Personal Finance Daily: Beware the human costs of gold mining

Personal Finance Daily JANUARY 18, 2012 Wednesday's Personal Finance Stories By MarketWatch Don't miss these top stories: High price of gold is child slave labor Avoiding bull-market fever 10 things customer-service reps won't tell you Gold has been one of the greatest investment stories of the past decade, Jeanette Pavini writes today in her Buyer Beware column. Aside from its value as a commodity and its popularity for jewelry, she notes that consumers should pay attention to where and how the metal is sourced — and that new global efforts and regulations are making it easier to do that. Part of the price we pay for gold is that increased demand has resulted in the expansion of small-scale mining operations and, tragically, child slave labor and economic exploitation. But new laws will help better identify the source of gold as a "conflict metal" and there's a growing movement for consumers to seek out fair trade jewelers. Also on MarketWatch today, Mark Hulbert says that contrarians, being contrarian, are not getting caught up in the "it's a new bull market" fervor that is spreading through Wall Street. And they recommend that you avoid it as well. Read his report on what he calls a worrisome complacency. Then, for another viewpoint, read Michael A. Gayed's entry on the Trading Deck about what he sees as a potentially great buying opportunity. — Anne Stanley , Managing Editor, Personal Finance World's most notorious ship disasters The Costa Concordia lies half-submerged off the Italian coast, lost to what officials call "significant" human error. While the sinking of modern cruise ships is very rare, fatal maritime disasters have captured the public's imagination in a special way. See this slide show of some of the best-known passenger ship catastrophes. See slideshow: World's most notorious ship disasters. High price of gold is child slave labor Gold has been one of the greatest investment stories of the decade, and despite some recent weakness, its safe-haven appeal is likely to continue. But regardless of the price gyrations in gold futures and demand, do we really know what the cost of gold is in human terms? Read more: High price of gold is child slave labor. 10 things customer-service reps won't tell you Only 21% of those who complain end up satisfied, according to a recent study by Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business. Read more: 10 things customer-service reps won't tell you. INVESTING Worrisome complacency Bullishness has spread more rapidly since the early October lows than at the comparable stages of prior bull markets. This has contrarians worried, reports Mark Hulbert. Read more: Worrisome complacency. Freddie Mac sees home sales improving in 2012 While home sales are expected to improve slightly, a true housing-market recovery will be delayed as long as there remains a large gap between buyer and seller sentiment, according to Freddie Mac. Read more: Freddie Mac sees home sales improving in 2012. France signals slow death of sovereign debt market The market barely twitched when France lost its AAA rating. What the French downgrade really signaled was the slow death of the sovereign bond market. Read more: France signals slow death of sovereign debt market. From the Trading Deck: The mother of all buying opportunities? Trading Deck contributor Michael A. Gayed writes today that he believes that every day confirms that the environment is suggesting a real uptrend may now be at hand, following the manic up and down moves of late last year. The environment we may indeed now be in is perhaps more important for investors than anything that happened last year, he writes. Read more: The mother of all buying opportunities? ECONOMY & POLITICS Home-builder gauge hits 4.5-year high A measure of builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes rose in January to the highest point since June 2007, according to a closely-followed index released Wednesday. Read more: Home-builder gauge hits 4.5-year high. Industrial output rebounds in December December industrial production rose 0.4%, in line with expectations. November output was devised down a tenth. For the fourth quarter, production was up at a 3.1% annual rate. Read more: Industrial output rebounds in December. U.S. wholesale prices decline in December U.S. wholesale prices fell in December for the second time in three months, as the cost of gas and food declined, the government said Wednesday. Read more: U.S. wholesale prices decline in December. 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