After another FOMC meeting and another 75-basis point rise, inflation remains elevated.

Another meeting of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is now behind us. Learn more about the outcome here.

The long term economic effects of the coronavirus lockdowns could last for months, if not years, and the counter-intuitive occasional brief recoveries in the general equities markets could morph into huge falls in stock prices over many months.  If equities look to be potentially in freefall this could well lead to a surge in some precious metals prices once the realization begins to sink in. 

Volatile equities are what we are already experiencing in U.S. markets as the coronavirus count of infections and deaths seems to be ever-growing.

As 2020 progresses, the anticipation of a possible change in the U.S. Presidency will have an increasing effect on precious metals prices.

<p>As the new decade begins, precious metals have started the year well ahead of the January 2019 levels, but mostly still showing lower gains than equities until the past few days when external factors caused precious metals prices to spike. Thus it is interesting to look back at some of the drivers that have, or have not, had much of an impact over 2019. Why should people invest in a different asset class when equities had seemed to be moving on what seems to be an inexorable upwards path? We also thus look forward at which drivers may most affect precious metals and equities performances in the year ahead and their likely impacts.</p>

Equity market performance over the past year is illuminative and should flag some serious warnings for investors. Read more here.

One of the great mysteries for the precious metals investor during the latest gold price run up is why silver is currently underperforming.

I was privileged to attend Grant Williams' presentation on the gold standard at the Mines & Money meeting in London titled, 'Cry Wolf'. Read more here.

Peak gold the time when global gold new output starts to diminish whereas annual production has mostly risen for decades. Read more here.