NIA: Introduction and Silver Mining Stock Recommendation

The National Inflation Association is an organization dedicated to preparing Americans for hyperinflation and helping Americans to survive and prosper in the upcoming hyperinflationary crisis. The U.S. government’s obligations include a $12.8 trillion national debt, $6.3 trillion in Fannie/Freddie debt and $60 trillion in unfunded obligations for programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The NIA believes that the U.S. for all intents and purposes is bankrupt and Americans need to take steps immediately to protect themselves from the potential loss of the purchasing power of their U.S. dollars.


NIA believes the largest financial crisis in history is ahead of us as a direct result of the U.S. government unwilling to accept a much needed recession. We are now at a point where our national debt is impossible to pay off. Due to rising interest payments on our national debt, it is unlikely the U.S. will be able to balance its budget ever again. Foreign countries will eventually stop lending the U.S. money and the Federal Reserve will most likely have to print the money to fund our deficit spending out of thin air.

The NIA’s ultimate goal is to help as many Americans as possible become aware of the disaster we are rapidly approaching. The NIA believes that the wealth of most Americans could get wiped out during the next decade, but it will be an opportunity for a small percentage of Americans to become wealthy by investing into companies that historically have prospered in an inflationary environment, such as gold and silver miners and agriculture producers.

Their website has extensive articles, news, reviews, stock suggestions, gold and silver seller reviews, and coin melt values. The articles are written by the staff of the NIA, and you can subscribe to the free NIA newsletter to have them emailed to you before they are posted online. You can check out their website at http://www.inflation.us/ and you can sign up for the newsletter on the same page. The NIA also has a Facebook group site that is open to the public.

Today, NIA announced a new stock suggestion, Coeur d’Alene Mines Corporation (CDE). CDE is one of the world’s leading silver companies and is also a significant gold producer. NIA's last silver recommendation was Silver Wheaton (SLW). SLW reached a new 52-week high last week of $19.83, up 194% since NIA suggested it on February 26, 2009, at $6.74.

With the recent breakout in silver prices and potential imminent short squeeze from naked short positions held by JP Morgan, NIA felt it was the perfect time to announce a new silver company that they felt has significant long-term upside potential. You can read the CDE profile at http://www.inflation.us/cde.html

As usual do not buy stock on my recommendation or anyone else’s. Always do your own DD.

Silver Predicted to Outperform Gold This Year

Investors were buying PMs today seeking the safety that the shiny stuff brings over a pandemic of struggling currencies. The EU's multibillion-euro bailout for Greece is sketchy on details and now Spain is at risk for losing its triple-A credit rating from Moody's along with the U.S., U.K., France and Germany. If the EU continues to follow the precedent that no member of the eurozone can be allowed to default, many analysts are anticipating further euro debasement and subsequent inflation.

That is thought to cause today's silver price jump.  Silver increased $0.23 per Troy ounce to close at $17.34.  Also, today there was  a very interesting video on TheStreet.com that I recommend everyone watch.  In this video, Alix Steel reported that David Morgan, founder of Silver-investor.com expects that silver will outperform gold by as much as 30% this year.  The link to the video is here.



A book on silver investing by Harvey Snyder
Investors which way to go, silver: Truly one of the best hedges against inflation

How and to Whom Should You Sell Your Scrap Silver?

I thought long and hard about even writing this article. Since I buy scrap silver, and I have other friends in the business. I hope this educational piece does not come back to bite me on the rear. The answer to that question should be no one, unless you are using the proceeds to buy a better grade of silver.  I understand that most of the people who follow this blog have an understanding of the way buying and selling precious metals works. This post is not really aimed at them although it might help them if they are not familiar with the pennyweight (dwt) portion of the Troy system. This post is primarily aimed at the visitor who does not understand how to trade in precious metals. I am particularly adamant about this for two reasons. One may seem a little bit selfish, but I assure you those who know me know I am not selfish. I do believe in capitalism, and I believe that everyone who has a business is entitled to make a profit. However, when the taking of profits becomes so excessive at the expense of others who are less experienced in the business of precious metals, I just call it greed. By now I am sure you are saying to yourself “is he gong to get reason number one. Well, here it is.

I buy scrap silver and gold. I prefer silver and anyone who has read my blog knows why, but I will also buy gold. When I buy scrap silver, I will offer what I believe is a fair price for both parties. This leads me to my second reason. I do not like to see people getting ripped off by the “Cash 4 Gold” dealers or the “Gold Parties” like the Tupperware parties my mom used to host. I did market research when I got into this business to see what the competition would offer a customer for gold or silver. The first time I checked a dealer for prices, silver spot was around $18.00 a Troy ounce. There are 31.1 grams (g) in a Troy ounce. That means .999 silver was $0.58 per gram and Sterling (92.5% pure) would be around $0.54 per gram. The dealer told me that he paid $0.25 per gram, less than half price. I do not remember what his prices on gold were but similarly they were about half of the melt value for that karat. At that time I was paying anywhere from $0.41-0.45 per gram for Sterling. I figured 20-25% of the melt value was enough for me.

To make things worse, I did a little investigative reporting last nght by going into a dealers store. I took a few piece of 14k jewelry with me. To start off, they do not use grams as a unit of measurement, they use pennyweights (dwt). I am sure this is purely to confuse the customer. Few people that are not in the business know how many grams are in a troy ounce, but even less knows how to use pennyweights. A pennyweight is measurement in the Troy system equaling 24 grains or the twentieth part of a Troy ounce (there are 12 ounces in a Troy pound. One dwt is equal to 1.55517g. The price they were paying for gold was $14.00 per dwt of 14k gold and like wise10k gold wad $10.00 per dwt. The spot price for gold was $1101.50 per Troy ounce for .999 or 24k, which mean 24k gold melt value would be $35.42 per gram rounded up, and 14k gold melt value would be $20.66 per gram or $32.13 per dwt. This means that they are paying a good bit less than half of the melt value; they are paying 43.6% of the melt value.

Now, I am not telling you this to get you to sell your gold and silver to me. I am just trying to help you make an educated decision. Just because the “gold man” has a nice office in a strip mall does not mean you are going to get a good price for your PMs. Imagine what the rent on that office must be, you are paying all of his overhead expenses. You are better off finding an independent (like me) that has very little overhead expenses and can pay 70-75% of the melt value. I may even be shooting myself in the foot here but if you cannot find someone willing to pay you a fair price, sell it on Ebay. I buy scrap silver very often on Ebay, and many times I will lose an auction because, regular folk are buying up all the PMs they can, and paying very close to melt value.

I am going to leave you with one more piece of advice. Before you part with that piece of scrap silver of gold, think about our current administration that is spending us into a black hole of debt that we will never be able to get out of. The fiat currency we use now will one day be worthless, and that gold ring or silver spoon you hold in your hand may one day buy your groceries. That is all. Buy silver, buy soon!

One Reason Why Silver Prices are Manipulated

I have been saying for a while that silver is undervalued and its price is being artificially manipulated. Why would someone try to keep silver prices down, you might ask? The best example is demonstrated by industrial applications of silver, which there are many. If you use silver and its cost goes up, you will not make money if you cannot increase your selling price. When any commodity's price go up, companies who use the commodity as a non-substitutable component in their product, but cannot raise their prices to meet the commodities price increase will end up losing out (unless they are able to keep the price artificially low). "This is why gasoline stations close despite increasing oil prices. They cannot increase their prices very much, at the same time the big oil companies increase the prices to them. The reasons they cannot rais fuel prices very much is that competition between stations creates price pressure downwards and consumers are somewhat price-sensitive, even to gasoline, which doesn't have a mainstream alternative (TheStreet.com)." This is a really good example why the price of silver is being artificially held down. However, I believe there will come a day when silver becomes in such demand and becomes so scarce that the man behind the curtain will no longer be able to contain the price of silver. I just hope I live to see that day; but, at least my beneficiaries will be well taken care of. Now I will give credit where credit is due. I do not plagiarize, if I use another's article I give them full credit. I was already writing this article and saw some good examples in a general article on commodities on TheStreet.com. I did use their example and cited them as a reference. Buy silver while it is low!

Silverbugs-Group for Silver Lovers on Facebook

There is an up and coming group on Facebook called Silverbugs.  This group is primarily for interaction between people who love, buy, sell, trade and invest in silver.  People interested in any of theses things may be invited to join.  IMO it is not for the profiteering from fellow members or the advertisement of the newest get rich by making me rich scheme. 

I am not the group leader, so as I said this is only my opinion; however, if this group get floooded with join my new NUMI, snowballing, pyramid or other silver business and make millions posts, I am out.  I have nothing against people in the silver NUMI business, I just do not want the group to be a place to advertise your business.  I am not trying to be a  hard ass, and if you announce that your program is looking for people once, I think that would be fine, but as of now it is fairly balanced.  It really depends on who members invite to join.  If a member constantly invites off-topic members to join, I think they should be banned.  They can always form their own group and keep me out. 

I do not advocate censorship, I just think the group should stay on topic without preying on the other members. I am not saying not to sale or trade between members or announce an ebay item that other members might be iterested in, just stop the internet marketing, pyramid, snowballing whatever you want to call them plans. 

I put this on my blog because I hope that my fellow silverbugs and other friends on FB look at what I post occasionally.  Yes, I have some ads on the page, but I am not pressuring anyone to click.  It helps me if you do but I don't care if you don't.  I just like to keep informed and when I see something that interests me, I share.  I will end my announcement/invitation/rant now.  Carry on, and I cannot stress it enough, NOW is the time to buy physical silver.

The Glitter of Precious-Metals ETFs - Kiplinger.com

By Laura Cohn, Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance


Published February 4, 2010

In this article Ms. Cohn identifies five exchange-traded funds that give investors a stake in gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Unfortunately she leaves out my favorite, SIVR, an ETF that tracks the spot price of silver. When silver went below $16.00 and ounce I started buying shares in SIVR, paying as low as 15.35/share. You can buy it through your online broker just like stocks, I paid $4.50 per trade, no other fees. I prefer to hold physical silver which I also bought today, but the ETF shares I bought with OPM (other people’s money). Yes, I bought on margin. I believe this is a temporary dip and when the price increases I will sell. I never hold paper silver very long, and frankly I have never had to. Anyway this is not my article so read on.

"For decades, gold bugs have argued the bullish case for their favorite metal. In recent years, they’ve actually been right. The price of gold has climbed steadily for the past nine years, from $277 an ounce in 2001 to a record high (not adjusted for inflation) of $1,213 in December 2009 as investors piled into the yellow metal because of its reputation as a safe haven and as a hedge against a falling dollar. Gold closed at $1,115 on February 2.

The rising price and the rise of exchange-traded funds have attracted investors in droves. Thanks to ETFs, investors can buy gold without having to open their own Fort Knox. Last year, investors around the world bought 51.2 million ounces of gold, and 35% of that amount came through ETFs. In the case of silver, the figure is even more astounding. Investors snatched up 172 million ounces of silver last year, and 87% of it was via ETFs. Silver closed February 2 at $17 an ounce, well below the record of $50, set in 1980, but far above the $5 level of recent years.

The best way to get a piece silver, buy the iShares Silver Trust (SLV), which charges 0.50% per year. Both GLD and SLV provide a stake in the metals, which are housed in vaults located in London. That way you don’t need to buy bars and worry about where to store them safely."
To read the entire article go here.

Precious Metals Investing for the Common Man

From the Silver Stock Report


By Matthew Vickers, May 3, 2009

I am going to interrupt my series of posts on the different ways to invest in silver to invite you to read an essay written by a man who started investing in silver as a teen. He came into a small amount of money in which to invest. The only reason he gives for choosing silver is that gold was too expensive and he did not fully understand the stock market. He does not mention it, but I doubt that inflation, dollar devaluation, or any of the other reasons we choose silver over paper played a role. Remember he was a teen.

One sentence sticks in my mind, and I wish I had known this when I was a teen because a lot of pocket change in circulation was still 90% silver. He states “Right now, even a kid with a weekly allowance can invest in silver.” Read the article here.

A Very Good Reason To Hold Silver and Gold

Federal Deficit in the Danger Zone - Kiplinger.com
As federal spending continues to rise, a crushing mountain of debt looms.
Posted using ShareThis

Better stock up on silver now!

Gold Is Not Just An Inflation Hedge

In an article on Forbes.com written by Heather Struck, she postulates that that the market for the gold has changed of late. Although, much of the recent rise in the price of gold is a response to the weak dollar and to investor as well as public concerns about long-term inflation; central banks around the world are adding gold to their reserves. .

In her opinion, the bull market in gold could endure even if inflation never emerges and even if the dollar strengthens, because central banks around the world are using gold as a back-up reserve currency. She cites Daniel Brebner, a research analyst at Deutsche Bank, who concurs. He believes that the more gold the central banks accumulate, the more they will support its price. According to Brebner, Central banks are looking at gold differently. Primarily due to fears over the repayment of U.S. debt to foreign bondholders with an increasingly devalued dollar.

Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/18/gold-dollar-euro-markets-commodities-inflation.