A quick response

This response to ETS for 14th April has been quite quick in that gold is close to $3,300 and remains a solid buy right here. Timing helps of course. GPM remains a terrific buy, now at 50p.

US stocks are distinctly easier. I had toyed with the notion that they might hold their ground as inflation emerged. But the truth is that the US economy is under the cosh and there is nothing that the Great Narcissist can do about it. The USD continues to weaken and I cannot think of any reason why this trend will not continue.

What is so striking about Trump in practice is how foolishly he has introduced these tariffs. If he had to (I very much doubt it) he could have given notice of developments to come over some months, thus all. Yesterday I found myself commenting upon relevant changes in relation to de minimis laws on custom duties. The foolish Trump has got these wrong as well. (So incidentally and quite separately has Rachel Reeves in relation to Shein. All this is a measure of how badly governed Britain is as well.)

De La Rue: An acceptable cash offer of the order of 130p has emerged. Bearing in mind that DLR was over 1,200p more than thirty years ago such a decline is pretty sobering. I was short DLR and long Drew  Scientific at 20p. I got the latter away over 250p not long after. I was assisting a taxation client in handling his aunt's estate at the time and encountered some bighead of a chartered accountant who opposed my commenting upon DLR's grotesque overvaluation not because my argument was unsound but because I was not regulated. I believed in free speech and I still do.