When the indebted King Henry VI was struggling to hold England together in the 15th century, his advisers thought alchemy – turning lead into gold – might be a solution.
The US Federal Reserve’s financial alchemy appears to have succeeded where Henry’s magicians failed, at least in transforming the price of base metals into gold.
Lead has soared since Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman, raised the idea of more quantitative easing at the end of August, rising just under 20 per cent. Copper and other base metals have also been transmuted: copper and gold have performed almost exactly alike.
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