Here's the video of my comments on the Tucker Carlson/Marjorie Taylor Greene interview. In producing this video, it came home to me how frequently Tucker disparages Ukraine. It does not appear that his mind is open on the matter. I see the same from the other side. People of the more liberal persuasion objected to my characterizing Hunter Biden as a crook in my recent post. They are unwilling to let it pass without comment that I believe Joe Biden is more corrupt than Donald Trump. At any rate, my video represents a point of view from the lonely middle of the road.
In other news, my longtime broker Janney Montgomery Scott, whose high level of service I appreciated for 25 years, told me that they could no longer support overseas clients. I reluctantly moved our assets to Interactive Brokers. As with a lot of things in the modern world, the operation is run by well-crafted programs, but personal service is a little hard to come by. One of the things I enjoy about Charles Schwab is how well they integrate telephone support with a well-designed online system. Nonetheless, we will keep two brokerage accounts. I learned long ago that things go wrong with credit card companies, banks, brokerages and every kind of financial institution. A person should always have two of each.
On the subject of the stock market, precious metals have been on a real tear this week. I'm glad to have gotten the brokerage transition done when I did.
I have reviewed a number of books on how the powers that be manipulate the price of gold. Here are a few titles under the heading Finance among my book reviews: Die Geheime Goldpolitik, The Death of Money - James Rickards, The Global Currency Plot, The Modern Gold Trading System- A New Vision for Investors, The New Case for Gold, This Time Is Different- Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. The long and short of it is that the prices of gold and every other precious metal have been being suppressed for decades. The scheme is finally coming to an end. The government and the federal reserve simply do not have the resources to continue the game. Metals have a long way yet to go just to catch up. Although they are nominally trading at all-time highs, none are near their inflation adjusted highs. That fact, and the fact that fiat currencies throughout the world are in worse shape than they have been in my lifetime, gives me confidence that metals have a good way to run.
I recently mentioned Don Durett's book How to Invest in Gold and Silver. He makes a point that investing in mining companies is in large measure investing in precious metals in the ground. Because their stock price discounts for the time factor and the uncertainties of getting it out of the ground, the resources owned by mining companies are typically valued at between 15% and 30% of what the metals would be worth above ground.
Costs in a metals mining operation, including the lease of the ore field, mine construction and labor, are more or less fixed. The owners operate a mine if it costs less to get the metal out of the ground than they can get selling it. The typical margin is about 20% to 40%. If the price of metal doubles, the increase is largely pure profit. Conversely, if the price goes down a profitable mine can quickly turn unprofitable. Owning mining companies gives you more leverage than owning metal itself through an ETF. Following this logic, after changing brokerages we have put more money into mining stocks. I will let you know how it turns out.
The toe I broke in December took three months to heal, but it's finally feeling okay. I stubbornly resisted a deluge of good advice to see a doctor. What could a doctor do? Immobilize it? Your fourth toe is pretty much immobilized just by its location between the middle and little ones. The swelling was ever so slow going away, and I hobbled for a while, but now it feels fine.
Zoriana banged her foot yesterday at school. The skin is slightly broken between the arch and the toes. It hurts like blazes. Should we see a doctor? My opinion that the doctor couldn't do anything prevailed. Zoriana is milking the situation, hopping everywhere to avoid putting her foot down and to attract sympathy. She even insisted that we bring a baby buggy to school so she could be wheeled around if need be. I'm staying quiet, expecting that the inconvenience will overcome the theatrics and she will be walking, albeit with a limp, by the time she comes home. Only time will tell if anything is broken, and only time can fix it if it is.
The weather is perfect. Sunny, with occasional clouds, about 70°. Even from the perspective of my California childhood we would say it is excellent. Furthermore, it comes with delightful spring colors which we didn't enjoy in California.
That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the strong man is getting a bit apprehensive about the lack of support Ukraine is receiving in this war. I'm still far from packing our bags, but I certainly do wish it would end. Eddie has gotten bored with it. He stopped watching Denys Davidov a month ago and now asks me for the war news instead of the other way around. The girls never paid much attention in the first place. The priority at the moment is enjoying the weather. Eddie has been bicycling the 3 miles to school for the past two weeks and is bragging, subtly I am glad to say, about how well he is doing in geometry.
Graham
My natural resources stocks have had a good run over the last 3 months. After a long time in the doldrums. I have to keep on telling myself that is where the real value is being created so that is where the real security is. Gold is safe, other things come and go but gold remains.
I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling apprehensive about the war. I just can't understand why there are such difficulties in supplying Ukraine with basics such as ammunition. Is the West really so deindustrialised, so helpless? Almost like they really believed that 'end of history' fantasy and now we are sheep in a world of wolves.
Some commentary on Tucker here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sYB2vm8F9k - I'm working on a post incorporating this, working title: "Tucker Carlson - America's Latter-Day Version Of Lord Haw Haw - Is A "Useful Fool" For The Kremlin" ...