Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR [1]. Today, we look at the current high price of reloading primers. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)
Precious Metals:
Here is a set of gold-to-silver ratio charts [2] that is instructive. JWR’s Comment: Keep in mind that the long-term trend can only head in one direction, since silver is being gradually consumed, whereas most scrap gold is recovered. I expect a gold-to-silver ratio closer to 20-to-1 within 15 years.
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Top 10 largest gold mining companies in 2020 – report [3]
Economy & Finance:
Half Of Americans Have Lost Income Since Start Of Pandemic, While 16% Increased Earnings [4]
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At Zero Hedge: RV Boom Rolls Into 2021 With Record-Breaking Sales Expected [5]
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At Wolf Street: Long Way to “Normalcy”: When Will Americans Return to Flying for Vacation and Business? [6]
Commodities:
Our friend Patrice Lewis (of the great Rural Revolution [7] blog) mentioned this chart: Lumber Prices [8]. (Click on the 25-year view, for an eye-opener.)
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H.L. sent us this: The King of Nickel Is Betting Big on a Green Future in Batteries [9]
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Lithium is still trending higher. [10]
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OilPrice News reports: GM Is Betting Big On Electric Vehicles [11]
Forex & Cryptos:
Ten-Year U.S. Treasury Stays Firm but Dollar and Equity Moves Have Been Muted [12]
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British Pound (GBP) Latest: Brexit Trouble Brewing, GBP/USD Weak But Sterling Strength Remains [13]
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The Mexican Peso is weakening versus the U.S. Dollar [14].
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The good and bad news for South Africa’s Rand [15]
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Cryptos are rising. So are the stakes for governments everywhere [16]
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Bitcoin Falls Sharply After Mysterious $1bn BTC Transfer to Gemini Exchange [17]
Tangibles Investing:
I have some news on reloading primers: Pardon the pun, but the price of reloading primers has gone ballistic. First, here is a little primer on primers, for any newbies: These are the little metal cups in the back of a centerfire cartridge that ignite when struck by a firing pin. You cannot load (or reload) ammunition without them. Here in the States, most Boxer-style primers are made by Winchester, Remington, Federal, and CCI. Rifle and pistol primers are typically packaged in trays of 100, 10 trays to box (aka “brick”) of 1,000, and then cartons of 10,000. Before the pandemic, they sold for around $25 per thousand. (About 2.5 cents apiece.) Recently supplies have been so scant and demand so high that boxes of 1,000 are now selling for as much as $255 [18]. Yikes! That equates 25.5 cents apiece, or $2,550 per 10,000. That means that a single reloading primer is now selling for more than a loaded round of military surplus 7.62×39 ball ammunition was selling for, just two years ago!
Provisos:
SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos [19] page for our detailed disclaimers.
News Tips:
Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR [1]. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form [20].) These are often especially relevant because they come from folks who closely watch specific markets. If you spot any news that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers, then please send it in. News items from local news outlets that are missed by the news wire services are especially appreciated. And it need not be only about commodities and precious metals. Thanks!