Media Celebrates after Trump’s Pro-Gold Fed Nominee Gets Blocked

Published here: http://goldsilverworlds.com/gold-silver-insights/media-celebrates-after-trumps-pro-gold-fed-nominee-gets-blocked/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=media-celebrates-after-trumps-pro-gold-fed-nominee-gets-blocked

It was only after he entered politics that President Donald Trump began to fully grasp the bias, dishonesty, and fakeness that runs throughout the so-called mainstream media.

But gold bugs and sound money advocates have long known to distrust the reporting of establishment news sources.

Journalists’ anti-gold and anti-Trump biases converged this week as the Senate took up President Trump’s nomination of Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve Board.

Shelton, a fierce Fed critic and past supporter of a gold standard, drew intense opposition from Senate Democrats. She also faced opposition from Republicans Lamar Alexander, Susan Collins, and Mitt Romney.

A path to her confirmation appeared to exist earlier this week, but that path was blocked, at least temporarily, on Tuesday.

Two Republican Senators had gone into quarantine and Democrat Kamala Harris shuttled in from her Vice President in-waiting training to cast a “no” vote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took procedural steps which enable him to bring Shelton back up for another vote when the two quarantined Republicans return. But that didn’t stop the press from pronouncing her nomination dead.

“Kamala Harris Rushes Back to Washington to Block Trump From Putting a Crank on the Fed Board,” blared a headline from Slate. The article smeared Shelton as a “crank who wants to return to the gold standard and get rid of deposit insurance.”

NPR, somewhat more diplomatically, derided Shelton for “her unorthodox support for the gold standard, a theory long discarded by mainstream economists.”

Meanwhile, NBC News also parroted the party line about Shelton. She is, we are told, “known for her unorthodox support for the gold standard, an archaic policy concept to which no developed economies today adhere.”

For those of us in the precious metals community, it’s all too familiar – the personal attacks, the equating of gold to a “barbarous” relic of the past, the invocation of “mainstream economists” as authority figures, etc.

The vast majority of financial journalists lack the intellectual curiosity to seek out the actual views of sound money advocates. Those who tread too indelicately on the gold-suppressing banking cartel are simply blacklisted by major media outlets – as has been the fate of the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee.

A classical gold standard does have potential drawbacks, to be sure.

For one, it would empower the government to “fix” the price of gold in terms of U.S. currency and enable it to cheat the system by subsequently raising the gold price – devaluing the dollar – as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt infamously did.

Many sound money advocates believe gold and silver should instead be allowed to circulate freely as money without any tax impediments so that they can find their true free market value.

Precious metals, along with cryptocurrencies and other alternatives, would have the opportunity to supplant government-issued fiat currencies that are mismanaged.

Judy Shelton as a lone voice at the Federal Reserve would obviously lack the ability to reshape U.S. monetary policy on her own. But the keepers of the prevailing Keynesian, inflationist orthodoxy want to make sure no dissenting voices have a seat at the table.

Otherwise the media might have to actually take their perspectives seriously.

Journalists constantly condition the public to trust the “experts” – no matter how often reality proves them wrong or how often they give contradictory advice.

For example, the top health experts have proven themselves to be clueless when it comes to forecasting or mitigating the spread of the novel coronavirus.

First they said travel bans were a bad idea. Then they said masks were a bad idea. Then they said we had to lock down the economy and be forced to wear masks. Now they can’t seem to point to compelling evidence on the region-by-region case trendlines that any of their policy recommendations where adopted have been effective.

But no matter what, the media tells us the anointed public health authorities have to be believed and the skeptics dismissed, demonized, and censored.

After months of fomenting economically crippling virus hysteria and pushing inflammatory racial narratives that led to rioting and crime spikes in cities across the country, the mainstream media managed to sink its credibility to even lower lows on election night.

Fox News joined other networks (though not all) in prematurely calling states for Joe Biden and falsely projecting that Democrats would increase their majority in Congress.

In fact, President Trump is still contesting some of those states and Republicans defied the media’s faulty polling models to shrink Nancy Pelosi’s majority and pick up at least nine seats in Congress.

The biggest source of election-related misinformation in 2020 was the fake news pumped out by the legacy media and their pollsters.

Regardless of how President Trump’s policy successes and failures are ultimately judged, one of his most significant accomplishments was to single-handedly discredit the media in the eyes of much of the public.

The public should also know that financial journalists are just as biased and error-prone as political journalists. They seem to have a special disdain for precious metals.

Many openly sneer at the sorts of people who buy gold and silver coins instead of entrusting all their wealth to banks and brokerages.

Investors would be wise to seek out a true market of information, including from alternative, non-“mainstream” sources, when it comes to deciding where to allocate capital. The most successful investors are often contrarians – selling what everyone else wants to buy, buying what everyone else wants to sell.

The fact that sound money principles are so out of favor among policymakers and economists may be a contrarian signal that they are needed now more than ever.

 

Stefan Gleason is President of Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 “Dealer of the Year” in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason is a seasoned business leader, investor, political strategist, and grassroots activist. Gleason has frequently appeared on national television networks such as CNN, FoxNews, and CNBC, and his writings have appeared in hundreds of publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Detroit News, Washington Times, and National Review.

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A Crooked TV-Based “Rare Coin” Dealer Strikes Again

Published here: http://goldsilverworlds.com/gold-silver-general/a-crooked-tv-based-rare-coin-dealer-strikes-again/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-crooked-tv-based-rare-coin-dealer-strikes-again

The biggest factor in whether your metals investment will make money will often be whether or not you purchase your metal at a fair price.

It is easy to compare prices and avoid getting ripped off, but investors must take the time to do it. If a would-be investor’s first and only call is to (or from) a shady rare coin dealer advertising on television or radio, they are all but certain to get screwed.

We’ll share a true story from last week as an object lesson – it’s involving what we’ll refer to as a “television dealer.”

Money Metals heard from a woman who had just purchased 631 silver Wildlife series coins from a television dealer for her precious metals IRA. These particular coins were represented by as a “limited issue” with an oddball weight of 1 ¼ oz each.

She paid $59,000 for the 788.75 troy ounces contained in those coins. That’s $74.80/oz when the spot silver price was just $24.50/oz. Yikes!

She should have called us – or read one of dozens of our articles on the subject over the years – before making her decision, not after.

When she did call Money Metals, we offered 10-ounce silver bars for just over $26 oz. She was shocked to find she could purchase nearly 3 times the ounces of silver for the same dollar investment.

Unfortunately, she is stuck in a trade with an unethical television dealer – and she may not be able to get out. If she is, she is stuck with her bad purchase, she will need silver prices to triple simply break even.

The television dealer’s crooked salesperson misrepresented at least two things about the coins he sold her…

First, the odd size is likely to make those silver coins less desirable, not more. Money Metals and other bullion dealers will buy them at a discount to 1 oz coins which are way more popular and easy to resell.

Second, while those coins may be minted in smaller lots, they are certainly not rare. We have purchased those coins by the thousands over the years. None of the series has ever commanded a significant premium to the metal price.

Every client who paid 3-times melt value for these bullion silver coins lost their shirts.

The above is just one example of how rare coin dealers – frequently seen advertising on TV with celebrity spokesmen – routinely take advantage of Americans.

Even though they are constantly getting slapped with lawsuits and regulatory actions, these shady operators are by still out there pressuring and exploiting victims in the precious metals space on a large scale, so investors must be on their guard.

Here are some red flags to watch out for:

• The salesperson claims that numismatic coins are exempt from tax, that numismatics will outperform bullion, or that bullion (but not collectibles) can be confiscated by the government.
• The salesperson calls you repetitively claiming to have a “super-hot buy” and that if you don’t grab it immediately, someone else will, or uses some other pressure technique.
• You are told the resale value is higher than the current purchase price, as if the salesperson is going to sell coins to you for less than they could elsewhere.
• The dealer doesn’t publish prices at which they buy and sell.

The truth is that you are guaranteed immediate confiscation through the high premiums on “rare” coins. Bullion and collectible coins have identical tax treatment. And rare coins can hardly be expected to outperform when investors are so deeply underwater right out of the gate based on massive buy/sell spreads.

Virtually any story you hear about why you should avoid bullion and buy collectible coins instead is going to be complete BS.

One of the best ways to make sure you don’t get ripped off is to find out what the item you are thinking of buying can be sold back to the dealer for.

You must know the melt value of the actual gold or silver the items contain.

Money Metals Exchange was one of the only major dealers to publish both prices live on each of our product pages. Clients can see at a glance both what they pay to buy and what they receive to sell. They can be certain they will not be taken for a ride.

 

Clint Siegner is a Director at Money Metals Exchange, the national precious metals company named 2015 “Dealer of the Year” in the United States by an independent global ratings group. A graduate of Linfield College in Oregon, Siegner puts his experience in business management along with his passion for personal liberty, limited government, and honest money into the development of Money Metals’ brand and reach. This includes writing extensively on the bullion markets and their intersection with policy and world affairs.

 

 

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You May Have Overlooked These “Sleeper” Precious Metals

Published here: http://goldsilverworlds.com/physical-market/you-may-have-overlooked-these-sleeper-precious-metals/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=you-may-have-overlooked-these-sleeper-precious-metals

Precious metals markets got off to a rocky start this week as Wall Street celebrated promising developments on the vaccine front.

On Monday, stocks surged while gold and silver sold off hard. That selling didn’t bring downside follow through, however. The metals held trading range support levels and pared some of their earlier losses heading into this Friday the 13^th.

A metal we don’t often talk about traded up to an amazing record high earlier this week. The noble metal rhodium made palladium look dirt cheap by comparison – commanding as much as $15,000 per ounce.

Like platinum and palladium, the primary application for rhodium is catalytic converters for cars and trucks. It is often alloyed with platinum and palladium to enhance resistance to corrosion. Rhodium is also used in some types of jewelry.

The high-flying metal is available to investors through Money Metals Exchange in very limited quantities in the form of one-ounce and 5-ounce bullion bars. They come sealed and authenticated by either of the reputable mints Baird & Company or PAMP Suisse.

That said, we don’t necessarily recommend buying rhodium at these levels. It’s certainly not suitable for all investors. Those that own rhodium and want to take profits.

We would suggest that those looking to diversify their metals portfolio beyond core gold and silver holdings consider platinum bullion coins or bars instead. The market for platinum is more liquid and the price per ounce is much more affordable.

Platinum is more than twenty times rarer than gold. It is so rare that all of the platinum ever mined could fit into a room measuring 25 feet by 25 feet.

The case against platinum is that its demand profile is very narrow, dominated by the automotive industry, and is generally not held in monetary reserves like gold.

In large part due to a big diesel-emissions scandal a few years ago, platinum has been out of favor for use in auto catalysts as manufacturers have turned more to its sister metal palladium. But with palladium now costing more than double what platinum does, incentives for substitution are strong.

There are also incentives for investors to substitute or supplement with platinum as part of their hard asset mix. Inflows into the top platinum exchange-traded fund have surged this year along with the broader wave of gold and silver buying.

It won’t take much of an increase in demand for platinum to overwhelm mining supply. The platinum producing industry, such as it is, will struggle to arrest declining output levels.

As a hard asset, platinum should benefit from the inflationary environment the world now faces. Meanwhile, if there’s an economic recovery, platinum prices would receive a new tailwind from rising industrial activity.

On a historic basis, platinum is extremely undervalued versus gold, palladium, and most definitely rhodium.

A few years ago, though, an investor could have purchased rhodium at a fraction of today’s price. As recently as early 2017, rhodium sold for less than $1,000 per ounce.

Rhodium’s explosive move since could potentially play out on a similar scale in other metals in the years ahead. Perhaps platinum, perhaps silver, could enjoy a massive multi-fold run up on supply scarcity and surging demand.

The CEO of First Majestic, one of the world’s leading silver producers and a past guest here on our podcast, expects to see much much higher silver prices.  First Majestic founder Keith Neumeyer said in a recent interview that silver will become increasingly essential to alternative energy components of the “green economy” that politicians around the world are racing to transition us into.

Keith Neumeyer: I still believe today that silver is going to go to triple digits, and I get laughed at all the time, but I’m not going to get knocked off my game just because some people think I’m talking my own book. I actually believe for real fundamental reasons.

If we’re going to go green and we’re going to do everything we need to do as a human race to evolve this species to where we want to go, we need a lot more silver, and copper as well, but obviously, I run a silver company. So, I’m going to keep pushing as hard as I can growing this business, stay very much focused on silver. In one of these days, I will be vindicated when I see triple digits.

Triple digit silver may not be that far off.  Considering how rapidly five-digit rhodium came to fruition, silver could see a $100 handle on a relatively modest bull market advance.

Well, as the presidential election continues to be contested and all eyes focus on Georgia to determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, the Republican-controlled Senate quietly moved this week to change the makeup of the Federal Reserve Board.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell finally cleared the way for a vote on President Donald Trump’s nominee Judy Shelton.

Her nomination is bitterly opposed by Democrats who have derided her past support of a gold standard. Some Republicans have wavered on supporting her because of her unconventional views on monetary policy. But it appears that she now has the votes to be confirmed sometime next week.

We doubt Shelton will move the central bank toward sound money principles. But she could serve as a powerful voice of dissent on monetary policy decisions.

The Fed operates based on the myth that its monetary activism is supported by all the leading experts.

It’s true that the economists who work for banks, for Wall Street, and for the government tend to endorse the Fed’s inflationist philosophy. But there are entire schools of economics dedicated to opposing it.

There is also thousands of years of history demonstrating that inflationary fiat monetary systems ultimately fail.

Currency based on hard money – gold and silver – may be inconvenient for the agendas of powerful financial and political interests. But precious metals will always represent real value which can never be replicated by paper notes or computer digits.

 

Mike Gleason is a Director with Money Metals Exchange, a national precious metals dealer with over 50,000 customers. Gleason is a hard money advocate and a strong proponent of personal liberty, limited government and the Austrian School of Economics. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason has extensive experience in management, sales and logistics as well as precious metals investing. He also puts his longtime broadcasting background to good use, hosting a weekly precious metals podcast since 2011, a program listened to by tens of thousands each week.

 

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