So what did you expect after the Federal Reserve lowered the prime rate by 0.5% today: certainly not lower commodity prices! Gold and Oil were both up BIG today because the beloved dollar will be going down further, no doubt.

This is the stuff of Hollywood movies with all the glitz you can fathom. I first bought precious metals in the mid- seventies prior to the crazy rise and following twenty-five year malaise. Then again I was buying in at about $410 a couple of years ago, but now who knows where the limit is? Is it $1000, $2000 or more? Start writing you scripts because this no longer is out of the question given American spending habits, both personally and by government.

This is sure to affect the Christmas shopping season as prices on your favorite trinkets go up at the wholesale and retail levels. It will not affect Hollywood spending because everyone on the "left coast" is working as the studios make preparations for a possible writers' strike in June 2008. So they want to get as much product "in the can" as possible prior to that time just on the possibility of a strike...and you may want to do the same thing with your gift shopping while there is still merchandise on the shelves at the old prices.

To find potential opportunities and verify my track record read Chasing Value or Serious Money.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm.