“The truth of the proposition that, ‘although gold and silver are not by Nature money, money is by Nature gold and silver,’ is shown by the fitness of the physical properties of these metals for the functions of money.”

— Karl Marx

Dear Reader,

It’s a bit strange to be talking about gold and silver as “alternative investments.”

After all, precious metals have been recognized as stores of value for thousands of years. I’ve visited gold markets in Mumbai and even “communist” China — where jewelry still makes up a large portion of demand.

If you’re a longtime reader, you probably already know how important physical precious metals are to your portfolio. You may have even allocated 10% of your assets to coins and bullion, as Jim Rickards has suggested.

But if you’re still on the fence about the need for actual bullion, we hope Hard Assets Alliance’s Jeff Clark will convince you. Jeff even one ups Jim… recommending 25% of your portfolio should be in precious metals at these prices.

Here’s how the conversation proceeded this week.

Before the Last Snowflake Drops

We’ve been wondering how long Wall Street will keep brushing off the bad news to bid stocks to new highs. As Jim Rickards has said, it’s like the markets are constantly getting buried in bad news, much like a snow storm. At some point, the negatives will get too heavy to ignore. When it does, even what would ordinarily be considered trivial bad news — a single snowflake, if you will — could trigger an avalanche. That day of reckoning seems close. But that’s just the thing. No one knows in what shape, whence or when the next snowfall will arrive. We’ve been focusing on places to park your money outside of your brokerage account — and still have a good shot at decent returns. The time to act is before calamity hits, not when.

Why the Stock Market Remains High — For Now

We asked Jeff why he thought — despite all the chaos in the economy due to lockdowns and supply chain disruptions, the Delta variant of COVID-19, political bickering and discord, off-the-charts deficit spending, money, money, money printing and Britney finally getting freed — why gold and silver prices have been stuck in place? There are “enough issues that gold and silver should be flying right now,” Jeff begins his answer, “that’s true.” The problem is that no one cares. “As long as the stock market is going up,” he tells me, “right or wrong, good or bad, doesn’t matter…which makes now the perfect time to buy gold and silver.”

“Met Gala-nomics”

House Democrats want to spend $3.5 trillion to shore up the social “safety net” in the United States… on top of the $1 trillion they’re looking to spend on infrastructure. And to help pay for it, they’re going to take the advice that Representative Alexandria Ocasios-Cortez wore on her dress to the $35,000-a-ticket Met Gala: “Tax the Rich.” One problem remains: these higher taxes are only expected to bring in $2.9 trillion… meaning even if the new higher rates go into effect, there’s still over $1.6 trillion left to finance. Neither has the “stimulus” cash the government handed out during the pandemic been accounted for… nor the huge spending during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq…

Cryptos Go to the Movies

I posed the question to Jeff, bitcoin or bullion? Neither, he asserted; cryptos and gold don’t inherently imply an either/or situation. In fact, he owns “a couple of small cryptos that… are valid or potentially valid speculations.” He points out Mike Maloney, the noted metals bull who founded GoldSilver.com, also cashed in on the frenzy for Bitcoin. “It was over $60,000 at some point when he took profits,” Jeff tells me. “He still owns some.” That doesn’t mean he believes cryptos will replace gold and silver anytime soon. “Cryptos are still too volatile to be a stable store value,” he says, “and they don’t have a proven history.” Gold has both.

Give Your Kids a Golden Future

It isn’t easy chronicling the U.S. policies that have put the country and its currency in such a precarious position. One of the more sobering parts is knowing that my kids may end up paying the price for those follies. It won’t matter how much money I leave them — or how much they earn in their careers — if the cash isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. That’s why I recently decided to open a Hard Asset Alliance MetalStream account for each of them

You can catch our full interview with Jeff Clark, right here.

It’s a pretty comprehensive conversation, from why metals are important to what the future holds. Click on the picture above to hear the entire thing.

And for a sedentary and affordable way to slowly build a nice position in silver and gold, don’t forget to check out Hard Assets Alliance’s MetalStream account.

Regards,

Addison Wiggin
Founder, The Financial Reserve

P.S. Next week we’ll switch from old-school silver and gold to take a look at a host of companies ushering in the next generation of technology.

My guest will be Ray Blanco of your Technology Profits Confidential and Ray Blanco’s Catalyst Trader. We’ll discuss COVID variants, vaccine mandates and alternative treatments — not to mention what breakthroughs he’s keeping a close eye on.