Employees of The Week-- The Fab Five

This weeks top gainers:  SIVR (precious metals), 8.1%; GDX (gold miners), 7.0%; CEF (precious metals), 3.5%; USCI (commodities), 3.3%; SGOL (precious metals), 3.2%.  A result like this is fiat fantasy nirvana.  But if you force yourself to be objective, there's no cause for celebration.

My son told me yesterday his gasoline bill for March was $600.  That's with a Mom and Dad driving to work and taking two children to some activities.  A typical family with I gather a now typical monthly gasoline expense.  They're not starving, but for sure there's going to be less of something else in April.

Paul Tustain, founder of BullionVault, discusses the economic situation in an interview with Chris Martenson.  Paul reminds us that central banks have become net buyers of gold, a change from past preferences.  Couple this with a world with a diminishing appetite for US Treasuries and dollars and you have the makings of a profound change.  Whenever the CNBC crew mentions gold and silver both metals are treated as just another commodity like oil or corn.  Except for Rick Santelli, the fact that at least some people are abandoning the dollar because they are scared is rarely mentioned by mainstream media pundits.

One of famed investor Jesse Livermore's admonitions was to have the patience to sit tight.  Gold and silver have had big runs and are overdue for a pull back.  Perhaps a pull back orchestrated by those who have much to lose if the rise continues.  As I'm not clever enough to time this trade, my approach will be to buy more precious metals after a price decline.  Going forward we will consider rebalancing all asset classes except precious metals.  To remain true to the fiat fantasy raison d'etre, our gold and silver mantra is buy low and don't sell..... until there's at least one currency backed by something other than paper.  Jade, oil, titanium, tulip bulbs-- just about anything except paper. 

I dismiss the gold bugs who claim owning gold is an easy way to get rich.   Let's face it, we're in trouble when gold and silver are primo investments.  Once the dollar collapses and Americans are forced to deal with the realities, day to day living is going to become an unpredictable and untidy mess.  At best, precious metals may give you some purchasing power you wouldn't otherwise have. 

To end on a lighter note, I'm quite adamant about all this so don't even think about starting an argument.