Two days ago, I sat down to write this blog entry, and discovered I had nothing to say. For those of you who know me, you know how rare that is. And yet, sometimes those “empty spaces” give me the room to take in different data, or to look at things in a different way.
The following events have been running around in my mind: The earthquake in Haiti (please donate to the charity of your choice), the Senate race in Massachusetts which, if the Republican wins on Tuesday could completely derail the so-called “Health Care” bill, the possibility that there will be more ads for gold than beer for the Super Bowl, some signs of recovery in the economy coupled with many signs of weakness, possibility of a double dip recession, the expansion of bailouts for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae by four trillion dollars essentially comprising a total government guarantee of all toxic assets, huge bank profits by Morgan and Goldman Sachs, and the growing number of calls to my office from new people, and the fact (according to Investor’s Business Daily) that our national debt has gone from $5.8 trillion to nearly $13 trillion in about a year, and with more on the way, here is my conclusion for today:
Nobody knows anything and the game can change instantly.
And
yet, we all wake up every day, and we must choose what actions we will
take and what actions we will not take. In such uncertain times, what
criteria should we use to make these choices?
Here is my next conclusion: It is time to get back to basics.
I’ll be writing a more extensive article on how this applies to the rare coin and precious metals markets in the next issue of “Rare Coin Report” which you will be able to view on this website sometime in February, or if you send me email including your mailing address and a phone number for verification of address, I will be happy to send you a hard copy.
For the time being however, the first step of “back to basics” is identifying what about coins or precious metals is most important to you. If you are a collector, what coins or collecting game really turns you on? If you are an investor, what are your goals with regard to hard assets, and what do you hope they will do for you? And if you are a seller, how fast do you want to sell and how much time do you want to invest in selling your coins?