All that glitters

With current volatility and market confusion, one can find data points supporting arguments for both deflation and inflation up ahead. My current view: Given helicopter Ben being a student of the Great Depression and not being hampered by a gold standard, coupled with quantitative easing (printing), the probability of deflation is close to zero, with inflation being the big risk.

Ok, so perhaps that is obvious, but less obvious is whether gold is an appropriate inflation hedge today. Regardless of what turns out to be correct, this is a topical context with which to test argumentation, reasoning and decision making, and what better way than to have two heavyweights in the ring.

First up a Wall Street Journal article: (read it here)

Then the iTulip rebuttal: (read it here)

We live in interesting times!