The Contrarian Investor: Feral hogs and a gold 'bloodbath'

What is it with animal similes and investors? Bulls, bears and now feral hogs, soon to be followed no doubt by lemmings and gold-plated cliff edges.

Over the past few weeks it has been the turn of the feral hogs to vote with their short, stubby feet by demanding more QE in a trough near them now. Cue a simultaneous drop in the price of pretty much everything, including gold. Investors have, of course, fallen back on their bad old ways, reacting to every tiny little utterance by central bankers as though they were some precious palimpsest of revealed meaning. It seems to me there are four simple, probably non-controversial, observations to make about recent events. The first is underlying private sector growth, especially in the US...