Gold hits $1000: Dollar drops to year low/ interview op' (Guest in Pacific Time)
Gold prices topped $1,000 an ounce and the dollar hit a low for the year.
As traditional investments continue to slide, investors are rushing to safe havens.
Millions of Americans are wondering why gold prices have tripled since 2001 and if this gold rush will continue.
According to The Associated Press (see article below), “China and Russia have been vocal this year about the need to diversify reserves away from the dollar as its value dropped. Chinese officials have called for the creation of a new global reserve currency by the International Monetary Fund.”
Swiss America CEO CRAIG R. SMITH is available as your Talk Show guest to offer your audience insight based on his 35 years of experience in the gold market, first explained in his book, “Rediscovering Gold in the 21st Century,” released in 2001.
"$1,000 an ounce gold signals the world has lost confidence in paper currencies, the federal government and Wall Street. The commodity super-cycle has swept gold prices to triple since 2001 -- but that's just the kickoff phase," says Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith told CNBC recently he believes gold will rise to $1,200 by the end of this year and to around $2,300 in the next few years.
"Gold traditionally does well when people's confidence is waning," Smith says. "They know if they can hold an ounce of gold in their hands that Bernie Madoff is not going to run off with it!"
The era of paper currencies and complicated structured investments is giving way to a new era of tangible assets. Gold is emerging as a preferred asset class in a world drowning in debt. Gold serves the public as a true barometer of public confidence worldwide.
In the 80’s and 90’s cash was king. But in the 21st century gold became an alternative to paper currencies, zero returns and stock market volatility. A major economic paradigm shift occurred in 2001 and has gained momentum every year since.
In reality according to Craig, the value of gold hasn’t gone up; it’s the world's paper currencies that have gone down! For example, between 1792 and 1933 either a $20 gold piece or a $20 bill would buy a fine suit of clothing. A $20 gold piece will still buy a fine $1,000 suit, but today’s $20 bill will not even buy a nice tie.
Mr. Smith's RARE OPPORTUNITY educational DVD discusses why gold is rising and offers steps to take before buying and is available at no charge by calling: 800-950-2428
ABOUT CRAIG SMITH…
Craig R. Smith is the Chairman and founder of www.OilSolution.org and author of Black Gold Stranglehold, the book written in 2005 that predicted today’s high oil prices. As an oil and economic analyst, Craig instantly engages audiences with his common-sense perspective on national and global economic trends. Over the past two decades he has been interviewed on over 1,500 radio and TV programs including: FOX News, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CBN, TBN, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Newsweek.
THE FOLLOWING IS AN ARTICLE FOR SHOW PREP:
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/ September 8, 2009, 11:21 am EDT
Dollar hits low for year as gold tops $1,000 an ounce
By Tali Arbel, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The dollar fell to a low for the year Tuesday as gold prices shot past $1,000 an ounce and investors switched funds into riskier investments.
Commitments from global leaders this weekend to continue underwriting the global recovery helped drive investors away from the "safe haven" dollar and into emerging-market currencies and equities, analysts said.
The 16-nation euro rose as high as $1.4498 in morning trading, its strongest level this year, from $1.4337 late Monday.
The British pound rose to $1.6547 from $1.6335, while the dollar dropped to 92.15 Japanese yen from 92.96 yen.
The dollar index fell as low as 77.10 against a basket of six major world currencies that includes the euro, yen, Canadian dollar, British pound, Swedish krona and Swiss franc. That's its lowest since last September.
Markets have been rising after finance officials from the Group of 20 leading economies pledged to maintain government spending, low interest rates and expansion of the money supply in order to buck up the global economy. The ministers met this weekend in London.
Those moves could help boost economic activity and liquidity in financial markets, but can weigh on the value of a currency. The current U.S. rate near zero means investors can earn better returns on their funds in countries with higher yields, such as, for example, Poland, Turkey, Brazil and Australia.
"People are loading up on high-yielders," said Win Thin, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, as they get more optimistic about the global economy's growth outlook.
The price of gold, meanwhile, shot past $1,000 an ounce for the first time since February. Gold for December delivery peaked at $1,009.40, the highest since March 2008, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold is often used as a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar.
A report from a United Nations agency released on Monday also called for a reduced role for the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency.
Investors could also have been weighing a report from the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, released Monday, which called an international monetary system that relied on a national currency as a reserve asset a "weakness."
China and Russia have been vocal this year about the need to diversify reserves away from the dollar as its value dropped. Chinese officials have called for the creation of a new global reserve currency by the International Monetary Fund.
Some positive data out of Europe also helped bolster the euro. German exports rose 2.3 percent in July, their third consecutive monthly improvement, according to official German statistics. After a 6.1 increase in June, it's further evidence that Europe's biggest economy is on the mend.
Other currencies also climbed against the dollar, especially those in countries which are major exporters of commodities, as oil prices gained more than $2. A strong economy would use more commodities in factories and transportation.
The New Zealand dollar hit its strongest point since last September at 69.83 U.S. cents, while the Australian dollar peaked at 86.51 U.S. cents, its highest level in more than a year. The dollar dropped to 1.0723 Canadian dollars from 1.0763 and tumbled to 1.8242 Brazilian reals from 1.8445 reals late Monday.
In other trading, the dollar hit a low for 2009 against the Swiss franc at 1.0429 on Tuesday, down from 1.0597 late Monday.
© 2009 The Associated Press