No truly comprehensive environmental cost analysis can afford any longer to ignore the growing impact of global data and systems for organizing and storing it. Not only does more data require more storage, but storage and processing require energy supplies of their own. And this doesn’t even get at the issue of “data exhaust” or [...]
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May 3, 2011
in Federal Reserve, US Treasury, USD, currencies, exchange rates, forex, inflation, international economy, market reports, market trends, sovereign debt, technical analysis, world reserve currency
The US Dollar has sunk to 2.5 year lows. This is a significant time frame, as currently, Brent oil futures are also at 2.5 year highs. Outdoing both of these, gold is at all-time nominal highs, having closed April 2011 at $1563/oz.
Bernanke keeps saying that a strong dollar is in the U.S.’ best interests, and [...]
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May 1, 2011
in Federal Reserve, OPEC, consumers, international economy, market trends, news and updates, oil, prices, seasonal investing, transportation
Should we be concerned about $110+ oil? Since the beginning of March, and noticeably after the March 11 triple tsunami-earthquake-nuclear disaster in Japan, oil prices have shot through the roof and show no signs of abating. Events in Libya have helped keep oil support levels high as well, but many argue this is no mere [...]
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January 24, 2011 · 2 comments
in Asia, BRIC, China, RMB, USD, banks, currencies, diversification, financial planning, foreign investment, hedging, inflation, investing, living in US, market trends, money management, risk, savings, wealth protection, wealth transfer
Readers have recently been asking where you can open a Chinese Yuan savings account. As I wrote in a previous post, Chinese Yuan savings accounts for Americans are available at the Bank of China (only in New York and Los Angeles so far).
In that previous post, I outlined the basic steps you need to know [...]
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January 23, 2011 · 1 comment
in Asia, BRIC, China, February, central banks, forecasts, foreign investment, gold, indicators, international economy, market reports, market timing, market trends, metals, precious metals, seasonal investing, special dates, wealth transfer
Chinese New Year typically involves a lot of gold buying, just like the Indian marriage season in late summer and Autumn. How much higher will the price of gold go as a result of the Chinese New Year?
This year’s Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) occurs on February 3rd and celebrations will last until [...]
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December 3, 2010
in commodities, gold, indicators, inflation, market reports, market trends, mining, oil, prices, technical analysis
You don’t see many analysts talking about the gold-oil price ratio. Usually it’s the gold-silver ratio, or gold-EUR or gold-AUD and other currencies that gold is measured against.
The past two days, following the settlement of the EU-forced bailout of Ireland (Ireland itself resisted as long as it could), have seen oil prices hitting fresh 25-month [...]
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Did you know that Canadian stock markets tend to rally over the American Thanksgiving? Since the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges shut down, but the TSX and venture markets remain open north of the border, lower volume levels mean it’s easier to produce a rally on Toronto markets.
Seasonal traders like Brooke Thackray and Don Vialoux tend [...]
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