Silver

[maineiac]

Silver and Gold are bad long term investments.  I would recommend having some in these hard assets in case things go bad, however you are better off in stocks long term.  Even some bonds would be better.

tekkie,

My bullion savings acquired 20+ years ago might be called a bad investment--however, thet are far from a total loss. My acquisitions of the past 10 years have made up for the former handsomely! I only wish I had invested MORE!



Your position IMO is debatable, at best.

[toowm]

Within the investment community, traditional asset classes like stocks, bonds, foreign investments, real estate, etc. are all considered to be fairly valued. Savvy funds like the Yale and Harvard endowments are increasing investments in real assets (including bullion) and out-of-the-money options in case everything crashes at once.

Gold is not a good single investment but diversifies stocks, bonds, and cash (all US$ based) quite well.

[teknari]

Mainelac my freedom loving friend, it really isn't debatable. 

The future is unknown so not really debatable. 

The past is known, and gold and silver has been crushed by equities.

If you like gold and silver, you would be better off holding gold and silver companies, than you would the actual gold and silver.

Again though, I do recommend having some for next time the government decides to close down the banks.

As for Yale and Harvard diversifying in commodities, I think it is a mistake.  They are the ultimate long term investors.  Unlike you and me, they should be shooting for a 1000 years hence.  You really do not need commodities at all in this case, you should only have all of your assets in the asset class that returns the highest returns, which would be equities.  They can handle their portfolio being down for 20 years where you and I might have to retire.

[DC]

It's finally coming to the point where the government must hide its M3 measurements to prolong itself for a few more years before the final collapse.

You can get the shadow government calculated M3 from here http://www.shadowstats.com/cgi-bin/sgs/data    The gov. M3 is in red and the calculated part is dark blue. The only stocks I will only buy are aggresive growth medical and drug mutual funds and that is because of the aging baby boomers.

[Pat McCotter]

Silver is falling again.

Silver Bid $13.57
Silver Ask $13.64

[Russell Kanning]

I like to think in the past tense. Silver has fallen. I don't know if it is falling or rising.

[Pat McCotter]

I like to think in the past tense. Silver has fallen. I don't know if it is falling or rising.

Past tense is "Silver fell."

"Silver has fallen" is present perfect simple tense.

[toowm]

Silver will have fallen when I need to sell.

[Russell Kanning]

Past tense is "Silver fell."

"Silver has fallen" is present perfect simple tense.

I will have killed Pat by the time you have read this sentence.

[Dave Ridley]

i say "silver fallded"

[Pat McCotter]

Past tense is "Silver fell."

"Silver has fallen" is present perfect simple tense.

I will have killed Pat by the time you have read this sentence.

Five Injured When Ouija Planchette Leaps From Board in Search of Semicolon

By Bob Michael December 13, 2006

LEXINGTON, Conn.--Five people were injured last week when a planchette--the device which points to letters and numbers on Ouija Boards--flew violently out of a house in search of a semicolon.
The planchette went rogue when Kelly Smerton, eleven, and her sister Karen, twelve, inadvertently channelled the spirit of a deceased English teacher.

"Apparently he was a pretty mean one," said Deborah Smerton, the girls' mother.

At the end of an independent clause condemning the Smerton house as a "den of ignoramuses," the ghost suddenly flung the planchette out of the girl's hands, shattering the bay window of their bedroom.

The planchette led police on a high-speed chase along the interstate, and jeered at its pursuers with the letters and numbers of other motorists' license plates.

The grammatical spree finally ended on an open page of Weekly World News on a coffee shop table; there, the planchette found a semicolon and finished its sentence.

"Nobody saw the final clause, though," said Douglas Renning, an eyewitness at the shop. Patrons were too busy helping the magazine's reader, who was treated for third degree burns after the planchette toppled her latte.

Kelly and Karen, who have discarded their Ouija board, fear the return of the ghost and his violent tirades against misspellings and split infinitives.

"In the meantime, though, their English grades have been fantastic," their mother said.

[KurtDaBear]

The future is unknown so not really debatable. 

The past is known, and gold and silver has been crushed by equities.

If you like gold and silver, you would be better off holding gold and silver companies, than you would the actual gold and silver.

Again though, I do recommend having some for next time the government decides to close down the banks.

Your optimism and enthusiasm are admirable, but they sound like they've been influenced a bit too much by "responsible" mainstream investment analysts.  (These are the type of people who recommended Enron up to the day it declared bankruptcy and pushed Nortel on clients as it sank from $80/sh. to under $1.)

Investments ebb and flow in popularity and profitability.  At times in the past, gold and silver have crushed equities, jut as equities have crushed gold and silver.  During the Depression, fortunes were in made in precious metals mining stocks, which became a proxy for all the private gold the government had confiscated.  Again from the early 1970's to the early 1980's, precious metals outperformed stocks.  And during the first six years of this millenium, silver and gold have far outperformed equities (up approx. 20% this year and up 200% since 2000).  On the other hand, from 1987 till 2000, you could have lost your lunch in precious metals while also missing the opportunity to make huge profits in equities.

You're right when you say that gold and silver mining companies can make better investments than physical gold and silver, as they provide excellent leverage to increasing metals prices, but not everyone is a good stock analyst, so
some might be better off just holding the physical metal and accepting a smaller rate of increase.

The point is that no one investment is right for all people or all times, so it's a good idea to diversify.  I like to think of my investment portfolio as a garden, in which different crops ripen at different times.  Those that are maturing need to be harvested and replanted while you're waiting for other crops to ripen.  Some of your crops will be quick maturing, some may be perennials, and others may be fruit trees that take years to develop.  (And we should not overlook the fact that some crops may be hit by drought or blight and die or weaken.  For that reason, it does not pay to be greedy, and it is my personal rule of thumb to sell half of any position that doubles so that the worst I can do, even if the stock goes broke, is to break even.)

Finally, while you are right to say the future is unknowable, it's good to look at the proverbial "handwriting on the wall" from time to time, as well as to remember that "Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."  Since most investment cycles run 15-20 years from start to finish, odds are that the current commodities boom has several years left to run.  Odds also are that equities will underperform commodities during that time.

[purewater4u.com]

We have our own business. Every two weeks we get "paid" in silver coin. (American Eagle Silver Dollars). We then have the business buy the silver coin at the current Ask Price. This way, no matter what happens to the FRN's, we always maintain our 'purchasing power'.

Can anyone else see the other 'benefits' of getting paid in silver & gold coin?

[Russell Kanning]

Sure ... I like to be paid is silver.

[error]

I love silver. I can't get enough of it.