Silver Blog Bash, The Prizes

This list will be updated as the sponsors update Silver Monthly for the Silver Blog Bash. Be sure to read the complete details on prizes and methods of contest entry.

1. Talk with David Morgan one on one for 1/2 hour ($187.50). The blog member who leaves the most thoughtful comments will win a phone call from David Morgan.

2. 5 signed copies ofThe Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It: Make a Fortune by Investing in Gold and Other Hard Assets by James Turk and John Rubino ($14.95/copy). 5 visitors who leave thoughtful comments will be entered to win a copy of the book–leaving a comment does not require registration.

3. 10 Silver Rounds provided by silver50.com. Each silver round is .999 fine silver weighing 1 troy ounce. ($153.90). The member who submits the story with the highest number of votes by the end of the week wins this lot of silver rounds.

4. 10 accounts credited with $50 each from BullionPost.com. 10 New Users are entered to win, so just register for the blog to enter.

5. 1 sealed treasury roll of 2006 American Silver Eagles brought to you by Silver Monthly. The blog member who submits the most number of relevant stories wins this roll of 20 coins.

Tags: silver blog bash

Silver Blog Bash Update, David Morgan Commits Consultation

In an email earlier today David Morgan, author of Get the Skinny on Silver and author of silver newsletter Silver-Investor.com said he was giving a 30 min consultation session over the phone for the Silver Blog Bash. Talk with David one on one for 1/2 hour, which David lists on his website as a cost of $187.50.

According to his website, “Mr. Morgan has been published on Gold-Eagle.com, Goldseek,The Herald-Tribune, Contact, Idaho Observer, NY Sun, Investment Rarities, The Gold Newsletter, Le Metropole, Futures Magazine, Marketwatch, Resource Investor, and has been interviewed on several radio talk show including, Financial Sense Newshour, Hard Money Watch, Tiger Financial News, Free Market News Network and appeared on television in both Canada and the USA. Mr. Morgan was published in Global investor regarding Ten rules of silver investing.”

Tags: silver blog bash

Silver Blog Bash, the Reader Contest to Win Silver

To celebrate the launch of the Silver Blog, the Blog and Silver Monthly are having the Silver Blog Bash. From Sunday April 5th to Saturday April 11th 2009 the Silver Blog Bash will officially run.

As of right now, we have American Silver Eagles to give away, and we are hoping David Morgan, Jason Hommel, and others also step in to give away some gifts. This is where I need your help; if you know of any coin dealers, newsletter or book authors that would enjoy giving away prizes as well as getting publicity for being a sponsor, please email me at: doolittle@silvermonthly.com. Your help would be graciously appreciated.

Now, let me introduce the Silver Blog. The Silver Blog is a blend of social media tools you might be familiar with. It’s a blog (weblog) listing all the stories users submit. At the same time the Silver Blog is a tool users can use to rate stories others have submitted. Think Digg, Mixx, or StumbleUpon but exclusively for Silver Investors.

As for the Silver Blog Bash, there’s five different ways you can win.

New User — 10 Winners with $50 BullionPost.com account credit.

To win this contest all you have to do is register at the blog. In our database each user receives a unique numerical ID, so when the contest gets underway we will use a random number generator to pick a random user who registered. Registering is easy, all it takes is a username, email, and password. When the contest gets started be sure to register — its the easiest way to win.

Comments — 5 Winners get a Signed copy of The Collapse of the Dollar

To win the comment contest, all you have to do is comment on a story another user has submitted (check out this example). Don’t worry for the comment contest you won’t have to register. You will, however, be required to make a valueable comment: no off topic comments or spam will win. The winner(s) will be chosen just like the New User winners in that each comment has a unique numerical ID. To pick the winner(s) we’ll use a random number generator to pick out random numbers, which then become our comment contest winners. Check out the most recent stories and leave a thoughtful comment.

Most Comments — 1 lucky Winner will get to speak with David Morgan for 30 min.

The most comment contest will require a little more work than the other contest, but will also have much better prizes. The winner(s) of this contest will be the user(s) who submit the most comments over the duration of the contest. You can see the ‘Top Commentators’ on the right side of the blog right below ‘Top Submitters.’ For comments to qualify for this contest, each comment must be relevant, at least a little bit thoughtful, and can’t be spam in anyway.

Most Stories Submitted — 1 winner will get a sealed roll of 2006 Silver Eagles (20 coins)

Similar to the most comments made, the winner(s) of the Most Stories Submitted will be the user(s) who submit the largest number of relevant, quality stories. Duplicate stories will not be counted. For this contest, users will have to register (and will be entered in the new user contest) and submit stories relevant to the silver market. Submitting new stories is incredibly easy, just visit the ‘Submit New‘ link and fill out the details of the link you are submitting. Be sure to do a quick search to see if your story is a duplicate before submitting a new story.

Highest Voted Link — 1 winner will receive 10 silver rounds from Silver50.com

As you can see, each link submitted by a user has an vote count to the left of the story link. To win the Highest Voted Link, the user(s) must accumulate the largest number of votes on one link he or she submits. Right now with three votes, the highest voted story is the welcome post for the Silver Blog. I know someone can submit a better story.

Questions?

Please leave a comment in the form below or email doolittle@silvermonthly.com for questions about the contest. And remember the contest is coming soon, so be sure to come back to have some fun and the chance to win some silver!

Silver Blog Bash Prizes!

This list will be updated as the sponsors update Silver Monthly for the Silver Blog Bash.

1. Talk with David one on one for 1/2 hour ($187.50)

2. 5 signed copies of The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It: Make a Fortune by Investing in Gold and Other Hard Assets by James Turk and John Rubino ($14.95/copy).

3. 10 Silver Rounds provided by silver50.com. Each silver round is .999 fine silver weighing 1 troy ounce. ($153.90)

4. 10 accounts with a $50 credit per account at BullionPost.com — buy or sell silver bullion for free at this new auction site.

Tags: silver blog bash, Silver Contest, win silver

Gold Gazette’s Top Five

The Gold Gazette, a newer destination for gold investors has written several articles of excellent quality, but the web isn’t showing any favors. So I’d like to point you to some of them to read.

1. Gold Coins or Gold EFT? — the debate continues with this piece about the differences between investing in gold using physical bullion or paper. the Gazette’s conclusion? “It’s the difference between a technical investor or a fundamental investor that will decide the Gold ETF or gold coins,” explains the Gazette writer.

2. Foreign Government Gold Coins — with the hundreds of coins minted for investors and collectors a like the decision becomes, not to buy gold or not, but what gold coin to use as the investment. The Gazette says, “Unless you are a collector, the investor should stick with his or her domestically minted coin then move to the staples such as the Canadian Maple Leaf or the South African Krugerrand because of the well know status these coins command.”

3. IRA Investors Increasingly Turning to Precious Metals — While this article is a news piece, it does highlight the fact that many investors miss. IRAs can be used as gold investment vehicles. On the same note, the Gazette explains in another article How to Invest in Gold Using an IRA.

4. Answering the question, Are Gold Proof Coins Worth More Than Regular Gold Bullion? — the Gazette writes explaining why proof coins can be worth more than regular gold bullion. And, even if the proof coins can be worth more, proof coins might not be the best investment. Regular gold bullion fills the bill for almost all investors, while proof coins are for the collecting types.

5. Why is Gold Going Down in This Stock Market Panic? — a guest writer for the Gazette explains the gold market decline during the larger financial market meltdown. “As long as enough of these hedge fund managers are selling, gold will continue to stay at current levels,” notes Jeremy Stevent.

Tags: gold, gold gazette, gold-investing

Dear Readers, a Short Update on Silver Monthly,

First off, let me thank you for your unbelievable loyalty and participation. You’re all an incredible bunch. This exciting ride over the last year couldn’t have happened without You. You’ve linked to us; you’ve email articles to friends and family; you’ve really sprung Silver Monthly to new, amazing heights. Thank you, and I hope I can continue to add tremendous value right back to you.

Second, as I try to publish only the very best quality article, I’ve run into some difficulties. Finding quality writers. However, this is about to change. Recently Silver Monthly has been in talks with several authors including, David Morgan, author of “Get The Skinny on Silver” and author of “The Morgan Report.” Mr. Morgan has agreed to work with Silver Monthly on a somewhat exclusive agreement, although details of the arrangement haven’t been hammered out. So far, the general arrangement works out to Silver Monthly giving Mr. Morgan free advertising in exchange for his outstanding work –- most likely in the form of a monthly column.

Other authors have been contacted, but agreements at this time haven’t been made. John Rubino is co-author of The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit From It. And Michael Maloney author of Richdad’s Advisors: Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver. Yet, the value of giving to you, the readers, hasn’t been clearly communicated to either of these authors. And, while I can’t guarantee that I’ll get these outstanding authors to you, I can guarantee you’ll have some of the best. It’s the quality of journalism and level of relevance I can guarantee, and am working towards achieving.

It’s this work I’m striving towards that brings us to what the next year holds. Growth. This past year Silver Monthly saw impressive growth, up to 5500 visitors in this past month. Next year, Silver Monthly aims to add 1000 visitors per month, bringing the per month visitor number to 6500. And how does this relate to you? With more visitors, more revenue will be invested back into this incredible community. Also more visitors equal more community participation. More comments. More questions. It means more valuable members adding helpfulness, value, and excitement straight back to you.

So as we enter this new year, first let me thank you, the readers, for this past incredible year. And second, let us all expect next year to be even better.

A Sincere Thank You,

Adam Doolittle
Publisher and Managing Editor

Rich Dad’s Hypocrisy

Most everyone knows Robert Kiyosaki; yes, the author of the best-selling book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And for those who know him seem to either love him or hate him. Yet as many people hate him, Yahoo still runs his column. Ignorance isn’t hard to sell.

Recently, Kiyosaki wrote an article about silver, but a lame article filled with generalities and hypocrisy. Kiyosaki’s hypocritical views are a reoccurring theme in his writing–and why not? Say whatever sells more copies of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Even if Kiyosaki’s hypocrisy costs his dedicated readers the small amount of money his readers still have.

Kiyosaki claims to be a “silverbug,” but who isn’t a silverbug when your trying to sell them some book? Kiyosaki claimed to he began investing in silver as “a 10-year-old boy,” one of his famous childhood stories. His stories from childhood are his favorite selling strategy; his books are filled with entertaining stories.

Each story he tells gives no information; it’s only for entertainment. His ability to entertain the reader shows the main reason anyone reads his work: it’s fun. His articles and books amuse, but void of any substantial educational value.

Which leads to the main idea, Kiyosaki does nothing more than sell low quality writing. He himself doesn’t believe what he writes. As if to sell a book, Kiyosaki writes and says anything. And when he says anything for a sale, he has a hard time keeping what’s true–and what he said a-year-ago.

Take for example, his most recent entertainment at Yahoo Finance. He says, “[silver] is about to become the most spectacular investment in recent history.” And I agree, silver is the consumable industrial product, silver supply is down, and silver is a safe haven–increasing the returns an investment portfolio can make.

What I disagree with, he’s constantly flip-flopping, pushing poor financial advice. How can he say in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, an investment is only an asset if the asset puts money in your pocket, and then turn around and give ‘advice’ about investing in silver? Oh, that’s right, hypocrites can.

I agree silver is a great investment, and silver is a great asset to own. A recent study shows precious metals can increase gains by adding a small percentage of silver. But investing in silver does not meet his definition of an asset because his definition of an asset is putting money in the investors pocket–silver does not fit that definition.

I’m a silver investor, and a silverbug, but I still recognize silver doesn’t provide income–silver investing hedges against inflation. Never have I seen my silver bullion write me a check.

Silver remains a good investment for most people, and Kiyosaki will, most likely, say anything just to sell his next piece of entertainment.

I agree with a Yahoo Finance reader said about Kiyosaki’s column, “Hopefully Yahoo [will] . . . remove the least popular product from their shelves.”

Tags: robert kiyosaki

Central Banks Lease Gold and Silver; Distorting Markets and Balance Sheets

Libertarian economist Milton Friedman once commented that the principal defect of gold and silver as monetary bases is� society spends resources extracting them out of the ground in order to store them—back in the ground—in central-bank vaults. But another libertarian-gone-mainstream, Alan Greenspan, saw another problem with precious metals—metals don’t generate interest income.

On July 24, 1998, Alan Greenspan—a former advocate of the gold dollar and opponent the Federal Reserve he now chaired—uttered one sentence that drew the ire of every goldbug on the face of the Earth: “Central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.” What made the goldbugs so mad? And what did Greenspan mean by “leasing” gold?

As far as Greenspan was concerned, Friedman’s issue with gold—it was expensive to mine—was somebody else’s problem. All Greenspan cared about as chairman of the Federal Reserve, was he had a lot of gold and silver in his vaults that wasn’t generating interest income. So under his watch, the Fed began increasing the amount of gold and silver leased to mining companies, as well as to other central banks and foreign governments.

Direct Leasing

The most basic form of precious-metal leasing involves central banks such as the Fed taking their gold or silver to an intermediary institution known as a “bullion bank.” Major firms such as Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and UBS all operate as bullion banks.

Typically, the bullion banks might pay a 1% interest rate on the gold or silver, with the promise to return it at a specified date. The bullion bank then takes the precious metal and sells it on the open market, using the proceeds to buy Treasury bonds for a 3-4% net return.

But what if the precious metal rises in price and the bullion bank has to pay more for the gold or silver it returns than it received for the gold or silver that it borrowed? To address this concern, bullion banks use the futures market to lock in a price and delivery date of the necessary gold or silver. This cuts into their profit margins but takes all of the risk out. A 1-2% net return with zero risk is a great deal for them. As for the metal lender, a 1% return is better than the 0% return gold and silver earn in underground bank vaults. It’s a win-win for the central bank and the bullion bank—but some argue individual investors lose.

Critics of metal leasing say, because gold and silver leasing artificially increases the supply of the precious metals for industrial, commercial, and investment uses, thus holding down the prices of the commodities. Central banks and the bullion banks are insensitive to the price of gold or silver—profits are locked in and guaranteed—so this distorts the real supply and demand relationship between buyers and sellers.

But could it be that holding down the price of precious metals is not just a side effect, but the intended effect of leasing? After all, just reconsider Greenspan’s words: “Central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities should the price rise.” It’s quite possible that, in the absence of gold leasing, government fiat currencies would appear virtually worthless as they rapidly depreciate against gold.

Gold and Silver Swaps

Even more insidious is the action of “swapping,” which is most commonly performed with gold. Essentially, two central banks literally swap hordes of gold—with the objective of doing nothing more than muddying the accounting waters.

A second type of gold swap involves only one central bank’s gold reserves, which are lent for currency to another central bank. The real problem with this tactic is the banks consider these swaps to be “collateralized loans,” and thus they don’t appear on their balance sheets. No one knows for sure just how much gold and silver the Fed and other central banks have lent to each other this way.

In fact, the situation is getting so bad that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is actually beginning to take gold swapping seriously. The IMF has recommended that these types of swaps be recorded on the balance sheets of central banks, and the rule could become mandatory by 2009.

Mining Companies

But central banks and the bullion banks aren’t the only bad guys in the precious-metal leasing story: Mining companies deserve a share of the blame, as well. Despite the near-sightedness of it, many of these companies participate in the leasing themselves by borrowing gold from the Fed or other central banks, selling it, and then later replacing it with new gold fresh from the mine.

Of course, considering gold leasing suppresses the price of gold, and generally, gold-mining companies benefit from higher gold prices, borrowing gold isn’t really in a mining company’s long-term interest—but since when has that stopped someone from making a short-term buck?

Is the End in Sight?

For all intents and purposes, silver leasing has come to an end. This happened because, finally, central banks were essentially out of silver. Most silver analysts expected this would result in a major bull market in silver, and while it did impact the market in a positive fashion, the price of silver has still been suppressed by a concentrated short position held four traders whom many analysts consider to be market manipulators.

Gold leasing, on the other hand, is still alive and well. But like silver leasing, it too must come to an end. The difference is when gold leasing is unwound, there won’t be a concentrated short position holding gold back. Many goldbug analysts predict gold could see $2,000 an ounce when central banks stop leasing gold.

The question is not if central banks will stop leasing gold—the question is merely when. But the real question is: Will you profit from it?

Tags: central banks, gold lease, gold leasing