Put aside the rise in US interest rates, GDP and Fed tapering talk. Just glance at the rest of this summer’s headlines, and you’d think it offered a bull market for ‘hard money’ gold and silver.
1. Japan is doubling its monetary base inside two years, while the People’s Bank of China has taken to one-day injections of almost $3 billion for the financial system, boosting shares after a scary jump in bank interest rates.
2. Wage talks in South Africa’s gold mining industry stalled Monday, with management offering 5% where the unions want a raise of 60-100%.
3. Giant banks who swerved around the financial crisis 5 years ago are now risking a crash in summer 2013. Barclays bank — “widely regarded as UK’s strongest” according to the BBC — is nearly £13bn short of capital requirements (almost $20bn). Deutsche Bank paid €630m ($830m) in April-to-June alone to settle lawsuits from customers mis-sold rubbish US mortgage investments.