Harvard Economist Warns “$700 Gold by Mid-2017″

Filed for future reference.

Not even P. Krugman is insane enough to make a forecast like this.

Economy & Markets is out with a report that says:

Investors are fleeing to gold in a desperate attempt to weather the recent market volatility… but is this long time “safe-haven” actually poised to collapse wiping out trillions of dollars of wealth in the process?

One highly respected Harvard economist is stating an emphatic “yes!”.

“While many economists will argue that gold is not in a bubble… and insist it will soar to $2,000, $5,000 and even $10,000, my research has said otherwise” says Harvard economist Harry Dent in his latest report. “I’ve never been more certain of anything in over 30 years of economic forecasting.”

Market volatility, worries over the Europe Central Bank, negative interest rates, and China are among a laundry list of events that are driving panicked masses to buy the yellow metal. But this is only inflating the gold bubble that is poised to pop at any moment, he says.

But it gets more insane, Dent continues:

 Ultimately, gold will likely bottom around $250 and $400 between 2020 and 2023. 

And then there is this bad economics:

 Most people believe inflation is bad for the American people and the economy, but it’s not.

I discovered this myth over 30 years ago while studying 3,000 years of Western history, from the rise of Greece and Rome through the era of Western Europe and U.S. dominance.

I observed that inflation rises during times when the population is growing, urbanization is rising, and the most powerful new technologies and innovations are advancing into the mainstream.

When I first encountered the association between inflation and innovation, I was shocked.

I always thought inflation was a bad thing.

And inflation has been bad during certain eras, like in the 1970s, when productivity was low, or at times of major wars.

Yet inflation is actually the single greatest indicator of progress and when it does not get out of control it’s good for the economy.

Amazing.

For the record, monetary inflation is the printing of money that results in a distortion of the capital-consumption structure of the economy.  Price inflation is largely a symptom that results as a result of the consumption sector reasserting itself from the distortive phase.

It has nothing to do with population increases and is certainly not an indication of progress but rather economic evil and illiteracy.

-RW


(ht Jule R. Herbert Jr)