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The Solari Report – 12 Mar 2009
This is the second week of the month. That means I am headed over to Westpoint, Tennessee on Thursday, March 12, to join Franklin Sanders and his family for dinner at the Sanders homestead down the road from their Top of the World Farm.
A lively dinner discussion will be followed by our monthly precious metals update by bridge call for this week’s Solari Report.
Last month, Franklin and I covered the most frequently asked questions that Franklin and his team at The Moneychanger get about buying gold and silver coins. This includes his Ten Commandments of Gold and Silver Buying You can find this mp3 in The Solari Report archives.
This month, in addition to your latest questions, I want to cover the questions that I and the Solari team most often get about the gold and silver markets.
We will also be talking about Stanley Kubrick’s movie, Eyes Wide Shut, and important family safety issues you should understand in regards to the proposed national health database. I recommend my latest article, “The Data Beast.”
If you are a subscriber to The Solari Report, you can post your questions at your private panel or feel free to also post them at this blog post. If you would like to learn more about The Solari Report and subscribe, click here.
The 10 Commandments of Buying Gold and Silver is a great article. Thank you!
My only question was about this one:
IX. Never swap bullion coins for U.S. $20 gold pieces.
Why is that? I guess I need to do my research but do they have less than $20 worth of gold. I’m not worried about it, because I never buy coins, buy it was really just a curiosity.
I’ve been saying for quite a while(to myself anyway) just buy silver rounds instead of coins. I actually prefer bars, and I buy mostly silver like you suggest. Bullion Direct lets you buy discs with no printing and they are usually $1 less than the coins for one ounce of silver. I also watch eBay and use sniping software and can usually get silver for less than spot, but it takes a little more effort. I also use a Gold/Silver Value Calculator that tells me current market price and how much an ounce or gram costs at the time so I can make better purchasing decisions.
Catherine, could you please consider briefly addressing whether you believe proposals by high level policy advisors to create a new international reserve currency, the “DEY” (Dollar, Euro, and Yen currency basket) to be followed by the “INTOR” (OR => gold) are still viable prospects?
As always, thanks for all you’ve done to fight the good fight and educate your fellow citizens.
Hello Catherine et al,
Catherine, we’ve spoken about this before, and I’ll repeat what I know to be true about precious metal investing, based on my experiences as a former exploration geologist, and from staying on top of mining issues after I became disenfranchised with the mining industry and chose a different career path (including journalism and education, in which I continued to track the mining industry).
Precious metal exploration, mine development and mining continue to exploit and cause widespread harm to the environment, to indigenous cultures and communities, worldwide. Period. Check out the recent (January) National Geographic issue on gold mining ‘The Real Price of Gold’ – (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/gold/larmer-text)
and you’ll see plenty of evidence supporting this. If you want to dig deeper there are plenty of non-profit organizations with deep data on this, such as ‘No Dirty Gold’ (www.nodirtygold.org/), EarthWorks (US; http://www.earthworksaction.org/) and Mining Watch Canada (www.miningwatch.ca/).
I truly find this a very significant disconnect with what you are say you are advocating on behalf of, with Solari. It just doesn’t add up to want to seed ethical community prosperity at the expense that most precious metal mining creates globally. – Michael Maser; Gibsons BC Canada
Hello Frankin,
I purchased semi-numismatic St. Gaudens gold coins several years ago. Would you recommend I sell these coins to instead purchase gold or silver coins or bullion?
At the time, I was told that confiscation was possible. It seemed as if all the “gold bugs” were worried about a repeat of 1933.
If I made an unwise investment in the St. Gaudens coins, what would you recommend as an alternative? Thank you.
Dear Cathrine,
Today on Bloomberg the goverment said:
“The Obama administration soon will also push Congress for legislation that allows the IMF to “mobilize” its stockpile of gold, Geithner said today. Congress would need to approve the IMF funding expansion, although it wouldn’t count against the budget deficit, he said.” (Geithner)
What on earth does “mobilize” mean?
I’m long in Au/Ag and find this statement unnerving.