Will the big financial crash hit between June 1 and July 31?

At least two savvy market observers (James Turk and Jim Willie) now expect a major financial crash by the end of July 2008. Both Turk and Willie have generally been on target in their commentaries for the past few years, so they can't be dismissed as raving lunatics.

Elements of this crash include:

" A huge drop in the value of the U.S. dollar
" A major decline in U.S. stock indices
" A sharp increase in debt defaults
" Record levels of corporate and personal bankruptcies
" Soaring gold and silver prices

With so much negative financial news hitting the market literally almost every day, it would not take that much for their predictions to come true. What events could cause this?

There are lots of possibilities. Here's one example: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported for April that the retail price of gasoline ("seasonally adjusted") actually declined while the wholesale price rose by 10 percent. Almost unanimously, the news media laughed at the absurdly low retail inflation numbers reported by the BLS for April. If the media and public wise up to the horrendous distortions and fabrications in federal government statistics, that alone could be enough to cause a crash.

Should the economy survive the next 10 weeks, it would still be a good idea to augment your insurance holdings of gold. The downside risk looks minimal.

Numismaster