Bitcoin’s Looking Great. Gold Not So Much.

A Tale of Two Assets. Plus an update on gold miners.

Today, we are going to look at gold, bitcoin, and our way of playing it, MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), which has now 10xd (!) since we first covered it last year. Amazing.Finally, there’ll be a short update on gold miners. Remember them?

Let’s start with gold.

Gold – and most other metals – has been hit since the U.S. election last week. It’s down $200, or about 7%, with U.S. dollar strength being a big factor (the dollar has been storming higher since October).

While I think this bull market might be punctured, as I put it last week, and that gold probably has a bit further to fall, I am not unduly worried. 2024 has hitherto been a great year for gold, and it remains an essential long-term core holding.

It is an even more essential holding for UK investors. I think sterling has big problems ahead of it, and gold serves as your hedge against crap governments.

Labour or Tory – I’m no fan of either.

They’re both as bad as each other, in my view. The less government there is, the better things run. But that’s irrelevant idealism. Of greater concern here is reality: there has never been a Labour Government that did not devalue sterling.

· Blair and Brown crashed sterling in 2007-8 (though until then their record was okay);

· Under Wilson, Callaghan, and Healey, we ended up going to the IMF in 1976. Callaghan and Wilson also devalued in 1967.

· Cripps and Attlee devalued in 1949.

· Ramsay MacDonald’s National Government, which followed Labour from 1929-31, took us off the gold standard in 1931.

Why should this Labour Government be any different? If anything, it is even less competent. Sterling devaluation is coming. How exactly might not yet be clear. I rather suspect it’ll be an attempt to make us competitive against an ultra-streamlined US, but that’s just a guess. You must own some gold (and some bitcoin) in such an environment: non-government money.

Bitcoin’s Looking Great. Gold Not So Much.

A Tale of Two Assets. Plus an update on gold miners.

Let’s start with gold.

It is an even more essential holding for UK investors. I think sterling has big problems ahead of it, and gold serves as your hedge against crap governments.

Labour or Tory – I’m no fan of either.

· Blair and Brown crashed sterling in 2007-8 (though until then their record was okay);

· Under Wilson, Callaghan, and Healey, we ended up going to the IMF in 1976. Callaghan and Wilson also devalued in 1967.

· Cripps and Attlee devalued in 1949.

· Ramsay MacDonald’s National Government, which followed Labour from 1929-31, took us off the gold standard in 1931.

The other issue is that there are so many federal laws, rules, and regulations, that even the federal government can’t take a step without tripping over red tape.

So how do they expect the private sector to fare any better when the potential presence of the Florida bonneted bat can cause all progress to come crashing down?

They need to take a chainsaw to federal regulations if they want to spur the type of economic growth America needs in order to grow itself out of its debt problem.

Inflation may still be running hot, but the bigger fear now is unemployment.

In his words, the labor market is “unusually balanced” — meaning both supply and demand have slowed, and the downside risk to jobs could hit fast.

That’s the polite way of saying layoffs are already showing up in the data.

So, Powell has caved.

So what happened Friday? A rare “90/90 day.”

That’s when 90% of stocks advanced at the same time – a massive level of market breadth. And when 90% of stocks also rose on heavy volume, suggesting a fundamental shift, not a one-time reaction to news

The absolute bare minimum for a member of Congress is to be a voice for the people of their district.

As a Democrat or Republican, they have certain issues that may feel more important and worthy of time and legislation — but constituents need to be heard too, not just brushed off.

America works best when policies focus on creating a thriving and growing middle class, not supporting an oligarchic donor class.