[Vulcanelli]

I am sorry to say I am coming to the TAE site less and less. It saddens me to say this because a year and a half ago I was very excited about it. I read every post, donated money to the fund drive and went to see Nicole speak. Her ideas really opened my eyes to larger issues that were driving the changes I saw happening and instilled in me the need to prepare for what might come. I was impressed by her because she had actually re-oriented her life around the principles she expounded. Now being a believer I want less to hear speculation about what is going to happen, when and why. The articles I see on TAE are well researched and thought provoking but they are not about boots on the ground. What is important to me now is getting practical information and to dialog with others on what to actually do with my resources I have. Articles in the lifeboat section of TAE are 7 or more months old and many have no responses from readers. I think it is somewhat the fault of the article format of the site and there being no forum where one can search threads and plug into or start a conversation. TAE articles on specific subjects are posted by the predominately posted by the moderators on specific subjects and I notice if you post a comment on a different subject people tend to ignore you. Thus TAE is not inviting for people to make responses in their own interest area. In contrast Chris Martensen’s weekly news post always has articles on things like how to build a solar dehydrator or how to store water. His forum is a very active with posts on practical matters because you can make your own post subject and then easily follow it.

TAE has great potential and I wish it the best.

[Vulcanelli]

I hope someday TAE has a forum for discussion of reader subjects rather than only being able to respond to articles, but since this article is under the Finance section I guess it would be the place to talk about precious metals.

I wonder if anyone has read he recent ZeroHedge post “visualizing silver”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-19/visualizing-silver-investment

I believe in the tenants here at TAE and have followed them. Totally out of debt, and into cash and equivalents. I believe there will be a period where cash will be hard to come by and it will be good to have. Yet holding cash is pretty nerve wracking knowing it is not backed by anything substantial. Precious Metals make some sense because it is something substantial but I guess I have some contrarian in me because when so many people are so rabid expounding how this is the only “safe haven” and how stupid you are if you don’t get in now it makes me question it. To me the volume of people believing in something does not necessitate the truth of it.

I imagine a situation a year from now where credit has collapsed, there isn’t much money moving or to be had. So there you are with gold and silver worth two or three times what you paid for it and you want to use it to buy something. Unless the government has made into currency you would still have to exchange it for dollars. If hardly anyone has money who would buy it and why would they want to?

Maybe this a simplistic view and I would like to hear what anyone else thinks about holding precious metals.

[Vulcanelli]

One should absolutely stay away from wheat.

“So how—and when—did this ancient grain become such a serious health threat? Author and preventive cardiologist William Davis, MD, says it’s when big agriculture stepped in decades ago to develop a higher-yielding crop. Today’s “wheat,” he says, isn’t even wheat, thanks to some of the most intense crossbreeding efforts ever seen. “The wheat products sold to you today are nothing like the wheat products of our grandmother’s age, very different from the wheat of the early 20th Century, and completely transformed from the wheat of the Bible and earlier,” he says. Clearfield Wheat, grown on nearly 1 million acres in the Pacific Northwest and sold by BASF Corporation—the world’s largest chemical manufacturer—was created in a geneticist’s lab by exposing wheat seeds and embryos to the mutation-inducing industrial toxin sodium azide, a substance poisonous to humans and known for exploding when mishandled, says Dr. Davis. This hybridized wheat doesn’t survive in the wild, and most farmers rely on toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides to keep the crops alive. (It’s important to note, however, that the intensive breeding efforts that have so dramatically transformed wheat should not to be confused with genetic engineering of food, or GMOs. This type of technology has its own set of problems, though.) “

A much more thorough expose on this is “The Dark Side of Wheat” by Sayer Ji

The sad thing is that for a huge percentage of the population food decisions are economic decisions. When you don’t have much money you buy foods that have the highest caloric value for your money which are most often high volume low cost junk foods of wheat, grain fed animals, corn syrup, hydrogenated oils; substances that do not support long term health.

[Vulcanelli]

I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on precious metals. I read what I could in the comments section but it is not too current and the drumbeat of the metals crowd seems to be intensifying. I have some money in a 401k parked in a money market fund because I felt it was the safest place but even that has some exposure to Euro banks so I am thinking of taking it out and buying silver, I have lingering doubts.

People who seem to have a pulse on the world economy like Martenson, Celente, Schiff, Faber and others I never heard of say gold and silver are going to the moon, that they are the only real money and the only safety in a coming economic collapse and the time to buy is now. Maybe I am a contrarian but when so many people say one thing it makes me hesitate doing it. Bob Prechter and Warren Buffet are the only ones I hear who caution against getting on the precious metals wagon.

I am not an investor so I am trying to use common sense in this. It occurs to me that deflation is very likely and that there will be little money to be had and little in circulation. I agree with Nicole in that the value of something is not what you think it is but what people are willing to pay for it. Since the price of gold is not set by the government but by what people will pay for it I can’t help think they would pay less for it, having less money, during a depression. Why then is it considered such a store of wealth for hard economic times? I read gold is becoming a tier one asset and will be accepted by banks as payment but in the practical world you still cannot buy anything with gold or silver coins. Thus you would have to convert it to some currency to purchase anything. In an environment of economic contraction it seems like people would not be willing to pay much for it so you would lose. The argument for metals that makes sense is where one where you hold it until a depression ends and can redeem it for much more currency. However this only makes sense if one assumes that society will emerge from times of lack to continue with a version of the previous economy. But if that economy is based on expansion the lack of sufficient energy and credit would well preclude that it ever comes back. There is also the issue of government confiscation and subsequent devaluation which has happened before.

Any thoughts on this?

[Vulcanelli]

I am getting a bit weary of all this intellectual speculation about what gold is and what is it good for, what is going to happen or not happen. This site is supposed to be in part about hands on what to do for survival, right? So let’s say you have followed the guidelines presented here at TAE and have gotten completely out of debt and are holding cash and cash equivalents and have made the decision to hold some precious metals (I am thinking of silver) as well. You are no longer interested in rhetoric you want to know what to do. Are there things one should look for and things one should one beware of in purchasing. If you have never purchased precious metals it would be really helpful to hear the experience of those who have rather than try to sift through all the promotional sales information on commercial websites.

[Vulcanelli]

I have some funds in Treasury Direct but am wondering about how it might play out to redeem them in the midst of a banking crisis. Assuming as it has been suggested that we get into a severe deflationary depression with commensurate bank closures, bank runs and even a bank holiday. At some point you find it necessary to convert your treasury bill into cash in hand. When the term of your t-bill ends it is going to be deposited to the institution where the funds were drawn from which is your bank. Suddenly there is $50,000 showing in your checking account but if the banks are in trouble because they never had the actual funds to cover what people had showing in their accounts how are going to be able to withdraw your cash?

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