Asheron

And the new environmental police. Who put rubber gloves on and search through our bins.

If I lived in that house I would probably have to spend £100,000 on security.

Have you ever heard of Reserve Currency ? A large percentage of commodities, such as gold and oil, are usually priced in the reserve currency.

Most successful investors in life educate themselves globally .

N-one thought this would ever happen.

Without housing benefits this would drive house prices in Swindon down.

I thought the recession was over?

Gold and silver are NOT going up in value. An ounce of gold or an ounce of silver is still the same ounce. It is the imaginary “value” of the fiat you hold that is being debased and is relentlessly dropping. It is a subtle, but necessary change in “belief” one must always recognize, [and there are many who do, just not enough]. Instead of 250 or 900 units of fiat, it now takes 1650 units of fiat to purchase the SAME ounce of gold, and 30 units of fiat, instead of 5 or 20 units to purchase the same ounce of silver. Make no mistake about it, it is the central bankers that are leading governments around by the nose, and by proxy, governments leading people around by the nose, and that “nose” is inhaling “lines” of fiat. Unless cured, all addictions end badly, and the only “cure” central bankers have for ever-increasing fiat is, ever-increasing it more. http://www.silverdoctors.com/are-gold-silver-in-a-bull-market-or-is-government-devaluation-simply-going-exponential/

The Precious Metals Purchasing Act reads: Provides that a person who is in the business of purchasing precious metal shall obtain a proof of ownership, create a record of the sale, and verify the identity of the seller. Provides that a person who is in the business of purchasing precious metal shall not pay for the precious metal in cash and shall record the method of payment. Requires the purchaser to keep a record of the sale for one year or, if the purchase amount is over $500, for 5 years. Provides that a person who violates the Act is guilty of a petty offense and subject to a fine not exceeding $500. Provides that the Attorney General may inspect records, investigate an alleged violation, and take action to collect civil penalties. http://silvervigilante.com/preciousmetalspurchasingact/

Regular readers are familiar with our monthly series showing the inexorable surge in Chinese gold imports. It is time for the November update, and it's a doozy: at 90.8 tons, this was the second highest gross import number of 2012, double the 47 tons imported in October (which many saw, incorrectly, as an indication of China's waning interest in the yellow metal), and brings the Year to Date total to a massive 720 tons of gold through November. If last year is any indication, the December total will be roughly the same amount, and will bring the total 2012 import amount to over 800 tons, double the 392.6 tons imported in 2011. Indicatively, should the full year total import number indeed print in the 800 tons range, it will mean that in one year China, whose official reserve holdings are still a negligible 1054 (and realistically at least double, if not triple, this number), will have imported more gold than the official holdings of Japan, last pegged at 765.2 tons (and well more than the ECB's 502.1 tons). http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-10/chart-day-chinese-november-gold-imports-soar-91-tons-2012-total-720-tons

Human beings aren’t very good at predicting the future. But that doesn’t stop lots of people from trying. Every January, the financial pages are full of forecasts on where to put your money for the year ahead. There’s nothing wrong with this. But this year, I find myself asking a very different question: is there anywhere left to invest? That might sound odd. There are plenty of places where private investors can put their money these days. But are they really investing? Or are they just taking a punt? Are we all speculators now? To me, the best definition of ‘investing’ is still the one given by legendary value investor Benjamin Graham in his book, The Intelligent Investor: “An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.” Put another way, you have to buy assets that will give you a decent income return and at the same time are cheap enough so that you are unlikely to lose much money if it goes wrong. This advice tends to steer investors towards assets that are beaten up and have been shunned by the masses. The stock market in 1982, early 2003, and early 2009 are good examples. Gold at $250 per ounce in 2001 is another example. My problem is that, looking around the markets today, I struggle to find any asset classes that qualify as decent investments on these grounds. Sure, there are individual opportunities within each asset class – there always are. But yields on many government bonds are below inflation, stocks on the whole are hardly cheap by historical standards, gold yields nothing (at this level, I see it as insurance, rather than a value investment), and property in most markets looks expensive. It seems to me that almost regardless of where you put your money, Graham would class you as a speculator, rather than an investor. How have we ended up at this point? Investors are sitting in a minefield It starts with the most overvalued market out there – the bond market. Investors have been buying bonds by the bucket load. This is partly due to fear. They are happy to sacrifice the prospect of any reasonable return – in most cases, the return will be negative (below inflation) – in exchange for the comfort of knowing they will get their money back when the bond matures. However, the bond markets have also been heavily manipulated by central banks printing money to bail out cash-strapped governments and fragile banking systems. With Bank of England boss Mervyn King and the Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke acting as a backstop to the bond market, investors have been lulled into a false sense of security. They think that the bond market simply can’t crash. These artificially low rates on bonds have in turn chased other investors into riskier assets such as stocks. Last year was a good year for shares. The FTSE All Share index returned 12.9%, while the S&P 500 returned 16%. The momentum has carried on in to the new year. But shares are not cheap either. The FTSE All Share currently trades on 16.3 times trailing earnings, the FTSE 250 on 20 times and the S&P 500 on 14.8 times. These are not the sorts of valuations that bull markets start from. Arguably, company profits need to keep going up for these prices to make sense. And this is by no means certain given the weakness of many economies. In short, bonds are desperately expensive, and shares are certainly not cheap. These sorts of valuations suggest that investors have become too complacent. So what could shake them up? http://www.moneyweek.com/investments/bonds/how-to-prepare-for-the-bond-bubble-bursting-62100

Silver gains popularity among investors amid economy fears 09 January 2013 Last updated at 03:58 GMT Worries about the challenge of reviving the sluggish US economy and dealing with the Eurozone debt crisis have prompted nervous investors to find safe havens to put their money. http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20954417

US MINT SILVER EAGLE SALES JUMP ANOTHER 300,000 OVERNIGHT On Monday, we reported that the US Mint sold an all-time single day record 3.937 million 1 0z Silver Eagles. It appears that the public continued to take advantage of $30 silver Tuesday, as the Mint has reported the sale of another 300,000 Silver Eagles overnight, bringing the 2 day January sales total to 4.287 million ounces! http://www.silverdoctors.com/us-mint-silver-eagle-sales-jump-another-300000-overnight/

UK Bonds are in a bubble and about to Pop. Silver at $30 in a bubble? LOL If they continue to print money silver could be $3000 oz Gold & Silver hold value It depends how much they devalue the Pound.

In mid-December, the US Mint announced the suspension of Silver Eagle sales for 3 weeks, as they shut down ASE sales early for 2012, and announced that sales of 2013 Silver Eagles would begin on 1/7/2013. For the first week of 2013 the mint’s 2013 silver sales totals remained at 0 with production halted, but that changed quickly Monday, as the US Mint announced 3.937 million Silver Eagles were sold in a single day on Monday 1/7! http://www.silverdoctors.com/us-mint-sells-nearly-4-million-silver-eagles-first-day-of-2013-production/