Silver shortages

There are rumours these past few days, partly thanks to Jason Hommels Silver Stock Report, of a silver shortage in the USA and Canada. Interestingly, for all the conspiracy theorists out there, Silver has dropped approx 10% these past few days alone. Now, if that doesn't fit the description of a conspiracy theory, what does? Desperate short-sellers trying to flush out a few naive sellers?

No such problems in Europe, where the mainstream are not at all onto this story thanks to a strong Euro and the disappointing rule where VAT of between 15-25% is added to the price of Silver bullion. They may regret missing their chance though, and there are in fact many ways to buy silver and avoid paying the VAT even in if you live in the EU.

You can find out what they are in the new book on How to Invest in Gold and Silver. It will repay its purchase price many times over.

The Big Government Inflation Game

When it comes to the official government inflation figures, these often understate true increases in the cost of living, due to the statistical reporting methods used. As the famous old adage goes, there are "lies, damned lies and statistics", and nowhere could this be truer than here. One trick is to reduce the real price still further if the assumed quality of an item included in the basket of goods has gone up in quality. For example, a 2007 computer could be classified as ten times more powerful than a 1997 computer, and even though they have the same retail price of say, £1,000; the figures are adjusted downward due to the increased processing power: whether you really needed that extra processing power, or whether it is even possible to buy a 1997 specification computer is not considered. Another trick is replacement, or substitution theory, where, say, if high quality beef rises in price, then it is assumed that many households will trade down to cheaper beef, or even some other type of meat.

Neither of these sound like correct ways to measure price increases in anything, but they do sound like nice ways to massage the true inflation figure downward.

What's the best way to get yourself and your savings outside of the inflationary, currency devaluation, welath destruction cycle? Buy Gold and Silver, and any other commodities you use in your daily life. Historically proven to usually work.