By Patrick A. Heller
Commentary on Precious Metals Prepared for CoinWeek.com
I get teased a lot as I present information that is overwhelming of the “doom and gloom” kind. I don’t really mean to come across that way.
However, I think it is important that people make decisions for their own financial well-being on the basis of sufficiently complete information. Without the full story, it can be difficult to make the best decisions.
What I look to pass along is significant information that just isn’t being reported by the mainstream media.
Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 120,000 jobs had been added in the past month. What the regular media didn’t tell you is that 90,000 of the alleged jobs increase resulted from the double counting of jobs from the birth/death adjustment.
An investment advisor who was recently interviewed on a local radio station in my area stated that one of the reasons for optimism for the economy was that consumer spending had increased from year earlier levels. So, it becomes my job to explain that if you reduce current retail sales figures by the increase in consumer prices over the past year, the actual quantity of goods and services purchased has declined.
When you see US stock indices rising higher and higher, I need to let you know that mutual funds have experienced a net outflow of investor funds for ten consecutive months. That means that the increase in the stock markets is being manipulated by the US government, not by investors.
As the price of silver fell suddenly last week upon the release of the March 13 Federal Open Market Committee minutes, you need me to tell you that this only occurred because of the short sales of paper contracts within a few minutes equal to 80% of annual worldwide mining output.
When the mainstream media gives almost no coverage at all, it is left for me to tell you that on April 5 the Egan-Jones Rating Co again reduced the sovereign credit rating of the US government.
Although you may be aware that the interest rates being paid to savers is now virtually zero, it remains for me to explain how this has hurt the finances of the elderly. With lower interest income to help pay for retirement,almost 3 million Americans aged 55 or older have entered the job market since the supposed “official end” of the latest recession in 2009.
When you hear other so-called experts opine that gold and silver prices are at a peak or in a bubble, you need to know that, on an inflation-adjusted basis, neither gold nor silver had surpassed their January 1980 highs.Further, it is difficult to claim that precious metals are in a bubble when only a very low percentage of investors own them.
You should never rely solely on the information I share with you, because I am only giving you part of the big picture. However, it is my hope that you find what I share to be of enough value in seeing the big picture that you justify your commitment of time to read it.
Patrick A. Heller owns Liberty Coin Service and Premier Coins & Collectibles in Lansing, Michigan and writes Liberty’s Outlook, a monthly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at http://www.libertycoinservice.com. Other commentaries are available at Numismaster (http://www.numismaster.com under “News & Articles). His award-winning radio show “Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So, And Important News You Need To Know” can be heard at 8:45 AM Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio and text archives posted at http://www.1320wils.com.
Please remove Pat Heller from the list of individuals who provide regular commentary. I would be better off investing in a basement full of Campbell’s Soup than continue to line the pocket of Mr Heller and the large gold and silver business he runs.
Dan: Thanks for your email, but I am not sure what the purpose of the comment was. Pat provide COMMENTARY and OPINION. You can read it or not, think he is correct or not, or even better, send us your own commentary about what you think is happening in the gold and silver markets. The whole purpose is to provide different perspectives and points of view to allow you, the reader, to come to your own conclusions.
If you don’t agree with persons opinion, that is fine, but to conclude that we should not publish a commentary, or more radically, remove someone from our list of contributors because you disagree with the opinions expressed is a bit Orwellian, don’t you think?
Kudos to Patrick Heller for stating the truth. His commentary has been spot on for years. Perhaps Dan would like to write his own predictions and let us judge his.
Thank you, COIN WEEK, for publishing Mr. Heller’s commentary pieces. Please continue to carry his column. Ironic, isn’t it, that the certain segment of the population who claim to be concerned about the “working people” are the first to demand censorship of very information that us “working people” might actually be able to make some use of!
If one actually takes some time, nearly everything Mr. Heller writes can be verified by multiple, independent sources. Some things I’ve never found, but being that most take some digging to find, it’s not surprising that I’ve missed a few. But, I’ve yet to find any factual information Mr. Heller has presented to be untrue. As the COIN WEEK editor stated, what you DO with the information is up to the reader.
And that’s the greatest thing about free speech, Dan, YOU are free to ignore it if you choose. If you don’t like it, DON’T READ IT. But who are you to demand that others be prohibited from seeing it??????