Category: Economics & Investing

JWR: Thanks to SurvivalBlog, I have stashed away my share of nickels, but I began to wonder if it could make sense to sort and store pre-1982 pennies, which are 95 percent copper.  I’ve done some hands-on research in this area, and I believe there’s a way to accumulate pennies, and do so relatively easily and from an investment point of view, more effectively than nickels. The Numbers First, the numbers: If one stashed away $1,000 in nickels, one would have 20,000 coins; each coin is 5 grams, of which 75% is copper and 25% nickel.  So, $1000 in nickels …

A 1980 copy of Playboy Predicts the Future for Silver David D. sent this: Speculation explains more about oil prices than anything else John R. recommended a series of charts, showing the sad decline of various currencies since 1970: Your Purchasing Power. JWR Notes: As I’ve written before, currency inflation is robbery in slow motion. Reader Paul G. suggested this by Dave Altig of the Atlanta Fed: Just how out of line are house prices? Clearly, house prices have farther to fall before we see bottom! Shadow Stat Misery Index Highest on Record Items from The Economatrix: Yishai sent a …

Stephen M. sent this: Alan Blinder Fires First Shot Across QE3 Bow: Says We Need More Stimulus To Boost Employment. Monetizing the debt is a governmental addiction. It won’t end until the U.S. Dollar is destroyed! Reader G.P. forwarded this: 50 Things Every American Should Know About The Collapse Of The Economy Sig sent us this: Roubini: Jobless Rate Will Jump to Near 10 Percent as Economy Slows. Some “Live Free or Die” news: Southeast Minn. man finds copper plate used to print money. The story gets very interesting when the lawyers get involved. (Thanks to Jim H. for the …

John Embry discusses gold and silver with James Turk. Don’t miss Embry’s comments on the gold to silver ratio (starting 4 minutes into the interview), and about the prospects for hyperinflation, (starting about 10 minutes in). H.D. pointed me to this New York Times article: Gold Mania in the Yukon. C.D.V. flagged this: Social Security deficits now ‘permanent’ Items from The Economatrix: Foreclosures Crush Home Prices Reports of Mortgage Fraud Reach Record Level Stocks Fall as European Financial Crisis Expands Asian Markets Subdued on US Mixed Signals Stocks Edge Higher as Commodity Slide Eases Dollar In Graver Danger Than Euro. …

Forbes Predicts U.S. Gold Standard Within Five Years. (Thanks to C.D.V. for the link.) C.D.V. also flagged this: PIMCO raises bet against U.S. government debt. Jerry Robinson: Meet the System That Will Collapse the U.S. Dollar. Items from The Economatrix: Slumping Oil, Commodity Prices Halt Stock Rally Gasoline Futures Tumble as Demand Slides Don’t Buy A House in 2011 Before You Read This We’re Nowhere Near a Top in Gold A Word on Precious Metals Corrections

Greg C. was the first of several readers to send this: Irish Bombshell: Government Raids PRIVATE Pensions To Pay For Spending. (A trend coming soon to America?) Wall Street View from the Dollar Vigilante, Jeff Berwick. Berwick asserts that The Canadian Dollar’s fate is tied to the U.S. Dollar. Check out his Dollar Vigilante blog. (Thanks to Dan S. for the video link.) Smithfield CEO: Higher Food Prices Are Here To Stay. (Thanks to Kelly D. for the news tip.) Europe prays for Easter rain in worst drought for a century Items from The Economatrix: China Buying Silver Overnight Home …

SurvivalBlog’s G.G. sent this: ‘Underwater’ Homeowners Rise to 28 Percent: Zillow. JWR’s Comment: Please don’t try to tell me that the U.S. housing market has “reached the bottom”. It will continue to deteriorate. The bottom won’t be reached until after hundreds of billions of dollars in bad debt unwinds. At this point, the only viable way for the government and the Federal Reserve banking cartel to extricate themselves from this morass is to inflate their way out. It will only be when houses start selling for more than they did in 2007 that the market will start to “turn around.” …

C.D.V. sent this: Housing crash is getting worse: report. Observations of the Silver Smack Down. Steve K. forwarded a link to: Doomsday Scenario (from the Treasury Department, of all places!) G.P. suggested: $2 Trillion Mile Marker on Road to Perdition Items from The Economatrix: Florida Bank Fails; 40 Shuttered In 2011 Global Economic Crisis to Worsen n Fall The Silver Bull:  Despite This Week’s Selloff, We See Higher Prices Ahead Hopes For A Quick Decline In US Joblessness Dims Signs Are Pointing to a Big Commodity Selloff

Reader C.C.V. sent this: U.S. Payrolls Grew 244,000 in April; Unemployment at 9%. JWR Adds: “the recovery is cooling” they claim. I ask: What recovery? All that I’ve seen is a brief blip, caused by a massive infusion of Funny Money. (The monetization dubbed “Quantitative Easing”.) Chris Martenson interviews Addison Wiggin: We Can’t Afford the Solutions Needed To Reverse Our Decline I noticed an interesting article over at Fierce Finance: Goldman Sachs prodigy quits KAF sent this: Fannie Mae has asked the government Friday for an additional $8.5 billion in aid. (It lost $8.7 billion in the first three months …

Reader Fred Z. sent this: No Accounting for Benefits: Our taxes barely cover our social-welfare programs; everything else is on credit. KAF suggested this piece over at Zero Hedge: CME Margin Hike Is 4th AND 5th – Charting The Parabolic Rise In CME Silver Margin Hikes How the Fed triggered the Arab Spring uprisings in two easy graphs. (SurvivalBlog’s Poet Laureate G.G. sent the link.) Troy H. recommended a recent newsletter, wherein Jeremy Grantham gets downright Malthusian. Items from The Economatrix: China Said May Buy $1 Trillion in Gold US Service Sector Expanded at Much Slower Pace Economic Stress Drops …

I found this article linked at The Drudge Report: Food Prices Rise to Near-Record as Inflation Accelerates John R. recommended a piece by Martin A. Armstrong: The Next Wave B.B. sent this: Mexican Central Bank Quietly Buys 100 Tons of Gold Jim Rogers: Oil Price Will Keep Rising; Silver to Fall Debt-Ceiling Brinksmanship: Treasury Will Hit Legal Limit When It Borrows $13.86 Billion More Items from The Economatrix: Any Chance of Gold Confiscation? Precious Metals vs. The USD 10 States Where Pensions are Running Out of Money US Dollar Crash Warned May Be Underway Fresh US Dollar Slide Rekindles Pre-Crisis …

Here it comes, just as I predicted: Silver Investors Dump Futures as Comex Boosts Speculator Trading Costs 84%. But even if the COMEX governors kill the futures market, they won’t be able to destroy the physical silver market. The demand for physical silver is just too great. Expect lots of volatility with some huge price swings, in coming months. But in the long run, as the Western economies go into stagflation, physical silver will rightly be seen as a safe haven, gaining against the rapidly-inflating fiat currencies. (Or rather, I should say the currencies will be losing value, whilst silver …

[UPDATED] Silver investors: Here is one of those dips that I mentioned! Silver at under $35 per ounce is a definite buying opportunity. $35 per ounce equates to around 25 times face value (wholesale), for pre-1965 “junk” silver coins. They were a whopping 37 times face just six days ago. Buy now! C.D.V. send this: Underwater Mortgages a Threat to Recovery; Expect No More Than 3% Growth Until Housing Recovers Portugal becomes third euro country to get bailout. (Thanks to G.P. for the link.) Also from G.P.: About 1 in 7 in U.S. Receive Food Stamps Former Comptroller David Walker: …