Well, I was slaving away on Part 2 of my essay exploring one way “stacker issues” might finally go “mainstream” when I became distracted by the latest silver smashdown.
I stopped my frantic pecking, got out the check book, dialed an 800 number and purchased 40 more Silver Eagles for my daughter’s collection.
I figured I might need to buy today.
I knew the month was running out and I knew “TPTB” in the paper markets were approaching something called an “options expiry.”
This, I knew from repeated experience and observation, is when prices must be driven down.
Absent a nuclear war in the Ukraine or Israel or Iraq, those who wanted to drive down prices probably would drive them down today.
Plus, I’d previously read where tomorrow (Friday) is the day when the latest GDP figures for Q2 will be released.
Who knows what those figures will say? If they show that the economy shrunk in the second quarter, this would officially put the USA into a “recession.”
(My guess is that these numbers will show that the economy didn’t shrink enough to get to recession levels, an announcement that is more likely to come with subsequent “revisions.” That is, if the MO stays the same.)
But who knows how the markets might react to news that might be so “news worthy” even the MSM can’t avoid leading with it.
Maybe “conventional wisdom” would decide that the politburo at The Fed is completely clueless, that it is going to have to start printing even more money and that gold and silver prices would soar.
All things considered, better place my order today, I decided.
About the time the price of silver was tumbling over the water fall, I happened to be writing some paragraphs where I list examples of all the gold and silver-related topics that talk radio hosts do NOT talk about (but should).
It hits me just now that here we have yet another example of an event in the precious metals world that will NOT be discussed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity.
“Folks, don’t know if you noticed this or not, but the price of silver just plummeted by 3 percent,” said El Rushbo (not). “No ‘news’ as far as I can tell explains such a drop, which if a crash of this magnitude happened in the stock market would no doubt be front-page news in the Wall Street Journal.”
“This, as it turns out, is a regular occurrence in silver and gold markets. The goal, as I and others have come to believe, is to make sure that sentiment for precious metals remains awful.
“This makes the U.S. dollar more attractive to investors and also ensures that our government can continue to finance its operations by selling treasuries - either to the Fed or to other suckers.”
I didn’t even have to turn on my radio to know that such a conversation did not and will not take place today. Such topics (and explanations) for some reason remain taboo (my theory on why this is so coming tomorrow).
But such conversations need to occur if the Status Quo is ever going to change.
When a silver smash occurs and Rush Limbaugh spends 15 minutes talking about why it happened and why his listeners should be outraged by the funny business in this allegedly “free” market, we “gold bugs” might finally know that real change is at last possible.
Which - ever the idealist and optimist - is the reason I was working on my other column earlier today.
I’m not trying to change the thinking of the usual suspects who will run for president starting next year. I know that’s not going to happen. I’m fully aware that “focus groups” are not talking about the gold market being rigged or Fed activities.
Instead I’m trying to use the power of the pen to maybe persuade just one member of the conservative media establishment to finally start talking about topics that actually matter and could make a difference in a future election.
In other words I’m trying to save the world the only way I know how.
But today I had to take a break from wordsmithing and buy some more silver coins.
Before I get back to saving the world, I’m going to do everything I can to try to save my own family. Call it priorities if you will.
The way I figure it those coins I purchased today will buy my family six to eight weeks worth of groceries at today’s prices.
Three years from now they’ll still buy me six to eight weeks worth of groceries.
Three years from now the $942 in cash I exchanged for silver might buy me one week of groceries.
Yes, I’m writing about silver, but I’m also writing about and thinking about the groceries I know I will need to feed my wife and young daughter.
In other words, this is not a trivial topic to me.
I just wish someone with the reach and influence of someone like Rush Limbaugh would talk about stuff like this.
Now back to the other column.
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Bill Rice, Jr. is managing editor of The Montgomery (AL) Independent. He can be reached at bill@montgomeryindependent.com
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