Q: Is it possible for the cartel to lose control of the gold & silver manipulation, but maintain bubbles such as real estate? I ask this because it’s not much point in gold/silver surging if our house will crash in value.
David Schectman’s Answer:
The connection between gold and silver – and the housing market is indirect. The housing values will be determined by two things; interest rates and the stock market, which underpins the economy (the wealth effect). The cartel intervenes in all of these markets. One of the main reasons they suppress the price of gold and silver is so they can hold DOWN interest rates – not to support the housing market, but to support the bond market. It’s all tied together.
When they lose control of the pricing mechanism (paper prices set on COMEX), gold and silver will rise and so too will interest rates, which will affect the housing market. I would expect it to have a negative affect but then again, when inflation enters the picture and becomes a concern for everyone, as it was in the 70s, the price of houses will rise along with interest rates. Your house will probably be worth more, but harder to sell.
Do not combine the two. Especially if your house loses value or liquidity, you will need gold and silver, which will rise rapidly and offset the losses, if you have enough in your possession, to soften or eliminate any losses in the value of your house. Once gold and silver are set free of the manipulation, you will need every inflation-hedge possible. Real estate and precious metals are solid assets, the main difference being the precious metals offer instant liquidity and real estate does not.
Q: Hi! I have been buying gold and silver for three or four years now and cannot for the life of me understand the price of the metals today. I sure wish I would have waited until the miners were going to be forced to sell their metal for less than it cost them to get it out of the ground. Now for my question. Who wants to drive the prices so low, and who is going to ultimately benefit long term from driving prices so low? These prices can only result in massive shortages. The only people that would benefit, and that would be temporary is Miles Franklin and all the stackers.
Bill Holter’s Answer:
First off it is a good thing you have been stacking even if prices are now down after your purchases. There is no telling “when” shortages will arrive but at these prices they ultimately will. The question is once shortages do arrive, can you get any metal and at what prices …especially were a markup by the Chinese to occur. If this is the case, you might have ended up with no metal and be forced to pay higher prices than you have to procure some.
Next, “who” would want low prices? This one is obvious, the Fed and other central banks want low metals prices to keep confidence in their currencies and allow them to sell debt at ridiculously low interest rates. If gold was now $3,000 per ounce then the “inflation secret” would be out of the bag and sovereign debt rates would be double or more. A 6% interest rate on 10 yr. Treasuries would expose the Treasury as broke and unable to even pay interest, this would be an end to the Ponzi scheme. The Ponzi scheme will ultimately end, suppressing metals prices aim to extend the life of Ponzi.
Q: Re: Yesterday’s report that the U.S. Treasury printed a record number, 4,140,000 Silver Eagles for month of September; I am wondering just who has the deep pockets and is buying up all of these Silver Eagles? Since the PM market is so small, there cannot be that many individual John and Mary Does who are participating in this mass purchasing; thus it must be the big players and banks such as JP Morgan and/or China in their efforts to buy at such low prices, which they have manipulated in advance?
Secondly. Where is the Treasury getting this many blanks in which to print so many Eagles…who supplies them with this much silver to begin with, or is it coming from their own vaults? I know nothing as to how the U.S. mint operates, but dang that is a lot of Silver Eagles being printed and sold for each month so far!!
Andy Hoffman’s Answer:
Regarding your first question, I’m not sure I understand. 4.1 million Silver eagles x $19/oz. is just $78 million. The Fed prints this each day, as do countless other Central banks. Plus, there are 1,500 individual billionaires on the planet, and millions of institutions of which $78 million is pocket change. Plus, your question seems to assume there is one buyer when in fact there are many. And for the record, we have NO DOUBT the majority of this year’s (and last years’) record U.S. Mint Silver Eagles are due to foreigners based on what we have seen as one of America’s largest bullion dealers.
As for the U.S. Mint’s operations, they have indeed run out of supply on many occasions – including 2008, 2011 and 2013 and even earlier this year when sales were rationed. Thus, it wouldn’t be a stretch to believe a new shortage is coming – and that might be soon!