In Saturday’s Journal, there was an extensive piece about storing dollars overseas, obviously to avoid taxation. The author went on about storing wealth in ‘responsible,’ ‘well run’ nations, who would welcome your money, and guard it well. As Biden would say, “Come on now.”
There are lots of people who believe what they read, and believe that if a columnist for a reliable newspaper would say something, it must be true. “Come on now.” I have no idea of how many people read my columns, because I have no idea to who they are forwarded. One gal e-mailed be a couple years ago, after I had made an error; and said that she sends my column out to hundreds, and I should edit and check facts, before I post them. I do so now more than I did before, and I thank her. I have for years, and I mean YEARS, been urging people to store their surplus assets in metals, even beginning in 1977, when I used to write a column called “The Diatribe.” Somewhere, in my dusty files, I have those columns in print form, from way back in 1977. Gold was $250 then, and like now, I then pleaded for people to store surplus assets in gold and silver. I have at least one woman who insists on storing her gold overseas, thinking that if the U.S. goes down, she’ll be able to have it shipped to her here. “Come on now.”
If the U.S. goes down, the world will have already gone, leaving us by ourselves, assuming, as I now do, that Republicans can take both houses next November and the White House two years after that. I hope that happens. Storing your gold overseas, is like storing your food in the refrigerator of a friend a thousand miles away, or storing your car in a garage in a like place. If you want to eat or drive, your food must be in your house and your car in your garage. If it ‘all goes down,’ you need your food, car, plus gold and silver in your own home or safe, not overseas. Don’t store anything you own, anywhere, or any place, but near or with you. Get guns, get a safe, not postal receipts.
Gold vs. Silver
Silver has often been called a “Poor man’s gold,” and that makes sense if you realize that the ratio historically is 16 to 1, and now it is 78 to 1. In 1980 it was 16 to 1, and I remember it. Does this mean that silver is underpriced, gold is overpriced, or neither? I think silver is underpriced, but remember, it takes 78 times more space to store silver than gold. One ounce of gold, equals 78 ounces of silver. I can hold $100,000 worth of gold in two hands, but I’d need a pickup truck probably, to hold that much silver. Everyone needs a couple hundred ounces of .999 pure silver coins or bars, and so marked, for eventual barter. You got a lot of safe storage? Lots of people believe that silver buying is smart, or there wouldn’t be a couple of weeks delay in shipping. Mints are working 24/7 to produce it. There’s no silver shortage, just a lack of manufacturing ability now. Delivery is down to a couple of weeks, now, rather than a couple of months.
A customer called me last week, and bought 200 oz. of silver, and asked me if U.S. silver halves, quarters, or dimes may be best for barter. U.S. silver dimes, quarters and halves come in “Bags” or “1/2 Bags,” and each bag has $1,000 face value U.S. silver coin in them. 10,000 dimes, 4,000 quarters, or 2,000 halves. On a per ounce basis, they are no bargain, even if our supplier has some now, which they don’t. Remember, the last ones were made 56 years ago, and I am sure that all the rare ones have been plucked out a long time ago. However, that’s not the reason a U.S. silver coin would not be good for barter. I’ve written, and it is usually true, that a two or three U.S. silver dimes will always buy a gallon of gas, and that is true as far as value is concerned, but try to find a gas station who will take them.
I can hear it now, “What do you mean lady? Whoever heard of a silver dime? They stopped making them in 1964? Hell, I was born in 1994, so don’t try to give me that.”
“How much silver is there in a real silver dime?”
“I don’t know, but see, it doesn’t have that copper center, and it was made in 1941.”
Gold and silver will always have a lot of buyers, if they’re marked with their weight and purity, because they’re real money, and that’s a well-known fact. When it ‘all comes down,’ people will love to have real money, rather than un-backed pieces of paper, which can be used to start fires. A dollar will buy what a penny bought a hundred years ago, and when I was a kid, I used to go to Doc. Alcorn’s drug store which had hundreds of kinds of penny candy. Yum, and he had a penny pin ball game too.
A silver dime has .07234 oz. of silver, a silver quarter has .18084 oz. of silver, and a pre-1964 half has .36169 oz. of silver. See? Being a quarter, dime or half, has no relation to their silver content. A one-ounce coin marked .999 pure means just that. The spot price is always available, so even though a one-ounce coin is worth more than spot, The spot price will give the person you are bartering with, a pretty good idea of what you are offering, and the fact that it is genuine, maybe even an antique. I really don’t think that U.S. silver coins are a logical way to store silver, or consider future barter. Some may not believe they are real silver, and no one will know how much silver is in them. A bag is far too heavy for a woman to lift anyway.
I don’t trust anyone overseas, for anything. How do you know about them? Ever see their face or their storage place? Storage of anything overseas, is just not smart.
There’s no place like the USA, and as I said last week, I really believe China and the CCP will bite the dust suddenly, as did the USSR in 1991, with no warning. The SEC is now considering prohibiting U.S. trades in Chinese stocks, their accounting is so shoddy, and this will be another blow to those thieves. The Chinese ‘Belt Road’ they have bellowed about now for over a year, is stalled in its few miles of track, and may not be built, it is reported. They’re so over-extended, it’s like a minimum wage job holder with a $45,000 credit card debt, thinking he can get out of it, if he eats at McDonald’s, once a day, instead of twice. Yes, the Chinese have a far greater economy than did the Soviets, but the Soviets weren’t trying to buy nations with fake money, but used force. China, every day, is clamping down on its citizens, and making their lives miserable. You can’t get the internet, Google, or other things we consider so ordinary in communist China. Everything is controlled and censored, including citizen’s lives. Logic and history say capitalism is the way to prosperity, not a bit of freedom till socialism-communism gets a good start, which it seems is happening in China. Xi has promised to return China to Chairman Mao’s type of government, if that tells you anything!
I’m not one to stand on street corners with signs protesting something, but if you think that is fun, how about Americans picketing Hobby Lobbys with signs saying “98% of this store’s merchandise is made in communist China.” And a new development in the Chinese real estate collapse. As if Evergrande’s $300 billion debt, with no due interest paid, isn’t bad enough, a second huge Chinese real estate developer, has also failed to pay its interest due. Evergrande has left thousands of apartments un-finished, a $9 billion theme park un-finished, as well as a huge electric car manufacturing plant left with only steel beams, and huge debt. Investing in China, I am certain, has left U.S foolish investors holding a wet dishcloth, rather than dollar profits.
Don Stott- don@coloradogold.com.