E-Mail 'April 2020 in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran' To A Friend

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1. Re ” Conflict could very easily rear up in some cities between heavily-armed, and sometimes hot-headed, right wing, mostly Trump-supporting, militias and the National Guard, and the loyalties of the latter cannot necessarily be taken for granted in all instances. The situation, to an outsider with family in one of the country’s largest cities, is somewhat frightening.”

   1) Ha ha ha. There are NO ” hot-headed, right wing, mostly Trump-supporting, militias ” — or even voters — in the cities.

   Rich Democrats prefer the cities because the residents are easily to brainwash and deceive — the only way to communicate with such large masses is with mass media and the Rich CONTROL the urban mass media.

   Unless you are a billionaire able to buy your own news corporation you might as well go out in the park and yell at the squirrels. Whether you are Republican, independent or honest Democrat. That is why news media pundits can get away with claiming utter rubbish.

   Plus the Rich don’t just buy fake news and dishonest one-sided stories — they buy Silence. The veil lifts when you realize what they are NOT telling you. When you realize that their biggest lie is that you are a well-informed citizen if you follow their reports.

   1. Don W. is dead on it today.
      Oh where have all the thinking peeps gone to today?
      🙂

2. One precious metal Mr Cochran doesn’t mention is Rhodium — currently at $3700 , down from $11,500 back around March 1. In case there are any cowboys out there.

   Used in auto catalytic converters –hence reportedly depressed due to collapse in auto sales. Could leap in a recovery unless everyone decides to buy Elon MusK’s electric Tesla.

   Lots of news reports a few months ago about Tesla’s big leap in stock price but I didn’t see any explanations for WHY. But note that a roadblock to Tesla’s growth is access to massive amounts of Lithium for the batteries — and Bolivia has much of the world’s reserves of easily accessible lithium in a salt lake. So I smirked when Musk’s fortunes soared shortly after long time leftist President Evo Morales was forced out of office by the military following charges of a rigged reelection.

   I wonder if we can print enough money to maintain a junta in Bolivia as well as in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE.

   1. Hi Don,

      Rhodium is an extremely illiquid metal, which defeats the purpose of being a medium of exchange. You can’t go to the local jewelry store or pawn shop to sell it for emergency cash, because nearly no one trades in it.

      Being so difficult to find a buyer or seller, the bid/ask spread can be hundreds of dollars, and prices can move hundred of dollars a day. If you have the money that you can afford to lock into it, and catch it on a good day (for buying and selling), you can make money on it. Personally, something that can swing $2,000 or more a month is something I don’t feel comfortable investing in.

      But as i said, if you have the money to spare, the potential with rhodium is there.

      (PERSONAL OPINION: NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE, OR THE OFFICIAL OPINION OF GAINESVILLE COINS)

      1. 1) I think of precious metals as a long term store of value –not a medium of exchange — in circumstances where stocks have poor prospects (recession) and bonds are overpriced (very low interest rates).

         2) As Harry Brown noted back in the 1980s with his Permanent Portfolio, no investment is good in every economic condition but a 4 way hedge with stocks , long term bonds, short term notes and gold gives outriggers in all 4 directions on the savings canoe –if one investment goes down the opposite one goes up.

         3) Gold doesn’t earn a dividend and so declines if the stock market is booming. If purchased in advance, Long term Treasury bonds are great in a recession (safe, keep value, pay interest ) when everything else is falling in value — but vulnerable if interest rates rise in reaction to inflation. Cash does poorly in high inflation but gold rises.

         4) Gold is interesting at the moment — high price while platinum is $900 per oz cheaper. Platinum may be low due to drop in industrial demand (diesel engines pollution control). Gold’s value seems to be based on its 4000 year history as a universally-accepted store of value.

         Plus platinum’s value in the long term may be driven down if the plans for mining platinum-rich asteroids work out — aluminum was once more expensive than gold.

         5) I remember some young idiots arguing with me 10 years ago on a liberal blog that gold is Keynes’ “barbarous relic”. If that were true, the central banks of the major powers would not keep hundreds of tons of it in their vaults as insurance against the fiat currencies becoming toilet paper.

3. Read on my local coin shop’s website that he had silver for sale. So I went to see. He had a few silver quarters and dimes, a few Silver Eagles, and a few rounds left. The spot price (imaginary) was $14.53 . He charged a premium of $6.75, making the total a little over $21 . I cleaned him out. The total was a little over $400. I feel that the price was still cheap.

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