Sprott Money's blog

According to Austrian economists like Dr. Skousen, consumption and consumer spending are not the main drivers of economic growth. What really drives an economy are investments and innovation from businesses.

The luxury of paying your government to hold your money, once thought as absurd, hilarious and downright preposterous is now a reality.

Part I of this series provided what (for some) is a revelation: the absurd, $1 & $5 face-value on our legal tender, minted silver coins is not some totally arbitrary anomaly. Rather, it was a part of the strategy of the One Bank to pretend that its fraudulent paper currencies were not (and are not) losing value at a catastrophic rate.

One of the “mysteries” of our modern (i.e. fraudulent) precious metals markets is explaining the face-value of our gold and silver minted coins, meaning relating their nominal price to their actual value. The face-value on U.S./Canadian silver 1-oz coins is $1 and $5, and the face-value for our 1-oz gold coins is $50. For those investors (including this analyst) who began using precious metals as a vehicle for wealth-protection at a relatively late date; the face-value of these coins seems totally arbitrary.

Most Canadian readers (in particular) will be aware by now of an extremely important trial currently taking place, a lawsuit by a citizens’ action group against the Bank of Canada: COMER vs Bank of Canada. It is extremely important, both in specific and symbolic terms, which is precisely why the Corporate media has totally censored any/all coverage of this legal challenge, which goes to the very heart of the corruption of our current monetary system.

There’s a big macro theme playing out in Europe – a once soft economic environment that allowed lots of inefficiency is becoming tougher and forcing companies to restructure, says Chris Mayer, author of Capital & Crisis and Mayer’s Special Situations.

A three ring circus is performing – to entertain and impoverish the western world.

For this commentary to make any sense to most readers; it’s necessary to address the two questions which immediately come to their minds: “what is the Baltic Dry Index?” and “why should I care about it?” Dealing with these questions in order; the Baltic Dry Index measures the prices paid to ship various forms of cargo, in the form of an index.

Debt and budgets in the trillions of dollars and euros are difficult to comprehend. The US budget is nearly $4 Trillion per year while the US official national debt exceeds $18 Trillion. A single large bank may hold contracts for more than $50 Trillion in derivative contracts. Global debt is approximately $200 Trillion.

Clearly if Western governments were ‘merely’ drowning in debt-to-GDP ratios of roughly 100%, then theycould still argue that attempting to manage these debt-loads was legitimate rather than treasonous. However, Germany’s government (debt-to-GDP of 188%) can no longer make that claim. Nor can: 

In this exclusive interview, Hugo Salinas Price share his views on precious metals, provides some historical background on gold and silver money, the manipulation of the precious metals markets, the inevitable collapse of the fiat money, and more…

Regular readers are well aware of an unresolved problem/issue which has permeated these commentaries for (especially) the past three years: the lack of any rational or objective means for pricing assets, most notably precious metals themselves. There are two enormous obstacles facing any analyst, in attempting to resolve this issue.

Gas prices are some of the highest in the country in San Diego, California, and it still cost me only $2.96 a gallon to fill up my tank last week.

There’s an excess of oil supplies, according to analysts. You can see from the chart below that global oil production has been rising steadily over the last three years.

Although it may be unrealistically optimistic, I believe my paraphrase of a Churchill quote:

“Central Bankers will eventually do the right thing and return to a gold standard after they have exhausted all other alternatives.”

We may all be witnessing the beginning of the end of the European Union. For years, experts have stated that it is unsustainable for Greece to stay in the European Union. For years, those experts have been proven wrong.