we

The following comments come from Chris Powell of Gold AntiTrust Action (GATA):

During last Friday’s hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on his legislation to audit the Federal Reserve System, US Rep. Ron Paul asked the Fed’s general counsel, Scott G. Alvarez, whether the Fed has ever been involved in the gold market. Four days earlier GATA had disclosed the Fed’s admission that it has records of its “gold swap arrangements” with “foreign banks” that it wants to conceal from the public. (Click here.)

Replying to Paul, Alvarez professed to have no expertise in the matter of intervention in the gold market but added that he could get Paul such information. Paul replied that one purpose of his audit legislation was to determine whether the US government was intervening in the gold market by using other governments as intermediaries.

That surely is

A Wild and Wacky Wednesday…FOMC leave stimulus and QE in place…Will G-20 try to throw cold water on commodities? GATA receives a letter from the Fed…And Now… Today’s Pfennig

Good day… And a Thunderin’ Thursday to you! It’s Thundering and raining here, so I felt that naming today a “Thunderin’ Thursday” was bang on! We had a wild and wacky Wednesday yesterday, with the Fed Heads playing the part of the court jester… And… I want to know, right here, right now, why the media isn’t blasting Fed Head Honcho Big Ben Bernanke! I’ll tell you why they should be, in a minute…

OK… As I said, we had a wild and wacky Wednesday yesterday, as

In general I liked the speech, but think that the steps he has proposed are, at best, only a good first step. I hope that the proposals are strengthened in Congress, but have zero hope of that happening. More likely they will be watered down significantly. The end result is that we will face another market meltdown in the future; the only question is when.

Regulation of the financial industry is one of those extremely important, yet dry and dull subjects, that the general public will ignore, and the lobbyists will own. The bank lobby is extremely powerful and is going to fight things tooth and nail. Obama got a distinctly cool reception from the financial executives in the audience, with only a single round of applause.

However, one year after the government spent hundreds

Currencies have strong rally!  Trade Deficit jumps 16.3% in July!  HR 1207 Gets a hearing!  Gold gets back to $1,000! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Happy Friday to one and all! Today is Patriot Day in the U.S. and a day that brings back memories of cowardly attacks on our country 8 years ago. I remember the shock and horror on everyone’s faces, and that image will remain with me to the grave. I also remember trying to write the Pfennig the “day after”… It just didn’t seem that important of a thing to do, but a reader told me that to keep things as “normal” as possible was the best thing I could do… So… I wrote…

OK… The currencies, and this time I mean the majority of them not just euro and yen, added to their gains this week VS the dollar yesterday… The Big Dog, euro, is once again

A big piece of not so surprising news was released today; president Obama has decided to nominate Ben Bernanke for a second term as fed chairman. This is a sad day indeed, as Mr. Bernanke’s financial shenanigans have caused many economic analysts and market pundits much consternation.

Frankly, Mr. Bernanke has as been outright dishonest about his financial policy. He has continuously revoked Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by several news organizations claiming that the Federal Reserve is above the law, and that the FOIA doesn’t apply to him or the Fed.

There is some good news however. According to my sources, Congressman Ron Paul has started an “audit the Fed” campaign to see just what chariman Bernanke is doing with your money. Of course, the comatose Barney Frank will not let the bill out of committee to be voted upon, but that may soon change.

A federal judge ruled that