Past week I had the pleasure to spend many hours with one of the investors I admire most, legendary contrarian and adventurer Jim Rogers. He visited Guatemala for a few days, as he was invited by the Francisco Marroquín University to accept his honorary doctorate (honoris causa). Jim Rogers is the author of many books, including “Hot Commodities: How Anyone Can Invest Profitably in the World’s Best Market,” and invests in gold since the late 90’s, just before the great commodity bull

0.25 percent. That is where the official rate stood before the April-meeting and that is exactly where it stands now, two weeks after the meeting. When you carefully read the Fed’s press release of the April-meeting, you can almost see the Fed struggle. What do I mean?

Negative interest rates are a first step toward what economist Ludwig von Mises once described as a “crack-up boom,” a flight to hard assets. The demand for bank deposits plummets. People pull their money out of the system in large numbers by either withdrawing cash or buying “hard assets.” Yet for the former, it appears the European Central Bank (ECB) already found a solution. The ECB suggested this solution en passant, mere months after the ECB lowered interest rates to negative for the first time ever. And what this solution looks like, is certainly not a reassuring thought for middle-class savers.... »