The Economy Is Slowing?? Railroads Apparently Did not Get The Memo at Value Plays.  I get it, the U.S. economy is moving along at an okay pace.  Regarding the current stimulus, Fed head Lockhart said “If we do not see improvement, more action may be taken.” (Bloomberg).  The Fed’s Evan is not as bold but on the same page (WSJ).

The massive open ended QE announced last week will be increased if the economy does not pick up steam as judged by the labor market.  Look for the first increase to occur near year end 2012 when operation twist runs out.  Parsing fed language will be fun and games until the next U.S. economic slowdown, at which time the printing may become shocking.

“We have entered a new paradigm of direct debt monetization.”  If so, “Your only financial protection from this game-ending disaster is the ownership of physical precious metal.”  TF Metal Report

Yesterday Hans noted throwing around really high precious metal price forecasts was irresponsible.  Consider Barry Ritholtz blog, popular because of great pragmatism:

“Were a USD devaluation and re-pegging to occur as of the end of 2014, following 2 ¼ years of $40 billion monthly MBS debt monetization, we estimate our Shadow Gold Price would approximate $15,000/ounce. (The SGP divides the quantity of USD base money by the quantity of US official gold holdings, as per the Bretton Woods monetary regime.) Over the weekend, Bank of America analysts implied USD base money inflation would increase much more than the Fed announced, to about $5 trillion by the end of 2014.[1] This figure would imply an SGP a bit over $19,000/oz.”  Paul Brodsky at Ritholtz.

Put gold in context of the Dow:Gold ratio:  Goldseek.

Nick Barisheff comments on QE3 & confirms his $10,000 gold price outlook at Gold Silver Worlds.

Have the gold miners reversed a half decade trend of under-performance?  Barron’s

Apple vs gold chart at See It Market.

Gold as money:  What do the experts say?  Washington’s Blog.

New Silver Upleg by Adam Hamilton.

Debt by country:  Ritholtz.

Income producing residential real estate spent significant time in the doghouse last decade.  The fundamentals completely flipped and expect this to continue indefinitely.  Sober Look