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| A Weekly Newsletter for Sunday, March 25th, A.D. 2012 |
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| MARKETS |
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Between Friday, March 16th, and Friday, March 23rd, the bid prices for:
Gold rose 0.1 % from $1,660.10 to $1,662.80
Silver fell 0.9 % from $32.56 to $32.24
Platinum fell 2.8 % from $1,670 to $1,623
Palladium fell 6.1 % from $699 to $656
DJIA fell 1.1 % from 13,232.62 to 13,080.73
NASDAQ rose 0.4 % from 3,055.26 to 3,067.92
NYSE fell 1.1 % from 8,270.41 to 8,180.06
US Dollar Index fell 0.6 % from 79.80 to 79.33
Crude Oil fell 0.5 % from $107.27 to $106.75
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Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) can be funded with gold and silver. Diversify your retirement portfolio with precious metals for added security during times of geopolitical events, inflation, deflation, stock market corrections and a declining of purchasing power as the U.S. dollar continues to lose the reserve currency status of the world.
Gold and silver usually profit significantly in these type circumstances.
You can take physical possession of the actual gold or silver when you make your withdrawals. You can cash out in gold and silver instead of the declining fiat dollars. The odds are in your favor there will be a time when you will want to own your physical gold and silver outright by taking physical delivery.
Setting up a self-directed IRA is very easy. Give us a call at 1 800 375 4188 and we can help you diversify your retirement with real value. Three simple steps.
1. Complete a simple application
2. Fund the account
3. We will purchase the precious metals for you and ship to the depository.
Please call 1 800 375 4188 and we will send you all the information you need to begin preserving your wealth.
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The Curse of Crude
Edited by Alfred Adask
The political and economic “equations” that define the Middle East are too complex to be understood, let alone solved. The number of competing forces and variables are innumerable. The rates of change are too quick to comprehend or predict. I doubt that there’s any cohesive order or even pattern in the Middle East. We send ambassadors or armies to negotiate, impose or enforce commercial agreements or peace treaties. When the negotiations (or invasions) are finished, what’s changed? What’s been accomplished? As soon as we turn away, chaos returns.
• For example, it’s common knowledge that the US and/or Israel may soon attack Iran. Why? Supposedly, to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons to attack Israel. But, in fact, Iran could destroy much of Israel right now—and without nuclear weapons.
Consider:
As presidential candidate John McCain once joked, Israel and the US have been threatening to “bomb, bomb, bomb . . . bomb, bomb Iran” for over five years.
The purported reason for the bombing is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons that could destroy Israel. But Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admitted in January that Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons nor a program to build any. No matter. The war drums persist because Iran allegedly might someday acquire nuclear weapons.
But, there’s still little reason to bomb Iran to prevent Iran from possibly developing nuclear weapons. Why? Because Iran doesn’t need nuclear weapons to destroy (or at least badly damage) Israel.
Here’s why:
Israel has at least two nuclear power plants, several stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and an advanced biological weapons program.
If the cores of Israel’s nuclear power plants, and/or the stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and/or the stockpile of biological weapons were attacked and shattered by mere conventional explosives, Israel might be destroyed by the resulting nuclear and/or biological contaminants from Israel’s own weapons that are already on Israeli soil. Iran need not send a nuclear bomb. The nuclear power is already on Israeli soil.
Iran has highly accurate, medium-range ballistic missiles. These missiles are armed with conventional hi-explosives. If these conventional explosives struck Israel’s nuclear power plants, nuclear weapon stockpiles or bio-weapons facilities, the resultant dispersal of radioactive and/or biological contaminants into the atmosphere could badly damage Israel.
• Note that when a nuclear bomb is detonated, there’s an enormous explosion—but not much long-term radiation. Look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those cities were utterly destroyed by atomic bombs in A.D. 1945 but are vibrant today.
However, while a nuclear bomb may be composed of just a few pounds of radioactive material, a nuclear power plant can contain several tons of radioactive materials. If a nuclear power plant is destroyed and its radioactive components are dispersed into the atmosphere (as in Chernobyl and Fukushima) the result can be a “dead zone” that can be permanently uninhabitable for decades. (Chernobyl produced a 1,200 square mile “dead zone”. So far, the Fukushima disaster has contaminated at least 230 square miles with radioactive materials.)
Nuclear power plants are potentially much “dirtier” and far more dangerous than nuclear bombs.
So far as I know, Israel has two nuclear power plants: Dimona and Nahal Sorek. It’s conceivable that if Iran bombed those two nuclear power plants with medium-range, ballistic missiles armed with high explosives, those attacks might blast tons of radioactive material into the air and ultimately render hundreds of square miles of Israel uninhabitable.
Insofar as Israel has nuclear power plants, Iran doesn’t need nuclear weapons.
• Israel has between 60 to 400 nuclear weapons, and a total stockpile of military plutonium weighing roughly 1,000 pounds.
Suppose Iranian intelligence knew where Israel stockpiled its nuclear bombs, plutonium and/or biological weapons materials. Suppose Iran hit those locations with ballistic missiles armed with conventional high explosives. There’s no telling how many Israelis might die from the resulting radioactive contamination. There’s no telling how much of Israel might be rendered permanently uninhabitable.
Insofar as Israel has nuclear and/or biological weapons stored on Israelis soil, Iran doesn’t need its own nuclear weapons to badly damage or even destroy Israel.
It’s possible that accurate missile attacks on Israel’s nuclear power plants, and nuclear and biological weapons stockpiles could render at least 400 square miles of Israel permanently uninhabitable and cause some considerable number of casualties. Israel has only about 8,000 square miles. Losing 400 square miles out of 8,000 wouldn’t necessarily destroy Israel—but that would depend on which way the wind was blowing and whether the resulting contaminants reached major population centers.
I’d bet that just 20 of Iran’s ballistic missiles could be enough to do enormous damage to Israel—if Iranian intelligence knew the locations of Israeli stockpiles of nuclear and biological weapons.
The facts that: 1) Iran already has the capacity to cause enormous destruction to Israel with conventional weapons; but 2) has not done so; is 3) evidence (but not proof) that Iran is not a nation of mad dogs run by a crazed religious fanatic. Insofar as the past is any indication of the future, Iran has not yet attacked Israel (although it could), so we can presume that Iran might not attack Israel in the near future.
Even so, the odds are high that Iran will be attacked by Israel or the US— causing greater Middle East instability.
Internal Problems
The fact that Iran doesn’t need nuclear weapons to badly damage Israel is just one of the ironies and contradictions that are common to the Middle East.
For example, the Middle East has been unstable for decades, but the current level of instability is greater than ever—and growing. That instability isn’t only the result of internal political or economic tensions. The Middle East is also divided into two fundamentally opposed Muslim sects: Shiites and Sunnis. Muslims tend to be so strident in their faith that they’re not only compelled to despise Jews and Christians; they’re also compelled to despise other Muslims sects. The Shiites and Sunnis may be almost as likely to enter into jihad (holy war) against each other as they are against Israel.
More, the Middle East and North Africa have suffered three significant wars over the past decade: Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Iran is on the verge of being invaded or at least bombed by Israel or the US.
In just the past year, the “Arab Spring” of A.D. 2011 caused four governments to be overturned (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen). Two countries (Bahrain and Syria) suffered civil wars. Major protests have erupted in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Oman. Minor protests broke out in Lebanon, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Western Sahara.
Reading the list of nations directly impacted by the Arab Spring is interesting. But to grasp the full impact of the problem, look at a map. For example, if you view a map of North Africa, you’ll see that virtually every nation from Mauritania on the Atlantic to the Sudan on the Red Sea were destabilized during the Arab Spring. A map of the Middle East shows that almost every nation between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean were (and remain) destabilized by the Arab Spring.
Viewed on a map, the extent of the Arab Spring’s ongoing destabilization is unsettling. The Arab Spring wasn’t a minor problem involving a couple of disparate nations. The instability affected a region of the world that’s comparable in size to the region of Europe that was subjected to WWII.
Is it possible to solve any regional problem without regional/“world” war?
Foreign Influences
From a Western perspective, the Middle East’s instability might be merely interesting or even amusing—except for two things: crude oil and “petro-dollars”.
Therefore, if the political, economic and religious conflicts within the Middle East weren’t enough to destroy Middle East stability, there are also external forces contributing to that instability.
• First, as demand for crude oil rises, the US, EU, Chinese and global economies compete to control Middle East oil production. As oil-consuming nations compete, they’re constantly pulling and tugging at the nations of the Middle East to acquire more crude oil. The oil consumers bribe or threaten the governments of the Middle East to gain more oil. The result of the competition for crude oil is higher prices and more governmental corruption.
Although the world’s demand for crude oil has fallen during the recent “recession,” the historic trend suggests an ever-increasing demand for crude. So long as the world’s demand rises, the price for crude will also rise.
Conventional wisdom supposes that higher prices for crude oil should be great for the Middle East. But that’s not necessarily so. Higher oil prices cause higher food prices, which cause food scarcity and even starvation among the common people of the Middle East and North Africa. Food scarcity causes political unrest, revolution and the overthrow of Middle East governments. The “Arab Spring” was caused or at least exacerbated by crude oil’s rising prices. As we see these governments challenged or overthrown, the increased political instability causes the price of crude to rise even higher laying the foundation for yet another “Arab Spring”.
• Second, some believe that the global supply of crude oil has “peaked”. If the supply is falling while the demand continues or grows, the price of crude oil must rise, causing the price of food to rise, causing starvation, causing revolutions, causing the price of crude to rise even further.
Even if we haven’t hit “peak oil,” it’s unlikely that the world’s production of crude oil will increase enough to match growing demand. So long as demand grows more quickly than production, the price of crude oil will also increase, triggering another round of spiraling food prices and political unrest in the Middle East.
• Third problem? Petro-dollars.
When the US dollar lost the last of its gold and silver backing in A.D. 1971, it became a pure fiat currency and should’ve quickly declined in value and died. However, the Nixon administration cut deals with Saudi Arabia and then OPEC whereby those oil-producing nations guaranteed to sell their crude oil only for fiat dollars. As a result, anyone who wanted to buy crude oil on international markets had to first have a fistful of fiat dollars.
The need for fiat dollars to purchase crude oil created an international demand for fiat dollars. The demand for fiat dollars created the illusion of the fiat dollar’s value. The post-1971 dollar was no longer backed by gold or silver, but it was implicitly backed by crude oil. Our currency became “petro-dollars”—and continued as the “world reserve currency”.
The petro-dollar scheme worked well until A.D. 2000, when Saddam Hussein started selling Iraqi crude for euros. If currencies other than the dollar could purchase crude, the dollar would lose its “petro-hegemony” and possibly die. To protect the petro-dollar, we invaded Iraq and hanged Hussein, but it was too late. The world had begun to buy oil with currencies other than petro-dollars and the dollar’s value fell by roughly 50%.
More recently, Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi attempted to create a pan-African currency that would be backed 100% by gold. Such gold-backed currency threatened the existence of all fiat currencies—especially the fiat dollar. So US and several other western nations quickly fostered Libyan civil war and subsequent invasion of Libya wherein Gaddafi was killed.
For most of the past decade, Iran has threatened to establish a “bourse” (market) wherein crude oil would be sold for currencies other than petro-dollars. Reportedly, that bourse was finally established on March 20th. If it weren’t bad enough that Iran is selling its crude for fiat currencies other than petro-dollars, Iran has agreed to sell its crude to India (and possibly China) for (OMG!!!) gold rather than any fiat currency! Transactions in gold pose a mortal threat to all fiat currencies—including the dollar. If or when the US/Israel attacks Iran, it won’t be to eliminate the Iranian nuclear capability. Such attack will be made to (as it was in Iraq and Libya) to defend fiat currencies in general and the fiat dollar in particular.
If the Middle East didn’t have enough of its own internal problems, it also has to worry about wars caused by the relationship of crude oil to fiat dollars.
Peace, Peace! But There Is No Peace.
• So long as the Middle East is a primary source for the world’s crude oil, it will remain unstable. So long as the Middle East remains unstable, the price of crude oil will rise. As the price of crude rises, so will the price of food. As the price of food rises, common people in North Africa and the Middle East will suffer food shortages, malnutrition and even starvation. Food shortages will precipitate even more civil unrest and political revolutions. More political unrest will trigger higher oil prices, higher food prices, etc.
The Middle East is trapped in a self-perpetuating spiral of causes and effects that seem certain to push the price of crude oil, food, and political unrest higher and higher.
Ironic, isn’t it? The fundamental power and wealth of the Middle East flows from the region’s abundant supply of crude oil. But that source of wealth and power is also the ultimate cause of the Middle East’s political unrest, revolutions and possible destruction.
You’d think that rising prices for crude oil—and rising profits--would be a blessing for the Middle East. In fact, rising crude oil prices may be a curse since they restrict the food supply, precipitate revolt, and threaten to destroy Middle East governments. Higher oil prices destroy Middle East stability.
• Solution? Simple.
Cut the price of crude oil.
If the price of crude oil fell from $105 per barrel to, say, $50 per barrel, the supply of food would increase, the price of food would fall, the common people of the Middle East would have more to eat and be less prone to riot or revolt. The Middle East could become comparatively stable.
But who wants lower prices for crude oil? The Saudi’s? OPEC? Exxon-Mobile? British Petroleum? Insofar as the US gov-co wants more inflation so it can repay the national debts with cheaper dollars, even the US government (secretly) wants higher prices for crude.
All of which implies that the price of crude oil will continue to rise. As it does, the Middle East and North Africa will become increasingly insufferable, unstable and prone to revolutions—and that instability will foster even higher prices for crude oil.
Thus, the Middle East will remain unstable until: 1) the price of crude falls significantly; 2) the region’s supply of crude oil is totally exhausted; or 3) hell freezes over.
Conclusion: There’ll be no peace in the Middle East in the foreseeable future. Worse, the region’s instability practically begs to host the next world war.
Properly understood, the Middle East’s enormous endowment of crude oil was less of a regional blessing than a regional curse.
For the best in pricing and service for gold and silver coins, call Melody at 1-800-375-4188. Be sure to listen to DGSTC live on Short-wave 7.415Mhz M-F 4:00PM ET, and 3.215 MHz M-F 11PM ET.
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Discount Gold & Silver Trading Co. provides all forms of precious metals including gold, silver platinum and palladium whether you are buying or selling. Our inventory includes but not limited to the American Gold, Silver, Platinum Eagle and numismatic products including rare, investment and circulated coins. Silver dollars, silver bars, rounds are on hand for the silver investor. Foreign gold is also available. Call for information regarding your precious metal gold and silver IRA. 1-800-375-4188 |
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