Your views on platinum

The price of platinum is like anything else and I think that after 2001 the economy changed in a fundamental way.  People don't even pretend to be honest anymore. The FTC is a joke.  If a company is making billions in profit illegally and they are fined $82 million, they don't care.  It's a tax write-off. In fact, it's worse. They can claim it as a business loss and get public funding to repay it.  Then they pass on the costs.  They actually make MORE money by being fined for dishonesty.  There in lies a big part of the problem. 

The problem now is that Washington wants to keep humming along like always - at least after WWII - and they can't.  They let their buddies gut all the laws and ship all the jobs and manufacturing overseas and now we can't feed ourselves.  The few people who still DO pay taxes can't support the whole country.  So we have to borrow 2 BILLION dollars a day from Communist China just to pay the debt service on the money we already owe them.

A few people have already figured out that we can't get 'tough' with China.  The very first day they dump US paper on the market, our economy tanks for good.  We are still selling military technology to Taiwan, but that's a joke.  China owns Taiwan and uses it as a cash cow and to obtain technology.  Like Hong Kong.

For all you conspiracy theorists, the best computer processor available to civilians at the moment is Intel's Sandy Bridge which was developed and is manufactured at the Intel plant in Haifa, Israel.  Everything else in it is made in Taiwan or China.  So are iPhones and Apple computers.  About the only thing still made in the US is bottled water.

Your question was about platinum.  It's metal. You can't eat it.  You can't even tell if it's platinum - just like you can't tell if those gold bars you own are really gold - unless you x-ray them.  My opinion is that life boils down to a few simple things.  Food and water, shelter, sex (I vaguely remember that), and a feeling of safety - which establishes a comfort zone.

You asked:  (1) Do you really think (platinum) is as rare as they say (any "secret" mines they've suppressed?)  Commodities become 'rare' because of population increases. We don't need more mines.  We need fewer people.

(2) do you think the price would fall sharply if the silver/gold prices go south?  No. But I can't predict the future. I think 'value' is a matter of perception and 'price' is a matter of manipulation.

If you CHOOSE to believe that the economy is going to continue like it always has, then anything in excess of those priorities is disposable income. 

If you CHOOSE to believe things MIGHT change radically, you probably ought to think about how much silver and gold and platinum you need to buy products - like toilet paper - that will no longer be available at any price.  And what medium of barter are you going to use between your metals and the products I, and other producers will have that you will need. 

Food, for instance. Water filters that will gravity-filter a million gallons of water and remove everything down to .02 Microns, including viruses and radionuclides before they need to be refurbished. 

People don't sell them now because making them limits your market to one per customer for life.  They don't have to keep buying expensive replacement filters every month. But suppose you need one.  I'll probably trade a few for silver because I use saturated colloidal silver to coat the filters after the clay is fired.  That gets rid of viruses but keeps it out of your body. 

After that, I won't trade for any PM at all - I can't eat it, I can't hide it under my pillow and I'm not going to follow Marco Polo over the silk road and bring back spices from the strange Kona people - and what is wealth anyway?  Does it make you happy?  It might.  It gives people opportunities I don't have.  But it also gives them problems I don't have. 

If you CHOOSE to believe, as I do, that whatever happened during the past ten thousand years isn't predictive of what is going to happen tomorrow, and that the world has got itself into one hell of a mess and can't get out of it intact, then I suggest you arm up and start farming enough food to feed yourself and your family.  But I can do that effortlessly because I am old enough not to give a damn anymore and I have no family and nothing to lose either way it goes.   My 'use by' date is going to come up one of these days no matter what - so I'm just along for the ride and I'm going to have as much fun as I can.  If I want to work on the farm from 04:00 to 08:00 and drink beer the rest of the day, good for me.  If it gets too hot and I decide a nap in a hammock is a good idea, I'm there.  I like writing, but I like reading, too.  If the power goes out I'm pretty sure the sun won't - so I can still read. I don't need any gold for that.

My friend Pat Takahashi put one of my articles in perspective here: http://planetearthandhumanity.blogspot.com/2011/07/survival-or-gold.html

My choice of precious metal is a rifle and sufficient ammunition to acquire food and present a credible defense of my farm against feral pigs, dogs and people.  No matter how much gold you have, my rifle trumps it.  Add a good knife and machete and a good stone to sharpen them.  With that and a lot of sweat, you are a farmer.  Farmers eat.  

I have several other priorities. A warm, dry, safe place to sleep and relax. The ability to make clean water and cook in any weather without electricity or gas; and the knowledge and preparation for providing a way to stay clean and main a sanitary environment without pressurized running water.

The world has never been a safe place and it still isn't.  But if you know what the basics are, and have them, everything else is just fluff.

Hi Tom:
  I'm a new reader to your blog and bookmarked the page.  I'd like your view on Platinum.
  I bought several fractionals last year.  (1) Do you really think it's as rare as they say (any "secret" mines they've suppressed?), and (2) do you think the price would fall sharply if the silver/gold prices go south?
  I've done well on my silver/gold speculation, but it's starting to feel exactly like that--speculation, whereas it used to feel like "investment."  I may stop buying gold/silver soon just because I don't want to be holding it when they pull the plug.  I DO think there's more money to be made on it.....but for how long is anyone's guess.  Maybe another year (????)
  Thanks for your input, and thanks for your blog.  It's a rational viewpoint that's hard to come by in an increasingly irrational world.
  --Jo