The Paulson Barometer

The John Paulson Barometer is not a classical indicator, but I’ll go along with the world’s best speculator (up 590% in 2007 and 40% last year). Paulson expects a huge commodity inflation down the pike (below) and I wouldn’t wager against him. Here’s a report on Paulson from Porter Stansberry, whose stunning prediction of the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was featured in Rick’s Picks well ahead of the event. “World’s richest and most successful speculator warns of great inflation,” is how Porter headlined the feature:

“At a recent breakfast, John Paulson, the most successful speculator of the last 20 years, explained exactly how the great inflation will come to pass. Says Paulson: The banks will resume regular lending – thereby releasing all of the excess money supply into the system – within six to 24 months. Two or three years after that, we will see 12% annual inflation.

“Paulson is recommending investing in gold. He’s already placed more than $4 billion of his firm’s assets in the metal. Why is Paulson building his position so early if he doesn’t expect inflation to kick in for four years? In a word: Scarcity. Paulson notes, of the $200 trillion of investable assets in the world, only $800 billion is gold. You won’t be able to get much of that $200 trillion into gold at any reasonable price. But that won’t stop people from trying.