DescentBB

Why is gold at a 20 year high?

inflation?

Heck I dunno but my profit sharing at work went up like 30+% in the last 3 months.

woodchip wrote:Why is gold at a 20 year high?

After a long day of raping the middle and lower class tax payers. Bushs billionaire club friends gotta put their blood money somewhere!

Two words.

George Soros.

Pugwash wrote:

woodchip wrote:Why is gold at a 20 year high?

After a long day of raping the middle and lower class tax payers. Bushs billionaire club friends gotta put their blood money somewhere!

Brilliant Pugsy!

So how does all this fly in the face of the 90's where the economy was robust but gold was stagnant? Gold usually increases in value during uncertain times. What are we uncertain about now? Hmmm...could be heading to E&C.

I think it has more to do with deflation of the USD on the world market then anything else.

Pugwash wrote:

woodchip wrote:Why is gold at a 20 year high?

After a long day of raping the middle and lower class tax payers. Bushs billionaire club friends gotta put their blood money somewhere!

Funny ... not that I like Bush's fiscal policy but ... I am middle class and I am making a killing off this.

I have seen and read several sources that claim that after inflation a large majority of people are worse of now than they were in the 50s. Im glad you think your doing well tho. Also your kids and grandkids will enjoy paying off the enourmous international debt the US is growing to fund what short term gains we have.

However well you are doing pales in comparison to the killing Bush and Cheneys oil and arms dealer friends are making. Basically our offsprings future is being mortgaged for this small group of people.

Enjoy!

gold is going up in value in anticipation of moving off of fiat money back to the gold standard.

If you were wonder why Greenspan has been around for so long... it takes a while to destroy the reserve system from within.

Easy solution... 30/06

woodchip wrote:Why is gold at a 20 year high?

Barry will enlighten us in 3...2...1...

fliptw wrote:gold is going up in value in anticipation of moving off of fiat money back to the gold standard.

Care to explain?

Barry will enlighten us in 3...2...1...

woodchip wrote:Care to explain?

Ping

What is it about Economics? Seriously. Why do so few people even try to understand economics, which simply is the study of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services? There are whole schools of thought concerning economics, too, as though it is some arcane and mystical field incapable of human comprehension, akin to philosophy, theology or the mind of the teenage girl. There's Keynesian Economics, the Austrian School and Marxism, to name a few. Economics can be micro or macro; it can even trickle down, according to some.

The Secret of Economics

Ok. I'm going to clear it up, once and for all, here and now, for everybody. Here's the secret key to economics: There is no such thing as a free lunch.

That's it. Any time you find your eyes glazing over while economics is being discussed, simply repeat the mantra: There is no such thing as a free lunch. You'll be way ahead of those around yourself. A corollary of the \"no free lunch\" maxim, which served as the anthem for the 1930s and soon will again be popular: \"Brother, can you spare a dime?\"

Deficit Financing or... Just Put it on the MasterCard

Ok. Maybe there is a little more to it, but not much. Here it is: Spend more than you earn and you go into debt. Governments that print more money than justified by goods and services have to borrow the funds for the money, just like everybody else...if they have central banks, that is, which means virtually every government on the planet. Borrowing means debt. Go into debt deeply enough and you never will get out - you will go bankrupt...even if you believe in free lunches.

Printing extra money dilutes the value of existing money. This is well understood by corporate executives who do the same thing when they give themselves stock options which, when exercised, dilute (\"water\") the value of already-outstanding stock purchased by mere mortals like you and I (who are referred to by corporate insiders as \"suckers\"), leading to a decline in the value of the stock. This is where stockholders (the \"suckers\") get sheared.

Eventually, the market gets wise, dumps the stock and the company goes out of business, thereby completing the sucker shearing process. The unemployed executives take their ill-gotten gains and open a new business, conduct an IPO and the process starts afresh. In this single paragraph, you have just learned everything of value that I ever learned in my former life as a financial analyst.

In the old West, unscrupulous bartenders added water to their stores of whiskey in order to increase profits; source of the term \"watered stock.\" Eventually, their patrons went elsewhere and they went out of business. The term carried over to the securities field.

Diluted money is said to be inflated instead of watered, since more dollars chase the same quantity of goods and services, which inevitably leads to price inflation. This is where you and I, gentle reader, get sheared by our own government. Eventually, governments that print too much extra money go out of business. America's is living on time borrowed by virtue of the fact that its currency has served as the world's currency for so long. As China, Iran, Iraq, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates all have told us recently, by dumping the dollar themselves, America's time now is up.

The average American family well understands the consequence of deficit spending via those ubiquitous credit cards: they simply refinanced the house! Now they are about to learn a very painful lesson, one their grandparents learned nearly a century ago.

The Zen of Not Knowing

Used to be, when something seemed clear to me, yet befuddled others, I assumed that I simply didn't understand it. No more, though. Finally, I am attaining that degree of certitude reserved to the very young, the very old and the very pretty. When I was in my twenties, I thought I knew everything. I was wrong. Now, approaching my dotage, I know that I don't know everything. But, these days I do know when I don't know something. What's more, I know when somebody else doesn't know something, even if I don't know it either. You can tell by the way they act.

Doctors, in particular, hate it when I say this: If a professional cannot explain anything within his field of expertise to you in terms that you instantly grasp, then he doesn't understand it himself. Anything. Okay, lawyers, test yourselves: explain the Rule Against Perpetuities to your sons and daughters. Estate planning clients, test your lawyer by demanding that he or she explain that Rule to you.

Mechanics who can't explain how my automatic transmission works don't get to work on it. Ditto for HVAC guys who can't explain why heat pumps almost always make more sense than traditional furnaces and air-conditioning systems. And contractors who can't render a spot-on estimate almost instantaneously...well, don't get me started.

Here's another maxim concerning professionals, while we're on the subject: Any professional who does not bring more to a transaction on your behalf than he or she takes in fees is worthless. If followed, that guideline would render most lawyers and all judges in America unemployed tomorrow.

Government Economists, Central Bankers and Other Ignorant Thieves

Here's something you can take to the bank: The guys in charge of economics in America don't know what they're talking about. Actually, it's not that simple. I mean, they really don't know what they're talking about, but they purposely make it complicated in an attempt to hide something that they do know: they are robbing us blind. Their ignorance is belied by the fact that they think they can keep it from us forever. Ignorance, not stupidity. These guys aren't dumb. It takes a towering intellect to build a towering house of cards. America's current house of economic cards is the tallest ever built.

The Federal Reserve Bank (\"the Fed\") is a private organization. It is not Federal, it is not a Bank and it has no reserves. It is owned, in the main, by foreigners named Rothschild, Warburg, Seif and Lazard. Make of that fact what you will.

The Fed was established in 1913 to stabilize America's money supply by regulating the operations of all of America's banks. What a joke! For two hundred years prior to the Fed's establishment, without its \"stabilizing\" influence, the American dollar varied little, if at all. A 1910 dollar bought exactly what an 1810 dollar bought, not to mention all the other American dollars, right back to the founding of the Republic.

Know what today's dollar will buy? Exactly what two cents would have bought on the day the Fed was established! Two cents. What happened to the other 98 cents? They were stolen by the Fed, doing exactly what the quotes at the head of this article promise will happen in the future.

The dollar has declined over 30% just since George W. Bush first assumed office, five years ago. You saw it happening. You heard about it. Deficits, donchaknow. Towering deficits, as far as the eye can see. Spending deficits. And trade deficits, which simply are spending deficits at the international level. Deficits of monumental and historical proportions. Humongous deficits. Deficits that defy description.

Gotta pay for that pointless war in Iraq (coming soon to an Iran near you), all that health care for the illegal immigrants, all that welfare for the now-permanent underclass in America, all those new government workers, all that price gouging by Halliburton...and so on.

When the government spends five dollars, yet takes in only four dollars, it simply prints the fifth dollar, which it then, incredibly enough, proceeds to borrow from the Fed. Counterfeiting, if you will, but they call it deficit spending. I call it theft.

Every phony dollar printed by the government dilutes the purchasing power of those dollars you already possess, as those of you who have received the secret key to economics now understand. Theft, pure and simple - which you have come to accept, even expect as normal, in the ever-increasing prices of everything you buy. Taxes are bad enough, but theft by inflation is bankrupting America.

Even a small amount of inflation, over a long enough period of time, will result in theft of the entire money supply. Remember, only two cents are left and, boy, do I intend to give you mine here today!

Any amount of inflation is too much. Zero inflation. Like gravity, it's the law. Violate it at peril of getting badly hurt.

Gold used to regulate inflation for us, effortlessly. But gold prevented theft by the Fed, so it had to go.

Monetary Inflation

There is no such thing as a free lunch. When the government goes to lunch, you get to pay for it. The first four dollars of its five-dollar lunch might come from your taxes. The fifth dollar simply is printed and, when spent, dilutes the value of your remaining dollars. And that literally is what happened this past year, since America's money supply now is increasing at a clip of about 20%, but with no corresponding increase in the goods and services produced by America.

More dollars chasing the same goods and services: monetary inflation. Money, like work, expands to fill the space allotted to itself, with the result that prices are bid up: price inflation.

Here's the whole point of a gold standard: they couldn't dig gold out of the ground any faster than the total supply of goods and services increased worldwide. Gold as money worked and was stable because of that simple fact. Paper money doesn't work, never has worked and never will work simply because there is no limitation on how much a government prints.

Yes, it really is that simple. Now you understand economics better than the PhDs running America. Historically, all governments have printed their paper currencies into hyperoblivion. If you think the American dollar's experience will be any different, then you might be an Economist.

That is why, in March 2006, the American government is going to stop reporting how much the money supply grows - to keep guys like me from seeing its excess and telling you exactly how much was stolen from you. Why? Because a growing number of Americans are starting to listen to guys like me and mumble aloud things like: \"Git a rope!\"

WhirlyBen and Easy Al

Incoming Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has made it clear that he intends to continue the disastrous polices of outgoing Chairman Alan Greenspan: inflate the money supply mercilessly. Maybe even rain it down from helicopters, needs be. That's why I call him \"WhirlyBen\" Bernanke.

Neither WhirlyBen nor \"Easy Al\" understands economics, though both know full well that they have been stealing from you. They think that there is a free lunch and that the tab can be held at bay forever. They are wrong and we are dangerously close to the tipping point right now - the point beyond which too few of us have enough wealth or income after taxes (not to mention the government theft that is monetary inflation) to pay the mortgage and feed our families.

Gonzo Economists

There are some economists in America who seem to understand things. Predictably, they are viewed as, well, nuts by their brethren. Richard Daughty (http://www.321gold.com/archives/archive ... rd+Daughty), aka \"the Mogambo Guru,\" bills himself as the \"the angriest man in economics\" and writes a weekly column funnier than you might imagine. Robert Chapman, who pens a weekly stream-of-consciousness screed called \"The International Forecaster (http://www.theinternationalforecaster.com/),\" is another. Both of these guys walk around wearing sandwich boards that proclaim \"The End is Near\" on the front and \"Buy Gold\" on the back. Naturally, these guys are my economics gods. And Bill Bonner, founder of The Daily Reckoning (http://www.dailyreckoning.com/). Though Bonner is far too normal and nice a guy, his head pretty much is screwed on correctly, too, which means backwards. He wears a sandwich board, too.

The Mogambo, Chapman and Bonner all claim to not understand why the Fed does what it does. I wonder. Of course, they are right, insofar as they insist upon measuring the Fed against its own charter and thereby expect our government to do right by its citizenry. It seems pretty clear to me, though, exactly what is going on: a shearing.

Goodbye, Dollar - Hello, Globo

The Fed and its surrogate, the United States government (yes, that is the correct order, boys and girls), intend to crash the dollar like the mortally-wounded eagle-cum-albatross it has become. Perhaps the impending Iranian move to demand Euros instead of dollars for its oil (not so coincidentally, that is exactly what Iraq did just before we decided to invade it) will be the final straw. If not, we are dangerously close, regardless.

soThink deflation, which has been masked for several years now by the monetary inflation being spewed by the Fed (except as regards your paycheck, of course). When that no longer works and the final refuge of the inflato-dollar, real estate, has its not-so-little bubble burst, think true hyperinflation, Weimar style.

This is the way it has to be, if one-world government, over a hundred years in the making, is to be implemented. We will need a one-world currency. It can't be the mortally-wounded dollar and it sure won't be the Euro. This is not idle speculation on my part. It is intense speculation and the result of years of seeing Feds under every bed and behind every tree. You see them now, too, don't you? If not, you will.

I call the coming new money the \"Globo,\" for lack of a better term. I should trademark that, I suppose, so that I can charge them big bucks for using it when the time comes. Of course, they would just pay me in useless dollars, anyhow, so what's the point?

The Globo primarily will be electronic, transferred as debits and credits via what we now call \"ATM\" or \"debit\" cards. The embedded chip will be the preferred mode. That's \"the Mark of the Beast\" to you Revelations fans.

Of course, WWIII and Depression II will accompany the transition to the Globo, to mask the real reason for the changeover and facilitate the real shearing, which has yet to take place, but that is a story beyond the scope of today's discussion (though not beyond the scope of my book, Defensive Racism (http://www.DefensiveRacism.com), which I recommend you get and read immediately, before the dollars you pay for it become even more worthless).

The Globo is absolutely necessary if they are to monitor the movement of all money, rather than just most of the money, as at present. That way, they get their vigorish every time a Globo passes \"Go.\" Besides, with the Globo they will procure the ultimate ability to micromanage each and every one of us (\"Ye shall neither buy nor sell,\" to put it in terms to which you Revelations fans will relate).

Ok. That takes care of \"WhirlyBen\" and \"Globo\" from the title of today's piece. What about \"the Great American Gold Grab?\" Glad you asked. I also hear a number of shrieks out there just now, along with the Biblical weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth: What will we do? Save us! Save us!

I hope I'm not being too melodramatic here.

.

The Great American Gold Grab

Well, I'm with my economics gods on this one: buy gold. With one reservation: after you buy it, I think they're going to take it away from you. After all, they did it before, the last time they threw us into a stock market crash, worldwide depression and a world war that redefined the borders of several countries. This is where my economics gods turn their backs on me, be warned. That's ok. I'm used to it.

See my article, Peak Silver (http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/peak.htm) , in which I make the case for precious metals as a means for transporting one's wealth from one side of an economic chasm, like the one now before us, to the other side, intact. Indeed, I see the opportunity for great increases in wealth during the trip. In that article, I also explain why I think silver actually represents the better investment since its demand derives from sundry industrial uses, not just as a hedge against the end of the world, and there actually is less of it available than gold.

Most writers use the word \"gold\" to mean all precious metals when they advise that you shift some or all your investments into them. As I said to a fellow customer in a coin shop recently, who was wondering aloud what might be a good investment: \"Paper bad. Metal good.\" At times like these, that advice really should rank right up there with \"Buy low. Sell high.\"

But, back to gold confiscation. Many say the government will not confiscate gold today because Nixon took us off the gold standard in 1972, thereby removing gold as backing for the dollar. When Roosevelt outlawed the personal holding of gold bullion, they argue, there was lots of gold in bank vaults and it served as the dollar's guarantee. That argument is ridiculous.

FDR didn't need to confiscate gold because it served as backing for the dollar. He seized gold because our masters wanted to ensure that they made the windfall profit on its possession when FDR devalued the dollar, not common riffraff like you and I (known to government insiders as \"suckers\"). And when FDR announced the new price for gold, after he had confiscated as much as he could from private citizens, those guys made a killing.

The same situation exists today. When the dollar does its best imitation of a dead-cat bounce, the price of gold (and silver and platinum and rhodium and palladium) will go to the Moon, Alice. Don't forget: Paper bad. Metal good. Those who hold precious metals will make a killing. Guess who thinks that only they deserve to make that killing? The same guys as before, that's who, which is why the private ownership of gold bullion in any form almost certainly will be outlawed before the dollar does its swan dive.

Some like to say there exists too little of any of the precious metals to amount to enough to warrant confiscation. True enough, valued by today's dollar. However, consider gold valued in dog dollars, at $5,000 per ounce or more, as it will be once the deed is done. Different story, isn't it?

That's the logic behind my belief that gold will be confiscated before the festivities begin. Is there any hard evidence, other than the fact that they did it before and that other countries have done the same thing before devaluing their currencies? Well, yes, there is, in fact. And it is most interesting, since it is embedded within a somewhat obscure law that took effect precisely one week ago.

The Old Gold Grab

First, though, let's take a look at the actual language of a selected portion of FDR's gold confiscation order of April 5, 1933 (http://www.the-privateer.com/1933-gold- ... ation.html): \"...All persons are hereby required to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, to a Federal Reserve Bank...all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates now owned by them...except...gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins.\" (emphasis supplied)

It is a popular myth that FDR merely set a date beyond which gold could not be exchanged for paper money. The actual wording of FDR's order explodes that myth: \"All persons are hereby required to deliver...all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates.\" (emphasis supplied) Gold was confiscated from us suckers...er, citizens, pure and simple, and paid for at the much lower pre-revaluation rate of only $20 per ounce.

There were a couple of exceptions to the confiscation order, such as gold used in commerce and trade (gold tooth fillings, for example). But, the most interesting exception, by far, was made for what are known as \"numismatic\" coins. Remember the wording: \"...except...gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins.\" You can bet there will be an equivalent exception made during the upcoming gold confiscation simply because so many of those who run things still own a large proportion of existing numismatic coins.

The New Gold Grab

Most laws in the United States really are the result of agency \"rulemaking,\" and tend to be the most verbose, obtuse and obscure of all laws. Yep, written by people not elected by us. Given equal weight with other laws - more, if, like myself, you believe the courts now disregard the Constitution altogether. IRS regulations are perhaps the best-known collection of these agency rules.

Something called the \"Financial Crimes Enforcement Network\" (FinCEN), a US Treasury division, issued just such a rule last year, which just went into effect and which I believe reveals the government's intention to confiscate gold again. The rule, entitled \"Anti-Money Laundering Programs for Dealers in Precious Metals, Stones or Jewels,\" (31 CFR Part 103 or http://www.fincen.gov/antimoneylaundering060905.pdf) was first brought to my attention by Lawrence Patterson, founder and publisher of Criminal Politics magazine (http://www.criminalpolitics.com). In his magazine, three months ago, Mr. Patterson quite efficiently connected the dots which are buried within FinCEN's obscure piece of agency rulemaking to gold confiscation.

Let's have a look at the relevant portions of this rule that lead to this conclusion:

Section 103.140(a)(4) of the rule specifically \"defines 'precious metal' to include gold, silver and the platinum group of metals, at a level of purity of 500 parts per 1000 (50 percent) or greater, singly or in any combination.\" For example, US Gold Eagles are merely \"precious metals\" and covered unless rare enough to be worth more than twice the value of their gold content. Pay attention here, because, by inference, numismatic coins have just been very strictly defined - they are only those coins that are worth at least twice their melt value. This is an important point.

The rule specifically applies to retailers who sell or buy more than $50,000 per year of \"jewels, precious metals, precious stones and finished goods (including jewelry, numismatic items and antiques) that derive 50 percent or more of their value from jewels, precious metals or precious stones contained in or attached to such finished goods.\" (emphasis supplied.) Covered retailers must file \"Suspicious Activity Reports\" (SARs) with the government concerning sales and purchases that might possibly be connected to money laundering, specifically identifying customers.

Now, technically, only large transactions and those which are \"suspicious\" must be reported, but this will result in every transaction being reported, just as it has in banks, because of the penalties attendant to not reporting something that some bureaucrat might say should have been reported. Recently, I bought a $2,500 cashier's check at my personal bank, at which I have more than one account and where all the tellers and clerks know me - yep, I got detained for ten minutes while the clerk filled out an SAR.

The reporting requirements apply to all transactions, even those including numismatics (the 50-percent rule is used simply to define who must report in the first place). The days of walking into a coin shop and anonymously buying or selling a thousand dollars' worth of anything are over, folks. Unless, of course, the shop is one which deals exclusively in numismatic coins (again, those worth more than twice their melt value) - look for these specialty shops to spring up now.

Now, let's step back and take a look at what's really going on with this rule. Allegedly, it is an anti-money-laundering regulation. It says so right in the rule: \"Precious metals, precious stones and jewels are easily transportable, highly concentrated forms of wealth and can be highly attractive to money launderers and other criminals...\" Right. Sure. Then why exclude numismatic coins, which are an even more highly concentrated form of wealth than the bullion coins specifically included? This internal contradiction points up two things.

First, the target of this law is not criminals, it is ordinary American citizens, as we shall see in a moment.

Second, however, for the first time, numismatic coins are being defined and excluded...for what reason, exactly? There is only one possible interpretation: so that all other coins and forms of precious metals will already have been tracked and reported upon when the government issues a confiscation order for gold. This is the same thing as gun registration, which always precedes gun confiscation, folks. That's why this type of law, until now restricted to banks and securities firms, has been expanded to include dealers in all forms of precious metals, particularly coin dealers. A great many pawn shops will fall in line now, too.

I said that ordinary citizens are the real targets of this law. Here's why: reporting will allow the government to see \"structuring\" (conducting a large deal surreptitiously by breaking it into many smaller, hopefully unnoticeable, deals) by citizens who buy or sell a few coins from or to each of several coin shops. Until now, each deal has kept such people below the reportable threshold, so that the IRS never was the wiser. Now it will be a snap for government computers to aggregate all sales by individuals, no matter where made in the United States. Since a lot of people currently hold bullion which has doubled in value recently, this is a big deal. It will become a much bigger deal when bullion becomes valued in dog dollars. It also is a big deal if the government is to effectively implement the Globo once the dollar is dumped - they've got to stamp out the cash economy.

Too paranoid, you say? No. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this law, designed to stamp out money laundering by coin dealers, in the main, actually will encourage a great many coin dealers to take up money laundering, due to the profit potential that will accrue from individuals wishing to evade the reporting requirements, for whatever reason.

a dollar today buys what 2 cents bought a hundred years ago?

So you could get an ipod for 8 bucks back then?

Lothar wrote:a dollar today buys what 2 cents bought a hundred years ago?

So you could get an ipod for 8 bucks back then?

And worked longer getting that 8 bucks.

Compare what Barry posted the wikipedia article I linkedtoo.

Dang, good posts. I never knew that FDR did that, wow. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that my financial and mental well being is of great concern to my government.

Fusion pimp, you are exactly right, and both Lincoln and Kennedy knew that. It is surprising to see that both political parties ignore this, shows who is really pulling the strings in our government.

Idiot moron post deleted.

Kilarin

Fusion pimp wrote:That is why, in March 2006, the American government is going to stop reporting how much the money supply grows

In 2000, or 1999, the government required the removal of the sticker on gas pumps telling you how much in taxes were applied to each gallon for the same reason. You think PECO is (entirely) to blame for the gas prices? Think again.

Kilarin,

The link was sent to me from the silver investors website and after reading it, I thought it had tremendous value to those who aren't quite up on todays economics. As I got down to the bottom of the page I found exactly what you posted(the e-mails) and was terribly disappointed with the follow-ups, etc..
Because I do not share those views and found them to be very insulting, I decided to cut/paste instead of linking to the page... sort of hiding the rest since I don't think it bears any weight on the said article.
The follow-ups **almost** killed my respect for what the author of the econ. article said and after reading the follow-ups,it **almost** made the article itself seem less valuable.

It would have been far more respectable of you to approach me via e-mail questioning whether or not I agreed with the follow-ups..
I didn't link or post them for a reason.

Somehow, based on the text, I sincerely doubt they're taken out of context(the follow-ups- which have nothing to do with the value of the econ. article).

Thanks for hunting down what I was trying to spare the readers from having to deal with. By posting the rest of the garbage your *somewhat* suggesting that, because i read and posted a quality article, I agree with the the follow-up nonesense, which again, had nothing to do with the article itself.

Again, there's a reason I avoided posting the link, which would have been far easier.


B-

Kilarin wrote:Edgar J. Steele (aka Fusion Pimp):

huh?

You have my most sincere and humble apologies. I feel like an idiot (which isn't that unusual). I misunderstood. Without the link I thought you WERE the original source. I have deleted my original post.

Kilarin

It was pretty obvious to me you completely misunderstood. You certainly don't know me very well- mostly because if you did, you'd know I couldn't have written that article. I don't write that well and I'm most certainly not that witty.

Apology accepted.

I just called my dealer to find out if what the article said is true. He confirmed it.
He said that as of Januray 1st, they're required to have a AMLT(anti-money laundering team) and he is the guy in charge. They're required to fill out form 8300 for any activity they feel is suspicious and they're required to submit it to the IRS and the FCEN(per the Patriot act). He said that things are getting bizarre, but he didn't really expand on it and I forgot to ask for details because the topic kept changing. He did say that the laws that have been put into place over the past 3 years has raised some eyebrows in the bullion community and the new laws are frieghtening dealers out of business.He's been in business for 70 years(grandfather started the place) and for the first time since the doors opened they're considering shutting them down. This isn't some hole-in-the-wall joint. They're hi-tech and cater to the wealthy investors in the central valley.

He also told me that for the first time, him and his father have been taking all of their extra money and putting it into silver. I asked about gold, he said that even thuogh gold has doubled, they're shying away from it and putting their efforts toward silver because of its value and privacy issues.

Btw, in case some of you are thinking he's trying to push silver on me (which he doesn't have to do, I'd buy anyway and he knows this).. he doesn't have enough for me to make a decent purchase right now.

B-

I would have thrown in some \"...\" for the parts left out.

If I was funding a terrorist network, metals wouldn't be my payment of choice.

So short of prospecting, how does one buy silver? Buy shares? Buy the actual metal?

this thread turned into a veritable comedy of errors

Woody.
Check your PM's.