Phantasmix (aka Re: money)

The Fed finally admitted that the inflation is higher than previously announced. Even the lemur is surprised!

LOL i just think this vid is funny lame tie-in with the money topic.

Wikipedia: “Inflation is defined as the increase in the price of some set of goods and services in a given economy over a period of time. It is measured as the percentage rate of change of a price index. A variety of inflation measures are in use, because there are many different price indices, designed to measure different sets of prices that affect different people. Two widely known indices for which inflation rates are commonly reported are the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures nominal consumer prices, and the GDP deflator, which measures the nominal prices of goods and services produced by a given country or region.”

There’s this method of figuring out commodity valuations: you take an index value (i.e., DOW) and divide it by the price of a commodity in question and see how much you can buy. Often oil and gold are compared using this index “buying ability”. I don’t know if there’s an official name to this method/formula.

Since hard assets (commodities) are usually a better indicator of inflation than paper assets (stocks and bonds) this can be an interesting inflation exercise.

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Here’s why selling out is dangerous

I’m buying small amounts of gold and silver bullion: not enough to seriously hedge anything, just for the peace of mind. If there’s ever famine and depression, this should hold us up for a short while

Physical bullion can be bought from Kitco, mints such as NorthWest Territorial, on Ebay or locally from a bank.

Scotia Bank sells precious metals; TD Bank sells Precious Metals Certificates.

Do you see anything wrong with this chart?

U.S. Dollar to Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate - 3 Month Chart
Click to enlarge

So the U.S. dollar suddenly - in less than a week - gains what was lost over a course of a month. Is this a joke? With all the financial problems in the U.S. and quite strong Canadian economy (just reported better than expected retail sales and unemployment steady at the lowest level in 30 years), it’s obvious that the U.S. dollar should continue dropping against Canadian dollar. Especially since U.S. $ is still going down against all other major currencies. So the Canadian buck was singled out for the rescue operation. (Do you think Bush’s devoted friend Harper has something to do with this?)

Conspiracy theories aside, if this is not blatant manipulation, I don’t know what is!