Finance Trends Letter

In the latest issue of Fortune (Feb. 6 2006) there is an article by Matt Miller that takes an interesting point of view on the Abramoff scandal and the issue of corporate lobbying. Here's a quote: "A company's return on lobbying and campaign contributions - let's call it return on political investment, or ROPI - is astronomically higher than any real investment it can make!" See the link for the rest of the article.

The story of the American inflation of the 1960s and 70's is catalogued in Jim Dines' excellent 1975 book, The Invisible Crash. Since we've started out by talking about gold, I thought I'd include this review of Dines' hidden classic. Here's a brief bit from the opening so you know what you're getting into: "author James Dines of the highly regarded “Dines Letter” puts the inflation of the 1960s and ‘70s into historical perspective. Pressing the case for investment in gold shares, Mr. Dines argued against the unsound monetary structure of that time and warned readers to prepare for the wealth eroding effects of an inflationary depression. "

John Hathaway, of Tocqueville Asset Management and manager of the Tocqueville Gold Fund, summarizes the development of the gold market's bull run up to this point and gives us his view as to how things might progress. Hathaway notes that a certain complacency still pervades the gold and gold share market. See especially his figures regarding gold's above ground market value in relation to financial assets. I think the chart that illustrates this point could be one of the next heavily circulated graphics that we'll see making the rounds at gold conferences and investment presentations. I'll let him do the rest of the talking : John Hathaway on gold

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