I actually have a couple of pounds of silver melt sitting around. Does anyone know a good business to go through for maximum profit??
The fact that they can print money electronically, without ever actually printing any is a huge concern. They don't even announce how much is printed anymore. Two reasons to hold precious metals instead of dollars. If fuel prices are this high in a poor economy, how high will fuel be when the economy gets rolling(using much more oil when manufacturing starts climbing)? The consumer used to be able to lower oil prices by consuming less. Now prices keep climbing even though overall usage is going down.
China and India are increasing demand globally for oil. China is drilling for oil 60 miles off the Florida coast.
You wouldn't even be able to stock precious metals as investments if it gets any worse. Chances are when things get financially tight and for people who are living from check to check, this is when people have to start selling everything they got and it's not a pretty sight. Yes you can tell me USD is going to keep falling, things get more expensive but does that mean you can afford daily living AND investing? Yes, if you are financially capable but there are some who have already fallen into deep trouble. Oil prices aren't going to go down any time soon although it may be a bit high from speculation - oil prices have been historically too low and undervalued. With little money recovered from the previous old prices, there was less incentive to invest in large scale projects as new projects are just too expensive, in particular with offshore drilling. Now when you hear oil companies making huge profits from the current oil prices and if you dare to claim that they are making excessive profits, let me remind you that a new project usually comes at a price tag of way over hundreds of millions, in some cases, more than a billion if it's a long-life oil rig. Money just don't come from nowhere. People in China and India are going to pay for them regardless of how expensive it gets. It's a status of symbol for them. Now, if you are talking about equal rights, they do deserve to drive, don't they?
When you factor what they earn in those countries, their petrol is priced at the equivalent of about $12 a gallon. Yes indeed it is a status symbol. Just like having a family with 5 children. We saw families there driving around in their Shanghai GM cars with lots of kids, an extra kid cost you a $5000 fee there, and is a status symbol.
I was just mentioning that there are people investing in precious metals for lots of reasons. Not just because the stock market is stagnant. It is also getting more expensive to mine precious metals, so their prices should rise as oil has(If demand is there). I hope to see a higher standard of living for people in every country. Higher oil prices may lead to cheaper alternatives being developed. With cheaper oil prices the need was'nt there to spend money developing alternatives. In my opinion the major reason that all the world's people don't have a high standard of living is the government leaders. Even refusing aid from other countries after their people are hit with a natural disaster. When governments start serving their people instead of their governmental interests, the world's standard of living will rise. I still don't understand why governments spend on security when huge numbers of their people are starving(i understand that they obviously don't love their people, but how do they get away with it?).. What is left to protect if your people are dying? (A 100% honest, strong United Nations is needed to protect the rights of all people & not let government induced hunger happen ).Want to boost the economy? Provide big incentives for the people with stock piles of cash to invest it. That would send precious metal prices South if there is alot of hedging going on. Anyway, the main point of my previous post was that there are other reasons people invest in precious metals(Not only because the stock market lost some glitter).
I kind of disagree. Stock market has now become a game for investors and with media hype-up, any news can erratically change the price. Oil price in particular is the WORST example where investors decide to muck around and ruin lots of people's lives. There are some commodities that one should NEVER touch. Mining companies, yes, but commodities? No. I was furious last year when an investor jacked up the price to 100usd/barrel, claiming that that is how oil prices should be at when it should have been at 80usd ish. Ever since then, it never dropped due to that panic event. Too much panic and too much hoarding. I kind of disagree that mining prices will keep on increasing due to oil prices. Part of the issue is that from 2003, there was a large surge in demand from China but exploration just didn't keep up because metal prices were just too low. There was no incentive for major companies to explore as these are expensive and most companies were cutting corners for survival. As a result of that, what used to be a few weeks of stockpile of various metals and minerals result to less than a week in some cases simply because the supply can't keep up. Any event in a mine can result to a dramatic change in supply and last year, South Africa's production level is a good example. It's somewhat true that because fuel is used in some parts of the mine, i.e. transporting blasted rocks, production cost will rise. But dramatically? I think it's just only half of the problem. Now that metal prices are sky rocket high, there are already various explorations for different metals, thanks to the large amount of investments. Development might take a few more years but there are already a few really large mines scheduled to be ready from this year to 2012. For good grief, how much higher do you think metal prices will be? There are a few exceptions to this but most metal prices should drop.
Nice article, Green. It makes me wonder how many of those investors in metals actually think they own a literal bulk of metal. If only they knew it was virtual and cashing in their shares didn't result in a bag of gold in the mail, they might reconsider. Of course, anyone who invests in a rock with uncertain futures, probably doesn't care. As a commodity that has only tapped an estimated 1 percent of an overall 1 percent worldwide, I hardly think it makes good investment sense. Guy~
jersey: Hey nice haul. At $15 (assuming sterling) melt would be 58.28 ounces, or $874.12. Nice, considering that you got it all by B&E.