Mark Thomas submits:

At thesilverhsortage.com we have been riding the bull market in silver and silver mining stocks for almost four months now. During that time it has become more difficult to find value in the sector

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Mark Thomas submits:

At thesilverhsortage.com we have been riding the bull market in silver and silver mining stocks for almost four months now. During that time it has become more difficult to find value in the sector

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Kevin McElroy submits:

For over a year now, I’ve casually mentioned that the leadership in the West, including the United States and Europe, is not just unwilling to take the steps needed to nurse the economy back to health, but that they’re increasingly incapable of understanding what needs to be done.

But as I’ve noted, the amounts of money being quibbled over are pretty insignificant. You can do the math for yourself. The total outstanding federal deficit is now over $14 trillion. Divide $33 billion or $40 billion by $14 trillion and you get 0.0023 or 0.0028. Multiply those decimals by 100 to get the percentage. So $33 billion and $40 billion amounts to 0.23% and 0.28% of the total federal deficit. Even with these cuts, the deficit will grow because they’re not even close to the amount of spending reduction we need to actually put the Fed back in the black.

These

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Yatin Karnik submits:

U.S. gold rose to a record high for a fourth straight session on Friday, its longest string of record highs since January 7. The metal’s rise was impressive. Gold rose $16.60, or 1.14%, to close at $1474.50 an ounce. Gold prices hit an intraday low of $1456.30 and a high of $1474.90 an ounce. Silver futures prices for June delivery, now the most active contrast, rose $1.31, or 3.31%, to close at $40.91 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Silver prices hit an intraday low of $39.49 and a high of $40.91. Both gold and silver made record highs and 31 year highs in Friday’s session.

The U.S. dollar was steeply lower on Friday. The U.S. dollar index was down 0.72, or 0.96%, to close at 74.86. The U.S. dollar index hit an intraday low of 74.84 and a high of 75.61. The U.S. dollar index is still

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ETF Database submits:

Purchasing commodity producing equities has been extremely profitable for most investors over the past year as a weak dollar and supply issues have driven up everything from soft commodities to industrial and precious metals. The sharp gains have also carried over to the dynamic rare earth metal market where fears over Chinese export limits as well as the metals’ critical nature to a variety of 21^st century technologies dominate the price movements of this group of elements.

In fact, according to Metal-Pages, from October 2009 through December 2010, prices for rare earths have risen by approximately 780% on average. Meanwhile, in the same period, prices for some of the most common rare earths (cerium oxide, lanthanum oxide, neodymium oxide, and rare earth carbonate) have risen by more than 1,000% on average.

Thanks to this surge, interest in this much talked about but little understood corner of the market has gained

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NakedValue submits:

In this week’s Barron’s, Anna Raff writes the courageously bearish piece, “Why Silver Will Tarnish.” What makes it courageous? Raff predicts that silver’s historic rally is about to end. Among other things, Raff builds her case around the following points:

• Gold and silver are both “safe haven” assets, but silver has greatly outperformed gold recently.

Silver prices have doubled since August, while gold is up 20% in the same span. Over just the past three months, silver has shot up 50% compared with 11% for gold.

• Raff doesn’t trust the investment demand driving silver prices.

Unlike institutional investors, the little guy is less likely to hold silver over the long run. Analysts say individuals may well trade out of precious metals and into higher-yielding assets once interest rates start to rise, as the tightening of monetary policy gains traction around the world.

• Silver is much more sensitive to economic demand.

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Mike Scully submits:

“Silver feels a little toppy to me at these levels.” That seems to be the refrain of technical analysts and stock traders who are bearish on silver. Or some might say, “silver has had a huge run up and now it looks like it’s ready for a pullback.” Or, “I liked silver at $15 or $24 (sure they did), but now it’s expensive.”

Some silver bears point to the fact that silver is at a 31 year high as “evidence” that it’s getting pricey. Are we overbought at these levels? Could be. Are we in for a repeat of the boom and bust of 1980? The chart from back then looks awfully scary. Let’s take a look at a few stats from then and now to see if that’s a fair comparison.

Money Supply:

In 1980 the monetary base was $200 billion. Today, it’s around $2400 billion, or twelve times

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Joseph L. Shaefer submits:

A lot of people are buying the stocks of rare earth companies today — most because they have read that this is a “hot” industry and because most trade as penny stocks and are therefore highly “toutable” by the kind of newsletters that use copy like:

We expect a minimum return of 10,486% on this Secret Stock we are willing to divulge to you alone!!

(And, of course, anyone else who ponies up $395 to discover the name of the stock that is already well-known to those who’ve actually done their due diligence. PS – I understand the hype of 10,000%. But I wonder how they come up with such certitude that it will be 10,486%?)

So herewith, a quick primer and my answer to the question “Is it too late?”

First, rare earths are anything but rare. What is rare, however, is finding them in commercially viable quantities. Even

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Bob Johnson submits:

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Danny Furman submits:

It’s hard to say exactly what is required for a gold bug to become a gold bug. For me it was the simple understanding that the United States no longer produces anything but debt. Why would anyone prefer to own a currency that ultimately represents a service economy led by cowboy central bankers when they can own one that is also a hard asset with great historical value?

With gold and silver appreciating rapidly of late, many argue precious metals have gone too far. Two such arguments particularly don’t carry much weight so I’d like take a moment to dispel them.

Seeking Alpha contributor John Tobey performs a historical analysis of the purchasing power of gold in the United States. He uses a constant basket of goods that make up the consumer price index and plots their price in gold in the U.S.A. since the Declaration of Independence. Since today

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