Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on currency scams. (See the Forex section.)
Forex (Currency Scams):
In recent months I’ve had several SurvivalBlog readers contact me to mention “investing” in Iraqi Dinars (IQD). Spurred on by the Internet rumor mill, they are hoping for a huge return on investment, in the event of a revaluation. But I must warn you, folks: Don’t fall for the “insider knowledge” scams that are out there, with scammers selling paper Dinars at inflated rates. And most of all, don’t confuse revaluation with redenomination. A formal revaluation is highly unlikely. Although a redenomination is indeed likely, it won’t mean that you’ll get any overnight windfall. Quite the contrary! If they drop one, two, or three zeros from the currency, you could lose everything if you miss the recall window to exchange your old bills for the new bills. That window of opportunity could be as short as 30 days. And that exchange will mostly take place inside Iraq. If you miss the window, then all you’ll have is pretty wallpaper. And even if you do successfully trade your old IQD bills for new IQD bills, it will be at best little more than a break-even proposition.
By the way, there have been similar “insider knowledge” currency scams involving Vietnamese Dong and even Zimbabwean Dollars, in recent years. Please do not fall for these scams! If something sounds too good to be true, then odds are, it is.
Precious Metals:
There Is More Upside For Gold, Metal To Test $1,360 – TD Securities
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Clive Maund: Stand-Off: Silver’s Set-Up Is Bullish As Gold’s Set-Up Is Bearish
Commodities:
Oil Prices Poised To Rise As Cycle Comes To An End
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Next, at MarketWatch: Steel, cocoa among first-quarter gainers, but coal, sugar take biggest hits
Economy & Finance:
Court approves $75 million loan to keep Remington afloat
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China to Respond to New U.S. Duties With Same Scale, ‘Intensity,’ Ambassador Says
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The Problem with a State-Cartel Economy: Prices Rise, Wages Don’t
Tangibles Investing:
I missed this Hagerty article when it was posted last December: 2018 Bull Market List: The 9 hottest collectible cars right now
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What’s Selling on eBay: March 2018
Provisos:
SurvivalBlog and its Editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. So please see our Provisos page for our detailed disclaimers.
News Tips:
Please send your economics and investing news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who particularly watch individual markets. And due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” investing news. We often “get the scoop” on economic and investing news that is probably ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!
I was TDY to Kirkuk, Iraq when they switched from the old Dinars (Saddam Hussein) to the current one. I only bought $300USD worth, with equaled out to approximately 250,000 IQD. I knew people buy at the new stuff with at least $1K USD every two weeks. I told them they were insane then, and they just laughed. I never expected a windfall, but I have some of the the old stuff and current stuff, along with other currency from around the world….this includes some East German Marks. As a side note, you are correct about where the exchange would probably be conducted. The last time I looked, the currency was not exchanged on the open market. You couldn’t go to the local market and make the swap. I have been there too many times as it is, and don’t see myself going back.
I bought about 5 million NID between 2005 and 2006. I knew it was a risk, but the possible reward was huge. To this day I still believe that had things gone differently, they would have been able to gradually raise the value of their currency until it found markey equilibrium. With all the oil under their feet, they should be a rich country. Unfortunately the window to revalue is LONG gone. The Iraqi government couldn’t get anything done and sectarian violence ripped that country into shreds. Luckily, I’ve been able to offload most of it on Ebay. At most I lost a few hundred dollars but I essentially broke even. Oh well.
I had a friend ask me about a month ago, “Have you heard of the Iraqi Dinar investment?” I laughed and said, “Yeah, 13 years ago.”
Remington comment. After reading the article about Remington’s BK and finding that they were purchased in 2006 by an investment fund (Cerebus) , It is probably safe to say they were raided to provide dividends and large salaries to senior management as well as being hampered by accountants making business decisions that had absolutely no knowledge of the Industry they were dealing with. This has happened all to often to sound American businesses over the last 50 years. I once worked for Litton Industries who bought out all kinds of unassociated business that were run into the ground by the CFO’s and the accounting Department through short term profit taking rather than long term growth and sustainability. The only answer to this problem I can come up with is for business schools to start teaching morals and how to run a business with a little less greed. I give you the following example. I never use self check out at stores, I would rather pay a few cents extra to see a few more people employed at the registers. You can pay a little more at the store for someone to have a job or you can pay many times more in taxes for the government to run inefficient welfare programs that rob people of their dignity and responsibilities.
I wholeheartedly concur with the comment about self-checkout lines at your local store.
I for one will not use the self-checkout. It’s not uncommon in my local grocer to see only 1 or 2 people using the self-lines (where 4-5 kiosks exist), while waiting 3-4 deep in the checkout. I’ve had the staff approach me and suggest they could ring me through the self-line, and I politely inform them that I would rather wait and ensure the cashier continues to have employment.
It’s a simple thing to do, but speaks your opinion about the change corporations are trying to force upon the consumer. I understand both sides of the argument for and against, however as Joe states above, I would rather take a few minutes of my time to give a person a chance to work for a living.
That would be Cerberus Capital Management.
It should have been a word to the wise to remind Remington about the poor management decisions Cerberus made when they owned Chrysler Corporation. They ran Chrysler into the ground too.
Looks like another rape of an otherwise good company.
I urge everyone thinking of future firearm purchases, to buy a Remington product. It might help here to post a review of their 1911 too. It would be a shame to see a major firearms manufacturer go out of business especially now.