Tag: Silver Posts

I’m currently sitting in the Edinburgh airport in Scotland sipping on a rather expensive $6 diet coke while waiting for my flight to Dublin. I haven’t done a post on the economy in a while, so I figured it was about time. Lots is going on down south, none of it is good. Last weekend the US government came close to a shutdown due to the fact that they hit their congressionally approved debt ceiling. While it’s been raised previously, there’s growing concern that the US debt is at the point of no return. As a result politicians on both sides are trying to get both sides to agree to cuts. Unfortunately the cuts that are proposed are so small that they are basically insignificant. As Peter Schiff said, the cuts may as well be a rounding error in the math for all the good they will do. An article […]

Sexy, that’s what I’ll say. When I first looked into purchasing a few silver coins, I did it under the assumption that the coins would mostly be worth value due to their intrinsic silver content (called the ‘melt value’). While some collectors coins fetch a hefty premium on top of their melt value, most bullion and high purity coins are mainly traded for their metal content. That said, I read a post recommending the purchase of the Canadian Mint’s “Silver Wolf” coin a while ago as opposed to the Silver Maples since the author claimed they would fetch more value in the after market. Sure enough, a quick browse of eBay showed many $30 coins fetching around $50. The reason? According to the author “there’s always some old grandma that wants to get a wolf coin for her grandkid.” Compared to bullion, coins are a good investment because they are […]

I gotta say, I like precious metals. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen Pirates of the Caribbean one too many times, or maybe I was a gypsy in another life. But there’s something strangely appealing about the shine and lustre of a piece of gold or silver. Most guys don’t have many opportunities to own any metals. I used to have a gold plated watch, but unless you’re wearing a suit or at a formal event, a gold watch just looks out of place most of the time. My current watch is made of titanium, which is actually a very expensive precious metal, but I like it mostly because it’s extremely light, not because it’s valuable. In fact, had my ex girlfriend not bought it for me, I’d probably still be wearing a cheap $50 Casio or something. But I love the fact that it’s super light and doesn’t look much […]

Hard to believe that less than 30 years ago gold was trading at $35/ounce. At that time, the US Dollar was fixed to the price of gold due to an agreement called the Bretton Woods Agreement. That agreement effectively forced countries to back their currencies with gold, which ultimately enforced sound fiscal policies on the participating countries (you can’t spend money you don’t have). Unfortunately the inability to spend money they didn’t have eventually caused the United States to break out of the BWA: In 1971 Nixon decided to end the convertibility of the US Dollar into gold, which effectively was the same as declaring the United States insolvent. Since that time the Federal Reserve in the US and most of the central banks around the world have engaged in inflationary economics, resorting to printing money to pay off their debts. Gold (and other precious metals) have historically been used […]

I’ve been meaning to do a posting about the Garth Turner event the other day, but haven’t gotten around to it. While Garth is a good public speaker, I didn’t really learn anything at the event that I didn’t already know or believe. Yes, Garth believes real estate in Canada is in for a rocky ride, as do I. Yes, we are about to head into a period of asset deflation following by price inflation. I’ve spent the last six months reading tons of books on investing and retirement, partially because I’m interesting in the subject, and partially because I’ve been a bit bored and felt like learning something new. I’d wager that I know more than the average person at this point about investment strategies and ways to build a nest egg. But truthfully, even armed with all that knowledge I sometimes feel like we’re in a world without […]