On of the possibilities was that there is a mild panic due to Katrina aftermath and political uncertainty in Germany and New Zealand.
Last night it hit me, if panic is part of the equation we might see in strength in the Swiss franc. I have written a few times about Switzerland as a bomb shelter type of investment destination. This chart shows strength in the Swissi right up to the hurricane and then dollar strength since. The dollars being bought have not gone into treasuries but appear to have gone into gold as the yellow metal is denominated in US dollars.
I think panic is probably off the table. That leaves inflation and Asian holiday buying still on the table.
This is where I am in the process. That is what this blog is about, sharing my process. I have drawn a conclusion about one part of this that might turn out to be wrong but this is my thinking right now.
2 comments:
Roger,
Perhaps it's just my imagination but in the past few months I've noticed a lot of small increases in areas like restaurant menus, hourly labor charges for maintenance at car dealers, and even the cost of drinks at soda machines.
I guess that is "core" stuff, as compared to other “non-core” (or not heavily counted) stuff like gas prices, heath care, and college tuitions which go up every week/month/year.
Jim in LV
boy do I hope you're wrong ;-)
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