by Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press
CTV News
CALGARY — Canada may be a global outlier when it comes to its sell-off of gold.
But to Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, the decision marks the end of an era that doesn’t fit into today’s financial system.
“Why did they sell the gold? To convert it into cash, which is liquid,” said Lee. “Bullion is not liquid. It sits down in the basement and collects dust.”
The country’s holdings in the precious metal peaked in 1965 at 1,023 tonnes or about 32.9 million ounces, according to the World Gold Council. But in recent years, gold has lost its lustre for the federal government, which on Thursday announced it was left with 77 ounces in official reserves — less than a quarter the size of a gold bar.
At some point, you have to bow to the inevitable. “By now,” says Jim Rickards, “it’s clear that Janet Yellen will not raise interest rates when the Fed meets next Wednesday.”
Mario Draghi’s plans to buy corporate bonds will cut financing costs for European companies, if history is any guide. Getting the firms to actually borrow and spend money will be harder.
But Draghi Still Doesn’t Get it.
“Cultural assimilation,” former congressional staff member Mike Lofgren writes in his essay Anatomy of the Deep State, “is partly a matter of what psychologist Irving L. Janis called ‘groupthink,’ the chameleon-like ability of people to adopt the views of their superiors and peers.
At a political rally on February 19 in Fort Worth, Texas, Donald Trump repeated what has become his standard tirade against newspapers that have dared to criticize him.
Editor’s Note: Today we’re taking a break from our regular daily market commentary. Instead, we’re sharing a legendary essay on wealth-building by our friend Mark Ford. Many folks who read this essay call it an ”eye-opener.” In it, Mark explains how to consistently build your wealth, even in a terrible economy.
Oil prices should fall, possibly hard, in coming weeks. That is because fundamentals do not support the present price.
Where there’s smoke, 
Today former Presidential advisor Larry Lindsey warned King World News this will end in tears and gold will reenter the monetary system.
With gold miners’ stock prices surging dramatically this year, investors’ attention is starting to return to the gold juniors. These smaller miners and explorers suffered terribly in recent years, all but abandoned as gold slumped to major secular lows. But even during gold’s darkest quarter, the fundamentals of the juniors actually mining gold remained quite strong. This portends explosive profits growth as gold recovers.
On March 3, the McClellan A-D Oscillator hit a reading of +332, which was its highest reading since the +386 reading seen on Jan. 6, 2009. The cause of that high reading has been a big surge in positive breadth days for the NYSE ever since the Feb. 11, 2016 price low. The meaning of it, however, is an open point for discussion.
Today was just one of those days where the ‘invisible hand’ tries to instill some confidence in the wise and benevolent judgement of the money masters, after a central bank, in this case the ECB, does something very visible and ‘lays an egg’ in doing it.
This is my very first trip to the country.
