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Inflation.
Deflation. Inflation. Deflation. . . . Back and forth we go as the carousel
of experts debate unendingly about whether or not the U.S.S. Armageddon is
facing a northerly or southerly economic wind. Meanwhile, all hands on deck
are getting sea sick.
Since GoldandSilverNow.com launched in early November, I’ve spent long
hours on the telephone with people from across this nation. The truth is,
ordinary folks aren’t talking about inflation or deflation. The words
are: Desperation. Starvation. Migration. Depravation. Damnation . . .
Obamanation. Chem Trail Nation. FEMA Concentration.
One gentleman this week asked me why I wasn’t selling the world’s
most valuable commodity: food.
Another gentleman told me I needed to add a third precious metal to my
website: lead.
One guy spent thirty minutes touting the importance of buying solar panels -
NOW!
Read that again. Forget technical analyses and fundamentals. People are going
long on the Second Coming. Why are the premiums on gold coins smaller, by
percentage, than silver (7-8% compared to 30-50%)? Why are the premiums on
100 oz bars dwindling (down from 20% in October to around 10% or less)? One
reason is that the folks who work fifty hours per week to scrape together a
little savings are investing in one ounce silver rounds. Why? Because they
want to barter in the bread line, obviously.
As crazy as it sounds, even to the people who find themselves trading in
401ks for Sunshine rounds, the fear of mass calamity is beginning to catch
fire in Suburbia. These are genuine, honest, normal people - not big banks or
billion dollar investors. They’re not conspiracy theorists either. They
are grandmothers and small businessmen, teamsters and restaurant owners,
academics and blue collars of every make, model, and variety. They are from
Maine and California and everywhere in between. Conservatives and liberals
alike. It is a growing group of Americans who fear it is Apocalypse Now. How
do you spell panic? U-S-A. And it is just the very beginning.
Most buyers are first timers. They aren’t Kitco junkies or newsletter
subscribers. They come from all directions, but mostly from the Thanksgiving
table where their brothers- and fathers-in-law put the hard sell on gold,
silver, and the Rapture. They make up the “popular” market, and
they are being introduced to physical metal through bestselling books and
word of mouth. This is no longer your father’s bullion marketplace. The
word is hitting the street - Main Street.
The big guys are beginning to hit the bandwagon too - the millionaires who
let overpaid wealth managers ride their net worth down The Flume. They are
gold and silver novices, real estate developers and corporate honchos who are
just beginning to understand that negotiating ten cents on a premium matters
little when the spot price jumps fifty cents in a day. And they are beginning
to buy in a big way, whether the COMEX price reflects that or not.
In light of the overriding fear, the most common question is: “why are
investors selling?!” Why? Because people are losing their jobs and
can’t pay the second mortgage. Because investors sniff Foreign Exchange
Controls and they are getting their (ass)ets out of the country. Because of
arbitrage opportunities. Lots of reasons . . . but no one I speak to is
selling short on economic catastrophe. That much is almost a given. The only
question is: how bad will it be?
Inflation, deflation, tribulation. Whatever the case, it all sounds pretty
bleak. I’ll see you in the bread line, and I’ll be bringing
silver.
Til
next time, that’s my Saab Story.
Tarek Saab
Guardian
Commodities
Tarek
Saab is the President of Guardian Commodities and a
former finalist on NBC's "The Apprentice" with Donald Trump. He is
an international speaker and syndicated author.
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