Last week, the gold price closed near $1,325 per troy ounce, which is remarkable, since gold prices broke convincingly through the $1300-barrier after New Year’s Eve. Gold prices rallied even further by another three percent, topping $1340/oz, but slightly retreated last week. The motive? Everything appears to be awesome again on stock markets and Trump – insofar the rumors go – is nearing a tough fought trade agreement with the Chinese to resolve an impending all-out trade war. But this

This week, I wanted to highlight the United States auto industry. In 2008, the real estate market was the main culprit: everyone was talking about the “subprime” mortgage-crisis. Subprime involves riskier borrowers with lower credit scores. Two years ago, I emphatically said that it this time around a recession will not revolve around subprime mortgages, but more than anything else subprime auto loans. And this is especially remarkable given the fact that in 2008 various large American

The stock market has been characterized by a decade-long complacency. The longest ever bull market in the history of the stock market has led to a curious situation in which bears are dismissed as gloomy alarmists, more or less ranked alongside wearers of tinfoil hats, astrologists and other types of conspiracy theorists. That might be the case for the moment, but that does not mean that we are wrong or that bears will be dismissed forever. By the time the current market will reach its violent end, hindsight bias – rationalizing any event after the fact – will assure that bulls await a similar fate. Whatever those short sellers from the stunning Oscar-nominated movie The Big Short knew, was something that more or less everybody knew, right? That these statements are far from the