Though slightly before my time – in terms of music I “grew up with,” I find it difficult to come up with a band that influenced my consciousness more than the Beatles. Sure, there are others I “liked” more – such as Genesis, the Police, Eric Clapton, and the Allman Brothers; but none contributed more to the social – and rock and roll – “fabric” than John, Paul, Ringo, and George.
Certain songs are so timeless, it’s difficult to envision when they were written. With each passing year, I hear them in numerous settings – from TV commercials, to the radio, to elevators. Each time I hear them, I love them just the same – and marvel as to how much more talented the Beatles were than 99% of their competition, both then and now.
On that note, let’s shift our focus to the financial arena; where Precious Metals set the “gold standard” of monetary artistry many millennia ago. Year in and year out – since the dawn of human existence – gold and silver have been the only substances to DEFINE money; that is, they are scarce, divisible, and fungible; and over long periods of time, have served as both mediums of exchange and stores of value. Countless “monetary substitutes” have come and gone – from fiat currencies, to wampum, to Bitcoin – but ALL have failed to unseat the “once and futures kings” of money.
Back to the Beatles, one song that particularly depicts their timeless, mysterious aura is “A Day in the Life”; which for some strange reason, popped into my head as I pondered the “angle” for today’s article. In a nutshell, the topic is yesterday’s three-hour shutdown of the entire NASDAQ market; yet again, based on an as yet undisclosed computer “glitch.” Such occurrences are entirely due to the commandeering of financial markets by Wall Street computer programs that not only cheat the public each and every nanosecond, but corrupt the system entirely. Over the past two years, I’ve written about these blights on society in articles such as “GOING BATS” and “NITE JUSTICE” – as summed up perfectly by Paul Craig Roberts…
Eighty percent of Wall Street trades are computer attempts to front-run buy and sell orders. The stock market is no longer a real market, but a rigged market based on spun news, computer algorithms and Fed liquidity.
-Trends Research, August 23, 2013
Out of the literally hundreds of Beatles songs, why did I choose “A Day in the Life?” Simple – because I thought of what the “typical day” for my PHYSICAL gold and silver holdings is like – as opposed to the speculative PAPER investments people hold in brokerage, futures, and other unprotected accounts (read: Lehman Brothers, MF Global, Cyprus, et al).
PHYSICAL PMs engender roughly all my liquid net worth – and until a year ago, it was held in my home. However, as discussed in last Fall’s “BREAKING NEWS,” most is now housed in Miles Franklin’s Brink storage program in Montreal; with the rest held safely in “undisclosed locations.” Each morning, I awaken from a restful sleep knowing my financial future is secured by said holdings – as I prepare to walk the dog, go to the gym, play with my new daughter, and go to work. Meanwhile, in the Brink’s vault and elsewhere, my gold and silver – with a smidgen of platinum for good measure – do absolutely NOTHING. That is, they don’t sleep, eat, or get influenced by anything.
Instead, they sit inertly and maintain their value – as they have for centuries; and care of the incessant INFLATION created by the dying, global fiat Ponzi scheme, said value is essentially always higher when the sun sets. Sure, TPTB may try to mask its value by naked shorting PAPER gold and silver that doesn’t exist; but in the end game, all they’re doing is setting the stage for still higher PM prices – which I ASSURE you, will inevitably express themselves.
Conversely, financial markets have been permanently broken; and with each passing day, the odds of losing your life’s savings in them grow exponentially larger. The whole sordid, world-killing affair started with the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act – when Wall Street banks commandeered not only financial markets, but our very lives through their expanding government reaches; exacerbated by 2008’s Global Meltdown I – when worldwide “QE to Infinity” became essential to the Ponzi scheme’s very existence. As the banks became richer, powerful, and less regulated, the “Financial Engineering Age” exploded like weeds after a thunderstorm; and by the late 2000s, computer algorithms had become the dominant force in trading activity – first in the stock market, but later the bond, currency, and commodity markets as well.
Today, capital invested in these “markets” is not only subject to the typical risks of speculative ventures, but the whims of the banks and their partners in government; not to mention, the computer algorithms their “research” have spawned. Whether due to “circuit breakers,” bail-ins, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or bank runs – among others – there are already numerous risks built into the system before the day’s trading even commences. And one of these days, the entire system will inevitably implode under its own weight; so it’s up to you to decide if you want to invest in the financial markets – and thus, play a daily game of “RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH ALL SIX CHAMBERS LOADED.” For now, it’s still your choice where you keep your life’s savings; but as for me, I’ll keep it in the only two places I can be confident of its daily “routine.” My home, which I live in each day and have no desire to leave; and PHYSICAL gold and silver – which with 100% certainty, will outlive the dollar, the stock market, and my great, great grandchildren.