Platinum/palladium infographic makes case for 'other metal/s'

Sprott Physical Bullion came out with this cool infographic on platinum and palladium. Basically, the story is that continued demand for platinum and palladium, whose supply is decreasing, will keep their prices up, along with gold and silver.

Also notice how China is a big factor in keeping up demand for platinum and palladium. This goes to show that it isn't the West that is dictating matters in the world, and in fact it hasn't been the West for quite some time. 

The low-supply-high-demand story is actually the same story for silver, except of course silver, platinum and palladium do not have the same industrial uses. Nonetheless, they are all necessary in today's modern world, and they will be bid up in price to the degree that they are needed.

More unique to platinum and palladium is the labour troubles and political uncertainties constraining their production. Much of the production is done in Africa, a good portion of which has long been troubled. Whether or not things get better in the region, the continued production of platinum and palladium will be a must. 

Platinum has a long way to go before outshining gold or silver, but it is no doubt becoming more popular, by the month.

Click below to see the full-size infographic!

The legacy of TARP: More TARP

Four years ago, the Troubled Assets Relief Program was passed, which basically cleared big banks of their worthless mortgage-derived securities. I remember when this initial bailout was proposed, it was justified on account of the banks being "too big to fail" (why didn't anyone express concern that these banks were too big to allow to do the stupid things it did to get in trouble?).

What happens to gold in 2013?

 

 2013 expectations for the gold price are generally bullish, whether in the mainstream or among those in the know in the industry (yes, the mainstream can be considered to be lesser specimens when it comes to understanding of money and precious metals). Gold has taken a long-enough break since the last part of 2011, throughout 2012, and I really don't think it has anywhere else to go but up for this year.