Here We Go, The Usd Is About To Tank, Start Loading Up....

Actually, the real money is to be made in Rare Earth metals: you'll still do OK with the precious too. China and other more forward thinking nations are in fact hoarding those materials that are vital for electronics. Kind of curious to see just how deep their stock pile pockets are....

By the way, I was reading some of the more conservative editorials about FDR's policies during the 30's. Except for the numbers, it's surprising that many of the players remain the same and complain along the same lines. One major difference between the eras is the 25% unemployment his administration had to deal. Of course it really took WWII to cure; and then caused a recession when industry had to switch back to building plowshares.

Do you guys ever see us breaking from the silver\gold ratio mindset? To me, silver is a more relevant metal for the future than gold.

Zinc and copper are the most well known, Lanthanum, Cerium and Neodymium are three of the lesser known ones, in total there are around 20 of them. They are not as the name implies that rare but currently China produce 97% of the worlds supply of them.

In the past China could produce them cheaply and did not have a large demand for them themselves, other countries stopped mining them and just imported them from China. Now with Chinas booming economy and growth over the last 10 years supply is drying up and prices are increasing for importing nations.

All of the rare earth earth minerals have industrial uses therefore have far more uses than either gold or silver, theoretically giving a more stable price. They are used for everything from abrasives to catalysts to more traditional areas.

If the shortage for them continues and economies around the world start/continue to pick up prices will rise and its thought a lot of the 'big boys' are seeing this as a safe exit from the more traditional metal markets eg gold.

Once the 'big boys' have made their money in the gold and silver markets they will just jump ship to the 'next big thing', maybe rare earths are it, who knows? Once in they will talk the market up to get the returns they want and move on again.

They've done it with tech shares and house prices and countless other things in the past, all we can do is hope to follow them and not get caught up when everything collapses when they leave.

Nice! I have a Silver Maple in the front yard.

Its really hard to believe something that has been used as currency for thousands of years will be worth nothing. Variety is the key I would think

Like this post as many here on CCF what a wealth of information contributed here.

I own a small manufacturing business for years I reinvested in capital improvements however for the last two years I have made minimal reinvestment.
Perhaps this the reason large corporations have large capital reserves. A lack of confidence in future sales along with foreign competition.
The country has gold fever and Glenn Beck and others tout this on a nation level. Metals will gain value till my neighbor buys a Humvee is a brilliant thought..

yeah I've really been thinking about investing in rhodium, but even a small amount is expensive.