Turning Paper Into Gold

The time has come for us to practice a bit of modern-day alchemy - in this case, turning anything you can find into gold.

I've been doing that for most of the year so far. I've sold out of various stocks except those in industries in which I have strong faith for the future (energy, pharma, health care, gold mining) to buy physical gold. I have been selling items on eBay I no longer want - high-end photo gear and such, for instance, and using that cash to buy physical gold.

Let me stop here for a moment to assure you that I am not a "gold bug."

I'm just an observer who uses his observations as a road map to the future. I pay no attention to what passes as immediate analysis in the popular press, because the immediacy is gone the moment an event happens - thus, whatever the press has to say about it is already outdated, which means you cannot act on it.

But what a given event means down the line... that's what I care about.

And that's why I've been practicing alchemy.

See, we've got a problem. It's a big problem - the kind of problem that changes the course of history, or at least the history we thought we were living.

That problem is Western central bankers. They've lost control of the apple cart.

They won't tell you that - good lord, no! What a mess that would make. People the world over would stampede out of every major currency if the Fed or the Bank of England or the European Central Bank conceded that "Yep, we kinda ain't got a freakin' clue what we're doing at this point, and, well, really, people, we're just throwin' 'sketti at the wall, hopin' sumin' sticks."

Make no mistake - that is exactly what's going on. Central bankers are so desperate to revive comatose economies that they have resorted to more than six years' worth of untested, unconventional monetary policies, none of which have worked up to this point.

The suck-ups say that quantitative easing and zero-interest rates worked their magic because they saved the economy from collapse. That's like a doctor telling you that Aunt Hortense is healthy because she's been on life support this whole time... though the minute the power fails, Hortense won't last an hour.

Despite six years of reckless monetary policy, we are left with:

Manufacturing is in a recession.
Corporate profits are in a recession.
The jobs market is hemorrhaging middle-class income jobs and replacing them with low-wage, service-sector jobs that cannot support a middle-class lifestyle.
Long-range U.S. GDP expectations have been in decline since 2011.

If central-banking policy had been successful, then those bullet points would not exist. More important, we wouldn't have negative interest rates in Europe and Japan, and the Federal Reserve here at home would not be demanding that U.S. banks build negative rates into their latest stress tests.

Negative interest rates are the end of the rope. They are "cross your fingers" monetary policy that has reached its conclusion.

We are in a world never before seen. This is the world where unknown monsters lurk - but it's all the worse because we don't even know what the monsters in this world look like. No one - no one! - has ever charted this landscape.

And, so, I've become an alchemist.

Protection Against the Dark Unknown

As I was writing this, a message from eBay popped onto my phone. A Nikon telephoto camera lens I haven't used in eons sold for more than $500. I will pair that cash with more that has arrived from other sales... and I will pair that with recent stock sales to buy gold coins.

They're early- to mid-20th century bullion coins. I've been buying all denominations, from one-ounce Austrian Coronas and near-half-ounce Mexican pesos to quarter-ounce Uruguayan pesos, Swiss Helvetias in the one-twentieth of an ounce range and old Dutch guilders slightly more than a tenth of an ounce.

I want gold that is spendable and transportable.

And I want gold that the government likely won't confiscate. Who knows if a desperate government will make a grab for traditional bullion? But chances are it won't grab collectible, numismatic coins such as those I'm buying.

I pay a little more than the daily price of gold to buy these - 5% or 6% - but it's a price I'm willing to pay for the benefits of gold that is spendable, transportable and probably protected against confiscation.

Like I said, I am not a gold bug. At this stage of central-banker maleficence, I am better described as a worrywart.

I see the natural conclusion of the policies that central banks are using. Worse, I understand why bankers are having to rely on those policies. Things out there are not good - not good at all.

Central banking - left in its current lurch by the fiscal policies of ignoramuses who run Western governments - has done all it can. At this point, it's a guessing game among bankers who have no clue what will work - and it's a waiting game for us.

Something has to change.

Bankers and politicians have proven they are incapable of shepherding that change. So, the system will foist chance on the politicians and bankers at some point... that's the great thing about the laws of economics - man (bankers) can manipulate the system for a while, but the system, like nature, always self-corrects.

Gold, I assure you, will play a role in that correction. Paper assets will not.

As a lifelong world traveler, Jeff Opdyke has been investing directly in the international markets since 1995, making him one of the true pioneers of foreign trading. He is Investment Director for The Sovereign Society and a weekly contributor to The Sovereign Investor Daily.

The Price of Gold at Different Countries

Economists assume that the price of gold, though uncertain, is estimable. They approach the estimation like that of any other commodity with rising production costs.

Gold specialists and dealers, in contrast, follow an older economic convention that stresses the monetary roles of existing gold stocks, which exceed annual new metal- output by two orders of magnitude. The price of gold is thought to be based largely on expectations of shifts in international macroeconomic variables and world trade.

Neither of these approaches has yielded good price predictions. The basic problem is that Investment demands cannot be treated simply as modifications of producers' inventories for precautionary or speculative purposes. as with other commodities. Thus if we claim fabricated demands should increase proportionately with world gross national product (GNP), with Leontief et al., we get forecasts of annual world gold consumption in year 2000 that are ridiculously high. viz., two or three times 1980 outputs. If we had to supply such increases from new gold production it would require increases in real gold prices to $600 or $1,000 per ounce in constant-dollar terms.

Clearly these estimates are inconsistent with the past patterns of change in fabricated- gold supplies and demands, which give evidence of considerable sensitivity to changes in price (price elasticity's). This suggests to market experts that they reexamine gold's role as a premier store of value whose price responds less to movements in fabricated- products and new gold production costs than to changes in stock holdings of previously mined gold. Such asset holdings respond largely to changes in asset prices, i.e. the rates of interest, inflation, and foreign exchange. Because prices are influenced by shifts in macroeconomic variables, this second approach attempts to correlate gold prices directly to monetary variables, but it has been no more successful than the commodity approach.

One reason for failure is that changes in the stock holdings of gold complicate inter- national capital movements. Capital movements are driven by expectations of changes in asset prices, and these are sensitive to uncertainty about monetary policies. These complications discourage and confuse attempts to employ statistical analyses directly to explain gold price movements.

We suggest treating gold as a stock price for foreign assets in the portfolios of international investors averse to currency risks. Gold's own price, the exchange rate, the price level and the rate of interest are shown as substitute asset prices which enter with other exogenous variables and wealth in the demands of private and public investors here and abroad. These investors maximize utility subject to the constraints of monetary policy and balance of payments disequilibrium. As investors seek to maintain desired levels of different asset holdings, foreign and domestic, the markets for bullion or shares of gold production respond according to the conditional expectations of changes in the key rates and uncertainties affecting the value of home-country currency. The challenge of this hypothesis is to find a way to test it empirically.

A way around the difficulty is given by mining share exchanges. Since bullion and shares of gold mining firms are gross substitutes, the use of capital-asset-pricing theory permits us a simple test of this alternative model in application to North American gold producers whose shares trade on the stock exchange.

Our results show that trends in new gold-production and price movements are not simple functions of commodity forecasts by conventional gold-market analysis. Gold is better forecast as a stock price determined by stock exchange. This implies a much more volatile market whenever monetary expectations become dominant. Such periods are demonstrated by the size of the premium which prevails for gold above its production price. This can be two to three times higher than normal, enough to discourage the growth of fabricated significantly. About this premium level, irregular price cycles arise from movements in stock positions among investors during periods of adjustment to world monetary disequilibrium. The variance in price is related to the sensitivity of fabricated demands to price. We show that investors who monitor macro-economic variables in a fully identified model can successfully hedge against currency devaluations and gamer capital gains periodically through a strategy that includes gold securities in their investment portfolios.


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Buying your gold, silver and platinum jewellery
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Stop Panic Selling Gold Mining Stocks

Gold is on a monster run already in 2016, gaining nearly 20%, while the rest of the market remains mired deep in the red.

But many of you are sitting on the sidelines, fearful that you've missed gold's move.

Don't worry: You haven't missed it. In fact, this is just the first inning of a monster bull market for gold mining stocks. And it's going to allow you to buy gold 50% off from its current price and you could make 100% to 200% over the next 12 months.

And just so you understand what a phenomenal opportunity this is... these gains can happen even if gold's price stays flat or even goes down a bit.

First, let's break down the trade so you understand why this is going to happen...

What makes gold mining stocks such a compelling no-brainer buy right now?

The easiest way to understand the opportunity is to focus on what happened to gold mining stocks over the last three months.

You see, from mid-October to early January mining stocks dropped by 30%. When you see stocks go down by this much, you would think their businesses were being wiped out.

Here's the thing... in the last three months, gold miners were making money. Gobs of it.

How do we know this? We know this because most gold companies are done reporting their fourth-quarter results. We can see what was happening inside their businesses as their stocks were plummeting.

If you look at the elite - the blue-chip gold mining stocks - companies such as Newmont Mining, Barrick Gold and Goldcorp, you'll see that they were making an average of $215 for every ounce of gold they were digging out from their mines in the last three months of 2015.

Their total costs of mining an ounce of gold was just $836, while gold was selling for at least $1,051 during that time frame. As long as gold was trading above their costs, the mining companies were raking in profits.

And now... things are even better. Gold is now up more than 17% since the start of the year, trading near $1,250 an ounce. These companies are now making a profit of $414 an ounce.

The Disconnect on Wall Street

Why did gold miner shares crash at the end of 2015? Fear. Pure panic that you often see at the end of the worst bear markets.

Panicking investors sold their mining shares as if these companies were on the cusp of bankruptcy. That's even though these companies were making money. Big money.

Bottom line: The selling in gold mining shares was driven by pure emotion - in other words, panic selling. People watched gold prices tumble, panicked and unloaded their shares of mining stocks out of fear rather than due to any logic or reason.

From 25 years of investing, I can tell you that the best time to invest is after a panic.

Panic wipes out the dumb money or the so-called weak hands. Now, the smart money is scooping up gold mining stocks with both fists. That's why, even though gold mining stocks are rallying right now, they are still crazy cheap.

Mining stocks are currently at price levels that match when the yellow metal was trading at under $600. Gold mining shares are at 12-year lows.

Gold is now trading near $1,250. That's a greater than 50% difference. It makes zero sense.

The bear market in gold mining stocks took these companies to ridiculous levels.

You know this isn't that unusual. It's what happens during a panic that marks the end of bear markets. Investors dump stocks blindly, not caring about what price they exit at, just that they are no longer holding the shares. Stock prices fall to extremes that are no longer connected to reality such as a company's fundamentals.

Just remember that underpinning this new bull market are solid fundamentals - low costs and profits.

That's because we know that gold mining companies can get an ounce of gold out of the ground for $836. At current prices, gold mining companies are making $414 per ounce. Even if gold went down from here, these companies are making money.

Beat the Big Money

Gold mining stocks are perfect investments to buy right now. That's because as the bull market takes off, the shares will start rocketing up. And they are going to keep going up for a long time.

Here's the opportunity for you in a nutshell. Right now, you're buying gold mining shares as if gold is under $600 - over 50% below its current price of $1,250.

It's as simple as that. You're buying gold at a 50%-plus discount when you buy the shares of gold mining companies now.

You should know that in my experience opportunities like this don't last. Soon, hedge funds and big-money investors are going to bid the prices of gold mining companies higher. The easiest gains will happen fast.

You'll want to own the stocks of gold companies when this happens... because their prices are going to skyrocket.

Now is your chance to make big money in gold mining stocks.

Paul Mampilly joined The Sovereign Investor Daily in 2016, and serves as Senior Editor specializing in helping Main Street Americans find wealth in growth investing, technology, small-cap stocks and special opportunities.

The Precious Metal Gold Is The Future

The reason for this article is to illustrate to the readers the astuteness of saving in Gold today, as the precious metal gold, is the future, thereby securing the future for themselves and their next eras. Tragically, the masses have been customized to save their declining paper currency, which we all call money, in the banking system, which is the greatest ponzi plot ever.

For more than 5,000 years Gold has demonstrated to keep up its genuine worth, as well as being the main dependable precious metal which can be accumulated by the masses, 1 gram at once, and remain a genuine store of quality, for generations, in light of the fact that this precious metal gold, is the future.

How Secured Will your Gold Savings Be?

Like most savings or investments, the most important factor apart from returns has to be security.

Consequently it becomes extremely critical to understand why the purchase of the precious metal Gold, should only be acquired from refineries and suppliers who are members in good standing with the London Bullion Market Association.

Background and Role of The LMBA.

This Association was established in 1987, and it is a trade association representing the wholesale gold and silver market in London. It should be noted that the LMBA is the most recognized over-the-counter market for the trading of gold and silver.

The role of the LBMA is to define and promote standards and good trading practices in order to facilitate the trading of gold and silver.

Activities of the LBMA.

The London Bullion Market Association represents, with its LBMA Good Delivery List, the standard for the quality and assurance of gold and silver bars.

In order to be qualified to be listed, applicants must meet defined requirements. e.g.: The standard gold bars according to the Good Delivery criteria - also called the Good Delivery Gold Bar - must contain 400 troy ounces. (approximately 12.5 kg) of gold, but the gold content can vary between 350 troy ounces and 430 troy ounces.

With its Responsible Gold Guidance, on the 1st Jan. 2012 and moving forward, the LMBA requires that all LMBA Good Delivery Refiners comply with certain principles in an effort to ensure the supply of conflict-free gold which meets SEC and OECD standards.

Members of The LMBA.

The LMBA has over 120 members and associates. There are 3 different types of members:

1: Marker-Making Members quote prices for gold and silver.

2: Ordinary Members includes for example, non-market-making banks, vault operators, mints and brokers.

3: Associates, e.g.: refineries and metal trading companies, including banks, as well as inspection companies or assayers.

9 Realities About The Metal, Gold.

1: Gold is real money.

This valuable metal Gold has zero default hazard, rather than every other asset.

2: This precious metal is not a commodity.

It is not expendable like different items. It's #1 use is for resource security.

3: This metal is the most seasoned monetary resource.

Gold is the future and it keeps going forever. It has outlasted each stock, bond, and money. It has turned out to be a definitive store of value, for centuries.

4: This precious metal market sector is very small.

The estimation of the yearly Gold supply is less that the business sector capitalization of Walmart. At the point when financial specialists begin to secure this precious metal, the price normally soar.

5: It is close to a cycle low.

By recurrent examples of Gold, it demonstrate the following significant move in the price of gold is up. Purchasing gold now is a generally safe venture including the assurance of the security of your assets.

6: This metal is undervalued.

When we evaluate the cost of gold with a true measure of inflation, it suggests that the price of this precious metal is almost a record-breaking low.

7: Speculation interest is solid.

Interest for this precious metal is escalating. The Shanghai Gold Trade has had more noteworthy level of withdrawals of physical gold than at any other time.

8: Production will decline.

The decline in exploration, creation, and Storage all point to a low supply in the near future.

9: Global central banks purchasing more gold.

The worldwide Government buying of gold keeps increasing daily.

Gold With Religion and The New World

With the race for souls came the building of grand places of worship; the lavishness of the interior decoration being somehow equated with demonstrations of the supremacy of particular idea-less. The builders of the Byzantium church of St Sophia in Constantinople are said to have used 300,000 pounds (136,000 kilograms) of gold on its walls, furnishings and trappings, setting the standard for church building in the rest of the Christian world. Priests, bishops and popes would weigh themselves down under vestments that were heavily embroidered in gold thread. Though poor by comparison, monks were busy in their monasteries reviving the art of writing by copying the Holy Scriptures, using gold suspended in egg white for their illustrations. Some of these books have survived to this day.

Eventually trade, too, was re-established between the European centers. The French king Charlemagne, who was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 AD, had so great a need for gold with which to cast coins for his realm that he had to take his armies all the way to western China, where he plundered fifteen wagons of gold from the emergent Mongol Empire.

With all of Europe under the influence of Christianity by the beginning of the second millennium, it is not surprising that popes and kings turned their attention to the stranglehold Islam had in the east. While the Crusades were ostensibly about returning Jerusalem to Christendom, Muslim gold and trading contacts with China and India were a powerful attraction.

Gold and the New World

An obsession with the treasures of China heralded an age of exploration beginning at the end of the fifteenth century, when the design of ships and sails made ocean journeys possible for the first time. At first the target was the fabled gold of Africa, which remained elusive but opened the possibility of a much more sinister trade in human cargo; one that would be exploited to the full in the Americas once the Inca and Aztec civilizations had been crushed, and the population decimated by openwork and disease. While Spain, and later Portugal, were receiving shiploads of gold and silver into their ports, the British, Dutch and French were importing the luxuries Europeans also craved such as tea, silks, spices and other commodities, which they traded in what had become a vast international market.

With so much gold in circulation, new difficulties arose. Piracy became a major issue on the high seas, and highway robbery became profitable on land. Additionally coins became mutilated so they weighed less than their face value. Clever merchants found it more convenient to leave their money in newly established banks and to conduct their business by means of bills of exchange, which paved the way for the issuing of bank notes. While the idea of paper money caught on, particularly in England, which by the eighteenth century led the world in mercantile development, there was no control over the amount of notes being printed. The result was a rapid deterioration of their value and their buying power, which in turn led to hardship, particularly among the poor whose wages, could not keep pace with the cost of basic commodities.

It took the rampant inflation fueled by the Napoleonic wars to persuade the British Government to act. In 1821, an Act of Parliament was passed restoring the convertibility of bank notes to gold and establishing a gold standard which would control the flow of money in England for the next 100 years. To mark the occasion a new coin, the sovereign, equal to twenty silver shillings, was minted. The European nations and America followed suit, each applying a standard to their own currency so that the value of their paper notes was fixed not just to gold but to each other.

We do our very best to resolve any misunderstandings with dissatisfied customers since we heavily rely on word of mouth advertising. Unlike several organizations involved in the gold trade, we are very upfront with our rates and expect the customer to do their homework to appreciate the savings.

We purchase or loan on any quantity of gold with no hidden fees or charges. All our transactions are completed quickly and accurately to achieve our standard 100% customer satisfaction. http://www.thegoldking.com.au/

Gold and the Gods

As gold's value and importance grew, it is not surprising that it became a recurring theme in the stories people told about themselves and the gods in which they believed. The biblical stories of an angry Moses smashing the tablets bearing the Ten Commandments because his people had fashioned a golden idol to worship in his absence, and the golden homage paid by the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, who already had vast stockpiles from his own mines, are but two examples of the place of gold in the history of the Jews.

The story of Jason who sailed with his Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece is a reminder of the methods used to harvest river gold in ancient times. It was common practice to wash slurry through a greasy sheepskin. The fine gold entrapped on the wool fibers could then be retrieved by burning the fleece.

As well as telling history, these stories often carried a moral lesson about greed and the dangers of coveting that which belongs to others, as poor King Midas learnt to his cost. Granted the power to turn all he touched into gold, he found he had nothing to eat and his family had become statues. He begged the god Bacchus, who had bestowed the gift on him, to reverse it. Poverty was preferable to being surrounded by inanimate objects of gold.

Gold and plunder

Gold made excellent plunder. Not only could it be carried off after a raid with relative ease, but it was lasting. It would still be intact when the cattle or slaves that the earlier aggressors had been content with plundering had been eaten or worked to death. As one civilization overtook another, the gold that had been in the possession of the vanquished was melted down to be recast and rest amped either in bars or coins with the insignia of the victor. Greek gold became Roman gold called libra with the written symbol £ still in use in England today. Coins of lesser value, cast in silver, were called denarius, the symbol of which became the 'd' in £.s.d. (pounds, shillings and pence).

Not oniy did the actual treasuries of gold bars and coin drive rulers to wage war on neighbors, access to the means of supply motivated much territorial expansion. Alexander the Great engulfed the Persian Empire in a march which took him across southern Asia to India, even though he already had control of the mines in Macedonia and the Balkans, where seams rich in gold were being worked by slaves.

When the Romans supplanted the Greeks, they spread their empire westward, defeating Carthage to gain control of the incredible deposits of gold, silver and other minerals the Carthaginians had commanded in Spain. They also overran Gaul and colonized England and Wales, establishing their civilization across their colonies and taking away all they could in precious metals gold from Gaul and Wales, and silver from Cornwall much as the Spanish would do 1500 years later once Christopher Columbus had discovered America.

As more recent empire builders would discover, the Roman Empire found that colonization came at a cost, which ultimately negated the gains made. The legions of soldiers and officials of every rank, which were needed to secure territory and keep the colonized population subjugated, all had to be paid. Gold coins were a convenient method of payment but they did encourage a cash economy the like of which had not previously been experienced. People bought rather than grew or made what they needed, and their needs expanded as the money at their disposal increased. More gold was required to keep pace with the demand.

The establishment of a second empire in Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 306 AD by the Emperor Constantine gave Rome access to the riches of Byzantium, and facilitated the coining of more gold in the form of bezants which rapidly made their way westward across the entire civilized world. They would continue to be used for the next 100 years until Rome was overrun by barbarians from northern Europe, and the empire succumbed to the period of darkness called the Dark Ages. Trade ceased to exist in the West while it flourished in Byzantium and the Arab world, which had access to gold carried across the Sahara from deep within Africa to trading centers like Timbuktu.


The Gold King is a well-established Gold Coast Gold Buyers business with a mission to service its customers with sincerity, value and honesty.

Our dedicated professionals and specialists have been in the business of evaluating and buying gold jewellery and scrap gold for many years. The Gold King team prides itself on accurately and efficiently evaluating your gold jewellery to ensure you receive maximum payouts every time. http://www.thegoldking.com.au/

6 Great Reasons to Own Gold

Gold is everywhere on the planet but not in significant concentrations. It's difficult to understand the appeal and superiority of gold, but gold is respected throughout the world for its value. Because of the respect it commands, here are six great reasons investors should own gold.

Gold Holds Its Value

Gold has a history of holding its value. The price of gold if often volatile in the short run, but it always holds its value over a long-term. For this reason, it serves as a strong hedge against inflation and currency erosion.

Supply Constraints

Gold is extremely rare. According to geological data essentially all gold is found only in low concentrations in rocks. And, a new gold mine can take upwards of a decade to bring in new ore supplies, with depletion starting as soon as the first load is brought out.

From 1990 until 2008, a large amount of the supply of investment gold resulted from bullion sales from the vaults of central banks around the world. However, governments and central banks are now net buyers of gold, meaning they are buying and hoarding more gold bullion than they're selling.

Gold Doesn't Default on Promise or Obligation

All governments issue paper fiat currencies (dollars, euros, pounds, yen, etc). Fiat currencies have no real value and are backed by government decrees promising to make good on the set value. Throughout history, governments have printed too much currency, as the U.S. has done at warp speed since 2008.

Historically, governments have also created inflation and devalued currency buying power as a measure to increase trade and exports. This also makes it easier to finance debt and social programs, such as Social Security. The problem is that retirees receive promised Social Security checks with no guarantee how much goods and services the checks will buy.

Deflation

Deflation rooted in a country causes prices to decrease, business activity to slow and a central government burdened by massive debt. Money supply and credit is greatly reduced and overall spending is slowed a trickle.

Unemployment and economic depression become the norm. During these times, the relative purchasing power of gold soars while other prices drop sharply. In fact, people often subsist from a street level system of barter.

Geopolitical Uncertainty

Gold retains its value not only in times of financial uncertainty, but equally in times of geopolitical uncertainty. It is often called the "crisis commodity". When a country's government is in crisis, the reserve currency collapses and can no longer fund its deficit.

The market, however, returns to natural monetization as the means for life to continue at the grassroots level. At this point, no other significant currency in the world offers any refuge, but gold becomes a universal currency.

As government balance sheets weaken, global banking systems deteriorate, and deflation sets in, gold in a portfolio makes good sense.

Portfolio Diversification

As emerging markets have grown, increased demand for gold has risen. In these countries gold is often intertwined with the culture, and new money is available to stockpile bullion. India and China are two nations that are large gold consumers.

Many Americans are beginning to see commodities, particularly gold, as an investment class to allocate money. A characteristic of a diversified portfolio is one that has investments not closely correlated to one another.

As bonds have negative correlation to stocks and rising interest rates, gold also has negative correlation to stocks and rising rates.

Gold tends to prove its own worth as money. Gold is an "insurance policy" whose value to an investor is universal monetary worth.

The Bottom Line

Gold is an important part of a diversified investment portfolio, because its price increases in response to events that cause the value of paper investments, such as stocks and bonds, to decline. (http://www.investopedia.com)

Investment demand for gold has greatly increased, but new mine supplies will not increase in the near future, with declining new supplies more likely.

Gold has historically endured as a portable and indestructible safe-haven against declining wealth. Gold over a long-term gives diversification to a well balanced investment portfolio.


I have been an active investor for over 35 years.
My investment experience is in Equities, Commodities, REITS, Oil & Gas Royalties, Utilities, and Varied Fixed Income.

JG is not a registered investment representative. The opinions of the author are not recommendations to either buy or sell any security. Prior to investing, please conduct your own due diligence and talk to your financial advisor or security professional.

Gold Is the Answer to the Coming Crisis

Japan's central bank has taken a page from the European playbook and implemented negative interest rates. Wait. Who cares about Japan? Japan has been in a funk, it feels like, since the Cubs last won the World Series (1908, if you care). Everything else about Japan's economy, what does it matter here at home?

Because Japan is us.

And that ain't good.

Japan has put the force of Atlas into moving heaven and earth in hopes of jump-starting its impotent economy. And yet... Japan's economy remains impotent. No matter how many hundreds of trillions of yen Japan has thrown at resuscitating its economy over the last two-plus decades, the thing lays on the gurney like a brain-dead accident victim, with all the relatives gathered around and praying to a god who's trying to tell the Japanese, "Your prescription for survival is stupid!"

Which is exactly what's happening in America on a bit of a lag.

Why do I say "another domino down"?

Because we've seen a lot of dominos fall in recent weeks, and they all reveal one increasingly obvious probability: The Federal Reserve cannot - and will not - raise interest rates. Honestly, I am coming around to the view that we might not see another interest-rate increase in America for a generation.

The European Central Bank is pledging to open up the floodgates and pour every euro it can print into the economy. China is purposefully depreciating the yuan to counterbalance U.S. dollar strength that has undermined the Chinese economy. The economy here in America - despite the prevarications of Obama and his economic spin doctors, as well as Wall Street simpletons who are either blind or stupid or both - is racing toward recession. The manufacturing economy is contracting.

Employment gains are slowing, and the jobs created are largely crap. Business sentiment stinks. Historically high corporate profits are getting pinched. The dollar is much too strong for exporters, who are reporting horrible numbers.

And in this world the Fed has the temerity to suggest more rate hikes are in the offing?

Ha! (But that's only because I can't curse here!)

Raising rates would:

Shove the dollar up even more relative to the euro, the yen and the yuan, crushing U.S. exporters and making imports so much cheaper here at home that U.S. companies struggle to sell their products in their home market.

Shove GDP growth down even lower... and GDP growth, as we saw in the exceedingly weak fourth quarter, is no shining star.

What we're looking at is Japan - American style.

We're looking at a return to declining interest rates and, quite likely, a move into negative rates here at home - a concept that those at the highest levels of the Federal Reserve are even talking about.

There is simply no way America can buck a global trend when three of the other four largest economies on the planet are driving down rates and driving down the value of their currency. The U.S. likes to go it alone on a lot of things, but it will never survive as an island in this particular economic ocean.

The U.S. ultimately will have to play ball with the other kids, even if doesn't want to. It will have to move toward negative rates or risk the dollar getting so strong that the strength, ironically, weakens America.

The Plan Failed

In academic and central bank theory, negative rates will force banks to get cash out the door and into the hands of borrowers. And, in theory, it will force consumers to pull money out of the bank and do something else with the money - namely, invest it or spend it.

Of course, the gap between academic theory and economic reality is quite often measured in astronomical distances.

If the economic theories that central banks are working with these days were of any real value, all the previous unconventional monetary measures such as quantitative easing and interest rates near zero would have already obviated the need for negative rates.

And yet... here we are.

Something has failed.

It has failed at a central bank level... and, more importantly, it has primarily failed at a Western governmental level. Governments have accumulated too much debt, funding too many egregiously expensive sops to the super-rich, to corporations wanting special treatment, to retirees whose incomes should negate their access to Social Security and prescription-drug coverage, to the lackadaisical willing to subsist on government handouts instead of working in a job beneath their supposed station in life, to a bureaucratic philosophy of excessive regulations across all businesses that rob America of meaningful jobs because the cost of employing someone is too high.

The list of transgressions and transgressors is long.

The solution, as I say time and again, is physical gold.

Despite dollar strength - historically a harbinger of lower gold prices - gold has held up quite well. It has rallied this year as most assets slide. It's a message that the future is not higher interest rates in America. It's a message that lower rates - and a weaker dollar - are our future.

It's a message that a financial crisis, likely tied to currency or debt or both, is a distinct possibility, and that gold will play a role in reckoning.

So, yeah, that's why Japan is important to us. It tells us the future...

As a lifelong world traveler, Jeff Opdyke has been investing directly in the international markets since 1995, making him one of the true pioneers of foreign trading. He is Investment Director for The Sovereign Society and a weekly contributor to The Sovereign Investor Daily.

The Social Organization of Gold Mining

The organization of mining varies according to the type of gold deposit. Whereas alluvial (placer) gold can he worked individually or in small teams by washing, panning or shallow-pit surface mining, lode (reef) gold requires deep shaft mining. If the gold deposit forms an underground 'mat', the surface above the deposit is pierced by narrow tubular shafts that may branch out into underground galleries. If the gold deposit takes the form of a linear vein, tubular or rectangular shafts along the vein will eventually merge to form one large open mine. In some Burkina gold mines, vertical shafts reach a depth of more than 100 m.

Claims in non-industrial gold mines are not normally established in writing. A claim is simply staked on a 'first come first served' basis. If anybody wants to claim a particular spot right after a discovery, he may have to literally sit on it until a friend or partner brings the tools for working it. Once individual parcels have been dug out for about one meter, ownership is normally recognized. If there is dispute about one pit, the case is brought before whatever authority is there-a police or gendarmerie post, the elected representative of the gold diggers, or whoever is recognized as a mediator by both parties, such as for instance a senior, experienced gold digger. In the beginning, individual pits are separated by a wall; later, conflicts frequently arise when someone starts removing this wall from his side of the pit and encroaches on what his neighbor considers as his part. Outbursts of violence can occur at all stages of a mining cycle, hut once the mine has been there for some weeks, there will be accepted institutions or mechanisms for conflict regulation.

The owner of a mining pit may run it himself, or, should he lack the financial means, lease it to a friend for a fixed period of time. This may be a temporary agreement for one week only called tour that confirms bonds between mining entrepreneurs. The owner or leaseholder hires a team of laborers who work the claim in day and night shifts. Depending on the type of deposit and the size of the pit, the crew can comprise as many as thirty or more laborers. Each crew consists of unskilled and skilled workers. There is no formal training, but someone who eventually becomes a professional gold miner typically starts with unskilled work. If he is very young and not yet physically fit for harder work, this can include bringing food to the workplace.

He may then work his way 'up the ladder' through time, exercising different activities in the same or different mines: scooping groundwater from the shaft with containers, cutting wood for supporting beams, removing earth and gravel outside the pit, or working inside the pit with sledgehammer, pickaxe, or chisel. If he is eventually both skilled and reliable, he may become one of the few team members who are entrusted with extracting the most valuable pieces of ore. With the rare exception of some women who dress and act like men, women do not normally work in the mining pits.

In Burkina Faso, French terms are used for the team members, including the pit owner patron, the leaseholder gérant, the overseer chef degroupe, the clerk commis, skilled miners tapeurs, unskilled mine rs mancruvres, wood cutters mainteneurs, watchmen gardiens for the pit and the storing place for ore, and someone who brings food porteur de repas (usually a boy or a woman). In addition to the core team, there are blast men or blacksmiths and others who provide services that are contracted on the spot.

The employer is responsible for food, clothing, shelter, and-in case of accident or illness-medical treatment. He may also provide alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. Until the gold-hearing vein is reached- which can take up to several weeks or even months-the gold diggers do not receive a salary. Once the pit starts 'producing' they will get a share of the ore. After a certain quantity of ore has been amassed, the employer receives half of it and the crew is left to share the other half. For the most part the pit owners claim the most valuable pieces of ore for themselves, citing the overhead costs of running the mine to justify their larger share.

The gold miners can sell their share of ore on the spot to professional ore buyers, or have it processed and sell the resulting amount of gold. Most gold miners do not store ore or gold. This is partly due to their need for cash, partly to avoid theft. The ore is crushed, ground, and washed in a fenced-in area, the comptoir, by people from the neighboring villages who work in the mining camps as day laborers. Although it is ethically prohibited, mercury is used to amalgamate the gold dust. The gold obtained is sold to the licensed gold traders who in turn sell it to the C.B.M.P. or another marketing company. In order to attract and keep customers, gold traders give out mercury for free, or they give credit to newcomers to the mine who are then obliged to sell their gold to them. However, a portion of the gold is also sold to black market traders. These black market traders either come from the outside or they are the same official gold traders who pursue this illegal activity at night. Black market traders acquire clients either by approaching a gold digger directly or via third parties who introduce potential clients to them. Often, these third parties are the women who run the stalls where the ore is processed. These women are normally very well informed about the production of individual mining pits, and they are acquainted with both gold diggers and gold traders.

Regal Assets Review

Gold trading firm Regal Assets is well known to investors and financial professionals because of their solid foundation in customer service and knowledge. As you will see in this review, their team has helped thousands of Americans secure private investments or roll 401k retirement plans into Gold IRAs. Their headquarters are based in Waco, Texas, although their main office is located in Burbank, CA. Customers can also contact them on the Trade Floor in Los Angeles and London.

History of Regal Assets

In 2003, the company got the ball rolling buying and selling gold bullion, rare gold coins, and other precious metals. American consumers, interested in both private investments and retirement savings, make these transactions in the thousands of dollars daily. That market has changed and the company has adapted with it; employees hone their skills while bringing in financial and trading experts. These experts receive training continually as to market changes, challenges, and strategies. Since then the firm has won awards, including one from Inc. 500 and has ranked as high as 20th among US financial service providers as recently as 2013.

Customer Service Standards

High standards of customer service set any company apart from its competitors, but it matters all the more when tens of thousands of dollars are at stake. Customers, from various walks of life, novice and experienced alike, approach customer service professionals at Regal Assets to invest. All of them deserve and are given equal attention and respect. The company promises to put customers first.

For advice, purchases, and other business transactions, the company opens phone lines from 7am to 6pm PST, Monday through Friday. They update news onsite as daily or weekly market information comes in. Trade prices are updated 24 hours a day.

Handling a 401K Rollover

A popular move among upcoming retirees and even young people is to put some of their retirement allowance into precious metals. A Gold IRA has the potential to outperform almost any standard 401k policy and other employee-initiated pension schemes. The same forces causing the US economy to struggle are also detrimental to traditional investments, but not to the value of precious metals. The opposite is true: as US currency under-performs, gold and silver are at their strongest.

Getting started is simple if a team is at your disposal to swap washed-up stocks for precious metals. This team will consist of a willing custodian and a precious metals trader. They work together to transfer your documents from an old 401k policy into a new precious metals rollover account. There is a bit of paperwork involved, but Regal Assets and your custodian will help, keeping the process of transfer or rollover as simple and quick as possible. Ask to receive a free kit and read about starting a Self-Directed IRA.

Few custodians of traditional retirement policies will venture into the world of precious metals, and if this is the case, you will have to transfer the policy into other hands. Regal Assets recommends a trusted firm to handle this matter. The US government insists that consumers not become trustees of their own Gold IRA accounts or touch any of their gold or silver at any time. It will be kept in a depository approved by the IRA.

Since you cannot look after your own IRA gold, storage fees will apply. Regal Assets charges a flat rate: $250 annually regardless of the value of your account. If you are purchasing gold as a personal investment you can store it wherever you like, but compare prices and you might wish to stick with Regal Assets all the way.

Accreditation and Ratings

The Better Business Bureau has awarded Regal Assets an A+, their highest possible rating. Regal Assets has handled any problems to the best of their ability and satisfactorily according to BBB standards, and you can read how complaints were handled on the BBB site. Trust link has given them a 5-star rating out of 5 possible stars based on more than 650 reviews. The BCA gives them their highest rating as well. Real customers provide compelling reasons why this is the best company from which to buy gold.

Delivery Guarantee

Regal Assets backs their services whole-heartedly by providing this delivery guarantee. They promise that your gold will be delivered in seven business days or less. If delivery is late, they will give you a free Silver American Eagle to compensate for the delay.


If you are going to invest in precious metals, then you need to do your due-diligence and give your business to a company you trust.

The Gold Rush Is On!

For over 60 centuries, man has searched relentlessly for this metal so precious and rare that despite all efforts, the current total yield would create a cube only 18 yards high, weighing about 60,000 tons.

This scarcity, along with its beauty, is what makes gold so valuable. Through good times and bad, through drought and flood, and even in times of political upheaval, gold has continued to hold its value. Not only has it remained a rare and expensive mineral, but over the years, its worth has increased, making it (along with its counterpart, silver) one of the safest and surest investments.

However, it has only been since the beginning of 1995, that Australian citizens for the first time in 40 years were permitted to own gold in a form other than jewelry or rare coins.

Once private citizens were able to obtain gold (and to some degree silver) in other forms, the demand for these precious metals increased further. As stock market prices fluctuated and inflation continued to soar, gold became even more sought after, due to the fact that it seemed only to increase in value no matter what the circumstances. In fact, inflation seemed to benefit gold investors as far as their investment is concerned.

"Inflation has a major impact on these investments," said Caribini. "In inflationary times, the cost of everything, including gold, goes up. But asset of gold is that it's not perishable.

Opinions vary from source to source as to whether gold should be considered a long-term or short term in. vestment, or whether it can be both. The conservative viewpoint states the long-term investment is the safer, more certain path to riches. The reasoning behind this viewpoint is that long-term holdings of this precious metal are generally believed to keep up with inflation. Other viewpoints stress that goes loses its purchasing power during long term inflation. However, when the inflation ends (and history shows it always has) and deflation becomes the norm, gold divvies up nicely.

Proponents of the viewpoint believe gold should be considered as an insurance policy against disaster, but not as a hedge against inflation. This theory may have a flaw however since we are currently dealing with a non- monetary market for gold.

Short-term investments may help the buyer get rich quick, or it may not. Risk is one important factor to keep in mind when dealing with gold as a short-term investment. A trader may make more money, but at the same time, more risks are assumed.

A final choice is playing the investment game both ways, using long-term and short-term ploys. Buying gold and then trading a portion and keeping a portion, allows the investor the security and the chance to make a quick profit. For investors trying to beat the system, remember that gold prices respond to changes in inflation rates. Economist Jane Bryant Quinn recommends that investors remember that when inflation slows, gold prices appear to fall while buying chances are available when the rate of price increase goes up. Following this logic, gold is best bought during the expectation of higher inflation rates, only to be sold when inflation appears to be diminishing or slowing.

Whether or not you follow Quinn's theories, the madding rush of gold buyers continue, drawing new converts each day. This forces Australian investors to look outside the Australia and to foreign currencies with a high gold content.

Four different gold coins are currently offered to American buyers by Monex in addition to gold bars of.995 fine gold. These ingots weigh one kilogram, or 32.15 ounces. For large scale investors, bars weighing 400 ounces may be purchased through precious metal dealers, usually with a minimum order of five bars. Drawbacks to these bars include storage problems and storage costs at banks. A more convenient form of owning gold for the small investor is to purchase gold coins. The look or aesthetics of the coin itself is generally overlooked in favor of purity and the high gold content of the currency. Coins that are especially attractive to gold investors include the Austrian corona, the Mexican 50 pesos, the South African Krugerrand, and the Canadian Maple Leaf. "Lots" of these coins may be purchased with a minimum order of 20 at Monex. Four other gold coins, the Hungarian 100 korona, the United States 10 dollar (last issue 1933), the Austrian ducat and the English sovereign are also eyed by watchful investors.

Buying gold in its coin form has obvious advantages, among them being the ability to buy them less expensively than a bar and their mobility.

The South African Krugerrand, containing one ounce of fine gold, appears to be the favorite with more people investing in it than in other coins.

Despite political troubles in the South African region, gold has not been substantially affected, according to Caribini. "Overall, we didn't notice any change in people's attitudes toward the Krugerrand based on South Africa's political troubles," he said. "We may have received one or two letters asking that we not promote the Kruger- rand, but we didn't notice a change in the buyers.

"We may or may not agree with what's going on politically in another country, but our buying is not affected too often," he continued. "After all, look around. People are still drinking Russian vodka."


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Silver's Shrinking Supply

Have you ever seen the inside of one of those "buy gold for cash" outfits? I ventured into one years ago back in my days as a reporter.

It was one of the most extraordinary sights you'll ever come across. This was an industrial-sized operation (which later went bankrupt): dozens of people sitting at long tables, sorting and opening packages. Cut the flap on one and out plops an extracted gold tooth filling. From another, a gold necklace chain. Reach into a third bag, and someone has sent in Grandpa's gold watch.

Silver, too, has a handful of major recycle sources. Leftovers from industrial uses make up the lion's share, along with old silverware and recycled jewelry.

These days, there's just one problem (and an opportunity if you're a precious-metal investor like me): No one wants to part with their "old gold" and family silver anymore.

Who would, with the kind of prices the spot market assigns for gold and silver right now?

The World Gold Council, in its latest report on the topic, said the volume of recycled gold hitting the market in last year's third quarter dropped to 252 tons, down 6% from 2014 levels.

Low and Getting Lower

It's the latest in a long string of declines for the supply of scrap gold in recent years, and part of a cycle that loosely follows the price of precious metals. According to the World Gold Council, in 1999 (with the market price at a generational low in the $250s per ounce) recycled gold made up just 17% of the total supply. It peaked at 42% by 2009 as gold was climbing into the $900s. Of course, in 2009 it seemed nearly everyone was emptying their drawers of junk jewelry and unwanted heirlooms.

As of the third quarter last year, we're down to 25% again and likely to drop further in the quarters ahead.

Silver continues in much the same manner. The peak of silver prices in 2011 at nearly $50 an ounce encouraged people worldwide to cash in a record 206 tons of recycled silver, according to the Metals Focus research firm and the Silver Institute.

Fast-forward to 2015, and the only category where silver continues to be recycled in larger amounts is in the industrial sector (an estimated 91 tons). As for the rest, it's down pretty much across the board (and likely to be even lower by 2017).

Old silverware? The tonnage is down 43%. Silver from photo negatives? Off by 30% (and in terminal decline anyway because of digital technology), along with about a third less recycled silver jewelry too. Even the old mainstay of coin shops everywhere - melting down souvenir silver dollars and the like - is less popular. Only 6 tons, about 19% less than 2011, came to the market last year.

I don't need to tell you what this means in terms of supply, demand and future prices for both gold and silver. But I'll add a second, often overlooked factor about the silver market...

Copper, Zinc & Silver

More than half of the world's "new" silver - not the recycled stuff but the ore taken out of the ground every year - isn't mined as a result of an honest-to-goodness silver-mining operation. Instead, it's a byproduct of a miner digging for other minerals such as copper and zinc.

Now think of what's happening in those particular metals markets - they're all way down in price just like silver and gold.

And what's happening as a result of these seemingly eternal price declines? Mining companies are reluctantly shutting down mine after mine. As a result, global copper supplies - previously forecast to be in surplus for 2016 - will likely be in a deficit instead, according to the Platts metals news service.

Zinc is headed in the same direction. Late last year, Glencore, one of the world's largest mining companies, announced the closure of its giant zinc-mining operation in Australia in a move analysts at Woods Mackenzie say is likely "to have lasting market impact."

What does that mean for silver? It means that not only is there less silver scrap being added to the global market, but likely a lot less of the new stuff too - creating an even stronger fundamental backdrop for both metals.

It also points the way toward higher prices as big macro factors - the Fed's misconceptions about the health of the economy, interest rates, the dollar and all the rest - make precious metals a favorable asset class for investors once again.

A veteran investor and longtime financial journalist, JL Yastine is a contributor to Sovereign Investor Daily. He also serves as editorial director, focusing on creation and development of new products and editorial resources that will help the Society's members "be Sovereign." Read more at The Sovereign Investor Daily.

Gold In Our Society

Gold's place in our world

Since the beginning of civilization men have sought to accumulate wealth and power.

This is the time of mystics and brutes. Tribal leaders ascended to power through superior fighting and or hunting ability. Mystics created what was often a superior position in tribal society by leveraging fear of the unknown. Trade was accomplished with food, tools, seashells whatever was expedient for the parties involved.

As tribes consolidated into societies and trade expanded. Early societies were organized around natural resources. The sea for fishing. In the desert a city-state might be centered around water.

The group near the sea might trade fish to the group that has a well for water. The problem with perishable goods as coin for trade is that it is perishable. A tremendous week of fishing might not yield much more benefit than an average week because the wealth created by a good day fishing had to be used within a short time frame. Frustrations like this can lead to the invention of things like lutefisk.

People needed a way to store accrued wealth long term

As early as 3000bc Egypt gold was used as money to purchase goods held by one and desired by another. Gold fulfilled the key tenets of the invention known as money:

Gold is rare commodity that can only be mined or panned. (As opposed to created)
Gold is a luxury item which humans desire to possess.
Gold is elemental and homogeneous. Every unit of pure gold has the same chemical structure.
Gold is infinitely divisible. It can be scaled objectively to suit every exchange.
Gold is not perishable.

I feel like I should mention that silver and other precious metals also fulfill the above criteria as and in fact have been used as money.

In contemporary society gold still functions as money. Though *fractional reserve banking in it's modern incarnation has eliminated gold as the primary asset of deposit. For accuracy in perception note that the USA **gold standard or Bretton Woods was abandoned in 1971.

*Banking method that deems a bank need only hold a small percentage of assets on premise. This is because in theory only a fraction of depositors will demand their deposit back at any one time.

** Bretton Woods, New Hampshire was the site of the Allied powers meeting in summer of 1944 during which the Federal Reserve Note was deemed to be the worlds reserve currency. This currency was backed by gold at a fixed rate of $35 to the ounce. Note that only foreign banks could exchange Fed notes for gold as bullion ownership was outlawed in 1933.

During the 1970's inflation was out of control. Money spent overseas poured back into the U.S. economy as foreign nations holding Fed Notes desperately tried to get anything tangible in exchange for the paper money they held. Golds inherent value stands in stark contrast to a paper currency with no tangible asset behind it. This economic disaster was not rectified until the Petro Dollar came into existence beginning with Saudi Arabia in 1973 and later the entire membership of OPEC. The details of the Petro Dollar monetary scheme are beyond the scope of this article but I encourage the reader to Google it!

Looking back from 2015 to 1971 shows gold to be volatile at casual observance. However if we look at the motivations for ownership of gold it makes perfect sense to describe gold as a reliable way to store wealth and protect it from inflation. Volatile moments such as 1979 - 1981 when gold went up to $800 an ounce from around $150 in the space of 18 months. The motivation was fear surrounding the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. People feared the privations that accompany a massive scale war (WWIII loomed in the minds of many). Among these fears were economic collapse, seizure of wealth for the good of the state and variations of the two. After fear of immanent full scale war subsided. Other fears fell away as well. Gold settled back to a fairly stable valuation fluctuating between $250 - $450 per ounce. Various factors go into this stability among them are:

The amount of paper currency in world wide circulation(more paper higher price).
Controls implemented on how gold may be purchased.
Industrial demands such as electronics used in high energy machines.

This stability was followed by a peak of $2000+ per ounce after the financial crisis of 2008.

The gold market in the wake of 2008 was driven by several factors: Fear of total monetary collapse, quantitative easing(creation of Fed Note currency) as well as international efforts at artificially capping the price with controls on how gold might be purchased(No credit cards in many countries for example). For the last year or so gold has been floating around $1100 an ounce. Depending on your view of world politics you can expect gold to move up or down. The middle east conflicts which are playing out right now are directly connected to the control of the oil in the middle east. As long as nations are required to have Fed Notes to buy oil the price of gold will not go up too rapidly. However if the Petrol Dollar scheme fails and the world is not obliterated in the war preceding the failure, gold will not only skyrocket, it will be the only money available.

I myself believe that gold plays a key role in ones financial portfolio protecting against both increases in deficit spending(inflation tax) and currency crisis-collapse.

However you can you should find a way to hold at least a couple ounces of gold to protect yourself and your family from the worst case scenario.

You're Crazy If You Trust the Fed

Gold has a message for the market: You're a nut if you trust the Fed.

In the days since the arbiters of American monetary policy raised interest rates on December 16 - the first rate hike in nearly a decade - gold prices have pretty much gone nowhere. On December 15, the day before the Fed's announcement, gold closed near $1,065. As I write this, it's at $1,070... and it has seen a high of $1,084 and a low of $1,052.

Like I said, it has gone nowhere. Which, if you believe the claptrap that passes for institutional knowledge and learned wisdom on the business news channels, defies preconceptions about the metal.

It's that defiance that says everything you need to know about economic expectations in America and the future direction of interest rates.

It says: Now is as fine a time as any to add to your gold holdings - or initiate a position if you own no gold.

The greatest knock against gold is that it is effectively a dead investment.

Unlike stocks, it pays no dividends. Unlike bonds, savings accounts and CDs, it pays no interest. It just sits there, reminding us of the flaws inherent in fiat money.

Because of that characteristic, gold tends to struggle as an asset when investors can earn better returns elsewhere, or when the market holds expectations that interest rates are rising. After all, why own a dead asset when even a basic money-market account will earn increasingly higher yields in the coming months as the Federal Reserve, in theory, continues to raise rates?

The Fed governors expect rates to be in the 1.5% range by the end of 2016, implying that cash will be yielding well more than gold. And in the low-yield environment that has persisted for so long, 1.5% isn't such a horrible return.

Only, there's a wee bit o' a problem.

The Fed kinda sucks at the prediction game.

Don't Trust the Fed

The Fed's crystal ball is in serious need of a recalibration.

Fed governors simply haven't a flippin' clue what to really expect from the economy.

For 2016, the governors are projecting our economy will expand between 2.3% and 2.5%... which means we're far more likely to see GDP grow at less than 2% next year, possibly much worse, based on how badly the Fed's projections typically overshoot reality.

The gold market knows that. It knows that the U.S. economy is like an obese American who has taken up jogging to get into shape... only after the first lap around the track, it's bent at the knees, huffing and puffing, and feeling like it's gonna keel over.

As I've laid out in recent weeks, U.S. manufacturing is in a deep recession (as per the Fed's own data!); corporate profits are in a recession (because of the strong dollar, which will now get even stronger because of the Fed's rate hike); and the supposedly robust jobs market is, structurally speaking, a sandcastle built atop a platform made of Popsicle sticks.

The New Gold Buyers

At the height on the gold-buying boom a few years ago, unsophisticated hot-money investors were flooding into gold only because gold was going up. They had no clue why and they didn't care. So long as the price was rising, they were buying.

Today's gold buyers are a far savvier lot. They're buying based on the fundamentals of the economy, and gold's place within a morally and financially bankrupt fiat monetary system.

That's why gold prices have not come down since the Fed's rate hike and the Fed's contention that rates will go higher from here this year. Gold buyers don't believe the Fed. They understand the signs pointing to a U.S. economy more feeble than the cheerleaders otherwise preach.

They realize, as I've been writing recently, that there's quite a good chance that the U.S. is actually headed for a recession, given that an economic recession often follows a corporate-profit recession, and that 65% of the time an economic recession follows a manufacturing recession. Thus, they know, that there's also a good chance that the Fed's next interest rate move could be down again, rather than up some more. That, of course, depends on the timing of a recession, but the factors that would necessitate a rate decrease are clearly in place.

And if that happens - if we do see a rate decrease - gold will regain some strength.

So use current gold prices to your advantage. Build some insurance into your portfolio. Gold is the anti-dollar and it's the antidote to the long-term monetary and fiscal problems that, like a chronic disease, continue to weaken America's health.

But be sure you buy bullion or collectible gold coins. Steer very clear of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as SPDR Gold Shares and some others. If gold markets get messy or excessively volatile, or if the overall financial markets spin into a panic - or worse - ETFs of all kinds, including gold, could see substantial and worrisome issues with trading. So play it safe and just own the metal, directly or indirectly, in bullion form.

As a lifelong world traveler, Jeff Opdyke has been investing directly in the international markets since 1995, making him one of the true pioneers of foreign trading. He is Investment Director for The Sovereign Society and a weekly contributor to The Sovereign Investor Daily.

Why Do Gold Rates Keep on Changing?

These days gold is not only the most sought after for investment purposes and also for the jewelry market, but it is also used for manufacturing of certain medical devices and electronic devices. There are many factors that drive the change of rates of this precious metal.

The Central bank reserves

The Central bank holds paper currencies and also gold in its reserve. Also the world gold council has stated that all central banks have recently begun purchasing more gold than they might be selling. As all central banks have diversified their monetary reserves, away from the paper currencies, they have accumulated and into gold, the prices of gold have continued to rise.

The US Dollar value

The price of gold is mostly invested based on the US dollar value. This means that a strong US dollar means that the price of gold will be more controlled and also be kept at a lower rate. Also a weaker US dollar is likely to drive the price of gold much higher. This is mainly because most people have a tendency to trade in dollars and also invest when the dollar is strong.

Worldwide demand of jewelry

In a survey done in 2010, the jewelry had accounted for approximately 54% of gold demand, and this totaled to around 3,812 tons. The United States, China and India are the largest consumers of gold for jewelry in terms of its volume. Also the consumer demand in China has reached 200 tons and this is a huge increase compared to last year. Also the gold prices can be affected by the basic theory of demand and supply, as the demand for a consumer goods such as electronic and jewelry increases, the cost of god can also rise significantly.

Wealth protection

During the times of economic uncertainty just as it has been seen during recession, more people have turned to investing in gold because of its very enduring value. Gold is also often considered to be a safe haven for investors during uncertain times. Also, when the actual and expected returns on bonds, real estate and equities, the interest in gold investing increases significantly and this is the reason for a shoot up in its price.

The recent recession has stirred a gold rush in the modern times. Even a TV show on this similar topic had garnered around 4 million viewers. It is one of the important things to remember.

Scrap Gold Tips

Buying and Selling

Buying and selling scrap gold can be very rewarding. At the same time you can lose a lot of money if you do not know how. There is more to it than just buying and selling gold. We will talk about some of the things you need to know about buying and selling scrap gold.

Spot Prices

The price of gold varies constantly. The market goes up and down like the stock market and the price of gas does. You will need to pay close attention to gold prices. The market changes so fast that it is most likely changing as you are reading this article. If you do not know what the price of gold is, how do you know what to pay for the it? You can lose a lot of money by paying too much. When dealing with scrap gold, you will be paid based on the spot price. In other words, if an ounce of gold is worth $1,100 and you paid $1,200 for it, you just took a loss. You need to use the spot price as a negotiating tool.

Karat

You will need to know what karat a piece of gold is. Most jewelry is stamped with 10kt, 14kt, or 18kt. Basically this will tell you how much gold a piece of jewelry has in it. By knowing how much gold is in a piece of jewelry, it will tell you what the value is based on the spot price. This is very important to know when negotiating to buy a piece of jewelry.

Testing

Knowing how to test scrap gold can save you a ton of money. There is nothing worse than buying a piece of jewelry and finding out later that it is fake. A costly mistake that could have been easily avoided. You can test gold with an electronic device or you may perform a scratch and acid test to check if it is real or not. I prefer to use the scratch and acid test. It has been around for years and seems to be the most accurate. Be careful with gold plated jewelry. A magnet can help with spotting plated jewelry.

Where To Sell

You can sell scrap gold to places such as jewelry stores or pawn shops. However these places generally do not pay very much compared to the spot price. Another place that you can sell scrap gold to is a Refinery. They usually pay the highest. But you will need to research which ones pay the highest percentage of spot price.

If you want to know more, you can find valuable information from the detailed course Secrets of Buying And Selling Gold [http://www.secretsofbuyingandsellinggold.com]. Learn key points such as where to buy, how to negotiate the purchase price, how to calculate profits, testing jewelry, the best refinery to sell to with the highest payouts, and much more. Everything you need to know about making a profit with scrap gold.

5 Tips for Getting the Best Rare American Coin Deals From Dealers

Whether at a coin show, or in the dealer's store, bargains can be found when dealing directly with a rare American coin dealer. Here are 5 tips you can use to your advantage when shopping for that bargain.

1. Coin dealers specialize in a few types of coins and only have a limited knowledge of the rest of the market. Most dealers carry inventory which is outside their area of expertise.

Oftentimes, they will overprice coins outside their specialty, because they're afraid a buyer will take advantage of them. Be cautious about buying coins outside the dealer's specialty.

Being cautious doesn't mean you can't find a great deal however. Often you can spot die varieties the dealer doesn't recognize. Here's where your knowledge can trump the dealer's, and you can walk away with a lower priced coin than shopping with a dealer who knows the coin series well.

2. Many dealers aren't proficient coin graders just because they buy and sell coins. If you take the time to hone your coin grading skills, you can spot instances where the dealer has graded too conservatively. You can pick up some great deals this way.

Refer to my other articles and videos on coin grading and learn all you can about the subject. Become the expert in your area of interest.

3. Dealers often borrow money to maintain their inventory. If the market suddenly drops, they can suddenly have cash flow problems. Cash for buying coins becomes tight, and they won't offer you as much for your coins, so you don't want to be selling your rare American coins right then. Wait a few weeks and try again.

4. You can find out what coins are ripe for a price increase in the near future, by calling several dealers with a list of rare coins you say you're looking for. This list would contain a couple of coins you're interested in selling when their price increases.

If you call a couple dozen dealers, and few can sell the coin at the current market value, it's an indication these coins should increase in price pretty soon. The supply side isn't keeping up with demand.

Another way to learn market trends is to look at major coin publications, for advertising by large dealers to buy a certain year/grade of coin. That dealer is probably preparing for a big promotion of the rare American coin. This gives you some insight into what to buy yourself, and then sell during the dealer campaign.

5. Establish a good relationship with one or more rare coin dealers and inquire about special deals they might have available in the "back room". Most dealers have inventory which has sat for several months and they'd be happy to move it at a discount. This way you're positioned to buy slow moving coins before they're offered to other dealers.

As with the other points here, know what you're buying. If you end up buying a coin you also can't resell, the purchase wasn't such a bargain after all.

Recognizing bargains is part of the reward for being an expert in your rare American coin specialty. Finding bargains can take a lot of time, but searching is part of the fun. Not tipping your hand during your search is also part of the game. Good luck in your venture.

To discover more about coins: collecting issues, money management, investing in the rare and bullion coin market, and much more, I invite you to visit http://www.heritagecoingallery.com for videos and free tips on buying coins at the best prices.

Things To Look Out For When Selling Your Gold

The best thing about gold is that it never really loses its value. After buying that expensive set of gold earrings, you can get the same value for the gold years later when you no longer need the earrings. The same goes for other jewelry pieces and items that you have and no longer need. There are plenty of gold buyers today who will accept the items you have the size and condition notwithstanding. However, even when you are sure that you want to sell what you have, there are a few things that you should pay attention to to get true value for your gold.

What items does the buyer accept?

Most buyers will of course accept any gold item you have but there is still a great need to confirm what items pass for the process. This is important because even though a buyer might accept your expensive gold watch, there could be a brand limit because the buyer might have a policy to accept only given watch brands and not all brands. The buyers accept anything from coins and bars and jewelry but can also accept other gold forms. Find out what other items can be accepted if you have gold scraps lying around and you have no more use for. You might be surprised at just how much you could end up making with the items that you have around your home. Apart from gold, find out what other precious metals your buyer can accept.

How is the selling process?

Sometimes you could be hard pressed for quick cash and the selling process can be of importance. Luckily, you can find buyers offering very swift process where you only need to present your items for an appraisal and you can get price quotes within a short period of time. When choosing a buyer, remember to check what mode of payment he offers. If you really need fast money then cash payments might work best for you. A good buyer should offer a transparent selling process and should not tie you down to a contract. It is best you choose buyers who can offer quotes without requiring commitment from your side so that you have the freedom to compare to get the best prices for your gold items.

What other services can you enjoy?

Apart from selling your gold, you might be faced by a need to pawn your items. This means getting a loan over the items you have and you can get your gold back as soon as you are done repaying. You could also only need gold jewelry cleaning or jewelry consignment services. Luckily most buyers offer much more than just precious metal buying and can offer you the rest of the services that you need. You can choose such buyers to take care of all your needs even in the future because you can never tell what you might need for your gold items or jewelry.

Dealers who buy gold Hamilton have different buying policies and procedures. The best you can do is to ensure that you love what your buyer has to offer you in terms of getting the best for the gold you are selling.

Get A Gold IRA

If you are saving for your retirement or any other future endeavor, Gold, silver and or other precious metal should be in your portfolio. If you were to do this, it would substantially stabilize your financial situation, especially during economic hard times.

If you are concerned about your financial portfolio and you need protection from the drastic swings of the stock market, and if you are thinking about the possibility of investing in precious metals, this information could be very helpful to you. People have always looked for a way to safely invest their hard-earned money to grow wealth.

Historically a precious metal Individual Retirement Account has proven to be one of the safest ways of doing this. Many experienced investors realize that investing in a precious metals account is a necessary endeavor, especially if you have money in the stock market, such as a 401k. Your paper money is exposed to the drastic swings of the stock markets, don't forget the tech. bubble, remember 2000, and the housing bubble, remember 2008?

The housing market collapsed in 2008, which caused a financial crisis (we are still paying for) that affected everyone in this country. The big banks and other financial institutions gave mortgage loans to people who could not afford to repay the money they had borrowed.

The bankers knew these loans were suspect, but they made them anyway. This caused the housing market to collapse, sending the financial institutions (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and others) and our economy into a recession tailspin.

After this debacle, the banks came running, begging us (the American people) to bail them out. With our money (trillions of dollars), the government bailed out the big banks and the fat cats on Wall Street. These people, that caused this mess in the first place were even paid (multimillion) dollar bonuses. I'd like to ask you a question, did anyone bail you out for your losses? Did you get a bonus?

Most people on Main Street can't understand why no one on Wall Street was held accountable for this financial debacle which caused so much pain and strife for the average citizen and investor. Many, who were invested, lost a tremendous amount of their wealth; unfortunately some families lost all of their savings.

A large number of people who lost money on Main Street, do not trust the people on Wall Street, and many will never invest again. The Wall Street fiasco taught many people, that you can't get things you can't afford; you must live within or below your means.

It also taught many investors that you must protect your financial future. If some of these people would have had a percentage of their funds invested in a precious metals account, they would have found themselves significantly protected from such drastic losses.

When you finally make the decision to retire, preparing for your future should always be a part of your existing plan. You must have a financial program in place that will generate an income, hopefully, that will last you the rest of your life. In order for your retirement funds to last the rest of your life, you must be sure you are invested in the right financial vehicles to generate such income.

When most people think of generating a continuous retirement income, their first thought is investing in an IRA, which is based on paper money. With the current state of the economy and the way the stock market changes from day-to-day, there is always uncertainty and perpetual bubbles that can burst as in 2000 and 2008.

The bursting of these bubbles wipes out many retiree's entire retirement accounts. History has shown that gold and other precious metals have stood the test of time and has weathered these economic devastating storms.

If you have a retirement account that is invested in paper assets, you most likely could benefit in a Gold IRA Rollover. Gold is valuable because it can't be duplicated, and it can't be printed. Gold has to be found, dug up, and formed into bars, coins etc. There are limited quantities of gold which causes its value to continually rise. This is why you should have a portion of your retirement portfolio invested in Gold. Gold has always done well and has significantly increased in value over the past decades.

With the economy in bad shape, and the national debt growing out of control, gold is predicted to increase in value over the next several years. This prediction, along with its past history, makes gold an excellent addition to any retirement portfolio.

If you invest your money without the protection of a precious metals IRA, you are gambling. It's as if you are in a casino, sitting at a slot machine, or rolling the dice.

You're betting on an economy that is fighting against some tough opponents, you need a champion to fight these evil contenders that include, The US National Debt which is in the trillions of dollars, devaluation of the dollar, which causes the dollar to lose its purchasing power, quantitative easing, which has the central banks buying more government securities, hyperinflation, which causes out of control inflation, political unrest, Democrats and Republicans at each other's throats, and wars,with ISIS wanting to kill all of us.

Gold is the reigning champion that has been defending its title for centuries. It has fought these contenders and has won every time. So let the champion (Gold) help you fight your financial battles. Even though these contenders have been knocked out, time and time again, they are always looking for a rematch.

At any time one or more of these factors could send this weak economy into a downward tail spin. If you want more financial security in your retirement, or in any other financial endeavors you undertake, you should look into placing a portion of your money into a precious metals IRA account.

I know you are sick and tired of hearing about Armageddon, the battle between good (gold/silver) and evil (fiat currency), paper money, but these factors are real.

Your money has a better chance of surviving, if it doesn't have to fight against the fore mentioned factors, and the safest way of doing this is with a precious metals account.

At the present time the United States and other nations use a fiat (paper money) System. This system is not backed by a physical asset, such as Gold or Silver. The monetary system of the United States use to be backed by Gold, but in 1971 President Richard Nixon took the country off the gold standard.

Any fiat money system is venerable, because of the amount of paper money that can be printed, which causes inflation and eventual failure. When these failures can no longer be excepted, then the most practical decision, will be returning to the system that is backed by gold.

A Gold IRA Rollover will act as a safety net against a paper money portfolio. It is well known, that the almighty dollar will be devaluated further, if the Federal Reserve continues printing more dollars which causes inflation. The more access you have to something, the less valuable that item becomes. The printing of more and more dollars only makes the dollar less valuable.

A precious metals portfolio will act as a stop-gap against this inflation, because you can't simply go out and print more gold; that's why it is so valuable.

Gold has consistently risen in value; how many other investments can make that claim? Gold is valued in every country throughout the world.

A Gold IRA should be one of the very first steps that you consider when diversifying your investments.

Gold has been a safe haven for investors for decades. During financial uncertainty, gold has always prevailed. Gold has been valued for over 5,000 years and has been used in financial transactions, before paper money existed.