"Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but
among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh." - W. H. Auden
1907-1973, Anglo-American Poet
Many a naysayer, many of which fall under the newsletter writers camp keep
pumping the nonsense that all paper money will cease to exist and that everyone
will revert to the gold and silver standard in the not too distant future.
First of all they are about 1000 years too late and second of all they are
in sore need of a mental check up. They forget to take mass psychology into
consideration and one must understand that the biggest driving force anywhere
is mass behaviour also known as Mass psychology.
Nobody in hell including yours truly wants to run around with a heavy sack
of gold or silver coins strapped to their necks. It just not convenient anymore
and since we live in an instant demand and instant gratification society this
line of thought will remain a dream. Another reason why this will never take
place in the near future is that 90% of the current generation is brain
dead when it comes to understanding the true function of gold. In fact
one can state that they don't even understand the true function of money. In
certain aspects this generation has received what amounts to a frontal lobotomy when
it comes to understanding the concept of money backed by hard assets (Hard
assets are gold, silver, palladium, antiques, collectibles, timber etc).
What might unfold one day is that certain governments will decide its time
to back their money with a basket of commodities say oil, gold, silver, palladium
etc. It does not necessarily have to rotate around one commodity; this will
give investors all over the world the confidence to change their money into
this country's currency. 3 nations are in a position to do this United States
(but they have embarked on the "we are the toughest and we know it all mission" and
hence the chances of them implementing it are at the moment slim at best).
The other two nations are China and Russia; Russia is technically in a better
position when one looks at things from a resource perspective but when one
takes a strategic look at things the main country that comes to mind is China.
In approximately 20 years they have achieved more then most nations have in
90 years and they continue to progress at a rapid fire rate. They understand
the fact that true democracy is nothing but a fallacy whereby idiots are elected
into power and these idiots then have cater to the morons that elected them
in the first place. Thus a perfectly prosperous country slowly but surely
becomes nothing but one huge welfare state.
Thus our advice to our subscribers is not to worry about this nonsense when
there are very little facts to support these assumptions. A full generation
would have to be financially wiped out before this concept becomes embedded
in the mental psyche of the masses. Until then the best way to preserve ones
wealth is to invest in assets that inflate at a faster rate then the governments
are inflating the money supply. One way to do this is to make sure you have
a portion of you money in Gold and or Silver bullion. We personally
cast a more favourable eye on silver also know as the poor man's Gold.
In the end, who cares if the governments are inflating the money supply (as
in realty there is very little one can do to stop them and if one cannot do
anything to stop them then why worry over nonsense); the only thing we care
as investors is that we do not want to catch a falling dagger. So let them
inflate away for there is a secret benefit to inflation; certain assets over
compensate for the rate of inflation by a huge factor. Thus for example the
government might inflate the money supply say by 10% a year but certain assets
could rise by say 30%-100% a year.
The problem we have now is that most central bankers have embarked on the
concept of inflate or die as they compete to make their products the most affordable
in the world markets. The best thing would be for them to all sit on the same
table and decide on a fixed rate of inflation. As the true definition of inflation
is an increase in the supply of money; they could all decide to say inflate
their respective money supplies at the same rate. However such a simple concept
is beyond the foresight of most central bankers; thus make sure you have some
insurance and the best way to do this is to own a bit of Silver and or Gold
bullion.
General Motors
It's truly amazing but it appears that over the last decade or so GM has not
been able to make money selling automobiles. Thus one wonders what the hell
they are doing in this business; to make matter worse their profits have plunged
in excess of 45% in the same time period. Its total liabilities have grown
from some 200 billion to some 450 billion. How can they ever expect to pay
these liabilities down when they gross profits in 2006 were 22 billion dollars.
At some point in time something is going to have to give; expect the workers
who are depending on their pension and medical benefits to get a huge surprise
in the not to distant future. The other U.S auto manufacturers are in just
as much trouble. We stated a long time ago that the only way they could ever
compete with the Asians was to completely close shop and move overseas or the
other possibility was to hire non union workers. However their pension and
medical insurance liabilities are so large now that they need to get the cheapest
labour possible and one that does not require too many benefits. Such a scenario
is only available in Asia. The article below explains in a clear and concise
manner how the US government has actually helped the Unions bankrupt a once
powerful Icon of the US economy. http://www.mises.org/story/2124
Uranium
There are currently 440 nuclear power plants operating in the world. Roughly
another 175-200 are either being built or are in the planning stages; this
number continues to increase by the day. The current demand from the existing
440 nuclear power plants is overwhelming supplies thus imagine what is going
to happen when all these plants come online. Note to that the closure of Cameo's
cigar mines has knocked out a huge amount of uranium from the markets. It is
estimated that this mine will only be operational sometime in 2008. In the
meantime any supplies that the smaller uranium companies may have found have
almost been swallowed up due to the flooding of the cigar mines. In other words
demand is still exceeding supply by almost 50%. Uranium mines currently supply
slightly over 50% of the current demand the rest comes from above the ground
supplies. These supplies are rapidly running out. When all the new Nuclear
power plants come online we expect demand to surge by an additional 45% at
the very least. It's for this reason it's so hard to predict how high uranium
could eventually trade. We expect a pretty sharp pull back at some point in
time when many of the hedge funds start to unload their uranium supplies and
lock in profit; this in our opinion will be nothing but a wonderful buying
opportunity. Finally it takes at least 3 years if not more for a new uranium
mine to be fully operational; hence demand cannot be satisfied immediately
and this is the perfect recipe for a bidding war.
"One never needs their humour as much a when they argue with a fool." -
Chinese Proverb Sayings of Chinese Origin