Oh, Those Adorable Looneytarians!
So you know how Glenn Beck and those financial fear-mongering Paul guys were telling everybody to take their money out of the banks and buy silver and gold?
And all their little sheep did just that?
Oh dude, they got scammed. It was highway robbery.
Gold reached an all time high price of $1911 per ounce on August 23, 2011, during the debt limit crisis. By election day 2012, gold had fallen to $1777 per ounce. That amount of gold sells, today, for just $1178.
The picture’s even worse for silver buyers—and worse still for the people who snapped up oil futures. Silver peaked at $48.70 per ounce on April 28, 2011. By Obama’s re-election it had plunged to $31. Today, an ounce of silver costs $15.7.
And still, this week!, Ron Paul says to buy gold because it could “go to infinity.”
Don’t.
Just don’t. When the Libertarians have an idea, it’s generally bad.
Now let me tell you one of the reason I enjoy writing about this. Any time I mention Ron Paul, I get a ton of email at the Tell Juanita section from people who do nothing all day but google “Ron Paul” and send long, long, oh so looooong letters to me explaining why Ron is turning water into wine.
Well, guys, he’s now turning water into chicken poop.
So, hey, you and your gold and your first edition Ayn Rand have a real nice day.
Thanks to David for the heads up.
Glen Beck was a strong advocate for gold buying – he now claims that he was mentally ill during that time.
1General rule #17
‘Investment opportunities’ advertised on TV/radio/RW newsletters are already long past their sell-by date – for suckers only.
Ahem! Now would be a good time to buy gold, if you are so inclined. Disclaimer: I am not a gold bug but can read a chart.
2Market advice from a Looneytarian is equivalent to job advice from a Palin; a sure loser.
3Taking investment advice from a libertarian is almost as good as buying South American land from one.
4Our local Libertopian — the one in my workplace — couldn’t afford to invest in gold so he started buying silver. He also invested in beach front property in Florida. I’m thinking of giving him back the 50 trillion Zimbabwe dollar note he gave me to prove that we were on the road to becoming “Zimbabwe I tell you”. But it looks so good next to the framed Enron stock certificate.
5I know of one case where gold buying did a family good. A professional with the income to afford it bought some gold decades and decades ago. There it sat until long after he was dead, and his widow, when she was around 90, decided to move closer to one kid and also decided to divvy up the gold among the kids. One kid of the three was fairly affluent; one wasn’t as affluent, and one was doing OK, surviving, but not able to afford some needed home repairs (roof, plumbing, stuff like that.) Meanwhile the price of gold had increased over time, as investments often do, and that kid’s share paid for a new roof and the needed plumbing work. Also a new washer, IIRC. With a little left over for emergencies. Was this better than stock market investments? Dunno. Possibly not. But I was told “it was fun to hold that lump in my hand for a moment and imagine being Croesus or a Pharoah.” Then a laugh and “But the new roof keeps me dry; rather have that.”
A healthy attitude, I think. I’ve never had the lump of gold and don’t plan to buy one; like my friend, tend to value useful things and skills more. Gold is pretty, though, and useful in ways other than trying to outsmart “the market.”
6Technically he was turning money into chicken poop.
Though it is worth noting that the advice of Beck and others did put a whole lot of money into some people’s pockets. Just not the investors.
7“Investment advice” hawked on infomercials are for rubes. Know it alls like Cramer on CNBC spout dated information everyday. Why do people still listen to these windbags?
8Patrons, don’t underestimate the value of chicken poo as fertilizer. For that lush verdant lawn or flower bed. Not recommended for one’s vegetable garden, however.
9As I continually tell others: If I knew how to turn lead into gold, do you really think I’m going to tell YOU!
These people, if they REALLY knew what they were talking about, would be multi-billionaires, on the beach of their private island, waited on hand and foot by servants, and wouldn’t give a damn about you and your investments.
Think about it.
10Glen Beck and Ron Paul do seem experts in turning chicken poop to gold, given the gold they receive in return for their “investment advice.”
11And Glen Beck probably cried a river when gold prices fell.
12But he wasn’t crying for all the people he screwed, just hisownself.
@maryelle: No, Glen Beck is laughing all the way to the bank – remember, he SOLD that gold – he probably didn’t buy any himself. Remember- the con artists in The Sting weren’t really placing bets, they were talking the mark into placing a bet.
13“Glen Beck was a strong advocate for gold buying – he now claims that he was mentally ill during that time.”
As contrasted with what other time? Has a sane word ever come out of his mouth, or whatever he uses to talk with?
14Good advice I recall during the gold-buying boom among the libertopians: If all these folks on the radio are so sure that the dollar is going to collapse any day now and that gold will soon be the only currency, why are *they* so willing to trade their gold for your dollars?
15Libertarians . . . just another bunch who like to play with all the toys in their heads. Poor things.
16Gold and silver are incredibly volatile markets, determined by the fear mongers and other BS. Back when the Hunt Bros were manipulating the silver market in the late 70’s I was engaged to a dude who would sit around at night and throw Xrays into this high temp melter-oven thingy that sat on his hearth. Hospitals would basically “give” Jac the xrays for the simple act of offering to take the dusty old things off their hands. At one point I had 20-some-odd softball-sized solid silver balls in a safety deposit box at Women’s Bank in Denver…worth over a quarter of a million dollars. They were heavy as heqq, and not exactly what I would call a liquid investment. Jac’s family also owned the second largest silver mine in Idaho, which was worth at the going prices of that time about a billion dollars…. while we were in Hawaii on vacation for a month, we got a phone call from his Dad, sending security to “watch over us”, for fear that we would be kidnapped. Months later the market crashed, and life went back to normal. When I called off the engagement a year or so later, I had to give back the silver balls, but in my state of mind, I knew where I wanted him to put them. I’ve never looked at precious metal market manipulation quite the same way. LOL
17I don’t care if gold goes to infinity. If society collapses, you still can’t eat gold. The Dothraki knew what to do with gold.
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