The Speed of Sound

[webmaster]

Subject:The Speed of Sound
By: Theodore Butler & Israel Friedman

Overview: Financial and market developments seem to be rushing by at unworldly speed. Government bailouts, unprecedented market turmoil, non-stop conflicting commentary. It’s hard to comprehend everything, much less write about it. At the same time, the turmoil creates opportunities like never before. I’m an old hand with silver, yet it is beyond extraordinary to see plummeting prices amid a shortage. I know full well the reason for this apparent impossibility, but witnessing it is still incredible.

Link: http://news.silverseek.com/TedButler/1220986679.php

[Gino]

We are in a Twilight Zone scenario in which high prices saw a surge in investor interest and a shortage of investor material earlier in the year, which somehow, miraculously translated into the price freefalling by almost 50% while investor interest has remained high amid a continued shortage that forced a rationing of investor product.

The bizzare element of the situation is that there is no risk to the “Big US Bank” of a breakout in Silver, because after loosing a bomb on their short position, they just walk over to the Federal Reserve for a bailout.

As there is clearly no integrity in the futures market for Silver, doesn’t this just mean the true value of the US$ is way below where it is pegged against Silver?

Is that any reason to trade Silver for dollars?

Same for Gold, when was the last time the Gold to Silver ratio was at 69?
I know that I have to wait 4 weeks for silver bars now, but gold I can buy over the counter.

It doesn't make any sense because there is no sense to be made of it. Like an episode of the twilight zone, when the lights come on and the show is over, the cold, starkness of reality will be waiting to confront and shake loose any thoughts of fantasy.

[Sushi]

It really is surrealistic... I´m relatively new to silver, only started reading about it about half a year ago (with an emphasis on the history of silver). After reading just about everything I could get my hands on I concluded that silver is a solid investment right now. I´m not even speculating on astronomical silver prices, I´d be quite happy if it reached the equivalent of 25$ today. Mid- to long-term, I´m not worried that we´ll see that price, but what is happening right now defies all common sense. When I bought silver 2 1/2 weeks ago I was pretty sure that silver couldn´t possibly get any lower. As I write this, silver is at 11.29. It´s bizarre. When I read about the retail shortages in the US, I doubted there was a real silver shortage. But now I´m reading about shortages in my corner of the world - Germany. German PM dealers report record sales of gold and silver, there seems to be increased demand world-wide, yet prices are dropping. It´s bizarre. I´m really curious how long this can continue to go on... we surely live in interesting times.

Maybe someone can answer a question that´s been nagging me for quite some time now... why the hell do I have to pay 19% VAT if I buy silver bullion in Germany? (7% for coins)
Is it the same in the US?

[JesterJay]

I pay NO TAX (not vat or cat or bat or any other thing called tax) on bullion and US coins in the great US state of South Dakota.
Yeeee-frickin'-Whooooo!
JesterJay

Originally Posted by Sushi

why the hell do I have to pay 19% VAT if I buy silver bullion in Germany? (7% for coins)
Is it the same in the US?

[Sushi]

Originally Posted by JesterJay

I pay NO TAX (not vat or cat or bat or any other thing called tax) on bullion and US coins in the great US state of South Dakota.
Yeeee-frickin'-Whooooo!
JesterJay

Good for you! The crazy thing here in Germany is, you don´t pay VAT on gold, just on silver (19% on bullion, 7% on coins). It´s like the government wants me to invest in gold, not silver. For some reason that makes me want to buy silver even more...
How bizarre is having to pay VAT on silver anyway? It´s like having to pay VAT if I buy worthless US-Dollars with my equally worthless Euros. VAT is there to put a tax on things you consume. Buying silver as an investment is the exact opposite of consumption, it´s forgoing consumtion.

[fansubs_ca]

Originally Posted by Sushi

Maybe someone can answer a question that´s been nagging me for quite some time now... why the hell do I have to pay 19% VAT if I buy silver bullion in Germany? (7% for coins)
Is it the same in the US?

The same reason the government of Manitoba (Canada) taxes coins at 7%,
because they can! Strangely it doesn't apply to bars so I have dubbed it
the "round things tax". Governments have the luxury of not having to make
sense. ^_-

I'm not sure how much you are buying but is there annother country you
can buy silver in such as Switzerland or maybe Jersey or something to
avoid the VAT? I'm not sure if you'ld have a way to bring it home without
getting taxed at the border but if not maybe you could arrange safe
storage outside of your own country if that doesn't work. If you are
buying a large enough quantity it may be worth buying in annother
juristiction. Heck I can cut costs on some things simply by buying
elsewhere in Canada, _anywhere_ else in Canada if it's for shipment
here. I seem to like round pieces of silver. ^_-

[cassowary]

Once again: You have to understand the central role the Battle-to-the-End between SIL-ron (i.e. George Soros) and CDE, always friendly with actual mining associations and politicians in the West, plays in all this.

Very soon - possibly as early as next week, in fact - we will see the share price of SIL-ron go below the share price of CDE.

I thought it would happen much higher.

But it really doesn't matter WHERE it happens, as long as it DOES happen.

My feeling is that SIL-ron will be bought out by an investment group and actually ask CDE - in a reconciliation - to manage its properties for a fee.

That would be THE signal that silver counterparties around the world are ready to say "to heck with it" and cover.

And I think we are literally on the verge of it.

[skijake]

Originally Posted by Sushi

Good for you! The crazy thing here in Germany is, you don´t pay VAT on gold, just on silver (19% on bullion, 7% on coins). It´s like the government wants me to invest in gold, not silver. For some reason that makes me want to buy silver even more...
How bizarre is having to pay VAT on silver anyway? It´s like having to pay VAT if I buy worthless US-Dollars with my equally worthless Euros. VAT is there to put a tax on things you consume. Buying silver as an investment is the exact opposite of consumption, it´s forgoing consumtion.

My cousin is a banker up north in the Fatherland. I'm going to ask him what's up with the Silver VAT Tax. I know they love their gold over there. I showed him my silver stash--He shrugged. I showed him the Road Runner Lunch Pail with the "OTHER" Precious Metal. Then he nodded approval. I think they like small things in little places. More effecient that way.

[frankl4]

Gino. I think the big answer to your twilight zone analogy is the USA Presidential election coming up in the next 3 months. What I'm saying is at least part of the answer to these unheard of prices and goings on.

[nuslvrkwen]

I had no idea Sushi was in Germany. I'm not real sure why there's VAT on silver and not gold in most European countries. Gold is not legal tender there and no body's backing their currency. But the VAT issue is like the ETF issue every where else! The VAT creates a 'spread' but actually helps the coin dealer pay tax on importing/buying coins for collecting/investing. ETFs are priced at a multiple of spot. The PTB are orchestrating all this very well. They lead you to certain types of PM purchases. Notice how paper 401K investments are managed like this also. You get to choose from some pre-determined investment methods and instruments. You can whine about it, but you'll be paying no matter what!

Looking at spendability of paper money: the Dollar, Yen, Euro, Pound, and every thing else has lost value and the 100 cents the 100 pence and what ever the coinage is called to represent 1 Euro - it's still a 100 of them, right? They don't go very far at all. We all are supposed to pay bills AND invest using this stuff. No wonder when you can, even if you have to pay VAT you buy PMs. With this being the way it is I can see why women would buy jewelry before bullion. VAT's probably LESS with jewelry compared to bullion.