Another reason why gold id going up: miners have closed their books of forward hedges
Gold hit a record high as AngloGold Ashanti, the third-biggest gold miner, said it had wound up its hedge book months ahead of its original plan, sending a bullish signal. The move by AngloGold, which follows Barrick Gold, the top gold miner, in closing its hedge book, marks an end to the legacy of forward sales by large miners, a sign that mining companies and their investors believe gold prices are more likely to surge than fall sharply.
***America is going to win the global currency battle, Wolf says (FT)
Prof Blanchard (the IMF’s economic counsellor) is clearly right: the adjustments ahead are going to be very difficult; and they have also hardly begun. Instead of co-operation on adjustment of exchange rates and the external account, the US is seeking to impose its will, via the printing press. The US is going to win this war, one way or the other: it will either inflate the rest of the world or force their nominal exchange rates up against the dollar. Unfortunately, the impact will also be higgledy piggledy, with the less protected economies (such as Brazil or South Africa) forced to adjust and others, protected by exchange controls (such as China), able to manage the adjustment better. It would be far better for everybody to seek a co-operative outcome. Maybe the leaders of the group of 20 November summit in Seoul is the opportunity. In the worst of the crisis, leaders hung together. Now, the Fed is about to hang them all separately.