President Donald Trump is not wasting any time: the negative trade deficit is public enemy number one. Not only did Trump show that he means business by declaring war on the Mexicans as he threatened to impose an import tax on Mexican goods, the same fate awaited China and later Germany: all countries that currently have a positive trade balance. Trump blames the negative trade balance for the disappearance of American manufacturing jobs. Why is Trump completely wrong? And what are the... »

After manipulating the silver price for many years, it recently came to light that Deutsche Bank has also manipulated the gold price. At least, that is what happened if were to believe the multitude of gold blogs. Deutsche Bank was sued because of an alleged manipulation of the Gold Fix and the troubled German bank decided to settle the case. With the risk of being called stupid, evil or a tool, I will tell you a little secret: Deutsche Bank is innocent. The idea that Deutsche Bank

Do you know which were the best performing markets of 2016? Which investments showed the most impressive annual returns? The answer might surprise you: the Brazilian Bovespa was one of the outperformers, together with the Russian Micex-index (I have been investing in Russia for the past two years.) These two stock markets rose by almost 70% and 60% respectively in 2016. Oil (WTI) follows suit, with an annual return exceeding 40% (oil prices came from extreme lows.) The WTI oil price narrowed the gap with Brent oil, which rose “only” 20%. Other assets worth mentioning are copper, U.S. high-yield bonds (or “junk bonds,” about which I warned earlier), silver, the S&P 500 stock market index, and at a respectable distance, gold. How likely is it that the best performing assets in 2016... »