Ahead of the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium at the end of August, Director of Global Macro Jurrien Timmer, discusses why some commodities are back on fire, if the Federal Reserve will start tapering, and what tapering could mean for the US dollar and gold.  Jurrien is bullish on gold, but is surprised it hasn’t done better with many opportunities to rally. It makes you wonder, he says, if it’s a sign the market is suppose to be doing something and if it’s not, then why? He says it could be because of the state of the dollar or the rise of Bitcoin.  He says if Bitcoin hits an equilibrium, then gold might be rediscovered. All eyes will be on the Fed’s next moves. In terms of potential tapering, Jurrien says the Fed has to look at all financial conditions including the stock market, credit spreads and interest rates. Right now, financial conditions are the easiest they’ve been, but if the Fed starts to taper and for some reason the system can’t handle it, and financial conditions begin to tighten the Fed will have to pull back. It really doesn’t have a choice.