I honestly cannot believe how utterly strange the idea of holding gold and silver is, to 99% of the people out there in never-never land. We had a snack with a couple after church Sunday night. She’s town councilwoman, and he’s a county commissioner. Both very wonderful, intelligent people. Somehow the subject of economics came around, and they never thought that I actually gave my customers real, shiny, beautiful gold! I hear it all the time on the phone with new customers. “You mean real gold? Physical gold? I actually buy gold and it comes to my house? Honest?” Or words to that effect anyway. Sure! A friend gave me a (probably) weekly sheet called, “Bottom Line.” It’s kind of neat in a way, and on page four are the “Best recession investments.” They are: Three ’small cap funds,’ two ’mid cap funds,’ two ’large cap funds,’ and three in ’the metals selector.’ At least metals are mentioned, but not to take physical gold and silver home. They suggest a stock and an ETF which probably doesn’t have an ounce of gold in it. WHAT IS WRONG WITH BUYING AND HOLDING PHYSICAL, BEAUTIFUL, TANGIBLE, ETERNAL, GOLD AND SILVER? Is all anyone ever thinks about is pieces of paper with ink on them? Physical gold and silver, in your possession, not overseas, are your life preservers while the ship of state is floundering.
Pieces of paper with ink on them, are only as good as the party which issued the paper. Banks are failing, hedge funds are failing, and stocks too, not to mention the value of all paper currencies. All of them. All of them are valuable only as long as the issuing party is reliable, or they are backed by something. If you have a pass to a theatre and the theatre is closed, of what value are the passes? If you have dollars and they won’t buy anything, of what value are they? GM is backed by billions of losses as are Ford. If Wachovia survives, I’d be surprised. Ever notice that after the markets close on Friday afternoon, all the bank closings and hideous losses are mentioned? Last Friday, two more banks gave up the ghost and the FDIC took over. How long will it take the depositors to get their failing bucks back? A couple of years? A client who I haven’t heard from in three years, called me as I am writing this. He has almost decided to buy some more metals with $40,000 he has in the bank. Almost. He didn’t. In November 2004, he bought Krugerrands @ $401.50! And he is ’thinking about it?’ What are people thinking about? The buck is sliding, and everything costs more. People in the Northeast US are selling their possessions to buy fuel oil, to just try to keep warm this winter, and people are keeping dollars in a bank at 2% interest, with six or seven times that much inflation? As the little twit said over and over again in “The Music Man (one of my all time favorite films), “Yee gods!” Bush submitted a $500,000,000 deficit budget and it is probably grossly under-exaggerated. This means that at least $500,000,000 will roll off the presses! What will the buck buy a year from now?
It is so easy and simple to protect yourself from the ravages of inflation and limitless debasing of a currency. GET OUT OF IT. Get into something not denominated in dollars. Anything. Save old stamps, LP records (they’re going to come back), Model A Fords, antiques of all kinds, or SOMETHING. Just GET OUT OF DOLLARS with your surplus assets, because they are failing as each day passes. They will not go up unless their numbers decrease, and that won’t happen with two wars going on and endless handouts to everyone.
Few of you out there are as old as me, but I remember the fine old songs of WW II. One of the funniest, was Spike Jones’ “Der Furher’s Face.” It goes, “When der Furher says, we are de master race, we hiel pfft, hiel pfft, right in der furher’s face. Not to love der Furher is a great disgrace,” etc. It goes on and is hilarious. I have rewritten it with Obama, and I wish someone would publish it, sing it and record my version, as it might help McCain. “When Obama says, we’re going to change dis place, we vote no, no, right in Obama’s face, etc.” I’ve got the original recording. Maybe it would help to defeat the Democrats. I wish something could or would. No, McCain’s not my choice, but Obama has to go. I hate to repeat myself so much, but people have got to wake up, get out of dollars, and into something tangible, and I don’t mean pieces of paper with ink on them. Gold and silver are self backed, and stand alone as to value. I suppose we’ll just have to watch millions go broke with their paper dollar wealth shrinking. It has happened so may times in history, and believe me, this history is repeating itself!