Financial Notes 2

Financial Notes 2

Summary

Financial - May 22, 2011

2011.12.14. Ed Steer's Gold & Silver Daily (*)

Richard Russell: "The preferred position is no stocks, gold, and 10 ounce silver bars, with some cash for practical purposes. We are headed for uncharted waters and in time all central bank created currencies will be crushed. Gold is the only currency that is not someone else's liability, and it should be accumulated....The ease with which the Dow cut through the 12,000 level and back into the 11,000 area was I thought ominous. Instructions: Be out of ALL stocks including mining stocks if you've not done so already. As I see it, the bear market is now continuing from where it left off in 2009. I expect the Fed to start printing again within the next few months. I see major danger ahead and a further collapse in housing prices."

Grover Norquist: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."

KCT Comment 2017.12.25.

As I write this some six years later, with precious metals performing like dogs since Russell's comments, I am reminded of a Chinese parable (*) about how something that might seem a misfortune or bad luck may actually be the opposite when given time or a change in circumstances. In the story a horse runs off and is presumed lost but then comes back days later with a half-dozen mares. Then there was a boy who breaks his leg and his father laments the injury, but then two days later the king's army comes through town and decides not to conscript him because he is lame. There are a few other vignettes in the story to illustrate the message. My point is that the past six years have seen precious metals prices crash by 50% or more while stocks have gained 400%. This has been really hard as I've wanted to convert my PM holdings into a downpayment on a home or begin developing my vacant land with reduced cellular tower exposure in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California. My plans have been put on hold because I refuse to sell at these prices. My investment in precious metals was largely a greed-based, speculative one. Obviously it has failed at that, and has not even preserved my purchasing power. If I can only wait long enough maybe things will change. My first silver buy was back in the fall of 2008. It's coming up on ten years. I can't put my dreams on hold much longer.

At the time of the newsletter, Richard Russell appeared correct. But with the metals and miners being crushed by naked shorts and manipulating futures prices in the paper market (to the downside of course), and all the excess liquidity (to the tune of $150 billion per month) being printed by the Federal Reserve going into the stock market via subsidizing stock buybacks and other shenanigans to boost stock prices, Russell was shown to be wrong. Morally he was correct. But being righteous as they say, doesn't pay the bills. The Federal Reserve was racking up debt and contributing to the greatest wealth transfer from the common citizen to the top .01% in the history of the world. Who but a psychopath could have forseen these actions? Honesty and thrift certainly weren't the operative descriptors for the eight years of President Obama's tenure where the national debt nearly doubled to reach $19.5 trillion (*).

Regarding the Norquist statement, I've been a public school teacher for the past 28 years. I started as a well-meaning socialist who believed in big government to solve the world's problems. I no longer hold this view. I've seen government co-opted by secret societies and elite interests to perpetrate false flag terror like 9-11 and the Sandy Hook shooting (that never happened, was a FEMA/DHS Community Capstone event, and was used to undermine the second amendment). I've seen lazy, inept "permanent" government employees in the education field who should have been canned years ago. As political commentator Alex Jones said once, sociopaths use the monopoly of force that government wields to dominate the citizenry. Control freaks, sociopaths, Communists, and the like want big government because it is the most effective means to silence (or kill, as necessary) political opponents. The only sustainable path forward that honors all parties involved is less centralized, more libertarian, with less of an emphasis on income redistribution to create voting blocks that want more "free" stuff. I am not sure exactly what such a system would look like, but it wouldn't look like what we see in the USA in 2018 where $20 trillion is "missing" from the government (I can guarantee you that someone knows where that money is), where $100s of billions are awarded in no-bid contracts to political cronies under the guise of "national security," where the public is saddled with a debt-based monetary system that benefits a handful of uber-wealthy families who own it, where the corporate "mocking bird" media can lie day in and day out with impunity undermining the effectiveness of our elected representatives and for all intents and purposes lobotomizing 60% of the public who no longer know what to do or think unless given specific directions by corporations like CNN who are mere mouthpieces for elite interests such as those represented by the CIA. Alex's argument is based on the historical record. Human nature is what it is. Wishful thinking doesn't change that. The only way to contain the damage wrought by human greed and sociopathology is to reduce the power wielded by elites. At the present time, to this particular writer, it seems that reducing government's size is the best path to doing that.

The S&A Digest, December 9, 2011

"Just wanted to comment on Corzine. He's lying. He knows exactly what happened to that $1.2 billion. It's called re-hypothecation.

"Both U.S. and U.K. securities laws allow customer assets pledged as collateral (as in margin accounts) to be re-pledged by brokerage houses for their own accounts. U.S. law places a limit on the percentage of customer assets that can be re-hypothecated. However, U.K. law has no such limits. Therefore, most international brokerage houses transfer these pledged securities to their U.K. subsidiaries where they are used as collateral for loans to the brokerage house. By hypothecating, re-hypothecating, and re-re-hypothecating, etc., these securities get leveraged to about four times their value.

"MF Global pledged these securities to get loans to make their big Euro-bond bet. When that bet went sour, the securities were taken by the banks that made the loans to MF Global. All perfectly legal. But now, MF Global customers are just unsecured creditors to a bankrupt MF Global. The banksters win again."

KCT Comment 2018.4.8.

Catherine Austin Fitts says that without trust, no transaction in the financial services will be safe. In other words, when the rule of law breaks down, all investments will be at risk. Then there is the fine print. Apparently when investors gave their money to MF Global they agreed to some obscure language ten-pages down in the agreement that said, in effect, that MF Global could do whatever they wanted with your funds, as long as they promised to pay you back. However, if MF Global become insolvent in the process, then their debt to you would be null and void. Maybe null and void is too strong a phrase. As with today's legislation across the G20 nations, the banking industry can take whatever moneys it needs from its depositors to remain solvent, with repayment, if possible, taking place in a specific order of priority. Mere shareholders and depositors are far down the list of who gets paid first. Equity partners and creditors who were given ownership over certain aspects of the institution as collateral on the moneys they gave, are paid first. So, when the average person gives a financial institution money in today's world, that person is gambling. This state of affairs is probably illegal, at least from a Common Law perspective. But the elites have papered over that with a bunch of lies and distortions in order to facilitate their fleecing of the common man generation after generation.

James Turk, the man who started the precious metals storage and transaction service, Gold Money, always said that the biggest advantage of owning physical gold is that it carries "no counterparty risk." The value of the gold is inherent in the metal itself. It requires no trust in a third party over which you have no control. When the world is at war and stocks plunge 90%, gold will still be gold. Gold is said to be a fear trade. Investors rush into it when the world is on fire. You might say that allowing Turk to hold my gold for me represents risk, and you would be right. There are third party certifiers of the gold held on deposit. I suppose that any third party could become compromised if the price was right. Lloyds of London insures each metals depository operated by Gold Money, but what happens in the event of nuclear war and the depository is destroyed, or Lloyds of London goes bankrupt itself? I could hold all my gold on my physical person, but that carries risk, too. So I spread my risk around. The advantage of some off-shore gold is that I can move to numerous other countries and have the gold held on deposit shipped to me, or have the gold sold and the resulting moneys wired to me. This could be helpful if the USA chooses to limit the amount of money/assets leaving it in the coming years. My godfather, who lived in South Africa his whole life, might have relocated to the USA, but South Africa limited him to just $5,000 for the maximum amount he could transfer out of the country. It's called capital controls and they are common enough, historically. I view Gold Money as one possible workaround for this scenario.

Some additional caveats include the following. When you buy stock shares through a brokerage house, and you don't physically possess the stock certificate, you don't actually own the stock. It's a hall of mirrors. The brokerage house, or some other entity, holds the stock "for you;" but again, if other investments go south, and the financial entity needs to sell off assets to pay bills, "your" stocks could vanish. Also, there is a great deal of difference between common stock and preferred stock. I don't know much about this, but you may want to look into it. Safe deposit boxes. Apparently, in recent legislation across the G20 nations, if a bank goes bankrupt it "may" sell the contents of the safe deposit boxes as collateral on its debts to more important creditors than the serfs who merely deposit cash and place valuables in the boxes. Eminent domain, etc. Apparently, the entire United States of America, including the income produced by its citizens, have been pledged as collateral on the national debt. This practice went into hyperdrive during the USA bankruptcy proceedings during the 1930s. SO, your property may be taken from you whenever the government wants, with you having to accept the price they offer you. Your only recourse would be to fight back to assert your rights (under Common Law), as was the case I believe with the Bundy Ranch, Waco, and Ruby Ridge. The Feds don't like that, and you and your family will likely become targeted in some, likely nasty, way. In the 90 or so British "Common Wealth" nations, there is no such thing as private land ownership. For example, in England, I am talking about the entire country, the public is allowed to purchase 99 year leases on their land, but they are never allowed to outright buy it. So, in many parts of the world, people are just share croppers in perpetuity, toiling forever on land they don't even own.

President Roosevelt in the 1930s outlawed US citizen ownership of gold bullion, a ban that wasn't lifted until the 1970s. However, it should be noted that many people disobeyed this law and refused to turn their gold in. So, as with many unjust laws, there is the matter of "non-compliance" such that if a great enough number of citizens refuse to comply, it becomes impossible for the government to enforce. No one went to jail for refusing to turn their gold in.

Spiritual Import 2018.4.8.

I don't know. Overall, it's about your living a life that is dedicated toward greater freedom, compassion, health, happiness, and energetic intensity. As to how much money, property rights, gold, and financial accountability you need for that is a personal matter, for which the goals are ever changing. It is likely enough that you believe you are making "progress" toward the attainment of various related goals; but just exactly what you are pursuing and what kind of financial freedom you have attained will likely vary greatly between you and a similar person 1000 years ago, or you and a person 1000 years in the future. I think the US Constitution was based largely on "Natural Law," the idea that certain freedoms, rights, and responsibilities are bequeathed on humanity by virtue of our Creator and our being born of divine circumstances. These rights cannot be abrogated by another human being or institution. So, when you get down to it, I would argue that most of the rules put into place across the planet by thousands of governmental agencies are un-Constitutional and present an infringement upon our rights as divine beings made in God's image.

The S&A Digest, December 6, 2011

The Federal Reserve has it nearly impossible to make a living off your savings (or compound them safely). Thanks to the Fed's manipulation of interest rates, anyone who chooses to simply save money is going to lose a lot of value.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the latest Producer Price Index numbers this week. They showed prices have risen 6.8% over the last year. Savings accounts are paying less than 1%. So if you had $1 million in the bank, you lost roughly $50,000 in value last year. You'll go broke fast if you can't earn at least as much as inflation on your savings.

We will never understand why so many mainstream economists believe stealing from savers this way to reward people who borrow makes for a better society. I don't believe a word of it. It's just a sophisticated form of socialism.

In any case, if you're interested in safely compounding your wealth or living off your savings, you must adopt a few slightly more sophisticated strategies, which I'll detail below.

First though, a word about the importance of saving. If you can teach your children one thing about money, it should be teaching them how to save and why it's important to do so. Share this example with them… and ask, "Who will end up with the most money at retirement?"

Saver No. 1 is a hard worker who understands the value of time and the importance of saving. He gets a job at age 16. Each year, he saves $2,000 – roughly 250 hours of work at minimum wage. That's roughly six weeks of full-time work in the summer, or 25 weeks of part-time work (10 hours per week) during the school year. Either way, it's not an unrealistic amount of money for an enterprising 16 year old to earn, while still having plenty of money for current spending.

Saving $2,000 per year becomes a habit, and Saver No. 1 does it every year. Even after he begins his career in his mid-20s, he simply continues to set aside $2,000 per year. He invests these savings in a conservative way. He opens an IRA account so his investments won't be taxed. He puts 40% of his savings into short-term, highly rated corporate bonds. He puts 40% of his savings into high-quality "dividend growing" stocks. And he puts 10% into gold. Simple.

His portfolio only produces modest returns. Over time, he earns about 8% a year – mostly by reinvesting his dividends and interest payments. He's not worried about getting "rich." He's just saving his money. And it's easy because he never saves more than $2,000 a year. He has plenty of money to spend on things he needs and wants – but he always remembers to save first.

By the time he's 40 years old, he's contributed $48,000 in savings to his portfolio. At that point, he calculates that if he continues to earn 8% a year on this portfolio and reinvest all of his dividends and interest, he'll have plenty of money for retirement at 65 years old. So at age 40, Saver No. 1 stops saving money. He's now free to spend all the money he makes for the rest of his life.

Saver No. 2 doesn't learn to save as a child and doesn't even get a job until after college. By that time, he's so busy buying things – cars, vacations, dinners at nice restaurants, clothes, houses, etc., he never can "afford" to save a dime.

He wakes up at age 40 and realizes he doesn't have anything in the way of a retirement fund or really any liquid savings at all. So he begins to save, and he does a great job. He's putting away $10,000 per year, every year. He knows he's got to play "catch-up." Like Saver No. 1, he invests conservatively and earns 8% a year. He reinvests everything, like Saver No. 1. By the time he turns 65 years old, Saver No. 2 has contributed $250,000 towards his retirement.

Guess who has a bigger portfolio at age 65? Is it Saver No. 1 who never contributed more than $2,000 per year and whose savings totaled $48,000 in his lifetime… or is it Saver No. 2, who saved more than five times as much money initially?

At age 65, Saver No. 1's portfolio is worth a bit more than $1 million. Saver No. 2's portfolio is worth $800,000.

Quants: The Alchemists of Wall Street

AIGFP’s Massive Short Position In Commodities (which now belongs to the government)

The Exchange Stablization Fund And Its History (Part 1)

Trading Of Over The Counter Gold And Silver To Be Illegal Beginning July 15

by slow_roast
on Sat, 06/18/2011 - 15:58
#1380864

Just to point out something that another member of this board pointed out on another post, Everbank lets you link a checking account to a Forex account and literally hold your money in foreign currencies; you can swap them back to USDs as needed. They have have the CNY which is extremely unlikely to depreciate against the USD since the 'munnists have it tethered.

41% Of Belgian Central Bank Gold Has Been Lent Out 6/20/2011

by I_ate_the_crow
on Mon, 06/20/2011 - 19:13
#1386786

It must be nice to consider monetary policy in a vacuum and assume that "freegold" is the answer to all of our problems.

So we need a division between store of value "money" and medium of exchange "money", eh? So after hyperinflation, gold floats freely in the economists' perfect market whereby an equilibrium price is established and people use the inevitable paper derivative as a medium of exchange and convert salary or whatever portion of it they want to carry into the future as physical savings at the prevailing market price for gold? Brilliant! (If you ignore history, politics, the legal system, and most importantly, the integrity of central banks).

First of all, I love how the Austrian school of economics is now viewed as de facto correct because it identified the absurdity of Keynes' ideas. The uncomforting truth that must be realized is that all economics is pseudo science. It's all bunk, based on rational behavior, which doesn't truly exist. Basic micro supply and demand is still useful but the economics profession has been a joke for a long time now, wholly complicit in the current fraud. Just like bankers, economists should go out of the governing business.

"Gary wants to divvy up the gold and then inflict Freegold. If you cannot see the disaster that this is, I don't know what to say to you. All to take power away from the central banks? This is the mistake. It is not their fault. As Greyfox said, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” We are at fault, for saving in promises. We give THEM power."

This is the dumbest thing I have ever read. It ignores the fact that the money changers have captured the entire financial, political, legal, regulatory and media structure of the western world. Central banks and the governments they control have suppressed the price of gold for years now, and it is unbelievably naive to think that "freegold" would somehow stop them from coming up with a plan to manipulate the price via the supply of gold again in the future. That idea is slightly less absurd than Ron Paul's "competing currencies" idea. FOFOA thinks, with social disorder accomanying hyperinflations, that freegold will be possible? I'm curious, how does the Patriot Act or matial law factor into this theory?

Honestly, I find all the debate between hyperinflation/deflation and gold standard/freegold to be ludicrously pointless. To me, it seems like most involved just want to be able to look back and say "look how smart I am, I told you so." Regardless of who ends up being more semantically accurate, one thing is certain: bankruptcy of the debt-based western economic system is coming to a nation state near you. Buy some physical silver and gold to protect your purchasing power and hold physical cash for the coming global liquidity crisis that will precede the greatest depression of all, the end of the keynesian exponential growth model and implosion of an 80 year debt-bubble. Absent a revolution in the USA nothing is going to change this outcome.

As we all know, the power resides with those who control the money supply. Private central banks must be eliminated. Debt-free money issued by the government is the only viable solution to true medium of exchange "money", and if FOFOA had any patriotic bones in their bodies, they would spend their time examining that issue rather than convincing people that some magical freegold inevitability will solve the world's monetary problems. If the central banks control the currency, even if it’s gold, it will be subverted, guaranteed.

FOFOA's thinking is obviously much more elegant than mine, though, so I probably shouldn't have even bothered with reading and trying to comprehend its genius. Get real! By all means, we should all have some gold for the reasons stated in this post. Just spare me the freegold standard gibberish, as well as the argument that it will be any different than any other gold standard throughout human history.

“If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the producing masses of the nation and the world. Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold”

-William Jennings Bryan

by gwar5
on Mon, 06/20/2011 - 18:30
#1386685

History repeats...

The jig was up for John Law who was printing French notes (btw 1715-1720) at a premium over gold coins under the Royal Charter. The ZH types of the time noticed that someone had trouble redeeming the notes back into gold coinage one day, so it began to unravel, slowly at first.

The ZHers of the day stealthily acquired gold, other items of value and got them oout of the country before the scam became widely known and it unraveled.

Sure enough, gold was suddenly banned, confiscated, and Royal agents were searching all traveler's bags leaving the country (TSA -- in 1720), but the gold confiscation didn't work and only lasted months.

It's amazing how the scam hasn't changed a bit in 300 years.

The Communists Have Taken Over The Acropolis (ZeroHedge, 6/27/2011) (*)

by redpill
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 13:19
#1405836

It's pointless theater at this point, unfortunately. As will be the vote, which will pass. But even if it didn't, it wouldn't matter. The die has been cast for Greece, her path has been chosen for her, and she no longer gets to pick it herself. Even with mass PASOK defections and a failed austerity vote, the EU bankers will ensure this is not the end. This is not Iceland, they are much more well entrenched in Athens. Loans will be extended, rolled over, whatever it takes, to make sure the Greeks stay under a crushing load of debt for many generations to come. This is the first of a long line of planned financial slavery camps.

When they finally get the Greeks settled and get them making interest payments as large as possible without revolution on a debt so large that it will never be paid off, they will considered them conquered. The citizenry will capitulate as they grow weary from fighting what appears to be an unwinnable contenst, and they'll return to work and slowly get every last drop of blood squeezed from them every day to service their PERPETUAL debt.

Now people should finally start to see the plan. It's a plan for every country, not just Greece. Perpetual, and unimaginably large debt that will never go away and can only barely be serviced. Paycheck-to-paycheck governance, which by its dependency on the "good graces" of international bankers, will perform their beck and call at the drop of a hat.

Greece is already lost. Will people learn from it? Will they have to see the same thing happen in Spain, or Portugal, or Italy? Or will we sit and watch the bankers perform a blitzkreig across Europe with debt instead of tanks?

by toto
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 13:34
#1405905

To much negativity.

Have faith in the real humans.(the ones that still live).

With love from greece.

by redpill
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 13:39
#1405910

What you call negativity I call realism. But I do wish it weren't so.

Ironcially, the Chinese may wind up being the spoilers here for the EU bankers, rushing in to take a short term hit in order to get a solid financial foothold in Europe. The Greeks will be made financial slaves either way of course, but I suppose there may be some who find the soap opera of macro-Machiavellian intrigue between the financial East and West to be an interesting narrative.

by The Fonz
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 13:56
#1405961

Then I shall grant your wish. 3800 times in history fiat money has failed. In most instances those who took that money to failure lost their power. History has few lessons as conclusive as this. You sir, may consider it certain that the banks will fail, and that Greece will regain her sovernty.

This system is not in equilibrium, it is like a pile of sand that is stable until that last unlucky grain... then it all slides.

by SecondComing
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 14:13
#1406015

I see someone is familiar with the Bakian concept of self-organized criticality.

You know, many complexity theorists argue that Bak's sandpile model is a heuristic for understanding macroevolutionary saltations.

Oh, to be that one. last. lucky. precipitating. grain of sand.

by The Fonz
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 16:17
#1406438

Thank you for the complement. Ironically however I was not familiar with Bakian complexity theory about self-organizing criticallity. I'd picked up the notion from Taleb in "Black Swan" somehow. :) I have now read the wiki entry for this idea and thank you for exposing it to me :)

by redpill
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 14:30
#1406096

Ah but in most of those times, the failure has come at an intersection of armed conflict with another civilization. Today, humanity is dominated by fiat currencies, any change in regime today is a switch from one type of fiat to another. The world is run with debt-backed money, and those in control will not allow a return to real money that they cannot manipulate.

by Fiat2Zero
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 14:50
#1406187

You are looking at the wet sidewalk and concluding it causes rain.

Currencies go to zero due to a loss of confidence, period. Loss of confidence may be caused by many things, among them, a crushing debt load which convinces people debts will not be repaid.

Another obvious reason is conquest. If you are about to get taken over, you won't be paying taxes in the local currency anymore.

Bankers will find out they are outnumbered. They will be lucky to escape with their heads attached to their necks.

People can't be made to be confident in paper. A loss in confidence of one type of paper is contagious to all other fiat currencies. Therefore, all fiat will burn. It will be replaced by something not infinitely printable.

In time, people will forget, and the ponzi will start all over again.

This is as it has been since people have been.

by redpill
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 15:07
#1406247

Each time and time again has been a trial run, getting them sharper each time. That's why it took so long for the Federal Reserve in the United States. Central banking got shut down time and time again...until 1913. And it's stuck for a century, gaining power all the time, and absolutely will not stand for its own dissolution.

Much the same, international banking interests are not ignorant of the history you describe; quite the contrary, they have learned from it. They understand they must turn country against country, faction against faction, to keep blame unfocused and to keep real solutions from ever attaining a supermajority.

I'd love it if were true, that Greece re-enacts history and resets the system. But you see even if they do, there is no longer any freedom to hide from the large banks, they are global now, and after a short period of chaos would wind up back on the fiat addiction train.

The only way to prevent this from continuing is for the world to stand up and shake off fiat currency, but we are all too cleverly beset on antagonizing each other to ever be united against the ultimate lie of money.

by Mad Cow
on Mon, 06/27/2011 - 15:29
#1406313

yep, along with the advent of mass brainwashing (TV AND Internet) there is little hope. All those counting on some mass awakening to the truth will be sorely disappointed. The only thing you can count on is mass delusion, always. When the horde runs a certain direction, the safest bet is to run the other way.

Guest Post: The Screaming Fundamentals For Owning Gold And Silver 6/29/2011 (pdf)

by redpill
on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 11:00
#1411790

The problem is that despite the longer term fundamentals being solid for PMs, it's hard to get a lot of folks to listen when there are huge price swings, paper market manipulation, margin hikes, all of which cause short term losses (in terms of fiat USD, albeit). It's a rough rollercoaster ride.

RP it's mainly because their "financial advisors" make no cheddar on advising PM as insurance. People are convinced that any interest they "earn" on their savings is better than none even if it's actually negative returrns that they don't realize. Even with dividend paying stocks they've been sold on the premise that getting a few percentage points after inflation is ideal without considering the counterparty risk and volatility that a stock has and that the initial investment can plummet or even disappear.

The financial media, Wall St. and central banks have had decades to promote their products and propagandize; it's going to be a long, tough march uphill to change popular opinion.

I hear you, I can't even get my company to offer a money market option in our 401k plan, much less anything as "extreme" as precious metals exposure.

Our 401k administrator insists that "it's better to offer fewer options so people don't become overwhelmed." And of course the choices are a bunch of crappy mutual funds. What a bunch of self-serving bullshit.

Not to mention there is just one 401K administrator making 54 thousand per year managing a few thousand boring 401k accounts that are generally fed by computer deductions off the willing sheep baa'ing as they slave away in the texile factory.

Not so rough if you just buy and hold. I admit I got nervous and studied the 2007, 8, and 9 charts carefully this time and asked "how low can it go?" Knowing the dip always happens at options expiration and summer kept me firmly on the bull.

Oh I did quite some time ago, so I'm not worried. It wasn't that long ago that I would have never dreamed about complaining about silver in the $30s!

And when there is the imminent threat of the collapse of all of human civilization on a global level. I own G / ; almost my entire portfolio is in G/ S but I too wonder what the hell is it good for, if the financiers are going to confiscate all real assets and enslave us in feudalism. I do not have the $1mill minimum required to be considered a human being per the Dodd Frank bill / FX determinations. I'll be a peasant, apparently. :)

by Clay Hill
on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 10:55
#1411769

Still buying every payday B_B.

Shut off the cable, renogotiated insurance and telephone service to free up a little more cash.

Just waiting for G/S of 20-1 to switch half to gold.

by Deo vindice
on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 10:37
#1411740

The fundamentals have (always) been there. They're just more pronounced now than before. And silver will undoubtedly outperform gold. I expect the ratio to get to the 20-to-1 mark.

by Bay of Pigs
on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 11:29
#1411920

Yes Dog,

Just like the silver bears (douchebags) who scream "it's off 30%!".

No, it's up 86% yoy....and in a 10 year Bull Market that started before the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, a Housing Bubble, the Great Recession, TARP, TBTF, QE, QE II, etc....

But I digress...

by DoChenRollingBearing
on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 11:34
#1411985

^--- All correct observations on this subthread.

NONE of our financial problems have been solved.

NO ONE of significance has gone to jail.

OK, silver has always been a rocky ride, more volatile than gold.

But, in the end, it's going to all be about the ounces, held right there by each of us.

by Sean7k
on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 11:04
#1411788

The banksters can't make the money they need without volatility. The market is being inundated with news from both sides to create fear and apprehension. The constant chasing of potential returns and profits by all participants could be useful, if they weren't being frontrun.

Thus, you freely give your wealth to the banksters in return for the chance to step up and spin the roulette wheel.

Caught up in the games of wall street, people fail to see the ramifications of policy and law being created around them. They worry about income, but fail to protect their liberty. What value is there in $5,000 an ounce gold, if your are taxed on the profit or limited in your ability to exchange it?

Everything Chris says is true and useful for planning, but what good is it if you must then live in greater and greater tyranny? I for one, would love to see people put liberty first. Don't misunderstand me, the holding of gold and silver are a necessity, but so is the ability to live free and unshackled by the machinations of the Elites.

Not me, these degenerate gamblers can talk up their worthless paper stocks and phony markets all they like while I continue to stack gold and silver....they havent gone down for me at all, still weigh 1 oz each.

by Temporalist
on Wed, 06/29/2011 - 11:27
#1411900

Here is an article about a law to remove the tax on PMs in the U.S.:

Lee: Gold, silver should be treated like currency (pdf)

"Utah Sen. Mike Lee joined with fellow Republicans on Tuesday to introduce legislation that would jettison federal capital gains taxes for gold or silver coins."

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/52092675-90/lee-gold-silver-coins....

And

A First Step To Sound Money (pdf)

Thanks to GATA (pdf) for sharing these links.

Comment from Salt Lake Tribune article referenced above:

ABU

And the rich get richer…It was kind of funny when the Utah Legislature passed a law making gold and silver legal tender and exempting the metals from state capital gains taxes. (http://bit.ly/l3KB17) Now that Senator Mike Lee has jumped on the bandwagon and suggested that gold and silver should be treated as currencies and exempted from federal capital gains taxes, we have to stop giggling and talk about why this is a serious issue – and a seriously misguided idea. (http://bit.ly/kkSho5) First, while it’s a nice sound bite to say that the U.S. dollar has lost 98% of its value since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the implied causal relationship is silly. U.S. inflation from 1913 to 2010 is a fairly staggering 2,182% but it’s a safe bet that inflation over those 87 years hasn’t been caused by the Fed. It’s worth noting that in 1913 – Senator Lee’s year of choice probably because it is the year the Federal Government started maintaining inflation data – gold cost $20.67 per ounce. It is currently worth about $1,500 per ounce. Using the same 1913-2010 rate of inflation, gold should cost about $472 per ounce today. Thus, gold’s price has inflated far more significantly over the same period than the U.S. dollar. Second, gold’s price is, of course, market driven. That market is driven by supply and demand coming from governments, investors, speculators and a host of market players. Gold is worth what the market says it is worth simply because the market says so. There is no intrinsic value in gold that says it will retain value or deserves to be a certain value.Gold prices, of course, fluctuate – up and down. Gold is no more of a one-way street to profit than the misguided notion that housing prices could only go up. In fact, in 1980, gold traded at over $612 per ounce before dropping back to $272 per ounce in 2001 – a fairly staggering 55% loss of value. Of course, that also means that gold is up approximately 450% from 2001 to 2011. We dare say, though in something of a death spiral, the dollar’s value has not eroded nearly as fast as gold prices have risen in the past decade.Third, the message of treating gold (and silver) like currencies and exempting them from capital gains taxes is a bit of a misnomer. (We assume that losses would similarly be exempt from tax benefit but Senator Lee hasn’t made that clear.) The simple fact is, when you buy and sell a dollar, there is no gain or loss. Leaving inflation aside, a dollar is worth a dollar. However, if you happen to like Euros, go buy some Euros with dollars and when you sell those Euros, you’ll have a gain or loss. There is no currency exemption from capital gains. If you invest your dollars in an interest bearing account at your bank, your dollars are on deposit and that interest is subject to ordinary income taxes. If you invest those dollars in U.S. Treasuries, any interest received will be taxed and any capital gains or losses will be recognized. There simply is no currency exemption from taxes as Senator Lee suggests for comparative purposes. The only way to avoid taxes on holding currency is to hold it in a non-income bearing or tax-exempt (e.g., municipal bonds) instrument. So why should gold be any different? Fourth, who is this proposal intended to serve? And who, perhaps, might actually be ill-served by such a policy? Once jewelry is eliminated, most gold is owned – directly or indirectly - by governments, central banks, investors and speculators. The first two don’t pay taxes. The third and fourth, therefore, are the beneficiaries of the exemption of gold (and silver) from capital gains taxes. How many middle class Americans own gold and would benefit from this favorable capital gains treatment? Exactly! To put an even finer point on this, consider this. John Paulson, one of the world’s most successful hedge fund investors who made billions betting on the collapse of the housing market, now allows investors to buy his hedge funds in, you got it, gold! So the logic of this proposed capital gains exemption suggests that if you hold your “currency” in gold, and invest that gold in a Paulson hedge fund, and redeem it later also in gold, you would recognize no capital gain! We revert to the title of this entry – the rich get richer…But who is most ill-served by this policy? Well that would be those very same middle class Americans who don’t own gold. And why are they ill-served? Well first, of course, they suffer the further erosion of the tax burden paid by the wealthiest Americans who now, along with historically low tax rates, will pay no capital gains taxes on their gold and silver holdings. And second, what Senators Lee, DeMint and Paul, and their kindred spirits, are really saying is that the dollar is in trouble and the world shouldn’t have much faith and credit in the United States Government’s ability to repay its debts and to honor the value of its currency. (Note Lee’s comment in the Tribune article: “he hopes will encourage a change in the nation’s monetary system.”) It may well be that the era of the dollar as the reserve currency of the entire world is coming to an end but to suggest that the full faith and credit of the United States of America isn’t worth the paper it’s written on (cause hey, since Richard Nixon released us from the gold standard, that’s what backs the value of the dollar!), seems like a pretty big stretch. Or maybe with that August 2nd debt ceiling deadline approaching, a U.S. debt default would allow Messrs. Lee, DeMint and Paul an “I told you so” moment at an untold cost to the U.S. taxpayers.

www.facebook.com/betterutah
www.twitter.com/betterutah

Chris Lovato 18 hours ago in reply to ABU

ABU your fundamentally wrong on one point. Capital Gains tax on Gold and Silver are wrong. they don't increase in value like equities. gold and silver only increase when currencies weaken. the world economy has treated them as money for hundreds of years. so to see gold and silver rise as much as they have in the last year has nothing to do with an increase of value but the decrease of the dollar.

The Case for a Genuine Gold Dollar (pdf)

You may laugh at this initiative but it may likely be the very thing you will be the most grateful for in the coming years. If the Fed is so great whats wrong with giving them a little competition? freedom to trade in what you want is your right. it's time to end the Feds money monopoly!

bombing6 1 day ago
Amazing ignorance. Have you noticed the economic crisis that we are now in? It's not going away until the cause is swept away. Fiat currencies and sovereign debt is at the center of it.
3 people liked this. Like Reply

poster47 1 day ago in reply to bombing6
You're right. Corrput governments waging endless and unwinable wars, the lowest taxes in history and corporate control over most government officials in most countries has absolutely nothing to do with it.
3 people liked this. Like Reply

soundmoneyplease 23 hours ago in reply to poster47
You couldn't be more CORRECT!!! Those "endless and unwinable wars" were financed via a fiat currency system, read "endless money supply"!!!!

If money were finite, visa vis a gold standard, the government would have to tax the citizens to pay for war. An unpopular war would then cause the incumbent to be ousted. On the other hand, a war worth fighting (truly in the naiton's best interest) would generate enough patriotism for people to voluntarily contribute to the cause through taxes.

This applies to WELFARE too. (for all the neo-cons reading this)

That is the essence of real democracy.

Finite money means FINITE government, whether that government, read Tyrrant, is defined by SOCIALISM or FASCISM.

These days, that is your choice, SOCIALISM or FASCISM, read CNN or FOX News.

Where is the independent thought?

Solari.com Precious Metals Market Report 12/13/2012

Franklin Sanders

2017.12.4. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-04/war-gold-intensifies-it-betrays-elitists-panic-and-coming-defeat-part-1

Pearson365

Quoted from a Martin Armstrong blog:

"The risk with Bitcoin is that the government could simply change the definition of money. That is what they did to me back in 1980 because I was one of the three main market-makers in gold (perhaps the biggest). It was all a hunt for taxes, not concerning me but my clients. I have explained before why I retired from making markets in gold — the IRS declared me to be a BANK! When gold was legalized in 1975 and began trading on the COMEX in New York, the New Jersey Senate asked me to write the law on gold to make sure it would not be taxable to buy and sell gold bullion. I worked with Senator Foran and developed the language that “gold was not taxable unless converted to use.” I was making the market to buy gold scrap from all the stores you see with “WE BUY GOLD” signs. They buy the jewelry and it has to be refined. To do that, you needed a minimum lot of 100 ounces, which was the contract size on COMEX. When gold was $800, that meant one 100 ounce bar was valued at $80,000. The refining period was 6 weeks. Therefore, all of these small operations could not afford the float. If they bought 100 ounces per week, then they would need $560,000 in working capital. That would not work for most of these small shops buying gold. I made the market. The shops could ship whatever they bought that day and I would buy it at the daily price. I gathered all the gold sold by countless stores. The gold was shipped by armored cars to Englehard for refining (PhiBro or Philipps Brothers who eventually bought Saloman Brothers). I was doing tens of millions per week back then and refined a mountain of gold. First, the NJ tax authorities walked in and declared me to be a merchant. I said gold was not taxable unless converted to a usable product. They said their “interpretation” was that the “use” was investment. I refused to pay and opted for a trial. Of course, you do not get a jury, just a judge who rules always for the government. I was not allowed to testify at my own trial for they said whatever the Senate had asked me to write, I may have misinterpreted their intention. Senator Foran was so angry that he demanded to testify at my trial. The government objected and he was allowed to testify ONLY as a private individual citizen. I moved to subpoena the full Senate. The judge denied me, and I lost. Simultaneously, the Feds walked in and declared me to be a BANK. They then declared that I had to file forms to report when my clients bought or sold more than $10,000. Their interpretation was that gold was NEVER formally declared not to be money in 1971, so I was a BANK. They threatened me saying that the fine was $50,000 up to the full amount of every transaction I failed to report. They said they knew I perhaps did not “realize” I was a BANK and would forego the fines if I would allow them access to audit all my clients. I had no choice. They set up shop in my office. I walked by, noticing that they were pulling out names of those whose transaction were even $5,000, and I asked what was going on. The agent turned to me and said very aggressively, “You have a problem, keep your mouth shut!” The next day in rolled the vans and they took all my business records and began an audit over 3,000 of my clients for the next three years. That is why I retired. I neither wanted to collect sales taxes on bullion nor be a BANK and report on my clients. Since I was the biggest, they were starting with me. People doing business outside of New Jersey would not have the sales tax problem and the IRS was interested in me because of my size. They would not do the same for small shops. So it was time to get out of the business. Clients wanted the research to continue, so that was spun-off as a new company in 1981. Now comes Bitcoin. The Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate is currently working on Bill S.1241 that aims to criminalize deliberate concealment of property or the control of a financial account. The bill was submitted in June, and the law would change the definition of “financial account” and “financial institution,” and thus also cover digital currencies and digital exchanges. Who is pushing it? None other than California’s Senator Dianne Feinstein, who maintains that the bill is needed to update existing money laundering laws because of terrorists. This means that the miners of Bitcoin will become a “bank,” as I was declared. The operators of the trading platform Coinbase were forced by court ruling to notify the IRS of the identity of over 14,000 investors who were trading $20,000 in Bitcoin. Users were affected if their trading volume had exceeded $20,000 at the beginning of 2013 by the end of 2015. So this is NOT a single transaction, but accumulative. The IRS will now “presume” tax evasion. This is what I warned would happen. Been there done that! They can shut down Bitcoin in the blink of an eye by simply defining anyone who is a miner to be a financial institution. The bill will change the definition of “financial institution” in Section 53412 (a) of Title 31 , United States Code. The text will read: “An exhibitor, a redeemer or a cashier of prepaid access devices, digital currency or a digital exchanger or a digital currency.” The regulation will remove the anonymity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies defeating this idea that there is an alternative-financial-universe separate from government."

KCT Comment 2017.12.22.

What I like about the above post is that it makes real many of my concerns regarding how the power exercised by a corrupt, control-obsessed central government likely will be used to destroy any competitor to the Rothschild family owned financial debt instrument known in the USA as the dollar. People are running into the digital currency Bitcoin like lemmings off a cliff. They think this privacy-less, hackable, traceable currency is going to set them free? I think not. For one, the mega-investment bank, Goldman Sachs, had a $50,000,000 investment in its beginning stages. Also, it is reported that an intelligence agency, I think the National Security Agency, wrote the software code that undergirds the platform. Coinbase and other Bitcoin exchanges have been hacked, robbing investors of tens of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin. Proponents have said that the number of coins will be a maximum of 21 million; but apparently, a select group of Bitcoin owners can vote to change the fundamental rules guiding Bitcoin, including the number of Bitcoins allowed to be "mined." That is, there can be runaway inflation of Bitcoin with no cap on the number of coins, thus presenting no real alternative to the "printing presses" of the Federal Reserve. In "Bitcoin Is An 'OP Leading to RFID Chip'; Smart Money Is Buying Gold And Land" (*), Fitts states (with support from Aaron Russo) that elites are allowing Bitcoin prices to soar with no regulation in order to incentivize the building out of the platform into all aspects of society. Once Bitcoin and its underlying "blockchain" software become ubiquitous, the federal government will likely regulate it to death, finally replacing it with a digital or "crypto" currency that is controlled entirely by the central authorities.

I will not invest in Bitcoin for the same reasons I am not investing in Alphabet (the parent company of Google and YouTube) and Amazon. Both are digital-centric corporations whose primary function is to harvest our every Internet keystroke and mouse click. I have read that the public's use of the various "free" services that Alphabet provides are actually worth about $1000 per user per year to Alphabet itself, in terms of its marketing, packaging, and selling of our private data to corporations, government agencies, and other third parties. Clearly, Bitcoin and Alphabet are part of the "Beast System" foretold in the Bible where humanity's freedom to buy and sell will be strictly controlled by a usurious system where all participants will have to take "The Mark." The Mark, in my opinion, while it could require a brand or RFID chip in the hand, may be the seamless grid of neurotoxic manmade electromagnetic energy enveloping the planet by which all these Bitcoin and other exchanges will be made possible. On almost every page of this webite I decry the deployment of this toxic energy. Without 5G, the Internet of Things, and a celltower on every corner, a true Bitcoin-based economic system will not be possible. I will do all that I can to prevent that, even if it means missing out on possible 1000-fold financial returns in this emerging and (in my view) Satanic technology.

Having said the above about digital currencies, are gold and silver a perfect answer? Despite my heavy investment in the precious metals sector, I would say the answer is no. JP Morgan Chase I hear owns about 1 billion ounces of physical silver, or more than an entire year's global output. JPM is also a principal "manipulator" of the silver futures market and is reported to be one of the main parties holding prices down. People who claim that such market manipulation is illegal find out that nothing is illegal if is done under the auspices of "national security." For the US government, keeping the prices in check for those commodities that might pose a threat to the world reserve currency status of the US dollar is a matter of national security. Hence all rigging and skullduggery in that regard is permitted. I understand that the Rothschilds own the world's largest gold mining companies, including Barrick Gold. So why would anyone want to base a new transactional system on a commodity almost entirely manipulated by a corrupt oligarchy that is often Satanic and practices ancient rituals like child sacrifice?

Proponents of gold and silver would say that at least precious metals are real. I would agree that being a tangible asset with no counterparty risk is better than being debt (like the Federal Reserve note) or nothing at all with a hackable code requiring a wireless infrastructure (Bitcoin). But when I dream of gold going up 3x in price, it means three times greater financial incentive to dig more deep holes into the earth with massive amounts of toxic chemicals like arsenic utilized to precipitate out the gold from the ore. It's a messy, life-harming business that leaves a deadly scar for decades to come. Catherine Austin Fitts states that gold mining is far less damaging than the world wars that would not have been possible without debt-based instrument creation on a vast scale to fund both sides. In The Money Masters (part 1; part 2) video series by Bill Still I learned of the use of tally sticks in Europe for several hundred years. They were used in medieval courts as proof of financial transacations as well as money. The point is that they had no inherent value apart from their trustworthiness and people's belief in their utility as a medium and/or record of exchange. There are other examples of like sea shells and cow dung used for the same purpose.

Perhaps a good choice would be a central government issuing credit to the public in the form of paper currency and coinage. This is all well and good, as it requires no digital backbone and little mining -- and just some tree or cotton harvesting for the paper. However, it assumes that governments are not corruptible. As we have seen with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, or the events surrounding the false flag attack of 9/11 (among many others), greedy, psychopathic elites will always seek to take control over the reins of government. We have a trustless system at this point, with propaganda and military force being used to enforce that which the public is unwilling or unable to obey or believe. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy both threatened the privately owned central banks in charge of the nation's debt-based currency, and we know how that ended. Yet we must hope that our next effort in this area will be successful.

In such a trustless governance and financial system, our best means of exchange is precious metals or other valuables that possess intrinsic worth. I have a GoldMoney account with some ounces of gold that are linked to the credit card system where I can send and receive physical gold or sell gold into currency that can be used to make purchases just as any credit card can. This would be a return to the pre-1913 financial system of the United States where the public used gold, silver, and copper coins as well as paper currency that could be redeemed for the metals at most banks. We would need third party certifiers and regular public audits to prove that "the gold is there" in order to maintain trust. I have heard that such a move would be highly deflationary, and would require the stop of unpayable promises and Welfare at the federal level where vast numbers of people receive payouts for doing nothing because it buys the politicians votes and adding to the debt of the US government carries no near term political risk. Maybe a quarter of the population would be culled if all the "free" goodies dependent on the usurious debt based currency system were to stop. I would say in response to that, "Bring it. Deploy the troops and gun down -- if they turn violent -- the generations of unruly slackers who have grown dependent and stupid in this immoral system." What the nation would be left with would be a far more respectful, thrifty, intelligent, disciplined, and intelligent gene pool. Of course, on the macro level, all the decisions that led to the exporting of jobs and manufacturing abroad would have to be reversed. So as Congressional Representative Ron Paul, a libertarian, has said, there would have to be a transitional period, perhaps a decade, that would take us from the state of dependency to relative independence.

One last note on the importance of privacy. Some people in my family believe that only those wanting to hide from the law would desire the option of private financial transactions. I have several things to say about that. We already know that "our" government has shipped pallets of shrink-wrapped $100 bills totaling many $billions of dollars to areas of the world where the military and its contractors use the cash to bribe local people and, as it turns out (what a shock!), enrich themselves. There is nearly zero accountability or oversight of this process. The Federal Reserve already does NOT make public how much currency it actually prints, how much gold it has in reserve (if any), or how much digital debt it has issued. The public may be given some numbers, but there is no political will to actually verify. What I am saying is that the system as it is already allows for considerable abuse. Despite Bitcoins many adherents, it, too, has many holes, including State actors, or tech savvy criminals (sometimes one and the same) being able to steal crypto currencies at will and covering their tracks leaving no fingerprints that typical law enforcement can follow. That is, for law abiding citizens the rule of law will apply, but for more powerful players not so much. This is same as it ever was. Zero privacy for the common man and total privacy for those able to compel it.

I am concerned that if the US continues to barrel down the path leading to one world tyranny larger and larger numbers of citizens will be labeled problemmatic or intellectual extremists (or whatever) giving the central government the rationale it needs to clamp down on their civil liberties. While this could include physical imprisonment or worse, in the initial stages, or with a soft tyranny, restrictions upon Internet access or the ability to use digital financial credits would be used before harsher methods later on. Without access to "cash" or "gold" or a reliable barter system, dissidents would be at the complete mercy of friends and family and the use of their own credits and information access. If the government doesn't like your political beliefs, for example, it should not follow that it can withold food, as Stalin did when he starved to death an estimated 7 million Ukrainians. So I am against any system that would bar me from buying what I need in privacy and with no digital record. Why should the government (via it agents, Amazon and Google) track my reading habits? It is not the government's business, unless it obtains a lawful warrant for the collection of that information based on Constitutional definitions of probable cause that require an actual person to bear truthful witness against me. Presently an "Internet ID" is not needed for online access. I think that should continue to be the case. And until gold and silver coinage come back into daily usage, I want to be able to use untraceable Federal Reserve notes whenever and however I need to.

*******

2018.9.14. FAQ CRASH PLANNING: Homes, Mortgages & Opportunities by Lynette Zang (*)

KCT Comments:

This is an excellent piece that taught me a few things. Given the worldwide crisis level of government indebtedness, it appears that each nation is fast approaching an insolvency stage whereby these obligations will be restructured, financial controls put in place, and the currencies reset. There will be a wealth transfer from those who are not prepared for this to those who are. While I'd rather see the debt discharged as fraudulently induced and stick it to the uber wealthy, that is not likely to happen.

In Venezuela's recent hyperinflation "monetary" gold was confiscated, while "collectible" gold was not. Silver, also, was not grabbed. In the US, I believe the definition of collectible versus bullion is that the product costs 15% or more over the spot price. Often collectible coins are sold in special cases and certified by recognized third-parties that authenticate the coins. Silver is very heavy to move around, so if you need mobility, silver is probably not for you. But it should outperform gold if you have good timing. "Timing" is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. I've been waiting ten years for my 2008 silver purchases to appreciate to the point that I'd be willing to sell them (in order to buy a home). How much time do you have? I suppose that in the absence of profit there is always hope.

When I bring up the prospect to my local coin dealer of bullion products being confiscated, while numismatic coins not, or coins minted before 1933 being exempt, or the idea of buying solid 24K jewelry (a concept that is gaining popularity now) as a means to evade "government confiscation" they throw their arms up and say that government is basically a criminal enterprise that will create whatever "laws" it requires in order maintain its monopoly on economic and political power. The more important question they ask is, "Will I obey illegitimate, tyrannical legislation?" That is, if the public perceives the tax or confiscation laws to be unjust, then an enormous black market for these items should emerge. The public will always have the choice to not comply and refrain from turning in its silver and gold.

Right now I can go to a coin dealer and sell unlimited US mint bullion products with no reporting to the government required. I can take up to $10,000 in cash payment with a "no name" receipt. That means the dealer does not know (or care) who I am and the taxation authorities will be none the wiser unless I inform them of the transaction. I can also receive larger payments from the dealer, but it must be by check, which means that I may have to explain to the tax man how I came by that money when the check is deposited into the bank.

The US is heading toward a cashless system. The intent of this system is to tax, control, and limit the public in every conceivable way. It will require a wireless infrastructure, which of course I am opposed to, but that is another matter. In a cashless system it will be difficult to conduct transactions that are opaque to the government. It will be hard to hide or shelter your wealth from the taxation arm of a failing government.

So Zang recommends collectible or numismatic quality gold. She presents evidence that the wealthy -- who should know better -- are moving a significant amount of wealth into collectible gold coins. Zang believes this is a clue that coming confiscation directives will not apply to collectibles. Others, for example, Catherine Austin Fitts, have cautioned against collectible purchases as you often can spend 50% or more above spot, with the dealer profiting handsomely on their sale compared to the 3-5% markup associated with most bullion purchases. My coin dealer, as well as Fitts, argue that this is not 1933 when gold and silver were still used for every day purchases and almost every member of the public held monetary gold. Now, 85 years later, nearly all 350 million US citizens are under the thrall of the debt-based currency printed with nearly zero oversight or effort by the privately owned Federal Reserve. Today, after 105 years since the Federal Reserve's founding, only two percent of Americans own gold or silver bullion as an investment. So perhaps it is not worth the effort for the government to go after this group of distrustful, self-reliant, hardy people. It may be more likely that the easily had "low hanging fruit" lies in the nation's various pension funds, totalling $100 trillion or more. Following a stock market crash, states going bankrupt, and an inability of the pensions to make good on their promises to retirees, these $trillions could be forced into the Treasury bills of an insolvent federal US government. We shall see. If all important transactions must be done with digital credits (that the government tracks), it will be challenging to convert metals to digital credits while seeking a maximum return on investment. I've always thought that a large tax of some sort would be applied to any precious metals sale during hyperinflation or after a reset.

Zang spends most of the video discussing the pros and cons of renting versus buying, mortgages, and timing. If owning your own home throughout the crisis enables you to provide better safety and resiliency to your family, then you should probably keep your home despite knowing that it will go down in value in a financial crisis. But Zang argues that as much of your wealth as possible should be preserved in assets that will maintain or grow in value. Zang presents charts showing gold maintaining or increasing its purchasing power while housing going down. Timing is important. Real estate did not crash until 6-7 years AFTER monetary gold was confiscated in Venezuela. At first people thought real estate was safe, but then rents began to skyrocket as hyperinflation took hold. When the renters cried out for relief, the government stepped in with rent controls which forced many owners to sell as the rents collected could no longer cover the maintenance costs and mortgage payments. During a similar episode in Mexico twenty years ago, we see interest rates rose to 50-78% per year. Zang states that no one should have debt that is set to variable interest rate. If you carry a mortgage, it must be fixed.

But even fixed interest rates are not safe. When the dust settles, banks will be guaranteed an interest rate that is higher than inflation, so all rates will be tied to a measure of inflation. People of modest means will not be able to pay their mortgages, whose minimum payment increases every month. This saving of the banks will cause more real estate owners to go bankrupt or walk away from their homes. Housing inventory will flood the market driving prices down. In Venezuela, housing tumbled 68% in price over a two year period.

Zang talks of a window of opportunity where precious metals appreciate rapidly and/or home values plummet, where well positioned investors can sell their assets (e.g., gold and silver) and purchase a home. Of course, there will be a gauntlet of other timing issues: taxes on gold sales, potential monetary gold confiscation, selling gold and silver for cash and then RAPIDLY investing that cash in real estate before the cash loses its value, et cetera. There are stories of countries in hyperinflation where the lunch prices change over the couse of a two hour lunch because the inflation of the currency is so severe. The window is where inflation kicks in, but the government hasn't yet responded with heavy handed measures (such as guaranteeing banks' profitable return on investment).

Zang discusses how everyone needs a SHTF plan that addresses your need for: food, water, energy, security, community, barterability, and wealth preservation. Have a garden and fruit trees. Dig a well. Have solar or other sources of power independent of the energy grid. Know your neighbors. There are many websites out there that focus on emergency preparedness. Gold and silver have their place. But so do lead (ammunition) and survival skills. I own a few handguns for hiking in mountain lion territory. But I don't have much tactical training. I am pushing to have solar panels installed at the home I am living at, but then there is the question of whether the panels are tied to the grid (and inoperable during a grid down) or independent. You have to be tied to the grid to earn the rebate, but then you will not have power in an emergency.

***

2023.11.26. Some notes from Sachs Realty's video, "Debt Will Collapse Global Economy... Will The U.S. Survive? Brent Johnson - Dollar Milkshake Theory."

Before I get to the highlights of the above video, a personal update. It's been five years since I last made a financial entry. In that time I burned through $15K traipsing about Hawaii and Australia, searching for spiritual relief. I then blew through another $20K permanently relocating to Hawaii and getting established there. In this time my country, the USA, in some kind of banker-driven autoimmune disorder, has spent perhaps $20 trillion on wars of aggression, poisoning its population through mandated mRNA injections and associated small and independent -- i.e., "nonessential" -- business closures, remote work arrangements for those who were able, and COVID stymmie checks -- a prototype of the communists' hoped for "Universal Basic Income" -- for everyone else. Basically, Western nations were forced to sit at home and do nothing for two years, charging their expenses to future generations. Or betting on a civilizational die-off brought to you by the US DOD and Pfizer. If you can put yourself in Satan's shoes (hey, have some empathy), then you will see that everything is going according to plan. The government is lowering its overhead on some $200+ trillion in pension, Social Security, and Medicare obligations through decreasing USA life expectancy by three years (and counting); nanoparticulate injection of heavy metals in our skies continues apace; a growing censorship focus via public private partnerships in the digital sphere (via Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and so forth) is leading to loss of jobs and the freezing of financial assets; and the fake carbon dioxide concern is leading to immobility and worsened inflation. This is just a partial list of woes that have financial implications.

My gold and silver purchases in 2008-2012 have done little to keep up with housing, the stock market, or inflation the last 15 years.

2023.12.3. Notes on Simon Hunt: Holy Smokes! A Market Crash In 2024 & A Depression By 2025?

It has been said that humans pay more attention to bad news than good news. I'd say that is definitely the case with me, at least in terms of what articles and videos I choose to view on the web. I think in terms of survival instincts, people wish to know the bad news first, so that they may prepare accordingly. People need to know that they have a longterm plan for survival that is viable. If you can overcome your greatest obstacles, then the rest of your life ought to fall into place.

2023.12.30. Mercola: The Great Taking: How the Banksters Plan to Steal Everything From Everyone - David Rogers Webb (*) mp4 • Rumble (*)

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Spiritual Autobiography

Criminal Aerosol Spray Operations - AKA "Chemtrails"

Cultural Criticism

Electrical Sensitivity, Human Health, And Environmental Illness

Electrical Sensitivity - Personal Symptoms And Reflections

Financial

Healthful Diet And Lifestyle, Environmental Toxins, And Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

Heart Chakra Opening - Signs And Symptoms

Kundalini Awakening - Spiritual Signs And Symptoms

Kundalini Awakening - Spiritual Signs And Symptoms - Additional Posts