Hard Money Newsletter Review

Maybe it’s no surprise that we like the content from goldsilver.com.

After all, anyone who prominently displays the great Mogambo Guru is a friend of ours – and on video to boot!!

The crew at Gold & Silver, Inc, physically out of Jackson, WY are one of us.

It is a pleasure to see a class act in this space that allows the contrarian viewpoint a place to breath. Especially, for those who, in contrast, were originally indoctrinated by the confusing messages over at Kitco where the main character seems to represent the conspiracy against precious metals.

We really like the logo at goldsilver.com too! And of course, we think it is a hidden reference to the true gold:silver ratio (based on supply) – silver being more scarce, and hence, more valuable than gold.

These guys work on selling physical gold and silver bullion, and if we had an extra $10-20,000 we would be happy to go the website, and order some to test out the process. They seem like  stand-up fellows.

Alas, we silver bugs tend to buy in smaller quantities and while the friendly folks, including Mike Maloney, author of the must-read-for-anyone-reading-this, “Guide To Gold and Silver Investing“, are planning to accommodate smaller orders sometime this year, so far the minimum size is 500 ounces for silver.

Update 8-17-09: Good news. See here, see here. They’ve done it again!

We’re okay with that, because the typical silver coin investor will walk into a local coin shop with a few extra bucks to buy on the dips – which seem to be occurring less and less, and according to a lot of the buzz (Ted Butler),   could be over for a while.

With that last part in mind, I would suggest signing up for the goldsilver newsletter NOW, and then spending another few hours or more going through all the free articles, news, and videos at the website, if you haven’t yet opted for this route – which is really the only way left to truly protect your assets from the ravages of inflation, which the powers that be seem hell-bent on creating, without moving to another planet.

And if you already have your silver (or gold) bullion, we suggest going back to goldsilver.com to review why it is that you are so smart in not only protecting what little you have, but by also positioning yourself for perhaps one of the greatest investment opportunities of a lifetime.

In the words of the Mighty Mogambo, “Whee!! This is investing stuff is easy!!

We reviewed a series of newsletters from HardAssetInvestor.com and found them to be of value for a quick review of the main site postings, but not for much more. This is more for the mainstream investor and not the contrarion or gold and silver bug.

And if you like being subjected to official-looking, though hard-to-follow arguments against there being evidence for gold and silver price manipulation, this is one place.

To be fair, Hard Assets is a business, and there is nothing quite like controversy to build some traffic. And the comments came a plenty following Brad Zigler’s recent post on Gold Manipulation.

In getting back to the purpose of this review, we looked at the emails newsletter. It’s free and regular, linking you to plenty of article titles and brief descriptions of topics about commodity equities, commodity futures, and gold.

Directed toward individual. as well as institutional investors,they cover the commodity arena pretty thoroughly, yet without adding much needed insight to issues as they pertain to physical possession of silver and/or gold.

It is perhaps ironic that gold and silver bugs truly need a broader, macro perspective when ‘playing’ this market. Most likely, your strategy is to buy and hold on tight for the ride and your interest lies in the broad strokes that effect these markets and less for the short-term.

For us, the emails are good enough that we get the gist of the various articles, which are offered as much easier way to keep up with the frequent postings.

We’ll keep looking at them and maybe if you are looking for the language of commodities trading or a diversion into another market, than Hard Asset Investor Emails will be for you.

The email newsletter, Whiskey and Gun Powder, is one you can safely add to your list of news that must be read on a weekly basis – no matter who you are or where you lie in this new social order.
In the hard money world, we have separate, yet related languages for how we discuss gold and silver.

This language gives rise to a spectrum of information ranging from the professional investor to the curious amateur-local-yocal-market-observer. Like us.

Those interested in precious metals for asset protection or as a long-term investment need open discussion of the important issues -from all perspectives.

On one hand, gold (and especially silver) are industrial commodities and with the forces that influence the way they trade.

On the other hand, gold and silver have always been money – at least as far as civilization goes.

Currencies trade on the world platform, influenced (and manipulated) according to how the central banks see fit and much of this is on the grand stage of politics.

You probably know some of the bartenders.

We chose three letters for this review – all from the week of July 7. In the midst of summer doldrums, yet in the calm before a storm that seems even more likely on its way.

‘Whiskey’ is an Agora product. It is one of many, and true to form, you get outstanding content with some (gentle) persuasion to reciprocate.

Our only beef is the overly-strategic ’special reports’, interesting stories in and of themselves, but dropped in on the articles.

These are sometimes sent out as separate email offers all together – which are perhaps a better way to cut to the chase.

The overall content certainly appeals to the broad audience – indeed attracting those who are interested in the energy, agriculture, and commodities sectors.

They cover the macro news and politics. And the big companies, the broader economic sectors, as well as gold and silver.

I suppose there are those who routinely stop at the coin shop in order to pick up a few ounces here and there, when the money is available – who might rationalize that the big picture stuff might be a little disconnected from the main street perspective.

Not us.

Our keen manipulation sensors pick up on the basic messages and see them through to the relationship they have to the word on the street.

The whiskey guys deliver more of the news and views that matter:

For gold, they they make the cross-over from commodities to currency without completetly ignoring the politics. We imply the same for silver and understand that our little market attracts less visitors.
Bottom line:

We recommend that you go sign-up (link: http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/sign-up-free/

It’s practically a necesity and friendly face in your inbox.

A filter for that serves investor diversity, and remains true for the man on the street who just wants to protect what little he has and read a little news to reinforce the vision.

And who knows, when us little guys make it big, we’ll be sure to play some of the options, click on the offers that make the Agora world go around.

Bill’s Blog is run by Bill Haynes, of CMI Gold And Silver.

Based out of Phoenix,  this is well organized ‘big-bullion-business-blog’,  that advocates physical possession.

We need them, we like them, we recommend them.

Okay. So,  we haven’t ordered from them yet. But we probably will.

Their main business, CMI Gold & Silver, deals in coins and bullion. They can deal in size.

As you know,  we are of local coin shop people.  We happily buy and hold silver – taking it off the hands of those who simply don’t yet see the value of this precious commodity and monetary asset.

I must say that, as much as we scorn the likes of Thomas Friedman, CMI Gold & Silver’ success is probably attributable to the ‘flattening’ of things  due to technology.

If you try them from a distance and they ‘feel’ local enough for you, let me know and we will update this post.

Haynes, who has been around the block (40 years in this), has the market down and serves our mission of letting the masses know about ‘these precious’ opportunities.

He shares the our vision of ‘monetary inevitability’ (lots of inflation), which should be all anyone needs to understand the urgency for taking action and thereby protecting your purchasing power.

Even if Bill’s Blog is not quite as outspoken on price manipulation as GATA, the main website features a must-read overview of how PM purchases are recorded and accounted for by the IRS. This was very cool.

A very interesting review for those of us who have been hell-bent on taking whatever we can out of the system for the long-haul.

But let us not digress.

The blog features, in addition to biweekly posts, a Free Newsletter (which we are collecting) and one-click-ready-access-to-the-bullion-goods when you need to make a purchase pronto.

The main website offers gold and silver bullion in practically every form – outside of the numismatic.

They also cover platinum and palladium too for those interested.

I used 3 recent posts and an ‘old one’ from the archives to build this review.

The first post, US News Interviews Ron Paul About The Fed- went up June 25th, 2009

This was a short, news item alert and one that slipped past the ’sensors’ that reinforces and points to an important Ron Paul interview.

As intended, this the interview makes the post worthwhile and we thank Bill for this.

And it pretty much sealed our support for what Paul is up to.

The next post we reviewed was Congress To Approve IMF Gold Sales.

Coming to you from 35,000 ft, the politics of gold make for an even happier silver bug, given than politicos will not have a enough time to act once silver does it’s thing.

Personally, I wonder why the IMF wouldn’t be stocking gold, rather than gearing up to sell, but the article linked in this post helps put things in perspective and actually makes the case for the  release IMF gold, which might spark central bank competition between two lurching giants.

Another good catch, Bill.

The last recent post we reviewed was this one, from early June, Northwestern Mutual Buys Gold.

This one is super short and seems to acknowledge that while gold and silver bugs need little reassurance about the future, these kind of announcements don’t hurt the prospects.

And finally, we looked at a post from January, 2009 – The Collapse of ‘09

We are glad we did – and thrilled that Haynes demonstrates equal-opportunity treatment for silver.

The post points to a serious  Lee Rockwell podcast. It is a do-able length for us, but we highly recommend  keeping all sharp objects hidden and out of reach.

Okay, so bottom line: We recommend this blog.

It is clean, organized, simple to navigate, and well-written. We’ve bookmarked it. You should too.

Bill targets the natural (larger) audience, but makes no bones about silver.

This is not for miners or those of the numismatic persuasion.

There were very few (if any) comments on the posts themselves.

The tone is (we think rightly) bullish overall, but Bill’s Blog shows a willingness to assert his personality and fairly question his resources.

You won’t see much in-depth conspiracy monologue here, but we learned something about the PM story from the political realm, which we all need a dose from now and then – no matter how bad it tastes.

We’ll be following, and recommend it for those serious about diversifying a large cash position. If that’s you, and/or you are new to this, Bill’s Blog is a good place to be.

Dailyreckoning.com

The task of sorting through all of today’s economic news can be a daunting one, especially when the news you need falls mainly outside of the mainstream.

However, the challenge, as with most worthy endeavors, can offer up some pretty amazing rewards.

I’ve found a few gems along the way and for general commentary on the current economy, The Daily Reckoning is by far, one of the more brilliant.

You can tread safely here.

Bill Bonner weaves a clever narrative, covering and accounting for curent events, historical fact, society and psychology.

You can’t go wrong here folks. This is consistent and clean writing, worthy of a look and a spot in your Daily Understanding of Hard Money.

Clearly a von Mises disciple, he does manage to simultaneously quench the mainstream desire for the Keynesian fix by reporting macro economic data – including gold prices – however skirting the details of financial market manipulation – which we find crucial for fundamental silver and gold investing…

Bonner is a renaissance man….best-selling author, philanthropist, etc., and on and on. He began the parent organization, Agora, in 1979. The Daily Reckoning is about 10 years running. He is currently an ex-pat in France, but also has a home in Argentina and travels often.

Bonner’s posts (which you may also sign up for by email) happen 3-4 times per week or more. Again, they encompass the overall view (which I share) that we have come to a turning point economically and our day of Reckoning is here. He was on this beat 10 years ago and has not needed to change the tune.

I think you could probably get all you need from the Daily postings for the entire site – without signing up for the automatic emails (more about this in my review of the newsletter).

The way I keep uoo with Bonner is primitive. I copy and paste the article text into a note pad file to remove the formatting. You might lose a chart or two this way, but I like to think of myself as a more of a thinker than a statistician and the charts are too much eye candy. He has been correct in his ‘predictions’, but like any of us, will readily admit to fogginess about the short-term.

Each post us spun with a worthy 1000 words, spattering a few links here and there, covering the news from the contrary perspective, and always throwing in a friendly few personal observations for style.

There used to me more – not all together annoying – interruptions within the text, but these are largely missing of late. Comment are interesting, but the value is in the writing – not many do it better.

He has made it in this space. This is the big-time of economic commentary in our space- so he pretty much write what he wants – which is fun and good.

We believe that in order to appreciate the foundation of money, like most things, you need to see it from the ground level (this is me walking into a coin shop to pick of a few silver coins) while, consistently making the journey back to 50,000 feet to sniff the world view. (This is me reading The Daily Reckoning)

My only quip:

Bonner covers the 50,000 ft view very well, and will take his readers to the gold arena often (Call it 10,000 feet).

He goes to the street, via the macro-economic and personal anecdotes, but not quite to the ‘coin shop realm’.

But I don’t blame him.

In summary, I highly recommend this as a weekly, if not daily digest for any serious precious metal investor or simply, as Bonner states often eludes to himself, a contrarian economist who reports on the current financial reckoning.