Buy Silver Bullion Coins

Charles Kadlec
February 22, 2011
www.blogs.forbes.com
As silver climbed above $30 an ounce on Monday for the first time since 1980, traders and analysts were cautiously bullish about the metal's ability to keep outperforming gold and stay at 30-year highs.
The stakes have seldom been higher. With the unemployment rate still above 9%, and federal debt at record levels, this latest error by the monetary authorities is likely to be the most costly since the Great Inflation of the 1970s. Monetary instability will slow employment growth and further erode confidence in government at the same time that higher interest rates will add billions of dollars to the interest cost on the national debt. Yet, failure to act in a timely basis will lead to an even greater crisis.
When it arrives, the Federal Reserve and its defenders will call it "cost-push" inflation and blame it on economic growth, the weather, Arab sheiks, China, and perhaps greedy companies and labor unions.
The actual cause of the looming crisis is the same as the cause of the Great Inflation of the 1970's: a too easy monetary policy that has devalued the dollar by 40% against gold during the past two years.
I choose gold as the reference point for the dollar's value because it has the remarkable characteristic of maintaining its buying power in terms of other goods and services over long periods of time. As a consequence, the dollar price of gold is the best, though imprecise, real-time measure of the price level. Other, more traditional measures, such as the consumer price index (CPI) are merely lagging indicators of inflation or deflation that has occurred already.
I also choose gold because I remember what happened after President Richard Nixon in August 1971 severed the link between the dollar and gold. At the time, those who warned that the rising price of gold was signaling higher inflation ahead were widely dismissed as "gold bugs." The conventional wisdom then, as now, is that economic slack would protect the U.S. economy from inflation regardless of what happened to the value of the dollar in terms of gold.
But it didn't work out that way.
At first, the conventional wisdom seemed to hold. The rate of inflation as represented by the CPI slowed in 1972 to 3.2% from 4.3% in part because of wage and price controls, and then rose 5.6% in 1973. But, in 1974, the CPI jumped 12.2% in the face of rising unemployment. Shocked and dismayed, the purveyors of conventional wisdom made the circular argument that the unexpected rise in the overall price level was caused by the rise in commodity prices, especially the tripling of the price of oil. In other words, they blamed rising prices on... rising prices!
But, those who followed the price of gold were not shocked. For example, the sudden tripling in the price of oil between 1971 and 1974 roughly matched the tripling in the price of gold over the same time period. In other words, the rise in the price of oil was simply the mirror image of the preceding devaluation of the dollar against gold.
In the last two years, the price of gold has increased around 75% -- roughly half the increase of 1972 and 1973. Last week's inflation reports indicate that this devaluation of the dollar will hit the CPI in the year ahead just as it did in 1974.
The price of crude materials in the Producer Price Index (PPI) increased by 3.3% in January alone and now stands 21% above where it was just six months ago. Moreover, during the three months ending January, the rate of advance in the producer price indices for intermediate products and finished goods have all accelerated into double digit annual rates of advance.
This upward adjustment of prices to the cheaper dollar is beginning to flow through to the consumer. For the past 3 months, the seasonally adjusted annualized rate of advance in the CPI is up to 3.9%, with food and energy prices – the items that have the greatest short-term impact on a family's budget -- accelerating to 3.1% and 27% over the same 3 months. Given the relative magnitudes of the dollar's devaluation against gold, it is reasonable to expect consumer prices to be rising at a 5% plus annualized rate in the months ahead.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's assurance during last December's interview on 60 Minutes that he was "100% certain" the Fed could control an outbreak of inflation above 2% was hubris. These data show that inflation has already broken out, and that there is little the Fed can do to stop the price indices from reflecting the dollar's devaluation of the past two years. And, his statement last Friday in Paris at a meeting of the finance leaders of the Group of 20 that "resurgent demand in the emerging markets has contributed significantly to the sharp run-up in global commodity prices" ignores the central role of the dollar's devaluation on rising global inflation.
Moreover, Bernanke's promise to respond to higher inflation by raising the Fed Funds rate carries with it significant additional risks. Slowing the economy reduces the supply of goods and services relative to the supply of money, which itself can be inflationary. In addition, higher short-term interest rates increase the opportunity cost of holding currency and checking accounts, and therefore will lead to an increase in the turnover or velocity of money. That too will add upward pressure to prices.
The experience of the 1970s illustrates the danger. The Fed raised the Fed Funds rate from a low of 3.3% in February 1972 to more than 10% in July 1973. But consumer price inflation continued to accelerate for the next year.
To avoid another extended period of high inflation and interest rates, the Fed and the Obama Administration need to acknowledge that the current, paper dollar system is deeply flawed and prone to error and instability. The alternative is a rules-based system in which the Fed begins to use quantitative tightening and easing to steady the value of the dollar as represented by the price of gold. A monetary system in which the dollar is as good as gold -- for all of its imperfections -- would quickly deliver price stability, low and stable interest rates, and increased financial security to the American people.

Eric Sprott believes that silver is likely to be the investment of the decade and could easily get to $50 per ounce by the end of the 2011

Marc Davis
February 8, 2011
VANCOUVER B.C. (WWW.BNWNEWS.CA )

Silver promises to become the next big buzzword among investors in 2011 and beyond, according to one of the investment industry's most prescient and successful experts on precious metals.

Eric Sprott is the founder of the Toronto-based investment firm, Sprott Asset Management LP. His renowned hedge fund, Sprott Hedge Fund LP, is heavily weighted in precious metals and has generated an estimated 23% annualized return over the past decade. Other similarly oriented funds under his stewardship have also been stellar performers in recent years.

He's now so bullish on silver that he launched the $575 million Sprott Physical Silver Trust in November of last year as he believes that: "Silver will be the investment of the decade."

"I think that silver could easily get to $50 this year," he tells BNWnews.ca.
This all bodes especially well for publicly traded companies that are already mining silver, he says. Likewise for ones that are developing primary silver deposits or gold deposits with plenty of silver as a byproduct.

"If the price of silver continues to go up, silver stocks are going to perform even better," Sprott adds.

Meanwhile, Sprott says the big catalyst for surging silver prices in the coming years will be exponentially increasing investment demand, which is already beginning to overwhelm existing silver supplies. The mining industry only produces around 800 tonnes of silver per annum. This is a relatively inelastic supply, regardless of silver prices, he adds.

As household investors are becoming increasingly jittery about the debasement of the U.S. dollar and other major currencies, they are loading up in record numbers on silver bars, coins and silver-denominated exchange traded funds, Sprott says.

However, there's also a quantum shift in investment demand taking place among big players in the precious metals market, including India (which is aiming to increase its imports by about 77 million ounces per annum), and of course China.

"China's net imports of silver were 112 million ounces last year. In 2005, they were net exporters of 100 million ounces," he says.
"That's a 200 million ounce shift in an 800 million ounce annual market that seldom ever grows because production hardly ever goes up. So where's it all going to come from? We don't know."

In fact, silver promises to outshine gold over the coming years, Sprott says. "Silver is the poor man's gold. Gold has had a great run for the past 11 years. But I absolutely believe that silver will outperform gold this year. Currently, there's more investment dollars going into silver than into gold."

Such a game-changing scenario should recalibrate the gold to silver pricing ratio in silver's favor, thereby eventually restoring it to its traditional level of about 16 to 1, he says. "It's the easiest call of all time."

"Silver as a currency always traded in a ratio of around 16 to 1 compared to gold, when it was a currency in the U.S. and the U.K. The current ratio is 48 to 1. If we go back to a 16 to 1 ratio, the implied price for silver would be $85.62 (per ounce)." he adds.

"On that basis, if gold goes to $1,600, then that would value silver at $100. And we certainly think that gold is going to $1,600. In fact, I'm willing to bet that this ratio will overshoot on the downside. It might even get to 10 to one."

The only reason why silver is still trading at a 48 to 1 ratio to bullion's spot price is that its price is being "manipulated" by big banks, Sprott says. That's because they don't want precious metals to become a popular alternative currency to Fiat money (currencies that are not backed by hard assets).

"Then there's also a huge short position out there on silver," he adds.
But time is on silver's side, he says, as the sovereignty debt crisis deepens in Europe and a continued policy of quantitative easing in the U.S. continues to undermine the value of the greenback.

The Federal Reserve today announced that they will be implementing $600 billion in additional quantitative easing by the end of June 2011. The Federal Reserve will maintain its current policy of reinvesting principal payments from its security holdings and will expand its balance sheet by an additional $75 billion per month. The total announced balance sheet expansion was $100 billion higher than the public consensus of $500 billion. The Federal Reserve will continue to hold interest rates at record low levels of 0% to 0.25%, where they have been for nearly two years.
 
Quantitative easing is nothing more than the Federal Reserve printing money and creating inflation. This quantitative easing steals from the purchasing power of the incomes and savings of all Americans. While Americans are distracted by the mainstream media with daily debates by the Democrats and Republicans about taxes, U.S. taxes have almost no where near the effect on the lives of middle class Americans as does the Federal Reserve's monetary policy and quantitative easing. Instead of millions of Americans attending "tea party" events in Washington with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, they should be marching outside of the Federal Reserve building in New York chanting "End the Fed".
 
As highlighted in NIA's new documentary 'End of Liberty', which just surpassed 170,000 views in three days, prices of nearly all agricultural commodities have been spiraling out of control in recent months just in anticipation of today's quantitative easing announcement. In the past 60 days alone, cotton prices are up 54%, corn prices are up 29%, soybean prices are up 22%, orange juice prices are up 17%, and sugar prices are up 51%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones has only gained 9%.
 
The Federal Reserve is doing everything in its power to push stock market prices up so that the government can take credit for an "economic recovery", but as NIA has been warning for years, inflation gravitates most towards the goods that Americans need most in order to live and survive. There is nothing that Americans need more than food. The agricultural commodity price increases of the past two months will begin to make their way into all supermarkets nationwide during the next few months. Americans who have been struggling just to make their mortgage payments, will now be forced to stop paying their mortgage in order to buy food. Instead of hoping to get the latest Apple gadget for Christmas this holiday season, American children better be grateful if their parents are able just to put food on the table.
 
After the financial crisis of late-2008/early-2009 when the Federal Reserve implemented its first round of quantitative easing, the Dow Jones rallied by 74% from its low of 6,469.95 in March of 2009 to a high of 11,257.93 in April of 2010. By the Dow Jones rallying, the U.S. government was able to take credit for creating an "economic recovery", despite the fact that unemployment remained near multi-decade highs. NIA released a documentary on May 13th called 'Meltup', in which we said, "The truth is, our economy is not recovering, prices are rising only due to inflation." NIA proclaimed in 'Meltup', "If stocks were to see a nominal decline one last time, we will likely see Bernanke shoot up his largest ever dose of quantitative easing."
 
On July 19th, with the Dow Jones having declined by 11% from its April high down to 10,073.68, everybody in the mainstream media was talking about the threat of deflation. NIA released an article on July 19th entitled, "Double-Dip Recession Does Not Mean Deflation" in which we said, "NIA believes the Federal Reserve is quietly getting ready to implement 'The Mother of All Quantitative Easing'." NIA went on to say, "NIA fears that come this October, Bernanke is likely to shoot up his largest ever dose of quantitative easing."
 
Today, NIA's prediction for the most part came true. The Federal Reserve announced massive quantitative easing ($600 billion) and our timing was almost perfect (we missed October by a few days). This isn't quite what we consider to be the "The Mother of All Quantitative Easing", but don't worry, the Fed will announce additional quantitative easing soon if the slightest hint of deflation reappears.
 
Current U.S. price inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) is 1.5% and the Federal Reserve wants to see this number increase to 2%. The truth is, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses geometric weighting and hedonics to artificially manipulate this number lower than the real rate of inflation in order to keep American's social security payment increases as low as possible so that politicians in Washington have more of your money to spend. Based on the way the U.S. government previously calculated price inflation before the BLS's latest tactics to manipulate the CPI as low as possible, NIA believes current year-over-year price inflation is at least 5%.
 
No human being alive, especially Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, is smart enough to perfectly manage the rate of price inflation by printing money. By expanding the balance sheet by $600 billion, NIA believes the real price inflation rate will rise above 10% in early 2011. Once Americans realize just how rapidly their dollars are being debased and losing their purchasing power, it could cause a rush out of the U.S. dollar and trigger hyperinflation as early as year 2012.
 
America no longer has a free market economy. For everybody on Wall Street to be so fixated on the words that come out of Bernanke's mouth, it shows that the economic system we have is extremely fragile and vulnerable to collapse at any time. With prices of assets soaring in recent months just in anticipation of Bernanke's quantitative easing announcement, it shows that the world's financial system is already flooded with trillions of dollars in excess liquidity. Unless the U.S. government immediately implements dramatic spending cuts across the board, NIA believes the world is going to lose confidence in the U.S. dollar and it will be impossible for the U.S. to survive past the year 2015 without the U.S. dollar becoming worthless.
 
The fact that the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives last night is completely meaningless. If the U.S. government is to implement the spending cuts necessary in order to prevent hyperinflation, Americans will be faced with a second Great Depression, which NIA believes is a necessity and much better than the alternative. However, the Republicans will not risk being held responsible for the next Great Depression, because it will ensure Obama gets reelected in 2012. Therefore, NIA predicts that nothing is going to change with the Republicans taking over the House.
 
The only good news that came so far this week is that Rand Paul was elected to the U.S. Senate. NIA predicted in our top 10 predictions for 2010 that Rand Paul would win both the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the State of Kentucky and the U.S. Senate seat and we are very proud that Rand Paul was victorious. NIA considers Rand Paul to be the true leader of the Tea Party movement because he fully understands the hyperinflation that awaits as a result of the Federal Reserve's actions.
 
NIA hopes to see Rand Paul filibuster any attempts by the U.S. Senate to raise the ceiling on our national debt. There is no reason to have a national debt ceiling if every time we reach it, Congress raises it. NIA prays that Rand Paul proposes a Balanced Budget Amendment in 2011, because this should be our government's top priority if it wants to restore confidence in the U.S. dollar and prevent a complete societal collapse.
 
NIA would like to apologize for the minor technical problems in the last two minutes of NIA's new 1 hour and 14 minute documentary 'End of Liberty', during the time in which NIA's President Gerard Adams was speaking. This small audio problem was caused by YouTube and out of our control. To make up for this, NIA's President will be featured in an exclusive NIA video later this month explaining in detail the hyperinflationary crisis that is ahead and how NIA members can prosper while the rest of America goes broke. As you know, NIA's President made a 378% return on his investment in silver call options that he suggested to you in February. He believes there will be many more opportunities similar to this for NIA members to become wealthy in the years ahead as the rest of America goes broke.
 
The most important thing for you to do to help your family members and friends survive the upcoming hyperinflationary crisis is to help them become educated to the truth. Tell them to become members of NIA for free at http://inflation.us and ask them to read our articles and watch our documentaries. If they have any questions about the U.S. economy or inflation, they can browse through our comprehensive 'NIAnswers' database and if their question hasn't already been answered by us, they can submit it to us to be added to the database. NIA will soon be announcing its most important new 'NIAnswers' of the past several months. Also, on December 7th, NIA will be releasing its latest update to its review of the major online sellers of gold and silver bullion.

Kevin McElroy
November 1, 2010
www.seekingaplpha.com
Legendary commodity investor and hedge fund manager Jim Rogers recently pointed out that silver prices are 50% below all time highs.
He's talking about the brief momentary highs of nearly $50 an ounce back in 1980. With silver currently selling for less than $24 an ounce, Mr. Rogers is technically correct. But priced in 2010 dollars, the inflation adjusted high for silver would be closer to $124.
So if you believe that silver prices will make new inflation adjusted highs, then you're expecting to see a five-fold increase in the price of silver.
Silver has already trounced just about every other asset so far this year - it's up 40% since January 1st.

I believe that silver is due for a correction. If you've read any of my articles this week, you've heard me talk about Ben Bernanke and the upcoming Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting where he will announce the next round of Quantitative Easing.
Ben's announcement could strengthen the dollar, which would be bearish for all commodities, not just silver. As I said, silver is due for a correction.
Bernanke's announcement could be a catalyst for silver prices to drop 5-10% in the short term.
That would create an excellent buying opportunity for people like me, who are long term bullish on silver.
I'll be bullish on silver as long as the Federal Government keeps interest rates absurdly low, and as long as huge amounts of government debt is the only realistic option to keep paying for all the bells and whistles that politicians promise voters and constituents.
But there's an additional wrinkle in the silver story that I think could give silver an additional, long-term boost...
For years and years, silver prognosticators and analysts have talked about silver price manipulation. In short, the long-running conspiracy theory is that a handful of global banks have placed massive short-side bets in order to manipulate the price of silver.
Well, it's not a conspiracy theory anymore.
According to a recent story in Bloomberg,
At a hearing in Washington on Oct. 27, CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton said there have been ‘fraudulent efforts to persuade and deviously control' silver prices and that violators should be prosecuted.
If you're not familiar with the Commodity Futures Trade Commission, they're the Federal Government body in charge of regulating and monitoring all commodity futures transactions on exchanges in the United States.
They run a pretty tight ship, so it will be surprising if they let any of the offending parties in this manipulation scandal off the hook easily. So what's the upside for manipulating silver futures contracts?
It's a little complicated, but these banks were placing phantom or "spoof" orders on silver contracts with the intention of skewing prices of options contracts.
The effect, allegedly, is that these spoof orders made some options worthless while boosting the value of other options.
In any event, these "spoof" orders had the supposed consequence of keeping silver prices artificially low.
In light of the announcement from the CFTC that they believe the price has been manipulated, I think we can see an additional boost as short-side orders are either cancelled and/or filled by the offending parties.
When you take a short side bet and you're wrong, when the options contract expires, you have to buy the security at current prices. The additional volume usually spikes the price further to the upside.
Now that the CFTC is on the case, I'll expect silver to continue to make new highs.
It still has quite a bit further to go before it hits inflation adjusted highs - but as I've been saying: wait for Bernanke's announcement next week to add to or build a position in silver.