Seven reasons gold rally will continue: Jeff Nichols

From International Business Times

A few months ago most analysts were skeptical about $1500 an ounce for gold by end of 2010, however, the recent rally in gold coupled with economic uncertainties have forced those who earlier disputed the bullish forecasts to jump on the bandwagon, according to Jeffrey Nichols, Senior Economic Advisor to Rosland Capital and Managing Director of American Precious Metals Advisors.

US inflationary policies: The US monetary and fiscal policies are inflation. Official federal debt, now around $12.8 trillion is only a small part of Washington's actual obligations.  Off-budget and unfunded future liabilities are another $108 trillion, Jeff Nicols said. So the end result would be higher inflation, currency depreciation and higher gold prices.

European crisis: Europe's sovereign debt crisis will continue to favour gold. The European Central Bank's loss of anti-inflationary credibility and the questionable future of the euro has diminished the European common currency's appeal as a reserve asset and dollar-substitute in the world economic order.

Central Banks and gold buying: Central banks have become net buyers since 2009 after several years of selling an average 400 tons per year. And official sector will continue to be net buyer of gold for years to come, Jeff Nichols said. Last year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced it had been buying gold regularly from domestic mine production for several years - but did not report these purchases in its official reserve accounts.

Rising investment demand: Rising private-sector investment demand for gold from across the old industrialized world: Private investors in the United States and Europe, both individuals and institutions, are buying more gold reflecting the same concerns and fears that are driving central banks to accumulate the metal.  Substantial physical investment demand is seen across Germany, Switzerland, France, the UK and other countries, Jeff Nichols said.

India, China investment demand: Moderate growth in disposable personal incomes could result in rising gold purchases in China and India where gold is a preferred medium of investment and savings for households.

Rise of ETFs: The growth of gold exchange-traded funds allow investors to purchase gold via an equity-like vehicle and there are more than 18 such funds traded on many stock exchanges around the world- and a new gold ETF is just now being launched in Japan. Jeff Nichols said these new products and distribution channels will result in far more gold investment offtake in the years ahead, so much so that the potential future price is far greater than most analysts and investors today think reasonable.

Declining world gold-mine production: Global gold-mine production has been in a downtrend for decades. Despite a small uptick last year and possibly again this year, the fall in world mine output will continue for at least for the next five years or more.

The ebb in mine production reflects many factors, including the depletion of existing deposits, the continuing drop in ore grades, the decline in operating depths at many mines, the rise in energy and labor costs, the expense and time required to meet increasingly restrictive environmental regulations, unfriendly government attitudes toward foreign investment in some gold-producing countries, and the lack of financing available to many gold-mining exploration and development, Jeff Nichols concluded.

ORIGINAL SOURCE


This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents

40 signs the USA is at the brink of economic collapse

 chaospreppers.com

How in tune are you to what's going on in America? Do you realize just how close to complete ruin the whole Western world is financially?

Because you're probably busy making ends meet, spending time with your family, and enjoying life, we’re going to make things easy and provide you with a simple, scannable list to get you up-to-date on the real news you might not have heard about the real economic turmoil.

Here’s a compilation of economic depictions that indicate the proverbial apocalypse is indeed upon the West.

The following are 40 things that every American should know related to the collapse of the economy:

#1 Right now we are watching what could potentially be the worst Mississippi River flood ever recorded play out right in front of our eyes.  One agricultural economist at Mississippi State University believes that this disaster could do 2 billion dollars of damage just to farms alone.

#2 The "tornadoes of 2011" that we just saw in the southeast United States are being called the worst natural disaster that the U.S. has seen since Hurricane Katrina.  It has been estimated that up to 25 percent of all of the poultry houses in Alabama were either significantly damaged or destroyed.  It is also believed that millions of birds were killed.

#3 According to the Wall Street Journal, 5.5 million Americans are currently unemployed and yet are not receiving unemployment benefits.

#4 The number of "low income jobs" in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years and they now account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.

#5 All over America, state and local governments are selling off buildings just to pay the bills.  Investors can now buy up government-owned power plants, prisons and municipal buildings from coast to coast.  For example, the mayor of Newark, New Jersey recently sold off 16 government buildings (including the police and fire headquarters) just to pay some bills.

#6 One out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#7 Most Americans don't realize how much the U.S. dollar has been devalued over the years.  An item that cost $20.00 in 1970 would cost you $115.93 today.  An item that cost $20.00 in 1913 would cost you $454.36 today.

#8 Those that were alive in the 1970’s will remember how much was made of the "Misery Index" during the presidency of Jimmy Carter (1976-1980).  At that time, the "Misery Index" was constantly making headlines in newspapers all across the country.  Well, according to John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, if we calculated unemployment and inflation the same way that we did back during the Carter administration, then the Misery Index today would actually be higher than at any point during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.

#9 When Americans think of "government debt", most of them only think of the federal government, but it is not just the federal government that has a massive debt problem.  State and local government debt has reached an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP.

#10 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of about 5 million Americans were being hired every single month during 2006.  Today, an average of about 3.5 million Americans are being hired every single month.

#11 The economic effects of the BP oil spill just seem to go on and on and on.  The number of very sick fish in the Gulf of Mexico is really starting to alarm scientists.  The following is how one local newspaper recently described the situation....

Scientists are alarmed by the discovery of unusual numbers of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and inland waterways with skin lesions, fin rot, spots, liver blood clots and other health problems.

#12 All over America, hospitals that care for the poor and needy are so overwhelmed and are so broke that they are being forced to shut down.  Recently, a local newspaper in Florida ran an article about two prominent charity hospitals in Illinois that have served the poor for more than 100 years but are now asking for permission to shut down....

Two charity hospitals in Illinois are facing a life-or-death decision. There's not much left of either of them - one in Chicago's south suburbs, the other in impoverished East St. Louis - aside from emergency rooms crowded with patients seeking free care. Now they would like the state's permission to shut down.

#13 The U.S. dollar is in such bad shape that now even Steve Forbes is predicting that the U.S. is "likely" to go back to a gold standard within the next five years.

#14 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year.

#15 Over the past 12 months the average price of gasoline in the United States has gone up by about 30%.

#16 It is being projected that for the first time ever, the OPEC nations are going to bring in over a trillion dollars from exporting oil this year.  Their biggest customer is the United States.

#17 According to the Pentagon, there are minerals worth over a trillion dollars under the ground in Afghanistan.  Now, J.P. Morgan is starting to tap those riches with the help of the U.S. military.

#18 Speaking of J.P. Morgan, most Americans don't realize that they are actually the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States.  In fact, the more Americans that go on food stamps the more money that J.P. Morgan makes.

#19 When 2007 began, there were about 26 million Americans on food stamps.  Today, there are over 44 million on food stamps, and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#20 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#21 Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year.  That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

#22 The financial system is more vulnerable today than it was back in 2008 before the financial panic. Today, the world financial system has been turned into a giant financial casino where bets are made on just about anything you can possibly imagine, and the major Wall Street banks make a ton of money from this betting system.  The system is largely unregulated (the new "Wall Street reform" law has only changed this slightly) and it is totally dominated by the big international banks. The danger from derivatives is so great that Warren Buffet once called them "financial weapons of mass destruction". It is estimated that the "derivatives bubble" is somewhere in the neighborhood of a quadrillion dollars, and once it pops there isn't going to be enough money in the entire world to bail everyone out.

#23 The United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs per month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and the U.S. trade deficit with China is now 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

#24 In 2010, the number one U.S. export to China was "scrap and trash".

#25 All over the United States, many of our once great manufacturing cities are being transformed into hellholes.  In the city of Detroit today, there are over 33,000 abandoned houses, 70 schools are being permanently closed down, the mayor wants to bulldoze one-fourth of the city and you can literally buy a house for one dollar in the worst areas.

#26 During the first three months of this year, less new homes were sold in the U.S. than in any three month period ever recorded.

#27 New home sales in the United States are now down 80% from the peak in July 2005.

#28 The European debt crisis could cause a global financial collapse like the one that we saw in 2008 at any time.  The world economy is incredibly interconnected today, and the United States would not be immune.  A recent IMF report stated the following about the growing sovereign debt crisis in Europe....

Strong policy responses have successfully contained the sovereign debt and financial-sector troubles in the euro area periphery so far. But contagion to the core euro area and then onward to emerging Europe remains a tangible risk.

#29 According to one study, the 50 U.S. state governments are collectively 3.2 trillion dollars short of what they need to meet their pension obligations.

#30 A different study has shown that individual Americans are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.

#31 The cost of college tuition in the United States has gone up by over 900 percent since 1978.

#32 The combined debt of the major GSEs (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Sallie Mae) has increased from 3.2 trillion in 2008 to 6.4 trillion in 2011.  Thanks to our politicians, U.S. taxpayers are standing behind that debt.

#33 The U.S. government is over 14 trillion dollars in debt and the budget deficit for this year is projected to be about 1.5 trillion dollars.  However, if the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion each and every year.

#34 Most Americans don't understand that the Federal Reserve and the debt-based monetary system that it runs are at the very heart of our economic problems.  All of this debt is absolutely crushing us.  The U.S. government spent over 413 billion dollars on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2010, and it is being projected that the U.S. government will be shelling out 900 billion dollars just in interest on the national debt by the year 2019. This figure will be nearly equal to the entire amount taken in by the IRS for the year in the form of tax payments.

#35 Standard & Poor’s has altered its outlook on U.S. government debt from "stable" to "negative" and is warning that the U.S. could soon lose its AAA rating.

#36 U.S. households are now receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.

#37 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another.

#38 The wealthiest 1% of all Americans now own more than a third of all the wealth in the United States.

#39 The poorest 50% of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

#40 The percentage of millionaires in Congress is more than 50 times higher than the percentage of millionaires in the general population.

 Original Source


This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Is there demand for Silver? How close are we to a bubble?

In an article from Business Insider, Stacy Herbert explains common misconceptions in the Silver market:

There are some that since 2001 have doubted the bull market in precious metals.  In these past six weeks, however, everyone from former silver bulls to those who sell freeze dried chicken **** for a living are out shrieking the bears on the shriek factor. Do a google search and you will find hundreds upon hundreds of references to Hunt brother days. Bubble. Hunt Brothers. Suckers. Bubble. 1980. Bubble. Lose money. Bubble.
What the heck is going on???? Is the sky falling? Should we retreat?
Well, note that during every long, steady march up of a bull market, there are violent corrections down. And during every single one of these violent corrections, most of the media and many of the analysts will begin shrieking with fear or gloating with vengeance that the bull market is over. Read this editorial by Peter Schiff dated 2006 when silver corrected by 35% in 6 weeks. As you see, people were obviously shrieking that silver was in a bubble and now it was plummeting, popping and tumbling from I think it was $12 down to $9. No doubt Schiff will have received loads of hate mail from people who had ‘lost’ money by selling their silver after buying ‘at the bubble high’ on his recommendation. But without losers, there can be no winners in markets. It is because there are so many losers during a bull market that some can win. Their shrieks shake out even more losers, so the winners can win even more. Their loss is your gain.
To some, the losing is worth it. I have a friend who bought silver at the 2008 ‘bubble high’ of $22. Yes, again, in 2008, the silver bubble burst! This friend sold at $9 where silver once again fell. He ‘lost’ money by being ‘suckered’ into a bubble. Of course, $9 was obviously a support level for the next ride up on the bull. He doesn’t regret his losses as he says he just couldn’t deal with the emotional swings of the bull market ride.
Anyway, once again, for the third time in three years, the silver ‘bubble’ has burst. The fall is not as great as the 60% fall of 2008, but there are far more precious metals website owners and analysts mocking and ridiculing the ‘losers’ who bought at the top of the bubble. Some are suggesting silver is one of the biggest, craziest bubbles in history.
CPM Group has just released their 2010 silver supply and demand data, so I’ve gone through it to look for signs of a bubble that has collapsed. I’m not a mathematician, so I welcome any corrections on my maths and invite any additional observations that can be added to my own.

• CPM Group: Silver, Supply, Demand Grew in 2010; Trend to Continue

So if we’re in a bubble, of course, we must see the classic signs of mania. Buyers must be stampeding to the doors to buy at the high. Silver inventories should be bursting at the seams as all the crazies load up at mania highs. So let’s look for signs of that . . . you’ll find me in italics.
=====
CPM: The value of investor silver holdings was estimated at $14.7 billion at the end of 2010, the highest level on a nominal basis since 1988, with the record at $42.2 billion – nominally – in 1980. The value of silver holdings is the product of the price of silver and the cumulative silver bullion inventories.
Stacy – So on a nominal basis, the last time investor silver holdings were valued at $14.7 billion – nominally – was already 7 years into a 20 year bear market? On an inflation adjusted basis to 1988 dollars, the nominal value of last year’s $14.7 billion of investor silver holdings out to be $72.7 billion.
And at the peak of the last silver bull market – a time to which many are now comparing the current silver market – when it entered true parabolic stage, the total nominal value of investor holdings were $42.2 billion. $42,200,000,000 1980 dollars = 272,467,430,863.75 dollars in 2010. So on an inflation adjusted basis the size of the holdings in 1980 were roughly about 19 times bigger at a time when the global population was 50% smaller (1980 global population – 4.4 billion). And in 1980, half of that 4.4 billion global population was behind the iron curtain and when China was a micro economy of peasants far removed from the global economy.
So, essentially, this current ‘biggest bubble in history’ is actually at least 19 times smaller than the ‘Hunt brothers bubble’ and with 2.3 billion more potential investors on earth? Either many millions of ounces more of silver have to be owned by investors or the prices have to go much, much higher to get anywhere near the 1980 levels to which so many are comparing today.
Let’s return to the nominal numbers that CPM presents:
2010 nominal value silver holdings = $14.7 billion. 1980 nominal value of silver holdings = $42.2 billion
SH: Now compare that to:
2010 nominal US national debt = $14 trillion. 1980 nominal US national debt = $900 billion
Stacy: In other words, compared to 1980, nominal holdings of silver were 4 times smaller in 2010 but U.S. national debt was more than 14 times higher on a nominal basis compared to 1980? And silver is in the bubble?
CPM: On a global basis, however, the value of these [silver] assets represents 0.007% of total global financial assets, up from 0.003% in 2004. It was 0.34% in 1980.
Stacy: You do the maths on that, I get that silver assets represented 48 more times the percentage of total global financial assets in 1980. Of course, we all know that debt and derivatives have exploded since the 1980′s and that will account for the collapse in silver as a percentage of total global financial assets and it is also one of the reasons that many believe silver will go higher.
Back to investor demand . . .

Read more: http://maxkeiser.com/2011/05/19/stacy-blog-show-me-the-silver-bubble/#ixzz1Mou4tnj2


This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Investments in gold, silver a safe bet in the long-term: Analysts

From Economic Times

Precious metals have gained popularity as investment options over the last few years, as they have yielded attractive returns. Global commodities in general are going through profit booking since the last few weeks. The prices of gold and silver have also come down from their peaks. Silver has been through a deeper correction as it had gone up quite sharply.
Analysts believe prices in the commodity markets had gone into the over-brought zone and a correction was long due. The prices had gone way above their justified fundamentals. The short-term outlook for precious metals is uncertain, but analysts believe the long-term outlook is bullish due to several factors that influence the prices of precious metals in the international markets.

The original article can be found here


This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Gold and Silver, The Big Show

Gold and Silver, The Big Show

It goes almost unnoticed that gold and silver are making new bull market highs on a weekly basis.

Occasionally it will get an honorable mention in the press when they need to fill in some dead space. God forbid that an analyst actually recommends gold because they will suddenly find themselves "out of time". For weeks the commentators on Bloomberg focused on gold's failure to move above 1,440.00 and insinuated that this is what a top looks like. Yesterday they found out just how wrong they are and I feel that merits some comment along with some projections about what is coming down the road. So here it goes.
One of the prime movers in the price of gold is the US dollar and the dollar is headed lower as you can easily see here:

This was great support and now it is a warning

I realize that this is a simple six-month daily chart but in truth it differs little from a ten-year chart in that the trend is down. It's been headed down for a decade and it's headed down today. The greenback is the world's reserve currency and as it loses value, the world moves to the ultimate reserve currency, gold! Right now the dollar is distributing within a range (75.50 to 76.50) in preparation for a move down to the historical low at 70.70.

Gold is also influenced by what the European and Asian central banks do. The United States is finishing up with QE2 and debating whether or not to go ahead with QE3 and Europe is clearly headed toward a QE2 of its own with bailouts of Portugal and Ireland being finalized. Then you have Japan with a QE of its own, pumping out US $500 billion in the weeks following the earthquake. So for those of you who are looking for a fiat port in the storm, there aren't any so gold will be pushed higher that much more. The yellow metal isn't the only thing on the rise either. Silver is marching higher like the little drummer boy and yesterday the HUI broke out to a new closing high as seen here:

That is the equivalent of a "confirmation" is Dow Theory with respect to the Dow and Transports. This is the first time in months that gold, silver and the HUI all made new closing highs on the same day, and it is a major buy signal as well.

With respect to the June gold futures contract yesterday was the first time that it was able to poke its head above critical resistance at 1,449.00 (1,447.50 in the spot price) and it closed well above it at 1,452.50 as you can see here:

This is a significant break out to the upside and it is extremely bullish that the June gold is up another 6.50 today at 1,459.00 and never bothered to look back at what was such strong resistance.

Now I know that you've seen the follow chart of gold twice but maybe the third time is a charm:

Here you can clearly see how each leg up is followed by consolidation at the top of the range. This is as bullish as it gets! Now look at the far right of this chart and you can see that yesterday the spot gold broke out above that last area of consolidation (1,330.00 to 1,440.00) and today it moved even higher as the spot price is now at 1,460.00 as of 3 pm EST. That means yesterday's breakout was confirmed and that is very important. You should copy this chart and put it someplace where you can see it every day, because this is the reality and not the crap that spews out from your TV.

Then we have silver. Silver has been leading gold higher for weeks now and seems to be picking up more strength with each passing week as you can see here:

Counting today gold's poor cousin has made three consecutive bull market closing highs and four out of the last five sessions. That is strength and it is not done by a long shot since there isn't any resistance until it hits 43.71, and is still a ways off in the horizon. Below I have put all the relevant Fibonacci numbers for both spot gold and spot silver so you can follow along:

                        SUPPORT    RESISTANCE
SPOT GOLD   1,447.50           1,522.19
                         1,372.81           1,596.98
                         1,298.12           1,671.77
SPOT SILVER    37.95                43.71
                            31.91                49.45
                            26.48                55.21

and there is no telling where silver will stop even though it is overbought right now.

In conclusion gold will go to a minimum of 1,596.98 and will probably go higher while silver will go to a minimum of 43.71. How much higher each can go is anybody's guess right now. What makes top picking difficult is that a lot of people who want to be in the market were caught on the sidelines and now greed will make them pile in with too much and too late. Yes, I bough both gold and silver yesterday and today but I simply added a little meat to the bone of positions that I began to build two years ago, and I never liquidated along the way. Of course here are people out there calling for US $2,000.00 gold and US $75.00 silver on this leg up, and anything is possible but these are the same people who wouldn't even look at gold when it was at US $1,155.00 back in July of last year. Now they're all heroes!

Rest assured that gold and silver will have a substantial correction this summer but only a fool would give up his position that he struggled so hard to construct and my mother didn't raise any fools. Finally the volatility is only going to increase over the next month or so and that will cause all the traders to sell cheap and buy dear. Fear and greed act on the price of gold and silver like no other market so anyone who try's to trade these two will go broke! My best advise remains to buy a little bit of physical gold and silver (coins whenever possible) every month and watch the food channel when you turn the TV on. Occasionally scan the Sunday paper and look at the price of gold and then go straight to the comics. You'll grow rich and you'll be happy!


http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article27411.html


This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Wal-Mart Says “Serious” Inflation Is Coming

Thank you Ben Bernanke for all the money printing.  Thanks to a massive injection of cash into the financial system by the Federal Reserve and other central banks, the price of almost every major commodity has skyrocketed over the past six months.  Now those price increases are starting to filter down to the retail level.  During a recent meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board, Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon said that rising inflation in the United States is "going to be serious" and that Wal-Mart is "seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."  For many years Wal-Mart has been famous for their "low prices", so for the head of Wal-Mart to publicly warn that much higher prices are coming is more than a little alarming.  There are millions of American families that are already drowning in debt, that can barely pay their mortgages and that are struggling to put food on the table for their families.  So what is going to happen to the U.S. economy when prices start rising substantially at places such as Wal-Mart?
But Wal-Mart is not the only major corporation that says that inflation is coming.  Hershey has just announced price increases of about 10 percent on their entire line of products.
So if you like chocolate you better start stocking up now.
Cocoa production is being seriously threatened by the political unrest in Africa right now.  The recent chaos in the Ivory Coast is certainly not good news for Hershey, but the truth is that all of the long-term trends indicate that prices for commodities such as cocoa, coffee and sugar are going to move up anyway.
In fact, Aaron Smith, the managing director of Superfund Financial, believes that coffee, sugar and cocoa will all be five to ten times more expensive by 2014 than they are today.
So if you are addicted to coffee or to sugar you might want to start making your plans accordingly.
But the truth is that inflation is not limited to just a few commodities.  Virtually every major agricultural commodity has soared in price over the past 6 months to a year.
So what is causing all of this?
Well, there are several factors which are major contributors.
First of all, overall global demand continues to increase.  The population of the world continues to grow, and as the economies of nations such as China and India develop, millions more people want to enjoy luxury items such as chocolate and coffee just like Americans do.
Secondly, all over the world central banks have been recklessly printing money in an attempt to stimulate their economies, but this is also going to end up causing tremendous inflation.
So how does that work?
Well, it is actually very simple.
For example, in the United States when there are more dollars chasing the same number of goods and services, what is going to happen?
Prices are going to rise of course.
And we are seeing this happen all over the world right now.
Thirdly, as the price of oil continues to rise, it is going to increase the cost of everything else.  The era of massive amounts of cheap food being transported around the world using massive quantities of cheap oil is rapidly coming to an end.
The following chart if from the Federal Reserve.  It shows that the price of oil is rapidly moving back to the level it was at prior to the financial crisis of 2008.  In fact, this chart is slightly out of date.  At last check, the price of oil was over $107 a barrel.  So what is it going to mean for our economy if we soon surpass the record that was set back in 2008?....

Fourthly, global instability is also going to cause prices to continue to rise.  Over the past year we have had really bizarre weather all over the globe, we have seen revolutions erupt all over Africa and the Middle East and the third largest economy in the world (Japan) just experienced the worst disaster that they have been through since World War 2 ended.
When things are unstable, economies don't work as efficiently.  That means that less goods and services are produced.
But when there are less goods and services being chased by an increasing amount of money that tends to push prices up.
The truth is that inflation is here, and if the CEO of Wal-Mart is right, it is not going to go away any time soon.
In fact, many believe that the world is on the verge of another major economic crisis.
If you stop and think about it, every major region of the world is dealing with very serious problems right now.
Right now, the European debt crisis is worse than it ever has been before.  Did you notice that Standard & Poor's just downgraded Portugal's debt for the second time in a week?  Now Portuguese debt is rated BBB-, which is only one level above junk status.
That is a very alarming sign.
Asia is dealing with the Japanese crisis, nearly all of the countries in the Middle East are dealing with protests or full-blown revolutions, Africa is dealing with the war in Libya and quite a few revolutions of their own, and the U.S. is still deeply struggling with a whole host of economic problems.
Most Americans don't realize just how precarious things are at the moment for the global economy.  The financial crash of 2008 did a lot of lasting damage, and the next wave of the financial crisis could potentially be even worse.  Unfortunately, the global financial system is more vulnerable than ever right now.
So what are the Federal Reserve and other central banks going to do the next time a major financial crisis happens?
They are going to print even larger quantities of money and they are going to give even larger bailouts to their friends of course.
The dollars that you have today are never going to be more valuable than they are right now.  Don't wait too long to use them.  If you have a huge pile of dollars sitting in the bank your wealth is slowly but surely rotting away.
Very hard economic times are coming.  The inflation that the CEO of Wal-Mart is warning about is only the beginning.  Eventually we are going to see inflation in this country that is going to be absolutely mind blowing.
But don't wait until the storm hits to start preparing.  We all have time now to prepare, so let us be wise and make the most of it.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Possible Boom in Precious Metals due to Saudi Arabia Unrest

As any seasoned investor knows, precious metals are often used as a hedge against political unrest, and economic instability worldwide.  We've all seen how protests in Libya and Egypt have boosted the value of metals, as well as many other hard asset investments.  With signals of protest and rebellion peaking over the horizon in Saudi Arabia, we could very well see a jump in the price of metals in the near future if the situation in Saudi Arabia escalates.  An article from the Sydney Morning Herald describes the situation:

One witness said police fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd of around 200 people from the Shi'ite minority. Another witness and a Shi'ite activist said shots were fired.
"There was firing, it was sporadic," the witness said. It was not immediately clear whether rubber bullets or live ammunition were fired. Witnesses and activists said up to four people were wounded.
Activists in Saudi Arabia have made unprecedented calls for mass protests against the kingdom's absolute monarchy. Protests are forbidden as being against Islam and it was not clear whether people would take to the streets en masse on Friday.
"By showing a willingness to use force early, the Saudi authorities are likely hoping they will be able to deter people from joining the protests, but such actions could just as easily embolden the protesters," the political risk consultancy Statfor said.

The big red-flag in this situation is the fact that Saudi authorities show "a willingness to use force early".  In the past few weeks, we've seen both Egypt and Libya under an enormous amount of scrutiny for the forceful actions they've taken against local protesters, and it's certainly plausible that Saudi Arabia might be next in line.  If so, look out for a huge boost in any hard asset investment.

The original article can be found here

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Want to know what a billion dollars looks like?

Here's what one billion US dollars looks like:

If you've ever wondered what a billion looks like, well here it is.  Now, take 14,000 of those, stack them in a warehouse, and you wouldn't have enough money to pay down the US National Debt.

If you were to deposit 5 of those billion-dollar stacks in the bank every single year since year 0, you still wouldn't have enough this day to pay the debt down.




This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.  - Leland National Gold Exchange

Potential for Silver to spike above $50 says Forbes

In an article on Forbes.com, author Robert Lenzner reveals the possibility that silver could "spike to $50" due to possible "violations to the Commodity Exchange Act". From the article:

As a result of Chilton’s public statement, several individual investors brought lawsuits against JP Morgan and HSBC, claiming they lost money on positions they took in silver futures on the Comex. One such suit claims that in August, 2008 JP Morgan and HSBC controlled over 85% of the commercial net short position in COMEX silver futures, and that this represented a short interest of 169 million troy ounces of silver, equal to about 25% of annual world mine production.

The author describes recent speculation that JP Morgan and HSBC have been manipulating the silver market:

“For months and in some cases years, conspiracy theorists and market pundits have been speculating about the manipulation of the silver market by large banks, including JP Morgan and HSBC,” Thangavel wrote today. “Recently, these theories have been given significant weight as CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton stated his belief that the silver market was being manipulated.” Chilton stated that “there have been fraudulent efforts to persuade and deviously control” prices in the silver market, which “should be prosecuted.”

This manipulation of the silver market has the potential of causing phenomenal gains in silver. In the weeks before the article was written, silver had seen a price jump from $18 to $30 per ounce:

A chart of silver prices shows that silver in recent weeks has outshone the rise in gold prices by jumping 50% from around $18 to nearly $30 and then backed off to $27.16 today. This extraordinary increase in the price of silver suggests that short covering might explain part of the gain.

The original article can be found here.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

J.P. Morgan Chase accepts physical gold as collateral

J.P. Morgan Chase & co recently announced that it will accept physical gold bullion as collateral "for investors that want to make short-term borrowings of cash or securities"
Apparantly, they aren't the first one to jump on the bandwagon. From the article:

Presenting gold to satisfy demands for performance bond collateral has been allowed on the London CME in a limited way since October 2009. As of November 22, 2010, the Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE) has accepted gold bullion as collateral on all credit default swaps and energy transactions.
I don't recall the G-20 declaring gold a new currency. Yet JPMorgan Chase and a couple of financial market exchanges have effectively declared that gold is an alternative currency.
In other words, gold is money.

The original article can be found here

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Standard Bank's Ikemizu predicts silver at $40

In an article on Bloomberg, Bruce Ikemizu describes how new applications for silver will fuel demand pushing silver to prices as high as $40 in 2011. Quoted from the article:

'Silver, the leading performer in metals this year, is likely to repeat its success in 2011, reaching $40 an ounce on new applications and industry demand, said the head of commodity trading in Japan at Standard Bank Plc.'

'The precious metal will likely outpace next year’s gains in gold, which should surpass $1,500 an ounce, and palladium, Bruce Ikemizu said today in an interview in Tokyo. “Unexpected” new applications for silver, such as in solar batteries, and industrial use that underpins 80 percent of demand, make the metal attractive to “a lot of famous investors, especially in the U.S.,” Ikemizu said, without giving more details.'

The original article can be found here

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

Equity Correction Fuels Soaring Gold Prices

An article from The Street describes a correction in the equity market, and other factors, as the fuel for today's boost in gold prices. From the article:

There was a slew of factors pushing gold higher Friday. First, the metal had been under a barrage of technical selling in 2011. The word capitulation, however, was being thrown around Friday after reports circulated that SHK Asset Management sold gold future positions that came with a $850 million price tag. Open interest of 81,000 came out of gold on Monday. The Wall Street Journal first broke the news and said that Daniel Shak, who runs the fund, got spooked by a margin requirement increase and gold's recent selloff and decided to ditch his positions.

The shakeout of the "fast" money led many investors to see this week's selloff as a bottom, which was prompting a flood of money into the metal.

The article re-enforces that gold (and other precious metals - silver platinum palladium) will remain a portfolio stabilizer in the future.

This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.

GLD and SLV ETFs VS. Bullion

The distinction between investing in an ETF and investing in physical metal bullion is unclear to many. In an article on Seeking Alpha, Trace Mayer describes the differences.

Quoted from Seeking Alpha:

The ETFs GLD and SLV are commonly represented as being bullion. Accepting this assertion is naive and with potential financially lethal consequences. While GLD and SLV track the relative prices that is where the similarities with bullion end.

On May 20, 1999, Alan Greenspan testified before Congress, “Gold is always accepted and is the ultimate means of payment and is perceived to be an element of stability in the currency and in the ultimate value of the currency and that historically has always been the reason why governments hold gold.”

The ETFs GLD and SLV are not this ultimate form of currency. I will raise only a few essential issues, although there are many.

Read more by visiting the original article here.


This material is for informational purposes only. Although it is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Leland National Gold does not guarantee its accuracy, or being all-inclusive. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There are risks in buying and selling physical metals. The potential for loss as well as gain increases by leveraging physical precious metals transactions. Never trade with more money than you can afford to lose, and always be sure to read the Risk Disclosure provided in your account documents.