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1. For Precious metals, the time is ripe for Platinum to make a comeback. That market has dipped and should be starting it’s climb, thanks to an overpriced palladium market, and an oversold gold market. Platinum is rarer than gold, and traditionally valued higher until recent years, when gold has been king. The market for platinum took a hit when palladium became more popular as a catalyst in vehicle emission systems and was less expensive. But now palladium has been overpriced for a while, and a market correction should be imminent. If the gold market does start to decline, then I would expect further market correction on platinum to put it above gold eventually as it should rightly be. if you buy platinum now and it returns to it’s historical gold ratio, you could see 30-50% ROI. Silver likewise begs for a market correction. It may well be time to get out of gold.

   When the oil market tanked in late 2014, 10,000+ people lost their jobs in Prudhoe Bay in less than a year. Given the state of the 40+ year old infrastructure of that location, and the other difficulties in operating in that environment that translate to higher operating costs, oil at $70 a barrel is probably not enough to compel Conoco/BP to ramp up yet. But I reckon it is definitely on the table in the Houston offices, should the price go up another $10. Meanwhile, a lot of the idled pump jacks in the Permian Basin and elsewhere are getting their on-switch flipped to the up position.

   Greed is a politician’s pry-bar. When we were on the gold standard (before the Fed was created), there was no inflation. An ounce of gold pretty much bought the same box of goods for over a hundred years, more or less (accounting for production efficiencies for goods and services during that time, offset by the ever increasing availability gold on the market as it was being continuously mined). A silver dime (intrinsic value) pays for a loaf of bread today same as it did in the 1920s. But we sold ourselves out on the prospect we might be able to beat the competition if we just bent the rules a little. Like Mr. Rawles might say, if it ain’t tangibles, it’s value is suspect.

   if I had a spare $100k and didn’t want to put it into the homestead, I would be putting it into PM for sure. Never sit on cash in a fiat based economy. Convert it as soon as you figure to be holding it for future investments, like a newborn’s college fund. The moment you stick greebacks in the billfold, they are already losing value. The quicker you unload them for something real, the less you lose.

2. Maybe someone here could help me. I have a lump of unknown metal, silvery colored, an ounce or two, from my Army days. Nothing nefarious about how I got it. But I have tried over the years to find out the background of it, to no avail. Is there someplace that I could send it, or a sliver, a sample, for analysis at reasonable cost?

   Thanks

3. Re unknown “silver”: Take it to a high school or college chemistry prof. Or, try at a coin shop.

   1. Ok. Thanks. I’ll give those a try.
      Maybe I was “aiming beyond the mark”. I was thinking of professional company analyzers and assayers.

4. Buffet also missed Amazon and Microsoft…

5. Be very careful of all the people leaving Calif. I was in the Fl Keys when the dot,com bubble was building and people came in with lots of money to buy property. After all it was so different and fun. All was fine until the new people decided they didn’t like the chickens walking the streets and crowing all hours of the day and night. And didn’t like the people who lived in the mangroves, who had been there way longer than me. And we had to start doing things like they had done where they came from.

   So be careful of excess new people moving into an area. I think Washington and Oregon first enjoyed the new people coming from Ca until they started changing those places as well.

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