Ronald Stoeferle

Latest articles from Ronald

• How Likely is a Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz?

  Published 20 March 2012 | viewed 13,648 times

  The more and more explicit nuclear rhetoric and the threats of a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz may soon cause the conflict to escalate.…

• Shale Gas in Europe: Poland and Ukraine as Pioneers

  Published 18 March 2012 | viewed 11,175 times

  The biggest and most promising European shale gas deposits are located in Poland. The EIA estimates that the Polish shale gas reserves cover more than…

• Power Struggles at the Persian Gulf - is Another Gulf War Imminent?

  Published 16 March 2012 | viewed 13,608 times

  Iran is currently the fifth-largest oil producer in the world, the second-largest producer in the OPEC, and the third-largest oil exporter worldwide. Of the total…

• A Golden Future for Natural Gas in the US

  Published 14 March 2012 | viewed 27,874 times

  The combination of still sharply rising US production, a mild winter in the US, and high inventories caused the Henry Hub price to fall to…

• Crisis in Libya Shows the Effects of Production Downtimes

  Published 13 March 2012 | viewed 11,733 times

  The spill-over of the political revolutions from the neighbouring countries to Libya and the resulting civil war have highlighted the threat caused by production downtimes…

• An Austrian School Of Economics Perspective

  Published 13 March 2012 | viewed 10,684 times

  The Austrian School provides a new angle on the development of the oil price. We already discussed the oil price development from the perspective of…

• Economic Consequences of the High Oil Price

  Published 12 March 2012 | viewed 14,796 times

  The average January petrol price in the US set a new all-time-high. The high petrol price acts like an additional tax for US consumers. An…

• Oil Price - Always and Everywhere a Monetary Phenomenon?

  Published 12 March 2012 | viewed 6,356 times

  We believe that the “Bernanke put” is the main culprit for the price premiums in the commodity sector. The US central bank has repeatedly pointed…

• Petrodollar Exiting Through the Back Door?

  Published 11 March 2012 | viewed 10,367 times

  “When the dollar collapse comes, it will happen two ways – gradually then suddenly. That formula, famously used by Hemingway to describe how one goes…

• Does the Skyscraper Index Signal a Weaker Oil Price?

  Published 11 March 2012 | viewed 9,090 times

  “The construction of skyscrapers that qualify as the “World’s Tallest Building” tends to coincide with major downturns in the economy” Mark Thornton The “skyscraper index”…

• China on its Way to the Leading Global Currency?

  Published 11 July 2011 | viewed 8,965 times

  The open criticism of the US policy is getting more vociferous by the day. For example, a former central bank advisor pointed out that in…

• Negative Real Interest Rates Continue to Provide Gold With a Perfect Environment

  Published 08 July 2011 | viewed 12,175 times

  Inflation has never been the primary driver of the gold sector on its own. Given that gold, as is well known, does not pay interest,…

• Excessive Structural Debt Suggests Further Appreciation of Gold

  Published 06 July 2011 | viewed 10,251 times

  “Jesting is the third-best disguise. The second-best: sentimentality. But weirdly, the best and safest disguise is still the blatant, naked truth. Nobody will believe that.“…

• Gold Experiencing a Renaissance as an Investment Class

  Published 05 July 2011 | viewed 10,436 times

  The (financial) world is at the moment long in questions but short in answers. We believe that gold is one of the right answers in…

• The Shale Gas Energy Revolution

  Published 05 April 2011 | viewed 22,684 times

  “Shale gas is the most important energy development since the discovery of oil“  As already pointed out in our previous special reports, we believe that…

• Gold Report: Manipulation vs. Intervention

  Published 23 March 2011 | viewed 9,978 times

  There is a thin line between intervention (normally by the government, government-related institutions, or more generally, politicians) and manipulation (negative connotation – as in “influence”).…

• The Creation of Money from the Perspective of the Austrian School of Economics

  Published 21 March 2011 | viewed 6,707 times

  In the preface to his classic work “The Theory of Money and Credit”, Ludwig von Mises says: “Nevertheless, the problem of money has remained one…

• A Detailed Look at the Increasing Demand for Gold

  Published 18 March 2011 | viewed 13,750 times

  For the first time in many years investor demand might exceed jewellery demand in 2010. In 2000, investment demand accounted for only about 4.8% of…

• Criticism of US Dollar Hegemony Getting Louder

  Published 17 March 2011 | viewed 7,817 times

  The performance of the US dollar constitutes a central determining factor for the development of the oil price. The criticism of the US dollar hegemony…

• Gold in the Context of the Financial Crisis

  Published 17 March 2011 | viewed 8,707 times

  The paradox is the trigger of the crisis, i.e. too cheap money, is now being treated as its medicine. This could be regarded as an…