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Dec 10th

Gold & Silver: entrepreneurs keep buying

By ed

Members of NYC Cashflow remain bullish on gold & silver.
By Ed Patisso

As the price of gold & silver consistently reach historic highs, members of NYC Cashflow, a New York City entrepreneur club, continue to acquire these precious metals.

Keith Jones, a New York City Police officer, was introduced to the prospect of a major gold and silver rush when a retired New York City Sergeant gave him a video presentation years ago. After reading “Precious Metals for Dummies” and Mike Maloney’s “Guide to Investing in Gold & Silver”, Jones bought thousands of dollars worth of dated coins from American Silver Eagle, and watched his investment double. Jones, who constantly monitors spot prices on
www.kitco.com, believes the price of gold will reach $2,500 an ounce within the next few years.

“I’ve seen a lot of officers lose value in their portfolios,” said Jones. “The value of their retirement nest-egg diminished.” He believes the strength of these metals is “based on the constant printing of the Federal Reserve Note.”

One member uses his individual retirement account to purchase silver bullion through the Gold Star Trust Company in Canyon, TX. Joe Richard, 50, a photographer from upstate New York started using his retirement account three years ago, after learning more about the failure of fiat currencies. Like Jones, he also read Mike Maloney’s book and took action. Richard used $15,000 from his IRA and pays a storage fee, but also maintains his own store of bullion and prefers not to disclose the amount.

"The way the government keeps printing money brings down the value of the dollar,” said Richard. “I don’t have a lot of faith in the dollar at all.”

One serial entrepreneur committed to capitalizing on this frenzy opened four stores in Nashville, TN dealing gold and silver. Troy Johns, 40, operated a hardwood floors installation business in Flint, MI for 11 years. As the housing market deflated, Johns’s business dwindled forcing him to try something different. His ex-wife, who Johns was married to at the time, worked for a jeweler so he decided to join them part time. With only $5,000 left in his bank account, Johns opened The We Buy Gold Store, in Nashville, TN with some partners after learning the trade. They grossed $960,000 their first year in business, and $2.6M year two. Now Johns is looking for partners that want to get into the business and believes he can make newcomers profitable within 60 days.

“I think it’s been a long time coming that gold catch up to inflation,” said Johns. “The national debt doubled at the strike of a pen.”

Another entrepreneur devotes his work not only preparing for hyperinflation, but also educating and helping Americans protect themselves for what he believes is hidden from the American public. Peter C. Bisulca, 39, Financial Advisor and author of “The Wealth Creation Revelation,” believes Americans are being fooled about inflation. He is especially concerned that efforts of entrepreneurs mean little when major events taking place within markets is determined by the decisions of just a few men at the Federal Reserve.

“The Fed’s PR campaign is about convincing the American people that inflation is not real,” said Bisulca. “Americans attitude is that ignorance is bliss.” In his book, the revelation that Bisulca wants people to have and to trust, is that “there is a tsunami wave of inflation coming and it is going to hit their assets.”

As policy makers discuss more economic stimulus by purchasing Treasury securities and expanding the Fed’s balance sheet, or what they refer to as ‘Quantitative Easing’, what does this really mean for the American public?

In an interview Friday with Tom Keen on Bloomberg Television, James Grant, author and editor of “Grant’s Interest Rate Observer” explained that ”Quantitative Easing is one of these Phd approved euphemisms. It doesn’t really convey the essential point.
Money printing would be so much of a better step in the direction of intellectual hygiene.”

Essentially, the Fed is increasing the supply of currency in the economy. According to Maloney, the free market causes gold and silver to automatically revalue, to account for all the currency that was created since the last revaluation. In his book “Guide to Investing in Gold & Silver,” Maloney writes:

maloney_text.gif

In response to this currency printing, the camp of precious-metals bulls expects a decrease in the value of the dollar, and an increase in price inflation, i.e. the price of food, and other goods. The theory is that as each new dollar enters circulation, it devalues all other dollars in existence because there are now more dollars chasing the same amount of goods and services. They will purchase more gold and silver as a hedge against a depreciating dollar, consequently driving the price of these precious metals higher.

The actual record for gold was set in 1981 however, when the price of gold, in today’s dollars, hit $2,318, according to David Leonhardt, economics journalist with the New York Times. The Feds expansion of the currency supply leading up to 1981 however, pales in comparison to the expansion of the currency supply leading up to today.

According to the Monetary Base chart, courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, it appears the currency supply in the U.S. almost tripled over the last decade, not including this year’s planned $600 billion in additional currency printing:

stlouisfedchart.gif

Despite the Fed’s contention that inflation remains historically low, the rise in gold indicates investors expect very high inflation rates. Of course, not everyone is on board with buying gold.


Warran Buffet, one of the worlds richest men, widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world advises not to buy gold, and instead to buy equities.

In a recent interview with Fortune Magazine, Buffet said, “"You could take all the gold that's ever been mined, and it would fill a cube 67 feet in each direction. For what that's worth at current gold prices, you could buy all -- not some -- all of the farmland in the United States. Plus, you could buy 10 Exxon Mobils, plus have $1 trillion of walking-around money. Or you could have a big cube of metal. Which would you take? Which is going to produce more value?"

With all the choices available for investors to put their money, it seems the basis for making an investment in gold now is a conviction that the worst is yet to come.