Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — Gold rose to records in London and New York and silver gained to a 27-year high as the dollar’s all- time low spurred demand for precious metals as a hedge against inflation. Palladium rose to the highest since 2001.

Gold is up 15 percent this year as a U.S. housing slump and turmoil in credit markets led the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates when commodities were rising to records. The dollar declined on speculation Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will signal more rate cuts in testimony to Congress today.

“With a weaker dollar, imports become more expensive and that can import inflation into a country,” said Ben Davies, chief executive officer of Hinde Capital Ltd. in London who helps manage the Hinde Gold Fund. “The Fed wants to inflate their way out of the problems of a huge deficit and a banking system that’s at the point of imploding.”

Gold for immediate delivery climbed $10.30, or 1.1 percent, to $958.45 an ounce as of 11:24 a.m. in London after earlier rising to a record $964.99. Read Full Story

Super-cycle’s Next Stage Is ‘Vertical,’ Say 48 Top AnalystsPHOENIX — Over four dozen experts now agree gold and silver prices must double again in the near future to reach their previous inflation-adjusted 1980 highs, as oil prices did last week, according to GOLD: THE NEXT STAGE, Swiss America Trading Corporation’s 26th anniversary financial journal.Gold prices have rocketed from $650 an ounce to $950 in just the last eight months. A 2008 Reuters global poll of fifty analysts are forecasting gold to surge over 20 percent this year, topping $1,000/oz.”Great values exist today for the educated gold buyer,” says Swiss America CEO Craig R. Smith. “I’m convinced the world will witness a gold price explosion in 2008, propelling the shiny yellow metal vertically into the next and most exciting stage of this long-term bull market.”Rising inflation, here and abroad, may be the next economic volcano to erupt, derailing the Federal Reserve’s desperate attempt to engineer a soft- landing from an impending recession.GOLD: THE NEXT STAGE features the top ten economic issues of 2008 and dozens of forces driving precious metal prices to skyrocket, distilled from 48 top analysts over the past two years. (more…)

Last week, gold hit a record high of $958.40 an ounce. In 1959, the average price of gold was around $35 an ounce. That’s the year Burton Blumert opened his Camino Coin Company in Burlingame.

To the outside observer, it would appear that the rise of gold is a success story for long-time dealers and investors like Blumert and his clients. And in many respects it is. As Blumert told me on the phone from his home in El Granada, “I retired at the top of my game.” (After giving the Camino Coin Company to a long-time employee last year, Blumert, 79, stays peripherally involved, helping out occasionally when needed).

But there is, so to speak, another side to the coin. “If you want a dismal view of the future, talk to a gold dealer,” Blumert adds. The high price of gold may represent a handsome return on investment, but it’s hardly been a steady ascent, and for Blumert and other “goldbugs” it’s also an ominous sign. Read Full Article

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Gold, little changed in London, headed for its biggest weekly advance in 19 months as lower U.S. interest rates may revive investor demand for the metal as an alternative to the dollar. Platinum dropped from a record.

The dollar traded near a three-week low against the euro on speculation U.S. economic growth will slow, forcing the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. Gold has climbed 45 percent since the Fed in August announced a policy shift to contain the subprime mortgage collapse.

“It’s been six months this week since the Fed started cutting interest rates and gold has gone nuts,” said Adrian Ash, head of research of London-based BullionVault, a gold dealer that holds about six tons of gold for customers in vaults in London, Zurich and New York. “The more the Fed promises cheaper money, the more people will choose an alternative to the dollar.”

Gold for immediate delivery rose 9 cents, or less than 0.1 percent, to $946.19 an ounce as of 10:54 a.m. in London. Prices this week are up 4.8 percent, the biggest weekly advance since July 14, 2006. Read Full Story