The scramble for gold and silver on main street

Back when the Hunt brothers tried cornering the market on silver, I dumped my silver coins and paid for my college spring break trip to Daytona Beach.  I remember the lines of people selling their family silverware, and all of their silver coins.

Now we have a similar situation.  On Wall Street gold and silver prices have come down, along with platinum and palladium, as they fear industrial usage is dissipating, but this time on main street, silver and gold bullion coins are disappearing from the shelves of dealers The US Mint is now selling gold buffalo 1 ounce coins at a $200 premium over spot, jacking up the premium to an outrageous level so they can pretend they still have an interest in selling gold. The public sold silver at $45-50 in 1981, and now they are buying it at 11 in 2008. Maybe Wall Street isn't the "smart money."

Silver 1 ounce eagles are selling at $6 premium over spot on eBay. Use that as a measure of the fear and confidence in political figures and Central bankers in this market. It's becoming non-existent, as their non action on rates, inflation targeting, and their targeted funding to banks when we are on the verge of a deflationary systemic meltdown is looking completely ridiculous.

The Russian stock market was down 15% today. And if Oil breaches the $86 line in the sand and head to $70, then this bear market will finally engulf the Arab nations who have now dramatically raised their government spending, and infrastructure projects. 

It's already hitting Dubai.