Jim Willie goes bowling

Bowling is fun - some would say, too much fun. Apparently, Connecticut passed a law in 1841 banning "ninepin lanes" and so fostered the invention of tenpin. In the old game, still played in England, you set them up manually - it gives you something to do while downing your beer and waiting your turn. The uneven boards of the alley add a pleasantly unpredictable element, too.

Jim Willie stands up nine reassuring statements about the US economy and smashes the lot down. He goes to the back of his mule for material to throw at Greenspan, Wall Street, CNBC etc and concludes that nothing is going to stop the financial melt. So he recommends gold.

He may be right, since on both sides of the Atlantic the authorities have decided to bail out lenders, instead of following Marc Faber's advice to let some of the players be taken out of the game.

However, as Faber has also pointed out recently, gold is an item everyone thinks everyone else supports, without committing themselves (elections have been lost that way). Is it not possible that we could see a continuing uptrend in the (relatively small) gold market, simply because of increased demand from existing fans? In which case, don't come late to the party - you'll have brought fresh beer but missed the fun.