Gold went up almost $10 an ounce yesterday...

to $478 an ounce. I wonder what that means. Is something bad this way coming re the economy? What had bush done to this country?

Especially with the movement and predictions of falling petrol prices. Fundamentally, these people have screwed up economic fundamentals so much, we'll have to wait and see.

The real income of the typical household has fallen five years in a row, despite the fact that the last three of those years—2002, 2003, and 2004—have been years of economic expansion. Over these years, our workforce has become a great deal more productive, as output per hour is up 15% from 2000 to 2004. Yet, these productivity gains have failed to reach the typical household.

The number and share of persons in poverty also increased last year, from 12.5% to 12.7%, the fourth consecutive increase since poverty hit 11.3% in 2000 (the end of the last expansion). Since that year, 5.4 million more persons, including 1.4 million children, have been added to the poverty rolls.

The unbalanced nature of the economic recovery is also documented in the latest Census release. While the share of total national income flowing to the bottom 60% of households was essentially unchanged, the share going to the top 5% was up 0.4 percentage points, from 21.4% to 21.8%. As of 2004, the top fifth of households held 50.1% of all income, tied with 2001 for the highest share on record. Similarly, while the average real income of middle-income households fell slightly (down $300 or 0.7%—from $44,759 to $44,455), that of households in the top 5% grew by over $4,000 (+1.7%), from $260,045 to $264,387.

Food Stamp Participation
5-Year Change (Data as of October 25, 2005)

State/Territory - August 2000 - August 2005 - 5-Year % Change

Delaware/ 29,253/ 63,842/ 118.24%
Arizona/ 265,931/ 556,639/ 109.32%
Nevada/ 62,267/ 119,543/ 91.98%
Texas/ 1,322,293/ 2,429,462/ 83.73%
Indiana/ 308,081/ 563,146/ 82.79%
Missouri/ 427,624/ 777,434/ 81.80%
Michigan/ 599,428/ 1,081,270/ 80.38%
Oregon/ 238,147/ 429,043/ 80.16%
South Carolina/ 295,178/ 530,942/ 79.87%
Massachusetts/ 222,394/ 398,392/ 79.14%
Iowa/ 120,775/ 213,650/ 76.90%
Washington/ 292,621/ 514,211/ 75.73%
Wisconsin/ 201,431/ 352,053/ 74.78%
Tennessee/ 502,313/ 864,188/ 72.04%
North Carolina/ 477,903/ 818,411/ 71.25%
Oklahoma/ 254,603/ 430,928/ 69.25%
Ohio/ 608,958/ 1,029,376/ 69.04%
Utah/ 80,485/ 134,916/ 67.63%
Georgia/ 554,259/ 928,479/ 67.52%
Colorado/ 151,742/ 245,776/ 61.97%
Idaho/ 56,986/ 90,920/ 59.55%
Maine/ 99,388/ 157,470/ 58.44%
Kansas/ 118,438/ 181,355/ 53.12%
Arkansas/ 248,144/ 376,308/ 51.65%
New Hampshire/ 35,565/ 53,256/ 49.74%
Virginia/ 331,358/ 495,244/ 49.46%
Louisiana/ 501,004/ 744,230/ 48.55%
Mississippi/ 277,269/ 408,513/ 47.33%
Nebraska/ 80,036/ 117,648/ 46.99%
New Mexico/ 167,004/ 243,350/ 45.72%
Kentucky/ 401,868/ 582,231/ 44.88%
Alaska/ 39,033/ 56,307/ 44.25%
Florida/ 877,879/ 1,259,562/ 43.48%
Illinois/ 833,476/ 1,192,846/ 43.12%
Pennsylvania/ 746,372/ 1,060,718/ 42.12%
Maryland/ 213,884/ 297,101/ 38.91%
Minnesota/ 192,601/ 263,678/ 36.90%
Montana/ 59,633/ 81,581/ 36.81%
Alabama/ 396,990/ 541,754/ 36.5%
North Dakota/ 31,567/ 42,552/ 34.80%
South Dakota/ 42,795/ 57,155/ 33.56%
Connecticut/ 164,223/ 207,021/ 26.06%
New York/ 1,407,181/ 1,744,085/ 23.94%
New Jersey/ 330,188/ 399,159/ 20.89%
West Virginia/ 222,699/ 266,510/ 19.67%
Vermont/ 39,443/ 45,470/ 15.28%
California/ 1,746,574/ 1,998,974/ 14.45%
DC/ 78,172/ 87,248/ 11.61%
Wyoming/ 22,080/ 24,296/ 10.04%
Rhode Island/ 73,313/ 74,199/ 1.21%
Hawaii/ 113,370/ 91,943/ -18.90%
TOTAL/ 24,612,845/ 25,765,739/ 4.68%

Just some facts about our flexible economy. We take the hits but keep on kicking.

You can trade that ring or coin for a loaf of bread when no other currency will do....

1. Event anxiety
2. Inflation

terrorist attack
San Francisco
martial law
war with Iran or Syria
bird flue

Why isn't gold at $1000?

India is into its heavy buying during this part of the year. Gold tends to trend up through the end of the year and then falls back in Jan.

I imagine that it will go back down to the mid 400s within a couple of weeks, but we'll see. I think that right now the gold market is in limbo, waiting for either the world, and especially American, economy to either really take off,and drop the demand for gold, or for some catastrophe, natural, man made or natural, to shoot the demand of gold through the roof. Thus,much like our current stock market, the gold market is treading water.