It’s an old country phrase of course, but a truism, and it can be taken to mean several things in the economic world. As a precious metals broker for many years, my current take on the phrase is that now, just when everyone should be accumulating actual, historic, tangible, fungible, money in the form of physical gold and silver most aren’t. When it is “closing time,” prices will begin a rapid ascent. “Closing time,” will be when the game of manipulation of gold and silver can no longer be maintained. It will be “closing time,” when everyone wants to get on the wagon, and prices of gold and silver are sky high.
I vividly remember 1979, when Bunker Hunt was attempting to corner the world’s silver supply. I spent many hours counting a lot of it. Silver went as high as $54, and gold over $850. In today’s devalued bucks, that would probably be the equivalent of $150 silver and $2,500 gold. It wasn’t just Bunker Hunt, but god ol’ boy Jimmy Carter’s hyper inflation rate of an un-admitted close to 20%, mortgage rates of 13%, paying away the Panama Canal, thanks to a disgraceful vote of an Arizona Senator named Dennis DeConcini, and a general mistrust of just about everything. People were coming into my office selling their family sterling flatware, and at the same time buying huge amounts of silver, which I was then advising against. The same was happening with gold. Neither were good buys then, and I created open hostility among my clients when I flatly refused to sell to them. I told them it was absurd, and to forget it. I was correct, as the prices were so high in currencies, they were a poor investment, and were actually similar to the NASDAQ at its peak. Everyone thought it was closing time, not realizing the prices were far in excess of production cost. They should have bought their hooch quite a few hours earlier, when the girls might have appeared to be uglier, but were a far better bet.
When it’s “closing time” in a bar, if you happen to frequent them, and I don’t, evidently there is a frantic impulse to buy a couple more, attenuating the mental haze, and attempt a conquest of whatever female pulchritude still hangs around, which is far from optimal. Sound familiar to those who quit their jobs and began day trading? Comparable to millions frantically buying NASDAQ issues which had a P.E. ratio of 200, 500, or had no earnings of any kind, and didn’t appear as if they ever would? Just like the days of silver-gold frantic buying, even though common sense said NO. After all, it was closing time, and one just had to get on the bandwagon. Has the majority ever been right? Has the majority throughout history even back to Biblical times ever been right? No. Does the majority believe that now is the time to store surplus assets in precious metals? No. Is gold and silver being trashed by every economic “expert” and “economist?” Yep. Are the Pooh Bas of the media urging acquisition of tangibles rather than pieces of paper with ink on them? Of course not. They’ll wait till “last call” comes, and it is closing time.
I well remember within the last couple of years, interviews with “financial experts,” who said that the Dow and NASDAQ would continue their upwards flight to the heavens, and there was indeed “Pie in the Sky.” I knew differently, but not being omniscient, or a divine prophet, I knew not when the ascent would cease. I only knew it would, and with disastrous consequences to those who thought the girls look ever so beautiful at closing time. The same is happening NOW, good people. Gold and silver have been manipulated for so many years, that they are looked upon as offal to those who profit mightily from having their faces appear on the boob tube, or profit from huckstering paper to the closing time addicts and near-sighted. For goodness sakes, stop being a member of the majority, who are always proven wrong sooner or later. Those who saw the handwriting on the wall in mid 1929, mid 1987, and mid 1999, knew that the girls always looked prettiest at closing time, ignored the cotton mini skirts, and went home to silk nightgowns. They got out, in other words, and mostly with a hefty profit on which to pay taxes. Beats losing it, doesn’t it?
When I learned to type in school, I remember the phrase we used to have to master, which seemed to use all the keys. It was similar to, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” That wasn’t it, because it leaves out some letters, however now is the time for all smart men and women to come to their own aid, and store their surplus assets in real, tangible, fungible, historic, universally recognized, compact, beautiful, desirable, MONEY, in the form of gold and silver. Forget platinum for a while. Get them from whoever has the lowest prices and is the most reliable and trustworthy, but get them. It is not closing time, the girls don’t appear too lascivious, but the prices are so close to the bottom, that anyone NOT storing assets in metals, to me, are of the majority, who historically have always been wrong eventually.
In financial sectors, please note that actions happen suddenly, as in an earthquake. For some unknown reason, perhaps by invisible waves created by a million minds, reverses and increases occur suddenly, and often without warning. Art Bell, an all night talk show host who will re-appear next week, conducted experiments which asked all listeners to concentrate on a certain subject, such as rainfall, or healing of a certain person. The results were so outstanding and convincing that Bell became afraid to continue with further mass mental stimulation. Perhaps there is indeed some mystic thing or power that causes enormous numbers of people to act simultaneously in a certain way. I do know that markets drop precipitously very quickly, just as they rise in the same way. What is certain is that history does repeat, and those that do not recognize that fact, are doomed to repeat it. Just as stock diminution has repeated itself many times, paper currency debasement always repeats, and for that matter, once a nation has begun inflating, the process has never stopped until total debasement has occurred. The buck has gone the way of all flesh by about 95% so far. Others are far worse, but none have anything to back them other than the “full faith and credit of the (insert name here) government.” Gold and silver have gone nowhere over the past couple of years. But sheer logic will have to tell you that they both have actual value, cost a lot to produce, and are always in demand for a multitude of uses, both industrial, cosmetic, vanity, and hedging. Poor buys now? Absolutely not. Poor price record and demand of late? Yes, and historically that is the time to buy anything from Model A Fords to stamps, antiques, guns, and of course gold and silver. Don’t get caught without, at current low prices. The masses will suddenly turn to gold and silver eventually, driving prices up, which will only be the market at work. Smart people act, look at unmistakable signs, and are logical, not emotional. Stupid people follow, and by then it’s usually too late. Smart people know the answers, and stupid people never understand the question. Smart people do, and stupid people usually teach, but I won’t get started on the public schools, as this is an economics web site!