Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

“Gold Counter Cyclical?”

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The title of this segment is actually the subject line of an email sent by subscriber ‘RK’ on Friday, after the post-Payrolls update that included the following statement that RK questioned. From the update…

“Gold is getting clobbered as it should. Let’s please keep it real, because a lot of gold bugs are not going to. The case for gold, silver and commodities rests on an inflationary phase, which strong jobs and wages would indicate out ahead. But for now, the hit to the precious metals is logical.”

The case for commodities (cyclical) always rested on an inflationary phase, but in noting that the same is true for gold it appears that we have deviated from the preferred case for a strong, longer-term precious gold bull; and indeed we have. The point I have been making as the Semiconductor Equipment cycle went positive a few months ago and gold broke down vs. palladium more recently, is that cyclical forces are at work now. That would not be the preferred fundamental environment for gold or gold miners. (more…)

Pro Cras

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Just to show how content creation is always on my mind, here’s this anecdote: last night, I had a dream about meeting famed comedian Patton Oswalt at a bar (yes, normal men have dreams of meeting beautiful supermodels; me, I dream of meeting comedians). In the dream, I persuaded a reluctant Patton to take a photo with me. He was a relatively good sport about it, even though this request happened to him constantly.

The dream was so vivid, that when I woke up, I was relieved to have an easy post for the blog, since I had this really cool picture of me and Patton Oswalt. After a few moments, I realized – – whoops – – there was no meeting, and there is no picture, so……..no post. Aww, screw it, here’s a bad fake:

0807-OSWALT

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