Precious metals news

After several consecutive weeks of covering their shorts as silver rallied, the Commercials increased their silver futures shorts again in the week ending Tuesday 4/3/12, up a net 1,658 contracts […]

SD Bullion currently only accepts orders via telephone during posted hours.  Telephone conversations may be recorded for quality and control purposes.  You will be asked by the telephone agent if […]

As we all become more immersed in the silver and gold buying world we see the fear mongering around every corner. "No, the risks...it's not a safe investment!"..."The government could knock on your door and take it all away tomorrow."
We all know the FDR story back in the 1930's where an executive order required all citizen's gold to be collected at local Federal Reserve branches and then given an artificial price increase. Today the fear lives on as the precious metal world proliferates the executive order's chance to reappear. There are several reasons why silver and gold have a very small chance of ever being taken from its owners' hands by the government. Silver above all stands little chance of confiscation. Its industrial use and meek presence in the United States wouldn't even assist the government with the astronomical debt today. It also wouldn't be the individuals the government would first target; it'd be the mining companies.
Learn more about the history of the g...

By Peter Schiff
Gold has been holding steady in the the $1,600-$1,800 band since early October. This could be attributed to consolidation after last summer's historic run up to $1,895, but I think this wait-and-see attitude reflects current market sentiment toward the US dollar.
In fact, the first few days of April have seen a sharp dollar rally and decline in gold. This is rooted in deflated expectations of a third round of Quantitative Easing (QE3) after the most recent Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Once again, the markets are responding to the headlines while losing sight of the fundamentals.
This is especially peculiar because the Fed did not explicitly take QE3 off the table. In fact, according to the minutes, if the recovery falters or if inflation is too low, the Fed is already prepared to launch QE3. While there is not much chance of low inflation, I'll explain below why the recovery is not only going to falter - it's going to evaporate like the mirag...

By Doug Casey
In an interview with Sr. Editor Louis James, the inimitable Doug Casey throws cold water on those celebrating the economic recovery.
Louis: Hi Doug. I have to say, Doug, the so-called recovery is looking more than "so-called" to a lot of smart folks.
Doug: The first order of business, as usual, is a definition: a depression is a period of time in which the average standard of living declines significantly. I believe that's what we're seeing now, whatever the numbers produced by the politicians may seem to tell us.
Louis: I was just shopping for food and noticed that the bargain bread was on sale at 2 for $5. My gas costs almost as much per gallon. That's got to hurt a lot of people, especially on the lower income rungs. I don't need to ask; a member of my family just got a job that pays $12 per hour - about three times what I made working for the university food service back when I was in college - and it's not enough to cover his rent and basic bills. ...

After peaking at $1,780 in late February, gold dropped over $100 in March, finishing the month at $1,662.50.
Whenever there is a big move up or down, we all naturally seek confirmation and reassurance of our investment strategy, which is why investors must use objective measures to evaluate and re-evaluate their positions.
As someone who is invested in gold bullion, I enjoy speaking with like-minded people. Many agree that the United States' massive budget deficits and global monetary inflation support the gold bull market. I don't see this changing in the near future. Still, sentiment is not enough upon which to rely - I need a yardstick.
For me, that yardstick is US real interest rates. Real interest rates represent the inflation-adjusted interest rate on ‘risk-free' assets, such as US Treasuries. In other words, if a Treasury bond is held to maturity, the real interest rate shows if the bond investor is losing money due to inflation even if the bond posts a prof...

As this fall’s presidential election takes shape as a contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the rhetoric out of both camps is becoming sharper and more ideological. Looking to exploit Governor Romney’s increasingly close association with Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan (who has been mentioned as a potential vice presidential nominee), the President dedicated a lengthy address earlier this week to specifically heap scorn on Ryan’s budget plan (Ryan is the chairman of the House Budget Committee). The attack lines used by the President not only reveal a preview of the fall campaign but also offer a glimpse of Obama’s skewed views of the social and economic history of the United States.
The President laid bare his beliefs that America’s source of economic strength has been her historical embrace of collective action, wealth redistribution, and government policies that have protected workers from the ravages of the wealthy. To reiterate, he was talking about the United Sta...

Emerging Market Central Banks Driving Gold Higher CNBC - Mark Bristow, CEO of Randgold Resources, a miner with operations in western Africa, says that emerging market central banks are underpinning today's elevated and rising gold price. In a financially volatile world, Bristow maintains, emerging market central banks are using gold to mitigate their foreign exchange risks and as a general hedge. Bristow also thinks this will drive the yellow metal for years to come. Read Full Article>>

It's no surprise that with the growing popularity of physical bullion buying, Trey Parker and Matt Stone take on the gold scamming culture we now live in. The creators of South Park have been tackling some timely issues (the TSA, Dolphin Killings, and next week the GOP Primary!) in a hilarious manner, so I wasn't surprised one bit with the wit they added so gracefully into Episode 16 of this Season's South Park:
Cash for gold stores and shopping networks have been around for decades, but with the new emergence of social networks, and the intergenerational use of the internet, the choices have now become more broad, allowing competition to weed out the scammers!

So we recently began asking people to share their first gold/silver bullion buying experience. Little did we know how "off the radar" and hush-hush everyone would be. I've offered to not release any names but only the text sent our way. By sharing these types of stories with other buyers and curious investors we are working faster than the unethical bullion dealers can keep up. With peers near and far sharing their experiences, we'll surely create an intelligent group of physical precious metal buyers who can pass the knowledge down.
So here's one story from a reader about his transaction that happened over, none other than, our centripetal force of nature: Facebook.
I knew my friend had some gold bars. I wanted one. So I sent him a facebook message asking if he was willing to sell me one. He was pissed that I sent a facebook message considering that he wanted his gold ownership to be ‘off the radar'. Regardless, he sold me a 1 ounce Credit Suisse ingot for Spot.

This article was revised on March 23, 2012.
Earlier this month, the Department of Labor reported that 227,000 new jobs were added to the economy in February, marking the third consecutive month of positive jobs growth. Many observers have taken the news as evidence that the recovery is underway in earnest, helping send the S&P 500 index to the highest level in nearly five years. However, the very same day, the Commerce Department reported that after surging for much of the last year, the U.S. trade deficit increased to $52.6 billion for January - the largest monthly trade gap since October 2008. This second data point should dampen enthusiasm for the first.
From 2005 through mid-2008, those monthly figures almost always topped $50 or $60 billion, setting a monthly record of $67.3 billion in August 2006. But when the housing and credit markets imploded, attention was focused elsewhere. At that time, I was one of the few economists to raise a red flag about the dangers of grow...

The Federal Reserve ran another "stress test" on major financial institutions and has determined that 15 of the 19 tested are safe, even in the most extreme circumstances: an unemployment rate of 13%, a 50% decline in stock prices, and a further 21% decline in housing prices. The problem is that the most important factor that will determine these banks' long-term viability was purposefully overlooked - interest rates.
In the wake of the Credit Crunch, the Fed solved the problem of resetting adjustable-rate mortgages by essentially putting the entire country on an teaser rate. Just like those homeowners who really couldn't afford their houses, our balance sheet looks fine unless you factor in higher rates. The recent stress tests assume market interest rates stay low, the federal funds rate remains near-zero, and 10-year Treasuries keep below 2%. Why are those safe assumptions? Historic rates have averaged around 6%, a level that would cause every major US bank to fail!
The t...

So here at SchiffGold we try to keep you abreast of the latest in scams happening around the world and perhaps even in your neighborhood. Our blog has been running for a few months now and we've generated quite the buzz on Facebook, where we already have over 4,000 Fans! So today we'd like to hear from you. What was your first, physical metal buying experience like? Did you run into any of the problems that are covered in the Peter Schiff Gold Scam Report while shopping for the right dealer? A salesperson pushing numismatics? Dealer ever ask you to meet in a Kmart parking lot? We want to know!

By Peter Schiff
The gold doomsayers have found their champion in the media's favorite financial advisor and one of the world's richest men. Warren Buffett, the man dubbed the "Oracle of Omaha," has repeatedly and publicly denied that gold is an investment, and called gold buyers "speculators" and people "who fear almost all other assets." In fact, Buffett claims that gold's rise has the same characteristics as the housing and dot-com bubbles, and it is only a matter of time before it reverses course. He doesn't mean that the price will decline because of austerity measures and a free-market interest rate, mind you. He just asserts that because he's deemed it a bubble, it will inevitably burst.
The financial world by-and-large views Buffett as an objective observer, a rare investor who still considers the best interests of common man when he speaks. Each year, there is much hullabaloo over the letter Buffett writes to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway. When Buffett makes...

The communist revolutions in the 20th century sought to nationalize the wealth generated by privately held industries back to the “exploited” workers on whose backs the profits were supposedly derived. America has made the rejection of this idea and its support of free market principles the centerpiece of its economic narrative. However, as a result of our current and proposed tax policies towards corporate shareholders, our government collects a portion of industrial output that would inspire envy in even the most rabid Bolshevik.
The purpose of a corporation is to generate profits for owners (all other functions are secondary to this goal). Public corporations distribute these profits through dividends. But as a result of America's system of double taxation, where income is taxed on the corporate level and then again on the personal level, government receives a much bigger share of corporate income than the owners themselves. I also address this topic in my latest video blog.<...

How'd they do it? By agreeing to pay up to $4.5 million to its former, disgruntled customers.
Gold Line was taken to California's Superior Court after 19 consumer complaints were filed as a lawsuit in Santa Monica. Gold Line was accused of "bait and switching" customers, by luring them in with catchy bullion prices, then selling them on marked up numismatics. Sometimes the mark up was as much as 50%!
Gold Line didn't get away with it scot free by just agreeing to a multimillion dollar settlement. They are now under surveillance from the state of California who will be recording phone calls, meeting with company executives, as well as "secret shopping" their business as they please to ensure lawful practices. Gold Line stated that these measures would "enhance its industry-leading disclosures to prospective precious metals buyers." 
As we've talked about here at Gold Scams before, numismatics can be risky when it comes to investing your wealth into precious metals. If bul...

This month, as unleaded gasoline prices increased for 17 consecutive days (to a national average of $3.647 per gallon - up 11% thus far this year) and West Texas Intermediate crude joined Brent crude in breaking through a $100 per barrel level, energy prices emerged as a full blown political issue. While President Obama conveniently claimed that rising prices were the consequence of an improving economy (they're not, and it isn't) Republican fingers began to point sanctimoniously at current drilling policies. And while none of the accusers had any idea why prices were actually going up, the award for the most dangerous ‘solution' must go to Bill O'Reilly at Fox News. The master of the "No Spin Zone" announced that high pump prices could be permanently brought down by a presidential order to restrict exports of refined gasoline. Not only does Mr. O'Reilly's idea demonstrate contempt for the U.S. Constitution but it also displays a thorough lack of economic understanding.
Oi...

Gold Again Above $1,700 on Fed's Extended Zero-Rate Pledge Reuters - Gold rallied hard on January 25, climbing 2.5% intraday to above $1,700 an ounce, on news that the Fed is extending its promise to maintain near-zero interest rates until late 2014. The Fed's previous low-rate pledge was set to expire in mid-2013. The rally was gold's biggest intraday gain in four months, and eclipsed the day's modest gains in equities and other commodities. "Ben Bernanke is saying if you keep your money under your mattress, you lose out as the purchasing power of the US currency is being eroded," remarks Axel Merk, the currency expert from Merk Funds. Read Full Article>>
Gold Proves Safest as Goldman Forecasts Record Bloomberg - US Treasuries step aside; the world's oldest safe-haven asset is making a comeback. According to the Bloomberg Riskless Return Ranking, gold has outperformed all other commodities over the past five years when adjusted for volatility. The next-best performer has ...

NumberSleuth.org took on the ever interesting task of breaking down the life of gold, including where it is, who has it, and where it's going. Some of the facts pulled from this beautiful graphic are astonishing.
Did you know that all the gold in the world could be broken down to 5 golden rings per person on the planet? Or that contrary to most of you reading this, jewelry is the main use of gold, not investments!

Advocates of government stimulus are running victory laps on recent developments that appear to vindicate their strategy. In particular, Paul Krugman compares the sluggish growth in Europe to the somewhat-less-sluggish growth in the US to prove that stimulus was more effective than austerity. Other economists are using government inflation measures to defend Fed Chairman Bernanke's easy-money policy. The only problem is, they're calling the race before the finish line is even in sight.
As usual, Paul Krugman overlooks basic economics (which, despite his Nobel Prize, is a science about which Mr. Krugman really knows very little). The reason stimulus is so politically popular is that it appears to work in the short-term. However, appearances can often be deceiving, as they are right now in the US. Stimulus merely numbs the pain of economic contraction, as the underlying trauma gets worse. Austerity might slow an economy down, but at least the wounds are able to heal. America has c...