Obama’s Media Blitz:Helpful or Hurtful?
Yikes! What a volatile week for gold prices, right? Most Americans are glued to the tube, watching the markets going up and down and down and down and then up again. So shall we run down the events?
If you recall, it was only a few weeks ago that the price of gold hit $1000 per ounce, beating predictions by months. The markets this week were affected by an all-out media blitz by the Obama administration starting on weekend talk shows a week ago.
Then on Sunday night, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the venerable Ben Bernanke was featured on “60 Minutes,” the CBS News magazine show. The Fed’s chairman explained the Federal Reserve, its role in restoring stability and what his strategy would be. He talked about the strength of the American economy and how Americans themselves should have faith in their own abilities and that of the economy to recover. It was the first time a sitting Chairman of the Fed Board had ever been interviewed on television.
That seemed to stabilize the markets a bit and the NYSE actually closed with gains (not big ones, but still gains) in the mid-week. The price of gold began to fall just a little bit.
On Thursday, it was President Barack Obama himself, taking his turn on the airwaves. He flew to California and while there, President Obama made a “First Ever for a Sitting President” appearance on “The Tonight Show,” with Jay Leno. He talked about restoring faith in the nation’s economy and markets.
The market dipped at week’s end, as the government announced more unemployment figures. But overall, not a bad week. And one where we clearly saw how focused the American leaders are on restoring the economy to health. Gold prices dipped slightly overall, down below the $900 per ounce mark, signaling that maybe investors are feeling comforted by these actions.
Mr. Bernanke can’t lower the Fed’s rate much further, so now to shore up the weak economy, he intends to simply print and release more money. And the Treasury Secretary this week will announce the administration’s plan to create a new governmental agency aimed at overseeing their other tactic: buying up toxic assets. So we may see more action coming up this week as the markets react to these items and other developments.
And what will gold prices do? We will be watching that very closely. Mr. Bernanke also stated that there will be no sustained recovery until the market regains strength and stability. Gold prices, as we have seen, depend on that stability to, in order to retain their own position.
Category: Gold Prices
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