Fool’s Gold
by Jeffrey JenaThere’s a new gold rush on but you don’t have to head to the hills of California to be part of it. All you have to do is tune in to talk radio and jot down an “800″ number where a few of the big syndicated shows pimp for the gold merchants. The ads for these companies are all over radio and television.
I have no problem with a host or show taking advertising from any product. If Rush wants to run a few Obama ads, no problem. If Dr. Savage can sell ads to the ACLU, I say he should give his sales staff a bonus. I’m a capitalist all for making a nickel who believes in the old saying, caveat emptor – buyer beware. Yet, it’s different when the host reads the commercial live. This signifies a level of approval beyond “we let this guy buy ads on our show.”
Here’s my problem: when you rant about Obama’s negativity bringing the economy down, that’s one thing, but when you turn around and urge your listeners to buy gold because things are going to get worse, that’s hypocrisy.
The idea behind the new gold rush is that the country is going to hell in a hurry with the new socialism and we had all better rush out and buy gold because the way things are going our currency will soon be worthless. If you want food and fuel, you better have gold because we’ll all be bartering for essentials. This is fear mongering from guys who are down on Obama for fear mongering.
The worst offender is one of my favorite radio guys, Glenn Beck. The other day I was listening to his show and heard his long commercial for a gold advertiser. It was beyond an endorsement; it was a monologue about the coming crisis. He basically said that if you don’t get some gold today, you’re setting yourself and your family up to starve to death next year. Glenn could be right; we could be headed to a complete breakdown of the international economic and social structure. I don’t think so, but if we are, a little gold won’t help. It’s not like the Kroger would still be open to take filings off your Krugerrand for groceries. It’s not likely some orderly barter system will replace your ATM card.
If you don’t think society’s breaking down, then buying gold retail is not a great investment. First, gold is at an all-time high and I don’t know anyone who thinks buying at the top of the market is a good move. I know ads say the price could be $1500 by the end of the year, but the price could be at $300 by the end of the year and your investment down 70 percent. If you want security, don’t buy gold, take your money out from under the mattress and buy a CD at your local bank. Second, if you call one of those “800″ numbers, you’re not going to get the spot price you see on CNBC. The broker’s percentage on buying and selling precious metals makes the guy in the suit at Merrill Lynch nicking you for 3 or 4 points look like a piker.
If you do believe Armageddon is just around the corner, learn to grow your own food and make sure you can field dress an animal. Teach your kids to hunt and fish. Get guns and lots of ammo. Before you do, let me know, because I want to get a few shares of Smith and Wesson.
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60 Comments
Smith&Wesson is up to 3.66 a share from 1.53 in December. Jump on while you can!
Thanks for saying what I've wanted to for some time. If our economic system collapses gold isn't going to get you squat. If you came to me needing my services a chicken would get you further than an ounce of gold. Remember gold is only good for jewelry you can't eat it, drink it, or live in it. When times are hard people need food, water, and shelter. Starving people aren't going to need gold but they'll need food. The best investment is still land, was and always will be. All you have to do is defend it. Smith & Wesson anyone.
Thank you, I think these gold ads are ridiculous (if not borderline fraudulent) and I think it's even worse when the hosts read these things.
By the way, I used to like Glenn Beck until I started getting the feeling that he was rushing home from his show to work on a bunker. As someone who follows business and money matters very closely, Glenn's really lost his mind.
I hate to say it, but I think it is stupid to put your money in CD. If a bank holiday hits, your money is stuck.
Gold is money.
It is the money put forth in our US constitution, and to shun it, I think you should ask yourself, what else are you asking to ignore from the piece of paper?
I would invite you to remember the term "not worth a continental"???
People here can believe whatever they want, the fact is, Gold is Money. I am trading my paper for silver and gold as fast as I can, stocking up on food, and bullets. Of all places in the country, if all hell does break lose, LA is going to suck! A little silver or gold to barter your way out of a checkpoint will help.
Call me crazy, but there is no Fiat currency that has ever lasted. I will stick with gold, two centuries of history will back me up on that… I think the constitution writers understood this…if you understood your American history I think you would too…
Gold? HAH!
Can't eat gold. Can't use S&W shares, either.
BUT, you can use a S&W to feed yourself. Along with AR-15's G-3's, Walthers, etc., which gives PETA nightmares.
These guys are gonna "Bubble" gold just like they did tech and real estate.
Try to work hard enough in the next few years, (very difficult, I understand, with PBHO), and buy when the bubble bursts.
In all seriousness, the US$ could very well crash due to the huge debt we are incurring, and inflation could spike making that CD a not very good investment. Real goods, like property, and, well gold, are considered a good thing to own in times like that. Buy you are right, gold is at a market peak right now. Instead of buying gold, buy property, or, if you can, diversify and buy foreign currencies and foreign equities.
Thanks for saying what I've wanted to for some time. If our economic system collapses gold isn't going to get you squat. If you came to me needing my services a chicken would get you further than an ounce of gold. Remember gold is only good for jewelry you can't eat it
Thanks for saying what I've wanted to for some time. If our economic system collapses gold isn't going to get you squat. If you came to me needing my services a chicken would get you further than an ounce of gold. Remember gold is only good for jewelry you can't eat it
Sorry for duplicate posts, having browser trouble.
I look at gold as a small hedge, If all hell breaks loose, and I doubt very much it will. To have a 10% to 15% of your investment in gold should be considered for defense in this economic time. Just like I would not take all my investment money and buy S&W guns or stock, a small position and right caliber is a good thing. Sure gold may go down in price and it will most likely be a bubble at some point, what investment is ever stable forever.
With BO crying that the sky is falling every day, he is going to be a great salesman for gold. You may not be able to buy daily food with it but you may be able to buy the store
Scott Then I think you show buy lots of gold! When it drops back to 300 write me that line about "fiat currency". My point is that if our cash is worthless and society breaks down you'll need a gun and survival skills, or learn how to throw gold bricks at the people coming for your food.
I guess I don't really get the outrage. I don't have any gold, or really care one way or another. I think if the economy goes completely tits up, then gold will be useless, and the only way to save ourselves will be to kill critters and grow food. For those who already know how to do this, I guess that means, just use common sense for now. If buying gold makes you feel safe, and you want it, fine by me.
I just noticed that you have a gold advertisement on this page. It looks like gold is paying off for someone already
Just ironic, and I know you have nothing to do with advertisement on this blog but I did get a good laugh at the positioning of this ad
{… cont.} Here's the relevant part… (his English is a little shaky, but you should get the gist)
f I could travel back in time, I’d buy a small bag worth of gold rings…
So, my advice, if you are preparing for a small economical crisis, gold coins make sense. You will keep the value of the stuff and be able to sell it for its actual cost to gold dealers or maybe other survivalists that know the true value of the item. In my case, gold coins would have been an excellent investment, saving me from loosing money when the local economy crashed. Even though things are bad, I can go to a bank down town and get paid for what a gold coin is truly worth, same goes for pure silver. But where I live, in my local are small time dealers will only pay you the value of junk gold, no matter what kind of gold you have. So, I’d have to say that if TSHTF bad, gold jewelry is a better trade item than gold coins
Now about that chicken…
So, who here is confident enough to short gold? Anyone? Anyone?
Using gold as a hedge, my portfolio is UP nearly 2% since 1996.
Laugh away.
2 things about gold: You buy at retail and if you sell to make a profit it has to be at wholesale. Plus it pays you nothing.
There's a lot of fear mongering out there.
I still like Beck. He sure is a "sky is falling" kind of guy but it's still a nice change from the Obama love fest that goes on on the other news networks.
But yes, these gold commercials are getting tiresome. That's what the cd player in my car is for. Besides, it seeme to me like these guys are selling the product for their own self interests. Cause an increase in demand for gold and the gold that they already hold increases in value.
It is impossible to return to a commodity based currency. There is not enough Gold that is not being used altready in thousands of Industrial purposes to possibly Monitize Currency. The biggest reason that the economy was able to expand to unprecidented levels after WWII was that we were no longer caputured by the limited resources of Gold. All that a commodity based currency does is limit the available amount of capital to an arbitrary amount. This results in Deflation where a very limited supply of money has to do more and more. The price of whatever commodity chosen to tie currency to actually declines in this system, not increase. The poor increase and the middle class vanishes. What real intrinsic value does Gold have? It is a great conductor of electricity and is used in electronics. It is inert and due to that it is used in the Medical Field. It is shiny, it is used in Jewelry. Remember at one time Aluminium was much more expensive than Gold per Ounce and Jewlry made of Aluminium was much sought after. Now not so much. Gold is maliable and has many Industrial applications due to this, but Gold as Money not so much good can come of that.
CD's are a farce. The way the dollar value is tumbling, you may get a few extra bucks in 2 or 3 years, but they'll be worth less money, so you'll net LOSE money on the CD.
Hahaha! Haha– Wait… But I'm broke.
Whatever, Jeffrey Jena. Tell me what else you're going to use to put some bling in yo' grill.
Very true. They're not going to do anything to downplay the value of what they're holding.
Don't get me wrong, I like Beck… but, he's hard to listen to right now.
That's how I paid for my Chrysler … an armload of chicken and two rubber bands.
Beck is a hack. I used to enjoy listening to him because of his sense of humor and energy, but every week he tried to sell a new calamity. His Fox show is hilarious, but is only one step away from turning into his radio show (fear-mongering at it's worst). A year ago (right before he got pulled from the Chicago market) he was telling his listeners daily that there was an Islamic plot to rape and mass-murder kids on schoolbuses (and he backed that by "anonymous" sources from the FBI and other agencies).
He'd be much more entertaining if he wasn't busy trying to forge his career on tragedy. I never thought I'd see anyone that made Jerry Springer seem like a legitimate journalist.
LOL!! Forgot about the bling.
Heck, that WAS my first car.
Heck, that WAS my first car.
I could have gotten you a Lincoln for that.
That's tailoring for ya! And you don't need Google Sense to see it work. If you have a blog that has advertising, or a Google mail or Yahoo mail account, you can easily experiment by writing something in a mail message and sending it to yourself, of your friends, if they don't mind.
Type in anything, for example, 'gold', or 'vacation' or 'Uzi', even. I'll bet the next time you reload the page, you'll have ads tailored to at least one of those, maybe all three. Would be great, if one company managed to cover all three keywords with a single product!
I'm selling gold right now. It's at historic highs. I'm keeping my silver though. Think about it: You want to carry five ounces of gold around at $1K per, or a couple of ounces of silver at $15.00? Exactly. Silver is more readily negotiable.
However, the real smart money is on booze. If society does break down, the people who hoarded gin and tequila will be in the best positions. Forget canned goods, bottles are where it's at.
Nay on the booze. Russia would upset the balance of power.
Whether or not gold is a good investment, I too don't like it when radio people blur the ad-reading into their regular commentary. It's like when you are reading a car magazine and some automaker takes out an ad that looks like it is part of the magazine. It takes you a minute before you notice the "Advertisement" text.
If you want to shill for gold on your radio show, have at it. I would just appreciate it if you would make sure that I know you are reading an advertisement.
The idea that gold has inherent value is an illusion. Gold only has value because people give it value. Without the desire of people to own it, it has no more value than gravel. That desire is subject to many influence, the same influence that play on currencies — even excess "printing" because millions of tons of gold are added to the market each year by miners.
Additionally, it is erroneous to think that paper currencies can collapse but gold can't. Right now gold is near $1000 an ounce. But it could fall significantly, as it has many times in the past. If it falls to $400 an ounce, it's lost 60% of its value. That would gold into the equivalent of the old (and future) peso.
Gold only makes sense as a hedge against the dollar falling (it's traded in dollars), but there are other, better hedges you can use. In fact, one of the problems with gold right now is that it's been overbought, so even dollar weakness is not causing the movements the goldbugs expect.
I have a problem with almost everything that is advertised today. Free credit report.com? I should have seen it coming like an atom bomb. A couple years ago they were advertising mortgages where some bank makes $5,000 on one transaction shuffling paper. It seems that more and more advertisements are from services that do little or nothing but can somehow make a huge profit.The IRS defenders are advertising in force too. They just take a hefty up front fee and negotiate your back taxes down; a few phone calls and letters from lawyers and they get thousands. Insurance and these identity theft defenders. They just e-mail you alerts for 14.95 per month, no wonder they can afford all that advertising!
Hosts putting their credibility on the line with things like gold is risky. Chances are when things are being pushed the most is where the peak lies, and therefore the host is in quite a precarious situation. How many people will get burned and will be able to dismiss everything he says?
I't's not a 100% rule, but oil and gold/silver seem to rise and fall together. When gas was $4 a gallon last year I sold a bunch of silver for almost $20 an ounce. It's taking a dive right now. Down to about $13.
In a crisis, having some gold around could well save your life. Try buying a car with an armload of chickens sometime.
The Gold Ad is posted just as a service to thos who have not seen Mr Liddy shilling.
Since 1996 the money I have in an anuity and in bonds is up some 30 percent. My stocks…hummm that is a different story but after the tech crash I lost sixty percent, back up over 100% through the last 9 years and now just about 10% below where I was before the tech crash.
still the stock market, like housing is like a poker game you are not up or down until you get out of the game
If it gets to the point where we are traging metals for food no one will be making cars
That made me laugh! Excellent witty, Brisco!
At least gold isn't pitched by Billy Mays or Shamwow Vince. Yet.
A gold commercial, written by the the noodling aimless moron who did the beep beep dot com commercials, with lyrics by free credit report dot com guy, sung by Billy and Vince.
Weapons-grade. Mental imagery like that could make H.P. Lovecraft crap his drawers.
Mark Steyn said the only two things showing a profit at Christmas was guns and his Christmas single..
My favorite line in those spots is "…and gold has never been worth zero." Kind of inspires confidence, doesn't it?
Power like that is not meant to exist on this earth, the heavens would open up and swallow the ad agency… at least I hope.
If you're going to buy gold because you think the price is going to go up (which it may very well) fine.
But if you're concerned about a complete collapse situation, the precious metals you should be investing in are brass copper and lead … all wrapped up in handy little packages.
If society breaks down, well they have an obvious use, but they can also be used as cash (much more readily than gold).
In a TEOTWAWKI situation you're not going to find BUYERS for your gold … maybe some guy will give you a tank of gas for a pound of gold (a pound you spent how many years saving for?) But this same guy would probably also give you a tank of gas for a couple dozen rounds of 5.56mm (or if you've got no morals, you can take the tank of gas with just one or two of those rounds of 5.56mm).
I agree that guns and booze are a good investment. So is learning how to grow your own food and protect yourself. Since the dollar may be cheaper than toilet paper before long (about 2 rolls per each right now), gold and silver are considered real money by almost everyone, almost everywhere, especially in the age of digital money. But shop around for prices, the high budget marketers don't have the good deals, and Hannity and Beck, etc.,. should turn them down for that reason alone.
Whenever I lose trust in a radio (or t.v.) personality, I just turn the dial. Or shut it off completely.
http://the100mostannoyingthings.blogspot.com/
Frontsight, Nevada for the vacation to shoot Uzi's and lose you gold in a casino…
That's the ticket! ROFLMAO!
That's why no gold or firearm stocks…the firearms hold value in this situation much better…
And if PBHO has his way, the older cartridge stocks you have in your ammo cans will be worth a lot more…
Idea: Invest in reloading equipment.
Billy Mays and Shamwow Vince have made sales an art, and gold is of no interest to a sales artist. The reason is that Billy Mays and Shamwow guy are the masters of generating perceived value, where as gold already has perceived value going back thousands of years. They leave gold peddling to the amateurs.
Hey! Everybody calm down! You're scarin' me!
Good… ooops, I mean, oh no, we're not trying to scare anyone. Can we raise your taxes? It will solve this whole problem….
No you cannot raise my taxes 'cause you didn't say "mother, may I?" I wish Congress had a "Mother, May I" rule. I am now going to crawl into my "safe place" with a bottle of strong alcohol…
Me and some of my friends have longged planned for the zombie apocolypse (either literal undead zombies or liberal zombies, the differences are surprisingly few, both will eat your brain and make you just like them if you let them). When news first breaks of said zombie apocolypse we plan to hoard food, weapons, ammo, gassoline, water, and technology (generators, vehicles, etc). From there, build a nice base of operations near the ocean, and, should worst come to worse, flee to a waiting boat docked off shore with supplies for fishing and desalinization, so we can survive at see until zombies die off. We haven't been worrying over precious metals or gemstones, figuring food, fuel, and tech will be far more valuable.
I've been trying not to say this, in the hopes that somebody else would, but let's face it: The most dependable form of currency is generated by the world's oldest profession.
Discuss.
I’ve come up with a list of commodities and assets to back the dollar that hold more real value for people than gold:
-Sushi – California Rolls = $5. Yellow tail = $10, etc. Trade them fast, though— Rapid depreciation.
-Chocolate – The only flaw: Another Germanic rise to power.
-Music CD’s – I kind of like the poverty line being drawn at people with bad taste.
-Houses – A sure way to put Jimmy Carter into financial ruin.
-Beer – There’d be a cold war between the power blocs of Texas/Wisconsin and Germany/Belgium.
-Hippies – No, hear me out. Remember that “bad bank” for toxic assets that Obama was talking about?
-Hollywood films – It’d be a good way to stay in synch with the current rate of inflation.
-American cars – We wouldn’t be much worse off than we are post-stimulus.
But I think the #1 asset to back the dollar with is…
Liberals.
Again, hear me out. You know how they believe they’re entitled to goods and services regardless of productivity? Bingo! Inherent, absolute value!
Oh I know that. I was thinking more like "Legacy" cars that refuse to die. Like Mad Max or Terminator cars. Or to use a more realistic example, old American cars in Cuba. They're like Zombies. They refuse to die. I can't remember the name, but there's a great documentary about the subject. They make their own parts from scratch and even sell them in the U.S. and elsewhere to restorers.
But back to gold: I wouldn't invest in it, but having some around could solve a lot of problems in a post-apocalyptic world, or just an economic collapse. This is where we could actually learn something from Argentina. They're experts. Their economy has collapsed more times than Courtney Love's gynocologist.
Yipes then I am really screwed (no pun intended). I doubt there will much of a market for women my age. I remember when the world's oldest profession was new!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing down what I've been thinking ever since I started hearing those damn gold ads on the radio. If ever there was a group that wanted the economy to go in the toilet it was those damn gold coin hawkers.
People are complaining about the economy, then they do nothing that might help it, like either investing in businesses (stocks) or creating their own business. You want the economy to improve? Then support an entrepreneur or become one yourself.
If all you're going to do is piss and moan then the Outhouse is over there. Pick up a magazine, either Townhall or Mother Jones, your choice. Enjoy the stench. The rest of us got work to do.
I just wish all of these people would just quit hawking gold as an investment. It's not! It's a commodity, therefore you are speculating. Not the same thing!
If you are looking forward to invest in gold, then the gold bar can be a best deal for you. For this you should know that the value of gold bar is indispensable.
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