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Monday, January 21, 2013

Gold, Guns and Gall

In case you weren't aware:  There's a bit of a gold and silver rush going on right now.  In our store, when we get gold or silver in, it goes out within a couple of days - tops.  Many times, it's in and out in the same day.

One of our primary wholesale sources (they do about half a billion in business a year) flat ran out of generic silver rounds.  Not a one to be had.  They ran out of Krugerrand one ounce gold coins as well (still had American Gold Eagles, and Canadian Gold Maple Leaf's, though).

Along the same lines, the US Mint has already sold out of their 2013 American Silver Eagles.  Two weeks into the year!  Not enough silver around to keep the mint running.

I'm just sayin...
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It's all about purchasing power.

I get asked virtually every day I'm in our store, "How high will gold/silver go?"  They're trying to get insight into when to buy and, perhaps more importantly, when to sell.

They always get the same answer:  "I dunno."

I tell them that if they're not willing to hold onto their PM purchases for 3 to 5 years, they shouldn't be buying.  They should be in the stock market if they're looking to gamble with their money.

Here's what I know:  Until our government commits to a balanced budget - tax receipts equal expenditures - they MUST either borrow more money, print more money or do both.  All of these actions weaken the dollar.  All of them strengthen precious metals.

Now, the price of PMs will go up and down - like the teeth on a saw.  BUT, that saw is pointed upwards.  You may have short-term price drops, but over time, the value of PMs will increase until the US government stops using inflation to pay its bills.

When they actually produce and adhere to a balanced budget, that's when I sell my PMs.
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Maybe not even then.  Honestly, I'd think it was a scam.  I'd want to know how they could possibly cut enough cost and/or raise enough tax dollars, PLUS ensure Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid were fully funded.

I just don't believe it to be possible.  They may 'nut up' for a year or two, but there's no way all of those unfunded liabilities are going to be funded for the long term.  It IS a Ponzi scheme, and those always fail.

I'm guessing that folks like me - Baby Boomers, soon to enter the pay-back period of our forced SSI retirement participation - will get short-changed.  Congress will either remove the COLA increases while devaluing the dollar, or will subject us to Means Testing, and cut our payments.  It will be a de facto default to us, but not a political one.

My kids ain't gonna see squat out of the government-run retirement program.  THEY will pay for our financial sins.
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 I'm sure it's totally unrelated, but ever since Sandy Hook and Obama's plea for "reasonable gun control", my gun classes began selling out.  Quickly.

I posted my first quarter classes in mid-December, and by the second week in January, I'm sold out through the end of March.  Plus, I have two private classes scheduled, each full to the hilt.

I had an introductory class this past Saturday.  I get to the range/classroom a half hour before the range opens to set up for the class.  There were more cars than normal parked out front when I arrived.  I popped out at 10am when they opened, and the line of people wanting one of the 12 lanes was out the door.  Easily 30 people.

Even here in the Land of Fruit and Nuts - perhaps the bluest of blue states - we're not swallowing the swill Barry's serving.

Our state legislature is busy crafting more Look Busy/Feel Good/Accomplish Nothing Gun Regulations.  They're talking about the whole fingerprint for ammo gig, licensing ammo sellers and adding many more guns to our already lengthy Assault Weapon list.

I need to look into a gun storage business in, perhaps, Nevada.  If the idiots in Sacramento make currently legal guns illegal, most people are not going to give them up.  We've been through this crap before.
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But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.
Those words were spoken today by the same man who had just sworn to uphold the Constitution of The United States.

Translation:  Principles must not be principled, and giving up personal freedom will help to preserve those very same personal freedoms.  Ouch, that hurts my head.

It's all about the hive.

Orwell would be jealous of Obama's ability to twist the meaning of words and concepts.

Arrogant bastard.
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