I Can't Do it!

I have finally figured it out. Eureka! I now think I know why perhaps less than 1% of people are protecting themselves with gold and silver. They know that gold and silver are beautiful, and their very own jewelry is made of them, but they just don't understand economics for one, but there is another reason. They just can't bear to take any dollars out of their banks. I can hear it all now: "I'd love to buy gold and silver, but I can't take my money out of the bank, because after all, it's my retirement, my net worth, and my security. It's my life's savings, and I can't risk it on gold and silver which pay no interest. Etc, etc, etc." The very idea of taking valued dollar savings out of the wonderful banks to buy gold and silver from some guy on the phone is simply not feasible, and too great a chance to take.

I'll bet that in millions of households across America, the conversations are similar. A gal in My Kiwanis Club is the manager of a local bank branch, and last week she told me that her passbook savings accounts pay ONE QUARTER PERCENT INTEREST." CD's get a couple of percent interest, and I think that's phenomenal. Since the buck is declining in value by about eight percent a year, saving them in a bank is real smart, huh? It is so absurd to me that anyone would think that dollars in a bank is security, but 99% of the population think just that. A look of sheer horror will come across their faces if you even suggest that they take dollars out of their 'secure' savings to buy gold or silver.

Gold and silver have been actual, tangible, tradable money, for thousands of years. In the Bible, there is no mention made of paper money. There was no paper then anyway, but there was papyrus and leather from hides on which to write dollars or shekels, representing value. No one did it, or as far as Biblical history is concerned, even tried to fake value with scribblings on papyrus or hides. All they used for value and money in the Bible were gold and silver. Judas betrayed Christ for 30 Shekels of silver, not $100. I have just looked up the words gold and silver in a Strong's Concordance of the Bible, and the word "gold" is used well over a thousand times, and "silver" about a thousand.

Genesis 2:11 is the first for gold, when the Bible describes the land of Havilah as having gold. Verse 12 says that the gold was good! Genesis 13:2 says that Abram (later Abraham) was well stocked with herds and silver and gold. This was over 4,000 years ago when people were using gold and silver for just what it is, and that is true MONEY. Abram had it all, besides God's blessing. He had cattle and gold and silver. What else could one want 4,000 years ago? But the average man, regardless of wealth, refuses to accept the fact that paper dollars, euros, yen, yuan, pesos etc are just that: Pieces of paper with ink on them, with no intrinsic value. "Well, you can buy stuff with them, can't you, smarty?" Yes, of course you can buy stuff with paper money, and you can't buy things with gold and silver, but no one has asked you to use gold and silver to buy things. You can't buy groceries with rare stamps, and old Mercedes Benz cars either, can you? Of course not, and no one has ever said you can, because they are totally different denominations.

You can buy corn, beans, beef, sausage, gasoline, roof shingles, gold, silver, old stamps, Mercedes Benz cars, and a million other things with dollars, and when you do that, you have traded your dollars into things of a different denomination. That's the whole point. You have bought things with your paper dollars, and have therefore gotten into a different denomination, be it ounces of metals, pounds of vegetables, years of cars, squares of roofing, or gallons of gasoline. You have bought useful things with your dollars, and if you bought the same things a couple of months later, they would cost more dollars. Why? Because the dollar is a fading, shrinking measure. We measure our wealth in dollars, and the very dollars we are measuring our wealth with, is a shrinking measurement. If rulers, acres, feet, and pounds shrank as the dollar, civilization would collapse, because no one could trust the measuring devices! But 99% of the public loves those dollars, and are afraid to remove them from the banks, because they think they are secure.

The dollars are indeed secure, and never doubt that. You will never lose your dollars in a bank! They are insured by the FDIC, and even though it only has a nickel on deposit for every hundred dollars of insurance, never worry about that. As Helicopter Bernanke says, "We have the power of the printing press." Yes, that's a real quote. The "power" of the press? Sure, because they can print their way out of any jam, debt, or mistake. The dollar shrinks in purchasing power, every time the presses roll, but the number of dollars you have is safe. Not their value, only their number. An additional funny thing to me, is the fact that people will take their dollars out of the bank or go into huge debts for new cars. Drive one around the block, and there goes $10,000, but millions do it. They'll empty their bank accounts to buy a new razzmatazz hootomobile, or go into debt for one, but they are afraid of gold and silver. Can't trust that 4,000 year old real money!

Since you take your dollars to buy cars, gas, food, clothes, and other things which are of a different denomination, why not do the same thing with true money? "Oh no! The savings are my retirement and security. I need a car, and I need to eat, but I don't need gold and silver, because buying them would deplete my savings, which I will depend on when I retire." Oh crap! You're an idiot! The buck is fading like the sun in the west. Iran, as of March 21st, next Tuesday, will not accept any more dollars under any conditions or for any reason. Give you a hint as to what's coming? Here's some more statistics. The U.S. debt is 3.5 times the GDP. In 1929, just before the crash, it was 2.9 times the GDP. Think gold and silver will always be around? In 1970, South African mines produced 1,000 tonnes of gold. In 2006, they produced 275 tonnes.

"Suppose I need dollars and all I have is gold and silver, which admittedly have gone up nicely. How do I get dollars?" Sell a few ounces, or as many as you need to get your dollars, that's all. It's all very simple. There are coin shops, pawnbrokers, and on the internet there are probably a hundreds of metals dealers, besides me. Lots of fish in the sea. To worry about trying to convert historic, beautiful, Biblical, precious gold and silver into fading dollars, is not much of a worry. There are hundreds of ounces of gold and silver sold every day on E-Bay.

"Suppose they make gold and silver illegal?" Then you'll be able to sell it on street corners like the drug dealers, and at really high prices, just like the drug dealers. Making something illegal, only whets the appetites of people, who will then pay anything to get whatever it may be. Remember prohibition? I'd hate for gold and silver to be made illegal, because it would surely be a sign of the economic collapse we've all been afraid of, but are sure has to happen eventually. If they make it illegal, you'll be awfully glad you have it when you see the prices they bring! Gold and silver are the abject enemy of paper money, stocks, and paper instruments of all sorts, because gold and silver depend on no one's honesty or trustworthiness. All paper monies and paper instruments are totally dependent on governments or the authors and issuers of those instruments, be they insurance policies, titles, deeds, dollar bills, notes, or stocks. Gold and silver owe no one anything, stand alone, always will, in all civilizations, and will always be true money. Protect yourself.

March 15, 2007

Don Stott has been a precious metals dealer since 1977, has written five books, hundreds of columns, and his web site is www.coloradogold.com