GEM STATE GOLD AND SILVER

Idaho Gold Dealers: The GOP Connection – 12 KTRV.

Ron Paul’s Greatest Interview – Gold & Silver With Mike Maloney – YouTube.

Dollar Strength Is Killing Stocks & Commodities | Breakout – Yahoo! Finance.

Commentaries.

Peter Schiff on Yahoo Finance – Sept 9, 2011 | Peter Schiff Blog.

Marc Faber: Gold is “Dirt Cheap” — Price Could Reach $10,000 per Ounce | Daily Ticker – Yahoo! Finance.

Idaho Gold Dealers: The GOP Connection – 12 KTRV.

Boise, Idaho – Gold futures continued trading at record prices on Wednesday, rising as high as $1,675.90 per ounce for several of Wall Street’s most popular contracts.

According to the data tracking website GoldAlert, “the price of gold has gained $165, or 11 percent, since the end of the second quarter, bolstered by a slew of soft economic data in the U.S.”

At least one Treasure Valley gold expert agrees that America’s failing economy and shaky debt-deal are fueling the record gold surge.

What’s more, Boise’s Marvin Tanner says those economic fears are convincing many consumers to sell considerable amounts of gold and cash in while prices are high.

Tanner is a precious metals dealer who buys, sells, and trades gold at Gem State Gold and Silver near the intersection of Fairview Avenue and Five Mile Road. He claims that his store is home to Idaho’s only x-ray magnetic spectrometer, which is used to analyze the exact chemical composition of gold and other metals.

Tanner says it’s obvious that economic fears are motivating his customers to sell “all the jewelry and anything they can find that’s made of gold.”

“Sometimes it’s sad,” Tanner explains, saying that many customers try to sell everything from worthless plated silver “to grandma’s jewelry.”

However, according to Idaho’s Republican Party, Gem State residents should be doing the opposite — instead buying gold to back the strength of America’s currency.

Party spokesman Jonathon Parker noted that Republican interests in a so-called “Gold Standard” for select state funds emerged 3 years ago at the Idaho State Republican Caucus.

“A few of our Republican legislators have taken up this issue at the Idaho Statehouse as a means to really control inflation as well as deficit spending and so on,” Parker told Channel 12.

Turner said the supporters of the so-called “Gold Standard” resolution include Republican Representatives Phil Hart (R-Athol) and Pete Nielsen (R-Mountain Home).

Channel 12 tried to contact both state representatives by phone for commentary, but those phone calls were not immediately returned.

However, in what could end-up becoming a move of economic prescience, Idaho Republicans did vote to change one part of their party’s platform to include the idea of a gold standard this past June 26.

It reads: “We believe Idahoans need to protect their savings from the ravages of inflation, which is hidden taxation, and encourage citizens to participate in a systematic acquisition of precious metals which represent real value as opposed to paper currencies.”

TAKING THE GOP’s ADVICE?

Though it appears that many Idahoans with surplus gold are selling it, Tanner says those who fear a bleak economic future would be wise to listen to the GOP’s advice.

“Gold and silver is the only viable investment where people know if they put money into it, no matter what happens, they’ll be able to barter, they’ll be able to buy, they’ll be able to survive in this world,” Tanner told Channel 12.

Red Alert: China’s ‘Rare’ Commodity Monopoly Threatens U.S., Leeb Says – Yahoo! Finance.

YouTube – Detained for photography in Baltimore.

china-top-gold-bug-wsj: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance.

China Becomes World’s Larest Gold Buyer – Buys 93.5 Tonnes Of Gold Coins / Bars in Q1 – Gold Ownership Rising From Miniscule Levels | zero hedge.

It appears that governments throughout the world have declared war on rising silver and gold prices.  Per Zero Hedge: “War on “speculators” goes global as Shanghai Gold Exchange Hikes Silver Margins for third time in a month”.  Of course, in the long run this will not adversely affect prices of the metals as they are just a reflection of governments mania to create unencumbered amounts of fiat digital currency.  Before this mania ends I think we will see triple digit silver and quintuple digit gold measured in U. S. Dollars.  All of this will transpire within an extremely volatile and dangerous five year period.

BBC News – Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden ‘dead’.

WOW THAT WAS NOT TO QUICK!

Silver and gold near lifetime highs | Reuters.

inflation-high-nine-costs-marketwatch: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance.

Gold’s at a Record, and It’s Going Even Higher: John Roque – Yahoo! Finance.

“From Zero Hedge this morning:

One of the largest pension funds in the world, the University of Texas Investment Management Co (which manages the endowment for the Texas teachers pension fund), has realized that gold is quickly becoming a “currency of last resort” and has put 5% of the pension fund into gold bullion. The fund has previously expressed concerns about the counter party risk in ETFs. However, the reason given for opting for taking delivery of 100 oz gold bars in a warehouse was that if the holders of just 5 percent of COMEX futures contracts opted to take delivery of the metal, there wouldn’t be enough to cover the demand leading to a COMEX default.

Strong support/resistance:  Gold 1445/1500  Silver 40.00/45.00.  Please call when we can assist with your next sales or

Silver and Gold: Sprott Sees 20%-40% Gains Still Ahead This Year – Yahoo! Finance.

Debt, Deleveraging and Demographics Mean Great Depression Ahead, Dent Says – Yahoo! Finance.

One of the most frequently asked questions we receive at the National Inflation Association (NIA) is what warning signs will there be when hyperinflation is imminent. In our opinion, the majority of the warning signs that hyperinflation is imminent are already here today, but most Americans are failing to properly recognize them. NIA believes that there is a serious risk of hyperinflation breaking out as soon as the second half of this calendar year and that hyperinflation is almost guaranteed to occur by the end of this decade.

In our estimation, the most likely time frame for a full-fledged outbreak of hyperinflation is between the years 2013 and 2015. Americans who wait until 2013 to prepare, will most likely see the majority of their purchasing power wiped out. It is essential that all Americans begin preparing for hyperinflation immediately.

Here are NIA’s top 12 warning signs that hyperinflation is about to occur:

1) The Federal Reserve is Buying 70% of U.S. Treasuries. The Federal Reserve has been buying 70% of all new U.S. treasury debt. Up until this year, the U.S. has been successful at exporting most of its inflation to the rest of the world, which is hoarding huge amounts of U.S. dollar reserves due to the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. In recent months, foreign central bank purchases of U.S. treasuries have declined from 50% down to 30%, and Federal Reserve purchases have increased from 10% up to 70%. This means U.S. government deficit spending is now directly leading to U.S. inflation that will destroy the standard of living for all Americans.

2) The Private Sector Has Stopped Purchasing U.S. Treasuries. The U.S. private sector was previously a buyer of 30% of U.S. government bonds sold. Today, the U.S. private sector has stopped buying U.S. treasuries and is dumping government debt. The Pimco Total Return Fund was recently the single largest private sector owner of U.S. government bonds, but has just reduced its U.S. treasury holdings down to zero. Although during the financial panic of 2008, investors purchased government bonds as a safe haven, during all future panics we believe precious metals will be the new safe haven.

3) China Moving Away from U.S. Dollar as Reserve Currency. The U.S. dollar became the world’s reserve currency because it was backed by gold and the U.S. had the world’s largest manufacturing base. Today, the U.S. dollar is no longer backed by gold and China has the world’s largest manufacturing base. There is no reason for the world to continue to transact products and commodities in U.S. dollars, when most of everything the world consumes is now produced in China. China has been taking steps to position the yuan to be the world’s new reserve currency.

The People’s Bank of China stated earlier this month, in a story that went largely unreported by the mainstream media, that it would respond to overseas demand for the yuan to be used as a reserve currency and allow the yuan to flow back into China more easily. China hopes to allow all exporters and importers to settle their cross border transactions in yuan by the end of 2011, as part of their plan to increase the yuan’s international role. NIA believes if China really wants to become the world’s next superpower and see to it that the U.S. simultaneously becomes the world’s next Zimbabwe, all China needs to do is use their $1.15 trillion in U.S. dollar reserves to accumulate gold and use that gold to back the yuan.

4) Japan to Begin Dumping U.S. Treasuries. Japan is the second largest holder of U.S. treasury securities with $885.9 billion in U.S. dollar reserves. Although China has reduced their U.S. treasury holdings for three straight months, Japan has increased their U.S. treasury holdings seven months in a row. Japan is the country that has been the most consistent at buying our debt for the past year, but that is about the change. Japan is likely going to have to spend $300 billion over the next year to rebuild parts of their country that were destroyed by the recent earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, and NIA believes their U.S. dollar reserves will be the most likely source of this funding. This will come at the worst possible time for the U.S., which needs Japan to increase their purchases of U.S. treasuries in order to fund our record budget deficits.

5) The Fed Funds Rate Remains Near Zero. The Federal Reserve has held the Fed Funds Rate at 0.00-0.25% since December 16th, 2008, a period of over 27 months. This is unprecedented and NIA believes the world is now flooded with excess liquidity of U.S. dollars.

When the nuclear reactors in Japan began overheating two weeks ago after their cooling systems failed due to a lack of electricity, TEPCO was forced to open relief valves to release radioactive steam into the air in order to avoid an explosion. The U.S. stock market is currently acting as a relief valve for all of the excess liquidity of U.S. dollars. The U.S. economy for all intents and purposes should currently be in a massive and extremely steep recession, but because of the Fed’s money printing, stock prices are rising because people don’t know what else to do with their dollars.

NIA believes gold, and especially silver, are much better hedges against inflation than U.S. equities, which is why for the past couple of years we have been predicting large declines in both the Dow/Gold and Gold/Silver ratios. These two ratios have been in free fall exactly like NIA projected.

The Dow/Gold ratio is the single most important chart all investors need to closely follow, but way too few actually do. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) itself is meaningless because it averages together the dollar based movements of 30 U.S. stocks. With just the DJIA, it is impossible to determine whether stocks are rising due to improving fundamentals and real growing investor demand, or if prices are rising simply because the money supply is expanding.

The Dow/Gold ratio illustrates the cyclical nature of the battle between paper assets like stocks and real hard assets like gold. The Dow/Gold ratio trends upward when an economy sees real economic growth and begins to trend downward when the growth phase ends and everybody becomes concerned about preserving wealth. With interest rates at 0%, the U.S. economy is on life support and wealth preservation is the focus of most investors. NIA believes the Dow/Gold ratio will decline to 1 before the hyperinflationary crisis is over and until the Dow/Gold ratio does decline to 1, investors should keep buying precious metals.

6) Year-Over-Year CPI Growth Has Increased 92% in Three Months. In November of 2010, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS)’s consumer price index (CPI) grew by 1.1% over November of 2009. In February of 2011, the BLS’s CPI grew by 2.11% over February of 2010, above the Fed’s informal inflation target of 1.5% to 2%. An increase in year-over-year CPI growth from 1.1% in November of last year to 2.11% in February of this year means that the CPI’s growth rate increased by approximately 92% over a period of just three months. Imagine if the year-over-year CPI growth rate continues to increase by 92% every three months. In 9 to 12 months from now we could be looking at a price inflation rate of over 15%. Even if the BLS manages to artificially hold the CPI down around 5% or 6%, NIA believes the real rate of price inflation will still rise into the double-digits within the next year.

7) Mainstream Media Denying Fed’s Target Passed. You would think that year-over-year CPI growth rising from 1.1% to 2.11% over a period of three months for an increase of 92% would generate a lot of media attention, especially considering that it has now surpassed the Fed’s informal inflation target of 1.5% to 2%. Instead of acknowledging that inflation is beginning to spiral out of control and encouraging Americans to prepare for hyperinflation like NIA has been doing for years, the media decided to conveniently change the way it defines the Fed’s informal target.

The media is now claiming that the Fed’s informal inflation target of 1.5% to 2% is based off of year-over-year changes in the BLS’s core-CPI figures. Core-CPI, as most of you already know, is a meaningless number that excludes food and energy prices. Its sole purpose is to be used to mislead the public in situations like this. We guarantee that if core-CPI had just surpassed 2% and the normal CPI was still below 2%, the media would be focusing on the normal CPI number, claiming that it remains below the Fed’s target and therefore inflation is low and not a problem.

The fact of the matter is, food and energy are the two most important things Americans need to live and survive. If the BLS was going to exclude something from the CPI, you would think they would exclude goods that Americans don’t consume on a daily basis. The BLS claims food and energy prices are excluded because they are most volatile. However, by excluding food and energy, core-CPI numbers are primarily driven by rents. Considering that we just came out of the largest Real Estate bubble in world history, there is a glut of homes available to rent on the market. NIA has been saying for years that being a landlord will be the worst business to be in during hyperinflation, because it will be impossible for landlords to increase rents at the same rate as overall price inflation. Food and energy prices will always increase at a much faster rate than rents.
Record U.S. Budget Deficit in February of $222.5 Billion. The U.S. government just reported a record budget deficit for the month of February of $222.5 billion. February’s budget deficit was more than the entire fiscal year of 2007. In fact, February’s deficit on an annualized basis was $2.67 trillion. NIA believes this is just a preview of future annual budget deficits, and we will see annual budget deficits surpass $2.67 trillion within the next several years.

9) High Budget Deficit as Percentage of Expenditures. The projected U.S. budget deficit for fiscal year 2011 of $1.645 trillion is 43% of total projected government expenditures in 2011 of $3.819 trillion. That is almost exactly the same level of Brazil’s budget deficit as a percentage of expenditures right before they experienced hyperinflation in 1993 and it is higher than Bolivia’s budget deficit as a percentage of expenditures right before they experienced hyperinflation in 1985. The only way a country can survive with such a large deficit as a percentage of expenditures and not have hyperinflation, is if foreigners are lending enough money to pay for the bulk of their deficit spending. Hyperinflation broke out in Brazil and Bolivia when foreigners stopped lending and central banks began monetizing the bulk of their deficit spending, and that is exactly what is taking place today in the U.S.

10) Obama Lies About Foreign Policy. President Obama campaigned as an anti-war President who would get our troops out of Iraq. NIA believes that many Libertarian voters actually voted for Obama in 2008 over John McCain because they felt Obama was more likely to end our wars that are adding greatly to our budget deficits and making the U.S. a lot less safe as a result. Obama may have reduced troop levels in Iraq, but he increased troops levels in Afghanistan, and is now sending troops into Libya for no reason.

The U.S. is now beginning to occupy Libya, when Libya didn’t do anything to the U.S. and they are no threat to the U.S. Obama has increased our overall overseas troop levels since becoming President and the U.S. is now spending $1 trillion annually on military expenses, which includes the costs to maintain over 700 military bases in 135 countries around the world. There is no way that we can continue on with our overseas military presence without seeing hyperinflation.

11) Obama Changes Definition of Balanced Budget. In the White House’s budget projections for the next 10 years, they don’t project that the U.S. will ever come close to achieving a real balanced budget. In fact, after projecting declining budget deficits up until the year 2015 (NIA believes we are unlikely to see any major dip in our budget deficits due to rising interest payments on our national debt), the White House projects our budget deficits to begin increasing again up until the year 2021. Obama recently signed an executive order to create the “National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform”, with a mission to “propose recommendations designed to balance the budget, excluding interest payments on the debt, by 2015″. Obama is redefining a balanced budget to exclude interest payments on our national debt, because he knows interest payments are about to explode and it will be impossible to truly balance the budget.

12) U.S. Faces Largest Ever Interest Payment Increases. With U.S. inflation beginning to spiral out of control, NIA believes it is 100% guaranteed that we will soon see a large spike in long-term bond yields. Not only that, but within the next couple of years, NIA believes the Federal Reserve will be forced to raise the Fed Funds Rate in a last-ditch effort to prevent hyperinflation. When both short and long-term interest rates start to rise, so will the interest payments on our national debt. With the public portion of our national debt now exceeding $10 trillion, we could see interest payments on our debt reach $500 billion within the next year or two, and over $1 trillion somewhere around mid-decade. When interest payments reach $1 trillion, they will likely be around 30% to 40% of government tax receipts, up from interest payments being only 9% of tax receipts today. No country has ever seen interest payments on their debt reach 40% of tax receipts without hyperinflation occurring in the years to come.

It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

HOWARD DAVIDOWITZ: Obama Doesn’t Have a Clue — Here’s How I Would Fix The Country – Yahoo!.

breakout exclusive jim rogers may buy u.s. dollar as it nears “tipping point”: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance.

bob prechter we’re still in a massive bear market and stocks will crash to new lows: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance.

Gold Rises, Silver Goes to 30-Year High as Middle East Unrest Spurs Demand – Yahoo! Finance.

Gold Rises, Silver Goes to 30-Year High as Middle East Unrest Spurs Demand – Yahoo! Finance.

How Much Gold Will China Buy?.

The Dollar’s Successor.

National Inflation Association.

Faber Says New Crisis on Horizon Once Fed Support Ends.

“it’s much worse” howard davidowitz on the state of the union: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance.

GOLD 1314
SILVER 2682
DOLLAR – TOILET! 78.29

bailouts postponed but can’t prevent the “greatest depression” gerald celente says: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance.

I HAD A CUSTOMER WASH AND FORGE A CHECK OF MINE AND CHANGE THE AMOUNT FROM 654 TO SIXTEEN HUNDRED FIFTY FOUR . KEY BANK KNOWS IT IS A FORGERY BUT BECAUSE WE DID NOT CATCH IT WITHIN 30 DAYS THEY BASICALLY TOLD ME I WAS OUT OF LUCK. WHO NEEDS A BANK LIKE THAT , NO ONE. i RECOMMEND MOUNTAIN WEST. SHAME ON YOU KEY BANK ON MILWAUKEE IN BOISE!

by James West
Published : January 07th, 2011

Gold and silver are in a bubble, if the bulk of economists and financial pundits are to be believed. With no dictionary definition of what exactly a financial bubble is, we are left to our own devices to interpret the significance of such a proclamation according to our own experiences.

Lets say we consider a bubble the phenomenon whereby the prices paid for a given commodity, be it homes, coffee, copper, rubies or tulips, rises rapidly relative to an average market history timeline as a result of sudden and irrational investor demand, and then shortly thereafter sees a price collapse to a point lower than when the bubble started.

Consistent with all commodities that can have been categorized as recipients of bubble phases over the last 200 years is that at that onset of the bubble formation phase, the utile value of the commodity in question becomes the subject of elevated speculation in anticipation of an increase in demand as a result of a predicted rise in utile consumption.

In the bubble phase price curve, the steepness in the growth phase is exacerbated when the predicted increase in utile demand materializes, or is exceeded, which in turn fuels speculative demand for the commodity and its derivatives (ETFs, Futures, Options, etc).

Without exception, when speculation combined with enhanced utile demand take prices for the commodity to such high levels that they start to negatively impact utile demand (as replacements are sought and/or fresh momentum forms in supply to capture the advantage of elevated prices and margins), the demand curve weakens, which generally triggers a massive bolt for the exits of the specs who are most on top of that data, which in turn starts a chain reaction whereby successively more distant speculators from the negative data source panic and sell as the price drop accelerates, precipitating the proverbial popping of the bubble.

That, in essence, is the bubble life cycle as it applies to commodities.

Bubbles were once more or less the result of natural market forces, the cyclical essence of markets driven by supply and demand. With the advent of Massive Capital Concentrations (multi-billion dollar investment funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, private wealth trusts etc), the effect on commodity prices from these speculative positions far exceeds, in many cases the potential effect from fluctuations in utile demand.

Now banks, and their very close and incestuous relative, hedge funds, are generally in a position to occupy two distinct advantage points over Joe Blow investor on the street. A), they have greater access to capital, and B) they have superior access to data. In speculation, information is everything.

Up until the age of computers and internet, which changed data and information transfer, as well as data and information analysis and strategy extraction, from long timeline processes to near instant timeline processes, MCC’s used their large capital positions to clumsily influence bubbles great and small by distributing data selectively and manipulating market volumes and price movements sloppily.

Now in the era of instant data flow and algorithmic decision processing, not only can MCC’s encourage bubbles with surgical precision, they can very deftly manage the curves associated with the bubble phases. Profit is maximized when you can buy your entire position at the low, and then sell all or as much as possible at the high. Then, if you are in a position to control markets, you go massively short at the high, knowing that your influence and your capital resources will both drive the bubble pop phase into a nosedive, but you will be able to suck up all the shares all the way down, or at least half way down, covering your short when all the Joe Blow suckers sell you all their stock in utter desolation, not understanding that they’ve been played like a tiny little fiddle.

The two commodities on the planet that are the exception to qualification for this scheme now, is gold and silver. And that’s because they have an intrinsic monetary value that all other commodities lack.

A thing can only be said to have monetary value if it is universally (globally), or nearly universally, accepted as a medium of exchange for goods and services. There are very few people on the earth who would not take gold or silver as payment for a service or good they were interested in selling. But only very specialized traders will take a barrel of oil off your hands or a skid of copper cathodes or a house or equities as a form of immediate payment for anything they might want to sell. This is the primary fallacy in the mainstream financial media’s categorization of gold and silver as mere commodities. They are not. They are disqualified from that definition because of their intrinsic monetary value.

And it is precisely that monetary value that prevents MCC’s from participating any longer in the precious metals markets. The transactional volume in the physical gold and silver markets is puny. ETF’s generally preclude manipulation because they need to take delivery of the physical gold and silver, unless they are ETF’s based on derivatives, which are intrinsically worthless and most likely to collapse if they incorporate any kind of short/hedge strategy.

The prices of both gold and silver have long been subject to price manipulation for various reasons.

Most recently, silver has been the target of ebb and flow bubble manipulation schemes that have more or less been caught red-handed by serious market analysts who scream and shout from their hilltop epicenter embodied in the Gold Anti-trust Action Committee. Gata has been stridently screaming to anyone who would listen (which was mostly no one for the last decade) since 2000 that gold was being methodically price suppressed to impart the perception to the market by the largest criminal enterprise on earth, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the United States Treasury, that the U.S. dollar was a well managed and healthy currency.

As we now almost universally know, that is not the case.

One must be diligent not to buy the pure propaganda that emanates from the top universities on down to the Wall Street Journal that the Fed is an independent private enterprise. It is only private and independent in that it is not subject to the oversight and laws governing Federal Financial Institutions. Its influence, abuse, and fraudulent manipulation of markets and global economic public perception while using the public coffers of the United States citizenry makes these two institutions unequivocally a single criminal enterprise operating as public institutions.

The now famous manipulation of silver prices in an effort to “corner the market” by the Hunt Brothers in the 80’s, and JP Morgan’s incrementally growing infamy as perpetrators of the latest fraudulent silver market manipulation, share as their motive only profit.

Gold, on the other hand, whose motive for participation in a scheme perpetrated by the Fed, the U.S. Treasury, certain banks, and possible a certain major gold producer, were in the past initiated for profit, and I suspect that the value of the enterprise in orchestrating confidence in the U.S. dollar throughout the past decade was initially a serendipitous discovery that was promptly deployed as a weapon.

In any case, the CFTC’s increasing metamorphosis into a serious regulator from a puppet facilitator of such schemes has resulted in JP Morgan exiting the scheme largely as credible class action lawsuits from fleeced investors are empowered by the CFTC’s own statements and findings. The outcome of that is decreasing macro and micro volatility (week to week) in both markets, and increasingly steady incremental price increases – especially in the macro view of the last decade). The ability to influence supply remains fixed at substantially less than 5% per year, thanks to the unavoidable difficulty in sourcing and extracting new supply. Therefore, the possible market, and potential bubble, cannot reach a sufficient size in terms of volume to accommodate the requirements of MCC’s. They need massive volume of the physical commodity, and more importantly, an exponentially larger derivative market, that they can control and influence by virtue of the fact that they own the clearing houses and up until recently, the regulators who helped these markets stay ‘dark” or non-reporting.

The one downside as far as MCC’s are concerned with the new instant world is that with comes increased transparency, whether they want it or not. The bigger an organization becomes, the more it must cannibalize itself to continuously evolve efficiently. People get fired, bumped, overlooked for promotion, shut out of deals, not invited to parties – all these things have the effect of originating new competing MCC’s as resentment causes former members of MCCs to take their contacts with them and form new MCC’s. The seeds of destruction of MCC’s are thereby built into them in the form of egos. The one time the ruthless efficieny required from within MCC’s gets trumped is when somebody’s ego gets bruised. Thus Wikileaks. Thus Black Swans. Thus Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.

Wending our way back to the gold and silver issue, the underlying commodity markets for gold and silver are limited, and now, thanks to the whole idea of position limits and transparency and reporting for derivatives markets, the size of any given derivative market must needs be directly proportional to the possible size of the underlying commodities market.

Gold and silver exempt themselves from that manipulation because of their monetary aspect. They are complicated by their dual function designations. They are each money, and an industrial ingredient that is consumed. Because they are in growing demand as monetary stores of value as a direct result in the appropriately crumbling confidence in the U.S. dollar, the pound sterling, the Euro, the yuan, and the yen, which collectively constitute the 5 major currencies of global trade, they are sought increasingly (and somewhat ironically) by MCC’s whose primary mandate is value preservation (Sovereign wealth, private wealth) as opposed to more speculative MCC’s (private equity buyout funds, hedge funds, investment funds) whose continued existence depends more on their ability to generate profit in some risk/reward ratio configuration that attracts their investors.

What is happening then, is gold and silver have left behind the human evolution point where they could be easily manipulated, and are increasingly resuming their primary roles as the primary medium of exchange for global trade. MCC’s are holding gold, silver and their derivatives, bought only as cash equivalents because they are now the lowest risk currencies to hold out of all the global currencies. ETFs are, in essentially, a return to the original form of banking, whereby a certificate was issued to the bearer on whose behalf the bank was storing a quantity of gold equal to that stipulated on the certificate.

Gold and silver are re-asserting themselves, in fact, as the only real money,(in terms of the definition of a globally accepted medium of trade) whose supply cannot be arbitrarily influenced by any single government, MCC, or special interest group. The more this awareness permeates the global general consciousness, the more that awareness will drive demand. Fringe pundits are absolutely right when they predict an exponential explosion in the prices for gold and silver. Never mind $2,000 an ounce, or $5,000 an ounce. I’m increasingly convinced that $30,000 to $50,000 per ounce for gold will be seen in this lifetime, especially as fiat currencies based on nothing are abandoned for mediums that more directly represent a real monetary asset, like gold and silver bullion.

James West

Bernanke said today that the U.S. is moving closer to a self-sustaining recovery with interest rates near 0%, the debt ceiling needing to be raised, and the Fed monetizing our debt. Please see our brand new NIA video on this topic immediately:

We will be updating our blog later tonight with more information about today’s jobs data and other important economic topics:
It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

Precious Metals Year in Review 2010

Demand for precious metals among investors continued to be strong in 2010, as fiat currencies continued to be undermined by inflation fears and successive financial crisis, causing investors to flock to the perceived safety of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium as a hedge against uncertainty and instability.

The falling values of both the U.S. Dollar and Euro have been attributed to expansionist monetary policies of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank. The month of November was significant in regard to precious metals. At the beginning of the month, the Federal Reserve announced a further $600 billion injection of money into the economy. This move had been anticipated among investors since August, as reflected by the uptrend in precious metal prices that month.

Also in November, the sovereign debt crisis in the European Union gained new traction. Earlier in 2010, Greece had to be rescued. This time Ireland was in need of a bailout, and speculation has been widespread that other nations on the periphery of the Eurozone are also in danger.

The rising interest in owning precious metals in China has also been an important story in 2010. The rules and regulations that surround precious metals sales are being relaxed, allowing private Chinese citizens greater access to the precious metals market. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Shanghai Gold Exchange, trading volume increased 43%, to 5,014.5 tons, in the first 10 months of 2010.
2010 Spot Price Summary (U.S. Dollars)

Silver Gold Palladium Platinum
High $30.96 $1423.25 $804.50 $1774.20
Low $15.08 $1068.00 $405.74 $1470.50
Open $16.93 $1098.70 $410.50 $1470.50
Close $30.96 $1423.25 $804.50 $1772.50

The New Year has brought you an opportunity as Gold and Silver prices have dipped. Earlier this afternoon the price of Gold dipped temporarily over $42.00. Silver also moved $1.50 lower on profit taking. This presents a tremendous buying opportunity for you while the market holds at these prices.

Have you made a New Year’s resolution to strengthen your financial future and diversify your portfolio? What better way than to make a smart investment in Gold and Silver? These metals are gaining renewed interest as more people begin to realize the advantage of investing in precious metals as a way to secure their wealth against global economic uncertainties. With these uncertainties on the horizon for 2011, can you really afford not to hedge your investments?

1) The Dow/Gold and Gold/Silver ratios will continue to decline.

In NIA’s top 10 predictions for 2010, we predicted major declines in the Dow/Gold and Gold/Silver ratios. The Dow/Gold ratio was 9.3 at the time and finished 2010 down 15% to 8.1. The Gold/Silver ratio was 64 at the time and finished 2010 down 28% to 46. We expect to see the Dow/Gold ratio decline to 6.5 and the Gold/Silver ratio decline to 38 in 2011. Later this decade, we expect to see the Dow/Gold ratio bottom at 1 and the Gold/Silver ratio decline to below 16 and possibly as low as 10.

2) Colleges will begin to go bankrupt and close their doors.

We have a college education bubble in America that was made possible by the U.S. government’s willingness to give out cheap and easy student loans. With all of the technological advances that have been taking place worldwide, the cost for a college education in America should be getting cheaper. Instead, private four-year colleges have averaged 5.6% tuition inflation over the past six years.

College tuitions are the one thing in America that never declined in price during the panic of 2008. Despite collapsing stock market and Real Estate prices, college tuition costs surged to new highs as Americans instinctively sought to become better educated in order to better ride out and survive the economic crisis. Unfortunately, American students who overpaid for college educations are graduating and finding out that their degrees are worthless and no jobs are available for them. They would have been better off going straight into the work force and investing their money into gold and silver. That way, they would have real wealth today instead of debt and would already have valuable work place experience, which is much more important than any piece of paper.

Colleges and universities took on ambitious construction projects and built new libraries, gyms, and sporting venues, that added no value to the education of students. These projects were intended for the sole purpose of impressing students and their families. The administrators of these colleges knew that no matter how high tuitions rose, students would be able to simply borrow more from the government in order to pay them.
Americans today can purchase just about any type of good on Amazon.com, cheaper than they can find it in retail stores. This is because Amazon.com is a lot more efficient and doesn’t have the overhead costs of brick and mortar retailers. NIA expects to see a new trend of Americans seeking to become educated cheaply over the Internet. There will be a huge drop off in demand for traditional college degrees. NIA expects to see many colleges default on their debts in 2011. These colleges will be forced to either downsize and educate students more cost effectively or close their doors for good.

3) U.S. retailers will report declines in profit margins and their stocks will decline.

Although most analysts on Wall Street believe retailers will report a major increase in holiday season sales over a year ago, NIA believes any top line growth retailers report will come at the expense of dismal bottom line profits. NIA expects many retailers to report large declines in their profit margins for the 4Q of 2010 and first half of 2011. Retailers have been selling goods at bargain basement prices in order to generate demand. Americans, being flush with newly printed dollars from the Federal Reserve, have been eager to buy up supplies of goods at artificially low prices. However, shareholders will likely sell off their retail stocks on this news. As share prices of retail stocks decline, retailers will begin to rapidly increase their prices by mid-2011.

4) The mainstream public will begin to buy gold.

Although the mainstream media continues to proclaim we have a gold bubble, it is impossible to have a gold bubble when mainstream America isn’t buying gold. The average American is more likely to be a seller of gold through companies like Cash4Gold, in order to raise enough dollars to put food on their table. Most Americans today don’t even know the price of gold. During the next 12 months, we expect to see a huge ramping up in the public’s knowledge about gold. More Americans than ever will know the current price of gold and understand that it is real money. By the end of 2011, we expect the general public to begin looking at gold as an investment, just like they began looking at Real Estate as an investment in 2003. Sometime during the next six months, we believe you will overhear a stranger at a restaurant talking about investing into gold. We believe the price of gold could surge to as high as $2,000 per ounce in 2011.

5) We will see a huge surge in municipal debt defaults.

In the closing months of 2010, we saw yields on municipal bonds rise to their highest levels since early 2009. After 29 consecutive weeks of inflows into municipal bond funds, investors are now pulling money out of municipal bond funds by record amounts, with $9 billion exiting municipal bond funds in the five weeks leading up to Christmas. NIA believes there could be a small dip in municipal bond yields over the next couple of months as investors realize that municipal debt defaults might not be imminent, but we expect municipal bond yields to begin rising again by mid-2011 with a huge surge in municipal debt defaults coming in the second half of 2011. Although the Federal Government has a printing press that it uses in order to pay its debts, cities and municipalities do not.

6) We will see a large decline in the crude oil/natural gas ratio.

When we released our top 10 predictions for 2010, crude oil was $73 per barrel and we predicted that oil prices would rise to $100 per barrel in 2010. Crude oil ended up rising by 26% in 2010 to $92 per barrel, coming short of our outlook. However, it is possible our $100 per barrel oil forecast might be off by just a month or two. We wouldn’t be surprised to see $100 per barrel oil within the first two months of 2011 and if so, we expect to see a huge movement in America this year towards natural gas.

The crude oil/natural gas ratio currently stands at 20. Historically, the crude oil/natural gas ratio has averaged 10 and based on an energy equivalent basis, crude oil and natural gas prices should have a 6 to 1 ratio. Brand new fracking technology has caused natural gas supplies in the U.S. to rise to record levels. Although our country might be flooded with natural gas, the natural gas fracking boom that is taking place across the U.S. today is causing ground water in the U.S. to become contaminated. Americans living near natural gas wells that use fracking, are finding that they can now light the water coming out of their faucets on fire. New government regulations are likely to crack down on natural gas fracking and this will come at the same time as American individuals and businesses begin to convert their automobiles and machinery to run off of natural gas. A large decline in the crude oil/natural gas ratio in 2011 is likely, possibly down to as low as 15.
7) The median U.S. home will decline sharply priced in silver.

For the past couple of years, being able to make ones mortgage payment has been the primary concern for the average American. In an attempt to support housing prices and keep mortgage interest rates at artificially low levels, the Federal Reserve has been implementing massive quantitative easing and buying mortgage backed securities. NIA believes the Federal Reserve will be successful at putting a nominal floor under Real Estate prices. NIA also believes that the Federal Reserve’s actions will cause a massive decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, which will allow Americans to more easily pay back their mortgages with depreciated U.S. dollars.

However, the Federal Reserve will not be successful at reinflating the Real Estate bubble. In fact, in terms of real money (gold and silver), NIA believes Real Estate prices will decline to record lows. The median U.S. home is currently priced at $170,600 or 5,500 ounces of silver. Priced in silver, the median U.S. home price is down 16% from one month ago and 45% from one year ago. After the inflationary crisis of the 1970s, silver rose to a high in 1980 of $49.45 per ounce. The median U.S. home price in 1980 was $47,200, which means the median U.S. home/silver ratio declined to a low of 954.
With the Federal Reserve printing money at an unprecedented rate and record amounts of new homes built during the recent Real Estate bubble, NIA believes it is inevitable that the median U.S. home will decline to a price of 1,000 ounces of silver this decade and possibly as low as 500 ounces of silver. In 2011, we believe a decline in the median U.S. home price to 4,000 ounces of silver is possible.

Food inflation will become America’s top crisis.

Starting a few decades ago and accelerating in recent years, America has seen a boom in non-productive service jobs, mainly in the financial sector. Most of these jobs were made possible by inflation. Without inflation, which steals from the purchasing power of the incomes and savings of goods producing workers, the majority of the jobs on Wall Street would not exist today and our country would be in much better financial shape because of it.

With most Americans in recent decades seeking non-productive jobs in the financial services sector because that is where they could access the Fed’s cheap and easy money, very few Americans sought jobs in the farming and agriculture sector. In the 1930s, approximately 28% of the population was employed in the agriculture sector, but today this number is less than 2%. Agriculture currently makes up only 1.2% of U.S. GDP, compared to the services sector, which makes up 76.9% of U.S. GDP.

There is currently a major shortage of farmers in the U.S. and a lot of land that was previously used for farming has now been developed with Real Estate. To make matters worse, agricultural products now trade on the international market and Americans must now compete against citizens of emerging nations like China and India for the purchasing of food.

Prices of goods and services do not rise equally when governments create monetary inflation. Inflation gravitates most towards the items that Americans need the most and there is nothing that Americans need more to survive than food and agriculture. As the U.S. government prints money, the first thing Americans will spend it on is food. Americans can cut back on energy use by moving into a smaller home and carpooling to work. They can cut back on entertainment, travel, and other discretionary spending. However, Americans can never stop spending money on food.
The days of cheap food in America are coming to an end. The recent unprecedented rise that we have seen in agricultural commodity prices is showing no signs of letting up. In the past few days, sugar futures reached a new 30-year high, coffee futures reached a new 13-year high, orange juice futures reached a new 3-year high, corn futures reached a new 29-month high, soybean futures reached a new 27-month high, and palm oil futures reached a new 33-month high.

We estimate that it takes as long as six months for rising agricultural commodity prices to be felt by U.S. consumers in their local supermarket. Even if food producers and retailers accept substantially lower profit margins in 2011, we are still guaranteed to see double-digit across the board U.S. food inflation in the first half of the year. That is correct, let us repeat, NIA guarantees that Americans will see double-digit food inflation in the first half of 2011.

Shockingly, except for Glenn Beck (who was kind enough to feature our food inflation report), absolutely nobody in the mainstream media is doing anything to warn Americans about the food inflation crisis that is ahead. In fact, left-wing groups like Media Matters (funded by George Soros) have been working tirelessly to try and discredit NIA’s research while reassuring Americans that they need not worry about food inflation. The truth is, when Americans realize that they can no longer take food for granted, we will likely see the outbreak of an all out food price panic with everybody rushing to the supermarket to stock up on goods before prices rise even further. The end result will likely be government price controls and empty store shelves, but NIA doesn’t project this to occur until later this decade.

9) QE2 will disappoint and the Federal Reserve will prepare QE3.

The Dow Jones is now back up to 11,670, which is where it was in mid-2008 before the crash. NIA believes that most of QE2 has already been priced into the market, before the Federal Reserve even prints the $600 billion. At some point, we expect it to become apparent to all that the U.S. economic recovery is phony and stock prices are rising solely due to inflation. In our opinion, we will see some sort of catalyst that causes the stock market to sell off at some point and the consensus on Wall Street will be that QE2 will not be enough to save the U.S. economy. By the end of 2011, we expect the Federal Reserve to begin planning QE3. QE3 might be the final dose of inflation that causes the U.S. economy to overdose into hyperinflation.

10) Sarah Palin will announce she is running for President as a Republican.

NIA believes that Sarah Palin has been setup perfectly to run for President in 2012 and that she will announce her candidacy for the Republican nomination with great fanfare from tea party supporters in 2011. We give Sarah Palin credit for recently speaking out against the Federal Reserve’s QE2 and warning Americans about the food inflation crisis that is ahead. Unfortunately, we believe Sarah Palin is not a true independent and is being controlled by the Republican establishment, which is just as responsible as the Democrats are for the financial crisis we have today. As President, Palin would be unlikely to implement the measures that are necessary to prevent hyperinflation. In our opinion, we need to elect a true libertarian candidate as President who will cut government spending, balance the budget, and restore sound money. NIA intends to support Ron Paul, if he decides to run for President.

It is important to spread the word about NIA to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, if you want America to survive hyperinflation. Please tell everybody you know to become members of NIA for free immediately at: http://inflation.us

by Marvin Tanner 01/03/11

When the issue of the debt ceiling presently at 14.2 trillion is voted on in congress, many influential like Lindsey Graham of south Carolina will not allow it unless something concrete is done for social security and medicare .if the debt ceiling is not raised immediately America defaults on some of it s financial obligation putting an end to the full faith and credit of the government of the United states and ushering in an instant death sentence to the us dollar . this will cause immediate large scale devaluations of the currency and those us us with dollars will be harmed

gold 4/11 1384

silver 3/11 30.85

dollar 3/11 78.17

gold 1372

silver 28.92

dollar 81.40

gold 1422.6

silver 31.24 +32.2

dollar 79.35 +077

dow +97

WILL 2011 BE MORE OF THE SAME , OR WILL THERE REALLY START TO BE AN EVOLUTION, A SYSTEM OF MONEY USING PRECIOUS METALS AROUND THE WORLD TO START TO REPLACE THE FIATS THAT ARE NOW IN DEEP DOG POOP, LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS. THE PIIGS WILL SURELY TAKE DOWN THE EURO, BERNANKE WILL SURELY TAKE DOWN THE DOLLAR. WHAT WILL BE THE ANSWER? MANY GIVE US THE PROBLEMS, WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

this article furnished by a dear friend, Bush was president when it was written and is why he is referenced

This article in courtesy of Lemetrololecafe.com

In 1933, slavemason Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscated the gold and silver of the American people thereby making them slaves of Pharaoh.

Gold Confiscation and a Case for Double Eagles

Recently Richard Butler, (former United Nations chief weapons inspector in Iraq) CNN’s Ambassador In Residence and expert on the Middle East, linked the funding of al Qaeda to secretive gold transactions in the Middle East. On February 17th Douglas Farah of the Washington Post wrote an article entitled “Al Qaeda’s Road Paved With Gold.” The “gold cartel” has rolled out the heavy artillery. It’s not a stretch to infer that the American people are starting to be “conditioned” to see gold as evil – a link to terrorism.

Last week Chris Powell, speaking for GATA at the Press Club Luncheon in Washington, said it was certainly possible that our Government might confiscate gold. His reasoning was that the Government would need all the gold it could get its hands on to keep the bullion banks afloat, when the price of gold explodes.

For the last 20 years, I have found the subject of gold confiscation intriguing. I have thought about it, written about it, talked about it and researched it. I am concerned, as the owner of a precious metals firm who has survived a two decade-long bear market in the precious metals industry, that as the price of gold is finally starting to take off, the Government may well decide to intervene, and confiscate our “real money” – gold, the metal of Kings.

Does this sound a bit extreme? Well, consider that ownership of gold in the United States is a privilege, not a right. Yes, the law is still “on the books” granting the government the right to recall privately owned gold. Let’s take a look at the background.

It was in April, 1933 and in his first “official” act in office; President Roosevelt declared a banking “holiday” and issued the order to confiscate gold:

Executive order: By virtue of the
authority vested in me by Section 5(B) of
The Act of Oct. 6,
1917, as amended by section 2 of
the Act of March 9, 1933, in which
Congress declared that
a serious emergency exists, I as
President, do declare that the national
emergency still exists;
That the continued private hoarding
of gold and silver by subjects of the United
States poses a
grave threat to the peace, equal
justice, and well-being of the United
States; and that appropriate
measures must be taken immediately
to protect the interests of our people.

“Therefore, pursuant to the above
authority, I herby proclaim that such gold
and silver holdings
are prohibited, and that all such
coin, bullion or other possessions of gold
and silver be tendered within fourteen days
to agents of the Government of the United
States for compensation at the
official price, in the legal tender of
the Government. All safe deposit boxes in
banks or financial
institutions have been sealed,
pending action in the due course of the
law. All sales or purchases
or movements of such gold and
silver within the borders of the United
States and its territories,
and all foreign exchange
transactions or movements of such metals
across the border are herby prohibited.

“Your possession of these
proscribed metals and/or your maintenance
of a safe-deposit box to
store them is known to the
Government from bank and insurance
records. Therefore, be advised
that your vault box must remain
sealed, and may only be opened in the
presence of an agent of
The Internal Revenue Service.

“By lawful Order given this day,
the President of the United States.”

In this act of theft, the citizens of the United States of America were compensated at the “official” price of $20.67 an ounce. That was the “official” price of gold for 97 years. Following the confiscation, the dollar was devalued by 40% – and the price of gold was revalued upwards to $35 an ounce.

Under the authority of the Emergency Banking Relief Act, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 6102 which allowed the Government to confiscate all privately owned gold in the United States. The owners would be repaid in paper dollars whether they like it or not.

Dentists, jewelers and coin collectors were exempt from this Executive Order, and were allowed to own gold. (In terms of coins, the actual terminology used was “gold coins having a recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins.”)

In the mid-eighties, Representative Ron Paul (still fighting the gold battle for us, God bless him) served on the Gold Commission in the House of Representatives. Paul wrote: “If it gets bad enough, they’ll declare a national economic emergency. They’ll take over the banks, all business and industry. They may even try to confiscate our gold. I served on the Gold Commission for eight or nine months while I was in Congress along with fifteen other members. I brought up the subject of confiscation. The power to confiscate gold is still on the books as the law of the land. I urged the full Commission to recommend Congress repeal the power to confiscate gold in an economic emergency. We pushed it to a vote and I was the only one that voted to recommend to Congress that we never again contemplate taking the gold of the American people. The fifteen other members voted it down. The power is still there on the books, and they can do it any time they wish.”

Unfortunately, our current Administration has turned a deaf ear to the gold manipulation problems uncovered by GATA and Bill Murphy. The Treasury and the Fed still have a free rein to do whatever necessary to hold back the price of gold. No doubt, those advising President Bush believe it is a matter of National Security to continue this outrageous practice. I really do believe that there is a high probability that the Bush Administration will eventually resort to confiscation. They have the legal justification to do it, and it would allow them to continue their active suppression of the price of gold.

The (large amount of) confiscated gold would give the Government a much needed new source of supply they could use to provide to the bullion banks, to help them off-the-hook. This would help them repay their gold “loans” to their friends at the central banks. Or the Government may use it to “re-stock” Fort Knox (assuming our gold reserves have been sold out from beneath us).

In the late 1980s Dr. Franz Pick (a highly respected economist and currency expert) wrote a well received book The Triumph of Gold. Pick wrote: “I am afraid that one day the government will indeed call gold in. Gold bullion will be subject to confiscation. This is the one big advantage of numismatic gold, such as Double Eagles. It’s an idiosyncrasy of governments that although they may prohibit ownership of gold in any form, they are reluctant to touch collections of numismatic gold coins.”

“Today there are some 49 countries which forbid ownership of gold by their citizens, but do allow holding gold coins for numismatic purposes. Even the Soviet Union and Eastern countries legally tolerate the acquisition of numismatic gold coins. For these are the only gold holdings that could be kept in your safe deposit box without any fear of confiscation.”

During WWI Congress passed The 1917 Trading With the Enemy Act. This act is still in place. Its article 5(b) states: “That the President may investigate, regulate or prohibit, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, by means of licenses or otherwise, any transactions in foreign exchange for the export, hoarding melting, or earmarking of gold or silver coins or bullion or currency.”

There you have it. With this awesome power, the President of the United States may do what he pleases with our money or with gold if he deems our monetary system to be in jeopardy. If you’ve been following the articles in LeMetropolecafe it is very obvious that our financial system is in grave danger, and a rising gold price is all it will take to create the crisis.

Roosevelt used section 5(b) in 1933 to confiscate gold. President Carter used it to freeze Iranian assets during the hostage crisis. Will President Bush also use it when we take our money out of the banks (like they are starting to do now in Japan) and rush to buy gold or wire money off shore? Do not bet against it!

Historically, governments have banned the ownership of gold when their citizens lose confidence in government issued paper money. Why will it be different here this time? It has already happened before. All that is required (because of the Trading With The Enemy Act of 1917) is for President Bush to issue a decree.

1933, 1934, 1954, 1984 and tomorrow: Roosevelt justified his executive authority because of the national emergency. He empowered the Treasury to maintain complete control over all transactions in gold, silver and foreign exchange. His executive order demanded COMPLETE SURRENDER OF GOLD COINS, GOLD BULLION AND GOLD CERTIFICATES still in the possession of individuals. The owners had 25 days to turn their gold into a Federal Reserve Bank. FAILURE TO COMPLY WAS PUNISHABLE BY A FINE OF $10,000 OR 10 YEARS IN PRISON OR BOTH.

Silver also suffered the fate of gold. On August 9, 1934 a Presidential Proclamation ordered all silver bullion surrendered to the Treasury within 90 days and a 50 percent tax was levied on any profits from the sale of silver. The sellers were paid 50.1 cents per ounce.

In 1984 the IRS proposed new legislation that distinguished between bullion and numismatic gold and silver. This could be used in the future as a standard to define what is exempt from confiscation. They said that gold or silver coins or bars must be worth at least 15% more than their metal value on sell back to qualify as a collectable rather than as bullion. Why would they possibly make such a distinction unless they planned, at some future date, to recall the bullion?

Our best defense against confiscation is The Eminent Domain Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The clause states, in part ….”nor shall private property be taken by the government for public use, without just compensation.” In 1933 the Government paid the “official” price of $20.67 for an ounce of gold. Why did Roosevelt exempt gold coins “having a recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins?” His Executive Order did, after all, call for the confiscation of “all gold coin.” What is a “just” price for a “numismatic” gold coin? It would have been a monumental task to administrate the grading and pricing of each individual gold coin. Note the wording here – exempted from the surrender requirement were not the “owners” of rare gold coins, nor the “holders” of them, nor persons who “possessed” them, nor even “investors.” On the contrary, the order specifically focused on an individual’s motives for having rare gold coins, exempting just one classification: “Collectors.”

A clear distinction was made between the “collector” and the “investor”. A collector’s primary interest in rare coins is enjoyment for historical, aesthetic or cultural reasons. An investor’s interest in rare coins is financial, to make a profit. Roosevelt clearly intended to exclude only the collector. As a result of FDR’s decree, most of the gold was now in the hands of the Government, which increased their holding from $4 billion to $7 billion and foisted “paper money” on the citizens in return.

This was a sad day for freedom in America. What ever happened to the laws laid down by our founding fathers? As they stated in the Constitution of The United States of America, Art. 1 Sec. 8 and 10: “The Congress shall have the power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.. no state shall make anything but gold and silver coin as a tender in payment of debts.

Finally, a brief history of the performance of Double Eagles vs. bullion gold since 1980.

Each Double Eagle contains just under an ounce of pure gold. Using the industry standard, the CDN Monthly Supplement, the Greysheet bid prices we find that the common date Double Eagles (the cheapest and most common dates) in circulated condition (xf/au) peaked at $800 each in March, 1984. The lowest price for these coins was $300 in September, 2001. At any point in between, they always were bid above their gold value. In uncirculated MS/60 (lowest grade of uncirculated) the prices were $885 and $310 and in MS/63 (higher grade uncirculated) they were bid at $1250 and $365. As you can see, the value of these coins can be as much as hundreds of dollars above their gold value or as little as 10% above their gold value.

As the price of gold rises, the premium increases dramatically on the Double Eagles as they are scooped up off the market. Supply/demand – when in demand these coins are wonderful performing investments. If the good folks at LeMetropolecafe are right and gold hits $600 an ounce, depending on the grade of coin, the double eagles should command a wholesale price well north of $1,000 each. At today’s prices, which are just off the bottom – the lowest on record, with gold starting to make its move, the time is perfect for accumulation of this kind of gold coin. The reason I recommend the Double Eagle coin is because it is the cheapest way to own the most gold in a numismatic coin. These are bullion substitutes with a difference. The difference being if you accumulate a variety of them in different dates and mint marks and “become a collector” the laws governing confiscation that are now on the books will allow you to keep them. This insulates you as best as one possibly can from Government recalls. This is a BIG advantage to you. Beyond profit! And should these coins also be “recalled” at least you will realize a premium above that allowed for you bullion coins. At today’s prices there is virtually no risk, just benefit in the ownership of Double Eagle gold coins.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=loa92ZG1KV8&feature=related

GOLD +2.1 1408.2

SILVER +20.4 3055.1

DOLLAR – .19.5 80.47

****** FRAUD ALERT *****
THIS WEEK ALONE I DETECTED 2 FAKE AMERICAN EAGLES AND EIGHT FAKE KRUGERRANDS . ARE YOURS REAL? IF THEY WERE PURCHASED IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS THEY MAY NOT BE. IF THEY ARE NOT 91.67% GOLD THEY ARE NOT. I AM THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN AUTHENTICATE YOUR HOLDINGS ACCURATELY COMPOSITION WISE . FOR VERY LITTLE MONEY YOU CAN BE MADE ASSURED OR DISMAYED. DID YOU GET WHAT YOU PAID FOR OR DID YOU GET CHEATED! I OFFER BULK PRICES FOR MULTIPLE COINS. COME SEE US.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Consumer confidence unexpectedly deteriorated in December, hurt by increasing worries about the jobs market, according to a private report released on Tuesday.

The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes slipped to 52.5 in December from an upwardly revised 54.3 in November.

The median of forecasts from analysts polled by Reuters was for a reading of 56.0.

The expectations index declined to 71.9 in December from 73.6 in November.

The present situation index fell to 23.5 from 25.4.

Consumers’ labor market assessment worsened. The “jobs hard to get” index rose to 46.8 percent in December from 46.3 percent last month, while the “jobs plentiful” index dropped to 3.9 percent from 4.3 percent.

GOLD 2/11 +1.3 1403

SILVER 3/11 +.54 2981

DOLLAR -.399 @ 80.28

Stock indexes were poised to fall in early trading Monday after China raised an interest rate over the weekend to combat rising inflation.

It is the second time in three months that China has taken steps to slow the pace of its economic expansion. Inflation jumped to its highest levels in two years in November. Rising prices have led poor families to spend more than half of their incomes on food.

Ahead of the opening bell, the Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 40 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,478. S&P 500 futures fell 5, or 0.3 percent, to 1,243. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 5, or 0.2 percent, to 2,222.

A blizzard in the Northeast is likely make this a quiet day on Wall Street following the holiday weekend. There are no major economic reports or corporate earnings announcements scheduled for Monday. Trading volume is expected to be light throughout the week ahead of New Year’s Day.

Shares were down sharply overseas. The Euro Stoxx 50, which tracks blue chip companies in countries that use the euro, fell 1.5 percent. Asian stock markets closed down less than 1 percent.

THE TWO MAIN PLACES I BUY ONE OUNCE ROUNDS FOR RESALE HAVE BEEN OUTRAGEOUS IN THE CASE OF ONE AND THE OTHER HAS HAD NO ROUND FOR THREE WEEKS DUE TO CHRISTMAS ROUND PRODUCTION. I DO NOT BELIEVE THE STORIES. WHO KNOWS WHY THERE IS REALLY A SHORTAGE? ANY SPECULATION BESIDES HOARDING?

WHAT DO YOU THINK GOLD AND SILVER WILL DO STARTING ON DEC 26TH WHEN IT OPENS? WHY?