This essay comes to you courtesy of Casey Research. I just received an email today from one of the staff at Casey Research telling me, person to person, that everyone there is fully convinced that Doug Casey’s famous phrase:

Gold prices will go to the Moon

will turn out to be prophetic sooner than your talking heads on CNBC would ever guess - or admit!

Making a bold prediction does nothing for the average newsletter subscriber, though; you need to know what ACTION steps to turn that knowledge into profits in your brokerage account. That’s what BIG GOLD is all about.

Read on.

Gold Buyers Smash Records

By Doug Hornig, co-editor of

BIG GOLD, from Casey Research

The spot price of gold has fallen more than 20% from its all-time high, reached in March of 2008. But if you think that means demand has declined, think again.

Gold demand has in fact exploded, and not just here and there. Everywhere. Around the world, customers have been queuing up to strip coin shops’ shelves bare. Mints have been running 24/7 and still have been forced to ration coin shipments to their dealers. ETF vaults are bulging.

Now, the World Gold Council has confirmed the trend with hard numbers for the third quarter of this year. In a page-and-a-half press release summarizing 3Q2008 activity, the WGC had to use the word “record” ten times. Some highlights:

• Dollar demand for gold in Q3 was a record US$32 billion, 45% higher than the previous record, set in 2Q2008.

• Identifiable investment demand, which incorporates demand for gold through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), bars and coins, rose to $10.7 billion (12.3 million ounces), double year-earlier levels.

• Retail investment demand rose 121% to 7.5 million ounces, with strong bar and coin buying in the Swiss, German, and U.S. markets. Europe as a whole saw an all-time record 1.64 million ounces of bar and coin buying. France became a net investor in gold for the first time since the early 1980s.

• Gold ETFs posted a record quarterly inflow of 4.8 million ounces in Q3. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers in late September, ETF inflows shot higher by an unprecedented 3.6 million ounces in only five days.

• Demand for gold jewelry hit a record $18 billion. Leading the way was India, which witnessed a rise of 65% in dollar value (1.3 million ounces) compared with 3Q2007. The Middle East, Indonesia, and China all experienced increases of more than 40% in value or 10% in weight, year over year.

At the same time that demand is setting records, supply has been unable to keep pace, falling 9.7% from year-earlier levels, the WGC reported. The drop was largely due to inaction on the part of central banks, which have increasingly shut their vault doors.

Heavy demand, declining supply… small wonder that gold prices have remained near record highs in most of the world’s currencies; that dealers have been marking up coins by 10% or even 15% (when they can get them); and that one-ounce coins still fetch bids close to $1,000 on eBay.

When will the spot price in U.S. dollars, which is set by the futures market, catch up? No one knows. But it will.

The world’s hunger for gold will only grow into a future awash in fiat currency. Gold is the ultimate and, at day’s end, the only safe haven from the kind of currency destruction that is being visited upon the dollar, the euro, even the renminbi, as governments everywhere desperately try to stave off a deflationary depression the only way they know how: by turning on the printing press.

We are in a period of intense monetary inflation. It will be followed, inevitably, by a long period of price inflation. People will be desperate to preserve the buying power of their dollars, euros, etc., and they will turn to the one thing capable of doing just that. Gold.

As gold rises, it will lift the shares of selected mining companies with it. The ones that prosper the most will be those that have positioned themselves to survive the credit crisis — by stockpiling cash, keeping production costs down, and locking up borrowed money on favorable terms.

Companies that have failed to do this will go under, unable to get credit in a frozen market. That will both diminish competition and further curb supply, and those that properly planned ahead will rake in enormous profits as gold goes through the roof. Or more likely, as Casey Research founder Doug Casey puts it, gold “heads to the moon.”

Which Gold Stocks Will Offer You The Most Profit?

But which are the companies poised to profit the most? The ones we cover in our monthly newsletter for conservative investors, BIG GOLD.

We are dedicated to bringing you the information that will allow you profitably to pick your way through the present economic minefield. We search the world of producing gold miners, to find the best of the best. We pinpoint the investments that will not only hold on through a market downturn, but will rebound spectacularly as the commodities market recovers, which it must.

In addition, we bring subscribers the best ways to invest in physical gold, including where to find coins and bars at affordable prices in times of extreme scarcity — like right now, when mints are not minting, most dealers are out of stock, and those still taking orders are charging exorbitant premiums.

While we specialize in producing companies, we also cover such alternative gold investments as ETFs, mutual funds, royalty companies, and closed-end funds. We strive to find what’s best for you. And we answer your specific questions, each month in our BIG GOLD Responds section.

The elaborate world financial structure that has been erected over the past two decades created a humongous bubble that has now popped. What will come in the aftermath of this cataclysm cannot be foreseen, but it will be different. One thing is for certain, though, gold has been money, in all times and places, for thousands of years. The people of the world are already returning to it as the sole store of value, and that’s a trend that will accelerate in the coming years. You can count on it.

Learn how to make the trend your friend with a 3-month, no-risk subscription to BIG GOLD… and as an added bonus, receive our hot-off-the-press special report “The Crisis in Pictures” absolutely FREE of charge. Click here to continue…

One of the reasons for the extreme sell off in precious metals stocks, especially junior resource stocks trading on the Canadian exchanges, is tax loss selling.

Now I wonder why people are so interested in selling for a loss in a year when I’m betting many of those investors have no profits to offset (my profits are from shorting the market and the financials). Uncle Sam, soon to become Uncle Hussein, is anything but fair when allowing only $3000 on a joint return to be written off as capital loss; the rest must be carried over at $3k per year forever.

What I just found out, and you may not have known, is that the Canadian government is MUCH more accomodating. The Canadian tax law allows investors with losses to actually go back 2 or 3 years and reclaim taxes PAID for COLD HARD CASH NOW.

That, my friends, is a HUGE incentive for tax loss selling this year. Many investors likely booked huge profits over the last three years investing in precious metals & mining stocks.

Make more profitable decisions by getting your precious metals stock investing information from people who specialize in it - Casey Research.

Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter, a $500/month financial newsletter, has a short gold position on at about $810 with a stop in the low $830’s (which came close to taking him out).

Recently, however, upon attending a gold conference Mr. Gartman noted extreme despondency among the participants.

Knowing that the extreme optimism last Spring was a indicator of a short term market top, Dennis is now concerned that the despondency may be indicating bullishness. Naturally, that makes a man who is short gold rather nervous.

No word yet on if he is willing to bank a $40 profit and close the position, but we will see.

This first video is Wall Street Report interviewing Mark Morabito the President and CEO of Crosshair Exploration, a junior Uranium exploration stock that has pounds in the ground and cash to survive this financial storm.

click here if video is not displayed above

Crosshair Exploration’s stock has been hammered along with everything else; but in this difficult environment, Mr. Morabito feels they have the cash to survive and have their company’s stock realize the full value of the uranium they have in the ground.

Crosshair Exploration was orginally brought to my attention by Peter Grandich. If you want to make money with stocks such as this, you need accurate information from a reliable investment newsletter such as Casey Energy Opportunities.

Lost Principles

By Olivier Garret

CEO, Casey Research

As the economic crisis continues to unfold, recently a sense of uncertainty has begun to pervade the market. Even dyed-in-the-wool risk takers admit that they don’t know what to think anymore. Inflation, deflation, recession or depression - there are so many vagaries that it appears to be anyone’s guess what will happen next.

Despite the current, volatile environment, though, our expert team at Casey Research maintain their core prediction: that a highly inflationary cycle is not far off. While we, along with several external experts, continuously review our assumptions and conclusions and encourage dissenting opinions and analysis to avoid biased conclusions, so far we keep returning to our views about what’s coming. That said, the hardest thing to predict is not what will happen, but when.

The way I see it, the swift, far-reaching and mostly ill-conceived reactions from most of the world’s governments under the leadership of two apprentice sorcerers (Bernanke and Paulson) have until now resulted in a widespread run for an exit to nowhere, a deep credit freeze, and total and indiscriminate mistrust in the market and all of its players.

The fact remains that in the last year, many principles that have long been rooted in the success of capitalism have been thrown out of the window.

• First, market players discovered that the longest-lasting asset bubble in recent history was made possible by poor regulations (as opposed to lack thereof), greed, and the misunderstood and misrepresented risks of credit derivatives.

• Second, we found out the real meaning of “too big to fail.” If a business is large enough and has enough clout, it doesn’t matter how poorly managed it has been, it will be bailed out at the expense of taxpayers (us) and investors (us again).

• Third, we found that the rating systems the financial markets had been relying on have been misleading investors and failing to identify some of the riskiest asset classes. As a result, investors and all other economic agents are left with no means of evaluating risk as they conduct business, hence the credit freeze and rush to cash.

• Fourth, to add to the confusion, the U.S. Fed and Treasury, followed by many other central banks, have been altering the rules of the game by the minute (buying toxic waste at face value, bailing out certain financial institutions but not others, becoming shareholders of several behemoths in the banking and insurance industry, and trumping all accepted rules of creditors’ and stakeholders’ priority, prohibiting the shorting of certain classes of assets on a moment’s notice).

• Last but not least, the U.S. presidency, weakened by almost eight years of mismanagement, has continued to show total lack of leadership. It has empowered a couple of technocrats to run the country’s finances without leadership until a new administration gets in and, hopefully quickly, figures out what to do. To make matters worse, the EU has shown its ugliest face and demonstrated a fact we all truly knew but didn’t want to recognize until recently — that economic unity and coordination is easy in good times but almost impossible when the going gets tough.

No wonder economic actors are wreaking havoc as they race for shelter.

Add to this the fact that all natural resources have been hammered by the combination of a credit freeze and lower real and anticipated demand from most industrial nations.

Finally, junior exploration stocks - being very thinly traded and rightfully considered to be in a higher risk class — have been hammered twice as hard as the rest of the markets (hence the performance of the TSX-V, which has lost 76% in the last year and 30% in the past 30 days alone). The fact that many hedge funds had to unwind large positions in such a small market certainly did not help values.

What does this mean for investors in this market?

We all have suffered significant losses in our portfolios, and although our choices may have reduced some of the downside, quality companies have been hit almost as hard as fly-by-night juniors with no future.

Several of our companies are trading at or below cash value and get no goodwill for the significant assets and outstanding management teams they have assembled.

Although there is no way to tell when we will hit a bottom in these markets, we believe that once tax-loss selling season is over and reality settles in, we will see the beginning of a slow recovery process for the best of the juniors. Investors who have the ability to stay the course and are invested in the highest-quality juniors will recover from their losses and benefit from what will eventually be another bull market in commodities.

Precious metals and agriculture, followed by certain segments of the energy sector, will lead the way to widespread price increases across the range of commodities. While we can’t predict the exact timing of this run, the fundamentals are in place once the world economies take a turn for the better or at least stabilize somewhat.

Here is why:

• The current crisis is taking tremendous amounts of needed capacity off the supply pipeline. Whether it be energy, base metals, or agricultural goods, projects to bring online expensive oilfields and alternative fuel sources are being shelved and will take years to get back on track. Mines are closing and projects are being canceled, thereby removing much of the supply; the credit squeeze is cutting down on agricultural investment, and working capital constraints will dramatically limit supply.

• The world’s demographics are not changing, nor are the aspirations of a hard-working, fast-growing middle class in emerging economies. The changes that drove commodity markets up for the last few years are long lasting and real.

• Peak Oil and peak-everything. There is limited supply for many commodities, and although there are alternatives (curbing consumption and finding alternative sources of energy), it takes large investments to do so. In current markets, many of these investments are going to be put aside until the next crisis/shortage hits - at which point we will have years of a commodities bull run before an equilibrium is reached.

• We anticipate that China, Russia, and India will take advantage of low commodity prices to secure very large, long-term supply commitments while the Western world licks its wounds and tries to recover. By the time we do, an even larger portion of the world’s available resources may no longer be available on the markets, for example oil and gas.

In the last edition of Casey Energy Opportunities, Marin Katusa pondered how the U.S. is going to replace the supply of uranium when the HEU program with Russia is set to expire in 2013. The answer is that the U.S. will struggle to replace 40% of its needs, and this will benefit a handful of U.S. suppliers with proven reserves. Currently shares of these companies, which have the cash to develop resources or are already producing with positive cash flows, are incredibly cheap - a win-win situation. Eventually similar opportunities will come from copper and strategic metals.

• We can expect the world to continue to be a very unstable place, where regional conflicts can quickly spread and spin out of control, with obvious impact on the smooth supply of key commodities (Gulf region, Nigeria, former Soviet republics, to name a few). In fact, a widespread financial crisis could precipitate those events as conflicts are often linked to economic hardship.

• The unprecedented deficits, a wave of bailouts, and growth in the money creation by central banks in the Western world will eventually lead to massive inflation. In the U.S. alone, the monetary supply has increased by 50% since early September. This will unequivocally reverse the current short-term deflationary pressures and lead to a steep devaluation of the dollar and other major currencies. At that point, precious metals and all tangible assets are poised for a strong recovery.

So, if you ask me if I am still bullish on the resource sector, my answer yes, now more than ever. Juniors are juniors, and when things go wrong, they get beaten down. The strong ones with great teams and lots of cash will survive and prosper, the others will disappear. When commodities come back with a vengeance, there will be fewer companies, almost all with good projects… and those who are invested in these few companies will see a very sizeable appreciation of their capital as the broader public returns.

It’s very hard to be a contrarian investor, especially when all forces seem to be against you, but one thing the markets have taught me is that memory on the Street is unbelievably short, and they will come back.

***

Not only is the economy presently going haywire, there’s also still the boogeyman of Peak Oil looming on the horizon. While oil prices are at a low not seen for a while, it is all but certain that this sweet relief for motorists won’t last very long.

When oil prices come roaring back, the energy market will virtually explode… and,  if you are safely positioned in the right stocks by then, your bank account will too. Learn more about how being a contrarian investor can earn you a fortune - click here.

All of those advisors who were totally wrong about how bad this economy can get should become unemployed. Please don’t delay that desired eventuality by continuing to pay them.

On the other hand, some financial newsletters have pretty much hit the nail on the head, if not always predicting what will happen to precious metals shares. The economic team at Casey Research has done a spectacular job of defining how this “greater depression” would turn out.

Note that very few people would do anything but laugh when you mentioned the “D” word (depression) a few months ago, you now find it bandied about a bit more casually. (If in doubt, go to Iceland - or Detroit for that matter.)

Doug Casey and his team have been calling for the bailout numbers to exceed $2 Trillion from the get go. Now it looks like even they may have been optimistic.

In order to survive, and profit, in times like these you can benefit greatly by a subscription to the Casey Report. And for a limited time you can try it out for under $10 a month. They bear the risk. (Oops, the “b” word!)

This next edition of the Casey Report is a financial newsletter you don’t want to miss. It should be an exceptional edition, as it will include an update from real estate expert Andy Miller… Bud Conrad’s surprising discovery of a Shadow Deficit… Doug Casey’s further thoughts on depression investing… Terry Coxon’s important new analysis of gold in an era of deleveraging… and much, much more.

Please do yourself a favor and check it out.

When you consider that, according to some, the only reason oil went to $140+/bbl was those evil speculators, and said speculators are now mostly broke, is oil going to stay down at these levels for good?

I’m guessing not. And to back up my thoughts is Rick Rule of Global Resources who sent around an email yesterday quoting one John Westwood, an oil service executive. What John had to say parroted almost exactly what a friend of mine in the refinery business had to say:

“The current situation was caused by two decades of underinvestment, and the industry needs ten trillion dollars by 2030 to get back on track.”

“Global energy demand is up 37% since 1990, and across the world the demand for energy was met 35% by oil.”

“The ‘easy oil’ is gone. In 2007 the average oil price increased by 58%, but the revenue per barrel to the producing companies was unchanged from the prior year.”

And, oh by the way, who doesn’t think that now gas prices are posting around $1.65/gallon in my area, after peaking right at $4/gallon, people will start driving more again. And, (hopefully), accelerating a bit past 52mph in that 55 zone?

The oil sands in Canada are pretty much on hold at these prices, and you can bet a good many other exploration projects will be too. IF they can get operating capital, these prices are not much incentive to explore for companies in the business to do so.

My advice: watch the drill rig count.

Peak oil is still a reality. President-Elect Hussein won’t be pulling any miracle green energy out of his sleeve any time soon. Not to mention that “it’s the economy, stupid” and that’s likely to keep him busy past his first 100 days.

One thing I think we can count on, though, is that the severly distressed stock prices of some high quality energy firms will not stay this low forever. Granted, when the market resumes it’s expected downward slant these fine companies may get cheaper yet, but picking a bottom is no easier than picking a top.

It might also be said that when these things take off, there may not be much more notice than there was when the rug was pulled out after the peak.

If you want some help deciding what stocks to pick up cheap and which to stay well clear of, I suggest checking out Casey Energy Opportunities.

Gold has now been over $800 for a few days, but Dennis Gartman isn’t buying this rally - he’s selling it. Dennis went short the other day at $808 with a 3% stop (about $833, I think). Mr. Gartman sees the current gold price strength as nothing more than a bear market rally.

In contrast, Peter Grandich was saying a week ago that a solid close about $775 would signal the all clear.

And Peter Schiff, who is given credit for getting a number of calls correct in the past year (yeah, but how much money did his clients make?) is calling for $2000 gold next year. (Could be a long year, he doesn’t say when.)

Dennis Gartman does not exactly have a stellar track record over the past year in calling the gold price direction.

Considering that people the world over are trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to get their hands on physical gold and silver by the truck load; I’m not comfortable following Dennis Gartman’s lead and shorting a unit of gold.

In fact, I’m looking for a few spare bucks to buy a gram or two - if I can find it.

If you find yourself needing some economic advice that can make you money - advice that is often at odds with The Gartman Letter, then try a Risk Free Trial Subscription to the Casey Report.

JIm Rogers the international commodities guru living in Singapore has made it clear that he feels the ultimate direction of the U.S. Dollar is DOWN.

This really doesn’t come as a surprise to any thinking person what with the Treasury and the Fed intervening everywhere they can:

There is no such thing as markets, only interventions

is becoming truer everyday. You don’t dare short a doomed, poorly run, highly leveraged, gambling company for fear that come Sunday the government will inject BILLIONS into that sinking ship and buoy the stock price and wipe away your profits.

Facing questions from Ron Paul a few days ago, Helo Ben Bernanke sidestepped Congressman Paul’s questions about gold and stated simply that the dollar has been doing pretty well lately.

Well, a person who jumps out of an airplane at 20,000 feet without a parachute does just fine for 19,999.99 feet. After that it gets a bit messy though.

Once the unwinding and deleveraging are done, how can the dollar stand?

It wasn’t that long ago that a TRILLION dollars was almost considered an infinite number. Now we stand to run a deficit that high next year alone.

And how about all of those talking heads blasting the “whackos” who predicted that this bailout could ultimately reach $2 Trillion? After all, our guv’ment bureaucraps were predicting only about $500 Billion. How could they be wrong?

Guess what? It has now come to the $2 Trillion dollar mark and I don’t see anyone arguing against that number.

Do they think money is free? For the time being maybe.

Jim Rogers can stay solvent in the face of irrationality longer than you or I; but he KNOWS that all of this funny money will eventually come home to roost by way of a MUCH lower U.S. Dollar.

After all, how can America ever hope to repay this debt without seriously devaluing first?

Jim Rogers is still in commodities, agriculture (people need to eat), and other short dollar investments. He has stated flat out that the U.S. Dollar stands to lose its reserve status currency. Maybe not tomorrow, but sooner than Washington will allow you to believe.

Got Gold? See Big Gold from Casey Research.

More and more people the world over are wondering where you can buy gold coins today. Dealers have been sold out for weeks going on months. Long delays and high premiums over spot price of gold prevail.

You cannot just buy gold coins on the internet anymore

Internet outlets for gold coins have dried up; and quite frankly I would hesitate to order from someone quoting long delivery delays and requiring your prompt payment. It is only a matter of time before one of these coin dealers goes belly up; or, as my business law professor used to say:

Head to Acapulco with the cash

During times like these you want to buy from reputable, long standing sources. But how do you find them? Again, I used experts to help me with such matters.

Casey Research knew we would be asking

The editors at Big Gold knew that this was a problem their readers were having so they have done some extensive research and made a lot of phone calls.

The result is that this months’ just released issue of Big Gold has a list of reputable gold coin dealers, what types of gold they have available and what kind of premiums they are charging for it.

The leg work this saves me is worth the measly cost of annual subscription all by itself.

If you are wondering where you can buy gold coins today or if there is another way you can or should buy gold to protect your wealth, then now is the time to take them up on their risk free trial subscription to Big Gold.

You will be glad you did.

P.S. - Don’t wait to check this out. These dealers will be getting calls from Big Gold subscribers in the morning. Supplies won’t last forever.