Gold prices: Europe's bailouts will provide boost

Atlas Precious Metals Exchange : Market News As Greece stands on the cusp of another bailout, one analyst says the fix is likely to be only temporary and he expects other Euro-zone countries to also require new rounds of funding. Those bailouts can come in one of two ways, via printing new money or taxing citizens of wealthy European nations. Jay Taylor, President and CEO of Taylor Hard Money Advisers, believes that both these policy options will further weaken the euro and boost gold prices. In the first case, it would debase the currency and in the second, it would hurt the cohesion of the single currency zone. "To the extent wealthy countries are taxed, it will serve to create only more political animosity even though it may pacify infantile behavior in Greece for a short time," Taylor wrote. Gold prices rose above $1,500 an ounce in Europe on Tuesday and continue to edge higher as Greece’s parliament is set to approve an austerity plan on Wednesday. Taylor also believes that the U.S. debt situation, which is currently under the radar for many investors, is as bad as any individual European debt crisis. "To the extent policy makers attempt to inflate their way out of this mess, it is bullish for gold and silver," he added. To bet on this trend, Taylor says investors should buy the stocks of junior gold miners and avoid the bigger names, whose stocks haven't done well this year. Shares of Newmont and Barrick Gold have fallen 14 percent and 17 percent respectively. “I think the reason for that is the large guys have a hard time replacing the gold they're producing every year,” he said. “[The big miners] are having to go out and pay huge amounts of money, a lot of money for the junior mining companies — the little guys that are able to find the gold.” Taylor is bullish on the junior mining sector, particularly new producers that have a lot of upside exploration potential. “They can grow organically and not have to go out and raise capital and dilute their shareholders base,” he said. Learn more about investing in gold and prices of gold at